Embracing Beauty

Checking in from the Boonies

February 26, 2011 By

No cell service + very…very….very…slow….internet = a truly relaxing vacation.

I’ve enjoyed two whole days of sitting on comfy recliners, eating yummy food prepared in advance, spending the kind of time with my children that I never seem to find at home.

Tomorrow we head to the Lodge for our first day of Lodging at White Face Mountain, as Jeremy volunteers for the Empire State Games For the Physically Challenged (like Special Olympics). On Sunday we’ll hopefully get Jesse and Claire out on their skis, and I look forward to putting some photos up of our adventures next month.

Meanwhile, forgive my absence on the blog. I had every intention of scheduling some posts over the week and keeping up a pretense of blogging…but I succumbed to the peace and freedom from being almost completely cut off from the outside world.

I’m glad there are still places like this…oh, the silence in the snow-covered Adirondack woods is such a balm to my ears – wish I could record it and put it up here for you all to enjoy…

3 Comments, Filed Under: Venture

Progress in the Master Bathroom Remodel

February 21, 2011 By

My husband is the Craig’s List King. I may have mentioned that he got almost everything for our master bathroom off of Craig’s List, including this double basin granite sink for $100. Yeah, it, it was broke in half, but he told me he could fix it.

I believed him.

He called me upstairs the other night to help him with the epoxy. He spread it in the crack, scooched it together, let it set and then shaved off the extra.

Meanwhile, I took a few more photos of the progress he has made. This is the floor grate that brings deliciously warm air into the bathroom – and that’s the beautiful tile floor he finished last month. I love old antique grates – even better when they’ve been sandblasted and re-painted!

The bedroom is almost done, too. Found this fan on clearance – love the focal point it gives the room .

Tapping the crack level. I realized after uploading these photos that I didn’t take a complete ‘after’ picture of the finished sink! Guess you’ll have to wait till I reveal the completed room! I’ll tell you this, even if you can’t hardly believe it – the crack is now all but invisible – you can only find by feel and see it if the angle of the light is just right. Amazing. Jeremy was right. (But then, he usually is!)

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Worldess Weekend: Sunshine in a Pottery Bowl

February 19, 2011 By
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Jeremy Blogs!

February 19, 2011 By

Those who know my husband, Jeremy, know he is a man of few words, and that when he does speak, it’s usually worth listening to. Just wanted to let my readers know that he has written a guest post over on our friend Katie’s blog, Not Unredeemed.  In his post, “You Don’t Need a Fairy Godmother to find Cinderella”, he asks,

“Why do we have so many mature, godly, eligible guys and girls who are still single?”

In his direct and concise style, he answers that question, and then goes on to reveal steps to correct the problem. Check it out here.

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4 Great Benefits from Fasting Facebook

February 17, 2011 By

Media fasts. They’re all the rage nowadays. We’re all being challenged to take a hard look at our internet usage, and to consider giving it up for a season. But why would you want to do it? What would convince someone to sign out of facebook for a whole month? If the very idea is incomprehensible to you, it it’s a good sign that you need to re-evaluate. Maybe you are already aware of some level of addiction to a networking site or your RSS feed, but really have no desire to address the problem. I told you what convinced me to take action. Now I’m going to tell you the benefits I experienced from just a partial-media fast. To tell you what happened to me when I gave up facebook for an entire month…

#1 I discovered more hours in my day! Facebook wastes time. No one can argue that. Even if you’re a no-nonsense member determined to use Facebook as a tool (and it is that!), it’s inevitable that you’ll be sucked into browsing photos of people you don’t know or reading conversations that have nothing to do with you. Facebook seems designed to distract, to never let you finish a thought or task, with so many links on every page pulling you further and further into its time-sucking, mind numbing, stupor inducing  grasp – Ahhhh! “What time did you say it was? How many hours have I been sitting here?” Tell me if that hasn’t happened to you.

Just for a day – Track how much time you spend on facebook. List 3 things you would rather have done with that time.

