February Blessings

“The more I count these blessings, the more I realize that they really are not the product of my own efforts. They are truly gifts of grace from God above. It’s incredible to open my eyes to them week after week. And humbling. That I should be graced with such wonders? Me… whose heart is weak and black, yet covered with much mercy. How great is Your unfailing love, Lord God of all!” ~Sharaya Crossan

I thank God for these gifts:

601. Warmer temperatures

602. Getting dressed up for church

603. That I’ve been feeling SO great this pregnancy with hardly any symptoms except for a growing belly

604. Hardwood floors

605. Watching my baby sleep (at lunchtime)

606. Holding him yesterday as he just relaxed and lay his head down on my shoulder (usually he just squirms)

607. Playing Ticket to Ride with friends

608. First major haircuts and that I didn’t screw it up!

609. Spinach dip

610. Connecting with a friend at church and her asking me to hang out this week

611. Seeing my Dad “play” with Barbies (I’m sure he’ll love that I put this picture on here)

612. That most of my new recipes have been turning out great the first time…that is God’s grace

613. That I ate Tiger Tiger ice cream yesterday with no problems!

614. Taking Kiera to get a toy once her sticker chart was filled up for good behavior and waking up dry in the morning, which she has been doing about 5 days a week!

615. Having fun!

One of my Favorite Drinks

My Facebook status last night was about how I was enjoying my homemade strawberry lemonade.  I immediately had several requests for the recipe, so I decided to post it on my blog as well.  Lemonade is one of my favorite drinks and I LOVE strawberry as well, so it’s a great combo!

1 3/4 cups white sugar (I use 1 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup organic cane sugar)

7 cups water

1 1/2 cups lemon juice

1 cup Sun Rype Strawberry Watermelon juice

Bring sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil.  Stir to dissolve sugar.  Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until chilled.

In a pitcher, stir the sugar water, remaining 6 cups of cold water, lemon juice, and strawberry watermelon juice together.  If you want just regular lemonade, use a total of 8 cups of water and no strawberry watermelon juice.  It’s a taste of summer in the winter!

A Super Fun Crazy Busy Week-end

This week-end has absolutely flown by!  I had been looking forward to it for a while.  Jared took Friday afternoon off, which was nice!  On Friday night, I had some friends over for a fruit + chocolate fondue!  It was very yummy and a lot of fun!  I only went to bed around 1:00 that night, so it was a short night for me.

On Saturday, Jared + I dropped off the kids at my parents’ house for the night and we went out for an early steak dinner.  We cashed in our Air Miles for a gift card to this restaurant and we went at 4:30, which was perfect!  We got seated right away and by the time we left at 6:00, we could barely get out of there because there were SOOO many people waiting in the lobby for a table.  I had my first medium steak (I usually order medium well because I don’t like my meat to be red) and it was SO good!  I just told myself “mind over matter” and tried not to look at it too much as I was eating it.  Jared + I both had the same meal of steak with a whiskey peppercorn sauce + garlic mashed potatoes.  I ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri and it was BIG and only $3.95!  It was such a treat to have a meal like that and not have to pay very much for it!  After that, we drove around in this area with HUGE houses (some of them looked to be close to 6000 square feet) and Jared’s aunt lives in that area in a modest bungalow, so we stopped in to say hi.  We love looking at big houses and don’t have the opportunity to just drive around very often, so that was fun!  Then, we went to a hockey game with a bunch of people.  It was a thank you gift from my sister-in-law + brother-in-law to their wedding party.  I think it was my first time going to a professional hockey game and I actually enjoyed it, even though I really don’t care for hockey.  After that, a bunch of us went out for food.  Jared had an apple crisp and I shared some pizza bread with another girl.  We only got home at 12:30 that night, so it was another short night for me.

