scones.

This is a recipe I have made many time since I scanned it off the side of a Land O'Lakes half-and-half bottle. Many memories tied up in these guys - mother's days, birthdays, holidays, etc. Several of the early batches were total failures - overworked, crumbly, under cooked things. But I've learned from the mistakes...some of them and now have an almost flawless formula now :)

SCONES

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

.25 cup sugar

2.5 teaspoons baking powder

.25 teaspoon salt

.5 cup butter

1 egg

.5 cup half-and-half

1 tablespoon coarse-grain or decorator sugar

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a fork, cut in the butter. Make sure it's cold...but soft enough to cut in. Add eggs and half-and-half. Mix just until evenly combined. 

Dump onto a greased  backing sheet. Pat out into a circle .5 inch thick. Be sure to not work it too much! Try to touch it as little as possible. Slice the surface like a pie into eight pieces - just the surface...don't cut all the way through. Sprinkle with the course-grain or decorator sugar. 

The recipes calls for baking them at 450 for 20 minutes. Our oven cooks hot so I only bake them for 15 minutes. Depending on your oven, I would start at 15 and check every 5 minutes after that until they are slightly golden on the edges.

VARIATIONS

I have tried many things over the years. Really you can experiment and change these babies up just by mixing in different things. 

#1 One of my absolute favorite is mixing in .5 cup dried cherries, .5 cup flake coconut and .5 tablespoon lemon peel. 

#2 .5 cup chocolate chips and .5 cup flaked coconut (I really like coconut :P)

#3 Instead of patting into a circle, use a cookie cutter to cut out different shapes. The baking time will need to be adjusted for this. Also, if you're adding chocolate chips in, place them on top after they're cut.

#4 .5 cup dried blueberries, 1 teaspoon lemon peel.

There are so many possibilities -I've even heard of adding cheddar and bacon. These are just a few of my personal favorites. 

Enjoy and happy baking. 

xoxo,

-N.

Angel

Sam and Ellie have the most adorable brother/sister relationship I've ever seen. It's the kind you see in stories. They are always looking out for each other, correcting each other, comforting each other. One minute they will be worst enemies and the next the best of friends. It is precious and a blessing for their big sister to see. They always want to do everything together and sometime even ask Mom if we can swap around seats at the table so they can sit next to each other :)

Kaitlin got this idea to make a music video of Casting Crowns' song "Angel" from their new album Come to the Well. Sam and Ellie were the first to come to mind as the perfect actors. A few Saturdays ago we put that thought into action and the result was this.


Enjoy and ignore the first scene...that was supposed to be cut out (it was just a shot to test the light...thus the shakiness) and there was another shot that was supposed to be used there but the editing crew decided otherwise *clears throat*. Anyway... Enjoy.
Love,-N.

my week in eleven

This has been a long, rushing, stretching, life-changing sort of week. Exhausting but priceless. Sunday was the beginning of our church's 30th anniversary conference and it ran through Wednesday evening. Dr. Wayne Hudson came in from Texas to speak for us. And what a speaker. Every message was so powerful, challenging, convicting and exhorting. I have already been changed by it and am seeing other people in the church changed as well. God is working and I can't wait to see how it goes. Dr. and Mrs. Husdon really became a part of our church. We got to fellowship with them on several occasions and I treasure every moment we spent with them. They've left a imprint on my life that will always be there.

On the final night of the conference my former babysitter announced she was engaged to a guy in the church. (Those of you watching live-stream probably saw it) We were all in a total state of shock (and still are). I'm not accepting anymore shocking news until August, okay?

With everything that happened - the crisis of last Friday, the challenging messages, the announcement and other things- by Wednesday night I couldn'tsleep, my mind was racing in so many directions. By Thursday morning I was such a mess everyday things such as putting on makeup were a challenge. So I turned on my iPod while I was getting ready. Matt Hammitt's Every Falling Tear to be exact. That is one powerful album. I was able to completely absorb myself in the music, praising my Savior, and forget everything else. Music is so powerful I don't know what I would do without it. By the time we left to go buy fabric for Easter dresses I was joyful and rested. In my King's arms - there is no better place.

There are other highlights here: Winnie trying to crawl, Pa with some friends at the ice cream social Wednesday night, the new yellow dress I wore Thursday (yellow does wonders for improving your mood), the perfect curtain fabric we found at Joann Fabric for only $90,  my orchid and lunch with Pa's parents at Ilforno. That was my week. And today is Friday. I wish I could be like cousin Violet and say "What is a weekend?" but I will have to wait until I'm independently wealthy for that one :)

It's been a great week.

Lord, You created me//perfectly shaping me//i know my heart//is safe in your arms//Lord, You know everything//so when i feel afraid i put my faith inYou// this life is Yours to give//so with each new day//let every breathe that I take//let it bring You praise//bring You praise//for I am fearfully and wonderfully made//when You choose to take//let it bring You praise//reminding the world that heaven awaits//let it bring You praise

-from "let it bring you praise" by matt hammitt

Hugs,

-BW

decorating & me.

