I’m so excited! I just found a link to the BEST website! But I’m not going to share it, because if I do – it might give away what I’m doing for Christmas gifts this year.

I’m so mean! Mwaaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

But their prices are INCREDIBLE! I think I just found my Christmas gift supplier!

Ok, so the class was a total blast today. We had 9 girls show up! That is so wonderful! I had been wondering how many girls would come, since last month we only had 4.

We took the girls to Hobby Lobby to buy aprons and things to decorate them with. They filled my van and Mrs. Moore’s SUV. Sam was along for the ride too! HA! A van-ful of little Sam-admirers! What a trip! Poor Sam. :) That lone little boy with 11 women!

It was really fun to give the devotional. The girls were pretty receptive to it. I was hoping to get them to respond to some of my questions, but I think they were a bit shy. But it went over really well.

As nervous as I got for the Mother Daughter Banquet – I wasn’t nervous today. I don’t know why for sure – but I don’t think that 9-year-olds (ok – we had age 8-ish through 15) intimidate me like a roomful of women my age or older can.

It was a real blessing. I can’t wait until next month! They get to decorate their aprons then….now THAT will be a hoot!

I was asked to lead the devotional tomorrow for the God’s Ideal Woman class at church. I’m really looking forward to the class – they are always so much fun. Mrs. Moore asked me to give a devotional on “becoming a woman.”

It’s amazing how I can sit and read Scripture that I’ve heard or read countless times before, and learn something new every time! This is so neat. I went through Proverbs 31, but I came up with so much that it would be better suited for a series than a one-time devotional.

We’re going to Mary Jo’s cloth store for part of our meeting. That place is so big! I hope the girls aren’t overwhelmed with all the choices.

But as I sit here studying, I’m amazed at how God uses His Word to speak to me about what I need to change, even though I’m getting ready to speak to 9- and 10-year-old girls.

How is it that those few simple words can ruin my day? It’s a rainy day, so Stephen couldn’t go to work. He had some running to do, so I went with him.

We were all sitting there talking, and then came the dreaded question. “It’s about time for you to have another one, don’t you think?” Time stopped. I looked at Stephen, hoping he would answer. Nope. All I could manage was “You’ve got to talk to God about that.” Her reply? “Well, you never know…” I told her that after four years of infertility I’m not expecting to become pregnant any time soon. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I think that God can’t or won’t send us a pregnancy – I’m just not as hopeful as I once was. I guess you could say I’m looking at things more realistically now. I mean, chances are…well…slim. God can do a miracle, but I don’t know if that is His will at this time.

(Sigh) Some people just don’t understand. Do people remember that we adopted Little man? Do they realize what they’re really asking?

I’m not angry or upset, just sad. I know that God has everything worked out, but these comments are coming pretty frequently now. People just don’t realize that there may be a good reason why there’s not another little York on the way yet.

I just added more pictures and video to the gallery. Feel free to check it out and leave comments!

It’s stormy outside so I don’t get to go meet Beth for dinner. :( I went to get my cell phone to call Beth, to see what the weather was like in Rock Hill, and Stephen looked at me, looked outside, and said, “You’re not going anywhere at the moment.”

Bummer.

I don’t have issues with his decision, though. It’s nasty out there. It really looked ripe for a tornado! But I am dissappointed. I was looking forward to having a nice dinner with a friend!

Please Pass the Chicken and Dumplings
(from Elizabeth Walden)

1 pack chicken

Broth:
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3 Tbs flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp paprika
pinch sage
pepper to taste
1/2 cup milk

Dumplings:
1 1/3 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Simmer chicken in water until done – 1 to 1/2 hours. Bone chicken and set aside.

To make broth:
Measure about 1 quart of broth (add water to make it a quart if necessary) into a large heavy saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Bring to a rolling boil. Add cans of cream of chicken soup and return to a boil.
Mix flour, salt, paprika, sage, and pepper together. Add milk, stirring with a fork so it won’t lump. Add to the saucepan and let it return to a boil again so flour can thicken then turn down until gently bubbling.

