I have been working hard to get up before Florence wakes.

which by the way has been so stinkin hard 

I have found I am able to handle the days adventures if I start my morning quietly - time spent in the word, a cup of coffee without interruption and getting out my pajamas before she is up makes a world of difference.

 I also get to hear Florences chatter to her stuffed animals and to Mercy -who is sharing a room with Florence and kindly puts up with a great deal.  

Recently I heard from Florence:

I hear the birds!

Mercy! I hear the birds singing...

Do you hear them Mercy?

Auntie Mercy! Do you hear the birds??!

 

No response from Mercy.

I decided that it might be a good idea to get my girl up out of bed before her exuberance for something beautiful disrupted Mercy's sleep any further.

The daffodils are blooming...it's like celebration of Spring all over Syracuse!
Last Tuesday Florence and I picked one before it was in full bloom to watch it open.

Wednesday Caitlyn came for coffee. We sat in the kitchen with the daffodil (so bright and cheerful!). She held my boy and we talked about life - things like:  How's the meal planning going?and, how can we mix simplicity with beauty in our homes? (Caitlyn is reading The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer).  I got out my camera for the first time in ages and tried to capture the simple pleasures of the afternoon. I think I just about got it - almost.

Winter is long and cold here in Syracuse.

Florence is not fussed.  She LOVES the snow.
As consolation to Florence for telling her that it was just way too cold to go out and play in the snow
- often a treat she gets with Nathaniel, playing in the snow is not my forte -
I said we could have a picnic on the kitchen floor.
She pulled her quilt out and spread it on the floor, I made the sandwiches and we sat and munched away.
At some point Titus woke and Florence asked if he might join us - of course - just don't squish him I warned.

And she didn't.

I'm cleaning my house.
I try to clean my house everyday...but this is special cleaning.
Mercy is coming. She is not just coming for a short little visit, she is coming for a couple months.
Yay!....rather....YAAYYYYY!!! I am so excited.

She will be here soon - there is a list of things I need to do to be ready. My weekend list (That way I don't get overwhelmed!):
Today - I'm making space in a closet for her things.
Tomorrow - rearrange furniture to fit a bed.
Sunday - probably more of the same... these days jobs tend to take a bit longer then I think.

Welcome to the world sweet baby boy!

* We are so glad you are finally here! * 

Titus Newton Jackson - born the 10th of December. 

7lbs & 21in long.

just perfect.

 

Last week I turned 30.
I kinda thought I would never turn 30 - but here I am!  A friend commented, "We so often get caught up in dreading growing older that we miss the blessing we enjoy in being given an other year (or day) to live."

Mom and I went to the farmers market last weekend (my birthday weekend...), she bought me a little succulent plant to go on my kitchen window sill as a birthday gift. A lovely reminder for me in the year to come of the sweet blessing I enjoy in my mom's friendship.

Thanks Mom, it looks lovely in my window.

Florence feeding her baby doll

So, it's the end of Tuesday. It's been a good day - thanks.
Things started out a bit bumpy with an early morning and a grouchy baby but as the day unfolded God gave me a day full of sweet blessings. 
A few highlights: 

• Florence took a wonderful long nap while I got a visit in with Nathaniel's mom and sisters.
• When picking Nathaniel up from work he suggested we share a treat lunch at the cafe next to the school. We  enjoyed the chicken salad sandwich and a turkey club. And as usual, the elderly ladies enjoyed 'Flora the Explora' as she wandered round visiting neighboring tables. 
• At my eye appointment I found out the my eyesight has improved since my last eye exam 4 years ago. sweet.
• The weather was warm enough for Florence and I to take a walk together - she loves the bright red and yellow tulips that are in bloom right now. She says in her sweet little voice, 'oohhhh!'

Hope you had some sweet blessings sprinkled into your Tuesday too....

I have been knitting this little sweater for Florence.

It has taken me ages to finish, but has been a really easy pattern.  If you fancy giving it a go, it's a free pattern (yay!) you can find it here.

The sweater is definitely not perfect, but even with all its' quirks Florence looks pretty cute in it.

I almost went with a red button - in the end I decided to go more subtle. And who knows if it still fits her in the Autumn (which it might seeing how huge it is on her...), I might just go ahead and change out the button.

We have been sick with the stomach bug at our house this week...that is, Nathaniel and I have been, Florence has been teething.  There has been a lot of wearing sweat pants and lounging on the couch.
I was feeling much more myself yesterday, so Florence and I went on a walk to Thornden Park so Nathaniel could get some much needed rest, and to distract this little girl from the discomfort of teething.

