Recipe: Baked Potato Soup

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I am so tired of cooking the same five dishes over and over and over again. I need to find some more recipes that can be prepared in about 30 minutes, doesn't have a million ingredients, and my family will find appetizing. It is a tall order (ha ha, get it?) but I want to challenge my culinary skills this year. I have flipped through a couple cook books, yet I still feel uninspired. I think I am just one of those people that need to be led by my stomach or my kids' stomachs.

Last week I saw a picture of Potato Leek soup and just had to have it. So I made the following potato soup, a slightly modified version of this recipe from Allrecipes.com. Elysha hated it but everyone else ate it. I thought it was really good.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1/3 cup diced celery
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped broccoli
3 1/4 cups water
2 squares of vegetable bouillon
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
5 strips of cooked chopped bacon

Directions:
1. Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, broccoli, and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the vegetable bouillon.
2. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately after adding bacon to each individual serving.

If you want a smoother texture, mash the potatoes slightly before adding milk mixture.

Next week, I am hoping to grill an artichoke. I have been craving Houston's Grilled Artichoke.

Art-y Party

It's always a little tricky when I discuss the girls' birthday parties with them. If we talk about it too close to their birthday, then the wait becomes impossible and the party becomes the ONLY topic of discussion. I can't handle that sort of torture. So to avoid such agony (and because I love to plan things well in advance), I will bring up ideas and desired guests for the next birthday party at least four months earlier and then not bring it up again until the week of the party, sometimes not until the day before.

So Joey and I discussed her birthday in October and she wanted to do an art party and I had her write down the names of the friends she wanted to invite. After all the expensive options available outside of our home (seriously, why does a kid's birthday party have to cost $1000?), I decided to do it at our home and serve hot dogs and chips. I was stressed about having 18 kids inside our house but the weather was perfect so we held it in our backyard.

The kids made mosaic crowns:



They also drew pictures which I scanned onto an iron-on transfer and (at a later time) made into a t-shirt with the obligatory jewels.


For her "cake," I made Joey a cookie tower. She freaks out at birthday parties because she doesn't want to eat cake or cupcakes. Before cake time during a birthday party, she runs over to me and asks if she has to eat cake. "Of course not, but mommy is going to eat it," I reply.

It was a fun day. The next day we took the kids to Disney on Ice. Sam loved the Cars but began to lose his patience with Tinkerbell. But I think his favorite part was holding and eating the $10 popcorn.

Holly Jolly Christmas!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Just thought I would share some fun pics from our Christmas this year.

We went to a Christmas Eve service at a local church. When I told the girls to get dressed up, Joey came decked out in huge diamond drop earrings, her heart necklace, a pink ring, and a turquoise bracelet with a cross on it. The girl loves to accessorize!

Then the kids changed into their Christmas pajamas, a fun gift from a good friend!

The girls were so excited they didn't sleep until midnight.

Here are the Christmas cookies the girls decorated for Santa. We also left out celery sticks for the reindeer.

Santa's presents for the kids. He must get a discount at Pottery Barn Kids too because he got a Barbie bowl/dish/cup set for the girls and a Spiderman set for Sam.

Since I refused to buy the girls new costumes for Halloween this year, I got these costumes for next year. If you go right before Halloween to the Disney store, whatever costumes are left are usually 50% off.


Sam got two keyboards for Christmas! We also got an edible arrangement which came in this red tin drum. Sam found the drum and loved the sound it makes when he bangs on it. On his own, he made up his own little drum set. Then he has been turning on the percussion accompaniment song on the keyboard and banging around the drums.

Our goofball.

Cashing in at PB

Remember the reason why I wanted to work at PB? It was so I could get furniture for the kids. But I also want to get new furniture for pretty much every room of the house. I am tired of the wood-ish furniture we have--purchased at bargain basement prices. Kmart, Ikea, furniture stores going out of business, stuff that we bought for Chang's mom but now she doesn't need. Our home looks like a thrift shop. People keep telling us to wait until the kids are older to get the good stuff. That was fine when people got married and had kids in their 20s. By the time they turned forty, they were marrying off their children. By the time we marry off our kids, Chang will be ready to retire. So I'm supposed to wait until our 60s? Um, I don't think so.

I was able to get a floor model of the exact couch I wanted and it is arriving next week. So now I am getting ready to paint the living room and decorate it. Yes, as in Martha Stewart decorate. I want to put in vases with fake flowers, inanimate objects with absolutely no function or purpose but just because I think it is purdy. And then I am going to build an invisible force field around the room so that if any of the kids even think about going into the room, they will be shocked, just mildly, of course. No milk stains, no crayon marks, no cheerios that roll itself underneath the couch or into the crevices of the cushions.

