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Friday, September 11, 2009

Why Persevering

So you may be wondering why I choose to describe myself as a Persevering Housewife. I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a title that would do a good job of describing me without sounding corny. Once I finally had a revelation for a name....it was taken. This one single thing of coming up with a name and an available URL definitely kept me from starting a blog months ago. Okay that last thing might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it definitely hindered the blogging process. So here is how I choose a title:

Well first of all I'm a housewife, that one is not difficult. Although I could have chosen something else I prefer to call myself a housewife rather than other terms like stay-at-home mom. Why? There's a few reasons why, mainly because I am more than a mom who just stays home. I like housewife because it describes that caring for my household is a priority and I like that it describes that I'm a wife first and secondly a mom. Though there are no mom-like terms in 'housewife', I think it does a better job of describing me than any others.

I should just get super crazy and make my own term like ChristianWifeMotherDog-OwnerLaundererCookPersonal-ShopperNutritionistExecutive-AssistantBloggerCaffeine-Addict but that would just take up too much time, and it still does not describe everything I do.

Although there is the 'new' term Household Engineer. I just remembered that one. Aahh I still prefer Housewife.

Moving on....Persevering. How did I come up with Persevering? It came to me one day while reading Romans 5.

"And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
Romans 5:3-5

One day I was doing my devotional and these verses really hit me. Through the past couple of years my husband and I have definitely been through some trials, and at some moments it is discouraging knowing that we currently do not have what we did have once. There are also some of those days where I feel like I've failed as a child of God, as a wife and as a mother. But these verses are encouraging knowing that no matter the trials we all encounter God uses them to build us up to be a wiser, better and a more honorable person. I know that if I continue to strive to be steadfast in the trials I'm facing I will be rewarded with a hope of better things that are yet to come.

That is why I choose to be a Persevering Housewife, it is my new mantra. That through perseverance comes character and character hope which does not disappoint.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Thank You ATK

I remember a couple of years ago I was pregnant and it was a Saturday morning; pregnancy had taken its' toll on me so I laid down on our couch. I turned on the TV and zoned into a new and amazing PBS show called America's Test Kitchen. It was so wonderful they go through mostly common dishes and tell the viewer what it should be. They go and study the taste, look and texture and then find the best ways to prepare the dish. One show I watched they were cooking a turkey and trying to do it without the use of brining, another they were teaching how to grill pizza, they even study desserts like strawberry shortcake. On top of cooking they even do a taste kitchen were they find the best ingredients and then have an equipment corner finding the best kitchen equipment. I instantly fell in love with America's Test Kitchen and knew it would come through as an alliance in the kitchen. The other day I told my husband that if he went out and bought me all their cookbooks, and maybe some DVDs, he would not have to send me to culinary school.

A while ago I checked out one of their cookbooks at the library and knew it was coming time to return it (I've had it for quite awhile) so I needed to get my last use out of it. I found a dish that sounded kind of fancy and looked fancy too, but the seemed quite simple, Chicken Piccata. Well nervousness set in while cooking it; Will my husband like it? Will he tell me to never make it again? Will he go and find something else to eat?

Well to my surprise after his first bite I heard the words:

"This is really good!!"

My jaw hit the floor. Now why would those words make my jaw hit the floor? If you know my husband you know he is a very encouraging man and is always giving and never brings anyone down. He is a truly genuine guy, but when it comes to cooking I'm always Begging him to critique my food, or rate it on a 1-10 scale, and I usually get the "It was good answer." How is "This is really good!!" different from "It was good."? Well it is VERY different. First of all it was a NATURAL reaction to the flavors melting in his mouth, I didn't have to ask for him to tell me!!! Secondly he used an adverb along with the adjective, emphasising the goodness of the food. Just the thought of the moment still brings me endless joy. And thirdly he even insisted on bringing some over to my parents.

I give so much thanks to ATK for the recipe and how they have taught me so much about cooking. I thank them for providing the means to what I have been praying for for such a long time, a dinner where my husband pauses and closes his eyes to enjoy to flavors that are sitting on his tongue. And a honest critique that is given by freewill.

Thank you America's Test Kitchen you will forever be my friend in the kitchen.

What a week


Wow so time has flown by I can't believe it is Thursday already!!! The past two days I've spent catching up from our weekend. It was a great weekend! Saturday was nice because we did not do much and what we did do we took our time doing.

