My Favorite Babysitter: Skype

What's a momma to do when Bible study is in 45 minutes, the kitchen is a wreck, the cookies are burning, and you've got a teething baby who cries every time you put her down?

Time to call in reinforcements!  A high chair, a computer, and a Grammy on Skype is all it takes to make my girl smile like this:

Listening to my mom sing to Kayleigh and make her laugh with glee makes me so thankful that even when she can't be here holding Kayleigh, she can still be with us through Skype and turn my sad little baby into one happy girl.

Wordless Wednesday: Broccoli Face

Dear Soldiers

Dear Soldiers,

This year, more than ever, I want to thank you for protecting our future.

You see, it means more to me now that my sweet little girl is in this world.

I want to thank you for all that you sacrifice, all that you miss, all that you have to endure.

It's so easy to take our life here in the United States for granted, if we've never known anything else.  I know that you will never take it for granted again.  You know too much.  Whether you're still in the service, or out of it, life will never be the same for you.  But I thank you for protecting it for the rest of us.  For beautiful little hearts like these:

This little girl is going to be raised with a love for her country and gratitude towards those who have preserved it for her--prepared it for her.  She is going to learn to sing our anthem, delight in filling care packages for soldiers, and lisp prayers for them each night.

Thank you for protecting our future.  Thank you for protecting my little girl.

May God bless those who protect our country!

Lemon Lavender Pound Cake

Every year, Handsome Man and I go to the lavender festival near his mom's house.  It's one of my favorite traditions!

 I love the scent of lavender, I love the way it looks, and I love, love, love it when people incorporate it into food.

(We took these maternity pictures last year when I was 6 months pregnant with Kayleigh)

For the past few years, I have tried to plant culinary lavender in our yard so that I could collect it and use it in recipes.  It turns out that I'm apparently too sympathetic for these drought-resistant flowers and always end up drowning them.  After a few failures, Jesse lovingly bought me this tin of culinary lavender last year.  He joked that he was probably saving us money by just buying the tin!

I love it!  

It's perfect for making tea, scenting a room, or making this amazing lemon lavender pound cake.  If there isn't a lavender festival in your area, look for culinary lavender online (this beautiful 1/2 pound of organic culinary lavender from Layla was the best deal I found) or grow it if you're better at resisting the desire to drown water it than I am!

Lemon Lavender Pound Cake  

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp dried lavender

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3 eggs

zest of one lemon

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2--3/4 cup buttermilk

1.  Create lavender sugar in a food processor by mixing the sugar and lavender on high until it is very fine

2. Cream together butter and lavender sugar until light and fluffy, using a mixer with the paddle attachment.

3.  Add eggs, one at a time.

4.  Sift together the dry ingredients and add alternately with the buttermilk.

5.  Pour into a prepared loaf pan and bake at 350* for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle and come out clean.

6.  Let this beauty cool completely before cutting and enjoying.

This is my go-to ladies' tea/bridal shower/brunch recipe, and it is always well-received!  Let me know if you give it a try!

Worth Sharing: Isaac's Live Lip-Dub Proposal

Have you seen this yet?  I was floored.

My handsome man and I just watched it together, and I'm totally going to watch it three more times before going to bed!

Two days ago, actor Isaac Lamb surprised his girlfriend by having her sit in the back of a Honda CRV while 60 of their closest friends and family participated in his proposal by lip-dubbing Bruno Mars' "Marry You" while the car slowly cruised around the neighborhood.

I love the creativity of this, and that this guy got so many of their friends involved in this proposal.  Even friends who live out of town were able to be part of it with videos played on laptops.  How cool is that?!?

I am someone who will watch any proposal video you put in front of me.  I love living that happy moment with every couple.  But this one takes the cake, guys!

Will you let me in on your love story?  How did your significant other propose to you?

The Best Entertainment is Free

Handsome Man and I often joke that now that Kayleigh is in our life, we don't need a tv any more.  That little curly girl is entertainment enough!

But what's even more entertaining than our sweet girl?  Watching her interact with her BFF, Little Miss Emily of Finding Hope.

Emily came over to play the other day while her mommy went to a meeting.  Jesse had just come home from Costco, and there was a large, flat mushroom box left empty after he unpacked all of our new goodies.  What's the best way to make use of a big box like that?  Stick two little girls in it and watch their sweet faces as you push them around on the carpet in their new "car!"

How cute are they?!?

Also, believe it or not, Kayse and I did not call each other up to coordinate their cute pink/green stripe outfits.  Isn't it funny how that turns out?

I'm so glad these two cuties are such good friends!

A Growing Morning

{source}

This morning did not go as planned.

What Jesse and I had looked forward to as a morning spent together searching for a new computer for me turned into a morning of unexpected hiccups.  The property manager called to tell us that the repairmen we had requested two weeks ago would be arriving today sometime between 9am and 2pm.  Suddenly, our computer shopping time was taken away from us, the printer refused to print out the pages we needed, and somehow, instead of banding together against these seemingly annoying-but-harmless inconveniences, we let them reduce us to two selfish people overwhelmed by the things not going our way.

How does this happen?

I'm feeling especially convicted about my attitude right now.  Yes, it's very frustrating to be at home all day in  a house where the floor doesn't meet the bathtub and you can't shower without the risk of mold growing underneath, or where the counter tile hasn't been laid yet so the contents of your bathroom have been in boxes for the past two weeks, or where something's wrong with the ventilation system in your laundry room so that even if you run the dryer 4 times, the clothes still come out damp.  It's stressful, frustrating, and a little too out-of-my-hands for this control freak.  But that doesn't mean that I should lose it at the thought of going one more day without a computer.

I've been studying Proverbs 31 through Good Morning Girls, and through my time in the Word this morning after Jesse left, I realized with disappointment that I have not lived up to being a Proverbs 31 woman this week.  I have let the state of our home overpower my desire to be a loving and selfless wife, and have instead allowed it to fuel my selfishness and make demands of my Handsome Man that are too much for him on top of everything at his new job.

She will do him good and not evil

All the days of her life.

Proverbs 31:12

All the days.  That means I don't get to take good attitude timeouts when things don't go my way.  I can't flip out over the fact that there are no pictures hung up on the walls and oh-my-gosh-we've-lived-here-for-two-weeks-already.

She opens her mouth with wisdom,

And on her tongue is the law of kindness.

Proverbs 31:26

Ouch.  I have allowed the circumstances around us to take every word of kindness off of my tongue this week.  I have whined, badgered, and complained.  There is no wisdom in that, and definitely no love.

No, things didn't go as I had planned this morning.  But God had a different plan for me today.  Instead of getting what I wanted, God showed me that I wasn't doing what He wanted me to do.

Jesse left me this morning with a kiss, and the gift of his computer for the day.  He loves me enough to lay down what he needs to satisfy my selfish desires.  A man like that is a gift from God, and worth learning every difficult lesson for!

Thanks, God, for making me grow this morning.