Plump and Juicy

This week I resumed some much needed baking.

Baking is like therapy to me.

Not to get all Julie and Julia here, but I love knowing that If I grab the right spatula its going to do exactly the thing that I want it to.

If I add a dash of vanilla to anything, it will instantly be delicious.

I love that the sound of the Kitchen-aid gearing up sends my heart pumping.

I love creating something outside of myself and then watching other people enjoy it.

Friday I went with my dear friend Lisa to pick berries at Adam's Farm. We went for the blackberries, which I came home with.  In addition to the 5 pints of blackberries I also got 6 pints of blueberries, local blueberry syrup and sweet and hot vidalia onion chow-chow!  I don't even know what it is but it looked snazzy, so I grabbed a jar.

(these are some of the fresh berries I picked with my own little hands)

As I was sitting underneath one of the blueberry trees with my berry filled bucket I was dreaming of jams, pies, homemade blueberry pancakes,and the look on John's face when I presented each of these items to him.

The farm was a magical place.  When the wind blew it carried sweet aromas of berries to my nose.  Although I must say, it felt like I was soaking in the fresh smell through every pore on my body.  It was early in the morning and the blueberry trees were still covered in their chalky white dew.  It was a dear time to me and I was taught something there in the blueberry trees.  

I had never seen the way that a blueberry tree was harvested before.  Each tiny berry had a stem of it's own and each tiny berry had to be picked on its own. I had always wondered why the price of berries was so high.  Its because each berry requires tenderness, caution, and individual care when it is plucked from the tree.  If not, they can be crushed when plucked in a bunch.  If not, they can fall to the ground when plucked in a bunch.  There was no fast and easy way for it to be done.  

It reminded me of the human soul.

We likewise, require so much personal love and attention.  We are all individuals that need to feel special.  We need to feel important.  Our price is so high because we are worth so much.  We have so much potential and promise.  I am so grateful for that lesson I learned there at Adam's Farm.

So, when I got home I decided to start with the Blueberry Pie since it wouldn't be my first rodeo with that.  I started making it last night around 9 o'clock and it wasn't finished til a bit after midnight.

I used this tutorial to do the lattice crust.  Next time I'll cut thicker strips but I still think it turned out great!

Speaking of plump and juicy, husband has been just that lately.  No, that's not a fat joke.  Since I have been preggs he has been an unusually and fantastically stellar hubs. Its amazing how our love continues to grow deeper and deeper.  I love marriage so much.  And blueberry pie...






***I have been overwhelmed with some incredibly sincere and soul-touching messages regarding my last post.  I can't tell you the good that they have all done to my heart.  I am so grateful for the love and support of the blogging community as well as my personal friends and family.  Please know that I will respond to each one of you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.***

Choosing Happiness

I am choosing to end a rut today.

I am choosing gratitude.

I am choosing happiness.

I have been horribly sad the past few months. I haven't talked about this much but 2 months ago in April, my parents divorced.  It was a huge surprise to me.  After 26 years of marriage everything came to an end.

It has been an incredibly difficult thing for me to wrap my head around.  I have spent many tear filled hours trying to understand why life turns out the way it does.

I suppose it all comes down to our choices.

We all have within ourselves the power to choose.  

I can choose to eat jello for all 3 meals of the day.  I can choose to go to the antique mall 3 times in one week.  I can choose to do my laundry or to let it sit.  I can choose to take 15 minutes to have a meaningful conversation with someone or I can let the moment pass me by.  I can choose to be happy or I can choose to give way to my negative emotions.

Today I am going to choose to be happy.

I am going to try to understand why the Lord has put me where I am at this time.  John and I have moved in with my mother to help her out during this hard time.  We are living the home that I grew up in. 

Even though we know this is where we are supposed to be right now, I haven't exactly been the easiest person to live with.

I have been sulking around and complaining that I don't have a place of my own.  I have felt like less of a wife.  I have been so much less productive.  I haven't been cooking or taking pride in my own little area of the house.  I have been sad to have left our friends and life in Atlanta.  I have been being so negative.

I can't believe how ungrateful I have been.

I need to focus on the blessings of this situation.

Because we are living here I am able to see my wondeful mother everyday.

Because we are living here we are living rent free.

Because we are here we are able to save money and work to get out of the small debts that we have.

Because we are living here we are able to enjoy candle lit evenings on the porch.

Because we are here we have a snugly puppy to make us laugh and smile.

Because we are here I can look in to the lightening bug glitter filled woods in our back yard.

Because we are living here it has become possible for us to have our baby!!

I am going to try to make this place my home again.  

I am going to reclaim my wifely duties and start doing the things that I enjoy again.

I am going to wake up each morning with a resolve to choose happiness.

(This picture really has nothing to do with this post except that John Murphy sure does make it easier to be happy.  That and we went to the Glenn Murphy Ranch last weekend for Father's Day.  I love my happy ranching husband.)

