Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's day, friends! I hope you have a wonderful day, whether you are celebrating with husbands, family or friends! :)

We're keeping it pretty low key tonight and sticking with our Friday night tradition of homemade pizza, but I'm making these cupcakes for dessert:

Recipe here - Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes, Against All Grain

I'm debating about using the meringue icing or making the vanilla one (adding the strawberries) that I have in Danielle's cookbook. Some of the comments said the honey taste was more noticeable than they'd like. Anyway, they look delicious!

Some other Valentine fun - a few of things on Pinterest:

Free printable: source

Cute craft: source

Sweet home decor: source

And, lastly some Valentine fonts that I've downloaded since I am a serious font junkie. I think reading something in Times NR or Arial is part of my purgatory, haha. :) You can click on the names found below to find a link if you'd like to download your own copy. They are all freebies. :)

1. Vanessa’s Valentine
2. Forget Me Not
3. Good Vibrations
4. I love what you do
5. Honey Script
6. KG Heart Doodles
7. Love You Too
8. Loyal Fame
9. Valentine Hearts
10. KR Heartalicious

There are also some great free fonts on the website Kevin and Amanda.

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Making cookies :)

C loves helping in the kitchen - he loves to lean over and sniff the pot when something is on the stove, and he especially loves making cookies! And eating the batter. :) And checking them out in the oven when I turn the light on. My sister R was here this weekend and she took a few photos of our fun!

Wearing Daddy's apron - I'm working on making him his own!

He kept sticking his tongue out and giggling!

Hurry up Mom! I'm hungry!

These cookies were made using sunbutter - a peanut butter substitute. Honey, not sugar was used as the sweetener and they are delicious! We've already made them 4 times, and C gets very excited when he sees the cookie jar on the counter! :) I used the recipe from the Against All Grain cookbook, but here is a similar recipe on the author's website). Mine were plain since I can't eat chocolate. And yes, as mentioned on the site - my cookies did have a bit of green in the middle due to the sunbutter and baking soda, haha. I think I'll omit the lemon juice entirely next month for St. Patrick's Day. :-D

Happy Monday!

For 28 hours, we were 4

Yes... that's right. I hesitate to even hit publish on this post, because it really seems like just a dream. We got a call a week ago that a birthmother had chosen us to be parents of her little girl. In shock and amazement, I let the sweet ladies from my book club clean up the kitchen and take care of the babes (there were 4 little boys all around C's age running around) while I called family to share the news, ask for help (we weren't sure C would be allowed in the hospital with us so were looking for friends to watch him, but it turns out he was allowed) and get some things packed. DH arrived home as soon as he could (it was out of state and we were needed there as soon as we could get there). Less than 5 hours later, we arrived, signed the paperwork, met the birthmother and met our "daughter."We held her briefly - we hadn't packed dinner, other than some snacks and food for C, and needed to get back on the road so that C could get some sleep. (He napped relatively well on the ride there.) My parents arrived just before midnight. I think I got to bed around 2:00?! We were up to go to Mass at 8, then made a run to BRUs for some formula and cute girl clothes. Oh, and newborn diapers. :) We had a few other things we had to take care of before we got on the road again. When we were just about to the exit for the hospital, we got the "other call"... the one no adoptive parent ever wants to receive. "She has changed her mind. She is going to parent."

DH and I thanked the Lord for a few little things - mainly, that we hadn't decided on a name. We had it narrowed down, but weren't sure. I didn't order a bunch of supplies to make the homemade formula (not that I can't use it for the next baby, but still, we hesitated and I'm glad it won't be arriving this week in the mail). I didn't order a bunch of things from Etsy. I could return a bunch of things to the store. And that we had so many people praying for peace for us, that we felt it. We barely had time to process it. It was almost like we visited a friend in the hospital, saw the baby, and came home. And that was it. There are so many couples we know who have had a failed adoption much later in the process. We never had custody of her. I thank God for protecting our hearts. Next time He may ask more, I don't know. On the ride home we simply said to one another - we have each other, we have C, and we trust God with our family. I never thought my infertile self would be able to say that and mean it. We trust God with our family. 

Adoption is a very tricky thing to pray for. In a perfect world, there would be no need for adoption because birthparents would be able to provide for and care for their children. There would be no infertility.

It's not a perfect world.

There is infertility, and there are children who need parents other than those who gave them life. So we pray for the next child who God asks us to parent, whenever he or she comes along.

We thank Him for the gift of that sweet and precious little girl. She was not meant for us, so we will pray for her and her mother. I ask you to do the same.

HWFD: Breakfast! Italian Baked Eggs

My new favorite breakfast is this delicious recipe! It's grain-free and dairy free for those of you who need it! You can follow the recipe as linked to above, or you can adapt it if you want a larger amount for a bigger family or if you want leftovers.

Against All Grain - Recipe here!

I adapted it so that I could have easy leftovers - I just reheat my portion (and C's) on a plate in the toaster oven each morning. :)

Adaptation notes:
I used 1 pound of hot italian sausage - cooked first, then crumbled in a 9x13 pan.
I used kale instead of spinach because that's what I had from the farmer's market. I cut it into small pieces and spread it in a thin layer. (I say "thin" but kale is puffy - I figured I used about 2 squished handfuls.)
The first time I made it, I used 2 heirloom tomatoes, but the second time, I used canned diced tomatoes, spread in a thin layer.
I doubled the amount of the "cheese" sauce - yes, it really does make it taste cheesy!! Amazing! :)
I used about a dozen eggs, broken on top of the other ingredients, yokes intact.

I baked it at 350 for 25-30 minutes. My yokes were a little more well-done than I would have liked, but I wanted the whites fully cooked. Next time I think 20-25 minutes will be sufficient.

Have a great weekend, friends! Let me know if this makes it to your Sunday brunch! :)

Bauble Bar - some pretty bling!

Have you seen the site Bauble Bar? I typically do not wear a lot of jewelry, but I've come to appreciate how it can really bring outfits to life. I am often in jeans and a simple sweater, top or tee, so when I head out of the house, I like to add a little scarf or some bling to look a bit more pulled together. I think Bauble Bar has some reasonably priced selections.

This necklace is the one I just purchased using Christmas money - I love the deep blue/purple color and wore it this weekend with a white dress shirt and black skinny pants and boots:

Cabochon Blossom Necklace 

It comes in a deep pink color as well, but sadly, it is now on their wait list!

These I like too:

Fuchsia Layered Petals Bib Necklace

Navi Blossom Bib

Mini Hex Strand

Have you found any great websites for reasonably priced jewelry? Do you like statement necklaces?

Update

We found out this morning that the birthparents decided to parent. Honestly, we are fine with that. We obviously would have been thrilled to be chosen, but are perfectly comfortable with whatever God's timing happens to be for our family. Thank you for your prayers!

Getting shown tomorrow!

Well... it's a little earlier than we thought might happen - but we are getting shown tomorrow! Whatever happens, DH and I both said we feel peaceful - we are just open to God's will!

If you would pray for the birthmother who has a tough decision to make tomorrow, I'd appreciate it! Thank you!!