For Leah on Her Birthday

Things have been awfully busy around these parts!  The girls are finally feeling better and we're all getting more sleep...huge bonus!  Now I'm working on my talk for the Women's Day Seminar at church on Saturday.  It's coming together really well, but it means less time for blogging.  Such is the ebb and flow of life, and it's all good.

I'll recap Leah's birthday festivities later, but for now, here's a little letter...a day late :)

Leah enjoying her birthday meal of hot dogs, cheetos, strawberries and cherry limeade
while wearing her new aqua fleece with thumb holes!

Dear Leah, 

You are 8!  Halfway to driving...yikes!

You were born during the winter Olympics, which is kind of cool seeing as they're on right now.  We had a lot of fun joking about Bob Costas when you were born and how we should have photoshopped him into our family pictures from those first few days!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my hope/prayer for you for the upcoming year.

You've come a really long way in terms of being flexible with life which is awesome to see!  But, you are still the firstborn daughter of a firstborn daughter, and I feel like it's fair to say the we both reeeeeeally like knowing what to expect and are less than thrilled when life throws us a curve ball.  Neither of us really love to try something new unless we are fairly certain we'll be good at it.

Risk takers we are not.

My prayer for you this year is that you would be brave and courageous and not afraid of the future.

print we are getting for her room

I want you to walk into the future with confidence and be brave even when you face the little uncertainties in life.

You have plenty to be confident in when it comes to who God made you to be!  You are so incredibly friendly and bright and cheerful and giving and resilient and happy.

But, more importantly than that, I want you to be confident because of Jesus.  

...because you trust Him so much that you know that you know that you know that He will never let you fall.

...because you know that Jesus walked through uncertainty and pain so that He would know what it is like for you to have a hard time.  He is the perfect intercessor and comforter for you.

...because you safely rest in His unconditional love for you even when things don't turn out the way you expect.

...because you are deeply convinced that Jesus' opinion is the only one that truly matters so you don't even worry if you make choices that your friends might not understand.

It's okay to make mistakes, and it's okay to not be perfect.  Those times are just reminders to us of how very much we need Jesus.  You can always go to Him and He will always meet you.

I know that 8 will be great!

Please know, too, sweet girl, that being your mom is one of the most precious gifts God has given me.  I'm insanely humbled by the opportunity to have a front row seat to witness the person you are becoming.  

Let's always be friends and love each other and remember to laugh and point each other to Jesus.

Okay?

Okay!

I love you La-Lee-La!

Love, 
Mommy



Leah's letter from last year with lots of pictures.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's the best picture I could get of my 3 littlest valentines!

I really have no idea what is going on with Maggie or why Leah and Gracie look so stoic.

They really were quite excited about heart shaped donuts and hershey's kisses and the personalized stamp they each got!

They got to drink out of the fancy glasses with their donuts.

Gracie needed a washcloth for sticky donuts...and because she's obsessed with having a washcloth any time she's eating.

Leah was excited for all of the valentines fun at school...

which includes handing out these cute heart cookies I made!

And then...these two <3

Have a love filled weekend :)

2 Easy Salad Recipes!

I love a good salad!  But, produce can be a little questionable during winter.

Enter these salads!

These are two salads that don't rely on farm fresh tomatoes.

Because, is it just me, or do tomatoes just seem a little apple-esque in their texture during winter?

Anyway, up first we have Mandarin Salad!

You need mandarin oranges, sugared almonds (I buy honey roasted sliced almonds at the store), green onion, and sliced celery.

I don't know about you, but I've never heard anyone wax eloquent about the deliciousness of celery in season.  

The dressing is super easy!

I like to use spring mix lettuce for this salad, but you could use romaine, spinach, or any combination!

Just sprinkle your ingredients on top and drizzle with dressing and you're done!

You can make this as a big salad (not individually serving sized) and toss with dressing just before serving, too!

On a side note, this is my friend Dani's recipe.  I got it out of a cookbook that we made for MOPS in 2008.  You know how sometimes you get cookbooks like that where there aren't any good recipes in it or you're afraid to try the recipes because there aren't pictures?  That is so not the case about this cookbook!  My friends must all be good cooks :)


On to recipe number two!

You need:

I make my own dressing for the salad...

but you can totally just buy your favorite balsamic vinaigrette and it's fine.  I just didn't have any at home!  

I put the yummy ingredients on a bed of romaine, but like the other recipe you can also use spring mix lettuce, spinach or a combination of both!

I seriously love this salad, and I think some of the love comes from how easy it is!  The craisins and walnuts can just hang out in the pantry and I often have feta in the fridge.  I've even made this with small cubes of cojack in place of the feta!  It's so easy to just toss together!  No chopping!

The other bonus about both of these salads is that you can just add some chicken and have your salad as a meal!

That's what I'm planning on doing for lunch...now I just have to decide which one to have!

