Time with Extended Family, Part 3
Welcome to day three of our mini series of how we spend time with extended family. Today’s topic is our visits to Hilton Head Island! Andrew’s grandpa lives on the island so we try to visit when we can, which has been a problem during the pandemic. Andrew and his family have been going down for years to spend time with his grandparents. I was able to join them the summer before we got married and it was amazing! I’ve loved going down each time we have been able to since then. Typically we go when it is nice beach and swimming weather, so we can spend time at the beach or pool in the morning. We eat a lowkey lunch in the hotel and get a bit more time in the sun or take a nap. Late afternoon we get ready to see Andrew’s grandpa and figure out where we are going for dinner. The first night in Hilton Head the tradition is to get pizza takeout from Giusepe’s (honestly, not sure if I spelled that right), which is a local Steelers bar and restaurant. We usually have a night to ourselves for a date night. This year, we are going down around New Years, so it will be a bit different. Also, COVID and Omicron Variant. Andrew and I are still staying at a hotel, but we will by trying to spend as much time as possible at grandpa’s house (after a negative test from traveling) rather than the hotel. Plus, we haven’t seen him in person since before the pandemic and we are excited to see him and get some quality time in! Andrew’s parents will be staying with grandpa so we will have a great chance to spend time with them as well. We usually go for a week or close to a week, but this trip will only be a few days. Still, it is so amazing to think that we get to see Andrew’s grandpa this year!
I’ve got one more post coming at some point in the next week or two about things we do with extended family, but I want to hear from you! What are your favorite things to do with family?
Time with Extended Family, Part 2
Hi everyone,
Today I’m continuing our mini series of posts about things we do when we spend time with extended family with a seasonally appropriate favorite: Christmas Candy! Every year, my parents get together with our family friends and make chocolate candies. As often as we can, my sister and I join them too, which means Andrew joins us. Usually, candy weekend is in early to mid December. We spend time getting ready Friday night and Saturday morning, then usually head over to Perri and Des’s home for a LONG Saturday full of snacks, chocolate, candy, wine, laughter, and catching up. Typically, we make about 10-12 different chocolates, including toffee, dark chocolate caramel balls, coconut balls, bourbon balls, macadamia nut brittle, nutmegs, brandy balls, apricot balls, nutella chocolates, mint chocolates, peanut butter cups, and more! We have a dinner tradition of spaghetti with red pasta sauce (when we are there, I bring my home made sauce), salad, and garlic bread. I’m honestly not sure how this tradition started exactly, but the candy making seems to run in my dad’s family since my aunts and cousins make them too.
You might be asking yourself, how will our future child fit into such a chaotic sounding day?—rest assured, we’ve had babies and children involved before and it only makes things more fun. My parents started this tradition before my sister and I were born and our family friends adopted their children as infants when I was in school. As newborns, they can’t do much to “help” but our future child will be doted on and played with. As a toddler, they get to start feeling helpful by dropping the candy centers into chocolate and helping mix the peanut butter cups by hand (with an adult helping). I honestly cannot wait to have a little one join us at candy weekend!
~Natalie
Time with Extended Family, part 1
Today is the first post on our new mini series on what we enjoy doing with family. First up: the holidays! We try to spend most major holidays with some part of our extended family. We tend to stay home for New Year’s Eve/Day, but when we see people it is Andrew’s parents to celebrate his mom’s birthday. For Easter, we are working towards being the family that hosts for both sides. We were successful a few years ago, but then the pandemic hit and everybody stayed home for Easter the last few years. It was awesome when we could have people over though— celebrating with Andrew’s parents, my parents, and my grandma! Memorial Day is usually the first lake weekend for us, but it is a quieter one. We help my parents get the cabin ready for the year and help with planting flowers.
Independence Day is a HUGE lake week/weekend. Most of the extended family on my side comes up, so we are a full house with cousins, nieces, our nephew, aunts and uncles, my sister and her family, my parents, and my grandma are all up. My dad and I put on a big fireworks show (when it is safe and not a huge draught) and we have a lot of fun. A house on the lake puts on a concert for boaters to come to as well. We also spend Labor Day weekend at the lake (and usually going to the State Fair). It is another great summer weekend at the lake with my side of the family.
We spend Thanksgiving with Andrew’s family. His parents make a delicious dinner and we stay with them for the long weekend. Andrew’s brother and his wife also come over for dinner on turkey day. Neither of us are big into in person shopping on black Friday, but we might buy a bit online that day.
Christmas is the big one that is a bit trickier. We love to celebrate with everybody, but that just isn’t possible all in one day. We usually celebrate Christmas with Andrew’s family before Christmas itself. This year, we celebrated over this past weekend which was a lot of fun. Andrew’s parents or his brother make brunch or dinner and we open presents and hang out all day. Andrew’s brother and his wife hosted this year, and they made the most delicious brunch! Christmas with my parents is usually on Christmas Day, but my sister and her husband switch years of joining us on Christmas or celebrating with the extended family in January. Usually, Christmas is at my parents, where we have crepes for breakfast and open presents in the morning before my aunt and uncle and cousins and their kids come over for the afternoon and evening and Christmas dinner. This year, we will be celebrating Christmas Day in our house before flying out to the east coast to celebrate with my parents and sister and her family.
