The Serious Business of Heaven

As you've probably noticed, I don't really write serious stuff.  It takes too much time, effort and wisdom.  I lack all of the above.  However, a friend of mine recently asked me to write an encouraging note for a friend of theirs who recently moved to a new town, has few friends and is morning sick.  Here is what I came up with.  Since I'm super lazy I thought I'd get a two-fer-one deal and post it on my blog as well.  

I used to think that I was a sacrificial person…and then I had kids.  Before kids you selflessly drink your coffee every morning, before you selflessly drive to work in total peace and quiet, and then you selflessly eat a meticulously prepared dinner with your spouse before you selflessly go to bed whenever you feel like it.  It isn’t until after children that all those Bible verses about sacrifice and loving others really come into play. 

            Whenever you’re feeling worn out, tired of being a parent, or maybe just annoyed by the other human beings around you, stop and think about yourself.  I know that sounds like strange advice coming from a Christian writing about sacrificially serving others, but just trust me for a second.  Think about who you are and who Christ is. Think about how the King came not to let you serve Him, but so that He might serve you.  All of the troubles, aches, and pains that you are going through are nothing compared to what Christ went through for you. Just in case you are tempted to think for a second that you somehow deserved all this, think about how Christ died for you when you were still His enemy as a free gift for you.

            Look around at those troublesome things and people surrounding you, Christ was willing to give up kingship in heaven for you, how much more should we be willing to sacrifice a few small things.  If Christ is willing to be born in a barn why am I complaining about giving up my nice flat abs to make a room for my baby?  And if Christ is willing stay up all night praying before his betrayal and death, why am I throwing a fit about getting up to nurse my baby in the middle of the night on a nice comfy couch while I watch the next episode of Sherlock?

I have a natural inclination to do whatever I feel is my duty to do but this doesn’t mean that I’m always happy about it.  I was having a few days like this not too long ago.  I was annoyed with my husband so I decided to give him the silentish treatment while I sacrificially made him his breakfast before work.  My kids were being their usual needy selves so I sacrificially tended to them while I barked out orders like a drill sergeant.  I was miserable and I was doing a pretty good job of making sure my family felt miserable as well.  Then I happened across this quote from C.S. Lewis, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”  Jesus didn’t endure the shameful death on the cross just because He had to but rather because of the joy that was set before Him.  When I decide to put off all my grumpiness and smile, laugh and express gratitude, I’m giving Satan a big ol’ kick in the pants.  When I can puke my guts up again and again but still thank God for the life He has placed within my womb, God is glorified.  When I can serve my husband eggs and a genuine smile even when I think he doesn’t deserve it, Satan gets really nervous.  When we joyfully and sacrificially serve others, we are storming the very gates of Hell. 

                                                                        

DIY T-Shirt Cloth Napkins

For some reason it was really bothering me that my kids were obsessed with wiping off their fingers.  One would get the washcloth and wipe off their face for 0.2 seconds and then suck all the dirty water out of the washcloth.  Ga-ross!  The other would go through about 3 paper napkins per meal and since I store them too high for my children to reach (on purpose), I would have to get up multiple times per meal to help them. About this time, I remembered that I'd been meaning to keep an eye open for cloth napkins at garage sales and thrift stores but I always forget.  I looked into buying cloth napkins but they are kinda expensive especially since I don't do laundry every day and I wanted to have enough for every meal if need be.  Finally, I decided to make some of my own.  I scoured pinterest and found these adorable ones.

I liked the idea (check out the tutorial) but I didn't want to have purchase a ton of fabric for every day use.  So I decided to make some upcycled napkins. The best part about this whole project is that my closets are getting cleaned out and junk is actually going to get used! I decided to create a short tutorial.  These things are easy-peasy especially when I got my system down.  This is the perfect project for sewing newbies or to use to teach your children how to sew.  

DIY T-Shirt Cloth Napkins

Materials - fabric (I used equal parts old t-shirts and leftover quilting cotton but you could use just about any type of fabric that makes you happy) 

Sewing machine 

Thread 

Sewing scissors

1. Start by cutting your fabric into a rectangle or square.  Since these are more "family" napkins as opposed to "company" napkins, I didn't make them all the same size.  I just cut as many as I could out of each t-shirt.  They all ended up being around 8in x 12in.  I think it works the best to use a rotary cutter but you could use scissors. 