I'm linking up with A Southern Fairytale for Mouthwatering Monday!

The Whole 30 Thoughts and Regular Menu

It's true!

The Whole 30 is but a happy memory.

Perhaps the happy part is debatable :)

Aaron and I were talking about it last night and I told him that I feel like you have to be hardcore to do the whole 30 and eat paleo in general.  

I wouldn't say that anyone would use the word hardcore to describe me.  

Fun?  Maybe.  

Quirky?  Yes.  

Slightly ridiculous?  Probably.

Hardcore?  No.  No no no no no no noooooooo.

And I'm not saying that hardcore people can't be fun, quirky, and/or slightly ridiculous.  I'm just not able to multitask in that manner.

Anyway, here's a small example about why it was hard...aside from all of the insane prep work.

Take a look at this broccoli recipe that I'll be making at least twice this month (without the rice).  I couldn't have it because there was a tiny bit of sugar in one of the sauce ingredients.  I kept running in to recipes like that which was kind of frustrating and discouraging.  

I maybe felt a little better doing the whole 30.  I feel like I woke up easier in the morning, but I don't really have a hard time falling asleep at night, so I didn't notice a change there.

My friend, Kendra, was doing this the same time as me and she felt amazing!  

I'm guessing that I don't have sensitivities to dairy or gluten or whatever else I wasn't eating, so I wouldn't have the same sensation of feeling sooooo much better!

If I would have noticed a huge change in how I was feeling, I think I would have been more apt to stick with a lot of those changes after the whole 30 was over.  It would have been a lot more worth it.  Aaron and I both agree that I'm a lot, um, shall we say, more myself and less irritable when I'm not doing the whole 30!

I did have some really awesome takeaways, though!

• Water!  I hopped back on the drinking water train, and I like it!  I'm doing well with drinking close to 3 nalgenes of water a day which is what I was shooting for.

• Snacks!  I think I trained myself to not feel like I need to eat after the girls go to bed.  I also didn't have snacks during nap time, either, and I'd certainly like to keep that up.

• Vegetables!  I already ate a lot of veggies even before the whole 30.  But, I'd like to have veggies at every meal (including breakfast) and have a salad and other sort of vegetable at supper.  I feel fine replacing the breakfast veggie with berries if I'm having steel cut oats.

• Lunch!  I'd like to have soup or salad for lunch every day.  This has always been my preference, but I'd like to actually do it!  I'm not a huge sandwich bread fan.  I mean, I like it, but if I'm going to have bread, I'd way rather have crusty bread or fresh, homemade dinner rolls.

• Zoodles!  Making noodles out of zucchini was by far my favorite discovery of the whole 30.  I thought they were great!  I'm totally going to continue to replace spaghetti with zoodles for myself.

• The Good Creamer!  Another outcome I was hoping for with the whole 30 was to decrease my desire for sweets.  I drank my coffee with coconut milk during the whole 3o and it was drinkable.  Not my preference, but I could kind of enjoy it.  I'm glad to say that now when I enjoy coffee with The Good Creamer, I only use about half the amount of creamer than I did previously (1 and 1/2 tablespoons as opposed to 3 tablespoons...yeah, I measure it.  I'm the nerd with the digital watch and timer, remember ;))

The above takeaways were the type of outcomes I was hoping for, so I'm really pleased!

I should tell you that I did go off the plan a few times at the end.  I had 2 pieces of homemade pizza, a chai, the broccoli I mentioned above, and ate whatever I wanted for the Super Bowl.  I woke up with a food hangover on Monday morning!  I mean, I've never had an actual hangover, but from what I've heard, it was pretty similar.  I had a pounding headache and was really thirsty.

So, here's our buddy, the menu for the rest of February!

Monday, February 10  Honey Garlic Balsamic Chicken

Tuesday, February 11  Baked Ham Sandwiches, Potatoes, Salad, Dessert

Wednesday, February 12  Breakfast Bowls (these for me because I love them)

Thursday, February 13  Chopped Taco Salad

Friday, February 14  Heart Pizza from Papa Murphy's and Valentines Day Dessert 

Saturday, February 15  Sandwiches  Pizza for Leah's Family Birthday Party

Sunday, February 16  Sandwiches/Leftovers  Silly Cereal Supper

Lots going on the week of the 10th!  I'm making these for Mom2Mom on Tuesday, these cookies for Valentine's Day for Leah's class, this cake for Leah's birthday, and then these cupcakes for Leah's birthday for school on Monday.  Good thing I like to bake :)

Monday, February 17  Hot Dogs (Leah requested for her actual birthday)

Tuesday, February 18  Baked Chicken Parmesan Meatballs in Tomato Cream Sauce

Wednesday, February 19  Sesame Chicken with broccoli

Thursday, February 20  The Sandwich (Aaron's favorite :))

Friday, February 21  Pizza

Saturday, February 22  Sandwiches  Beef and Rice Casserole (in the microwave)

Sunday, February 23  Sandwiches/Leftovers  Silly Cereal Supper

Monday, February 24  Clam Chowder in the Crockpot

Tuesday, February 25  Tuscan Chicken Sandwiches

Wednesday, February 26  Baked Oatmeal (trying a new one from this cookbook)

Thursday, February 27  Sweet and Sour Chicken with broccoli

Friday, February 28  Pizza

Project 365: #5

Happy Friday aka the first second night of the Olympics!  I'm nerd-tast-tically excited!

