Murphy's Law

Have you ever heard of Murphy's law...what goes up, must come down? Oh wait, that's gravity. Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

For the common mortal female this translates to...

-the husband will shave once a week-on the day you scoured the sink. After you scour the sink.

-milk will be spilled at dinner. Dinner of the same day you washed the floor. For the first time in a month.

-someone will make smiley faces on the newly cleaned windows.

-your child will chip off the top of his brother's brand new adult tooth.

-someone will eat rice (or something equally messy) in the bi-annually vacuumed minivan-right after the biannual vacuuming.

-you will break the nicely manicured nail shutting the car door.

-you will put a run in your only pair of panty hose on the way out the door to a wedding or funeral.

-no matter how thorough your shopping list, you will still forget at least one thing. Ditto for the Christmas card list/people.

-if you don't water your garden because there is a 99% chance of rain, it won't rain.

-you will get sick when you attended holiday family functions.

-the pool/gym will be closed on the morning you refused to hit the snooze and actually jumped out of bed to exercise.

-you will not use something for years, get rid of it, and then need it the next week.

-you will think of the perfect gift and then not be able to find it anywhere.

-you will have a favorite dessert at a favorite restaurant and they will discontinue it.

Sigh...I told you...you will find the glass half empty, when you thought it half full.=)

this picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post. But the Barefoot Hippies are heading towards balmy Java.

What phenomena of Murphy's law have you experienced?

Quintuple Chocolate Brownies

Way back, last summer, I was invited to join a blogging mastermind group. These girls are godly women who write really well. Several of them have published eBooks, and they all make me feel very welcome, but definitely a newbie in the blogging department. Not that they are not gracious or wonderful. I am just a newbie.

Now that I've totally dug myself into a huge hole, and put my (bare) foot in my mouth, all I have to say is, that some of these amazing woman are helping me out big time by sharing their wisdom here on my blog while I am gone.

Sheila has two blogs. Seasoned Joy (here) is a life style blog. The Deliberate Reader (here) is a blog devoted to books and book reviews. Sheila is a voracious reader. And her reviews supply additions to my ever growing "to read" list.

We had the opportunity to meet IRL in October at the Influence Conference. 

Without further ado...Sheila

I grew up baking with my mom, and it's still one of my favorite hobbies. I love being able to create what I'm craving, and I love experimenting to try and find the "perfect" recipe.

One of my absolute favorite cookbooks is Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. She's got fantastic desserts of all kinds (and despite the title, not everything in the book is baked; there are puddings and ice creams that never see an oven). It's always a treat to try something new from it.

I recently highlighted it as one of my top cookbooks, and if you saw my cookbook collection you'd realize just how much that is saying. In other words, LOVE. THIS. BOOK. I raved about this book so much during one of my mom's visits that she ordered one for herself before she even left so that it would be waiting for her when she got home. 

We talk about recipes in it all the time and refer to it simply as "Dorie," as in, "I tried that Swedish visiting cake from Dorie, and it was delicious." The worst recipe I've tried from the book has simply been good, rather than great. But mostly they are great. Fantastic. Luscious. Amazing. 

And for all that, I've still barely scraped the surface of what's available in the book. I tried going through it and making a list of recipes I still want to try. Just in the first section alone, I came up with 26 recipes for muffins, scones, biscuits, cakes, breads, and buns. At that point I stopped making the list because it would have been easier to list the recipes I wasn't interested in attempting. 

One of my favorites is Quintuple Chocolate Brownies. I am a brownie fanatic and am super picky about brownies. They cannot be cakey at all. They need to be borderline gooey (or, to be honest, all the way gooey.) And of course, they need to be super chocolately. Happily, these brownies fit the bill. 

They are visually stunning (my photo does not begin to do them justice) with their white chocolate glaze topping brownies studded with nuts and chocolate chunks. They are glamorous bars! As is so often the case, I didn't follow the recipe exactly (especially when it came to the glaze), but these are my modifications: 

Quintuple Chocolate Brownies (slightly modified from: Dorie Greenspan Baking: From My Home to Yours pp. 99-100) 

For the Brownies: 

1/2 cup all-purpose flour 

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon espresso powder 

1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces 

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped 

1.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 

1.5 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 

1.5 Tablespoons water 

1 cup sugar 

3 large eggs 

1 teaspoon pure vanilla 

6 ounces milk chocolate chips 

1 cup chopped pecans 

For the Glaze: 

6 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped 

1/3 cup heavy cream 

Getting Ready: 

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil, spray the foil with baking spray. 

