Thrifty Ornaments 2011

I had lots of holiday crafts and plans that didn't happen this year. I decided to make them crafts to do throughout the year so they will actually be done for Christmas 2012...a book wreath (semi completed), homemade snow globes, and time capsule ornaments! I did find many cute ornaments at thrift stores this year right around Christmas day for 50-75% off making them around 50 cents a piece. I started following the blogs Goodwill Haunting and Living the Goodwill Life and found out you can resell many Hallmark ornaments on Ebay for $12+. Since Ebay started offering 50 free posts a month I may look into some reselling this year.

Value Village had several ornaments bagged together, so I found a few cute ones grouped together like the Winne the Pooh Hallmark ornament above and the Hallmark New Home Ornament below. I am keeping that one in hopes for the 2012 tree. We spent last Christmas in Hawaii, so I snagged a hand painted shell ornament to commemorate that at the St. Paul de Vincent thrift store. I am adding my own hand painted dates and details on some of the ornaments to note their meaning.

I was thrifting with my sister-in-laws at the Share House near Ann Arbor, MI and found this adorable little girl ornament that was screaming Zoraida. It captures the essence of her toddlerhood. A side note, the Share House had these amazing framed butterflies in glass cases that I immediately asked the clerk,"How much are those?" and of course they were sold. She has also been in love with Penguins after watching Happy Feet, so I got her S.S. Iceberg Hallmark Penguin ornament from Value Village.

On a thrifty note, I was going back and forth at a Goodwill in the furniture section deciding whether I should get an Ethiopian inspired table that was very cool but had little current function for my home. The hard working employees in back then brought out two mint condition bookshelves priced at $12 a piece. We are in dire need of bookshelves so that made my decision easy with limited trunk space. This is why I love Goodwill, it is ever changing and sometimes things just fall in your lap.

Essence of Toddlerdom- Share House, MI

S.S. Iceberg Hallmark Penguins- Value Village

Hand painted Hawaii Shell Ornament- St. Paul de Vincent Store

Baby's 1st Christmas- Value Village

Carlton 1994 Caroling Ornament- Heart to Home Thrift Store

Hallmark New Home Ornament- Hoping this has special meaning in 2012!

Too Good to Be True

Cyber Monday has come to a close. My adrenaline started flowing yesterday around 8 pm when I saw Half Price Books Marketplace would be offering free shipping on everything. I pulled up my Amazon Wishlist and started searching. I was delighted to find many books for 99 cents!

The endless possibilities of books I could get for thrift store prices shipped to my home started flowing...was this really going to work. When the deal went live at 9 pm I had 15 books in my cart and clicked BUY. The deal cleared and I think I uttered to Wyatt I can't believe it and I will probably be up all night searching. Alas the dream was short lived and as I continued to search all the prices that should have been 99 cents were 4.99. (they had added the shipping cost to the book prices making the deal a scam in my opinion)

Wyatt said I should be thankful for getting the 15 books at rock bottom prices. I am giddy thinking about all these books currently in route to my house from around the country, but I can't help but be disappointed about all the ones that got away.

On another book related note, Zoraida and I have gathered all our Christmas books together in baskets for this month. I have amassed quite a few mostly from thrifting. Here is the list:

• Messiah: The Wordbook for the Oratorio, George Frideric Handel
• A Christmas Testament, Phillip Kopper
• The Christmas Day Kitten, James Herriot
• The Snow Tree, Caroline Repchuk
• Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-up, Robert Sabuda
• Lift the Flap Nativity, Allia Zobel-Nolan
• The Newborn King, Cindy Robertson
• The Christmas Cross, Max Lucado
• Frosty the Snowman, Hallmark book read by grandma
• The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
• Journey to Bethlehem: the story of the first Christmas, Dorothy Van Woerkom
• One Wintry Night, Ruth Bell Graham
• Religious Christmas Stories for Children, an Ideals publication
• The Carols of Christmas, an Ideals publication
• Nativity, Winston Press
• A Child's Book of Christmas Carols, Illustrated by Masha
• The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories, selected by Ian Whybrow
• Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book
• Usborne Lift-the-flap Nativity

Do you have a favorite Christmas book?

Building a Library

Its been about three years since we stuffed a van cab with a handful of boxes, dropped them off at curbside checkin and flew to Seattle to find an apartment, buy a car and start new jobs in a few days. Out of those few boxes, 2 were full of books. After 3 years, we have gone from a couple hundred books to 1287. The number is probably 70 higher, but I didn't count each volume of our 1953 Encyclopedia Britannica, Tyndale commentaries, and Calvin commentaries as separate books in the catalog.

Being 30 plus weeks pregnant, I decided it was the perfect time to channel my organizational energy into cataloging our growing library. I kept it pretty simple to start by using Excel to record the title, author, year, awards, and category. Wyatt has grand ambitions to now alphabetize the books in each category.