Then Sunday my husband's family visited. We had a great time, my husband and I took them on their first geo caching (dismiss the spelling error if there is one) expedition. It was fun, we were 3-n-3. I wish we could have found all six caches, but you can't win them all. A great part of the day was discovering FingerPants. Yes I've never heard of them before, but they are definitely and interesting concept. Other than entertaining the kiddos (and adults) I don't think they have any other purpose. It's not like we only want two of our fingers to be clothed, usually we want them all to be clothed and that is why we have gloves. Right? But the Finger Pants were entertaining.









Now Monday we definitely made up for our lack of motivation from Saturday. I'll tell you we conquered A MOUNTAIN!!!! First on our list was to conquer canning salsa....by ourselves. Yes from a little instruction from my grandmother, my husband and I managed to succeed in canning 7 pints of delicious thick salsa. I'm actually excited for tomato season to be over so that way I can pop open a wonderful jar of salsa. (Right now we're making it as needed).

mmmm......tasty



Then while simmering the salsa I told my husband:

"I'm going to give the bathroom a quick wipedown, and later this week I'll give it a good scrubbin."

He replied:

"Why not just do it all now?"

I Said:

" I don't feel like it."

He said:

"I'll do it then."

That's right my wonderful husband scrubbed our bathroom from top to bottom, he even got all the fixtures and faucets to sparkle. He even fixed the leaky toilet. Oh I love how he will scrub for me. But seriously our bathroom was getting pretty gross, the drains were slowing up from the globs of my hair that I never clean out of the sink, and the floor around the toilet had a orange ring from a leak, and I was scared to lift the shampoo bottle to see what had grown under there since the day before. Having a sparkly bathroom feels great (it is very seldom that our bathroom is sparkly) it just makes me smile and I no longer dread washing my hair. The down side to having a sparkly bathroom is that I'm now scared to use it. Yes, that is right, I do not want to tarnish the sparkliness of the bathroom. The other night I brushed my teeth in the hallway because I did not want to get the little toothpaste spots on the mirror and faucet. I know I'm crazy, I'll go to those lengths to keep things clean just to widen the gap of the next time the bathroom needs cleaned.

While my husband was laboring away (we definitely labored on labor day) I got to spend more time in the kitchen, because at the last minute we decided to BBQ with some friends. I went a little overboard with what I put together, but I was on a cooking spree. After cooking my my in-laws and then canning salsa I just kept on moving. The fun part about the BBQ was that everything I made was glorified leftovers. I made the carmel corn from the day before that I didn't have the time to make, then I took the left over jalapenos from the salsa and made jalapeno poppers, we had more veggies and dip, and then I tried the baked bean recipe I found here, and then my husband even made is own BBQ sauce for our chicken. Everything was wonderful and our friends even brought some deliciousness also, we all were wobbling to our cars at the end of the evening.

Yes so Tuesday was my day of rest. Although I did have to scrub some dishes the whole weekend was defiantly worth all those dishes. We had a great time visiting with family and friends. This coming weekend will again be full of family and friends. All my aunts are in town for a gathering and then some college friends are coming home with their baby on Saturday. And then it is my brother's birthday, Happy Birthday Alex!!!! Sunday our church kicks off our Calvary Connecting Communities, we are so excited for this new and different approach to Sunday school. Another weekend full of fun and great food, can't wait.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, it has just flown by. Tuesday I spent resting and catching up from the weekend. Wednesday my Joy in the Morning bible study started and today is the first day of story hour at church. I'm so excited for fall, to once again have structure and places to be. I'm now challenged with getting my lazy behind out of bed and ready before Dancing Queen wakes up. It will be tough for a couple of weeks, but it will be good for the both of us.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Chocolate

Last weekend we were heading to a wedding.

And stopped at a gas station.

My husband bought some chocolate.

Dancing Queen smelled the chocolate. She has an unbelievable sugar radar....better than me.

Then spotted the chocolate.

Ate the chocolate


















And did not let any of it go to waste.














She is definately our daughter, and we taught her how to lick her fingers well.

Wonderful Morning

Yesterday Dancing Queen and I met my husband in Sioux Falls after he was finished with work. Occasionally he has to travel to the city for meetings. It was a great day and it was proceeded today by a wonderful morning. Yesterday despite Lila's lack of a quality nap we had a good time in Sioux Falls. Making all of our stops we made it through without any major melt downs. In the Habitat ReStore she even remained in her stroller!!!! Oh it just made my day. On the ride home beginning around 8 pm Lila was sound asleep before we reached the edge of town, and remained that way until home. Once we got home she even went to bed with no objections.