1+1=3 : The most magical of math equations

I haven't blogged in quite some time.  

I have been busy growing a tiny person.

John Murphy and I made a baby.

It is ours and that fact soothes my soul and vibrates my heart with love and gratitude every single day.

Last month after we came home from my brother's wedding in Hilton Head my sister and her husband were outside shooting off some illegal fireworks we had picked up in South Carolina.  I went up stairs to grab a hoodie, I got distracted, and for no particular reason...I decided to take a pregnancy test. (I had two boxes stored up in the bathroom for funsies)

When the digital test popped up "Pregnant", I almost fell off of the toilet. Literally.

The next few minutes were a blur.  I ran downstairs and beckoned John to come upstairs with me.  We both stood at the bathroom counter and stared at the test in silence.

I was totally shocked and also a bit skeptical.

We jumped for joy in the bathroom and embraced each other while we were full of smiles, some tears, and questions.  It was one of those moments that you could always imagine how it would feel but then when you are there, living that moment, it is so much better than you ever expected.

We kept it a secret for that night.  It was just between the two of us and I loved that.  I loved looking over at him in the room full of our family and him shooting me a smile.  I knew just what that smile meant, "We are having a baby.  We made something together. You are going to be a mother and I am going to be a father."  I will never forget that night.

Or course like any woman, I took about 6 tests to make sure.  I carried the tests around in my purse for 3 weeks and I would look at them almost any free moment I had. I know, I know....pee sticks in my purse? For 3 weeks?!

I can't wait to meet this little person.  

When I saw our babe's heartbeat for the first time, tears filled my eyes.  It is such a miracle to make something so special with the person you love the most in the whole world.

Here is baby's first film strip.  If you look close enough in the second picture you can see two little dots that are the arms and two little dots that are the feet. Oh, and a really huge head (I guess our baby is going to be super smart).  

It may look like a little smudge, but its the cutest little smudge I have ever seen.

I am so overwhelmed with joy right now. 
I'm growing a sassy little babe that I made with the man I love.

Happy Sunday/new buttons

Happy Sunday!  Church was fantastic today.  Our new congregation sure is putting us to work!  John gave an inspiring talk today and I sang "How Great Thou Art" for the special musical number.  We felt like rock-stars.

I have really been thinking a lot lately about consistent spiritual nourishment.  I wouldn't go a day without feeding my physical body so why do I sometimes neglect my daily spiritual appetite?
I really want to make it a goal this week to try and nourish my soul with positive things each day.  I want to check in with myself and make sure that I am really saying meaningful prayers.
I know that someday I am going to be given the incredible responsibility to teach my little children about Jesus Christ and I want to be better prepared to do so.
Life is so full of things we can spend our precious time on and I want to make sure I am using the gift of time to it's fullest.


Here's to a week of spiritual productivity and nourishment!


p.s. We have new buttons to go with the new layout here at T&S! Grab one if you'd like!

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...and just like that, a year went by.

Last night Mr. Murphy and I celebrated our one year anni with some beautiful music (and maybe a little slow dancing during one special song).

Last night we went to the James Taylor concert at Chastain Park.

I can't believe he is 63 and still rockin' it.

He is a faithful member of our record collection.

John surprised me with the tickets a few months back. 

We went bearing a picnic basket full of yummy treats and sparkling refreshment.  Nothing says sexy anniversary dinner like roasted pine nut hummus, tuscan flatbread, Publix Bakery cupcakes and cannolis(i don't really know how to pluralize that), chocolate covered strawberries, and Welch's sparkling grape juice from an Anthropologie tumbler.

A tear rolled down my cheek when James played, "You Can Close Your Eyes".  

Mr. Murphy and I have many songs and that is one of them.

One.

One year of my life has been spent loving and serving the most wonderful man I have ever met.

A year has come and gone.

I feel overwhelmed with emotions as I think of what this first year of marriage has brought us.  (I have already cried about it this morning.)  

I can truly say that this has been the best year of my life.  

I am so thankful to God for putting John and I together. My life has been enriched and full of joy.  

I have loved becoming a wife.  

It is a sacred role that I deem most important.

Our first year of marriage was full of many smiles, laughs, and tears.  It was full of intimate moments laced with love and tenderness.  It was full of honesty, hilarious moments, and lots of food and music.  Most of it was spent in apartment 133 at Wood Creek, though we have said goodbye to that place now.  I will never forget living there and feeling that sense of, "Look what we've created together.  Everything in here belongs to us.  We built a home together."

I have loved learning how to share my life and soul with another.  I have given this man all that I have and it is something that I never regret, not even for a moment.

I feel that I have been given the divine task of being a wife to John Murphy and I know that I am the one who got a better deal.

I am enlightened each day with his patience, selflessness, and kindness towards me.

A part of me is so sad to close the chapter of our first year together.  

I know that the future has a thousand glorious surprises for us.

