keeping my head warm

I definitely enjoy knitting.  I just finished another project. This time a hat.
I've actually finished a few other things as well. This is my second hat, the first was a little small.  And I knitted a pair of gauntlets, or fingerless gloves, but I gave those to my sister before I had the chance to take a picture.

I did not think I would like knitting this much. I remember learning how to in middle school and it always looked awful.  My general tendency was to go too tight to the point of having my fingers cramp up.  And then I would try to make it more loose to compensate and end up with a lumpy mess.
But now I really enjoy it.  It keeps my hands busy which is always a good thing.

preparations...

Well, thanksgiving is fast approaching, so I spent the better part of today in the kitchen making the bagels Josh requested for our trip and chocolate covered pretzels to appease my father-in-law.
I rediscovered how much of a tedious process making chocolate covered pretzels is. I'm afraid I scorched the white chocolate just a little. And when you get to the bottom of the pan you are so ready to be done with it, but can't possibly waste that good chocolate, so you labor on till the very last of the chocolate is spread thin on a pretzel, and you are more than willing to give it another year before going through the whole process again.  And do it again I will, because it is so worth it.  Yummmmmy.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody and safe travels!

mounting day

Remember that puzzle Josh and I worked on so long and then finally finished a long time ago?  Today Josh finally out it up on the wall and I love it.  I really wasn't sure my idea was going to work, but with Josh's talent, determination, and some trial and error he managed to get it up on the wall. And it looks great. 


The picture makes it look small, but trust me, it's not.  3000 pieces, remember?
Also the little blue picture on the left is one I painted last weekend.  Have to get a decent picture of that too eventually...

fun with light

I was working on a new knitting project today, while Josh and I were watching a movie.  The room was rather dark but there was a small ray of light that landed right on my knitting.
Josh and I both noticed it, and while I kept knitting, he took some neat pictures.

Bread: from beginning to end

I made some bread yesterday. It was a Swedish Rye Bread that Josh really likes, so I thought I would document the making of it rater than just the result. I ended up with a lot more dishes than I normally would have but it was fun.


Today I will add the recipe, in case you would like to make this delicious bread yourself.
I only made one leaf, though the recipe I'll give you makes two.


1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
3 tbsp melted butter
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 1/4 cups rye flour
2 pkg active dry yeast (there are 2 1/4 tsp. yeast to a package)
5 cups bread flour
3 tbsp caraway seeds

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, salt, molasses, honey, and melted butter

Dissolve the yeast in 2 tbsp lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar and set a side.  Meanwhile scald the milk and water. That just means heat it up on the stove till it nearly comes to a boil.

Add the milk gradually to the rye mixture, and let it cool to lukewarm. By that time the yeast will be nice and frothy. Add to the rye mixture.

Then knead in the bread flour and the caraway seeds.

And then wait.  The directions say to let it rise till doubles in size, but I feel like that would have taken all day. maybe you will have more luck.  i let it it for a while and then put it into a bread pan, and let it sit some more.  At that point, though it is not in the instructions, I sprinkled it with coarse sea salt, Josh really likes it that way.

Then its time to put it in the oven.  Make sure it is preheated to 250 degrees, and bake it for 90 minutes.  Then change the temperature to 300F and bake about 15 minutes more. The bottom should sound hollow when tapped if it is finished.

enjoy!

It's really good with soups of any kind, or fresh from the oven with butter on it.

picnic date

On Tuesday Josh came home with flowers and sparkling grape juice and asked me if I wanted to go on  picnic for dinner, and because it was such a nice day out I agreed.  I had taco bake, a casserole type dish on the menu, but rather than changing it to something else, I decided to make it anyway and bring it in a tupperware container for us.
While that was cooking Josh looked up various parks and decided where he wanted to go.
When he found a place and the food was ready, I decided to cut up an apple, and ended up with a cut up finger instead, which delayed us some, but Josh was really sweet about patching me up, all the wile berating me for not being more careful, and then we were off.
It probably took a good half hour to get to our destination, but it was worth it. We went up this hill, me with my throbbing finger and Josh with the food and camera, and it was beautiful.  All woodsy and just at sunset.  We found a picnic table where we ate and then did a little exploring.
All in all, a very fun day.

Complete!

I actually finished a project! As of about five minutes ago, the scarf I knitted for Josh is done.
Now I'm going to try knitting something a little more challenging...

muffins

It really is a shame that you can't capture and digitalize a smell.  Otherwise I would have you all drooling just from the aroma of muffins that is wafting out of my oven.  I feel like the picture just doesn't do it enough justice.

