Back to Blogging!

The past months I have been busy chasing around my little girl while being pregnant.  I have not had much left over energy for blogging.  But now I'm back!   I'm going to attempt to write shorter post which will to more frequent blogging.

I am now the proud mother of a 1 year old!  I enjoy every day with my sweet little girl.   She had a birthday filled with strawberry shortcake and playing.   She loves to play in her sandbox, on her swing in in her kiddie pool.  I'm so thankful she likes the outdoors as much as her mom and dad!


Movies

I enjoyed watching "Mao's Last Dancer" recently.  I love the genres of dancing movies and foreign movies.  I also like it when a movies inspires, educates and entertains.  This movie is a combination of all those things!  The movie cover stated that it was featured in the Heartland Film Festival, which is always a good indicator of a heartwarming movie.  The Heartland Film Festival takes place in Indianapolis and it features movies that inspire the heart.  Makes me proud of my hometown!

Gardening

Yarrow, lavender, and geraniums

I'm so thankful to my husband for keeping my flowers alive while for the second summer in a row I am unavailable for garden duty.  He now likes the title of being a gardener!

Cone flower and yarrow

Butterfly weed

November

Happy November!
We had professional pictures taken of our little girl.  Titus has a photography business called Made in Mufreesboro  and a photography blog The Obvious.  Taking pictures with a baby is a lot of work!  Thanks Titus!

Hiking
We went on our first family hike this month.  It was extra special because it was the Fiery Gizzard trail were Luke first told me that he knew he wanted to marry me.

 

Gardening

I've been reading "Sunflower Houses" by Sharon Lovejoy.  This book gives ideas for making a garden inviting to children.  We are going to do a garden expansion in our backyard this spring, and I wan to think about it being very child friendly.  According to the book, children like flowers that look like they have faces.  So I planted some pansies in planter boxes.  In Tennessee pansies last fall through spring, which was a surprise for this Midwest girl!

 
Bible

This last week I have enjoyed being thankful to God for so many blessings in my life.  On Sunday I was encouraged further to see the importance of being thankful to God, giving God glory and giving God praise.  Here are some verses in Psalm 147. 
  ¹ Praise the LORD!For it is good to sing praises to our God;
   for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
³He heals the brokenhearted
   and binds up their wounds.
⁴He determines the number of the stars;
   he gives to all of them their names.
⁵Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.

 ⁷ Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
   make melody to our God on the lyre!
¹⁰His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
   nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
¹¹but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
   in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Verse 7 encouraged me to want to play my auto harp more often in praise and thanks to God.  Verse 11 encouraged me to see what God says is important and to make that important to me.  On Sunday I was also reminded that what God gave in my savior Jesus Christ is something I could never get for myself.  I am very thankful indeed. 

Movie

We've been watching DVD's from our library of the TV show "All Creatures Great and Small".  It is about a veterinarian named James Herriot in Brittan.  Funny and sweet.














I hope that you are doing well.   Please share. What has been encouraging you to be thankful this month?

August 2010

 Happy August!

We've been smiling,

and cooing around here!

Garden
The flowers have really burst forth in our front yard!

The white zinnia's really helped to fill in some bare spots in the border.

I'm sparing you the pictures of our backyard. Who wants to look at bare dirt spots and dried up plants?  My goal is next year to be showing you pictures of a back yard with lush plants and pretty flowers.

Bible
A verse that I have enjoyed this month is Isaiah 50:10

"Who is among you that fears the LORD,
         That obeys the voice of His servant,
         That walks in darkness and has no light?
         Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God."

 When I am in a situation that I feel like I don't have a light, I need to continue to rely on God and trust in His name (and He has so many wonderful names, Creator, Almighty, Father...)

Mocha Cheesecake

This month's recipe is one that I grew up enjoying on special occasions.   It actually isn't a cheesecake.  Instead is like a really rich ice cream cake.  Usually the recipes I post are healthy.  This is the opposite direction, but oh so good!  You won't be sorry you try this recipe.  Even if you mess it up and use real coffee grounds instead of instant coffee, like I did one time, you will still love it.

