So thankful...

Well, after a whirlwind Thanksgiving tour to my home town, with a sick child no less, we are finally home.  We get to sleep in our own beds (mine complete with heating pad and extra pillows).  Emma gets to sleep in her own bed instead of with Mommy and Daddy.  We get to resume our regular routine (for at least a couple more weeks until we make the three hour drive back to VA for Christmas).  Work is to be done, decorating to be completed, grocery shopping to be tackled, small group Bible studies to be rekindled, girls nights to be enjoyed, Christmas gifts to be made, schedules to be harried, but I couldn't be more thankful for all of it.

I did a lot of thinking over the Thanksgiving Holiday, a natural time of year to reflect on what you're thankful for.  But this year was different for me for some reason.  Though I was thankful for the surface level stuff too, it went a little deeper.

Emma was pretty sick and that left me thankful for each passing day.  When she was finally well, I was left thankful for her healing and then thankful to be her mother.  Time with family left me thankful for love and it's dizzying effect on the human spirit.  Quiet observation of those around me left me thankful for my relatively problem-free marriage (even with it's few kinks and quirks).  Time away from friends reminded me of how thankful I am of all my dear friendships.  The cold wind made me thankful for my warm home.  Good holiday food left my tummy thankful that we don't eat like that on a regular basis, but joyful that we always have food on our table.  The lessons in each one of these little details leaves me thankful for wisdom gleaned.

I'm thankful for this blog and I'm glad to be back writing again after a week of no internet, as trivial as that sounds.  But at the same time, I'm thankful we didn't have internet for a week!

Though I'm glad to be back, it was a nice little mini-vacation and for that I'm thankful as well.

Most of all, I'm thankful to God...

I'm thankful for all He's given me to be thankful for.  For without Him, I'd have nothing to be thankful for at all.  What wonderful blessings He bestows us with day in and day out.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  I look forward to catching up with all my bloggy pals and catch you up on several things I've got in mind to post about as well!  I've got a lot to talk about!

A little note....

Hey All!
Well, I have a ton of posts to catch up on...Heart of the Problems, faith,  awards to accept and send out, and cute Emma stories.  However, I have to apologize, it will all have to wait until next week.  Not only are we due in VA for the Holiday, but now Emma is sick as well, so this here blog is going to have to take a backseat for a few days.
My etsy shop is also closed down during this time, but we'll be back up and running on Monday, November 30th.
I pray you all have beautiful Thanksgivings!  We have much to be thankful for in this life...for life itself is such a blessing.  God is so good!
I'll miss you friends!  See you soon!

Another Award?? My Gracious!!

I have been honored with winning another award ya'll!  And I am just absolutely beside myself with joy!

Jenn over at Rook No.17 gave me this!  What a super cool award!  Jenn and I just recently met through blogging!  What a wonderful group of friends writing introduces you to, huh!?!  Make sure you check out her blog (and her cakes!) HERE! Jenn not only writes, but she crafts and cooks, too!  She's a regular ol' Renaissance woman!  Oh!! AND she just opened up her very own Etsy shop, The Cute Little Shop on the Corner! Check our her whimsical creations HERE.

Thanks Jenn for loving my blog enough to give me an award!  I really appreciate it!!

The rule with this award is I have to pass it on to ten other lovely bloggers as well; notifying and prompting them to do the same!  So here's my list of nominees (with brief descriptions, but these blogs are so great there really aren't enough words to decribe them at all):

1) Angela at Angela's Peony Patch ~ thoughtful and decorative

2) Jackie at The Sweetest Petunia ~ elegant and artistic

3) Amber at Classicly Amber ~ heart and hearth

4) Jamie at A Forest Frolic ~ whimsical and creative

5) Jessie at Made Cunningly ~ faithful and crafty

6)Glenna at Your Fabric Place ~ crafty and tutorials

7) Melissa at My So Called Crazy Life ~ soulful and raw

8) Lisa at Hospitable Pursuits ~ warm and welcoming

9) Angie at Nana's Box ~ generous and good cause

10) Lana at I Love My 5 Kids ~ a momma's pride

Congratulations Ladies!  I love you guys and your blogs!!

Have a wonderful day ya'll!

Tasty Tuesday: My New Bread Pan

For this Tasty Tuesday I want to share with ya'll my new obsession...

I'm in Love.

I just purchased a terracotta bread pan.

And it's beautiful.

My inspiration was my friend Amber, who in all of her rustic-ness uses a stoneware bread pan to bake her breads.  We'll talk more about Amber and her bread in a minute.  But all I've ever been used to is the tin metal non-stick loaf pans.  Which work fine, but...

They don't work like terracotta.

I will never go back to those metal pans.

Mine actually comes from Henry Watson's Pottery in England as part of the Original Suffolk Collection.  As if the bread baker (as it's called) isn't enough, there's a whole kit and kaboodle set, from flour canisters to milk pitchers.  Check them all out here.

Here's my little beauty...

So, I buy a bread pan, I need to make bread right?  Well fortunately the pan came with a recipe, one that  I attempted to make three times, all of which ended in disaster.  I don't know if it was me or what, but it seemed I was destined to never put my new pan to use.  I followed the instructions explicitly, but all I got was sludge.  I moved on....

Now, here is where I tell you about Amber and her honey wheat bread.

In one word...It's AMAZING.  I've had it on multiple occasions and the flavor, texture, color, even the smoothness is all DIVINE!  Amber's blushing now!