My heart is so full it may burst.

Happy one year anniversary to the man who made me a wife.

make our garden grow.

We are putting in a summer garden.

I am dreaming of juicy BLTs with home grown Better Boy Tomatoes and delicious fresh summer salsa. I can't wait to get these little guys in the ground.

John and mom tried to till the ground this weekend but every piece of machinery decided to quit working.

So, they will try again soon.

our new home.

Want to know a secret?

We have moved.

This is our new home.

We have made the switch from city dwellers to country folk.

We went from a tiny, noisy, cozy one bedroom city apartment to a beautiful country home on a little farm.

We have a John Deere tractor, a red barn, horses to look at, and lovely neighbors.

Life is changing.

I have been thinking a lot about change lately.

You know the saying, "There is nothing as constant as change."

I am beginning to understand that the older I get the truer I am finding that it becomes.

I remember growing up and having expectations for what my life might be like. I had goals and plans and thoughts as to what I would do.

I am realizing that the only expectation we should have is to be happy.  Rather to make happiness for ourselves.  Life is never really how you expect it to be.  The surprises make it exhilarating but we should always prepare ourselves against the storms of life.  We should guard ourselves with the assurance of knowing who we are and Who's we are.

We are going through a storm right now.  

We are trying to be there for our family in a time of need and we hope that we can bring joy in to this new home.  We will be living with my mother for some time and it will be a positive thing for us all.

"oh, hey there mister murphy."

our new roomie :)

Flash Mob in Kroger

Kroger in Grayson had its very own and no doubt first flash mob dance breakout last night.

We strolled down the unexpected freezer aisle and them shamelessly broke out in to a terrifically choreographed dance number. 

We are happy because we dance in the grocery store in an aisle all to ourselves at 11 o'clock at night.

We left bearing goods of Pomegranate Pops and Ben & Jerry's 'Everything But The...' ice-cream.

(a little picture of our new bedroom, we still haven't found the nuts and bolts to put our bed together so we have been sleeping with our mattress on the floor. no doubt they will show up in the very last box i unpack)

We exited Kroger in slow motion to the sound of "Chariots of Fire" playing overhead. (dun dun dun dun duun duuun ch ch ch ch...you know what i'm talkin' bout)


(Kroger always seems to bring out magical moments in our marriage.)

DIY Antique Mirror

Since moving to our new place I have been trying to spiff up some of our old things. I took this old mirror that I got from my Great Auntie Susan and covered up the glass and spray painted the frame red! I am in love with it, it adds a great pop of color to our new home. It's so easy and it upgraded the mirror to something really cute! I used a Rustoleum spray paint because the frame is metal. It took a solid 3 hours to dry but it will last longer and be more durable.

We are loving the new place and still trying to adjust. We are sleeping with the windows open and enjoying the summer breeze and terrific night sounds.

Sofia

This is husband playing a mean version of Classical Gas featuring our new baby, Sofia.

I don't know why in the world this song is named Classical Gas but I do know that I get the giggles every time I say it.  This is now one of my new favorite things John plays.

Please ignore the massive piles of things and boxes behind him, we are still in the moving process.

Here is John playing Sofie, like a boss.

DIY Shabby Chic Antique Table

Refinishing old pieces of furniture has recently become a new favorite hobby of mine.

Since John and I have moved to the new place I have been a home decorating fool.  

I have so many little projects that I've done that I can't wait to share.

Yesterday I shabby chic'd our old coffee table.  It is the easiest way to create a fun new piece of furniture FAST!

In 4 easy steps you can have a new "old" piece of furniture.

1. Sand down the furniture.

2. Wipe down the piece to remove excess saw dust.

3. Paint the piece with your color of choice. (at least two coats.  I use Behr Eggshell Antique White)

4. Let it dry then use medium grade sand paper and rough up the edges. (try to sand spots where the piece of furniture would have been bumped/scraped/hit naturally!)

To see my other DIY Shabby Chic piece of furniture click "here".

i laughed so hard, i gave myself a headache

Last night I had a "girls night out" with two lady friends and...my husband. 

He amazes me at how comfortable he is and how well he can get along in a group full of women.  Maybe its a sign for things to come and we will be blessed with 7 baby girls and he will live a perfectly content life surrounded by countless ladies.

We went out to our favorite sushi place and put a killing on some raw fish, rice, miso soup, and edamame.

I've been pretty down lately so I really needed a carefree night just to laugh and forget about some of the things going on right now.  I am so grateful to my friends and my husband for reminding me that its A-okay to laugh and BE HAPPY during hard times.

I literally laughed so hard I gave my self a headache.  

Now, that's some good laughin'. 

easter

(our beautiful atlanta temple in april during the open house)

I know that my Redeemer lives.

What comfort this sweet sentence gives.

He lives, He lives who once was dead.

I am so grateful for this sacred day to remember the great sacrifice of my Savior.

Happy Easter