jump!

he is getting so big!

on the porch at dusk

we enjoyed the unique light after the rain

today was communion sunday and as i was searching my heart, i once again recognized my great need for Jesus and His grace to reconcile me to Himself and to others. we are keenly aware of brokenness lately-in our own lives, in our relationships with others, in the lives of those surrounding us. we are a sick, divisive, messed up race and God is merciful to call us out of darkness and into His marvelous light; he welcomes us and loves us so deeply. i've been meditating on the words to this song lately; think about them if you have a minute and come to Jesus and enjoy the rest and peace from the cares of this life and world that can only be found in Him...

Jesus, I Come
©2000 Greg Thompson. Words: William Sleeper. Music: Greg Thompson.

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress into jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward forever on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

fun in the mud

it has been raining for several days here, but we decided to go ahead and put some plants in during nap-time today-it was a rather muddy date. my brother tom and i used to plant a little bed of annuals every spring and though i am by no means a real gardener (even though my dad is a horticulturist!), i love to plant flowers in the spring. we were unsure if our lean budget would allow us to do much this year, but we decided to use this month's household budget to buy plants and we also had a Lowe's gift-card. there is something about cultivating even the tiniest bit of earth (our little bed is all the yard we have!) into something beautiful that really lifts our spirits. so here is before planting, after we raked out the leaves and weeded:




we planted impatients (we have a huge oak that shades the little bed) and begonias. cut the daffodils down because they are done blooming, left the lilies, and hydrangea.






we got soaked to the bone, but hopefully the rain will help them get off to a good start. i'll add more pictures as they grow!

mmmm rolls

my mom is an amazing baker of bread-she kneads, let's rise, bakes as if it is second nature. she is even experimenting with wild yeast! i have done some bread making without a bread-maker and it is really fun, but mom gave me a bread-maker a few years ago and i must have used it hundreds of times since then. with two busy babies, it's hard for me to do all the kneading and things at the right time. in our bread-maker we make pizza/calzone dough, loaves of all types of bread, and my favorite is roll dough. i made these for dinner with tara, kevin, and the girls the other night and tara asked me to post the recipe. so here you go...

Wheat Dinner Roll Dough
1 1/2 cups water (warm-80degrees or so)
2 Tbl oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp salt
2 Tbl dry milk
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

if you are doing this in a bread maker:
place all ingredients in the maker pan in order that they are listed. make a little indention in the flour for the yeast to look like this:



put on your bread-maker's dough setting and watch carefully for the initial mixing and kneading to make sure the dough mixes, all the flour gets mixed in and not stuck to the sides, add teaspoonfuls of water if you need to to make sure the dough is moist, but sticky like this:




once the maker is done (about 1.5 hours for our breadman pro, which we love), make dough into desired shapes and let rise for 30 minutes covered and in a warmish place.



cook at 400 for 20ish minutes until slightly brown. they turn out great cooked on a stone as well!




with this batch i made a few for dinner and some bigger flatter ones for sandwiches the next day. i find that they are much easier to keep fresh in buns than loaves.





if you are not using a bread-maker, use your bread-making intuition, but i think you would knead twice-initially and then again about 30 minutes later, let rise for an hour before making the rolls and then rise 30 more minutes, then bake.

i have been using King Arthur whole wheat flour which is pretty good, but these are also wonderful with high quality multi-grain flour in place of the whole wheat...just gives it a different flavor and texture. enjoy wonderful bread and also the smell wafting through the house!!

i need your honest opinion

i have a latent jewelry making hobby. i've never sold anything, but only given it away as gifts. however, our current need to make a little extra cash has caused me to wonder if i could sell this stuff on etsy or something. what do you think? would anyone buy it? these are just some samples from today:

horsie

i played with this sweet horse bouncy ball (never mind the creepy eyes) when i was little and so did a variety of siblings and cousins. we've been waiting to bring it out until marit was the right size. she loved it! only problem is that her legs are still a bit short to reach the ground so adam or i have to hold her on it and bounce her around. what a workout! we put it away again until her legs grow a bit more, but she will really enjoy this old classic...

look what daddy taught me

mmmm....homemade oatmeal cookies and milk! she loves to dip her cookies now...and her hand and makes a big cute mess

