On hiatus

So....I've not been doing much cooking, quilting, knitting or much of anything else lately because of the classes I've been taking this quarter in my grad program.  I'm in an "exclusive" creative writing workshop (or at least I like to think it's exclusive); there are just four of us.  But that means we each have to bring a new story every week for the whole quarter!  And the other class I'm taking is a very interesting 20th century British colonial/postcolonial literature class.  We're reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out, and E.M. Forster's A Passage To India, along with some postcolonial novels, including Achebe's Things Fall Apart, which happened to really rock my world.

So I haven't been able to do any quilting, etc., which makes me sad.  But the good news is that I've written 80 pages of my thesis in the past two months!!!  Graduation is just around the corner, and I am so, so glad I decided to apply to this program because it's far exceeded my expectations, and I feel that it's re-awakened my passion for literature and writing and, really, all things creative.  But I promise that, come June, the quilts will be churned out with zeal, and my blog posts will be more frequent than they have been as of late.

No news on the adoption front.  We're just taking some time to decompress and enjoy the last bits of our educational careers at the moment.  Unless I apply to another program......to be continued!  

Homemade Chicken Soup for flu season

Well......my husband and I got the flu.  And not the stuffy nose, aches and pains flu, but the stomach bug that's been going around that makes you feel like Sigourney Weaver when she gives birth to the alien.  It was absolutely dreadful.  Thank goodness for saltines and ginger ale.  But ALSO, thank goodness I made a huge batch of my homemade chicken soup and froze it in quart containers a couple weeks ago!!!  Here's my recipe:

8 cups of low-sodium chicken broth (I've made my own, and I've also used Better than Bouillon)
4 stalks of celery, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium-sized yellow onion
1/2 pound of boiled chicken breasts, shredded
3/4 cup of uncooked noodles (I like to use mini shells, but whatever is your favorite is fine!)
handful of fresh parsley (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

First, I saute the onion, celery, and carrots in a tablespoon of olive oil until the onions become translucent.  Next, I add the broth.  Ahead of time, I've boiled 1/2 pound of chopped up chicken breasts.  When they are cooled, I shred them into bits.  So now is the time to add the shredded chicken to the pot.  Next, throw in the uncooked noodles. Lastly, I throw in the handful of chopped parsley, add a little salt and pepper, lower heat to medium/low, and let simmer for about 45 minutes.  If the carrots are still a little crunchy by this point, lower heat to low and let simmer for another 15 minutes.

And it is really that simple!  Also, it's a great, delicate soup to help nurse a cold or flu.

Cooking for an Army of Two?

For the past year of grad school, I've taken advantage of the breaks in between quarters to cook like a madwoman and freeze home-cooked meals so that I don't have to cook during the quarter, and when I'm in class at night, my husband can still have his home-cooked meals that he can just warm up.  He's spoiled!  So this year....we got a Costco card!  I always thought it was silly to have a Costco card when I live in a two-person household, but since I'm cooking enough meals to last three months at a time, meat and veggies can get expensive at the regular grocery store around the corner from our house!

Next quarter I am taking two classes, and tomorrow I'm starting to work on a new case that should be in depositions mostly every day for the next couple of months.  We also may be getting an addition to our family within the next month or so (more on this later!  trying not to get my hopes up too much before it is actually official), hence the need for ready-cooked meals, at least until I graduate in June.

So here's what I cooked today after a trip to Costco (which is VERY dangerous, by the way.  I can see how ladies get on that coupon/hoarders show if they have a Costco card):

2 meatloaves, recipe on my blog (the two loaves are around 12 servings)
2 pots of marinara and meatballs (around 16 servings)
1 crock pot of turkey chili, my favorite! recipe on my blog (around 18 servings)
14 twice-baked broccoli cheddar potatoes, which my family will be sampling tomorrow for dinner with the meatloaf.  On other nights, we can just grill up some chicken to go with it, which we bought tons of at Costco to freeze, too (so...14 servings, ha!)

