Houses, babies, cooking, books and dancing...what more could you want??
Before you ask, no, the baby is not mine, unfortunately. That day will come, hopefully soon, in God's time! :)
It was my friend Christa's baby, and I got to be there for the birth! It was an amazing experience--she did such a good job, even though she was in labor for 37 hours. She finally had her gorgeous baby boy, named Joshua James Gregory (the middle two names are after his maternal and paternal grandfathers, respectively), at 4:30 in the afternoon on February 28th. He just missed being a leap-year baby, which is probably good! :) He weighed in at 6 lb. 7.2 oz and was 18 inches long. He has the most beautiful head of dark, curly hair and looks very much like his daddy. :)
So, in other news, our house is coming along swimmingly! I am very much in love with it. It helps when you have had an active hand in designing it, though..it's hard not to love something that is so much your own! :) Wes and are going to be scoring the concrete today in the kitchen, breakfast nook and living room, and then we'll hopefully stain it in the next couple of weeks. The windows are ordered, but not in yet, so we need to wait for them to be installed. The stain we're using is called an acid stain, and then the sealer is acrylic, so we really need all of the ventilation that we can get. Wes says he'll just hold his breath the whole time, but I have my doubts...
I've finally picked out the color for the house, trim, front door, etc. We're going with a lovely taupe-ish color called Pony Tail for the main color, and then we're using a dark, chocolate brown for the horizontal and window trim, cream for the vertical trim, and a toned-down (but still vibrant) red for the doors. :)
But, as you can see, we're still very green now. That's okay...I can still have vision. :)
I have been trying to bake a lot more recently, but with my schedule with the house, that gets really hard. I end having days where I cook all afternoon long, especially since my trailer oven is so tiny. But it works fairly well, and yesterday I ended up feeling very accomplished! I made 2 1/2 dozen blueberry creme muffins (soooo good!), for church, a quiche lorraine (with a bunch of other stuff in it, 'cause I like my quiches brimming), a chilled artichoke dip for the ball we're going to tonight, and finally, pizza for supper! Rita, I followed your recipe and it was great! My pizza stone is really new, though, and I think it cooked the crust a little faster than I intended, so it was kind of crispy. I think next time (until I break in my darn stone!) I'm going to add a little wheat gluten and see if that softens it up.
Wes and I decided that we needed to give up watching TV/movies for a while, and since it was Lent, decided to give them up for that. It's our first time observing the Lenten fast and it's been really good for us! Kind of tough, but really good. :) So, instead of watching movies in the evening, (or during the day) we've been reading. I have read something like 15 books in the last 20 days. :) Of course, a lot of those are audio books that I listen to while I work or knit...it helps to pass the time. Some of my favorites have been:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
All of the Aunt Dimity mysteries that I've read so far, by Nancy Atherton
Most of the Agatha Raisin mysteries, by M.C. Beaton--there was one I didn't like very much.
Marie Antoinette, by Antonia Fraser (still reading this one, but it's fascinating!
I'm also reading various decorating/architecture books (What Color is Your Slipcover? by Denny Daikeler, Concrete at Home, by Fu-Tung Cheng and Inside the Not So Big House, by Sarah Susanka). I can never read just ONE book at once, so I've always got at least 3 going. :) What can I say? I guess I'm ADD. :)
So, anyway, there you go: a better update than last time, 'cause I added pictures. And if each picture is worth a thousand words...I think this one is long enough. :)
It was my friend Christa's baby, and I got to be there for the birth! It was an amazing experience--she did such a good job, even though she was in labor for 37 hours. She finally had her gorgeous baby boy, named Joshua James Gregory (the middle two names are after his maternal and paternal grandfathers, respectively), at 4:30 in the afternoon on February 28th. He just missed being a leap-year baby, which is probably good! :) He weighed in at 6 lb. 7.2 oz and was 18 inches long. He has the most beautiful head of dark, curly hair and looks very much like his daddy. :)
So, in other news, our house is coming along swimmingly! I am very much in love with it. It helps when you have had an active hand in designing it, though..it's hard not to love something that is so much your own! :) Wes and are going to be scoring the concrete today in the kitchen, breakfast nook and living room, and then we'll hopefully stain it in the next couple of weeks. The windows are ordered, but not in yet, so we need to wait for them to be installed. The stain we're using is called an acid stain, and then the sealer is acrylic, so we really need all of the ventilation that we can get. Wes says he'll just hold his breath the whole time, but I have my doubts...
I've finally picked out the color for the house, trim, front door, etc. We're going with a lovely taupe-ish color called Pony Tail for the main color, and then we're using a dark, chocolate brown for the horizontal and window trim, cream for the vertical trim, and a toned-down (but still vibrant) red for the doors. :)
But, as you can see, we're still very green now. That's okay...I can still have vision. :)
I have been trying to bake a lot more recently, but with my schedule with the house, that gets really hard. I end having days where I cook all afternoon long, especially since my trailer oven is so tiny. But it works fairly well, and yesterday I ended up feeling very accomplished! I made 2 1/2 dozen blueberry creme muffins (soooo good!), for church, a quiche lorraine (with a bunch of other stuff in it, 'cause I like my quiches brimming), a chilled artichoke dip for the ball we're going to tonight, and finally, pizza for supper! Rita, I followed your recipe and it was great! My pizza stone is really new, though, and I think it cooked the crust a little faster than I intended, so it was kind of crispy. I think next time (until I break in my darn stone!) I'm going to add a little wheat gluten and see if that softens it up.
Wes and I decided that we needed to give up watching TV/movies for a while, and since it was Lent, decided to give them up for that. It's our first time observing the Lenten fast and it's been really good for us! Kind of tough, but really good. :) So, instead of watching movies in the evening, (or during the day) we've been reading. I have read something like 15 books in the last 20 days. :) Of course, a lot of those are audio books that I listen to while I work or knit...it helps to pass the time. Some of my favorites have been:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
All of the Aunt Dimity mysteries that I've read so far, by Nancy Atherton
Most of the Agatha Raisin mysteries, by M.C. Beaton--there was one I didn't like very much.
Marie Antoinette, by Antonia Fraser (still reading this one, but it's fascinating!
I'm also reading various decorating/architecture books (What Color is Your Slipcover? by Denny Daikeler, Concrete at Home, by Fu-Tung Cheng and Inside the Not So Big House, by Sarah Susanka). I can never read just ONE book at once, so I've always got at least 3 going. :) What can I say? I guess I'm ADD. :)
So, anyway, there you go: a better update than last time, 'cause I added pictures. And if each picture is worth a thousand words...I think this one is long enough. :)