A Christmas Survey

Taken from Lauren's blog ;)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

wrapping paper. It's cheaper!

2. Real tree or Artificial?

artificial. It's cheaper! lol. Also, I hate tree needles all over the floor. Ugh. I hate sweeping. Why create extra work? Light a candle for the smell, sheesh.

3. When do you put up the tree?

As soon as we possibly can after thanksgiving. (This year, it was 1am on the day after)

4. When do you take the tree down?

Around New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog?

I never had it growing up, but yes, in small quantities.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

Hmmm... I don't know, I had so many wonderful gifts given to me.

7. Hardest person to buy for?

My Brother in Law. What do you buy for the man who has everything?

8. Easiest person to buy for?
This year, I think it was my sister. But it varies.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?

No

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Um, neither yet.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

That's a terrible question.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

I absolutely HATE christmas movies. I cannot think of a single good one. They are all cheesy.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

Planning... Early October. Shopping... Black Friday.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

Only for the annual white elephant party

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Um, mom's ham biscuits? Or occasionally she makes monkey bread.

16. Lights on the tree (colored or clear)?

CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR

17. Favorite Christmas song?

any hymn or Johnny Cash song. We listen to Johnny Cash incessantly at Christmas.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Stay in town.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Doner and Blitzen, but do you recalllllll the most FAAAMOOUUSSS RAINDEER OF ALLLLLL. Rudolph! (and Olive, of course.)

20. Angel, star or ribbon on top of tree?

Star! I love it.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

A couple on Christmas eve. (christmas pjs and my sister and I usually exchange on Christmas eve.) But mostly on christmas day.

22. Favorite children's Christmas song?

I always associate "I said the cow all white and red" with kids and Christmas.

23. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

Christmas movies? I don't know. I really love this time of year.

24. Favorite ornament theme or color?

my tree has silver and red christmas balls, but otherwise, it's kinda a mismatch. i hate themed trees.

25. Turkey or ham on Christmas day?

Um, I don't have any idea. I guess ham?

26. What do you want for Christmas this year?

Just to celebrate. I find it exciting, regardless of what's in the package. Although, I did ask for some clothes and house stuff and fun things that I wouldn't otherwise be able to buy for myself. :)

27. Does anyone in your family dress up as Santa?

No. Although one year, he did rip his pants on my parents fireplace and leave sooty footprints. :) That was a fun year.

28. Age you discovered who Santa was?

5

29. Eggnog, hot chocolate, or apple cider?

ohhh... Probably apple cider lately. Although I love a good hot chocolate as well.

30. Traditional colors (red and green) or other colors?

Everything is red, green and silver.

31. Do you have any Christmas decorations on your roof?

no. We don't have any outside this year. Hoping to buy lights in the after Christmas sales. *Fingers crossed*. But i don't think I'm a "decorations on the roof" kind of girl.

32. How does Santa get into your house?

He doesn't come right now. maybe when there are kids. And since there's no fireplace... I guess we'll have to crack open a window. lol.

33. Do you prefer gifts or gift cards?

Either. :)

34. Favorite children's Christmas Cartoon?

Hm, maybe Rudolph claymation one, but idk. Christmas movies are LAME.

35. Favorite Christmas Memory?

I love christmas eve. The candlelight service, the luminaries all over, driving around to see lights, eating, singing... So... I guess every Christmas Eve ever.

Who Am I?

I've been a little depressed lately. Who am I? Why do I spend all my free time cooking? Am I turning into a mindless domesticated woman? What is it that I actually like to do?

I had a conversation this morning at church with a friend about this subject as well. I mean, work takes up most of my time, but then I just come home and... do nothing! So what's wrong with me? It doesn't help that my sweet husband is ALWAYS studying. He certainly knows what he wants to do with his free time.

Jake and I were talking about this on the way home from church today and it was clear that he didn't quite understand. He said that I am a strong woman with a great career. I enable him to do all the things that he does. I enjoy eating yummy foods and find satisfaction in that... so what exactly was I being so hard on myself about?

I kinda think he's right. Sometimes I choose to be unhappy because I think that things aren't the way they *ought* to be, or weren't the way I expected them to be. But that doesn't make them... not wonderful. Sometimes you just have to take some time and enjoy life.

