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it’s only taken, oh, about 4 years

it’s only taken, oh, about 4 years

Yeah, you read that right. Four years.
It was at least that long ago that I started to collect recipes from magazines that I had tried and liked, or that looked tasty and I wanted to try.

I had whole file box full of clippings (it was pretty heavy). I kept adding to it whenever I cleaned out the stack of magazines, and we’ve moved that box with us three times. I planned to “sometime” go through it and put them all in a binder or something so that they would be more organized and accessible, but that “sometime” kept get farther and farther away.
Then I found these pretty downloads on Prudent Baby and decided that it was time to finish the project that I’d started.

the dessert binder

I really liked the aqua version of the binder cover, but our printer ran out of color ink in between the time that I printed the first one and the time that I realized that I’d need more (a span of about 2 months, since I started in the week before Ian was born). I had some pieces of vellum on hand, so I printed out a few sheets of the gray version and layered them over some full-page pictures that I pulled out of MSLiving (they have some really gorgeous images in there).

the baking binder

I tossed a ton of the clippings (I really only need one or two versions of buttercream frosting, right?), but there were still a lot of keepers – three whole binders worth (so far)! So now I have the recipes divided into Side Dishes and Main Dishes, Baking, and Desserts. Can you tell where my priorities are? ;)

It’s so nice to be able to have them all at my fingertips!

Linking to these parties – check them out! There are some really amazing things being posted!


God-powered Mothering

God-powered Mothering

 One of the blogs I follow – Femina, written by Nancy Wilson and her daughters/daughter in law – posted about loving our children. Not just loving them, though, but loving them with a I Corinthians 13 kind of love, a Christ-like love. I was thinking of paraphrasing what they wrote, but it’s all good!
So here it is:

“1. Love is longsuffering. Moms will have plenty of provocations in this world, so they need to be able to suffer for a long time. Some of this longsuffering involves putting up with people who degrade motherhood and despise children. Moms need to think long term, give themselves a good job description, and adopt God’s view of the high calling of motherhood.
2. Love is kind. “She openeth her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness” (Proverbs 31:26). Much kindness (and unkindness) comes via words. Pervasive kindness means listening, forgiving, anticipating, speaking, and doing. It includes physical comforts for your kids: giving them clean beds, warm food, soap and water. It is a LAW of kindness, which means it includes discipline and instruction that is given kindly.
3. It is not envious. Not of other mothers, not of other people’s children or their accomplishments or grades or personality. This means no comparisons with the other siblings, no complaining. Children feel their parents disapproval and it can crush them.
4. It does not vaunt (parade) itself. Moms should be careful not to provoke others to envy (or disgust or weariness) by putting their children on display in a bragging way, hijacking every conversation back to the report card or the clever cuteness. This does not mean that moms should not praise their children and rejoice in their accomplishments. But the Christmas letter should not be full of vaunting.
5. Love is not puffed up. This implies being full of oneself. And this is the kind of mom who cannot be taught by her own children because the kids are never right, and mom is never wrong. This kind of parent is full of her own authority and looks to lord it over the kids rather than love them. She demands attention.
6. Does not behave rudely (unseemly). This means improper or inappropriate behavior. We’ve all seen this at the grocery store: “You are driving me crazy! I am going to count to three and then I’m leaving you here!” Love does not threaten. Love takes responsibility. Love doesn’t over-share about her children’s needs, failures, weaknesses, or sins.
7. Seeks not its own. This kind of mom gives herself away. Home is for the family, and the schedule is for the kids, not the kids for the schedule. This means family night is not the night the kids dread.
8. Not easily provoked. This kind of supernatural love doesn’t react. It sees the big picture and doesn’t flip out over spilled milk or muddy shoes.
9. Thinks no evil. She hears both sides of the story first before making a judgment. She doesn’t believe everything she hears. She does not attribute motives.
10. Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. When someone else’s child fails or flunks or loses, she does not do a victory dance.
11. Bears all things. Sickness. Slowness. Messiness. Childishness. She can bear these things if she has supernatural love.
12. Believes all things. She loves the truth! She lives it out and she teaches her children to believe.
13. Hopes all things. This kind of supernatural love can believe that God is in control of all things, even this sickness or this frustration or this loss. This kind of mom hopes in God and knows He is writing her story and her children’s stories.
14. Endures all things. Who can do this without the supernatural love and power of God?

15. Love never fails. This love sees the kids to the finish line with faith and courage.
Okay, so who doesn’t need supernatural love to do this? Pray to God for it! He loves to give the supply.”

He does love to give when we ask (especially when we ask for things that make us more like Him), and always will.

Asking God for love like His reminded me of the verses at the end of Ephesians 3:
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

Amen and amen.

  

making room – turning a corner into a nursery

making room – turning a corner into a nursery

Ian has been sleeping in our room since he was born on June 8. We have a two bedroom apartment, and, while Emma Grace has enough space in her room for a bassinet/playpen, she is still only 16 months and wakes up pretty easily.
I knew that we could easily take care of one crying baby at night, but wasn’t so sure about two!

