An Ode to Tea

Sweet Tea.

How did I live before I knew you?

How did I get through two pregnancies without you?

Where have you been all my life?

In the South?

Well, come to the North.

Come home.

Where you belong.

I love you.

procrastination

...there are two mountains of laundry waiting to be folded and put away...
...the vacuum is calling me names...
...my windows are finger printy...
...I can see a layer of dust on the bookshelf...

...yet here I sit, sipping my {decaf} sweet tea with lemon, waiting for the motivation to get moving.

I think seeing that little list up there is motivation enough. Although, one more little glass could give me some energy. hmm....

display of brilliance

For whatever reason, pregnancy always brings my subconscious back to the days of high school. Many of my dreams involve people and places from back home. Most all of them occur in my grandfather's old store. At any rate, the things I have long forgotten somehow are brought back into the forefront of my mind to be replayed, rehashed, rehumiliated, etc.

This morning I was reminded of the first time I decided to try roller blading. All of my sister's are athletically gifted. I am not. Not even a little. They all had roller blades. I had a bike. (They had bikes, too.) In a moment of sheer genius, I thought that my first attempt at rollerblading might be easier if I used my bike to steady myself. Not entirely sure how to combine the two, I decided it would be best to just jump on in and give it a try. Why waste time mulling it over?

So I got on the bike and pedalled with the roller blades. Not quite what I had planned, but it worked. I kept going. It was then that I noticed our naughty and bull-headed cocker spaniel had followed me. Great. I tried to tell him to go home. He acted like he didn't know me. By this time, I had ridden several blocks, and was at the stop light on the corner of town. I had run out of side walk and was stopped at the light, waiting. This particular stop light was the intersection of two highways. Thoughtful engineers had designed the road to slope at all edges to allow for prompt and proper water runoff. Which is fantastic if you are a road. But it really sucks if you are a girl on a bike with roller blades and a cocker spaniel.

When the light turned, I tried to go. But you can't "push off" when you have wheels on your feet. And it is nearly impossible to pedal forward, up a slope, from a dead stop. There I was. The fool. Trying frantically to move. My dog halting all traffic by sniffing around in the center of the semaphore. My handlebars jerked around in a 180, causing my bike to fold in half all around me. Cars that had politely been waiting for me to get out of their way were now inching forward, trying to get through the light.....

Once I figured how to contort my foot so that I could push off and get myself going, I went. And kept on going. Mentally mapping out the quickest and most secluded path home. I almost prayed that someone would run over that stupid spaniel.

Still here...

...but my brain has frozen, and I have nothing interesting to say.

Happy Wednesday.

so very true

Spring!

The air smells fresh

The breeze flows through open windows and makes the curtains dance

Flowers are beginning to push their way out of the soil

My kids are riding bikes, laughing, enjoying

I am filled with a new sense of hope and joy

I'm praising God for this wonderful season

d.i.y.

I'm getting a new sink. And faucet. I can't wait! Only, what was originally slated to take my super husband 2 hours, has become a two day affair. He's handling things pretty well. I've heard a few grumbles here and there.

He was sold some wrong parts that have the wrong threading to connect to some kind of dealy-ma-bob. He discovered that during a conversation with a wonderful hardware store owner this morning on his third attempt at keeping it local. Unfortunately, none of the hardware stores here have the right whatchamacallits, so he had to make a run to the next town over. To a big box store. Where he finally got all the right pieces to the puzzle. So in a few short hours, or a few more days, I'll have a shiny new sink and faucet. Hopefully. And my husband will be able to gaze at his Man of the Year trophy. Which is me. His trophy wife. Of course. *cough cough*

Editing to say that the new sink is in!

Here is the before:

(See how the old one had scuff marks? They would not come off. I tried everything. It looks horrible, I know. And the old fauctet? Same deal. They just never looked "clean" to me. Even though they were both bleached and scrubbed every day. --I have some issues. I'm almost embarrassed to put this old photo up, since it looks so bad. But, the bad one only makes the new one that much more wonderfulicious.)

Behold, the new:

I think I'm in love.

chivalry

A very handsome, incredibly sweet young man bought me flowers yesterday.

We paid for them with his Daddy's money.

I wish he would just stay little....a little longer.

Myth busted

Cocoa butter prevents stretchmarks. Every pregnant lady MUST have this staple in her beauty arsenal.

Uh huh.