This morning made the day yesterday even better, because Dancing Queen SLEPT IN!!!! That's right she slept until 8:45. It was absolutely wonderful, I was able to: shower, get dressed, blow dry my hair, eat breakfast and read a couple emails. I know, isn't that unbelievable? Having that time to get myself dressed and some me time in the morning just made everything go so wonderful. I felt that I could handle anything thrown my way.

The best part of the morning was that since we were all ready and completely rested Spike got to play fetch this morning. This is not a common occurrence on days my husband works. Now playing fetch was #2 for the wonderful things of my morning. What was so great about fetch this morning was the sounds of Spike's paws. Yeah, I know call me crazy but his tiny little legs runny so fervently and his paws hitting the ground sounded like the subtle roar of racing horses hooves in the sand. So I know I've never been to a horse race, but it was the same sound of racing horses in the movies. I don't know why just this morning I was able to hear it, or maybe I've always heard it and never paid attention. All I know is that I enjoyed it and it put a smile on my face. I just give the credit of this wonderful sound to the misty cool ground. So it was a wonderful morning making it a great day. I just hope I can get back into the groove of being ready before Dancing Queen ( I used too but summer changed that) or better yet I just wish Dancing Queen can get into the groove of sleeping in.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Referring too...

In my previous posts you should have noticed I'm not using the names of my husband and daughter. We have decided to do this (and I say we because I discussed it with my husband) for mainly two reasons. One, you most likely know us and our names, so why do I need to post them. Two, if someone were to stumble onto this memoir of our common lives we just prefer some of the details to remain confidential.

In the previous post I referred to my daughter as Dancing Queen. I'm not for sure if the name will stick but I currently like it. I think it describes her very well, although maybe I'll change it to Dancing Girl, we'll see. Anyway it does a great job of describing her because she is ALWAYS dancing. Any time she hears a couple of beats she'll stop and throw out some kiddie moves. They are so adorable. Actually she doesn't even need music, walking into the store yesterday she stopped, midstep, just to do her dancing bounce a couple times and then proceeded to go on with her life. So I think Dancing _____ does a great job of describing my little girl.

As for what to call my husband I've got a few ideas, and he also has a few ideas. I'll have to clear my ideas with him before I mention any, I'm sure he'll definitely have an opinion as to what I call him. But I will inform you of what one of his ideas are. Now this idea originates back in college, and will probably follow any wife of a WSC Crusade man for a long time. So being the wife of a WSC Cru man this issue has once again been brought up in our marriage, the issue of referring to my husband as Master. Yes my husband would prefer that I would call him Master when writing about him in the blog. Master, where does this come from? Well back in Genesis 18 Sarah refers to her husband, Abraham, as Master (translations vary) and thus the blooming of the never ending pesky joking of a husband to have his wife refer to him as Master. Now call me a sinner and call me stubborn but the Lord has a lot of work to do if he wants me to call my husband Master.

Gone for a minute

So I've been wanting to put up some pictures in my post but I've been procrastinating because ever since we got the new camera over a year ago I don't like how it dumps the pictures on the computer. So since then I've just been taking the card to the photo machine at the store and just making CDs of pictures. Now for efficiency's sake I can't be doing that or no one will ever see any pictures in the posts. So for the past two days I've been going through the settings and I am finally getting them downloaded to how I like them. (I miss Windows XP I sometimes don't want anything to do with Windows Vista). Speaking of Windows, we just got the new version on Windows Office through Nick's work. OH MY it is like walking into a coffee shop and seeing the menu of options and wondering "What happened to plain black coffee?" I sat there for a couple minutes just looking for the print button. Maybe I'll open it up again in a month, the first couple experiences I had was just too much for awhile.

So anyway I'm finally organizing my photos to where I want them to be, and I can now easily find them.

Here's the results of last week when I got a phone call. We were reading books in Dancing Queen's room, my daughter, when the phone rang. I of course answered it while she stayed playing in her room, this is a usual thing for us. The person on the line needed an email address so while I was sitting at the computer I heard some rummaging around in Dancing Queen's room. It was find and normal. Once I got off the phone in a matter of 90 seconds and returned this is what I was welcomed too......


(Wow it takes a long time to upload a photo)

Yes so if you can't tell what this is, it is four drawers full of clothes thrown into a big heaping pile in the center of her room. Yes activities like this have happened weekly in our household but nothing quite like this. Usually it is one drawer of clothes thrown randomly around the room, and it is because she is in search of a particular shirt or pants that she then attempts to wear. But no this time it was as if she just wanted her drawers to be empty, why else would she pile them up in the same spot? As you can tell from this picture her venture is still not yet finished, notice her arm in the diaper stacker. It was a good thing I intervened when I did because she was not going to be finished for awhile.