The majority of our books fell into Christian (537 books) and Childrens (349 books) categories. I plan to further refine these later into subcategories. Our oldest book is an 1879 New Devotional and Explanatory Pictorial Family Bible. Wyatt acquired it for $25 at a Half Price Books using a 50% off coupon. I found an 1884 book titled Historical Records Concerning Jesus the "Christ" Messiah at a Woodinville library book sale. I will pick up anything older than 100 years just to have it as a piece of history. We do buy new books too, the most recent a Father's Day present for Wyatt entitled, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (2011) by Michael Horton.

The most prolific author we have is Dr. Seuss with 27 entries. Wyatt thought it would be one of his favorite theologians, which I guess if you count Calvin's commentaries as separate books he would win with 30 books. Other authors with more than 10 books include Graeme Base, F.F. Bruce, Eric Carle, C.S. Lewis, John Piper, Plato, R.C. Sproul, and B.B. Warfield. We also 32 Bibles, so you could say God is our most prolific author.

We had 41 duplicates, so I may be selling some on Ebay to free up bookshelf space. Having gone through them all, the duplicate buying should decrease since my memory is pretty solid, ha! Right now we have bookcases scattered throughout our home. We have dreams to have a dedicated library someday when we are homeowners.

Thought for the Day: You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C.S. Lewis

Avocado Smoothies and Asian Spareribs

Summer is the perfect time to do some simple cooking with the help of kitchen appliances. I ended with two extra racks of ribs after making oven roasted bbq pork ribs for father's day, so I searched for an easy recipe on Crockpot 365 blog and found this recipe. Since I already had some kalbi sauce in the fridge I substituted it for the sauce she uses. The jalapenos added a really nice amount of heat and the ribs were really tender and delicious!

Wyatt and I were craving bubble tea the other day and reminiscing about the amazing Joy Yee's tea in Chicago's chinatown. I loved riding the El down to Chinatown with some girlfriends on the weekend to get my favorite avocado bubble tea at Penang. It then dawned on me I could make this at home. We actually would make bubble tea at home in Chicago, but I never have made the avocado. I bought bubble tea straws and tapioca pearls at wonderful new Uwajimaya in Bellevue.


Slow Cooked Asian Pork Spareribs

2 racks spareribs
1/2 cup kalbi sauce
2 jalapeno peppers

1. Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
2. Turn ribs over half way through cooking.


Avocado Smoothie

1 ripe avocado
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3 Tbs Honey
4 ice cubes

1. Scoop out avocado into blender and combine with all ingredients until smooth.
2. Add more or less ice depending on preferred consistency.

Half Price Finds Today

I am currently cataloging all our books, so I added these to the list today. Today's entries make the total 756 with about one room left to do. A blog with all the statistics will be coming shortly. We happened to be near a Half Price Books today and took a peek. Of course, we both walked out with a few finds.

Tracy's Cart: (All from the Clearance Sections)

• Illustrated Robinson Crusoe ($1) - I already have a nice copy of this book, but the illustrations are really well done in a Japanese print-like style by artist Felix Lorioux, so I couldn't resist.
  
• Galapagos: Discovery on Darwin's Island ($2) - I was slightly obsessed with the Galapagos Islands in my teen years and had a really hard time finding books about it back then. Now they are prolific and this one has beautiful watercolors of many of the unique animals found here.
• The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization ($3) - I actually had the Timechart of World History and Biblical Times on my book list to buy, so I got this one to check out the series more closely. The fold out time line looks will hopefully help me get dates straight!
  
• Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago ($3) - Wyatt and I have many fond memories of this museum from our time in Chicago, so this was a nice find to reminisce.
  

Wyatt's cart: I am proud to say he actually stayed around $3 a book.

• Jesus the Jew : A Historians's Reading of the Gospels by Geza Vermes
• The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich
  
• For All God's Worth by N.T. Wright
  
• The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach
  

An Edwardian Note

What will today's era be called? In terms of my decor, I would go with the Craigslistian period. Happenstance has again weaved together my interests. I think that shopping at thrift stores, following rabbit trails from books, and reading an array of blogs lends itself to these wonderful coincidences.

The Edwardian period is where my latest trail has led. The all knowing Wikipedia labels the Edwardian era as the time covering the rule of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910.

I recently read Teaching the Trivium by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn. By the way, the authors also have a blog Trivium Pursuit that is quite helpful. One recommendation the Bluedorns make for teaching young kids science is keeping a nature notebook. They recommended the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden as a great example of a nature notebook.

Whenever a book is recommended in my reading, I immediately stop and go add it to my library hold list and amazon wishlist, so I do not forget it. The Diary came in from KCLS and I was blown away by the talented illustrations in it and inspired by the monthly notes that Edith Holden made. I then ordered Edith Holden's The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady used from Amazon and The Country Diary Book of Days is currently in route to our home. Zoraida and I go on nature walks near our home, so I started a notebook myself. I am working on identifying and illustrating everything we see thanks to the wonderful wildlife guide provided by the city here.