When I was pregnant with my first, I dutifully and liberally applied this wonder lotion EVERY DAY. Things went really well. For the first 7 months. And then they came.

One fine morning I awoke to a round tummy that really closely resembled a water melon. Stretch marks appeared over night. What a rip off! I believed the lies! Those lying liers. Cocoa butter does NOT prevent stretch marks. At least not if you are genetically predisposed to them. And if you are not predisposed to them, I don't want to know it. And I hate you.

And then with my second baby, I thought....well, perhaps a little more cocoa butter wouldn't hurt. You know? Maybe this time will be different. I've already got a water melon tummy, maybe this cocoa butter will save me from becoming more water melony. So I did it all over again. Same story. But baby number two grew larger, and was cooked 3 weeks longer than baby number one. And I ate a whole lot more mozzarella cheese sticks from Arby's with baby number two. So the cocoa butter did nothing for me. And just when you think there isn't room for any more stretch marks, somehow, the impossible is made possible. More appear. Great. Fabulous. COCOA BUTTER DOES NOT PREVENT STRETCH MARKS.

So here we are. Baby number three. Knowing what I know, you would think I wouldn't bother. Right? Wrong. I am bothering. Perhaps I have it all wrong....perhaps I am supposed to be EATING the cocoa butter?

Thursday

I feel so boring. All I've been posting about is food. Which, honestly, is mostly what I'm thinking about these days. Besides my kids and my husband. Of course. Because I'm not entirely self-centered. Really.

The projects have been slowed. I took on a fix-it job for a friend. A weighted blanket. Several key lengths of thread had been pulled out of the blankie, and all the weights went to the sides.

(The blanket had been a life saver for them. Their great little guy has mild-ASD, and slept so poorly until someone suggested they try the magic blanket. Like a charm, he would go to sleep right away, and sleep through the night. The blanket provides a soothing, all over pressure, to calm his senses. I've thought about making one for myself....just working with it, I can just imagine how wonderful the gentle pressure must feel.)

When the Mama was telling me about it, said they were trying to find a seamstress willing to fix it, I said I would love to do it for them. Adjusting the weights, and pinning the seams back together went fairly quickly. The sewing has been very s l o w going. There are 25 columns, and it has taken me 4 hours and 2 sewing needles to stitch 8 of the columns. Who knew it would take so long to sew a strait line? I am trying to sew a few columns every day. I wanted so badly to quickly whip it back in shape so they could begin using it again right away.

Ah, well. Soon enough. Slowly but surely wins the race. A penny saved is a penny earned. In a tornado, even a turkey can fly.

peanut butter cookies

We got a little hungry for cookies today.

My cupboards are running a bit bare, but I refuse to go to the store. The last time I went grocery shopping, I came home with ring bologna -- because the meat section made me want to throw up. What was I thinking?! RING BOLOGNA. What do you make with that? I digress. I'm waiting for a nice stomach-settled evening to restock...so no other unusual items find their way into my home.

So back to the cookies. We were playing a game called Cookin' Cookies, and I just got hungrier and hungrier for cookies. Any kind of cookies. Then I remembered this awesome recipe for peanut butter cookies I had gotten a few summers ago from a friend. (Hi, Kathy!) It requires just 3 ingredients...all nearly always in my cupboards.

My son helped form little balls and then press them with a fork. Some were squished REALLY well.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup peanut butter (creamy, crunchy, organic, processed, whatever)
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Mix together. Roll into balls. Press with a fork. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes. Cool. Eat. Several.

(Best dipped into a glass of milk.)

((I like to chase them down with lasagna.))

you say sneaker, I say snicker

"I can put on my new snickers all by myself."

"See how fast I can run in my snicks?"

(This is one of those misspeaks that is hard to {want to} correct.)

bread day

Today, it's raining and snowing at the same time. Everything looks cold and gloomy (in a wonderfully melodramatic kind of way).

It seemed like a perfect day for bread. And it was. And it is. This recipe originally came from on of my favorite sites of all time. Allrecipes.

This French Loaf had the perfect reviews. I love to read the comments from others to find what adjustments they made. I followed the one that said he used 5 tsp of yeast, added more salt (2 tsp) and a tbsp of butter. I also used a whole egg wash instead of just the white, because I like how the yolk adds a bit of golden coloration to the bread.

I will definitely make it again, and again, and again. And I most definitely recommend it. Easy, quick, and delicious!