To Make the Brownies: 

Stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, and espresso powder. Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and add the butter and three chopped chocolates . Keeping the pan over low heat, warm just until the butter and chocolates are melted. Stir gently, and when the mixture is smooth, set it aside for 5 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, beat the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Next, stir in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. You should have a smooth, glossy batter. Gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. Finally, stir in the milk chocolate chips and the nuts. Scrape the batter into the pan, smoothly it carefully. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out streaked but not thickly coated. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let the brownies rest undisturbed for at least 30 minutes. 

To Make the Glaze: Put the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a boil and pour it over the chocolate. Wait 30 seconds, then, using a rubber spatula, gently stir until the chocolate is melted and the glaze is smooth. Hold a long metal icing spatula in one hand and the bowl of glaze in the other. Pour the glaze onto the center of the brownies and use the spatula to nudge it evenly over the surface. Let cool completely to allow the glaze to set. Or if you're me and impatient, cut into them immediately and shrug over the distortions it causes in the glaze.

Thanks, Sheila, for what looks like an amazing brownie recipe! I will be sure to try it out when I get back!

Land of the Rising Sun

The Barefoot Hippies have taken Japan by a storm, and today you get a photo dump. Enjoy. (I'm going to let the photo captions tell the story.)

Leavin' on a jet plane...Better back again in a month.

boys thrilled with the lego sets we got them. Thanks, Aunt Lydia. The thrill lasted most of the plane ride.

I'm not tired...I'm not tired. Towards the end of our 13 hour flight.

First full day...the mountains around Shibukawa

Magnificent!

An amazing cabbage salad. If I knew how they prepared it, I would eat cabbage like this everyday.

Fried pork. The kids with Mrs. Kraai

playing games at English class-BMV's group. Preposition Memory.

Freckle's group

LC's group. Good for their English and a good workout for her shape knowledge repertiore.

Origami toys.

Mr. Hippie playing Go with one of the students. He got creamed.

A Buddhist Shrine/temple

Amazing architecture, dark place.

water for cleansing

More at the Shrine

Add caption

You can find a Starbucks anywhere, and we Barefoot Hippies do. Everywhere.

LC and Sam

Tokyo-rivals Mexico City as the biggest city in the world-

it goes on and on and on and on

If you squint, you can see the Tokyo Tree in the background.
The largest free standing tower in the world.

More city, and city park. Un.be.liev.able!

Barefoot Hippies, all present and accounted for.

Very stereotypical Japanese street sight.
The layers of ads line up with the floors in the buildings.

the kids playing on the Tokyo ladybugs

alive and thriving!

Suffice it to say, we are having an amazing time!

We have been able to see a lot. And spend time with our friends too. Seeing a lot.

We have tried new foods, though nothing really odd.

Our bodies are adjusting to the time zone, though the kids were up at 5:00 this morning, and sawing zzzzsss by 8:00 tonight.

I love the architecture and the chirpy sound of the language. I love the fact that we have had western toilets every place we have visited so far. And those toilet seats are warmed. Wow! Yes. I could permanently get hooked on that.

My 3 favorite things to date would be...(in no particular order)

1) Spending time with 3 generations of Kraais. I've enjoyed catching up with them, and seeing their home digs. We have prayed for them for years. From now on I will be able to picture them in their surroundings, and also have a first hand knowledge of how to pray for them.

2) English class. These older ladies and gentlemen were a hoot. They enjoyed playing games with the kids, and the kids loved it too. Plus they performed a Japanese painting/sheet play for us, and "introduced" us to origami. (Shhh...don't tell them it is Mr. Hippie's hobby.) They showered us with love and made us feel very special. We had a blast.

3) Walking around Tokyo. I love walking the streets of cities, and soaking up the feel and nuances. It is crazy! I like gawking at the buildings and seeing the sites. I'd much rather do that than, say, go to a museum.

