Today's Coffee: Bali Blue Moon

So, it's getting chilly. 

Well, just chillier than it has been.

One of my least favorite things to do is wake up and go downstairs and start the coffee and breakfast. It's cold, it's dark outside, and our breakfasts are really boring. 

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to eat buttermilk blueberry pancakes and bacon everyday, but alas, we don't have the time, energy, money for all that. 

So, we decided to get a little creative. T told me about something along the lines of an overnight oatmeal. I immediately started pinteresting to find out more. 

Ok, so an overnight crock-pot oatmeal. It sounded perfect.

The first attempt wasn't great. Or even good. I mean, we ate it every day til it was gone, but it just didn't quite.... it just wasn't good. So, I fiddled with the recipe a bit. And we have a winner. 

Overnight Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal - Crockpot

Ingredients:

3 apples - sliced and cut into small chunks

1.5 cups milk

1.5 cups water

1 cup of steel cut oats

2ish tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

.5 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal

salt

dash of nutmeg 

Directions:

Chop up apples and put in large pyrex measuring dish/cup.

Add all the ingredients on top of apples. Stir well. 

Place pyrex dish in crockpot. Fill crockpot with water to near brim.

This is one of the reasons I can totally get on board and cook this way forever - because the clean-up is so easy. I love my crockpot and use it at least once a week, but I loathe cleaning it. This is so much easier. 

Cover with aluminium foil - my dish is too high to use my crockpot lid, but after I cover the pyrex with foil, I still set the lid on top.

Set your crockpot on low for about 8 hours. 

Go to sleep. 

Wake up and be grumpy about having the make the coffee in the cold and dark morning.

Then remember that breakfast is already cooked!

Rejoice!

Scoop into bowls and eat well.

I just cover the pyrex and stick in fridge and eat for a few days after warming in the microwave (it doesn't take long to eat it all at my house, with my hungry boys!)

Why yes, I will eat you this morning!

You can top it with anything else yummy. 

Milk, brown sugar, butter, dates, you name it. 

Not sure how other fruits will fare, but I will tell you that my first attempt involved strawberries, but I think because they are 'mooshier' than apples, they broke down quite a bit in the crockpot. 

I hope your mornings get better with this delicious oatmeal. :)

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Trader Joe's Bali Blue Moon

I'm usually not so good about posting blogs on an even remotely consistent basis. 

I know this. 

But here I am. 

Well, I'm mainly able to do this because W is down for a nap and my dear sweet husband has a migraine, so I find myself with a few minutes to myself. 

So, I'll tell you about our evening last night. 

We finally got around to putting together M's room. Which is a good thing since we are only 5 weeks away from bringing her sweetness home!

Here's what it looked like before. Kind of our place to store everything and forget about it. For instance: I've been looking for a specific piece of music for weeks now, but couldn't find it. (As you might imagine, between T and myself, we have a lot of music in our house.) And it wasn't until Thursday I 'discovered' 2 unopened boxes, which had been stored in her room just full of violin music. Thankfully, I found the music I was looking for. But you get the idea. 

This is technically better than the real before picture (which I forgot to take), as we had to find crib pieces :)

Another angle of the room. 

First, we put together the crib. 

We had W get involved as he was a bit confused with the whole process. 

We had him go to his room and help pick out some blankets and stuffed animals that he might want to share with M. Needless to say, as soon as we were finished he wanted them back. But it was really cute for the first 5 minutes. 

Crib all set up and ready for Baby M!

One of our dilemmas was that we don't ever ever ever want to paint again. And her room is a very lovely blue. After brainstorming different ideas on how to not paint her room, we decided to just paint her closet doors pink and put up some curtains to frame her changing table. I'm hoping that in the future I will be able to get my mom to paint a window scene under the curtains.

Crib is in place, and curtains are hung. 

Another random thing about me: I love Starbucks' Caramel Apple Spice. It is one of two drinks that I buy there (the other, is the Caramel Macchiato). So, I love this season. Problem is: they are still really expensive. Crazy expensive. So, after some research, I found a copycat recipe. 

apple juice

3 TBSP cinnamon dolce syrup (I made my own)

whip cream

caramel

The syrup was just 4 cinnamon sticks boiled in 1.5 cups of water, simmered for 15 minutes, then the sticks were thrown away. I then added 1 cup of brown sugar and stirred until melted. Boom. Cinnamon dolce syrup. 

You just warm up a cup of apple juice, 3 TBSP of the syrup for 2 minutes. Then top with whip cream and drizzle caramel on top. As someone who buys a lot of these drinks from the Bucks, never again. This is so close to the original that I cannot see myself every spending a near $4 for it again. 