But then I would have to consider if it was just downright cruel to  do that to you, tantalize you with the smell of fresh muffins, especially when most of you are so far away you can't just pop on over and share one with me.

something different

Josh convinced me to learn how to knit.  I'm still deciding if it's my thing.  I know it will take plenty of practice before I have the right amount of tension and can make more interesting things.  We'll see if I have the patience for it.  Right now it feels pretty monotonous, but it is nice to have something to do with my hands besides bite my fingernails when Josh reads to me.  And maybe eventually I'll have the courage to take it to church. I pay so much better attention if my hands are occupied.

By the way, please feel free to comment on my posts.  I'd love to know your thoughts, to know someone is reading my blog.  Let me know what you think, send me a recipe to try, suggest things for me to take pictures of, or tell me what my challenge should be for the next month.

Insomnia...

Why? Why must it be at night that my mind comes alive and refuses to let me sleep?  Like a good wife, I go to bed when my husband does, read for a little while (so glad that doesn't bother him), and than try to sleep.  Sleep does not come, so I think about all the things I want -and need- to do the next day. And suddenly my brain wakes up.  Some nights need to have a notebook and pen next to my bed, so I can write a to-do list, or my ideas lest I forget them.  The sad part is, I know that when morning comes I will not be so ambitious.  It will be hard to get out of bed, I'm tired because I didn't get any sleep last night, and usually the cold makes me want to stay snugly under my warm covers.  How do I break this vicious cycle?

All that aside, I took more pictures of leaves yesterday.  I can't help it.  They were so beautiful (that and I don't have anything else to put up).  So here you are, more of this autumn's beautiful color:

Bruschetta

I've been feeling rather apathetic about taking pictures lately.  It's been too cold to go out much, and I've had a bit of a mental block on my creativity.

So once again, the subject for today is food.  I found some lovely yellow tomatoes at the store the other day and I decided I had to make bruschetta. I made Italian bread from a recipe I found on my bread flour bag. Next I got out the bruschetta recipe and realized to my dismay that I didn't have all the ingredients I needed. So I decided to wing it and made do with what I had. The result was very satisfying and made for a happy husband, who said "keep the recipe", which is code for "that was delicious".

The only negative: I woke up this morning with the taste of garlic still in my mouth.  And, yes, I did  brush my teeth last night...

Done!

We finally finished our 3000 piece puzzle.  It took us a total of 24 days (less than i thought it would be, actually).
The sad part is, I am mainly just happy to have the use of our kitchen table back.
But this is definitely not a puzzle that will go back into the box.  For one, it is a really neat picture, and I really can't bear to undo all that hard work.  I'll have to find a way to glue it, maybe in chunks, rather than the whole thing, and then I know of the perfect place for it.  Our living room has a large unoccupied wall, that will be perfect.

beauty and complexity

I met an MK yesterday.  It fascinates me, the instant connection you can share with someone, no matter  where they grew up, or how different their life was from yours.  There is some kind of special understanding between the people that call themselves TCKs or MKs. Maybe it's the fact that here's someone who won't misunderstand you, who won't think your are weird and laugh at your quirks, but they themselves have experienced the complexity that comes from growing up in two different cultures, being able to comfortably being move about in both, but never really feeling like you belong to either one.

Ahh, I am reveling in this autumn weather. I just can't get over the colors and this beautiful weather. And the best part is, I have the time to enjoy it and the camera to capture it.

time for something new

It hasn't been quite a month yet, and I have not succeeded at taking a picture everyday, but I started a new project today.  It will probably not take me a month to do so I'll have to be looking for something else to do soon.

Today I decided to paint.
I've been putting it off, using my lack of supplies as an excuse, but i was looking at what i had today and realized that I actually have most of what i need, except maybe white.  So I told myself to put it off no longer and just get started.  I won't get good by sitting on my hands.

Now the challenge is to finish. I am usually someone who sees things through and sticks it out.  But I am also a perfectionist, so when something does not turn out exactly the way I want it to, I have a tendency to give up.

a nice way to end the day

It's been a little while...
The weekend was fun, we went to a wedding and celebrated dad's birthday.  But I didn't take many pictures.  Josh had the camera most of the time.
Instead I'll post one I took yesterday when Josh and i took a walk after dinner to catch the sunset. We walked to our town's pride and joy, the Dutch windmill, imported from Holland. It actually works too.

yum

This is my accomplishment for the day.  I made oatmeal craisin white chocolate chip cookies.
So now it looks like I haven't been doing much other than cooking and reading books, seeing as my recent blog posts have been of food and such. I did thoroughly clean the apartment yesterday, which made my husband very happy. But cleaning isn't exactly fun to photograph, so instead you get to enjoy pictures of my adventures in the kitchen.
This weekend we are going to MI for dad's birthday and a friend's wedding.  We'll see what photo opportunities come our way by Monday...

