Mother's Day-How we celebrated

We (well, Mum and I) went to a ladies Mother's Day tea.

The guys gave me Mother's Day gifts:

1. A card.

2. Izzy sparkling blackberry juice (my favorite flavor).

3. A fragrant grapefruit which will be enjoyed soon.

4. Chocolate covered dried fruit. (Yum!)

5. Junior mints, a long time favorite.

6. Vanilla Rooibos tea concentrate for making lattes.

7. An electric skillet "gift basket" holding all the rest.

I have missed my electric skillet since it's passing

and was thankful to get a new (and nicer) one.

This is a detail from the inside of my card. Little Man wrote the top "m" and the "o" all by himself. I think is easily one of my favorite part of the whole gift.

I gave Mum a gift: a mug, some fancy hot chocolate, a mini-whisk for mixing the hot chocolate, and a little, colorful notebook just for fun.

I added a hand made card and wrapped it all in purple cellophane with curly ribbon.

Benjamin also made a lovely dinner in celebration of Mother's Day. We had stuffed mushrooms for the appetizer followed by Chicken Alfredo and salad. We finished they meal with fresh strawberries dipped in homemade whipped cream.

Last, but not least, we celebrated Mother's Day by giving and receiving lots of hugs and kisses.

Monday Menu

Here's what I'm planning on cooking this week:

M-Chicken lettuce wraps

T-Ginger-apricot glazed ham and applesauce, broccoli, mashed potatoes

W-Small group--it's my week off!

Th-Ham and egg biscuit sandwiches and fruit

F-Macaroni and cheese with a vegetable side

What are you making?

motherhood

poignant joys

sweetest sorrows

days stretch out

nights interrupted

i give

and give again

more is demanded

i wonder if i can keep on

endurance fails

emotions fray

strength flags

small hand clasps mine

bright eyes meet my tired gaze

"i love you, mama" sounds in my ears

smiles meet me unexpectedly

i am greeted by laughter

joy and song

love floods my being

with beautiful, piercing pain

motivates me to indeed keep on

as my weariness abates

i even go beyond

mere survival

i delight

create

teach

laugh

sing

joy

yes, my days are full

full of love and

pure, poignant joys

tempered with sweet sorrows

another graduation gift

My friend Katie is graduating from our local college this year. I'm looking forward to going to her graduation tomorrow. To celebrate the event, I made a calligraphy of Romans 8:38,39 to give as a graduation gift.

[wet ink]

The frame I had for her is a special frame, and I wanted to use a more distinctive paper than the plain parchment I usually use, so I decided to experiment with using calligraphy ink on scrapbook paper. I chose a pearlized paper with an elegant design as the one that would look especially beautiful in the frame. Much to my delight (and surprise, I must confess) it worked wonderfully.

[the text]

While this isn't perhaps one of my most labor-intensive projects, it's one of those that feels like it exposes a little more of my soul than is entirely comfortable. I think that the fact that the script is very close to my own everyday script contributes to the feeling in addition to the fact that these verses have been some of my favorites for years. Or perhaps I'm just feeling a bit more emotional than usual.

[the finished project in the frame]

Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out and hope that Katie likes it as much as I think she will.

cards for Mum

Mum is the most conscientious and consistent thank-you-note writer I know, which I admire greatly. I like to make cards with calligraphy greetings on them, which she admires greatly. This works out wonderfully because my mom buys me beautiful scrapbook paper, and in exchange, I make calligraphy cards for her using some of the paper. (Did that even make sense? I'm feeling the effects of sleep-deprivation and need to go to bed.)

Recently Mum asked me to make "congratulations" cards for this year's graduates as well as some new thank you notes. Last weekend I calligraphied the greetings, and yesterday and today I sat down and put the cards together. They are simple but (I hope) pretty and elegant. The final count came to 29 thank you cards and 10 congratulations cards. I just have a few finishing touches, and I'll be able to deliver them to Mum.

Here are some of my favorites:

I made a birthday card almost identical to this one for my sister-in-law. I think she'll like it.

Our local high school's colors are blue and gold, so I did my best to make cards in the school colors for the high school graduates.

I love this red and gold paper!

This burgundy and brown tapestry-like paper is another of my favorites.

I carefully matched the colored segment of this pattern to the brown segment for an interesting effect.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this one. Sometimes I think it's just so striking, and sometimes I'm not really impressed.
I am beginning to experiment with Copperplate writing. I have loved Copperplate for so long but was always a little intimidated. I find that everything about it comes quite naturally (thought not perfectly yet) to me except writing at a 45 degree forward slant. I'll have to dedicate some time to practicing. This is a little sample of my own pre-Copperplate script.

