To Ponder

"The way you keep your house, the way you organize your time, the care you take in your personal appearance, the things you spend your money on all speak loudly about what you believe."

-Elisabeth Elliot

I used to get annoyed as a teenager when people older then me would hint at things like this. And yet, now that I'm older I see the truth in it more and more. I know I could pull up at least 10 verses from God's word that correlate with this...

This quote smacked me straight between the eyes yesterday and its stuck with me all day today. My house is a big, fat, disorganized mess right now. My 3 day old - unwashed - hair is up in the ponytail, sweats still on from this morning and zero makeup. And, instead of making healthy, homecooked meals the last few days... I've vouched for Mickey D's, a frozen pizza and a BBQ joint up the street. No wonder I feel un-motivated, exhausted and just blah. And not just about life but about my Faith. It makes sense - nothing, as it seems, in this home is to the "ultimate Glory of God" today, which, is my reason for life, right?

Pondering. And... planning to at least go wash my face and start some laundry.

22 Months

This month on the 16th my baby girl turned 22 months old. The time is flying by... and she is learning and growing everyday. She is talking in half sentences, repeating everything, smiling and laughing, singing songs (real and made up), recognizes people and locations and can count to 10 - with some help on number 7. ;) We are so proud of this little bundle of love!

I get a little mopey when I think about how fast she is growing up. So I try to focus on the fact that she's healthy, happy and completely brilliant.. and that wouldn't be if she wasn't growing up. I'm amazed with what a gift she is to me, to us. She fills my life with new discoveries and challenges and teaches me so much about who I am... and who I need the Lord to shape me into, still. What a long road ahead I have.

Something that is so precious to me lately is the cuddle time we've been having. She comes to me just out of the blue and wants me to hold her, rock her or lay down with her. She says, "I hold you" and I can't help but get the warm tingly's. Especially after a not so fun day of correction and discipline. :) I love the bond I have with this child. I love how she lights up when I pick her up from nursery at church, how she loves when I come home - even if its a 2 minute trip up the road to Walgreens. She loves me... depends on me. I am blessed.

I'm holding on to these last few "baby days" of Ava's life. TWO is right around the corner. I'm cherishing finger prints on my windows, magnets always on my floor, diaper changes, nap times and sweet, sweet baby kisses... because I know those things (tho still there in years to come) will be different and less. I already miss it. Happy 22 months my baby girl.

The big fat tease pot

Aka: Crock Pot.
I love them. I didn't have one until about 2 years ago... and at first I wasn't convinced as everything I made either overcooked or undercooked and I had to microwave the stuff to have it ready on time. Then I learned how to cook with one {yes, learn} and now I have 3! :) Today I have an Italian Roast in the ol' crock and its making my house smell Ah-mazing. Makes it terribly difficult to wait til dinner time tonight. This is one you'll want to try - quick, easy and works well with potatoes or any kind of veggie side.

Italian Roast

1 (4lb) beef chuck roast, trimmed
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
1/2 c. water
1 med. sweet red pepper, cut into 1 in. pieces
1 c. chopped green pepper
2/3 c. chopped onion

1) Cut roast in half; place in 5qt. crock. In small bowl combine brown gravy mix, italian mix and water - pour over roast.
2) Top with cut peppers and onions. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours or until meat is tender.

Last time I made this I served it with Alfredo potatoes - simply, mashed potatoes with some alfredo sauce & chives mixed in. It was SO good. This time I'm going for the basic sour cream and butter mashed potatoes - but, still good! The best part is spooning some of the roast broth over the potatoes. Perfect fall night meal! :)

And now... Christmas

I know, I know... "C'mon lady, yesterday you were ranting about Halloween... now you are bringing up Christmas?". I've been in such a festive mood the last week or so - maybe it's that anti-ugly-holiday-feeling or just that, really, Thanksgiving and Christmas are merely WEEKS away. I'll say that again, WEEKS away. :) I'm already getting emails from my BHG site with "diy Christmas gift ideas" and most stores have at least one aisle dedicated to Christmas by now. I watched one of my all time fave Christmas movies this week "A Christmas Story", and I even busted out 1 Christmas CD one day last week while cleaning the house. :) I have Christmas on the brain. It helps that I'm responsible for decorating a table for our ladies Christmas event at church... and that right before Christmas a very special little lady turns the big #2!

I'm not one for hurrying time along - it does that itself. And, Thanksgiving is one of my most beloved things on earth. But, Ah, there is something amazing about the Christmas time of year. So, just to share my "cheer" here's a little jingle for your day. You can hate me later when you are humming it... ;)

Thoughts on Halloween

Lastnight as I was driving to church for our evening service I was admiring the new look of our little area...
Most of the trees have changed, there are leaves on the ground, people have decorated their yards with fall flags and pumpkins, etc. Every few houses there would be some kind of Halloween decoration - a black cat cutout on the window, faux spider webs on the bushes, etc.