We have enjoyed adding our nieces and nephew into our various celebrations for the holidays and cannot wait to bring our own bundle of joy to these days.
~Natalie
Thanksgiving 2021
Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope that wherever you are celebrating Thanksgiving this year, you are doing well and enjoying yourself. This year, Andrew and I are home with Goldy again. This time it isn’t due to the pandemic, but because I caught some sort of a bug. Despite being sick, there is so much to be thankful for! Like last year, I’m going to take the time today to list some of the things that we are thankful for.
The family we are building (Andrew, me, Goldy, and our future adopted child),
Our extended family (our parents, siblings, cousins, nieces, nephew, and grandparents),
The Brainerd Lakes Area community,
My new job in a different county,
Our friends,
Our house,
Our neighbors,
Goldy snuggles and playtime, and
the love and support of everyone on our adoption journey.
What are you thankful for today?
~Natalie
Keeping the Biological Family Involved
Hello Everyone!
While closed adoptions are still an option, research has shown that open adoptions are better for the wellbeing of adoptees. That’s why we are hopeful to have an open (or at least semi-open) adoption. We want to be parents but we know that we will not be the only parents of our future child or children. And that is okay! In my head, that just means more people who will love and support our child in their own way. Our goal is to have the biological or birth family involved in our future child’s life in whatever way they feel most comfortable. That might be getting updates by letters, having access to photographs, having conversations between us to keep each other informed, having meet ups, anything. We want to support and love our future child’s biological mom and dad in any way we can. At the same time, we are working to understand how difficult this situation could be for the biological family. We want to pursue what is best for everyone in this situation. If you prefer to love your child from a distance, we will work with you. If you hope to be more involved, we will work with you on that too. There isn’t a single answer and each adoptive situation is unique. We want to be parents and bring a child into our home to love and care for forever. But that doesn’t mean you, the biological family, plays absolutely no role. We are open to you playing whatever role in our joint child’s life that you are comfortable with.
~Natalie
What does family mean to us?
Family is not just blood relatives, although they are a part of our family. It includes those who we are born into a relationship with, those we choose along the way, and the animals we love. We hope to be able to include you in our family, because the more the merrier. Family doesn’t have to mean seeing each other or talking every day, but being there to love, support, give advise, lend a hand, stand up for, care for, spend quality time with, create with, adore, share with, explore with, learn from, teach, and feed when we can. I know, that last one doesn’t fit as nicely but Andrew and I honestly love cooking for and feeding those we love. It is an act of service we both enjoy doing and sharing.
Our nuclear family right now is Andrew and me plus Goldy (our pup). We are hoping, praying, and waiting for the right adoptive match and placement so we can expand our nuclear family. Our future adoptive child will have a large extended family outside our nuclear one—our parents and grandparents; my sister, her husband, and their daughter; Andrew’s brother and his wife; Andrew’s aunts, uncle, and cousin; my aunts, uncles, and cousins; my cousin’s children; our friends and their children; and (possibly most importantly) their biological parents, if they’ll let us, and their families. To us, family means those we love, those we spend time with, and those who we care for plus those who love us, spend time with us, and care about us.
What does family mean to you guys? Let us know in the comments!
~Natalie
Natalie’s Hobbies, part 5
I’m back to complete the mini series of my hobbies! Today I’m sharing about my love of photography! This is a passion that started in high school, where I took multiple photography classes. When I was 18, my parents gave me an amazing birthday present and worked with me to create a dark room at our cabin. I still use black and white film for some of my photography, but I’ve also entered the digital world. Andrew and I have a DSLR from Canon that is wonderful. The problem is we went from both having a lower quality DSLR to one upgraded DSLR, so we share now. The upgrade is definitely worth it, and it has taught us to prioritize a bit. It does help that most of the time we enjoy taking photos of different things.
I’m not a people photographer—portraits aren’t my thing. Nature and animals are my favorite subjects, but I also really enjoy finding unique views of things to share. My parents have said that I see the world in a different way than most, but I’m not so sure. I just enjoy finding beauty and interesting views that people might overlook. I also enjoy taking photos of planes, but probably not nearly as much as Andrew does! I like to think that I helped introduce Andrew to photography, because he really got into it and using a DSLR after we started dating and he saw what I was up to. Not sure whether he would agree with that though!
I’ll post some photos I’ve taken below.
~Natalie
Natalie’s Hobbies, part 4
Hello everyone,
Today I am continuing my mini series on my hobbies. I love to garden! As you know if you’ve read many of my earlier posts, gardening is one of my favorite things to do in the spring and summer. This year's weather has brought this hobby into fall as well! I can’t believe I’m still getting produce from our garden areas, but it is bringing me so much joy. We have two main gardens in our yard—the raised beds Andrew built me on the south side of our house and the shared garden between our driveway and our neighbor’s driveway in the back. Add to that a small raised planter next to our backdoor for flowers and the raised bed planter on our deck for herbs and I’m all set!