On to the pictures :)

Day 31:

Gracie held up the dough hook for my Kitchen Aid and exclaimed, "Aye, me hearties!"  It's nice having your own pint sized Captain Hook at home :)


Day 32:

The Read Head Alliance is just hanging out and doing some reading.


Day 33:

I made super cute football cookies for the Super Bowl.  I feel like that's how women think about sports..."Oh, what a great chance for me to make some cute football cookies!"  Orrrrr, maybe that's just me :)


Day 34:

Gracie loved her hair so much that she requested that we visit Aaron in his office so he could see it immediately.  She is quite pleased with herself!


Day 35:

X marks the spot!!!


Day 36:

Ignore the spacey look on my face (I'm horrible at taking selfies), and instead focus on the awesome apron my sister made me for my birthday.  Seriously.  When I sew, all I end up with is tears, swearing, and a sewing machine thrown out the window (those are all overstatements...kind of ;)).  When my sister sews, angels sing, rainbows appear, and she makes cute things like this apron.  And, she probably doesn't even want to swear.


Day 37:

Quilt rides!  With any luck, that'll be an event in the next Olympics ;)

Have a great weekend!

Black and White Popcorn

I am about to share with you a recipe that is brilliant in its simplicity.

I also think it is kind of a copycat recipe of a variety of Popcorn Indiana, but I've never actually had it to know for sure.

I've made this popcorn for Christmas, as a bridal shower favor (packaged in cute bags, of course), a fun snack, and, most recently, for the Super Bowl!

You only need the most basic ingredients.

3 tablespoons coconut oil (or 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil)
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 cup sugar
salt

You can even see the original recipe that I used as the kettle corn base :)

Not pictured: semi-sweet chocolate chips and melt-able white chocolate (NOT white chocolate chips; they don't melt well at.all.)

You start by melting the coconut oil in a large pot.

Once it has melted, add the popcorn...

and cover the pot until it starts to sizzle.

Then, evenly sprinkle the sugar over the kernels.

I'm serious about this whole sprinkling evenly thing.  If you just dump it in the middle, it won't work right.  Nobody wants that!

Cover the pot and shake until it's done popping.

Dump onto a foil or wax paper lined table/counter/baking sheets.

Pick out all of the un-popped kernels and any of the pieces that may have burned because you were taking pictures for your blog.

Then sprinkle with salt.

I love love double love the salty and sweet combination.  So much so that even my daughters comment about the salty and sweet combination without prompting :)

You could stop there and have delicious kettle corn!

Or, you could take it over the top with some melty chocolate goodness!

Melt 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Once they're melted, pour them into a ziplock bag...scooting all of the chocolate to one corner.

Then, just snip the little corner off so you can control your chocolate drizzle.

Then, do the same with the white chocolate!

I don't have pictures of this part, because I don't :)

Once the chocolate has cooled/hardened, put it in a serving bowl...

or cutie little basket-y things and 

Enjoy!

Tastes better when enjoyed with friends :)

Note: I loved the mild coconut flavor that the coconut oil added, but I've made this many times with canola oil and it's also awesome!

You can't go wrong!

I'm linking up with A Southern Fairytale for Mouthwatering Monday

Jesus in Me

We've had some busy evenings lately, so I haven't had much time to blog.

But, I wanted to pop in quickly and share some Scripture that's been super encouraging and a good reminder!

Several weeks ago, Aaron was asking me what was one of the most influential things I'd learned in college.

For me, it was the beginning of understanding that I need Jesus.  For all the things.

I mean, obviously I knew that I needed Jesus to save me, but I felt like living the Christian life was done in my own strength.  

The reality is that I need Him in all areas and every aspect of my life.

I was reminded of this recently while reading some devotions on She Reads Truth.

I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

It's such a good reminder that this life I live, I live and walk and move and breathe because of and in Jesus.

I need to consistently be reminded of that, because my go-to is to "just try harder."

I read something on facebook a while ago that suggested praying a Bible verse every hour to really impress it on your heart.  Plus, we know we're in God's will when we are praying Scripture, right :)

This is my verse!  So, I'm setting the dorky timer on my dorky digital watch to keep Galatians 2:20 at the forefront of my mind.

Will you join me with your own verse?