melaniehurt.com

What do we really need?

Preparing for a move I am contemplating this question not because I seek each day to be philosophical, but because our move is requiring this of me. Our family of five will be moving into a space that is going to be very small. Yesterday we purchased a 30-foot motor home and will be moving into it the first weekend in March. I imagine each moment of the day what living in this space will be like. I try not to fain romantic. With three small kids to care for, cook for, and educate, a husband, and a remodel to finish, I am working daily to prepare my mind for the level of stress that will be upon me everyday for at least a portion of the day.

But spring is coming. This fact will make all the difference.

So what does our family really need?

Well here is a list of things that I plan to bring just to make our kitchen, I thought some one could find this useful someday. I know I will appreciate the record of it when I am looking at these days as far behind me. The list:

1. My biggest pot with it’s lid and the strainer basket that fits inside it. I will be able to use this for everything from soup to frying bacon.

2. Medium-sized pot with it’s lid.

3. Medium saucepan that uses the same-sized lid.

note: my pots can function on the stove top and in the oven because they have no plastic parts, this will be super nice.

4. 2-3 wooden spoons.

5. Silicon spatula.

6. Flat metal spatula.

7. Our knife set (steak, paring, chef, and bread knives).

8. Measuring cups (I will use my hand for spoon measurements).

9. Rolling pin (a flour tortilla must-have, and good for breaking nuts and things).

10. Kettle.

11. Scissors.

12. Can opener.

13. Faithful pastry blender. I can’t get fluffy, fluffy biscuits without this. Ooh, or these scones.

14. Peeler. Though I could use a knife, I will bring this because it will save time.

15. Box grater.

16. The all powerful whisk.

17. Parchment paper—this has changed my cookie baking life!

18. Small baking sheet.

19. 13 x 9 casserole dish, I may change my mind and bring a 9 x 9, for brownies.

20. Cutting board.

21. Three nesting mixing bowls.

22. Seven washcloths and ten towels. I will wash these by hand regularly and line-dry them and then machine wash them when I can.

23. Vintage multi-roll dispenser for wax paper, plastic wrap, and aluminum foil. A thrift store find.

24. Matches (propane heats and runs this motor home).

25. Soap (and my two hands, joining the Hand Wash Your Dishes Club again).

I have not included things to eat on or with, this will consist of: all our silverware (eight settings), eight salad plates (what we eat 90% of our meals on), two big plates, six cereal bowls (four large and two small), eight glasses (four short, four tall), and four mugs (two big, two small). I will also bring all of our napkins, I prefer cloth over paper. I will definitely have a small store of paper goods, for tired days and when we entertain. The other thing I will use frequently will be our barbeque. I suppose I may need a few utensils for this as well, but I will keep them outside with the grill. I’m looking forward to grilled pizza, vegetables, meat, and maybe even some peaches.

Well I have been saying it and I will say it again, the adventure continues. God has provided for us vividly once again. I hope to bring a smile to his face in this season of tight-living and hard-working. Honestly, I will rejoice to the point of weeping the first night I am sleeping beside my husband in our new room in our new house, along with so many other things we will do there. I long for these hard stressful days to end but they are continuing. However, I am ever so thankful for the Gardener that prunes the vines to produce more and more fruit.

Trailer life, here we come.

I am hoping to see this room, looking something like this, some day this year. The waiting continues. But I must say that I marvel at how we have been provided for: places to live, a place to keep our possessions without cost, food, money, a healthy baby, and a marriage strong enough to thrive in a year with more stress than we’ve ever known. And the provision hasn’t stopped at enough to supply—it has been generous. So we blew out our candles the day before Christmas, in celebration of our Savior’s birth and we knew of his love for us in the year that we’ve passed. It has been given, beyond measure; filled up and running over. I will sing a new song this year, but it will have some old lines in it; the waiting will be woven into the fabric of my life, and I suppose that this is God, teaching us. I must become familiar with waiting now, while I am young, for I am sure I will be doing it most of my life. But for today new has come.

I’ve been making all of our bread products: tortillas, quick breads, toast and sandwich breads, artisan breads, hamburger buns, scones, biscuits, everything. It’s been fun to experience the different flour combinations and bread textures. I have banana bread* and tortillas down. I still have much to learn. And I am still looking for a nice, thick, chewy light wheat bread to make all summer long, when sandwiches are a common meal. The kids love to help add the ingredients to the mixing bowl and they love when the bread is cool—a slice with butter is a very satisfying five o’clock snack. The image below is made from this recipe.

*on the Simply Recipes banana bread recipe I use and much, much prefer to make it entirely with wheat flour. No white at all makes it taste so yummy. And don’t ever think about keeping old bananas in the freezer—use them before they become totally black. That’s the real taste-changer for banana bread.

