What Our House Looks Like...

This is what the house looks like after 5 days of Christmas parties, never being home because your visiting family and dealing with a teething toddler and sick Daddy.

It has required 1 hour of washing dishes, 3 loads of laundry (so far), trying to find places to put all of our new stuff while also going through all of our old stuff and getting rid of boxes and bags full, coffee and really loud music and we are starting to look clean again. :-)

My Little "Big" Helper :-)

 Seth loves to help, it doesn't matter what I'm doing, he "needs" to help. :-) Which is good, because in a couple months I'll need his help.
Seth is a very good carrot destroyer as well as being an expert whisk licker.

 Seth likes to be silly in his free time.

 He wasn't quite sure what to think about the deer that Daddy got at first, but pretty soon he wanted to go shoot his own.

 Seth has watched Daddy shoot guns so he knows all about ear protection. :-)

 Seth loves pictures at any time, and it is a very good way to distract him if he is getting into to much trouble trying to help.

 "Momma, look at my tower." Seth has already become quite the architect. He loves to build towers for Momma and Daddy to knock down.

Showing Momma his helping chart. He has several different ways that he can earn stickers for his chart throughout the day, some include: helping put away laundry, most of it is unfolded by the time he is done but we are working on that, helping wash dishes, I've learned the least messy way is to strip Seth down to his diaper otherwise we need a whole new outfit, and brushing his teeth, 2 stickers are available for this, he now wants to brush his teeth all day...good oral health habits, right?

Being an Example

 Reading John 5:19-30 today for Bible study has made me think about the example that I am being for Seth and others.

 "So Jesus said to them,'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing...'" John 5:19-20a

 Jesus did not do anything except what he seen the Father doing, he followed his daddy's example. What did Jesus see the Father doing? Jesus seen his Father show unconditional and sacrificial love, he seen his Daddy breathe life into those that were dead and give them new life. His Father did not judge even though he knew the hearts of men, his Father was waiting patiently for people to turn and believe and when they did He was there with open arms, whispering love and forgiveness to them.

 I need to be this type of example for my children. I need to be one that loves unconditionally, even to those that make it hard, one that will pour myself out for others without holding anything back. I need to withhold judgement, because I do not know the thoughts and hearts of others. I need to offer forgiveness and then forget about the offense. I need to make everything that I do honor God, make everything an offering of worship to the one who gave everything for me, I need to take every thought captive. I need to encourage others to build them up, not yell to break them down. I need to be patient with others. I need to be like Jesus, I need to be like the perfect Father. To do this I need help from the very one I am trying to emulate.

 The past few weeks I've been trying to organize other areas of our day once we got our schedule all figured out. The "schedule" is working pretty well, we only really stick to it on lesson days though, the other days are much more relaxed and more go with the flow type of days. I do like to use it occasionally on other days and sometimes we just look at it to see what we can do with our time. The other areas that I have looked at to start organizing are in the cleaning department and meal prep/how much we are spending at the grocery store.
 I did print off a weekly cleaning schedule from http://listplanit.com/, but it was to in depth for what my little house needs at the moment. I do use the schedule for ideas but most of the things on it we just do every other week instead of weekly.
 For meals I've made a 2 week menu, pre-approved by Ben with the hopes that he won't spring any ideas on me in the middle of the week on what he is expecting for dinner...like he did tonight. Good thing his mom always has the things that we don't have for what he wants. :-)
 I've planned breakfasts, except for weekends and two full weeks of dinners. This is what it looks like:

Breakfasts -we'll just repeat this for the second week:
Monday: oatmeal- baked or regular
Tuesday: some type of eggs
Wednesday: pancakes
Thursday: coffee cake, or muffins- these will most likely be baked on Wednesday night as we have to be out of the house by 7:45
Friday: cereal

Dinners:
M: Crockpot Beef  Bourguignon- I will use venison in this instead of beef
T: Garlic Lime Chicken with Cilantro Lime Rice (I like lime :-) )
W: Venison Stir Fry
T: Hoppin' John with Salad
F: Pizza
S: Chili
S: Steak, Baked Potatoes
M: Chicken Rice Soup
T: Burritos
W: Cashew Chicken with Rice
T: Spaghetti
F: Pizza
S: Nacho's
S: Chicken Legs, Potatoes and Pea's

Monday's and Thursday's I've tried to make easy dinners, because Ben has basketball practice and dinner needs to be ready when he gets home. Wednesday's I have a little more time to mess around with food since Ben works late. I've included one new recipe to try each week.
 My hope is that we only need to possibly go the store one extra time in these two weeks since we never seem to get out of Plumbs without spending at least $20. I do have a couple things that I wasn't able to get on my shopping trip that I will be getting this week, Ben's Grandma is bringing us "good" cheese from the Amish cheese house over where she lives and we need to go get some apples for snacks. Nelson's fresh apples are way better than anything Meijer or Plumbs ever has.
 Wish me luck!!

