Updating a Mantel on the Cheap

Oh, my gosh…the girl is writing a post! I am ashamed it has been so long since my last entry…nine months to be exact. I mean…it’s not like I have been busy at all? I surely could have found time to find a project, complete the project, and write about the project after dear hubs took a job TWO HOURS AWAY…and while I was pregnant, and oh, yeah…having a baby…and then recovering from a baby. Yup…no good excuse for slacking. :)

Anyway…now that we have that out of the way, let’s get down to business. Long story short: we are selling our beloved house to move closer to that job the hubs has. We love this old house – and wanted to complete every project to make it one stinking beautiful house. While it still is pretty, it is not…and will not be “finished” before we move. Case in point, the main fireplace mantel in the living room.

 

I hated the brick on this mantel – actually – I pretty much didn’t like anything about the mantel. The tile has grown on me. I remember disliking it a lot when we bought the house, but now I think it is very pretty. Probably not what I would pick if I were starting from scratch – but definitely something I can work with.

Since we didn’t have the time (nor want to spend the funds) to tear out the current mantel and start from scratch, I scavenged pinterest to see what I could do on the cheap. I found a link to this blog, and decided I would whitewash the brick to semi update it.

I really need to get better about thinking of blogging BEFORE starting a project. We were in a mad rush the week I did this: we gutted a bathroom, I painted several rooms, we fixed some major cracks – including some MAJOR holes in the ceiling from our beloved renter who felt it necessary to bang her broomstick up there if my boys were too rowdy. Lovely. So, it never crossed my mind to take process pictures (ok – I lied – it did – but I had already started, and didn’t want to take the time). Of course now I regret it, but…too late.

I basically mixed water and paint at about a 3-1 ratio. The blog I found said to make it 50-50, but I felt like it was too watery. The 3-1 ratio seemed perfect, and eliminated the need to whip it off, as well as making it only require one coat. So…here is the finished product!

I think it turned out great for what the point was. We just wanted to give it a bit of a face lift to make the house show a little better. Seeing how this smaller whitewash project turned out really has opened up a whole other subset of houses we have been looking at with interior outdated brick. I think I could like a wall of whitewashed brick. What do you think?

Carne Asada Pizza (And Crust) Recipe

You are about to discover a recipe for the BEST PIZZA EVER…no seriously!  It really is the best!  Two of my favorite foods in life are REAL Mexican (not the tex-mex Mexican like you find in many “real” Mexican restaurants here in the states – but real Mexican flavors of the Yucatan – where my husband grew up – VERY hard to find in the US), and (good) pizza.  This recipe is the marriage of the two: Carne Asada Pizza.  Ever since I found out California Pizza Kitchen stopped making this iconic favorite, I wanted to create my own version.  My recipe is combination of a couple different recipes I found online and through Pinterest.   

I worked on making to-die-for pizza crust for a couple years.  I just didn’t understand why I couldn’t get the pizza dough to crisp up on the bottom and be soft and chewy on the top.  After 2-3 years of reading countless blogs and trying numerous recipes and techniques, I realized my problem had very little to do with the actual dough recipe, but had EVERYTHING to do with HOW I baked my pizza pie. Here are my observations – a must read before proceeding to “The Best EVER” recipe for Carne Asada Pizza:

·         Pizza MUST be cooked on a HOT stone (like a well-seasoned Pampered Chef pizza stone).  Stone must be pre-heated in a 500 degree oven for close to an hour prior to baking the pizza.  This allows the crust to cook from the inside out vs. baking it to death in a 350 degree oven.

·         It is easier to make and top your pizza and then transfer it to the hot stone. (Be very careful removing it from the oven – you will probably have to use double the hot pads.  One, in my experience, does not cut it!  Ouch!)  It would be best to have a pizza peel – I don’t have one – and SO wish I did.  It is on my list of things to look out for on sale!  I have gotten pretty good at working fast on the hot stone.  I spread the dough out on the counter, then transfer it to the stone, then top it…but you need to work fast, or the crust will get overcooked.  Another option would be to make it on a piece of parchment paper – and use a thin cutting board to transfer the pizza to the hot stone. However, in my opinion, the parchment paper does not allow the true fire-baked taste to come out into the pizza, but it may be a safer option until you learn to work quickly (or just buy a pizza peel for goodness sake). 