#2 My brain works better! I don’t need to site the studies done on how excess media input negatively affects brain function. I experienced it myself, after just two days off facebook. Instead of cramming my mind with gobs of low-quality input, %75 of which was irrelevant, I had room to focus on stuff that was important to me. I suddenly felt my creativity increase and also noticed improved thought retention. In other words, I didn’t feel as scatterbrained. I remembered something I wanted to tell Jeremy without having to write it down. I felt sane. Think about it – every time you scroll through your news feed, you mentally dump a large percentage of the info ’cause it’s of no interest to you – this is like giving your brain an exercise in forgetfulness. That’s a poor use of the brain God gave you.

Do this test – scroll through your news feed and take a survey of all the the news that is actually relevant or of personal interest to you. Take it a step further and judge how much content actually enhanced your relationship with God or inspired your unique calling or passion.

#3 I enjoyed better fellowship! I don’t even think you can call interaction on facebook ‘fellowship’. If you do, you have to admit it’s poor quality interaction. No facial expressions, body language, tone of voice. Comments and IM are short, clipped forms of communication. When I was off facebook I was forced to use other forms of communication to keep up with my friends. I emailed, and – gasp! - even picked up the phone and called someone! This led to some great email exchanges and a few memorable phone conversations I would have missed entirely if I had just been browsing my feed and ‘liking’ these friends’ statuses.

This week - Choose one of your facebook friends that you have an email or phone number for (or live within driving distance!) and make the effort to contact them on a more personal level. See what kind of fun and fellowship ensues!

#4 I Enjoyed Higher-Quality Input. It’s so important to asses the input we have in our lives – what we eat, listen to, read – it all affects our bodies and our minds. My time off facebook allowed me to explore some other sites online that fed me spiritually, inspired me, and instructed me better than an hour on facebook ever has. I’m not saying there’s not good stuff on facebook. There is. But I’m finding a higher concentration of higher-quality content on some of the blogs I’ve discovered lately. I need quality input. I need inspiration for how to survive motherhood with three little ones. I need new recipes for feeding my family well. I need encouragement to make time for what is important to me. Facebook just isn’t doing that for me, people.

Take a trip – go to a really popular blog in a niche you enjoy. Take the time to check out the links the author recommends. Compare the enjoyment and input you receive from checking out these links to an hour browsing facebook. 

My facebook fast changed my life. It gave me more time to pursue activities and friendships that were important to me. It cleared my mind allowing me to focus so I could figure out what those important things were. It opened my eyes to everything I was missing out on by wasting time on low-quality input. It made me determined to be intentional about where I go and what I do online, and as a result have enjoyed some really rich content and life-changing input in the past few months. In my next post on the topic, I plan sharing some of the awesome blogs and websites I’ve been following lately that leave me very little time for facebook…

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In which we live and breath and dream about SKIING!

February 16, 2011 By

This time of year, our life centers around skiing. The weekdays are spent preparing for, talking about, and anticipating the weekends, which are spent on the mountain or in the ski lodge (depending on age and ability).

It’s not surprising then, that the dollhouse people went skiing last week. Skis were carefully crafted for each of the family – even Grandpa!

A ski lodge was built with blocks and mommy’s cutting boards, and a slope was created with pillows and a blanket. Even the mommy had to get out on the slopes, with her baby snug in a Mobywrap.

Kind of like this mommy and baby (though we abstained from skiing in this get up).

This is how we roll through the parking lot toward a day of lodging – in our awesome new collapsible wagon.

Seth is such a sport!
I love this wagon – I don’t think I’d ever go lodging without it again. We can haul two large ski bags and two children and my purse and our lunch and all the boots and the kids skis and water bottles and blankets – and it doubles as a bed and play pen.

We love lodging…even if we are sleepy from getting up at 6am. (It’s hard to find enough vertical to call a mountain in Upstate New York – we drive 1 1/2 hours to spend the day at our little mountain!)

When sleepiness overcomes the little ones, the wagon turns into a cozy bed. Somehow Claire manages to nap amid the chaos in the lodge each week.

Meanwhile, Daddy is out on the slopes – in this picture, he’s trying out the program’s new Mono-ski. Now, my husband is not handicapped – but he’s been working on his mono-skiing techniques so he can better teach his students.

