Good Friends and Goods for Baby Boy

This week was so so good.  We spent lots of time at home, had a glorious playdate where all the kids played together like something in the movies, and my sweet friends held a little baby shower for me.  This week was slow and everyday and filled my cup.

On this Sunny Saturday we are in the city this morning and then home all afternoon with nothing on the agenda.  We have under three weeks until baby boy is set to arrive and we are soaking up this time together before baby makes five.  We are anxious for him to come, but embracing the opportunity to love on Luke and Lily as much as possible.

This week I am sharing, you guessed it, more for Baby Boy.  There is just so much to gather and love for new babies and I can't help but share.  All of the items are from the shower (my girls know me so well).

THIS blanket.  It's everything.  Soft.  Beautiful.  Well made.  Did I mention beautiful?  Aesthetically I just can't get enough of it.  It's from Oliver and Lucy, a shop based in Lincoln, Nebraska that makes gorgeous blankets, teething rings, and burp cloths.  I can't wait to snuggle our little guy in this!

One can't have enough blankets when caring for a newborn.  These muslin swaddling blankets are modern and I just can't stop looking at them.  It is a different look from normal elephants or flowers that usually adorn this super soft baby essential.  Nate Berkus just came out with a baby line for Target and it is perfect.

Last are these gorgeous cards.  This is my favorite part of our girlfriend/Cooking Club baby showers.  We all write a letter to the mom-to-be with an 'open when' statement on the outside.  For example, one could write a letter to 'open when you have been up all night' or 'open when you feel like you're not enough' or 'open when everyone needs your attention at the same time' (that's a second or third child one).  These cards are life giving and it's fun and special to read letters from friends when in the beginning of caring for a new baby.  Please, please try it at the next baby shower you host. The mom-to-be will thank you!

Even though I felt silly for having a baby shower for baby #3, my friends insisted and made me feel nothing but loved.  It was a great night to laugh and eat and be together.  My only regret is that I didn't take one single picture. Not one.  I think I was enjoying myself too much.

I hope you have a Sunny Saturday wherever you may be today!

Tastes and Smells of Fall

This week was pretty glorious.  Everything about this month and this season makes me happy, and it didn't hurt that this past week was a Cooking Club week. Girl time is so needed in this stage of life. #amenandamen

Here are some things that made this week sunnier in my world...

Wax Buffalo.  If you're from Nebraska, you have probably heard of this small shop that carries the most beautifully scented candles in the land.  I want to burn this candle every second of every day, and yet, I don't want to, because then it will be gone.  (Insert sad face emoji.)  I picked up the autumn scent and it makes my house smell exactly like October.

I'm all about bringing the outside in.  Since I hosted Cooking Club this week, I spoiled myself with some beautiful buds from Trader Joe's, but these burgundy beauties are from my backyard.  I have tons of mums blooming right now and I decided to pluck some to put in every nook and cranny around the house.  This color, spot on.

This pumpkin found it's way inside my cart at Trader Joe's, along with a few friends.  I love the shape and color and I'm forbidding myself to go back and get any more because...I want them all.

Banana bread is yummy in any season, but I really love it in the fall.  The kids and I whipped up this recipe for almond banana bread on a slow morning this week and I found myself slicing off a piece and slathering it with butter anytime the kids weren't looking.  I blame this boy in my belly...

I can't end without saying more about our Cooking Club.  It was my month to host and I am so blessed that the girls drove all the way from the city...on a stormy night...got lost twice...and brought the most delicious food with them. I might venture to say we ate some of the best food our little hands have created this past week.  Butternut squash pasta with goat cheese, sweet potato and sausage bake with gruyere cheese, vegetable soup, green well salad, and pumpkin ice cream sundaes for dessert.  My mouth is literally watering.  We do what we do every Cooking Club night and had great food and even better conversation.  These girls fill my bucket and it feels good and necessary to have like-minded women to talk to, listen to, and do motherhood with.  I am blessed with the best!

Hope you all have a Sunny Saturday wherever you may be today!

Sunny Saturday

Home.  All weekend long.  Praise the great big God almighty.  

It has been a long and busy week and our little family is ready for some downtime at home.  Besides church on Sunday, we have plans to stay on the Trail, watch a little football, do a few outside chores, and make some fall-ish meals.  