I have been spring cleaning and recently dropped off some bags at the local Goodwill and of course did a little browsing myself. I came across an Edwardian Dollhouse: A Three-Dimensional Book in the kid's book section. It was in mint condition with all the paper dolls still not punched out. Zoraida has really enjoyed the house especially using staircase as you can see from the photo above. A portable dollhouse that folds into a book is a genius idea.

We do not have a TV or Netflix, which I have blogged about before, but I do love film. I get my contemporary film recommendations from a little podcast called Filmspotting (see earlier blog for more details). We primarily get our movies for free from the library, where I manage a queue of them on our hold lists. A blog I follow recently listed their top 10 movies most of which are suitable for kids and one was Miss Potter, a movie about the life of Beatrix Potter. And of course Beatrix Potter lived during the Edwardian period, so it was another glimpse into the era.



Thought for the day: From The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady ~"Saw a little grey Lizard come out of a hole in a wall, he didn't seem frightened but sat on a stone blinking his eyes at me and basking in the sunshine. The bogs here are full of small white Water-Crowfoot; but I have seen no signs of Bog-bean, nor Butterwort nor Sundews, such as you find in the Welsh and Scotch marshes." Edith Holden, May 8, 1905.

Second Hand Store Finds

I may be addicted to deals which would include shopping at thrift, second hand, and consignment stores. We may have gone to a few Goodwills on our honeymoon for instance. My regular list of places I treasure hunt at include Value Village, Goodwill, Half Price Books, Forget-Me-Not Consignment, and Treetop Consignment.

I hope to blog about some of my finds. Today I am featuring wall hangings from the kid's room. Admittedly, I am not much of an interior designer. My childhood room by design had the iconic picture of Seinfeld's Kramer on teal green walls with metallic foil vintage butterflies flying out of it.

One thing I love about thrifting is you often find out of print materials. I am in love with maps and will buy about any book that has interesting maps in them. At the Bellevue Goodwill, I found this over sized (3' by 2') cardboard Atlas of all the countries of the world called, It's a Big Big World Atlas. It goes for $42 new on Amazon or $12 used and I snagged it for 99 cents in the kid's book section. It is easy to hang and flip on a daily basis. I like to keep it on the map of area we praying for from the Operation World book that day. April has been focused on regions of China, so Asia has been the focus lately.

We are doing some rearranging in preparation for baby boy Houtz. We got a twin bed for Zoraida to free up the crib. Coincidentally, Zoraida climbed out of her crib for the first time on Sunday announcing when we opened the rattling door "I got out!". She now is now able to reach my alphabet prints from Graeme Base's book Animalia, another reason to have cheap art in a kid's room! I found an extra copy of this book at Value Village for 69 cents. Not only are their children's books super cheap, they are buy 4 get 1 free. I cut the pages out and mounted them on free foam core I recycled (took out of the trash) from the architecture firm downstairs.

Black and white are the only colors babies can focus on for about the first 2 months. I read about these Wee Gallery Flash Cards for babies in a recent baby magazine. They retail for $13, so I was surprised to find them on clearance at Half Price Books for $1. I doubt if I will ever be using them as flash cards for a 2 month old, but they make a great temporary gallery installment.

Click on any of the pictures for a closer view and happy hunting!

Split Pea Soup Success and Slow Cookers

One of my fond food memories is from an Alaskan cruise Wyatt and I took in 2008. Our tour included passing through Glacier Bay National Park. Icebergs float along in the water and hump back whales breach alongside the boat while you are surrounded by breathtaking glaciers. Holland America chooses this moment to serve Dutch pea soup deck side. You find yourself enveloped by beauty sipping delicious soup while it is cold enough to see your breath.

I soon after tried making split pea soup and it was a disaster. It just tasted of sweetness and I could hardly eat a few spoonfuls. Our Best Bites, one of my favorite food blogs, recently featured a split pea soup recipe. Their recipes are usually dead on, so I decided to give it another go. I was intrigued by the malt vinegar in the recipe and indeed that was key! I love malt vinegar and dose my fish n chips and fries in it. I suggest adding more to top your bowl if you are a fan of it as well. The soup is savory and smokey and using my homemade chicken stock gave it extra depth of flavor.

The recipe calls for using a slow cooker. I had gone without a slow cooker for years, since I have a Dutch Oven. Dutch Ovens are so versatile since they will brown your food and go between stove top and oven for slow cooking perfection. The downside is mine weighs about 15 lbs and I was looking for a more transportable dish to bring to monthly potlucks at our small group. I have been happy so far with the 6 quart Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker with clip tight lid.

Also check out these gluten free Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls, which are super simple and yummy. A great side for the soup!

Sweet Potato Buttermilk Whole Wheat Pancakes: A Recipe

Pancakes are one of Zoraida's favorite foods. She will almost always eat them, so they have become a staple. I like to make a larger batch at the beginning of the week and then have leftovers to reheat easily for quick breakfasts. They are even great to take on the go and eat them cold!

I typically make blueberry buttermilk pancakes, but have been trying to pack more nutrition into them. I had some left over baked sweet potato from dinner, so I thought I would try adding them into the batter and behold success! I had heard of sweet potato pancakes, so I thought it would work. I added cinnamon and brown sugar since they are a perfect pair with sweet potato. I love it when my experiments turn out!


