sugar cookies

Last February I made frosted sugar cookies during the Super Bowl, and I remember thinking it was so fun to make these typical Christmas cookies at a different time of the year other than Christmas. This week I decided to make them again, since I have super cute fall cookie cutters and every magazine I see seems so inspired and festive for the change of seasons.

My favorite recipe as of late is my sister-in-law, Sara's. This is saying a lot, because my great grandma Anders has held her own as the favored sugar cookie my whole life long. The truth is, they're two very different cookies. Great Grandma's are the kind of sugar cookie where the dough must be cold when you roll it out, it falls apart easily and when you eat them, they literally melt down on your tongue they're so filled with buttery goodness. I love them, but they are a project to take on. You've got to be committed and patient with the super fragile dough.

Sara's are a different ball game altogether. They keep their shape perfectly. The dough is so easy to work with, and the thicker the cookie (in my opinion) the better. They only need to bake in the oven for five minutes, and the recipe doesn't make a ton of dough so making them is not an all day process. In fact, I made and baked these cookies in a bit over an hours time and had the dishes loaded in the dishwasher before an hour and a half had passed. Then I stuck the cookies in the fridge so that I could decorate them today.

These are milk dunkers for sure. Coffee is even better, if you like the stuff. They can soak up a lot of goodness before you take a bite.

Here is Sara's recipe:
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder

Cream butter and sugar, on low beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in flour and baking powder a little at a time. Do not refrigerate. Dough will not roll if cold. Cook 6-7 minutes at 400.

*I was able to fit all of my cookies onto four trays. They do not spread, so you can put them fairly close together. I also only baked mine for 5 minutes and they came out great. I really appreciated that the recipe only makes about 4 dozen. It made for quick cookies...

Cream Cheese Frosting:
I deviated from her royal frosting recipe, making my own favorite cream cheese frosting. I added enough milk to make it a bit runny and glossy. And then I used those Wilton's food gels to really punch up the color. Again, I apologize if you are anti food coloring. I just really like the brilliant colors!

cream cheese
powdered sugar
vanilla
milk

I have no recipe or real method to this madness, other than I think the milk helps it look shiny and I usually whip it with my kitchen aid for a few minutes, adding milk and sugar until it looks about right...

My favorite cookie cutter in this mix is the squirrel I got at Betsy's wedding reception. Grey frosting seemed a bit yucky to me, so they are a sweet purple in the midst of all these brilliant colors.

candy wreath

I bought these corn candies after seeing the Women's Day magazine with a cute corn candy wreath on the cover. Seemed doable, seemed adorable, seemed like an easy project to attempt. Only problem is that the rest of the bag has been mysteriously eaten. And this cute dish is almost gone too. I don't know who keeps eating them around here, but Rory is not a huge fan which makes me a bit suspicious of myself.

me and the dmv

A few tips from my week at the DMV:

1. Plan your day as if going to the DMV is the main event. Go get a new magazine and grab a hot apple cider before you arrive. Because the DMV will end up being the main event of your day, whether you are in a hurry or not. So sit back, settle in, and just wait for your lucky number to be called. It's going to be a while.

2. Plan on going to the DMV two times. For real. I don't believe I have ever been there when I haven't gotten to the front and they say something like, "and do you have two certified pieces of mail addressed to you at this location?" What? No. I have my license here, my car insurance, title to my vehicle, checkbook...

This week I truly planned on the second trip, so my rejection at the first one didn't bend me out of shape. I had even told Rory that morning that I was doing my preliminary DMV visit today. Now deep down I was hoping it would be my only visit, but when I had to return home without plates and a MN license, I was relatively less annoyed.

3. And a final bonus thought: it's not really fair to have to take a drivers license picture when you're 9 months pregnant. A bit round in the cheeks, I'd say. But, they did let me make up my own weight based on not being pregnant, so now I'll have a little piece of plastic with a magical, hopeful, dreamy number written in. Maybe, one day...

enter to win!

Rory is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his company Swift Weather this month. It's a pretty big deal and we're excited about hitting such a landmark.

