Today's Coffee: Trader Joe's Sumatra

Well, I did it. 

I deactivated my facebook account yesterday morning. Uhm, it took multiple steps and pages. Also, my internet cut out just as I clicked the confirm button. Did facebook know I was leaving? (That's a joke)

Today I want to write about 2 things:

1. A recital coming up in March

-and-

2. Corned Beef and Cabbage

Here's the first. 

The poster is pretty self explanatory, but I'll talk about it for a moment anyways. 

Covenant Presbyterian Church has many stained glass windows. T has decided to perform a series of recitals where he plays pieces that meditate on each window. This first recital will cover the Biblical covenants and the Trinity rose window. You can read about each individual  window here:

 Covenant Presbyterian Church - Sanctuary 

I would encourage anyone in the area to come and listen to some wonderful music (some of which has never been recorded before - to our knowledge - ). The recital is at 5:00pm and not later because we didn't want it to be dark and therefore not be able to see the windows themselves. These particular windows are on the left side of the sanctuary, so you may want to sit on the right side. 

And #2: Corned Beef and Cabbage

This is one of my favorite meals. Thank you Dad for making this for us when we were kids. 

Here is my 'recipe'

Chop up onions and carrots and potatoes.
I don't know how many you want, I want the whole bottom lined.
Add 4 cups of water.  

Lay your beef on top.
Pour a bottle of beer over it.
I used Guinness because it was in our fridge. I don't know if I would use anything too hoppy. 

Remember that little packet of flavor-goodness that came packed in the with corned beef?  I hope you found it and didn't drop it in with the beef...
Anyways, sprinkle that on top.
Set on Low for 8 hours.
The smell... is amazing. All day your house will smell amazing. 

After about 8 hours, knife the cabbage into thick wedges. I have to cut a little smaller to get it all to fit.
Then, let it cook on Low for 1.5 hours.
Then, serve with malt vinegar.
I have no after pics... we ate it too quickly!

How do you make your corned beef and cabbage? I'm always looking for new ways to make it even better. 

Now for the obligatory pics of a cutie pie:

This was W's outfit yesterday. Hard to believe he's going to be 2 on Monday!

This morning he discovered he could stretch his t-shirt over his knees and look silly. 

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Breakfast Blend

We are in the process of moving in to our new home here in Nashville. Thomas is going to work every day and I'm staying home with Wilson. I feel like I may need to change the blog name to Adventures of a Stay At Home Mom or something like that. But, alas, I seriously love coffee and since that is my exciting moment in the mornings I think I'll keep the one I have now.

We successfully moved from New Haven, CT to Nashville, TN over the weekend. We started by filling up a 16 ft. Penske moving truck on Thursday evening and finished on Friday morning. 

Ready to go!

Meanwhile, I'm still teaching at the Morse Summer Music Academy:

 

We performed this on Thursday: Kashmir - Led Zeppelin

It was a lot of fun. So, anyways - I finish teaching on Friday at 1:00 and we then fight the eternal fight with Comcast to try to return a modem that they neglected to pick up. I filed a formal complaint with the company. But, we start driving and we arrive in Harrisonburg, VA at 2:00 am. We leave Saturday morning at 8:00 am and arrive in Nashville around 5:00 pm. BUT our landlord neglected to leave our keys out as was the plan. Mark and I tried to break in :/ but after about an hour it was all figured out. Had to pull another person from the realtor's office from their church service because ours was actually out of town?!? Oh well. 

So, we've been unpacking and such ever since then. 

Wilson was given an exersaucer and he loves it. 

Uhm... precious!

So, now we are looking into all the things we can do in Nashville. I totally think we are going to hit up the story time at the library. (That's how rock star we are) So, I hope you are doing well. Hope to hear from you about everything!

In Christ,

Julie

Love you buddy!

Today's Coffee: Tall, Dark and Handsome Roast through a French Press

Today is Sunday. It's crazy because it's our second to last Sunday in New Haven. It was Thomas' last Sunday playing at Zion Lutheran. It's hard saying goodbye to people that you have come to know and love - and I feel like that's all I've been doing the past week. And more goodbyes to come. It's hard. And while ending this chapter is difficult I enjoy looking to the future and thinking about where God is taking us. Like, maybe I'll audition for the Nashville Symphony or some community orchestra. I hope to start a string quartet and gig around. We are hoping to have large studios of private students as well. But until we move we will cherish the time we have up here with our friends. 

Wilson is growing up so fast too! He's getting so big - he still hasn't rolled from back to tummy but his standing skills are really amazing and he now wants to grab anything that might possibly be something he could eat. He's enjoying his sweet potatoes a lot more too. One of my violin students KC got to spend some time with Wilson at the pool. 

Just precious!

Again, what a cutie!

He's also doing a great job lifting his head up while on the floor:

Love that face!

And of course, the faces he makes - I've got maybe 5 of these pictures with all different facial expressions. I'll put them on facebook!

