monday menu

Here's what I'm cooking this week. What are you making?

M-chicken parmesan, roasted asparagus

T-tomato-vegetable soup, grilled cheese sandwiches

W-roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, veggie

Th-French dip sandwiches (in crock pot), salad

F-chicken pot pie

S-bring brownies to small group potluck dinner

Su-crock pot roast

extra sunshine

extra sunshine

from Benjamin

on a day that I very much needed it

I heart him

recipe reviews

Today I finished sewing together my log cabin quilt top, ironed it, pieced the backing, and ironed it. If you think that's not very impressive, you've never tried ironing a 113 inch by 98 inch rectangle of fabric before. It's a very worthwhile pain. I'm so pleased to have that part of it done! It was incredibly satisfying to fold up the quilt and backing and bundle them up to go to the quilter.

In celebration, I decided to write recipe reviews! Yes, it's a little random, but it I find that if I over-focus on one project it becomes stale, and what better way is there to distract myself than by thinking about yummy food? : ) No, not really. But food is delightful, and I've enjoyed trying a couple of new recipes lately.

. Enter the Cream Cheese Brownies:

The recipe: I have never had good success with making brownies from scratch. I have even managed to make brownie brittle (it was just like chocolatey peanut brittle without the peanuts!) while I thought I was following a brownie recipe. That being the case, I generally stick to making the cheater box kind of brownies. A few days ago, however, box brownies were just not going to cut it, so I thought I'd give it another shot. Enter Cream Cheese Brownies.

The mods: For once I didn't mess with the recipe (guess I was too scared of another brownie brittle incident) other than to half it for fear of making a little brownie piggy out of myself. ; ) I think I may also have not swirled the top two layers as much as I was supposed to.

My impression: They turned out! And they were everything I dreamed they would be...sigh...salivate...sigh...

The recipe: The other recipe I tried recently was Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Vinegar (sorry I have no photos for this one). We have been buying a lot of asparagus when it has been on sale lately, and I was getting tired of my usual steamed asparagus.

The mods: I added a grating of fresh Parmesan which was just lovely.

My impression: Yum! Roasted asparagus has a nice texture as well as more flavor than steamed asparagus, and the balsamic vinegar added the perfect, simple extra touch that was needed to finish it off. I'll definitely be making this again!

quilt in progress

Two Saturdays ago, I finished sewing together the last of my log cabin quilt squares. (There are 80 of them! Well, actually 82 because I miscounted.) And last week I trimmed them into predictably even 11 3/4 inch squares.

It's so rewarding to reduce the uneven blocks into a piles of little scraps and perfect squares.
When that was done, I recruited my mom and an artist friend to help me the squares for the first half of the quilt.
And I sewed them together. I opted to work with quilt halves for a couple of reasons. The first is that one half of a large quilt fits much better in my modestly-sized living room than the whole, and the second reason is that I need to have the quilt blocks sewn together and off of the floor before the end of nap time. : )

Today I laid out the other half and sewed it together. It is looking even more beautiful than I imagined it would! Now all I need to do is press the halves, sew them together, piece the back, get it to the quilter (there is no way I can quilt a queen-sized quilt on my little machine!), and bind it. It's still quite a process, but the end is in sight. And that's a very good thing since we leave for my friend's wedding in two-and-a-half weeks...

monday menu

M-chicken-fried steak, gravy, biscuits, fruit

T-stew and rolls

W-chicken based on this recipe, rice, corn

Th-chicken tacos (made with leftover chicken)

F-grilled T-bone steak, garlic-lemon roasted potatoes, salad

big boy helper

After observing his fascination with the process of snow removal, my parents purchased a tiny snow shovel for Little Man. He simply loves using it and is quite proud of being able to help.

love like a mustard seed?

