Goodbye winter...

It's been a long, hard winter, and I am ready for it to be over! I love to look outside and see the sun shining, even if the temperature is still a bit cold. I can't wait for Bennett to be able to play outside, for us to be able to take trips to the park, the zoo, and the pool. I've never loved cold weather or snow, but I especially hate it now that I have a little one- being stuck inside for several months takes on a whole new meaning. I am feeling a lot better in the past week or so- hardly any sickness or throwing up. The second trimester has begun, and I think I've finally turned that corner. I'm so grateful!

I have so many things I want to post about, but I'll just pick a couple for today. First of all, I'm really looking forward to enjoying food again. I have been craving so many things, but especially cherry tomatoes. I cannot wait for all the fresh produce to start rolling in and to start making trips to the farmers market as well as growing a few things in my little garden. I have really gotten behind on trying new recipes, and I have a few ideas on how to catch up on that (for a later post). For now I thought I'd share one of my favorite recipes and something that I made a LOT of this winter- it often tasted good to me even when I was feeling sick. It's my grandmother's spaghetti sauce- really hearty and has a great flavor. It also freezes well, so you can make a huge batch at one time and save some for later. It's a great end-of-winter meal and so easy to make!

Nan's Spaghetti Sauce

Brown 4 lbs. hamburger (I always use sirloin) with one medium chopped onion (or more, if you prefer). Drain.

Add:

46 oz. tomato juice

15 oz. tomato sauce (sometimes I use a little more)

28 oz. tomato puree

1 bottle of chili sauce (I like the Heinz brand)

Then add seasonings:

2 bay leaves

1.5 - 2 tsp. oregano

1.5 - 2 tsp.Italian seasoning

2 pinches of red & green pepper spice (can be kind of hard to find, but worth looking for!)

1.5 - 2 tsp. chili powder

Stir it all together and simmer for 3 hours until thick. I usually simmer it uncovered so it will get thicker. 

I also wanted to report that I finished the first book on my Kindle--Deception Point by Dan Brown. It was a little (OK, a LOT) far-fetched, but I liked it for the most part. I was just in the mood for a fast-paced book like that, and it was a fun read. Like many people had told me, it's not as good as Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code, but it's entertaining nonetheless. You'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about meteorites, that's for sure.

I'm a little behind on my reading for the year (if my goal is to read one book a month), but I'm into a new book now that I'm loving, so hopefully I'll catch up soon. Looking forward to spring and catching up on just about everything! Happy Tuesday!

A major list item...

When I made my 30 in my 30s list, one of the first things I wrote down was, "Have or adopt another child- or two." I am so excited that this will be happening this year. I found out on New Year's Eve that I'm pregnant, and the new little one should be here sometime around Labor Day. Even though I'm almost three months pregnant now, I think the reality is still sinking in. Like with Bennett, we had trouble getting pregnant on our own and went through fertility treatments. This time around, we used a milder drug with fewer side effects (thankfully!) and it worked on the very first try. I actually felt guilty about it being "too easy." My experience was that getting pregnant should be difficult, it should be physically and emotionally draining, it should be an all-around gut-wrenching experience. It may be hard to understand, but I didn't feel as if I had "earned it" this time. It almost didn't seem real that we could get pregnant so soon and with so little effort. We have been so blessed.

It has also been a different experience in that I have been so very sick. With Bennett, I felt queasy and tired, but that was the worst of it. This time, I have been sick every day, all day, and have been throwing up quite a bit. I'm not going to lie, it has been miserable so far. This might be my payback for being one of those women who just raves about how much she LOVES being pregnant. :) I am still hoping to be able to enjoy this pregnancy, though. I am hoping that when the first trimester is over, I will start feeling better again and get back into living instead of surviving day to day.

I'm really thrilled about having another child, and I know that Bennett is going to be a great big sister! This is totally a "bonus" for me. I never thought I would have her, and having her was a blessing beyond all my dreams. She totally fulfilled my longing to be a mom and erased the feeling that something was missing in my life. I could have been content with just having her. I wanted to have another baby, but I didn't feel the desperation I did the first time around. God taught me through that experience that He gives you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it. I wondered if we would have another child, or if we would be led to adopt, and how and when it would all pan out- but I never doubted that it would work out perfectly, just as it has. And I think I will make the first revision to my list by crossing out or two at the end of this one. I feel a perfect sense of wholeness in having one more child and can honestly say I don't ever want to get pregnant again. (Ask me again when I'm not puking, I guess). Of course, I always want to be open to another child in our home if that's what the Lord wants for us.

I'm looking forward to a quiet 2011 spent mostly at home (though there definitely has to be a short pre-baby trip for Ben & me in there somewhere!) working, blogging, and enjoying my growing family!

Totally imperfect 5-minute wall projects

I have been an absentee blogger. I have several posts lined up, and I have not forgotten about my 30 in my 30s list, but I've just been on a sort of "life hiatus" for the past month or so. There's been a lot of sickness and working overtime and terrible weather at our house so far this year, and I've given myself permission to live in survival mode for just a little while. Get work done, take care of Bennett, rest. That's what we're doing right now, and we're fine with that. I have been reading up a storm on my Kindle, though, and have a book review ready to post soon.

For now, I thought I'd post a few pictures of some of the decorations I've put up in my "new" kitchen. As you know, I am not very crafty or good at decorating. Oh, I'd like to be, but it just doesn't come completely naturally to me. I know what I like when I see it, but I have a difficult time creating it. My projects are all very simple, and if they can't be finished quickly and with minimal precision, I get frustrated and lose interest.

