To Say For Going To Sleep

I would like to sing someone to sleep,
by someone to sit and be.
I would like to rock you and croon you to sleep
and attend you in slumber and out.
I would like to be the only one in the house
who would know:  The night was cold.
And would like to hearken within and without
to you, to the world, to the wood.--
The clocks call striking to each other,
and one sees to the bottom of time.
And below a strange man passes yet
and rouses a strange dog.
Behind that comes stillness.
I have laid my eyes upon you wide;
they hold you gently and let you go
when some thing stirs in the dark.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Heart Strings

As we anticipate a foot of snow in the next few days... um... we'll be doing more inside projects I'm thinking like this one.  :)

A Few Daily Moments

This little pond is on our way to church.  We enjoy watching the geese there stopping for a rest.  It's like march of the penguins or something with how many are there.

Gwen got her hair cut the other day (for free) at a place called "Sheer Madness".  Her hair was all uneven and basically a baby mullet that had grown out a little.  It's a place for kids and Gwen chose to sit in the Mercedes convertible to get her hair cut.  I knew she took after me.

Bathtime Kisses

* If you are reading on facebook you must follow this link to see the movie... www.benmere.blogspot.com

Slow-Cooked Caribbean Pot Roast

This is for you Lisa! :)

2 medium sweet potatoes, cubed (I did not put them in)
2 large carrots, sliced (I put a lot of those little carrots and left them whole)
1/4 C chopped celery (didn't put in cause I didn't have any)
1 boneless beef chuck roast (2 1/2 lbs)
1 T canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T all-purpose flour
1 T sugar
1 T brown sugar
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp grated orange peel (I used frozen orange juice... just a little spoonful)
3/4 tsp baking cocoa
1 Can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1.  Place potatoes, carrots and celery in a 5 qt. slow cooker.  In a skillet, brown meat in oil.  Transfer meat to slow cooker.

2.  In the same skillet, saute onion in drippings until tender.  Add garlic; cook for 1 minute.  Combine next 11 ingredients; stir in tomato sauce.  Add to skillet; heat through.  Pour over beef.

3.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until beef and vegetables are tender.  (I cooked mine longer than that)

Shiny Penny Project

Close up of my Zekeaboy.  He got discharged from physical therapy today.  He is crawling really well now and in a few short weeks has managed to figure out going up stairs and pulling up and beginning to cruise.  I am amazed at him.  He also has learned to "kiss" and shrieks like you wouldn't believe when he sees injustice, such as Gwen getting apple juice and he isn't.  Ben says it sounds like a baby eagle getting stabbed by a fork.  Pretty accurate I think.

We attempted to shine all our pennies today.  We have a lot of pennies.  Gwen wore her princess (low cut) number for the penny shining party.  Let's just say I was not impressed with the results.  Don't bother is all I can say.  So, we sorted the pennies from the other coins.  Good practice for her and I've decided I'm going to teach her about Benjamin Franklin and how he said "a penny saved is a penny earned."  He did say that didn't he?  Can you find a coloring page of Benjamin Franklin?

Our penny jar.  I told her when it gets full she gets to take it to the store and buy a toy.  I pity the salesperson.

She helps me sweep all in her princess garb and holding a flower.  Tra la la...

Is there any other word that comes to mind but GORGEOUS????

New Job, Salt Sculptures

Ben is starting a new job Monday, so he brought home all the things from the office... including the cardboard cutout of himself that he has.  He had it done in Miami as a joke for a meeting he wasn't going to be at and well, he kept it.  I think it will be of great use when Gwen starts to date.  What do you think? :)  We fooled Gwen when she got up from her nap with the cardboard cutout of daddy at the end of the stairs.

She said "hi daddy" and then I said "wait, this isn't daddy" and pushed it over.  We didn't want her to get upset so Ben jumped out and said "here I am."  She laughed.  Oh, and yes, she wears dance outfits to nap sometimes. :)

She is such a daddy's girl right now.  I can't blame her really.  He is quite remarkable.

Today we made the salt sculptures that I told you about in my post entitled "winter fun".  I don't want you to think I suggest all these things and never do them.  Oh no!  Well... it's crumbly and really for older kids... but we managed to get a Z and G and little man out of it.

Very "Tiny Tim" like don't you think?  One leg is shorter than the other... oh well.  I'm not going to tell you what Ben thought it looked like.  I'll give you one small hint.  It's something that a baby does lots of.

What's next you may be asking?  Shiny pennies activity of course!

There Is No Rose

You can't see me in the picture, but I'm there.  This is from our Christmas concert.

Pic of the Altos

The altos on recording weekend.  That's Paula beside me.  She is awesome and hilarious.

Owl Babies

Homemade Pop Tarts

The finished product... homemade pop tarts.  Before you think I'm brilliant, I got this idea from another blog:  www.heavenlyhomemakers.com  We made blackberry pop tarts.