·         Brush the edges of your crust with olive oil or butter – it makes them turn out a nice light golden brown.  Seasonings are optional.

·         The pizza only needs to bake about 5-8 minutes at this temperature.  Watch it closely until you know your own oven and how many minutes is great.

·         Master the pizza crust FIRST – then master the toppings!  Seriously…the crust makes the pizza.  Until you can make a good crust, don’t try to try new-fangled pizza toppings.  Although – now I gave you all my tips, so you should be good!  J    

First make your pizza dough.  Again, I found it isn’t so much the recipe for the dough as it is the method you use to bake it.  Feel free to use your own crust favorite crust recipe, or use mine below (actually – my Grandma’s recipe – just with my own baking method).  This recipe makes ONE pizza crust.  I often double or triple it to make more than one pizza (or sometimes, breadsticks using the same dough).  

Pizza Crust

Ingredients

2 ¼ tspYeast

1 C Warm Water

2-3 T Melted Butter (Olive Oil is a good substitute)

2 T Sugar

1 ½ tsp Salt

3-4 C Flour

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine warm water, yeast, melted butter, sugar, and salt. Let rest 5-10 minutes or until yeast starts to bubble and “work.”  
2. In a large mixing bowl, pour the “worked” mixture (make sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape all the sugar/salt residue into the bowl) and 1-2 cups of the flour.
3. Using a dough hook, mix on low until combined, and add the remaining flour (I ALWAYS use all 4 cups on the dot – no more – no less).
4. Set your mixer on medium low (setting number 2-3 on a KitchenAid) and let it kneed for about 5 minutes.  Dough should move cleanly around the bowl and form into a ball once combined.  If too sticky, add more flour; if too dry, add more water.
5. Once combined, remove dough, lightly oil the bowl, place the dough back in the bowl and cover it to let rise till about doubled (depending on the temperature in your home and how active your yeast is, usually 1-2 hours).

NOTE: To speed it up a bit, sometimes I turn the oven on for 1-3 minutes then turn it off (depending on how fast your oven gets warm – you don’t want a hot oven, just warmer than your house). I put a pan of luke-warm water in the oven to create steam…then put my bowl in.  This almost always gets the dough to rise in about an hour.

6.       Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and move it to a floured surface to rest a few minutes (about five).

7.       Roll or pat the dough into your pizza surface (round or square is fine). 

8.       If you plan to transfer top your pizza prior to placing it onto the hot stone, then sprinkle the peel or surface with corn meal to help it slide off.  If you plan to make your pizza on the hot stone, prepare your toppings, make your pizza on the piping hot stone, and then proceed to step 9.

9.       Top your pizza using a variety of sauce, cheese, meat, veggie, and fruit toppings.  Experiment with seasonings and flavors.

10.   Transfer your pizza from the peel/surface or parchment paper to the piping hot stone.

11.   Bake 5-8 minutes until cheese bubbles.

12.   BE CAREFUL UPON REMOVING THE PIZZA FROM THE OVEN.  It WILL be VERY hot!  Let it rest for a few minutes, then slice, serve, and enjoy!    

Ok – the moment you have been waiting for (maybe):

Carne Asada Pizza

I combined this recipe with one I found here as well as my own pizza dough recipe, and then a Salsa Verde recipe I recieved from my friend Laura Castle (who got it from her friend that lives in Mexico). I altered the original recipe a little to what Nate thought would be more "authentic" Mecican flavors, as well as adapted to what I could find.  Honestly, I would not change a single thing.  It was amazing!

Before you begin, know that these are two ingredients you will want to purchase to get authentic Mexican flavor: 

La Costena Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce -- Walmart, Meijers, and Kroger (probably more) - International isle



Green Pickled Serrano Peppers -- Walmart, Meijers, and Kroger (probably more) - International isle

You could purchase fresh too -- but we both thought the flavor in these cans (sold also where Nate grew up) would make it more "authentic."  

