More than a Pair of Chutes

30 Minute Yeast Rolls

2012-01-31T19:21:00.000-05:00

Today was a beautiful day. 65*. In January. What?

So, I didn't spend much time in the kitchen. I spent it outside. I cleaned out the front garden, pruned the lavendar, pulled out the old flower stems, swept the mulch back into the beds that the chickens had scratched out.

We went to the science fair at school. The children had the most creative experiments. I was really impressed. I mean, who comes up with the idea to see which color m&m melts fastest in the microwave?

When it came time to plan dinner, I wanted something fast. We picked up some tilapia, planned it with rice, asparagus and corn. I wanted bread, but didn't decide this until after 4pm. Even my fastest breads take a couple of hours to rise. I didn't want to settle for cornbread or biscuits, so I hit Google and found a recipe for 30 minute rolls. I couldn't believe it was true. but, was it???

Yep, it was. Here they are. So yummy. I will adjust the recipe next time, and I've adjusted for my adjustments below. I'm considering adding some honey, too, but that's an experiment for another day.

30 Minute Yeast Rolls

ingredients:

1 cup + 2 T. warm water

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I may try coconut oil next time)

2 T yeast

1/4 cup sugar (I'm going to add 1/4 c honey, too, next time)

3/4 tsp. salt (this I adjusted. It may even need more.)

1 egg, slightly beaten

3 1/2 cups flour

Mix the first 4 ingredients and let them sit for a few minutes, until the yeast begins to bubble.

Add the salt and egg, begin beating. A stand mixer is best, of course, but you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon.

Add the flour and mix it until the gluten makes it smooth. Form it into 12 balls and put them on a silpat or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Let them raise for about 15 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 400* oven for about 15 minutes. Brush the tops with butter as soon as you take them out of the oven.

Serve with butter and your favorite roll topping.

Tomorrow promises to be an even nicer day. I can't wait!

Artisan Bread - Detailed Instructions

2012-01-20T23:46:00.000-05:00

I have been making bread made famous by some New York bakers called 5-Minute a day bread. Their recipe, although beautiful and seemingly simple for so many people to make, had very complex, (and messy), steps. I have simplified it over my years, worked out some kinks, and got it nearly down pat. I say nearly, because there are so many variables, you never know what's golf to happen. Just today, both of my loaves managed to stick to the pot. I think I know why, but that doesn't change the fact that I managed to make this mistake. Frustrating. But, that's how bread making goes in my world.

There is one thing you can do that I don't. I don't have room in my itsy bitsy fridge to do this, but I used to when I had a second fridge. If you want to triple my recipe, you can keep half of it in your fridge and always be ankle to pull some out for a loaf in minutes. That's how the NY boys do it. The dough seems to develop a really good sourdough flavor this way.

Okay. I'll stop rambling. Here, to honor PW, is the cast:

1 1/2 cups warm water. I use the hottest that comes from my faucet. I think the industry's standard is around 120*F
3/4 T kosher salt
3/4 T yeast
3 1/4 c all purpose flour. If you want to make your bread whole wheat, sub no more than half wheat flour. I use 1 part wheat to 2 parts all purpose.

Directions:
Pour the hot water into a medium size bowl.

Add the salt and mix it until its dissolved.

Add the yeast onto the top. Sprinkle it on and let it sit. As it sits, it should begin to bubble and grow. If not, either your yeast is dead or your water is too hot or cold.

Add the flour. You may need to add less or more, depending on how exact your water measurement was and what your weather is like. Do you know how to measure flour? Fluff it, scoop it into your measuring cup, level it off. Don't dig into the bag. You'll get a really heavy mix that won't work. I usually use 3 cups of flour in the winter.

See how tacky the dough is? This is what you want. You can't knead this bread. Remember, it's called "no knead bread"?

Cover the bread. Just a damp towel will work. Set it on the counter and walk away. Let it rise. It happens fast, there is a lot of yeast in this stuff.
Let it raise for about 2.5 hours.

After its done raising, turn your oven on as high as you feel comfortable. I usually set mine at 450*F.

As its heating, put a heavy pot into it. I use a Le Crueset pot. It's cast iron coated in porcelain.

You could use a cast iron uncoated pot, or a stone pot. If you don't have one and want to buy one, there are a few options. Mine is a fairly expensive brand, but I found it at a discount store for half price. Cuisinart also makes some really nice ones, and I've seen Martha Stewart brand ones at Macy's. It's an investment that I believe is well worth it.

Once your oven is nice and hot, (usually about half an hour), get your dough ready. This is honestly the hardest part of the whole process. Here's what to do:

Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Scrape the edges down to round the dough into a loaf shape. Scrape all the edges, then begin scraping towards the bottom. Continue until you have the whole ball of dough shaped into a - ball.

Pull the hot pan out of the oven and dump the dough into it. Cover it and put it back into the oven for 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, take the lid off, lower the heat to 200*F and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

This is really just to brown the top and dry out the loaf, the rest of the loaf should have been cooked through at the higher heat.

After the 10 minutes, take the pan out, take the bread out of the pan, slice and enjoy. It's best straight from the oven, as soon as it's cool enough to handle, but it will keep for a few hours to overnight.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2011-12-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

I posted this in 2009 on my old blog, but thought I would re-post it, cause it's so good. The topping is the absolute best!

I tried it this week, and it makes a delicious, simple cheesecake. It’s best refrigerated, keeps the cinnamon/sugar topping crunchy!

SOPAPILLA CHEESECAKE

1 1/2c Sugar

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 stick butter

1 tsp. vanilla

3 (8 oz pkgs) softened cream cheese

2 cans crescent rolls

Mix sugar and cinnamon together. Set aside 1/2 cup for topping. Mix cream cheese, vanilla and remaining sugar mixture together. Place one can of crescent rolls on bottom of large pan. Spread cream cheese mixture over top. Then place the second can of crescent rolls on top. Melt the butter and pour on top of the rolls. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar mixture on top.
Bake at 350*F for 30 minutes. For variation, layer can of apple pie filling over bottom crust before spreading on cream cheese.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

2011-12-30T10:45:00.001-05:00

I've been making this for years, and now cringe when I have to use canned pasta sauce. I usually make a big batch and either freeze half or use the leftovers for a baked pasta dish the next day.
I manage to cram a ton of veggies in, even my veggie hating husband can't complain, though.
Please, give this recipe a try.

(I am not a measurer, so my ingredients list may be a bit vague. Edit it to fit your tastes.)

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground Deer, or Beef
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Medium Sweet Yellow Onion, chopped
3-4 Carrots, minced
1 Green Pepper, chopped
2-3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
2 Cans of Crushed Tomatoes
1 Tbsp. Dried Oregano
1 Tbsp. Dried Basil, or 2 Tbsp Fresh
A Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tsp. Salt

*Brown the ground deer/beef in a medium size saucepan. Drain and set aside.
*Heat the olive oil in the same pan. Slowly cook the onions, carrots and peppers until they're soft. Add the garlic, stirring it so it doesn't burn. Add the oregano, basil and red pepper, stirring for a minute. Then add the tomatoes. Add salt to taste.
*Simmer until the flavors meld, at least 45 minutes. Up to a few hours. The longer it cooks, the thicker the sauce will get. You can thin it with more crushed or chopped tomatoes.
*Serve over whole wheat noodles with parmesan cheese.

I would show you a picture of the sauce over noodles, but it didn't last long enough on anyone's plate to take one. So, here's one in the pan, simmering.

I know you are all going to try this soon - let me know what you think of it.

An Eco-Friendly Sink Cleaner

2011-12-29T17:59:00.000-05:00

I was watching HGTV the other day and Sabrina Soto taught me a new way to clean my sink.

I have a white, porcelain sink. I really wanted stainless steel, but my husband insisted on a white, farmhouse sink. It's beautiful, and large, really fun to use, but awful to keep clean.
I usually use Barkeeper's friend. I'm a fan.

But, I decided to give this new way a try.
We're always trying to do things healthier, safer for the family.

Here are the ingredients:

3 parts Baking Soda
1 Part Hydrogen Peroxide
1 Lemon

Mix the Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide to make a paste. Drop a spoonful into your sink and rub it around with a soft, wet cloth. After you've scrubbed the stains off, rub half a lemon over it. Enjoy the yummy smelling fizz. Rinse with hot water.

It worked so good! And, although it did leave my hands a touch slimy, it was way better than the gritty, sharp stuff BKF leaves behind.

Here are the pics of it's beautifulness

After and Before

(I had a REALLY dirty sink, I know)

The whole sink the next day, in the sunlight

2011 Christmas Cake Pops

2011-12-11T16:11:00.000-05:00

Every year, I make goodies to send to my husband's office. This year, I sent out 7 boxes to his office and other people he works with. I think I made 5 cakes with of pops. I also sent peppermint bark, but that's not picture-worthy.

I made Red Velvet Santa Hat pops. I used a mini marshmallow for the top. The Christmas Pudding balls were also red velvet.

The trees were yellow cake.

I used chocolate for the blue, with blue sanding sugar.

I also made white with white sanding sugar, but didn't get pics of them. It was 1:30 am when I was finishing them and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, not take pictures.

The peppermint topped balls were also white cake. They were our favorite.

This is what can happen if you aren't paying attention. I think these were hard to do right because I added too much frosting. The recipe says to use 3/4 of a can, but I never even use 1/2 a can. I usually use about 2 rounded serving spoons full.

(yes, it was tasty.)

Here they are all boxed up and ready to pack. I am getting good at packing them to ship. I pack each pop surrounded by tissue paper and bubble wrap, then place them in a bakery box. I put a couple of layers of large bubble wrap on the bottom of the shipping box, then some tissue paper or shredded craft paper. Next the box of cake pops, then bubble wrap around and over it all. Tape it up good, label and ship.

This time, the boxes I got to ship in were HUGE and ended up being so expensive. Oh well, everyone loved them.

If you're reading this and don't know how to make Cake Pops, here is my tutorial on them:
Cake Pop Tutorial

Hope you enjoyed my pictures!

Linked to A Well-Seasoned Life, Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Pumpkin Cake Pops - A more detailed Pop Tutorial

2011-10-21T23:28:00.002-04:00

I'm not so good at making cupcakes. I'm pretty good at making them taste yummy, but not so good at decorating. I don't think I'm patient enough nor artsy enough to create something so intricate. Guess I could make them and stick Oreos or peanut butter cups on them. I've stuck strawberries on them before. Or mint. I'm real earthy like that.

Cakes, those I'm even worse at. I used to live near a friend who is wonderful at cake art. She and I would create masterpieces. Beautiful towers of fondant and buttercream. Then, she moved away and suddenly, those towers didn't look so nice. I've pretty much retired my tips and bags, shhh, don't tell on me.

Now, when I make cupcakes, I end up with a nice, moist cake, something yummy shoved inside, and delishiousness slopped on top. And they're gobbled up.

I don't know how these pastry shops do it. Make those beautiful smoothly swirled icing hats. Someone want to tell me how?

In the meantime, I make cake pops. They're just as much work, maybe more. But, they're such tiny bites of sweet mush, no one can resist.

This week, I made pumpkin cake pops. They were supposed to be Jack-O-Lanterns, but I can't seem to figure out how to make those really expensive edible markers work on the chocolate. I get frustrated and throw them out. Yep, there went $8 in the garbage last night. Ugh.

Do you remember how to make cake balls? I'll tell you again, maybe with a few more good tips than the last time.