And then I saw it.

Heads. About a dozen or so of them. Heads. Sticking out of the ground, bushes, you name it.. heads were stuck in it. I tried to distract Ava from it by saying something like, "honey, look over there... another red tree" and "over there" being the opposite side of the street of course. But, too late. "Head Mommy". Sigh. "yep, those are head's Ava". And really what more conversation could come out of that? I was grossed out and it just made me very promptly step onto my soap box about this ugly event. Someone had chosen to decorate their yard with the appearance of a ton of decapitated heads - fake blood included. Yuck. I can handle spider webs, black cats and the occasional white sheet hung from a tree to be a ghost... but, HEADS? Come on!

After my dad was saved in his late 20's we stopped "doing" halloween. Trick or Treating and Halloween parties were replaced with the annual trip to Chuck E Cheese or a church Harvest party. And, yes, some of those church harvest parties were just like trick or treating... I know that debate. But, dad set a precident that we didn't do halloween. And honestly I didn't really miss it. My parents were awesome about helping us pick out or make homemade costumes to wear to our church parties - and they would even buy us our own bag of candy every now and then. I loved knowing that every Halloween we would lower all the blinds, turn out the lights and escape the neighborhood for a family night. I think once or twice I may have complained that I couldn't go trick or treating with my friends... but overall loved our change.

Now, I'm not anti-Halloween. And you won't find me scorning or judging someone for dressing up their children for the day. And seriously...do you think I would complain about getting something for FREE (candy)? nope. I've seen plenty of mini-cheerleaders, pumpkins, M & M's and the like... cute. But it's the gross side of the day that gets me. I hate the fake blood, gory or prostitute-like costumes, the mean things kids do... like, smashing old ladies pumpkins in the street or spray painting pranks. I just find it very difficult to see any beauty in the holiday as a whole. I'm grossed out by walking into stores and having to weave through fake spider webs infested with ghouls covered in plastic blood just to pick up a loaf of bread... and now that Ava is getting older, I kinda dread explaining these weird things. I know its a teachable moment - but, what am I teaching? And, here's the kicker... my husband and I may or may not have seperate ideas about the day. So, yea, what do you do with that?!

Halloween. Set in my favorite month of the year (seasons-wise) and such a sore spot for me. I love the roasted pumpkin seeds, hot cider, FREE candy and cute cheerleader costumes on 1 year olds... but, what is the deal with our worlds obsession with fake blood, vampires and death? Just thoughts today. What does your family do? Do you celebrate or not? If not, what do you do instead? Today I'm thinking I just want to lower my blinds and disappear for the night because quite honestly, it freaks me out.

But something tells me Ava will be suited up in her cheerleading outfit and somehow we'll have pictures taken, etc.... before I even know what's going on. {sigh}

Family Photos

It was that time of the year, again, that we head to a new destination and pray that Ava cooperates for some family pics. This year we went to a park behind the Des Moines Art Center to meet our photographer and begin the fun! What a pretty place, one I'd never been to, or even heard of. It's always fun to see what Miss Katie discovers and how she can make any picture work - even with a whiny toddler. Here are a few of my favorites: Such precious memories of my loveable little girl who was all too eager to give Momma some smooches!

We are so grateful for Katie and her amazing skills behind the camera!

And we are so thankful to God for blessing us with the gift of each other - a family!

fail

this week has not gone as planned.
we arrived home from our long weekend trip on Monday and since then it seems I can't get one thing right.
i made a delicious smelling "October Bisque" on Tuesday that ended up tasting horrible and deemed a trip to the local Wendys in its stead. bah! you have to understand my pain in watching that "supposedly" delicious tomato/pumpkiny mix get dumped into the trash - an entire pot!
i still have baskets of half folded laundry, suitcases still full, and house mess everywhere... not to mention that I still have done nothing on the exterior either. no mums as I planned. and the spider webs are taking over our windows. bah.
ava has been in rare form as she explores everything and doesn't stop moving for one second. I've caught her with 4 coughdrops in the last few days - and I'm not sure where she's finding them.
the evenings - rather then doing anything productive - have found me laying on the couch zoned out to HGTV something... and Brad out for ministry things. and that bothers me about myself. it bothers me that I have this total lack of motivation right now. and I know it ebbs and flows... but right now I'm at a standstill.

fail. just feeling like a big failure... and wanting to crawl into bed.

**sneak peek**

This is all I can give you for now... but, I'm loving them already!

