I read this here yesterday and I thought it was worth sharing:

“a few years ago, my father shared with me some wisdom about relationships. he said (in essence): ‘your relationship is not about that big fight you had yesterday, or your wedding day. it’s about all the other days. it’s about the day-to-day rituals, the patterns of behavior and the consistent, general attitude you have towards one another. love is not about those really good days or those really cranky days. it’s about everything in between: the way you talk about your day, the favors you do for each other without even thinking about it, and the last words you speak to each other before falling asleep at night.’ “

I like that.  I think every couple has the wonderfully happy “movie moments”  and the times of crisis, but I think that person is right – it’s about how you treat each other day to day.  In fact, the vows we exchanged on our wedding day even said, “I promise to love you in the midst of the everydayness and the specialness of life”.  

I love our “everydayness”.

As a lot of you know, Funnel and I are planning on adopting one day, so I read a lot of adoption blogs.  One of my favorites is A Bushel and a Peck.  Lisa is the author, and she and her husband have 11 children – 4 of them are adopted from Ethiopia.  One of her adopted daughters, “Honeybee” has a dream of going back to Ethiopia and visiting her grandmother and welcoming home one of her friends who is going to be adopted!  Plane tickets to Ethiopia are expensive, but Honeybee really believes God will provide a way for her to go. 

Lisa is auctioning off a beautiful quilt on her blog to raise the money for her daughter’s ticket to Ethiopia.  Raffle tickets are only $5, or you can buy 5 for $20.  If you donate today (November 19th), Lisa will double the amount of entries for the amount you donate! 

Instead of spending $5 on Starbucks today, will you join with me in helping to send Honeybee to Ethiopia?

Lately, I have felt really burdened to learn how to live on less.  Not just because of the economy,  but I’ve never liked wasting money on things when there is something comparable that is cheaper, or on things that are “wants” instead of “needs”.   I’ve also felt that the Lord is really putting the less-fortunate on my heart, and I feel guilty for wasting money on “extras” that could be used to help others meet their very basic needs.

Another things is that in a few years, when Funnel and I are parents, we’re planning on living on one income so that I can be a stay-at-home mom.  We’ve been trying to practice this as much as possible now and live below our means so when that day comes, it won’t be a huge lifestyle adjustment. 

The thing that overwhelms me the most in my weekly to-do list is grocery shopping.  Even without trying to be frugal, grocery shopping is a challenge!  I think it’s hard to plan meals that are healthy, taste good and fun to make, and most of all, share common ingredients with one another so that I have less to buy and don’t have a lot of random left-over stuff.    Then when you add the saving-money factor, it’s even more overwhelming!

But I really want to work towards saving significant money in this area.  I know some super-women who clip coupons, only buy things that are on sale (even if it means visiting multiple stores to complete their shopping), can their own veggies and fruits, make and freeze meals ahead of time in bulk, and spend probably half of what I do on my weekly grocery bill (and their families are double the size of mine!)  It requires a lot of planning, extra time, and commitment, but I’m hoping to makes some small steps in this area.  My goal for the next year is to slowly implement some steps for saving money in my grocery shopping, and hopefully soon it will be second nature!

A couple of things I am doing now:

1.  Making a big batch of soup on Sundays to use in our lunches the following week.  The first week I made black bean soup with a bag of dried beans I had on hand, last week I made beef vegetable soup, and this week I am making a vegetarian 16-bean soup.  I’ve made the soup in my crock-pot on Sundays, then divided it up into Tupperware containers for our lunches during the week.  Funnel isn’t a soup person, but he’s really liked the soups I’ve made so far.  Dried beans are dirt cheap, and before,when we packed in the mornings before work, it was a common occurrence to be running late, not have time to make sandwiches and end up spending $5 or $6 to eat out.  A week’s worth of  soup costs less than that!  And the crock pot is so easy – you just dump all the ingredients in and let it do it’s thing!

(( the beans for my 16-bean soup.  Aren’t they pretty? ))

2.  Avoiding “convenience foods”.  This week on a radio program I was listening to, they had a guest talking about how to save money at the grocery store.  Her biggest tip was to avoid convenience foods – anything pre-cut, pre-washed, pre-cooked, pre-mixed.  I didn’t think this tip applied to me because I usually make my food from scratch, but then as she went on,  I realized how many things in my pantry and refrigerator were convenience foods: pancake mix, individually packaged applesauces, flavored oatmeal packets, bagged lettuce, rice & black bean mix… and I could go on.  She said you spend 4 to 5 times as much on convenience foods than if you prepared it yourself.  Yesterday, I didn’t buy any convenience foods at my weekly shopping trip! 