2.  Also cut a rectangle of your quilting fabric to match the size of your t-shirt rectangle.  Pin these together with the front of each fabric facing each other.  

3. Sew all the way around the edges except for one 2 in opening on the side of your choosing. 

4.  Cut the edges and turn your fabric inside out.  Then iron it so that it lays flat. 

5. Top stitch around the edges of the napkins and you are done!  

Seriously.  That is it.  I made 9 of these yesterday. Today I want to try and make some with left-over flannel instead of the t-shirt material.  We all love them.  I put them in an easy to reach spot so that Kira can help herself and also set them out as she sets the table.  

Crunchy mama for the win!

This and That...

Our life has been kinda busy and kinda not so busy.  We do things but it doesn't always feel like we've actually accomplished anything.  Since I don't have much to say, I thought I'd just stop by and share a couple of things I've been thinking about lately and some funny things the kids have been doing/saying.  

- Nana took the kids to McDonalds to get some ice cream and Kira told me that she "loves Old McDonalds."  

- Speaking of Old Mcdonald, I found this book at the library and I loved it.  Buy it here.  In it, Old McDonald starts a urban homestead much to the chagrin of his neighbors.   

- Speaking of urban homesteads, my current dream is to buy an old fixer-upper farmhouse that is only kind of in the country and create a hobby farm complete with a garden, honey bees, egg laying chickens, and some kind of meat source.  First step, convince Aaron.  Second step, actually find a house since there are never any such houses for sale in our price range on the side of town we need to live on. Though in all honesty, we're planning on staying in our current house for at least another 1 1/2 years as it would be financially beneficial for us.   

- Did I mention that my almost 17 month old son can say several sentences and phrases?  Starting at 12 months, he would say, "I go ou-side." Now he can say all sorts of things including, "Wha dat?," "I want some!!!" "I'm done!!!" "Mom-mom, I boop (poop)" and he responds to affirmatively to question by using "Uh-huh" or "sure" which he says in the sweetest little high-pitched voice.  I don't think Kira started talking in sentences until around 20+ months.  What a little smartie-pants.  

- Kira is so excited about Christmas this year.  She loves everything from Christmas lights, to the fact that Christmas is baby Jesus' birthday, to any and every Christmas decoration.  The other day I was listening to the holiday pandora station and after each song came on she would shout at me, "Mom!  It is a Christmas song!" 

- Kira is also super in bedtime stories. She used to complain about going to bed and about having to wear a mitten at bedtime to keep her from sucking her fingers.  Now all we have to do is promise her a story and she hops right into bed without a single complaint.  Of course she does start to complain at the end of every story, "But that isn't the end."  So far we've just stuck to Bible stories and a couple fairy tales.  We'll probably run out of those in another few weeks and we'll be forced to venture into the realm of made-up stories.  

- PSA: Homemade salted caramel is where it is all at.  Just saying.  Just mix together some sugar, heavy whipping cream, butter, salt and voila!  This year one of my Thanksgiving contributions was a pumpkin cheesecake with a salted caramel topping.  I may or may not have eat most of it by myself.  Check out the recipe.

An Inexpensive Bathroom Remodel

So we've been working on remodeling our bathroom since..ahem...this past January.  Lets just say that we keep getting distracted and lazy.  When we moved into our house, everything was a mess.  It was a foreclosure that had sat vacate for 2+ years.  We took replaced all the flooring in the main part of the house, painted just about every single, piece of trim, ceiling and cabinet, got a new HVAC and water heater, and took out a wall.  There were a few projects that we put on hold though.  We just got our dishwasher 1 year ago, replaced the roof by ourselves last fall, and this past summer we did our deck.  Another project that we wanted to take on was the bathroom but since it all worked and didn't look absolutely awful, we just left it alone.  Just to refresh your memory, here is a picture of when we first bought the house. 

So there were a couple of things that we changed double quick.  We cleaned out all the moldy caulk around the tub and put in new caulk, replaced the toilet since it leaked and also added a fan/light combo since the old fan didn't work.  Other than that, we lived with it "as is." for 2 1/2 years. 

