Writer's Block

So I haven't had time to write in, well, quite a while. The holidays were very busy.

I'm actually not sure I have time to write much but here's a re-cap:

• I made the pumpkin pie, and it was a hit! Though I tried to make two, and messed up the 2nd pie a million times! So I only took one.

• Saw lots of loved ones, and had a blast going to two different Thanksgiving meals as newly weds!

• Got a table and chairs for an early Christmas Present! Our house is looking homier every day it seems!

• We're going to be more intentional about working out/ prayer times/ and eating right.

• The book "A Praying Life" By Paul E. Miller, is really good! I'm almost done, and will give a full book review when I am. But we're going to work on some of the prayer cards it suggests in the book.

• Made homemade honey-wheat bread for sandwhiches, and sundried tomato french bread for hour Italian dinner last night! All of which tasted amazing-- I love bread!

• Got books on crocheting, upholstery, gardening, and yoga. They're on loan from the library, so I only have them for 3 weeks! There's no way I'm going to learn all that I want to from the books before they're do back!

• Had dinner with some new friends! They're our first married couple friends. (not the first friends that are married, but the first couple we met as a couple, if that makes sense) anyways, they go to our church. We have a lot of fun with them, even though they're U(sic)GA fans. :)

• I finally learned how to make the right consistency cookie!

• I made butternut squash / kale casserole (really yummy and gluten free)

• I made butternut squash soup with the other half of the squash (also gluten free)

• I finished one of the scarves for Christmas presents!

WHEW! Okay, that's about all the writing I have in me for today! Hopefully I will learn to manage my time better and incorporate blogging into my life. It's not something that comes natural to me, in fact I've started several blogs in my life and always deleted them within a month. I just haven't been able to get into it. But I decided with this one I wouldn't delete it, and if time went by with nothing written, that was okay. 

Alright, well off to clean my house! After doing all of those things, you can imagine it's a wreck!

Mountain Moments

Community is something we were made for, and we have been blessed immensely (since the beginning of our relationship) with wonderful community. People of all ages have poured into us with Godly teaching, emotional support, practical knowledge, and of course love.

We have a dear community group of a church we went to while in school. Mostly folks older than us, but they've treated us like kindred friends since we met them. This weekend we went to one of the couples' mountain home. Near enough to drive for a good long weekend. It was wonderful! (and of course we forgot our camera) 

The break was much needed for us. We've been busy busy the last few weeks, and even though we both did a little work while we were there, we got plenty of down time. I think down time in the mountains is better for the soul than down time at home. It also seems to last longer. 1 hour here seems to equal about 8 hours elsewhere. 

Our friends treated us like kings & queens! We ate wonderful food all weekend!

Here's a run down (since we all love good food):

Shrimp & Chicken Thai stir-fry

Great coffee & tea

Tried new wines: Petit Shirah (wonderfully dry & fruity)

and a Bordeaux that was mostly made of a Cabernet Sauvingon (it was delightful!)

Strawberry frozen yogurt w/berries & fresh gingersnaps

Steak & baked potatoes

Honey mustard & orange salad

asparagus

amazingly assembled sandwiches
snacks from an amish market

And if there's more, I can't remember! I wish I had some pictures of the food! Whenever my husband and I go to the mountains, we either forget to take pictures or forget to bring our camera.

For example, we spent our honeymoon in the mountains. This was the only photo we have:

I would recommend taking photos on your honeymoon, even if you never show a single soul!! They'd be nice to have for memories sake.

Alright, well on to get things done! Hope everyone is having a happy monday!

I'm Awake!

I generally feel pretty low when I don't wake up on time. My husband has an amazing (but what some might call "inhuman") ability to stay up late and jump out of bed early. Before we were married, I worked full time, and my schedule was: go to sleep at a reasonable time, wake up at the last possible minute to throw on clothes, grab food for lunch, and get to work on time. Goal: get 8 hours of sleep or more. I love sleep.


We've chosen that I will make the meals for our family, because this works best for our time together, and saves us money (plus I love to cook). We can get a few more minutes of sleep if I make breakfast and lunch while he gets ready for work. He's totally capable of making his own meals, but without me he'd most likely buy his meals (to save time).

I love to do this for him. When I'm on top of my game, I love being able to hand him a bag of food and give him a kiss at the door. It's sweet, he knows I love him, he is so grateful (which make me feel loved) and it makes us both countdown the hours till he's home again.

Yesterday morning though, I didn't wake up on time. I barely got a sandwich made and oatmeal thrown in a tupperware (w/o hot water) before it was time for him to leave. (I actually held him up). I feel bad when this happens, because it doesn't save us time, and he's still going to have to buy something else to eat with the sandwich (even though we have plenty of food in the house, and actually NEED to eat it so it won't go bad). Also because I'm rushed and he's clock-watching, neither of us feel super loved as he leaves. Don't get me wrong, we both love each other, and we both know that. He isn't mad at me when I don't get it right. Feeling loved is different than being loved, and as any married person will know, you don't always feel loved. When I don't wake up on time, it becomes one of those times. We learned about this in a couple of books you can find on the "Read" tab. (5 Love Languages & His Needs, Her Needs).

Anyways...

A few things I've learned about waking up when married:
I need my own alarm clock. Even if it goes off at the same time as his. I've realized it is false to believe I will wake up just because an alarm goes off, and my husband boldly jumps out of bed.

I need to set several alarms. Even if I wake up to the first one, I've realized it's also false to believe that I will get out of the bed once I wake up. I often fall back asleep. So I need to set a few alarms a couple minutes apart from each other.

Progress:
One thing I have gotten better at though, is timing. Once I'm awake and in the kitchen, I'm much better at cooking breakfast & lunch. I used to be slow at this, but now I've learned to cook multiple things simultaneously! So thankful that God is helping me learn! Getting better at waking up, is something I still want to do.