Here's my constant kitchen helper.  Have you ever seen a cuter girl?

The recipe:

3 1/2 C Whole Wheat flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 C melted butter
1 C plain yogurt
100% fruit jelly

roll out dough, cut it into squares of whatever size you want... put in some jelly and seal the two dough squares with a fork.  Bake in 350 oven for about 25 minutes.  Voila!

Zeke's Stats and Menu Plan

Here are Zeke's 1 year stats.
22lbs 2.6 oz = 37 percentile
29 1/2 inches= 38 percentile
48 1/2 cm head circumference= 94 percentile

My baby's got BRAINS people!  He's not just a cute face.

It's been forever since I posted a menu plan, but suffice it to say we have eaten.  Anyone have a good recipe for sweet potato fries (baked)?

hot dogs, sweet potatoes
sloppy cornbread muffins, baked beans
pancakes
chili
tacos
spinach pinwheel rolls
slow-cooked caribbean pot roast, carrots, salad
marvelous chicken enchiladas

*freezer cooking- I made homemade pop tarts, ranch dressing mix, and meat and cheese burritos.  What have you been making lately?

I Love The Lord

I love the Lord and Whitney. :)

Samuel Barber Agnus Dei

This is the piece we will be doing at our next concert.  By the way, it is pronounced (AHN-YOUS DAYEE). :)

Recording

My choir recorded a CD this past weekend and boy, was it a lot of work!  I had NO idea just how much it would require of me.  In the Catholic church we were in there was a statue of a saint with a skull by his feet.  We were all wondering who that is and what that all was about.  As a joke they said that when you hit a wrong note that the skull would come to life.

Well... I think I found the dude.  He's St. Jerome and he's commonly depicted with a skull as a reminder of mortality and often depicted with an owl...a symbol of wisdom.  I knew I liked the guy.

This is the inner sanctum of the recording.  Lots and lots of cords.

In the bathroom this is what was painted.  I rather liked it and I'm thinking I need that in my bathroom.

They also had unusual paintings of women around the world.

Like the nifty door stop?  That's our conductor, Charles Bruffy.

This is the front of the room.  This is where we recorded.  Lovely church with great acoustics.  We made great music this weekend.  There were several times I felt close to tears out of frustration and joy and just weariness.  I can not wait to hear the final product.  What a wonderful thing to be able to make art through the use of your voice.  Such a personal thing and such a beautiful thing to share with others.  I can not explain all the nuances that go into something like this.  It is tricky when your instrument is inside your body.    

One of our choir members brought along some inspirational quotes each day to give to us.  This one I liked a lot:

"As performers, we must immerse ourselves in the words, in the sound and sense of the text and context, that we might become worthy channels through which these musical and poetic ideas might again be brought to life and communicated to others.  To be a singer is not enough; we must become the song."

Samuel Barber- (here's an interesting fact... we are about to sing one of his pieces in our upcoming concert)

Ideas for Winter Fun

Here are some ideas that I read in the paper today for winter fun with your kids.

Salt sculptures:
Mix together 4 C flour, 1 1/2 C water and 1 C salt.  Sculpt the doughy mixture into shapes-- animals, flowers, rockets or whatever you can imagine.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  Cool and paint.

Shiny pennies:
make all your pennies shiny and new.  Mix 4 T vinegar and 1 tsp salt in a small bowl.  Put the pennies in and stir.  Polish them with a soft cloth and a drop of vegetable oil to make them shine.

Magazine scavenger hunt:
Grab a stack of old magazines or an old paper.  Make a list of 25 images to look for, such as a boy, girl, flowers, car or horse.  Set a timer for 20 minutes, and have children tear out the images.  Recycle the magazines when finished.

Nephilim... the heroes of old

I am on a plan to read through the Bible this year.  If you are interested, it is at www.ownit365.com.  I've been reading through Genesis and Job and have had loads of questions... more than I can even delve into and even more where I have to just say "ok, the answers aren't clear here... I'm not sure, or God wanted it that way."  One of the most puzzling portions to me has been Genesis 6.

"When men began to increase in number on the earth and the daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.  Then the Lord said, 'my Spirit will not contend with man forever, for his is mortal, his days will be a hundred and twenty years.' The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-- and also afterward-- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.  They were the heroes of old, men of renown."


So... who were the Sons of God and what are Nephilim?  I did a little study and this is what I found.

First, who were the sons of God?
Some suggest they were supernatural beings such as angels.  Others say they were godly men descended from Seth who married sinful women descended from Cain.  A better interpretation may be that they were human rulers who emerged as heads of city-states in the ancient Middle East and flaunted their power by having large harems.  Rulers and judges are sometimes called gods or God in the Hebrew text.