Sunday morning, we went to my neighbor’s church service/wedding.  It was….ummmm….interesting.  The women + kids sat on one side of the church and the men + a few kids sat on the other side, so Jared + I were promptly split up by the ushers right after we walked in.  The service started out with a youth choir singing hymns in the loft at the back of the church, but everyone sits facing forward, so we didn’t see them sing.  The actually wedding was just a couple of questions asked to the bride + groom and that was it!  They stood up in the front row for a couple of minutes during that part and then sat back down and that was all.  The rest was just their regular church service.  After, a couple came up to us (very friendly) and said, “Hi!  Good to see you again….” and started talking to us.  They looked vaguely familiar to us, but we could NOT figure out how they knew us!  That was kind of funny.  There was a very simple meal after of just a bun with some lunch meat, a piece of cheese, lettuce and a really yummy fruit salad.  On the tables, there were BIG cakes every 15 feet or so (we sat at long rectangular tables) of various kinds and they were served with single cups of vanilla ice cream.  We ended up sitting with a bunch of older Holdeman people, so at first they didn’t say anything to us, but then by dessert they were talking with us and we found out that a couple of them live or used to live down the street from us!  I felt quite out of place, but we weren’t the only people there that weren’t Holdeman.  After the lunch, we went to my parents' to pick up our kids.  We visited for a while and came home and both kids had 2-hour naps.  In the meantime, we ordered a pizza for supper and it was great!  When the kids got up (I had to wake Kiera up at 6:45 p.m.), we went to our friend’s house for games night.  It was fun and we ended up staying ‘til 11:00.  So, I had another short night last night as it was almost midnight before I got Kiera into bed (her bedtime routine often takes over half an hour). 

Yesterday, we got up and Jared made eggs + hash browns for breakfast.  After Blake's nap, we went to our friends' house in the afternoon and stayed for supper. She made a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and we brought stuffing + salad. It was excellent and we had a great time! Most week-ends are not like that, so that was fun! After all that, I slept about 10 hours last night. Time to relax!

Pregnancy

Sleep has been an on + off issue this pregnancy, or I should say lack thereof. I had some problems sleeping when I was pregnant with Blake, too, but that was mostly at the end. This time, it started at the beginning. If Blake wakes up in the night, I often have a hard time falling back asleep. This past week-end, I had 2 or 3 nights in a row that I was up from 3 a.m. - 5 or 5:30 a.m. It's frustrating, but I do get a lot of praying done. I often get up and read my Bible, too. I would much rather do those things during the day, though! I think it was Saturday night that I was lying in bed on my back and I put my hand on the lower part of my belly. Right away, I felt a hard lump about the size of a peach, which is the size of what the baby was (now it's the size of a softball). My jaw dropped as I lay there thinking, "I'm pretty sure this is the baby!" I kept my hand there and I didn't feel the baby move, but after about a minute, the skin underneath my hand suddenly got completely soft! I don't think you're supposed to feel the baby at 14 weeks along, so I just felt like God was giving me a miraculous gift as I was lying there awake! I'm now 15 weeks along and I have felt some fluttering this past week (I KNOW it's not gas), so I'm feeling my baby early which is really cool! As I said in my Facebook status, this baby likes to hide and the doctor, once again, had a hard time finding the baby's heartbeat. She finally found the baby at the very bottom of my belly (really low) and I finally got to hear the wonderful whooshing sound of their heartbeat! The doctor said she never has problems finding the heartbeat with someone my size, especially with being 15 weeks along, so she was quite surprised.

This pregnancy has been by far the easiest one so far. The hardest part about it was my digestion problems. I started off my pregnancy with no symptoms, which I was actually a bit concerned about because I was hoping everything was ok. God was trying to tell me, "Trust me! I just want to give you a great pregnancy!" Then, from 6-8 weeks, I got a tiny bit nauseous in the mornings, but that was it. Besides a growing belly and being hungry quite frequently, I haven't had any other symptoms! It would be really hard to have a difficult pregnancy, plus look after my 2 kids, so I really feel God's grace pouring out on me! Now if my labor could go as smoothly as my pregnancy so far, that would be wonderful! :)

It's a Beautiful Day!