feeling the pinch

our family has been experiencing a little more financial pinch lately. i quit my job after graham was born and we do not regret that decision at all, but the few month span until adam starts residency is just a bit tight. with an expensive car repair, expensive health insurance, and two kids, we are trying to make our money stretch. we are so thankful for a wonderful deal of a renting situation, and no debt or payments to make on anything except for adam's student loans (which we will most likely begin to pay back next year). our good friend introduced us to this wonderful online budgeting tool that has really helped us get a visual of where our money goes every month. we are excited about becoming more disciplined with our money and being good stewards of what God has given to us. regardless of whether we have a lot or a little, we want to be faithful to use our money well-to live simply so that we might give generously (who coined that phrase?). some things we have been doing lately to help us make it to the day (july 1st) when adam has a real job, albeit relatively lowpaying:
*selling things we don't need or use on craig's list; this has proven to be especially profitable for baby gear and toys that just didn't work for us. it's a great place to get used furniture and such as well
*we started a used books business of sorts-selling any medical books we can get from adam's classmates and those in other schools on amazon.com for a cut of the profits from the sales. so far, this has proven to be really time-consuming and we have made about $30, but hey, that's a lot more than nothing.
*we sent char to get milk for us from the store for the week and otherwise have just been trying to use up our groceries that we have in the freezer and cupboards. my mother-in-law noticed our meager fridge and called to make sure we were ok (thoughtful, eh?)
*we have a very lean budget for anything that is not absolutely necessary. i really enjoy shopping for clothes and things for the whole family, but right now we are just trying to see how far what we have can last us. we really have so much compared to most people in the world!
*i'm going to make more things homemade like bread and oatmeal
*we still make things like dates for me and adam a priority. we need time away from the kids, but we don't go out for swanky dinners or anything (not that we ever did or will!)and we are still going to visit family some this spring/summer, and take marit to the zoo...these kind of things are built into the budget
*it's actually been kind of fun to see what we can cut back on, where we can save or earn.

we really are so thankful that i am able to be home with the kids, that adam has a few months off before the insanity of residency begins, that we have more than we need even in this season that is a little more simplified. most of all, we are thankful that "God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory"

we welcome any money-saving tips that have worked for you as well. i know, lauren, cloth diapers...just can't get adam on board for it and don't know if we can make the up-front financial commitment...

5 and 20

my munchkins are exactly 15 months apart and today is their 5 and 20 month birthday. they are both so much fun lately! marit has been going through a "no" phase for the past couple months. she answers all graham's questions with a sweet "no." she says "no" ALL the time (not in a defiant way, it just seems that she lacks a better communicating term). in the last couple weeks she has finally learned an affirmative word-yes. the only problem is that she says "sheh" and when she says it three times with enthusiasm, it really sounds like profanity. we don't curse in our house, so it is odd to hear for sure. graham is a delight and he communicates by growling. he has been rolling from belly to back for a while, but he still can't quite get from back to belly. he FINALLY has begun to stretch out his feedings to a little longer than every 2 hours and he is content to eat 6 times a day instead of 8 or 9. his napping has begun to improve as well. we are so thankful for the blessing these little sweetie pies are in our lives!!

matched

yesterday was national match day when all the graduating med-students are matched to their residency programs. it was a very fun and festive day. the theme was green st pat's day attire and there was great cheering and fun as each name was randomly called. i try not to mention any identifying information on my blog just in case i have stalkers, but if you know us, you already know where we are and we are staying here for residency. we are excited as "here" was adam's first choice and he has a wonderful group of friends from his class who are also staying. he will be in the internal medicine program and he begins july 1. in the meantime, he is working odd jobs, hanging out with the family, streamlining our finances, fixing things around the house, selling things (do we own anything you want to buy?). oh, and we won't be buying a house as we must now begin paying back our med school loans during residency. we are learning to be content to wait to be in a more permanent living situation. i must say that i'm proud of my husband! he has worked hard and now he has a real job that will ask him to work even harder!!

great grandparents

we just returned from a trek across the state to introduce graham to my mom's parents. we had a great trip (though it is very tiring to travel with small children). a little excitement occurred at the end when my sister-in-law went into pre-term labor at 34 weeks. can you say deja vous? she did spend the night in the hospital, but was able to return home the next morning and the labor was stopped praise God! we are thankful to be home as well.

defensive walking

i think maybe if you live in an urban neighborhood, you should be required to take a defensive walking class. is there anyone else whose parents made them go to a 'defensive driving' class when they got their learner's permit?

anyway, we do live in a downtown area, so there are tons of sidewalks, pedestrians and places that are accessible by foot. so we walk a lot, especially in the beautiful 70-80 degree weather we've been having. we have been nearly hit a number of times despite the care we take. the other day all four of us were crossing an intersection on one side of a street with a median. after we were already in the middle of the intersection, a driver from the other side of the road began to cross the street to turn down the street we were in the middle of. he was not there when we began to cross, but adam was afraid he might not see us and so he held up his hand and said "Hey!" in a non-aggressive way. we drive and so we know that sometimes you don't see pedestrians, but only other cars. the driver of the car, looked at adam with a glare, leaned toward us threateningly, gunned it and swerved around us in an extremely aggressive manner and sped away. i immediately burst into tears at the thought of one of my babies being hit by a car (i have this recurring nightmare that either i am in a car wreck with the kids or someone hits us while we are walking....we are VERY careful). i admit that i'm a pretty emotional creature, but seriously, what kind of person acts that way toward a fairly normal looking family with two small children who are obviously just trying to safely make it to the sidewalk?

love song of the week

hooray!

marit's lead level has actually decreased in the last 3 months. it was normal before (2) and is now even lower normal (0.3). needless to say, we will stay put in our ridiculously good deal of an old house for a little longer...thank you for praying. God is faithful indeed!

kelly and aida visit

my sis-in-law visited while tom was out of town and we had fun! marit and aida are 10 weeks apart and are just beginning to play well together. graham was exhausted from watching the two toddlers play.