This weekend I will make:

Albondiga soup, recipe is on my blog if you want to search it (around 12 servings)
Chicken noodle soup in case we need comfort food during cold/flu season (12 servings)
Tortilla Chicken Soup (12 servings)
Stuffed peppers (12 servings)

I know this sounds crazy, but that equals over 100 meals, totaling $3 a meal. I freeze them in freezer-safe, heat-safe plastic containers and thaw them the morning I want to serve them for dinner.  I've frozen all these recipes before, and they freeze beautifully!  You really can't tell that they weren't just cooked.  Anyone have ideas for what else I could make that freezes well?  Post a response!

Happy holidays, all!

WIP's!

Here are my works in progress as far as quilting goes.  Just a bunch of jelly roll quilts.  I bought all of these jelly rolls from the Fat Quarter Shop:

Here are the backs of the quilts:

They are all crib-sized quilts, and I plan on quilting them myself, except for the last quilt, which I took to my long-arm lady.  Finally, I'm finished with these batiks!!!  It only took me a year!  My excuse is that I've been in grad school, ha!

New Quilt!

Hi, everyone!  Thanksgiving was wonderful this year.  Daniel and I spent it with my mom and her two beagles.  It was a quiet, low-key day of watching movies and playing games.  Then yesterday I got a phone call from my long-arm quilter letting me know that I had quilts ready to pick up, yay!!!  I love those phone calls.  She did a beautiful job and made my substandard quilting skills less noticeable.  I am giving this quilt to my mother-in-law for Christmas.  She doesn't read my blog, so I'm in no danger of spoiling the surprise.  Of course, I haven't put the binding on yet, so you will have to use your imagination:

I was inspired by this quilt, which I thought was so lovely, so I improvised a pattern.  I can't wait to bind it and wrap it up!  This quarter in grad school, I had over 2,000 pages to read for my Victorian Lit class.  I figured, for the novels I won't be writing my term paper on, I could listen to some of them on Audible while I'm quilting!!!  So I read/listened to Mill on the Floss by George Eliot while quilting this quilt.  Great book!    

It's been a busy month

November is through, and how sad I am about this fact. I love November. The crisp air, leaves changing colors, Thanksgiving leftovers, pumpkin pie, making fires and staying in. Now comes December, the most hectic time of the year. Just the word "Christmas" brings on hives and an increased heart rate! I am so glad that our family chose to listen to my Secret Santa idea a few years ago because this has eased some of the craziness of frantic Christmas shopping. In spite of this anticipated chaos, I got quite a bit done in November:

1. Home study complete. Just waiting for the final report.
2. I participated in National November Novel Writing Month, and I wrote 68 pages of a novel! I didn't finish the novel, but that is neither here nor there.
3. I knit Daniel a new cap since I accidentally shrunk his last one.
4. I am halfway through a beret for my sister Sara (it may end up being mine...it's very cute)
5. I cooked many good meals this month! I also made my yearly Pasta Flora pie at my dad's request, and following in my grandmother's spirit, I refuse to post the recipe for the pie. It's a secret I will take to the grave (or urn).
6. I've been working a lot, and I haven't hated it. I've had some interesting and entertaining depositions lately that have given me a newfound appreciation for court reporting. I feel very blessed that I've had such a successful career. And our Christmas party is at Lake Chalet this year, and I heard there are going to be gondola rides!!! Hope nobody falls in the lake.

Cherry Chocolate Wine Cake

I made the most amazing bundt cake for my mom's birthday!  It was my first bundt, and I had two go-arounds with it (the first one fell apart as I was taking it out of the bundt pan, and yes, I swore like a sailor). 