poetry

Well, it looks like the rain decided to stay.
So i took advantage of the opportunity to get cozy with a book of poetry and a hot drink. I am realizing now that I am out of school that I actually like poetry and can appreciate it.  There's something about school that takes the joy out of everything.  I remember picking apart poems and short stories in lit classes and wondering why on earth I had to know this.  Why does it matter what the poet was thinking or trying to get at?
Yet somehow, amazingly I sit here today looking at these works and actually enjoying them.  I enjoy the symbolism, the use of language to describe something so simple in a way that makes you see it in a different light and takes your breath away.

rainy day

Sometimes I like rainy days.  They make me appreciate the sunny days even more. As long as they remain few and far between :)
But rainy days means we can make it cozy inside. We turned on the heat today for the first time. And Josh got out a scented candle that we lit. I put on some fuzzy socks and started making supper while Josh went back to his project of tackling our spare room.
My goal today was to make pork chops for lunch.  I found a recipe in my "Cooking for Two" cookbook.  The picture had me salivating, so I decided I had to try it.  And to my (and my husband's) delight, it turned out as mouth watering as it looked.

birds

My husband and I went to get our IL driver's licenses today.  Yaay, my first official card/document with my new name on it (aside from my marriage license of course).  So i'm a little behind, we've been married 48 days, and i'm only just getting around to it.  But the passport is on its way too. SS card is next.

On our way to get the new licenses we stumbled upon this amazing sight, hundreds of birds all hanging out together on a few phone lines.

a colorful day

I love color. Not really one in particular, but I love combinations of colors and complementary colors and contrasting colors...  I sorted all my books by color once, that was fun.
Today I noticed the trees are starting to change color, and on a blue sky day there is nothing more pleasing to the eye than the greens and orange and yellow and brown with a brilliant blue background.

I also walked into a quilt shop I discovered on Main Street and let me tell you - colors galore!  I am not a quilter, but i sure had fun looking at all the quilts and fabrics and patterns.

debating mysticism

I find it can be rather frustrating to talk to someone about faith/religion/belief and go around and around in circles because overall you agree but in essence there is a big difference in what and how you believe. We had a conversation with someone earlier tonight about his god.  He believes in the bible, particularly the new testament, not so much the old, but ends up in this mysticism where it's all about preserving nature and finding your belief deep down inside of you.  There's not really any way to go wrong with this guy until you say there is only one way.
But as my husband said, it is not our job to convince people of the truth, we are to simply explain to them the truth, pray for them and leave the convincing up to God. That way we can't chalk it up to our great illustrations, or debating, and  persuasion skills. And actually, I find that a relief.

prayer

Today I am thankful for Stormie Omartian.  She is teaching me how to pray for my husband.  Her book "The Power of a Praying Wife" covers so many things I wouldn't even think to pray about. And it forces me to start with myself and my own heart.  I'm learning that it's not always about changing him to be the way i want him to be, but it's about looking at things from God's point of view and changing my attitude and my perspective.  Most importantly it is about praying that God change Josh to conform to His image.

I recently got a bike from some friends, and have enjoyed getting exercise to get to this beautiful quiet park where i can read my bible on the days it is still warm.

pizza and a movie

Today is kind of a lazy day. We got home from church and decided to put pj's on make pizza with whatever we found in the fridge and watch a movie.  The pizza just came out of the oven and i am soo hungry.
I am thankful for taste buds and good food, and even more than that, being able to enjoy it with my husband.

needle in a haystack...

...or just one puzzle piece among 3000?  My husband and I decided to start putting our 3000 piece puzzle together last night, and as always we begin with the edge pieces to form the border. But after about an hour and a half of working on it we are still missing 2. Even though we weeded very carefully and systematically through all the pieces we must have somehow missed those two.
And because looking for them among the couple thousand that are left feels a little like looking for a needle in a haystack, we will simply have to wait till we find them as we start putting the rest of the puzzle together.

I feel like I should be drawing some clever analogy here, but none are coming to mind.  I'm sure as we keep working on the puzzle, analogies will abound. Puzzles have a habit of doing that...

sunflowers

I finally made it a point to go take pictures of these sunflowers I drive by whenever I go anywhere.  They are on this nice little bike path that runs alongside the railroad tracks.  I love sunflowers, I love the idea that they follow the path of the sun.  That's what I would do if I had nothing better to do all day.  Especially on these increasingly chilly fall days.  I am thankful for the blue-sky-and-sunshine days we've had all week.

I discovered that i like adjusting the exposure to the point of making the picture look unrealistic.  But creates a pretty cool effect...