Half-Pint House

Almost Friendship Bread

You've probably received one. A starter for Amish friendship bread. And maybe you were excited because you've wanted to try it and it's kind of fun and the bread is super yummy. Maybe that's been you.

If you've been at all like me you've let your starter die several times. Maybe you forget to feed it. Maybe you forget to squish it. Maybe you just get tired of it. Done! In the trash.

And then you start to wonder - was this really a friendship bread or an almost friendship bread? Because what kind of friend, or potential friend, would inflict another friend with a ziplock bag full of liquid guilt?

It happened to us again a couple of weeks ago. And the funny thing is it happened on the sly. The friend in question had her kids handing out the bags of extra starter. One of the kids kind of ran up to me and tossed the bag in my lap and took off.

I had been starter-ed. My response? It was this: "No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!"

But my kids were exited about it, so we brought it home with us. The first round wasn't so bad - my kids took our starter to a friend's house and they made it there. But then my friend had some 9 new starter bags. This stuff multiplies faster than dust bunnies under my bed. That's some kind of fast.

For the second round, I was determined to feel no guilt about it. I measured out the extra starters...straight into the trash can. I kept one for myself and didn't inflict it on anyone else.

But that seems rather wasteful, you know?

Today I got a brainstorm (and yes, I'm sure I'm the last person on the planet to hatch this genius idea, but indulge me a minute here, okay?): I measured out one starter for me. I the poured the other three cups' worth into a mixing bowl. The portion that remains in the original bowl is what you are supposed to use to make your bread with that day. I discovered that bit of batter is exactly 1.5 cups...bingo! I had enough batter to make 3 batches of bread.

So we now have 6 loaves of Amish Friendship Bread cooling on the counter. And I have a feeling that if I share some of this with a friend, there will be no almost about it.

Home on the Range Ball Field

I've mentioned before my attachment disorder to homes. When you move as often as we have in the 13 years we've been married, it becomes harder and harder to call a place home.

Our house is taking time, but it is slowly starting to feel like ours and is becoming home. But community wise, it has been a harder one for me. Periodically, Craig asks me if St. Louis feels like home yet and I always hesitate to answer. Honestly? I'm not sure what feels like home anymore.

When we lived in Colorado Springs (apart from the time we thought we might be moving to Uganda), I truly didn't think we'd ever move away. Colorado Springs was home: we weren't from there, and didn't have extended family history with the place, but we did have our shared history of starting adult and married life together, so thus it became the default home for me.

Going back to Oklahoma is, of course, my home because my parents are there, but the town I grew up in has changed so drastically I hardly recognize it anymore. Apart from the people, it no longer really feels like home, either.

St. Louis should. We've lived here for almost 5 years now, yet something has held me back all this time. I think at first it was the perceived temporary nature to our move: we came for seminary and we thought we'd move again after seminary.

Moving off campus did help with the whole "Oh, we really do live in St. Louis" mentality, but living somewhere and calling it home are two different things. I was still stuck in a nomadic existence and not sure what to do with that.

Today, I was riding home with three other women from our church's ladies retreat. As we entered St. Louis from the east side, I suddenly realized all four of us were transplants to St. Louis. I asked them when they felt like St. Louis had become home to them.

Not everyone answered, as somewhere in the middle of that conversation we almost got hit by a car and the topic changed, but I do remember this: as we drove past Busch Stadium, I wondered if it might be baseball that represents home here in St. Louis.

Why baseball? It isn't even because Craig loves it so much (though if he didn't, then I wouldn't really have a reason to). But baseball might very well be the one stabilizing factor to our five semi-transient years here in St. Louis.

2005 was our first year here, as well as the year I discovered all the different library systems around that all give away Cardinals tickets as reading prizes. We went to two games that year because of this. We went to a third because my parents came to town and sprung for tickets.

Ever since then we've played the library reading program game, but two years ago I also started buying discount group tickets and selling them so that we could go to more games.

All told, last summer I attended 7 games; Craig  at least 10. We're on track for more of the same this year.

