Maryann's Musings

  Over one hundred degree temperatures, 90% humidity, and a beautiful double layer cake with fluffy white icing oozing out of the middle from the extreme temperatures. This is just one part of my experiences cooking in West Africa.    Every soup, every pancake, every biscuit, every baked good is an adventure. I have had many absolute fails that I was extremely upset about.  These fails now make a good laugh and an interesting story.    The difference between cooking in West Africa and America is this: ingredients available. Yes, there may be chocolate chips at the store every three months if  you are willing to pay $20 for the little bag.    I don't use chocolate chips. I don't use whipping cream. We don't put cheese in our Macaroni&Cheese. We don't use smooth, processed peanut butter because it is too expensive as an imported item; we use the more challenging natural peanut butter 😡 from locally grown peanut fields.  (No Peter Pan, no Jif). In fac

  I call Imogene, 'my early birthday present from God.' Ever since I was 4 years old, I desperately wanted a cat. Every little girl needs a cat, right? I extensively researched the different breeds in our encyclopedias and read the Little Golden books we had about cats cover to cover until I could almost recite them from memory. For a while, I was very much obsessed.   But I never did get a cat of my own until this year. My dad told me over and over, "We can't pay for a cat, we'd have to vaccinate the thing, no telling where we could find a good cat in West Africa, we'd have to feed it, it'd get sick, what would we do with it while we are on furlough, et cetera and so on," "Yes, Daddy, but they're soooo cute!" ...I can't count the number of times we had that conversation, but I dropped it after a while because Dad was right.  Last month, Tristan and I went to a retreat designed for  MKs . I had an incredible time.  Poor

  I last posted in May. I didn't realize this until I looked on my blog page today. In July I was very active, but even when I did have free moments, I avoided my blog using inspiration as an excuse. I am a firm believer in never rushing a written work and always working off of an inspiration. But, for me, it can be very easy to fall into the rut of procrastination using that philosophy of inspiration as an excuse.  In truth, there has been much to be inspired by around me if I had only sat down for an hour or so to wring it out of my brain. School has (surprisingly) instilled a work ethic in me that I am (hopefully) going to hold to.  After a little coaxing and some sacrifice on my part, my little brother Aidan and our friend Jackson agreed to work together and every other day give me a topic that I will have to blog about. I made them promise that it would not be gross, disgusting, or weird.  I hope that this will push me out of my comfort zone in both writing and dead l