New Baby in the World!

Greg and I got to hang out with our sweet, two-year old friend and neighbor from about 1:00-8:00 today because her mom had a baby!  We had a lot of fun.  When we have kids, I hope they are at least a little like her.  She was so easy to be with and wasn’t the slightest bit anxious about being away from mom and dad…very adaptable.

She ate a great lunch, went to sleep easily in our guest bed with pillows all around and then we went and had a play date with another young friend.  Finally, we got to go back to the hospital and see “baby sister” one more time before bedtime.  It was a lovely day.  I love the joy that new babies bring in to the world.

A Comment on Commenting

Hey Friends!  Just wanted to let you know that when you make a comment you need to click “Post Comment” twice.  The first time, it will show you a preview of your comment and the second time it will actually post.  I made this mistake once and I’ve had a few friends tell me they commented but I haven’t found their comment so I assume this is what happened.

Guilty Pleasures

Though it doesn’t exactly fall under the category of “simple living,” we got a Wii. One of Greg’s co-workers was selling a new one with a nice discount and seeing as how this is the only game system I’ve decided to allow in our house, (because of the activity involved, of course) we caved. So we borrowed a friend’s balance board and I got pretty active on the Wii Fit Plus. I’m a fan. We also enjoyed a Saturday night movie through our instant streaming Netflix on our television with the Wii.

And then there was this:

For just $5 I got to reminisce back to 5 years old and wallow in all the mushrooms, turtles, and fire-spitting plants I could remember! I impressed myself by being able to recall many of the hidden power stars, money boxes, free men and secret tunnel pipes after decades of not playing. And if that wasn’t enough to take up all the free time I have, I spent another $5 on the Nintendo game I always wanted but we never bought: Super Mario Bros. 3!

I literally felt guilty for the entire half hour I played. I wasn’t avoiding any work that needed to be done though. I think this was just a deeply engrained guilt that has been planted in me somewhere along the way that playing video games is a waste of time and completely unproductive.

So, I also made this today:

With the sweet honey butter, it was the perfect afternoon dessert.

By the way, is anyone reading this? A couple people have told me they are but I would love it if people would start commenting. It would be great to know who my readers are, so please comment every once in a while.

Purple on the Plate

Yes, those are purple potatoes mixed in there.

My husband wooed me with these lovely spuds a few years ago while we were still dating. Who doesn’t love purple food?! For years they were incredibly difficult to find in our grocery store, until now.

They are sold in a lovely, little fingerlings bag of mixed potatoes in our meager but present organic section. We resisted the ultimate temptation to devour all of them and I set some aside to root. I know some gardeners don’t recommend this, but an experienced gardener friend gave me the “thumbs up” so I am trusting her and this man who seemed to have a good experience.

So, they have been decorating the corner of my kitchen for a few weeks now. Soon they will decorate the corner of my garden.

Buds & Leaves

My Spring Break will be over in a few hours. I’m trying hard to let it linger on but the evil that is Daylight Savings Time has taken a full hour away from me. I didn’t get to devote much time to crafting this break due to our medical trip to Dallas, but I have set aside a little time for my obsessions.

I am ushering in Spring with this sweet little piece I have decided to call “Buds & Leaves.”

And on that note, Bluebonnets will be here soon!

The Ash Wednesday Hotel

I grew up going to Southern Baptist Churches. Those churches, along with many other protestant churches across the world have, in my opinion, “thrown the baby out with the bath-water” when it comes to diverging from Catholic traditions. One such tradition is to celebrate the Christian calendar. This calendar has been a tool for Christians for centuries and I only discovered it seven years ago. It was this time seven years ago that I began going to my current church (which falls more in the moderate Baptist church category) and began to learn about Lent.

Lent is the time spent in preparation for the cross of Jesus Christ. I find Easter Sunday significantly more joyful when the forty days before are spent in reflection and though it is difficult, repentance. I try not to rush to the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus by walking slowly through Ash Wednesday, the forty days of Lent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Often, Christians choose to “give up” something and/or take up a new practice during Lent to aid in being more reflective in this season of the Church.

Greg and I spent our Ash Wednesday morning driving to a town near Dallas. As a consequence, we missed all services in our town. After a full day in a dentist chair, (more on that later,) I got creative with some hotel matches, a soap dish and a little “blood of Christ.”

We were grateful for this website to aid us in our reflection as we marked each other’s foreheads in ash with a reminder of our plight without the grace of Jesus Christ.