Ingredients

Cilantro Pesto:

• 1/2 C firmly packed cilantro leaves
• 1-3 whole pickled Serrano pepper(s), seeds removed if desired (I did not)
• 1- 1/2 T pine nuts
• 1 clove garlic, minced or chopped
• 1 tsp lime juice
• ¼ - ½ tsp salt
• ¼  C freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1/3 C olive oil

Salsa Verde:

• 2 lbs tomatillos (green tomatoes)
• 3-4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
• Green chilies (as many as desired – I used canned – so about 2 small or 1 large can)
• ½ C firmly packed cilantro leaves
• Salt to taste

Carne Asada Marinade:

• ½ C firmly packed cilantro leaves
• ¼ C plus 2 T lime juice
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 tsp red Chile flakes
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp granulated garlic

Carne Asada Beef:

• 1 lb sirloin, skirt, or loin steak – you choose (I used Sirloin since that is what I had on hand)
• Carne Asada Marinade

For the pizza:

• 1 recipe pizza dough
• Cornmeal, semolina or flour for handling
• Cilantro Pesto
• 1 cup (or more if you like – we like more) Monterey jack cheese
• 20 to 25 half rings sweet white onion
• 1 recipe sliced Carne Asada Beef
• ½ to 1 can Chipotle Chili Peppers in Adobo Sauce, sliced
• 1-3 T chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1.      Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

2.      To make Carne Asada marinade:

a.       Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl.

b.      Place raw beef in a large bowl or bag, and pour marinade over; let chill for at least 1 hour.  (I made three individual steaks that amounted to about 1-1/2 lbs, so I placed two of the steaks in a freezer bag with the marinade on it for another time…and just used one steak for the pizza.)

3.      To make the Salsa:

a.       Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

b.      Place in the refrigerator until after pizza is baked.  

4.      To make the pesto:

a.       Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

b.      Set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

5.      To make the Carne Asada:

a.       Prepare a hot grill.

b.      Grill the beef for 4 to 4 minutes per side (or until you reached your desired “doneness.”

c.       Remove from grill and allow to cool for five minutes.

d.      Slice beef into 1/4 inch thick strips, and set aside.

6.      To make the pizza (refer to pizza instructions above for crust preparation):

a.       Either on a pizza peel, the hot pizza stone (BE CAREFUL) or another surface, sprinkle a little cornmeal.

b.      Spread dough out onto surface.

c.       Use a large spoon to spread the cilantro pesto evenly over the surface of the prepared dough including the rim (you won’t need additional butter/oil for the rim by doing it this way). You may have some cilantro pesto left over – we only used about 1/ 2 the recipe, so I froze the rest for the next pizza.

d.      Cover the sauced area with half the Jack cheese, half the onions, half the Carne Asada beef, and half the chilies.

e.       Repeat step d with the remaining ingredients.

f.       Transfer the pizza to the oven.

g.      Bake until the crust is crisp and golden and the cheese in the center is bubbly, 5-8 minutes.

h.      When cooked through, carefully remove the pizza from the oven. Sprinkle chopped cilantro over the hot, cheesy surface.

i.        Slice and serve with a drizzle of Salsa Verde on each piece.

Enjoy!  This really was AMAZING pizza.  It was a bit spicy, though…so I wouldn’t serve it to the kiddos.  I made the boys a separate “regular” pizza and Nate and I consumed this amazing goodness.  Remember you can control the heat by decreasing the amount of Serrano peppers or Chipotle Chilies. We like spicy, so we used it all – but I will admit my mouth was a little on fire (a good on fire though).  Really, this was the BEST non-traditional pizza I have ever made!  Honestly, it was better than the California Pizza Kitchen version I used to get before the removed it from the menu. Really authentic flavors.   

Beautiful!  Delish!  Yum!

Removing the Weeds

I spent a majority of last night weeding my garden – alone – by choice – to think and pray.  Being a woman of God is hard work.  Extremely hard. I know we all face different battles and have different loads to bear along this journey, but in my own life, the biggest obstacle to remaining faithful to the Lord is Nate.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband – dearly – but I think I have a really good idea of why Paul urged his followers in I Corinthians 7 to remain single if they were called to that life.  I also now see what he meant specifically in verse 28 that if a woman marries, she will struggle the rest of her life.  I have a very sweet husband who is always striving to be better, but yet, he is human, and his actions directly affect myself and the boys (and yes, our unborn baby). As time goes on (and as I continue to strive to worry about my OWN walk with the Lord and not my husband’s), I am realizing that Paul’s words could not have been more clear.    

