Thanks to my beautiful friend Kristine, I've found a plethora of encouraging blogs to follow. One blog, Chatting at the Sky, (and great sister blog (in)Courage), posts Tuesday blogs that are only about stopping and being thankful. The idea was that life is so busy that we rarely stop to think about how much we have to be thankful for in the midst of the chaos. One of my favorites was that she posted a pile of dirty pink laundry and her 'stop to be thankful' was for 'the messy' because it meant two healthy girls lived there. I have just had an overwhelmingly thankful day and wanted to take part in stopping to recognize that God is so good and I far too seldom slow down to simply tell him 'thank you'.
To name just a few that have been running through my head this morning...
I am so thankful for a too early wake up call... from the man in my life that can't sleep. His precious apologies for waking me up so many times this morning fall on deaf ears. What could be better than your man getting to spend some much needed quiet time during a sleepless night, then hearing him whisper 'I love you' as he tip toes around the room? More than that, when he comes to my side of the bed to kiss my face before he leaves with such sweet words for his wife and his child?
Thankful for this lady...
And speechless on where I would even begin. To be pint-sized, she has the inner strength of a thousand saints. Her spirit is unshakable and she is so evidently full of joy and peace in her Father.... so much so that its visible from just looking at her! I have learned SO MUCH from her. She radiates the Light inside of her and she is such an encouragement!
So thankful that my desk looks like this. (That's my bible beside my computer)
We have so much freedom to live free! I am so thankful for a work environment where people are more likely to carry their bibles around with them than their planners. I am encouraged to take long lunch breaks to be able to spend time in the word. We share what we are learning with each other. This is a great place.
Finally, and most importantly, I am thankful for God teaching me to be obedient. Through His teaching, he has proved Himself faithful over and over again. I am free to let go of fear. He is more than equipt to conquor all of my silly fears and He proves Himself daily. He is a fountain and I thirst for more of Him.
Hey everybody! I made these Cranberry Crumb Bars this weekend and they were really good! Powers specifically said they were great with coffee, so that's his 2 cents! I LOVE cranberries, so these reminded me of good ole' winter desserts! I stole this recipe and pictures from this website... Katie makes great looking food... this is the first recipe I've tried and I'll def try more! I don't know how to give legal credit for stolen pictures, so Ill just give my own disclosure that I didn't take this picture and Katie takes awesome food pics!
Cranberry Crumb Bars
Cranberry Filling
2/3 cup white sugar
1 Tbs cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
juice of 1/2 of an orange
4 cups fresh cranberries**
Crumb Mixture
1 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour/meal*
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks)
1 egg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9×9 (or 8x8) inch pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and orange juice. Mix in the cranberries. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup sugar, flour, almond flour, salt and baking powder. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. The dough will be crumbly. Alternatively, you can pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor with the butter until pebbly, and then mix in the egg until it all comes together. Pat half of the dough into the buttered pan.
Sprinkle the cranberry mixture evenly over the dough in the pan.
Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the remaining dough, then crumble dough over the berries. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until top is a light golden brown. (Watch while cooking, mine didn’t take quite this long) Cool completely and chill in the refrigerator before cutting into squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
* I used whole natural almonds. Just toss them in a food processor until finely ground to make almond meal.
**stock up while cranberries are abundant in stores. Just toss them in the freezer and use as you need. They'll be good for about a year. If you're using frozen fresh cranberries for this recipe there is no need to thaw them first.
Feeling good.. a friend has saved me with a back brace that is making a WORLD of difference on an aching crick in my back :( Otherwise feeling great!
We can now see baby kick, which is so fun! I love this kid in here! Every once in a while when shim starts kicking hard, I can pull up my shirt and see a little protrusion from my belly! It is hilarious!
Sorry for the so short quick update, but it's just a short post kind of day! Love you all!
I tried to post this yesterday but it took forever to load! Here are Caden and Elizabeth playing with Serenity's new bubble gun. Check out Caden trying to eat them! Cuties! Also take a gander at their new winter coats! They just graduated from their 0-6 month coats! 0-6 MONTHS!!! They are 2 1/2 years old!! Tiny little things!
I knew our weekend was off to a good start when I came home from work Friday and Renny and Powers were at our neighbors house playing a friendly game of baseball! I love our new house and neighbors! We have GREAT neighborhood kids that we are so thankful for!
This was the first of quite a few kid games that hubbers took part in and made all the kido's mad because he would 'bend' the rules to his advantage! i.e. If i can touch the base with a long stick while Im running, technically I'm 'touching' base, so that should count! We wonder where Ren gets all her 'games with a zillion rules' from?!?!
Exciting news first!!!
We have harvested the last (and first) of our summer harvest!! Please don't be discouraged at our BOUNTY for all you first time farmers.... our bumper crop is just new house luck Im sure you will be as fortunate as we were this year next year! Are you ready for all our goodies?!
Hold your breath...
Behold....
That's right, folks! We have successfully harvested ahhhh lemon (as in ONE!) Here's another shot of our beauty... She's a looker!
We're proud parents! We actually ARE since we brutally murdered our last lemon tree! :) Poor lemonjello! (That was it's name and we talked to it all the time!) Ok, gloating aside, here is the rest of our weekend!
Charley spent the night with us Saturday night and we all fell asleep on her! Poor thing! We can't stay awake past 9:00 so she was left watching movies by herself :(
We watched the movie 'Imagine That' with Eddie Murphy and it was really cute! Powers and I are trying to weed out movies that aren't portraying positive messages so this was a good, fun watch!
Two thumbs up from the Lane clan! Eddie Murphy is hilarious anyway, so anything he does is sure to get a few laughs!
