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.