Dry Ingredients:
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Tbs. Sugar
1 Tbs. Brown Sugar
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Sweet Potato
A pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk
1 Tbs Butter (melted)
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 Egg

1. Heat cast iron skillet over medium.
2.Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another.
3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and combine.
4. Spray pan with canola oil.
5. Use a 1/4 cup measuring spoon to ladle pancakes into pan.
6. Wait for bubbles and flip. The buttermilk should make them puffy.

Enjoy!

Thought for the Day: In a big family the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it's not perfect, that's ok, there are a lot more coming along. ~Anthony Scalia

Tandoori Chicken and Mango Lassi Recipes

These are quick and easy recipes for tandoori chicken and mango lassi. I buy a lot of whole chickens and like to have something in my pantry that I can use to mix it up.

I find most of my Indian ingredients at Saagar Groceries in Kirkland. The owners are very friendly and helpful. On Saturdays, they sell homemade warm samosas and baklava which are unbelievable. They recently switched Tandoori pastes brands from Deep to Laxmi. The brands have different spices and tastes, but I like them both.

Quick Tandoori Chicken

1 Whole Chicken
1 cup plain yogurt, preferably Greek
1/2 cup Tandoori Paste
Sea Salt
Lemon

1. Spatchcock the chicken (Cut the back out of the whole chicken with kitchen scissors so it will lie flat.) I freeze the backbone because its great for making stock.
2. Remove all the skin from chicken.
3. Score breast and thighs so the marinade can get further.
2. Mix tandoori paste with yogurt and cover the chicken in it.
3. Marinate in refrigerator for 4 hours to overnight.
4. Lay the chicken flat on a broiler pan. I sprinkled a little sea salt and pepper on top. Broil for 40 minutes or until internal temp is 165 degrees. Depending on how hot your broiler is you can optionally cook at 400 degrees instead.
5. Squeeze fresh lemon on it if you like.

Mango Lassi

1 cup Mango Pulp
1 cup Plain Yogurt, preferably Greek
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbs. Rose Water (optional)

Blend all ingredients and enjoy!

Amazon Fresh Review and Homemade Cleaners

I have been wanting to try out Amazon Fresh for a while, so when I got a $50 off $100 coupon from Amazon Mom I got the motivation I needed. I have also seen random promotion codes for this same deal for first time customers. If you can get 50% off, I would definitely jump on the deal.

The prices were pretty close to what you would find in a typical grocery store without any sales. First I purchased items I needed to fill out my meals for the week. Shipping is free if you order over $75 and I was able to schedule my order for the next day.

The produce was very fresh and good quality. If you have the mentality its 50% off, then the prices were very good and beat most sales in store. Wyatt loves pork, so I got two 10 oz. french cut bone in center cut pork chops. It is actually hard to find this cut in stores in Seattle. We had these grilled for dinner last night and they were superb.

My 7th Generation stockpile was dwindling from the last Fred Meyer 50% off sale and I have had making my own cleaners on my to do list for about 2 years. I ordered Castile Soap and Borax from Amazon Fresh. The prices were actually cheaper than any I have seen in store. I plan to use the recipes for all purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, mopping liquid, etc from the Wholesome Mommy blog. She even has labels with the ratios you can print out. My Whole Living magazine had a recipe for DIY Sugar Scrub this month. I am a bath person, so I bought raw sugar and lemons to try out this for myself!

Finally if you need to fill out the $100, the wine prices are really good. Several local wineries from Woodinville are featured on the site. I really like going to the Novelty Hill/Januik winery in Woodinville for tastings and they have affordable delicious wine. The Novelty Hill Royal Slope Red is only $11.99, which is the cheapest I have seen it priced. Overall, I think Amazon Fresh is a great option to have on those weeks when you don't want to venture out to the store.

Book Log

Wyatt suggested I start a book log that I can add to in one place, so this will be it. I often don't get through my inter-library loans in the 3 weeks allotted, so I need to keep track of the page I left off as well. My husband has his book list here.

The King County Library lets you elect to keep track of your check out history if you set it up online. It is helpful for keeping track of books as well. I welcome recommendations for reading!