This year we have so many different plants that are doing great into mid-October. Just today, I found onions in the raised beds that were ready to be picked (but I didn’t even know I had any that I didn’t catch the first time I harvested). There are three heads of broccoli to be picked anytime now. We have also still been picking tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, and banana peppers. One night last week, our neighbor dug up the potatoes from our shared garden and left a few for us too! We have plants still flowering, produce still ripening, and a only a hint that it might frost next week. Today I planted garlic to grow for next year and am excited to see what happens.
What are your favorite plants to grow? I’m looking for ideas for next year— both produce and flowers!
~Natalie
Natalie’s Hobbies, Part 3
Hi everyone,
I hope you are enjoying the mini-series of posts about my hobbies so far! Today’s hobby topic is watching TV. I know, I probably shouldn’t admit that it is one of my hobbies but it really is. I love watching TV. Mostly I like comedy and crime shows, but I’m open to almost anything. Andrew and I have been binge watching shows during the pandemic, which has been fun. We’ve watched NCIS, Brooklyn 99, Schitt’s Creek, Gilmore Girls, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Currently, we are re-watching our way through The West Wing. I also spend some time watching TV without Andrew, which is sometimes even better. I watch a lot of Food Network—especially Damaris, Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, Robert Irvine, and Iron Chef. I also watch the Bachelor franchise, Supermarket Sweep, Virgin Rivers, multiple mini series on Netflix, nature documentaries… basically you name it I watch it! I don’t spend all my free time watching TV, but it is something I enjoy doing. Any tips on shows I should watch? Let me know in the comments!
Natalie’s Hobbies, Part 2
Hi again everyone!
Today’s post is about my hobby of crafting. I love doing all sorts of different crafts! My best friend, Mary, and I even try to get together every week on zoom to catch up and craft together but apart. So what do I actually do for crafting? I paint (not my best strength), paper craft, make homemade cards with my Cricut Maker and Cricut Joy, color, add designs and images to shirts and onesies using heat transfer vinyl, other vinyl crafts, knit, crochet, etch, make candles, and sew (again not a big strength). My favorite crafts are anything with my cricut machines. I’m working on making wall decorations for our nursery out of cardstock and vinyl cut with the cricut and they are looking nice so far. I’ve also had the opportunity to design a new logo for our neighborhood association and make the note cards we use as thank you cards to send to speakers and event donors/sponsors. It is actually something I’m really proud of!
Lately, I have been working on paint by number paintings of Goldy. It is so much fun seeing some of my favorite photos of him come to life in a painting. The first one I did was a Christmas gift last year from my sister and it got me started. Before I even finished that one, I ordered my next one from the same company because I was having so much fun painting Goldy!
What about you? Do you guys craft? What do you make?
~Natalie
Natalie’s Hobbies, Part 1
Hi all!
I am going to start off a mini series of blog posts about things I like to do in my free time. Today, I’m starting with reading. One of my favorite things to do when I have free time is read a good book. Reading was instilled in me from when I was a baby. My mom and my aunts are big readers, my sister is a reader, everyone.
What do I like to read? I like mainly fiction books, especially contemporary fiction, thrillers, suspense, mysteries, and investigation style books. Some of my favorite authors right now are James Patterson, Shari Lapena, Lisa Jewell, J.T. Ellison, Lisa Gardner, Karin Slaughter, Liane Moriarty, and Harlan Coben. I’ve also recently joined Book of The Month Club, which lets me pick out a book each month (or more) that are new releases, so I’m getting exposure to other authors as well! Since I switched jobs in July, I also spend a lot more time in the car, so Audible and audio books are HUGE. Even though they aren’t quite as good as reading an actual book, I still enjoy hearing someone else read to me.
I can’t wait to pass this on to our future child. If you’ve seen our friends and family page, you’ll know that I love reading to the children in my life. We have also started our nursery’s library, and it is full of treasures—That’s Not My Sloth, The Pout Pout Fish, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, lots of Winnie the Pooh, a variety of 5 Minute Bedtime Stories, some children’s Disney books in French, and many more! Do you have any favorite children’s books you can recommend?? I’d love to expand our library.
Natalie
Sorry for the break
Hey everyone,
Sorry I haven’t posted in over a month. To be honest, summer is super busy for us but in the best way possible. We spend a lot of time outside and a lot of time traveling in the summer!
A (brief) recap of what we’ve been up to:
LOTS of weekends at the lake! We’ve spent about 2 weekends there every month since Memorial Day. This month I’m actually there 3 or 4 of the weekends and I’m spending next week there with Goldy. It’s a nice commute to…
I have a new job! I’ve switched which county I’m working in. I drive a bit further from our house and a bit closer to the lake for my commute now. I’m still a prosecutor though so not too much of a change. It has been an adjustment to a new office though!
I sprained my ankle- which made for a challenging week and a half! Andrew was an amazing care taker even if I’m a terrible patient. If he can be so patient and supportive when I’m not at my best, he is going to be an amazing dad when our future child gets sick.
We got a bigger inflatable pool! On weekends at home, I get to lounge outside on our deck in the ‘kiddie pool’— I love it!
