Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo lately. I'm thankful I'll have a month of mostly picture posts to try to get it back. Work is tiring. Even though I love my job and am very thankful for its flexibility, I'm very excited about getting back to my less frequent work schedule. Just two more days this week, then just one more week-long shift before I get a longer break. I've been feeling a little anxious, trying to get various things done. Of course there is some necessary Christmas crafting, though I'm realizing that unless I want to go crazy I need to scale back my grandiose plans. I meant to post a proper Thanksgiving post, as I have a lot to be thankful for this year, but never got around to it. As a remedy, I'll start with these two: I took these photos a few weeks ago after church. I love when my guys wear sweater vests.

I'm getting warmed up for the DPP ... A quick glance at how our Thanksgiving was. (No, Judah didn't actually eat the turkey...) My brothers make awesome uncles....

1. I had a big, ugly blow up directed at Jeff last night. Poor guy. I'm glad he loves me even when the ugly comes out, and can forgive me. I'm thankful for a Father who lovingly softens my heart to see the ugly that is there. I'm thankful that he who began a good work will be faithful to complete it. 2. I ran in my first 5K race since having Judah. I pushed the stroller, and was really just hoping to be able to run most of the race. Since it was such a small race, I actually ended up winning my age division (which was maybe like 3 people, but still) and finished in almost exactly 30 minutes. I think that is actually a better time than my first ever 5K race back several years ago, so I was pretty excited. 3. A good friend whom I've known since elementary school is about to adopt a baby girl! Her family is having an online auction to help raise the funds. Head on over the website to check it out! There even might be a few little sewn items made by me.... 4. We're he...

I love my boy. I know you all know that, since I can't seem to stop posting about his cuteness and his every little new thing he does. I love how happy he is and how easily it is to photograph him smiling. He loves to give me the big, gummy, mouth-wide-open grins, which I adore. But there is something about this sweet, reserved smile that just melts my heart. And although it is easy to catch the big, huge smile, it's harder to catch this adorable little one. I was glad he finally let me photograph it....

Judah is getting hard to photograph. He suddenly can't be bothered to look at the camera when there are much more interesting things to look at. Or he's decided he'd rather be rolling somewhere else than staying where I put him. Here's how the recent photo shoot went: Judah, look at mommy! Judah, hey there... Don't look at the shoe, look at me! Aack! Lucy, move! Then I decided to see if I could get a shot of both the boy and the dog since that would be a cute addition to the Christmas card. I quickly learned that getting both a dog and a boy to look at the camera at the same time is essentially impossible. Judah, don't eat that leaf! Or that one! (About this point, Judah actually managed to get one in his mouth before I could get to him. Then he choked on it and puked. Then Lucy licked it up. Eww.) (Doh! Caught a blink.) Lucy, Sit! Come back! And so it goes.

Or "Why there are always dirty dishes in the sink and a pile of laundry in the bedroom." Since I'm in the midst of another work week, I thought I'd post a few thoughts about being a working mom and what makes my life easier as a working mom. 1. The realization that I can't do it all. I am not superwoman. I have decided that I am not going to feel like a failure if the house is messier the weeks that I work, or if Judah wears a few more disposable diapers, or the laundry piles up more. I would rather spend time with my husband and son than trying to get all that stuff done every day. 2. Things are much better if I do as much as possible the night before work. I try to get my breast pump bag ready to go with everything washed that I need to take. I pick out my clothes. I often take a shower in the evening because that's one less thing to do in the morning. 3. I really, really need to plan meals ahead of time. Honestly, I don't do this well. But if I make at ...

For some unexplained reason, I used to think that I preferred brownies made from a box mix to brownies made from scratch. I'm really not sure why I thought this. Maybe I made some brownies in the past that weren't great. But I have since realized that I was woefully mistaken. Homemade brownies are not only delicious; they are also a snap to make and really not much more difficult than boxed brownies. These brownies have a sort of crunchy top that covers a fudgy interior that beats any boxed brownies you could make. Baker's chocolate one bowl brownies 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate 3/4 c. butter 2 c. sugar 3 eggs 1 t. vanilla 1 c. flour Melt butter and chocolate in a large bowl in microwave until they are melted and smooth. Stir sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs, vanilla, and flour and then pour into 13 X 9 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Eat! (You can also add 1 c. nuts if you like nuts in your brownies, but I prefer my chocolate unadulterated.) You'll never want boxed b...

I spent 12 hours today working in a small town ER about an hour from where I live. In addition to my regular job, I'll also be doing a little bit of moonlighting there in the months to come. It's nice because I get to use some different skills than in my other job, and making a little bit of extra money is always nice. I was a little nervous today knowing that I'd be the only doctor working there. I've never been the only doctor in a situation like that before. You can definitely tell it's a small town. First of all, I got a tour of pretty much the entire hospital in about 5 minutes. There are 5 beds in the ER. Our ER, by contrast, has 6 beds in each pod, with 5 different pods. One of the ER nurses has a twin sister (I was told) who works at the sheriff's office, so that nurse knew everything that was going on. Their names are Sharon and Karen. (Or, as they are pronounced down here, Shay-ron and Kay-ron.) The big exciting thing that happened this weekend was a p...

I love words. When I was in high school, I once asked for and received a big, enormous OED for Christmas. I loved it. It was fun to browse just to look for fun, interesting words. Are there words you hate? I've always disliked the word drawer . As in "chest of drawers." I think I dislike it because it's really pronounced "droor," but if you say it the way it is spelled, as in "draw-er," you will sound like a backwoods hick. The words moist and panties both make me cringe. The word pantyhose sends chills down my spine, but I'm not certain if that's because I always HATED wearing them, or just because it has the word panty as part of it. I do not wear panties. I wear underwear. I think I may be softening towards the word moist because sometimes, especially when describing baked goods or cooking, there's just no better word to use. My other least favorites? Rural . It's just too hard to say. Literally - this annoys me just because of...

I've learned some things lately about starting a baby on solids. I thought I'd share them here. 1. Not all babies will love to eat solids right away. Some babies (I've heard) just open their mouth the first time they see the spoon and then they're off, eating everything. Judah is not like that. The first time we tried solids, he gagged. So I waited a few more weeks before trying again. The next time I think he just made an awful face then leaned all the way back in his boppy, looking up towards the ceiling. I waited again. Finally, he decided he'd open his mouth and eat a few bites. And for a few weeks, he was really interested. Then over the last week or so, he's started just pushing the spoon away. (Teething? Cold? Maybe. Not sure.) 2. Even though he sometimes doesn't seem interested in my feeding him purees, he actually seems to love feeding himself. Or trying to. We had the most pleasant eating experience at a restaurant on Sunday because my mom suggeste...

1. I made these salted brown butter rice krispy treats yesterday. They are really, really delicious. You should make them today. In case you don't have enough sugar in the house already. :) 2. I faxed our voter registrations to our local election commission office a month ago. They apparently never got them. I checked online last night to see where to go vote and we are still apparently registered in Charleston. Sigh. I love voting. I feel like a big, irresponsible slacker for not being able to vote today. 3. The last two years I've had to work on Halloween. I realized this weekend that I love being home on Halloween and giving out candy. I love seeing all the costumes - both cute and scary and having a great chance to talk to more of the neighbors that I do on a regular basis. We sat out in the drive way and enjoyed the cool fall air with the dog and the baby, until the candy ran out and we came inside and turned off the porch light. 4. I have officially started the Christmas...