1. Bake a boxed cake mix in a 9x13" pan. I used a Spice cake this time. Let it cool.
2. Take it from the pan. Break off any hard edges, and crumble the rest into a large bowl.
3. Add some canned frosting. About 1/3 cup worth. I like to use cream cheese flavored frosting. Some recipes say to use more frosting. I've found that if I do, or if I use homemade frosting, the balls are too soft and fall off the sticks.
4. Shape the mix into balls. I make them small enough to fit into my cupped hands easily. Smash the mix a lot until it's not crumbly any more, then form it into a ball. Or whatever shape you're going to make.
5. Refrigerate said balls overnight.
6. Melt some candy disks. I use the microwave. You can use the microwave, too. Or a double boiler. My double boiler's in the attic.
7. Dip your sticks into the chocolate, then insert them half-way into a ball. Let it set up for about an hour, preferably in the fridge.

8. Melt more candy disks. You want this portion to be a bit thinner than the previous. You can achieve this by adding some shortening to the disks. I usually add about 1-2 teaspoons per bag of melts. If you add too much, your chocolate won't harden. Trust me, I am speaking from experience.

9. Take a few of the balls on sticks out of the fridge. 3-4 at a time. Dip your cake ball into the chocolate. Lift it up and tap it gently on the side of the bowl to shake off excess. Turn it a little as you go so you evenly distribute the chocolate. Be careful, if you haven't inserted your stick far enough, or if your chocolate is too thick, this could happen...

Yep, the ball falls off the stick. Then, you've got trouble. Yummy trouble!
So, back to the right way, dip, tap.

10. Insert the stick into a chunk of styrofoam until the candy is dry. Then, once it's dry, you can decorate it or just wrap it up. I like to wrap mine in nice cello bags.

I used spice flavored cake, orange candy melts and green tic tacs for these. If you can figure out how to make those pens work, let me know?
(I also tried a squeeze bottle of black icing. That was a really gross disaster.)

I sold these at my daughter's soccer game as a donation to the program. I've had requests for more before the season's over. I've got a red velvet plan in the works...

I linked this recipe to
Sweets for a Saturday by Sweet as Sugar
Sugar Bananas Sweets This Week
A Well Seasoned Life Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Raising Meat Chickens, Week 4

2011-10-17T14:06:00.001-04:00

This week the meat chickens are 4 weeks old. We estimate that they weigh over a pound already. They're huge, compared to my pullet peeps who are only 3 days younger. I'll have to take a picture of them next to each other, that would be interesting.

They are doing well out in their tractor. It's holding up well, such a simple design but sturdy. I'll have to come up with a new idea for a roof, the plywood we're using is already warping a little bit. I would love to find a sheet of metal roofing to fit.

They are eating 12 hours on, 12 off now. 24% protein food. Drinking 3 gallons of water a day. I still add the chicken vitamins to their water.

They love sunning themselves after they stuff themselves. The roos are beginning to develop their combs and wattles. There isn't a huge size difference between them and the girls, yet.

In case you can't tell, they're poopy chickens. They poop, a lot. They should probably be moved more than once a day to fresh grass. But, they thenselves stay surprisingly clean.

In other news, I have a ringleader for my escapees. This Barred Rock has taught at least 4 of her sisters to jump the fence and free range. I love to let them free range, but while we're dealing with naughty Brady, I'm trying to keep them confined.

It's so nice to have friendly chickens wandering around...

This post linked to: Homestead Barn Hop

Juliana Rancic is echoing my past, (Or, A Blessing in Disguise)

2011-10-17T08:27:00.000-04:00

She has been trying to get pregnant for a few years. She's tried IVF and it hasn't worked. This last time, her doctor sent her to have further testing and they discovered she has breast cancer. She has to have surgery and chemotherapy. Then, she can try IVF again.

It's like my life 7 years ago. I couldn't get pregnant. My doctor sent me for further testing. They found atypical cancerous cells. I had a year of treatment. Then, after IVF I got pregnant.

She said what I've been saying for years.

I love my babies. If I didn't have infertility which led to the testing, who knows how sick I would be now? I believe my babies saved my life.

Raising Meat Chickens - 3 Weeks old

2011-10-06T20:59:00.000-04:00

The meaties are 3 weeks old this week, their birthday was yesterday. They've done well transitioning to the tractor outside, even though it's been dropping into the 40's at night. They have their heat lamp in the covered portion of the tractor and they huddle together under it at night.

During the day, they love to run around and forage a little bit in the grass. I feed them 12 hours on mostly, now. Really, I just feed them in the morning and make sure they have food throughout the day. Then, when I tell them goodnight, I make sure they are out of food for the night.

We did lose one the first night out, or the second. I think it just got too cold for her? Maybe she ate too much.

They're feathering out nicely. They come running when they see me, and attack my hand when I put their food trays in the tractor. We are steadily moving them closer to the garden, where they'll spend their older days creating lovely compost for me.

We had an escapee. My run isn't covered, but has 5-6' sides. She took a running start and leaped the fence. I let her wander alone for a couple of hours. Some of the others tried to copy her, and Brady tried to go right through the fence, but no one else succeeded.

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop.

Raising Meat Chickens Post 1

2011-09-25T21:23:00.001-04:00

I have laying hens. They're wonderful, I love having them. I raised them from a day old. They lived in my kitchen for a few weeks, then the garage until they were about 5 weeks old, then moved outside to their coop.

After many months of pondering, I took the plunge and ordered meat chickens. Cornish cross. I had many hesitations, the main one being, who's going to process them for me? I've never killed anything before, not even a fish while I've been fishing.

I asked for some help on Craigslist and had a couple of offers to teach me and do the actual processing. So, that was what I needed to convince me to order them.

I ordered 38, received 39. They came in a week ago this past Friday. I'm thinking they were hatched that Wednesday, so they are now 12 days old. I was shocked about their growth. They eat like they're starving whenever I put the food in their brooder. They climb over each other and stand on each other in order to eat. They sleep in the food dish.

They are growing so fast. Here's what they look like today compared to my hand.

I am too grossed out by their dirtiness to pick them up and hold them, so I'm just putting my hand next to them. If any of you know chickens, you will realize that this is not typical for a 12 day old chick. These guys are huge! And hot. That's really why I can't hold them, without the typical feathers of a chick, I can feel their body heat. It's awful.

Their legs are huge too, they have thunder thighs and really large feet. They're just all over giants.

I'm trying to raise them humanely. I have them in a good sized brooder, they're not overcrowded nor do they have too much room to move around an hurt themselves. (being so large, they can injure their legs with their weight.) I'm feeding them starter/grower feed. They have water available to them constantly and I am adding vitamins to it. I have a heat lamp on the brooder, but I only turn it on at night and it's angled out the corner now, just to make sure they don't get chilled overnight.

Speaking of heat...I made a bad discovery yesterday. It's been raining for a few days, and I didn't realize it, but the chicks tend to freak when it rains. They piled into a corner of the brooder and smashed some of them under the pile. They were fine one minute, then gone the next. I'm glad Troy was with me when I discovered them. He helped me with the "burial".

So, now we are down to 30.

I have plans to build their tractor early this week and get them outside permanently. They've been out a couple of times when I've been cleaning the brooder, but they don't seem to enjoy it like the other chicks. I hope once they're out all the time they'll have more fun.

Here's a pic of them hanging out in the brooder.

You have to admit, they have the potential to be cute. See the little guy with the "toy" in his mouth. He's going to be my class clown, I think.

Keep checking back for updates.

I shared this post at the Homestead Barn Hop on Prairie Homestead.

How the chickens are faring

2011-09-12T22:20:00.000-04:00

It's September. I have 5 hens who are 27 weeks old and 7 hens and a roo who are 22 weeks old. The 5 hens have been laying for almost 3 months now. Today, we got our first egg from the younger girls! I believe it was one of my Barred Rocks, she looks really red in the face.

Here are a few pics of them.

This is Brady, he's our roo. He only has one waddle, the girls think it's cute.

My red stars are the girls who have been laying for a while now.

My 2 Eaaster Eggers, (one is sun bathing), one of the BR girls, and a Buff peeking out from under the tree. I don't think this is the BR who is laying, but, I have trouble telling them apart.

And, my little helper. She loves to stick her fingers through the fence, until the hens get curious to see what treat she's offering and give her a peck.

I have almost 40 meat chicks arriving later this week, and another 10 laying chicks next week. Then, we should be set for the winter, no brooding chicks when it's cold...

After Hurricane Irene

2011-08-28T23:04:00.000-04:00

We made it through with minimal damage. Some large tree limbs, and we are going to have to take down the rest of the tree. Some shingles. That's about it. No flood damage. No windows or siding. We didn't lose power. We sure were protected! Thank you, Jesus.

Hurricane Preparedness

2011-08-26T22:40:00.000-04:00

So, after I remodeled my kitchen, we had a catastrophe. No, not the earthquake, it didn't cause any damage. No, not the hurricane, yet. We had a bad leak, caused by one of my wonderful, new LG appliances. More on that later.

Meanwhile, pictures of the prep we are doing for Hurricane Irene. (we are supposed to get hit starting tomorrow at noon.)

We started on the deck. Cleared off all the plants, the table and chairs, the grill and toys.

Moved on to the hot tub. We have a strap system set up, attached to the stakes you see. We just took it apart so it can be used tonight before the storm.

See all the stuff in the garage?

We had to come up with a good plan for the chicken coop. It's just a shed set on cinder blocks, a flying kite. We didn't want to have to try to drag it and my chickens from the field on Sunday, so we anchored it. Steel cable and huge spikes. It's pretty strong, we hope.

My husband is so smart, look at the system he designed to tighten the straps.

We cleaned the gutters, yucky. There were a few crepe myrtle branches hanging over the front, trimmed them off.

And, we removed all the hanging plants, potted plants, bird feeders and bird baths.

I picked all the ripe tomatoes and hope to either can or freeze them tomorrow. And, I dug a few potatoes to have fried up for breakfast or something else delish.

So, we seem to be prepared. What I'm mostly concerned about is the chickens, never had to protect something living outside in a storm before. And, I'm pretty sure we will lose power. Not too bad, except it's hot and muggy and my family is spoiled by AC. And...I have a freezer full of stuff like blueberries, corn, venison and I would cry if it spoiled. I plan to plug it into the car periodically if I have to.

(Is it too hokey to say, "Come On, Irene"?)

A Quick Kitchen Remodel

2011-08-21T16:40:00.000-04:00

Well, it happened quickly. But, I've been planning it for a couple of years now. Started back when we owned land and planned to build a house. I've been saving ideas in my red 3-ring binder for a long time. I finally got to put them all to use!

Just a note, we are not done completely. We still need to add things like trim , cabinet backs, etc. But, it's functional and T needed to get back to work, so, it'll do for a little while.

Here's the before pic.

Our house is a pre-fab built in 1981. Pretty sure the kitchen hadn't seen any updating since then. except the removal of some pretty swell wallpaper and addition of some pretty awful laminate floor. (I despise laminate floor.) Please ignore the new white cabinets as you drool over my former kitchen.

Day 1
Tear out. Completed while I took the girls off to buy flooring, I think. I went somewhere, anyhow, and came home to see it all done. Whew. Although it's hard to tell, got the floor, walls and ceiling patched. Didn't get the popcorn down, that's a winter project.

Day 2
Final coat of mud. Most of the flooring down, (just doing stick-down tiles for now. Couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted permanently, so we went for the cheap but nice in the meantime.) Plumbing and electrical also done. Mostly...

Day 3
Wall painted. We are tiling the window wall, so it's going to be ugly for a while. Wall cabinets hung. The others aren't attached, just set into place. Flooring nearly done, all except for under the fridge. More electrical done, had to move it quite a bit.

Day 4
Base cabinets attached. Floor finished. It took a long time for those base cabinets. Our house is really crooked. Yes, that's a level in the floor. I insist on perfection. Do you believe me?