We’ve seen a lot of our family on my mom’s side- and the littles keep growing! Between my cousins there is a 3 year old, a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and a baby due this fall. Add my sister’s baby into the mix at 9 and a half months old right now and it gets busy when we are all together! Unfortunately I haven’t gotten as much time with my sister and her daughter as I wish I could. They live on the east coast and with COVID neither of us has wanted to travel unnecessarily. They are here for 2 weeks right now though and I’m getting my baby fix in?
Andrew has joined the local park board and charter commission to get more involved locally- he seems to enjoy both!
Goldy just got his hair cut and is as cute as ever. He unfortunately has been diagnosed with a thyroid problem but it is very minor and seems to be treatable with a half a pill with his two meals.
I’m still loving my Bible Study through Walking With Purpose.
I joined book of the month club and am anxiously waiting for my second book!
Andrew is still working remote.
Our garden is growing like crazy!
Last night was national night out, which was a lot of fun.
Here are just a couple photos from this summer so far:
I’ll try to do better about posting again.
Natalie
A Week of Birthday Celebrations
Hi everyone!
I know I didn’t post last weekend or this past week, but there was good reason. This last week has been a week of birthdays (and a gotcha day)! Instead of trying to post as I went along, I decided it would be best to stay in the moment and enjoy it all. So this post might be a bit long—sorry guys.
Last week I took Friday off so I could get some time with my mom for my birthday. We spent the day at the lake, which was amazing. In the morning we watched Cruella on Disney +. I really enjoyed the movie. Then mom got coffee and bagels and we had a nice brunch. In the afternoon it officially became summer for us as we went out on the lake and went swimming for the first time this year! Mom and I both love the water, and I can’t wait to share that love (while not forcing it) with our future kiddo. Mom left the lake late afternoon so that the really exciting part of my birthday weekend could happen—my best friend Mary and her family came to visit!!! This was the first time we saw them in about 16 months, thanks COVID. They took a half day and drove to our cabin to spend the weekend. Andrew didn’t take Friday off but he came down after work.
We spent the weekend catching up, playing with Conor (their one and a half year old), and eating delicious food. Friday night we were just all so thrilled to be together again. We learned that a barking Goldy scares Conor, but only until he stops barking. We stayed up late talking and it was just amazing. Saturday, I made smoked eggs for breakfast. We set up the new water table Andrew and I bought at Costco and got to play around with Conor getting everything wet. Conor also figured out he could walk out on the dock and wanted to walk up and down it about a million times—but it was so cute! Don’t worry, we never let him go out there alone, one of us was always holding onto his hand or life jacket. After Conor’s nap time, we (slowly) got ready to go out on the lake in the pontoon. Most of the day was spent inside because it was 100* and humid, but when we got cloud cover we took our chance to get on the water! Jobe and I went in, but then we started hearing thunder, so we didn’t stay out long. Better to be safe than sorry and make it back before the thunderstorms hit. Conor' got dipped into the water briefly as well! I have to say, Conor is the first little kid I’ve seen at the lake that hasn’t hated wearing a lifejacket! He was all smiles and loved being out on the water, even if we made him wear his life jacket. Dinner Saturday night was smoked stuffed tomatoes, smoked ribs, pesto pasta, and coleslaw. All of it was amazing. Conor got a bath and I had a lot of fun reading him bedtime stories while he snuggled with me! After Conor went to bed, the four adults played a Hunt a Killer premium mystery called Space Madness—it was a lot of fun! We managed to safely solve the mystery and launch our “space ship” on the correct course to head home.
Sunday was bittersweet. We got more time with Mary, Jobe, and Conor but they also had to head back around 1 PM. We watched some of the 101 Dalmatians and enjoyed Andrew’s amazing french toast. After breakfast, we went out on the pontoon again. We did a trip around all three parts of the lake and enjoyed the nice weather out on the water. I was so sad to watch them pack up their car and leave but it was just the best birthday weekend I could ask for. Below are some great pictures from the weekend.
Andrew’s birthday was next! His birthday was on Wednesday. To celebrate, he has a city charter commission meeting. Just kidding, we had a delicious dinner on Wednesday night but put off our true celebration until this weekend. Yesterday we got takeout, which was the first time that we had something besides Costco Pizza as takeout in ages. Andrew picked the restaurant and what he wanted to eat. With dinner, we watched In The Heights. It was a great movie! A great end to a relaxing day (which I’ll touch on in a second).
Friday I took the day off to do some yard work and catch up on sleep I missed last weekend. Andrew took the afternoon off as well. The final “birthday” was actually Goldy’s gotcha day! We got him 5 years ago on June 11. He loved having us around and not working as much. After lunch, we went to run errands. The most important stop was Von Hansen’s meat to get Goldy a couple of treats. We got him a bone and a pig’s ear. He was thrilled when we gave him the bone on Friday! We spent some more of our afternoon thinning the apple buds on our two apple trees. It seemed like a really daunting task, but it went much better than we thought! With all of our work out of the way, we could relax the rest of the weekend!
