Blogging

Amy and I hosted our Julie and Julia party last night, which was a HUGE success! Everybody brought delicious foods, we stuffed ourselves silly, and Julie and Julia was even better than I remembered. What a sweet movie. The winning recipe of the night went to Trish with her banana layer cake, which must have been divinely inspired. Watching Julie and Julia made me want to blog again, but I feel like I don't have anything to blog about compared to her. She had a purpose, a mission...I just ramble on about my life. It made me want to have a purpose, too, but I already feel like I have a God-given purpose and I'm already on mission...it's just not a mission like Julie's with a countdown clock and a list to check off. I'm very much a list person, but that gets tricky when I'm not the one writing the list and I don't really get to see it at all. Knowing it's there and that God will help me meet the goals on the list is enough for me.

I suppose I can blog about the new recipe I tried last night, though: Hot Buttered Rum. I'd never had it before, and it was on page 62 of Joy of Cooking, so I thought it might be a good addition to the appetizer recipe I brought (which was not the greatest success of my life). Here's the recipe:

Hot Buttered Rum

-dust the inside of a warmed 8oz mug with 1tsp confectioner's sugar

-add 1tbsp real butter (I used a little less)

-add 2oz dark rum (I like Myers)

-fill the rest of the mug with boiling water and stir

-add some fresh ground nutmeg on top (I forgot this part)

I made them a little on the lighter side since we were all driving, but they did end up tasting pretty awesome. Hooray for a successful recipe!

Pulling the goalie

This has become the new catchphrase among my friends for "no longer trying not to have kids." Derek and I have officially pulled the goalie and are just praying and waiting for God's timing for our family to grow. I'm pretty excited...but I'll be more excited when I know where we're going to be living when a baby eventually arrives so I can plan and nest properly. We had a baby shower today for a guy I work with and I got to see his 2-month-old, Cole, who is simply adorable. I was quoted as saying, "I'm SO next." God willing =)

I think part of the reason why I'm so excited is that I don't feel like I need a baby to be happy...I don't feel like I NEED anything to be happy; I'm pretty darn satisfied at the moment with everything God has given me. I no longer feel like I'm always looking for something; for a best friend, for community, for satisfaction outside of Jesus. I have all those things in Him, and in the people He has answered my prayers by giving me. I feel...complete. It's an amazing feeling, and I praise God for his mercy and grace. I know I don't deserve to be this happy (despite the fact that our culture tells me otherwise) and I am so grateful to have such a benevolent God. What an awesome time to praise God for the gifts he has given us! And what an awesome time to praise God for his ultimate gift in a baby born in a manger as an answer to prophecy and the problem of sin. Because of God's benevolence, we get to be reunited with him in heaven AND have relationship with him on Earth. That's pretty rad. As my menorah shines with brilliant, warm light into the darkness of a very cold December evening, and is reflected by the lights from my lovingly decorated Christmas tree, this Jew is pretty stoked to have a relationship with my Messiah =)

Speaking of the birth of Jesus...I think I know what would make a pretty awesome Christmas present!

Shiny!

I brought home the baby Mac (which we have dubbed the "Silver Surfer" since it is silver and used to surf the internets) and have been having fun learning to use it. So far, it has been really awesome; very easy to use and leaps and bounds beyond what I had before. It sure is nice to sit in front of a cozy fire and play on the computer on a cold winter night.

It sure was cold this morning; there was frost on my car for the first time in like 2 years! We need to clean out the garage so I can start parking under cover. There's still a ton of my dad's stuff in there that we need to get rid of. Hopefully we'll take a trip to Goodwill in the near future. I don't want to have to take ANY of that stuff with us when we move again in June. Man, I am not looking forward to that. I would LOVE to stay in place for more than a year. When we move, it'll be four moves in as many years...I'm feeling kind of unintentionally rootless and I don't much like it. If we're going to be having a family at some point in the fairly near future, I want to be able to paint and decorate a nursery...I feel like all this moving has made me postpone my natural nesting urges, but when a baby comes, there won't be any postponing. That'll be the time I will put my foot down and do what I want to do to make our house feel like a home (or apartment or condo or whatever we can afford). I am looking forward to one day painting frogs and lilypads on the walls and sewing curtains and all that good stuff. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Anyway, ranting. It's nice to have an outlet for thoughts.

Post #1

The holiday season is officially upon us and Derek and I are already burnt out =) We hit the Black Friday sales Friday morning with a short list and were home by 7:30am, which I think is a new record for us. It was definitely a success; tons of new clothes from Old Navy, some things for our Christmas Adopted Family, and some ideas for Christmas presents. Derek and I are giving each other a new computer for Christmas (woo, MacBook Pro!) and we'll be picking it up tomorrow.

After the decision to buy a new computer, I'm feeling a little tighter financially than I'd like to be. With Derek more or less out of work, I'm bringing home the majority of the bacon, something neither he nor I are particularly comfortable with, so we're praying hard for a good job to appear and for patience with each other during this season where things are less than ideal. It'll hopefully not have too much of an impact on our ability to give to others for Christmas, but we're definitely scaling back on gifts for each other. We're trying to save as much as we possibly can right now, because a new addition to the family is a distinct possibility in the fairly near future. That would DEFINITELY be the ultimate Christmas present, in my opinion!

As the new year approaches, I'm starting to think about what goals I want to set so I can get a jump on them now. I think the biggest one is to set reasonable hours for work and stick to them, and not bring any work home. I often feel like ALL of my energy goes into my job, and I don't have enough for what really matters: God, my husband, or myself. I don't take care of myself because I don't have the energy, I'm grouchy and tired a lot, and my prayer life is definitely getting hit hard. I'm not in the best spot, and it's because teaching is eating me alive. I need to learn how to set, and stick to, boundaries between my job and my home life. I have no idea where to begin. Prayer, duh.