I’ve never met my great grandma Caroline Ward, never really heard many stories about her either, but she impacted me. Aside from raising my grandma who in turn raised my mother who in turn raised me, she left behind an old cookbook that my grandma found one day and decided to give to me because I liked old books and recently started to get into cooking. I read this book cover to cover, and while doing that found grandma Wards notes, the stains on the recipes she used the most, and (my favorite) the bottom corner of the back cover looks like it caught fire at some point. What a strong pull to the past! While reading this book I could picture her in the dress style of the ‘40’s, hear the music of Billie Holiday and Bing Crosby, smell the fruit cake! I loved it!
I never met her, but how often is that the case? In my life the people I haven’t met often have just as big an influence as those I have. My mom introduced me to cooking and baking, got me started and taught me the creative side of it, and Caroline Ward left a book behind that introduced me to the technical side, then I “met” Alton Brown and he taught me the science!
Ok, sentimental moment over, now Ill add a favorite recipe from the book. Over in the recipe page you’ll find Harvard Spice Cake. Enjoy!
Life here in the Philippines can be difficult. Sometimes I really feel like a fish out of water. Or more accurately like a stranger in a strange land. The simplest things that you’ve done all your life you now have to do completely differently, like washing dishes or clothing.You, the reader, probably have a dish washer. I don’t have one, I don’t have hot running water, and sometimes I don’t even have cold running water. If I want to wash dishes with hot water I have to boil it. Washing clothing; you, the reader, probably have a washing machine that does it all for you, then you toss it in the dryer. Maybe in summer you hang it on the line. I have a washer, but it only does the agitating, and sometimes we don’t have electricity and in that case I wash by hand. But even when I do have electricity I still have to drain the washer and ring the clothes out before putting them on the line. No option of a dryer in my eternal summer. And rainy season I have to hang things in the bathroom or carport to dry. Now these are not exactly hardships, but when they are not the way you were taught to do things, and as far as you knew the way you were taught was the only way, it’s stressful.
So what do you do when you find yourself confronted with one million plus things that are different and require you to think differently? You do it. You adapt, adjust, change, or go crazy. I’ve seen expatriates who try to change the Philippines instead of letting the Philippines change them. They are angry, frustrated, and sometimes outraged. Ever heard the term “kicking against the goads”? A goad is a stick used to direct cattle, to prod them and get them where they are supposed to go. So kicking against that would hurt, and that’s all these angry, unchanging people are doing; hurting themselves. And for the first year we lived here that’s what I did. I suffered from the heat because I wanted it to suddenly stop. I suffered at doctors visits because they do things completely different here. I suffered in housework because different things were required.
But thank God I changed. When I was younger I memorized the Serenity Prayer, and without realizing it I began to live it. Now I have peace where I had stress and anxiety. Nothing changed here except me. And my husband has admitted that he noticed the change, and that serene me made life at home better.
"Serenity Prayer" written by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
I once heard a physiologist say that men are like waffles; everything in their lives has its own box where it belongs and gets dealt with and stays and the man moves from box to box, everything separate and non-related. But women are like spaghetti; there are individual noodles but they are all connected, you move one and they all move. That’s the best way to describe my blog. It’s about my spaghetti life, everything that makes me who I am and how that plays out in everyday.
So who am I? I’m Hannah, Child of God, wife, mother, seamstress, baker, writer, wannabe poet, missionary in the Philippines, and now blogger. My life is not particularly special in the Great Scheme of Things; it’s simple, busy, messy, but I love it and I want to make it count.
This blog starts along with a new chapter in my life. My husband and I have been missionaries since 2010, and we have been in and out of the Philippines several times to several different islands. Our daughter was born in the States, before the first trip. We lived on Cebu all of last year, and that’s where our son was born. In May of this year, 2014, we moved to the island of Mindanao, to Butuan City. The move here was different from all the others because we will be staying here for at least 5 years, meaning I can really get us settled in. Basically since we got married at the beginning of 2010 we have been going or preparing to go. For the first time in 5 years I feel I can breathe easy and get used to the air.
In Cebu I had a sewing ministry teaching women in poor communities how to make and repair clothing, how to make little zipper pouches, purses, bags, wallets, etc. Once my sewing machines, fabric, and notions arrive Ill start one here. I really cannot wait to start sewing again! I have some new patterns to try, which I will of course document here and share pictures and reviews. And I have some patterns which have become favorites for me and I’ll let you know about them too!
Please join me in this new chapter, read it as I write it and be a part of whatever happens! God Bless!