Yesterday I started out by going to a coffee talk put on by my church. It was in our local park, which is just a beautiful place to spend time. I came home to Andrew and Goldy. Andrew had started the smoker for smoked eggs, which is one of our favorite breakfasts now that I can make them myself! We spent the rest of the day relaxing both inside and outside. I got out the plastic kiddie pool and filled it from the hose as a way to keep cool. Between that and our two sun umbrellas it was pretty great to be outside. I finished the book I started a month ago too. Goldy got his pig’s ear treat and proceeded to bury it not once, but twice. He got so dirty doing this that he had to come into the pool to be cleaned off! This was not his favorite thing but he seemed to enjoy that it helped cool him off as well. Andrew spent some time playing Destiny and some time reading. We ordered in dinner from one of our favorite restaurants and enjoyed a cool evening watching the movie in the basement.
So far today, I haven’t been outside much. It’s hot and sunny but also windy so the umbrella’s aren’t super stable. I took it easy this morning and then worked on writing this post. Andrew is currently down playing Destiny again and after I finish up here, I’m changing into my swimsuit and heading outside and to the kiddie pool again!
~Natalie
Memorial Day Weekend
Hello everyone! Sorry I’m late posting again this week but I spent the weekend just being in the moment with family. We spent Memorial Day Weekend down at the lake with my parents. We went down Friday, which let us wake up at the lake on Saturday.
Saturday was actually pretty busy for us. Andrew and I started by heading from the lake to the cities to see Andrew’s parents. It was amazing to see Kathy and Greg, especially since the last time we saw them was October! Now that we are all vaccinated, we could get together without being concerned about COVID-19. Andrew’s parents made us an amazing breakfast of quiche, strawberry bruschetta, sausage (for the meat eaters), and donuts for dessert. They make an delicious cheese quiche! It was so much fun to get to catch up with Kathy and Greg. We spent hours with them on Saturday and were able to sit outside on their deck after breakfast. Before we could do that, Andrew helped his dad get the deck furniture out for his parents. It was warm and sunny and we had a blast together.
After visiting with Kathy and Greg, we went and visited my grandma in her senior residence. It was the first time we have been able to see her apartment since she moved in last spring. She isn’t the best with technology but she tries to keep up with it. Andrew is a huge help, as he gets her printer wirelessly connected to her iPad. We also helped her with her phone and got to hear lots of stories about what she has been up to and her friends from the past. The absolute best part of the entire visit was that I could give my grandma hugs again!
We made it back to the lake for dinner on Saturday. My dad had smoked pork ribs while doing yard work and I made a homemade pasta sauce from a can of tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs.
Sunday morning we had a fire inside since it was a bit cold. Dad taught me how to make smoked eggs when I was down for Mother’s Day so I made them on Sunday for brunch. We all worked on getting the deck furniture out for the large deck by the lake. The main table and chairs were already out, but we added four chaise lounges and a smaller table and chairs. They got a good wipe down and are all set up! We then got to enjoy the rest of the afternoon outside in the gorgeous weather. For dinner, dad smoked bone in prime rib while I made mac and cheese (still the best recipe ever!) and smoked stuffed tomatoes. The prime rib took hours longer than we thought, but it was still delicious. Earlier, my parents had made homemade ice cream for our dessert. After dinner, we celebrated Andrew’s and my upcoming birthdays. I’ll see my mom on Friday since I took the day off, but my parents won’t see Andrew this weekend.
Monday was a calmer day and it was beautiful all day. Andrew and I made a Hello Fresh recipe for lunch—vegetarian Shepard’s Pie. After lunch my parents and I went out on the lake to read and relax. Andrew chose to stay at the cabin with Goldy to relax.
I spent this weekend thinking about how great it would be to add a baby to our activities: being out on the lake, walks nearby, hanging out with family, even getting the cabin open for the year.
Hoping you all had a wonderful weekend!
~Natalie
Our 2021 Garden
Hey all,
It was once again a busy weekend for us and the warm weather is just getting started! My posts might end up coming during the week more but we’ll have to see. This weekend I got the gardens all planted, soaker hoses set up, and the back shared garden fenced. Andrew spent a lot of the weekend playing Destiny’s newly released raid. They apparently come out twice a year and he has a group of friends that works to compete it within the more difficult first 24 hours— I think he had a lot of fun and it seemed to relax him as well! But back to what I was up to: Gardening! As you guys know if you’ve read some of my other posts, I LOVE to garden and grow flowers, vegetables, and herbs. This year Andrew built me beautiful raised bed gardens on the south side of our house, greatly expanding my garden area. We also have a new raised bed on the deck, my marigold planter by the back door, and the garden space we share with our next door neighbors.
Saturday was hot and humid, so naturally I thought what better time to plant than then?! Turns out the answer was Sunday, but that would have involved checking out the weather forecast and I was just too excited. By the end of Saturday morning, the fence was up around our shared garden and everything was planted in the shared garden, my marigold planter, and the deck’s raised bed. Here is the progression of those areas:
The starting point for the weekend. Andrew previously tilled and laid down the garden fabric.
These two photos are from laying things out and getting it planted.