Anyways, this happened when we all got a little tired of being around each other in the smallest room in our house. :)

Yum!

Unsure if it was going to be good or not.
It was. 

After our delightful drink experiment, we headed back upstairs to put the finishing touches on M's room. I'm quite pleased, but I'm not sure if it's due to getting her room ready for her, or that I don't have to look the other way every time I walk by it as it was a constant reminder that we had not fully unpacked yet. Maybe some of both. 

Yay for a cute nursery!

Other side, with a glimpse of the pink closet doors. 

Baby M, we can't wait to meet you!

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Pumpkin Spice and Tums

Well, I had written out an outline of sorts to update the blog with, because a lot can happen in a month! But, I lost it. Also, my memory is pretty horrendous these days. I'll see what I can do here. 

I've been sleeping on the couch for the past several weeks due to my heartburn. That's not been fun, but I'm starting to get used to it, and sleeping a bit better now. I'm currently 34 weeks pregnant and feeling every bit of 44 weeks. :)

Our little sweet pea gets the hiccups a lot. Many hours a day it seems that she has the hiccups and she loves getting wedged into very uncomfortable positions, so that mixed with the Braxton Hicks and the heartburn makes me miserable. But, then I see a mom carrying a baby around, and I am reminded that this is all worth it. W has been really sweet about it all too. Each night he kisses M goodnight and tells her he loves her. 

W standing next to our lemon tree, that I grew from a seed from a lemon we used in a recipe!

Our fall garden: spinach, kale, broccoli, and carrots. 

Our good friends got engaged recently and we hosted an Engagement Party for them! My mom would have been so proud! Here's just a couple of pics (I'll have more in a new post):

Beautiful flowers and yummy food! The cupcakes have toppers with famous literary couples and quotes from their love story. 

This was the sign-in table. Decorated with books and pictures, a game where we had to guess who said what on facebook and a jar for their honeymoon fund!

So, I could just be hiding a pumpkin underneath there :)

Our family at the pumpkin patch!

Things are really coming together with our house and we are so ready for the feeling of 'moved in'. We had our new countertops installed recently. They look great! And Thomas got the sink installed. That was pretty cool. 

W has lots of words and it's fun to talk to him now. Car rides are more interesting as motorcycles and tunnels are obviously reasons for great celebration. He usually wants us to follow the motorcycles as he says "Hurry Dan! Hurry Dan!" (He can't say his ending 'd' sound, so he calls T - Dan instead of Dad. It's cute. 

Anyways, chores are calling my name. Please be praying as we are about 5.5 weeks away from meeting our sweet pea. 

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Yucky Store Brand (even the french press didn't help)

Here we are. Saturday. Even though our list of 'things to accomplish before September comes to a close' is massive and nearing 40 items, I took a few moments to enjoy the autumn weather. It was beautiful. I don't know how to describe it - but it was the first time I've ever felt the way I did this morning. To be sitting outside, with a blanket, a cup of coffee, Yow (our stray cat), beautiful blue morning glories abloom, my rambunctious child and my lovely husband - in our yard! To have a house and a yard - so amazing. I feel like I could move mountains today. 

I was brought back to reality when the sun came out. Oh yea - hi there humidity. 

Other news: I didn't ever give a big announcement via blog - but yes! We are having a little precious amazing girl come early December. She's always moving and kicking all over the place, just like W. She also gets the hiccups. Often. Her room was painted baby blue and yellow from the previous owners (not really giving the 'sweet little thing' vibe we have been feeling with a gal - so we wanted to paint. But, I tell you, after painting 3 large rooms downstairs, we weren't really feeling the whole process again. To be honest, if I didn't paint again for years, I'd probably be ok (and I like painting). So, we brainstormed what we could do. Well, instead of changing the wall color, we decided to spruce up the closet and add curtains to the wall over her changing table. So, what you see here - is the only thing, and the first pink ever in my house, that was bought by us. :) And I'm pretty excited about it. 

Also, somewhat crazy news: we got smartphones. Nothing fancy, but they do the internet thing. So, follow me on Instagram - chuck887. 

Well, we just started taking care of our room:

and, as you can see - the wallpaper is less than... shall we say... HIDEOUS?!

So, thinking that I might cut corners (silly me!) I painted it. Didn't work well. So, we started pulling down the wallpaper (something I said I would NOT do until next summer), and we found a hole. 

Well, after getting the paper down in that section, we have not only uncovered a hole (?!) but again, the world's ugliest paneling. ((So, I guess we gotta push back our housewarming party now)) - Wish us luck!