Day 5
This day, I had to make the trek to Ikea. All the cabinets, the sink and countertops are from there. But, the store is nearly 2.5 hours away. So, it truly does take a day. Especially when you have to stand in line for an hour for returns, then stand in line for an hour just to get started with kitchen designer who is necessary to use to purchase your cabinet products. Then, another hour or so with him turning down his up-sells. Oh, and 15 minutes waiting for the guy in product pick-up to acknowledge you and give you your cart of stuff. I'm so glad my friend went with me to help out!
Anyway, gas was run today, so we have a stove! No oven, er, actually, no oven racks. So, if I want to bake, have to use one of the burner grates until we can find someone to fabricate a track for the racks. This stove came all the way from Michigan.
Plumber hooked up the sink and dishwasher. Unfortunately, the drain line leaks, so we have to run it pulled out with a bucket underneath. LG is sending a new one. Seems this is a common problem.

Day 6
Nearly done. Have to add the sides and bottoms to the wall cabinets and the sides and back to the base cabinets. We have hung the sink light since this pic. Have to change the fan out for something else. Have to find a hood. Have to tile. Add kickplates. Probably going to do these things in the winter.

So, there you have it. I'm using Ikea Akurum cabinets with Stat doors for the base and Lidi white doors for the walls. Pragel black stone effect countertops. My stove is a very old Viking 48" with 6 burners and a griddle, (which I love!). Sink is from Ikea, Domsjo farmhouse - very nice. The faucet is by Koehler.

Watermelon Cake Pops

2011-07-06T23:11:00.001-04:00

My sister pointed me in a new direction for cake pops. I have only made normal cake with pretty outsides, but she showed me an idea to make a surprise inside to my pops. So, I tried a watermelon! I just used a strawberry cake, added mini chocolate chips to the balls, dipped them into white chocolate and then green. They turned out so neat!

I took them to church and shared them with our summer missionaries. They're a group of college students who give up their summers to come to OC and minister to the international student workers, vacationing families, life guards, beach patrols, etc for a summer. You can read more about them through this link on our church's web site... CALM (Feel free to browse the web site, I helped set it up :)

I love making cake pops. And, my family loves eating them. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of them before they were eaten up. I guess I'll just have to make some more again soon to take better pictures...

"The Little Couple" is making me cry

2011-06-28T22:36:00.000-04:00

Ever watch this show? They're going through IVF, I think mostly due to their size causing fertility issues. They have done 4 IVF cycles, and had failures each time. I watched one where she ovulated on the way to retrieval. How defeating. But, in tonight's show, they made it to retrieval and got an egg - only one. And, it fertilized. I'm sitting here on the couch sobbing at how happy they are, how happy I remember us feeling when we got our fertilization report. How on edge we were waiting for thaw reports at each FET.

Infertility, as I think so often, is so unfair. Why do we have to go through it? Why do we have to try for years, get so excited about one single fertilized egg?

A friend posted the following status update today...

The prettiest smiles belong to those who have been through the hardest of tribulations...but still managed to make it through with a smile

And that, that is what it's for. Gives us, not just the prettiest smiles, but the most appreciation for each tiny egg that turns into an embryo and goes on to join us in this world.

My laundry room is complete!

2011-06-13T23:03:00.001-04:00

I have had the same washer and dryer since I got married, 13 some years ago. Actually, we bought a used, pukey green pair from the Thrifty Nickel right after we were married. When my dad was visiting us, the dryer conked out and he surprised us with a new dryer delivered after her left. I treasured that dryer.

We bought a washer after a few months. So, I estimate the pair were 12 years at least.

My washer only wrung well with a large load. So, I spent a year hand wringing all my cloth diapers. And all my loads smaller than large.

The "before" picture...

Troy and the girls surprised me with a washer and dryer for mothers day!

We spent the last month working on the closet laundry room. We painted the wooden panelling. We hung white shelves. We added some pretty baskets. And, the finished product...

The room is attached to my kitchen. It used to have bifold doors, but they won't fit over the machine doors. I don't mind, I love to see my pretty appliances ;)

(I just noticed I haven't cleaned all the goop from the double stick tape the store used on signs from the doors yet.)

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Daiquiri Icing

2011-05-10T22:42:00.005-04:00

I was husbandless for the last couple of days, Troy's travel is starting to pick up again. But, even without his help, I managed to get a lot of stuff done around the house. Tomatoes planted, peppers planted, the house cleaned and redecorated. And, a few loads of laundry done. I love doing laundry, now. I walk around the house looking for something to wash. Lame, I know. But true.

All this to say, I also ended up with time to bake cupcakes today. Last week was my sister's birthday, and we were going to celebrate, but something came up. So, we went out tonight, a bunch of ladies from church and us. Her husband watched my two older girls. He was brave!

I thought it might be nice to take some cupcakes to celebrate with. I'm working on finding a good from-scratch cake batter recipe, but can't find one that isn't nasty after a day or so.

Means I have to use a cake mix.

The only mixes I had were Yellow or Red Velvet. I chose the yellow and added white chocolate pudding to it. Filled my cupcake liners and baked them.

I wanted to make a strawberry icing with some frozen berries I had left from last summer's picking. I got them thawed and blended, added them to my basic buttercream, and was highly disappointed with the blandness. So, I got creative.

I added a few extra ingredients and made...

... Strawberry Daiquiri Icing.

Or, Strawberry Margarita, if you prefer.

I'm so happy with the results, the citrus I added gave the icing such a fresh flavor. I garnished them with mint, just to be pretty, but it infused an additional level of freshness to the icing.

I will absolutely be making these again.

RECIPE:

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Daiquiri Icing

Ingredients:
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 small box of White Chocolate Pudding

2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly cooler than room temp.
2 pounds of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rum extract
1 cup of frozen strawberries
zest and juice of 1 lime
zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2-3 Tablespoons half & half

Mix up the cake according to the directions, adding the box of pudding when you add the cake mix.

Fill 24-28 cupcake holes with liners. Fill each 2/3 full and bake at 350*F for 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely.

For the icing:
Puree the strawberries in a food processor. Strain them through a mesh sieve to remove most of the seeds. Place the puree and the butter in a stand mixer and begin mixing. Slowly add some of the powdered sugar.

Add the vanilla, rum and salt. Continue beating, adding the remaining powdered sugar and half/half until they're incorporated.

Add the lemon and lime zests and juices. You may have to add more powdered sugar after those are mixed in if your icing is too thin.

With a large round tip inserted into a pastry bag, ice the cupcakes. Garnish with a mint leaf.

If you would like to try these and don't feel up to making them, just send me a SASE and I'll fill it for you.

Just kidding.

I think...

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My girls are the best gift givers!

2011-05-08T23:30:00.000-04:00

No more hand wringing my laundry!

On Mother's Day

2011-05-08T23:19:00.000-04:00

This Mother's Day, I rejoice for myself. The joy of having my beautiful children is beyond anything I could have ever dreamed.
I rejoice for my friends who have suffered from infertility and conquered. Those who have children here on this earth. Those who get to hold their babies in their arms.
I cry for those who haven't been as lucky as me. Those who have lost their babies before getting to hold them here on earth. (I, too, have angels waiting for me, but, I believe there is a huge valley between the pain I feel and the pain those who only have angels feel.)
I cry for those still waiting for their miracle baby. Those praying for their assisted reproduction to be successful. Those waiting to get the phone call that there is a baby waiting for them - come pick her up!

I believe all who want to be are mothers, some just don't know their baby yet.

A Day in the Life...

2011-04-26T23:04:00.000-04:00

Today, we...

Flew a kite

-er-

Got a kite stuck in a tree.

...Got it out and repaired it. Yes, I climbed the tree to try to get it. Failed, but, we eventually managed to get it down.

Looked at our new fig bush, noticed it has open leaves.

Hung laundry...

Learned about whirligigs...

Explored grass...

And, maybe, tried eating grass.

Learned to feed the chickens scratch. They actually had the chicks eating it from their hands.

A good, busy day. We also explored the Berlin library. We like it, it's smaller than the Wicomico library, but I think that's a good thing.

Troy finished making the shed into a coop. I'll post about that very soon.

Oh, and, FYI, best shoes EVER. Sanuks. Get yourself a pair.

Zero

2011-04-25T22:21:00.000-04:00

That's how many pictures I took of our family in our Easter outfits. We actually all got matching outfits. Not IDENTICAL outfits, but we matched our colors. Green, denim, white. Get the picture?

We do have pictures of our egg hunt. More of them later.

We had a great day. We didn't wake up in time to go to the sunrise service on the ocean, but I hope to have that be one of our yearly activities as soon as the girls are old enough. Apparently, it was a good one, nice and warm, beautiful sunrise.

Our church services were wonderful. Well attended, full of joy and energy. It is already seeming like we made a good choice to move our services back to our old building on the beach.
What, I haven't talked about this?
We've been meeting at our school building for over a year, the church has been there since before we moved here. But, in the summer, the people on vacation can't find us. Literally, I've had people walk in and say they've been driving around for 45 minutes trying to find us.

So, we moved back across the bridge to our building a block from the boardwalk. I can watch the ocean from my perch behind the drums.

Yep, that's the ocean beyond the boards.

So far, we have had so many more visitors on vacation, I'm overwhelmed. I had no idea it would be this way. Yay God!

Back to Easter...

We had lunch at our house. Our local family came over, helped with the food, set up a great egg hunt. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon.

Then, we went to Lowes to get windows for the coop. Troy put them in today, along with perches. It is a real coop, now, looks so good. The girls love it. They hopped right up on their perches when they cooped up tonight.

The holidays remind me to be thankful for my girls

2011-04-23T23:42:00.000-04:00

I have spent so many Easter Sundays making baskets. Baskets for those I loved, but not for my own children. I made baskets for my husband. I made baskets for my dogs. I made baskets for our friends who would come visit on their breaks from college, some of those years, my brother was in the group.

But, each year, I would dream of the children I hoped to someday make baskets for.

Infertility hits each person differently. For me, it was 7 years of trying to have a baby, fighting cancer, losing babies early to heaven and using assisted reproduction. I consider us super successful. I know of so many people who are still trying to have just one baby join them on this earth, and I somehow managed to be blessed with three!

So, as I put together three Easter baskets this year, I fight back the tears as I think of how thankful I am that Jesus loved me enough to let these three precious little girls join my family. And, I breathe prayers for those I know who are still going through the fight to just have one child. And for those I know who have faced pain and triumphed.

This being Easter, a holiday that has some meaning to us in our religious lives, I also think of how God must have felt when He had to turn His back on His only Son those long years ago. If I ever had to turn my back to my children as they cried out to me, my heart would be breaking. It would be something I would never be able to forget. And yet, God allowed this to happen so He could provide a way for us to join Him forever.

We have a song for our service tomorrow. One of the verses seems to fit what I feel right now...

Whatever happens...whatever you see...
Whatever your eyes tell you has become of me
This is not...
Not the end...
I am making all things new again

There is hope for everyone.

Our second batch of chicks is here

2011-04-15T21:56:00.000-04:00

The chicks I ordered a couple of months ago are finally here. They hatched on April 11 and arrived on April 12. Our delightful postmaster delivered them to our door. She is such a sweetie. She lives right down the street from us, which, out here in the country is probably about half a mile, but, she's only about 6 houses down.

So, by now, they're 4 days old. They have wing feathers already. They are adorable, but, we aren't giving them as much attention as we should. They run from us when we try to pick them up. Aves loves to pick them up and rub them on her cheek to feel their softness.

Because we have them in the tote the red stars were in, I had to move the red stars outside to the shed/coop. I spread pine shavings on the floor, got them a nice large water container and food container, a small bin and some sticks as roosts. They're temporary roosts, we are making some permanent ones tomorrow. It's so funny to watch them try to climb up and down the sticks. Like walking a tightrope.

I learned to watermark!