The final garden!
Okay, I skipped ahead because I didn’t run the soaker hoses until Sunday morning, but I couldn’t resist putting the final state of our garden up right after the in progress photos. We are missing one bell pepper plant, a cucumber plant, and a parsley plant in this area of the shared garden. There is also a raised bed that will get some snap peas and carrots I think. Carrots will be planted along the seam to the right of the walkway and right under the raised bed that is shown in the picture fully.
Here is the before planting picture of the deck raised bed. Andrew and I found a cedar raised bed that has an irrigation/self watering system in it so we are pretty excited! In here are three basil plants, an oregano, a cilantro and a rosemary.
And planted/watered!
Below are two photos of my marigold planter (before and after). Although, to be honest Goldy, our pup, is clearly the star of the before photo!
On Saturday, I also planted some of the side of the house, specifically the tomatoes, basil, zucchini and cucumber plant we preordered at the plant sale at the senior center (where I buy most of my plants). But I realized that what I had planted still left me with an 8 foot by 3 foot raised bed to plant! So back to the plant sale I went, where i picked up 4 lemon balm plants to help keep mosquitos away on the deck and a celery plant. I’ve never grown celery before, so we’ll see what happens! My dad suggested I look for broccoli, onions, and cauliflower as well, but the plant sale didn’t have any of those. Off to Menards I went, where I got three broccoli, a package of started onions, and one cauliflower plant to try. Now I’m just hoping the broccolis don’t get wormy or eaten by the rabbits. I also got a new soaker hose since our extended garden space left us one short. It was too hot to keep working outside on Saturday, so the rest of my planting happened Sunday. Can I just say, what a difference the day of the weekend made! Instead of the 80s it was in the 50s. It also was less muggy and buggy! Just crazy!! I’ve posted a LOT of photos of my garden progress here, but I have a few more—check out the lemon balm and side yard garden beds below.
What a busy weekend of planting! Here is what is planted overall between all of the garden spaces:
9 tomatoes (multiple varieties)
4 basil
1 lemon basil
1 cilantro
1 oregano
1 rosemary
4 lemon balms
12 marigolds
too many onions to count
3 broccoli
1 cauliflower
1 celery
1 zucchini
1 cucumber
1 sweet banana pepper
1 jalapeño
1 green bell pepper
a number of radishes
9 bean plants, and
5 potatoes
In the garden we share with our neighbors, we are missing 1 cucumber plant, 1 tomato plant, 1 parsley plant, 1 colorful bell pepper plant, some pea plants, and some carrots . Thankfully, I think our neighbor Kathy is going to plant those. After all of that this weekend, I am super sore today! I’m very excited to watch our gardens take off though! I also look forward to being able to share this passion of mine with our future adopted child. Thanks for sticking with this long photo filled post!
~Natalie
Mushroom Stock Concentrate
Hi everyone!
I know I posted already about our weekend outdoor projects, but I also wanted to take a few minutes and update you all about the other weekend project from last weekend: making mushroom stock concentrate. I’m going to skip ahead for a second and just let you all know that it is delicious! Okay, now back to the beginning. I first got the idea about making mushroom stock concentrate from Hello Fresh. Honestly, we love that service and they send us great vegetarian food. But we want to be able to use the recipes without waiting for it to come back into rotation. The problem with that is a lot of the recipes we love have either veggie stock concentrate or mushroom stock concentrate. So I set out to make our own mushroom stock concentrate. It is actually deceptively easy! Here is what I did:
take an entire head of garlic, crush each clove and peel them.
take an onion or two, peel and cut into large chunks
take 2 - 3 large containers of mushrooms (think Costco size), wash them, and then cut into quarters or sixths depending on the size. If they are very small mushrooms, you could just cut them in half.
Heat a large drizzle of oil (I used olive oil) in a large stock pot. Add in the onion and cook to soften a little bit. Add in all the garlic (or however much you want) and cook to warm it up with the onion.
Add the mushrooms, stir, and let some of the mushrooms start to brown on the bottom. Then fill the stock pot with water until the mushrooms are floating and/or covered with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. (First picture below is the stock pot as it was coming to a boil)
You will be simmering for a LONG time, but just keep an eye on it. I also added salt substitute and pepper at this point (and a splash of red wine, since I read that suggestion online). (Second picture below is the simmering and reducing stock)
Taste as it simmers and reduces, once you have the mushroom flavor that you want or you think that the mushrooms won’t give off any more flavor, remove the mushrooms, onion, and garlic. I used a strainer and a large metal bowl to accomplish this and then poured the liquid back into the stock pot. At this point, you have mushroom stock that you can use as is. (Third picture below is after straining out the mushrooms, onions, and garlic).
Continue to simmer and reduce until desired concentrate level is reached. I let it simmer until the stock concentrate was thick and stuck to my wooden spoon. (Fourth picture below).
Use a sieve (really fine strainer) to strain your concentrate through to ensure it is smooth and doesn’t have any debris from the mushrooms or salt/pepper in it. Now you have sock concentrate!