Happy Autumn from the Pausley Family!

Ohhhhhhklahoma

That old song, "I've been everywhere, Man, I've been everywhere" is rattling through my brain after our jam-packed weekend in Oklahoma. Brad, Ave's and I loaded up early Friday morning and made the 7 hour trip south to meet up with my parents, grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. for a cousins wedding. We had a great and FULL weekend - now we are recovering and trying to get this house into shape. One discovery we made was that its official... Ava gets motion sickness VERY easily. The ride down she was only sick once, but, on the way home was a different story entirely - we had to stop at least 3 times and do a clean up job. Ick! However, this is helping me tackle my fear of puke. Anyway... we saw lots of fun things along the trip. For example - this casino sign. I thought it was funny - Brad didn't understand why I was taking a picture of it. I blame my tourist reaction.

We finally made it to Oklahoma and enjoyed the wedding and seeing family! On our last full day there my uncle took us to a place called Woolaroc. Ever been? It's a 2 mile drive through woods, lakes and rocks back to a historical indian/pioneer museum. My kinda thing! We spent about 4 hours pouring over animals, indian artifacts and statues. I had a great time - we all did!

Ava's favorite part may have been that she got to be seatbelt free to look at the animals by the path. :)

We got to see lots of animals - some I've never seen. Like... water buffalo and african deer, etc.

After the 2 mi. drive you come upon the museum, play place, picnic area, and petting farm. Ava enjoyed pushing her own stroller and occasionally stopping to pet a cow or something.

I have a lot of Indian heritage in my family line - so it was really neat to learn some facts vs. myths and kinda see how they lived. The statues and artwork here was amazing. The sad thing about my heritage is that over the years prejudice and hate has erased some of our past - pages of history erased or torn up and thrown away... sad.

What a fun day! The added bonus was spending time with my parents. I had been feeling homesick especially for my mom and dad - this was a great time to reconnect and just be together. And of course, I'm so thankful for my loving husband who took time out of his busy schedule to drive us down for a fun weekend!

After this busy day I have one very tired family... but the trip was awesome and we loved our on the road adventure!

First trip to the Orchard

Some friends asked us to join them for a trip to a local orchard - and we were so excited to go! The weather was amazing and Ava loved the trip! Can't wait to make this place a yearly tradition. :) We got there around 5:30 and the sun was just starting to make its way down... but it was beautiful!


Ava really liked looking at the "3 little pigs" houses - and getting her out of them was a fun task. Thinking maybe we should build a little house for her in our backyard. :)
And of course there were a zillion other things to do... corn pools, duck races, REAL animals to touch and look at. Such a fun time! Maybe we'll try this shot again when the kiddos are a little older.
My camera doesn't capture just how much fun both the kids AND dad's had going down the huge slide. What a fun memory made!

Our first trip to the orchard was a great experience... and a great way to celebrate FALL with friends! :)

Recipe : Pepperoni Potatoes

October is beautiful. Although, we DID have to turn on our heat this weekend... 58 degrees in the babes room probably not a good idea - and the blue toes proved that. We want her to be able to "buck up" but... maybe not quite yet. :)

Aside from the colors of autumn and the crisp air and fun crafts which I know I rambled on and on about last week... I LOVE the food! This month {to us} means casseroles and hearty soups/stews, special breads and all things warm and comforty. Yes, comforty. Last week to kick off the new month I made Pepperoni Potatoes and I need to share. Yes, need. My husband took a bite and literally said, "wow". And maybe you won't get that same result...but, maybe you will?! I love this meal because its a catchall casserole and incorporates some fresh and some frozen ingredients...and, oh, the cheese :) It's a meatless dish, minus the pepperoni, but definitely filling and perfect for a fall weekend (or week night!).

Pepperoni Potatoes

3 T. butter

2 T. all-purpose flour

2 C. milk

1 t. salt (I use kosher)

1/2 t. dried thyme

1/2 t. dried parsley

1/4 t. dried basil

1/8 t. pepper

28 oz. package O'brien potatoes, thawed

1/4 c. sweet red pepper, chopped

1 c. frozen corn

1 c. shredded mozzarella

27 pepperoni slices, quartered

1) In small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour until smooth. Gradually stir in the milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the seasonings.

2) In a greased 13x9 dish - layer the potatoes, red pepper & corn. Top with the white sauce from saucepan, cheese and pepperoni. Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

*remember to thaw your potatoes or you'll have frozen ones in the middle of your casserole... I found this out the hard way and had to bake it an additional several minutes.

My whole fam loved this and there was tons leftover for meals the next day... and even a small amount for my lunch today again. And no, I wasn't sick of it by now... ;) Enjoy!