Of course he couldn’t spell it out for his readers.  In my opinion, you can’t fully understand the brevity of those words until a spiritual woman (or man for that matter) is married and the battle of the spirit and the flesh start.  The woes of his needs and desires vs. her needs and desires is a daily, even hourly attention. I remember naively thinking that making decisions as a team would be easy – we both wanted similar things out of life.  However, as time goes on, I am realizing more and more that Nate and I are completely and utterly polar opposites.  Our expectations in life (both in jobs and marriage) could not be more different.  Now, we have learned how to compromise and make sacrifices for one another over the years (trust me – it wasn’t easy), but really, it is a daily battle field. 

I remember the day when it occurred to me that I had complete power over my marital situation and ultimately my own happiness if I would only my heart to the Lord.  Up until that point, I had been wallowing in my pity because I could not change my husband – this came after years of disappointment and heartache (and me not responding very well to being betrayed).  Even my own parents and in-laws had no words of comfort or wisdom.  I felt utterly alone, and trust me, I had tried everything. I had been reading a few different Christian books on the subject (“Love Must Be Tough,” by Dr. James Dobson; “The Power of a Praying Wife,” by Stormie Omartian; and “The Sacred Marriage,” by Gary Thomas), and for whatever reason, the words in those books rang the truth I had been searching for.  I had to work on me…daily…hourly…down to the minute.  I needed to work on my attitude.  Nate will always let me down, he will dissapoint me again.  We are human -- it is what we do without Christ.

So, rather than getting upset over something that really, I had no way of changing myself, I opted to pour myself into the earth and tilled the land.  How primal, yet, it was exactly what I needed.  As I hoed the garden, pulling and removing the weeds, I thought about how Christ has to do that daily to my soul.  God plants in me this beautiful garden worth of producing amazing fruit, and yet, the weeds are always there.  It is up to me to clear out the weeds and make room for the good plants -- daily.  If I neglect my job for even a day or two, the weeds start spouting gain, and if I let them continue to grow, they will choke out the good plants.  How many times have I allowed that to happen in the past.  SO MANY times I can’t even count!  I start out with good intentions: I pray and meditate on God’s word, but then get comfortable, or worse, get discouraged when things aren’t as sunny.  I have allowed anger, bitterness, and self-righteousness to enter my heart at times, and those weeds have killed any beautiful thing that could have produced fruit.       

I share these things because even after the stormiest of nights in our marriage, though it is on the mends and the issues are behind us, I still am finding out just how hard it is to be a Godly Christian wife. There are still situations (even small ones) that really anger or hurt me, and despite maybe even being justified in my anger, it is my responsibility to act the way that God wants me to respond.  THAT is what Paul meant when he said that “she will struggle the rest of her life.”  I am in a constant battle.  We all are in a constant battle.  Paul saw how one could focus that much more on the Lord as a single man/woman – without the distraction of a spouse’s actions.  However, I would almost argue that the struggle we face actually brings us closer to God (IF you let it).

First, I think it is important to know that you are not alone in your walk.  If you are struggling, please find someone you can share close intimate facts with.  I went through a time in my marriage when I thought sharing was sinful and gossiping…and it ended up driving me mad.  I eventually lost all hope and in turn lost vision of what God asked of me – I then shared WAY too much with too many people almost in desperation that someone would listen and show interest.  Just so you know…it won’t end well!

Second, pray continually.  Give God the desires of your heart.  Pray fervently for your spouse.  You can’t change him/her, but you can start by asking God to work in your own heart and change your heart.  Ultimately, you are only responsible for YOUR relationship with God – despite the fact that your spouse may never walk completely with the Lord.  Make the most of it – and stop wallowing – and start living for God!

