What Women Want

Diamonds.  Right??

Not this lady.  What I want... is to bake like my Grandma.  And boy howdy, I did it!!

Check these puppies out...

Grandma's Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cookies

They're kind of a secret recipe, only not really.  The recipe has been shared, but most people who've tried it haven't quite gotten it right.  So, with the recipe in hand, and a few tips from my Dad (the only person I know to have successfully replicated them, although one of my many aunts may have done it) I gave it a whirl.  After just a few minor adjustments to the baking time, I did it.  And they were amazing.

There was one enormous small problem.  My Grandma had 9 children.  This recipe made enough for 9 CHILDREN.  I realized after 3 batches coming out of the oven and it looking like I hadn't even put a dent in the bowl of dough, that I'd have to continue baking the next day.


They are Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Alex had never tried them before.  (I was secretly hoping he'd LOVE them so I'd have an excuse to make them more often, but also secretly hoping he wouldn't care for them, so I could freeze them and eat them all over the course of the rest of the year...ok, so there weren't that many... but I could have eaten them all over a month or two.)

The verdict:  He loves them. 

"They taste kinda like mini-muffins.  You know, the kind in the little bags.  And they're all round on top, so you should call them Muffin Tops!"

Maybe I will... 
may...be...I...will... (said in Britta's voice)

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is a funny time.

It's a time when people rush around the store, and then spend all morning preparing a huge meal.  Family gathers, all the nice china, silver, and crystal comes out.  In my family, we always went to my grandparents' house, where my Grandma had been cooking all morning.  Always on the menu:  Turkey, mashed potatoes with turkey gravy, stuffing (cooked in the turkey--there's nothing better),  sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, green beans, pea salad... I'm sure I'm missing a few items.  And then dessert.  Pies, bars, and cookies.  


This year, Alex is in his 3rd year of seminary school so we are temporarily living in Texas, away from our families.  It's the first time either of us has ever spent Thanksgiving away from family.  The past few years, we spent it with either my family or his, but we've never had a Just-Us Thanksgiving.  So, since it was Amelia's first, we decided to have our own.  


We cooked our first Thanksgiving week's-worth-of-food dinner.   

The leftovers better last us nearly a week, since the groceries cost about that much!  Our turkey was already cooked for us, by the amazing Chicken Ministry men at our church.  They spent all night last Saturday night camped outside the church smoking turkeys.  So all we had to do was heat up our delicious bird and cook our sides.  A few recipes from my fam, a few from his, and we were good to go. 


We set the table with as close-to-matching plates as we could, pulled out our beautiful silverware (from my Grandma)  and had ourselves a feast.

We pretty much have one or two of every type of plate imaginable.

There were actually two more dishes than this, but somehow they didn't make the photo.

Yep, this was the first dish to get polished off---by me.

But even if everything burned, or dried out, or didn't set-up properly, I realized I didn't care a bit.  It was so much fun to have the parade on the TV, Amelia playing with toys on the floor, and the two of us swapping out between kitchen-duty and baby-duty.  We love cooking together, and make a pretty good team.  Amelia feasted right along with us-- from a jar of Vegetable Turkey Dinner.  

MMMmmm... Pureed meat.

And that's what I have to be thankful for.  The fact that it never really matters how it all comes out.  What matters is family--the near kind, the far kind, the not-officially-family-but-may-as-well-be kind.  What matters is that we have the opportunity to be together and give thanks, and that we can do that every day.  There's so much to be thankful for.  Writing it out in a list isn't the important part--Giving thanks is.  So just do it.  Give thanks.  

Guilty Pleasures

I am a stay-at-home-mom.  That statement still doesn't hit me quite like I always thought it would.  I always imagined feeling like a mom, but the truth is, I just feel like my old self and get to hang out with my adorable daughter all day.  Granted, that puts me in charge of most household stuff (the less fun part) which sometimes gets done, and sometimes doesn't. I don't feel guilty about not always being caught up, but one things I do feel guilty about is napping.

Napping. is. awesome. That is all.  I almost never do it, because I'm not capable of a power nap.  So yesterday, after an abnormally long night with Amelia, I did it.  Amelia and I took a quick nap that lasted 2 hours! The only thing that made it better than just a few extra ZZzz's was having that warm little furnace of a girl next to me.  No, I'm not proud. Yes, it felt amazing.  No, I didn't really get a whole lot done because I felt "nappy" (as in tired) the rest of the day.  But sometimes, you have to take part in the guilty pleasures in life.  After all, sometimes one day's "nappiness" turns into the next day's motivation, right?
 

Who wouldn't want to curl up next to this little snuggle bunny?!

 

Leap of Faith

Ok, so starting a blog isn't necessarily a "leap of faith", but for some reason it sure feels like it!  Heck, if it's terrible then nobody will read it, so no biggie. 

Allow me to introduce myself...

I'm Emily, wife to Alex, an Intern Pastor (for now...one day he'll be a real Pastor, and that can't come soon enough!), a stay-at-home mom (again, for now) to a gorgeous and amazing little girl, Amelia, and a pup named Bella.

I'll go ahead and state for the record that Bella is not named after the Twilight girl.  (She's actually named after Bellatrix Lestrange.  harrypotteralltheway.) 

 Yes, I used MS Paint to do a terrible job of splicing my daughter 

(who isn't actually a giant, and can't scale my husband's back yet)

into this existing pre-baby family photo. Photoshop has too many buttons.

I struggle all the time for no real good reason.   Basically, I'm an ill-equipped (did you see the above picture??) over-functioner who is trying to walk with a strong faith in this anxious world, and I really wish I was organized.  (I pretended to be for a very long time, but have finally come to grips with the fact that I'm. just. not. organized.)  I love DIY projects when I can get around to them--especially sewing--and am slowly "going green" when I can afford to.  

That's me in a nutshell few rather long run-on sentences, but for now it's enough.  It will all become clearer as this little blog begins to take shape.  Or it won't...which is fine, I suppose.  <--See that? I'm growing already.