Authentic Flour Tortillas

3 cups white flour

2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 T. baking powder

1/4 Cup (4 T.) lard (Do it! Use lard!)

1. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Cut in lard with pastry cutter or fingers until the lard becomes medium to fine crumbs.

3. Add very warm water mixing with a fork or your hands, until the dough comes together. It should be soft, but not very sticky. I am thinking somewhere around a scant 1/2 Cup, but I’ve never actually measured it. Get it to all come together without sticking to the bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes. While it’s resting start heating up a frying pan.

4. Cut the dough in half, then into quarters, and then each quarter into three equal parts. Form each piece into a disc. Let the discs rest for 5-10 minutes. Continue heating your frying pan to medium-high.

5. Roll a disc out as thin as you possibly can (remembering you have to pull them of the counter) and place it on the skillet, which should be very hot. It will begin to cook and should create little bubbles on the surface that is not on the pan. Begin rolling out the next disc as it is cooking. Flip after 1-3 minutes, depending on the heat of your skillet (you want this to go quickly but you don’t want the tortillas to be too dark—a nice golden brown). Cook the next side to a nice golden brown as well. Adjust the heat as necessary and fry up the next one.

6. Store for up to three days in an airtight bag. They are best eaten immediately.

My sister turned twenty-one last week, on the first day of October, to be exact. It made me feel happy, but amazed at how quickly we grew up. My mom saved raspberries from her garden for weeks to make something special just for the party. Unfortunately, my mom spent her weekend sick, curled up on her couch drinking tea and eating decongestant. So she felt behind on things for the week and brought the raspberries and three sheets of puff pastry to my house. Lucky me.

I though very long and hard about what exactly to make, hoping to bless my sister and enjoy my time with such beautiful fruit. I got inspiration for the pastry shells from a favorite dessert blog, and pulled the rest together from my most used cookbook. And I got excited. 

 I counted out 130 beauties for the tops and used the rest to make raspberry sauce (from the cookbook). But I changed things up a bit—recipes at the end. And then I made the cream cheese filling from the fruit tartlets recipe in the book, but of course I changed things up a bit. I also ended up adding a bit of sugar to the sauce, knowing the pastry had no sweetness and knowing I was keeping the cheese filling mildly sweet. The filling and sauce were great.

As an ode to my grandmother, whose last day on earth was two years to the day of my making these, I wielded the decorating sets she left me to pipe the filling on top of the thick raspberry sauce in the pastries. I topped them with the reserved raspberries and got really excited.

After the whole raspberries came one last star of cream in the center, and then I melted some dark chocolate and used my whisk to send it in lovely ribbons across the tops. I tasted these each part individually throughout this epicurean adventure; I was loving my time in my kitchen—baby crying off and on—nothing could phase me.

 I was expecting my dessert to be the highlight of the evening but my sister-in-law showed up with peach pie and a pear pie, which was a surprise and something of a let-down. Partly because I was surprised and had worked so hard and partly because her pies are simply amazing. Everyone had a difficult time deciding on one dessert, so most of us ate a bit of each and took a pastry home.

But there is a happy ending: I made a fire for my babies the next morning and left the room for a moment. I came back in to find that my daughter had found the few we brought back home. She took one for herself and gave one to her brother and they were happily ate them as breakfast in front of the fire. I felt content after seeing my little ones enjoy them on a sleepy Saturday morning. I think my sister enjoyed them also and I know my grandmother would have eaten one with pleasure and perhaps a hint of pride.

For the shells:

one box of Pillsbury puff pastry

egg wash (one egg beaten lightly in a bowl)

1. Thaw the pastry according to the package directions.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough a bit; just to make it lay flat and square it up.

3. With biscuit cutters or round cookie cutters, cut one sheet of solid circles and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Using a fork, lightly prick the edges of the pastry circles, being careful not to go all the way through the dough. Brush the pricked parts with egg wash.

4. Cut the same amount of circles out of the second sheet and then using a smaller cutter, cut the center out of each one. Place one pastry ring on each circle and press down lightly. Brush the top ring with egg wash. 

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until nicely browned. Remove from sheet immediately and cool on wire racks. 

Raspberry Sauce:

4-5 cups of fresh raspberries

water

2 T. cornstarch

super-fine sugar to taste

1. Place just enough water in a saucepan to almost cover the bottom of it. Add raspberries. Set burner to medium and let the berries begin to boil down. Stir occasionally with a wire whisk, smooshing the berries slightly each time. Let the berries cook for 20-30 minutes.

2. When the berries have all burst and everything is looking rather saucy, turn the burner down and remove from the heat. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium sized bowl and pour the sauce through the sieve. Use a spoon to force as much juice as possible through the sieve into the bowl. 