So today, I choose to be extremely content, because I have fresh flowers on my table, and delicious homemade-from-scratch ice cream. I choose to happily crawl under a giant quilt with some apple cider and a very silly book. Today, I choose to be content with who I am. And not worry so much about defining it.

The Main Difference

Last night, I was at a little get together with some married friends. Two of us had kids. Two of us did not. We were all sitting around chatting and it fell into the "Oh, is Junior sleeping through the night now?" "Well, little JoJo is a good eater, but a terrible sleeper." At which point, us two non-moms chimed in with "Well, little Fido is really a troublemaker."

I was thinking about how terrible it is to compare someone's children to your pets... and I had a revelation in the main difference between pets and kids.

Sure, Fluffy probably won't cry all night, and Fluffy won't grow up and start to hate you, and Fluffy doesn't need a college fund... but when it comes right down to it: We want our pets to be stupid, but we want our kids to be smart.

I feel like this explains a lot. Feel free to subscribe to this blog for other such brilliant words of wisdom! :p

Just some random thoughts...

So a lot has been going on lately... I'm considering going back to grad school part time while I work... Best to do these things while you're young, right? Before there are children and so many responsibilities... I just hope I can get in to the school I want... We'll see...

And then work has been a little crazy lately. I guess I'm finally just getting a real world picture of my industry. It just takes a little adjustment.

I've been thinking a bit lately about why I only write about my "domestic" endeavours on this blog. I guess there are a few reasons.

1 - work is fun and I am certainly passionate about what I do, but I cannot figure out a single way to describe what I do on a day to day basis to a non-programmer without getting a look like I'm a crazy person. And maybe I am. ;) Still. Makes for a boring read.

2 - Programming is puzzles. Puzzles which I love, but it's extremely important for me to actually take break when I get home. My mind subconsciously works on these puzzles while I am baking bread, taking a walk... and most frequently in the shower or while I'm napping! It's just the way my brain happens. So if I come home from an 8 hour day of staring at a software bug, and then write all about it on my blog, well... I'm pretty much guaranteeing I won't have it figured out by tomorrow.

3 - The name of the blog, after all, is DOMESTIC Diva. Not Awesome programming lady diva.

I guess all I wanted to say is that I love blogging about my crazy mishaps in the kitchen. I really enjoy all these little hobbies I'm picking up lately. But I do my job not just because it supports us, not just because I'd be bored without it, but because I really do love programming. I just need some hobbies too.

Domestic Endeavors

Well, I just had to write a post to brag about my first domestic diva win!! I made a wreath!! Entirely out of a metal coathanger, some flowers from the dollar store, and packing tape! And it looks awesome! I'm hoping to find a wreath hanger tonight, but in the mean time:


And then we had birthday cake situation. You know what, I'm going to call it a win. Sure, the cake was a box mix. Sure, the frosting came from the store. And yeah, the cake did have a giant gap in the side between the layers.. but for the first time ever, I made a cake, leveled it (or attempted to), and decorated it, without crying, throwing a temper tantrum, or needing Jake to come rescue me and the cake! And how diva is it, if you're always falling apart anyway?

So see, friends? If even I can have an occasional success, so can you.

OneYear!

Jacob and I celebrated our one year anniversary today. Last night, around 11:30pm, I grabbed him by the shoulders and exclaimed, "Jake, we only have 30 minutes left in our first year of marriage! It's all downhill after this!!" He laughed. :)

It really was a lovely day. We went to his parents church to hear a guest speaker he was interested in, then went to breakfast before heading to our own church, where he taught Sunday school.

We had an excellent lunch - homemade pizza and wedding cake! The pizza had homegrown herbs, tomatoes and jalepenos on it! Yum. And the cake actually tasted pretty good for being in a freezer for a year.









And he took a few minutes to tell me what he loves and appreciates about me and told me he was so glad we'd spent the last year together. I think I'm starting to believe him.

Garden and The 4th

I mostly just want to show off some pictures.

The garden is doing EXCELLENT!! We picked like 12 cucumbers last weekend and another 14 this weekend (but two were overripe and had to be thrown into the compost). Jake built me this awesome fence for the garden too - it really looks great!

