baby, it's cold outside.

The weathermen forecasted snow, but I didn't really look up how much snow we would get. Thus I was a bit surprised when, letting Moose out in the morning, it didn't look like much of a dusting. And when Matt went out to shovel the driveway, we quickly realized it was unlikely that we'd make it out today. Or, in the event that we could get the car down the hill, that we could ever make it back up.

Oh, my. Another snow day.

We shoveled for a while.

We got a little cold so we took it inside.

We considered our dog's future on the runway.

The snow fell lazily all day long. I started a new book, The Help, you may have heard of it.

It was a lazy day.

ode to babka

{subtitle: thank you, kellers!}

Way back in September 2009, when I was dizzily spinning around our reception, my friends David and Kelly promised to see us in New York come February. They renewed that promise when we met up again in Chicago for Erin's wedding, and lo and behold, last week they stopped by. My house. In Long Island. And they did not come empty handed. No, besides my adorable Le Creuset bowl, they also came bearing Babka.

Hello, Babka.

What is babka?

I did not know.

I learned that it is a spongy cake with origins in Eastern Europe, and is traditionally baked for Easter. There is also a Jewish traditional babka - a doubled and twisted length of yeast dough, baked in a high pan, common in North America in chocolate or cinnamon varieties.

You may remember a certain argument about chocolate vs cinnamon babka.

Seinfeld -) The Babka - The funniest bloopers are right here

Our babka was not a lesser babka. It was brought to us from Zabars. I have yet to visit but now I feel that I must, since Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox meet there in You've Got Mail and the little Babka scene above took place there as well. Plus Kelly devoted a whole post to it and told me my brain would explode if I went, so I'm planning a stop to see what all the fuss is all about. My mom agrees this is a worthy pursuit, so we've put it on the schedule for March.

Anyway, back to our babka.

It was very yummy. We sliced it like bread and warmed it like toast and had it for breakfast one day. (Ok, the whole story is, I stuck it too close to the broiler and it caught on fire, but everybody is just fine.) Another night we had people for dinner and served it warm with ice cream. YUM.

Despite it's Eastern European origins, neither my Polish-heritage husband nor our Albanian dinner guest had ever heard of it, but we all agree it's fun to say and even better to eat.

to moose with love.

chewy chomp.

all gone.

God's Love Language

I've been mulling over this for over a month now, and I'm convinced of its truth. In honor of Valentine's Day, a little post about LOVE:

My younger brother went to Urbana this Christmas and came out of a group discussion with this quote, "Obedience is God's love language." I never thought about how to best love God before. I know I can love others with words, time, acts of service, etc, but how do I love God? The more I thought about the obedience thing, the more it seemed to ring true. James 2:26 - faith without works is dead. When studying Hebrews 11 in our small group, I read the list of heros of the faith with this quote in mind . . . and they were all commended for their obedience, not their understanding of what God was asking them to do.

While he was at Urbana, my brother Ryan met a man who's father started the dental clinic in Kijabe. Ryan deduced that if this man's father hadn't gone to Kenya to start the dental program, Dr. Rich wouldn't have been there as one of the only missionary dentists in Kenya to attract Matt to come for 6 months out of dental school. He would've been off in Honduras or who knows where. And if a host of others hadn't obeyed God's calling to start a school for missionary kids, I wouldn't have been in Kenya to teach. I am so thankful for those who stepped out in faith and loved God enough to obey Him and heed His calling.

Happy Valentine's Day!

tradition

A couple days ago, my mom mentioned that she was making her Valentine's Day cookies this week. I informed her I had just bought heart-shaped cookie cutters that morning, to replace the ones she sent me while I was in Kenya. She used to make the cookies and send me those when I was in college, but now I'm old and married and I've got to make them on my own. The snow day was a perfect opportunity!

Of course Moosey got a cookie:

Bonus of snow day: someone to decorate cookies with. Matt's were more of a "modern" design.

Drawback of snow day: we didn't get to go to Bible study, which is what I intended to make these for. What in the world will we do with them all?

snow day

Last Friday the weathermen predicted a big storm. I was pumped for a snowed-in weekend, and woke up, oh . . . 20 times that night, checking for snow. Finally I saw the gray light that could only mean moon reflecting off snow . . . unless it was, say, DAWN. The sun rising on a bleak winter day. While the rest of the east coast was dumped on, we stayed dry.

They said it would snow today, too . . . and this time they were right!

I tried to get to work, I really did. Matt drove us. But the higher powers of Old Field had neglected to plow our neighborhood, and we couldn't make it out. In fact, we got stuck on our driveway and had to leave the car until Matt dug it out later.

So we had a real official snow day, snowed in.

Frosted windowpanes.

Somebody gets a little wild when there's inches of snow on the ground.

As you can see, Moose spent a good amount of time tearing around the house in circles. He also LOVES eating snow. I actually enticed him back in the house with a handful of the stuff. He was so eager to eat it, he bolted through the door, leaving behind a WORLD of tasty snow for one little blob on the carpet.

Lots to shovel if we're going to make it out tomorrow!

While Matt was busy shoveling, I got to work making a snowman. I started patting a little ball together until Matt showed me how to roll up a big snowball along the ground, gathering snow as you go. Forgive me, I thought that only happened in cartoons.

a year ago

Happy Anniversary to our friends Dexter and Jenna

who were wed a year ago today at a beautiful tea farm in Kenya

and gave us a chance to take this classically posed picture

because only two days before Matt had shown up unannounced

in my living room

and placed a ring on my finger

and changed my life forever.

love.