Scheduling or planning for a "Steady Day"

 We have tried 2 types of schedules the past couple of weeks. The first used specific times and lasted only 1 day, if that, because I was getting to frustrated when things weren't done by the specified time or they were done way to early. The second uses blocks of time from 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, and depending on the day we move blocks around. For example today we had to go to "the meat store" and if you don't get there before 11 in the morning you could be there all day, so we only used two blocks, ran our errands and then finished the others this afternoon after nap.
 So here is what we have so far. :-)

7 AM ~wake up and breakfast, depending on what we are eating that day for breakfast this can last 20 minutes or 1 hour.

30-45 minutes ~ Momma: Bible Study and coffee, possible Internet time, Seth: video.

1 hour ~Momma: clean house and start laundry, Seth: help Momma, free play.

1 1/2 hours ~Momma: walk/run/exercise DVD and shower, Seth: Grandma's/Nana's or "exercise" and shower with Momma.

20 minutes ~Momma: stuctured play with Seth (color, flashcards, read library books, play dough, etc.).

20-45 minutes ~ Play outside if the weather is good or baking time.

45 minutes -1hour ~ Momma: lunch, clean up house and dishes, nap time routine with Seth. Seth: help Momma

 I try to have Seth down for a nap right around 1, that way if he decides to sleep longer than normal he has a good two hours before lessons start at 3:30

Striving for Steady Days

A few weeks ago I got this book in the mail. This isn't the first time that I have read it, but this time I wanted my very own copy.

I found out about this book through one of my favorite blogs. www.keeperofthehome.org at a time when I needed to read some books on time management/organization/mothering. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the author Jamie C. Martin.

"I am not a perfect mother. Often I struggle with impatience; sometimes I lack the enthusiasm I long for. I make many mistakes, just like my children. As they are maturing as children, I am maturing as a mother. In any career, experience allows us to grow, improve, and learn. But unlike many professions, many of us mothers have never had any training to prepare us for this new job filled with diapers, tantrums and sleepless nights. We need to equip ourselves with practical tools that allow us to give our best to our young children, helping us thrive is our strengths and overcome our weaknesses. We aim for professionalism in every other area of our lives; why should our children get anything less?"

Speaking of being a contagious mother: "I'm convinced that children also want to be around this positive type of influence. If we don't love what we do as mothers, our children notice quickly, Our attitudes, positive or negative, influence them in a matter of minutes. How can we convey our love for them? By choosing to enjoy the daily tasks we perform, embracing the moments that will never be back again. We can stop what we're doing when the need attention, letting them know how important they are..."

There are four parts to this book broken up into mostly single page chapters. Part one focuses on getting organized and that is the part that I have been focusing on these past few weeks. One of the first things that I wanted to do was to work out a schedule. My goal with this was to: "create a morning routine that will allow me to run or exercise and have the house clean, while also having playtime with Seth before lunch and piano lessons" 

 In the book Jamie gives two different ways of making a schedule: using specific times or using blocks of time. Our first schedule that we tried used specific times, we didn't make it through one day with that one. It felt to confined and I was getting upset when things werent' getting done in their allotted times

 Our second schedule has worked rather well. I used blocks of time ranging from 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. This is what we have settled on so far. I'll give you our complete schedule next time.

Wasting talents at home???

 Today I was saddened when I heard a woman talk about how she was wasting her talents by staying home and taking care of her family. After saying this she shrugged her shoulders and said "Oh well, I guess it has eternal value right?" Her comments shocked me a little but what shocked me even more was that none of the other women in our group looked worried, some seemed to agree with her and none of the older women tried to encourage her or spur her on in her calling as a mother and homemaker.

