Yummy Food!

As many of you know, I absolutely love food. I love eating it, preparing it, and, well, I even like just thinking about it! I enjoy looking through cookbooks for fun, even with no intention of preparing anything, and I also enjoy looking at restaurant menus online WAY in advance, prepping myself for the delicious food I'll get to eat once I get there.

This past week, we had pancakes TWICE for breakfast. Truth be told, we usually have them once a week anyway, because they make for an inexpensive breakfast, and when made with whole wheat flour or oat bran, they're fairly healthful and sustaining too! But they REALLY sounded good to me this week, so I made them twice! One was a basic, fluffy, whole wheat pancake, and the other was a Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancake. The problem was that we were out of maple syrup. Now since I REALLY wanted pancakes, I had to get a little creative. A little homemade syrup was in order, and since I had no maple extract, I opted for an orange syrup to drizzle over the whole wheat pancakes, and a cinnamon syrup for the cinnamon oatmeal pancakes. Both syrups were FANTASTIC!! I was a little worried about the orange syrup, because when I tasted it plain, it was sickeningly sweet, almost medicinal tasting. However, when combined with the nutty flavor of the whole wheat pancake, it was SO good! The cinnamon syrup offered a nice change of pace to the oatmeal pancakes too--I think both recipes are keepers!

Orange Syrup:




Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup:




On another note, we had Ryan's lab group over for dinner this past weekend. Since we've moved here, we've only entertained a couple of times, so it was a lot of fun for me! BUT, I've decided that cleaning the house and shopping for and preparing an entire meal at 9 months pregnant while simultaneously chasing around a two year old is a little nuts. After they all left on Friday evening, I finished the dishes and crashed on the couch (and enjoyed a second piece of pie :) Don't judge, I've only got a few more weeks to excuse away doing such a thing!

The actual point, though, in telling you about the dinner is two-fold: 1. that I spent just $45 for dinner for 8, including main dish, potato, vegetable, salad, dessert, coffee, and candy!! I was pretty excited about that. And 2. the roasted vegetables I made were SO incredibly delicious. I will be making them again and again. Apart from cutting all the veggies, they are so low maintenance! You throw them in the oven and let them go until they're done, and they are so full of robust flavor. Roasting is also a super healthful way to cook veggies, since they retain a lot of their nutrients that way. And, the colors were really beautiful too. No pictures, but I just have to share the recipe (it's out of Renee's cookbook, for those of you who have it):

24 oz. baby carrots, halved lengthwise
24 oz. frozen extra fine green beans (can be found at Aldi)
2 yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper, each cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 medium red onion, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Place carrots and beans in one large bowl. Place peppers, squash, and onions in another bowl. Mix olive oil, garlic, and seasonings and drizzle half over each bowl of vegetables. Place carrots and beans in a large, well-greased baking pan. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Stir in other vegetables and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Yield 12-15 servings.

Since I had to buy larger quantities of the veggies than what I actually needed to serve, I chopped up extra and froze them to pull out and throw into the oven after the baby comes.

Last, though entirely unrelated to my "Yummy Food" title, I had to share these sweet pictures of Abe. He wanted SO badly to get out the baby swing, but I was hesitant because I feared he would try to climb into it and break it. I finally relented and got it out, and after a while I went in to check on him. He was very gently placing his stuffed animals into the swing, kissing each one, and it just melted my heart! Hopefully he'll be just as gentle with his baby brother :)





Thanks for reading!

Snow Adventures

Last week we had our first bit of substantial snowfall! It's been unusually warm and snow-free for our area, so now people have teased that we won't see the ground again until May! We'll see.

Anyway, Abe watched the snow fall all day on Thursday and begged to go outside!



But by the time it warmed up enough, it was time for his nap and he was way too tired to skip it. SO, it wasn't until Friday that we ventured out to play. It took nearly 20 minutes just to get us both dressed for the occasion! But it was worth it. Abe absolutely loved it! We stayed outside for about an hour and a half, rolling and crawling through the snow, learning how to make snowballs, and riding on his sled. Unfortunately, we haven't made it to a hill to go sledding yet-- Hopefully some Sunday afternoon we'll get an opportunity to do that! Ryan had to study while Abe and I played on Friday, so he's looking forward to being outdoors with us too.