 We managed to find and almost dry field of grass to explore.
 And look! Florence is finally walking. She is so, so pleased with herself.

Don't you just love the red pants?

When Naomi was packing up their home in Spain, she brought a suitcase to me in London full of clothes Selma wore. Naomi said they were her absolute favorite baby clothes and couldn't bear to give them to a charity shop, would I be interested in them? 
Yes - of course! 

Though I wasn't pregnant yet and Nathaniel and I had transatlantic move of our own coming up I could not resist. And we (I) have really, really been enjoying the clothes in that suitcase, these red pants and white top are just two of the awesome bits Naomi passed on.
fun - don't you think?

Last week Nathaniel had the week off from school...well almost the whole week, he did have to go into school one day to do just a little work. Florence and I joined him and we were put in charge of setting up projects the students did on the fruit of the Spirit around Nathaniel's classroom. As it turned out we were not the only ones in to do a little work that day, and I met another wife who came in to keep her husband company. 
Sarah was very, very pregnant, due to have the baby in the next 5 days. She said she hoped he -the baby- would not decide to come late and be born on Leap Day (is that what 29th Feb is called???). True, I agreed that it would be a little complicated. 
So, today I am wondering whether her baby arrived or not.

Florence and Nathaniel were hanging out together yesterday afternoon while I was running errands. 
When I returned I found this little piece of art on our coffee table - I loved the paper but was a little surprised at the liberty that was taken on the table top.

 
I asked Nathaniel about it, he said:
'I figured that the table top was covered ugly marks and stains anyway, so why not cover it with the creativity of our daughter?'
Hmmm - He makes an interesting point.

follow up...

So I could hardly believe it this morning when I found a muffin and a half left on the plate. Apparently they liked them.  I am so glad they left one for me! - the muffin was indeed delicious.

I feel rather cheeky that they came out so well considering my out look on them last night.
I wondered if they would know that there is only have a half a cup of sugar and a quarter of a cup of oil? this is the healthiest thing I have made them.
So, I guess to sum up. I love the cranberry muffin at Panera Bread, and I felt like this muffin was just as delicious -  even without the nuts. And probably better for me anyway.
Nice.

I have had a bit of a holiday from Friday morning treats, and now I am back to it and I am a bit rusty.
I poked around my kitchen at about 6.30 to see what I had to work with and it seems that I haven't been shopping in about two weeks.  All I had to work with was oranges and frozen cranberries - yes delicious I know but I feel like the guys have been over loaded with cranberry - And on top of it all it seems I used my last stick of butter last night! I know you are wondering why I don't just run out to the store, but it's a bit complicated.
So I have just put into the oven some muffins that uses the random bits I have here at home and will hopefully taste delicious.

Cranberry Pecan Streusel Muffins from Epicurious.com
so I didn't use any nuts, wheat germ or orange extract as I didn't have them in my cupboard, but pretty impressive huh? I am quite please. and I will say that at the moment they smell absolutely delicious. I will post a picture tomorrow to show them off.

my sweet Florence...

 

She will be 1 year old this month...

what ever did I do without her?

Yesterday I helped my in-laws get a few Christmas decorations up.
While poking around in the Christmas closet, looking for a small floral box that contained the string and clips that have held their christmas cards on display year after year, Lucinda pulled out this or that and would comment:
'oh yes, and this is from my childhood, though I only remember there being two of them...'
or
'someone gave that to us for Christmas one year and I have never none what to do with it, would you like to take it?'
or
'if you see anything you need for your Christmas decorating, be sure to take it home with you'.
It was nice to look through some of the treasures in that closet, it got me thinking about my undecorated home down the hill.

Anyway, today I pulled out our one box of Christmas decorations from the closet.
I discovered that we don't have much decorating work to do until we get a tree - it seems that all we own are two strings of Christmas lights and tree ornaments. Oh, yes and three red and white stripped candles that I think have been sitting unused in the box since we were married.

I kept out the candles and two tree ornaments, then put the rest away till we get our tree.

Its a start...I think later this week I will take Lucinda up on her offer to pick out a few Christmas decorations from their wonderful Christmas closet.