We've also been getting some grape tomatoes and lettuce... the big tomatoes are just refusing to turn red! I even have a couple of okras and a few baby peppers that I hope grow up soon.

I also had an excellent 4th of July! We bought a picnic basket and my parents gave us a picnic table for our housewarming gift and we sat outside and ate delcious sandwiches. Then we walked over to the park and watched the fireworks. It was wonderful!

Sometimes life is just so fun. I hope these are the moments we remember forever.

Diva is Angry

This week on the interwebs there's been a great hustle and bustle about being a stay at home mom/wife. I am getting really angry and frustrated, so this is a rant, a vent, whatever. Stand back.

Today, I was accused (not directly, but as a general statement) of being a "Complegarian." (Complementarian/Egalitarian compromiser). What's more, I was informed that such a compromise is not only wrong, but it starts me down a slippery slope which will cause me to misinterpret scripture and ultimately dishonor God.

FIRST, I think this whole argument is completely stupid. I am a Christian and a Bible reader first. Yes, I tend to adhere to the views commonly known as Calvinism, but I read Scripture and THEN decide if Calvinism still makes sense. *THAT* Is why theology is important. These discussions bring out the differences and therefore cause you to think through the finer points. They help you consider things you hadn't considered, they teach you more about Christ and they help you worship better. YOU DO NOT START WITH THE THEOLOGY OR THE CREED OR THE CHURCH FATHER. YOU START WITH THE BIBLE. Being a flaming Egalatarian will NOT send ANYONE to Hell.

SECOND, this idea that there is only one way to manage a family or parent is complete nonsense and I am soooo sick of it.

Is it a sin to keep your child home? It might be.
Is it a sin for you to stay home and not work? It might be.
Is it a sin to send your child to private school? It might be.
Is it a sin to homeschool your child? It might be.
Is it a sin to send your child to public school? It might be.
Is it a sin to send your child to daycare? It might be.
Is it a sin for you to work outside of your home? It might be.

When someone find the verse that says "Thou shalt only work outside of the home if thou art a schoolteacher and hide your child under a bushel" please let me know.

The issue has nothing to do with the actions in these situations, but the heart and the purpose. I do believe that I should submit to my husband and to God. I'm not saying it's easy, but I do believe that. I believe that men and women are of equal value, different purpose, different desires, different needs.

This Domestic Diva will work her butt off to send her husband to school to get as many degrees as possible. I will continue to work so that he can serve our church without pay. So just back off, ladies.

Season's Gleanings

My husband asked me "You're going to blog about the cucumbers and the bread together? What are you going to call it? 'Season's Gleanings'."

Well, now I am!!!

So. Cucumbers and bread.

I wasn't even going to blog about my sad looking loaf of Rosemary Garlic bread, but when I got home, my husband had demolished an entire loaf of it, so I thought that regardless of looks, it must taste yummy enough to be posted here. I purchased "Brenard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads" on half.com (for like $5, woohoo!) and attempted to make one last night. It turned out okay - I need to buy some wheat flour and next time I won't smoosh it after it's risen... and I'll probably try some fresh rosemary... but all in all, not a I was pretty pleased with how my first breadmaking attempt turned out.

And cucumbers!! Tonight we picked our first cucumber and a couple of lettuce leaves (for our burgers.) Oh my my my. If I can ever get everything growing, I have lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalepenos and celery - that would be the best salad EVER! Oh and if my carrots ever grow....

So tonight, we nomed on our bread and cucumbers :) cheap and DELICIOUS.

Behold, the mighty fitted sheet

I saw this video today and I thought it was domestic-diva-y enough to deserve a link on this blog.

You treacherous fitted sheets, wadded up in my linen closet! Tonight, you shall be mine!

Compost Fail

Today, after what we shall refer to as a "worm ordering fail" (ladies and gentlemen, please check that an internet company hasn't gone under before trying to order products from them.), I FINALLY got my pound of red wiggler worms in today.

As my compost was beginning to outgrow its existing (closed but aerated) bin, I decided to put it in a bigger (open) bin for the worms to get to work to. Remember how I explained the "good smelling microorganisms" before? Well, we didn't get any of those, because I have the compost of A THOUSAND POOPY DIAPERS! (Actually, I might prefer the diapers...)