So, towards the end of my pregnancy I spent some time making a spot for our new little one along a wall in our master bedroom.
I wanted our new baby to have a special space just for him, but also wanted to avoid making our room look like a nursery!

Before I started rearranging the room the wall had a collection of frames with photos from our wedding and of Emma, some meaningful notes that John and I have written to each other, and a couple of shadow boxes with some flowers and a pair of my mom’s baby shoes.

(after)

I took those down and moved them to the wall above the dresser, and, with this canopy idea that I had seen on design*sponge in mind, made up a wall hanging to define the space.

I really loved how the canopy made the other nursery looked, kind of tailored but not preppy, and could see it working really well in our room. So, I went to the fabric store looking for some fabric similar to the material that was used for the hanging in the article.
The only fabric that they had that was even close was pretty pricey and available by special order only. I am a huge cheapskate (if you’ve been reading the blog a while you might have picked up on that!) and was really hoping to get the project done without spending large amounts of $$$. So …………. I looked on the clearance table!
This fabric was $1.99 a yard (I bought 4 yards) and I already had the brown that I used to edge it on hand from an earlier project.

We have since moved the playpen into Emma’s room and have a Moses basket that my mom gave us in ours. (Ian starts the nights in his basket, and John and I often move him into our bed part way through the night.)

I found that, because the playpen was up against the wall and it seems so far from the bed in the middle of the night, I was never using it.
We’ll probably move it back once Ian grows out of the basket, but for now we have a few extra square feet of space. :)

 

sweet words

sweet words

I just stumbled upon Banter Banner. It’s such a fun company! They make a variety of banners with different phrases, all reflecting the company motto: “because we should celebrate everyday”.

And one of the great things about these banners? They’re each just $10. :)

growing ginger

growing ginger

I love the flavor of ginger. Something about it just seems so “homey” to me, and at the same time it can be fresh and a bit exotic, too.

the ginger tuber that I “harvested”

I have been wanting to use fresh ginger in recipes for a while now, but was hesitating to buy it because I knew I wouldn’t use it all and the rest would go bad. And I couldn’t stand the idea of buying something (that’s not really in our food budget in the first place) knowing that I’d be throwing half of it out.

Last fall I finally took a few minutes to research (read, type it into Google) growing it myself. It’s surprisingly easy! As I was doing that I found that you can store ginger in the freezer, and that frozen ginger is actually easier to grate (now, isn’t that nice?). It also grows well in shady spots and indoors, quite handy since we don’t get any sun through our windows.

So I splurged a little and bought some.

one of the ginger stalks (it looks like bamboo)

I found that ginger tubers grow in a similar fashion to potatoes: instead of planting seeds, you plant “eyes”.
The article I liked the best was on eHow. The steps are simple and easy to follow.
Instead of planting the entire tuber, though, I cut it into inch size chunks and planted the ones with the most promising looking eyes on them and put the rest in the freezer to use in recipes.

10 months later, the stalks on the plant turned yellow and died off, just like the article said! I forgot that it was normal and that you are only supposed to harvest a little bit, so I dug it all up. But that’s okay – I just replanted some eyes, and in another 10 months I’ll harvest again! :)


ah, commitment. and love that’s been tried and found true.

this couple is just darling! they honestly recognize each other’s faults, but then love them anyway. day after day, and year after year. that’s what a lasting marriage takes!

a summer sunday morning

a summer sunday morning

The tree outside our window.

This blog post by Ann Voskamp spoke to me, especially these lines:
“The most enchanting days never cost a thing, only that you pay attention.
I slow down and open the eyes wide and dig deep into the pocket of me.

I’m thinking now is worth all I have.”

Ian is wearing a romper/faux suit that Mimi gave him at the shower and Emma is wearing a romper that Grammie bought while she was here. They looked so cute!

Emma wanted her picture taken, but wasn’t quite so sure about smiling.

this moment

this moment

A few pictures from this afternoon when Emma was napping:

Also, there’s a woman that writes a blog that I follow who wrote a good – and really long – post the other day about parenting. Here’s a snippet:

“Fear based parenting … is when parents motivate their children to do what is “right” out of fear. Just plain fear. …
Fear is sin. I do not want to parent my children based on my fears.
I do not want to raise fearful children either. I believe if we parent this way we can hinder our children from understanding who God is.
…
There are a few different types of fear based parenting possibly?
-parenting according to what we FEAR others will think of us.
-parenting where we actually plant FEAR in the hearts of our children [ultimately not trusting the Lord].
-over protecting out of FEAR.
-motivating our children to behave the way we want them to out of FEAR of us, or fear of hell, or fear of punishment.
…
I think fear based parenting is something that can easily sneak into our relating to our children without even realizing it.”

There’s a lot more too, just her recent thoughts on being a godly mother.