I think Abe would have stayed outside all day if I had let him, but I could tell he was cold, so much prodding and promises of a warm treat finally coaxed him indoors! Here are a few more pictures of our snow play:








Today was a beautiful, sun-shiny day, and I would have loved to take him back out! But since our thermometer only saw a high of 3 degrees and sat at 1 for the majority of the day, we opted to stay warm inside...
I hope wherever you're reading from is warmer than here!

Our Day

First off, sorry to those of you who may have been checking frequently for this update, since I ended the last post with "Check back soon"...I really did intend to post this last week! So, though it's late and this day is actually a week old now, here is the post! I thought about doing yesterday hour-by-hour instead, so it would be more recent, but it took a lot of effort to write down every single thing we did, so I decided against it!

Last Tuesday, 1/10/12:

6:30 AM- Woke up and cuddled with Abe for a few minutes

6:35 AM- Took Abe potty and got him milk

6:40-7 AM- Made breakfast: Butterscotch Oatmeal and Strawberry Smoothies (we didn't care much for the oatmeal, by the way...) and packed Ry's lunch

7-7:30 AM- Ate breakfast/family devotions

7:30 AM- Ryan left for school

7:30-8 AM- Cleaned up breakfast dishes and talked with Abe while he finished eating

8-8:10 AM- Snuggled in Abe's bed and read his animal book

8:10-8:20 AM- Got Abe dressed, brushed teeth, combed hair

8:20-9:10 AM- Abe watched Bob the Builder while I: showered and dressed, made the beds, sorted laundry and started a load, made coffee, poured coffee, and checked my email/facebook while drinking coffee

9:10-9:15 AM- Took Abe potty

9:15-9:50 AM- Read Abe's new library books

9:50-10 AM- Dryed my hair and got ready while Abe played with his farm

10-10:30 AM- Switched clean clothes to the dryer and started a new load, made a batch of laundry soap, put away dry breakfast dishes, and got Abe a snack (he "helped" me with these chores!)

10:30-11:30 AM- Crafts with Abe- Made a "Big Cats" picture with lions, leopards, tigers, etc., and talked about the Letter 'B'

11:30 AM- 12 PM- Put cinnamon roll dough ingredients into the bread machine and got lunch ready

12-12:30 PM- Ate lunch, cleaned up lunch, started dishwasher, got laundry out of dryer, and put next load into dryer

12:30-12:45 PM- Folded and put away clothes

12:45-1 PM- Took Abe potty and settled him down for his nap

1-1:15 PM- Read a few stories to Abe and tucked him into bed

1:15 PM- Abe went down for nap and cinnamon roll dough was ready

1:15-1:45 PM- Rolled and cut dough, prepared it for the freezer (part of getting ready for baby!! Ryan loves cinnamon rolls, so I thought I'd make some to bake easily some morning after the baby comes--apparently, if you freeze them right after cutting, before the last rise, you can treat them just as you would a ButterBraid--take them out right before bed and let them thaw/rise on the counter overnight. In the morning, bake fresh! I'll let you know how this turns out--I've read MANY posts on it to make sure people had success with it before I spent precious time and ingredients on a flop! I'm hoping to do the same with some orange rolls too (Ryan likes these even more than cinnamon rolls!).

1:45-2:30 PM- Took surveys online (I had a lot to catch up on), checked email and facebook

2:30-3:40 PM- Quiet time- read my Bible readings for the day (I'm following a "Read the Bible in a Year" Plan, and so far, it's going very well!) and prayed

3:40-4:15 PM- Got last load from dryer and folded and put away, cleaned up cinnamon roll dishes

4:15 PM- Abe finally woke up! He's been taking really long naps lately.

4:15-4:20 PM- Took Abe potty and got him milk

4:20-4:30- Talked with Abe and Daddy in the living room (Daddy got home early!)

4:30-5:15 PM- Made dinner: Chicken and Rice Casserole and Green Beans and emptied the dishwasher and set the table while it baked (Yes, it did take me 25 minutes to empty the dishwasher and set the table!! Everything takes longer when you have a little guy to stumble over :)

5:15-5:45 PM- Ate dinner/family devotions

5:45-6:10 PM- Cleaned up dinner dishes while Abe and Daddy played

6:10-7 PM- Made Play-Doh lollipops with Abe and played with his doctor kit (his favorite thing to diagnose is "bugs in the ears" and then to prescribe "medicine" to help them go away :)



7-7:20 PM- Made popcorn and cleaned the Stir Crazy, took Abe potty, and took Daddy some popcorn

7:20-8 PM- Watched Veggie Tales with Abe (I also read while I "watched")

8 PM- Abe went into our bedroom and told Ryan, "Daddy, it's time to play!"--possibly the favorite moment of the day for BOTH of them!