 As woman we are made to be the keepers of our homes. Mothering and home-making becomes our JOB. We are training the next generation to live for God and to influence others around them. Training can be hard work, but it should be a JOY. We live in a free country and can school our children any way we choose, we have the freedom to teach our children about our Savior and we can still discipline and correct our children any way we choose.
 Older women are supposed to be training us, encouraging us and prodding us on to do the work that God has called us to do and lately I find myself wondering where these women are? Titus 2:3-5 is very clear on this subject.

 "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God" Titus 2:3-5

 This year I'm teaching 3 year olds in a local CBS and I'm really excited, however once again I'm wondering where the older women are. Many of the ladies who teach the children have their own school aged children who they are trying to home-school and run their households and balance all the other responsibilities of mothering on top of preparing lessons and activities and committing their time, 6 hours a week on study days. I'm glad that each of these women are willing and able to teach, but where are the older women. Those who are grandma's, retired or even employed part time that could be giving their time to help and relieving the younger ones. For a lot of young mothers this Bible study is our chance to actually spend some time learning more about God and having fellowship with other like-minded women.

 Balancing time for me hasn't been to hard but I only have one toddler and a part time job as a piano teacher. I don't know how I would do with 2 kids or more and trying to school some. Some may say it's just an organizational/time management problem and anyone should be able to do it, however I feel differently.

 Reading over this some of it may sound like I'm not glad I'm teaching, on the contrary I am because I know that I'm enabling some other mother to get into the Word and study. I love teaching the 2-3 year olds, that is pretty much the best age ever. However, I would like to see more older women get involved with those of us who are younger.

Seth-boy turns 2!!

Monday was Seth's 2nd birthday!!! Last year I was so on top of things, invitations were sent out weeks ahead of time and all was well. This year I thought "Oh, Seth's birthday is in a few weeks," days pass, "Oh, Seth's birthday is next week," days pass, "OH MY GOODNESS!!! Seth's birthday is TOMORROW!!!!!!!"

 So... this is what we did for Seth's birthday. Ate, ate and ate some more is what the pictures tell you. But I promise we did more then that...we took a nap too. :-) We made Seth's favorite breakfast, blueberry pancakes with blueberry sauce that got everywhere. Even his armpits, how he got it up past his sleeve I have no idea.

This is how Seth smile now when asked. Silly boy. He got his favorite meal. "Nuggets and Ries." Healthy I know. But that is what the birthday boy asked for.

We ate his other favorite meal for dinner. Pizza.

This is about as excited as he got about opening his present. We got him a VegiTales movie that Ben and I ended up watching while Seth played with blocks. :-)
 Seth is going to think that birthdays last a whole week now because on Monday he went to Nana's and got a present, Tuesday he went to Grandma's and got presents from all the uncles and on Saturday we will be having family over for cake and ice cream where there will be more presents.

I guess I better start thinking about a cake now.

Muddy Memories

Last Saturday Ben and I completed our second Warrior Dash. The. BEST. Race. EVER! I was happy with myself, I took the camera and actually used it. :-)

This was the only picture I could get of the course and you really can't tell much from it. We ran about 1.5 miles before the obstacles started. There were 10 or 11 obstacles if I'm remembering correctly. Some water obstacles which were really, really hard and gave me really pretty bruises up and down both shins,  lots of climbing obstacles, some with barbed wire and mud pit, fire lines to jump over and a "spider web."

You can't really see how dirty we are here, but there is mud/dirt everywhere. Ben had a white shirt on and when I was looking for him at the finish line (yes, he finished before me) I couldn't find him because his shirt was grey.

We celebrated with this huge turkey leg. :-)

Now I'm wondering why I can't find the enthusiasm to conquer my own small obstacles at home, namely the laundry basket full of clean laundry that needs to be folded and the towel full of clean dishes to put away and sink full of dirty dishes to wash. Maybe if I added a mud pit and barbed wire... :-)

We Survived!!

Ben and I survived another DALMAC this past Labor Day weekend. It went as well as I had hoped that it would being 11 weeks pregnant. The one thing that I didn't think would be a factor was how tired I got and how quickly. I was expecting some exhaustion at the end of the day, but not in the middle of our rides...