We love baseball. And driving by the stadium today felt right. It may be the only big thing about St. Louis that I can claim right now; everything else still makes me feel like a tourist in my own town. I still have to Google map just about everywhere I go. I still get seriously lost at least once every six weeks. I still see the Arch as a place to take guests to, but not a place to frequent.

But baseball is ours. I know the stadium. I know the route to get there. I know the best place to park. I know how to pack dinner so we don't pay for anything inside. I know how to share directions and tips and tricks with others. I would miss life without it.

I know. I need to get out in my city and learn it. I need to explore it and understand it and work hard to develop a personal history with it.

But until that happens, I have baseball. And as funny as it sounds, that one simple thing grounds me to this place and makes it feel like home.

So Sweet

Am I the last person on the planet to see this? My friend Anna (Hi, Anna!), of my Mike Shannon's-near-miss, sent me this link tonight and I wanted to post it here:

See? I Told You So

I'm writing this post tonight to prove to everyone why it is just better all around for me to go days and days and days without writing anything when I don't really have anything to write.

Because when I choose to write on days I don't really have anything to write, you get to read nonsense.

Like this.

See? I told you so. I'm going to bed now. Isn't your life so much better for knowing that now?

Night.

Watching the Olympics is So Much Work

Or: These girls will disown me some day for posting this photo...

Getting Our Group-on

So if you are one of my Facebook friends or Twitter pals, you probably know I have a serious love of all things Groupon. If you've been hiding under a rock, though, and don't know what Groupon is, it is basically a shared group discount to local businesses/restaurants. The discounts are usually pretty good. The little trick is that there needs to be a minimum number of people to buy in to the discount before it goes "live." But so far, nothing we've participated in has failed to happen due to lack of interest.

Also, every time someone uses my referral link and ends up making a Groupon purchase themselves, I get $10 worth of Groupon money deposited into my account towards a future Groupon purchase.

Confused yet? Bottom line: I have a nice little savings account of Groupon money stored up right now. Sweet.

Anyway, last month one of the local Groupons of the Day was this: For $20 you get a $50 certificate to Mike Shannon's Steaks and Seafood restaurant. I looked at the fine print a little closer and noticed they would let you use two of these for a table of 8 or more. 

Now I've never been to Mike Shannon's before, but thought it sounded like a nicer family restaurant. It's baseball themed, for the love of Pete! I thought this: my parents are coming to town soon. Wouldn't that make a nice evening out for the eight of us? I was thinking $100 would easily feed 8 people. I was thinking it would cost $40 worth of my Groupon money, but not really cost me anything at all. That was what I was thinking. I bought two.

I told my friend, Anna, what I was thinking. She asked me, "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?" Okay, so she didn't shout at me, but she very kindly suggested I check out the menu prices before hauling my entire family over there for a budget-friendly dinner out. So I did.

Did you click the link? Did you laugh at me? Did you find out, like I did, that there is no stinking way on the planet you can feed eight people there for $100, even if four of those eight are under twelve?

Not. Gonna. Happen.

So last night we sent my parents out for a nice dinner. Tonight, Craig and I went.

If you checked the menu prices, you will know that in addition to it being impossible for eight people to eat for $100 at Mike Shannon's, but it is also impossible for two people to eat for $50 there. It is impossible unless...unless you plan ahead. We did that. We decided before we got there we would share our meal. Knowing you are going to do that on the front end makes it much easier to scan the menu for what will work once you get there.

Here's how we made it work: We ordered the 20oz Prime Rib for $35, the Butcher Style Caesar Salad for $8 and the Hand Cut Fries for $8. Our total came to $50 even. I know. If you do the math, it comes to $51, but when our bill came, it was $50 plus tax ($5.xx).

All we had to pay was tax and tip and we had one very excellent salad, steak, and fries for $17 and some change.

And I can tell you this - it was plenty of food for two people. I'm not sorry at all we had to share.

