Eucharisteo Moment

Eucharisteo - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember as thanks to the Lord. 

25 weeks

Here is the usual pregnancy update: 25 weeks!

The baby is 13 1/2 inches long and weighs about 1 1/2 pounds. Things are really moving along now, especially little Isabella. She is kicking with gusto! The one set back is my back, which always gets bad in pregnancy. It is happening so very early this time, really it started at about 12-13 weeks, but is now really bad. I can make it usually all day as long as I don't sit down and get stuck and then in the evening it's Icy-hot and Tylenol in order to get to sleep. But hey, she's worth it!

Here are some crafts I've been working on lately for her

I hand stamped this onesie and then set the ink with a hot iron.

Here's a batch of burpcloths I made with a little extra detail...

I'm looking forward to patting that little back with this burpcloth!

the art of hospitality

Recently, our family has been reading "the Hobbit" before bedtime. The children absolutely love the story so far, it is my first time to read it as well so I am just as riveted.  We read chapter three last night..the words were tantalizing...

"His (Elrond) house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley. I wish I  had time to tell you even a few of the tales or one or two of the songs that they heard in that house. All of them, the ponies as well, grew refreshed and strong in a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes. Their bags were filled with food and provisions light to carry but strong to bring them over the mountain passes. Their plans were improved with the best advice."

As I read this aloud, I couldn't help but think that this is such a wonderful example of what we as women should strive for in hospitality. Our plans and goals shouldn't be perfection in a clean home, having things "just so". But rather our goal should be refreshing those around us. Whether that be our family, our friends, or perfect strangers. Our goal should be to bless, to be merry, to feast well, to make one comfortable. Our children should have this regularity in their lives, not only the way Mom makes the home, but also in the way they serve others as a means of hospitality. We need to desire to mend and heal those who are hurting and bruised as well as their tempers and hopes. We wives need to do this most importantly for our husbands: to greet them, mend their tempers, fill them with good food, make them strong again with our love, mend their clothes, sing, sit and think with them, pray with them and send them off each day with good provisions and even better advice. May you be challenged and encouraged by this sweet little passage to an adventurous book!

lots of red and pink going on...

Some of my children have pink eye. Just when we thought we were done with one kid and a few days had passed, along comes another kid. We also have colds and sore throats. More changing of the sheets, lysoling here, there and everywhere: part of the territory with motherhood. But the weather has been chilly and so we don't mind snuggling in and mending. This weekend I dusted off some projects I've been meaning to do, as well as some yummy ones I've been wanting to do.
I made apple chips..using this recipe. They don't last long in our house. Everyone devours them at quite a quick pace! These are organic. These are addicting.

I also made an apple pie. It's been awhile. Pie has it's own healing properties.

I found a desk on the side of the road in our neighborhood the other day. We were in great need of an extra one. This one was going to go to the trash if someone didn't take it. My hubby grabbed it and fixed it up. I would show you the before and after, but the before was plain wood covered with teenager graffiti. The kind with stupid Justin Beeber lyrics and silly pictures drawn everywhere. So I'm just going to show you the beautiful after... Voila!

(ignore the ugly cords, I'm going to make a small curtain or something to cover up those bad boys)

The other project I worked on all day. It was something I've literally probably needed to do for about five years now.Confession: I am really bad about seeing some great recipe online, printing it out and sticking it in some cookbook or in it's own growing pile. So I finally bit the bullet, organized them all, three-hole-punched them, put them in their own binders with tabs to extra-organize them. I know, it would have been an easy task to do awhile back, but we're talking hundreds of recipes, so ya, it took awhile.

Here is the finished product. Ahhh, much better!

What projects have you been doing???

Easter tree

My girls and I are really into Tasha Tudor books right now. I love Tasha's simple, but beautiful art and I must say that reading about farming and chickens, and canning and candle making with a large family on a nice piece of land is just so appealing. Maybe some day. We had a recent stroke of inspiration...

This is from her book "A time to keep". It's probably my favorite of all her books, full of ideas, and lovely, simple traditions. So here is what we came up with

I still wanted to make this an "Easter tree" and not just a "Spring tree", so we added some verses on the Resurrection to remind us that we would be nothing, there would be no Spring, or New Life without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Here I am at 24 weeks. My kids all had a weird and strange rash that made them all itchy and miserable. I'm still not sure where it came from for sure, but thankfully, it is gone now. Here is my little Soeren and I snuggling. Sometimes we just need a big dose of comfort from Mama and nothing else will work. I am always happy to oblige!

it's a good thing...

