Baby Bap Update

Well... yesterday I went to the doctor. My doctor was called out of the office for a delivery right as I got there, so I saw another doctor... Dr. Newby. I thought that name was funny. Who am I to talk right? Well... everything looks good with Baby Bap. She couldn't tell yet how the baby was laying and I've only gained 11 pounds. She said that's fine. I'm not gestational diabetic (praise the Lord!) and the baby is moving a lot. I'm looking forward to knowing whether it is a boy or girl. I thought I was measuring farther along, but she said yesterday that I wasn't. Oh well... I guess no December baby after all. I'm feeling fine, but that late pregnancy heaviness has definitely come upon me. I find standing for more than 30 minutes makes me tired.

Recipes

Here are some recipes that I picked up at home in Alabama looking through magazines.

I'm trying this one this week:

Whole Grain Marshmallow Crispy Bars

Makes 24 bars, prep 15 min, cook 5 min, stand 15 min

3 T butter
1 10.5 oz bag miniature marshmallows
1 15 oz box multi-grain cluster cereal
1 1/4 cups dried cranberries, divided
vegetable cooking spray

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows, and cook, stirring constantly, 4 to 5 minutes or until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in cereal and 1 C dried cranberries until well coated.

3. Press mixture into a 13X9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Chop remaining 1/4 C dried cranberries, and sprinkle on top. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes or until firm. Cut into 24 bars.

and this recipe I'm saving for special guests or give away baskets at Christmas time. These are a little too dangerous for me to go ahead and make now. :)

Molten Lava Cookies

1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 C sugar
3/4 C cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 C dark or semisweet chocolate (at least 60% cocoa), roughly chopped
powdered sugar for garnish (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add cocoa powder, eggs and vanilla; mix until combined.

2. Combine flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Gradually add to butter mixture.

3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Using your thumb, press a thumbprint into the center; fill with a piece of chocolate and fold dough over to cover chocolate.

4. Place balls 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are firm and tops are soft. Remove cookies to a cooling rack; dust with powdered sugar, if desired. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Meal Plan

Ben helped me waddle into Aldi's grocery store tonight with Gwen. Man, is it getting harder to do stuff! So anyway, here is my meal plan for the week now that I'm back home.

chicken broccoli braid- minus the broccoli and inserting peas, salad

pork chops, rice a roni, broccoli

jambalaya with hot dogs in there, sweet potato biscuits

thai style roast, cous cous

spaghetti with salad

omelets, salad

Recent Happenings in Bama

I have been traveling all around in the past two days visiting friends. I visited my college friends and completely forgot to get a good shot of us, but here Gwen is at the piano enjoying all the children around.

Here is a stunning yard that I saw on the way to Jacksonville. Humm... he had a sign in his yard that read "Yard Sale". Just think, you could purchase some of these goodies.

Cotton fields. I love them.

I concocted a high school class reunion. It's been 14 years and we've never had any type of reunion. I was not a class officer, but I put it upon myself to give it a try. Many people said they could come and then didn't show, but those who came had fun. I knew it would be a hard task considering my class voted the class flower to be a cactus. That kind of gives you some insight into my class.

These are some friends not from the class of 95, but I hung out with them in band, so I invited them too. :)

Bizarre Home Front

Everyone needs a large statue of a Canadian goose in flight at their doorstep. What is with these Alabamians? :)

Halloween in Bama

Everyone knows that it is one of my missions in life to uncover all the odd things I can possibly find. Well, this certainly qualifies in my book. This is a photo of my mom and dad's neighbor's yard. Um, can anyone say overboard? There are some things that I will never understand. Today I saw a huge statue of a Canadian goose in flight in someone's yard. You can look for that little goody coming up soon.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight at church we had an event called Trunk or Treat where the kids (and adults) can dress in costume and get some candy and bounce in a bounce house. I decided to go as a pioneer and dress Gwen as my baby pioneer. Everyone pretty much thought I was little bo peep. Go figure!

I however, did meet another fellow pioneer tonight. She was dressed as Laura Ingalls Wilder. Isn't she adorable with that missing front tooth?


A family picture. Ben said our family theme was "gassy pioneers." We competed in the family costume contest and maybe one person clapped for us. :) See my belly coming out?


Gwen wanted to go into the bounce house SO bad, but alas, she would get squashed big time. We let her play on the step outside of the entrance.

Autumn Leaves and 7 Months

We are not professional photographers, that's for sure... but today we attempted to get pictures out in our back yard in the leaves. Here are some of my favorites from today. Getting a good picture of Gwen has really become quite hard because she is constantly in motion and not too happy looking when I stop her. She is definitely trying out her wings and thinks she can do everything.


She saw Ben throw leaves over his head, so she tried it out.





She goes into her little "house" and closes the door and looks back at me and waves and says "bye bye".


We got our teenage neighbor to try to take a family shot. She zoomed in pretty close, but at least we are all smiling. :)


On Sunday I will be 29 weeks. I am feeling pretty large these days and can feel the baby kicking all the time. This baby is much more active in the womb than Gwen. We shall see if that gives me any clue as to what I am in store for.