I’m going to slowly start doing more and more things to save money and I thought it might be helpful to blog about this ongoing journey of cutting expenses, because I’m sure other people would like to work on this too!

What are your best tips for saving money on food?  I would love to hear them!

It is 5:51 and I am sitting at my kitchen table, waiting for Funnel to get home from work and enjoying my first quiet moment in this hectic day. 

Today, Funnel and I have been married for three years.  At this time, on this day, in 2006, vows had been said, rings had been given, photos had been taken, and our reception had just begun.   What a happy day.  I remember feeling wonderfully free and giddy and so deeply happy.  I loved that I was his wife, that I was his Mrs, that we now shared a last name and a home.   

For months after, I loved seeing our names printed together on envelopes that came in the mail.   I loved saying the word “husband” when I talked about him.   I would sometimes catch a glimpse of his ring, from the corner of my eye, and it would almost surprise me to see it there.  I fell in love with his morning hair, and ever-growing tee shirt collection and preference for 2% milk.

And after three years, not much has changed.

I hesitate to make comments anymore on marriage, because I have a pretty limited scope: I’ve only been married to one guy for three years, and that hardly makes me any kind of expert.   I really can’t even relate to other married couples because we all are so different anyway.  

But  based on my own experience: Marriage is wonderful.  It is challenging and sometimes hard, but the rewards are immeasurable. 

The other day, I was looking for something in one of our spare closets and happened upon our two shoeboxes full of memories.  When we were dating, we each started one seperately, and filled them with cards and letters and polariods and mix CDs.   They are so full now that we probably need to transfer them to something else.  But I had such a great time that evening reminiscing over our love story (which is my favorite love story… I’d take it over Noah and Ally’s any day.) 

My best tip for couples is not to forget your love story.  Revisiting those days, whether it is reading my old journals, or going through our shoeboxes, or even just talking with Funnel about when we met, never fails to make me feel renewed and happy and blessed.  I can’t imagine anything that we couldn’t get through together. 

So tonight I am feeling incredibly blessed and thankful that, somehow in this crazy world, I have found my counterpart, my best friend, my true love.

The last dessert I made for the Progressive Dinner: Martha Stewart’s Parisian Macaroons.  I made them pink with a strawberry cream inside and it took me three tries (and my entire bag of expensive almond flour) to get them right!  I’m sure this was the Lord’s way of showing me I’ve been far too cocky about my culinary skills lately.

My first attempt failed because I wasn’t careful and got a little bit of egg yolk into the mix, so the batter never got fluffy.

My second attempt was alright, but they got burnt, even though I baked them for the time and temperature specified! ((I guess I’m still getting to know my oven.))

The third try was a success, but I didn’t have enough almond flour left to make a double batch, which was what I was shooting for.  Oh well. 

Here’s the recipe:

Parisian Macroons

- 1 1/4 cups plus 1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup (4 ounces) finely ground sliced, blanched almonds
- 6 tablespoons fresh egg whites
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- Macaroon Filling

1. To make the macaroons: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and ground almonds. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip until stiff glossy peaks form. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the confectioners’ sugar mixture until completely incorporated.

2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Fit a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch #4 round tip, and fill with batter. Pipe 1-inch disks onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. The batter will spread a little. Let stand at room temperature until dry, and a soft skin forms on the tops of the macaroons and the shiny surface turns dull, about 15 minutes.

3. Bake, with the door of the oven slightly ajar, until the surface of the macaroons is completely dry, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet to a wire rack and let the macaroons cool completely on the baking sheet. Gently peel off the parchment. Their tops are easily crushed, so take care when removing the macaroons from the parchment. Use immediately or store in an airtight container, refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.

4.To fill the macaroons: Fill a pastry bag with the filling. Turn macaroons so their flat bottoms face up. On half of them, pipe about 1 teaspoon filling. Sandwich these with the remaining macaroons, flat-side down, pressing slightly to spread the filling to the edges. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

5.Variations: To make coffee-flavored macaroons: In step 1, add 2 drops brown food coloring to the egg whites after they are whipped. In step 4, blend 1/2 cup macaroon filling with 1 1/2 teaspoons espresso powder dissolved in 1/2 teaspoon warm water for the filling. To make cassis-flavored macaroons: In step 1, add 2 drops purple food coloring to the egg whites after they are whipped. In step 4, use 1/3 cup good-quality cassis jam for the filling. To make pistachio-flavored macaroons: In step 1, add 2 drops green food coloring to the egg whites after they are whipped. In step 4, combine 1/2 cup macaroon filling with 1 tablespoon pistachio paste for the filling.

