Has it really been since August...

This is for Sam - who is as I type on his way to Chicago for a week of work with superstar Jimi Allen on he and Kate's beautiful home. 

He's been loving the work up there (it's finish work - his favorite!)  but struggling with the time away from home, me and the girls. We went up together with the girls the last time and it certainly helped -- but this week we're back to Sam in Chi-land, and I and the girls in KY. So far we're planning: movie night (tomorrow), cupcake and ice cream for dinner night (Friday), and paint your nails night (Sat). The weekend will fly and starting Tuesday we have family coming in for Thanksgiving, so all we really need to do is get through to the end of the week. 

In the meantime, I'm going to be all sappy and post the words to our first dance... almost ten years later, I'm still so happy that he's strong when I'm weak, the words when I can't speak...and the anchor of my soul. Love you and missing you tonight.

You are the air I need to breathe
the river of life inside of me
you are the half that made me whole
you are the anchor of my soul

and you are strong when I am weak
you are the words when I can't speak
you never fail to see me through
that's the love I found in you

you are my shelter from the storm
you are the road that leads me home
and baby with you here face to face
Oh I know I've found my place

and you are strong when I am weak
you are the words when I can't speak
you never fail to see me through
that's the love I found in you

and once in every life
you find the one that's right
and when you say forever it's true
That's the love I found in you

sick sleeping beauty.

Anyone who's been around Millie for more than ten minutes knows that this isn't how she's supposed to look at 10 in the morning. We can barely convince her to miss the happenings around her to take a nap in the afternoon, much less lay down just 2 hours after she woke up.

She was sick some over the weekend, and we thought it had passed, but apparently not. She woke up glassy eyed, ate a few bowls of oatmeal, then proceeded to wander around the house until snuggle time....sleep time. Sam took Lydia to work at the store with him this morning, and I got some quick snuggle time with little Millie that quickly led to her falling asleep in our bed.

While it's admittedly nice to have a snuggly 2 year old, I miss our crazy Millie and hope she's feeling better soon.

PS. I love the elbow dimple.

painting pictures.

I love this song by Sara Groves. It is the song of my heart the past few weeks and months as we've gone through transitions in several areas of life - occupations, roles in our marriage, our growing family. This is where I'm at:

I don't want to leave here 
I don't want to stay 
It feels like pinching to me either way 
The places I long for the most 
Are the places where I've been 
They are calling after me like a long lost friend

It's not about losing faith 
It's not about trust 
It's all about comfortable 
The place I was wasn't perfect 
But I had found a way to live 
It wasn't milk or honey 
But then neither is this

I've been painting pictures of Egypt 
Leaving out what it lacked 
The future seems so hard 
And I want to go back 
But the places that used to fit me 
Cannot hold the things I've learned 
And those roads closed off to me 
While my back was turned 

The past is so tangible 
I know it by heart 
Familiar things are never easy to discard 
I was dying for some freedom 
But now I hesitate to go 
Caught between the promise 
And the things I know

Blue.

Can you guess what this means?

The sounds of our summer.

Right now, it's this:
- The girls playing in the pool in the backyard or up in the green room with their little people village...
- Paul Cardall or Norah Jones on pandora at night while I work on corn, tomatoes, peaches, pickles, or whatever else we're putting up at the moment
- Traffic outside the open windows that has returned to our road again now that school is going again (boo! We enjoyed the quiet of the summer)
- Book pages being turned
- Boxes and furniture being shuffled around and sorted through as we move rooms around to prepare for baby
- The single rain noisemaker in the girls room - they're finally sharing a room and it's going great. There's nothing sweeter than hearing them chat each other up while they're falling asleep.
- Cicadas. Loud ones. Good thing I love their noise!
- Dumping cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden on the butcher block counter. Every day.
- The girls talking in our little thankful time prayers at the end of the day. Millie can finally verbalize what she's thankful for - it's usually the see saw at the park and sometimes the pool. So sweet.

It's so funny. We spend half the summer preparing for camp, and then once camp is completed, we feel we can really "begin" the summer. Only the kids here go back to school the first week of August. So to everyone else, fall has already arrived. But we're blissfully ignoring their schedule and enjoying our second half of the summer. We are truly rich - healthy kids, good food to eat, a sweet home we love on the side of a mountain, a faithful and steadfast God, and really good internet access. ;) (That's my thankful time list for tonight!)

dates in Hyden.

So we live in a small town. In terms of date night, all it means is that we have more limited opportunities when we do take a night for us. Not that we actually have date nights less. Actually, we're spending more time together than ever before, which is pretty swell. It means that we have to get more creative. Especially when Jessica waits until the day before to track down a babysitter. (Yes, I failed!)

So what do you do in a small town when you fail at finding a babysitter? (or anywhere, for that matter)

You make this yummy peppercorn filet from pioneer woman, of course. It looks gross in the photo. It was fabulous though. Yum. Lots of cream is involved in the recipe. Does the fact it was grass fed make it better? Hmm.






Then you rent this from itunes:



Then you dress up. (This is very important. Do not skip this step.)



Then you have an unexpected guest right in the middle of dinner. Who would have guessed?!



Sucess. It was a blast.

Here's to making date night special, wherever you live. It's about the person you're with...not the coolness of the restaurant you're at, right?

taking risks.