Ingredients:

Nonstick vegetable cooking spray

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 cup red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon

1/3 cup whole milk

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup (10 2/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 box (.3 ounce) sugar-free black cherry gelatin

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Wine Glaze

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon

1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for serving

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Mix the sugar, butter and eggs together with a mixer until fluffy.  Melt the chocolate and mix with wine and milk in another bowl.  Combine all mixes now in one large bowl, mixing well on low until smooth with no lumps.  Generously grease the bundt pan and pour in the mixture.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.  Let cool for 15 minutes.  Tip over and release bundt on a cake dish.  When ready to serve, make the wine glaze by mixing the butter, red wine, sugar and vanilla in a small sauce pan until a syrupy consistency.  Sprinkle powdered sugar over cake and drizzle the wine glaze over each serving with a garnish of fresh berries. 

This cake was delicious and moist.  Everybody loved it!

Our Three-Year Anniversary

Our third anniversary was January 3. I know, I'm pretty late in posting the pictures of our overnight getaway. I've been busy!!! Anyway, we went to Carmel and stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast walking distance from the beach. We got a killer deal on the room because we stayed the day after New Year's. So we really celebrated on January 2, but it's okay!  Time slips by too quickly.  I can't believe we've already been married three years.  Hey, in another two, we'll be able to adopt from any country we want!!  We just won't have any money left.  Details, details...



We had dinner at this little French bistro called "Le Bicyclette."  Good food!

Here's our room!  Very cute and cozy.  Too bad I had a cold and Daniel got food poisoning from lunch.  We were both passed out by 10:00, haha!

The morning of our anniversary, getting ready to head back home.



Have you ever seen a gas station sign this cute???  Only in Carmel...

Shellac!

Okay, so I will be the first to admit that I'm not the person who people are calling off the hook for beauty advice, and my sisters are not shy about reminding me of that.  Picture hiking boots, ponytail, sweatshirt and jeans, and that's pretty much me when I'm not at work.  But...I do like to have pretty nails and try to keep them painted and looking nice.  I do them myself, though.  I was at a nail salon with my BFF, getting ready for her wedding, and she told me to try shellac.  She said I would LOVE it!  And she was right.  I absolutely did.  But I watched the manicurist closely, and all shellac really breaks down to is painting your nails with a special polish that cures under the UV light.  But that manicure cost me 30 bones. 

So I told my friend Carrie, "There must a cheaper way I can do this at home," and she looked at me like I was certifiable, since the whole point is to be doted on at a salon!  Well, not for me.  I am a very busy woman, and I don't like being doted on.  It makes me uncomfortable.  So I plopped myself down in front of the computer and searched on Amazon for a UV light and shellac polish, and voila!  For $85, I bought a light, four polishes, and this would give me at least 30 manicures.  That comes out to $2.83 per manicure.  Can you really beat that?????  No!  So here's what you need to get nails looking like these:

You need a Thermal Spa UV light that will accomodate both hands.  $45 on Amazon.com.

You will need a base coat, a top coat, and a color coat of any brand, but I like CND.  You can get them on Amazon.com.  They run about $10 to $15 a bottle, but keep in mind, it will give you 30 applications.

You will need cotton balls and 91% rubbing alcohol.



AND THAT'S IT!!!  So here are the steps:

1.  Push your cuticles back.
2.  Apply the base coat and place hands under UV for 20 seconds.
3.  Apply color coat and place hands under UV for 2 minutes.
4.  Apply second coat of color and place hands under UV for another 2 minutes.
5.  Apply top coat and place hands under UV for 2 minutes.
6.  Your nails will feel sticky at this point.  Take a cotton ball and soak it with alcohol.  Rub nails until they are smooth and shiny.  And that's it!!!  You will have beautifully shellac'd nails for two weeks.  No chips, no breaks, looking amazing for two weeks.  When you are ready to take the color off, the polish literally peels off, doing no damage to your nails.  Honestly, I will never go back to a nail salon again.  At $2 a manicure when it is most convenient for me, why would I?
7.  Enjoy!! Anything to keep my mind off the adoption, right?