2011-04-13T22:57:00.000-04:00

After my friend posted a reminder of how important watermarking is, I found an excellent online tutorial on photoshop elements and tried it out. It was way simpler than when I had tried it in the past. I am so proud of myself.

Isn't she pretty!

An Easy Cake Ball tutorial

2011-03-29T19:35:00.001-04:00

I realized I've posted pictures of cake balls twice and never given the recipe. It's really hard.

(It also goes against all that I am, using all store bought things, nothing from scratch.)

Ready? Want to learn how to make cake balls? Here goes...

1. Bake a cake mix in a 9x13 cake pan. (Red velvet is our favorite.) Cool.

2. Crumble the cooled cake into a large bowl.

3. Add 1/2 or so cream cheese icing from a can.

4. Mix well. Form into tablespoon sized balls. Put them on a cookie sheet and refrigerate. For a few hours.

5. Pull them out. Add sticks if you want to make them into cake pops.

6. Melt some candy melts, (the chocolate disks available at most craft stores), in your choice of color. I usually add a couple of tablespoons of Crisco, it helps it be smooth and shiny.

7. Dip the balls into the melted candy melts. Allow them to harden and enjoy!

hints:
I have found that the stick stays better if you dip it into the candy melt before you stick it into the ball.
I usually pull off the hard, dark outer edges of the cake before I crumble it in the bowl.
If you are making pops, get a chunk of styrofoam to use as a base for the dipped pops.

Here are the links to the pictures of balls and pops I've made in the past.

I made these for Troy's office for Christmas.

Christmas Cake Pops

And, I made these for my sister's baby shower.

Luke's cake balls

Chickens are here!

2011-03-10T23:01:00.002-05:00

We are still waiting on the ones we ordered to hatch April 11, but, after we got our shed earlier than we expected, we were eager to get babies.

Watching the shed be placed.

So, off to Tractor Supply we went.
And, came home with 6 Red Stars!

All six chicks learning to eat at 2 days old

And eating again at 3 days old. (today)

We love them. So far, even Maggie seems to be adjusting well. She peers over the top of their tub and watches them, but doesn't get too close.

So far, we've had leg scratches, cleaning poopy chicken bottoms, poop on the floor, leaning too hard on the side of the tub and tipping the whole thing over. And that was just in the first 24 hours!

Win a HensPals Chicken Nest Box

2011-02-21T15:51:00.000-05:00

As you may know, we ordered a shed for the chicken house. It's due for delivery on Wednesday!!!

We need to alter it to make it ready for the chickens. One of the alterations is adding nest boxes. I figure Troy will have to build them, although, we really don't know exactly what they should be like. You live and learn, right?

Well, maybe I'll get lucky and win a set of nest boxes from HenPals. Their boxes look unique compared to others I've seen because they use steel instead of wood. Sounds sturdy to me? And, they each come with an attached roost!

Go here and do your best to win one for your chickens.

HenPals Nest Box

Gardening on February 17

2011-02-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

It was warm today. At least 70*. See?

That says 70*. And, that's around 4:30, a little after the warmest part of the day.

I decided it was too nice for the girls to have to nap. We spent a lot of time outside instead.

We trimmed up the wine barrel planters. One had parsley in it and it's got a little bit growing at the base of the plant. We trimmed up the dead leaves and are excited to see what happens to it. We planted the rest of the planter with swiss chard.

The other two have mint in them, one peppermint and one spearmint. We trimmed them up, the peppermint is already growing new leaves.

We love peas. We love to pick them right off the plant and eat them. Since we garden organically with no chemicals, we can do that. So, of course, the second thing we planted this year was peas. We did 2 rows of sugar snaps and a square with four rows of regular shelling peas.

Here are the two rows of sugar snaps.

You can see the rows/square a little bit here. I couldn't get too good of an angle, I was super close to the compost pile which was swarming with bees. The square is on the left, the rows on the right.

The girls were big helpers.

Yep, she took a bath as soon as she got back inside.

I think she was busy looking for eggshells to crush.

I love laundry on the line...

Change 3 Things - The Cloth Diaper Revolution

2011-02-14T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure my mom cloth diapered me when I was a baby. But, her cloth diapers were nothing compared to the cloth diapers of today. If you have a little one and would like to help save tons of disposable diapers from landfills, pop over to Cloth Babies and read about their challenge.

I signed up for it. I already use more than 3 cloth diapers a day. Right now, mine are hanging on the line enjoying this warm, sunny day to bleach out.

Just a recommendation, don't start with an Econobum, give the Bum Genuis a try. You can buy a 3-pack for $53.10 right now.

Want to win a Bummis cloth diaper?

2011-02-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

In case you don't know, I use cloth diapers on Delcie. I usually use them about half the time, pampers the other half. I don't have enough cloth to use them all the time. Since she's my last baby, I didn't buy a ton of diapers, but if she were my first, I would have absolutely bought enough to use them all the time.

Maybe, though, if I win some more, I can cloth diaper all the time?

My friend just was telling me how much she loves her bummis. I don't own any, but I've only heard good things about them. I would love to try one, I have my eye on a swimmi. Cause, you know, we go to the beach nearly every day during the summer here.

Tara, at the small town mom is hosting a giveaway. Go to her blog and enter to win a Bummis Easy Fit.

Send a Free Valentines E-Card

2011-02-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

Kate Spade is offering a ton of really cute Valentines E-Cards to send...for FREE!

Check the E-Cards out. Send one to your sweetie today.

This valentine is by Carly Heitlinger

This valentine is by Melissa Ebert

Chicken day is coming!

2011-02-12T22:15:00.000-05:00

We were planning to build a coop, because purchasing them is so expensive. We were having trouble coming up with what exactly we wanted. But, working on it.

That is, until today, when Troy was cruisin' around the Home Depot parking lot and came across this beauty clearanced out.

It has vents, walls, siding, doors, tons of great stuff we were maybe not going to be able to get. All we need to do it install a window or two, a chicken door and ramp, roosts and nesting boxes. I'm so excited! I think it will be well worth the little bit of extra money to save us the time and frustration of building from scratch.

(Time is very important to us right now. Troy's been working a lot, which is great, God is blessing us by providing. But, we do miss him when he's out of town...every week.)

Emetophobia

2011-02-09T19:25:00.000-05:00

I think I have emetophobia. I may be a hypochondriac. My husband tells me I am. But, I do believe I have a little bit of OCD, which emetophobia is closely related to.

I have read it has to do with wanting to control your environment. Yep, I think I do that.

Anyway, it's a fear of vomit. I'm not afraid of myself vomiting, but of my husband or girls. I was so sick with morning sickness, if I ever had the fear for myself, I'm long over it.

But, I fear seeing my children in the pain that comes with the tummy bug. It's a day or so of just feeling awful.

Camdyn was sick on Sunday. She only threw up twice, but laid around all day, obviously feeling really bad. I did what I could to make her comfortable. I sprayed everything, toys, door handles, light switches... with sanitizing spray. Then, I sprayed them again with Lysol, twice.

I have researched stomach flu to death. I know the exposure - sickness times. I know the contagious period. I know what to do regarding fluids and foods.

So, today it's 3 days past our exposure. We may have escaped everyone being sick this time, but I don't want to believe it, yet, and jinx us.

(We did have some carrots for dinner, that's the first non-white food we've eaten all week.)

Iced Sugar Cookies

2011-02-07T15:15:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, we held a baby shower for my sister who is due with a little boy soon. I didn't have very many responsibilities, it was a small, simple shower. So, I volunteered to make the party favors. I've been wanting to try my hand at iced sugar cookies ever since seeing them on a few different web sites. I didn't think I could do it, but, I love a challenge.

I decided to do a onesie cookie, because it's a fairly simple design. I used a basic sugar cookie recipe, only substituting butter flavored Crisco for butter. I did this because I know Crisco makes cookies fluffier than butter, and I wanted these cookies nice and fluffy.

I also used a royal icing recipe. I used to work with royal icing all the time back when it was popular to make flowers on cakes. But, it's been a few years.

Here's how it went...

I mixed, refrigerated, rolled and cut the cookies. I baked them for about 7 minutes.

Next in the process is "fill and spill". You outline the cookie and then "fill" with thinned icing. It took a little experimenting to figure out just how to do this, but I think I got it after only about 3 cookies.

After that dried, I outlined again with white royal icing to give the onesie design. I wrote "Luke", (new nephew's name), in blue and gave them a blue tag.

Quick bag and wrap and they were ready to go!

I also made a few red velvet cake balls - yum!

Here are the recipes:

Sugar Cookies

¾ cups butter (i used Crisco)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1-½ teaspoon pure vanilla
2-½ cups flour

½ teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking powder

Combine the butter and sugar, mix until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt.

Slowly add dry ingredients into wet batter. Mix until fully incorporated.

Mold the dough into a squared off log and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Roll the chilled dough out on a floured surface to about 1/2" think. Cut and place on silpat or parchment paper and cookie sheet.

Bake at 325*-350*F for 5 to 8 minutes.

Royal Icing

I just used 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup and a dash of lemon juice. I thinned it to the right consistency with milk and more corn syrup.

Winter Garden Update

2011-01-31T15:54:00.000-05:00

I could post about a lot of things today. About how we're desperately trying to avoid the tummy bug. It's going around our area, and I have a phobia about my children and puke. I don't care about me, I went through many months of morning sickness. And, Troy can handle himself if he's sick. But, my girls, I don't want to see them in so much pain.

Or, I could post about how cute my kids are. Maybe I'll do that soon.

Or, how about my cooking? I've been trying to perfect a couple of bread recipes lately. Brown buns, which I posted about recently. Sourdough bread. I created my own starter. Yay me!

But, today, I'm going to tell you about how my garden is going this winter.

We are trying something new, similar to lasagna gardening. It's not true lasagna gardening, where you lay down cardboard and then pile inches of brown and green matter on top. I don't have enough leaves to do that. I'm planning to start getting grounds from my sister's Starbucks, but haven't started that yet. I don't want to use too many of those, anyway, they could really affect my soil.

But, we did do a modified version. My main desire is to control the weeds. I wasn't able to set up my garden the right way last year, due to my hectic work schedule and pregnancy, and the grass was super prolific. It took over my poor garden. So, over the fall, we laid down large pieces of cardboard and covered them with some leaves, grass clippings, dirt, etc. I also added a small amount of green matter, but not too much. I hope it starts to help control the weeds.

My small compost pile...

I purchased some bulbs for the front yard. We don't spend much time in some of the front yard, and I want to make a butterfly and hummingbird garden out there. I want to plant elephant ears and lillies up against our garage, where the water softener drains.

We filled our birdfeeders and are loving watching the birds eat. I counted over 16 goldfinches at once, and we've seen blue jays, cardinals and doves, along with other little birds.

Here are a little black bird and the goldfinches...

I mulched around my blueberries recently. One of them seems to have died at the end of last year, I hope it recovers in the spring. I have a set of 3 from Johnny's that the girls gave me for Mother's day a couple of years ago.

The swiss chard that I planted last spring is still growing. It's amazing stuff!

I planted a rosemary this year in the front garden. It's one of my favorite herbs, and it should be a perennial here in zone 7. It actually grows as hedges at our library. The tips have browned and bent over, but it's mostly green. It looks way better than any other rosemary I've grown before.

My lavender I started from seed. I grew it out back in the main garden in the summer, and transplanted three plants into the front garden at the end of the season. They are doing wonderful, I love lavender, too.

Happy winter gardening to you.

My baby is 5 months old

2011-01-29T20:14:00.000-05:00

My very last baby is growing up so quickly. It's hard to say if I'm sad or happy, of course, I'm happy. But, it's bittersweet. She's my very last baby. I love seeing her grow and learn things. She's now sitting up in the bumbo, rolling over, reaching for food, (although I say, no food until 6 months, she's EBF), and just all around a fun little girl.