Last weekend we got Claire on skiis for the first time. It was an incredible thing to see. She absolutely loved every minute of it. When she was on the rope tow, she was pointing to the hill, and when she was going down the hill, she was gesturing at the rope tow wanting to go up again. The faster she went the louder she laughed. This is her waiting impatiently in the lift line. I never saw the differences in her and Jesse’s personalities more clearly. My little thrill-seeker skied more in one morning than her cautious, easy-going brother has in 4 years.

It was definitely a priceless Mommy Memory.

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Valentine’s Day at our House: For the Husband

February 14, 2011 By
To the man who has given his all to be my everything.
To the boy who followed wisdom, who sowed good seed instead of wild oats. Who stored up passion and dreams to lavish on someone he hadn’t yet met. Who bought a diamond for one who was nameless. Who learned skills and drew plans for a home to hold a someday family. To the man who waited and saved all this for a girl he didn’t know. 
To the man who saved and longed and searched and then…chose me. 
To the man who took the risk to find out if I was the one. Who stepped into the water before it had parted and chose to love with his will and his heart.
To the man who let my love grown in the fertile ground of commitment, and who held my hand as we fell head-long into the unknown, into love, into vows, marriage, and the beginning of our happy-ever-after. 
To you, who cried the night our first child was born. Who never complains about cleaning bath toys out of the shower. Who buys me organic carrots and patiently gives me directions when I am lost, 15 minutes from home. 
I love you.
For telling me to nap when the house is a mess.
For soaking up my tension and smoothing the ripples and calming my seas.
For teaching me the healing in silence and the beauty of well chosen words.
For lifting me with gentle hands from self-doubt and condemnation to peace and confidence.
For hefting all my cares on your broad shoulders so I can turn and dance. 
Your love has made me a woman. You have strentheed my core and opened my petals and made me bloom. You’ve smiled when I’ve created and nodded for me to grow and said no to stress and yes to the things that make me smile and always reminded me of who I am in Christ. 
You’ve given me the clearest picture of Christ and His unconditional love that I will encounter this side of heaven. You have made me believe in forgiveness and redemption and love…
And you give and give and give and hold me when I cry, even when I don’t know where the tears are from. And you make me smile every day and you ask me to marry you at least once a month. And I have learned that your silence is your strength and that one need not write volumes to express heart depths. Your life is the most eloquent love letter. When I ask you for words you give me so much more. You give me your life. I agree with Shakespeare , who said,
“Men of few words are the best men.”
I lay down my pen. I long to love you without words.

For the idea for this valentine to my husband, I am in debt to Ann Voskamp and drew inspiration heavily from her post, “How to Really Write a Love Letter“. I hope you will go and read her beautiful blog and be inspired to write a love letter (with pen and action) to your beloved, even if you do not yet know his name…


To read our love story, skip over here, and for a little valentine’s encouragement, check out this post. To catch a glimpse of how we make Valentine’s day a family affair, step back in time to this post. 

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Valentine’s Day at our House: For the Wife

February 14, 2011 By
oh, lisianthus – how I love you! pink roses, astromeria, and eucalyptus, too!

Because he knows I like to arrange my own flowers.

generous arrangement for the buffet

When the cashier asks if he wants them arranged, he says, “My wife likes to do it herself.”

and a little one for my bedstand

Which she does. Very much. Especially when the flowers are something beyond the typical dozen red roses.

Thanks, Honey.

(Photos taken on my phone and uploaded from facebook – I WILL prevail and post photos on my blog even if my camera and desktop are both sick!!!)

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Valentine’s Day at our House: For the children

February 14, 2011 By

1. Jesse: Mom? What’s Valentine’s Day?
Me: It’s a day you say ‘I love you’ to people you love.
Jesse: Oh. Me love yours hair, Mommy!

2. Heart cookies – I made a small amount of pastry, rolled it thin and helped Jesse cut it into hearts, which he placed on a cookie sheet. I will dust them with cinnamon and sucanat and bake them at 400 for 5 or 10 min.