I have to say I am just a teensy bit excited about the idea of a fall Saturday with nothing on the calendar.  Part of me wants to make all the pumpkin rolls, homemade bread, and soups that I can find ingredients for and part of me wants to eat leftovers and watch football in my pajamas all day.  I'm sure it will be a balance of both.

Today I'm sharing some things that made my busy week a little bit sunnier.

Last weekend we noticed our pumpkin patch was looking a little, um, brown.  We went back there and realized most of our pumpkins were ready to be picked. They are only about a month early, but I guess that's what happens with an extra hot June.  We have pumpkins sitting all over our house and it really makes the place feel like fall.

Shutterfly had a freebie on prints last week and I took the opportunity to print a bunch of 4x4s for the kids' birthday parties as well as some to hang around the house.  I love placing them in little bowls or dishes or propping them up on ledges or shelves.  I also pinned a bunch up on our little wine cork board in the kitchen.  Their square goodness just make me so happy.

Our church, Christ Community, just started a study on the book of Genesis.  We are one week in and I am loving walking through the first moments of time.  We are participating in an inductive Bible study, which helps me to really get past surface level and dig deep into scripture.  I am looking forward to learning more and more as this study progresses.

I couldn't get a good picture of it this week, but have you ever tried clipping branches to put in a vase?  I hadn't done it much, but I tried it this week and I absolutely love it.  I clipped a few branches with pretty leaves and placed them in a big, white, round vase up on a shelf.  I loaded it with twiggy, green branches and it looks so earthy and so fall.  A bonus is that it saves me a bit of cash that I would normally spend on fresh flowers.  Win win.

It is not pictured this week, but something that made my week sunnier was women and moms being real.  I had Cooking Club this week with my girls as well as some good conversations with friends about hard things.  I am in awe of the women around me being open and honest and real about their joys and their struggles, their hard days and their good ones, their passions and their heartaches.  This week I was lucky enough to engage with women I look up to and admire and identify with and that make me a better wife and mom.  If you're a woman or a mom, I challenge you to be completely honest and real with a friend this coming week.  The power of vulnerability and honesty really have no limits when it comes to friendship.  It's so so good, friends.

I hope you have a Sunny Saturday wherever you may be today!

Summer Pizza Party

This past week my Cooking Club girls and I had a Farmer's Market pizza night at my friend Annie's house.  We fried up bacon, chopped herbs, sliced tomatoes, and shredded cheese for our crispy, gooey pizzas.  We used a lahvosh crust, which made the pizzas just absolutely heavenly.  It's a thin cracker crust that lets the toppings do the talking.

The night consisted of mouthfuls of artichoke, mushroom, bacon, pesto pizza, cold Prosecco, and the best key lime ice cream dessert I have ever eaten in my life.  We chatted about our husband's 'interesting' show watching habits, how our kids make us laugh daily, the Olympics, and some deep deep things that only pizza and good girlfriends can understand.

Since Cooking Club night is pretty much one of my favorite nights of the month and pizza is surely one of my favorite foods, I thought I would share some things that make homemade pizza making a bit more fun and delicious.  

This pizza board is beautiful and sturdy and so fun for 'throwing' pizzas onto a pizza stone in the oven.  I borrowed this from my mother-in-law and it was so fun to make the pizzas on and serve them on as well.  Dual purposes, people.  I found a similar one on Amazon.

My garden is a bit overgrown right now, but this teeny tiny basil plant is just beginning to make an effort to earn it's keep.  Luke and I planted this basil from seeds and it's only taken about 3 months for it to look like this. Fresh basil is a must for the perfect pizza.  We picked up this seed kit at Target in the spring, but I found one on, you guessed it, Amazon.

Have you ever had this goat cheese?  It is perfection.  Kevin believes it to be potent, but I could literally eat it on bread or toast or pizza or with a spoon everyday.  Lily does eat it as a main course and not a topping, but her breath (and our nostrils) suffer for it.  I had some leftover crusts from Cooking Club, so we cleaned out the fridge to make some pizzas with the kids and this cheese has now become a topping favorite.  Local friends, it's cheaper to pick up at Trader Joe's than Hy-Vee or another big grocery store.

When I made my nightmare trip to IKEA in Denver toting two children about a month ago, I picked up this bamboo tablet stand.  I use my iPad when I cook and this piece allows me to cook without bending over a screen.  And, it's super cute sitting in a nook on my counter.  

If you haven't made homemade pizza, I suggest you fire up the grill or turn on the oven and get creative.  Better yet, get some girlfriends together and make a night of it.  The thing I love about pizza is you can literally put almost anything on it and it's going to turn out yummy.  

