Work and Life

Minus shoes, my hubby is in his work attire! Wait, why does he have a bag? You don't need a fancy-schmancy bag for working with fruits and vegetables. 

*Ding ding ding!*

You're right! He does NOT need a fancy bag for the world of fruity veggies! He has a second job teaching bible at his alma mater. He loves it! And I am so proud of him!

Teaching is something he gets passionate about. He loves to challenge minds. And I'm so proud of him! And thanks to our friend who gave us the bag as a wedding gift!

Well, I'm off to shower after a 48hr bug, work on thank you notes, and potentially clean my closet. Just in case you're wondering, getting sick simultaneously with your husband is good for bonding, but not good if you're both not feeling well. Definitely some self-fending as one might be feeling good and the other not depending on that particular moment. Highly recommend getting sick separately, but that's my two cents. Although theoretically, getting sick at the same time means less time being sick as a whole.

I digress....

Anyways, I'm proud of John for doing what he loves and taking steps of faith! Love ya, honey!

Books, Bookshelves, and Order in the Home! Part 2

Small books, cookbooks, kids' books, and more organization the other night for my bookshelves! I was talking to my cousin, and she said, "As soon as I think I've got everything just right, I find a better way to organize something." And I agree! But I think for now, our house is just about in the perfect spot. Rooms are adaptable, the floor space is open, the bookshelves have wiggle room for future books, and of course, I have my spare dining room table if we need it for an extreme board night! But back to books and organizing....

I finally got all my miniature books in one spot! 3 of them have real pages, and the titles are: 

~ Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper by Larry Swindell

~ Merv: An Autobiography

~ The Titanic: End of a Dream by Wyn Craig Wade

And yes, these are titles of all real books, although I haven't read any of them.

Here is the next size up in book miniatures! I am missing one in the Christmas set, so maybe when Christmas comes along, it'll turn up. The middle is a set of hand-printed of Four Authentic Reproductions of Children's Books. They're quite adorable. And lastly the two American Girl books which are complete books.

My mom's New Websters set pairs nicely with my Barnes and Noble books. Two are mine, and two are John's (which I gave him one year for his birthday). Can you guess which is which?

My blue shelf got moved to the top of my dresser where a few of my dolls reside. Also with them is my wedding bouquet! Tolkien and Audrey Hepburn reside here. For a wedding gift, a sweet friend of the family's added some blue to my collection. It was a precious gift as the pieces were originally her mother's. 💙

My extra cookbooks and cleaning books now reside with my story compendiums. I have an obsession for collecting them! And on the bottom shelf is my collection of children's picture books. I will definitely need to work on it. 😉

A few cookbooks reside on top of my fridge for the time being.

And lastly the ones I use the most, plus a new one. I discovered after getting The Summertime Cookbook that I had another book by one of the authors, Lois Levine, called The Kids in the Kitchen Cookbook!

That's where my shelves stand, and hopefully stand for quite a while!

A Smattering of Thoughts

Fall is coming; things are changing; I've been reading, painting, and discovering.

I had to return Gracelaced back to the library, but I copied out the last couple devotions to do. I enjoyed going through this book! For each "season" which you could do over 32 days or over a year, you are given 8 different words to ponder over. It was a great encouragement to me this summer. Quite often, the word for the day corresponded to what we were going through that particular day. I read a similar book last night called, One Perfect Word that talks about giving yourself a word like, joy, faith, prayer, etc., and learning more about in God's word. Dwelling upon that thought through the year. Something I'm now thinking about. What would be my word?

John had a head cold last week, so I may have caught it, but the jury is out still. It would suck if I did as I caught it from a sister and probably gave it to him. So I really don't want it back. One night, he went to bed early, so I stayed up and watched a movie. Feeling crafty, (Muahahaha! Oh wait, not that kind of crafty....) I pulled out some craft supplies. I painted this, and hung it just inside our bedroom. It brightens the wall with the light switch nicely. I also discovered that a cuticle trimmer is great for pulling a nail out on the wall when you hammer it in too far. A metal nail, not a finger nail. 😉

Recently, I got a Tap Dancing Dictionary! I was excited as I never had a lot of training in that area.

When I opened it to look through it, I discovered the notes of a dance teacher inside! Various combinations of steps and dances for different classes she was teaching. I'm assuming it was a she based on the name inside. 😉 It was like meeting an old friend! I have a few pieces of paper floating around somewhere with dances written down. Possibly a notebook or two.

And speaking of discoveries inside of books! I purchased a book by one of my favorite childhood authors! She wrote the Julie of the Wolves series as well as the My Side of the Mountain series.

The highlight? It is autographed!!! I have a few autographed books, but this was pretty special as I didn't know it was until I got home and read the inside flap!

I have another exciting thing to share with you about my darling husband. So keep your eye out for that! What is new with you?

Marriage First: Pie Edition

Marriage is full of "firsts". Today's "first" is pie! I had yet to make a pie, but with company coming, a pie sounded good with dinner. Not to mention I've had the pie crusts for it. I don't even remember why I originally bought them, but it certainly wasn't for a pineapple pie!

I used the recipe out of my favorite baking book, Ann Pillsbury's Baking Book. I checked my copy of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook first, but I liked the looks of Ann's recipe. To be completely honest, I googled it first. Then I decided to use a cookbook instead. As I have at least 8-10 cookbooks, it seemed sensible! Fannie isn't left out, for all you who love her cookbooks/recipes. I used her's the other day for my pickle relish. I'll try and post something when it's time to check out my relish!

Here is the recipe I used! Everything except a homemade crust. And I realized that I had chunked pineapple instead of crushed, but I used a potato masher to fix that.

With the leftover scraps of dough, I made a black raspberry tart for tomorrow's breakfast. I used black raspberries that I picked behind my apartment, a dash of cinnamon, and a dash of sugar. The berries were still frozen when I put them in the pie so I'm interested to see how it settles over night.

Off to make dinner! Enjoy my first pies! (And yes, I've made pies before this. After this, I can't wait to make apple pies!!! That season is almost upon us! I guess I'm clinging to summer with my pineapple and embracing fall with a pie. 😉)