To celebrate, he has put together a month of weekly giveaways on the Weather Defender Blog. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment answering the question that pertains to the giveaway. The giveaway for this first week is awesome...and I really want it myself. But Rory told me that I can't enter because it would look bad if his wife took the loot. Point taken, but this thing is cool... and it retails at $99:

That said, I would LOVE for YOU to enter to win. It would please me to no end to see someone I know take some of these great prizes for themselves.

Just click over to The Weather Defender Blog and answer this question: Have you ever had a close encounter with Severe Weather? A winner will be picked on Sunday, so bop over now, and drop Weather Defender a line. :)

can you imagine?!!

Mom Groves just sent me an email filled with pictures of Holland in May. She said the pictures reminded her of the rainbow cake. Just look at this picture! Hello Life List...I must go here some day. I can't imagine seeing these tulips first hand.

Actually, I know that Washington grows a lot of Tulips too..and that might be more realistic than Holland and could easily be done as a trip to see my brother and his family. Hmmm...I think Rory is going to hear about this idea at lunch time.

36 weeks

Monday marked our "one month countdown" (give or take...can't make a paper chain for a due date I'll have you know.). Went to the doctor and was told, "the baby has dropped!" I have no idea when this happened, but I do know that in the last week or so I have started walking with a bit of a waddle, and I'm thinking this might be why (?!!)

We went to our birthing class that night and toured the hospital. A whole new reality came into focus and Rory and I had a really good talk about beginning to feel how this is going to change our lives forever, while still not sure what that means. But we're excited about this change and starting to actually feel a bit more mentally prepared.

We finished our baby registry at Target and Babies R Us as well that day. Let's be honest: I have no idea what I'm scanning and for what reasons. There are parents out there with spreadsheets and consumer reports...and that's great. But Rory and I operate a bit differently. Prices were either reasonable or offensive and decisions were made accordingly. Mostly we just wandered each aisle saying things like, "I like these colors together." "Okay, good, scan it."

Last night we went to my cousin Mark and Kathy's for dinner. They are our neighbors now! Just 15 blocks away and it is a dream come true. Mark made the most amazing supper for us (the lasagna had SEVEN cheeses in it and he broiled the pears for the salad!) Then I whipped out my LeSporte Sac with crayola markers from sixth grade and made Kathy draw on my belly.

Deliverance.

On Sunday we were all set to put up the crib. We've had it in the box for a while now, and Sunday was the agreed day to assemble the thing, since this project has been burning on my heart for weeks now.

But then I started to second guess the crib we got. It's adorable with a curved back, but suddenly I wasn't so sure I wanted a curved back. Maybe I wanted a flat back. You know, how would pictures look hung over a curved back. Wouldn't the lines be nicer if it were a flat back? I hemmed and hawed over such life-changing decisions aloud to Rory and he said he really didn't care. He was fine either way. I continued to lay out my case to him some more and then Rory grabbed the electric hedge trimmer and went in the backyard and took out three bushes. When I went out to check on him an hour later, he was breaking a sweat, digging the roots up with a shovel and had filled five yard bags with bush parts from all over the backyard.

I had a conversation with a Groves family friend, Joanne, at church on Sunday all about how crazy it is to live with raging hormones. I don't usually deal with such mood swings and extreme indecisiveness in my not-pregnant state, and so I am very aware of how crazy-short my fuse is, and how crazy-unpredictable my actions are in this last month of pregnancy.

Joanne told me there is a reason they call it labor and delivery.

Ah, yes, deliverance. That surely must be Rory's daily prayer: ...and deliver me from this crazy lady. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory...

In the end, we still have the crib I like the best nicely boxed in the nursery. I missed my window to get the thing built on Sunday. But on the other hand, we also have a nicely manicured back yard. Give the boy one more month with me, and we may not have a single bush left back there.

happy weekend!

I'm spending the weekend with my high school bff, Heidi. I called her about a month ago with a dream in my heart and knew she'd be the one to jump on board. You see, Heidi is also pregnant, due with her third, and I just kept imagining us spending the day at Water Park of America, not going down the slides, but instead floating our enlarged selves down the lazy river and riding the tides in the wave pool.

So that will be us today, stuffing our pregger bodies into inner tubes, ready to float round and round and round on the lazy river.

