Valentine's Day - just a peek!

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! I hope yours was full of beautiful blessings and reminders of how much you are loved.

heart shaped pizza - yes!

I made a couple of things for my dear husband to celebrate our love:

Ten romantic date night coupons – I cut 3”x3” squares of paperboard (thinner than cardboard, heavier than cardstock or cereal boxes) and covered them on both sides with one of four kinds of scrapbook paper. There had to be music notes, of course, since we’re both musicians. I then cut hearts out of a sheet of handmade art paper given to me by a friend, and glued those onto five of the squares. In my scrapbooking and card-making stash, I have quite a few scrap papers, and the copper metallic paper was just begging to be added in the form of hearts.

I added handwritten verses from Song of Songs to finish off the romantic front of the cards.

Something else was needed, though, so I got out my kraft paper and made envelopes for them, numbering them 1-10 with stickers.

 

Inspiration struck again, and I penned lines from our first dance song onto the front of the envelopes.

 

Finally, I tied them all up with ribbon.

 

He was thrilled, by the way!

Our weekend was filled with togetherness…

 

…snuggling…

 

…more snuggling…

 

…and pizza, of course!

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...and pizza, too

My previously loved pizza crust recipe, which requires the use of the bread machine for rising and mixing and such (not a bad thing, just a time consuming operation), may be replaced by good old Betty Crocker's.

Hers involves the dissolving of one packet of yeast in a cup of warm water, to which is added 2.5 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and sugar, and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Mix for only 20 strokes or so. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then spread the very sticky dough out on two generously olive-oiled baking sheets with olive-oiled hands. Add toppings.

Put it in a 400 degrees F oven for about 20 minutes, and it's golden. And crispy...and delicious... and...

gone.

finding balance

I had a couple of friends over for homemade pizza tonight - they each brought an ingredient, and I made the pizza dough. It turned out pretty well! I think I'll try preheating the pizza stone next time to try to get the crust crispier...

Finding the balance in my life right now is really tough. I start the day with my shower, breakfast, and devotions, like always, but then things just seem to go awry. I get wrapped up in stress as soon as I'm at school - I remember how much I hate research, I feel burdened with reading, I feel tired by noon and just want to go home. It's hard to remember what motivates me, why I'm actually there, and that this is temporary. I thought grad work would be an opportunity to study the things I enjoy, to spend time growing in what I enjoy: teaching. I was a bit confused, evidently.

Now I'm home, trying to get together enough gumption to go through the 70 pages of reading that were assigned for my 2-credit class that meets tomorrow evening. Oh, help me, Lord. I can't do this on my own.