scandal

In case you're wondering, yep, that's a hickey on my shoulder. Small friend loves sucking on his thumb, his fist, his bunny rabbit from Nana... and apparently my shoulder. :)

fellowship and community

I have a little more time to think on my hands lately... time to think while I bake, time to think while I feed Burkeybaby, time to think while I clean and organize... Most of the things I think about just aren't that important (which deserves some consideration, actually). However, I have spent a decent amount of time these last several weeks thinking about fellowship and community.

We have been blessed with fantastic friendships here in Denver. We feel like the Lord has really given us so many people to share life with, celebrate with, mourn with, seek wisdom from... And then there are so many of you that are scattered around the globe that provide encouragement, support and friendship to us as well.

I guess I've been wondering if our relationships are the community and fellowship that God intends.. or if perhaps we are only partly there. I heard a sermon while I was in Lubbock about how community provides a place to be real, but then also propels you forward out of your sin toward greater sanctification. I wonder if we're doing that right now... I wonder what that even looks like?

guilt

I think I have issues with guilt, y'all.

Part of it is good guilt, the warrented kind over time misspent or misused.

The source of the rest of my guilt is a little more difficult to pin down. This is what I've come up with... I think that I sort of feel guilty for the life that God has given me right now. I get to hang out with the Wild One, who really is possibly the easiest, most low-key baby in the world... My house gets to be clean and organized... I get to find all sorts of fabulous deals so that we can somehow stay within our can't-be-done budget... I have a husband who loves me, is a fantastic father, is smart and talented and wonderful... we have everything we need and more... we have not one but two supportive, Christ following, functional extended families... I just kind of feel like I should pinch myself. Or feel guilty for having it so good. And so far the second option is winning.

little clothes?

he'd rather that I just not put any clothes on him at all- haha!

Because of the fantastic generosity of family and friends giving us clothes and letting us borrow hand-me-downs, I haven't really bought many clothes for the Wild One. But today, as I packed up all of his 0-3 month (and lots of his 3-6 month!) clothing, I had a little moment of panic. We don't really have that many 6+ month clothes for Burke... which means I am now entering the world of "personal shopper for the Little Love."

Like everything else, the clothing budget is down to the bare minimum... so, dear friends, where do I begin? Do I get a few staples and do lots of laundry? Are there great places out there to get kids' clothes on the cheap? Any ideas or words of wisdom for me???

what to do with zucchini

With the help of recipezaar and our larger than life zucchini plant, the gentry kitchen has been abuzz with new recipes this week. And our freezer is stocked with more frozen zucchini bread than you can imagine.

These are some of our recommendations:
Chocolate Zucchini Bread (I cut the oil and sugar by 1/4 of a cup each)
Coconut Zucchini Bread (again, I cut the oil and sugar... I think you'd like this even if you aren't a huge fan of coconut)
Regular Zucchini Bread
Fried Zucchini (we used less oil and ritz crackers instead of saltines for the breading)

Shredded Zucchini and Chickpeas Over Polenta (I know, I already told you about this one, but if you still haven't tried it, you should!)

We've also been tossing zucchini in a bag with italian dressing to marinate a couple hours before dinner and then grilling it as a side for our meal a few times a week.

new love

When we were in Lubbock, Jord and Drew introduced Burke to the exisaucer... which he LOVED! Now that we're home, our good friends Ben and Heidi are letting us borrow theirs. :)

trying new things: what to do with baskets of tomatoes and peaches

Our house has been a flurry of new endeavors this week... At one point on Saturday, there were tomatoes "sun-drying" in the oven, peach preserves cooking on the stove, I was stewing tomatoes to freeze and my darling hubbie was roasting a batch of green chilis on the grill. Yep, I felt like Martha Stewart... or the girls from Little House on the Prairie.

Anyhow, your suggestions for using the fresh produce from our garden prompted some serious salad making, baking, and then some searching on recipezaar (our friend Megan has me hooked on this website! If I ever need a recipe for anything, this is the first place I try!) this week. I began the weekend armed with directions for stewing and freezing tomatoes, oven drying tomatoes, making peach preserves and a recipe for a peach pie. I'll be honest, I've never had my own garden and I've never done any canning, so I was a little nervous about how all of this would turn out... but everything we made was delicious! If you're going to try one of these recipes, I think I'd go with the oven-dried tomatoes- they are worth going to a farmer's market and buying tomatoes if you don't have a garden!

Our little harvest isn't over yet... I think I'm going to try this recipe for oven-dried tomatoes this week (especially since you can use green cherry tomatoes and I have hundreds, seriously hundreds, of those in my backyard right now) and also try these directions for preserving tomatoes.

I'll let you know when I conquer the army of zucchini on my kitchen counter...