Third, share your journey.  Don’t gossip about it, but be open and transparent in your struggles.  I think one of the greatest strengths in a Christian is when they can admit to their weakness.  No one is perfect – NO ONE!  If they appear perfect, they most likely are faking it.  We are called to live in a community where we bear one another’s burdens.  We help one another spur on towards Godliness and towards living a life more like Christ.  How can we do that if we harbor in all these feelings.  Be careful how you share – and make sure it is honoring to God – but please – help “me” grow by telling me about your walk.

I want to end this post with a request for prayer.  These last four months since Nate has been home have been a struggle.  There have been so many joyful days, but ultimately, there are situations that have stirred up past hurt and heartache, and I don’t really know what to do with those feelings.  I need prayer – Nate needs prayer – our family needs prayer.  There are big decisions to be made, leadership to own, and submitting to follow.  It is hard work – extremely hard – and one I am asking you to commit to prayer.  There are things that I don’t think most of you would even understand unless you walked a mile in my shoes, but really, it is a daily uphill battle for me.  Please pray for our family as we remove the weeds in our hearts and make room for the fruit to produce.

My Husband, the Graduate

I still can hardly believe that this diploma is REAL and belongs to my husband!  We have waited SO LONG for this day to be here -- and I am pleased to announce, that my husband HAS his BA degree in hand!  

Many of you know that he was scheduled to graduate the same year as me (May 2006) from Cedarville University, but dropped out after our breakup during the fall of our Senior year. I think you could say he "lost his educational way," didn’t have a desire to finish, and decided to join the Ohio Army National Guard.

After completing his basic and AIT training (and after a LOT of wooing me since we had such a horrible breakup) we married on May 26, 2007 -- about 18 months after our initial breakup. I was working at a small software company in Columbus, and Nate was, well, an un-employed guardsman. So, he moved in with me into my 300 sq foot apartment. Yes, you read that correctly: 300 sq feet for 2 people. It was TINY! We basically lived in a bedroom that had a (mini) stove and refrigerator. That is all a newly wed couple needs, right? :) My lease was up in August, so it really only "had" to be for about two months.

Nate wanted to finish his degree -- so the logical thing was to move back towards Cedarville and I would commute to Columbus until I could find a local position. However, my company awesomely allowed me to work-from-home four days a week -- I only had to drive to work on Mondays. When I landed a great paying (25% pay increase) job at Kodak, we opted for Nate to not work at all, and JUST go to school to finish. Oh, and we randomly bought our house -- which happened while looking at it to rent -- and realizing that owning it would be almost the same cost since we could rent 1/2 of it out.

However, there were a lot of personal issues that wouldn’t surface until MUCH later in our relationship, and unfortunately, Nate didn’t finish as planned. We agreed he would try again the following fall when the classes he needed were available, and in the meantime, he took a temporary job at Lowes and also working for a local contractor. It was the contracting job where he learned (while working on a multi-million dollar home) that he really enjoyed working with his hands.

Then came our accidental blessing, Grayson. I had JUST accepted a full time position with Kodak (I had contracted for a few months prior), and so our insurance hadn’t kicked in yet. We prayed -- fervently -- for what we should do. I had always wanted to stay home with our kids, but I also had thought we would wait 5-6 years after we wed before starting our family...we hadn’t even celebrated our one year reunion. With students loans upwards of $35,000, and a new 30 year mortgage on a $149,000 house (and with Nate not yet being able to finish his BA at CU) I knew staying at home was not going to be an option -- at least not for a while.

But God was good -- and he supplied Nate with an ADOS job with the Army National Guard -- it gave us all the perks of active duty (insurance, pay, vacation, etc) without actually requiring a move. It was only supposed to be temporary...but temporary turned into about four years of working for the state of Ohio. During those four years, there were countless attempts to finish his degree, but each time a roadblock was in front of us: Hurricane Katrina -- a mini deployment down south so he had to pull out of class; a clerical error via his advisor -- so more classes that needed to be completed; a Nathan D. Smith mixup -- in which a 3rd party school shamelessly gave him a failing grade from another student -- we still haven’t sorted that out -- finally gave up and moved on; military re-payment issues; the list goes on. It was awful...stressful...stretching. He was FINALLY enrolled in his last three classes, when he received word of a 12-18 month deployment to Afghanistan.

