Enid

For Christmas, I received from Ruth & Alex a book that I LOVE. It is a biography of my favorite author, Enid Blyton. (The book is Enid Blyton: A Biography by Barbara Stoney.) I have loved everything of Enid Blyton's since I was old enough to read (probably before then if Mum read some to me?!). I have several dozen of her books and I want more of them, I hope to have quite a good collection by the time my children are old enough to read her books. I've loved learning about her and her life and seeing where she drew her creativity from. The way she writes and words she uses bring me joy. Here is a little excerpt from her diary shortly after her and her husband bought their first home:

"Flowers 'belong' to Elfin Cottage [what she named her home]. They look at home there - and that confirms my secret belief that fairies and elves, brownies and gnomes have visited the house and left some of their flower-loving, sunshiny personalities behind. It's such a happy, cheerful, elfish little house, the right place for poetry and fairy stories, dreams and laughter."

I can't wait to finish reading this book and find out about her inspiration for some of my very favorite of her books...

Preaching To Myself

As I'm sitting at my desk today with pretty much nothing to do, the phones ringing maybe once an hour, and everyone else not in the office, I complain in my heart. I don't like having nothing to do, I don't like being bored, I don't like thinking about working on Christmas Eve even though Ryan isn't, I don't like that if I was able to work from home I'd get SO MUCH done at home! I know part of it is my yearning to be at home, with or without children (with is of course preferred), but most of it is just plain old sin.

To make myself feel better I could look at statistics like... I have a job when the unemployment rate in MoCo is upwards of 5% and 10% US-wide, or I could look at our bank account and see that we've actually been able to save money since I'm working, or think about how at least I'm not working 50+ hours a week. All those things are good things, things to thank God for, but none of it will convict my soul or encourage my heart.

I need to look to Jesus, recognize my complaining and/or discontent heart is a sin against a Holy God. A Holy God who sent his one and only son to die for my sins so I could know Him ("For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16).

And I need to repent. Repent of complaining, of discontent, of not trusting that God knows better than I do, of selfishness, of not working to His Glory in all that I do ("So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Cor. 10:31; "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" - Colossians 3:23).

And then I need to thank God for his forgiveness that he freely gives to those who love him when we repent ("In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our tresspasses, according to the riches of his grace" - Ephesians 1:7; "all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" - Acts 10:43).

And then I need to pray and be encouraged by His Word and empowered the Holy Spirit to not only turn from that sin, but "put on" joy, patience, selflessness, humility, and trust....

"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More than that we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." - Romans 5:2-5

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

"May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father" - 1 Colossians 1: 11-12

"Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ" - Phillipians 1:27

Our God is good.

Christmastime, Mistletoe and Wine...

Christmastime has hit the Tiren house with our tree, wrapped presents, decorations, food, and fun. Last weekend we had the Care Group Leaders Christmas Party and Jon & Jenni's which included an ugly Christmas sweater contest. Ryan won. You can see why...

Man I love him!

We also had Ryan's family over to see our Christmas Tree and have hot chocolate. That was a lot of fun! I don't have a lot of Christmas decorations, but I try to make it as Christmasy as I can :o) Someday I will be able to decorate our place much more!

Christmas Tree Post Falling Down.

Our Christmas Cards!

The couple of candles and such that I actually have.

Our stockings.

Kitchen Table. Complete with Clementines and Vitamin C tablets :o)

And in case you are interested in why I titled this post what I did, it's a Christmas song that I grew up listening to and absolutely LOVE. It doesn't seem like Christmas without it! You can listen to it here, if you want.

Christmastime!

It's Christmastime! And we got our tree!

It looks a bit different than this because since the picture was taken it fell down (fully breaking two ornaments and chopping off the arm of a poor snowman ornament). We also got rid of the towel tree skirt - the thing was so wet when we brought it home because of the snow from the weekend, so it was dripping everywhere!

Yesterday was Ryan's 25th birthday so I secretly got us both the day off work. We went to a few places including the Goddard Space Center Visitors Center where we took these great pictures:



Happy 25th Ryan! I love you so much.

Pie Crust

So I was asked for some hints on making a good pie crust. And here is what works for me!

- the butter should be cold when you first cut it into the flour. (I prefer butter to shortening, make the dough flakier and tastier.)
- have the water be ice cold that you mix into the dough
- try refrigerating the dough after initially mixing it (before rolling it out) so that the butter can solidify again

The butter being cold is key to getting a beautiful flaky crust. The colder it is before going in the oven then its melting temperature is met in good timing with the baking.

So I know the pie isn't exactly the focus of this picture (this is the food I took to Thanksgiving dinner at the Tiren's which was so good and fun), but it is a pie made with dough using the above suggestions. And it was good, so I'm told... I don't like pumpkin so I didn't have any. (Although, I took the foil off the edges too soon so the top of the crust was a little hard :o))


I hope that helps, Kari! Let me know if you have more questions :o)

NYC, Part 2

So we're in NYC with these crazy kids (+ Casey... don't know why she's not in the picture, or perhaps Christy snuck into this one).

