{this moment}

{this moment}

happy valentine's day!

post #600 - baked potato soup

this baked potato soup is one of the easiest, yummiest and most versatile soups I've come across in a while. It turns out quite creamy - even without cream, which makes it a very cheap dinner - and the leftovers are a perfect lunch.
So far I've made it with chicken, with sausage and onions and plain, but the possibilities of changing up the flavor are endless, rather like the possibilities for customizing your baked potato come to think of it. :)
As the woman who blogged the recipe noted, it is a perfect one dish dinner, but would also be nice as a hearty starter. It's just the thing when the weather outside is dreary and cold.

lemon cake

lemon cake, originally uploaded by Lizi Beth.

I made this lemon cake on Saturday, and this is all that is left. It's so yummy that we ate most of it in three days. The cake has the texture of a pound cake but has just enough tartness from the lemon juice in it to make it light and refreshing. It goes really well with morning coffee!

I found the recipe in Under The Tuscan Sun and simplified it a bit as I wrote it down, but this is the basic gist.

Cream together:
1 C butter
2 C sugar

Beat in:

3 eggs, one at a time. The mixture should be light and fluffy.

Combine:
3 C flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Mix:

1 C buttermilk or cream into butter mixture alternately with the flour mixture.

Add:

3 Tbs lemon juice and

zest of 1 lemon

Pour into a greased tube pan (I used my springform pan with the tube insert) and bake for 50 minutes. Now, the recipe said to bake the cake in a 300 degree oven, but I found that the cake was still very runny after 70 minutes and at that point turned the oven up to 350. Next time I think I'll try baking it for 45 minutes at 350 and then check it, adding more time if needed.

After the cake has cooled and has been removed from the pan, glaze it with this icing:

1/4 C butter

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

3 Tbs lemon juice

this afternoon

in the midst of all the ice and snow I find myself yearning after a yard and a garden of my own.

One of the things I used to do each year in California was, after Christmas and all the bustle that came along with it was over, head out into the yard to prune back the verdure that was ever trying to take over Dad and Mom's house. Here, though, nothing grows in the winter. Except for the occasional snow drift that is.

flower photos taken last spring

a new heirloom

I finished knitting Emma's dress a few days before Thanksgiving, just perfect since I had been imagining it as her holiday dress for this year. It is a rather simple pattern, once you figure out how the yoke is laid out. :) I found it in The Expectant Knitter and knit it up in Pattons "Grace" cotton yarn instead of the silk that the pattern recommended and like it just as well. It is light enough to to be a Spring dress but heavy enough to keep her little belly warm this winter, too.

want one?

I put a large bowl of clementines on our coffee table, thinking that even if Emma could reach it she wouldn't be able to damage them (the worst she could do would be to suck on the fruit). Well, our little one has longer arms than I thought! And now she spends several minutes after each nap standing at the coffee table under our window pulling clementines out of the bowl and either dropping them or handing them to me. And sometimes she lets me keep them, too. :)

our teething babe

The past few days have been filled with lots and LOTS of Emma holding, Emma comforting, and trying to find ways to relieve her discomfort.

So, when I heard her pull out the basket that holds our CDs tonight - which is usually a "no touch" item - I ignored it and let her play. She wasn't being destructive, just curious. She pulled most of the cases part way out and slid them back in, playing with a few colorful ones that caught her interest. It kept her busy and distracted for quite a while.

Now the thing is, she is happy but I feel bad that I was inconsistent!

Emma Grace Elizabeth, 2/26/09

and twelve hours later ...

8 lbs, 15 oz
11:31 pm
20 1/2" long

We are at home now - happy, healthy, and enjoying each other. I'll post more pictures and a bit about Emma later, as the time comes! For now, Mom posted a play-by-play on her blog. She, Julia and Ben are coming tomorrow, so I'll get back to you when I can! Maybe when Grandma is holding Emma ... :)

Baby update

So, today the little pregnancy ticker reads, "40 weeks and 0 days pregnant", which means that today we have officially reached our baby's "due" date. And at this point, since the crib is still empty, it looks as if she just might be "late".

In light of that, we scheduled an induction appointment at the hospital for the 26th, at 7 a. m. (ike! that sounds early!), and are praying that we don't have to keep it. I am a little skittish about the whole idea of inducing labor, even though I know that if that is the way God wants our baby to be born, it will work out fine. I just would greatly prefer to go into labor naturally. Either way, though, His plan is perfect, He is sovereign, and He will take care of us. We are very eager to be able to finally hold her in our arms, and not just feel her through my tummy, but it felt so odd to be choosing her possible birthday!

