Saturday Seeds - Plus a Pregnancy Update

Happy Saturday everyone!  A while ago, I was updating you weekly with my personal life stories and links to my favorite finds, and titled it "Penny's Weekend Garnish".  Many of you have requested that I return this periodical update, which flatters me that you really like me! 😉  So, I've decided to return with this feature and call it "Saturday Seeds".  It might happen weekly, it might not.  But, at least you know that once in a while you will find out more about my personal day to day life happenings.  Plus, it's a good way to share some of my favorite things and keep you informed of my pregnancy journey...if you care. 🙂

This Week on Pennies on a Platter:
This section highlights the recipes posted this week on Pennies on a Platter and other updates to the blog, if any.

Taste of Michigan Recap - Here I review the first annual Taste of MI event that happened with 20 fabulous food bloggers. Don't miss this affair next year!

Perfectly Yellow Easy-Peel Hard Boil Eggs - Having trouble with the results of your hard boiled eggs?  Try the few tips I share that works perfectly for me every time.

Baking With Mommy: Super Cookies - A fun little story of my cooking adventures with my tiny kitchen helper, along with a super yummy cookie recipe HE developed!

Loving Lately:
Here I will share with you my favorite things of late, along with other snippets that have caught my eye from some of my favorite blogs and websites.

Mini Donuts: 100 Bite-Sized Donut Recipes to Sweeten Your "Hole" Day - My girl, Jessica, recently released her very first cookbook and I'm seriously in love with it!  Right now, I've been drooling over the photos as I'm waiting on my donut maker.  But, I can't wait to try the first recipe!  Which one should I choose first?!?

Essie's "Hot Coco" Nail Polish - I recently just started regularly painting my finger nails.  In the past, I always avoided it because I didn't feel coordinated enough to use my left hand to paint my right nails.  🙂  But, turns out I was just using the wrong type of nail product!  O.P.I. and Essie have made it much easier for me.  Especially loving this "hot coco" color for this cool weather season!  And, remember Jessica from the cookbook above?  Well, she just posted a how-to on DIY gel nails.  I might have to tackle this next!

Pinterest Introduces Secret Boards - This is a feature I've been craving since the Pinterest was in its beta stage.  If you're on Pinterest, I can almost guarantee you've been wanting it, too! 🙂 Now, we can secretly plan those parties, gift ideas, etc. without worrying about our friends seeing the pins and spoiling the surprises.  Woot!

Favorite iPhone App: Letter School - Last week I downloaded this learning app for Judah.  He is somewhat addicted to it, but I'm kind of excited about that because it will be a great distraction during our road trip next week to Chicago and Michigan.  This app teaches toddlers how to tap, trace and write letters with their fingers.  Judah already can identify all of his letters, but it's amazing how quickly he caught on to writing them now thanks to this app!

Favorite Scripture Passage This Week - This never gets too old for me, and yet I haven't quite nailed it down in my day to day life: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." -1Cor.13

My Life as a Professor’s Wife, Mom, Christian and Food Blogger
What more insight into my life as a Professor's wife, mom, Christian, friend, relative and food blogger? Then, read on! If not, ignore this section. 🙂 This is a place for me to write what's on my mind and journal some of the crowning moments of my week.

My first pregnancy update!  I'm a little over 15 weeks, which means the baby is the size of an avocado, but I won't be making guacamole anytime soon!  (The avocados in my local grocery are...yuck!)  Just like my pregnancy with Judah, I'm craving french fries (especially McDonald's and Wendy's fries) and chocolate milk.  Good thing I have a healthier homemade version of chocolate syrup to use than the store-bought stuff that includes who knows what!  😉

Judah is handling it very well so far.  I'm not sure he completely understands, but he has been very sweet, often pointing to my belly around other people and saying "Mommy has baby in belly!"  One evening he even came up to me and kissed my belly, saying "night night, baby!"  My heart melted.

For Halloween (yes, a little late on this) Judah was a fire fighter.  We took him trick-or-treating with our friends in their neighborhood.  I couldn't believe the stamina this kid had walking from house to house. He was on a mission! 🙂  Although we've taken him two other times, this really was the first year he understood what was going on and wanted to lead the pack.  It was pretty funny!  The first few days after Halloween, he requested candy for breakfast, but we finally got him down to asking for just one piece after dinner.  He only has like 3 more pieces to go, and we're done! ha!

We recently celebrated Ben's 34th birthday.  I bought him these headphones he wanted, and then we finally went out for his birthday dinner to PF Chang's last night.  Unfortunately, the original evening we had planned I became quite sick for 5 days!  Glad he was patient with me and was able to wait! 🙂

That's it for this week.  There are other exciting happenings in the works for Pennies on a Platter and my family life in general.  But, more on that later!  Have a great weekend!

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