We celebrated Lanie yesterday, my sweet sixteen.
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| After class, she changed into jammies, lol |
I told her recently that I could tell her every day of my life how much I love her and wouldn't even fully express the depth of what she means to me; that even if I lived to be very old, there would still be more to say. And that is the true gift, to be loved well and deeply. Many people never realize that. When Isaac gave his blessing to his sons, he was old and practically blind, and one blessing brought joy, and one brought grief--and maybe that was tradition, to wait till the end. I know from my own experience, I didn't experience the blessing from my father during my life, or even from his hospital bed. I won't make that mistake.
I hope to give my blessing to my children often, so that on my deathbed, we feel full of knowing that we have lived life well and full, loved, contented.
Balloons. A weekend trip to visit a Viking ship replica (ok, that might have been more for me because: VIKINGS! MEDIEVAL HISTORY! ADVENTURE! LITERATURE! BEOWULF!).
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| DrakenHH |
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| looks just like the ship on our version of Beowulf |
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| this ship was gorgeous |
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| Erin and I picked up balloons at the party store, and to our delight: viking hats! |
And a celebration of a big day, in a smaller way, because of travels earlier this month to meet our grandson, and a surgery scheduled next week.
She asked for lemon cake. So while she was in chemistry class, I came home and whipped up a lemon cheesecake in the Instant Pot. YAAAS!
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Gluten-free Lemon Cheesecake in the Instant Pot
At room temp: 16 ounces cream cheese, 1/4 sour cream, two eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
For the crust:
1 pkg of gluten free Vanilla Wafers (pulse to crumbs, add melted butter to combine)
1/2 stick butter, melted
We used a small springform pan fitted to our pressure cooker. Pressed cookie/butter mixture along the bottom and sides. Pan is wrapped outside in foil, and is cupped in a foil sling to raise and lowered into the pressure cooker.
Cream the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, lemon juice, vanilla and zest, being sure to scrape down the sides. Get it good and mixed. Pour into the waiting crust.
Add 2 cups of water to the pressure cooker, lower down the springform pan onto a waiting trivet, leaving the sling to remove it later. Cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes at its own heat escape. And then manually vent the remainder to take the lid off safely. Let cool at room temp a bit and then stick it in the fridge till it's candle and song time.
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| Love you, Lanie. |
It was good. It tasted fresh and lemony. And I knew exactly what was in it, which makes it all the more delightful to know there weren't "natural" flavors added. And I'm not even a lemon fan, generally.
What I love most about a pressure cooker cheesecake, besides how fast it comes together, is how small the pans are--giving our fam of four two days' of dessert and not a bit more.
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Be true to you. Be who God made you to be. Steward your time, talent and treasure well. Love the people in your life sincerely, and pray for your enemies--bless them, even. It says more of your character and who you are and who you serve ... their behavior speaks of the motives and master of their own hearts (and that is true of friend or foe). Don't ever regret doing the right thing. And when you are at fault, own it humbly.
When we first started homeschooling in kindergarten, we had homeschool rules. And I realized later, when Erin started kindergarten, I left out one important rule:
always remember how much you are loved. When you know that, it helps lift the burden of difficult tasks, and cushions the disappointment of failures.