All the lonely tamales

My dad loves to buy fresh-made tamales by the truckful from a local Mexican market that's owned by one of my brother's friends.  I usually reap the benefits of these tamale runs, since my dad always brings me back a bag of them.  This Christmas, my dad and stepmom hosted dinner, and they bought tamales at another Mexican shop.  These tamales seemed more filling, and by the end of the evening, there were tons left over.  Well, Daniel loves tamales, and I do, too.  But I can only have tamales for leftovers so many nights!  Daniel suggested that we throw them into a soup, to which I replied, "That's ridiculous!"  We looked online for a tamale soup recipe, and sure enough, there were many.  So I had to eat my words and also the leftover tamales, but this time in a delicious and hearty soup!

Ingredients: 

1 can of black beans

1 can of diced tomatoes

4 cups chicken broth
1 cup onion, diced

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin, ground

1/2 teaspoon  cayenne powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black peppers

4 to 6 frozen tamales (chicken, pork, or beef), cut into bite-size cubes 

1 cup mexican-style cheese, shredded



In a large pot, heat up some vegetable oil and sautee the diced onion and garlic until translucent.  Next add all the other ingredients, except for the tamales and the cheese.  Bring to a simmer while cutting up the tamales.  Last, add the cubed tamale pieces and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes.  Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheese.  I made quesadillas on the side.  Delicioso!

The Stacks

School starts in four days.  What have I been doing to prepare for the new quarter, you might ask? 
1.  Trying my best to kick this cold I've had since Christmas.
2.  Working my bum off to turn in these 1200 pages of transcripts that I've accumulated since the week before Christmas (I meant to take a photo of my stack of transcripts, but I was so eager to turn them in, I completely forgot!)
3.  Speed-reading through my Post-Colonial literature reading list so I've got a head start this time around.
4.  Cooking and freezing meals so that I don't have to pick up a pot or pan for the next 11 weeks.
5.  Cleaning the house, paying bills, starting my taxes, which are all things I will neglect for the next 11 weeks.

By the way, I don't remember if I announced this in my last entry, but I got A's in my classes last quarter!!!  2012 is going to be a crazy year for us.  I just have a feeling.  With me in school and working full-time, with Daniel finishing his comprehensive exams and starting his dissertation...and he also applied for a job starting in September, so we'll see how that pans out...our house will need to be fully stocked with Doritos, Dr. Pepper and peanut M&M's, because survival mode is about to kick in! 

I've had friends lately tell me, "Well, it's all worked out that your adoption has been delayed because now you get to finish your MA."  Yes, you could look at it that way, but the real reason I'm in school at all is because I desperately needed a distraction from our adoption, and I thought that keeping crazy-busy would help me out in that regard.  I applied to adopt a year BEFORE I applied for my MA, remember??  But more education never hurt anybody, right?  And it will, indeed, be a great distraction!

Beef Bourguignon in a Dutch oven

A few weeks ago, I decided to make Beef Bourguignon for the first time, so I marched myself to the butcher and asked him for the appropriate cut of beef.  He said beef chuck works best.  I said okay.  Give it to me.  He also said you have to buy chunks of bacon because that's what you brown the beef in before you add it to the dutch oven.  I said no, thank you.  That sounds delicious, but Daniel has high cholesterol.  So I skipped the pork fat part, but everything else is pretty much the same.  Oh, and I also forgot to buy pearl onions at the store, so those were missing from my BB as well.  But here are the ingredients you are supposed to use:

• 6 ounces salt pork, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
• 2 pounds trimmed beef chuck, cut into 2-inch cubes, patted dry with paper towels
• Salt
• 6 shallots, chopped, about 2 cups
• 2 large, peeled carrots, 1 chopped, 1 cut into 2-inch chunks
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 2 cups of red wine
• Beef Stock (low sodium), at least 1 cup
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 12 pearl onions, fresh or frozen
• 1 lb fresh shiitake, cremini or button mushrooms
• Beurre manie: 3 Tbsp flour blended with 2 Tbsp butter