Frozen Mocha Cheesecake
1 1/4 c. chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (or graham cracker crumbs)
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. margarine or butter (melted)
1- 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1- 14 oz. can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2/3 c. chocolate flavored syrup
2 T. instant coffee
1 t. hot water
1 c. (1/2 pint) whipping cream, whipped

In small bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and margarine.  In buttered 9-inch spring form pan or 13x9-inch baking dish, pat crumbs firmly on bottom and up sides of pan.  Chill.  In large mixer bowl, beat cheese until fluffy; add sweetened condensed milk and chocolate syrup.  In small bowl, dissolve coffee in water, add to mixture.  Mix well. Fold in whipped cream.  Pour into prepared pan.  Cover.  Freeze 6 hours or until firm.
Printable Copy of Recipe

Crafts
Here are some party decorations I made for a baby shower.

Isn't Luke's grandma's sewing machine awesome!

 Ruffle crepe paper by layering two pieces and then sewing down the middle.  More information here.

 Cut triangles out of scrapbook paper, glue to a string, and then you have a fun triangle banner.

The Chick has Hatched! June 2010

Welcome to Our Family!

We are so thankful for our little girl!  One of my favorite parts of the whole weekend was soon after she was born,  Luke, with tears in his eyes thanked God for new member of our family.  It was such a tender moment.  I have spent the last 3 days looking at her in awe and amazement, so of course to me pictures can't capture how wonderful she is! 

The rest of the Blog was composed earlier this month while waiting for our little girl to arrive.

Garden

 Wow!  The growing season in TN is amazing!  This mid-western girl still cannot believe it!  We have harvested 1 jalapeno, with 2 on the way.  Our red bell pepper has 2 medium peppers.  The Roma tomatoes and the grape tomatoes have more green tomatoes then I could take the time to count!  and the flowers are going strong.  Here are my cone flowers and butterfly weed.  I started the butterfly weed from seed last year.  This year it reseeded itself and is doing amazing.  Our home came with some interesting day lilies that I had never seen before, like this one with the striped center.

Day Lilies

 

Jalapeno

 

Sewing

I took my first stab at sewing since middle school home economics (were I remember more about discussions of whether our teacher was wearing a wig than I do about sewing).  So I started with these flannel rectangles.  They are cloth reusable diaper wipes.  I am going to be using cloth diapers with our baby and so I thought I might try out cloth diaper wipes (though I am not as committed to them as I am to the cloth diapers.)  What a great first sewing project; I just sewed rectangles, and if I messed up it didn't matter because it was just going to be used on a baby's bottom!  I tried all three designs described here.

 

The next project took things up quite a few notches.  But I had Holly (Luke's mom) teaching me as we went, and so I learned a lot.   For the valance for the nursery I was originally going to make it out of the Juicy Jungle fabric by Alexander Henry.  Then I realized it might look a little busy for a valance.  So I got the idea to make a valance and applique some of the animals from the fabric onto it.  Pretty ambitious for a second project!  I was really thankful that Holly was willing to take on this adventure with me.  We used a gabardine fabric in cream for the main part of the valance.  It has a wonderful hang to it.  For the applique I used an iron on bonding agent called Heat n Bond, and then I did a small zigzag stitch around the edges of the fabric to prevent raveling.    

The Bean Game

This month's game is one that I've enjoyed for many years, it's called Bohnanza.   I'm trying out a game ranking on a strategy-social continuum.  1 to 5. 1 being a very concentrated strategy game where you want no distractions and 5 being a laid back social game.  Bohnanza would get a 3 on this scale.  It is a nice combination of some strategy but fun social time also.  It involves planting beans in fields and harvesting them.  But you only have two fields.  So deciding when to plant, when to harvest and when to trade bring in the strategy.

For those of you who have played this game before with me, you might be interested in an that I really enjoy called High Bohn Plus.  It has a western theme in which you buy different buildings that let you do certain things that other players can't.  With this expansion more strategy is added, and so it would go to a 2.5 on the scale.

What do you think of my strategy-social scale?  Is it helpful?

Nursery

Here's a short video of the nursery.

April Blog

Happy Spring!
One of the things I love about living in Tennessee is that spring comes early.  Being pregnant during the spring has been especially fun.  As everything is blooming, blossoming, and starting anew, I look forward to the amazing new start of birth.  Here are some other things I have been enjoying in April month.

5 Pound Sack of Potatoes

Last week at the doctors they estimate that the baby is already 5 pounds!  That is so big after so long of her being compared to a blueberry or an avocado.  We are working on getting the nursery ready and looking forward to meeting our little girl soon! 




The Healthiest Scone You Will Ever Like
My recipe this month is one that I have been making for some years now.  I've played with it, tweaked it, and really have been happy with the results in every stage.  You can't approach these like the scones you would get at a coffee shop.  Don't think white and flaky.  This scone marches to the beat of it's own drum.  I've found that the most successful whole grain recipes are like that.  They don't  try to make you think you are eating something white and fluffy but really it is make from barely.  Instead, whole grain recipes that are their own thing altogether are most enjoyable.  If you have any recipes like that, please share them with me.  This recipe is adapted from "The Healthy Kitchen"

Multi-Grain Scones

 1 Egg
1/2 cup sugar (I use cane sugar, but white sugar will work)
5 Tablespoons oil (either grape seed, olive, or vegetable)
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup wheat bran
1 1/2 cup flour ***see note
3 Tablespoons millet

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375
2.  Whisk egg, sugar, and oil together.
3.  Mix dry ingredients together in separate bowl.  Then slowly add dry ingredients to wet.  Then add milk and nuts.
4.  Grease a pan and scoop a couple of tablespoons of dough into mounds onto the pan.  There should be around 10 scones.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

***Note on flour:  This is where I have experimented with different combinations of whole wheat flour, white flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or white whole wheat flour.  My current favorite combination is 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour.
Click Here For Printable Copy of Recipe


What a Privilege To Love 

I've continued to enjoy dwelling on what Jesus Christ shared with his disciples right before he was going to be crucified.  I've been reading John chapters 13-16 a lot recently.  What has really stood out to me is the privilege as a Christian I have to love other people.

⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  John 15:9-12 NIV

As a Christian I have "Christ-In" and I am commanded to love like Christ loved.  What a privilege!  When I try to love people on my own I often run out very easily.  But when I look at God's love for me and Jesus Christ love for me I then have so much more to give to other people.

One thing I learned this month is how there are similar topics covered in John 13-16 and in the book of 1 John.  In 1 John it also talks about what Christians are commanded to do.

^"23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us." 1 John 3:23 NIV

This is what I am endeavoring to do on a daily basis, believing in the power of the name of Jesus Christ and to love other people.  That sounds like a good life to me.
 
Gardening

My Mrs. Moon plant made the first substantial showing, and boy did she show off!  From a little sprig of a plant that my mom gave me last year she really started the season off with style!

 I was so thrilled that my Solomon's Seal blossomed.  This is a flower that grows wild in the woods.  It is great to have a little woods in my backyard.

For my birthday Luke gave me 2 double pink knockout rose bushes.  They are going to get to be 3 to 4 feet tall.  I'm very thankful.  (for those of you keeping score in the gardening department, I ended up not getting the David Austin rose this year.  I found out that in the hot South, those English type roses need partial shade.  Maybe next year I will get one).




Learning How to Cut With Scissors
After the past 7 years of working with preschool and elementary school children to develop fine motor skills, I am still fascinated by the process, and still find it interesting.  I am starting to share what I know about fine motor development with my sister-in-law Anna for her little daughter Charlotte.  For any moms of preschoolers or people that have preschoolers in their life, I thought that I would also start sharing some fine motor skill development information on this blog.  Let me know if you use it.

View "Learning How To Cut With Scissors"

Cutting with scissors is something we take for granite as adults, but it is a skill children have to learn.  I've seen too many time a child never having used scissors before and then given the shape of a dog or flower to cut out and then been unsuccessful and very frustrated.  If you would like more information please click on the link for a document about learning to cut with scissors.