So anyways, this morning was much better than yesterday morning! Plus, it's Friday! I'll leave you with a couple of weekend songs:

One that's probably already stuck in your head because I said "It's Friday":

And, incase you accidentally watched the above video, here's a better one (to hopefully get that first out of your head):

Either way the weekend is finally here!

Go Jackets!

1st Thanksgiving, Pumpkin Pie

The 1st Thanksgiving & Christmas as the newlywed couple can be tricky. Both families want to see you, and if you live in the same state as your parents & in-laws (as we do) they expect to see you. Our families our great! We love hanging out with them, and they aren't in the least bit pushy. But you know that they want to have you there.

Many couples decide different ways of dealing with the holidays, and I'm sure we'll change our mind 5 years in and change the way we do things. But for this Thanksgiving we've decided to go to my mom's family's Thanksgiving for lunch, and my mother-in-law's family's Thanksgiving for dinner. (It's a lot- we know!) When we were engaged we did the same thing, and our stomachs paid the price! This year we think we'll do it again, except only eat half portions at each place. (Last year we got seconds & dessert at lunch time...bad idea when you have to go to dinner too!!)

This year though, since we have a little family and a little home, I get to contribute to the pot-luck style meals! At my in-laws I plan on bringing pies! I'm very interested in learning about food, and making food from scratch, so I had a test run of the pumpkin pie this week for my husband and sister-in-law. It went well! Carved the pumpkin and all! :)

The pie crust is really the part that confused me the most. I don't have a food processor or rolling pin yet, so my crust was kind of crummy. (no really- as in crumbs everywhere!) It held together, and provided a nice salty crunch to the sweet & spicy custardy filling. But I'm hoping to improve it.

Other than my problems with the texture of the crust (which are probably due to the fact that I didn't freeze the butter, and I don't have a food processor), this was one of the best pumpkin pies I've ever had! It went fast too! So these are the only pictures I grabbed:

It was even great 2 days after being in the fridge! I think the flavors mesh together nicely after it sits a while.

Enjoy!

Crust:
(Use your favorite dough crust! I don't have one yet, so I adapted one from the web):

Perfect Pie Crust Recipe
**I added a layer of crushed up Cinnamon Toast Crunch on top of the dough, once I formed the dough in the pan.


Filling:
(Again, I'm LEARNING, so I adapted one from Joy of Cooking)

• Start with a "Pie Pumpkin"- These are smaller than the ones used for jack-o-lanterns, and usually found in the produce section (with the other gourds). 
• Cut it into eighths.
• Place in an oiled baking dish (rind down), and bake in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours.
• Then scrape the pulp off the rind and set the pulp aside for later. 

• Preheat oven to 425*F
• Glaze the crust you made with an egg yolk
• Bake the crust for about 10-15 minutes (line the crust with aluminum foil, and add dry beans to keep it from bubbling).
• Whisk 2 eggs together in a large bowl
• Whisk into the eggs:
• 2 Cups of the pumpkin pulp
• 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Pour pumpkin mixture into a hot pie crust
• Bake 45 min. 

And What Do You Do?

One of the dreaded questions for a housewife (whether by choice, or otherwise) is the question that follows the excited, and animated conversation of a husband explaining his job to a new friend. The inquisitor, satisfied with the friendly response he/she received from the husband, graciously looks over at his "second half" and asks: "And what do you do?". All they get is a quirky, uncomfortable smile, and a blank look, and then some form of "I'm working at home, and just sort of learning to be a wife, and taking things slowly, and trying not to put extra stress on the marriage, etc." Since I've yet to come up with a complete (brief) explanation (that isn't offensive) I'm hoping this blog will help me see what I do and create an answer for acquaintances (and also dear friends & family that don't quite understand my choice).


When we were engaged, I would tell people that "I was quitting my job, and wasn't going to work because we want to really focus on the marriage and get used to things". My answer seemed to be endearing and acceptable to others. After about 3 months of being married, I guess I should have figured it out already, because this response no longer receives the same amount of understanding as it did. (I can only imagine how hard it will be for people to understand if "I'm still learning" after 3 years! Yikes!)


The explanation of why my husband and I chose for me to be a housewife is simple--but loaded: we believe marriage is a reflection of the unity attained in the relationship between God and the Church. We also believe that complimentary roles of a man and woman best reflect this relationship.


I'm not going to try to defend our belief here, and today I'm not going to try to explain it (because I need to work on my brevity). I do want to say that while the above statement is something we believe, we are learning what it means. We do not have it figured out yet (at all), and it's okay if we never do. The goal is progress. I'm not going to try to erase stereotypes, nor condemn you for not living the way we are. 


I'm new at this job, so I'm not great at any of it yet. I like to add things slowly so I can become an expert at the thing I'm doing, then learn something new and become an expert at that, and so on. With this blog, I hope to document what I do, but also what I want to do. I'm hoping this blog will in a way keep me accountable to do the things I want to do. I'll use the tabs above to keep "to-do" lists for myself. Right now I've got things I want to learn/accomplish in 4 main areas: books to read, things to do (practices to get better at, or things to go out an do), things to make (or fix), and food to eat (recipes or restaurants). These will probably evolve over time. 


Things you can be certain you'll find on this blog in the future:
Food!: we're foodies, so you can bet you'll see recipes, and restaurant reviews
Crafts: I love to do things myself, so you'll see lots of crafts, from slip covers to picture books
Thoughts on being a housewife: I need a better answer to "And what do you do?"
Thoughts on God: I want to be growing in all areas of life, but particularly this one.
Nature: Real life or created, I love seeing God's handiwork!
Life's happenings: I've got a lot going on, and so I'll probably share a tid bit here and there

Cost-Saving