Anyways, we still love our house - just a lot of work. Here's W with our stray cat, Yow (that's what W calls him since he can't say Meow)

Thanks for reading about our crazy lives!

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Vanilla Biscotti

Well. Where have I been?

We've been busy. I feel like I always say that. Well, we have. For real. 

Things are going well with the house. Our new artwork:

I followed a diy tutorial I found on pinterest. Not hard at all. 

It was fairly easy: I went to imslp.org and printed off the music I wanted to use and took it to Staples and had them blow it up (it was 4 sheets) to 36x24. The lady behind the desk didn't need a lot of direction - she said people had been having her do it a lot lately! :) I purchased a canvas with a coupon from Michaels and mod podged it on. Then after it dried I brushed tea and coffee on it to 'age' it. Then another layer of mod podge and voila a great piece of wall art! Total cost:

Staples print-out : $3.59

Michaels canvas : $23.00

Mod podge : $4.00

Total : $30.59

This is the Biber sonata that Thomas and I played together at Oberlin this summer! We read from the manuscript, so it's fun to see it everyday!

Choirs and lessons have all started back. We are slowing getting our house in order. Here is our dining room:

We are so happy with how the floors, walls, and bench turned out!

Now just some lovely snapshots of our lives:

Oh yea - we are having a GIRL! This is me opening the first gift after we announced! Do I look nervous? ;)

W is feeding the goats at the zoo!

So, sometimes the laundry doesn't get done... and we end up having days where our little man looks fairly crazy. Today was one of those days. Also, note the stickers all up his arm. Overall - a typical Monday. 

Well, I am 28 weeks pregnant today. I'm incredibly uncomfortable. The leg cramps, heartburn, and back pain haven't been fun - but because of some slight complications, I've had pain most days. I have to take it easy (what? how do you do that? how is that a 'thing' when you have a 2.5 year old?). So, that hasn't been fun - and I am so much slower this time around! 

More to come later. I need a snack. And some water. 

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Mystic Monk Blend - yes, I drank a cup today!

Just a few more pictures of our house evolving into a place that is actually live-able!

So far, I love everything and I'm trying not to rush the process of artwork/decor. 

Such a big helper!

Front Room - painted and floors are looking great! Hmmm, the color of the walls in this pic show a strange green hue - that's not really there. I only chose colors with wonderful edible names... so, this room is Fudge Truffle. 

W is reading as we unpack books. 

Front room has furniture - yay - something other than hard chairs to sit in!

Front room - different angle. 

Kitchen/Dining room. Almost ready to move the table in!

And that's where we are at here in this moment. I'm so thankful for all the help we received! Notice there aren't any pics of bedrooms... they all need some work - we've been focusing on the front 3 rooms, but we should be unpacking in the other rooms soon. 

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Earl Grey Supreme and Donuts!

A quick overlook of the past 6 days in our new house!

Before: previous owner's decor: front room

Before: Previous owner's decor: front room

Before: Previous owner's decor: 'dining room' with carpet??!

Before: Previous owner's decor: kitchen

Saturday: Get that carpet out of there! And that's when we realized why they had carpet, the floors were outrageously out of level. We are talking an inch difference throughout. 

Saturday: get the wallpaper. That's when we realized that paint was peeling off - they had painted over plaster! This is all turning into more work than we originally thought!

So, we started leveling the floors the best we could. 1/4 in inlay, floor leveling compound and thick roofing paper to build it up in the appropriate sections. Oh yea, they had destroyed the hardwood floors. So sad. We were so excited to see original hardwoods - they had painted them brown in areas and gouged them. 

Kitchen is now primed and being cut in with new paint color. 

Maybe the hardwoods would be better in the front room? Nope. About an inch difference from one side of room to the other. And again with the brown paint and unnecessary gouges. 

New floors finally going down! They look so great. Dining room is primed for new paint!

First coat almost up in kitchen. 

Butterfly landed on my dad's arm. 

Kitchen is fully painted... now if I had to place to put dishes! (There's not a pantry)

All our stuff is moved in. Dining room being cut in. Floors down and covered. 

Floors being laid in front room. 

W helped a lot!

Dining room painted! Built some shelves and stained them for the dishes to go on. 

Bay window bench almost done!

Front room being painted this minute. 

Well, that's where we are. Lots of work to do in the next 3 hours. My dad leaves today at noon. Thanks to him and Thomas' dad for all the help thus far. Also, all our great friends who showed up to help load and unload moving truck!

We are all so exhausted but so excited about moving into our house!

Thanks for all the prayers!

In Christ,

Julie