So I guess all the hours that I slave away for practically free at PB have been worth it after all.

Five-Year Old Spa Party

A couple weekends ago, for Joey's birthday, we did a little spa party for Joey and her friends. Since it was going to be labor intensive for me, we only invited six families. I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures but the girls got to make jewelry, do foot soaks with princess wands that hold fizzy bath tablets, and then I curled their hair, did their makeup, and sprayed on glitter hairspray. Then they decorated vegan chocolate cupcakes (three of the attendees had various allergies so I wanted to play it safe--they were delicious, btw and I think I will make these instead of regular cupcakes. I also made the cookies shown above. Raspberry thumbprint cookies and nutella shortbread cookies).

The one request she made regarding decorations was flowers. So I asked my friend who owns Sonny Alexander flower shop in Beverlywood to make some centerpieces for me.



It was a fun party, very low-key and exactly what Joey wanted. And I was more than happy to oblige.

Christmas 2008

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very nice. Three days of three kids by myself again. Please pray for me.

I just wanted to show off the girls' gingerbread princesses. Yes, that's right, everything becomes royalty when touched by my girlie girls. Joey and Elysha were using cookie cutters to cut out their people. Next thing I know, crowns have been placed on top of the heads, and one cookie had long, luxurious hair. I also made some pieces to make a gingerbread house. Unfortunately, my roof wouldn't stay intact, so it is more like a shack. Oh well.

The girls woke us up at an ungodly hour because Elysha had to pee. But once they saw that "santa" had eaten their cookies, there was no way they were going back to sleep. My cute little idea to make cookies for Santa is what screwed me out of a couple more hours of sleep. Oh wait, I think I did go back to sleep, but Chang stayed up with the kids. He he...

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all enjoying time with family this weekend.

The girls and I made gingerbread cookies and a gingerbread house. They are decorating the cookies as I type and I can hear them whispering to each other, "Eat the m&ms. Are you eating the marshmellows too?"

From our family to yours...Merry Christmas!

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins

I am posting this per request of Hawaii 5-Ohana.

Pumpkin Muffins (slightly tweaked version of a recipe from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Put paper cups or grease into muffin pan.
2) In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and white and brown sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into cups until 2/3 full.
3) Bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven. Done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I have made this recipe with applesauce in place of the oil and it turns out okay. But the oil is better (of course). Also, be sure to not overmix once you combine the wet and dry ingredients to ensure light and fluffy muffins. This recipe yields about 28 muffins.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bars

I am glad to hear that some of the recipes I post are used so I thought I would post another.

I LOVE pumpkin. When I was single and making the big bucks (well, more like small to medium bucks), I would buy a pumpkin scone everyday at Peet's coffee. I would buy pans and pans of pumpkin pie and eat it in a matter of days. Ralph's Supermarket here in LA, makes an excellent pumpkin chocolate chip cookie which I buy by the dozen and gobble up by the handfuls.

We had some friends over tonight for dessert so it gave me a reason to make something. I was ambitious and wanted to make the pumpkin bars and a chocolate bundt cake but I had the girls home with me today and a school mate called and made a spontaneous playdate. So my time was limited.

Paul's Pumpkin Bars (from Allrecipes.com)


Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.
3. Spread the batter evenly into an ungreased 10x15 inch jellyroll pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven. Cool before frosting.
4. To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar a little at a time, beating until mixture is smooth. Spread evenly on top of the cooled bars. Cut into squares.

I made a few alterations based on the reviews and doubled the pumpkin to 30 oz and reduced the oil to 2/3 cup. I also used one tsp of cinnamon, one tsp of allspice, 1/2 tsp of cloves and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. I also used a smaller-sized pan (don't know the exact measurements) so I had to let it bake for 35 minutes. I also had some batter left over so I made 8 mini muffins too which were perfect for the girls.

They turned out very moist and the cream cheese frosting was a great compliment. A great dish to bring to a potluck or to Thanksgiving dinner!

Should I or Shouldn't I?

I want to contribute something homemade for Sam's party on Saturday. I really wanted to make cupcakes from scratch but I think I need to make about 75 cupcakes. Is it worth it? I have made about 48 cupcakes in one night and it wasn't too bad.

We got back late last night from my mom's (took her to meet with the oncologist) and then hosted a few couples tonight for dinner. We also got our kids dressed up and had them trick or treat between our bedrooms. It was cute.

Sorry for the unimaginative post but after cleaning up from having guests and then doing and folding four loads of laundry, I'm a little tired!