Tomorrow is our last day in the Land of the Rising Sun. Already. We have waited so long for this trip, and now the first leg is almost finished.

We will be heading in to Tokyo again tomorrow. Maybe moseying on over to the Imperial Palace. Maybe seeing the busiest intersection in the world, after passing through the busiest subway station in the world. (Shinichi? 3 MILLION people pass through there every day.)

Regardless, this has been an amazing start to our trip. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Does this spur you on to save your pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to go travel? Where would you go if money was not an object? Tell me in the comments!

5 tips to traveling with 4 kids 10 and under

1. Don't do it. Just kidding. Wow, that was a short post.=)

2. Get bassinet/bulkhead seats. There is way more leg room. Plus a bed for babies 23 pounds or less. Not sure we squeaked by that one.

3. On these trips to foreign lands across multiple (read 14) time zones-force your kids to sleep when they darken the plane. They won't be happy with you then, but adjustment will be quicker. And you won't have 4 kids falling asleep in their rice bowls.

4. Pack a new fun toy. We bought our three oldest each a Lego set with their Christmas money from Aunt Lydia. They were pumped and entertained for hours.

5. Don't forget to pack conditioner. Or if you do, stay with friends in Chicago who give you their supply for the trip.

We are doing well. We have had a partial plus a full day here in Japan so far. We have spent these days in Shibukawa which is in the foothills of gorgeous mountains.

We have only had to use western style toilets to date, ptl! With warmed seats. Seriously! I'm going to have to get me one of those.

Yesterday we drove up a mountain, and saw beautiful vistas. The kids played in about their first snow of the season. We have had so very little at home this year. Though I hear they are currently getting hammered. Maybe it was just waiting for us to leave.

I will try to load some pictures soon. The laptop isn't working at optimum levels, so I am on the Internet and blogging on my handy iPad.

Which also means that if you are commenting in Disqus, I haven't seen the comments. It doesn't work on this.

Have a delightful day all!

The Gospel in Shoe Leather

Today I have a treat for you, Elizabeth, from my mastermind group. Elizabeth is an amazing woman. She has published an eBook of devotionals and she is working with a publisher on her first ink and paper book. Her writings inspire and challenge me to look to Christ-everyday.

Oh, and furthermore, Elizabeth makes awesome cards, and she tweets me about my fitness regime...i.e. am I getting up and exercising like I'm supposed to?

Elizabeth Johnson blogs at DogFur and Dandelions, where she shares devotionals, book reviews, and other real life stuff that encourages Christ-centered living. She recently released an ebook, Trust Hope Rejoice, which you can get for free by subscribing to her blog. And she’d love to connect with you on Twitter or Facebook!



What do your shoes look like? No, not your running shoes or your sandals or your high-heeled Sunday shoes. Your spiritual shoes. Even if you're barefoot {ahem}, you still wear some sort of spiritual shoes.

Photo Credit

I'm thinking specifically of a quote by D. L. Moody, that great American evangelist from the 1800's. He was also a shoe salesman, but that's not what he was referring to in this statement:

"Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather."

In other words, the truths contained in God's Word shouldn't stay there.Every promise God makes, every command He gives, should be manifest to others by your daily life. They should be "lived out" on your own two feet! Your words, your attitudes, your actions and interactions -- all of these things tell others what you really believe. Every snapshot of your life that people see declares your own personal "statement of faith." Every moment you spend with another person demonstrates to that person what you believe about God. Your life becomes a Bible to those who may never read one. Your influence, your testimony, becomes a Bible to those who may never crack open its pages. So what Bible are others reading when they spend time with you?

• If you constantly worry, your Bible says that God is not in control of everything.
• If you gripe and complain about your circumstances, your Bible says that God is not good and that He has not ordained everything for your good.
• If you live how you feel, pleasing yourself regardless of the effect on others, your Bible says that God's standards don't really matter.
• If you reject or ignore someone based on their appearance, your Bible says that God cares more about outward conformity than inward transformation.
• If you refuse to lend a helping hand to someone in need, your Bible says that God is not love and does not command love.