I'd like to thank the academy

My friend Jamie awarded me with this sweet honor a while back and I am now just responding to the duties that go along with such a title. The first thing I did after receiving this trophy was look up the definition of Versatile, and found that my blog has "great diversity and variety" and that I am "able to move freely in different directions."

I thought this word Versatile is probably the kindest and most accurate way to sum up my blogging. Other words that come to mind might be: scattered, random or whatever-floats-my-fancy. But Versatile sounds very nice. I had a good friend tell me this summer, "I like your blog because each day I have no idea what you are going to write about." It's true. I've got no real theme or thread...I just write what I'm excited about at the moment. Because I'm versatile like that.

Now there are things I am supposed to answer before I pass this award along, but I think I might make them into another post. One of the questions is: if you had one chance to go back and change one thing in your life what would it be? That seems like a real doozer, a good question for another day.

But I will pass the award along to four favorite blogs of mine. The funny thing is that these blogs are all way more focused with a real theme and actual topical writing. But I'm giving them the award just the same...mostly because I really think that you might enjoy these blogs too and I want to make sure you check them out...

1. The B League. This is my cousin Mark's blog, and I love it. He posts two or three times a month and I get so excited when my google reader shows a new post. This blog is all about sports, and yet I love it. This is crazy, because I don't love sports. But somehow Mark writes in a way that is helping me understand why people might enjoy a good game, why people can become fanatical over certain teams and in the process he honestly is increasing my interest through his writing. Crazy stuff, I tell you.

2. Tangled Up in Grace. My friend Meta pens this blog. She is serving in her first call as a pastor at a church just a few blocks from our house. We got together this morning and I just can't say enough good things about her. She's the real deal, and her blog posts are always thoughtful with good stuff to chew on.

3. Journe On. A decade ago, I worked with Sara at camp for the summer and then her brother married my sister and we got to wear matching dresses at their wedding. Sara is fantastic. She's honest, approachable and authentic. Her writing reflects all of these traits and each post leaves me wanting to call her up to talk more about whatever it is she just wrote about.

4. Jack's Directing Blog. Oh this one is pure joy for me. Jack is my nephew and he's really talented with video editing and production. He is absolutely identical in looks to Justin Bieber and made a super funny remake of a Justin video. Jack is in 8th grade, and I am so excited to see him use these gifts in high school and college and beyond. Just remember, you heard of him here first. (his blog isn't showing the videos anymore, so click here to get a feel for the original Justin Bieber video, and then click here and watch Jack's version. So awesome.)

Happy Reading, and Congrats to you four Versatile Bloggers :)

grey or blue?

I have five weeks until my due date and something crazy happened in my head once this countdown began on Monday. Five weeks feels like it might go very quickly. Five weeks makes me feel like we should have a crib set up. Five weeks makes me feel like we should have the nursery windows replaced and the room painted. It feels like if this baby were to arrive sooner than five weeks, this prepared, organized mama would not be ready.

It is amazing how this sort of panic shows itself in a pregnant woman. Every bit of this anxiety seems to come out directly at my husband. And he may or may not find these worries and demands to be naggy, a bit irrational and lacking in patience. But he is kind and loving and, thankfully, has a pretty good sense of humor about my crazy ways.

For example, on Monday, Rory found me in a heap on the couch crying about how I wish I could just do these projects for the nursery on my own. I have a good track record for getting things done: I painted the entire basement by myself. I painted the porch by myself too. But being pregnant, I am just too tired, get overwhelmed so easily and probably shouldn't breathe the paint anyway. But I'm left feeling so unable and I hate that feeling. It makes me grumpy.

When Rory found me on the couch, he laughed and said, "You were so quiet up here, I knew you were either sound asleep or crying sadly to yourself." Which made me cry some more. Sadly. To myself.

But while I was crying, he got up and proceeded to empty the room that is to be the nursery, wipe down the walls, fill the nail holes, tape the windows and then loaded me into the car with him to run to Home Depot to buy the primer and paint. And yesterday his brother Troy came over and they painted the nursery!