I love pictures where half the kids are starting to lose it. It's so cute to me. Elysha is smiling perfectly because we said she could only eat candy if she smiled.

A Mother's Redemption

Alright. So perhaps it might appear that I favor one of my children. In order to redeem myself (and in case my daughters read this 10 years from now and become embittered), I want to write that they were very well behaved today.

It is going to be a long week. There is no school so I have all three kids with me 24/7 and no help. I am a little scared of how I am going to behave this week.

The girls are becoming more and more self-sufficient. I have to monitor them and help them along, but for the most part, if I tell them to wash up, the girls can wash their face, hands and feet all on their own. They brush their teeth in the mornings and I do it in the evenings because I want to make sure that at least once a day, they are getting a proper brushing (me being the dental hygiene freak that I am). We got them a chore chart in Vancouver that has been very helpful in getting the kids to clean up their toys, put away their clothes, make their beds, etc.

Anyhow, the girls have been doing a good job with their "chores" for the last few days so I promised to make them the Martha Stewart Living Cookie of the Month today. Banana Whoopie Pies. I made about thirty cookies and I have about three left. That makes me very happy. We had some friends over today for a playdate so they contributed to the cookie intake.

All in all, if everyday this week is like today, I think it might be a lot of fun having the girls home. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be going to a fabric store to buy a pattern and fabric to make dresses for the girls. Joey was sitting on the potty this morning flipping through my human interest periodical (featuring a certain family that just had twins) and she said that she wants to look at the magazine because she wants to see the pretty dresses.

"When I get big, I want to wear pretty dresses all the time like these people."

"Well, maybe you can design dresses for people so you can wear dresses like those all the time."

"Yeah! I want to make a dress! Pleeeeeeeeeeease??? Can I put balloons on my dress?"

"Ummm, you could but the balloons would just pop if we put it into the wash."

Look of disappointment.

"Can we get a shiny rainbow fabric for my dress? Pleeeeeeeease????"

"Well, we'll just have to see what they have at the fabric store."

Great, my daughter wants to look like Bozo the Clown.

Pumpkin Patch

I uprooted my zucchini plants last week since they were diseased. I researched the white powdery mold that decimated my veggie garden and it so happens that this mold appears on gourds towards the end of its life cycle. Good to know for next year.

My friend, Rhiannon's mom, and one of my inspirations to start becoming a more serious gardener, told me that she was going to plant pumpkins in her garden for the fall. How cool is that? Apparently, you need to plant your pumpkins now if you want them to be orange by halloween time. So this is on my never-ending list of things to do.

I have always wanted to try to make my own pumpkin pack for baking. I tried once but it was more trouble than it was worth. Maybe if I can grow some smaller pumpkins, it would be easier to boil. I LOVE pumpkin in baked goods--pumpkin pie, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin scones, pumpkin bread. Love love love it!

Too Many Tomatoes, So Little Time

I have so many tomatoes in my garden right now that I don't know what to do with them. I wanted to do a marinara or arrabiata sauce but is that really the best thing I can do with them?

Any ideas? I found a Shrimp and Tomato Risotto recipe which I will try for Saturday dinner. I also found a tomato pie recipe which apparently tastes like deep dish pizza (I miss Zachary's Pizza in Oakland--better Chicago-style pizza than the pizzas I've eaten in Chicago). I LOVE tomato bisque so maybe I will make some for myself and the girls with grilled cheese--one of my favorite comfort food meals. I'm not sure if making all these things will use up all my tomatoes.

Okay, this will hopefully be the last post about my garden. I'm sure this is not interesting to anyone else but me.

It was good while it lasted...

My garden is being viciously attacked by a white fungus. I don't know what is going on but I am losing my zucchini. I chopped away half of the stock in hopes of abating the fungal predator but alas, the war rages on. I am waiting for a few more zucchini to grow to maturity before I completely uproot because I would like to make another batch of zucchini bread this summer, but we'll have to see.

Before planting my garden, I treated the ground with liquid gypsium. My soil was clay and not loomy so I knew I had to do some conditioning in order to ensure a modicum of success. I wonder if the soil is changing back to clay which causes bad drainage. This leads to root rot and when the roots stay wet, fungus can grow--like athlete's foot.

In any case, I am willing to uproot my zucchini to salvage my cantelope which we are still waiting for the fruit to ripen.

I have yielded a ton of tomatoes this season. This was helpful during the attack of the killer tomatoes scare this summer. With it, I have made salsa, bruschetta and caprese. If I get enough, I might try to make some marinara or arrabiata.

I am in love with growing vegetables. I can't wait for next season.