Get the picture? You see, it doesn't matter much what you say. It matters what you do. Actions really do speak louder than words, and they speak more consistently too. You can "talk the talk" until you're blue in the face, but if your everyday life doesn't back up those words... then do you really, truly believe them? Read what James says in his epistle, when writing about the need to "walk the walk" of true Christianity [2:26]:

"As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."

What good is a dead faith? Dead faith won't save you, and it certainly won't help anyone else. But faith that is backed up by works -- actions that prove the words are true -- will change lives. It will impact those who may never read a single verse in the Bible. It will proclaim Christ to those who may never attend a church service.

Your life may be the only Bible some people ever read. What kind of Bible are you sharing with them?



*Thanks, Elizabeth! What a great challenge for the new year.

The rest of you, my loyal readers, do check out her blog and Facebook page. Leave her some love!=)

Not Just in the Eye of the Beholder

LC told me the other day that she wants to be a real princess when she grows up. Like a Kate Middleton type princess. The dresses, the dancing, the flair for fashion...

the "long sleeve shirt under a smocked top" look

Her "barbie" outfit. Glamorously copied from a Barbie history library book

beach babe

band of head bands

scarf flair pose

I called this her sherbet outfit. The colors totally reminded me of rainbow sherbet.

her favorite sparkle tutu

goggle/swim ring look

This is my LC. And I love her so. And I sigh when I look at these pictures.

I sigh because of her flair. It makes my mama heart grimace and it makes me proud. It makes me proud because she could care less if everything doesn't match perfectly. She could care less if she looks ridiculous. She could care less what anyone else thinks of her outfits. (she loves them and that is all that counts) She could care less if it is a "bad" picture of her. If her smile is weird. Or her hair is messy.

Does any of that sound familiar to any of you? Familiar as in-exact opposite of our own thoughts. I've lost my flair. My could care less. I delete and delete pictures of me that just look awkward. As a matter of fact, I would love to delete that first picture of us decorating cookies. I don't like my hair or my smile. My eyes look a little glazed. Totally not a flattering picture.

LC is free from such inhibitions. She is happy with her looks. She is not concerned with how beautiful she is. She is just being herself.

And I wonder...how did I get from there to here?

When did I start to care how I looked in photographs? When did I start to see myself as fat or ugly? When did I start to compare myself with others?

And, how can I encourage her, my sweet girl, to stay in this frame of mind she is in? How can I tell her everyday she is beautiful?

How can we teach our girls they are beautiful-no matter what anyone may say?

We can help them cultivate inner beauty. I think LC is beautiful outwardly. But, it is her personality that makes her shine. Even more than personality, though, inward-character beauty, that is what makes a woman beautiful. Growing in love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control. Those are what makes a girl truly beautiful.

I don't think we can emphasize character development too much. But I also think that there is nothing wrong with complementing our children (girls) on how they look.

Christians have swung very far right (or wrong, in my opinion) in the matter of physical compliments. I was taught that complementing someone's physical beauty was the worst form of flattery. My husband was taught that too. We don't want to just emphasize the outward-especially at the cost of the inward. We don't want to produce a bunch of vain twits. But...is there a balance?

Mr. Hippie actually told me when we were courting that he thought I was beautiful, but he didn't want to tell me too much, because he didn't want me to get a big head.

Yeah, I'd say he's lucky I married him.

And he did come around. He tells me I am beautiful everyday. My fat days and skinny days. My pregnant, beached whale days, and my buff and fit days. My bad hair days and the days when every hair is perfectly coiffed. He truly thinks I am beautiful-all the time.

And I love him for that.

We can teach our girls to love their bodies and be confident in their looks, by loving our bodies and being confident in our looks.

By not shying away from the camera, nor deleting all the "bad" pictures of ourselves.

By not complaining about our fat bellies, and thighs, and butts.

By not begrudging the stretch marks. Each and every one a mark of the blessings God has poured into our lives by way of our babies.

By taking delight in being a woman. Being feminine. Taking pride in dressing girly.

By taking care of our bodies-eating right, exercising, sleeping, doing our nails. All outward things, but all important. There is a maxim,

dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Let's treat ourselves as beautiful, and we will be beautiful.