One. More. Hiccup.

I am ashamed to say that at this point, I semi gave up hope that it wouldn’t happen. There is a statute of limitations (of sort) on finishing a degree...and Nate was approaching his 10 year mark. If he didn’t "make a plan" with CU, there would be further consequences.

However, something flipped a switch -- and I won’t go into it -- but he was MO-TI-VATED! He promised he was still going to finish while overseas. Oh, my. I honestly thought it was a pipe dream, but boy, did he prove me wrong! Not only did he finish, but he gave himself pneumonia wearing himself out -- poor guy -- and finished with an A in two of the three classes. There was a lot of drama surrounding this -- which I won’t bore you with the details, but lets just say God had grace and mercy on him and he finished those last three classes!

That was in December, 2012 -- and he spent the next couple months both in Afghanistan, and also after returning home, trying to get everything transferred from Liberty University (where he took the final three courses) to Cedarville. Finally...finally...after a last minute zero credit class that he had to finish in February and also after getting his resume approved by career services, he is DONE! Wow! So proud. I think the fact that he proved me wrong and finished while in a war zone says something amazing about this guy. I still can’t believe it. Even while we were driving to Cedarville to pick up his diploma (another story about why they couldn’t mail it -- oh, the drama) I was pinching myself thinking it was a dream. But the dream is here -- the dream is reality. I am so incredibly proud and happy that he is FINALLY done!

I know our story isn’t yet finished -- the Lord obviously had a reason why he wanted Nate to cram four years of college into 10-1/2, so we are open to the challenge. We are excited about the next chapter in our lives -- which we hope will include a solid non-military job for Nate. Please pray with us as we embark on this journey.

Oh, and know a party is in the works -- and you ALL are invited!  

I John 5:`4

"This is with confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."

Two Little Pink Lines Change Your Life -- FOREVER

When I was a girl, I never knew just how two little pink lines could completely alter my world.  Never gave it much thought as to how I would react to the news that I was pregnant.  It is no news to many of my friends that our first little blessing, Grayson, was a complete surprise…we found out we were expecting this blessing when we had been married only about 9 months.  We both – but mostly me – were in utter shock.  I took test after test because SURELY they ALL couldn’t be positive.  I had been on birth control, for goodness sake.  It wasn’t until a close friend of mine bought me one of those Clear Blue tests that read “pregnant” or “not pregnant” that I realized the 5-6 tests didn’t lie, and we were indeed expecting. 

Two little pink lines changed our lives – FOREVER. 

Then came time to think about child number two.  Since Grayson came to us while on birth control, we half expected an easy time getting pregnant with our second.  However, that was not the case.  Month after month we ached to see those two pink lines.  The same two pink lines that I had once dreaded and thought were a joke.  Yet month after month we saw one.  One pink line.

Then it finally happened.  Two pink lines.  We were overjoyed, yet when I went in for my first OB appointment at 12 weeks, they could not detect a heartbeat; we lost that little one. 

Two little pink lines changed our lives – FOREVER.  

I will say this gave me just a TINY taste of what infertility must feel like.  I have a special place in my heart for women who, like me, have spent months – or even years – hoping for those two pink lines.  I know I can never know fully what it must feel like, as I had a child at this point – and thought the 11 months of infertility seemed like an eternity in my mind, it really wasn’t abnormal.  And although, at least as of this post, we have only experienced one miscarriage, I understand the pain and sadness you feel when you lose a child still growing.  I praise and thank God for taking care of our little baby for us until we can one day be reunited.

After we took some time to heal, we decided to once again think about adding to our family, and shortly after, we saw those two little pink lines.  Nervous, yet so thankful, we fervently prayed through pregnancy and the Lord granted us another beautiful little boy, Rockwell. 

Two little pink lines changed our lives – FOREVER.

After a lot of thought process – due to some concerns we had (and also because Nate was going to be gone much of Rockwell’s first year of life) we have opted to let God direct our fertility from here on out.  Really – he was directing it all along.  We were trying NOT to have a child, and he gave us one; we tried to have one, and it took months.  I think the main decision here is that we are taking our “control” out of the situation and letting God build our family rather than trying to do it on our own strength.  I will be honest – this is making me a little nervous, but really, with God in control, why should I be?