Oven-Fried Chicken

From Martha Stewart's Living magazine, August 2008. I made it on Friday for some guests and it was so good (if I do say so myself). The skin was crispy and the meat was juicy. Just because it is oven-fried, it is definitely not low-fat.


Ingredients
Serves 4
3 large eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
1 medium onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 whole chicken (3 to 4 pounds), cut into 8 pieces
1/4 cup Wondra flour
1/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing

Directions

1) Mix eggs, Tabasco, onion, and garlic in a large bowl. Add chicken, and toss to coat well. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 8 hours).
2) Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a rimmed baking sheet on center rack. Whisk flour, cornmeal, salt, paprika, and cayenne in a medium bowl. Remove chicken from marinade, and roll each piece in flour mixture, shaking off excess.
3) Place chicken on preheated baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes. Lightly brush top of each piece with oil, and bake, brushing tops every 10 minutes, until chicken is dark golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes more.
4) Transfer chicken to a wire rack, and let cool slightly. Serve immediately, or let cool to room temperature.

Helpful Hint
Wondra is a very light, finely ground flour that prevents the crust of fried chicken from becoming thick or clumpy. Sifted all-purpose flour will work in a pinch.

I did buy Wondra and you can definitely see the difference. I think it would work well when trying to thicken up a sauce too in place of corn starch.

Secondly, I had to make the batter mixture three times to coat 10 pieces of chicken. But I would make it in small batches because with each piece of chicken you place into the batter mixture, it gets lumpy.

Next I want to try the lobster and corn chowder from the August issue (but I think I will use shrimp for convenience's sake).

Mmmmm...thank you mommy!

Words I never thought I would hear my daughters utter while eating ethnic food. Of course they eat Korean food. But that's not ethnic to them. It's just food. Bap and geem. Gook bap. For my kids, it's like mac 'n' cheese (which, btw, they eat all the time too. I guess my kids are korean-american in every sense...well, maybe not, but I'll blog about that some other time).

But the other night, I broke in my new crock pot (I love it) and made Thai yellow curry with the Trader Joe's sauce aptly named, Trader Joe's Thai Yellow Curry. I marinated chicken with half the bottle the night before. And the next afternoon before I picked up the girls, I put the chicken and onions and the rest of the bottle into the pot. It was clear that there wasn't going to be enough sauce so I added some water. Then right before I left for the afternoon, I threw in some potatoes and carrots and turned it to low heat. It cooked for five hours. When I got home, the sauce looked a little thin so I threw in some flour to thicken it up. I also added some hon-dashi to make up for the watered down sauce. The kids loved the curry and declared that they loved Thai food. Chang even willingly agreed to take the leftovers to work the next day.

I also made pad thai with the Trader Joe's box labeled, you guessed it, Trader Joe's pad thai. I didn't have the peanuts or bean sprouts, but the noodles were chewy and the sauce was flavorful. I did stir-fried it with sesame oil to give it some extra flavor--Elysha LOVED it.

There have been days when the girls come to the dinner table and the following conversation occurs:

"Ewww...I don't like it," Elysha declares after looking at her plate.
"You don't like what?" I ask her.
"This!" she screams, pointing at her plate.
"Well, what is it?" I ask her for my own amusement.
"I don't know but I don't like it."

This is when super daughter makes her appearance. Joey will sit down demurely at the dinner table, eat her food with loud "mmm's" and say, "I like it mommy. I am a good eater, huh! I like to eat all different kinds of food, just like you." Man, the girl knows how to work it.

Elysha is THREE!

Elysha turned three on Saturday, which coincidentally was the day of her party. We had a small party for her at our house. Nowadays, if we invite 10 families, it is 40 people! So we had to limit the invite list (so sorry if you are local and reading about the party!)

Anyhow, I tried to get my female ego to kick in and be Martha Stewarty (yup, that's a real word folks). I sat down for about two hours one night and created some spreadsheets--guest lists so I can keep track of how many favors, crafts, etc I would need; how many adults vs kids were coming so I could cook age appropriate foods. Then I created another workbook of shopping lists, to-do's for each day the week leading up to the party, and then an exact list of to-do's the day of the party. This helped me so much! Chang also took half of Friday off to set up all the shades and canopies since we expected it to be 100 degrees. So we were actually on time in setting up for the party--food table was all set, decorations up, and we were just waiting for our guests to arrive. Wohoo!

In terms of my "creative contributions" I made crispy treats that looked like lei's:

...Okay, if you cross your eyes and turn your head sideways, it will look like a lei, I swear...

I cut out different colored hibiscus flowers and spelled out Aloha (Joey and Elysha helped make some of the flowers):

The amoebae (plural form of amoeba--learned something new today) flowers are courtesy of Joey. She has to do whatever I am doing, and for a four-year old, she is quite competent.