By not letting their brothers, or any other person in their life, tease them about their weight or any other physical feature. Just not tolerate it.

We need to commit to loving our girls and making them feel lovable and beautiful-no matter how they look, no matter what they do.

We need to encourage them to be girls, to be princesses, all their lives.

Growing up, my dad called me his precious princess. My sister, Bek, was his princess peach. I am sure Lyd and Kate both had a princess moniker too.

We need to remind them of what they knew as girls-their worth and beauty is not defined by Hollywood. It isn't defined by a certain color hair, or a small dress size, or a brand.

Their beauty is a inner beauty that spills over to the outside. Their beauty is character. Their beauty is spunk. Their beauty is individual.

"Beauty is not based on how attractive we are to everybody else, but how attractive we are to ourselves, for one cannot think other people think they are full of beauty unless they know they are beautiful too."-unknown

"What no beautician would ever tell a woman is that the secret to being beautiful is thinking the right thoughts."-unknown

"He has made everything beautiful in His time."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

" Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it."
Confucius

Is it possible for our girls to not grow up with our beauty issues? Can we shorten their re-learning curve? Can we, by our own examples, teach them true beauty?

Denial is not a River in Egypt

Well, friends, the Barefoot Hippies leave tomorrow for the opposite side of the globe. As you can see, my toenails are painted. Because I am totally about denial and procrastination.

newly painted toe nails...I have my trip priorities right.

My suitcases are not packed.

the packing disaster that is currently my bedroom

This situation will be rectified-in part-before I go to bed tonight. So that I can go to bed.

there is a method to my madness...I think

I want you all to not think I won't be here, even when I am not HERE. There's a vacation for the Barefoot Hippies, but not for my readers. This is the wonder of the internet. I can access my stuff anywhere.

I am planning to have posts, 5 days a week, just like always. There will be regular posts from me. Plus guest posts from a line up of fabulous ladies. And I am planning to insert some posts of where we are and what we are doing. So look for them. And follow, and share and tweet.

(Btw, have I said recently, "thank you" for following Barefoot Hippie Girl and reading my posts? Thank you!!! You all are such an encouragement to me!)

My commenting may be a little sporadic, but I will still try to get to each of you within a day or two.

The Barefoot Hippies are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. We are excited and nervous. And we value your prayers.

Pray for:

Safe travel
Good kids-especially on the planes
Flexibility and peace (this would be for me in particular)
Luggage arrives at each destination with us
Bless the socks off every person we meet

This is the sight that greeted me one afternoon this week. Potatoes artfully arranged by Meres.

As you can see, she has always been rather into my raw potatoes. I periodically find little bitten chunks out of them as I go to peel a potato.

but how can I fault someone with those precious eyes?

 Meres, and her love of potatoes is sponsoring our weekly small kitchen adventure.

This recipe was given to me by Mrs. Guikema (one of my influential woman-here). It is a soup that she made for us one evening, and because we liked it so much, she shared the easy recipe.

And now, even though she has been gone four years, I still can have fond reminisces of her every winter when I make her delicious soup.

Like I said, it is an easy recipe. Aren't most of my recipes easy? The base is 2 family size cans of bean and bacon soup. I used to use Aldi brand because they had it, and it was cheaper. But, they no longer carry it, so I used Campbell's this time. The resulting soup was much thicker. It was amazing.

It is basically a doctored up bean soup. More complex than just eating it from the can. Quicker than starting dry beans from scratch with a ham bone.

Kielbasa Bean Soup
3 cups diced potatoes
3-1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
8 cups water
2 pounds (less or more according to taste) Kielbasa sausage, sliced thin
2 family size cans Campbell's Bean & Bacon soup
1 t. salt
1/2 t pepper

-Combine first 5 ingredients. Boil until done. Add the soup, sausage, salt and pepper and simmer for 30 minutes or longer-until you are ready to eat. Stir often to keep from sticking.

Enjoy with fresh biscuits and homemade jam. We do.

What is your favorite soup for the chilly winter months? Tell me in the comments!


A shout out to my sister, Bek! She delivered twins yesterday! Bethany and Gideon! But are in the 6 pound range and are doing well. I am so excited for her, and I can't wait to meet those babies!