Preheat your oven to 325.  First, I browned the beef chunks in olive oil and butter in a very large pan for a few minutes.  Next, I added the chopped shallots, carrots, garlic and mushrooms to the mix and allowed the vegetables to sautee, then adding the Brandy to the pan.  Allow the Brandy to evaporate.  Then add the wine, tomato paste and broth and let simmer for a few minutes.  Pull out your dutch oven (we have a ceramic one) and pour the entire mixture into the dutch oven.  Add all of your herbs and gently mix.  Place the covered dutch oven into your oven at home and allow to slow cook at 325 for about 4 hours.  Resist the urge to open the oven and check on it!!!  I always have to be reminded that when I open the oven, I let the heat out! 

Anyway, after about 4 hours, you can pull it out and check on it.  The last step is to make your broth thicker by taking out a smaller saucepan and heating up 2 tbsp of butter and adding 3 tbsp of flour.  Allow to cook over low heat while stirring for about a minute.  Then scoop some of the broth from the dutch oven into the saucepan and mix.  You should have a gravy-looking consistency.  Toss this gravy back into the dutch oven and gently mix around into your stew until the sauce has thickened.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

If you want to add pearl onions to the recipe, you may do so after about 3 hours of cooking.  They will need to be blanched and peeled first.  I just forgot to get them at the store.  Sorry!

Scenic Sunday

Hiking on Sunday in the hills by our house

Our neighborhood!

Sunset

Contemplative Max

Pretty Chica

I love autumn!!!

Debbie's Enchiladas!

And now for my mom's enchilada recipe!  Hope she doesn't mind me sharing it.  But I have to.  It's just that good.  She made this recipe up, so I'm not sure how authentic it is for all my lovely Mexican readers out there.  But it's still really good!  This recipe will make 24 enchiladas, or two batches.  So pull out two casserole dishes "y ponganse a trabajar"!!  That means get to work, damas y caballeros!

Ingredients:

1 pound of chicken breasts, sliced into thin fillets
1/2 cup of Italian salad dressing as a marinade to the chicken (I know.  Sounds weird, but it's tasty!)
24 corn tortillas
4 chopped tomatoes
1 avocado, chopped
1 12-ounce can of sliced black olives
1 32-ounce can of Enchilada sauce (comes in green or red, spicy or mild, so take your pick.  I like mild red)
3 cups of shredded Mexican-style cheese (could be Mexican blend or Oaxaca, etc.  Whatever you like!)

Directions:

Marinate chicken fillets in a glass dish with dressing for a half-hour.  Cook in oven at 375 for about 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Then shred the chicken into bits.  Place in a mixing bowl.  Add the chopped tomatoes, the avocados, half of the can of black olives, and 1 cup of shredded cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Get your two casserole dishes ready by coating the bottoms with a quarter cup of the enchilada sauce.  Now for the assembly.  Pour the enchilada sauce into a separate bowl.  Take a tortilla and dip in the sauce, and then fill with a couple spoonfuls of the chicken mixture.  Roll up and place in casserole dish.  Keep going until all your mix is gone.  It usually makes about 24 for me, but it depends on the size of tortilla you buy.  Now pour the remainder of enchilada sauce on top of the two caserole dishes full of rolled enchiladas.  Last, coat enchiladas with the 2 cups of cheese you have left.  Take the 1/2 cup of olives and sprinkle over the cheese.  Cook in oven for about 35 minutes at 375.  You can freeze one batch and cook it another night!  Enjoy!!     

Chicken tortilla casserole

My stepmom has been making this casserole for years.  It's my brother Chris' favorite!  When we were growing up, she'd ask my brother what he wanted for his birthday dinners, and it was always "chicken tortilla casserole, please!"  It's definitely not low-fat or gourmet foodie.  It's comfort food, though!  My brother was telling Soyla about it last week, and she asked me for the recipe, so I thought I'd share it with my blog community, too. 