Day 1-We leave for Lansing at 5:30 get there around 8 and are on the road pedaling towards Midland at 8:45. It was a good day until about mile 65 when Dad decided to crash again. The roads this year were not marked well at all and when you are going 24 miles an hour you don't have much time to make certain turns. It was an accident really and a learning experience for everyone involved. I was not with all of the speedy guys at this point as I had already reached my limit a few miles before. I was however deterimined to finish the day, no matter how long it took. As I came up to the corner where the crash had occured it ran through my mind taht Dad had probably crashed again, and lo and behold, I was correct. Dad did not finish Day 1 but rode the Sag in. This night I was not smart and didn't go to bed until after 9.

Day 2 gets off to a good start, but I can already tell in the first 20 miles that it isn't going to be a good day. Ben, Dad and I start a little earlier than the rest of our group, who catch up to us by mile 25. At mile 50 I am done, pretty much falling asleep at our lunch stop. Dad and I decide to Sag in the last 20 miles.

Day 3- after going to bed at 7:00 the previous night Ben and I again decide to start early this morning goes much smoother. I feel rested when we start and am able to make it without to much trouble. Ben rides with me all day. :-) I love that he sticks with me going 16ish miles an hour when he can easily be doing 21. We make it into Gaylord at 12:15 after riding 70 miles and eat a delicious lunch at our favorite ice cream shop there. ( We ate real food and went back for ice cream after dinner.) I go to bed at 7:30.

Day 4 is the last day. We are ending in Mackinac City today and hope to be there by 1:30. There is a century option today (100 miles) or you can just finish the ride with 70. Dad and I decide to just finish 70 which was a very good idea, because the last 25 miles take forever, I was so tired mentally and physically by this point but once again I was determined to finish the day. Ben his brother Marcus and the other 2 riders who were along with us take the century option and split off from our ride around 20 miles. Thanks to the sad marking they go an extra 10 miles and come in with 110 for the day.

This is what you look like after 110 miles. :-)
Sadly this is the only picture I got on the trip, I went to get the camera out several times but never actually got to it.

Randomness from the past two months. :-)

For the past two months we have not had internet because of the work that was going on for our addition. We just got our dish reinstalled a couple of weeks ago and I have finally decided to blog agian. :-) What has happened in the last two months?

Addition:
We now have two more rooms upstairs and a full basement underneath those two new rooms. We are currently waiting on the electric inspection so that we can get things moving again. Getting the homeowners electric permit was a fiasco that took over 2 weeks and 2 times of faxing our building permit up to the county building who lost it or didn't recieve it and never decided to call and let us know that. We just recieved the permit in the mail and will hopefully be getting the inspection done sometime this next week. I was going to put some pictures on here, but the camera is in the bedroom and Ben is taking a nap. The pictures are all on facebook though. :-)

ACD:
I am back to eating more "normal" now, although I still have to avoid lots of sugar otherwise I get an upset stomach, corn and any of its other forms ( I can eat it occasionally maybe twice a month, so I have to decide which craving I want more, usually nachos with "real" tortilla chips or popcorn with a ton of butter and salt, nachos win the most.), I do fine with some forms of diary, greek yogurt, some butter and mozerella cheese, and can't handle most of the others at all. After the DALMAC I will have to go back to being more strict on it for a few weeks, because to survive on these long bike rides of 70 miles I need Powerade and the second ingredient in Powerade is...Corn Syrup. :-(
 Benefits of the diet: I've found out which foods aren't good for me, the rash on my hand is completely gone, the rash on my leg is very faint, it was almost gone, but I started drinking Powerade so I wouldn't die,  AND my last two thyroid labs that I had drawn came back with all normal levels!! Including the antibody levels which have never, ever been normal since I started testing my levels. :-)

Family addition. :-)
 Also in the last couple of months I've been working on an addition to our family. :-) Baby # 2 is going to join us in approximately 30 weeks. 27 if it decides to follow Seth's example. Nausea is pretty much gone now, although I do have bad days a couple of times a week. "Morning" sickness has been much different then with Seth, with Seth I pretty much knew that before 10 in the morning would be bad and that if I wasn't laying on the couch around 6:30-7:00 things could get bad. With this little one it has been more random, popping up whenever it wants to, never enough that I have thrown up but enough that I don't want to move and thinking about any kind of food or drink makes me stomach roll. However, the past couple weeks have been 70% good days and on the other 30% it isn't really that bad. :-)
 Seth doesn't really know what's going on yet, although we do talk to him about the baby, I don't think he will really know until baby is actually here. Latest cute Seth moment: Seth went with me to my first ultrasound. After it was all done I was showing him the picture up on the screen and showing him baby. He looks at it for a minute and then looks and me, "Laying down?"  "That's right, baby is laying down." "Sleeping?" "Yeah, it probably is sleeping." "Oh." :-)