Then, we made homemade caramel apples! Fun!!! Powers made the caramel from scratch! (How lucky am i?!?! Who else is married to a man that knows how to make homemade caramel?!) We made a totally mess and didn't eat much because it proved to be harder than eating fair apples, but we had a blast trying! Here are our apples and a little of Charley's food art!
Powers made me a beautiful caramel flower, too! He got hubbs of the night award, for sure!
I have been trying to get in the kitchen more so we will quit eating so junky. Blah. A friend and I were having the 'it's just so hard to cook as much as we'd like to' conversation last night and I remembered this meal!
Powers and I made this recently and it was great, affordable, super quick and healthy! If you multitask, you can throw this whole thing together in 20 minutes easily! I've added our cooks notes at the bottom of each recipe for your interest! We served this with a loaf of french bread for dinner. Enjoy!
Steak Balsamico with Mushrooms - serves 4
4 (6 oz.) flat-iron steaks, about 1-1/4 in. thick
1-1/4 t. salt, divided
3/4 t. black pepper, divided
2 T. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 oz. pkg. sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
Rub steaks with 1 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper. Cook in hot oil in a large skillet over med-high heat 4-5 minutes on each side (or more for us) or to desired degree of doneness. Transfer to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm.
Add garlic to skillet; saute 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add mushrooms and remaining 1/4 t. salt and 1/4 t pepper to skillet; saute 3 mintues. Stir in vinegar; cook, stirring frequently, 3-5 minutes or until mushrooms ar tender. Spoon mushroom mixture over steaks,and serve immediately. You only mess up one skillet to do this dinner.
*Can substitute 2 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices, for steaks.
*Note: This was good, but the balsamic sauce is really strong. I would either serve on the side as a dipping sauce or just cook the mushrooms in the sauce and serve only the mushrooms (sans sauce) over the steaks.
Spring Greens Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese
2/3 c pecan halves
3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, divided
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. sugar (or brown sugar)
¼ c olive oil
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp whole grain mustard
1/8 tsp salt
1 pkg (5 oz) spring mix salad greens
1 can (14.5 oz) sliced beets, drained
1 cup crumbled goat cheese
In a medium skillet, cook the pecans, 1 Tbsp vinegar and water over medium heat until the nuts are toasted, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar. Cook and stir for 2-4 minutes or until sugar is melted. Spread on foil to cool.
In a small bowl, combine the oil, syrup, mustard, salt, and remaining vinegar. Refrigerate until serving.
In a large bowl, combine salad greens and dressing; toss to coat (do not need all of the dressing). Divide among 8 salad plates and top with beets, goat cheese and glazed pecans.
*our notes: we LOVED the pecans so if you are serving 8, you may want to use a few more pecans! We also roasted fresh beets, which were wonderful, but my mom said canned beets work great!
And i have a great long video of them singing Jesus Loves Me and making faces but I videoed it sideways and it gives you a crick in your neck watching because I dont know how to rotate it! Ill see what I can do.
I. LOVE. MY. NEICES. AND. NEPHEW. (make sure you add Charley to this list. Just because she's not pictured, I dont want anyone leaving her precious to me self out!) THEY ARE SO GREAT!
We are 23 weeks this week! And the size of a mango? I went from carrot to mango. im not sure I understand this sizing system, but Im no expert, so Ill just pass along what they are telling me! I wrote the family that it's a good thing I went to a rock concert this weekend because baby can now feel momma dancing, so my email encouraged cuttin' a rug! Woo! Fun baby! Still feeling great and loving being pregersaurus! (Roar!!)
Here is a great picture powers took while enjoying our backyard Tuesday night. He made this fire for guys night while I was at a friends shower and when I came home he and allie were all laid back relaxing by the fire!
Powers and Renny were able to go down to their family camp house this past weekend. They spent alot of time outdoors and finished harvesting the last of the Lane bounty! Here are a few pictures from their finds! Check out that Cuc! Their dog, Sally, thought it was a toy and ran around playing with it until it finally tore it up!
While the Lane's were farming, I ran off on a super quick girls trip with my best friend Tara! We went to Nashville for the night to go to a concert then spend the next day just browsing around. We had the best time! Tara used to be my road trip rocker friend but it has been YEARS since we've been able to get away! I texted her and asked what exactly a preganant girl wears to a rock concert and she said I wear a shirt that says, 'My baby loves to ROCK OUT!' If only I had one! It would have been perfect!
This is the 100 foot guy that stood in front of me at the concert. I am almost certain that you have to be of a certain height to live in Nashville. Tara is a tiny thing and we had at least 15 people standing in front of us that had to be taller than 6'6". That's really not exaggerating either! Needless to say, we didn't see much! :)
Since we couldn't see much, I quickly refocused my attention to this .... Can you tell who it is? Look at the guy in the hoodie...You know I'm entirely star struck by all famous people and lose all rational thinking on how to act normal...
That's right ABC fans, its TY PENNINGTON IN THE FLESH! Whoot! You know Ty, from extreme home make over?!?! He was standing 10 feet away from us! We didn't speak (not because I would have made a blubbering idiot of myself if we did) but because he was there with a friend just having a good time, but I was so excited to see a famous person!
The next day we took in a little shopping and with it being so cold, we absolutley took advantage of my new found medical condition. Close parking!!! (I am ashamed of myself for you mothers who actually NEED close parking, but it WAS a good photo opp!)
Sign reads: 'Please keep this space reserved for mothers-to-be and parents with infants'.
22 weeks and I've still got it right?! (Insert dying laugh here.)