Can I just say how refreshing it is not to design and outfit a house based on resale value? Since we knew we would eventually sell our house in Chicago, we always had it in the back of our mind that we needed to keep things neutral and versatile. Pair that with an early 2000's fascination with Pottery Barn, and you've got a lot of beige. A lot of sepia. A lot of black and white. A whole lotta blah. (A short side note. I'm not dissing monochromatic schemes. My friend Amy can pull off an amazing monochromatic room. But she's an interior designer with some seriously great taste and creativity. Need I say more?)

Neutral no more I say! No, I shout. Can't you tell with the exclamation point? Maybe I did stay up too late doing taxes last night. And maybe I have had too much coffee today. Moving on.

Since having little people in our lives, we've naturally had more color instilled in our day-to-day living. I started realizing that I really enjoyed more color in our lives. So I've embraced my inner child, and started using more color. Colors that make me happy.

That is why our kitchen window frame is turquoise. And yes, I do realize that turquoise is SO 2010. But I really don't care. I usually catch onto things when they're heading out of style anyhow.

birthday bunting.

Can I just say how much fun it is to be creative when prepping for birthday parties?

We had a party for the girls' 2nd and 4th birthdays on Sunday, and it was a blast. I've been hoping to make some "permanent" birthday decorations that we can use from year to year and on holidays, and I made some progress using this birthday as my "deadline". I'm sure some folks might call this crazy talk, but the reality is that one of the ways I show love to my family is by creating. Whether food, gifts, a home - I love making things for my girls, my husband, my family, my friends. Ask my poor brothers about my homemade birthday gifts for them while we were growing up. The worst one that immediately comes to mind was a woven dickie turtleneck that I *think* was wool. I'm sure it never got worn. At least I hope not. Sorry Josh!

Hopefully these handcrafted goodies are more useful than some of the ones I made growing up. I do know that they were all made with love though. :)

I was chatting with my mom about how much fun it was to celebrate this special day for our girls in the breezy afternoon with friends at the party. And how much fun it was to make some homemade decorations. And how much we've enjoyed getting to know some new friends over the past year. And she reminded me that these are the things I CAN enjoy more now that I've transitioned from full time to part time work. There's no way I would have had the time to invest in this had I just finished a 40+ hour workweek. I'm so thankful for the change. I'm so thankful for our family. And friends. And God's grace. I'm happy to be alive.

snark.

I found this very amusing. Sam and I were in a bookstore in Lexington a few weeks back, and I happened upon a very very snarky book for new parents. It made me laugh out loud. I need to laugh out loud tonight. Hence, the posting of some snark.




And then this: He started catching on though. Yes, he is weird, wild, and wonderful. And I love him for it.




How does this relate to the fact we're not in Chicago anymore? Well. We had to go to Lexington to go to a bookstore. Not counting Amazon, of course. Yep. But it sure is a great excuse to visit Bella Notte.

it's just around the corner.

Or maybe it's here.
Our magnolias are blossoming, our grass is planted, and our girls are loving rolling down the driveway in their little cars. They fly down to the white line on the driveway. Then pick up the cars, run back up to the top. Repeat. Occasionally run into the ditch on the side and splash in the water. This is what our morning looked like today.

weight or cups?

So is there anyone out there who cooks by weight? I am considering making the big jump and getting a kitchen scale.

I eat gluten free, and bake gluten free. I think that I've accepted that baking is one of my more practical hobbies at this point in life, and I really enjoy it.
And it seems that the best way to bake the best gluten free breads, cookies, etc., is by weight. Ratios, to be more exact, and it's much easier to cook by ratio by weight than by cups, since different flours have different weights. I do use pamela's mixes for most of my bread and pancake type of recipes, but for when I want to make something taste exactly like the real deal that might be a little trickier - say, bagels or english muffins...

Have any of you made that jump? Especially anyone who bakes GF?

Love,
Curious

shooting fun.

No, I'm not a member of the NRA yet.

I needed to get out of the house for a bit today, so during the kiddos naps, I headed out with my camera.

After a multi-week stretch of beautiful days in the 50s and 60s, we've had torrential rain for the past two days. Overnight it turned to snow, and we woke up to this: green in the valleys, and snow on the peaks. Beautiful.

Further exploring took me up to the Frontier Nursing School campus. I love this place! It's so nicely cared for, and the buildings have a ton of character, something you don't find much where we live. In the back of my head, I remembered that there was a chapel at the school that I really wanted to check out.

Lucky for me, it was open, and I felt like I was tucked inside a primitive cathedral in an alley in Florence.

Check out this place. I left feeling so peaceful and contemplative.

Irony.

So I had this booklet laying around, and apparently Lydia got a hold of it and decorated it.

Considering the subject of the booklet, it seriously cracked us up.

This rated just as high on the irony scale as finding my "top 10 ways to be organized" book in my box of leftover paperwork that I've been toting around since leaving my FT job over a year ago.

Nice.

our kitchen step stool.

This little item is now indispensable in our house. I just discovered it last week, when I spotted it at the store and decided that I would be the buyer. It's the perfect height for little people to see what's going on at counter-height, yet not be TOO involved when I'm trying to put together a quick snack or meal for them. It satisfies their curiosity!

Unfortunately, while the wood frame is in great shape, the fabric was less than desirable. So I recovered it (with Lydia's help) over the weekend. It turned out to be a quick project, and we are all happy with the results. We love our happy step stool!

January!

I dug the nest out of my hair and threw it in the compost pile. Maybe it will make something beautiful in the garden this spring!