This past Saturday it was hot....so to cool off we decided to take Seth to the park and to play in the river. It was so much fun!! He still isn't so sure about swinging with Daddy though with Momma or Nana he does great, I guess Ben must make it scary. :-P

 So we went to look for fishies. Seth LOVES fish, something his uncles and daddy taught him very well. :-)

And had lots of fun in the water. Seth liked Ben to splash him. He kept asking for more, more. :-)

Afterwards we went and got the boys ice cream.  

"What can you eat???"

 I have been hearing this alot as I have been talking to people about this Anti Candida Diet that I am on. That was my first question as well when I first started researching this out and actually decided that I was going to do the ACD. So I immediately went and bought 3 specialized cookbooks, but over the 2 1/2 weeks that I've been doing this I've used maybe 3 recipes out of those books. There are actually better recipes and ideas on Pinterest and other random ACD blogs then I have found in those cookbooks that I bought.
 Here is what our menu looks like for this week.

Breakfast

• eggs scrambled with spring greens, pumpkin muffins
• soaked cracked buckwheat cereal
• soaked buckwheat pancakes
• soaked oatmeal with chia seeds and almonds
• heuvos rancheros

Lunch

• tuna salad on toasted millet bread
• rice, black beans and pepper stir-fry
• leftovers

Dinner

• fish, stir-fried sweet peas and potates (sweet for me, white for the boys)
• chicken fajita's with rice and black beans
• venison stir-fry
• venison steak with roasted vegetables

 See you really can eat normal food while doing the ACD. You just have to think about it and plan a little bit more. I'm sure after a while it will just become a normal part of life. You also shouldn't think about all the choclatey, ooey, gooey-ness that you are missing when your husband eats warm brownies with cool whip on them. :-P

Week 2 - Anti Candida Diet

 Two weeks ago I started one of the many versions of an Anti Candida Diet. I started this because I have had a rash on my hand and legs for over a year that just wasn't going away no matter what I did. My doctor confirmed it was a yeast rash but just kept giving me different creams to put on it. After several months of that I decided it was time to take things into my own hands. After lots of reading and researching I decided it was finally time to do whatever it took to get rid of this itchy, scaley, very annoying rash. Two weeks ago I started a super strict diet that doesn't allow any sugar, fruit, dairy, packaged or processed foods, and vinegar. White potatoes are very limited.
 So what can I eat? Veggi's, lots of vegetables, rice, buckwheat, quinoa, millet, nuts and seeds, as long as they are raw and fresh, and lots of coconut. Coconut milk, oil and dried unsweetened cocnut flakes. I'm trying to get some sort of coconut every day because of the anti-fungal properties of the coconut and coconut oil. The plus with the coconut is that is since it is naturally sweet I still get some sort of sweetness. Sugars that are allowed are Stevia, Splenda and Xylitol. I've tried Stevia and I can't handle the aftertaste. Right now I'm using Splenda, I know that it isn't exactly the healthiest option, but I don't think a couple of weeks is going to hurt to much. I also just picked up some Xylitol from a local health food store, so I'll be trying that in the next few weeks.
 I've learned that my body doesn't like dairy, at least the pasturized and homogenized kind.....last night I cheated a little and put some butter on some peas and probably half an hour later the spots on my hand where my rash was (it had almost disapeared completely) were throbbing and burning and when I woke up this morning it was back. :-( I also don't handle cabbage very well, cooked or not. I had that last night too, I had stir fried it, and I woke up in the middle of the night with really bad stomach cramps. I had noticed this happening before I went on this diet, but related it to something else.
 At first my plan was to stay in Stage 1 for only three week, but now I'm thinking I may need longer than that. Stage 1 is supposed to be continued until all symptoms are gone or almost completely gone. Stage 2 you get to add in new foods 1 at a time and see how your body reacts. First you add yeast, wait a couple of days and then add something else. Stage 2 can last a long time..... Stage 3 is just really healthy eating, with limited sugar, lots of vegetables, fruit if you can handle it and whole grains.


This has been my favorite way to help my sugar cravings.