Now I don't believe it was my tantrum that got it done. Rory had this one on the calendar, and he knew he would pull it off. I just needed something to worry about, is all. You have no idea how exhausting it is to be this emotional all the time. Because now that it is done, I walk into that room every 20 minutes, tearing up for totally different reasons, dreaming of all the memories that are soon to fill that special space. Rory has taken note of this very manic mood change and I do believe he is just bracing himself for whatever extreme emotion comes next.

We were going for a very, very light, white grey paint color. And the sample really looked like it would be that color. But it is definitely a powder blue in direct sunlight, and a more true baby blue with lamp light on it at night time. But it works. And every time Rory walks into the room he says, "yeah, it's definitely pastel blue. But it's perfect for a baby."

All this to say: 1) the nursery is painted! 2) I'm a crazy lady 3) pray for Rory. He's married to an unpredictable train wreck at the moment. But I'm pretty sure that his pleasant wife is still around here somewhere...she's bound to come back at some point.

I've got another niece!

My sweet-as-pie baby niece, Svea Rebecca Liv has arrived! She is so precious and I feel very, very far away. (Her name is pronounced like Say ah but with a v in there...Svay ah.) I love her name.

Annika and Jedd brought this bundle into the world one week ago today but I held onto the news, wanting to be sure they got to get the word out to everyone first before I blabbed the news on my blog here. But let it be known, Svea is here!

Based on stories from Annika I have been telling people, "it sounds like Mara (age 5) is genuinely helpful and Sonna (age 3) genuinely thinks that she is helpful." I told this to Annika today and she added that Mara is helpful when she's in the mood. :) This is a whole lot of adjustment for those big sisters.

When Sonna was born, I basically moved out to Montana for portions of the summer because I couldn't stand being so far away. But now I cannot travel being so pregnant and I feel so stuck! Sisters of the world, here me now: plan your pregnancies accordingly! I'd give anything to hold sweet Svea. Thanksgiving cannot come soon enough!

postcard pictures

We returned yesterday after four days on the North Shore. We stayed at Cove Point Lodge, celebrating our 5 year anniversary and taking advantage of one last getaway before the baby comes and quiet dinners and not so quiet any more.

The first two days were rainy and windy, which is awesome and cozy on the North Shore. We felt no obligation to ever leave our blazing fireplace or the hottub that overlooked the lake. The waves were huge and we both had good books with an incredible view of waves crashing on the rocks just outside our window. Plus, we stocked up on the best snacks ever: peanut m&m's, white cheddar popcorn, hot apple cider, plums, easy cheese and crackers, cherry-chocolate icecream and honeycrisp (I know!) apples. We didn't ever want to leave our fire those first two days, and so we didn't.

The last two days were spectacular, providing all sorts of pretty pictures with fall colors and a bright blue lake. If you aren't able to make it up to Lake Superior this fall, count this slideshow as one giant postcard from me to you!

(If you scroll over the pictures, an arrow will show up so you can speed through the 50 pics I posted...otherwise the timing is annoyingly slow...)

the promise we made

I think it’s important to know all that I wrote about in Our Love Story in order to get the full feel for my wedding day. Because the truth is, I walked down the aisle on my wedding day with a shadow of doubt. I felt there must be some in the sanctuary who were holding their breath like I was holding mine. Could this marriage work?

I remember talking to my Grandma Harrington once about her wedding day. She said to me, “That day when your grandpa and I knelt on the alter, we made vows to each other. But more importantly we made them to God. Your grandpa and I have lived through good times and bad, and right now we’re experiencing the hardship of sickness even though we have been largely blessed by health. There have been lots of days when I am reminded that I made those vows to God just as much as I promised them to John. And that is what really holds us together.”

My grandma’s words rang in my head during the entirety of our wedding preparations. I sort of fell into a deep trust that our marriage would work because God really was at the center of Rory and my friendship and I trusted Him to hold us together. I thought of Grandma’s words nonstop, feeling comforted that God was a part of this union too, promising His love to wash over a multitude of things.

The wedding day was bliss. Being surrounded by that many friends and family was perhaps one of the greatest joys in my life. It reminded me of what heaven will be like, being surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, people who love us, people who are cheering us on. There may have been some hesitancy, but the day was joyful and fun.

Yet the day was not the happiest day of my life. The happiest day of my life came two days later.