But...she's my last baby.

bittersweet.

She turned 5 months old yesterday. We celebrated with, uh, starting an earlier bedtime?

We've always had late bedtimes for our girls. Usually between 9-10pm. But, Delcie's telling us she wants to go to bed earlier. Tonight, she is already asleep and it's only 8pm. I guess that's what normal babies do?

Guess that puts a stop to our late-night partying.

My baby chicks are ordered!

2011-01-28T14:13:00.000-05:00

I've waited for a few years now to realize my dream of owning chickens. I want them for layers, for their eggs. When we lived in Ohio, we thought we were close to our homesteading dream. We owned 10 beautiful acres with no restrictions, (like we faced in Illinois.)

But, alas, that dream crashed down around us.

Now, we are looking at being able to own the chickens this year. Yay!

Troy is planning to build me a coop. We researched purchasing one, but they're very expensive and don't look too sturdy. So, my handy honey is going to whip one up for me in a weekend.

I placed my chick order yesterday for delivery on April 11. I ordered them from mypetchicken.com

I'm particular about which chickens I want. I want a mix of egg colors, from light brown, to dark brown, blue, green and pink. I also want chicks that will grow into friendly hens. I was attacked by the roosters my parents owned when I was younger, and am still traumatized by it today. No mean roosters will be attacking my girls!

Here are the breeds I ordered...

2 Female Easter Eggers
2 Female Buff Orphingtons
2 Female Barred Plymouth Rocks
1 Male Barred Plymouth Rock
1 Female Welsummer

I ordered them vaccinated and will feed them medicated crumbles for their first few weeks to help them avoid disease. With the abundance of chickens around here, I don't want to risk losing them.

We went to Tractor Supply today and purchased the heat lamp, food, bedding, etc. for them.

We plan to keep them in the shed until they're big enough to go outside, since apparently they'll be super dusty. Not liking the thought of cleaning the garage or a room in the house of chicken dust.

'Teaching my children to cook' or 'Stepping outside my comfort zone'

2011-01-06T15:28:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about waiting 5 years to have our children has a great bonus of making us appreciate them and enjoy them more.

One of the awful things about waiting 5 years to have our children is that it gave us many childless years to become set in our ways.

One of my ways is, I like things in order. When I cook, I clean as I go. I wasn't always that way, my mom will be quick to tell you. But, my many childless years changed me.

My grandmother didn't teach my mom to cook. I don't think my grandmother cooked. She mostly ate out, or microwaved tv dinners. Actually, she mostly ate pie and donuts, I think.
So, my mom really wasn't able to teach me to cook.

My other grandmother taught me a few things. Sadly, her time with us was cut short, long before I was able to learn all she had to teach me.

Good thing I make a living working in restaurants.

Good thing I went to college to learn to cook.

Good thing there's food network.

I want my girls to learn how to cook. I don't mean, make a salad and grill a steak.

I mean, I want them to learn what's behind cooking, the why of cooking. I want them to be able to understand cooking from scratch. Not only is it healthier and usually cheaper, but it's fun! And way yummier.

So, today, Camdyn and I made bread together. It's a new recipe for me, so I hope it turns out good.

She learned the term "knead". She practiced kneading. And, she loved it. She hung out with me from the moment we started mixing until the moment we set the bread aside to raise.

I think as we are working, it takes patience to teach her this. It's not as fun as it looks. It would be way easier for me to do it myself.

I'm sure stepping outside my comfort zone.

But, isn't that what God does with us every day? His life would be much easier if he just did everything himself, making good things for us to enjoy.

But, he teaches us, patiently, to "cook", hoping that, when we're older, we will remember the basics of life and use them to nourish others.

I'm thankful for his patient teaching with me.

Just about a year ago, I was in the ER

2011-01-02T15:22:00.000-05:00

Today, I did some rearranging. I put together a Billy bookshelf from Ikea, and decided to move another one from the spare bedroom into the living room to mirror it. That meant I had to clean it off.

I was using it to store my scrapbook stuff. Some of it. And, truly just store it. I haven't scrapped in nearly 2 years. I will again, someday.

So, I store my memories on it. Most get stored in a box, a few were just sitting on the shelf.

I found a couple of hospital bracelets.

One was dated October 28, 2009. The day I had a FET. It resulted in a negative pregnancy test.

One was dated December 27, 2009. The day Troy's cousin got married. Our last day at CEC. The day I started bleeding.

The day I lost our second angel baby.

Delcie's twin.

We didn't even know we were pregnant with twins until we lost one. Didn't even get the chance to love the baby while we were together on this earth.

I often think of our two angels and wonder what they would be like, as they grew with their sisters. Would they be boys? Probably girls, knowing my family!

How exciting it will be to get to heaven and get to meet our darlings.

I'm so grateful for our three little girls. How lucky are we to get to teach them and enjoy them as they grow up. I never imagined I would experience something as wonderful as being their parent.

But, sometimes, the little reminders are there, in front of me, making it more real, remembering the ones we lost.

mmm - Cake Pops. Christmas Cake Pops

2010-12-18T22:10:00.002-05:00

I made a few Christmas Shaped Cake Pops to send to Troy's office this week. I made them too big, and made too thick of a chocolate coating, but they were so fun to make, and I think they turned out pretty good.

I had to ship them, which required packing them in a mixture of bubble wrap and crunchy shredded paper. We shipped them overnight, (from MD to NY), and they made it safely. Whew!

A preview of our Christmas pictures

2010-12-18T21:39:00.000-05:00

I finally was home, the sun was out, the girls were in a semi-happy mood and I was able to get their Christmas pictures. I went cheap and ordered the cards from Sam's club, hoping to get them early in the week, although the web site told me I had to wait 7-10 days. Hope not...

Here are some of the pictures I had to choose from:

Did I mention Santa brought me a new camera!?!

13 years ago today...

2010-12-14T15:25:00.002-05:00

... I was getting ready to get married!

I had a long day to get ready, we held our wedding at 7pm. Hey, it was a Christmas-time candlelight wedding. I had to make sure it was dark!

Actually, I didn't realize how late that was for everyone, and I am so grateful for all my friends and family who came.

Oh what a fun time we had. I had so many attendants. I think there were 12 girls and 9 or 10 boys?

What can I say? I am the oldest of 6 children. We are lotsa peoples!

Seems like so long ago, that day I married my best friend.

I'm so grateful that he chose me to love forever.

Isn't he the dreamiest!

That's my Grandma Mary with us. She was a goof-ball, loved to make people laugh. Kinda a stinker.

I'm happy.

The heart of our church

2010-12-07T11:20:00.001-05:00

I'm sorry this is so short and that I haven't blogged lately. Between work, school, family and everything else, blogging falls behind. I feel like I barely have enough of myself to give to the people I see in real life, so I'm sorry - my internet world friends - I do still love you and will be back sometime.

Here's an article from FOX news that mentions our church. We support a ministry called CALM that mostly ministers to foreign students who come to work at the beach for the summer. I had no idea they were treated so bad by their employers in so many cases.

Fox article

a mouse in the house, a Christmas mouse?

2010-11-25T23:10:00.002-05:00

Nope, just a field mouse trying to eat my pies. So, we set a few traps. One was behind the microwave on our counter, since we saw...evidence...that he had been there. We set the trap, went to my sister's for thanksgiving dinner, then returned home to get ready for bed. I came down the hall from our bedroom to Troy standing in the hall telling me he had an "interesting" situation.

I followed him into the kitchen while he explained he injured the mouse. But, the mouse had escaped from the trap.

And was running free on the counter.

Actually, he was just cowering behind the microwave.

In front of a bloody mess. Blood was splattered all over the counter back there. Nasty.

We were faced with the dilema - how to catch him?

Why, with a kitchen knife and grill tongs, of course!

I used the knife. Troy used the tongs. I chased, he waited and snapped. We lifted the microwave. We missed, and missed. Oh, and missed.

Finally, I thought we needed to try a different tactic. I made my move to set the knife down in the sink, and...

The mouse FLEW out from under the microwave right at my face. I turned, in slow motion, saw him flying at my face, and, even though I have laryngitis, screamed bloody, (ha ha), murder.

Troy, being the athlete that he is, snatched the mouse out of his midair flight right as he was nearing my eyes.

Just kidding, the mouse actually fell into the sink on it's way to my face, and Troy tonged him right up, ran out the door and tossed him far away into the field.

Great Thanksgiving story, right?

You should hear what my parents found when they got home...

A recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

2010-11-13T14:41:00.001-05:00

I know, don't they sound good? I found this recipe while blog hopping. You should check out her blog, it's full of great crafting ideas and some yummy recipes. She seems to love brownies nearly as much as I do ;)
noe place like home

Here's how they look. (Wish I could describe how they taste, just imagine homemade chocolate chip brownies covered with cookie dough and topped with a layer of chocolate. Yum~)

And, here's the recipe. It's long, but well worth it!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

•2 cups Butter, Divided
•¾ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
•2-¾ cups Granulated White Sugar, Divided
•1 cup Packed Light Brown Sugar
•3-¼ cups All-purpose Flour, Divided
•3 whole Eggs
•½ teaspoons Salt
•½ teaspoons Baking Powder
•4 Tablespoons Milk
•3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract, Divided
•2-½ cups Mini Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips, Divided
•1 Tablespoon Shortening, Such As Crisco

For Brownies:

1 c. butter
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Prepare 13X13 baking pan by laying a piece of foil in the bottom and up the sides. Spray with cooking spray or butter the foil.

Melt 2 sticks of butter in a medium saucepan; add cocoa, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add sugar, salt, eggs, and vanilla; beat with a spoon until combined. Add flour and baking powder; mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. (I always remove my brownies from the oven when a toothpick inserted 1 inch from the side of the pan comes out clean or almost clean.) Allow brownies to cool completely before moving on to the next step.

For Cookie Dough Filling:

1 c. butter, softened
1 c. packed light brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
4 Tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine first 5 ingredients in a mixing bowl and cream together. Add flour and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread in an even layer on top of cooled brownies. Chill before adding chocolate glaze.

For Chocolate Glaze:

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. Crisco shortening

Melt chocolate with shortening and stir until smooth. Spread over chilled cookie dough layer.

I only ate one, (really, only 1 - do you believe me?), of these after I took the picture...

Long time, no see...

2010-11-11T15:51:00.002-05:00

...or read. Write? Whatever.

Wanna know where I've been?

Living life. Yep, I've been doing stuff instead of writing about it.

Mostly taking care of my children. Troy's been out of town more than he's been in town for the last 5 weeks now. After next week, in which he's scheduled to be gone Wednesday through Saturday, he says it should slow down. We'll see.

I'm glad he has a job. God is taking care of us after he was ...I don't know how to say it... fired? kicked out? told we don't want your kind here anymore... from our last church. Where we know God wanted us to be. I'm so sad about that still...

Maybe our new church needed us more? I sure do love them, there are so many wonderful, kind people surrounding us.

But, He's given us both jobs. If Troy's ends, which, it's really a day-to-day thing, I could go full time and maybe support us? Don't know, kids are expensive, and so are dads. (and moms!)

So, I've been busy taking care of the girls, working a little bit. (by the way, work has gone mostly good, I remembered how to do my job, and Delcie does okay while I'm gone. Just okay. She still won't drink from a bottle.) And, crafting just a touch. I've added a few items to my Etsy shop. I can't find anything to concentrate on, I like so many things. I run a poorly managed shop.

I have the cutest models!

Check them out! the alligator purse
I even learned how to create a header for my shop.

I also helped get our church's new web site up and running. It's pretty basic right now, but as we run it and get feedback, I'm sure it will be super soon!

Ocean City Baptist Church

Vacation is over...