2012

1. Holcomb, Justin and Lindsey, Rid of My Disgrace, 288 pgs

2. Driscoll, Mark and Grace, Real Marriage, 256 pgs

3. Keller, Timothy, The Meaning of Marriage, 288 pgs

2011

1. Rockness, Miriam Huffman, A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter, 232/368 pgs
2. Spurgeon, Charles, Come Ye Children, 160 pgs
3. Ryle, J.C. The Duties of Parents, 34 pgs
4. Oberlander, June R., Slow and Steady Get Me Ready, 338 pgs - In Progress
5. Pitamic, Maja, Teach Me To Do It Myself: Montessori Activities for You and Your Child, 165 pgs
6. Bauer, Susan Wise and Wise, Jessie, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, 864 pgs - In Progress
7. Tripp, Tedd, Instructing a Child's Heart, 43/200 pgs
8. Mandryk, Jason, Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation, 978 pgs - Ongoing
9. Case, Andrew, Prayers of an Excellent Wife, 239 pgs - Ongoing
10. Hardage, Rachel, RealSimple: 865 New Uses for Old Things, an encyclopedpia of innovation ideas for everyday items, 180 pgs
11. Bluedorn, Harvey, Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style, 637 pgs,
12. Dodds, Elisabeth, Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, 264 pgs
13. Eldred, Gary, 106 Homebuyers Make (and How to Avoid Them), 320 pgs
14 . Holden, Edith, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, 1906, 176 pgs
15. Marshall, Collin and Payne, Tony, The Trellis and the Vine, 196 pgs
16. Wilson, Elizabeth, Books Children Love- A Guide to the Best Children's Literature, 300 pgs
17. Lewis, C.S., The Abolition of Man, 128 pgs
18. Machen, John Gresham, Education, Christianity, and the State, 181 pgs
19. Simkin, Penny, 4th Edition Pregnancy Childbirth and the Newborn, 479 pgs
20. Holden, Edith, The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady, 191 pgs
21. Abbott, John, The Mother at Home, 184 pgs.
22. Gaskin, Ina May, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, 315 pgs



2010

1. Hunt, Gladys, Honey for a Child's Heart, 256 pgs
2. Bennett, Arthur, Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, 223 pgs
3. Trotter, Lilias, Parables of the Cross, 48 pgs
4. Trotter, Lilias, A Blossom in the Dessert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter, 256 pgs
5. Carmichael, Amy, You are My Hiding Place, 128 pgs
6. Wilson, Nancy, The Fruit of Her Hands: Respect and the Christian Woman, 109 pgs
7. Wilson, Nancy, Praise Her in the Gates: The Call of Christian Motherhood, 105 pgs
8. Wilson, Douglas, Reforming Marriage, 144 pgs
9. Wilson, Douglas, Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Biblical Childrearing, 168 pgs
10. Elliott, Elizabeth, A Path Through Suffering: Discovering the Relationship between God's Mercy and Our Pain, 201 pgs
11. Tripp, Tedd, Shepherding a Child's Heart, 211 pgs
12. Tolkien, J.R.R., The Silmarillion, 35/365 pgs
13. Murkoff, Heidi, What to Expect the First Year, 806 pgs
14. Murkoff, Heidi, What to Expect the Toddler Years, 928 pgs
15. Ezzo, Gary, On Becoming Babywise- Parenting Your Pre-Toddler Five to Fifteen Months Book Two, 135 pgs
16. Farro, Elvira, Montessori on a Limited Budget, 247 pgs
17. Wilson, Douglas, The Case for Classical Christian Education, 256 pgs
18. Chattin-McNicholas, John, The Montessori Controversy, 240 pgs
19. Keller, Thomas, The French Laundry Cookbook, 336 pgs
20. Korte, Diana, The VBAC Companion, 208 pgs
21. Ruhlman, Michael, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, 272 pgs

Botanical Blooms for a Winter's Day

This blog is mainly to catalog a project I have been working on, but is rather long since there is a bit of a rabbit trail that led to its inception.

Several months ago, I was reading Elisabeth Elliot's A Path Through Suffering and was really struck most by these botanical quotes from Lilias Trotter she used to drive the book. Who is Lilias Trotter you might wonder as I did? I found out she was an gifted artist and Christian missionary in Algeria.

I checked out several of Lilias Trotter's books through Inter library loan and the library even bought Parables of the Cross for me! Some of the books have her artwork of botanical watercolors with quotes that are exquisite. I often use her books in my daily devotion because they elevate the soul. For me, its like listening to opera while cleaning.

Ms. Trotter's work inspired me to pick back up calligraphy and flower painting that I had learned years ago. I was on the hunt to find some other botanical art for reference. By chance, as I was looking for a new yearly planner, I saw a planner LeMoyne's Botanical Watercolours at Half Price Books.

I was intrigued by Jacques le Moyne de Morgues after reading a sonnet by him included in the calendar. I will print it at the end because it falls in the category of soul elevating material. He was a Huguenot (French Calvinist) that lived during the 16th century. Wyatt has Huguenot ancestors, so that was a nice discovery. In addition to these beautiful botanical watercolours, he also traveled to the New World to catalog life there. I haven't had a lot of luck locating other books documenting his work, so I am quite happy with this serendipitous find.

Since I purchased a laminator from Amazon for a wonderful price- $17, I decided to use it to preserve the prints. Zoraida needed some new visual material for her bedroom wall, so I thought to hang the prints there for the meantime. I mounted the prints on a gold cardboard to make them sturdier. I also wrote the plant's name and Latin name in calligraphy on the back to be used for reference art cards once removed from the wall.

A large number of the water colours are flowers and fruit with a few herbs and vegetables. Zoraida likes the insects included on several of them since she is into buzzing bees lately. She loves to lay and look at them, so I hope they will be some inspiration to her.

