A Set of New Pipes

When I think about new pipes, the first thing that comes to mind is a fresh young singer. :) Our new pipes are quite literal, however. Last week, we had every pipe in our home replaced. In spite of it being a huge project, thankfully the plumbers finished it within two days.

John has been in our home for about three years, and in that time there have been four leaks. After the second or third leak, he did some research and learned that our home was piped with "Quest," the popular but bad piping of the 1980's in our area. Everything he read seemed to agree that "It's not a matter of 'if' something will go wrong. It's a matter of 'when.'" Since our home is heated with a heat pump, working hot water is indispensable to a heated home in the winter time, so leaks are doubly bad. The only sure fix seemed to be to replace all the bad piping with new, and after our fourth leak in January, we decided to do it.

And so, in August, we finally did it, haha!

I'm looking forward to our bathroom ceiling not looking like this anymore:


We've had paint picked out for the bathroom for probably about a year! It sat in its can until the hole in the wall from the third leak could get patched up in November, and then we welcomed our little one in December, and then made the decision to re-pipe in January . . . it's about time to get painting!

First, though, I need to clean up all the white dust. John's been patching, mudding and sanding the holes the plumbers left throughout the downstairs, and there is a steadily decreasing layer of white dust on just about everything.

yes, everything!

Maw Turns 100

I'm blessed to have memories of two of my great-grandparents. So far, Gemma has the potential to remember four! There's Great Grandma Smith, both my paternal grandparents, and John's paternal grandma, whom everyone in the family calls Maw. And Maw just turned 100!

There was quite a party two weekends ago in her hometown of West Virginia. We were so happy to be able to go, to see the entire family, and to have some more precious time to spend with Maw.

Maw is not only a sweet great grandmother, but she's a fun person to know. She always has a ready, witty answer! People often ask about her living situation, and, in truth, it is ideal. She lives in her own apartment attached to the home of one of her daughters. I'm thankful for her that she gets such care from her family!


It was sweet to see Gemma starting to play with her cousins! At least they were interested in the same book, if that can be considered playing together!


In the past several weeks, Gemma has started to sit really well on her own. Her mama talked early but didn't walk until 16 months, so we're wondering if our little girl will be similarly inclined!

Aunt Abby with her three nieces. Thanks for all these pictures, Aunt Abby!

Happy 100th birthday, Maw! May you know many more. And we look forward, hopefully, to knowing you and laughing with you for an eternity in the world to come!

P.S. Abby wrote a beautiful tribute to Maw at her genealogy blog and you can read it at desperategenie.com.

A Smoothie a Day?

It's smoothie season again. :) By that, I mean that once again this year I've marveled at how quickly the bananas on my counter turn brown, and started popping them, peel and all, into the freezer. However, unlike last year's simple additions of berries and milk, the smoothies this year have gotten a little fancier. :)

Now that I'm regularly making my own yoghurt, it's not such a big deal to dump in a good bit with the frozen banana and extra fruit of choice. Then, about four nice ice cubes and just enough 100% fruit juice to make it blend . . . oooh, they are lovely!

This summer's favorite combinations have been strawberry/banana with apple juice, and lots of peach/banana with "fruit punch" (and occasionally a little plop of coconut oil to add to the tropical twist! yum!). I've done no-dairy smoothies with just the juice, fruit and ice, which are lovely, too. And one afternoon when I had a banana but no extra fruit around, in went some peanut butter and chocolate syrup. Ooooh. I think I am addicted!

They really are a great way of satisfying one's sweet tooth, though, without the added sugar. In fact, I tried a smoothie sample at the mall recently and it was just too sweet. Mine are better. :) I still haven't thrown any greens in mine . . . but I have now tried the green smoothie by Naked, so I know that it is, indeed good! Maybe next year . . .

It will almost be a shame when peaches and berries are out of season and apples are in! Almost . . . I've already told John several times how excited I am for fall. :)

The Rest of the Swiffer Story

"Pride goeth before a fall," so the old Proverb goes. Thankfully there was no literal fall involved this time, but a bit of an ego fall. Just when we had escaped the keep-buying-Swiffer-supplies trap by knitting our own Swiffer socks and outsmarting their "nonrefillable" Wet Jet bottles, the following happened:


Yes, my Swiffer handle snapped. It was a sad day. My darling husband, however, rigged it back together with duct tape. I didn't take a picture. You know what duct tape looks like. ;) So, it works once again, but it's a little shaky. We conquered our Swiffer but then it wimped out on us! I still love my reusable knit Swiffer, socks, though. They have some great scrubbing ability! So, we'll continue to use it, albeit more gently.

And because every day is a good day to see a picture of a baby, here you go:


Gemma love playing under her mobile! If you can't tell, she's grinning behind her paci. The squinty-eyed grin has been something new in the past month. ;)

John's Belated Birthday Adventure!

