The Cottage on the Hill

A Wise Woman Builds Her Home is hostessing a big giveaway of Vision Forum gift certificates! Here's a chance to build up your CHRISTIAN BOOK library! Vision Forum has so many other great things, too. DVD's, music, toys, kits! The winners are going to have an easy time using up their gift cards!

I saw this book in my latest catalog from Victorian Trading Company and just HAD to research it more. I popped on over to amazon.com to get a better look and read reviews. It is now on my Amazon.com wishlist. The most I've ever been able to crochet is a chain. I tried it as a child and could never figure out how to do anything more beyond a chain. I preferred sewing and cross stitch embroidery. Both came more easily to me. However, this book has inspired me to perhaps try crochet again.

Oh, we all hear about Donna Reed or June Cleaver in the vintage housewife blogosphere , but no one talks about Morticia Addams! Ok ok ok , hear me out! Feeling very poorly the other day, I lay in bed and started watching reruns of the old Addams Family series. I started to think, "I wish I was more like Morticia ." It made me chuckle, and ponder as to why! Certainly, it is not for her darkness and love of all things gloomy and dreary, but a few characteristics did stand out: 1. Morticia and Gomez have an equal and loving.....and sexy relationship. I noticed in other vintage TV shows, the spouses seem to talk down to each other, though very subtly. The husband puts his all knowing foot down, the wife uses her feminine whiles and trickeries . Morticia and Gomez actually discuss on equal plains whatever the issue is. While other TV housewives seem to have a more platonic relationship with their husbands, Gomez and Morticia are obviously madly in love with each othe...

As they pop into my head, here goes: 1. I don't own Crocs and don't really plan on it, either. 2. I am very weak during pregnancy with bouts of strength (like moving and lifting 4 studded snow tires for my truck into the back of my truck!) 3. I want to live for a season in a travel trailer with my family. 4. I like to chicken scratch embroider, though I haven't done it in years. 5. I LOVE Indian food. 6. I am desperate for back and foot massages every day....and I never get them. 7. I want a whirlpool tub. 8. I've been watching reruns of the Addams Family. 9. I hope I'm having a girl. 10. I love vintage stationary.

I made Bettina's Apple Sauce Cake from A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina's Best Recipes for breakfast this morning. It was so yummy and so comforting. I love how the butter-based batter cooked up. Usually, the cakes and quick breads I make are fruit puree or milk and egg based. Always one to tamper with a recipe, though, I did use a bit less sugar, omitted the dates and nuts to make it more palatable for my children, used shredded apple rather than apple sauce, and accidentally poured in more vanilla than was called for. I also used white whole wheat and spelt flour. It still came out so yummy!

My childhood memories are dappled with reminiscing about that old kerosene heater we had. Granted, we had two of the rectangle ones, not the round ones like mine above, but I lit mine last night for a warm, comforting, familiar glance into my past. I remember curling up with my cat in front of the heater. Our old house was often so cold! I remember getting dressed in front of the heater. I devised a way to modestly change clothes so I didn't have to leave that warm glow. I remember evenings where the only light came from the kerosene heaters and the dials on the radio because my parents were trying to save electricity. I bought a kerosene heater recently when the threat of an early winter storm sent out warnings of loss of electricity. We didn't lose power, thankfully, but I decided to light the heater last night anyway. Oh, what fond memories it brought back. What comfort. What WARMTH!

Red Raspberry Leaf Tea with Raw Manuka Honey When you are pregnant.

Isn't this a great 8 week ultrasound picture!? Usually, I just see a jellybean in there, but this one came up so clear! Head, cute round tummy, arms and legs all tucked. And when I saw that heart beating away so strong, I just lifted up praises to the King! I have to say, it felt SO good walking into that familiar office and then seeing my little one so healthy and well. He or she was probably asleep because they didn't move about. I remember seeing my first bouncing around like a mexican jumping bean! I'm looking forward to another ultrasound at 12 weeks. Praise be to God for this amazing miracle, this LIFE growing within me!