marit has the ball

and graham wants it.



being a little brother is no picnic!

marit and her...

"ponytoy." her hair is otherwise all in her eyes and i still can't bring myself to cut it. i'm told i used to call it a "ponytatle." she often requests it and it think it is adorable. in other news, last night marit was eating a somewhat new combination of foods: rice, cooked almonds, spinach, chicken, tomatoes, cheese, onions. i was unsure of how it would go, but she took a bite and i said, "you like that marit?" she said clear as a bell: "not bad, not bad" and then ate almost the entire plate full. she is so conversational lately. i love to hear her saying such adult expressions...sometimes she says "let's see here." i say that one a lot. or "alright everybody!" another favorite of mine...these moments of adorableness are so important to balance out the two-year old troubles as well. i'm reading Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp again (i forgot to finish it last time) to remind myself of what i'm doing. i do not want her to be a trained monkey, but i want to get at her heart, to help her confront her sin of selfishness and impatience and to look to Jesus for rescue. i long for her to worship God, not herself...i recommend this book to all padres.

three posts sometimes happen in one sitting when the kids actually take naps simultaneously, i was able to spend time with the Lord this morning before they awoke, and adam is on call for 30 hours over the weekend. happy saturday friends!

cooking with plums

since my parents visited last weekend and brought lots of fresh fruit (my dad is a horticulturist and breeds peaches and plums), we have been doing a good bit of cooking with fruit. we made one peach cobbler and have enough peaches saved to make another one. i also discovered that pork chops were on sale at publix this week. i do not know how to cook pork. we eat it maybe twice a year, but these chops seemed relatively lean and we have been heavy on the poultry lately. besides, nothing says "i love you" to adam better than cooking a new recipe....especially if it looks like this:


you can find the recipe here.

it was delicious! my mom also left some plum sauce/jelly in our fridge, so i made my mom's delicious plum spice cake, which i finished for breakfast today (why yes, i do have a degree in nutrition and occasionally eat dessert for breakfast. is that bad?)

want that recipe too?

Plum Cake
mix together in small bowl:
7/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup plum sauce (can also use apple sauce or babyfood plums)

set oven at 350, grease 9x9 pan (double for 9x13)

sift into medium bowl
1 3/4 cup flour (or flour and oat bran, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, whatever your favorite combo is, though ap flour will give you the most cakey result)
1t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves (or allspice)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional, but i LOVE it with walnuts)

stir wet ingredients into dry and mix well, pour into pan. bake for 40 minutes or until center of cake springs back when touched gently.

goes really well with vanilla ice cream.
enjoy!

a sweet surprise...

as my mom says, it's a "family challenge" to surprise me. i do not like surprises if i know they are coming and i almost always know because people act weird when they are lying. i usually know most gifts my family gives me. they act like it is so annoying, but i think they don't try very hard to keep secrets from me. this time it all started with tom and kelly coming back for the weekend for a little more research. i told adam that we should have the figgins over too since we had to cancel on them recently due to crappy residency hours...then i thought...a picnic to get adam some sunshine. i expected adam to be excited, but instead with a suspicious look said that "we should stay home." ok party pooper. then kelly and adam kept giggling about something in the kitchen and adam kept getting random phone calls that he denied.

 

finally, my parents showed up. surprise! they came to visit for the weekend too and i was so excited to show them our house for the first time and for them to meet pax. i was also excited for the fresh peaches and plums that suddenly covered my kitchen counters. yum! my mom loves snuggling graham.
 

20 minutes later the doorbell rang. adam said "oh ellen, the stroller. will you get it? it's a lady with a stroller who wants some food. you should talk to her since it is a woman." ok, a woman asking for food is not altogether unusual in our neighborhood, but why did you start off talking about a stroller? guess who was really there? sweet charlotte! did i mention that when i showed my parent the kids room, she said: :"oh, charlotte can sleep there." i thought, "when? at thanksgiving?" i was really surprised this time. wasn't it so clever for them to split the surprise in two?

 

charlotte moved from our city to new york city to intern with storycorps. i'm super proud of her, but i LOVED having her live closeby and we all really miss her.

we had a blissful 18 hours or so together...eating dinner, walking to church together, sitting and catching up.

 

 

char stayed with us a few more days since her boyfriend lives down the street from us. we even caught a long run together! she is one of my favorite people to run with since we easily fall into the same rhythm. and it is always a treat to run without the jogging stroller...did i tell you that i'm running a 10k in september and hopefully a half-marathon in november...so most of our days begin like this:

my jogger can convert from strolling wheels that swivel and keep it pretty compact
 

to sturdy, three-wheeled jogger.




it can also hook up to a bike as a trailer, be used cross-country skiing, or hiking. we don't do any of these activities yet, but when graham turns one, we might start biking as a family.

anyway, thanks family for the surprise! it was really great to see charbar and to be together a bit. we missed abe and bethany though!

preferred way to dine

music for thursday

i told you i would not be able to keep up a routine...thursday instead of monday this week. i love this gilian welch song the way over the rhine does it. a sweet friend came over yesterday to have a "voice lesson," which is really just fun singing and hanging out time (with a few pointers here and there) and then she babysits for me! how awesome is that? anyway, we sang this song at the end and i was reminded of how much i love it...traditional folk song with heavenward eyes...i think i'm going to try to keep up guitar playing so that i can be a folk/rock star like karin berquist. or maybe i'll just end up playing old mcdonald had a farm all day. either way, should be fun!

What is sustaining grace?

"not grace to bar what is not bliss, nor flight from all distress. but this: the grace that orders our trouble and pain and then in the darkness is there to sustain." john piper

i love that. that is our God who provides such grace. my ipod is usually on shuffle in my kitchen and so sometimes it runs across a sermon by one of my favorites...piper, keller, driscoll, or robertson. for some reason it has played this one by piper about sustaining grace two days in a row and i need to hear this Gospel that does not promise a life of comfort and ease, but does sustain us. my life is not especially hard at the moment, but i can become short-sighted and forget that all of life and its day to day grind is sovereignly ordained by my good Savior to sustain and keep my faith for the ultimate purpose of glorifying God.

i just finished reading "The Prodigal God" by tim keller. go read this book. it is such a careful and winsome look at the parable of the two sons (also known as the Prodigal Son). he makes the point that the parable is just as much about the older son who does everything "right" as it is about the younger who squanders away his inheritance with carnal living. both sons are distanced from the Father-because no matter how hard we try, doing it all "right" is still not good enough and shot-through with brokenness and sin. the Father in the parable (representing God, of course) is "prodigal" in that He recklessly pours His grace out for both of them. keller then talks about how the human race is really a tribe of exiles...longing for home...which is where our Father is. i loved this book...i'd post some memorable quotes, but i already loaned it out.

name the artist:
In every station, new trials and troubles call for more grace than I can afford
Where can I go but to my dear Savior for mercy that pours from boundless stores
Grace upon grace every sin repaired every void restored, you will find Him there
In every turning He will prepare you with grace upon grace
He made a way for the fallen to rise.
Perfect in glory and sacrifice. In sweet communion, my need He supplies grace that keeps and guards my life
To Thee I run now with great expectations to honor you with trust like a child
My hopes and desires seek a new destination and all that you ask, your grace will provide.