Last Thursday I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner all by myself....it's kinda lonely cooking a big meal all by yourself. I was missing the company of my mom and my sisters and my sisters-in-laws. Throwing caution to the wind I called home - we all know that it is dangerous to cook and talk on the phone at the same time, you never know what mistakes will be made!
After being passed around the ladies in the kitchen I was passed (very smart of them) to Mercy who was not yet on duty and who was actually enjoying a bit of breakfast.  She was eating an all time Newton favorite - Cranberry Coffee Cake.  We discussed it - this is kinda how it went:

me: I love that coffee cake, I wish I made it for our breakfast.
Mercy: Yeah, its pretty delicious...but I just wish it had more cream cheese in it you know?  It's just that I love cream cheese so much.
me: Maybe you should talk to Mom about that...maybe the cake could have a cream cheese icing instead of powered sugar.

Anyway, I don't know if you talked to Mom about that cream cheese idea Mercy, but I was inspired by our conversation to make the Cranberry Coffee Cake for the guys tomorrow for breakfast. I considered, for about 5 seconds, how to add more cream cheese for you Mercy but in the end I figured you wouldn't be here to try it so I had just better stick to the recipe.

Cranberry Coffee Cake:
preheat oven at 350 F 
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 cup butter/margerine
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of cranberries (sorry, I don't know if these are supposed to be chopped or not...I did a bit of both. hehe. anyone who knows, do fill the rest of us in!)

Cream the sugar, cream cheese and the butter then add the vanilla and eggs.
Mix together the flour, baking powder and the salt then add to the butter mixture.
Once combined add the cranberries and mix until evenly distributed.
Spoon into a greased bundt pan.
Bake for 1 hour, check after 50 min - it's done when a knife comes out clean!

 

isn't this adorable?

(find out all about it here.)

Sunday brunch jacket by Oliver + S

maybe a nice sewing project for these up-coming long winter days & nights.

I'm thinking it could be a lite Spring coat for florence.

colossians

dear Naomi - it's so good to be asked about how memorizing colossians is going.

lets just say I have had my ups and downs...but I have been pressing on.
we are using a scheme from this website.  the basic idea is to memorize 2 verses a week and by the end of a year you will have memorized the entire book!  it has been so good - but I tell you what those first two chapters are jammed packed with mind boggling theology.  so good, so intense.  it has taken me a bit to get them memorized properly.
at the rate I am going, I think I am on the 2 year plan.  and that's ok, disciplining myself in memorizing scripture is always worth it even if I get off schedule! it is amazing how memorizing scripture reinforces and cements truth in my heart and mind. 
 

I think the coat from Selma will be just perfect for the winter...so cute, even with the sleeves rolled!.

the Thanksgiving center piece. 

nice. simple. little. perfect.

A picture of Autumns last burst of color

I think there must be two kinds of cold - one that makes you want to bake and create wonderful things in the kitchen, and the other one makes you want to cuddle under a blanket, read a book and really do nothing.  yesterday was a cuddle up under a blanket and do nothing sort of cold - lets just say I was not terribly productive.

Nathaniel was so kind as to eat left overs from the night before so I didn't have to make dinner but I still needed to make something for the guys.  I was planning on making an cinnamon type roll with an orange flair - a recipe I tore out of a magazine years ago and never got around to making. 
Due to my 'do nothing' state I didn't get around to starting my baking till 6.30 - not enough time to make a yeast dough unless I was planning on staying up till 11, which I was not.  Instead I flipped to a banana bread recipe in my recipe binder...the title on the recipe: Real Simple Banana Bread.
real simple thats what I needed...and it really was really simple. nice - I hardly had to think while putting this together.
So I guess most of you out there already have a really simple go to banana recipe but for those of you who don't tuck this one away it may just come in handy.

1 stick of butter melted
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
3 mashed ripe bananas
*and I added 1/2 tsp of salt and left out the 1/2 cup nuts*

mix in order given
pour into a large greased loaf pan
bake at 350 F for 50 minutes until golden brown
cool on wire rack 10 minutes then turn out onto rack to cool completely

I did over cook mine - we were having issues with our heater, you understand how one can get distracted by heaters right?  See, because it was so cold in our house we turned the heater on in the afternoon - but then it wouldn't shut off so that it was 84 degrees in our house and climbing at 7.30 last night.
I told Nathaniel that this was the only time in my life we would have our home so warm in the winter and I wasn't even being able to enjoy it because I was stressing out as to whether the heater would ever shut off.  Anyway I was a little distracted and the bread over cooked. but here is the thing - it was still delicious, it just needed a little...ok fine, a lot of butter.
Also - I think this recipe is courtesy of Gab, at least it looks like her hand writing...thanks for passing along this great recipe I have been looking for something like this for ages and silly me, I had it all along.