My first five-minute project was redoing the key hook that hangs near our back door. When we first got married, I had visions of a French-themed kitchen with lots of cobalt blue, etc....totally not my style anymore, and I have tons of "Frenchy" stuff to work with. Here is the original hook (that's a glass of cranberry ginger ale on the counter- this year's holiday obsession):

I used scrapbook paper to cut out squares for each of the three openings and a scrapbook kit sticker to put a quote in the middle:

I don't have the greatest camera, but the quote says "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." -Jane Austen. Can you still see a tiny sliver of mirror at the top of the middle square? Yes. Am I too lazy to redo it? Absolutely. As it hangs on the wall, the sliver is not visible and I feel fine about this:

The second project was born out of necessity. After years of promising Ben I would not make our house too "country," he was appalled that I wanted to hang this on the wall (again, sorry for my terrible picture-taking skills):

Keep in mind, he was fine with this piece hanging above the hutch...

...but apparently, a single rooster hanging on the wall with no accompanying words or matching rooster friend was just way too country-ish. I got both these pieces at Flower Factory (aka cheap stuff heaven) and was- yes- too lazy to return the single rooster, so once again I broke out my scrapbook paper and stickers. The result:

A little tribute to our adorable daughter. The picture is of her standing in my parents' field while it was in hay this fall, looking down at an apple she picked from one of their trees. I took the picture on my dad's phone. 

The sticker underneath says "perfect," because she is perfect and also because it's ironic since this project looks anything but perfect. The top left corner is sticking up and I haven't gotten around to fixing it yet:

One of these days...

I added a new shelf to another wall and feel like the new kitchen look is pretty much complete. The milk bottle is from the Farm Fresh store on Fosterburg Road in Alton, the road my grandma lived on since before I was born until she died. We always called it "the milk store." Best chocolate milk ever.

Now all that's left to do is finish painting and papering behind the fridge, clean up the trim, etc...like I said, one of these days!

Kindled affection

I thought I would update my blog before now. 2011 has hit me like a ton of bricks- not necessarily bad, but hard. I feel like we're still recovering from all our holiday traveling and the death of my grandfather. So happy for him to be done with his earthly suffering and enjoying eternal life in Heaven, but it's still difficult to go through the process of losing someone. Since we got home from our 12 straight days of travel, Bennett & I have both been sick so we've just been spending a lot of days in our comfy pants doing the bare minimum to get by. Right now, we're just taking it easy.

I did get one, rather long, book read over Christmas vacation. I picked it up at the Dayton airport, where I must say there is not a great selection of paperbacks. I did recognize it, however, as being on my reading list and I'm always in the mood for some historical fiction.

I enjoyed The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (author of The Other Boleyn Girl). It was kind of long, but it was a fast-paced read. Started out a little cheesy for my taste (love at first sight) but it moved past that and got better. The main character is Elizabeth Woodville, one of England's lesser-known queens, the wife of Edward IV. She was the first commoner to marry an English sovereign and was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, the main action in this novel. I love being transported into the past and getting a glimpse of what life was like for people who were a lot like us but living in another time and circumstance. The end of the book sets you up to read The Red Queen, which I definitely will, but I just need a short break from 15th century England first. Oh, and I got 50% of my money back by returning it at the airport on our way home. :) What a bargain. 

In other big news, I finally got a Kindle! It was a Christmas gift from my lovely in-laws, and I am really enjoying it so far. I even got this fun case:

The first thing I downloaded was the book we're reading for our women's bible study at church, then The Message version of the Bible. I can't believe how much faster my Bible reading is going now that I've switched over to the Kindle. It's really going to help me with that item on my 30 in my 30s list. And the first novel I'm reading on it is Deception Point. I never got to that one and I was in the mood for some Dan Brown. Enjoying it so far!

Hope everyone's 2011 is starting out great! I am looking forward to a fun but hopefully low-key year- my only resolution is to stay home a bit more!

Cookies!

I wish I had more time for holiday baking, but at this time of year, with Bennett's birthday, shopping, working, preparing for travel, etc., there just isn't a lot of opportunity for it. Which is probably a blessing in disguise, since I tend to sample way too much of everything I make and these last 5 pounds of "baby weight" just aren't going away. I did do a little baking over the weekend, though- our pastor and his wife had a Christmas open house so I made a tray of cookies to take to that and thought I would share the recipes. The first is a tried-and-true classic that my mom has been making ever since I can remember:

Double Treat Cookies

½ cup soft butter

½ cup crunchy peanut butter

½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

½ cup sugar

1 egg

½ tbsp. vanilla

1 ¼ cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tbsp. salt

1 (6 oz.) package chocolate chips

Cream butter and peanut butter together. Add sugars. Add egg and vanilla. 

Combine dry ingredients and add to creamy mixture. 

Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonful and push down with a fork. 

Leave out chocolate chips if you want a delicious peanut butter cookie. 

Bake 8-10 minutes at 350. Makes about 3 ½ dozen. 

The second was a new recipe that I tried. Ben & I both love anything mint chocolate so I couldn't resist trying this one. I will post it but you can also see it here. I was a little skeptical since I have not used many cookie mixes in the past, but they turned out good and were so easy!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 pouch (1 lb., 1.5 oz.) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix

1/2 cup soft butter

1/4 to 1/2 tsp. mint extract (I used 1/4- I've ruined things before by adding too much mint)

4-6 drops green food color (I used too much and they wound up looking like St. Patrick's Day cookies instead of Christmas cookies!)

1 egg

1 cup creme de menthe baking chips (I chopped up Andes candies)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, mint extract, food color, and egg until soft dough forms. Stir in creme de menthe baking chips and chocolate chunks.

Using small cookie scoop or teaspoon, drop dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Serve warm or cool completely. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

We are leaving for my parents on Thursday and then off to Iowa on Saturday, not back until January 1, so I'm sure this will be my last post of 2010. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. Sending you lots of love from the Borich family!