Hope's Homestead: Finding Dimes from Heaven...and Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake

Have you ever found a penny or a dime and felt that it was a sign just for you? If you have read my blog, you know that I have a thing for feathers. At least I used to find feathers all the time when I was on the journey to having our children. Every time I found a feather, and I used to find a lot of them, the feeling in my heart was that my dream would come true. Just hang on and trust. I'm now abundantly blessed with a large family.

This week, I have not been finding feathers...but something totally different and very unexpected. I live in Canada where we have several coins for our lowest currency.. We have pennies (1 cent) of course but last year the government discontinued them since they were costing too much to produce. However, there are still pennies everywhere. Then we nickles (5 cents), dimes (10 cents), quarters (25 cents) a loonie (one dollar value) and finally, a toonie (2 dollar value).

As I tell you my story, keep in mind that while we have many different kinds of coins in our country, finding them in our home is a rare thing. We aren't one of families who has loose change just lying around. The kids are always asking for change for fundraisers at school, or a bit of spending money if they are out with friends. I'm also looking for quarters and loonies to park in our downtown core which is all metered parking. Also, in the era of using debit cards, we hardly ever use cash in our day to day transactions, so finding ANY coins is actually rare in our home.

This week though, a very mysterious event has been occurring. I have been finding dimes. Not just one or two but dozen of them!!!

At first, when I would come upon one, I just thought cool, a dime and I'd pop it in jean pocket. But then, it happened again and again. I would be going through a box and at the bottom of the box, I would find a dime. When I moved a piece of furniture, since I'm not just de-cluttering but I'm trying to do some deep cleaning as I go along, I find a dime. Or for instance today, as I was moving my son's bunk bed in order to vacuum underneath, I found lots of stuff. Several missing socks, some used kleenex, I know, gross, and you guessed it, another dime.

The weirdest moment, was when I was down in our crawl space (where there is NO money) and I was going through our daughter Alyssa's stored boxes. She is teaching in the U.K. for the next two years but she will be home for 10 days this summer to attend her best friend's wedding. I know she will not have a lot of time so I thought I would sort through her clothes, wash them all, iron them and pack them away, organized in season so she could find her summer clothes easily. As I was lifting up one of her boxes, I heard something clink on the concrete. As I looked under the box, yep, there was another dime shining in the dim light.

That night after dinner, as everyone was finishing up, I told my family what I had been experiencing. The kids were teasing me but my husband thought it was interesting and asked what I thought it meant. I told him that I thought, just like with my feathers, it was a sign from my angels.

In my heart what I hear is, "Hope, everything is okay, money is coming."

As the kids filtered out of the kitchen all laughing at how weird their mom was for believing dimes were a sign from heaven, David Googled what dimes mean and guess what he found? Here is the link but basically, I was RIGHT ON. Dimes are signs from heaven that our angels and loved ones who have passed on, support us on our journey and want us to know that they are here for us cheering us on.

Are you interesting in reading more about coins being a way for a spiritual connection? Check out this hyperlink....Finding Dimes and Pennies. It's amazing!

It gives me shivers thinking about how many dimes I have now found in the last 2 weeks. I have a little silver basket full of them now but here is a picture of a few that I have found over the course of only a few days.

What do you think? It is kind of whoo, whoo!

Last weekend, my sister invited us over for dinner and since it had been her birthday only a few days before, I brought her a chocolate mocha cheesecake to celebrate. Something to put the birthday candles on, something she can wish upon as she blows them out. In her card, I had given her one of my dimes, but in hindsight, I wished I had wrapped a few of the dimes in tin foil and put them in the cheesecake. My mom used to do that with her plum pudding at Christmas time and whoever got a coin got a wish.

I think in the future, I'm going to call my chocolate mocha cheesecake, my angel cheesecake and put some dimes inside. Maybe it can be a fun tradition and memory for my family. We can tell the story of the time mom was getting direct messages from her angels. Maybe it will open my children up to the mysteries of our connection with our loved ones who have passed on and our angels. At least our older children because the younger ones, especially Will, totally get this stuff.

I think my mom is really excited for me as I de-clutter and she wants me to know how happy she is that I am letting go of stuff in favour of a richer life. And at the very least, it will be a fun story to tell as we eat this cheesecake. It has already brought some light and fun into our house as we continued to do more work this morning Harrison yelled out, "Hey mom, I just found a quarter. Guess that's my coin from the angels."

Anyway, back to the cheesecake. It worked really well with the dinner J and B made the other night. Thanks J and B for the delicious salmon and scallop dinner. The asparagus, roasted carrots, potatoes and your garlic spread on the french bread was divine. EVERYTHING was so delicious! And J, your wishes and dreams are already coming true.

I hope you will try out my cheesecake recipe. It's so easy and tastes like you have slaved away. A perfect light dessert after a spring dinner.

Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake or....Angel Cheesecake recipe

Crust Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa (fryers)

Mix all really well, reserve 1/2 cup for topping and press the rest into 9" spring form pan

Filling

8 ounce cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup chocolate syrup
1 tbsp instant coffee (mixed with 1 tsp hot water)
1 cup whipped cream

Beat cream cheese til fluffy, add can of sweetened condensed milk, 2/3 cup chocolate syrup, 1 tbsp of instant coffee in 1 tsp of hot water.
Whip 1 cup of whipping cream and fold into the rest of the filling ingredients.
As you fold in the whipping cream, put a few dimes wrapped in tinfoil for your family to find. Whoever finds a dime can make a wish and put it in their pocket for luck.

Pour into spring form pan and top with remaining crumbs.
Decorate with pecan pieces...I also used bits of Scor pieces with the remaining crumbs...giving it a slight toffee taste.
Freeze over night.