Moment by Moment...

My second sewing project after my napkins ... The pillow inside isn't quite the right size or shape so I'll have to work on that. But I really like the way the cover turned out...

Eilis's birthday present...

They ended up being a bit more work than I thought they would be, but they turned out really cute and everyone loved them, so it was totally worth it. And I very much enjoyed the project...

They are too fluffy to stack well, but I made them more for their cute factor, not really expecting them to stack at all...

Last week we bought a bushel of apples from a discount grocery in Marshfield...

My apartment has smelled like apples and cinnamon for about a week. I love it. It's so cozy and yummy smelling. I've dried some for potpourri and this is my first crisp for the fall...

This coming weekend I'm hoping to take the rest with us to Mom and Dad's and mom is going to help me can them...I'm hoping for applesauce and maybe some apple pie filling and/or apple butter...

Mom Burks had mentioned a while back that my hair was growing fast. I hadn't actually noticed until yesterday and I was rather surprised at how much it has grown. I got it cut only just over three months ago and it's quite a difference...

I've loved having it short, but I am very glad it's growing fast. I like having longer hair in the winter...

And yes, that's football in the background...*sigh*

I adore fall, but football is a very trying aspect of an otherwise perfect season...oh, and halloween...:D

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Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;

Living with Jesus a new life divine;

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Never a trial that He is not there,

Never a burden that He doth not bear,

Never a sorrow that He doth not share,

Moment by moment, I'm under His care.

Never a weakness that He doth not feel,

Never a sickness that He cannot heal;

Moment by moment, in woe or in weal,

Jesus my Savior abides with me still.

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love;

Moment by moment I've life from above;

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Cheesecake wonton bites...

I had a request for this recipe. Mine turned out pretty yummy but I didn't follow the cheesecake recipe very strictly so they probly could be better. I only had less then a package of cream cheese so instead of measuring out everything else into a third of what the recipe called for, I just kinda threw the ingredients in until they looked good. Lol. Usually that works just fine, but I think in this case it would be a better idea to measure things out accurately.

Wonton wrapper dough:

1 egg
3/4 tsp salt
2 c flour
1/3-1/2 c water

Combine the egg and salt and beat lightly. Mix in 1/4 c water. Add in flour and add the rest of the water as needed until a soft dough forms. Knead for about 5 min and the cover and let rest for 30 min. Roll out and cut into shapes. I just used a large biscuit cutter but any shape can be used as long as it can be shaped into a little cup. Or if you prefer to make little pockets or rolls you can cut into square or triangle shapes to fold around filling. The recipe that inspired me to try these suggested star shapes like this:



For cup shape, press cut outs into mini-cupcake tins. The wontons themselves only need about 5 - 7 min to bake but I've baked them up to 15 min depending on what the filling requires and they did not burn.

So far I have made about 34 wonton cups from the batch and I still have about half of the dough left. It freezes well, though, so I just pull it out and take what I want and then return the rest to the freezer well-wrapped.

Cheesecake filling:

3 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp fround nutmeg

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in 1 egg at a time. Add extract. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 min or until firm.

Spoon cheesecake into wonton cups. Topping can be added before or after baking depending on what the topping is. I used frozen blueberries so I added them before baking. Next time I will probably bake them without anything and then drizzle with chocolate or another topping after they are cooled...

Enjoy...

God bless,

~Antonia

Little Wonders...

I woke up this morning with an intense desire for Christmas music. I'm trying to hold myself off, though. I'm afraid if I start on it too early, I'll end up bored with it by the time Christmas actually gets here. I can't wait to set up a tree and decorate my little apartment...

Last weekend we got our washer and dryer. On Monday I washed every single piece of dirty laundry in the apartment. :D And I quote Jase: "Man, everywhere I look there's clean laundry! This is awesome!" I LOVE it...

