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut up

1 can diced green chilis

1 small onion, diced

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup of sour cream
1/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

10 corn tortillas

sour cream

salsa



Directions:


1.  Brown chicken, set aside.
2.  Saute onions in butter until transparent.
3.  Mix soup, sour cream, milk and spices.
4.  Starting with corn tortillas, layer ingredients (tortillas, soup mixture, chicken, onions, chilies, then cheese. Repeat layers, ending with cheese) in a 2 qt size casserole dish .
5.  Bake at 350 oven for 45 minutes.
6.  Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Third-Person Posting

Someone is home alone tonight, on a Saturday, the universal date night, in her pajamas by 8:00 pm, reading and drinking wine by herself.  Erin always was a bit of a loner.  Her younger brother might disagree, having spent three out of four of his high school years cold and shivering in his older sister's shadow, until she graduated and his classmates no longer referred to him as "Erin's brother."  Then he was simply "Chris," but by no means was he simple.  He was very, very complex.  And so was the smell of his room.  It could have been due to a Daschund named George and an unhealthy obsession with Drakkar cologne. 

But enough picking on Chris. 

Erin spends the evening alone.  Her husband Daniel is at their church's annual Hafli (dinner-dance), serving alcohol to their fellow parishioners.  The Bishop is in town.  Why is Erin home alone when her husband is at a dinner-dance, you might ask?  The answer is obvious.  Erin is drowning in schoolwork, much like Edna was drowning in the ocean at the end of The Awakening, which is one of the reasons that Erin is stressing out.  Yes, she ended that sentence with a preposition.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  She must write a fresh, original paper on Kate Chopin's story, an assignment that is turning out to be quite impossible.  She had no idea that every female feminist, naturalist, existentialist-type graduate student in the United States has, at one time or another, split hairs into a paper about why Edna kills herself at the end.   

And another thing, Renaissance literature is not Erin's bag. 

This leads to an interesting question:  What IS Erin's bag?  What's not in Erin's trick-or-treat bag as of yet is the coveted set of numbers she receives every month from her adoption agency telling her where she is on the wait list.  These silly numbers happen to be the only thing keeping her sane through this adoption process.  She finds herself holding her breath each month until she receives the e-mail telling her how much closer she is to becoming a mom.  When these numbers are two weeks late, Erin begins to question.  She begins to wonder what is so complicated about adding and subtracting.  Wait.  Never mind.  Erin is horrible at math.  She could never add or subtract any number without all ten of her fingers.  If she ever lost a finger, she would be in serious trouble, not to mention her steno career would be finished.  Hmm... Don't give her any ideas.  But really, why can these adoption people not just give her the numbers so she can get through the next month like a semi-sane person?       

Another thing that is NOT Erin's bag:  Patience.  Erin has always been in a rush to do everything.  Ask her mother.  She could not wait to be taught how to read.  She picked up that Cat in the Hat and had it mastered by age four.  She rushed to get married at 21...and then rushed to get divorced.  She rushed her way through court reporting school so that she could start making money.  She hates waiting in lines, hates waiting for her Netflix in the mail, and would rather die than return an item the day after Christmas.  But if she did have to die, she would make sure it was fast.  If Erin ever went to hell, her "contrapasso" would be spent waiting for her deli number to be called for all eternity.

So here she sits, waiting for the numbers, waiting, waiting, waiting for the blessed numbers, wondering if she will EVER become a mother.     

