Keeping it holy

I hate Sundays. They are usually a big, depressing reminder of all
the things I did not accomplish the previous week and general dread for another
week to come. How sad is that?

We've been reading Traveling Light by Max Lucado in our weekly Bible Study and I've been enjoying it thoroughly. I am happy to report that one of the chapters in particular spoke to me and this weekend I had my very first cheerful and happy Sabbath in quite some time.

In the book Lucado points out that God takes a whole paragraph to describe "Keep holy the Sabbath day" in the 10 Commandments in the Bible, whereas the other 9 are fairly brief. We need rest. I am terrible about resting. Every time I do it, I feel guilty like I should be doing something else. God must have known we were going to be this way as humans, because he told us:

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and
do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.
On
it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor
your
manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your
gates. 11
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea,
and all that
is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the
LORD blessed the
Sabbath day and made it holy.

I love how God here had to spell out for all of us dumb humans exactly what rest meant. I will admit the 6th grader in me giggled a little thinking about the poor wide-eyed aliens in the corner, (perhaps Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons?) sitting there listlessly, because they also couldn't work. I digress. The idea that really stuck with me was the fact that even God rested! He took six days to be productive, but that last one was used to rest. We made a little pact with our Bible Study friends to see if anyone could be better about keeping the Sabbath holy and even our discussion about what this commandment meant was interesting. Just what is resting? We even consulted the Baltimore Catechism for ideas in just how we were suppposed to do such. Now it is a little outdated, but overall I think the general idea of balancing worship and relaxation on Sundays is still relevant today.

So Sunday we went to church, went out to a delightful meal at the best thing to ever happen to Westlake The Grove, took a family nap, went back to church to volunteer promoting this year's Cornerstone race, had a nice dinner with Mike and closed out the evening feeling happy and thankful. It wasn't that hard. I just need to remember to do it!

Pot Roast Warms My Insides

Randalls had a huge sale on bone-in roast meat last week, so much that I wound up buying 6 lbs of it, even though I had never made a roast. Thanks to yellowrosegirl on the Nest, I made this awesome recipe in my Le Crueset. Making it this afternoon with a fussy infant in his bouncer, I felt especially housewife-y. All that was missing was my apron and martini.

Pot Roast
2lb. pot roast
3 T. olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1-2 onions
6-8 carrots
2-3 c. beef stock, divided
3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 springs fresh thyme
3 pats butter (optional)
1 c. red wine (optional)

Preheat the oven to 275. Heat olive oil (and butter, if you choose- I chose the butter and olive oil of course) in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Next, salt and pepper the meat generously, particularly if you use a larger roast. Thoroughly wash the carrots and slice them in two-inch pieces. Peeling them is not necessary. Slice the onion(s) in two from root to tip, slice off the ends, and remove the outer layer. When the oil in the pot is very hot, place the onions in and brown them on one side for 1-2 minutes. Flip the onions and brown them for 1-2 minutes. When the onions are done, remove them to a plate. Add the carrots to the hot oil and brown them for 1-2 minutes. Remove the carrots to a plate.

If necessary, add another tablespoon of oil to the pot. Get the oil warm before adding the roast. Make sure the roast is seasoned on both sides with plenty of salt and pepper. Sear the roast on one side for one minute, then flip it and sear it on the other side. If you like, hold it up using tongs and sear it for one minute on the sides. When it is browned, remove it to a plate.Turn the burner on high and add a one cup beef broth or red wine (I had drank all but 1/2C of my open red wine bottle, so I did 1/2 wine and half broth). Use a whisk to deglaze the pan (scrape up all the delicious brown bits at the bottom of the pan). Return the roast to the pan and add another cup or two beef broth--enough to cover the roast halfway. Add the onions and carrots. Add another cup or half cup of beef broth if necessary. Add the rosemary and thyme. Submerge them in the liquid beneath or on the side of the roast. Put the roast in the oven, covered, for 2 hours. Don't peek! To serve, place the meat on a cutting board and slice off a piece or pull it apart with a fork. If it's done right, it will fall apart on the fork.

Notes:

• I used an eyeball's worth of dried rosemary and thyme as my rosemary plant died from lack of watering.
• I didn't have any traditional carrots, just a bag of baby carrots and that worked just fine.
• To make gravy, use the juices from the pot and add flour to thicken. Add beef buillon or kitchen bouquet for more flavor and color and salt and pepper to taste.
• Served with mashed potatoes, this is a little slice of heaven! I am running tomorrow for sure!

Running to the store

From our house, it's about a mile to our neighborhood grocery store, so the other day, JM and I ran there and picked up a few things and ran back home. It was nice being so efficient, avoiding driving and also getting a run in. I also think this is good symbolism for the fact that I am quite blissfully enjoying motherhood these days. Running with my jog stroller, having the iPod on in the store and tossing items into the carriage made me feel strangely happy (and a little kooky). And to boot I made a few impulse purchases and wound up running home with a 1/2 gallon of apple cider and 12 cumbersome rolls of TP in the stroller. It was quite a workout. The cider in particular. Next time I'll skip the heavy liquids, methinks.

For the record, JM has been better the last two nights with the waking. He's only getting up 3 times a night, just like before. No idea what was up.

I am in hell

The past few nights our dear son has been waking every 2 hours. Last night, there were a few times where he woke up after an hour! He is drooling like crazy. Is he teething or what?

AC: Compassion

5 months old!

John Michael is 5 months old. I can't believe it... 5 months doesn't sound that old, but we are getting frighteningly close to 6 months, which does, and is a whole half of a year! Wow!