Pumpkin Sweet Potato "Mousse"

1 cup Pumpkin
1 whole baked sweet potato,peeled
1 can coconut milk, refrigerated overnight so you can get the cream, you aren't going to use the liquid milk, just keep it for something else

Put it all in the blender and mix until smooth and fluffy. You may need to add some of the coconut milk just to lighten it up a little. If you aren't on a sugar free diet this is going to taste very plain and not sweet at all, but after a few weeks of no sugar it will taste amazing! :-)

I just love weeks where I feel really accomplished. This week is not one of them. :-) However the past couple weeks have been, so I figure I get a break.
~ I finally finished diapers that I had started for Seth months and months ago... they work pretty well but I have found some things that I would change like making the tabs longer, the middles thinner and make sure that I sew slower so that they look as good as I want them too. :-)
~ I finished a Christmas present for someone else that was "given" 2 Christmas's ago. Given as in I told them about it and they never had anything to open.... at least it was a sibling, right. :-)
~ I started Seth's memory book. I had been wanting to do this for a while and finally sat myself down to do it. I just got a large journal at Wally-world and decided that was good. There are these really cool sets at Target that some with pens and stickers and cool quotes and already have some page layouts and places for pictures, but I didn't want to take back the journal and didn't want to go spend more money.
 Memory books are different then scrapbooks in that there is a lot more journaling then in a normal scrapbook. There are lots of really cool ideas on Pinterest on what to include and how to jazz it up a bit. In the front I wrote a letter to Seth explaining what it was, how much we loved him and some other random thoughts. Now that it is started it's so easy just to go write something in it really quick. I'm still planning on making Seth a scrapbook but this is one way to keep up with all the little things that you don't want to forget but don't have pictures of. Like Seth's first story that he told me which was "Woof, woof, meow. meow, bang, bang."

 As for my goal of showing love in unexpected ways to one person each week, it's going good. The first week I surprised my sister Anna with a coffee. And I took my grandparents some pie. This probably doesn't sound like much, but I don't normally do random things like this, so for me it's a big step. I still don't know what or who I'm going to surprise this week...better get on it though since I only have 2 days left. :-)

Over the past few weeks I've been reading "Kisses from Katie." It is a true life story of a girl who moves to Uganda at the age of nineteen to show the people there God's love. Now at 22 or 23 she is in the process of adopting 13 girls.
 I was blown away by this book, not nescisarily the adoption or the picture of life that she paints in the book, but at the ways that she is finding to show God's love to EVERYONE.  She seeks out people to show love to, doesn't wait for people to come ask her to show them love or to show up on her doorstep needing help. She goes to them. It got me to thinking about myself and my love towards others. Do I wait for a need to arise or do I go out of my way to bless others before the need is there?
 Everyone needs to read this book, if we all started living like Katie (I don't mean the moving to Africa and adopting 13 kids :-)  ) but loving unconditionally, seeking out those who need God's love and blessing them with what we can do, then our nation and world would be incredibly different.
 Starting in my corner of the world, I'm setting a goal to randomly bless one person each week for the month of May... at this point it will be people that I know, not sure what I'm going to do or how I'm going to do it yet, but I try to keep you updated on here about how it goes. :-)

A Cookie Experiment that Succeeded!!

Today Seth and I once again attempted to make cookies and these actually turned out!!


Banana Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter
3/4 mashed ripe bananas (about 3 small bananas)
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c buckwheat flour
1/2 c millet flour
1/2 c potato starch
1 t cream of tartar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t guar gum


Mix butter, bananas, egg and vanilla.Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. In separate bowl mix together sugar and cinnamon (we used around 3 T of sugar and 3 t of cinnamon). This dough doesn't roll very well so I just used a spoon and scooped out a large cookie amount and then plopped it in the bowl with the cinnamon and sugar and then used the spoon to get the sugar all over the cookie. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Buckwheat is fast becoming my favorite gluten free flour. About.com has lots of good information about it and this comparison came from there.

 "A comparison of the mineral content of buckwheat flour and rice flour shows that buckwheat flour has:

• 4 times more iron
• 3 times more calcium
• Over 9 times more magnesium
• Almost 6 times more potassium
• About twice as much zinc, copper and manganese

By replacing a portion of rice flour in gluten-free recipes with buckwheat flour, gluten-free recipes become a better source of essential minerals.