Who were the Nephilim?
Nephilim may refer to persons of great physical stature-- giants.  Nephilim is linked to another term that indicates a heroic person with both power and influence.

Here are the other sightings of the word Nephilim in scripture.
Numbers 13:32-33
"And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.  They said, 'the land we explored devours those living in it.  All the people we saw there are of great size.  We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim).  We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."


So they were obviously big dudes... giants.  But were they half angel?  half fallen angel, half human?  As far as I can tell the Bible is not clear about it.  I guess it isn't essential for us to know or it would have been in more detail... but the angel thing bothers me because I think of angels as non sexual beings.  Maybe there is a lot about angels I don't know.  Don't worry, I'm not obsessing about angels and going off and worshiping angels.  I just wonder if they have human emotions.  Any thoughts out there?  Do you think Shaquil O'Neal would constitute as a giant?  When you are that big you automatically get some respect... ya know?
By the way, Job is a hard read for me.  He has this horrendous day in the beginning and now he is trying to get his friends off of his back and then trying to figure out God.  It makes me confused and sad reading it. I'm sure not as sad and confused as Job felt right?  Do you guys think I can make it through Leviticus?  YIKES!

Snow

It snowed about 5 1/2 to 6 inches yesterday.  Quite a bit in one day!  Here is Gwen "painting" in the snow using water that I colored with food coloring in a squirt bottle.

Here she is helping daddy shovel snow.

Zeke loved the snow and the cold.  He looked out the window and whined and whined until I took him out.  Just look at that face!

Ben pulled them around the yard on the sled.  They had a fun time.

My drawing in snow paint of a Christmas tree with "glory" shining all around. :)

Zeke's First Birthday

Gwen spent a lot of time running.

Zeke and daddy.

Zeke and Uncle Jake.

My gorgeous birthday boy.

My awesome friend Janna and her boy, Luke.  Yes, I'm going through a braid phase.

Singing to Zekey.

He liked the cupcake.

Owl cupcakes.

Let's Get Together

Playing cars together.

Sitting and chatting about babies together.  Here lately Gwen has been asking me what I am thinking about. It makes me laugh when she asks me something introspective like that.  It's like... um... say what??

Lead Me To The Cross

I've been praying/worshiping a lot to this song lately.  I can not watch this video without crying.

2010 in Review

Well... it seemed fun so Leah... I'm copying you and answering these questions for myself.


1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before? gave birth to a boy

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?  
probably not.  There is a reason I usually make vague resolutions  

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Just me

4. Did anyone close to you die?
 No.

5. What countries did you visit? none, but I did go to Korea in Aug 2009

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? More massages... definitely more massages, and good veggies this summer, and more knowledge about random things like aloe plants

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?January 9th of course when I met my Zeke and December 25th this year was pretty memorable.. snow on Christmas day in Alabama

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
 learning to discipline better and making friends

9. What was your biggest failure? My neighbor who had stage 4 cancer... I told him we were praying for him but failed to share Christ

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? no

11. What was the best thing you bought? paint for my bedroom walls... I was tired of that green

12. Where did most of your money go? Well... we bought a furnace/AC this year and redid the siding on the chimney.  Our everyday expenses were high and we gave some.

13. What did you get really excited about? my vanilla extract

14. What song will always remind you of 2010? The House That Built Me

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? I'm happier
– thinner or fatter? er... which month are we talking about. Thinner slightly
– richer or poorer? richer in many ways

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
 gotten massages, worked out more, laughed

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
worry!

18. How did you spend Christmas? We were in Alabama with my family

19. What was your favorite TV program? America's Funniest Home Videos, cause it comes on at 6am and I need a laugh if I'm up then.

20. What were your favorite books of the year? the pioneer book series that I read... can't remember the author.. Jane something

21. What was your favorite music from this year?
 I like Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert... country

22. What were your favorite films of the year? The Guardians of G'Houle 

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? um, I don't remember I was 33 last Jan 6th  *  now I remember... I was hugely pregnant with Zeke at home waiting for him to come!!

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? well... more sleep ect.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? sweat pants here I come!

26. What kept you sane? friends, my projects, laughter, blogging, Jesus and Ben

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. Worry doesn't do anything for anyone.  Things can look very bleak, and then the very next day you have a breakthrough.  Never discount the power of a good night's sleep on any mood.

New Years Eve and Finished Gwenmere

Gwen wouldn't stop fake coughing to get a photo.  That's why Beki's laughing.

Zeke is quite fond of the portcullis.  We were going to have a drawbridge and a moat, but I got tired after drawing all of those stones on there.

We pretended that the castle was besieged by a enormous spider.  It sure scared Snow White, but not so much Cinderella.

Here it is... Castle Gwenmere with Belle lying on her face. :)

Ben brought me flowers.  Isn't he great?  We made a star brownie.  Thanks Stephanie for the pan.