Thought for the Day: Sonnet

Discordant harmony and balance movement,
Winter and Summer, Autumn, reborn Spring,
Renewing her sweet scents and colouring,
Join in the praise of God's unfailing judgment.

This loving God gives every argument
To look for zeal from each created thing,
To bless His Name eternally and sing
All He has made in earth and firmament.

Above all He made man with head held high
To watch each morning as new light arrives
And decorates earth's breast with varied flowers.

There is no fruit, or grain, or grub, or fly
That does not preach one God, the least flower gives
Pledge of a Spring with everlasting colours.

Jacques Le Moyne, 1585

Honey for a Child's Heart: A Recommendation

I just finished reading Honey for a Child's Heart (The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life) by Gladys Hunt. It is a quick read, about 4 hours, and very encouraging. I believe I first heard of the book from Nancy Wilson's blog Femina . She had recommended it for a book on books and also linked to Ms. Hunts current blog by the same name Honey for a Child's Heart. I link to her post on Christmas books since that is timely.

I finished this book after two evenings of reading on the couch with Wyatt. It was nice to dialogue on our own experiences of books from our childhood. We had quite different experiences with books. This book brought back many fond memories of countless hours at the library and reading.

Honey for a Child's Heart advocates books as being a fundamental part of the family. She recounts how reading books aloud was a daily part of her family. I was quite impressed that her family read the Bible every meal (3 times a day) and additionally read other books aloud each evening. This is a traditional that was passed down through generations of her family.

She includes a chapter on "Making Decisions About Books". She emphasizes that there are so many good books at each maturity level that you don't want to rush your child into reading higher level books just to see how advanced she is in reading. She also discusses building a child's library and the influence that owned books have over ones just borrowed from the library. Seattle has exceptional second hand book stores and thrift stores, so we have been fortunate to build up our own library. One of our favorite family activities is going to the bookstore.

Ms. Hunt includes a large reading list at the end of book that is helpful for choosing good books. I had fun going through it and reminiscing on some of my childhood favorites. Wyatt uses a reading list that has been very helpful while hunting at Half Price Books. I recently brought home several books I found at Goodwill by B.B. Warfield including one missing from his reading list. Wyatt called me the Proverbs 31 woman for the rest of the day, I don't think anything else would have made him happier!

Encouragement from the book: The choice will sometimes be between a clean house with television as morning baby-sitter or a partially clean house, no telephone conversations, and a half-hour of sharing a picture book.

Things I am in Love with Right Now

Fried Capers

Wyatt and I had a date a while back at the Barking Frog restaurant. The meal was somewhat memorable, a pork belly appetizer, short rib entree, something chocolate for dessert. The thing I remember most was the bread served with this sun dried tomato jam and fried capers.

I had never thought to fry capers, but have a large Costco jar in my fridge that I only used to sprinkle on fish. I am slightly obsessed with frying capers whenever I want a salty fix now. The jar is nearly empty, yikes! I also have a Costco jar of sun dried tomatoes that I whip into a quick jam. The capers get crispy and hollow when you pan fry them for about 10 minutes in a little olive oil and intensify in saltiness. Slice up a baguette, spread some goat cheese or soft cheese on it and top with jam and capers, delicious!

Poached Eggs

A perfectly poached egg on top of crispy fried seasoned potatoes equals perfection. This has become a regular lunch for me because its ridiculously easy to make and insanely yummy. The key to the poached egg is cook it 3 minutes. This ensures a creamy yoke that will break and flow over the crispy potatoes. The key to getting crispy potatoes is to slice them thinly and make sure the pan and oil are hot before adding the slices. Also do not overcrowd the pan and do them in batches if necessary. This is a fundamental for any type of pan frying to achieve browning and crispiness.

Cookbooks

I get on a kick and check out a ton of certain genre of books from the library. This week is cookbooks. I follow food writer Michael Ruhlman's blog who is great for fundamentals. His book Ratio lays out basic formulas for all cooking like doughs, sauces, charcuterie, etc. I like to experiment, so having the ratios in my head makes sure things don't go way wrong.
I love Tony Bourdain and recently watch a clip of him dining at the French Laundry. This inspired me to check out the cookbook. Frankly, I will try only a few of these recipes because truffles and caviar are not in my budget. Thomas Keller is a genius and I learned a lot about basic cooking from reading through it. He has a very interesting and easy way to make powder out of tons of ingredients I am eager to try. I am excited to check out the El Bulli cookbook I have on hold.

Bulk Spice

A frugal and flavorful tip is to buy your spices from the bulk section found in many stores organic section. Prepacked spices are severely overpriced. Most of the bulk spices are organic to boot! Since you can buy as little as you need, your spices will always be fresh too. You can fill a spice a 3 oz spice jar for almost any spice for pennies to 50 cents. This November Fred Meyer has all bulk spices on sale for 30% off, so stock up! I also buy bulk tea in this section, the quality is amazing and incredibly affordable.


