A Breakfast Fave in the Wilson House

One of our favorite weekend breakfasts is Baked Oatmeal, or "brown oatmeal" as Sam likes to call it. As with many of our favorite things, we learned about this from the Zimels, and we still refer to the recipe card that A-R wrote out for us several years ago now. So you can also enjoy this awesome breakfast food, here is the recipe and a few pictures from this morning.

Baked Oatmeal
Preheat oven to 350

3/4 cup oil
3 eggs
1-1/2 cup milk
4-1/2 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt

Stir wet ingredients together; add dry ingredients. Add nuts or berries as desired (and we always add them). Pour into greased glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Here are a few photos from this morning's batch:


Mixing the wet and dry ingredients together.


Layering the bottom of the dish with walnuts and frozen blueberries.


Mixing the oatmeal with the nuts and berries before popping it into the oven.


Mmmmmm....


P.S. apologies for a few out-of-focus photos. These were all taken with my iPhone.

Welcome Isaiah Gordon!

It was an absolute joy to meet the youngest member of our extended family, Mr. Isaiah Gordon Salwasser, this past weekend. The little man was born about two months ago to my sister Julie and her husband Brian. He is absolutely adorable and we are so happy for the Salwassers!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Let me preface this blog post by saying that we have an incredible group of friends up here in Seattle. We have been amazingly blessed with great friends since moving here two years ago. But this morning as I was laying in bed solving the world's problems (as I often do on Saturday mornings), I was struck with the thought about how many great friends we have had that are now scattered throughout the country. This has been due to either them moving away from us, or us moving away from them. We are able to stay connected through sporadic visits (we are coming to the 'burg soon Newtons - promise!) or technology like Skype, but it's just not the same as being able to share a meal or watch a football game with these great friends. So, with absolutely no slight to the friends we have here in Seattle, here are some (but not all) of the really great friends we miss a lot!










And don't forget the one and only Jack.

Another Public Misspelling

Regular readers of this blog, which, I know, hasn't been updated very frequently lately, will understand that I have "a thing" for publicly misspelled words. These can appear in the newspaper, on advertisements, signs, etc...My reaction to these misspelled words runs the gamut from frustration (as in when a newspaper or print publication misses a very obvious error) to the bemused (as in this picture). In the advertisement below, I just chuckled when I saw the incredibly unique treatment the author had given to the words. I saw this when Missi and I went to lunch the other day at this restaurant. In his defense, it was very safe to assume that the person who wrote this was not a native English speaker.

Beauty

I love fall. I mean, I. Love. Fall. As a Northwesterner my entire life, I actually get excited for the signs that autumn is here: Rain. Sweaters. Fires. Boots. Hot coffee. College football. And ohhh, those leaves. I get jazzed just to drive around and attempt to count all the different colors I see as the trees start changing...and dieing.

Last year, the Lord used my love for fall as a way to show me my love for the alluring beauty of my sin. It was breaking experience in my heart as He revealed how much sin dressed up in the appearance of "beauty" still appealed to me. He taught me that it's just a moment of pleasure, but in the end, it quickly leads to death. It was a humbling lesson, but it kind of wrecked my feeling for my favorite season.

This fall though, in God's goodness and kindness, He has redeemed this time of year for me. Allow me to explain...

You see, since moving to Seattle, we have been blessed with an amazing community around us. People with the desire to move towards the Lord and seek Him. People that serve well, love well, support well, and enjoy life well. I've also seen them suffer well as God has allowed me to witness the beauty of earthly death with them.
It's been painful to watch them on this path. To see moms and dads miscarry yet another child. To watch two dear couples say goodbye to parents that went Home after battling brain tumors. And now, walking with our close friends and neighbors as all medical odds are against their little boy surviving this pregnancy, which would be the second miscarriage this year. And yet, as crazy as this sounds, it's been so beautiful! Or more accurately, beautifully challenging. I have witnessed our community visit with a meal, wake up in the middle of the night to be in prayer, babysit on a moment's notice, or just sit and cry and pray and cry some more. I have seen faith being birthed and trust being put in the Father for the first time. And faith grow stronger as the situation has gone from green to yellow to orange to red...to fallen. It's been tough chapter to say the least. But it's also been so full of gorgeous colors of joy, peace, hope, and reasons to rejoice, just like these breathtaking autumn days.
To God's Glory, He has giving me this beautiful fall here in the Northwest as a gift to stand in awe of our Creator. Of His detailed and wonderful design in all things. Psalm 24:1-2 says, "The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters." As I watch how truly fragile life here is, I am seeing Him as Creator and Protector in new ways.

And am so dang excited to get Home to see and meet the saints that have gone before me!