And I photoshopped the following photo to hang up:

Chang did not appreciate the coconut shells on "Joey" or that I used his body for "Sam." He doesn't like to show off his rock hard abs. Yup, back off ladies, that Brad Pitt body double is mine!

I also made little favor tags with a picture of Elysha on the back and tied it onto the favors with raffia. Why did I take photos of my creative stuff and post it? Because this is so not me and I am very proud of myself! Maybe that female gene exists in me somewhere!

Ramblings, rants about being a mom...

I made dinner tonight with zucchini that I grew in my garden. It was almost ridiculous how happy it made me to be able to put my own organically grown veggie into my meal. As I stirred my Trader Joe's organic pasta sauce, with my free range chicken and homegrown zucchini, I thought, I am a housewife. And I should have fun with it. Be the best damn housewife out there! I've been doing pretty well with making healthy, minimally processed meals meals. Okay, I confess that my aunt has been cooking for me for three days a week and we used to eat out every weekend. But now I only have my aunt for a day and I have been cooking our meals on the weekends too. So cooking, gardening...I would like to try and make a dress for Joey and Elysha. I think it would be fun and a good memory for us. So we'll see how that turns out...to be continued...

I have also been working out because I am about 15 lbs heavier than normal. Not to brag but with Joey, I was back in a size 0 by 4 months. With Elysha, I was back to a size 0 by 8 months. Granted, things shifted, shrunk, and jiggled, but it happened, with little to no effort. But this time...dude...I don't know if it's cuz I am over 30 or if it is child number 3, but this is so haaaard!!!! I have reduced my food intake (which for those who know me, is like shooting myself in the foot. Scratch that, it is like giving birth without drugs--yup, that difficult and painful). I have succumbed to exercising which is even harder than reducing my food intake. Exercising is so painful that for a month, I couldn't bring myself to do it more than once a week. But after a month of less food and a little exercise, I honestly thought I would just get back into my old clothes. So I was shocked when I jumped on the scale for the first time and saw that I was about the same weight as when I was 38 weeks pregnant!

My one consolation with each workout is an ice cream sandwich. It used to be Diddy Reese each time, but clearly, I need to downgrade to skinny cows. I already have a list of foods that I am going to celebrate with when I put on my pair of skinny jeans when Sam turns one. Yup, I am going to look even better than before because this time, I am going to be toned, muscular, and fabulous!



Picture of us when Elysha was 8 months...and our surrogate son for the day Ryan Kang. Sigh...if only I could squeeze into those jeans today...

Elysha's new haircut

Ever since I cut Joey's hair, Elysha has been begging me to cut her hair too. I cut off about 7 inches since we have realized how much easier it is to manage short hair. I can hardly recognize my own little girl in this picture.

I wanted to take a picture of Elysha and Sam--this picture cracks me up. It's like I asked them to look as miserable as possible.

Chang and I took some pictures with Sam. We have no pictures of us holding Sam. It is usually Sam with his sisters. So, whom does Sam look more like?

Daddy or Mommy?

It's official: Sam is HUGE!

I took Sam in to the doctor today for his 6 month check up. He is a little over 20 lbs and he is 27" in height. So he is 95% in weight and 80% in height. He has outgrown his 9 month clothes already. I put a dinosaur T-shirt and camouflage pants on him today. I love it. I think boy clothes are so cute. Of course, if I didn't have a girl, I would be looking at all the pink tulle thinking, I wish I had a girl.

Speaking of clothes, I think it would be fun to make a dress with Joey. Maybe she needs to be a little older but I think it would be fun to go to a fabric store, and choose a fabric and pattern and embellishments. I watched one episode of Project Runway and was totally inspired. It's funny--when I was nursing 24/7 and in no mood to multi-task, I would turn on the TV while I was nursing Sam. For some reason, I would watch Martha Stewart's show or Fine Living Decorating shows. Each time I would watch it, I would think, Dang, I'm not doing that. But one episode of Tim Gunn and fierce Cristiano, I'm inspired to make a dress.

Never, in a million years, did I imagine this to be my life: 3 kids, staying at home, gardening, cooking dinner (occasionally), and stressing out about window treatments. When I imagined my future, I saw various things, depending on at what point in my life: elementary school teacher, magazine editor, book publisher, CTO, full-time ministry...I don't think stay at home mom ever entered my mind. I wanted children and I wanted to be around for them but I thought I would be working. I never saw myself as a girlie girl and yet I have a total princess. I think God has a sense of humor. I am so happy...exhausted...but I feel blessed.