Shaun, Christy, Ryan, David

We continued walking around the city seeing places like The Plaza hotel (which is NOT being knocked down), the Apple Store, Trump Tower, etc.

The Plaza

Apple Store

Trump Tower Waterfall

We went into Tiffany's, like Breakfast and Tiffany's, Tiffany's. 6 floors. Lots of glittering things.

After Shaun & Christy headed off for Connecticut, we stuck around a little longer ending up back in Times Square. We then grabbed Papaya Dog's for the trip home and headed back to Brooklyn, and then home.

Times Square

Me, Casey & Dave in Times Square

In the end it was a fun trip. I'm not in love with New York (and I didnt' hate it either), but I'm just not a city girl. Thanks for the fun times Sullivans & Somervilles! Where shall we go next?

NYC, Part 1

My first trip to NYC. Honestly, I'm scared of New York city... my two (very brief) experiences with the city were not at all good. And the results from this trip: not as scary as I though, fun times, a bit of adventure (but what trip to NY doesn't have a little adventure), lots of walking and delicious food.

We went with these crazy kids:

Me, Christy, Shaun, Casey & David (in-laws)

We parked in Brooklyn and took the subway in. We went to Times Square, Trump Tower, Empire State Building, Serendipity 3, and made a stop at a Papaya Dog.

Me & My Wonderful husband

Saw a soon-to-be Rockefeller Christmas Tree covered up by a big banner.

Christy & I hung out in the life-size Barbie house in Toys R Us


Times Square

The Amazing Casey got us reservations at Serendipty 3, so we just walked on by the people in the 2 hr.+ wait line :o)

Our picture in front of Serendipity.



Shaun & Christy at Serendipity.




Try #1



Try #2

Finally!

Inside the restaurant:

The menu's were HUGE

We went to Dylans Candy Store & the M&M store in Times Square (where I found out what M&M I am - orange... aparently I'm stressed out and need to eat chocolate - hey, I'll take any excuse).

A little taste of home.


My kind of chococlate bar :o)


Part 2, to come...

Date Night: Origami

Penguin's (hearing Casey & Dave say it)

A giraffe

Grand Piano

Two Jumping Frogs

All of them

Leesburg

Blogger isn't letting me upload pictures right now, so go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishpuff/tags/leesburg/ for pictures from our visit to Leesburg this weekend. Post to come once it's working!

Apples, Apples, Apples...

Last week I was give a 1/2 bushel of apples and subsequently spent all day Saturday turning those apples into treats for our freezer. I'd tried out once a month shopping but that was a huge FAIL for us. We definitely were out of food for the past few days (poor Ryan) so these apples were a bonus and I'm glad I could fill up our freezer with treats again. I was being pretty brave with my list of to-dos for the weekend.

- 2 loaves of bread
- 2 apple pies
- 1 gf crumble for my Dad (for dinner on Saturday)
- 4 mini crumbles
- 1 beef roast for Sat. dinner w/my Dad
- brats for Ace's birthday lunch
- 2 dozen apple muffins
- apple cake, in time for Ace's lunch
- applebread
- chicken parmesan for Sunday dinner
- applesauce, with whatever was left
- clean the bathroom (before anyone comes over!)

oh yeah, and grocery shopping

Ryan was amazing, he did all the laundry, cleaned the kitchen floor when I was done in there, vacuumed, peeled, cored, and chopped TONS of apples, and kept asking what he could help me with. I'm glad I made him sleep in while I went shopping, after all the work he does during the week he deserved that sleep in, let alone everything he did for me this weekend!

After getting home from shopping and waking my sleepy husband up I started some brats off in beer for our birthday lunch for Ace. They were so good... I am DEFINITELY getting them when they next go on sale.















After that I moved onto the apple treats... 2 apple pies, 2 dozen apple muffins, apple cake, applesauce, gf apple crumble and four mini apple crumbles.




I also made my first Roast Beef ever. I used my crockpot and cooked it in a beef stock/red wine combo and it worked! It was very delicious and we had my Dad over to eat it with us. We then had leftovers for sandwiches on Sunday AND Monday :o) I think my British family would be proud.

Sunday didn't turn out quite how I thought it would, after church, lunch, and picking up the car I was pretty wiped out. I made the applesauce and dinner for that night - and then just relaxed until Nick & Britt came over. Tonight I will hopefully finish it all off with some applebread and more applesauce.

The apple cake was delicious... so moist! The recipe definitely needs to be shared... I just made on adjustment and put in applesauce to replace the oil.

Easy Applecake

6 c. apples, peeled and chopped
2 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1 c. applesauce
1 1/2 c. sugar

1. Beat eggs, sugar, and oil.
2. Add dry ingredients.
3. Mix well and then fold in apples.
4. Bake 1 hour in bundt pan at 350 degrees.