Source: Nutritional comparison in mineral characteristics between buckwheat and cereals, Sayoko Ikeda, et al, Gakuin University, Kobe Japan, August 2006"

I'm foreseeing many experiments in the future. :-)

Gluten Free Buckwheat Pancakes

Seth and I made these this morning and they were the best pancakes we have had in a long while!

Gluten Free Buckwheat Pancakes

3/4 c yogurt- I used regular plain yogurt but I'm sure you could use Greek yogurt or even flavored.
1/4 c creamer or milk
1 egg
3 T grapeseed oil
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 c + 2 T buckwheat flour
1/4 cup + 2 T millet flour

Next time I try these I change the oil to 2 T just to make a thicker pancake, otherwise these were amazing! :-)

Learning to be Content

One of the things any one of my friends or family can tell you is that I LOVE babies!!! I think it only took two or three months after Seth was born for me to start thinking about the next baby, things I would change during pregnancy, how the next delivery was going to go, etc. And as I was doing my Bible study for CBS this week I realized I have wasted so much time thinking about this. How many months of Seth's life have I wasted looking forward to the next child and not just enjoying him? It makes me sad to think about it.
 Yesterday I had my post-op visit with the doctor who did my hysteroscopy. We were talking about when I would be able to get pregnant again and he said that he would prefer that we wait at least 3 months after I finish the 30 day estrogen pill that I'm on. At first I was disappointed, now I'm really happy. I'm looking forward to these last few months that I have with Seth, with our little family of three. Just us in our little house.
 Hopefully this summer I will learn the secret of being content. I should know this by now, but I have a thick head sometimes. :-P I want to be able to say this at the end of my life and mean it.
 "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what is is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11b-13
 So this summer one of my goals is to have as many special moments with Ben and Seth as I can and enjoy our time as a family of three. :-)

"For you formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I PRAISE YOU, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes so my unformed substance; in Your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with You..... Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!"  Paslm 139:13-18,23
  I have been thinking about these verses quite a bit the past few days and they have been very comforting to me with my hysteroscopy coming up this week. God was right there with me when I was being formed, he knit me together, He knows EVERYTHING about every single cell in my body. I was formed with a uterine septum on purpose. God always has a plan for everything in my life, this was not a mistake.
  I have been getting nervous about this surgery but I have also been trying to give those worries to God as I'm commanded to.  "The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."  Phillipians 4:5b-7  I am not to worry, I'm to trust and give thanks. And only when I trust will His peace come over me. Trusting is hard but I would much rather have peace then anxiety attacks. And if God has told me that he will carry my burdens, why should I try to take them back? Also, who am I to say how I should or shouldn't have been formed? "Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and how inscrutable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from Him and to Him are all things. TO HIM BE GLORY FOREVER. AMEN." Romans 11:33-36 When I look back I want to be able to say that I have been praising God throughout this experience.

Spring Cleaning-Week 1

One of my goals for this week is to get our bathroom spring cleaned using the fewest cleaners and chemicals as possible.
 Today while Seth was napping I did quite a bit and only used one cleaner: Lysol's toilet bowl cleaner. To wipe down the sink and outside of the toilet I used this http://www.norwex.com/category.php?lng=7&ctg=1&cnt=38 a Norwex cleaning cloth. This cloth is antibacterial and basically cleans itself  because it contains little pieces of silver in it. I have three,  one for the bathroom, kitchen and one for  the rest of the house.
 For the mirror and window this cloth is super amazing!! http://gleencloth.com/  No streaks left and no Windex or vinegar smell afterwards! Ben and I found this cloth last year at the Arts and Crafts show downtown Newaygo, I haven't used it very much because I hardly ever clean my windows, but every time I have used it I've been super impressed.
 I will be using Kaboom Shower, Tub and Tile cleaner, because our shower gets really oily and sticky. I would eventually like to try and find something that is more natural, but for now I'm happy with only two cleaners in the bathroom. :-)

I'm a goal and list loving person. The more lists I have the happier I am, however just because I have those lists does not mean that everything that I put down on them gets done. This makes me very sad. One of the purposes of this blog is to see if publicly sharing my list will help things to get done. So, here are some of my long term goals:

- to do God's will, to actively seek to know Him better and to share His love with others.

- to increase my knowledge in the following areas: christian marriage and femininity, biblical mothering, Real Food, natural birth, gluten-free cooking and baking, natural cleaning products and teaching music.

-to run a 25k in 2:30

-to run a marathon in 4:45-5:00