Making a House a Home

My dearest, loveliest Elizabeth. Three years ago today you were placed in our arms. That was the happiest day of my life!! I am so glad that the Lord chose us to be your forever family.

So, what's up with our adoption? Well, our homestudy update was completed in November and we're officially in "waiting" mode. This could take weeks, months or, gasp, years. Yep, I recently found out about a family that waited FOUR YEARS for their child. Oh my. Am I prepared for that?? Heaven help me!!!!

The wait for China was much easier. I knew how their system worked and I knew that we were kind of standing in line for it to be our turn to be matched with our child. But now? Oh my. There is no line. There is no system to figure out. It's just one big waiting game. Sigh.

So... what does a girl do while waiting? Well, you go shopping, of course!!!!




I didn't buy anything major. These are just some burp cloths, tiny socks and tiny onesies. I realized the other day that we have NOTHING in this house for a newborn, so when "the call" finally does come, we'll be going crazy trying to get things together!! So I figured I'd buy a few things here and there to prepare.

I don't know whether to buy girl or boy things. We requested a little girl because we already have tons of girl things and also because our house is small and the baby will be sharing a room with Elizabeth. If the agency calls us with news of a little boy, I am KNOW we will be more than thrilled and, well, we'll just figure out what to do about the bedrooms. :)

So that's where we stand with our adoption. Waiting. Just waiting. And one day "the call" will come and I'll be a nervous wreck. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Once again, a post with NO PHOTOS!!!! I am sad, but what could I do? We had company today for lunch and she would've thought I was NUTS for taking pictures of the food! HAHA!!! I do promise, though, that we all LOOOOVED this!!! I most definitely will be making this again!!!


Cheeseburger Soup

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, grated
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 1/4 t dried basil
1 t dried parsley flakes
4 T butter, divided
4 cups chicken stock, divided
5 cups diced peeled potatoes
3 T all-purpose flour
8 ounces process American cheese*
1-1/2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream

In small sauté pan, melt 3 T butter. Add flour and whisk 1-2 minutes until mixture turns light brown. Gradually stir in 1 cup chicken stock, whisking as you add more stock to make a smooth and thick mixture.

In a dutch oven, melt 1 T butter and then brown beef; remove any grease and then stir in onions, carrots, celery, basil and parsley. Add 3 cups chicken stock and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add butter/flour/stock mixture to dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Add cheese, milk, salt and pepper to taste; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.

8 servings

*I used 8 oz of American cheese sandwich slices!! Yep, I unwrapped each one. Seriously!! It was SO perfectly wonderful!! I'll do it again, too!! YUM!!

While the snow started coming down last Friday, I was MORE than happy to make this delicious soup for my family. Boy is this GOOD!!! Thank you, Jesse, for the recipe!!!


Lasagna Soup

2 tsp olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage (bulk or with casings removed)
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 T tomato paste
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
8 oz fusilli (or other) pasta
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil
8 oz ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add sausage and saute 5-7 minutes. Drain excess fat from pot. Add onions and saute until soft, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes and saute for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and saute until the paste turns a rusty brown color (about 5 minutes). Add tomatoes with their juices, stock, and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.


Add pasta and increase heat to medium high. Boil soup until pasta is cooked. Discard bay leaves and sitr in basil and salt and pepper to taste.

In a small bowl, combine ricotta, parmesan 1/4 tsp salt and pinch of pepper and mix well. To serve, place 1 1/2 T of this mixture in each bowl. Sprinkle with mozzarella and ladle soup on top.

Makes 13 cups


And, I am sorry to say, I do not have a photo of this dish. Next time I make this (and the whole family insists I WILL be making this again!! YUM!!!!), I will take a photo to share.


So, y'all, make sure you have all the ingredients and make this SOON for your family!!!!

I found this on Mrs. B's site the other day. I just love it.

My camera is broken. Such a sad thing!! We sent it to Canon to be repaired and it'll be back on Monday, but until then, I've been camera-less. Not good when you're someone who likes to blog with photos!!! :)

After hearing about all the snow up north, we are FINALLY getting snow here!! YAY!!! We Southerners surely like to see snow... maybe because it doesn't come very often and when it does, it's not very much. It's coming down pretty heavily, but not sticking to anything. Who knows? Maybe we'll wake up to a winter wonderland tomorrow morning!!!!

Tonight for dinner? Lasagna Soup!!! Sounds delicious! It's a new recipe from our friend Jesse and YUM I can't wait to try it!! I'll have to share the recipe (minus the photo, mind you) later on. Any recipe with fresh basil and ricotta cheese has GOT to be delicious, right?

What are y'all having for dinner tonight? Any new recipes you are trying out?

It's been raining and cold all day. No fun. Gray skies give me thoughts of heading back to bed!! HA!!

Today has been a day of being lazy for Elizabeth and I. We had a quiet morning and then we cooked lunch. Because Mr. U works right next door to our home (we live in the parsonage) and Joshua works just a mile down the street, we have our main meal of the day at lunchtime. We LOVE having the biggest meal earlier! Oftentimes we'll have leftovers for dinner or just a sandwich.

