Eight Nights of Lights 2011 - Night 8 - Penance

Tonight's topic is Penance - thinking reflectively about your life's path--and what changes you might want to enact. 

Penance is defined as a feeling of regret for one's wrongdoings. 

The Psalms tell us "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."  And only as I have aged have I learned the true meaning of that statement.  It is only as I study scripture that my path is illuminated.


Tonight's video is so much fun.  I'm showing you such a simple easy way to make gorgeous tapers!

Kathy was here today and we hung a hat rack on the wall for the tapers.  I think it looks great under this oil painting of the Western Wall that mom did back in 1985.

These are full 12" purple tapers

These are the pink - full and the creme 6" tapers that I made in the video

The glitter isn't photographing very well....but they are completely covered.

Pink glitter over pink wax

Now, for this last pair I did an interesting experiment. That broken brown beeswax in the video....I used it to cover a pair of candles and then poured turquoise glitter over the brown wax.  They came out looking more like a pine color - but they sure are beautiful!!!  It took a 3" wide strip of beeswax to go around the candles.  I melted it very soft.  Worked great!

Every year, on the last night, I share my favorite Hanukkah song.  In Exodus, it indicates that there were about 3 million Israelites who left Egypt. And it tells us that they sang a song unto Jehovah. They sang in unison.  Without knowing ahead of time - the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit ever!  Now, can you fathom a choir of 3 million people singing in the desert?  I went to the desert in Israel.  And I sang this song while I was there.



Make my life Your temple
L-rd at this season start
To pull down every idol I have raised up in my heart

On this Chanukah
On this Feast of Dedication
I dedicate myself to You

Take my defiled altar
Come and cleanse and come repair
So every time I falter I can run to meet you there

On this Chanukah
On this Feast of Dedication
I dedicate myself to You

And with every candle on the menorah
That illuminates the night
Comes a prayer You'd kindle
In me, Yeshua
A desire for Your fire, for Your light

Make of my mortal body
A house worthy of Your name
Rid me of what's ungodly and every hidden thing of shame

On this Chanukah
On this Feast of Dedication
I dedicate myself to You


And with every candle on the menorah
That illuminates the night
Comes a prayer You'd kindle in me, Messiah
A desire for Your fire, for Your light

Take my supply of oil
Not enough to burn long I fear
But, oh, how I pray I may one day say,
"A great miracle happened here!"

On this Chanukah
On this Feast of Dedication
I dedicate myself to You
My Yeshua, I dedicate myself to You.

by Marty Goetz (he played in Denver this morning and I had the thrill of hearing him live!!!)

Hanukkah - my Eight Nights of Lights. Jehovah Jesus Messiah - the Light of the World. This is my way of spreading a little light into the night. I hope you have enjoyed it all. May Jehovah bless you richly in the year to come.

Night 6 of 8 nights of lights 2011 - humor

Tonight is about humor.  I love experimenting as an artist, and I have had so many flops over the years.  This month I've been making candles and experimenting with scrapbook products.  Well, I thought I would do a video from beginning to end and share how many times (6) I had to try to get this to work.  But my youtube viewers did NOT like it!  They sent me tons of comments....so I edited the video to shorten it and only show the actual parts that worked!





And I decided that was pretty funny.  Lesson learned....never video your mistakes!!

Then I had to edit this blog to put in the new video because the old one is gone!  ha ha!  I really like to make work for myself!  I learned, too, that my youtube viewers don't necessarily read my blog!  Go figure!

So, I went to all that trouble to make a circle with candles on it, try to attach it to the circle paper tube to slide over the candle....doing everything in a circle.  When it was all done, I sat here and asked myself, "Why didn't I just do the whole thing flat.....then wrap it around the candle after it dried?  It would have been so much easier!  LOL!!!

The final product isn't too bad:

I took the actual candles and melted some wax between them and put them around a blue candle.  Tied them with a wick. Sort of like this one:

And one more tonight.  I poured wax into a tiny teacup.  Then took a little bit of warm wax and whipped it with a wisk.  Put it on top and then added some prism glitter.  I like how this one turned out:

Think anyone will ask for a drink?  :o)

I hope that on this 6th night of Hanukkah that you find humor in whatever you do!  It's just a good thing that I do!!!

Night 4 of my Eight Nights of Lights 2011 - Food!!!

Oh - my favorite night! All about food. Food traditions, recipes, enjoying time together. Yummm!!! So, I thought I'd share my memories of food as a child. Yes, there were lots of them!

We used to say that mom's divinity was just divine!  

2 c sugar

1/2 c water

1/2 c karo

1/8 t salt

Cook to a hard boil, about 20 minutes.  Pour over 2 stiffly beaten egg whites.  Continue beating til stiff.  Drop out on wax paper with a teaspoon.  

If you've never had divinity, it's like eating air with a sugary taste!!!

Grandma Moore made English Toffey - oh so yummy!!!

1 c butter

1 c sugar

3 T water

1 T dark corn syrup

1/3 c toasted almonds

4 squares semi-sweet chocolate

Melt butter over low heat, then add sugar.  Stir until dissolved and the mixture is beginning to boil.  Combine water and syrup  and blend.  Add to sugar mixture.  Stir constantly til boils again.  Cover and boil 3 minutes longer. Wipe crystals from sides of pan.  Cook to brittle or hard crack.  Stir frequently.  Remove from heat.  Add almonds and pour real thin on buttterd pan.  Add chocolate toppings.

Oh!  My mouth is watering just remembering how delicious this was!  But when I stop to think about it so many of the really good candy recipes required that you stand over the pot and stir and stir.

We used to have the youth group over and we'd all go ice skating on the creek behind our house.  We'd run home for hot chocolate and mom would have fresh made taffy ready for us to pull. 

Sea Island Taffy:

7 c granulated sugar

3 c white Karo

1 c cold water 1 tsp glycerin1/2 lb butter

vanilla

Cook Karo, sugar and water slowly until it has bioled good for several minutes, then add glycerine and butter.  Boil to 256 degrees when using a thermometer or until it becomes hard quickly when tested in cold water.  Pour into buttered pans and cool.  When taffy is cool enough to pull, pull until it will hold its shape when stretched out on table  Cut with scissors and wrap pieces individually in waxed paper.

Nothing like being a teenager having the cute neighbor boy you had your first crush on pulling taffy with you!

I had thought this week I'd get past candles with my videos, but I think not!  After all, you can use candles to light the night while you eat all this great food!  Tonight I'll show you my hints for setting the wick.  I can't tell you how many times the hot wax melted through my putty and ran all over the table.  I finally came up with a way to prevent that from happening again!!!

And here's how to get a flat bottom on your candle without pouring more wax:



Here's tonight's finished samples

I love this 4 sided candle.  Thanks to my neighbor, Cindy, who gave me the cute little gold and turquoise embellishments for these.  By the way, these are re-melted candles and they have the best vanilla bean scent ever!

The really all cylinder has a gorgeous pendant for it's charm

And this one may be my favorite.

So fill up your table with lots of good food and light your candles as you celebrate this 4th night of Hanukkah.

It's intersting to me that in Christian religions, Jesus Messiah is referred to as the "bread of life". Jews have a heirarchy of blessing, and the bread they eat receives the highest blessing. It is equally interesting to me to have visited the Sinai desert and to just imagine the manna - a crystal like substance - falling from heaven every day to feed the Israelites.


May your life be filled with His bread - every day.