Nate returned from Afghanistan on February 8, 2013.  I know I will write more about this time of my life later, but I will say this one thing: absence really does make the heart grow fonder when you are both focusing on the Lord.  It is so nice to have him home.  

Now for the real point of this post.  You probably already guessed it.  That is right.  Two little pink lines are, once again, going to change our lives forever.  We are happy to announce we are pregnant with our third blessing!  I am 11 weeks and 5 days – due November 16, 2013.  Yep – God sure has a sense of humor in him (if you look back to the date Nate returned, you will understand why).

We are ecstatic about this new blessing, yet, would ask for prayer as this came at a time when we are still in transition.  Please pray with us for the many changes our family will undergo in the next few months.  Specifically, please pray that the Lord will provide a good job for Nate.  We fully trust he will provide the same way he has always provided in the past, but please pray we will continue this attitude as sometimes it is easier said than practiced. Thank you for rejoicing with us in this unexpected (yet expected) blessing!

Two little pink lines will once again change our lives – FOREVER.

I'm a Garage Sale Freak

Now that I have decided on a title for this blog (actually – it went through a few “changes of clothes” during my brainstorming process – which has lasted several weeks), I can actually write a second post and PUBLISH it!  I am such a social butterfly, that I have been semi-dying to publish this (and write several more entries), but I just didn’t feel right in doing so without a clear direction. 

Finally…here it is.  The title to my blog (as if you didn’t see it blaring at the top) is The Upcycle Queen.  As I stated in my earlier post, I am many things, but there is one idea that really is at my core…I am Dutch.  If you aren’t Dutch, well, as my great grandma would say, you aren’t much.  No for real, if you aren’t Dutch, then you are not privy to the intense desire to scrimp, save, and squeeze as much out of every penny as possible.  I grew up thriving on hand-me-downs, shopping at consignment shops, garage sales, and thrift stores, and in general, finding ways to repurpose nearly everything.  We do not throw things out – we may find an alternative use for them, give them away to someone else that can find benefit from it, or sell it, but you NEVER throw things out.  Literally…in our minds…is is the same as taking a dollar bill and throwing it away in the trash – which is BEYOND my imagination.

Some people call this being cheap – but I choose to call it being thrifty.  My rush of excitement comes when I find a brand new same-season satin dress with a coordinating suite jacket for $4 in someone’s garage.  SCORE!  Likewise, finding my husband a tailored pin stripe suite at our local thrift shop for $4 (I must find good deals in that range) was a slam dunk.  My endorphins shoot out of the roof, and it gives me a high, and in our family, if momma is happy, well, everyone is happy. 

Still, I need to budget.  My detested word – which is almost an oxymoron since the nature of being savvy with your finances starts with a well planned budget.  That doesn’t mean I have to like that part. 

So, I think it is safe to say that I am a garage sale freak!  No, really.  I am literally counting down the days till that first Saturday sale when I can find deals for a quarter that I can repurpose for my family.  Some people swear by thrift shopping, others swear by mom2mom sales (for their kids).  Not me (although I have been known to take advantage of both).  I am a die-hard garage sale girl.  The months of May-August are filled with Saturday morning trips to various yards littered with another family’s trash – which will later be turned into my treasure.  I am a little obsessed.  It is probably a good thing I live in a state where there is a “season” for garage salers, or I may literally never see my family on the weekends.

All this to say that I thought “The Upcyle Queen” was an appropriate title for my little blog.  I know I will post many things on here about motherhood, marriage, my Christian faith, friends, etc., but at least I have a title…and a (semi) direction.  Garage sale season is upon us…only a few more weeks till I can start my yearly upcycle adventures…and I.Can’t.Wait!

Speaking of the season, the Smith family (along with our neighbors) are holding a sale of our own on April 20^th.  There is a lot of good stuff!  Brand name clothes (you know I am a brand snob), household goods, a few baby items,  tools, and some furniture.  We may not throw things out, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to purge.  Spring cleaning has hit our house, and we have a lot to sell – for cheep! Hope to see you on the 20^th!