Joyful Domesticity

So…. our entire county is practically snowed in. Woo hoo! It’s awesome. Unprecedented and gorgeous. 🙂 Thankfully Steven can work from home, so he was blessed not to have to take the last 2 1/2 days of the workweek unpaid. Praise the Lord! And it gave me lots of time to finish up all my Christmas baking! Today I just did a double batch of cookies plus four kinds of breads (whole wheat, pretzel white, banana, & gingerbread), after yesterday doing two kinds of cookies and another day doing three kinds of cookies. Yay for being done a week before Christmas!! I also got all of our gifts wrapped and under the tree. So pretty!
And today we went on a Family Outing in the knee-deep snow: we delivered plates of Christmas cookies to our neighbors. We knew they’d be home,  since no one is really leaving their homes at all. 🙂 We have 27 inches right now, with more in the forecast. So pretty!! I loves it muchly. 🙂 And it’s been super fun trying to introduce Gabriel to his first big snow.

…going to WalMart yesterday for a couple things, most importantly, peppermint extract… just to find out that there is only ONE bottle left and it is waaaaay back on the top shelf, laying down… so a tall gentleman worker reached it for me and I emphatically said THANKS & gave it to Gabriel to hold while I looked for bagel chips… but of course they are not carrying bagel chips currently… so I go to the check-out counter to find that the peppermint extract has disappeared!… so I put all my things back in the cart and truck around the entire grocery section again to find where Gabriel dropped it… to no avail… asked some other worker… no help… checked out sans peppermint extract, with hopes of Safeway coming through… drive to Safeway, get myself & the baby out into the heavily falling snow and “skate” across the icy parking lot… to find that they too are OUT of peppermint extract!!

My next endeavor? To find the perpetrator that has bought up all the peppermint extract in my county. 😉
Haha.
And in the meanwhile, I settled with Mint Extract to make my chocolate-mint cookies.

The End.

…standing in the post office line for 35 minutes with a fussy baby on my hip, just to get to the counter & realize 1) they don’t take credit OR debit, 2) I have $13 in my wallet, 3) my package is a couple bucks more than that. Oops. 🙂

…temperatures between 0 and 9 degrees so far since I awoke this morning, and then spending the last HOUR trying to keep the stoves stoked & blazing… cuz they don’t want to stay lit!

…making “plans” but realizing that God + Gabriel frequently change my plans!

…bemoaning the local radio station for its plethora of stupid ads + repetitive stupid songs, and then finding my new love of PANDORA.COM!!! woo hoo 🙂

Yes, I guess it has been longer since I’ve posted than I thought…
So, here are current random thoughts & updates.

• we are expecting A NIECE & A NEPHEW in just a couple more months! Ashley and the babies are all doing really well. Here’s a pic — aren’t they beautiful?? Love them. Plus, this pic cracks me up.
• 
• it’s a superbly exciting time of year for our family as we celebrate the season of Advent and soon Christmas! It makes for a super busy me… since we are trying to go as homemade as possible. So there has been less interneting (new verb for me) and more crafting. And since I can’t post pics of gifts, you get no proof of the pudding. Poor you.
• the teaching semester is about to end, so I am looking forward to having a few weeks off from music lessons. I love the kids I teach this year, but it will be nice to have a bit of a break. I’ve been doing piano, harp, & choir a lot in church lately… and am doing all the music at our Christmas Eve service… so yeah, lots of music going on ’round here!
• Gabriel is continuing to grow up so much. At 6 1/2 months he is just over 17 pounds (so okay, maybe the turkey was a little too big…), and 27 inches tall. He hates being on his tummy so there is so inclination to crawl whatsoever. I’m totally okay with that. 🙂 He does love to walk though! He will stand up “on his own” if his back is against the couch, or my knee, or something. And if you hold his hands, he tries to walk around the house. It’s super cute. His favorite things are: baths, cuddling with Grandmama, Baby Bach on the computer, playing with my silicone basting brush, his blankie, playing peek-a-boo, and riding around on my back. We are more in love with this little boy every day. Praise God for this gift!
• 
• I’ve realized that my “occupation” (homemaking + mommyhood) is so vast. That might be obvious, but hey — I take a while to catch on sometimes. Also, I’ve concluded that it is simultaneously the most glorious & the most humbling thing I have ever done.
• the Lord continues to be my strength for both the big and the small. And I am seeking daily to lean on HIS understanding and toss away my own understanding. This is a never-ending endeavor, but God has been so gracious recently in teaching me. I am thankful.
• Steven was hired into a new position and while ago (I think I already wrote a post about that, but I continue to be SO PROUD of him, his diligence, and his hard work!!) and is doing really well. We passed our 18-month-iversary recently, and feel more in love all the time. I used to laugh when people said “it just gets better with time” — but that was before I was married. Now I know the cliche is true. I love this man. And happy birthday to him, too — we just celebrated his 26th!
• 
• we are hooked on a new dvd series — 24. Wow, I am so addicted. I check the mail far too often, waiting for the next disc to arrive. haha.
• I am gearing up to make Christmas cookies — sugar cookies, gingersnaps, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate thumbprints… am I missing any family favorites??

