3 Wheels

Our little man has been impatiently waiting for the nicer weather so that he could get out and use his bikes. He has mastered the art of pedaling and has taken his trike out for a 1/3 mile ride already!

We promised him that once he learned to pedal he would be allowed to ride the bigger bike he got from his Me-Mom and Pop-Pop. He has anxiously awaited Alexa being big enough to ride in the back. Since he mastered pedaling we let him take Alexa for a spin. They were both delighted! I hear that he gave his cousin Nonah a ride this afternoon too, although I don't have the pictures to prove it! Way to work those three wheels buddy!

Look who's walking' now...Finally!!!

It only took 15 1/2 months but she is finally walking!!!

In the middle of my workout this afternoon it occurred to me that Alexa was toddling all around me not holding on to anything! I quick grabbed the video camera and captured those first few steps she's been practicing for months!

These pictures were from the other day when I was hoping the nice day would entice her to start walking around. A girl's gotta have her shades!

Baking is bliss

At least in this house it is. If I'm feeling stressed, overwhelmed, happy, excited, etc, I bake. There is something deeply satisfying about it to me. Our little man is my partner in crime. He's quick to grab a beater when it needs licking or a bowl needs scraping!
We're showing off our aprons in the picture above. My mom made me an apron for Christmas (at my request). I actually got it the beginning of December so that I could use it through the whole Christmas season. Chase watched me put it on frequently and sadly remarked at lunch one day that he didn't have an apron like me. I told him to ask Nee Nee and he did at the first chance he got. Mom found "Cars" themed material perfectly suited to a boy and got to work. Now we bake in our aprons, side by side.

A tip for baking. Did you know that you can cut the sugar in your baking recipes by 1/4 to 1/2 without it affecting the taste? I've cut the sugar in a bunch of my cookie recipes by half and we still love the way they taste! Since I'm a diabetic the less sugar/carbs in the recipe the better for me and everyone benefits from less sugar intake.

He's a master at cleaning up. Just don't ask him to stop playing in the bubbles or a major temper tantrum will ensue! :-)

Another baking tip before I go...Since we have a serious egg allergy in our family I am always looking for new substitutes for eggs. The latest one I tried was ground flax seed. I used it for the doughnuts we made a few weeks ago and in the chocolate chip cookies you see above. You can substitute 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed mixed with a quarter cup of water for one egg in a recipe. I like to bring the water to a simmer and then stir in the flax seed. I keep stirring until the mixture becomes almost like the consistency of egg whites. You can use this substitute for up to three eggs in a recipe. After that the eggs perform a necessary function. You lose the cholesterol from the eggs and up the protein and fiber in your cookies by substituting so it's usually a win-win situation! Flax seed is a strong binder however, so whatever shape your cookies are in when you drop them onto the tray they will retain that shape when baked. I recommend with cookies that you press them flat with a glass so they are more round and not too dense.

Out with the Old

(Ugh, I haven't liked them (glasses) since the day I got them!)

And in with the new!

What do you think? I love them! Finally have a pair of glasses that I feel "fit" me!

For the child in all of us

I am almost embarassed to blog about this but...Chase and I have been having so much fun with this I had to share. :-)

When my brothers and I were kids we didn't like the store bought car mats because they never had enough houses for all our cars and not enough of the stuff (stores, fire houses, etc) that we wanted. The solution was simple enough. We would draw our own elaborate mats and put them all together and voila! Magic! Well, not quite but you get the point.

A few months ago I drew my first "mat" for Chase and he is hooked. Every time the old one begins to curl up or get destroyed he will eventually come around asking for a new one. While I'm by no means a great artist; I enjoy getting out the markers and trying to come up with some new set up for him to play with. Better still is the hours of imaginative play he gets out of it!

Attitudes

I'm just going to give a peek into my journal today because there's been a lot going on in my head (and heart!) lately.

So, I am sitting in front of my new/used desk. Howard's just used leather conditioner on the top. It feels like new life has been breathed into it and it smells like it too! I've just spent the afternoon cleaning and doing some soul searching while Overcome by David Nevue was playing in the background.