To store our homemade mushroom stock concentrate, I spooned the end product into an ice cube tray (last photo—which I know looks like it might be chocolate but it really is my mushroom stock concentrate!). I let the cubes cool on the counter, then in the fridge, before moving them to the freezer. Now we have nice stock concentrate in the freezer to use when we want to cook!
Hopefully I’ve inspired some of you to see how great cooking can be! This recipe (if you can call it that?) is so easy it just takes time and monitoring. I can’t wait to share this love of cooking and making things from scratch with our future child. I know I get it from both of my parents, who always were happy to have me help in the kitchen when I was growing up.
Natalie
Weekend Yardwork Projects
Hey everyone,
Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but we were too busy enjoying the great weather! Before I update you on our weekend outdoor projects, I thought I’d give you an update about how amazing Andrew is and how he surprised me. When I got home after spending the weekend with my parents for Mother’s Day, I found that he had prepared ALL of our gardens and planters for the plants that are coming today! Not only did he fill the raised bed gardens with the compost/dirt mixture that our neighbors picked up for us, but he also got the raised bed planter on the deck and the planter by our back door ready. Then he got the garden we share with our neighbors prepped too! It was just amazing to come home to all of that work being done.
On to more exciting things- we finished our grape project on Saturday! Here is a before picture so that you all have a sense of what we managed to do.
On to more exciting things!
We finished our grape taming project on Saturday. Here is the before picture so that you guys have a sense of what all we did. Friday after work, we took the platforms down and untangled the grape vines from them. It actually went smoother than I thought it would, which was super nice.
Saturday morning, I worked on getting the old trellises untangled from the grape vines. I really didn’t realize how long our vines grew last year! See how long they are?!
After I got the grape vines all untangled, I had to wait for Andrew to work on putting up the new lattice trellises. In the meantime, I worked on our front yard’s landscaping. Not nearly as exciting and I didn’t even think to take photos but I got all the fallen leaves, weeds, and dead plants from the fall out of the bushes. There was a lot more there than it looked like but now the front yard looks way better!
Once Andrew woke up, we went back to work on our grape vine project. First up- Andrew attached some cedar boards he had previously cut to the back of the cedar lattices that we bought for the back wall of our garage. Once those were attached, we had to hang all 4 lattices. The first one was definitely the hardest to do! We had to get it high enough but not too high and placed level and close enough to the door to fit the other set of lattice next to the first set. Here are some photos I managed to grab during the lattice hanging part of this project.
After the first lattice trellis was up, the other three were much easier. Then we got to have a great lot of fun untangling the grape vines from each other and hanging them spread across the garage. I know it is hard to tell in the photo, but I’m working on attaching one of the vines. The leaves haven’t popped so it might be hard to see the vines on the cedar but some of them are noticeable I think. Below is also the finished project!
Also, in that last photo you can see how beautiful the blooms are on our weeping crabapple tree. Now that we’ve finished the back fence, the grapes, and prepping the gardens the only thing left is to plant!
~Natalie
Happy Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day all! Whether you are an expectant mother, a mother struggling with fertility, a mother waiting to adopt, an adoptive mother, a birth mother, a grandmother, or great-grandmother today can bring both joy and struggle to us all. Know that you are not alone in whatever emotion you are feeling.
This year, I have been super lucky to spend Mother’s Day weekend with my parents at the lake. Andrew stayed home since his vaccine isn’t fully effective until Tuesday. It has been absolutely amazing to see my parents this weekend! I came down from work on Friday and got to have dinner with them Friday night. This might not sound like much, but usually coming down Friday means getting to the lake or my parent’s house just in time to say hello and go to bed. Going from work to our house to my parents adds at least an hour to the time it takes to get to see family. My mom surprised me when I got here. Despite Mother’s Day weekend supposed to be about seeing her, she got me 2 surprises: a sloth piggy bank that is adorable (for those that don’t know, I’m low level obsessed with sloths) and takeout from my favorite pizza place in the cities (Pig Ate My Pizza)! I’m so lucky to have such an amazing and close relationship with my mom.
Yesterday, we had a lazy morning. It has been a bit cold and we don’t have central heat at the lake, so my dad lit a fire in the fireplace to warm up the downstairs. My dad also taught me how to make his delicious smoked eggs for breakfast. I know, I probably could have googled or found the recipe in one of his smoking cookbooks but he makes them so yummy that I wanted to learn from him. We also made a plan to try a new recipe for smoked mac and cheese, which is one of my favorite smoked foods we make. My dad is so into smoking and he loves making delicious food for everyone—even his vegetarian daughters! After our late breakfast we spent some time reading before getting things from their to do list at the lake done. We also chatted with my sister (Andrea) a bit. I took a nap mid-afternoon while watching some food network with my parents. We also spent some time out on the lake yesterday—even if we were all in jackets or sweatshirts and pants. It is so calming to just be out floating on top of the water. For dinner, my parents had steak and I made us all a yummy mushroom and onion pasta dish. When I cook for others, I feel calm and happy—definitely a stress reliever but also something that brings joy to my heart and to those around me. This is even better when I get to cook with others as well. Mom and I both worked on the mushrooms and the sauce. I can’t wait to share our love of cooking with a future child. And if you all think I’m excited, I can say without hesitating that my parents are even more pumped than I am. I’ve gotten to see them share their love of cooking and good food with my nieces and nephew over the last couple of years.