Little One, we love you, and can hardly wait to see your little face! <3

baby's new dress

I used some rasberry colored linen that I had been saving, and the scraps left from the little blanket (with touches of pink!) that I made just after we heard that we are having a girl.
Sewing and knitting for her has been so much fun, and it will only get better when she will actually use the little things! Just picturing a chubby little one -with red curls? - crawling and toddling around in them is wonderful.

winter Saturday

A neighbor boy, enjoying the week's snow before it turns to slush. Oh what fun.

grapefruit-vanilla compote - last night's dessert

I found this idea in Real Simple magazine: Lightly cook grapefruit segments in a hot skillet with a few spoonfuls of sugar and a drops of vanilla; serve with its sauce over ice cream or pound cake.

It is a warm, cold, quick, juicy and extremely fragrant winter dessert. In fact, it almost smells better than it tastes! I just wish that I had a room spray that captured the scent.

the nursery

I am totally in love with Baby's room. There are times that I walk and just sit and look and dream. She'll be here so soon, and yet that time still feels so far away. It still seems unreal that in a few weeks there will be a real live baby here, sleeping, blinking, yawning, needing us. Our Baby.

I love this room.

Because it is on the North side of the building, the light is soft and glowy, kind of dreamy. I added a few more "bird" things to it, and now it almost feels complete.

Almost.

Saturday's shopping trip with Leah

Saturday's shopping trip with Leah, originally uploaded by Lizi Beth.

Brian's fiancee - my future sister-in-law, how great is that! - and her mom and sisters, as well as Teri and Sarah, came over on Saturday. We all went dress shopping together ......... and had a wonderful time.
Thank you all for coming! It was so good to see you and spend the day together. (heart)

Did you know that tulips smell like honey? I didn't either, until John brought these home the other night. Their scent has been wafting by me pretty much all day long. A nice bit of spring when it's 7 degrees outside.

IKEA winter sale

Josh

Nathan

My mother-in-law Teri, Sarah and the younger guys came down on Monday and we trecked IKEA.

Or, at least, I think the guys were with us ........

IKEA's winter sale is going on, and some of the prices are down 30-50%. After a little bt of considering, I picked up a few things that I had had my eye on for a while, such as:

the Molger bath organizer for 5.99

There were a few other things that I wanted to get, though I still need to think them over/ talk them over with John:

the Gulliver childrens chair (I want at least two, maybe four) for 7.99 each, half off ... which means if we get four we'd only be paying the price of two ... but then we'd have to find a place for them ......... maybe?
Not bad at all, especially considering that they're wood!

the Gulliver childrens table to match the chairs, at 14.99


We'll have to see. We don't really need them now, but will they ever be this cheap again? We don't have a place to set them up, except, perhaps for one chair, but the boxes are flat! Oh, decisions.


Well, we had a great time there, and came back tired, with sore feet and a few goodies. Thanks for coming down guys! It was great seeing you!

Wonderful Love

Yesterday I found an article titled "His Love Stories", by Elisabeth Adams.

"The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Word made flesh. I like to think that, in a small way, each of us is also the Word made flesh; that each of us has a story in which the kindness of God is made visible to the world. Think how clear His kindness is in your salvation story. And when you listen to the salvation stories of others, don't you see how unique is the way He captures each of our hearts?
"That's why my favorite love stories are true ones. In fact, I've probably read or heard the stories of nearly 150 Christian couples, each one as unique as a fingerprint. Some couples called it "courtship," some called it "dating," and some met and married long before the terms acquired their present meanings. God's kindness is evident in them all."

It's a good article, reminding us of God's creativity in pursuing and wooing us. After I read it I started to think of the many ways that God is still wooing me - because one of the wonderful things about the Almighty is that He is our Eternal Lover, never content to let our relationship with Him to grow stale. And not just the ways He woos me, but those around me.
It may not always feel loving or look beautiful in the moment - just as in any long term relationship there are periods of pain - but looking back I can see that He has always been loving, always been faithful to care for my heart.
What a wonderful God.

preparing for our little one

I've been working on another sweater for Baby, this one a little bit bigger than the first. The pattern is from The Expectant Knitter, and the yarn is a merino and bamboo blend. All that's left are the sleeves, and putting on our Little One, of course.