I love decorating. There are so many possibilities and with a little money and a little work you can transform and entire room. Summer of 2010 we mourned by redecorating our kitchen and living room. You wouldn't believe how therapeutic it is.

The quilts on the beds in mine and Kaitlin's room have been in bad shape for a while now. We bought them when we moved into this house ten years ago and have used them daily since. For a while Mom has been saying we need to redo our room but we keep putting it off - partly because we are very attached to our ladybugs and partly because we really don't feel like putting the time into it. But Mom put her foot down a few weeks ago and said it had to be done by Easter. 

So I have been scouring the internet for inspiration, linens and curtains.

We decided to start with linens as we wanted to match our wall color to them. We have visited every store in a thirty mile radius in search of linens...and we found absolutely nothing. Very discouraging. I think we can attribute it to the fact that we really didn't know what we wanted to do, except for light blue walls with wainscot on the bottom. We were clueless.

And then we watched Downton Abbey.

From the time we saw these curtains with the light blue wall we were completely in love and knew exactly what we wanted. Are we pitiful or what to draw decoration inspiration from a TV show? :)

ignore mrs. crawley's weird face and look at the curtains/wall to the left :P

After that things really started to fall into place. We found the *perfect* coverlets on eBay. Two of them. In twin size. Brand new. For $90. With shipping.

Elated by our recent victory, we set out to find curtains. If I had known that something as seemingly simple as picking curtains would turn out to be, I would have run in the opposite direction :) 

We knew we wanted grey and yellow and we made up our minds to go with a damask or a French toile. Sounds simple enough, yes? I thought so too :P

I was thrilled when I found, not one, but two on Urban Outfitters that were just perfect. Well, except the one didn't have any grey contrast but adding a grey sheer would have solved that problem. We just had to decide which to go with and order them.

Then we found out that there was only one panel of the damask left in stock. And the other one was only in stock in the 40-something inch version and not the 82" we needed. We waited for them to restock (they didn't), looked around for someone else who sold the same curtains (there wasn't anyone) and called all the Urban Outfitters stores in the D.C./Prince George's County/Frederick/Baltimore/German Town/Columbia area (they didn't carry window treatment).

Back to Google we go! But there really isn't anything out there. I did find a fabric shower curtain from Pottery Barn that we thought we could cut into panels but it was pretty pricey and still, not quite right.

And I found these from Anthropologie which were perfect but they were $90 a panel (way out of our budget) and they are now out of stock. Double strike out.

I was getting really annoyed with this. In fact, so much so that I actually dreamed about curtains. (yes, I do have boring dreams :P) And this is what we did in my dream (it's was absolutely brilliant!):

We took $20 panels like these (well, they were less gold and more yellow)...

...and fabric paint like this...

 .

..and a stencil like this...

...and came out with these perfect-in-every-way curtains:

I woke up thoroughly excited to have come up with a way to get our perfect curtains, just like we wanted them for a fraction of the price. Then we started thinking about the amount of work that would go into painting your own curtains :) But it's still an option. Maybe I'll make it a summer project or something. We'll see. I did do a quick check at Target.com today and found these which may be an option:

Anyway, that is my curtain sage. No, there isn't an ending yet, but I have a feeling that it will involve a bottle of fabric paint :D Or something practically perfect in every way will show up and it will be worth all the searching. Nothing to do but to wait and see. And, in the meantime, we're having a great time coming up with crazy ways to decorate our room. There is just so much potential!

Any decoration dramas of your own to share with me?

-BW

Horatio Hornblower

I love these movies to itty bitty pieces. Seriously. It's spectacular. Just keep that in mind as you read.

Based on the series by C. S. Forester, Horatio Hornblower is the story of the young Horatio Hornblower, a midshipmen in "His Majesty's Royal Navy" during the late 1700's. We see him go in as a inexperienced kid, midshipmen to a honored admiral. We see his adventures and struggles as he deals with corrupt seamen, fights "the frogs"(as we love to call them :P) and lives for king and country.

Pa and Mom had seen this series back in the 90's when it was first released. A few Christmases ago we bought it for Pa. It got put on the shelf and forgotten about (easy to do when you have as many movies as we do :P) ...until the other day when we pulled it out once again. It took about five minutes before we fell in love

Before all else, when I watch a movie I want action. Romance is optional, but action a must or I get bored and just spend the movie giving a commentary on it. (Pa, Mom, KK and Emma will attest to this) And Hornblower has it. We're talking exploding ships, duels, gigantic battles, hair-breadth escapes, prison breaks, war scenes...this baby is loaded. 

But it's not just action. You get to see the glory of the 18th century British Navy. You get to see Hornblower  as he, shall we say, goes from kid to man. You get to see loads on loyalty, duty and friendship. 