He still remains a generally happy little fellow. Some of his favorite things include:

• Putting everything in his mouth



• Rattles and connecting rings



• Drooling



• His play gym



• Rolling over! In both directions now!



• Laying on his side and belly. We've caught him sleeping on his tummy a few times lately, when we put him down on his back.



• Having "meetings" by himself in his crib (talking and singing to himself, sometimes at odd times, like 2 am!)



• Bananas and pears- he's still unsure about that rice cereal, but the fruits are sure good
  

He still is getting up every 3 hours to eat, which is sort of beginning to fray his mama at the edges for lack of sleep. A few times lately he's woken up after only 2 hours at night, even. Last night we let him cry for a little because he had just eaten 6 oz of milk on top of pears and cereal two hours beforehand and sure enough, he fell back asleep and slept from 9-1am. Progress? Let's hope so. It's so sweet that he just wants comfort from his mama, we think. Hopefully he's gaining weight after all these feedings!

We love him so much and are so happy he's in our life! We spent the weekend in Port Aransas with the cousins.... It was fun for JM to see Blake and to watch them interact.

The cutest pumpkin in the patch

DSCN3140
Originally uploaded by our "nut" houseIt was a cool and almost fall-like day on Saturday so it was a perfect day to visit the pumpkin patch! A year ago at this time we went to the same patch and this time pulling up with our sweet baby, I got a little emotional amidst the millions of kiddos, pony rides and pumpkins. Last year I was SO fatigued with morning sickness, and more than that, filled with anxiety that at any moment I would miscarry. It meant a lot to go back this year with our little one. He seemed to enjoy it. We got pumpkins for our porch for the three of us, and a little itty bitty pumpkin that fit perfectly into his little hands. He held on to it in his little hands. So cute!

We spent the rest of the weekend at the lake house with my mom and Art and Dale and Emily. And ran 6 miles today. It feels great to be running again! I am pooped tonight for all the running around today.

Short week this week... looking forward to this weekend at the beach!

Easy Pecan Sticky Buns

OMG, I am actually posting a recipe to this blog. Remember when I used to do this? Wow.

I made these Easy Pecan Sticky Buns at the lake this weekend. Yum! The only adjustment I'd make is to use thin peices of the biscuits or you run the risk of some doughy buns. Mike literally took a bite into my first batch and had it not touched his tongue, when he dramatically lobbed some of the uncooked dough back onto his plate in fear of salmonella. It was funny, but cooked, these were delicious.

This recipe is from Real Simple, which is pretty much the best magazine ever because life is too complicated for complicated recipes.

Easy Sticky Buns
1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and thinly sliced into 10 pieces
1 medium banana, thinly sliced
1/2 cup (2 ounces) pecans, chopped
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 7.5-ounce tube refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
Heat oven to 375° F.Drop a piece of butter in the bottom of each of 10 compartments of a muffin tin. Arrange the banana slices on top. Sprinkle the pecans and brown sugar over the bananas. Top each compartment with a biscuit. Bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Place a baking sheet on top of the tin while the buns are still hot. Carefully flip the tin over, tapping the bottom to release the buns. Transfer to a platter. Serve warm.
Yield: Makes 10 buns

When I was a senior in high school, my friend Elizabeth and I got the privilege of going in late to school, so our first period, we would meet for coffee (we were SO grown-up) at this fledgling business called David's Buns. I really think we were the ONLY customers that they had at David's Buns and I'm not sure if it was that fact, or that we were wide-eyed high school girls, but David loved to come and dote on us with every visit in sort of a creepy "check out my buns" way. Sadly and not shockingly, David's business did not make it past our first semester of school. Whenever I make a recipe that calls for "buns" of any sort, I think of David's Buns. I wonder what ever happened to David and his buns?

Life in a Box

Recently, my mom dropped off a large box of my "stuff." I guess she decided I had reached a point in my life where it was time to transfer the burden of whether to keep or throw away such precious mementos as report cards, watercolor paintings, silly stories spelled out on handwriting paper, junior high tennis team pictures, etcetera. It's been fun going through these treasures. Mostly, to see what stuff my mom decided to save for posterity. My college acceptance letter from Marquette. My class photos. Articles from the local paper about my achievements. Report cards. For some reason my C- in high school PE made me smile now, whereas then it was the end of the earth. It was all because I couldn't for the life of me shoot an arrow in archery. Damn you, Mr. Hauschildt (aka Big Balls) for bringing down my GPA. It wasn't like I didn't try!

Anyway, since I many times muse the experience of motherhood on this blog, I thought I would take a few minutes to type a lovely write-up, or ode to my dear mother a la first grade. I wish I could scan this, but I don't think it'll translate that well, so typing will have to do. Ah, how I look forward to such gems as this from JM!

My mom has big eyeballs.
My mom takes me to movies.
My mom has persedears.
My mom's name is Ellen.
My mom teaches C.C.D.
My mom mostly wheres jeans.
She is above 100 pounds.
when she was a little girl she was elergic to dogs.
She hates raniy days. Whe she crys her eyes are droopy.
My moms
birthday is October 11. She hates cats. She is weard
smetimes.
She has frecles.
She has greeish blueish eyes. She has bronish redish hair. She reads
the newspaper evrey morning. She loves lahsanha.
She just had her Anivers-
ery on April 29.
My mom helps me make
my bed. She makes school
lunches. Ellen never moes
the lawn. Ellen hops like
a bunny. She blames it
on me if my brother gets
in troble. When I get
hert my mom helps me.
She bys me presants
for Christmas. She
tries to lose whet. She
walks my dog every
morning. She mostly
gos to BARLWS to get
food. She does not run.
Her eyebrows are cervd.