Revisiting Freeze Church

Happy Anniversary!! We have been married for 3 years!! This fine, blustery morning we took a drive along the back dirt roads to "our church". I am so happy that we got married at such a wonderful place that will be here for a hundred plus more years. It will not be changed into anything else, a housing development will not go up around it, someone will not convert it into a house. It was built in 1889, and Sunday service is still being held. That is testament of how much this community thinks of their prairie church.

Here we are pretending to walk down the isle. We were dressed a little different last time we walked down that isle :) and more people were in the pews. I even wore the earrings that my sister, Amy, made for me to wear on my wedding day.

Maggie played the wedding march for us.

Good things have come out of this marriage.

We should make our anniversary trek to Freeze church a tradition.

Things that I love right now

There's a lot to love right now.

reading The Outlander series, which has 7 books and each book being close to 1000 pages long. This will keep me busy for a long time. I'm on book 4 right now.

watching the movie, Thor. Cory wanted me to watch it. I didn't want to...until he said that it reminded him of The Lord of the Rings. Well, you had me at Lord. Great movie.

loving that Maggie will grow up knowing how to work on cars. Cory will make sure of that.

cooking pear sauce from pears that I stole from an abandoned orchard.

smelling coffee when I wake up. Thank you Cory.

counting down the days until the Brandi Carlile concert! Again, thank you Cory.

waking up to beautiful sunrises.

harvesting potatoes. Having Maggie get excited as she digs in the dirt, finding all the baby potatoes that I left for her to find.

excited about our up and coming anniversary. Number 3!

looking forward to potato soup.

being silly with the Magsters. I love her so.

What are you loving this Fall?

She is growing up

Just a sad moment for me as a mom. We always had a little snuggle time when Cory or I fed Maggie her nighttime bottle in the rocker. You are probably all rolling your eyes in disbelief, but yes, we still give Maggie a nighttime bottle. I am in no hurry to drop this special time of the night. She's still my baby. But I guess Maggie wants us to know she doesn't need it any more. She wants to sit ALONE in the rocker and drink her bottle and directs us to sit on the floor or on the chest. I guess I just have to sit in the dimly lit room and watch her grow up. I'm going to miss those nighttime snuggles.

DIY

I'm loving my new website obsession, Pinterest. Anything and everything you could ever want to look at is on that site. I have recently been trying out some of the DIY pins that have caught my eye. First one is homemade chalk board paint. So. Easy.

Chalk Board Paint

1 cup of paint, color of choice

2 T. non-sanded grout

Stir to get lumps out. Voila, that's it. And it's the good kind of chalk board, not that too-glossy kind.

Maggie LOVES her new chalk board. And we love that it keeps her entertained for good chunks of time!

Second DIY, homemade coffee creamer. I am a total creamer snob. I hate to have coffee with milk and sugar, I would rather have it black that with milk. But...have you checked out the ingredients on the back of your creamer? Disgusting. So here you go, a recipe where you know what all the ingredients are.

Vanilla Honey Creamer

1 c. heavy cream (I didn't say this recipe was good for you)

1 c. whole milk (I used 2%, sooo much more healthy...not).

1/4 c. honey

2 tsp. vanilla

Whisk the cream, milk and honey on medium heat until it starts to steam. Stir in vanilla. Pour into glass container and keep in refrigerator.

I made some tonight so I can enjoy it first thing in the morning. Can't wait!!

I highly suggest that you check out pinterest...and be my friend on it so we can share ideas!

I feel her coming

The last two mornings have been mighty chilly at the Bakeman house. All windows are wide open at night to let the house breathe from being shut up all day in darkness.

Ask me how much I love to wake up in a chilly room under warm blankets and watch my room glow pink with the sunrise? I love that moment of the day so much. But it's true, fall's a comin'. These chilly mornings tell me so. And even though summer just started I find myself craving fall. Fall means crisp days bathed in sunlight, leaves lining the streets, harvesting the garden, making applesauce and apple cider, and a new wardrobe of warm clothes. Even though this summer has been short, it has been sweet. I haven't complained about the heat once!! My sister would be so proud. No nights where you're dying of the heat and praying for a breeze to come through your window. Yes, I've been just loving this weather. Our down comforter hasn't really left our bed yet, pushed down low as we fall asleep and as the cool night comes the comforter gets tugged up to our chins.

I just got back from a fantastic trip to Missoula with my friend, Sueann. For both of us, this was the first real trip leaving the babes behind. I unfortunately had to go to a class two of those days but in the evenings we took long walks, went out for dinner and took our time eating and appreciating every morsel of it...with a couple glasses of wine and went to a movie. All things you cannot do with a toddler. It was wonderful. I even enjoyed my class on rehabilitating the ACL. It just felt neat to be in a university setting, especially and the University of Montana, I love that campus!! And guess what we didn't do....? Hike to the M! Haha Amy!!!

