Happy Halloween to You!!

A good healthy start to the day…but come on – what is the point today, anyway?!?!  We’re just embracing it ‘round here!

Our ghoulish girl in the aftermath…

Thought that these words summed up thoughts for the day:

I know Halloween can be controversial.  We've always felt freedom in Christ to redeem this day.  We fill it up with friends, creativity, light, laughter, fun, food, and fellowship.  We pray those things are honoring to God and bless Him on this day that thankfully still belongs to Him.

I pray you have a sweet weekend celebrating (or not celebrating), but still rejoicing that Christ purchased freedom for each of us to live out our convictions, to go to the Bible, and with wisdom and discernment make God-honoring decisions for our families.  Ah.  Freedom.  It's one of my favorite things about following Christ.

Trick or Treat – Corporate Style

Donald’s firm has a whole family shindig for Halloween – and we were excited to partake.  As stated earlier, we love to steal daddy away during the day…so an excuse to spend time with him without the guilt…perfection!  Sidenote: our “stealing away” occurs during socially acceptable times, aka lunch hour!

Abi loved the ridiculous amounts of candy she got.  Darn cute kid + lots of super nice single guys with no kids who brought LOTS of goodies to share = Candy overload!!

 

I loved the Flavia machine.  I know, silly.  But, remember that where I used to work we only had coffee if we all choose to make it!  Hmmm…that’s still true for daily life.  I guess that’s why I loved the Flavia.  It’s “free” / it’s rainforest and fair trade / it’s ready in less than a minute.

Nate loved the smiles.  He was held the entire time by daddy and was in Nate-heaven.

{A letter}

While there are parts of me that rebel against a schedule, the dreaded routine…as I grow I see that many of the reasons that I personally run from these things are immaturity on my part.  Schedule can bring comfort for a child, intentionality for me, and I hope (in this case) encouragement and something that lasts for someone else.

Enter…weekly letter writing.

I have a friend, she and I used to be pen pals.  Then I got lazy.  Then she blessed me the other day…and revived our tradition.  Oh, it brought my heart such happiness.   I LOVE getting snail mail.  There is something so wonderful in a paper letter.  Shared with generations past, something to hold.  Words from a friend who knows my heart and wants it to grow.  Simply wonderful.

Being a recipient of that beautiful act of intentionality led me to evaluate my “letter writing practices” with Abi.  We were kind of lacking.  Yes, we work on her letters.  Yes, she writes her name and other words.  But, it is good for me to be reminded of the reason why I teach her these things.  So that her little mind is expanded and that she can learn the art of thankfulness and ways to encourage others.

So, we’re taking a pledge.  Just between the two of us.  To write letters weekly.  To write letters and draw pretty pictures.  To be thankful.  To share our life.  To encourage friends and family.

*Lucky Doons…look what came in the mail for him today!

PS – A fruit of loving getting mail?  Getting to know your mailman.  Ours is such a nice man who is genuinely happy to see Nate & Abi, always has a smile for them, and is so considerate of me and wraps all of our mail in a rubber band (in his words, “so it’s easier to grab with the baby”).  Every. Single. Day.  What a great example of a kind heart.

Taken hostage by some steers…

We stole Donald away for about a 1/2 hour yesterday from work.

It’s a bad habit (well, not really!) – but we can’t seem to be downtown and not go visit, or make him come to us!

Thankfully, lunch can be eaten in a short period of time!

Taking daddy hostage is just the best!

It’s a good thought

(the mommy, abi & nate pumpkins picked out by Abi…we were caught up in the moment and apparently only bought for those present…sorry, donald!)

I rarely think that anything that came out of C.S. Lewis’s mouth wasn’t a good thought…but I am always continually thankful and humbled (oh yes, and convicted) by some.  One that caught me today…

"All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."  -C.S. Lewis

(thanks to Heather for the reminder)

First Day of Fall (just a wee bit late)

When fall comes and graces us with its presence – Abi and I always have one response: Pumpkin Pie.  I have made one with her each year of her sweet life, and this year was the first year that she was really helpful and not a liability!

We deviated from the norm just a bit and tried Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Pumpkin Cream Pie and while it was delicious (is anything of hers not scrumptious?!) I think we will stick to our traditional roots for pumpkin pie making.

Matching aprons – check.

Some goofy – check.

Love – check.

Abi tossing in the graham crackers for our crust

 

A watched crust never sets…

 

The cream – oh yummy.  One thing I really do love about PW’s cooking is that there is always a healthy presence of heavy cream.

 

Enjoyed while watching the Aggies beat Oklahoma State.  Oh wait.  Our poor Aggies are choking when the time comes!  It must have been the pie…

The Cookbook Journey: Stir-fry & Pork Chops

 

Stir-Fried Chicken with Broccoli or Cauliflower

Score: B

Lesson learned: By parboiling vegetables first, you end up saving time b/c cooking the broccoli on the wok raw takes a MUCH longer time.  Time saver: poaching veggies!

Sauteed Pork Chops

Score: B+

I’d never made pork chops before!  I think I was both intimidated and turned off because I have eaten many a dry pork chop.  But, oh my lands, these were good!  Not good enough to get beyond a B+ (there could have been some user error – I didn’t follow the recipe exactly at the end – silly me) – but the recipe was for sure good enough to make me want to maintain a relationship with this cut of pork!

Lesson learned:  When making pork chops – you must purchase the ‘center-cut loin chops’ – they have a distinct eye of meat and little meat elsewhere (thank you, cookbook!).  And, buy nice thick pork chops.  The cookbook encouraged the 1 inch chop – but I had 4 that were about 3/4 inch thick and they cooked just great.  I did feel a bit unsure about the color of mine – but everyone else’s were a great color when cut into!

While enjoying dinner with great friends, I forgot to take a picture!  Blast!  I do not have a picture of a pig anywhere– I will work on that at the State Fair this year.  But, I do have this darling picture of an Irish cow.  And I just love this picture.