So let's talk about some of the characters:

This is Matthews. He is awesomely loyal to Horatio and has a knack of keeping the crew in line. Oh, and he gives amazing advice. And he's old enough to say whatever he wants, provided he puts a "sir" on the end :)

This is Captain Edward Pellew, Hornblower's first Captain. He rocks.  Extremely wise and outstandingly tactful. He sees potential in his new midshipmen and "takes him under his wing" as his son. Of course, he never lets his feelings interfere with his duty or the way he acts...well, almost never. :P Sadly, this is the best picture I can find. But you get the idea...cool character.

This is Archie Kennedy. He's awesome, hands down. Best friend of Hornblower, they were both midshipmen on the Indy and best friends almost from the beginning. He is definitely the sensible half of the friendship and spends a lot of time convincing his friend to not do something rash...which Hornblower hardly ever listens to but he does anyway :) He is faithful and dependable. Yeah, he struggles with his past but you have to admit he's brave...for crying out loud, he jumped off a cliff with one man who can't swim (Bush) and another who is afraid of heights (Hornblower). *sniff* Poor Archie. KK, Emma, and I cried like babies when...well, when you-know-what happened. It was heartbreaking. But he still holds the place as one of my favorite characters.

I couldn't decide on a picture so I'm posting both...because I'm cool like that.

And this, of course, is Hornblower. He is a hero and a half. Honestly, he has to be one of my top favorite heroes. 

Wow. What do you say? He believes in defending his honor (as seen in the numerous duels he fights), following his superiors, serving his king. Honor, bravery and justice. Yes, even Desperaux would be impressed :) 

But, of all his qualities, the one I admire the most is the way he leads. What stuck me especially hard was when they were imprisoned by the "Dons" and he told his men not to try an escape until he told them to and they went and tried anyway and, just as he knew they would if they went unprepared, they were caught. But then he took full responsibility for the action and took the punishment himself...even though Hunter should have gotten it from both Hornblower and the "Dons"...but I digress. It is a noble leader, and one who will win the heart of his followers, who knows that he is accountable of the actions of his followers. Winston Churchill is quoted to say, "I find Hornblower admirable." I couldn't agree more.

Fans of Amazing Grace will recognize Ioan Gruffudd (Horatio) as William Wilberforce. While he did a spectacular job in both, I have to say I think his performance here was ever better than in Amazing Grace. He stepped into the character so perfectly. I do not believe there is anyone else who could have played the part as well.

Now, as far as romance goes, C. S. Forester stinks. Literally there wasn't one love interest that I actually liked, let alone a satisfactory romance. And the girl he marries -please. He doesn't even love her! It is an universally acknowledged law that your hero falls in love with the girl of his dreams and gets married. That just how things go. And that didn't happen. I'm still trying to figure out why they even bothered to throw that in. What is the point of them getting married if there's no actual love story? Pa-the-tic. But, as that isn't the main focus of the story, it is slightly easier to get over. Slightly.

Oh, one more thing. As a word of warning, this isn't for people with weak stomachs or who can't handle blood. I am in no way bothered by those things but I know some people are so, if that's you, you might want to watch with someone who doesn't mind those sort of things and who will cover your eyes for you. I sat next to Mom during all of them and covered her eyes for her :) She can take most of it but the little midshipmen kids (meaning about 16 years or so) being killed (Did I mention how dangerous it is to be a young midshipmen in the later movies? They were dropping left and right.) was, understandably, a bit too much for her.

Altogether, a truly fantastic series. I'm very sorry it was canceled after the first eight (there are several more books). But there are rumors that Ioan Gruffudd is trying to buy the rights to the books to make a movie and that would be awesome beyond words. Period.

my rating: **********out of ***** stars 
(one of these days I'm going to do a logical rating...just wait and see :P)

So. Your thoughts?

It's been a rough day.

It's been a rough day. I had to option of breaking down crying, laughing or writing a blog post. I've been laughing almost non stop all day so I figured writing a blog post was the way to go.

Here's the thing: I really don't mind when people do/say things against me. I just laugh it off and realize that when people do things against you it typically stems from jealousy. But the thing is, it's never me that people attack. It always happens to the people I hold the dearest. And that cuts deep. Because I tend to be loyal to a fault. And more then anything that happens to me could hurt me, seeing people I love hurting is unbearable.

Apart from that, I'm feeling terribly anemic and keeping my eyes open is a challenge. Good thing we have a lot of red meat in the freezer :) And we finished watching the last Horatio Hornblower and that, everyone knows, is mortally depressing for a Näna. KK and I are still crying over poor Archie...moving on... I'll write a review this week and that will help we get over it.

So I redid my blog. Because that makes everything better. And I memorized a few more English monarchs.

But enough whining. Even with the trials they bring, every day is beautiful. Especially when your life is filled with these people:

And you have promises like this to claim:

"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb....How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee."
-Psalm 139: 7-18

It's Friday. And life is beautiful, come what may.

Love you guys,
-N.