We were supposed to have roast chicken with potatoes, but the chicken didn't thaw out soon enough. So, I thinly sliced the chicken and it thawed out very quickly!! Then I sauteed it with onions, peppers and garlic and stirred in some pasta sauce. Next I served it over pasta and served green beans on the side. YUM! It came together quickly and prevented me from allowing myself to get in a bad mood because the chicken wasn't thawed completely! YAY! Gourmet? No!! Quick and easy? YES!!!! (Do any of y'all ever allow yourself to get in a bad mood when something food related doesn't turn out like you like??)

Elizabeth is resting now. She hasn't napped for months, but will rest quietly in her room each afternoon. I use this time to check email or blogs or even take a nap, too!!!

We don't have any big plans for the weekend. Hopefully we'll be enjoying sunshine tomorrow instead of all this rain we've been getting today!!

This is from Nancy Leigh DeMoss....

What helps you to grow in holiness?

“Come to the Holiness Conference—this weekend at the Expo Center!”

“Buy 7 Steps to Holiness today, at your local Christian retailer.”

You know, God uses something surprising to teach us holiness—suffering! In fact, the pathway to holiness always involves suffering.

When our lives are all roses and no thorns, we tend to be spiritually complacent. We neglect serious self-examination and confession. But affliction has a way of stripping away the stubborn deposits of selfishness that build up in the course of everyday life.

The psalmist put it this way, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.”

Are you going through a time of suffering? Let me encourage you, hard as it may be, to embrace it as a gift from God. Ask Him to use this time to make you more like Him.

Happy National Pie Day!!!!!

We celebrated with a Chocolate Chess Pie. YUM!!!

What kind of pie did you and your family celebrate with?

Elizabeth LOVES Peanut Butter Granola for breakfast! And I love that I know every single ingredient that is in it.


Peanut Butter Granola
(adapted from Hillbilly Housewife)

2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats

Begin by melting the butter and peanut butter together in a 3-quart saucepan. Add the honey, vanilla and salt. Stir the mixture until it is smooth and hot throughout. It doesn’t need to boil. Add the oats. Stir until the oats are completely coated with the sticky gooey peanut butter mixture. It will be chunky. Turn the mixture into an ungreased cookie sheet, or a large 9 by 13-inch pan. Spread the granola out evenly and bake it at 375° for 10 to 15 minutes. It should be brown and crispy. Now remove it from the oven and allow it to cool right there in the pan. Break it up into pieces after it is cooled. Transfer the granola to a sealed canister to store.

I'm not sure how long this would actually last before spoiling. Elizabeth eats it too quickly!! :)

I am positive I am not the only one who fell in love with the dear townspeople of Cranford. And tonight Masterpiece Theatre is airing part one of Return to Cranford!! Be sure and check your local TV listings so you can watch it!!!

I just LOVE starting off the new year with a drawer full of fresh new dish towels!!! I buy new sets every two years and get so excited when it's time to purchase them!

We don't have a lot of storage space in our small home, so after I wash and dry the dish towels, I fold them and roll them up so that they fit neatly into a kitchen drawer.

Is there something that you do every year or every other year in your kitchen to make your house a home?

Once again, I'm going to be celebrating National Pie Day!! Anyone else wanna join in?

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010, will be the date to serve and eat some delicious pie!!!

Hmmmm... now to narrow down which pie I want to make to celebrate that day...

(Photo found here.)

Three years ago today we got to see our first glimpse of our dearest, loveliest Elizabeth when our agency emailed her photo to us. I had NO CLUE that I could ever possibly love one human being so very much!!!!

How did we ever live without her? We are SO blessed!! Thank you, Lord!!!!!

UPDATE: Okay, so we put the extra cinnamon rolls in the freezer for later. We couldn't stand knowing they were in there, so the next day we took them out of the freezer, let them stand maybe 5 minutes and then popped them into a 250 degree oven for 18 minutes (we put them in a cold oven) and they were even BETTER than they were the day I first made them!!! Seriously!!!



Yep, these are THOSE cinnamon rolls. YUM!!!

Anyone that loves to cook and is online has surely heard of the Pioneer Woman by now!! These are her famous cinnamon rolls! Oh my are these GOOD!!! I halved the recipe and they still came out PERFECTLY!! 24 yummy cinnamon rolls!! One pan we gobbled up immediately and the other is in the freezer (fully cooked and iced!!) for another not-too-distant day.

The job of keeping a home is an honorable one. There is a difference between a housekeeper and a homekeeper. A hired housekeeper will keep the home clean and do the duties as expected of her employer, but a homekeeper does the duties in her home from her heart. She does it out of love for her family. She looks upon her duties as the most important job in all the world. It takes a lot of patience, skill, commitment and love to be a keeper of your home. Be faithful; in due time, your familoy will rise up and call you blessed. I am honored to be the keeper of my home.

Mrs. Martha Greene, from Treasury of Vintage Homekeeping Skills

Congratulations to Mrs. Pear!!!! She is the winner of the book A Life That Says Welcome by Karen Ehman!!!!

Mrs. Pear, please email me as soon as possible with your mailing address so that Mrs. Ehman can send you your autographed copy of her wonderful book!!!

Congratulations!!!!!