happy evening kitchen

Apparently Greta wants to grow more vegetables than you ever thought possible. ;)

The asparagus is our first picking of the spring. A celebratory thing, indeed.

Also here: warmed up tea from my afternoon pot with Mama and two dear siblings and pictures of my evening kitchen.
The pictures don't really do my kitchen justice, to my mind. You don't notice there being so much light; it's cozier. It feels to me like a kitchen in a woodland fairytale cottage.

(I know a few of the last posts have been pictures of my kitchen, but I cannot help it.)

peanut butter sandwich

little girl play

Greta loves our bird bath. She keeps coming back to it to splash and play, so when I'm outside gardening I keep fresh water in it so she can. Yesterday evening she had her spoon that I let her scoop dirt with, and she decided she would use it in the birdie bath. It looked to me like she was cooking. I took pictures and they all turned out so good, together giving a little idea of her play, that I'll post several here--there's room. :)

Behold, the beauty in my kitchen!


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Isn't it lovely?

It is wonderful to cook with. I am rather thrilled by it all.

I don't know if I've ever enjoyed making scrambled eggs this much! The flame adjusts to any height I could want. The oven should make baking a special pleasure (...and it's so clean!) ;)

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(I am still working on her name.)

Of pots and pans and sacks of coffee~

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Behold my new rack for pots and pans! I would say that it was just what I wanted, but actually Caleb took my idea and greatly improved upon it. My hooks alternate in length in order to get as many pans as possible up, and they will not come off but slide left and right to arrange as I please.

The curtain is new (to me) as well. My papa had a stash of coffee bean sacks from Latin America that he let me pick through, and I found this one from Mexico that has a stripe of the loveliest dusty blue.

Priidite, Poklonimsya!

Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers” is playing into our home this morning; an all-time favorite of mine. We used to always be checking it out from the library, Robert Shaw’s version, and finally Mama got our own copy. Beware of other arrangements. It loses something when it’s sung too fast. Priidite, Poklonimsya! Come, Let Us Worship! Greta is accompanying it on her little four-note plinky piano in all the seriousness of a musician perfecting his craft.

I did write a bit last night and will post as soon as I finish uploading some pictures. :)
(*update: It's published now...see below.*)

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I just pulled chocolate cake out of the oven. Mmm it smells good. I found the recipe at Passionate Homemaking. It is 100% whole wheat, but is so moist and delicious. I am extra glad to have something that tasty coming out of the oven, since we’ve been dealing with a malfunctioning oven for the last couple of days. There is something very shiny and new coming to my house tomorrow to fix that problem for good…

Since posting last we’ve had several lovely days “following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string”, as Anne Shirley says. Greta has discovered a love for being outside. She loves to spend time outside walking around in her little Ollie-the-owl shoes on the concrete pad, making forays into the grass or the garden, stooping to pick up a special rock to carry around for the rest of her time outside. She knows how to get out, so I have to keep a close eye on her and make sure the doors stay locked. : ) She is careful, though, and knows to get her coat and shoes on before going outside and to hold onto the railing as she goes down the front steps. She asked ‘specially to go out this afternoon, but unfortunately it was raining too hard to be much fun for a little girl. She likes to pick Johnny-jump-up flowers from my patch. So pretty!

She got a new little camp chair at a tool sale in town last week, complete with a cup holder for her sippie that she uses when she is outside in the garage with Daddy or the garden with Mommie. (She actually says “mama” to me now, which I find completely thrilling!) She used it last weekend to hop into periodically while she was helping me (and Grandma, and Auntie…and later others) dig up our new garden on the west side of the house.

Greta is altogether a girl. She is drawn to all things pretty: “Prow!” She loves to dress up already and will go around the house with her favorite turquoise blue t-shirt or another similarly bright article of clothing (hopefully clean). She puts it on her head ‘cause she thinks its so pretty. She has had a cold over the last week or so and it learning how to blow her nose, so (somewhat unfortunately) she’ll practice on her same favorite t-shirt or a cloth from the towel cupboard, holding it up to her nose (or her forehead!) and blowing…then dress-up time is resumed. : ) The other day she had her little pink bucket to play with and worked hard arranging and rearranging her little collection of toys and sippie in there, then walked out onto the porch, saying “bye!”. Apparently she was going on an expotition. She also loves to stir things in her little tin cup.

I’ve been maniacally crocheting potholders for the last couple of days. Mine were getting worn and I decided to use some yarn ends to make myself a new set. I am quite pleased to have them. : ) I had the idea Sunday evening and, in my usual obsessive style, had one almost done on Monday.

Crocheting is greatly improved by listening to good sermons, and I have had several good ones to listen to this week. I just found Pastor Francis Chan for the first time this week, thanks to Mama, thanks to Ann. His sermons are so edifying. I look forward to making my way through all of them that I can find. I’ve found good listening through links at “Between Two Worlds” as well, as always. Sermons, I meant, but also through J.T. I discovered LeCrae and his music. Wow. “God honoring, culture piercing and world-view shaping”, as Thabiti Anyabwile put it here in his podcast on “Holy Hip Hop”. I was impressed by LeCrae’s testimony, given in three interviews by Desiring God, beginning here. I am thankful that God raises up men like this to unashamedly proclaim Christ. I’ve been fed.

***

Your money your singleness, marriage, talents, your time/

they were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is Divine/

that's why it's Christ in my rhymes/

That's why it's Christ all the time/

see my whole world is built around him He's the life in my lines/

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I refuse to waste my life/

he's too true ta chase that ice/

here's my gifts and time cause I'm constantly trying to be used to praise the Christ/

If he's truly raised to life/

then this news should change your life/

and by his grace you can put your faith in place that rules your days and nights.

--LeCrae

***

Rosie’s cold so far hasn’t seemed to improve much…throat for a while, now sinus nasties and a wet cough. She’s teething too (eye teeth), but has been a remarkably cheerful little soul despite it all. She is sleeping well now; I am glad. She is positively the snuggliest, squishiest, yummiest little person I’ve ever met.

My man’s project in his free time these days is making a smoker--as in one of those big grill-things with a firebox on the side for smoking a brisket for a party or something. We’re pretty excited to try it out. It’s going to be a nice looking smoker, all stainless! (It’s helpful to have a metalworker for a husband.)

Speaking of which…the handsome dude made a beautiful aluminum rack to hang my pots and pans from above my stove. I am thrilled! I have wanted one ever since I was old enough for Mama to show me pictures of elements of her dream kitchen. (I’m not sure where her ideas leave off and mine begin, but we love it that way! It works for us. A synergy.)

Well, so now you know that I’m still here. I’m doing the dailies (some of them at least) and seeking to do them in light of eternity. Sometimes that means shutting off my computer so the real here and now is all there is. I do like checking in to a few favorite places for encouragement and inspiration, though.

:: from my finds ::

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My $1 orange tufted chair--
perfect for my bedroom;
I was thrilled.

The lady at the garage sale thought no one would want it;
she probably would have given it to me.

It's very comfortable.

Carrot-orange and velvety...
It couldn't be better.

* * * * *
(My man also got us a [new] set of fire irons. No more poking with a stick. A happy thought indeed!)

Don't worry...I have since cleaned out the dusties from the tufts of my chair! :)