I hope you have a Sunny Saturday today!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars and August Cooking Club

If you aren't in a cooking club, you really ought to look into it.  I feel fat and happy after each monthly meeting and I leave with some great recipes and some tricks of the trade.

Our August cooking club theme was a 'Pinterest night' and was hosted by Diane.  Where do you even start with that?  There are so many options.  I cheated a little and chose dessert.  I mean, dessert is the easiest part of any cooking club (to me), but it is really effortless on 'Pinterest night'.

such a pretty table at diane's house

the napkins and tablecloth were from Afghanistan...where her and her husband taught; so unique!

I chose to make two desserts.  Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars and gluten-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies that you can find here.  As you know, I am serious about peanut butter.  

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies were a hit, even to the gluten eating women.  I agree, I might like them more than regular cookies.

Now, onto the star of the show.  The Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars I found over at inside brucrew life were good.  How could these not be a slam dunk...peanut butter, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, cream cheese.  Yum.  

Well, it wasn't as slam dunkish as I thought at first.  As I brought out the pan of bars after an amazing cooking club dinner that included a yummy cucumber appetizer, parmesan chicken, corn and avocado salad, potato and bacon dish, and passion lemonade tea, I couldn't cut them.  I really couldn't cut them.  I kept thinking...it's okay, the cookies will suffice.  As I tried two different knives, I finally got a serrated one to cut through.  Thank goodness.  I was still a bit worried, as hard bars are never a good thing.  It turned out that being in the refrigerator just made the bars a bit hard, but didn't affect the taste.  They were scrumptious, the cream cheese middle being the best part.  These bars are tall and thick, making it easy to have just a small piece.  Well, maybe not.

Please don't shy away from these bars because of the 'hardness'.  It's actually not a bad thing and you will not regret the time and effort spent on this recipe.  

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Ingredients

Cookie dough

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup butter flavored shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup chocolate chunks or chocolate chips

Cheesecake

1 8 ounce package cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup peanut butter

Topping

1/4 cup peanut butter chips

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon shortening

Directions 

1.  Cream butter, shortening, and sugars until fluffy.  Add eggs, vanilla, salt, baking soda and cream again.  Slowly add flour.  Stir in chips and/or chunks by hand. Press half the dough into an 8 inch pan.

2.  In another bowl beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy.  Add egg and peanut butter.  Beat until smooth then pour on top of cookie crust.

3.  Press small pieces of cookie dough on top of cream cheese layer.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Remove and let cool completely.  Cut in bars NOW!

4.  Combine chips and shortening.  Heat in microwave at 30 second increments until mixture can be stirred smooth.  Spoon into plastic bag, cut corner off and drizzle on bars.  Store bars in refrigerator.  

Thanks for another wonderful cooking club girls...I can't wait until next month!

one of the ten pictures my camera took

June Cooking Club

Have you ever been in a cooking club?  Me either, until now.  My friend from our Journey Group (aka Bible Study) went to a conference where the author of the book Bread and Wine, Shauna Niequist, talked about cooking clubs.  Inspired, Annie decided to start a cooking club and I am lucky enough to be a part of it.  (Annie blogged about it here.)  Our group consists of eight ladies and we meet once a month to cook, eat, and laugh together. 

Our first cooking club happened in June and gosh, I didn't know it would be this much fun!  Our 'theme' was 'summertime/Rachael's birthday' and it was a blast!  The menu included smoked salmon, rice, fruit kabobs, stuffed mushrooms, strawberry salad, chocolate covered strawberries, angel food cake, and of course wine.  It was all delicious.  I brought the strawberry salad.  I included the recipe in this post because I am obsessed with it!  I hope you try it. 

i didn't get a good picture of the salad, but here it is!

Strawberry salad

6 cups fresh spinach

1 pint strawberries; sliced

1 avocado; diced

4 ounces crumbled goat cheese

1/4 cup sliced toasted almonds

Poppyseed Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 T honey

1 T poppyseeds

Directions

1.  Toss all ingredients into bowl and serve immediately.

2.  Whisk all ingredients for dressing in bowl and drizzle on the salad.

We sat around the table, told stories, and laughed a lot.  It was girl time at it's finest.  I am so thankful for this new 'club' and these women.  I can't wait until next month!

annie hosted this month...such a pretty table!

the ladies