verenika making

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving, the Frantz ladies get together to make verenika in preparation for the annual verenika, german sausage, and zwieback Christmas feast. This was the first year I have gone to help.

Although I am not ethnically Mennonite, I was raised in a Mennonite church, thus I have always been familiar with verenika. It was a special treat enjoyed every few years or so. Since being married to Peter, who is Mennonite, I get to have this dish every year at Christmas time. Its basically another version of a raviloi or perogi. But better, of course.

I mean, who can go wrong with cheese filled dough, pan fried, then served with sausage gravy??

And what is even better, is that this dish is made every year from multiple generations of family. This day was spent creating the verenika, boiling and freezing it - all in preparation to share with the whole family in a few weeks!

Baby B Shower

Last week, we celebrated the upcoming arrival of Jill's wee babe. Sadly, I did not get any pictures of the shower in action, but Jill was definitely showered with love and fun gifts for Baby Brooks.

We were totally super inventive with our decor and didnt pull any ideas from Pinterest. Nope, not at all.

Side note...do you guys remember when baby's breath was, like, so not cool? Like, there better not be one sprig of baby's breath in my prom bouquet. Or don't even think about adding baby's breath to anything at my wedding. Suddenly its all the rage. And I do admit, when clumped together in mason jars, it looks super cute.

Side note #2...this baby's breath came from Ecuador. What?? I wasn't aware baby's breath was indigenous to South America.

Over the years, we have planned birthdays, beach weekends, bridal showers, and now, baby showers. I can't imagine life without these girls.

So excited for Baby Brooks' arrival! Only a month before our baby and I pray they will be lifelong friends too.

26 weeks

Last week, as my 26th birthday arrived, I hit my 26th week of pregnancy.
I thought this was a fun milestone, unlikely to be repeated with any other pregnancies.

project: closet clean out

Before anything can really happen in the baby room, we have to have new carpet installed. Call me crazy, but I am not in love with our old mauve carpet. Besides the color, its old and pretty worn in places.
But before that can happen...I had to clean out a couple closets. Yay. Great. My favorite thing to do.

Here are a couple things that I found in this closet:
- A photo album from my 8th grade band trip to Disneyland
- Mix cds from my summers working as a lifeguard
- Approximately 984 printed pictures of Mexico missions trips
- Every planner I have ever had. In my entire life.
- Tickets stubs for every sporting event Peter has attended since 1995 (I made the initial mistake of putting these in the trash pile. Yeah, apparently these are NOT trash)
- Scraps of paper from wedding shower invitations I made 4 years ago
- A gorgeous gold lamp

Um...Hoarder, anyone?

You see, all of this stuff was perfectly stored at my parents house, in my old bedroom. Then one day, my mom decided she wanted the space back and just dropped off a bunch of boxes. Thanks Mom....How dare you want to clear out your own house of my old crap.

I also realized that I have an obsession with collecting empty bags and boxes. I mean, you never know when you might need 7 empty shoeboxes. Or 4 large Macy's bags.

Good news...only 2 closets left to clean out
Bad news...I still have 2 closet left.

Week 25

I am a week behind, but wanted to post the picture nonetheless.

The end of my second trimester is going great. Lots of baby kicks and rolls, which I love. And the start of pregnancy insomnia, which I dont love.

church garage sale

Every year, the Women's Ministries group at my church organizes a large garage (well, actually its held in a gym) sale. And every year, I go home with a few treasures.

This year was no exception.

For $15 I scored an old-fashioned (it looks handmade, but I cant be sure) children's push cart toy, a great Pendleton wool blanket, and two large glass jars.


The push cart will be filled will stuffed animals and blankets and reside in the nursery-until it can be put to good use by a little one wheeling toys around the house or outside picking up sticks. Not sure if I want to keep the natural wood or paint it a fun color.

The blanket will be great for picnics and playing outside.

The jars just look cute on my bookshelf. Reason enough to spend $1 on them, in my opinion.

Its always fun to see what I might find at the garage sale. And the best part is all money raised goes to supporting our missions fund.

Week 24