2010-10-31T14:45:00.000-04:00

... if delivering an 8 pound baby can be considered vacation.

Anyway, it's back to the "grind", (ha ha), tomorrow morning.

We'll see how Delcie does without me. She has to go from about 5am until 10am tomorrow. I have frozen milk for her, but she doesn't seem to be a fan of it. Pray for her, I'm so worried about this.

M.A.B.E.L.

2010-10-25T23:34:00.001-04:00

When we were first married, Troy and I would always watch the tv show, "Mad About You". We worked or were in school all day long, came home after 9 each night, ate dinner or played cards with friends, then watched this show before we went to bed.

Wish I still had that much energy. I'm getting old.

Back to the subject...
Paul and Jamie, (the main characters), had a baby girl towards the end of the series. They were having trouble coming up with a name for her. As they were heading to the hospital, Jamie's mother told her, "Remember, Mothers always bring extra love."

Jamie remembered that and used it to name the baby - Mabel.

I have remembered that for a long time, now, yes, almost 13 years. I think I need to write it down and post it on my bathroom mirror or my fridge. There are times when I seem to forget to love my girls. We are so busy disciplining them or ignoring them that we forget to love them. I know I don't spend enough time playing with them. Sometimes I feel I rob time from one to give to another. I guess these are all results of having children close in age.

When I was pregnant with Averie, I was having a really hard time understanding how I would be able to love her as much as I loved Camdyn. I didn't think I would have as much love left to give to her, because I loved Cam so much. So, I crochet her a blanket, hoping the project would help me feel closer to my unborn baby. I'm not sure if it did, I think so, and the blanket turned out awful, but anyway...

The day Averie was born, I left the hospital while I was in labor just so I could go give Camdyn love before Averie was born. I couldn't stand the thought of taking some of my love away to give to her baby sister.

But, as soon as Aves was born, I realized that I wasn't taking love away from Camdyn, I was adding another person to give love to her. I don't understand how I was able to continue to love Camdyn as much but also love this new little one just as much. It's just a miraculous thing.

Now that we have 3 little girls, I see it all over again. I love Delcie just as much as I love her big sisters. I would give each of them anything they asked for if I could. I don't understand how this multiplication of love works, but it's amazing.

This was just something that Troy and I were talking about tonight. It's a scary thing being a parent, you hold a big responsibility for the tiny lives God has loaned you for a little while. But, it's also a wonderful thing, being able to teach these little children about the world, and themselves, and God.

Don't forget, bring extra love.

Trying out cloth diapers

2010-10-23T22:06:00.000-04:00

While I was pregnant, I found a few really good deals on nice cloth diapers. I bought some, thinking if I decided I didn't like using them, I could resell them on E-bay. Believe it or not, they sell for $25 each there! I left them in the package, haven't broken into them yet.

I also bought some cheaper ones, seconds, and washed them. I have been using them this week while we are home, not out and about, though. They're econobums. I think I like them. But, they're so bulky. They look so much more comfortable than disposables.

So, since I've done okay with my 5 econobums, I'm branching out and washing my 6 bum genius AIO's. (AOI = All In One.)

They look like they won't be as bulky as the econobums. We'll see.

Honestly, the hardest thing about this is working with Troy. He has been pretty vocal about not wanting to deal with the *solids* part of changing diapers.

So, I got him some bummies liners that are supposed to make "clean-up" easier.

Wonder what my attitude about these will be in a couple of weeks...

I've revived my Etsy shop!

2010-10-21T13:36:00.004-04:00

I created it a couple of years ago to sell quilted Christmas ornaments and hand-stamped Christmas cards. During the rest of the year, I continue to be crafty, and my family can only take so much of my crafty-ness. So, after much coaxing from a dear friend, I'm making my store into a year-round venture.

So, I have 2 items listed. Wow!

I know. Get on the ball. But, I'm not as crafty as I implied, these things take time.

But, I think my 2 items are adorable ;)

Keep checking my store for more items, I do have quite a few that I'll be listing within the next few days.

The Alligator Purse

My beautiful model.

One more thing

2010-10-19T18:48:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I forgot to write about the best thing about being pregnant.

The 40 weeks of anticipation for the new little one who will be joining your family! We didn't find out if Delcie was a girl or boy at our ultrasound and it was so exciting to find out when she was born. So much fun to think daily of what our child would be like when he/she was born.

(Made it even harder to wait an extra 6 days for her!)

Pregnancy Withdraw?

2010-10-19T08:55:00.000-04:00

Yes, I think I have it. I can understand how some moms get ppd, (which I think I had after Averie). I miss being pregnant.

When you're pregnant, you have something in common with just a few women in the world. You can read posts on mothering dot com about your stage in pregnancy and relate to them.

You can walk through the mall and have people stop and ask you about your pregnancy. When you're due, whether you know if you're having a boy or girl.

You can take it easy, people do things for you because you are so tired and they love you.

And, believe it or not, it's a little fun for me to deliver. I feel like I'm so good at it, now. I understand the process, even the complications. In the hospital, you have people waiting on you, bringing you food and juice. (Although, this hospital we were just in was so junky, they sure need to remodel it!)

I miss these things.

I think I also am kind of sad because I know this is my last baby. We don't have any more embryos frozen, and I'm pretty sure we aren't looking at conceiving naturally. Honestly, 3 children is just perfect for us, I couldn't wish for more children. But, still...

This is a strange feeling, this pregnancy withdraw.

But, there's also the joy of watching my newborn grow. She's 7 weeks old, now, and smiling and cooing. And sleeping many hours at a time through the night! I'm loving spending time with her, enjoying my last baby.

And, looking forward to the time when my girls are older. When they are in school, learning so much daily. Playing sports, teaching each other about life, learning about God.

I'm glad I have 4 sisters and a brother so I can enjoy their pregnancies and newborns.

Wow, I'm old!

Recipe: Chicken and Dumplings

2010-10-18T14:37:00.001-04:00

I grew up on the east coast. I moved to the midwest after I married my husband. In the midwest, they try to make some sort of chicken and noodles, but, they have it wrong. I guess maybe they're making egg noodles? You don't need eggs!

This is for all you midwesterners wishing you knew how to make yummy noodles. (We call them "dumplins" around here.)

~Cook some chicken in a pot. I use split breasts and cook them in some chicken stock, onion and celery.

~Make the dumplins:
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. shortening
1/3 c. water

Mix everything together, add the water a little at a time. Roll out cracker thin. Slice into rectangles.

(I like to at least double this recipe.)

Remove the chicken from the pot and shred. Set aside.

Slide the dumplings into the pot, sort of laying them flat/sideways a few at a time. Stir them to keep them from sticking. After they've cooked, add the chicken back in.

I like to serve them with boiled potatoes and peas.

Yummy!!!

I have a messy house

2010-10-17T22:26:00.001-04:00

And I'm so thankful for it!

Migraine

2010-10-07T21:30:00.000-04:00

Wow, I haven't posted since Monday. Sorry! This one will be short, because I'm feeding Delcie with my left arm so I'm typing one-handed. Which means I have to correct each word at least once, often twice.

Today was my first free day this week. I spent the morning switching out most of my maternity clothes for my regular ones. I ended up with a laundry basket of maternity clothes, an extra large tub of garage sale clothes, some shirts, jeans and sweatshirts for my closet and one bin of winter clothes. I cleared out 3 large and 1 regular bin!

Then, I met my mom and sister at the park for a picnic. While there, I got a rare migraine, (I've only had 4-5 in my life.) It was strange. Started with a swirly bubbly spot in my vision, ended with a terrible headache reaching from the top of my head down past my shoulders. After some x-strength tylenol and sleep, it's manageable.

But, some great things greeted me when I woke up. First, a paycheck. For not working. Yippee! Gotta love short term disability.

And then, to top it off, my new lens arrived :) It's a 55mm lens that has some awesome focus. But, what's super interesting is that it doesn't auto-focus with my camera, I have to do it manual. It's so fun!

I promise proof soon...

Last of the summer garden bounty

2010-10-04T22:02:00.000-04:00

Last week we harvested the last of the produce from my garden. There wasn't much, because I had been so busy working and dealing with the hot temps, I let the weeds take over. Here's what we ended the year with...

We still have 4 basil plants, but they've been flowering for a few weeks now without any trimming. I don't know how good the flavor is now.

I'm working on pulling my tomato plants up, I have the two longest rows done. It's not easy, they're not in cages, they're planted between stakes and climbing up a trellis of twine. So, I have to cut the twine, pull the plant, gather the twine and move on.

After they're all pulled up, I'm going to mow the rest of the plants and weeds, then layer cardboard, then mowed leaves and grass. I can't remember what it's called, but I believe it's what I have to do to kill the grass that's been infiltrating the garden all year. I hope...

Yes, the carrot is growing roots. And the yellow thing is a lemon cucumber.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

2010-10-03T19:08:00.001-04:00

We went to a couple of local farm stands yesterday with my sisters and their children. It's nothing like a midwest pumpkin patch, but we had fun.

But, it makes me want to make a trip back to some of our old haunts just visit a patch...

I learned a little bit more about my camera and worked on adjusting aperture and shutter speed. And light. I think I ended up taking some better pictures than I have in the past. Yay!

Evan was kind enough to be my subject for about...20 pictures. I finally got my focus right.

Working on the lighting. This was a strap with cups on it that the kids could wheel corn up to the goats on the ledge with.

Here I was working on focus. See that Cam is in focus and the goat isn't, while Aves is blurred and the goat isn't.

More lighting experimenting.

Just a cute picture.

Daddy and Delcie.

Then we moved on to the other market. We picked out our pumpkins here.

We took some cousins pictures on the pumpkin wagon. All the cousins but one, who lives in Virginia and couldn't make it ;)

Oops! That was the outtake, lol!

Here's a better one...

And, we took pics of just our girls.

And, of course, the outtake:

Yea, they're mine. Ha ha!

Our little pumpkin. Or "punkin".

We completely forgot to take a picture of us outside, so we'll have to do it next time. So, we took one in the kitchen.

Oh, and, happy day, I ordered a new lens for my camera!!! I ordered it from a company that closes for all Jewish holidays and Sabbath, so, although I decided early in the week that I wanted it, I had to wait until sundown last night to place the order. But, I got a notification that it's shipped already. Yippee!

Sneak Peak of Baby Pictures

2010-09-30T23:18:00.000-04:00

Instead of getting the hospital pictures with baby Delcie, we asked my friend, Laura, to come over and take pictures of the whole family with the baby.

They turned out so great! I'm the worst photography subject in the world, and she even got a couple of good ones of me.

I'm uploading them to facebook, so if you're my fb friend, you can check them out. I will get them on here soon, but not tonight, I'm too tired.

But, I will give you a preview...

Isn't she amazing?!?

Smiles :)

2010-09-27T21:07:00.001-04:00

Delcie smiled at me today. A real smile, not a sleeping smile, or a grimace, but a real, "I know who you are and am happy to see you" smile. Troy got to see it. What a special moment, seeing my baby's recognition and love for the first time.

I'm really enjoying these milestones. Well, there haven't been too many yet, but just go with it.

But, it's also a little sad when I think of this being the last baby that I'll experience these milestones with. How blessed am I that I have these 3 beautiful babies to love!

Our soccer season begins

2010-09-23T19:21:00.000-04:00

Last year, Troy and Camdyn played soccer in the backyard. This year, she's playing on a real team. Our church sponsors Upward soccer for our area. She's just at the age cutoff, so she can play this year. Troy's her coach.

Their first game was this past Saturday. At her age, they don't keep score...(but her team won! :)

Here are some pictures from the game.

Here they are ready to get started playing.

She did so "good" that she ended up playing goalie for the majority of the game.

And, the really cute coach!

And, I couldn't not add these pictures...

