Eastering

 I hope everyone had a lovely Easter!  Ours was.

The nasty storage clothes bins covered in dirt and grime and dust from the barn provided each of us with at least something springy and clean to wear (this hasn't been our first Easter rodeo) which I discovered too late to do anything about it if they hadn't anyway.

That mess of a counter at the beginning of this post turned itself into beautiful loaves of egg bread, dozens of copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls with honey cinnamon butter, lemon curd and angel food cake.  

And the sun warmed up the mud enough to not squish and splatter while children looked for eggs. 

I know I spout off all the time on how the Lord has taken the broken, ugly, tattered and awful and uses it all to bring about good and beauty and truth.  But it amazes me all the time.  And there is no other time that speaks more fully to this than the Resurrection.

He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!

Smartie Pants

 

Cousins

While the newest cousin was coming into the world, the rest of the cousins (*almost*) came to our house to hang out for the day.

Moses has a playmate almost exactly his age.  It was a lot of fun for him to have Nevaeh around and they took turns and shared like regular chums.  There were a few moments throughout the day where bittersweet thoughts choked me up, thinking silly thoughts about how this felt a lot like what life should have been like with the twinnies and how I missed a life I never really had to begin with.  

Funny, that.

Who's that determined little waif?

It was a glorious day!  Warm!  Sunny!  Muddy!  Delightful! And the crocuses were in bloom, just in time to garnish some delicious mud and sand pies...

And then, little Wyatt entered the world!

Due to CoViD restrictions, I couldn't visit at the hospital so it took an excruciatingly long FIVE WHOLE DAYS to meet him!

I may or may not have asked Matt if we could make a baby when I got home.

My Mom came to meet him too...

And look at that happy Mama!  

Looking good, Elizabeth! Well done, you.

 Welcome to the world baby Wyatt.  You really are a deer dear.

It's EEtza Night (as Ineke used to say)

Friday nights at our house look a lot like this:

Not because you care, but because I am self-conscious about my pizza crusts: those two pizzas in front are keto pizzas which is why they are as flat as pancakes.  My regular pizza dough makes beautiful crusts.  And now you know I have a pizza crust pride issue.

 Happy weekend, folks!

Sudsy

When something doesn't work out the way I intend for it to, it irks me.  So when I decided to make a batch of soap for a supply of ready-made and Christmas gifts (yes, still working on that resolution to make a gift a month) and it doesn't work out like I had envisioned, I get all stubborn-like and refuse to move on until it does.

I will not be bested by soap.

The result?  LOTS of bars of soap, from LOTS of different batches and several different recipes.  I am not entirely pleased with any of it- not enough scent, needed to be rebatched, not sudsy enough, etc.  but I don't plan to stop until my lye runs out or I find a consistently reliable and wonderfully scented soap.

I will not be bested by soap.

The good news? We now have lots of reject soap to keep ourselves clean. 

 It should last us a good 10 years or so since it can be like pulling teeth to have certain of my children bathe.  

I mean, I am not one of those mothers that insists on daily tubs...but weekly is not too much to ask, right?  golly.

By the look of the last soap batches' dirty dishes, this soap recipe might be a winner!