March

{new running shoes. After struggling with knee pain since my half marathon at the end of November, I finally got new shoes – and they’re trail runners because our neighborhood has a gravel-y trail that was making my knee pain continue so I finally justified paying extra money and getting trail shoes like I’ve always wanted. I love them!}

{we pulled together an arrangement of How Firm a Foundation and Jesus, Lover of My Soul for pennywhistle and bodhran for prelude at church}

{mail that made my week: morning glory seeds from gramma, a note from Hannah, invitation from Aunt Donna, and my NEW REEDS!}

{after sharpening the wrong knife for the wrong hand I realized my mistake and in five minutes had a sharp reed knife}

{photos are all up!}

{Irish Festival for St. Patty’s – really just a county fair with Irish flair… but we still enjoyed the day}

{baptisms at church}

{living room just missing an end table now}

{one Saturday we did some historical sight-seeing in the area. And we visited a goat farm, but that’s a story for another day}

March reading// Ezra and I finished “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” which I had been reading aloud to him in the car.

favorite recipes// Irish stew (we added a pound of stew meat, shredded, some cooking wine, and used tomato paste instead of diced tomatoes) // Grasshopper Bars (Ezra snuck one of these from the freezer) // Chicken Quinoa Broccoli Casserole (we both love casseroles, and this is a GREAT recipe to use as a base) // chocolate smoothie (yep. Ezra gets chocolate smoothies for breakfast from his health-nut wife. we used real milk and no ice) // Date Pudding Cups (Ezra’s gotten these for breakfast, too… but mostly we’ve had them for dessert, and even made them for others).

things learned// healthy desserts are still dessert, though ones you can eat for breakfast. If the ingredients are good, it’s not a matter of eating too much sugar but just eating too much – so instead of eating a lot of it as dessert sometimes we just eat them for breakfast. But that said, we’ve almost entirely cut out processed sugar in our home after a weekend of a lot of it from a birthday and guests. // making sauerkraut // turn your wifi off to keep the computer from being a distraction // I can now tie my own oboe reed blanks // I feel like there’s more for this but am blanking on it right now. There is a post on suffering coming later. Oh, and I did a lot of research on Radiation. That’s comin’, too.

best of online// The Charleston Rag // (listened to these two for a music theory class. There’s just something about dishes and dancing) Sing, Sing, Sing // love my Middle East //

thinking about// what I would tell my daughters about their years at home: ask us for guidelines if we’re not giving them so everyone is clear on what’s expected, especially as far as scheduling is concerned (ie, are they supposed to be home for dinner every night?). Also, study being homemaking. Invest in your passions as well as preparing for basic life. If music, or painting, or teaching, etc., is important to you… go after it. // communion every week is something we do at church here and at first I was afraid I wouldn’t like it because I was used to doing it in a gathering of 800 people where there were so many visitors that we had to go over everything every time and it was tedious, especially for those like me who had grown up with it. But it’s not like that at all. It’s so wonderful, not burdensome at all, and always a good reminder to think on Christ and His love and mercy and my sin, without any distraction (even music). // being a TCK adjusting to doing “normal” American things like pumping gas and self-checkouts. I’m pretty much used to it now but it was very frustrating at first.

what brings joy// one of Ezra’s friends asked us all this when he and Isaac and Michelle were visiting and I loved it, and decided to incorporate it into my monthly blog posts. So what brought me joy in the merry month of March? morning glory sprouts, veggie blossoms, taking care of my little garden, sunshine walks, foggy runs.