There's a whole list of things to blog about on the bulletin board in the kitchen, and it's been there for a while . . . but I think we've just been too busy living life to write about it. I've been busy making my bread, yoghurt, granola, and desserts. I've been cleaning the house pretty faithfully, following some of Fly Lady's suggestions. We've been going on walks. I've been sewing a dress. It hasn't been a bad thing. :)

But, right now seems an apt time to write some, so I thought I'd tell you about a recent adventure! At this time last year, I received a half-off voucher to go zip-lining via LivingSocial and thought it would be the perfect birthday gift for John! So, I printed off the vouchers, gave them to him with his birthday card, and they sat in a drawer until now. I was pregnant, then we had a newborn, etc. etc. There seemed to be no perfect time to go. However, since they were about to expire, we finally made the time, picked up our friend Ben and made a day trip off a drive to Carolina Ziplines.


John asked about letting Gemma ride with him in our front-pack carrier, just in case. The owner was open to the idea, but after putting in a phone call to his insurance company, he told us he was sorry. She'll just have to wait until she's two to join in the fun.


She certainly enjoyed chewing on the strap to John's helmet, though! I'm so thankful for breastfeeding. It makes me worry about germs much less than I would otherwise!


John and Ben had an awesome time, and I suspect we may be returning in the future! The owner felt so badly that I had to stay back with the baby, that he let me ride one line for free! It was a long one, too!


Thanks for an awesome birthday for John, Carolina Ziplines!

The Trail

There are lots of great places to walk in our little neighborhood. Recently, though, I felt stuck in a rut, so baby and I decided to venture a different direction. And, lo! Soon the road intersected with a paved (and thus perfect for strollers!) trail! Where did it go?

That morning, we took the trail one way, and it led us to another nearby road which we took home. The next day, we took a different piece of the trail.


The trail led into the woods, which made me so happy! The road noise having faded away, aside from the buzzing of the cicadas and the chirping of the birdies, all was still. "Birdies"--I'm such a mommy now!

I felt like we were home in the country again. We followed it further. And it ended up at . . .


. . . a playground! Then I was very happy indeed! What a wonderful thing for the future, if, Lord willing, we are still in this house. I can envision strollers and little bikes rolling down the trail for a morning outing, homeschool P.E. class consisting of a jog to the playground, and 12 year olds excited to be allowed to ride their bikes to the playground by themselves . . .

Thank you for the little things, our Father!

Uncle & Aunt Love

A month or two ago, we were thrilled to hear that "Plug-In 2011," an electric car-based conference, would be bringing Steve and Abby to town in July! John's younger brother and our sister-in-law hadn't seen our home here, and we were thrilled to see them.

While they were here, of course, we were excited to make the usual round of local food and shopping stops, and thanks to Abby's keen interest in history, we finally visited the local sites of historical importance for the first time!


It was hot! But it was also good . . . I didn't realize what we'd been missing, and now there are some more places that we need to bring my side of the family when they come to visit next!

We got to test out the stroller's ability to handle rough terrain (definitely not its purpose!).
We also saw some beautiful things. One evening, we even had the privilege of visiting Plug-In 2011, and seeing what Steve's company has been busy working on in recent months. Their project certainly stood out from the crowd in creativity and promise.


Thank you so much for visiting us, Uncle Steve and Aunt Abby!

Anniversary Pie

Source: evilchefmom.com via Gretchen on Pinterest

Last week's anniversary post was getting a bit long, so I thought I'd save my comments on the pie for another day!

My pie doesn't quite look like the one above! I skipped the garnishes and made my own crust from 2 cups of crushed store-brand "oreos" and 1/4 cup of butter. But I liked this version because it called for actual heavy cream instead of Cool Whip.

I had my doubts about the recipe when I was folding the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. It was more globby than uniform. However, once it was chilled, it wasn't globby at all!

I also used a substitution for the semi-sweet chocolate required for the topping. 3 tablespoons of cocoa + 1 tablespoon of cooking oil is roughly equivalent to one ounce of unsweetened chocolate, and much more convenient since I don't keeping Baker's chocolate in the house. The only problem was that I forgot that the recipe called for semi-sweet, not unsweetened chocolate, so I threw in some confectioner's sugar with the chocolate. The topping was on the less-sweet side as a result, but I thought it nicely balanced the very sweet crust and filling. I also added a touch of vanilla extract to both the filling and the topping, because vanilla is just splendid. :)

This is definitely not a low-calorie dessert! But it was very rich and tasty, and a nice treat for my chocolate-and-peanut-butter-loving husband. :) It was also quite quick to make, and being an "ice box" pie, it was an energy-smart choice for the summer months. I do think it was set better after chilling overnight.

Since I had picked up two boxes of cream cheese by accident, by the end of the week I had nearly enough ingredients to make another! So I did, except that I had to take a chance and substitute half and half for the cream base in the topping. The result was not noticeably different, so I would recommend that change, as well as the use of reduced-fat cream cheese, for the cholesterol-conscious cook.

Overall, excellent recipe! Thanks to pinterest, and to "evilmomchef," whoever you are . . . I don't care for the way you present your pie recipe (language, etc.), but the product is great.