"The Little Couple" is making me cry

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!

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

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!

No more hand wringing my laundry!

On Mother's Day

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...

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

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.