To make dumplings:
Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and pinch of pepper. Add 1/2 cup milk. Stir just enough to mix together. If you want drop dumplings, drop by 1/2 or whole teaspoons into bubbling broth. If you like the neater rolled-out dumplings, remove dough from bowl and pat out on flour coated wax paper. Handle as little as possible or dumplings will be tough. When desired thickness, cut into squares with flour coated chef’s knife. Drop quickly into bubbling broth.

Spoon or drop dumplings on top of gently bubbling chicken miture very quickly and cover. Cook for 15 minutes without removing the lid. Remove dumplings to platter. If you really like the dumplings you can make another “run” of dumplings. Then stir in chicken and serve at once.

Hint: If you are not counting calories, use half and half instead of whole milk. The key to dumplings is steam. Drop quick and cover tight. Shoot anyone who tries to lift the lid while your dumplings are cooking. If your dumplings cook without rising (steam makes them rise) you will have hard little flour rocks.

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I usually double the dumplings and make a “double run” but the pan I use is big enough to cook a double batch all at once.

This is the way Beth wrote the recipe – I just formatted it a little to make it easier for me to follow!

Overnight Oats with Fruit

Ok, so I don’t feel like designing a whole new webpage just to put this incredible recipe on my website!

I found it in the August 05 Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. It is INCREDIBLE!

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Overnight Oats with Fruit

Prep: 15 min Chill: 6 hours minimum
Serves 4 to 6

2 cups regular rolled oats
1 cup milk
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup blanched almonds, pecans, or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 tart green apple, cored, seeded, and very thinly sliced crosswise
1 6-oz container desired-flavor yogurt
1 cup fresh raspberries

In bowl, stir together oats, milk, apple juice, honey, and cinnamon. Cover; chill overnight or until oats are soft. Stir in nuts. To serve, spoon oats mixture into 8-ounce serving glasses. Top with apple slices, yogurt, and raspberries.

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I made the recipe with just the oat mixture (no nuts, yogurt, fruit) because I didn’t have the other ingredients. I wasn’t too sure of it, so I just made half the recipe. It was fantastic! I will definitely be making this for breakfast on a regular basis. Little man devoured it. It was so good, I can only imagine how good it would be with the fruit on top.

Yes, you eat it cold. That was a big hangup for me, but it was really good. Mom says it sounds nasty – but she doesn’t know what she’s missing! LOL! :)

I’m also making some yogurt now too. I’m going to put it in the sun to incubate – I need it to incubate around 100 and my oven starts at 170. Yum!

…can put holes in your laundry! Right before we went to bed last night we threw in a load of diapers to wash. I don’t know what Stephen put in the washer, but I did smell bleach. No big deal.

So today I took them outside to dry on the line. I figured they’d dry pretty quickly in this wonderful 104 degree heat. As I was hanging them, I could smell them. For some reason, all the “stink” didn’t wash out. It didn’t make sense, especially since they were washed with bleach, but I threw them back in the washer. The phone rang, and while I was listening to the insurance salesman, I tried to pour a little bleach into the dispenser. I got more than I wanted, but I didn’t worry about it until I went to hang them on the line the second time.

The bleach ate holes in my diapers! I only found one hole, but it’s definitely a bleach hole. :( I’ve been using the Gerber prefolds (the thick twill ones). I know they’re not the best on the market, but you use what you can get. I could get others on ebay, but I don’t know what to buy. Any suggestions? I’m not switching back to disposables, and I’m really not in the mood to go spend another $50 or so on more cloth diapers.

I normally don’t put bleach in every load, because I know that it can ruin and weaken the fibers in the diapers. But every 4 or 5 loads I’ll add a little bleach to kill the smell. The diapers aren’t bad dry….but when they’re on Sam and they get wet again…they really start to stink. So I add a little bleach when they start to smell funny.

I’d post a “Wanted” request on Freecycle, but I highly doubt that people would have any decent cloth diapers!

One of my Hannah Girls posted a link to an article about infertility patients and rising multiple births and more pregnancy/newborn hospitalization. It broke my heart to read the article.

While I don’t necissarily agree with doing in-vitro fertilization to conceive, it really bothered me to see people speak so scathingly about it. Obviously the author of the article never had to deal with infertility.

They even wanted to put a box on the birth certificate – “Conceived via infertility treatment”

What is this world coming to? Why are people so judgemental? Why does it matter how a child joins a family?

You can read the article here.