Pigling Bland

My daughter woke me up this morning. She had had a bad dream. But, didn't want to talk about it. It was too scary.

I allowed her some time to process, and then gently asked a few questions.

"What was the dream about?"

shrugs

"Who was in the dream?"

"Pigs."

"Oh." (Holding back the giggles.) "Were you in the dream, too?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"Well, some of the pigs were really boars. Some were really pigs. One was a nice pig. One of the boars pounded on the door, it was locked, and yelled, 'Mother! Father!'"

(trying so hard not to giggle, but let one small snort sneak out) "Were they wearing clothes?"

"Yes."

"I see."

"Then a boar ran up to us [she and the nice pig] and he [the nice pig] pushed him."

(at this point, I had a full-on case of the giggles.)

She realized just how silly it all was and we decided to start our morning. It had occurred to me, that last week I had gotten them a lovely Beatrix Potter movie in their Easter basket. "The Tale of Pigling Bland."

So I asked her, "Was the nice pig like Pigling Bland?"

"Yes."

Aha. It was a pretty scary movie. (sarcasm)

trying it again, again

Even monkeys can do it. What's MY deal?! I'm going to try again. Surely, my pregnant mind will be sharper than my regular mind. *cough*

Cravings

There is just something about cheese. And pickles. I cannot get enough of either.

I am really going to need to find something chock full of fiber to crave to balance out the cheese.

(I'm sure you were just dying to know this.)

Happy Easter!

Sunday, has come! The grave is empty! He is alive! Death, has no sting.

Blessings.

cooking with the kids

We put together a dessert for tomorrow, and it was so easy...PERFECT for help from the kids. Thought I'd share. It's from the newest issue of Kraft's Food and Family (definitely not a gourmet mag--but it's free--just sayin'.) Anyhow, it's called "Easy Peanut Butter & Chocolate Eclair Dessert."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Copied from Kraft's site)

Prep Time:30 min
Total Time:8 hr 30 min
Makes:24 servings, one piece each

1-3/4 cups cold milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
24 HONEY MAID Honey Grahams
6 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
3 Tbsp. butter

POUR milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Add peanut butter; mix well. Gently stir in whipped topping. Layer one-third of the grahams and half of the pudding mixture in 13x9-inch dish, breaking grahams as necessary to fit. Repeat layers. Top with remaining grahams.

MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min., stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended. Spread immediately over grahams.

REFRIGERATE at least 8 hours. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I made a few substitutions: I used white chocolate Jello pudding, and since I don't have a microwave, I heated the butter in a small sauce pan, and then added mini-semi-sweet chocolate chips after removing the melted butter from heat.

The kids had SUCH a blast stirring, and placing the crackers in the pan. It's in the fridge now, so the photo above is also from Kraft's site. We haven't tasted the finished product, but the spoon-taste-testers have approved each individual component.

It's Friday...

...but Sunday's coming.

Hallelujah! Sunday's coming!!

preparations

I'm trying to mentally gear up for the coming Holiday. THE Holiday. The big one. The one to end all others. "It is finished."

Can you grasp that?

Wow. My debt is paid. Your debt is paid. All debt is paid. Just believe.

The best analogy I've heard thus far was one of girl. Before the Judge.

See this gal had a rough day. A really rough day. She drove her little car over a few mailboxes. Through a couple of stop signs and into a parked car. A police car.

Well her day in court came, and she stood before the Judge.

"How do you plead?"

"Guilty." She responds.

"Well, your actions have a consequence. There is a fine. A debt to be paid."

She nods. Readying.

"The fine including damages is $500,000.00." He tells her.

All watch as the Judge sets down His gavel. Steps down from His bench, pulls out His checkbook and begins to write a check. To pay the fine. For His daughter.

"WAIT!" She yells. "I don't accept that! I don't want you to pay for my actions."

"But you don't have the money." her lawyer quietly reminds her.

"I don't care! I reject His help. I will endure the punishment myself."

The Judge concedes. It is her decision to make. Hers to accept or reject. He nods knowingly towards the bailiff.

She is handcuffed and taken away. She will pay. With her life.

See, this is how it is....God has paid the price! All our actions have consequences. Our sins need to be redeemed. A debt needs to be paid. You can choose to accept the gift of God's grace, or you can reject it. You can allow Christ's death to atone for your sins, or you can pay for them yourself. With your life.

The choice is yours. Choose Life.