It was one of those once-in-our-lifetime experiences, but for $17, it was a super one!

Anyway, that's my long way of saying, if you haven't heard of Groupon, you should check it out. And click my link on your way. *wink*

Linky Slinky

I've had open tabs all day for links I want to go back to. You might want to check some of them out too.

Tulip Girl: Restoring Gently and Carrying Burdens: This was on my mind this week, after a conversation I had. . . I keep praying that the Lord will show me how to “restore gently” as the boys are getting older, as we are instroduced to new struggles.

Wistful Wrists: No Apple iPad for this Mom! Seriously. If you are a mom blogger, you need to read this. The new Apple iPad is not for you. Sure, they make be marketing it with a catchy name that is sure to catch any woman’s eye <insert sarcasm here>, but I’m pretty sure this thing is really for the Kindle set, which is my politically correct way of saying the geriatric demographic...

Amy's Finer Things: Rice Krispy Roll: Wanna ramp up your Rice Krispy Treats a chocolaty, peanut buttery notch?  Look no further!

Me at WORLDMag.com: Count it all joy: A couple of nights ago I had trouble sleeping. The next morning, I woke up and began praying that God would allow me to find joy in all the things that normally drive me crazy...

Inspired to Action: Perfect Mothers vs. Balanced Mothers: How many of us fall into the trap of believing that we need to be “perfect moms” who raise “perfect children?” That we need to mother a certain way, dress a certain way, keep our homes a certain way and discipline a certain way. That our kids need to behave a certain way, look a certain way and speak a certain way... (hat tip to Amy).

Second Drafts: Live-Blogging POTUS State of the Union Address: He took out my, "We're good enough, we're smart enough, and doggone it, people like me" line. The president didn't say that, but he came very very close. I think it should have a place in Craig's list of mentionables...

January 4, 2010

That's how I used to begin journal entries. It's how I've been beginning them this year, too. I'm four-for-four so far on reading through the Old Testament backwards. Why backwards? If you hold the needle just right it says something totally new and different.

Ahem. Not really. Here's why I'm reading through the Old Testament backwards: I've read Genesis through mid-Leviticus so many times I've lost count. I know myself well enough to know that eventually this will drop off and I will be desperately wishing for routine again. But as long as I'm in the middle of a good streak, I thought I'd mix it up a little to give myself a fighting chance.

I think I've only actually made it all the way through the entire Bible one time. I usually camp out in the Psalms, Proverbs, and New Testament letters. That is to say, I haven't spent that much time with the minor prophets. So I started with the last book of the OT and am now in the next-to-last book of the OT. The variety is really working for me right now, so I'm going with it.

In keeping with other attempts to shame myself later, we went to the gym today for the first time in, well, a long time. We found out our membership expires on February 3rd, so we're taking the month of January to decide if we should renew it. If we can't get our collective hineys in gear by February 3rd, then we'll probably let the membership go. If we can continue to go more than today, we'll consider it.

I'm giving the Couch to 5K plan a shaky start. I had no idea Day 1 would be as hard for me as it was, but that's what happens when you only get on a treadmill once each year. I didn't do this on a treadmill, though; I did it on the track in the gym. I think I like the track better - there is less time to over-analyze what everyone else might or might not be thinking as I slug my way around. There are people way better than me and also people way worse, as I'm your lower middle class track user. I'm trying to avoid what will inevitably put me in a class I don't even want to name by going, because if I don't so something more consistently than once/year, unfortunate things are going to happen to me.

Which brings me back to Weight Watchers. I'm now on day 2 (again). The plan works for me. My problem is that every time I lose 10-15 pounds I stop and then I eat my way right back up to where I was again. And that's exactly where I am right now. Only 1.5 pounds less than where I started last June (I lost 10 last summer, then gained 8.5 back again).

Are you sensing a theme here? I could probably go back into the archives of this very blog and pull up early January posts that sound very similar to this one. Because I've done this before. But I don't want to give up because I know my normal zero-tolerance policy toward self-discipline. I don't want to give in to what is usually me. The year I don't try anymore? That will be one very sad year.