Crunch Time

So I haven't been blogging much lately for several reasons:
1. No new adoption news to share, although we should be getting our five-month waiting list numbers anyday now.
2. I've been trying to stay on top of my work so that I will be ahead when my school starts next week.
3. I've been cooking large casseroles and soups and freezing them so I don't have to cook as much for the next 10 weeks of school. What a dork I am!
4. I've been working on fundraising projects for our adoption! So far we have raised $106 from our coffee store! And it's only been a week! We have such amazing family and friends. I feel so blessed. I have also been working on my first African-style batik quilt. Here are a couple pictures:

Here's the other side:

The photos don't do the fabric justice. It really is quite beautiful in real life. I've also started knitting again! Here's a half of one sock which I intend to keep all for myself:

I've also been spending lots of quality time with my dogs. I'll be spending nights at school, so I won't see them as much for the next couple years.

This photo was taken about 1.5 seconds before they nearly ripped each other's heads off because Chica shifted her weight in a way that upset Max.

Here's a photo of the enchiladas that I made tonight. One batch for dinner, another batch to freeze. Yum!!! I used my mom's recipe. Sooooo delicious. That's all for now! More updates soon.

Another Saturday Night, and I Ain't Got Nobody!

Yeah!!! I love Cat Stevens! Great song. Anyway, another Saturday night, and I ain't got no children, but I do have an amazing hubby and two of the most adorable dogs in the world. And a pretty cute kitty, too. We just got back from Vespers and had a quiet dinner at home. Now we're drinking Margaritas and getting ready to watch Harry Potter.

The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful. We finally decided to take our house off the market after receiving no offers. What an unfortunate time to list a house for sale. Within a week of our listing on the MLS, Obama made his speech about the Federal Government defaulting on its debt, the stock market plunged 2000 points, and the jumbo loan limit dropped 100k. Not good for us. No, no, no!

So now we are trying our best to scrimp and save for our adoption and upcoming Master's program. We need to start fundraising for our adoption, since it will probably cost about $8,000 for us to fly to Ethiopia twice, and our referral fee will be due next year sometime. On top of that, what if we are lucky enough to be referred siblings?!? Then we need to come up with another $6,000.

What is our plan, you might be asking? Well, everybody loves coffee, so we are working on setting up our own online coffee store to help fundraise. I also happen to be pretty good on a sewing machine, so I plan on making handmade African-themed batik quilts and hope I get some takers. I'm starting to feel excited about our adoption! I think I just needed to pick myself out of the dumps of infertility blues and get an attitude adjustment. Also, being 27 on the siblings wait list is good, right??

In the meantime, I've been working on my mommy skills by knitting socks and making these cute little watermelon cookies:

And check out the veggies from our garden!

The Dream of a Ridiculous Woman

These numbers signify many things. They are the number of months we have been on the wait list. They are also the first number of my address. They are also pictures I took of our actual No. 4 on our house and curb. They also are a clue for my stalkers to find where I live. Next month I will give you the next number to my address. You will be so much closer to finding me!!! They are also the number of weeks our house has been on the market. Looks like we may end up staying in our house at this rate, but I digress. Here are some more numbers: 69, 51, 27. Boys, girls and siblings waiting list positions, respectively.

Yes, there has been movement, but is it enough to get me excited and hopeful that this adoption will actually end with a beautiful baby (or an ugly one...either way, we will still love it) in our arms? Not so much. Why can I not bring myself to feel excited? Because two years is too long to hold your breath. That's why.

At my husband's insistence, I read a short story today by Dostoevsky called "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man," and I can tell you that it was, indeed, ridiculous. Don't ever read that. But once again, I digress. The point of this story was that you can either accept that life holds mostly suffering, and in order to survive, you must learn how to turn that suffering into love, or you can shoot yourself in the head with a pistol. And it's the suffering of a little girl whose mother is dying that saves the ridiculous man's life because it makes him realize he has a choice to express love in the midst of suffering. He puts the pistol down and chooses not to shoot himself.

What a horrible story. But anyhow, I feel like I am at a similar crossroads. I can either shoot myself in the head, or I can accept this suffering and try to turn it into something good. I just wish I knew how to do that.