My first Award! :)

Wow! My first award(s)! A big, big, big thank you to these 3 lovely ladies Jenny, Karen and Renewing Moments!!

Apparently my head must be in the sand (or, in cookie dough (see previous post)) but I completely missed that I had been nominated! So thank you, thank you, thank you!!

The Liebster Award spotlights up and coming bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  In return for the award, the recipient bestows the award on five of their favorite bloggers.  

I tried to find bloggers for my 5 picks who have not been nominated yet, but there may be duplicates....

My nominees are:

1. Patiently Waiting

2. Faith Makes Things Possible

3. Jeremiah 29:11

4. God Alone Suffices

5. All You Who Hope

Jeremiah and AYWH's blogs were the first blogs I began reading - a little over a year ago! Without their willingness to record their struggle with IF and their adoption stories, I wouldn't be blogging, and I certainly wouldn't be adopting... and I would still feel very much alone as an infertile Catholic. 

But really - ALL of the blogs I follow are my favorites. :) It's hard to pick just five! I feel so blessed to be part of this community!

Upon receipt of the Liebster Blog Award, there are a few very simple rules: (BUT NO PRESSURE!)

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog
2. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

Quick Takes (UPDATED with Recipe!)

The Christmas Cookie edition.

So the kitchen is a disaster area for the umpteenth time this week because of the following. In no particular order....

1) Anise cookies (these are little flat cookies that are delicious! A family tradition and one of my most favorites)

2) Pizzelles

3) Peanut Butter balls

4) Almond butter balls (same recipe as number 3, but since my sister is allergic to peanuts, I thought I'd try an almond variety)

(*Note - the chocolate on #3 and #4 is hardening around me as I write. I think there are about 6 dozen total!)

5) Pecan tassies (yummy - with a cream cheese crust)

6) Cream Cheese Dreams

7) Pecan snowballs

8) Old-fashioned sugar cookies (These delicious things pretty much melt in your mouth. A college friend's recipe. Yum!)

I have a few more to make - Raspberry Stripes, "S" cookies (your basic buttery spritz cookie, but my Granny always made them in the shape of S's), , Thumbprints and Sugar cookie cut-outs. Oh, and Peppermint bark! Then I'm done!

I could really use a nice mug of tea right now and any of the above... but I'll refrain. For a little bit. A very little bit.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Here's the recipe, Lisa!
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1/2 cup Granulated sugar
1/2 cup Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 cups Flour
Extra granulated sugar for dipping

Cream Butter & Sugars. Add eggs & Vanilla. Mix dry ingredients, and add to wet. (It says to sift the dry ingredients but I never do!)
Roll tsp. of dough into a ball, then in granulated sugar. Press down on greased cookie sheet with glass dipped in sugar.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 until light golden brown.

Enjoy!! :)
(ps - they are really good with a nice cup of tea!)

GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Congratulations to Patiently Waiting! I'll contact you on your blog so you can send me your address! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. DH & I arrived home this afternoon, and it only took us an extra hour with traffic. (In years past it's been 2 or 3 extra hours- ugh!) Thank goodness we left early this morning. On the way home I was so excited to get my Prayer Buddy name! Woo-hoo! I can't wait to see what God has is store for all of us this Advent.

Happy First Sunday of Advent Everyone! :)

St. Cecilia & BLOG GIVEAWAY!!

Happy Feast of St. Cecilia!!

I started piano lessons in third grade and knew even then that my life would center around music. Now, I really have my dream job - teaching children to love and appreciate music. I can remember my high school choir director telling me that he'd never been to work a day in his life. I'm so fortunate to say the same... I'm paid to do something I love. And I've been blessed to get to know some wonderful children and amazing families over the years.

When I was in Italy for the first time visiting a close friend for Easter, we went to the Catacombs of San Callisto where St. Cecilia's remains were found, and were said to be uncorrupt. Our tour guide said that she was found with one hand extending one finger and the other hand extending 3 fingers indicating her love and belief in One God and the Trinity. I have a little statue in my piano studio of St. Cecilia and have often told her story to students. If you'd like to read more about her, go here.

I'm sure I mentioned it before, but one other special reason I celebrate today is that my wonderful husband proposed on this feast day! It's 5 years today! :)

Now... for the giveaway!! I'm going to give away the latest Christmas album by Michael Buble. I had hoped to have in my hot little hands at this point. (Yes, I am bad and I have listened to Christmas music before Thanksgiving!!) Unfortunately, there was a little problem with the shipment and I didn't receive it before DH & left for our Thanksgiving trip. So, I've had to settle for listening to the album on Yo.uTube so far. I think I could listen to his voice all day.