Right now my car is being torn apart. Since this is the last month that I owe any money on it it decided to break down. In a major way. But not to worry! We just got this great gas guzzler of a car, the Bronco. And how much do I love that car? No really, I love the Bronco! It's rusted out, a manual, has a bumper sticker that says "Hot Poop", sounds really tough and can go anywhere. I love it. But holy moly he is thirsty for gas all. the. time. Hey, at least I have a vehicle while mine is out of commission.

Maggie and I took the Bronco to the mountains last weekend to look for huckleberries. We came back empty handed but boy did we have fun driving those back mountain roads. Maggie was exclaiming, "weee" as we bumped down the road. The best part was that Sueann and Coco were in their jeep driving behind us. This all happened while the men folk rested from the weekend of all baby, no mama. *SMILE* I told Sueann that we need to form the All Women Off Road and Sewing Circle Club. Doesn't that sound awesome?

I started running. I really got into running a few years back and I'm remembering why I loved it so much. The best part is, is that I can run out my door and find my way onto a totally beautiful dirt road where I feel completely safe and will not see a car. I love Palouse! The only bummer is is that I can't run right now. I have pes anserine bursitis. Basically my medial knee hurts every time I run. So I really need to start strengthening my hips and stop running for a while. That sucks, I was really getting into a great running routine.

We've been enjoying the bounty from our garden lately. I have made a few batches of raspberry rhubarb jam, Maggie loves snacking on the peas, zucchini is finding it's way into every meal and we just harvested a few potatoes, just because we had to see how they were doing. Oh my gosh, home grown potatoes taste wonderful!! I almost could have eaten them raw. I can't wait to eat them again. Garlic and onions will be harvested soon, cucumbers are looking like they could be really plentiful if this warm weather keeps up and the carrots are sweet and crunchy. The chickens, aka "the girls" are producing eggs like crazy and even Broody Bitch, that's her real name, has broken herself out of brooding cycle. She feels like it's her job to sit on eggs, not her eggs, all day and night. She's mean, she's cranky and she is super hot so her feathers are all fluffed out. But now her feathers are laying down, she comes bounding out of the coup when I come with food and she doesn't peck the others in the head. But her name still stands.

Well that's our lives in a nutshell. Looking forward to getting firewood soon, making soup, and designing Maggie's Halloween costume. Haha!! I know it's still summer, but I just love fall.

This girl

This girl

likes to feel the wind in her hair

she's always on the go

so much to explore and see

she makes me cry

she makes me smile

crouches down low to watch ants

picks them up without knowing gentle

talks to the chickens

and wonders why they don't sit with her

independent

yes indeed

in the morning outside

her with her sippy me with my coffee

cheers! before each drink

i love this girl so

i love to say "that one's mine"

she stands on a stump

and sing on the top of her lungs

yep, this girl is something fierce

and i'm here to go along with her

through this world

to teach

to learn

to give endless love to this girl

Singer Update

A few posts ago I wrote about how I'm swooning over a Singer Featherweight. Well, ask and ye shall receive!

I spent the weekend up in Elk with my ma and Jim. Just as we were packing up our things to go we started to talk about the sewing machine of my dreams. Jim replies, "My Grandmother's sewing machine is right there, lets see if it is what you're looking for." He pulls the sewing machine out and I just about choke, right there, the machine I've been wanting. Granted it's not a true featherweight, that just implies that it's smaller and more transportable. This is a hardier machine that's part of a table. So we started searching the serial number online and found out that it's from 1931. Jim got out a few tools and a flashlight and started tinkering with it, plugged it in, pushed the knee pedal and she just started running like it was 1931 again. No clanking, no sputtering, no smoke or fire. She hummed. She purred.

So Jim technically couldn't give it to me without asking his mom, Florence, first. We called her up and she was quite happy that the old family Singer would be back in commission! It needs a little cleaning up, some refinish work to the table but lo and behold, I have one. I have a tank of a sewing machine that only runs in straight lines but she'll outrun any of your machines any day.

Now a real lady needs a home to call her own. My "sewing room" aka blue room, aka catch all room, needs some cleaning out and new paint to welcome Mizz Singer home. I've decided on a granny smith apple green with cream trim. Maybe my first project will be some new curtains to replace the mini blinds (puke).

Pictures soon. Thank you Jim and Florence, I'll do your family proud.