3. Pink construction paper cut into hearts, with a little boy’s first letters scrawled  in the middle.

4. Jello from Scratch: Mix 6 tsp. unflavored gelatin into 3/4 c. cold water and heat over medium heat until it boils and becomes clear. Puree in blender with 1 can of frozen juice concentrate and 1 1/2 cans of water. Pour into pan or bowl and cool until set. Ours is purpley-red, made from red grape-juice and setting up in a truffle bowl.

5. Red tablecloth, candles, and all our stuffed animal friends – we’re almost ready for our valentine’s day tea party.

What do you do with your kids for valentine’s day? I’m looking for ideas and traditions to start!

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BPA-Free Chili!

February 10, 2011 By

Chili used to be one of the easiest meals in my repitiore of crowd-pleasing entrees. Just fry up some sausage and onions, add some cans of tomatoes, some cans of beans, a can of green chili peppers, some spices, simmer it a bit, and your done!

Enter Whole Foods and Nourishing Cooking Practices, and my easy chili recipe became full of extra prep and forethought and hardly worth the effort.

Fast forward a few more years, and chili has once again become an easy, throw-together meal that’s yummier than ever and even more nourishing. Let me tell you how…


How did I go BPA-Free?
Did you notice all the cans of stuff my old chili recipe had? When I learned about the dangers of BPA and that a lot of our exposure to this dangerous chemical comes from canned food, I made an effort to reduce the amount of canned food I bought. (Comprehensive post about BPA and why to avoid it) Thankfully, I was already on a good track here, having learned long ago that there was so little nutritional value left in canned foods that it was a waste of my food budget. The only things I still bought in cans were tomato sauce and pineapple. Now it was time to address the tomato sauce.

I found a nice marinara sauce sold in a glass jars at my favorite grocery chain that contained no sugar or soybean oil in the added ingredients. Now I use it in everything, even when a recipe calls for whole or chopped tomatoes – my husband doesn’t enjoy meeting chunks of  tomato in his dinner anyway. I wash the jars and keep them for…

My beans. Once every other month or so, I soak a big bowl of red or kidney beans overnight and cook them down slowly the next day till they’re nice and soft. I pour them into my recycled tomato sauce jars, cap them, and freeze the whole batch (except what I make into fermented bean paste!). These jars fit nice in the door of my freezer where nothing else seems to fit.

Finally, the secret ingredient to all good soups - the stock. Every three months or so I take all the beef bones I’ve been saving in a ziplock in the freezer and make beef stock out of them. This is another two day process involving a bit more effort than the beans, but a batch of beef stock lasts me a long time ’cause I use chicken stock more often than beef. I pour the amber brown liquid into more of those recycled tomato sauce and put them in the door of the freezer along with the beans.

And that is how chili once again becomes an easy, throw together meal, yet frugal and full of nourishing, whole ingredients! I just have to remember to thaw a couple jars along with the meat. (If I don’t pull it out in time, all of these ingredients can soak in a bath of hot water in my sink to thaw more rapidly).

DSC08104
Beans, stock, tomato sauce, and grass-fed beef

Another benefit of my new chili recipe is it has so much flavor that you don’t even notice that I now make it with ground beef instead of sausage - cheaper and healthier, as my ground beef is grass fed, and my pork source is not!

Red Meat Chili
2 Lbs. ground beef
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil or lard
1/4 c. red wine
2 cups beef stock
2 onions, chopped fine
2-4 small green chilies, hot or mild, seeded and chopped*
2 cans tomatoes, briefly chopped in food processor
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
2 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. dried basil
1/4-1/2 tsp. red chili flakes
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. sucanat or sugar
4 cups cooked beans
Brown meat in olive oil or lard in a heavy pot. Add onions when meat is just beginning to brown. Add rest of ingredients after onions are cooked. Simmer an hour.
Serve with sour cream and cheddar cheese dolloped on top!

*I seeded and chopped a whole pile of hot peppers from a neighbor’s garden this summer – I keep them in a bag the freezer and break of a chunk whenever I need it.

I’ll be making a large batch of this for our ski trip at the end of the month. It’s such an easy way to feed a crowd – try it this weekend!

This post is part of
Real Food Wednesdays
Pennywise Platter at Nourishing Gourmet
Twisted Tuesdays at GNOWFGLINS

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