Rory and I were on the north shore of Lake Superior, I had lost my voice entirely and was communicating with strained whisper squeaks. We were walking quietly on a beach, and I felt the weight of the world lift off of my shoulders as I realized that the thing I had just signed up for was simply to spend the rest of my life with this man: the man I loved more than anything in the world, who made life more fun, who always provided thoughtful conversation and whose company I wanted to be in all of the time. All I had done was promise to spend the rest of my life with my very best friend.

our love story

I never, ever would have thought I would marry a guy like Rory. I was looking for an extroverted, liberal Lutheran camp counselor-type, and instead I stumbled upon this conservative, more introverted, republican, pentecostal. I had heard that opposites attract, even sang the song when I was younger. But on a very logical level, my falling for Rory seemed almost impossible.

On another level though, I knew I had found my perfect companion. We weren’t actually opposites. Even though the labels and categories we fit in would make it seem that way, I had never found a guy who matched me in my excitement for life. Our church upbringings were different, but I had found my equal in someone who was striving to live out his life in accordance to his faith. Our political worldviews were hugely different, and yet, Rory was so well thought-out. He had reasons for how he saw the country best run and the conversations we shared were constructive and helpful. He was much more the public introvert in our duo, but this seemed to work out fine because I have enough extrovert for the both of us. Plus, he was funny, which always (even to this day) caught me off guard.

I fell hard for this boy. It was easy to do. He had ambition, morals, a faith that shaped his life, a deep love for his family, and let’s be honest..he was hot. Oh, and he fell hard for me too, which always feels good.

Still, I had voices that made me second guess everything. Voices that I don’t actually think were attached to any human mouths. But loud voices just the same that were saying things like, “Really? A conservative republican? Don’t you know those people are heartless, uncompassionate and selfish?” and “Assemblies of God? The word Wacky comes to mind.” These voices were LOUD and I was confused. Because Rory was painting a different picture that wasn’t heartless or wacky. He was broadening the way I saw people...most especially, him.

I was waiting for the entire world to rally behind Rory and to chant in one accord, “Marry Him! We approve! Marry Him!” But it didn’t really happen that way. Instead, one day my Aunt Jan said that she really appreciated Rory and for some reason, hearing my liberal and Lutheran Aunt Jan approve made me feel like I wasn’t just crazy and blind in love. And then my Aunt Judy told me shortly after, “You'd be a fool to let this one get away”

Very soon after I told Rory that I was ready to get married if he ever wanted to ask. Which is funny, because he had been asking if he could ask for about a half a year before I gave him the green light, signaling that now I was ready to commit my life to him.

5 years ago today

Five years ago this morning I woke up with a doozie of a cold. The sort of cold that makes your thinking cloudy, your eyes water and your head pound. I remember thinking that if this was any other day I would not get out of bed, that I'd stay under the covers and nurse my achy body all day long.

But I had places to go. People to see.

So I got myself out of bed and I got married.

The day was pure bliss. I loved my dress, loved my flowers, enjoyed having our picture taken, the day was glorious, and I remember being in awe of all of my decoration sketches and visions of this wedding were reality that day. I had wanted huge standards outside with bright colorful ribbon, and there they were, greeting us as we pulled up to the church. I had wanted a bright beautiful bouquet and it did not disappoint. I had wanted dilly bars and scandinavian folk dancing after the ceremony and we had dilly's. 600 dilly's, I believe.

Rory and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary today. FIVE YEARS!

I've never really written out our wedding story, so if you're interested at all, I hope to write out highlights from that blissful day over the next few days. I told Rory, "and I think it will be good writing because now that it's been five years I can write about the complete sob fest I had right before (and while) walking down the aisle. and I can write about my near face-plant while running to the car with a dilly in my hand."

So stay tuned. Wedding fun is coming your way.

a gala, giggles and a retreat

**My folks invited Rory and I to a Lutheran Social Services Gala on Saturday night. It was really fun to get all dressed up and the program they put on was impressive. Dad used to serve on the LSS board and I enjoyed getting to know all the different ways LSS serves the greater community.

