Herbs and Flour... what?!

So one of the things us military spouses have on our hands is a lot of free time. Of course children help busy us, but there's still a fair share of down time WITHOUT your husband! So hobbies are important to keep you busy! I've decided since cooking is one of my favorite things in the world, I should try baking and further... I should try gardening. What a feat! I decided the most practical thing to grow is herbs, so I enlisted the help of a few other spouses that know a thing or two about gardening and I started my own teeny tiny herb garden (in pots!) I've added a few flowers for color. I plan to add more over time, but geez gardening is not inexpensive to get started!

Currently I'm growing basil, parsley, and rosemary.

Those are thing herbs I use most often. I intend to add mint to the garden and if I'm BOLD I want to try yellow bell peppers and tomatoes. At our lunch today, I learned that tomatoes can actually be grown in pots. WHO KNEW?! I'm seriously considering trying it. I definitely want to add some more flowers for color as well. But, all in time... I can't do everything all at once... another lesson God is teaching me at the moment.


In an effort to learn more about gardening from folks around here, I corralled some of the spouses that like gardening into attending a Girls Gardening Brunch. Everyone brought something to share. It was very intimate. 3 spouses total, including me. We all baked our hearts out. We used fresh ingredients when at all possible.

I made Strawberry Rosemary scones. And GUESS WHAT?! I snipped that rosemary from my OWN rosemary pot! It felt so neat to actually use what I'm growing outside. Really a rewarding and relaxing hobby.

In terms of baking, I'm really pushing myself to have better patience measuring and leveling off ingredients. I love cooking so much because it's very experimental. Baking is sort of like the science experiment that BLOWS UP if you do 1 thing wrong. For example, check out my 4-hr attempt yesterday. I wanted to surprise my extremely overworked and tired husband with TWO different types of cookies. Folks, please understand me... I can barely get a pre-made pack of frozen cookie dough correct, so baking non-traditional cookies from scratch is loco! But I wanted to treat him. We rarely have sweets in the house and I don't buy snacks. (I find that when I have snacks and sweets in the house that's ALL we eat.) So, I found 2 recipes: 1)Giada's Double Chocolate cookies and; 2) Crinkle Cookies (from Allrecipes.com). Ambitious, I know!

Well, guess what! I accidentally tripled the amount of butter for the Double Choc cookies and they melted like fudge all over my cookie sheet. I was near tears. After 4 hrs of SLAVING in the kitchen. All I had was goobly goop.

My husband walked in and asked what the brown stuff on the stove was. SIGH. So, I picked my pouting lip up off the floor and set out to make the Crinkle cookies and they came out PICTURE PERFECT!!! Thank God for patience.

I feel a lot more confident trying baked things that are breakfast items. So, I started making my pancakes from scratch instead of using the JUST ADD WATER box mix. MUCH EASIER!! Success on the 1st try! I am also adding fresh in-season fruits to the pancakes! Today and yesterday we enjoyed fresh baked blueberry pancakes. Tomorrow we are having blackberry pancakes. Mariah LOVES fruit. She just didn't know what to do with herself. Look how happy she is after a healthful homemade breakfast! I hope to learn to make fresh bread from scratch without using a breadmaker. Wouldn't that be neat?!

Both the gardening and the cooking from scratch all have meshed with my new found interest in eating healthier. I want to be more conscious about the foods going into my, my husband, and my children's body. I realize that I'm providing the sustenance that will foster Mariah (and my husbands) eating habits. I want to be sure I'm teaching Mariah to like healthy eating and portion control. As for my husband, well he's not quite 30 yrs old but, I'm determining what will go into his body. I don't want to spend 20 yrs clogging his arteries! Nutrition is becoming increasingly important to me. :0)


After all, our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We should treat them with great care. :0)

Home. Sweet. Home.

It's official. After 9 weeks of waiting, 7 in a hotel and 2 in a dear friend's guest room we have a new home! We are in the process of sending out change of address cards so everyone knows where to find us!

The 4 bedrooms has been a great blessing. Michael finally has his OWN office which allows him dedicated space to study. It's been really useful for him. I hung his commissioning document and USMC posters on the walls. It's super macho in there. I know he loves it. LOL. Mariah's room is a work in progress. I don't have the wall space I used to in either of her other two rooms so I'm trying to figure out what to put where. I am also working on bringing in a muted sage with the pink. I made some really cute letters to put on her wall. Chip board and scrapbook paper! WHO KNEW?!