Today is another quiet morning to celebrate togetherness and Mother’s Day. We had french toast with bacon (for the meat eaters) for breakfast. We are watching the blue skies and waiting for the sun to hit the deck before we head outside for a while, hopefully to enjoy the sun and the lake and a good book. I am taking a few minutes to reflect on all the blessings in my life, even while waiting for an adoptive placement match. I am thinking and praying for all of the different types of mothers out there, especially today. Know that you are all in my heart.
~Natalie
Raised Bed Gardens
Happy Sunday everyone!
I hope that you all have enjoyed this beautiful weekend! It has been absolutely gorgeous here, which is why I haven’t posted until now. We started a few different projects yesterday, neither of which I thought we would necessarily do this weekend. Only one we finished, more or less. One project was figuring out how to help the grapes on the garage. We have a plan and the lattices but we didn’t get any further on that project this weekend (maybe next weekend Andrew can do it while I’m visiting my parents?). But what we did to was build raised bed gardens on the south side of our house. I’m so excited that Andrew had this suggestion and I can’t wait to get the dirt and plants in there!
Here is our (mostly) before picture:
After making our plan and getting the materials, we needed to start executing. First step, level out the soil and take out unwanted plants. I thought this meant level out the piles from dumping our potted plants last year and take out the raspberries and chives. Apparently I didn’t do enough leveling… Andrew might have wanted to be a bit more involved in that step because it came back to bite us in the butt later. Here is my progress:
Next up was placing the garden fabric to help prevent grass/weeds from popping through. Then we placed the bricks around the fabric to keep it down for the night. Where we ended yesterday:
The fabric area is definitely larger than what we actually built, but we wanted to make sure we had enough down. When we started again this afternoon, I went through and used the garden staples to secure the fabric along the house. Then I did a terrible job at measuring how far apart the bricks actually need to be. We have one larger bed and one smaller bed. They are 3 feet by 16 feet and 3 feet by 8 feet, so I guess smaller is relative. While I was working on that, Andrew was cutting the boards for the shorter sides of the garden beds. As we started to assemble the smaller of our two raised garden beds, we ran into a problem. I am not great at leveling out the ground. While we had our bricks, our boards, and the garden fabric we did not have a level surface to build our gardens. Thankfully Andrew found a solution! We used river rock to help level out where the bricks are placed as we went. This needed to be done as we went because I didn’t measure from the correct spot on the bricks to get the distance between them correct. Oops. Andrew is a great sport and hard worker, so he didn’t get very frustrated with me at least! We started at one corner of the small bed and went brick then board, then brick until we got all the way around. When we stepped back, we realized it really isn’t level still and isn’t really squared off either. But it will be great anyway. Then we worked on the large garden bed, which went a lot smoother I think! Must have been more level to start with, since I clearly won’t win any awards for my help in this project. We took the same approach as the first bed—brick, board, brick—leveling as we went around. Next up, we added rebar through the bricks to help with stability. Here is an action shot Andrew doesn’t know I grabbed.
Our final step of the weekend was to clean up and cut the extra garden fabric. Here are our final products (minus the soil)! You can tell they aren’t perfect but I love them!
You’ll have to check out our social media to see a bonus photo from today. I can’t wait to share my love for gardening and getting my hands dirty with our future child! For now, Andrew and Goldy will have to get all the benefits.
~Natalie
Bible Study and Jury Trials
Hey all,
We haven’t been up to much in the last week. The big thing for me is that I started a new bible study. I enjoyed trying Bible Study Fellowship but it just didn’t feel quite right for me. Now I realize that it was because I joined mid-study and didn’t feel a connection to the group. I’ve now started a virtual bible study with Walking With Purpose. It is a small group study for Catholic women. We meed Tuesday nights and our first meeting was this past week. We keep our discussions confidential within our group but I can share my perspective on the week. It was so great to meet these amazing women and learn about where they are in life and with God. I was so humbled and felt God’s presence in the meeting. Even though it is virtual, I feel so connected to these women. I am excited to grow in faith and understanding together. I came away from our session full of hope and joy. The study we are doing is called Open Your Heart. It is actually my second Walking With Purpose bible study, since the one I did with family over lent was one of their short studies. I am excited to see where this journey leads me.
This week at work I’ve got a jury trial. This means I’m a bit of a ball of stress and nerves tonight because even if I am logically prepared you never know exactly what is going to happen at trial or what the members of the jury are going to think and decide. I try to take comfort in what an attorney I worked with as an intern during law school once told me — No matter the outcome of a trial, the prosecution has succeeded, justice has been served. As a prosecutor, or any attorney for that matter, it is easy to get caught up in a win/loss record. But what that attorney shared with me is the truth: by participating in the system, doing our best with our case, and giving it to the jury to decide, we are letting justice prevail in our criminal justice system.
Hopefully I’ll have a bit more to share next weekend,
Natalie