something beautiful

My sister said she wanted some images showing the contrast in their work attire, so they both came straight from work to have their images made. Love it.

Hi, my name is Steph, and I have a problem… it’s been one week since my last mailing list add. My problem is that I always sign up to get your emails. Ministry updates? Sign me up. Daily devotionals delivered to my inbox? Of course. Coupons and exclusive offers by email? Send ‘em my way.

Then, I go to check my email….

I’m horrified by the way my personal correspondence is lost amid the sea of advertising. Advertising that I signed up to get.

To make matters worse, I never even read them. Oh, I may occasionally open the Hobby Lobby ad, knowing their tendency to give 40% off any one item, but I don’t even bother with the rest of you. Not even the devotionals – not after the first time. Sometimes, in a moment of guilt, I archive you, promising myself that I will look at you later. Usually, however, I just delete. I know I should tell you I’ve lost interest rather than just resenting your constant presence. Once in a while, I do find the time to open particularly prolific advertisers and use your SafeUnsubscribe link. But what about ministry updates and daily devotionals? Unsubscribing from you makes me feel like a heathen.

Still, I never read you – I don’t have the time. So what choice do I have? Unsubscribe.

Just so you know, I’m not being arrogant when I call them the perfect chocolate chip cookies – that’s actually the name of the recipe. I came across it in an issue of Cooks Illustrated magazine I got a while ago (if someone wanted to get me a subscription to that magazine for Christmas, my birthday, or just because, I totally wouldn’t mind), and I have to admit, when I first read it, even with the great explanation of why all the extra steps were necessary, I was skeptical. It seemed like a lot of work for chocolate chip cookies. I mean, do I really have to brown the butter before I even get started? And what’s with the mix thirty seconds, let it rest three minutes, mix it thirty seconds more, let it rest three more minutes, etc. – is it really that much better than just mixing it all at once?

Truthfully, the answer is yes, yes it is that much better. I never knew chocolate chip cookies could be this good.

Of course, mine were only almost perfect, as I do have a tendency to not follow recipes exactly. Perfection would be out of character for me, anyway.

Recipe is here: Cook’s Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

It seems I was remiss in my previous post – I neglected to mention what my dad brought to our Thanksgiving dinner this year. First and foremost, he hosted it. Without my mom. That’s a major contribution right there.

That was not all he brought to the table, however – oh no, it was not. He also made some fabulous barbecue baked beans and a delicious macaroni salad. You may wonder why I didn’t mention this before. Well… I didn’t want to give anyone the impression that he doesn’t normally contribute to the feast (whether he does or doesn’t is irrelevant – I didn’t want to imply it), that he’s a newbie to the provision of Thanksgiving dinner, that he had any apprehension about the edibility of the spread this year. Although, in all fairness, he may well have had a great deal of apprehension about his daughters’ ability to cook something up to the standard of fare he was used to – particularly his youngest daughter’s, but he certainly never said so. Besides, he deserves his own post, don’t you think?

Photos courtesy of my niece, Felicia.

So, despite any concerns we may have had about making Thanksgiving dinner without Mom, everything turned out great. I did not end up making homemade bread, but I did make the pumpkin cheesecake, the acorn squash, and the stuffing. Carol and I even made gravy, just like our Grandpa taught us to. Carol rocked the turkey and “smashed” potatoes, and Felicia made the Best Smashed Sweet Potatoes Ever. Of course, Sara Lee’s apple and pumpkin pies were pretty tasty, too. And just like when Mom cooks, we had enough leftovers to keep three households fed for a week. Photo credits belong to my niece, Felicia, who was the only one who brought a camera, and who kept using it all day.

love, mom

And true to form, the boy is playing a new instrument this year. Which is why I will never have “so many pictures of marching band” that I don’t need to bring a camera to an event.

of her newly remodeled kitchen (which I will be blogging soon) so she could post them on facebook to show our aunt in Kansas. When I met her at her house, she had just arrived home from grocery shopping, so we quickly put her groceries away before shooting.

Here’s the thing about groceries: there are some items that may live on your counter on a daily basis (like hamburger buns), that you might not want included in images that you were going to share online, in which case you might temporarily stash them in the oven, where the unsightly blue branding on the bag would remain unseen.

And you might, if you happen to be my sister, have a sister who laughs and says, “I can already envision that melted to your oven rack.” To which you might respond, “No, I’ll know they’re in there because I put them there,” which makes perfectly good sense.

It is very important to note that this laughing sister is not being malicious or insulting your intelligence, it’s just that we have this family history….

Fast forward through an hour of me climbing around on things to get a certain angle, moving my light source from spot A to spot B, blah blah blah … somewhere in which my sister invites me and the kids to stay for dinner, which of course we accept.

As we began making dinner, we are talking. And laughing. And there are plenty of children and teenagers walking through, among other distractions. But dinner is going fine.

Then someone notices the smell of something burning…

As it turns out, when there is a lot of talking and laughing, and plenty of children and teenagers walking through, among other distractions, it is entirely possible and probable that you will forget about the bagged buns in the oven, even if you are the one who put them there. This, of course, will lead to more laughing, because didn’t we just talk about this a little over an hour ago?

Fortunately, there are plenty of teenagers about, one of whom can be relied upon to go to the store and get more hamburger buns.

My oldest son just got his driving permit, and it seems like a huge milestone. Suddenly, the day my boy moves away from me seems a whole lot nearer than I’d like – inspiring a wistful longing for the days when he wore overalls and the only thing he drove was Thomas the Tank Engine trains around clickety-clack wooden tracks.

Not to mention a time when my girl wore dresses instead of makeup….

Is it too much to ask that they just stay little forever????

Yeah, I suspected as much…

this blog is still under construction, so please keep checking back to see the progress.

I was going to import the posts from my old blog, but… it appears that I’d have to go back and reroute all my image links, and since the blog was primarily images… Instead, I think I’ll just upload some of my favorite images over the next several weeks and start fresh with the posts. In the meantime, I did save the very last post from the old blog…