Stevia

When my dear friend Tilly was in town for a visit, we had a lovely tea tasting at an Asian shop near Pike's Market. I tried a lavender and stevia blend that was divine. I couldn't believe the sweet flavor that came from just a few of these leaves. I typically drink my coffee and tea black, but adding a few of these leaves to tea balances the bitterness in the tea leaves. I also have been experimenting by adding lavender, rose, and other dried flowers to make my own tea blends. Stevia is getting more buzz as a natural sweetener; I highly recommend trying it.

Don't Throw out those Broccoli Stems!

I love broccoli. Our family eats it at least once a week. Broccoli is cheap, often on sale for 70 cents a pound. Broccoli is a nutritious "super food". It is high in vitamin C, K, A, and fiber. Broccoli is a member of the Clean 15, a group of fruits and vegetables that contain little to no pesticide residue. I skip the organic broccoli due to this fact.

The dirty dozen on the other hand, I do try to buy organic, especially berries. Luckily Trader Joes sells most of the organic variety of the dirty dozen at very reasonable prices. Trader Joes organic frozen berries are great for mixing into yogurt (preferably full fat plain or honey Greek yogurt!) and pancakes.

I digress, back to the broccoli stems. Lynne Rossetto Kasper, of American Splendid Table on NPR, featured broccoli stems on a segment of a recent podcast. I knew broccoli stems were edible, but usually tossed them. She mentioned a method for quick pickling them and I was sold. I am crazy about pickled things. I would go to Korean restaurants if they only presented the 20 or so tiny pickled dishes and left out the bbq kalbi and bimibap.

Besides quick pickling the stems, you can also use them in stir fry or a simple salad. I have not bought broccoli crowns since I made this discovery and even look forward to the stems more then the crown now! Here is the easy recipe for a quick pickle ready to eat within a day.

2 or 3 broccoli stems

1/2 teaspoon salt, preferably kosher salt

1 medium size garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon apple cider, white wine or whatever vinegar you have

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Peel the broccoli stems and cut crosswise into thin coins.

2. Place in a jar (I use a glass clamp lid jar) with the salt. Shake and store overnight. The salt will draw out excess water from the stalk.

2. Drain the water. Add the garlic, vinegar, and olive oil and toss together. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight and then enjoy!

Thought for the day: I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli. George Bush, U.S. President (1990)

Detox and Kumquats

A few years ago, a handful of people at my church were doing the master cleanse. I really wanted to try it, but Wyatt talked me out of it. The master cleanse is a detox diet where you only drink a concoction of lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper for roughly two weeks. I can't remember why it was so compelling, but I have had it in the back of my mind for a while.

Several months ago I started receiving this design magazine Ready Made in the mail out of the blue. I have really enjoyed its innovative design ideas and ways to recycle items in the home. An article a few months back featured a detox tea with lemon, agave, cayenne pepper, and ginger. At Last, I thought, I can give this a try. I would never replace honey with agave as the norm, but it is a perfect natural organic sweetener for tea.

The mag recommended drinking this tea every morning before eating anything else for an hour. I like to drink it as a pick me up in the afternoon, since coffee past noon tends to make me a little crazy. The tea varies every time for me since I like to experiment and don't like to measure. I add Earl Grey or English breakfast tea if I want a caffeine boost.

Typically, this would be the recipe...

4 cups water
1/2 lemon
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbs agave
1 thumb size piece of ginger

1. Boil water
2. Grate ginger with a microplane into french press.
3. Add lemon, cayenne, agave to ginger.
4. Pour boiling water over and stir. Let steep for 4 minutes and enjoy!

Continuing the tea theme, I had the most intoxicating tea at Facing East Taiwanese restaurant. Kumquats are one of my favorite fruits. You must try them if you haven't. The beauty of them is that they intensely sour and sweet with a bonus of eating the skin. No waste, you know how I love being green. I have tried to replicate this tea at home, but haven't nailed down a recipe.

So far I crushed the kumquats, mixed in agave, much like the recipe above. It hasn't had the potency of the restaurant thus far. A lovely Taiwanese lady at the park gave me a great tip for making the tea (she was also a Facing East fan). She said I should create a slurry like soup of the kumquat to extract the flavor for the tea. Kumquats aren't in season, so I haven't tested it to perfection. Stay tuned....

I must also mention PORK BELLY "burgers". I beg you, if you are in the Seattle area, and haven't tried these, you must. Its sheer genius. Facing East was my first time to experience distinctively Taiwanese food and wow! They were a fraction of the cost of my pork belly appetizer at the Barking Frog and ten times more delicious. Go, now...well, wait till they reopen after the renovation because they needed more space due to their ridiculous popularity.

Thought for the Day: I got nasty habits; I take tea at three. ~Mick Jagger

Dutch Babies

I first had a dutch baby at the Original Pancake House a few blocks north of my apartment in the gold coast of Chicago nearly 6 years ago. It was reminiscent of poffertjes (tiny dutch pancakes) I had growing up at the Tulip Festivals in Pella, but in a super-sized form.