We've learned a few more things about composting tonight via the interwebs, and I thought I'd share. Balance the compost - people refer to this as "wet/dry", "green/brown" or "nitrogen/carbon". Too much fruit and grass makes you have a wet, green, smelly, nitrogen-y compost. Apparently, instead of recycling those Sunday papers we should be composting them.

We added a lot of "dry" material to the compost tonight and put a lid mostly covering the compost, and we're just going to pray that the worms eat and the carbon decomposes faster than our neighbors can report us for an "unregistered landfill". (Apparently you can get fined for this.) If it still smells tomorrow night, we may have to take more drastic action.

Molly Piper

I started reading Molly Piper's blog right after her Father in Law (Pastor John Piper) announced on twitter that she was pregnant with the twins. Let me just say, I love this blog.

One thing that I get so frustrated by is women's bible study literature. Yeah, we've got big life issues to work through in a godly way - we want to learn to be submissive wives without being doormats. We want to learn how to raise our kids in godly ways (at least, so my mom-friends tell me). We want to figure out how we fit our emotional, imperfect selves into the Christian walk and glorify God while we do it.

This does NOT. mean we all want books written by beauty queens and soft spoken old ladies talking about nothing more than how this particular bible verse makes us *feel* right now. We're smart ladies! We have real people thoughts.

And where are we supposed to turn? They think I'm crazy at work because my husband ultimately is the decision maker in my home. And then there's sometimes this attitude in the church that God made me for baby-making only, so what am I doing outside my home in the first place? Now before I get carried away about all the woes and trials of being a Christian woman, let me just stop and say,

Molly Piper, thank you for being so awesome. Thank you for not having perfect hair and for admitting that this Christian thing can be tricky. Thank you for loving your husband and your kids and God, and still having a brain in there. Thank you for being so encouraging and real.

Now, go read her blog. http://mollypiper.com/

cake!

I would like to begin by explaining the fate of my previous 3 two-layer cakes.

Cake one was a mountain dew pineapple cake (yay Cake Doct0r) for my mom's birthday. The cake fell and so the pineapple topping was more like soup in a cake bowl. It tasted yummy though.

Cake two was a box birthday cake for my sweet husband. I had just gotten my icing tips and I wanted to make something beautiful. It ended up breaking in half, and while I was slathering icing over the crumbs to "put it back together" and sobbing, while occasionally falling in the middle of the floor.... Jacob finally took it from me and threw it away.

Cake three was another Cake Doctor attempt - this time at a Strawberry cake, for my mother in law's birthday. This one not only got the soup bowl effect, but it tasted like strawberry powdered milk. Not my best evening...

So onward to cake four. I decided to offer to bring a carrot cake to my grandmother's house for Easter, because I had seen this very cute decorating video on allrecipes.com that I wanted to try. Given the fate of my previous three cakes, I thought I'd do a trial run this weekend, and if it succeeded, take it to a friend's party later.

Yaaaaay!!! (Note, my husband has insinuated that objects in pictures may actually be less lovely than they appear.)

But I would just like to proudly state that this cake is totally covered in frosting, the carrots resemble carrots and there is no huge dip in the center. I win the cake making game. :)

And if you'd like them, here are the recipes for Carrot Cake, and colored frosting (although the frosting was a little slippery... and a how to decorate video.

Gardening in 1975

Last night Jake and I went up to a local college. After visiting a comic book store, a used bookstore and my second ever Bubble Tea (much tastier than the first time I tried it.), I came home with a book on vegetable gardening. First of all, there are not very many books on vegetable gardening... Hundreds and hundreds of books about flowers, but if you wanna grow some food, you are on your own.

I started reading mine in bed last night. The author keeps talking about how vegetable gardening is gaining popularity due to the energy crisis and the high cost of food, not to mention the economic downturn... this book was written in 1975.

So I spent a little time on wikipedia this morning: 1975 - Watergate had just happened, and the Vietnam War, which had started almost 15 years previously, would FINALLY end that year in April. There was of course the ongoing Cold War, and they started Daylight Savings time in February because of an energy crisis. Wheel of Fortune started that year, which I thought was kinda fun. The world population was only 4 billion (we're at 6.8 billion now.) Apple Computer would be founded the next year and they're about to land on Mars.