Today is a windy day, it's lovely really. It seems to be howling through our house quite nicely, it's a sound that is comforting to me in a weird way, and it is a sound that makes me crave hot tea and fresh baked bread. This bread is crazy good. Like, if I were stranded on a desert Island and could have one food, this would be it. We scarfed this down for lunch with nothing but butter and my homemade blackberry jam and I must say, "forget you Francis all I want is bread and jam."

bread rising

Here it is all warm and baked and lovely, I would show you more after pictures, but all that was left were purple, sticky, happy faces.

Tonight we're going to my husband's bosses house for a barbeque. The men have welded their own smoker and have been smoking ribs since last night. I can't wait to dive into a mess of ribs. Ribs are like an old friend, whenever you get together you catch right up and right back to where you were and all you have is fond memories of them. I love you ribs, and I always will. My sweetie pie called me and asked me a "pretty please and if you by any chance have some extra time" favor. Would I make a barbeque sauce to rival Maurices BBQ sauce from South Carolina. Google South Carolina and Maurices will pop up. I did find a good recipe and added a little extra molasses and some onion powder, but otherwise, Wow!!!! It's spicy, but that didn't stop the girls and I from licking the pan clean!

Here are the ingredients: sugar, a whole bunch of mustard, garlic, tomato paste, worchestire, apple cider vinegar, cayenne, black pepper. 

The finished product, ready to be eaten with ribs!

Here is the Shepherds Bread recipe:

7 c. flour (I think I used a little less)

1 T. salt

1/4 c. sugar

2 pkg dry yeast

1 c. milk

1 1/2 c. warm water

1/4 c. butter

Mix 2 1/2 c. of the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a bowl. Combine milk, butter and water in a sauce pan and heat on low until melted and liquids are warm. Gradually add the liquids to the dry ingredients and whip on high for two minutes, switch to the dough hook, add the rest of the flour little bit by little bit and knead until a soft dough. Let rise in a buttered bowl for an hour, then punch down, divide in half and let rise again. Bake at 400 degrees for 25-28 minutes. 

fresh batch of baby onesies!

As I promised, here are the other projects I've finished. Can't wait to see these on Isabella!

 strawberry onesie..

 I is for Isabella...

Some groovy bibs for my groovy baby

 beautiful butterfly

 Birds of a feather

 I had fun with this one, there's a butterfly on the front

and one to pat!

pregnant and pickles

I made these "bread and butter dill pickles" today. It's my first attempt at making pickles and I must say..Yum! They actually taste like pickles! I know that is weird to say, but as I'm making these and canning them I'm hoping that they don't taste like vinegary cucumbers. Next time, I won't have them in the water bath quite as long as I lost a bit of their crispness, but Eddrick, who is my pickle eater is still happy over these! Here is the other project I've been working on...

 

I made Isabella some very tiny and personalized onesies. This is her "peacock" onesie and I really loved how it turned out. I used the "soft" fabric paint so it wouldn't scratch her newborn skin either. I'll post pics of the other onesies another time. Right now I'm 22 weeks pregnant, my weekly email says she's the size of a spaghetti squash right now. Talk about a growth spurt!

Eucharisteo Moment: toothless

Eucharisteo - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember as thanks to the Lord.

spring comes early

I live in the desert, it can be hot here, it can get downright freezing here, it is dry here. And there are times and seasons when our spirituality can feel the same way, such a fluctuation of "temperatures", such a "dryness" of soul. This week has been hard, and when I say hard, it is like the ground on a day in August in the desert: when the land is parched and cracked and there seems no hope, no life, no rain, just dust. But then the Creator comes and with one touch of His hand, he makes all the hurting and fear and worry go away. Just one touch! An incredible wonder has happened in a life of one I hold dear. A repentance, a miracle, a growing....a SPRING! God has taken all the pain and turned it into the most beautiful springtime boquet. He has made all things new, placed His hand on a dead branch and made it burst into blossom. He has turned my mourning into laughter. I am Lucy and I was in a ship in an island of fog and I can't see, and I've screamed "Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now". And I hear his voice, like an albatross over head, in a soft, gentle, "delicious" voice, in the middle of the dark say to me "Courage, dear heart". And in those few moments, the darkness is.......gone! I am praising God right now, for this early Spring, may it ever flourish and grow. After all, we were all once dead in our trespasses and sins and His RESURRECTING LIFE has made us alive!