The last few days have been pretty terrible. Not outwardly mind you, but in my outlook, my attitudes, my heart. I'd love to say it might be PMS or some other malady but that would just be me trying to justify my behavior. I've come to realize I can't do that anymore. I've been miserable towards my spouse and there's no excuse for it.

I've been doing a lot of reading about past revivalists and evangelists lately, as well as, of all things, The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers by Amy Hollingsworth (it's worth reading if you ever watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood by the way). Deep down there's been a discontent in me that I haven't been able to grasp. The books have been inspiring and uplifting and yet I kept walking away feeling like I was missing something I needed to understand in what I was reading.

Well, in the last few days I've been short with Howard even when I didn't mean to be. I've been easily irritated by things (life!) that dared to alter my plans. I've not been kind or loving or compassionate. I even recognized it in myself yesterday and still I couldn't seem to help myself. I'd be thinking that the next time Howard speaks to me I will be careful to speak lovingly. Then, he would enter the room and I would issue out some sentence or two heavily laced with attitude; for no reason!

This morning I had an eye doctors appointment. I got there a little early and decided to sit in the car, with our local Christian radio station playing, and pray for a little while about the state of my heart. Sanctus Real's song "Whatever You're Doing" started playing and it spoke straight to where I was.

I'd felt for quite a while like the Lord was trying to do something in me but I was struggling with this mess of my own making so how was I supposed to address something else wrong with me? Here's an abbreviation of the song (listen to the real thing when you get a chance!)

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something heavenly.

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly

Thank God for the chaos because I finally got it! He's been wanting to change my attitudes and all the chaos I was feeling was to get my attention and turn it towards the problem! He wants to give me so much more than chaos, as the parts of me I don't like anyway, the irritability, the cynycism, etc, create. If I'll let Him do this work of humbling and redirecting (challenging though it is!) I have the promise of a peace better than I know now.

Funny as it seems, in hindsight so much of what I read about "Mr. Rogers" has been churning this all to the surface.

In her biography of him, Amy Collingsworth included a quote by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov "Know this: You should judge every person by his merits. Even someone who seems completely wicked, you must search and find that little speck of good, for in that place, he is not wicked. By this you will raise him up, and help him return to God. And you must also do this for yourself, finding your own good points, one after the other, and raising yourself up. This is how melodies are made, note after note."

And yes, that points to another attitude I need changed. I simply see the annoying or bad things in another quicker than I see something good so I don't bother looking any harder. I think that it then becomes very easy to miss out on blessings the Lord may have in store for me, some easier to see right away than others.

Oh, by the way, I did repent in the parking lot of my eye doctor (who knew it would be holy ground today!). I asked for forgiveness and expressed a willingness to be changed. I know it's not going to be easy and possibly quite painful but maybe like this desk I'm writing on there will be a new "shine" to me and the sweet scent, not of leather, but of the inner beauty He is bringing out in me.

What happens at Grandma's...

doesn't always stay at Grandma's...
Howard and I got a much needed afternoon out when my mom recently offered to babysit the kids. We (Howard and I) had a great time but returned to a very nervous grandma. Apparently she and Chase were running around their living room/dining room and Chase tripped and nailed his head on a dining room chair. We have so many close calls with this little guy that we are so grateful he makes it safely through as many as he does. We reassured my mom that we weren't upset and took the kiddos home. The egg is now a nasty green color but at least the swelling has gone down!

On a brighter note, my friend Lauren and I got together for Fastnacht day to make doughnuts. This is the childhood recipe I grew up with. They have mashed potato in them and when done properly taste delicious. The only sad part is that the oil wasn't hot enough when we fried them so they absorbed too much and lost some of their wonderful flavor in the process. It was still a good time. Lauren and I tried filling doughnuts for the first time. The fillings we made were excellent!

(Sorry I can't figure out why this picture keeps uploading sideways!)

We made Boston cremes, peanut butter cream filled, white cream filled, chocolate dipped and glazed flavors.