And apparently, people liked to grow their own food.

I've already learned a lot from this book, but mostly, it's kinda fun to be connected to the gardening divas from 35 years ago.

Oh, and I have several sprouting cucumbers and romaine lettuces inside already!!!! :-)

Chicken Tetrazzini

Currently Playing: Memories Are Made Of This - Dean Martin

Tonight, I tried Lauren's recipe for Chicken Tetrazzini. Jacob and I were both getting sick of the ginormous lasagna I made this weekend and I thought I was going to scream if I had one more tomato based food item.














I added extra minced onions, because I was actually dicing and sauteing a fresh onion, and because Jacob has some Italian heritage, I added red pepper flakes. (he tells me this is the way an Italian dish ought to be eaten.) Lauren, what kind of cheese do you use? We used Swiss because I accidentally bought some a few weeks back so I had it on hand...

Lauren- two thumbs up!! Thanks so much for this delicious recipe!

Worms...

Currently Playing: The Bird and the Worm - Owl City

I just bought a half pound of worms. Red Wrigglers, they're called. Ew. So why, exactly, would I have done that? Because Jacob and I have been composting for awhile now... but there are two types of composting. Worm kind and microorganism kind. We were trying for the microorganism kind, but there are 2 key elements:

• warmth (you only need about 50 degrees)
• and air

We tried to get air by drilling holes in our composting container and shaking it every day so that it flipped around and got air in there... but we have learned that:

• Time + Warmth + Not Enough Air = SMELLY microorganisms...
  

(apparently if we had gotten enough air, the nice smelling microorganisms will compost your food for you. Seriously.)

However, worm composting is faster... worms can compost half their body weight a day... sooo... my 1/2 pound of worms can compost 1/4 pound of food a day. And make baby worms. Yay!

So while this may be more than you ever wanted to learn about my garbage (and smelly composting bin)... well, that's just too bad for you, I guess. :)

Couch to 5k!

Currently Playing: Such Great Heights - Postal Service


I heard about this c25k thing a few weeks ago and I wanted to try it. The idea is you take people like me - easily frustrated, hate working out, and completely out of shape, and in 9 weeks, they're running 5 kilometers (or about 30 full minutes.)


So far I've completed 2 days and it's amazing. You alternate running and walking and me and my doggie run together, and I can actually do it! I downloaded one of the c25k apps for my itouch (it announces when to switch, but it still lets you listen to your own music while you go, which is a big plus.)

I really struggle with self image... I guess a lot of us girls do. But I either attempt some obsessive diet for a few days, or else eat tons of junk food. My husband is extremely encouraging and always tells me that I'm his beautiful girl, but I still struggle. The great thing about this running thing is that I feel so sore and SO GOOD when I get home. It helps my attitude, it helps my hormones and it helps my self image.

A Garden Girl

Currently Playing: Grapevine Fires by Death Cab For Cutie

Ever since I was a little girl and I read the American Girl Doll books about Molly and her Victory Garden... I have wanted to grow my own vegetables. My mother in law gave me some seeds so I went ahead and seeded them today (in the middle of my living room, haha.) I'm so excited! I've got (if they all come in)

• 7 Yellow Bell Pepper plants
• 10 Jalepeno Pepper plants
• 3 Watermelon plants
  
• 3 Early Girl Tomato plants
  
• 3 Big Boy Tomato plants
  
• 4 Sweet 100 Tomato plants
  
• 9 Cucumber plants
  
• 10 Celery plants
• 8 Spinach plants
  
• 12 Romaine Lettuce plants
  
• 3 Cilantro plants

I am really nervous that I'll kill everything, but hopefully some of these will grow up to be yummy food. I just can't imagine how proud I'll be to know that the cucumber on the table was grown by me!! I can't wait to move into our new house and get these little seedlings planted. It meets all of my goals of being frugal, healthy and enjoying a new fun hobby!


Cost: Seeds = free (from my Mother in law who had extras); Jiffy Profession Greenhouse =$5.50. Water can = $2.00. Total: $7.50

How To: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/directory.html <-- my vegetable bible... -Domestic Diva