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Weekend Check-in: January 12

This weekend, my parents are here. 3 1/2 years ago, when we bought this house, my dad spear-headed the campaign to paint nearly every room over a 10-day period while my husband was on the youth group missions trip. My mom, Isaac's parents, and a handful of friends all contributed, and amazing work was done. In the end, though, there were a few corners that never got a second coat of edging, and I finally decided it was time to get the job done. Dad volunteered to come down and finish it off. Hooray!

What I'm Cooking:
Carmelitas (oatmeal caramel bars), for young adults' Bible study at our house.
Cajun Chicken Pasta. Second time I've made this, and I love it. Last time, I threw together a cajun spice mix as somebody offered up in the comments of that recipe post, so I had some leftover for this time. I think the first time I actually got linguine, but this time I just used thin spaghetti because that's all I could find whole-wheat.
Chicken Corn Chowder, only I used leftover chopped turkey from Thanksgiving. I still have 3 jars (2 cups each) in the freezer! The recipe looked fairly mediocre, and I wasn't hoping for much (other than to use up some odds and ends in the produce drawer), but it was surprisingly tasty. Creamy, corn-y, comfort food.
Banana Bread. As I was finishing up mixing the ingredients, I thought to myself that it looked awfully bland, so I threw in some cinnamon and chocolate chips. It was still pretty bland, but not terribly dry for a whole-wheat bread and the only sugar (besides the chocolate chips, but I didn't go crazy there) was 1/4 cup of honey. Breakfast to feel good about.

What I'm Reading
Standing on the Promises. Slow going on this one. I complained to my husband a few days ago that I'm afraid I've lost the mental capacity to read intelligent literature. It doesn't help that Silas would prefer I not read while he nurses, and getting through every sentence is an exercise of following the page with my eyes as I continually move the book out of reach of his waving arm.
Honey for a Child's Heart. Solid reasoning for reading (and reading good literature) to one's children (as if we needed more reasons, but it's always good to have reminders), including a lengthy list of good books separated by age. I'm thinking about making some sort of spreadsheet where I can write down what and when we've read certain books, my kids' ages, how much they liked it, etc.

What I'm Creating: the blog post about New Year's Eve. Thanks to a multitude of interruptions, it's taking forever. Soon, soon!

Favorite pin: Caramel cake with crunchy toffee icing. I spy this year's birthday cake for myself. http://pinterest.com/pin/282671314083510498/

Favorite blog post: If you give an 8-year-old boy a math lesson . . .  from Heavenly Homemakers. Besides being one of my go-to sources for information about the real-food journey we're working on, the author, Laura, homeschools her four boys. I suspect this post could be a glimpse into my future. :)

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