I was so excited to finally be able to get it done this past year!  Here are some before and afters.  It doesn't belong in any design magazines but our goal was to get it looking as nice as we could and spend as little money as we could.  I think it ended up costing us around $300 but since the cost has been spread out over 9 months it is hard for me to know exactly without consulting Aaron and the budget. 

BEFORE

AFTER!

         

So what was up with this funky light? Did someone really pick out this light and then hang it from the ceiling and think that it actually looked nice?  The mirror was really worn looking and way outdated.  The "new" mirror is actually something I picked up at a garage sale for $5-10 before we were ever married.  I was never quite sure where to hang it but it fit perfectly in the bathroom. All I did was paint it the same color as the vanity.

We we got rid of the mirror, we also lost some storage space.  We tried to make up for that by adding this shelving.  I love my new ikat pattern that I painted.  I'm thinking of making another design and hanging them in matching frames above the towel rack but for now this works.  See that glass jar?  That did hold q-tips until they all got knocked over.  Just keeping these pictures real.  I do plan on replacing them next time I go to the store.  

So the spot above the towel rack is still empty.  I'm trying to decide what exactly I want to do. I'm thinking of hanging my ikat patterns as I previously mentioned.  I do love the color we chose.  It was a tan/beige color and is now a nice light bluish gray. It coordinates very well with the main part of our house.  

We also painted the vanity gray and replaced the flooring.  We tore out the old linoleum and put down new vinyl stick-and-peel tiles with real grout in between them.  We thought about doing real tile but we only have one bathroom and didn't want to have to move out of our house for days.  It was super cheap but still looks decent.  It almost looks like real tile.  

I wish I could better capture the transformation.  My camera just isn't that great, there is absolutely no natural light in the bathroom and it is tiny.  But we like it so I guess that is all that matters.   

Life + Christmas List

I'm pretty sure that I'm married to the only man who asks his wife to read a chapter from a Tim Keller book before they go on a date so that they have something meaningful to discuss.  Yep.  In his defense, it was a good chapter.  Lately, we've been thinking a lot about mercy ministry and how to spend our money.  Definitely some challenging stuff in this chapter as well as in Scripture.

This guy is crazy.  He calls his cars "broom, brooms" and can speak several full sentences.  The funny thing is that all the sentences start with "I want..." If we tell he that we need to go somewhere, he runs around the house and brings everybody a pair of shoes.  While he does manage to match the right shoes to the right person, he doesn't discern much between types of shoes and is likely to bring you a pair of heels for a hiking excursion.  

Ok, so now the part that you all have been waiting for with baited breath: My Christmas list.  You only have about 2 months so it is time to start shopping! Here is what I have on the list for now though I'm sure it is likely to change.  

• A beautiful journal.  I have one picked out but something like this would be nice.  

  

  Buy it here

  I've been slowly but surely journaling for the first time in my whole life.  I'm proud to say that I've been fairly consistent since February of this year.  Right now my motivation to write a lot is simply that I want to fill up my old journal so that I can start on a new prettier one.  I don't write much deep stuff.  I mainly stick to boring facts about my life.  I just want something to help me remember what life was like, how I spent my time, prayer requests that were answered, and cute things that my kids do.
  
• Cutesy bowls and serving dishes with patterns on them.  Every. Single. Time. I go into TJ Maxx I have to wear a blindfold for the dishes section.  I'm totally loving everything with a blue and white design or even just a cute and colorful pattern.  Here are some dishes to give you an idea.  

  

  How about these?

  

  From Target

• I also accept gifts of food items such as nice cheese, dark chocolate, and good coffee. 
• Anything to do with gardening!  Even simple things like a nice quality hand trowel or some gardening gloves.  

Baked Carrot Cake Oatmeal (aka The Best Autumn Breakfast)

This recipe is so super yummy.  It is so hearty, filling and rich but not overly sweet.  In fact, don't be fooled by the "cake" part of the title.  In a normal recipe for baked oatmeal, most people would put in in 1 C of sugar.  I cut this way back to only 1/4 C.  If you like sweet foods or are making this for a special occasion, feel free to double or triple the sugar or squeeze some honey or maple sugar over top of your bowl.  We enjoy even without all the sugar so we'll keep doing it that way.  I also make it up the night before and then pop it in the oven in the morning for a quicker and easier breakfast.

