On a roll

So. I’ve been up since 8 o’clock yesterday morning, and I am feeling GREAT. So great, in fact, that after lunch at Ike’s with some friends of ours from Chandler, I headed over to Reasor’s and bought (hopefully) all the ingredients I’ll need to do my Christmas candy this year.

Most years, I go all-out making candy to give to friends and take to holiday parties. I haven’t really been in the mood to mess with it in a couple of years, but with the tree finally up and my pretty little LEDs hanging above the window today, I feel good and Christmasy, so I think this evening, I’ll attempt ribbon fudge, chocolate fudge, chocolate truffles, turtles, stained-glass windows, and candy dishes.

I’d like to make some divinity, but I think I’ll wait, as it’s a bit temperamental in damp weather, and between today’s misty skies and the 15 years that have elapsed since the last time I made a batch, I don’t feel quite up to the task.

The candy dishes are a new one for me. I’ve looked at the recipe — which is quite simple — a zillion times, but I never quite worked up the nerve to try it. We’ll see how it goes. Recipes and photos forthcoming when I finish these projects….

Emily

UPDATE 1: As of 5:24 p.m., the ribbon fudge and black walnut fudge are done and cooling in the fridge, the truffles are on their second cooldown, and I just finished making the caramel for the turtles. I hope the black walnut fudge turns out well. I tried a new recipe. Based on the spoon I licked, I think it will be passable … not spectacular, but certainly edible. Next up: melting the chocolate and toasting the pecans for the turtles and making the stained-glass windows.

Oh, and P.S.: I’m still not tired. 🙂

UPDATE 2: The truffles are finished, the fudge is all finished and cut into bite-sized pieces, and the turtles are in the refrigerator so the chocolate can set up. I also decorated my gumdrop tree, which is a truly dreadful bit of kitsch I picked up at Vintage Holiday a couple of years ago but never got around to using. It’s perfectly awful. I’ll photograph it later. Right now, I have to pick up more chocolate chips, as I’ve run out and still have to make stained-glass windows.

Thirty-six hours without sleep, and I’m still going strong. My teacher is awesome. 🙂

Sleepless in Red Fork

“If it were not for what the human mind says of the body, the body, like the inanimate wheel, would never be weary. The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of repose in unconsciousness.”

— Mary Baker Eddy

I’ve just finished up an all-nighter … which represents a wonderful and much-needed healing.

For the past month or so, I’ve felt exhausted. All the time. For no apparent reason. It finally got to the point where it was interfering with my daily activities: Every time I’d sit down to study, I’d fall asleep in my chair, and I even caught myself drifting off at my desk at work a few times when things got slow. It was ridiculous.

I finally got tired of feeling so rotten and called my teacher, who gave me a prayerful nudge in the right direction. I made up my mind last night that I was going to swap those “hours of repose in unconsciousness” for the “consciousness of Truth” that Mrs. Eddy talks about.

As of 8 a.m., I haven’t been to bed, but I have cooked dinner, cleaned up the kitchen, read a half-dozen Sentinels, given the house a surface cleaning, put in a simple indoor clothes-drying system, finished painting black stripes on a chair I’m reconning for a Craftster contest, and started decorating for Christmas. At this rate, I expect I’ll have the tree up and the chair all but finished by the time some friends of ours come by to meet us for brunch in a couple of hours … and best of all, I don’t feel so terribly tired any more.

Hope your weekend is off to as good a start as mine.

Emily

UPDATE: Tree is up, chair is ready for detail work, and I’ve showered and dressed. Go me!