I found a recipe for the Strawberry Cream here.

Strawberry Cream

- 4 ounces softened cream cheese
- 3 Tablespoons softened butter
- 1 1/2 C confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup strained strawberry preserves.

Mix butter and cream cheese at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, sift in confectioners’ sugar, add vanilla extract and preserves, and blend until smooth.

Since I was so frustrated with my failed attempts to make this lovely dessert, I don’t have any pictures of the process, but here is the result:

I’ll definitely be making these again, now that I’ve gotten the hang of it.

One of the other desserts I made for our progressive dinner was Raspberry Brie bites. Super simple. 

Raspberry Brie Bites

- 1 package of fresh raspberries
- 10 oz. of brie cheese
- 2 packages of Fillo mini shells (found in the freezer section)

Fill each Fillo shell 3/4 full with brie cheese and put a raspberry on top.  Bake at 350 until Brie is melted.  Serve warm, if possible.

* I couldn’t find regular Brie cheese at my grocery store, so I had to buy a spredable Brie, and was pretty dissapointed with the flavor and consistency.   If at all possible, use the real Brie – it tastes much better. 

Last Sunday, we had a progressive dinner with the Frederick side of the family so that they could see our new house and Caleb & Amy’s new house, and also to celebrate Grandma Frederick’s birthday. We had some lovely appetizers and lasagna at the first stop, then had dessert at our place.  I really wanted to make pink & green desserts to match my kitchen, and one of the ones I decided to make was Bakerella’s cupcake bites.  You can find her tutorial here, but I am going to share my pictures and instructions below. 

You start by baking a cake, homemade or from scratch.  I had a box of vanilla cake mix that had been on the shelf for awhile so I made that.

Next, is an extremely fun part of the process: You mash up the cake.  I used a fork and spent a good five minutes going at it, until it was very fine.   

Now, grab a can of cream cheese frosting (or make your own) and incoroprate that into the crumbled cake, using the back of a spoon.  It will be a pretty sticky substance, that reminded me of cookie dough.     Then, roll the cake into 1 1/2 inch balls and set on a foil-lined cookie sheet.  Stick them in the freezer for ten minutes.

Remove the balls from the freezer and make them into their cupcake shape, by rolling them into a slightly oval shape and sticking the bottom half through a small flower-shaped cookie cutter. 

Stick them in the freezer again, for 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, heat up some melting chocolate over the stove or in the microwave, according to the instructions on the package.  I found that the chocolate was a little too thick, and it was much more workable once I added some shortening to it.  After taking the cucpakes out of the freezer, dip the bottoms into the chocolate.  Bakerella’s instructions say to set them  upside down on the foil, with the chocolate in the air, but I found that setting them right side up allowed the chocolate on the bottom to even out and create a better base. 

While the chocolate is drying, heat up some more chocolate of a different color.  I bought pink, green and white, and combined the green and white to make a lighter green, although I wasn’t so enthused with the outcome. 

Dip the top of the cupcake bites into the chocolate, and immediately decorate with sprinkles and a red M&M.  I’m going to suggest that you buy more M&Ms than you think you’ll need. When I opened my bag of M&Ms I was dissapointed to discover that there were twice as many of each of the other colors than there were of red.  There were 23 red M&Ms and at least 40+ of each other color.  Lame!

And here was my result:

Yields about 50 cupcake bites.

I have always loved the idea of a locket with the photo of the one you most love tucked away inside, near to your heart. 

Below are some lockets I found on etsy… they’re just so darn pretty!

{ credit: birdzNbeez, trystbykerry, feathersandhope, heartworksbylori, birdsNbeez, and myrtleandlloyd }

I loved so many things about Nick & Jayne’s wedding: that Nick’s dad was his best man, that Jayne made all the jewelry that she and her bridesmaids wore, that Nick and Jayne’s grandmothers got up and gave some reflections and advice on marriage during the ceremony, how happy they looked dancing at their reception. Everything was so lovely and pretty and happy.  I am so glad that Jason and I got to be a part of their wedding day.  Congratulations Nick and Jayne! 

((P.S.  Check out Nick and Jayne’s engagement photos that the talented Leslie Williams took – so beautiful!))

From our week by the sea…

“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory”
…. Henri Cartier-Bresson.