Baked Carrot Cake Oatmeal (Gluten free with a dairy free option)

1 large carrot, shredded

3 c Oats

2 t Baking powder

1 t Salt

2 t Cinnamon

1/4 c Brown sugar

1/3  c raisins

1/4 c shredded coconut

1/3 c chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 c oil/butter - butter or coconut oil is the best but I think just about any "oil" would work

2 eggs 

1 c milk

1 t vanilla

1 apple (granny smith is the best that I've tried)

In a 9x13 in pan, mix together the first 9 dry ingredients.  In large measuring cup, mix together the wet ingredients.  Add the wet to the dry and mix a little more.  At this point, I put it in the fridge overnight.  The next morning, preheat the oven to 350 and add a chopped apple to the oatmeal.  I also like to add an extra 1/4 c of milk or so since the oats will have soaked up the mixture while in the refrigerator.  Stir in the apples and bake for 30 min.  Enjoy a huge bowl and top with milk, half & half, cream, or whipped cream.  

If you are dairy free, just use a milk alternative such as almond milk in place of the regular milk and coconut oil instead of butter.  

Our whole family will gladly eat a giant bowl of this for breakfast.  However, I personally recommend that you feed your children cereal so that you can eat their portions.  

Have you ever wondered what we look like to small children.  Here is us and our house from Kira's perspective.  It kind of cracks me up.  

The Easiest Pumpkin Painting Ever!

So first off, I created the world's best healthy fall-time breakfast ever: Baked carrot cake oatmeal.  Seriously, so incredibly good. Of course, I'm a sucker for carrot cake so it doesn't take much to convince me.  I used a recipe as a base but I made so many changes and additions that I need to make it again and actually measure out things so that I can share my yummy breakfast with the world . Kira, Aaron and I all absolutely loved it.  Will wasn't too convinced but I think it was a texture thing.
Ok, so now on to the pumpkin.  As you've probably guessed by now, I love doing crafts.  However, I have a serious problem: I think I can paint but I can't.  I can see a picture in my mind but I never manage to actually transfer that image to paper or canvas.  I can't draw either.  If you think I'm joking, I'm not.  I'm pretty sure that my 9 year-old sister can draw better than I can.  I was scouring pinterest for an Autumn project to make as a craft for a friend and I ran across this.

Beautiful, right?  I was convinced that I could in fact paint this...but then I remembered all my past failures.  Since she had this handy tutorial and I was desperate for a fall craft, I decided to give it a go.  I already had a lot of the paints so I only needed about $5 worth of supplies.  I thought that risk would be worth the pleasure and the potential benefit. 

Here is my version. 

Not quite perfect but still a ton of fun.  Give it a try!  Painting is so relaxing especially when you have someone walking you through each and every step.  Hmmm...looking at these pictures side by side have convinced me of a few additions I should make to mine.  Excuse me while I go work on it some more.

My Little Flower Girl

This past Saturday, my sister got married.  It is hard to believe that I'm old enough for my sister, who is 7 years younger than me, to be getting married. Though she is get married quite young so at least I have that to comfort me.  Kira and two of my nieces were flower girls.  I had the pleasure of designing their outfits.  I finished up their skirts all the way back in August but I've been trying to keep them a secret for the big day.  Kira loves her clothes so much that she begged me to put them back on her today.  Fortunately, this worked out well for me as I failed to get any good pictures of her on the wedding day.

Here is the matching hair bow that I also made for all the girls.

Can you tell that she's really into ballerinas right now?

I used this skirt tutorial and it was super easy. All the girls did great.  Nobody cried or had a meltdown.  Petals actually got placed on the ground and they even smiled a couple of times.  The only funny thing was that my niece Eva went down the aisle backwards so that she could watch each petal fall to the ground and at the end she tried to pick them up because we always did that when we practiced.  

Oldie but a Goodie

This is from our Anniversary a couple of months ago.  Still makes me happy.  