How to enter the giveaway....

1) Follow my blog if you haven't "officially" started yet and leave a response to this post letting me know you have... and leave a prayer intention.

2) If you are already following, leave a prayer intention for me! My husband and I have a weekly Adoration time at our church and I'll be taking your intentions with me during Advent.

I will post the winner on Sunday the 27th!

Good luck and Happy Feast of St. Cecilia!

2:30 AM

Apparently lemon tea with honey sparks terrific imagination. Consumed right before bed. So that you wake up at 2:15 AM raring to go. In more ways than one...... ;)

Sooo... after lying there for a bit trying to fall back to sleep, I decided to get up and do something about the ideas buzzing in my head. And now, 5 1/2 hours later, my profile book is almost done! :-D

And it looks really good, if I do say so myself, haha. :) I even wrote our Dear Birthmother letter! Of course DH has to add his part to introduce me, and go over the birthmother letter. I'm sure he'll have things to add or edit. But I feel great about it overall. The only thing I do need is a good cover photo.

Question for all of you who have done profiles... here's the one I'm considering:

This was on our Italy trip last fall and I really like our smiles. (Hello!? Of course we're smiling, we're eating breakfast outside a little cafe in Venice!!) But, the random guy between our heads... Maybe I can try to fade the background or something.

Or ... should I go for a more formal photo and put this on the inside with our Dear Birthmother letter? I want a photo on that page to break up the writing. (I don't actually have a formal photo yet. I'm hoping to get a friend to take some pictures of us outside this weekend as long as it's nice.

Anyway... your thoughts??

Oh, and I also have 2 other smaller photos on the cover page, but this is the "attention grabber". The one that says "PICK US!! PICK US!!!" :-D

And now... well.. I'm a little tired now. The adrenaline must be wearing off... I hope I don't fall asleep at mass!

Woo-hoo!

For 2 reasons... :)

1) DH & I had a great trip to Pittsburgh this past weekend - fun times with family and the Steelers game on Sunday! It was a late game and we got back really late Sunday night, and I am still recovering from sleep deprivation, but it was worth it... especially since the Steelers beat the Patriots!! Fin.a.lly. :)

I tried loading a video of the crowd cheering after the Steelers got the safety at the end of the game, but since it's taking forever to upload (the file is probably too big), this photo I saw posted over and over again on fac.ebook will probably be enjoyed also by the lovely Rebecca and Patiently Waiting... who are both Steelers fans!

2) Another BIG woo-hoo is that we are Home Study approved! I got an email from our agency Monday morning that our copy is on its way to us. Yay!! I'll feel better when I have it in my hands, but all the same, it's good news. For those of you adopting, how long did you work on your profile books? I'm creative, but I'm worrying that my perfectionist tendencies are going to make it take longer. Maybe I should just give myself a deadline. :)

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Don't forget to keep praying for this sweet blogger who had surgery yesterday!

Thankful Thursday

1) First, thank you Rebecca for hosting these! Thankful Thursdays along with today's post by the lovely Lauren are a great reminder that we all have much MORE to be grateful for than we usually think...

2) My wonderful, amazing husband. (He's always going to be at the top of my list). He's compassionate, caring, generous, thoughtful, hard-working and the bestest friend ever. I'm so lucky to be his wife!!

3) All of you bloggers... your comments on my last post gave me so much hope... and I don't feel quite so alone now. THANK YOU!!

4) Our agency... AFTH. We're having a class this Saturday for waiting parents, and the topic is relationships with birthparents. There will be (I think) 2 birthmothers along with the adoptive families there to talk with us. I'm really looking forward to it. And hopefully, we're soon to receive our home study approval. The next job is to complete our profile book and video. Then we're "in the books"!

5) Ahhh... it's that time of year. It's fall. Which means football season. GO STEELERS! And hockey season. GO PENS!!! :-D

6) I'm thankful for the challenge of a dairy-less pizza. I just started trying to go without dairy 2 weeks ago, and have noticed a bit of a difference already. It's essentially paleo- meats, fish, eggs, and lots of fruits and veggies. Nuts and good oils for fats. We'll see. Obviously, I'll never go back to gluten, but dairy I may end up cheating on every now and then!! So anyway, tomorrow's pizza will be topped with fresh tomatoes, spinach, green peppers, sausage and maybe a bit of onion. I'm going to stick with my GF dough, since I still have a ton of packages left!

7) A wedding date (my mom's birthday!), church, reception hall, and dress for my sister V's wedding. She found the dress when I was visiting a few weeks ago. She looks BEAUTIFUL!! :) Please pray that she finds a photographer soon! :)

What are you thankful for today?