On Tuesday I conquered the sewing machine and proudly produced four cute little napkins out of a piece of yellow gingham that mom had found at a material store while she was here. My next project is a pillow out of some brown plaid that mom found at yet another material store. :D I got it all cut out and even started sewing an edge of one of the pieces, when everything came to a screeching and very unhappy halt at the realization that I had no brown thread or extra bobbins. I finally acquired the necessary articles and am hoping to resume work today...



I came across a recipe for wonton cups while disassembling a taste of home recipe card booklet. I decided I had to try them. Since I didn't have wonton wrappers, I searched out a recipe for making them from scratch. Basically they are just an egg noodle recipe. I also had to make up my own filling since I didn't have the required ingredients for the recipe that inspired. They turned out so yummy. I baked about two dozen and still had over half of my dough left. It is now in the freezer awaiting the discovery and/or invention of a yummy dessert filling...



Me + Him = Us...

He's going to fuss at me for posting this, I know.

Poor Babe. He needs a haircut so bad. I love his hair long, but it's getting rather out of hand as of late. I really need to make my next project learning how to cut his hair, but I'm so afraid I'm going to butcher it, which will most likely result in him cutting it super short the way he likes it. *sigh*

This was on our way out the door for our forever long walk on Wednesday to the bank, Walmart, Dollar Tree and back home. I think it was about 7 or 8 miles in all. I was so tired that evening...



God Bless,

Antonia

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Our lives are made in these small hours

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate

Time falls away but these small hours

These small hours remain...

I will remember...

Today started with a trip to the laundromat to finish forgotten laundry from yesterday and to pick up a package that Michelle (the landlady) had called us about. I had put laundry in yesterday around 12:30 and then forgotten about it. A text from Jase this morning reminded me that I needed to go finish it and pick up the package that Michelle had left sitting by the dryer for us. We were hoping it was the envelope that Mom and Dad had sent us for Jase's birthday, as it still hasn't arrived. Unfortunately it wasn't, but it was made up for when I pulled out this adorable pillow from mom...

I love it! It's so cute perched on my new couch with the afghan from Ms. Laura.

Also, another new addition to the living room:

Jase's old trunk. I originally wanted to paint it until I got it into the living room and realized that I kinda liked the look that it gave to the room.

So far I am really liking the way the living room is turning out. We've contemplated asking the Michelle if we could paint a wall or three but we decided that for the time being it's more hassle than it's worth, considering the fact that if she did grant permission, we would most likely have to promise to repaint back to the original color when we move out. As it is, with all of our furniture, moving out is going to be enough of a chore without having to repaint walls. Maybe we'll do it later, especially if we renew our lease at the end of a year. We'll see...

I really only have two complaints at the moment:

1. The entertainment center is downright hideous. I'm really wanting to get it painted or something, but we haven't been able to get anything done yet. I really have no idea what to do with it. Painting it will help some, I'm sure, but I'm thinking it's gonna need something more done to it to make it look good next to the couches. Whatever we do, I'm really hoping it happens soon because I'm getting really sick of looking at it...

2. My furniture is too big for me to rearrange easily. Even if I could push it around myself (which I can't) the living room only allows so many ways for it to be rearranged. I've contemplated getting rid of the entertainment center altogether, which would make it easier to rearrange everything, but I like the extra storage space that it gives me. For now I kitty-cornered the shelf that used to be along the wall next to the love seat...

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I started the day off yesterday by making oatmeal maple cinnamon muffins. They turned out a little dry which didn't surprise me considering that I had to tweak the recipe a bit. They need some work but overall they were pretty yummy...

Yesterday we went to Redeemed Books and Music to spend a gift card that Jase had gotten from his mom for his birthday last month. We found these:

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Travels of Marco Polo

The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne

Tom Sawyer by Clemens

I love collecting old books. Even if I never read them they look cool sitting on a shelf...

