Delicious

Current favorite meal: bratwursts and this relish.

Homemade Relish

2 dill pickles, chopped
4 teaspoons pickle brine (fancy word for juice)
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
salt & sugar to taste

Mabel Steals My Pillow (AKA The Battle of the Couch Continues)

I thought this cute pillow would look good on my little brown retro couch that hurts my bottom so I'm trying to distract myself with cute little decorative pillows. How's that for a run-on sentence. And not using the appropriate question mark punctuation.

I'm feeling rebellious today. Here's why.

Mabel and I have been feuding over her inappropriate pillow usage for many, many years now. Like this. Or this. So finally I called her bluff. I bought a couch on Craigslist. It's very Mad Men. It has no detachable back cushions for her to crush. It's also tiny. And hard. It hurts my tailbone.

But I had limited choices. Like being broke and only being able to afford a $60 couch. Also, and I haven't mentioned it until now, George and Mabel had a "pee-off" contest on the old fluffy couch years ago. Whenever a visitor sat on the old couch, their body heat slowly released the acrid aroma of prehistoric dog urine from within the cushions and into the air. No amount of cleaning ever helped. And we probably lost friends over it.

"Did you smell that?"

"Yeah, when I sat on the couch. Was that..."

"Piss? Yes. It was. They're gross."

"Let's never talk to Matt or Liz again."

"Deal."

So... after all that whining and explaining... you can see why I'm stuck with a really good looking yet incredibly uncomfortable retro couch. And why I keep deluding myself into thinking that cute pillows will help the situation.

But they don't help. Mabel continues her crush-a-thon on all things pillow related. The couch remains uncomfortable and makes me rub my aching tailbone in what could be perceived as a very inappropriate gesture while I gripe, "I'm pregnant. I should have something soft to sit on. Maybe I'll just buy one of those hemorrhoid donut things." *SNIFF SNIFF*

Mabel, on the other hand, gives the new pillow 4 stars for fluffiness.

Bring It On Time Change

"Falling Back" is not my favorite phrase.

But with the shorter, darker days comes a lot of happy home time. There's nothing like chilly temps and long shadows to make us retreat into our houses, do some laundry and watch old movies. Mabel likes it too, mostly because she burrows into the laundry piles when I'm not looking. And no, I don't rewash them afterward.

Time change always lights a fire under me to organize closets and get rid of excess 'stuff.' I've been tackling the kitchen storage especially. You can't really tell, but I've emptied out the whole top shelf in the laundry closet. We're calling it Operation Make Room For Baby.

So despite the lack of sunlight, I look forward to getting rid of books I won't read, dust bunnies I don't like, and walking back and forth in front of the guest room, imagining it as a nursery. This year I say, "Bring it on time change."

Boy or Girl?

The baby kicked me last week.

Hard.

Matt felt it with his hand.

It was very cool.

Also, I'm wearing this green scarf all the time.

It fits my mood.

Happy.

We're off to find out the big question today.

Boy or girl?

A Chalkboard Announcement

And her name is Jane.

November, Really?

It's November. I almost want to pinch myself. When did this happen? I'm cracking out the pine cone dishes. And the Bing Crosby music. And the cookies.

I gave Mabel a small piece of cookie while Matt watched. No chocolate. She was perhaps the most thankful dog in the whole wide world, even though I ended up yelling at her to be still so I could take the picture. She totally doesn't get the importance of blog pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

My mom painted this. There are two tiny figures standing out on the pier. That's me and my dad when I was a little girl. For some reason it's always reminded me of Thanksgiving.

I've been thinking a lot about thankfulness lately. We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Our jobs were kept safe. Baby Jane is healthy. The book sold.

It made me think about the whole concept of thankfulness. I used to believe that being thankful was something that happened as a result of good things. Raise = thankful. Birth = thankful. Money = thankful. Vacation = thankful.

But then I thought back. Back to the last couple of years. I thought about 2008. I spent that year watching Angela get sicker. She died that December. I thought about 2009. I went to a grief counselor. I woke up in the middle of the night, dreaming about Ang. Some dreams were good. Some were not. They were flashbacks to hospice and beeping hospital monitors. Those dreams woke me up in the middle of the night, sweating, unable to go back to sleep.

It was hard, sometimes impossible, to be thankful during those years.

There is a lovely couple at our church, Pat & Lynn Wright. While talking to me about her husband's cancer treatment, she reached out to touch my arm.

"Liz, God is good all the time."

A huge lump formed in my throat when she said it and I swollowed furiously, trying not to cry in public. There they were, facing cancer. And yet, she smiled. She encouraged me. They had peace. Because God is good. I was humbled.

I used to believe that happy, optimistic people were just in denial. That they weren't as realistic as the rest of us. But not anymore. Optimists just make better choices. They choose to believe God is good. They choose to believe their lives are good. And maybe "optimist" is the wrong label. Maybe the right label should simply be "thankful."

I realized then, and have more and more as time goes on, that God really is good, regardless of whether we are being showered with physical fortune or not. He was good in 1984 when mom painted this painting. He was good in 2008 when I was crying. He was good in 2009 when I was recovering. He is good now. Thankfulness doesn't have to be accompanied by blessings or gifts. Thankfulness is a state of mind. It is a choice. A place where you can stand and smile and say "God is good all the time" regardless of your circumstances. The Wrights taught me that. Writing the book taught me that. Angela taught me that. God taught me that.

So Happy Thanksgiving.

May you be blessed in your soul no matter what is happening this year.

Because God truly is good all the time.