Autumn Drinks

Autumn starts tomorrow!  Yay! It is slowly starting to feel fallish here.  The days are still relatively warm (around 80) but the nights are pretty cool and get down to the 50-60 range.  I love waking up in the morning to a cool house and being all snuggled up in blankets.  The whole being cool in the morning means that I'm even more addicted to warm drinks than before.  I think the thing that draws me to coffee and tea is not so much the caffeine, though that helps, but the fact that I love having something warm in my hands to slowly sip on as the morning progresses.  So in honor of fall, I wanted to share to nice warm drinks with you.
The other day I made this PSL and it was the best homemade one I'd ever tasted.  I didn't have the whip cream to go on top but it was so nice that it didn't need it.  The best part is that I got to make it with some leftover butternut squash that I grew in our garden.
The other drink is one that my husband and daughter love: A honey vanilla steamer.  If you've never had a steamer, it is simply steamed milk with some kind of flavor/sweetener.  I don't have an espresso machine so I can't truly steam the milk but it tastes good either completely unfrothed or with my frothing technique down below.  The best part is that it is a relatively healthy drink

Honey Vanilla Steamer
1 C milk
1-2 drops of vanilla
Honey to taste

You also get bonus points if you use raw milk and local raw honey.
Heat the milk on the stove top until quite warm.  Do not boil.  Add in the honey and vanilla.  Stick your immersion blender in it and blend until frothy.  Drink.

This drink is super rich so serve up smaller cups instead of large 16 oz ones.

Since it has been so warm during the day, I haven't made many soups but I'm definitely ready to start having soup every single week.  What are your favorite fall recipes?  Please share for meal planning inspiration.

My Toddler + Big Kid

So my babies aren't quite babies anymore.  Kira just turned 3 this month and Will is a whopping 13 months old.  Here are some things I want to remember about them.

Kira:
- She has a really good memory especially for songs.  She loves music especially her "princess music" which is simply a Disney/musical station on Pandora.  She has memorized all of the princesses' names though she has only ever seen Tangled and Cinderella.

Kira with a little slug friend.

- Did I mention she is in to the princesses right now?  We were tired of her waking up in the night and asking for "mugasik"(music) to be turned on.  She had a little projector/white noise machine with a timer that would play music.  I came up with the brilliant idea of just getting her a night light so that it would stay on night.  I let her pick out whatever she wanted since they were all about the same price and I wanted it be special enough to replace her "mugasik."   She chose the princess one.  We don't have to get up as much at night.  Two birds, one stone.
-She has already memorized the first 57 questions in the children's catechism as well as several passages from Scripture.
-Just this past week or so she started to get interested in writing her name so we've started to work on that.
- Even though she loves princesses, her favorite part of just about any movie are the animals.  While watching Cinderella, she starting freaking out when the horses pull the carriage to the ball.
- She watched her first movie in theatres this past June.  We saw the new Cinderella for $1 each.
- She knows either the sound or the letter name of just about every letter of the alphabet.

Will
- He took his first step a week after his 1st birthday.  He still crawls more than walks but each day he walks a little longer.  He is relatively steady and probably walks about 25% of the time.

Observe the mess.  

- He know quite a few words including some, ow, go outside, come, hi, and bye.
- He understands a lot now such as "time to eat" or "go change your diaper" or "go get a book."
- He loves the outdoors including eating dirt.
- He is kinda the class clown in our house.  He hits his own head and then shouts, "Ow!" and then giggles like crazy.  Sometimes he does it to make us laugh but other times he does it when he hears us laughing about something else.
- He has already mastered going up and down stairs.

Summer Cookin'

I love cooking seasonally.  In the winter I make soups weekly and things like meatloaf and mashed potatoes or a roasted chicken seem to work wonderfully.  In the summer though, I like to keep things simple and fresh, fresh, fresh.  Right now our garden is the biggest and best it has ever been which really isn't saying much.  It took a long time but all of our heirloom tomatoes are getting ripe at the same time and we're currently bringing in 5 cucumbers or so a week.  We also have harvest 3 butternut squashes and have 3 more that are probably just about ripe.  Oh, and did I forget to mention the abundance of fresh herbs?  I love the game of trying not to let any of my fresh produce go to waste.  So far I've made refrigerator pickles, lacto-fermented pickles and frozen tomatoes 3 ways: Diced, salsa, and balsamic roasted.  I'm totally loving things like pasta salad with fresh veggies, stir-fries, and sandwiches.  My current favorite summer sandwich would be the caprese grilled cheese.  All you have to do is make a grilled cheese sandwich with mozzarella, pesto, and fresh tomatoes.  