Narnia

Do you ever feel like you live in Narnia? You know, during the time that it was always winter and never Christmas? Well, I'm starting to feel a little bit like that. Here is a screenshot of our current weather conditions as reported by weather for you:

Instead of dreaming of a white Christmas, I've began dreaming of a warm summer...

Today I had the privilege of helping one of my friends make her Mother's Day gift idea a reality. When she was a baby, a photo of her mom holding her made the front cover of the Mother's Day newspaper. This year she wanted to recreate the photo with herself and her small son, frame the two together, and give them as a gift for to her mother. My share in the process was taking the photo.

At first we were trying for a mirror image of the original. All of those photos were turning out tense and overly staged when suddenly little Jaxon smiled and snuggled in. Thankfully I was able to snap a photo of the sweet moment, and we ended up with a photo that reflects the same mood and "feel" as the original while being unique and a just a bit different.

While the black and white is more fitting for the Mother's Day gift, I think I almost prefer the photo in color. I couldn't resist posting the color version too. (Man, I love my camera, this image is strait out of the camera: no editing at all...)

After the successful photoshoot, we had a delicous lunch together. Little Man and his buddy got to eat a "picnic" inside since it was a windy and chilly day while the mommies enjoyed visiting as mommies do. It was an altogether lovely experience. : )

more recipe reviews

Last Saturday I had the privilege of helping one of my friends with a little retreat focusing on relationship with God and personal purity for girls in our community. The last item on the agenda was a fancy tea party, and that's where my help came in. I got to bake some goodies for the girls to enjoy as well as helping decorate and set the tables and serve the treats. I very much enjoyed being able to help.

The tea party gave me the opportunity to try a couple of new recipes. Here are the recipes I tried, the adjustments I made to them, and my impressions of the finished results.

The first recipe I made was Coffee Toffee Bars. This recipe is most definitely a keeper! It is quick and easy to make, and I loved the way the finished cookies tasted. Almost everyone who tried them who expressed an opinion to me also loved them. Benjamin was the only one who didn't really care for them. He likes neither bar cookies nor cookies with chocolate chips in them in general, though. As far as changes to the recipe, I used the optional two tablespoons of instant coffee and one-and-a-half cups of chocolate chips for the top. Also, I used vanilla extract instead of almond extract because I don't like almond extract. I will certainly be making these again; however, I'll make sure that I'm making them at a time when I can share because the combination of my love for them and Benjamin's disinterest in them could be bad. : )

Since the friend planning the tea party requested scones to go with the tea, the second recipe I tried was Petite Vanilla Bean Scones. I changed this recipe around quite a bit, though. I didn't have vanilla beans, so instead I flavored the scones with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. I left the vanilla completely out of the glaze. I also substituted milk for the cream in the scones. The finished results, while delicious, didn't resemble the picture on the original recipe. The scones were not exactly petite and seemed to have a much looser crumb. They were, in short, more like lightly sweet, delightfully puffy biscuits. I'm certainly not disappointed with how they turned out and might even plan to make the recipe the altered way again.

hopes and [kitcheny] dreams

True, my kitchen has come a long, long way from where it began. We are firmly convinced that the dreadful state of the kitchen was the primary reason our house stayed on the market for years, allowing us to get such a good deal on it. It was awful. However, thanks to Benjamin's hard work, it became quite usable, and I have worked quite happily in it for a little over two years.

The open cabinets that house our dishes even look quite stylish trimmed in antique linens and showing off the various greens of the dishes.

The cabinets housing our food, however, leave something to be desired. As do the cabinets beneath the sink that do not really close. And so does the non-functioning and clogged garbage disposal in one side of the sink. These inconveniences in addition to other aesthetic problems, have led us to dream of a modest kitchen remodel. It looks like that dream will be able to be made reality this year.

We received glowing reports of the same company from two different friends, so last week we had a representative of that company measure our kitchen. Soon we will get a call from the kitchen designer and can work out further details. In the meantime, we've been enjoying pouring over the books and pamphlets left for us to peruse.

This simple yet elegant style is my personal favorite. I even like the color on the sample photo and think cabinets like these would look beautiful in my kitchen.

[Little Man takes his helping responsibilities very seriously.]

I can't wait to see what both the next step as well as the finished project will be.

Monday Menu

Here is what I'm planning on making for us to eat this week:

M-Roasted chicken, with carrots and rice with gravy.

T-I'm making the side dish for home group: corn bread.

W-Chicken pot pie

Th-Chicken noodle soup and extra chicken broth to freeze

F-Pasta with red sauce, sausage, and carrots or fruit (carrots are pretty much the only vegetable we have right now.)

What are you making?