Update on Ice Cream

So after the homemade vanilla ice cream, we attempted three gourmet ice cream recipes from Jeni's cookbook. First was Roasted Pistachio Honey, second was Dark Coffee and third was Salty Carmel. The roasted pistachio honey is my FAVORITE!!! The other two are good, but I realized I'm not much of a carmel fan. The coffee is really good, but since I don't like coffee anyway, it's better for me to mix it with the homemade vanilla...then it's perfect! Tonight we are going to mix the Salty Carmel with the Dark Coffee and see if that combination is amazing or not. We'll see.

Homemade Ice Cream

I have been wanting to make homemade ice cream since last summer when we visited a friend in Nashville and had the best ice cream from Jeni's. We had the BEST ice cream there and my friend bought me her ice cream recipe book. I have been dying to trying it out. Brian bought me an ice cream maker as an early birthday present (since he saw one at Costco a few weeks ago) and we finally made our first batch of homemade ice cream tonight. We thought we would try a simple vanilla ice cream recipe from the few recipes that came with the maker. We tried it before we put it in the freezer...and man oh man was it delicious!!! We'll probably have some tomorrow night with the kids. So far what a success!! I can't wait to try the recipes from Jeni's cookbook, such as Brown Butter Almond Brittle and Pistachio Honey!

Reading Update

I finished the Hunger Games trilogy and the book Divergent. Divergent is a dystopia fiction trilogy similar to Hunger Games. I liked it a lot. The second book comes out tomorrow and the third should come out May 2013.

I am currently reading The Masculine Mandate, which is a book my husband read and really liked. I wanted to read how men exhort other men, and also read how best I could encourage and teach Evan as he grows up.

I am also currently reading What Did You Expect? It's a marriage book written by Paul David Tripp. I finished his Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands book and loved it. So far I really love this marriage book and think all married couples should read it. He has a lot of wisdom, and he has been counseling people for many years (single and married couples) and has learned a lot in his own marriage.

So just for an update...I have read 15 books so far this year. I will definitely meet my goal of 24 by the end of the year if I keep this up.

Diet & Exercise

For my husband's birthday we bought a treadmill and have started the Weight Watchers Diet (points program). He started a week ago and has already lost some weight. I bought one thing for myself...the Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred DVD. I am so excited! I obviously can't do it right now since I'm 24 weeks pregnant but I am looking forward to "shedding" the weight after I have the baby. Maybe I'll actually be able to lose ALL the baby weight before I get pregnant again. haha

Hunger Games

So I've read the first and second book of the trilogy so far (Hunger Games and Catching Fire). I'm on the waiting list at the library for the third book (Mocking Jay). So far the books have been interesting. I like the plot but the dystopia of Panem (the world the characters live in) drives me absolutely nuts. I would definitely not be okay with them killing off my children for their games....and would probably end up doing something about it eventually.

Anyway, as intriguing as the plot is, the writing isn't totally superb...which may or may  not be due to the fact it is written from the viewpoint of a 16 year old girl (and having just read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights probably doesn't help). However, the story is well paced and each chapter ends with you dying to know what is going to happen next...hence I finished each book within two days (despite my many responsibilities...but I won't tell you how I let the dishes pile up or how I had scrambled to fix dinner last minute as Brian walked through the door).

We are planning to see the movie next week for Brian's birthday so it will be interesting to see how it compares with the book. We're really looking forward to it as we hardly ever go out on a date just the two of us. Woohoo!!!

Accidental Artist

Evan was playing on this doodle pad...showing me a big circle, then erasing it and showing me a tiny circle. He is somewhat obsessed these days with the opposites: big and tiny. 

Anyway, the next time he showed me his doodle pad, he had drawn a Guinea Pig! I know it was a total accident but it seriously looked like a guinea pig. 

Evan loves Wonder Pets so maybe his subconscious led him to draw the guinea pig, Linny. Or maybe that is just too far fetched.....but whatever the cause I had to document it as a proud parent!

Superhero Quilt

Here is Evan's superhero quilt finished after 4-5 months of working on it. Yay! 

Not too bad for a first quilt (besides the two runners I did). 

For those of you interested in the comics: the front is mostly DC Comics (Batman, Superman) with a little bit of Marvel Comics (Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine, Spiderman, Thor). 

The back is all Marvel (Spiderman). Evan calls it his "spiderman blanket". 

FRONT

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