food and fun in february

so patrick and i have been doing some really good cooking on the weekends. Yesterday we made chili, and i have this nasty cold so i can't smell or taste anything. but i forgot this little detail as i was making it, so i kept thinking, wow, this is completely void of flavour and i would add stuff. then patrick reminded me that i can't taste, and he took over. i managed to sneak in cabbage, which no i have never actually seen in chili before but that's ok, and pureed pumpkin, which you can throw in anything. it ended up being the best chili we'd ever had. complete with the last of our muy expensive free range organic grass finished local beef. last weekend it was roasted pepper pesto sausage (same as above beef, but sausage) pizza. also very good. my crust actually rose. it was a nice surprise :-). and yesterday we didn't get pictures, but we had homemade tomato basil soup, with baked feta and baguettes. you drizzle a block of feta in oil, cover it with salt/pepper/basil/oregano/whatever you want, wrap it in oil, put it in a pan and bake it until it's soft. oh my goodness: so good. patrick also made cinnamon blueberry pancakes with toasted pecans and warm (real) maple syrup, and too good to be true banana pudding (not in the same meal). you should come to our house!

it was my good intention to put pictures in with our valentine's day cards. never happened, but these were our contenders so i might as well share them!

considering escape. making a break for it!

morning glory. oh so proud in daddy's tie.

left: remnants of a productive sunday afternoon. (i know sunday afternoon isn't supposed to be productive, it's supposed to be restful.) i found a nice desk chair at a garage that was in great shape just missing a castor, so patrick's been on a mission to fix it. not as easy as it sounds. but pretty sooon it'll wheel right up next to our oh so spiffy desk we got for free. i took it upon myself to make valentine's day cards, which could be easy unless you don't have a plan, go to hobby lobby and get carried away. it was fun, though. hannah put the finishing touches on for me.

4 hrs later, all done. i think i'm going to make it my new hobby. and they're actually mailed!

items of note with no pictures

1. so lots of people say they dont' like to take medicine, but the rubber really meets the road when you're pregnant, and you can't even if you wanted to. i think i have the same thing patrick had a few weeks ago, except sans nyquil. a totally different experience. we've tried everything, including buried under a bath towel inhaling aromathy steam. that would have made a nice picture.
2. speaking of pregnant, we decided on the allen birthing center. their midwives do homebirths, but i'll go there for my appointments.these 3 ladies have about 50 yrs experience between them. they are all certified nurse midwives, which normally means they are all about doctors, but they have apparently chosen a different route. this is a classy place. you should check out the website http://www.allenbirthingcenter.com/. we couldn't hear the heartbeat, but hopefully next time. and praise the Lord, i don't have morning sickness this time!
3. we are getting a new ministry started at our church to spread awareness and interest for international missions. this week was the first step: a table with information about our monthly meeting, so this time i got to do it for west africa, and some general imb stuff. i'm really excited for our first get together, in march. i'm going to get someone to make fatayas, and have some djembe music in the background!
4. i would like to congratulate patrick on fixing our dryer. I didn't know he fixed dryers. probably because he never has before. he worked on it for over 2 hrs, and fixed it. i told him i would have taken a picture, but i didn't actually think it was going to end up well. next time i'll have more faith in him. next stop: garage door. it'll open but not close. wierd.

David and Des are coming to babysit this weekend and Patrick and I are going skiing. I know, it's a huge splurge. But only for 2 days. this is our window, before we have another little baby that we can't leave for more than a few hours. maybe they'll be guest bloggers for me, and you can hear about their experiences with the munchkin. wish them luck! happy valentine's day!