8-8:20 PM- Family time/play

8:20-8:30 PM- Put Abe's PJ's on, brushed his teeth, took him potty, said prayers, and tucked him into bed!

8:30-9:30 PM- I read while Ryan studied

9:30-10 PM- Watched an episode of "Lie to Me" with Ry

10-10:10 PM- Got ready for bed

10:10-10:20- Talked a few minutes in bed, still deliberating over this baby boy's name. Ryan is really starting to get concerned and antsy that we don't have a name nailed down for him! We're feeling like there are other names we're interested in, but I don't think we can change it on Abe at this point in the game.. I think it will be so special to bring Abe to the hospital to meet this baby he's been referring to by name for nearly 6 months now! We'll see what happens.

10:20- Lights out, Good Night!!

Whew!! It was a pretty full day, as I reflect on it now! I hope you enjoyed. Next post, pictures of our Snow Day!

Getting Excited for Baby!

With Baby Boy #2's arrival date just 6 weeks away (hopefully not longer!!), I've been in the mood to do some deep cleaning, rearranging, organizing, and freezer cooking! It seems like Abe knows it's getting closer too (possibly because my tummy keeps getting bigger!), because every day he asks about his little brother and talks about what they're going to do together once he "comes out"....it's really sweet to hear him! He said that he's excited to show him "tricks"! The other day he told me that "Jesus loves me (Abe), and Jesus loves Mommy, and Jesus loves Daddy, and Jesus loves Brother!" Except, he used the baby's actual name which I don't want to unveil publicly just yet :)

Anyway, the diaper basket is full of tiny little newborn diapers and sweet little newborn and 0-3 month clothes are clean and waiting in his drawer! I've done a small bit of freezer prep and cleaning that I know I won't feel like/have opportunity to do once he arrives, and I hope to continue that over the next few weeks. Possibly the most important "task", however, has been to spend quality time with my little Abram.

Here are a few pictures of some of our progress:

Abe LOVES his new big boy bed! And I love it too! It makes for great story time and snuggling!




A view of the room:




The front of the crib is back on, and the mattress has been raised to the top for baby:




Mommy at 32 weeks (though I'm actually 34 weeks as I write this...):




I'm feeling far more uncomfortable this time around than I was with Abe, and I'm definitely at the point where I'm ready to have this baby out of my tummy and into my arms! I just can't wait to meet him! But, I also know it will change our lives in a very dramatic way, so for that, I'm hanging on to these last 6 weeks with just our family of 3.

Check back soon for a fun post on an hour-by-hour look at one of our days! I got the idea from a friend who recently did the same on her blog, and I found it to be so fun to read! Until then, thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!! (A Little Late...)

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year! We're back in Wisconsin and getting settled back into our "normal". As I write, Ryan is back in class, and Abe is napping in his new big boy bed. We took down all our Christmas decor today, and while I was sad to take it down, it felt good once we were done. It's time for another year to begin!

Regarding our trip back to Illinois for the holidays, Abe's sickness was quickly recovered after getting him on some steroids, and we were able to thoroughly enjoy Christmas! We kicked off the break with family in Chicago and wrapped it up ringing in the New Year with good friends. With lots of joyous engagements with both family and friends in between, we had a busy, wonderful break! We even managed to have some time for a little R&R too! While the season is behind us for another year, I wanted to share a few favorite photos. We are so, incredibly blessed!


One of my super-cute woodland creature ornaments:




Red Velvet Cake Balls:




Christmas Sparkle:




Sugar Cookies Abe and I made together:




Delivering a study treat (above cookies) to Daddy during finals week:




Our family on Christmas Eve:




Wearing 3-D glasses for the Polar Express show at Shedd Aquarium--Amazingly enough, Abe left these on for the entire performance!:




Abe jumping to Daddy at the hotel in Chicago, a mid-air shot!:




My sweet Abe:




I pray you all have a blessed, beautiful 2012. Our prayer is that our life this year might bring glory to God and that our little sphere of influence might be enlarged and blessed for His Name's Sake.

O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! Psalms 34:3