Pioneer Books

I really like to read about pioneer times. I just like how strong they are and how resourceful they are and I appreciate the wisdom they gained from suffering. If we think we have worries over our kids... well, when you read these books, it gives you a whole new perspective on things. I would like to suggest a series of books that I just finished by Jane Kirkpatrick. They are "A Clearing In The Wild", "A Tendering In The Storm" (I cried and cried reading this one), and finally "A Mending At The Edge." I loved them... and the great thing is they are based on real people that actually lived at one time 4 hours away from where I currently live.

I am now reading a book called "A Lantern In Her Hand" by Bess Streeter Aldrich. It is a fictional story, but I can tell already that it will be a good book. Here is a bit of poetry I found thought provoking.

"Because the road was steep and long,
and through a dark and lonely land,
God set upon my lips a song
and put a lantern in my hand." - Joyce Kilmer

Maybe I'm romanticizing the prairie life a bit... but I love living in the Midwest with all of the history of hard working people that made it through hard times with a song on their lips and a lantern in their hands. I hope I'm that way.

Bluegrass Singing

This is a longer video that Ben took during our latest concert with the Kansas City Chorale. We were singing bluegrass style stuff.

WOW

Ok... so my friend Leah sent me these plus others. I just had to post my two favorite balloon dresses. That's right, they are made with balloons!! Someone out there has some time on their hands!

Noodles and Funny

Cabbage Patches

Meal Plan

meatloaf, 3 bean salad, carrots
chicken corn chowder with turkey bacon, bread
quesadillas, salad
rice and stir fry with chicken
spaghetti and salad

I'm running out of creative ideas for my meal plans. Any new ideas?

Tantrums

I participate in this thing called "Parents As Teachers". This lady who has child development degrees comes to the house (FOR FREE) and observes Gwen and gives suggestions of toys she might enjoy and tells me about developmental things I should look for ect. I did not participate with this until Gwen was a year because I just didn't know if I could handle someone coming and giving some critique or some such. I thought I'd be a little overwhelmed or intimidated by it. Since then though, I've gotten tougher skin and I can pitch any idea that I think is contrary to what I want for her and take in the good suggestions. :) The other day she came by and gave me some papers about where a child ages 14-24 months usually is at. One of those papers was on temper tantrums. Here is the first paragraph that I read to Ben tonight as Gwen was having her bath. We both burst out laughing. We have kind of a quirky sense of humor at times.

"Almost surely at some point in your child's development, you will witness a particular behavior known as the temper tantrum. You will recognize it by its many colorful characteristics. Among them are the arched back (if you are holding your child or attempting to restrain her in any way), the ear-shattering screams coming from her wide-open mouth, and the writhing movements of her entire body. Remain calm."

Think that's a good description? HA! Cracked me up.

During Nap Time

Wanna see what I'm working on during Gwen's nap? This is called O Magnum Mysterium by T.L. da Victoria.

Here's the English translation:

O most awesome mystery

and sacrament divine and most wondrous:

that animals should look and see the Lord a babe newborn

beside them in a manger laid.

O how truly blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy

to bear and bring forth the Lord Christ Jesus.

Alleluia!

Now The Day Is Over

Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening,
Steal across the sky.

Now the darkness gathers,
Stars begin to peep,
Birds and beasts and flowers
Soon will be asleep.

Indian Cloth Diapers

I was given several small sized Indian cloth diapers tonight from my friend. I have personally never seen diapers like this, so I thought I'd post some pics. I know I said I'd cloth diaper with Gwen and then fell into the "sin" of convenient disposable ones... but this time I'm going to give it a go again with the cloth diapering at least during the day. Don't laugh, I might actually stick with it this time. :)

As you can see, the Indian cloth diapers tie in front. Neat idea if you ask me.


They looked rather thin to me, but my friend assured me they do not leak and that everyone uses cloth over there in India. It is unheard of to use disposable.


Here is the "monk doll" (as I like to call her because she normally wears a very long brown dress) modeling the diaper. Note that she is smiling and sleeping. Inspirational don't you think?

Song

This song has been a blessing to me this week. I especially like the line "I melt in Your peace, it's overwhelming." That's the kind of overwhelmed I want to be right now! Enjoy.

Lately

Gwen helping me sweet yesterday. I wanted to tie a little scarf on her head, but I didn't have one handy so we used a scarf instead. Very fancy...



Tonight all bundled up. It's supposed to be 27 degrees tonight... burrrrr....


Today when I went to my Mother-in-law's house low and behold, she had a bonnet! My costume dream has come true and I can be a pioneer for our church thing.


Here are most of the green tomatoes off of the plants. I had to pick them because they will freeze otherwise. I've heard you can wrap them in newspaper and they will ripen. We'll see.


Some ripe stuff I picked too. God has blessed us with a wonderful harvest this year.


I tried to cover up my plants tonight with plastic in case they can hang in there. My plants still have tiny little tomatoes and blooms on them. I think it's wishful thinking....but no harm trying.