There is one recipe that I make repeatedly throughout the summer.  Summer cannot end until I've made this at least 10 times.  It is THAT good.  I got this recipe from my friend Wendy.  Give it a try, you won't regret it.  

This picture is slightly deceptive because I ran out of Mozzarella cheese and had to use some colby jack.  It still tasted wonderful.  

Tomato Basil Pie

1 9" unbaked pie crust

1 1/2 C shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Enough ripe tomatoes to slice and pile high (maybe 4-5)

1 C loosely packed basil leaves, crushed OR 1-2 T dried basil

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 Mayo

1/4 C grated parmesan cheese

1/8 t pepper

Prebake the pie crust.  Remove the pie crust from the oven and sprinkle with half of the mozz. cheese.  Allow it to cool for a few minutes on the counter while you slice tomatoes and drain them on paper towels.  Pile the tomatoes high over the cheese.  Combine the remaining ingredients (except the mozz cheese) and spread over the tomatoes.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or til it is brown and bubbly.  Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting by yourself.  

What about you?  What recipes are you loving this summer?  I'm working on planning out my menus for the next week and would love to hear what I should add to the list!

So Monday...and a Quick Tip

Ok so it is Monday.  We just got back from being at the river with Aaron's family for the past two days.  The trip was a lot of fun but a long weekend + 2 toddlers + being tired out myself + a giant mess covering every surface in our house + having no milk and only 3 eggs left = grumpy Monday.  Fortunately, both kids are taking a nap right now which means that I have a few seconds to pull myself together and prepare for the afternoon. My one bright spot this morning was getting to harvest all the veggies that ripened while we were gone.

This is my happy place.  Of course the grass was all wet and muddy from the rain so my kids were kind a nasty by the time we back inside but I'm still happy.  

See all of the above tomatoes?  That is the ones I've harvested in the past 2 days.  The tomatoes have been unrelenting these past 2 weeks or so and I've loving it.  Of course there are too many too eat right now so I've been trying different methods of preservation.  Which brings me to the second part of my post: My quick tip.  

Whenever life gives you too much of something, just freeze it!  It helps if you have a large chest freezer but you can also squeeze quite a bit into a small refrigerator freezer. For instance, do you have too many tomatoes?  Try cutting them (if they are larger), drizzle them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic salt and then roast them in the oven at 400 degrees for 1-2 hours.  Pop the into a freezer bag and then pull them out in the winter to add to pizza or pasta.  

Another easy one is bread crumbs.  Whenever you have some bread or even a hamburger bun that is about to go bad, just spread some butter on it and pop it into the oven until it is toasted.  You could also add seasoning at this point such as Italian.  When it is toasted and cooled off, put it into the a food processor until crumbled and throw them into the freezer.  Next time you need bread crumbs, they are ready to go and will never mold as long as they are in the freezer.  Seriously, it is so easy and I love not feeling liking I'm throwing away good food.  

A Dinner Party

A few months ago, it dawned on me that our church had never really done anything to thank our elders and deacons all of whom have been serving our church for many years.  I know that people oftentimes give gifts of appreciation to the pastor and his family but we'd never done anything for our other leaders.  After some thought and discussion with my husband, a plan was hatched.  I decided to do something selfish that would be nice for them but also make me super happy.  My plan was to prepare them a feast and use it as an excuse to make gourmet food and practice plating.  I contacted the best cook in our church and asked for her help and we were off to the races.  It just so happened, that my college roomie was going to be visiting that weekend and she was excited to help.  She was a great asset and definitely helped things go along super smoothly.  We also invited members from church to help donate towards buying each of the couples a gift card to a nice restaurant as we wanted to give everybody a chance to participate.  My parents graciously allowed us to use their home even though their living room was currently under construction.  Here are a few pictures from the evening.

So I designed this menu.  I'm pretty proud of it as I've never designed anything before in my life.  It was an adventure to say the least.  We folded them into the napkin along with the silverware.  I wish I had gotten a picture of the real thing but I didn't. 