Blessings upon you. Thanks for checking in on us. We are a busy family. A thankful family. A so-in-love family. We praise God for all of this! Happy Advent !

Steven and Gabriel on Thanksgiving!

Gabriel’s first snow!

Gabriel’s first Christmas tree!

Gabriel was the same weight as his first Thanksgiving turkey!

Here’s the tree, all decorated and twinkly.

And here is my mitten Advent Calendar. I actually just finished stuffing each one with chocolates and Scripture verses. I still need to attach the hanger to it, so it can go on the wall. 🙂

It’s so sad to see your little baby, all laid-out with crummy croup.
In his little eyes you can just see his silent wail, “Mommy, make it better!”
Warm fire, steamy bathroom, Tylenol, and tons of cuddles on Mommy’s lap — we’re trying. 🙂

Here you go, Laura!
To the best that my memory serves me, this is what I did. 🙂

S’MORES BARS
Cream 1 cup butter (room temperature) with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 cup sugar. Add 2 eggs and 1-2 tsp vanilla.
Whir (is that a word??) up about a dozen or so full-sized graham crackers in the food processor. Add 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 1/2 cups (or so) flour. Basically, it should be cookie dough consistency. 🙂

Press half of the graham cracker cookie dough into the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish.
Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes.

Dump a bunch of chocolate chips (maybe 2 1/2 cups?) on top of the dough, so it is pretty much completely covered. Then dump a bunch of mini marshmallows (probably 3 cups) on top of that, until covered.

Take the remaining half of the graham cracker cookie dough and make a sort of “top crust“: I did this by making shingles/puzzle pieces (whatever word works for you!) out of it, pressing small portions between my fingers and laying them on top.

Put it back into the oven for another 10-12 minutes, or until the cookie top is “set” and golden.

ENJOY!!!!

Today: I needed to get some things done around the house, so I tied Gabriel onto my back in a “rucksack with a twist”, and he loved it! Even took his nap there. 🙂

Yesterday: after church, we had a family afternoon of food and fun. Gabriel learned that tummy-time has some fun aspects, my mom made some amazing food, and I got to hear the twins’ heartbeats too!

Recently: Gabriel decided he likes to laugh at himself in the mirror, and Dilly decided she likes to nap with Gabriel!

Last week: Gabriel discovered that his feet are super duper fun! And Mommy discovered that she likes making “matching faces” with her baby boy.

One day: I created my own recipe for S’mores Bars. I’m a huge fan. And Gabriel looks cute in his collared shirt & tiny cord’s!

When the men worked outside: Grandpapa came over to bring Daddy some manure from the farm for our garden next year. Gabriel liked watching them work out the window. And he wore machinery on his clothes to make him feel all manly too. 🙂

Today I am saddened. I don’t know much about politics, and honestly I don’t have much of a desire to deepen that knowledge. I’d just rather remain out-of-it. Sometimes it is nice to be oblivious.

When I heard last night that Obama won the election, the first thing I thought of was all of the dead babies that are going to come from this. And then this morning, I found a YouTube video where it had Obama saying something about if his daughters “make a mistake” he doesn’t want them “punished with a baby” — that made me cry. That was Obama actually calling a possible grandchild of his a punishment. What is our nation coming to? God save us. God preserve my babies.

