Friday Chai and Thoughts

Do you remember long quiet winter days, when there was nothing to do but sit in front of a fire with a steaming mug and a worn book? Or hours spent outside building snowmen and snow forts, only going back inside once your nose had lost all feeling, drinking hot chocolate with plenty of marshmallows to ward of the lingering cold. 

Those were always the best days, tucked away like diamonds in a coal mine between homework and social obligations, and the days I remember best from my elementary school years (mainly the snow fun days), and even the days, few and far between, that I long for from just last year. 

Life's been hard and messy lately. Everything from my grades to my family life seems to be crumbling apart, and I don't know how to stop it. I have been trying to see this rough patch as an opportunity to grow, but that doesn't make pushing through the days that seem to last much more than twenty four hours any easier. There are times when I find myself full of worry and dread as soon as I wake up in the morning, and by Tuesday already longing for Friday. 

Most of the time I don't  want to face all the hard things I am confronted with and know that I have to do. But I also know that there is always hope; as C.S. Lewis stated, "There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind". This afternoon driving in the car with my Mom, a Christmas song about a candle in the window came on. After I commented on how gorgeous the melody was, my Mom, wise as she is, went even further, talking about how she loved it because of what the candle represented; in the middle of winter, of the dead season when you feel stuck and tired, the little candle is there burning to remind you of the light that is to come. 

So I will continue to push through, and know that God's plan is beautiful, I just need to trust Him. This hard time will eventually end, but until then I will savor the peaceful Friday afternoons and mugs full of chai tea, sunset photos and chiming Christmas music, and I won't give up hope. 

Candid on a Stick

The Minnesota State Fair. Home of food on a stick. Although, it seems that, over the years, the food on a stick has had to learn to share it's beautiful (is that the right word?) fair with about a couple thousand visitors. Sometimes more. Because man was this place crowded!

I've gone to the fair with my Dad just about every year, ever since I can remember. 

This year, we started our day (actually, mid-afternoon) out with the sky ride. Not to be confused with the skyway, the sky ride was imported to our state fair from Switzerland somewhere around fifty years ago.

It would also apparently cost somewhere around a billion dollars to get one of these babies installed between your house and your high school

Might be worth it, though, at least when the district decides not to give you a bus even though you have bled sweated and cried because of everything that school has put you through, stayed up way past your bedtime finishing homework, been involved in all of those time-sucking albeit fun activities, and this is how they repay you?

Anyways.

Onto the real reason I go; the food.

We always get the staples, of course. 

Mmmm. Cheese curds.

This is a deep fried twinkie. Absolutely ridiculous. Who even comes up with these things. (The bite my sister gave me was delicious though, so I'll let the ridiculousness fly).

It looked like it was going to storm almost all day. Thankfully for my paper hat, we were only hit with a few light sprinkles.

Um, is this real? And can I have it pretty please?

(I don't think it was, but we did get tiny waffle and nutella free samples. So cute!)

I think that the state fair is probably the best place next to New York to people watch. I was truly not trying to be creepy, I just found myself taking pictures of people, because, well, it was like they were begging for it. Perfect candid shots, ya know? 

Too cool for school.

Which starts at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

I don't know what those guys were doing; please ignore them and focus on the subject of this photo (the girl eating corn who definitely looks too cool to go back to school tomorrow, maybe she dropped out our something) thank you very much.

Somehow, maybe because I have a ten-year-old sister, we ended up in the Midway.

For those of you who don't know, that's the part of the fair where all the rickety "adult" rides, with pictures of scantily clad ladies (ew), and a lot of those carnival games that are impossible to win at are located.

I'm not sure I fully understand the appeal of a stuffed donut as a prize, but they seemed to be pretty popular. 

Sisters?

We all went on the ferris wheel together. It was actually pretty fun, and felt wonderful to sit for a while.

The clouds had finally blown over, and the drizzle was gone by the time we reached the ferris wheel. The view of the fair skyline was gorgeous from the top.

Also, I couldn't stop photographing the couple behind us. They were adorable.

Horses are so cool. Except for maybe when they poop, and it ends up literally everywhere, just waiting for you to step in it with your new-to-you (meaning six dollars at the thrift store) combat boots.

Thanks a lot, bud.

What if policemen always rode horses!?

YES made it to the dairy building!!! (Pardon the weird greenish-yellowish color, in hindsight, the glow from of the butter sculpture may not have been my best lighting option).

Aaand I decided it was time for some real food. Mmmmmm.

Time for some more not-creepy candids.

Can you tell I love couples?

The hardest part of this whole candid-shot thing was taking photographs of people without them noticing.

I kinda failed at this one.

The fair is so cool when it gets dark out,

I love all of the lights. (I didn't actually get any donuts, I just got a good shot of the sign.)

Wait, what's that I see in the distance?

Could it be?

Could they possibly have the one thing I have been after ALL DAY?

They could be RIGHT THERE!

Just WAITING for me. . .

I'm getting CLOSER. . .

I can practically taste them. . . 

YES!

DEEP FRIED OREOS.

Oh man.

Finally. 

Soft, steamy, sugary.

Yum. It was a good day at the fair. 

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

When I was in elementary school, I would eat a frozen lemon poppy seed muffin for breakfast every single morning. My mom would make huge batches of these delicious, if relatively flat-topped, muffins, and then freeze them in pint-sized zip-lock bags. For the next two weeks, I would grab a muffin out of the freezer first thing when I got up, and sit at my desk to eat it. I probably went back for seconds without asking from time to time. I was wild in my younger days.

For some reason, frozen muffins leave the faintest hint of sticky-oily residue on your fingers- not enough to be too messy, just sort of a film, the kind that leaves little grease marks on your essays the morning that they're due, and smudges all over your iPhone screens. Every single morning, after sitting down at my desk and setting down my muffin, I would turn on my pink Hello Kitty desk lamp by pulling the Hello Kitty (I think she was dressed up as an angel) figurine at the end of the pull chain, with the same hand I had just had my muffin in. I don't think I believed in using more than one hand for anything other than sandwich eating at the time. For several months I thought the figurine was supposed to feel slightly greasy, until I realized that it was beginning to smell like lemon muffin, too. It still smelled like muffin three years later when I found the lamp tucked away in the basement one day.

In any case, Lemon Poppy-seed muffins are still my favorite, and full of fond childhood memories (even if those from my childhood weren't dripping with sugary lemon glaze).

This isn't the recipe my mom used, but it is truly delicious- the perfect mixture of light and airy,  not too sweet, not too much lemon, and the glaze really sends them through the roof. I found it here, and made these muffins in honor of summer ending. Lemon really is a summer flavor, isn't it? I suppose now I'll have to start baking pumpkin flavored treats. Mmmmm . . . pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin cinnamon rolls (those are on the bucket list) . . .

But go make these before summer ends. . .

And then eat them!!! You won't regret it, trust me (: