July 2010

July the Month of Motherhood

Normally July makes me think of fire crackers, sunshine, and tomatoes.  This July had all of those, but mostly it was a time for me to start to learn about being a mom (I know that it will be a lifetime of learning).  I've found motherhood to be like a really good movie.  Everyone tells you that it is good, but you don't realize how good it is until you experience it for yourself.

I get more and more thankful for having God's wisdom and guidance for life.  The Bible constantly gives me direction for what to make my life about and how to got about it.  And when I still don't know what to do, ask God!  What a privilege!  "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him." James 1:5

Random Cute Baby Picture #1

 White Whole Wheat Flour

Cooking with Grandma Patsy

Instead of a recipe this month, I am sharing an ingredient, white whole wheat flour.  I know that the name doesn't make much since.  But what I  also know that it is lighter than whole wheat flour and better for you than white flour.  When visiting my parents we made some homemade pizza dough with it that turned out really good.  Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Lark Rise to Candleford
While resting and recovering during the first couple weeks of motherhood my mom brought DVDs of a BBC series called Lark Rise to Candleford for me to watch.  I recommend it for people that like period pieces and stories about small towns where people care for eachother.  It is sweet, heartwarming, and funny.  And they do a better job of lighting than most BBC series! 

Random Cute Baby Picture #2

The Blind Side

I know that I'm a year behind everyone else, but I'm reading the book the Blind Side and will soon watch the movie.  I am enjoying the book.   It is really well written, inspiring, and easy to read while nursing.  I do have to admit to skimming some of the detailed football history!

Random Cute Baby Picture #3

Clothe Diapers

We have been using clothe diapers with Lily and have really enjoyed using them.  It saves a lot of money and hasn't been a pain.  The clothe wipes that I sewed have worked out really well also.  If anyone is wanting to know more about using them please let me know. 

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.

May 2010 Blog

Happy May!

We've been busy decorating our nursery and getting it ready the baby.  We are doing an animal themed nursery with animal alphabet cards, hung on the wall.  Yes, we are aware that we don't have the alphabet cards in the correct order.  We don't have room for the entire alphabet on the wall, and the baby isn't quite ready to be worrying about order anyways!


Besides still working on some physical things in the baby's room we are really ready for her to come at anytime.  We tell her this everyday, but she hasn't decided to maker her journey yet. 

 My mom, Patsy, made a beautiful crib skirt out of this fabric by Alexander Henry called "Juicy Jungle".  Luke's mom, Holly, and I are working on a valance for the window.  We are appliqueing some of the animals from the fabric onto the valance.  I'm really excited about my adventures in sewing.  It has something I've been afraid to try since middle school because of the precision involved.  But I'm relearning the whole process, and I'm excited about all the craft options.  Baby's aren't too fussy about straight stitches,  so this is a good place to start!

Does it mean you all ready for a baby when you can diaper a duck blindfolded?  At a recent baby shower this was a skill I found myself capable of!

Salad Dressing Recipe
An easy but healthy meal Luke and I like to make is taco salad.  It is easy to improvise with what we have on hand, or ingredients we desire at the time.  But we never knew what dressing to use.  Some restaurants offer a creamy dressing on taco salad, but we wanted to steer clear of that direction.  We usually end up using more salsa than we need to just to make our salad "wet".  We tried this dressing the last couple times we had taco salad, and felt like it really helped balance our salads.  It is subtle and provided that "wetness" we desired.

Taco Salad Dressing
6 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons lime juice (1 lime)
cumin to taste

Mix ingredients and serve over taco salad.  Extra will keep in the fridge.

Click Here For Printable Recipe


A Sweet Love Story

I recently watched "The Young Victoria" and I highly recommend it.  I knew nothing of Queen Victoria's early years as Queen, and so I found the history really interesting.  At the same time it is an extremely endearing and sweet love story.  If you enjoy period pieces and simple and sweet stories, then please see it, you will enjoy it.


Board Game

Recently I have been learning how to play Alhambra, a strategy game that my friends Matt and Betsy own. (well technically Betsy gave it to her dad for Christmas but has then has been borrowing it back!)


Some nice things about this game is that it is a strategy game, but it is not very complex to learn.  Basically you are buying and building rooms. But how you get your money, what you buy and how you build, that is what the game comes down to.    Another nice feature is that you can play it as a two player game.  Luke and I are always looking for good two player games.   But we've also played with 6 people and had fun (like any strategy game with a lot of people, everyone has to be committed to the game).  Let me know what you think of it if you try it out.


I Won Something!

With my new adventures in sewing, I have been looking at sewing blogs and websites.  The website Sew Mama Sew had a give away day with people from other blogs coming together and giving away items.  And I won this fabulous camera strap from VMJess.  Check out her Etsy shop if you are interested in a cute camera strap.  She uses lots of fun fabrics.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/vmjess