**Last night Rory and I had our baby class again and got to watch a few videos of babies being born. Ouchie.

Then we got our pillows and yoga mats out to lay on the ground with our spouse. But we were totally confused as to how we were supposed to lay. Last week we spooned, but this week we were supposed to be face to face. And Rory thought our feet should go towards the windows, but I wanted us pointing the other direction, but then we were too close to the other couple. And I couldn't bend over to adjust the mat, and Rory's hands were full of pillows ready to lay in place. And we just kept looking at each other and trying to solve this puzzle, as if it was a challenging thing to figure out.

But finally we made it, and when we did, we looked at each other and we started laughing. The room was dark, the soothing music was on, our teacher was walking us through deep inhales and exhales and Rory and I were struck with fits of laughter. I mean, hardcore, impossible to surpress giggles. It reminded me of getting the giggles in church when you know you aren't supposed to laugh which just perpetuates the problem. All sorts of snorts and squeeks, tears and erruption laughs came out of us. Other couples sort of laughed sympathetically at us, but it just took a long, long time to recover. The rest of the room was quiet and calm. Not us.

**Today I am heading to Camp Wapo with these two:

My dad and I are leading a retreat together and I'm really excited. I love getting to collaborate with him and I will be running my Passing on the Faith workshops. I've done these workshops a half dozen times now and love the conversations that come from grandma-and-grandpa-types as we talk about specific ways they can share their faith stories and belief in Jesus with their grandkids. It's always fruitful and inspired and I love getting to be a part of the conversation.

fall color

I saw this lone branch on a bush in our backyard today. The red leaves seem to be fully embracing fall. The other branches are still bright green and must have missed the memo.

Fall is like this though, with the weather each day trying to decide if we are closer to summer or closer to winter. This morning started out as a cold and dreary day. The sort of day that demands a sweatpants, a big quilt, hot chocolate, a rip roaring fire, a good book, candles and a cat on your lap. (Did I partake in any of those things? No. But I did make puppy chow which felt cozy and nurturing. I think anything with peanut butter and chocolate is nurturing.)

But now the sun is out, the weather feels warmer and these green leaves give me hope that we've still got some warm weather in us before winter hits.

for your weekend pleasure...

I was just directed to this blog, and found both the art and the writing so pleasing. The artwork is original and made me want to click on every link (which I did). There is some good reading on this site, all centered on "cultivating creative community for the common good." If you're laying low this weekend and have a few moments to look around, I'd highly recommend it.

breaking a femur

I loved all of the comments and feedback from my post on our first baby class and my realization that birthing this babe is going to hurt quite a bit.

I want to clarify that learning of the pain coming my way is not new news to me. I think we all know horror stories and have a healthy sense of what labor entails whether we've watched a baby be born or not. But something seriously changed for me when our teacher showed a picture of the mama's hips and spine and where they are in relation to the baby when the baby is being born. Suddenly that picture became very personal as I realized, "those will be my hips. and that will be my tailbone." I can't really explain this revelation and how hard it hit me, but somehow all the general talk about labor became very, very specific. Specific to me.

I heard once that the only thing more painful than childbirth is breaking a femur. Which is interesting that they know this...I feel for the woman who has both had children and broken her femur to be able to make the comparison.

But I've been thinking about this comparison lately. Because if this is true, our birthing teacher is basically sitting us in a circle and saying, "ladies, in seven weeks we are going to break your femur. and it will hurt. but there are some breathing techniques we recommend. and fellas, we recommend you play soothing music during the breaking of the femur, and be ready to assist your wife in any way possible to help her through the pain."

There is a knee-jerk reaction in my heart that says, "I don't want you to break my femur!" And I think I was having a similar knee-jerk reaction when I heard the same news about the labor process. Thankfully, the rewards of childbirth are, obviously, a child. And I do want this baby more than anything. I'm just saying, it sounds like it's going to really hurt. And I'm trying my best to deal with that fact.

In other news, my sister is due TOMORROW!!! Break a leg, Annika!

Or just have a baby. I hear it won't hurt as bad.

America in Color

My brother sent me to the following photo blog one day to look at pictures from 1939-1943. He wrote, "lest we think the world was black and white during the depression."

America in Color

Click on the above link and then scroll down. The images are mesmerizing.