Preschool

2010-09-19T22:27:00.001-04:00

Camdyn has been in preschool for 2 weeks now. She went last year in Ohio at our church's preschool. She loved it, and we decided to put her in the school that uses our church building this year. She could go 2 full days a week, but we are trying 2 half days right now. She starts at 8:30 and I pick her up at 12:15.

So far, she seems to love it. She has made some friends already, something she really hasn't done at church for some reason. I think maybe because there aren't too many children her age, they're either older or younger. So, I'm glad she's already doing so well.

Here are some pictures from her first day...

Standing inside her classroom. She looked a little nervous.

I lead the worship in chapel each week, (well, I will soon, right now Troy's doing it for me and I'm assisting him until I'm done recovering.)
I am also the music teacher. I had trouble finding curriculum and am not real happy with what I found. I hope I can do good at it.

I have to post something...

2010-09-14T20:06:00.001-04:00

I am not sure what to write about, so I have been avoiding my blog. We're getting adjusted to being a family of five here. Tonight, I had the girls all to myself while Troy was at worship team practice. For 3 whole hours! It was - interesting.

Delcie is growing so fast. We look at her and are amazed at how big she is. The other two were so tiny compared to her. At her 10 day checkup, she was already 10 ounces more than her birthweight.

Cam and Aves are doing wonderful as big sisters. It's fun to watch them playing together, all 3 of them, and I can't wait until Delcie is big enough to run around with the other two.

We had to use the video camera today to take some pictures since my camera wasn't in the bag...

I found an old picture of Cam taking a bath in the kitchen sink and just had to share it.

Isn't she a cutie!

Oh, how I miss my blue counters. And huge sink. But, someday I'll have my own house again...

New Baby Delcie

2010-09-07T21:10:00.001-04:00

You have been so patient waiting for pictures of the baby. I have been busy enjoying her, but now I'll take the time to share.

Here we are right after she was born. They took her and suctioned her, but got her back lickety split.

Here she is meeting Daddy for the first time.

And meeting Camdyn who stayed up way past her bedtime to come to the hospital to meet her.

The next day, Cam and Averie came back to see Delcie again. Averie didn't like seeing me in the hospital bed, but once she realized I was okay, she decided to enjoy the new baby.

Averie loves being the big sister!

Just a close-up of Delcie. She had just a little jaundice, it went away in 2 days.

We are really enjoying being home with all three girls. Everyone seems to be getting along well together - for now :)

The baby is here!

2010-08-31T22:20:00.000-04:00

And, we have...

...Another girl!

She's beautiful. And big. She was born Saturday night, weighing over 8 pounds!

I'll post pictures and details soon. Right now, sleep is very important.

What 40 weeks, 5 days looks like

2010-08-27T19:32:00.000-04:00

Although I'm much bigger than last picture, I feel much better. Besides a horrible headache and heartburn, I'm just really tired. Could be because I stayed up until 1am last night...

My wonderful sister and brother-in-law took the girls to the beach today so Troy could get some work done around the house and I could get some walking, (and shopping), in. Maybe the walking will do it?

What I think of as I wait for this baby...

2010-08-24T18:51:00.000-04:00

As I sit here being grumpy that I'm almost 3 days past my due date, I reflect on how I "know" I'm 3 days past. It's because I know exactly how old my baby is. It's because my baby was a frozen embryo for 5 years before it began growing inside me.

I think of how lucky I am. I survived 5 years of infertility. I survived a near-cancer diagnosis and a year of treatment. I survived IVF and all those shots. I was lucky - I got pregnant the first time. I had embryos leftover to freeze. I have two beautiful girls and a baby on the way from that cycle. I have 2 angel babies waiting for me in heaven.

So many people aren't as lucky as me. So many are still waiting for that first baby. So many keep getting pregnant but losing their babies. So many are waiting on adoption for their baby. So many have given up on ever having a baby.

So, even as I sit here hoping the storms outside and the full moon tonight will relieve me from this uncomfortable pregnancy, I couldn't be happier that I'm pregnant. I can't believe how lucky I am that I can sit here, listen to my one daughter singing songs I can't understand and the other one singing songs I really can't understand. Listening to them fighting over a chair one minute, then playing together giggling the next. Waiting anxiously to meet the "baby" as they both love to say.

What 40 weeks pregnant looks like

2010-08-22T23:02:00.000-04:00

From the side.

And head-on.

Do I look uncomfortable?

What a day

2010-08-21T19:50:00.002-04:00

After a sleepless night, (I believe I got about 3 hours of sleep), we packed up and headed to church for Cam to register and do her skill test for Upward soccer. Troy was there to help with registration, and it was way too humid for me to stay, so we left and went to the mall right down the street to do some shopping.

Here's Camdyn running. (She did really great, kicked the ball all the way through the cones, but I couldn't get a pic of that - all I had was my phone.)

So, we piled into the van and headed out. As I was driving through the parking lot, I noticed a flash of blue sneaking behind our dumpster and shed. I tried to see who it was as I drove past but I couldn't. I didn't think anything of it, because, being in our climate and so close to the beach, there are often homeless people hanging out somewhere on our land.

We went to Marshalls, because I was in the mood for sneakers. But, didn't find any. I did find some great towels, a candle and a container for sugars for our church coffee ministry. We spent almost an hour there, then decided it was time to head back to see if Daddy was ready to come home. As we were standing in line, we started hearing a chopper right overhead. Some people in line said it was the trauma chopper, that they land in our church's field and meet the ambulance there.

We paid and headed out to the van. Which was quite a walk, because we had arrived right when the store opened, we couldn't get a close spot so I had to park at the far side of the lot...near the bank. Yep, the 9 month pregnant lady with 2 little girls. What a sight we were, I'm sure.

The chopper kept flying over us, and as I drove back to church, I thought it was odd that a Maryland State Trooper chopper was the trauma chopper. I said so when I talked to Troy, and he said they had already talked to the emergency team about landing in our field, (since there were children kicking soccer balls all over it.)

Well...

Come to find out, a few minutes later, the bank I had parked right in front of was robbed, and the robber was sneaking around our church trying to escape. If only I had paid more attention to the flash of blue that I saw, he might have been caught.

In other news, I am 4 hours, 10 minutes from my due date and still no baby...

Macaroni and Cheese

2010-08-20T15:40:00.001-04:00

I've e-mailed this and posted it on FB, but can't seem to find it - with pictures :(

Anyway, this is the BEST recipe EVER!!!

Mac and Cheese Casserole

4 Cups (16 ounces) elbow macaroni
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
5 cups milk
4 cups (16 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 350*F. Cook pasta to al-dente, drain.

In large saucepan, melt the butter. Blend in the flour, salt and pepper. Gradually stir in milk.

Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and begins to bubble.

Add cheese, stir until it melts.

Add in the pasta and pour into a 9x13 pan.

Top with REAL bread crumbs, (toasted bread broken into small pieces), mixed with melted butter. I usually use 6 slices of bread and 1-2 sticks of butter.

Bake for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Camdyn Turns 4!

2010-08-20T09:06:00.003-04:00

I'm skipping around with our summer. Camdyn's birthday came after our vacation, but it has way fewer pictures than our vacation for me to "edit", (I'm not good at editing), so we're going with the birthday first.

I'm not doing well with the humidity and heat this summer, it makes it hard for me to breathe. But, we wanted to do something special for our first little girl's birthday. We have a great zoo in town with a cool new castle playground attached, so we decided to take her there. My sister and her boys joined us, and my mother.

Here are the cousins enjoying their wagon ride.

This owl was at the zoo because he was hit by a car. There was a mouse or some sort of rodent eating a banana peel on the side of the road. He swooped down to catch the rodent and got hit.

Looking at the pink flamingos.

Aves enjoyed running away down the hills.

After the zoo, we went to her favorite "restaurant" ... McDonalds. Yummy!

That night, we had dinner and gifts just with our family. (We did the rest of the family party on Sunday when everyone could make it.)

Daddy got her tons of princess stuff.

Grandpa and Grandma got her a fishing pole. We haven't put a hook on it, yet.

Soon, I'll add the pictures from her big party...

Am I still pregnant?

2010-08-20T08:30:00.000-04:00

Yes.

Due in two days.

Still no baby yet.

This child is going to be HUGE when he/she is born.

I bet it's a boy.

Wish we had some good names ready. Maybe that's why we have no baby yet, anyone want to help us come up with the perfect name.

Honestly, we don't love any of the first ones on our list, and we have no middle names picked out.

This baby could be "baby boy/girl Chute" for quite a while...

39 Weeks, 4 Days...

2010-08-19T14:40:00.000-04:00

And still pregnant. I wish this baby would hurry up and get out here to meet us!

I'm not sleeping well. I itch when I lay down, I can't sleep on my back, of course, and I really can't sleep on either side. For the past 2 nights, I haven't been able to fall asleep until 3am. Luckily, I can sleep until about 8am each day.

I'm having contractions all day. If only they were true labor contractions, but the BH's.

I'm nauseas. I guess my "morning sickness" has returned. Ick.

But, each week at the doctor, seems I'm progressing, that's good news :)

Maybe...

Spending time with the girls

2010-08-14T08:20:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to spend time with the girls now, since I'm off work for a while, before the baby comes. It's not easy, they really enjoy being together.

Over the weekend, Troy's brother was visiting. One day while they went to the beach, my sister-in-law and I went shopping with Cam. (I only made it to 2 stores, I am tiring really easily...)

Old Navy had this cut-out for taking pictures. Someone had decided it was for throwing a football through, but after Cam tried and failed, I explained what it really was for, and she posed...

I haven't taken Averie anywhere alone, but have spent time with her in the morning before her sister has woken up. Here she is enjoying her cereal while watching tv...

We hoped to go to the playground with the cousins yesterday, but I felt very sick, I didn't feel comfortable leaving the house. They came over to play and we had a great time doing that. It's so nice to have them nearby :)

Grumpy

2010-08-12T16:01:00.000-04:00

I am so grumpy. It's a good thing I'm already on maternity leave from work, where I'm supposed to smile welcomingly and greet my guests by name while calling their drink that I have memorized. (Yes, that's the truth, but I'm not good at that yet...)

Instead I believe if I were working I would be leaning on the counter barely looking up when someone came in the door. I bet that's why my boss sent me on leave early.

If this baby were following in Averie's footsteps, he/she would be born in the next 3 hours. But, no, not looking like it.

I'm in pain, feeling full, my stomach muscles are sore from contractions that aren't doing much, tired, hungry. Grumpy.

But, I'm so excited to meet this baby. I can't wait to see him/her, to see who she/he resembles. I see pictures of newborns in magazines and get so excited to meet mine. Even anticipating the after-birth body pains, the sleepless nights, the crying, the "how in the world will I hold onto 3 children's hands while crossing the street", I'm ready to meet this little one.

One more set of maternity pictures

2010-08-11T09:27:00.003-04:00

I know a bunch of my readers come over from infertility blogs, and I know it's not easy to read about other people's pregnancies when you're going through infertility. I know it's not easy to read about them even if you have succeeded in becoming pregnant or adopting. So, I try to make sure you can tell from my title if there will be something to avoid in my post of not.

Just an FYI, over the next couple of weeks, you will probably see quite a few to avoid...

We experimented with the self-timer on my camera yesterday and got some pics of Troy and I with the new, unborn baby.

Camdyn really wanted to be in one of the pictures,

I think I may need to make my white stronger in my editing.

Super fast posing = funny arm placement

"Maternity Pictures"

2010-08-04T14:11:00.001-04:00

I did the professional maternity pictures with Camdyn, and I think I did them with Averie? (Sorry, middle child syndrome.)

I was all set to do them with this baby when I had a brainstorm. I thought it might be awesome to take pictures with the girls and new baby once the baby is here instead of using the ones the hospital photographer takes. You know, the one where they lay the baby on the sheet of paper, (or white sheet if you get the new, fancy photo company), and take a few pictures and charge you $150.