We tried to get him to sit up on the rocking chair... not so much.

I've been doing some crafting lately. All sorts of cool things but this shirt is the most recent. I also made it with blue seersucker.... but it didn't turn out quite as well. I'll have to take in the back some. But, for a beginner it really wasn't that bad. 

 

Maybe the next one will come out better. 

We only have 12 days left in New Haven and we haven't gotten near the amount of packing done that we would have liked. I'm teaching every day from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and last week Thomas helped teach at Westminster Orthodox Presbyterian Church's Vacation Bible School each morning. Not only did they sing Scripture songs but he also discussed a different instrument every day. The 5 instruments were: piano, violin, voice (which the kids said wasn't a real instrument), organ and accordion. On the last day he took a vote as to what the coolest one was. And organ was actually the winner!? So, anyways, my point is that when you have a 5 month old and you both teach til 1 everyday you don't get a lot of things accomplished. So, now we are hoping that this week will be better. It has to be actually cause we are running out of time. 

Well, time to get ready for church tonight.

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Tall, Dark and Handsome Roast

"Your way O God is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders, you have made known your might among the peoples." Psalm 77:13-14

This has been our memory verse recently. These are truths that Thomas and I try to dwell on and ponder as we live our lives up here. There have been times that we have not trusted or had the faith that we should have had and this verse in particular is a great reminder of WHO our God actually is. While many believe that we might serve a God who is only seemingly angry and vengeful I remind myself that our God is HOLY. He is just and true and sovereign. He uses situations that seem awful to bring others to Him. Yes, we live in a broken world  - stained because of the sin  - but there is hope and salvation. Why? Because our God is great - like none other - offering redemption. He works wonders - saving people - and making His might known by not answering to man but by being holy and just and loving. These are the truths that I hold on to as He has given us a new home here on earth that is 1000 miles away from where we are now and still 500 miles away from our families. So, we trust in the Lord for all we need. 

We also are very blessed - I mean really, not much that we should complain about. And of course - Wilson! - is just so adorable.

Wilson has started sitting up. Even though this picture looks all cattywhompus - that's Wilson sitting up out of his bouncer trying to get to something else on the bed. :)

 

Here he is sitting up on the bed (if only for a moment) by himself!

He is standing up on the kitchen counter here and I'm only holding his hands. He's a strong boy for only 5 months old! But that face! Just look at that face! What a sweetie pie!

Just adorable!

And random: these are some headbands that I have made for our dear friend Miriam who turns 1 today! I've started crafting more and more and since these were made from old t-shirts it only cost me $1 (for cheap headbands from dollar store) and a little bit of hot glue for the flowers. This is something I've been enjoying a lot lately. I'm hoping this week to really put my sewing machine to the test as I make this really cute shirt with ribbon sleeves. I'll put pics up (depending on how it goes). 

So, here we all are - 20 days until we begin the move to Nashville. It will be so nice to be a little closer to family and I cannot wait to begin that chapter of our lives together! These 'cross-country' moves bring Thomas and I so much closer together - although I will admit I'm not looking forward to having AT LEAST 16.5 hours in a car with baby Wilson - as a 6 month old. He's a great traveler though - already been on 8 planes and traveled thousands of miles as Thomas and I interviewed for jobs in TN and SC. But the long car rides... sigh. 

Til next time! In Christ,

Julie

 

Today's Coffee: Tall, Dark and Handsome Roast

Continuing my desire to post more about our lives this is what has been going on lately:

Well, Wilson is now 5 months old and we were given the go ahead to start feeding him solids - so, being the daughter of the owner of the Brick Street Cafe - with their famous sweet potato pie - I only saw it fitting for sweet potato to be his first real food. So, this is what the sweet potato looked like after I put it through the baby food maker: (yum)

This picture is a little blurry but I thought that this totally captures my little boy! He's SO sweet and cute!

So, back to sweet potatoes, he didn't really like them. After every bite (trying to disguise it as rice cereal) he would make this slightly pitiful face and then not trust the spoon. After several attempts (and a few successes) we decided to try again in a few days. 

Wilson is also a champ at shaking toys now. It's so cute! He doesn't quite know how to shake them without wacking himself in the head sometimes... he'll learn. 

One of the foods that I am pretty much obsessed with for the past few months has been a typical Chicago-style hot dog. Thomas and I discovered that we love Sonic's sweet peach iced tea at the same time of discovering that they are selling different style hot dogs now. And Chicago is one of them. I have put a different pepper on ours this evening but here is a picture of dinner tonight:

There's basically nothing better in my mind right now. Look at all that amazingness. 

So, we also grew a hot pepper in our sad sad garden. We have been gone so many days this summer that we were quite surprised to find this little guy waiting for us this evening - and so yes, he did make it onto our dogs tonight. 

So, that's about it for right now. My baby has a mean case of the hiccups and I'm having a hankering for some cookies. Til next time!

In Christ's Love,

Julie