now is the season

of celebrating love

as i think about

love for my husband

love for my sons

love for my family

i ponder God

the facets of His love

the privilege of loving Him

to me

God and love are inseparably twined

after all

i am only capable of love

because of His love

in me

i love

i do love

i love God

i love those near me

i even love strangers to some degree

yet my love is so imperfect

it falls short in many ways

it's forever incomplete

i fail to allow God-love to consume every area of being

forget to converse with Him

neglect to read His word

i even willfully choose to embrace

what He has told me to shun

i slump into ingratitude

make choices based on self's desire

snap at my men

shut my eyes to needs around

instead of being a portrait

of God's perfect fearless love

in a warped twisted world

i become part of the wreckage

yet i have faith

that the perfectly loving God

who planted the seed to this God-love in me

will continue to transform me

until the love i wish to embody

is mine

after all

i do love

even if it is imperfect

and perhaps love

like faith

has great unexplained power

even in mustard-seed size

thinking about Matthew 17:20, parts of I John (especially the end of chapter 4), and Philippians 1:6

celebrating

Ever since I was young I loved celebrating Valentine's Day. I would spread my crafting stuff all over the table and make elaborate valentines for those I loved. I have been thoroughly enjoying passing on valentine traditions to the boys.

We made and sent valentines (complete with excavator and dump truck stickers!) to grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. We also enjoyed receiving some in the mail in return.

My parents helped with the celebration by giving the boys valentines cups and plates at breakfast as well as a few treats. The boys were, of course, delighted with everything.

Then later in the day we made a special delivery to Daddy's work: cards from all three a us (the card I made for Benjamin is pictured below) and some of his favorite snacks.

I also splurged and got a new espresso maker which I gave to him a bit early. (I kinda broke the last one, and we've really missed it!) This year Benjamin skipped the traditional obligatory flowers and chocolate (which, incidentally, I don't mind at all) and gave me a gift certificate for a one-hour massage! I'll probably save it for later in the summer when I'm huge and waddly and desperately in need of one. : )

We had such fun celebrating valentine's day that I'm a little sad it's over. Oh, wait. It's not. I still have a festive valentine tree in my living room!

one-and-a-half

Brother is one-and-a-half today! He's still more cuddly than his big brother, but he is not a baby anymore. No, this running, climbing, chattering, singing one is definitely a little boy now! Here are some highlights of his life right now.

Brother is:

only taking one nap a day now

indicating that he wants to sleep in a big boy bed

loving his blankets (he's rarely far from at least one of them)

going potty in the toilet on command

eating huge amounts of almost anything in sight

(though he is more picky than his big brother)

babbling almost all his waking hours

saying more and more words

(some of his favorites include:

go, ball, bear, dog, eat, poop, hey, hu-un [no],

boo, look, poke, broke, and mama)

making so many impressive sound effects that I'm often amazed

recognizing and naming facial features

singing along heartily with music

(he even sort of follows the melody line of the ABC song)

playing drums with ever-increasing vigor

playing intently and intelligently, exploring his world

(some of his favorite toys right now are:

cars, balls, kitchen toys, mom and dad's shoes, stacking cups,

my old fisher price little people house,

brooms and mops, stuffed animals, and blocks)

"reading" books out loud and pointing at pictures

painting and scribbling pictures

loving stickers (especially stars)

kidnapping technology

(he loves phones, computer mice, wii remotes, etc.)

walking when we go around the block to burn energy

running fast, fast, flapping his arms

climbing up and down anything and everything

(couch, chairs, stairs, table; if it's elevated, he'll try to conquer it)

trying for all he's worth to jump

laughing so hard when we play chase that he can't run

getting in on Dad and Brother's pillow fights

Oh, I love this little boy, and I can't wait to see what the next months with him will bring!

photobooth fun

Last night we attended a Valentine's banquet raising funds to help local Christan college students go on missions trips this spring and summer. The food was good, the company was great, but perhaps funnest of all was the photobooth set and whimsical props provided by a local photographer for the evening.

We enjoyed ourselves immensely and even made it to the top of the photographer's blog post about the evening!