My Loves and Me
Valentine Goodness
Valentine’s Day morning included lots of cuddling and floor-playtime.
As part of his special Valentine’s lunch, Gabriel got to paint bread before eating it. 🙂 Also known as cheap entertainment that lasts 15+ minutes, brought to you by mixing two drops of red food coloring into a couple tablespoons of water.
While my parents took four of their grandchildren out on a Valentine’s date, Steven cooked dinner for me. Grilled steak topped with a garlic, mushroom, and red wine sauce. Israeli couscous, sweet corn, and chianti wine accompanied the deliciousness. Wow. Yum. My husby is a true gourmet!
And I spent a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday too. First I made another type of gourmet popcorn. Cinnamon Cookie Crunch Popcorn. Super tasty. Another winner. I plan on tweaking it a bit and trying Cookies And Cream Popcorn soon. (Yes, I’m on a gourmet popcorn kick…)
But what took the majority of my Valentine’s Day was dessert. While Steven does dinner, I provide the dessert. And this year I tried my hand at a crepe cake. Wow. So much work, largely because it takes a long time to make 40+ crepes with only one small skillet! I made chocolate crepes, cream custard for the filling, and chocolate ganache to top it. It may be a heart attack waiting to happen, but it’s downright incredible. A true hit.
Creativity
Creativity comes in various forms. Sometimes I try to be creative with housekeeping or cooking. With coloring pages, hikes in the woods, and phonics lessons. With musical arrangements I play and songs we sing.
Sometimes, though, I get to pull out all the stops and practice creativity with crafts. That’s probably one of my favorite kinds of creativity, and although I don’t get to practice it every day of the week, I enjoy it when I do. 🙂 I have a couple of wedding gifts to make soon, which will involve “alphabet photography” ~ one of my favorite creative things to do in the last year or so. I also will get to sew curtains soon (hurray!), which is exciting.
I recently refinished four antique ladderback chairs and they are now the chairs we are using in our family eating area. Love love love them. I also just stained nearly a dozen frames that my dad made for stitcheries I have done over the last fourteen years, and will get to varnish them soon and then hang them. I have cranked out a few metal stamping projects as well, with more to come on the horizon.
But I think perhaps my favorite creative outlet recently is in a new art creation I came up with one day… it involved buying canvasses for 50% off at Michael’s, and then buying books for mere cents at Good will, and digging up some craft glue to mix with water… and after some creative juices got flowing, and I had some naptimes in which to do the crafty work, I had a great new piece of artwork for each of my boys’ rooms. And I think I’ve inadvertently created a new art medium that I am loving for future pieces for myself as well as for gifts!
Gabriel’s canvas is covered in antique sheet music and pages of Psalms & Proverbs.
Asher’s canvas is covered in illustrations from children’s books and pages of Genesis.
Today
Today we had some great pajama time and ate chocolate chip waffles for breakfast. Today there was babywearing and pretty trim creating. Today my oldest niece and nephew were visiting next door (they got to have a sleepover with my parents) and we got to have some super fun play time together. Today I made this amazing Cinnamon Bun Popcorn ~ it really is delicious.
Today I am preparing for the Lord’s Day by making food for after church, setting out clothes, getting Sunday breakfast ready, and getting our various things together (diaper bag, purse, backpack, food, change of clothes for our after-church plans), in order to make Sunday morning smooth and sweet. What are your favorite ways to plan ahead in order to make Sunday morning go smoothly?
Today I am reminded that my strength doesn’t come solely from food or coffee or sleep, but from my Christ. What are you reminded of today?