Baby boy's room is upstairs as well. He is splitting it with the guest bed because realistically the guest bed will be empty 90% of the time. When we do have guests, he can come sleep in our room in the pack and play. I'm still sorting out what I want his room to look like. But, I'm using red, white, and blue with a vintage aviation theme. Here is the bed set I want. It's more expensive than I wanted, but it is truly perfect. Still thinking on it. :0)

Downstairs has been so fun to do. My pillows look amazing. My wall is a bit too BLUE. I wanted it to be more of a grey blue and its more of a baby blue. But I'm getting used to it. I also think once I add wall art, it won't be SO MUCH BLUE! LOL. Right now its one blue blank wall. The colors mesh well.

My dining room is quite serene. I really enjoy the natural colors in there and the chairs from World Market are perfect. I need to finish off the guest room with headboard and new end tables. My next project is to work on our outdoor patio. I've added an outdoor rug that allows Mariah and I to walk out barefoot. I don't like standing on that dirty concrete. EWWW! Anywho. Home. Sweet. Home. Praise God!

I dream in blues....

So transitioning to Kingsville Texas for jet training has been ... lengthy to say the least. To recap, we found out on January 26 (Mariah's 1st BDAY!) that Michael was selected to fly fighter jets for the US Marine Corps. This has been a childhood dream of his that God so graciously blessed him with. Truly a humbling moment when you find out that God has decided to take you down a path that you are CRAZY excited about! Anywho, he had to arrive to complete the check-in process by Feb.12. So we packed and moved into the on-base hotel since we couldn't find a satisfactory housing arrangement fast enough. We were sure we'd find something soon... or so we thought! But as they say good things go to those who wait. We stayed in the hotel for 6 weeks! Fortunately the hotel suite had 2 separate rooms and a full kitchen so we could make it feel very much like home. Michael still got home cooked meals and Mariah had her own room. Our good friends, The Cummins, arrived in Kingsville a few weeks ago as well. They will also be a part of the jet community! They nailed down housing much faster than we were able to and offered us their guest room while we continue to wait. So that's where we are now! It's like being college roommates all over again, just with real jobs, and a kid. LOL. It's quite fun. It looks like we will be in our 4-bdrm townhouse on April 13 just in time for the Blue Angels Airshow on the 14th & 15th.

In the mean time my latest hobby has been redesigning our living room. I found this gorgeous sofa at Pier 1 on sale about 6 weeks ago. We bought it and are in the process of coordinating the room around it. I wanted to be sure that the room coordinates without matching too much. So I tuned into to HGTV, googled design advice and here is what I've come up with. Click these to see the photos:

Sofa

Arm Chair

End Table

Lamp

Pillows: My new roomie has a sewing machine so I thought a great way to save $ would be to sew my throw pillows instead of buying them! Check them out!



Can't wait to see it all together! Until then I'll continue to DREAM OF MY BLUE AND BROWN LIVING ROOM! Toodles....

OH! And for those of you that are wondering... we are having a baby boy, due July 22.

Where in the world are the McGehee's?! I know! It's been awhile.

Well I knew I'd get back to blogging at some point. I just didn't think it'd be almost a year! HA. A lot has changed. We are much further along the military flight training journey. We are currently in advanced jet training. Michael will fly either the Harrier or F-18 Super Hornet. This is truly a dream realized for him. He's dreamt of this job since he was 5-years old. I'm so incredibly happy for him.





Family life keeps us really busy though. Mariah is now 1 years old! Can you believe it?! And thanks to Babywise, it was a restful year. In November though, things began to slow down when I found out we are expecting our 2nd child. This comes as a great blessing! Parenthood has been a huge blessing in our lives. Michael and I both have been forever changed by becoming parents. :0)



Yesterday was Valentine's Day and to celebrate the right way, we took Mariah to dinner at (the only restaurant in this crazy small town) Chili's! LOL. She dressed for the occasion. Daddy was smitten with his little girl!



This is just a quick update, but I'll certainly begin to blog more. We are slated to be in jet training for about 12-14 months. I am 18 weeks pregnant and due July 22. My birthday is July 18, so how neat would that be!

We'll be in touch. :0)