The baby looked very impressive with the sides puffed up two inches and crusty yet the inside was light and airy. I imagined it was very challenging recipe like a souffle, but have now learned its actually easier than making pancakes! I have started a tradition of making these babies for birthdays, but actually make them more often...like lunch today : ) (See recipe below)

Speaking of dutch babies, Zoraida is actually semi authentic. Wyatt's side of the family has some roots in the land of giant windmills. Oh wait, that's the Zoraida's name origin. We got dressed up in authentic Dutch costumes sans wooden shoes and tip toed through the tulips sans ukulele.

Zoraida absolutely loved poffertjes. She had one in her mouth and one in each hand at all times. I think she would like to wear the dutch baby as a hat and eat pieces off of it as she roams.



I have tried 3 different dutch baby recipes that vary the number of eggs and a few of the ingredient amounts. This one is my favorite that I modified from the magazine Everyday Food.


Dutch Baby

3 tablespoons butter
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
1/2 lemon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425° and heat a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over moderate heat. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in skillet.
   
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, flour and milk until smooth and foamy. Pour batter into skillet and then bake in oven for 20 minutes until pancake is puffed.
3. Dress baby immediately with butter, lemon, and powder sugar.
   

Treasuring God in Our Traditions: A Recommendation

I'm starting to feel a little like Granger from Fahrenheit 451 piling up books in our house while everyone else lines their walls with 60 inch plasmas. We don't own a TV and its quite peaceful not having one. Wyatt has been reading voraciously and I have been picking up speed as of late.

Wyatt found me a nice hard backed copy of Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper at Half Price Books. If you haven't been to a Half Price Books, you should go now if there is one in your area. We are lucky to have 7 stores nearby. Its become a line item in our monthly budget ringing in on average around $100.

I love a deal as you may know, so I usually browse the Clearance section and Wyatt heads straight to the Religion section. Some great finds so far: Synopsis of the Four Gospels, Church Dogmatics by Barth, Michaelangelo the Painter and other large print art books for $1, 3 Presbyterian Hymnals for $1, and several classic kids books $1 and last but not least...Your Best Life Now (Joel Olsteen). I am working on acquiring all the Canonical books for our home school. I'll post a list on that in the near future.

Now onto Treasuring God in Our Traditions (Read it free here). The best thing about this book is Noel's examples from her own life and practical ideas for developing your own traditions. She walks through the everyday traditions and also the especially traditions like Easter, Christmas, and Birthdays.

One anecdote that stuck out to me was John Piper singing to one of his sons the same short hymn every night since his son was just a baby. His son later remembered the red light from their German apartment he used to see while John sang and walked the halls with him when he was under 2. Its a good reminder that the everyday traditions we do with our children are being absorbed even now and are important to establish early on.

I am excited to take from her example's of creating traditions for Advent and Lent during the Christmas and Easter seasons. I did not grow up with these, but appreciate their meaning now and importance of developing these in my own families life. She also laces the book with family recipes, which I plan to try! Look for blogs on our family traditions in the near future.

Thought for the day: You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury

Suffering and the Resurrection

It's Friday, but Sunday is coming. I went into labor on Good Friday unexpectedly as I guess most people go into labor unexpectedly. My hour had come and with it much, much pain. The number of verses in the Bible that compare sufferings to the pains of childbirth is astounding. They jump out at me now as I read the Bible daily because I can feel them.

Labor was incredibly painful for me possibly intensified by PIT and no medication and an end I did not want. I don't think I thought of the birth that was coming from the labor, the joy that was coming from the sorrow, the Resurrection that was coming after the Cross. John 16:21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

I am very thankful that a week after Easter, I heard an incredibly powerful message by Gary Habermas. It was one of those times when you hear something at the exact moment you need it. I was still questioning why things happened the way they did and wallowing in the pain of my labor experience intensified by hormones.

Dr. Habermas gave an address on the resurrection unlike any I had ever heard. It was incredibly applicable to our lives and deeply moving because of his own story of unexpectedly losing his wife to cancer at a young age. ***UPDATE: This is the message I heard*** It builds as it goes, so I highly recommend that you listen to his message in entirety on Suffering and Doubt (HERE...click play Jutebox)

Where would you be if it weren't for the resurrection of Jesus? Gary was asked by one of his former grad students during his worst kind of suffering he could imagine (his wife suffering and dying of cancer), "Did God raise His Son from the dead?" God watched while his Son died the most agonizing death you can think of. Do you expect better than Jesus received, God's only son? Should we suffer less than Jesus?

Another key take away from his message that he says is what you will spend thousands of dollars for modern psychologists to tell you---The most painful thing that will happen to you is not what occurs to you, its what you tell yourself about what occurs to you. After that message, I did not feel anguish over my c-section again. I stopped telling myself negative things about what happened. Instead I counted my blessings one by one. I acknowledged that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh, blessed be the name of the Lord. I took hope in the resurrection.

Quote for the Day: "This is a world where we suffer and a world where we dont always know why things happen. But this a world where there is a resurrection and a world where there is a heaven." Gary Habermas