But Amber, unlike myself, is patient enough to make her bread from scratch.  Like with all the mixing and activating and proofing and such.  She does it all!  It makes me tired just writing about it.  Make sure you read all about her bread here over at ClassiclyAmber if you're the do it from scratch kind of gal.  She's got a great picture tutorial of the whole process.

Me...I'm not that girl!  I love those girls, but it's not me.  So I set out to find an in between.  A recipe that combined all the good ingredients, produced an excellent final product, but without all the elbow grease!  And what I came up with is a combo of various recipes, thrown into the bread machine, then baked (in my beloved bread pan) in the oven.

Here it is:

• 1 package Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
  
• 3 Tablespoons Honey ( I only use local raw honey)
  
• ½ Tablespoons Salt
• 1-½ Tablespoon Crisco or butter ( I prefer butter)
  
• 1-½ cup Whole Wheat Flour ( I use King Arthur's unbleached Whole Wheat)
  
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour (also KA's unbleached All Purpose)
  
• 1 cup Warm Water

First you put all your dry ingredients in the bread machine, then the honey and butter, and lastly the water.  The water should be warm to the touch, but not hot.  Turn the bread machine to the dough setting and let it go.  Mine was about a two hour gig from start to finish.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Finally, once it's done in the bread machine, transfer it to your greased loaf pan and bake it for roughly 45 minutes.

Now, I did not knead or shape it out of the bread machine.  Next time I will just so it'll look prettier, but it's not necessary to do so.  Hey~ it's all going straight to your belly right!?!  And watch your time...apparently terracotta pans heat a little better so you don't need to bake it as long.  45 minutes is probably a good judge for metal pans, but the bread will be brown and crusty on the top...it'll look done.  Just eye it.

And that's it!

Delicious homemade bread!

For now, this is the way for my kitchen, but maybe one day I'll graduate to the Amber way of things!  In the meantime, I can enjoy her bread at her house!

For more on Tasty Tuesday, make sure you head on over to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam to get the scoop on a ton of other scrumptious recipes!

Enjoy ya'll!

I won an Award, Ya'll!

Today blessed me with the sweetest of surprises!

Holly from over at 504 Main gave me The Heartfelt Award!

Isn't that just too precious!?!

Holly and I just recently met through blogging!  I think that it is so neat that total strangers can come together with writing as their common ground and strike up a friendship!  And I am just thrilled that she loved my blog enough to give me an award!  Thanks Holly!!

Now make sure you check her out over at 504 Main!  She has one spiffy gig going on over there!!

And with that, I'd like to pass this lovely accolade on to another blogger/friend of mine who truly has a beautiful Heartfelt blog and that's Michelle over at A Mom's Musings.  She's forever sharing her love for Jesus and her family with others. She is such a wonderful person.  I'm blessed by knowing her...I hope you'll be blessed by her words.

Love ya, girl!  Congratulations and keep up the great blogging work!

Have a great night, ya'll!

Kids Say the Darnedest Things...

I've been terrible at video recording Emma.  I'm pretty good at taking pictures, but I never think to charge the video camera to record her hitting all these milestones.
I take that back...
We did get her first laugh, her first rice cereal meal, her dedication at church and her first steps, but those are givens.  Now, she's learning to talk and she hits a milestone everyday!  If not more!  I feel like I'd have to permanently attach the camera to my hip in an effort to document the development of my child's language.  It's happening that fast.
I'm going to plug that thing in right now.
But for the sake of having a written log for remembrance purposes (and because I haven't started her baby book yet~ never mind I said that!) I'm going to share some of the things she's saying right here and right now.
Emma's words make me smile day in and day out.  I feel certain you'll get a chuckle out of them too.
I hope you enjoy!

Mommy: Emma what would you like to eat?
Emma: {with squinted eyes and a huge grin}Fwyes and dink (translation~ fries and drink)

Mommy: I love you, Emma
Emma: Doo Boo (translation~ Love you)

Mommy: Emma, who do you love most in the whole wide world?
Emma: Nomis, Elro, Abby, Gorg, Beebee, Eesie (translation~ Thomas the train, Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Curious George, Baby doll, and Reesie, our dog) 

Emma to Mommy: Moorr {signing} tiken, peas {signing} (translation~ More chicken please)

Emma to Daddy:{while bringing him his shoes} Side, Soos, Walt (translation~ Outside, Shoes, Walk)

Emma to Daddy: Nigh Nigh, Doo Boo, Bye Bye (translation~ Night night, Love you, Bye Bye)

Emma to Mommy, Daddy & Reesie: Momma, Dada, Eesie! DINCE!  (translation~ Everybody DANCE!)

Emma when she's sorry: Thorry

Emma when she sees the Golden Arches: FWYES!

Emma when she sees Chick-Fil-A: Moooo

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!

Apron Giveaway Winner!!

CONGRATULATIONS to Angie from Nana's Box!

I'm actually quite honored to be sending an apron to this wonderful lady!  She has come up with a beautiful blog, tribute and service for those battling cancer all over the nation.

She is also expecting a little bundle of joy very soon!  WooHoo!  Congrats again, Angie!

Here is a short introduction to her site Nana's Box, but please check it for more information.

Nana’s Box is a nonprofit service committed to providing a photo box to cancer patients who are undergoing treatment. Nana's Box offers this service to the individual patient with the help and support of families, and those volunteers interested in the emotional support of cancer patients.

Thank you again to everyone who entered by leaving comments!  You guys made my week with all that you are thankful for!

Blessings to you all!