Kelsey, my college friend, was elated when I asked her to arrange the flowers.  She's really good at it and enjoys it so it worked out perfectly.  We had 12 people so we had to set quite a large table. When my mom was helping to get it ready, she remarked, "It looks like Downtown Abbey!"  One of the first remarks we got from the guests was that it reminded them of Downtown Abbey as well.  

These were our appetizers: Caprese with a balsamic reduction and bacon ricotta crostini.  I meant to take a picture of the main course but I forgot until all the plates were already set out.  We served a perfectly cooked balsamic pork tenderloin, spinach mushroom risotto and a roasted carrots. 

The woman on the left is my friend Laurel from church.  She's so sweet, southern and makes a killer pork tenderloin.  Seriously.  It was everybody's favorite and they oohed and aahed and said it was better than any restaurants.  

The dessert isn't the prettiest thing ever to look at.  We did strawberry parfaits, a homemade truffle, and a square of baklava.  

The serving quartet.  

I had a blast putting it on and I think that everybody enjoyed themselves.  Our reviews were very good.  Perhaps it is time to consider opening a restaurant.  

My Garden - a Midsummer Update

My garden turned out really pretty this year.  It is nothing spectacular but I enjoy looking at.  It is so peaceful and relaxing.  It is also the largest garden that we've ever grown which isn't saying much.

The main reason it looks so pretty is because I decided to plant butternut squash.  Only one or maybe two plants came up but it is covering 10 feet in every direction.  I hope we can get a lot of squash for this fall.  Our cucumbers (on the trellis) are also doing quite well.  We just picked our first one last weekend and we have one more ready to pick today and probably a couple of more for tomorrow.  We are also growing lima beans.  One piddly watermelon and sad little zucchini plant that I bought on clearance since our squash didn't come up.  The sunflower came up on its own leftover from last year.  We also grew carrots, lettuce and spinach this spring and I hope to replant them this fall. 

These are our crazy tomatoes.  Unfortunately, we have yet to get a ripe one off of these two giant bushes.  We have been getting some small ping ball sized ones off the plants in our front flower gardens.  We also have been harvesting herbs and a little bit of rhubarb this spring.  

We all love eating fresh veggies and watching them grow from little "babies" to big vegetables.  

Our Life in Bad Quality Pictures

Maybe one day I'll decide to be a real blogger and get a good quality camera along with some good quality camera skills.  Or maybe I'll someday be motivated to actually attempt to edit my photographs.  For now though, you're stuck with these.  They may not be beautiful but they do show whats been going on in our life lately.

The kids and I were blessed to get to take a trip with my family to go visit my Grandma.  I haven't seen her for 2 years.  Every time I see her, I just want to soak it all in cause I never know when it will be my last visit.  

We got back from our trip about an hour before dinner.  Since the cupboards were bare, we headed out to get a bite to eat.  Will's favorite part was this giant piece of ice.  He enjoyed licking it and sliding it around with his fingers.  Hopefully, the table was at least kinda clean. 

Ultimate crunchy mama moment - kiddo snacking on a carrot freshly picked from the garden.  I purposely try not to buy crackers and such because if we have them, I can barely convince my children to eat their lunch.  Kira will tell me, "I don't want lunch, I want a snack!"

So it was our anniversary and my sweet husband sent me this giant bouquet.  If only  he'd sent me a maid service to clean up the mess in the background.  ; )  We enjoyed a nice dinner at our town's second fanciest restaurant.  

We don't use bath towels here.  I just throw my kids in the dryer and they come out all nice and toasty.  Just joking, just joking.  Will is really into the dryer right now.  

The other day I realized that I haven't done any crafty projects with Kira for awhile.  We decided that firework artwork would be very appropriate.  While Kira enjoyed the artwork, she is actually terrified of real fireworks.  I don't think they would be so bad if it happened during the day but it is just too emotionally overwhelming right at bed time. 

Aww, my little handyman.  Isn't it nice that we have such helpful children?  

I'm not ready for this child to learn how to open doors.  No, no, no, NO!  He is already dangerous enough without being able to go outside whenever he wants.