We also got this one, which I'm not altogether sure about:

I have never read any Edgar Allan Poe. Jase pulled it off the shelf yesterday and started talking about how freaky Poe is and how we would probly never sleep if we read this book. My reply was a sarcastic, "Sounds like fun...".

So we bought it. We'll see how that goes. I'm glad it was cheap cuz it may not stick around for long...

Well, I'm off to do some cleaning. My mom and bro are possibly coming tonight and bringing my two mattresses for the trundle bed in the back room and my washer and dryer. The back room and closet need serious cleaning and rearranging to be ready for them. I can't wait to have my own washer and dryer. If I never have to carry laundry to a laundromat again in my entire life, it will be too soon.

One last adorable pic of my beautiful hubby...

Isn't he so cute?

God bless,

~Antonia

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A beautiful and blinding morning

The world outside begins to breathe

See clouds arriving without warning

I need you here to shelter me

If I could make these moment endless

If I could stop the winds of change

If we could keep our eyes wide open

Then everything would stay the same

So keep me awake for every moment

Give us more time to feel this way

We can't stay like this forever

But I can have you next to me today

We'll let tomorrow wait, you're here, right now, with me

All my fears just fall away, when you are all I see

And I will remember

All the love we shared today

Oh, I will remember...

Wedding Photos...

So it's been way too long since I posted last, but life has finally settled down. Jase and I have been married for 7 weeks today and we've loved every minute of it so far. We're settled into our little apartment in Springfield. We love our little home. It's small and cozy, 2 bedroom and 2 bathrooms. My only complaint at the moment is that I don't have nearly enough counterspace in the kitchen. :D It makes baking and cooking projects a bit tricky but I'm enjoying having my very own kitchen, nonetheless.

We're about 2-3 miles from Jase's work so it's been really nice to not have to get up super early even though he's been moved to an earlier shift. I'm back to working on my papers for school and the dealine is looming over my head again. I can hardly wait to be out from under them.

Here are a few more pictures from the wedding. It went so well and our photographer was wonderful. We're thrilled with how everything turned out.

Engagement Pictures

10:47 pm

Last Wednesday, May 6th, we had an engagement photo shoot at the Gillioz Theatre in downtown Springfield. We're a little late getting them but I'm glad we finally did. Here are some of the pics for those of you who do not have a facebook account.

We are finally pretty much moved into our apartment thought not technically living there yet. I've been with Jase and his family for about 2 weeks now. Long story short, what was originally supposed to be a two day visit turned into a 2 weeks visit due to changes in plans and then bad weather moving in and wiping out mom and dad's power. I'm headed back to Fredrock tomorrow night for two last weeks with my family before heading back here the week of the wedding to finish up with last minute preparations. Mom and Jana came for a short visit yesterday and went back home today since our power was restored yesterday afternoon. I was supposed to have gone back with them but at the last minute I just couldn't leave. I know the longer I put off leaving my apartment the harder it will be but I just couldn't do it today, especially since leaving today meant leaving Jase here. So Jase and I will be heading back that way tomorrow night after he gets off of work. I've been hanging out at the apartment unpacking, cleaning, sorting, organizing and messing around on our highspeed during the day while Jase is working. So far I've gotten to see him on every break for the last two weeks. It's been awesome.

I finally have all but my clothes and few other things in my apartment. When I came two weeks ago I brought all of my shower stuff to move in and then most of my furniture was brought by my cousins who were kind enough to haul it over in their trailer since they were headed this way

from our house and had room to bring stuff. Yesterday mom brought my shelf and the rest of my stuff except for what I need to survive for the next two weeks. I have all my elephants out and my kitchen is set up. Mom and dad have loaned us some furniture for the time being until we find what we need. Oddly enough we've encountered the problem of not quite knowing where to put things because we have a bit too much furniture. :D NOT a bad problem to have but definitely a surprising one. I have tons of pics but I seem to be stuck in transitioning them from my camera card to Jase's old computer. As soon as I get that figured out I will update with those also.

22 days to go...

~Antonia