I'm seeing folks all over the blogosphere coin their "Blogging Goals of 2010." I'm noticing a lot of desire for their blog traffic to increase dramatically this year.

That's not on my list of goals. Honestly? I've been tempted to play the blog games. I think I know how to do it. I've never been interested in that, though. There was a part of me that wanted to join the ranks of the "conference" bloggers (you know, the ones who go to blog conferences to learn how to build better blogs). I considered trying to find a sponsor to pay for my ticket to the conference. And then I asked myself, "Why?" If I get one weekend away by myself, why in the world would I want to spend it at a blog conference? Truthfully? I don't. I'd rather go to L'Abri again (though even that isn't an option this year).

This blog is not what I want to devote my resources to.

Getting back into the Word again? Yes. Attempting, yet again, to shed this cursed 15-20 pounds? Yes. Focusing on the homeschool part of "homeschool parent" which I am? Yes.

Blog Queen? Not so much.

So, I hereby set not one single goal for my Half-Pint House. I will write when it seems good to do so; I will be glad when you come by and let me know you did.

And that's about it. The rest of my goals? Much more important to me and to my family.

Peace to you this year as you navigate the world of what best to give yourself to. May it be what draws you closer to the Lord, and keeps your heart in tune with the calling God has placed on your life.

Happy New Year.

Oh yes, I have another post

We're in Oklahoma. We left at 5:45am yesterday morning thinking it would be a good idea and that most of us would sleep in the car most of the way here. In reality, I slept most of the way here.

We won't make that mistake tomorrow when we go back home.

But while we were on our way, I did post something on WORLDMag.com. Something on marriage again. So it's over there if you want to read it.

Happy New Year, everyone! I still want to call it two-thousand-ten. You can call it twenty-ten. Doesn't matter to me.

December Photo Project Drop Out

Well, I pretty much tanked on the December Photo Project, didn't I? I just plugged in my camera and realized I had about 64 photos on there. I guess I continued to take some, just forgot all about posting them. Sorry, Rebecca! I'll try to do better next year. That is, if you don't kick me out next year because of how I behaved this year...

I'm not going to post 10 photos to cover the last 10 days, but I will post a couple to give a recap of what's been going down with the Dunhams.

On the 18th, Craig and I went to the WCA Christmas banquet. Here's Craig in this smashing bow tie that I learned to tie exactly 10 minutes before we had to leave by watching a youtube video seven times. Seriously. I'm pretty proud of this tie. The man is pretty snazzy too.

The banquet kicked off Craig's two weeks worth of Christmas break. It also kicked off our "I KNOW. Let's paint the dining room right now!" project. We painted it yellow. There is no more, and I repeat, NO MORE peach on our walls. Not one drop of it. Nor is there any country blue floral border to be found anywhere. (There are country borders in two bedrooms upstairs, but those will be taken care of some other "break").

The yellow goes with the orange, like so:

And our carpet is still teal green, but there's not a lot we can do about that. If you knew us in Colorado you would know that we had orange walls in our kitchen, wrapping around into our living room. We had sage green walls in the living room and down the hall. We had a yellow ceiling over the whole thing.

And without even thinking about it or realizing it, we just recreated that house in reverse. Seems like we're just your plain old orange/yellow/green kinda folks. We're okay with that. I did decide to keep the ceilings the same color as the walls in that room, so in this I am showing signs of maturity. There is hope.

By the way, I LOVE painted ceilings. White ceilings totally miss out on the whole party.

And, because we now have totally bare windows, it is time to finally do something about it. I've started the next two hobbled Roman shades for the dining room.

And here we have the obligatory Christmas jammies/stocking shot (and no, we don't give our kids beer for Christmas, though in this photo it looks like we did just exactly that):

This one really likes her new lap quilt:

And now I'm baking a cake and getting ready for M10 to turn into M11 tomorrow.

And that's been our last 10 days in a nutshell.