3. Pour the strained juice back into the sauce pan. Add two or three heaping tablespoons of the flesh and seeds for texture in the sauce. Then add the cornstarch and whisk on medium heat until smooth. Continue whisking on medium heat until the sauce comes to a boil. You can turn the burner up bit by bit if you don’t want to stand there forever.

4. Once the sauce has begun to boil and starts to thicken, remove it from heat and stir well. Pour the thickened sauce back into the bowl to cool.

5. Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time until it takes the ting out of the tartness of the berries. You will need more or less depending on the original sweetness of the berries.

Cream Cheese Filling:

1 8oz. package of full-fat cream cheese

1/2 C. ricotta cheese

1-2 T. cream, heavy or whipping

2-3 T. sugar, depending on taste

1. Let the cream cheese come to room temperature, about 45-60 minutes.

2. Add cream cheese to a bowl and mash with a fork until it is very smooth. Add ricotta, sugar and cream and blend with a fork until very smooth, 3-5 minutes. This goes much faster with a hand mixer.

“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another…”  Wearing humility today.

I waited a while to put it on but I’m clothed now. I thanked Jesus for my own space, my children (much harder to say), my coffee, my dishes piled up beautifully and waiting to be washed, and my husband. Overwhelmed as I was this morning with three little ones, all of whom spent at least some part of the morning crying, I stopped myself and remembered all I’ve been blessed with and told the giver of all, thank you.

This verse and a few others were brought back to my attention last night by a guest speaker. I felt a new need to be spending some moments a day with my nose in this precious book. I am hoping to make the time again. I feel I have lost some things that come with humility. Like loving strangers. Thinking and speaking in a way that builds other up and glorifies Jesus. I am hoping to remind myself of this verse daily for a while until it feels more natural to think the way this verse calls me to. “Clothe myself in humility.” What areas of our lives couldn’t use a bit more meekness?

Humility as a garment. I am imagining a big pair of sweat pants and a nice fitting tee on sabbath, and bare feet. On a rainy day: a big, loosely knit sweater that hugs the body and hangs on the arms; with a pair of jeans and a blue tank top. And in hot weather—maybe a dress. Calf length and pale with a button-up bodice and an empire waist. But I guess it couldn’t be too fashionable; nothing to draw attention to one’s self, and nothing to make someone else feels as though the things they wore were less than enough. Humility worn would also be modest—considering others and the things they may struggle with—putting them first by dressing in regards to those things. For me in the home it would often be an apron, something to wipe my hands on as I wash and clean and make three different foods for three different people for one meal. Yes, some days it would be something comfortable and easy to wear and other days, possibly so uncomfortable that I may find myself naked in mid-sentence. I suppose it would also be something that should clothe from head to toe; much more like body oil than a real garment then. Maybe I should think of it more as a second skin I put on each day before I dress. Thinking about it at all would probably be enough.

I am dressed and ready now, and it’s time for me to face other things, and they will all require this garment.

“You’re sick,” our friend said, walking into his neighbor’s house. We were there—pulling up carpet prepping for a paint job. “Two remodels in one year, you just couldn’t get enough.” 
My husband and this friend came up with a plan to move us out of my in-laws house and into a house of our own, until our new house is finished. We offered to pay them a very small amount of rent (the house is completely paid off and the father has passed away) and do some quote unquote, minor, repairs. They agreed and we signed a contract nearly a week ago. Walking through the house a second time I wondered if the wood under the carpet was decent. It is and so we got permission to tear out the carpet. That was a major improvement.

We have been painting for three days and are not quite finished. Many of our friends came last night to roll paint and brush trim and even clean the bathroom. It was amazing to see almost all of our work get done for us with so many hands. We still need to roll a quick second coat, paint around the trim with the wall color and clean. But we are nearing end of the cleaning/painting part and drawing close to actual moving. I am hoping in two days that we can move our things from this house into that house. Then I will clean our in-laws house and then we can move some of our stuff out if storage and into our new, temporary house that I will refer to as 7th. These photos were taken the first day I went to start cleaning; much better pictures of the inside to come.

Disclaimer: I highly recommend not doing two remodels in one year with three children.

I have little time for work on since baby #3 was born. But I have made two logos for ministries at church, a video for Kamp Alotta Funna, and helped J design a website. Although some days have seemed more like survival than living, having something creative to do has been very releasing.

A home with three kids does not look like this:

A home with three kids looks like this:

“Mother-love is not inevitable. The good mother is a great artist ever creating beauty out of chaos.”
—Alice Randall
The Wind Done Gone

We’ve been busy. Monday we took a nice sabbath and although it was extremely hot we rested outside. I got pictures of almost all of our feet resting; our little son’s feet really didn’t do much resting, but I did get a shot of him in a brief moment of stillness.