So, I have a friend who is a professional photographer who has agreed to come take pics of all of us when we get home. Yay!

Which means, I probably shouldn't spend the extra money on maternity pictures. I have a great camera, why not take them ourselves?

So, that's what we did. Of course, I waited until Averie was past her nap time, so she was hard to get to cooperate. But, I did get a couple of neat ones.

(I don't have any with Troy yet, he was the photographer. We'll work on that tonight.)

Today, at the doctor, I weighed the same that I did last week. But, looking at these pictures, I see how much water I'm retaining - look at my cheeks!!!

He was encouraging - he said to schedule my appointment for next week, but that he didn't expect me to make it that long. Yay!

(Watch me go to 41 weeks...)

July 4, 2010

2010-08-03T16:38:00.001-04:00

I know it's late to post this, but I'm taking my time getting around to what we've been doing this summer. We went down to the beach on the 4th of July to watch the fireworks. We had a great spot, right down the street from our church. It happened to be right under where they were shooting them off, and right down from where a band was playing. The girls really enjoyed playing in the sand, but it was so crowded we couldn't even get to the water. That's okay, it was still a little cold then. It's way warmer now, I may even make it there on Thursday - or so I have planned ;)
Here are some pictures from the evening...

The girls all wore matching swimsuits - you just can't see Averie's.

Daddy relaxing

We brought bubbles. Averie thought it would work best putting the wand on her mouth.

There's a picture of them all matching.

I can't remember what she saw in the sky. Guess that's why I should post sooner...

Dancing with Daddy.

Dancing with Kimberly - one of our summer missionaries.

I thought what my camera did with this picture was so cool - like double exposure.

Yes, I was so uncomfortable I just sat around all night.

This is when they first saw the fireworks.

Cousin Charley and her mommy.

Messing around with settings...

I was worried they would be scared of the firework noise, but they loved everything about it.

They were so pretty - I got quite a few pictures.

...On being a SAHM

2010-07-27T22:27:00.001-04:00

I used to be a stay-at-home-mom. Until I had to get a job. For health insurance. Did you know that if there's a pregnant wife in a family, it's nearly impossible for anyone in the family to get health insurance? Well, it wasn't that way until recently, and our State Farm agent really dropped the ball, (interpreted - was lazy), and resulted in our not being able to purchase insurance. We did qualify and get Maryland state health insurance, but it's pretty expensive.

So, I have been working full-time for part of the spring and all summer. I love my job, but I love staying home, too.

I just began working only part-time this week. So, I've had two days off in a row! Yesterday, we drove to Ikea. I'm used to having an Ikea within less than 1/2 hour of my house, but here, it's way on the other side of the bay. So, since we were dropping off a dear friend at the airport, we went early to shop! And...the store was closed. Apparently, the small thunderstorm that went through the night before made the power go out. It was so disappointing. Oh well, what can you do?

Today, we hit the Goodwill store, (didn't find anything), got a car wash and went to the library. The girls love the library, it has computers, fun games and tons of books! We try to go every two weeks - when the books are due, and every once in a while, we hit "Books and Baristas" that my store does, since they serve snacks ;)

It's fun being a SAHM again - but it sure is stressful. I can barely handle the two girls, what am I going to do when I have a third? It really helps that Camdyn is getting old enough to help me out.

Here's Averie playing with the piggy puppet.

The girls played with the magnets too. And a cool fishing toy that's new to the library.

And, they love mirrors!

And, since Troy had two softball games tonight and I can't take the heat/humidity, we headed to Target during the game. I had to get stuff for my hospital bag - I guess I've delayed it long enough. Honestly, I'm just a little superstitious about it - with Averie, it was the morning after I shopped and packed my bag that my water broke.

I don't want to have the baby this week. I would love to meet him/her, but Camdyn's birthday is Thursday and I don't want to take the attention away from her special time.

But, Sunday is August 1, and I would feel comfortable with the baby coming that day or any day after that.

Back to the bag, I love packing a hospital bag. I love buying all the travel sizes and trying new items. I found an awesome new shower gel from Averie's bag, wonder what I'll find out of this one!

I decided to give a different style of tank a try for nursing. I typically get the real nursing ones Target sells, but these were prettier. I'm hoping they work...

I guess even though I haven't packed the bag, I could just grab my target bag and go, lol!

A long time coming update

2010-07-21T07:44:00.001-04:00

We have been gone on vacation in a nice, big city - with terrible internet. All last week we were on vaca in a huge hotel, but I was only able to get online once. That's okay, it meant we could spend more time swimming or shopping :)

It was hot, very hot. It really wore me out. Nearly 100* each day.

I'll post pictures later, maybe after I get the July 4 pictures posted...

Here's a pic to tide you over. Our hidden baby at 35 weeks this past Sunday night. (And the baby's sisters...)

It seems the baby has dropped. My sisters told Troy that they noticed a difference in the week we were together, and a ton of customers at work this week are making comments, so it must be obvious. I'm having a lot of cramps and BH contrax, but not much more. We'll see what the doc says today.

Troy's on his way out of town this morning, not coming back until Friday night. I think he's nervous that he's going to get a call to rush home, like he did when I went into labor with Averie, but I don't think so.

Hope not. We're not anywhere close to having a name picked out. We don't know if this baby is a boy or girl, so we have to have both. We have a very small list, and don't really love any of the names. Ugh.

Garden Update

2010-06-27T20:28:00.002-04:00

My garden seems to be doing well this year. Despite an attack of potato beetles, hornworms and cabbage worms, each plant seems to be thriving. I have many green tomatoes on my plants, (grown from seed for the first time ever - yes, I'm proud!!!), and a nearly ready green pepper. I've had flowers blooming for a month with many more to come. I just noticed baby cucumbers today. I started my squash, melons and beans late, but they're growing quickly.

I tried a new way of staking my tomatoes this year. I can't remember what it's called, if anyone knows, please inform me??? It's working so good - I love it! You just put a stake at the end of each row, one between every 2 plants, and run twine between them. You basically prop the tomatoes as they grow. It's way better than the usual cages.

This is how they look staked:

And, this is how the twine looks run between the stakes.

This is how big my black tomatoes were about 4 days ago. They're bigger and starting to change color now!

I also ran a trellis for the cucumbers. They're just getting big enough to train them up the trellis.

I have a green pepper nearly ready to pick.

Can you see it there in between the leaves?

And, the beets. They pretty much died when i planted them, but a few surprised me and came back to life. I need to plant more, once these are closer to ready, so I can have them ready in the fall.
(yes, it's wilty. The sprinkler misses this corner, we have to water it by hand, and it was forgotten for a day or two.)

I also have a ton of herbs - thyme, oregano, lavender, mints, (in pots), rosemary, tarragon and some HUGE basil. Yum!

Blueberry Pie

2010-06-25T11:03:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday, I decided to pick blueberries - on the hottest day of the week! Okay, not the hottest, but next to hottest. I believe it got up to 98* and after heat index it was about 103*. I didn't get very many, only a bucket full. Maybe next week, it will be cooler and I can get more. Maybe I will be able to talk Troy into going with me - he's the best blueberry picker ever!

So, I didn't freeze any. I saved some for the girls to snack on, they love them. And, I used some to make a pie - the easiest pie ever! I am not a pie maker, mine are always too runny. But, this looked so simple, I couldn't not try it. I got the recipe for the crust from this web site Mennonite girls can cook.

It called for 2 cups of crisco - a lot! But, the crust was huge, so I don't feel so bad about eating it.

She used rhubarb, I just used the same amount of blueberries - 6 cups.

Here's the recipe:

Tender Pie Crust

4C Flour
1 Tbsp Salt
1 lb, (2c.) Crisco Shortening (next time, I'll try butter flavored)
1 Tbsp. Vinegar
1 C. Water
1 Egg
She doesn't include it, but I added a little bit of butter flavored extract

Instructions

Put the flour, salt and shortening into a bowl. Cut in the Crisco.
Beat egg whites till stiff
Combine egg yolk & vinegar & water - and butter flavoring.
Now combine these three bowls and yes it will look a bit mushy, but don't add too much flour. This one needs be be handled with more care. Keep it light and fluffy.
Divide into halves and roll out the first half to the measurement of your cookie sheet. I used a jelly roll pan that I had sprayed to prevent sticking.

FILLING:
Really simple - just 5-6 cups of fruit, I used blueberries. Troy has requested that I use strawberries next time. Spread them onto the bottom crust. Sprinkle them with 1c - 1 1/2c of sugar. Top with the other crust layer. Sprinkle the top layer with sugar. Bake at 425*F for 20 minutes.

So yummy - and not runny!!!

I can't not leave you with this picture of Averie and the hose :)

Baby dedication

2010-06-22T20:57:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's been a while since my daughter was a "baby". But, since we've been in 3 churches since her birth, we missed any and all dedication services until recently. So, at nearly 2 years old, we dedicated ourselves to bring her up as good as we can with God's help.

She's so fun!

My girls' Father

2010-06-20T21:43:00.001-04:00

Today is Father's Day. For years, we didn't enjoy celebrating either Mother's or Father's Day. The years when we didn't have any children, although we were trying hard to have them, desperately wanting them. Of course, we were always thankful for our fathers and grandfathers, uncles, brothers, etc, but it's hard celebrating something we couldn't have.

But, for the last 3 years, we have been able to celebrate having our daughter(s). They changed our lives completely. They're such individuals. We love watching them grow and learn new things.

So, today, we celebrated our girls' love of their father. We celebrated our last little miracle on the way. We remembered the two we have waiting for us in heaven

My girls couldn't ask for a more attentive, loving, wise father.

Happy Father's Day!

A trip to the beach

2010-06-16T12:28:00.002-04:00

Last week, my niece and nephews were here. Grandpa and Grandma took them to the beach nearly every day. One of the days, I got to go with them, and although I forgot my camera, I did have my phone with me. I don't know yet how to edit phone pictures on my computer, that's why these are a bit dark and not cropped.
Averie decided she liked laying on the beach, but didn't learn not to lay her face down in the sand, and then turn it to the other side, thus getting both cheeks and her mouth sandy.

Camdyn decided to burry herself in the sand, with her sister's help. Funny!!!

We were watching the air show this day, but it was pretty boring. We had watched them practicing the day before, and it was way better. It was just, kind of, slow at the actual show.

Now, our days are spent weeding the garden while avoiding the spiders, hornworms and snakes, going to the library, going to the mall and playing outside. I'm working a lot, still, 5-6 days a week. But, vacation is coming up soon!!!

Here's an updated picture of the new baby...

Catching up

2010-05-30T08:21:00.000-04:00

I think I may have a few minutes here while the girls are waking up to begin catching up. I have nearly the whole holiday weekend off work! Just 4 hours tonight, but yesterday off and tomorrow off :) So, here goes...

We had good friends from Chicagoland visit us last month, (yes, I"m that far behind). We showed them the beach, the island, and Washington D.C. I only have pictures of DC, but here they are.

The Washington Monument.

I can't remember what this monument was, it's newer, not one I remember growing up with.

Walking down the reflecting pool.

Posing in front of the White House.

The "kitchen garden" at the WH. Not sure that this will feed everyone all year...

Troy worked a little, here he is, working, don't know what Beau is doing...

They climbed the Lincoln Memorial. I waited at the bottom.

We spent most of the day at the Holocost museum.

That piece of art in front of the museum is a swastika all torn up.

We also ate really well while they were here. Old Mill for crabs one night, a local mexican restaurant that was awesome another night, and, believe it or not, our hotel had awesome food in DC. (They're chefs and foodies, so when they get together with Troy, half our conversations revolve around food...)