Of course, in response to both the governor and presidential election results, this morning I was not giving thanks as my first response. And then I remembered that I must give thanks in all situations, and remember first and foremost that GOD is on the throne. He reigns. And for that I give indescribable thanks. And loud praise.
I think I will take Gabriel downstairs now and sing some psalms.
Nothing seems more appropriate right now.

Oh yeah. Except this (below). Read that first. Then go sing some psalms yourself. 🙂

“Ten Things To Remember…” by my former pastor, Douglas Wilson

1. God is still Father, Christ is still at His right hand, and the Holy Spirit is still abroad in the world, recreating that world according to the image of Christ. When the nations conspire against Him, He laughs at them.

2. The most important thing we can do for our nation, and for the world around us, is to gather for worship every Lord’s Day. The privilege of voting in presidential elections comes to us every four years, while we are graced with the opportunity to take the Lord’s Supper week to week. Right worship reforms the Church, and is therefore God’s central instrument for remaking the world. For this reason, we must insist on worship that is in accordance with Scripture. Judgment begins with the household of God. Our generation is fatherless. In the power of the Spirit, in the name of the Son, we must therefore worship the Father.

3. The first and greatest command is to love God, and the second is to love our neighbor. When the question arises, as it will, as to who is our neighbor, a good policy is to always begin with the smallest, the least, the most defenseless. Never apologize for a crawl-over-broken-glass pro-life stance. Live in such a life-affirming way as to expect apologies from those who would redefine the lives of others (always the lives of others, isn’t it?) into expendible insignificance.

4. Honor women. Honor your mother, your wife, and your daughters. We live in a culture that despises women, and which has engineered a vast machinery of propaganda designed to get them to surrender to it. If you don’t know how to honor, on a day-to-day basis, the women in your life, then learn. Make it a priority.

5. Don’t doubt in the dark what you knew in the light. The late Francis Schaeffer taught evangelical Christians to think like Christians as they engaged with unbelief in the public square. But a goodly number of his proteges, disciples, and name-appropriators have begun to “engage with the culture” in a way that looks more like going native than it looks like missionary work. Melancthons fall apart more rapidly than they used to. Get used to it, but don’t you do it.

6. While pro-life work is at the very center of all mercy ministry, it should not be allowed to distract from the broader kind of mercy ministry that offers gospel help to those who have contributed to their own misery — addicts, convicts, the uneducated and the unemployable. Such mercy ministry must be consistently tenderhearted and hardheaded. Sentimentalists are never able to give themselves away in the ongoing way that bleeding (but thinking) Christians must.

7. Learn something about economics. Please.

8. Cultivate a godly sense of proportion. My family, living in the UK, are encountering evangelical Christians who think that “lack of socialized medicine” is just as bad as abortion-on-demand, because in both cases people are dying. This is as wrong-headed as it is possible to get, even for evangelicals, and on two counts. In the first place, deliberate murder cannot be compared to well-intentioned negligence or incomptence. In the second place, to the extent that we do attack death-dealing incompetence — as we must — we must begin by attacking the species of incompetence that lets people die after many months on waiting lists because some people don’t like accurate pricing mechanisms. Water won’t run uphill just because you can arrange for three bishops to say “Trinitarian” or “incarnational” over it.

9. Count the cost. Freedom of expression is part of our Christian heritage, and one of the things we are fighting for is the right to that expression. We cannot lose the tree and keep the fruit of it. When the laws come, as they will, prohibiting (for example) condemnation of homosexual behavior, then count the cost. And the very next Sunday, start your sermon series on the sins of sodomy. The first message should provide the introduction, and allow the congregation to count the cost as well. They might want a heads up — some of them might think it prudent to head over to a more docile church, one with a kennel-fed pastor. Whenever the state yanks on his lead, he always heels, and then waits expectantly for his treat. A much more sensitive and sensible ministry, don’t you think?

10. Fight in the culture wars as those who gladly serve the triune God of heaven. We are not dogs fighting over a piece of meat, and we must never allow the surly or shrill attitudes of the self-righteous to creep into anything we do. We must be puritan cavaliers, and merry warriors. Fight like a regenerate D’Artagnan, and not like a thug with a Bible he stole from the motel, or a like prim and censorious Miss Grundy, she of the pursed lips. We are Christians, not wowswers.