Today has been a fantastic day! Jared took the day off of work and he came with me to my Naturopath appointment while my Mom came to look after the kids. The Naturopath told me to just keep on avoiding the foods that bother me and basically just keep on doing what I've been doing. I really felt like I was supposed to be prayed for at church this past Sunday, but I didn't feel like just having someone I don't really know well pray for me. I went and talked to my friend and she asked me how I was doing and then said she would keep praying for me. Then she asked, "Actually, can I pray for you right now?" Of course, I said yes, so she did and since then, I have felt amazing all week! I ate pumpernickel bread with spinach dip last night which had sour cream, cheese, and mayonnaise in it and had not one single symptom afterward! I also had some chocolate chip cookies with no problems! Jared and I went out for lunch after my appointment and I had a caesar salad and 3 cheese penne and not a single symptom! Praise the Lord! When we got home, my aunt needed help learning how to upload pictures onto Facebook, so my Mom + I went over there and I helped her with that and we visited for a bit. Then, I came back home and decided to take Kiera to the store. Her 2nd sticker chart was full (she gets stickers for good behavior or for waking up dry in the morning), so she got to pick a treat or a toy from the store. She found the perfect toy for herself: a plastic princess echo microphone! We also went to the pet store and my sister-in-law works there, so she brought out a shih-tzu puppy for Kiera to pet and let Kiera feed the fish. It was fun watching Kiera enjoy the animals and getting to chat with my sister-in-law. Then, I came home and warmed up some supper for the kids + I. Jared wasn't hungry and left for a friend's house shortly after that. Now Kiera is watching Winnie the Pooh, Blake is playing, and then it's bedtime! I rarely ever have busy days like that, so it was a really nice change from staying at home every day (during the week) and it was great getting to spend most of the day with Jared while getting a break from the kids! I also enjoyed the sunshine + warmer temperatures. Thank you, Lord, for a beautiful, fun day!

Baby Details

It's great to finally have our baby news made public!  We actually told our families at Christmas and then started telling our friends after that, so it hasn't really been a big secret.  We wrapped up the positive pregnancy test and gave it to our families.  They were all really surprised, except for my Mom-in-law.  She had been bugging us and asking about it and I actually lied to her, which I felt bad about!  My Mom didn’t have her glasses on when she opened it, so she was holding it, starting at it really confused, and wondering why we were giving her a thermometer for Christmas!  Ha ha!  I had my camera ready for when she finally realized what it was and this was her expression.

Priceless!  I have very much enjoyed watching peoples’ reactions.  Jared’s Dad immediately got tears in his eyes, which was very sweet.  Oh, and as a side note, my digestion problems started before I got pregnant and have nothing to do with the pregnancy.

This was a planned pregnancy and we are planning to be done our family after this one.  We actually sort of started trying at the end of August, but soon discovered that for me, it’s not physically possible to get pregnant while breastfeeding, as I had no cycle.  We decided to wait until I could safely switch Blake to 3% milk in October and then a month later I got pregnant.  I am now 14 1/2 weeks along and due in the middle of August.  Blake + this baby will be 21 months apart, so 3 months closer together than our first 2 kids.

I had a scare 3 1/2 weeks ago at my first doctor’s appointment.  I went and she couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat.  It’s a bit early to find it at 11 weeks, but with thin people, you can often hear the baby’s heartbeat earlier.  She immediately booked me for an ultrasound which was the following day.  Those 24 hours between appointments was hard for me.  I had sharp pain close to my stomach the week-end before, so thoughts of possible miscarriage were running through my head.  I did some crying and a ton of praying.  I had our families and some friends praying as well.  I kept asking God for life.  I decided to go to the ultrasound by myself as I felt peace about it.  It was really hard to know how to prepare myself for the appointment, though, as I knew I was either going to be hearing amazing, joyful news, or totally devastating news.  I had also prayed for a really nice ultrasound tech and she was super nice + friendly!  The first things she said to me were, “I’m having a hard time getting the baby’s measurements because the baby is so active and there’s only one in there!”  PRAISE THE LORD!!!!  I was SO relieved that the baby is totally healthy!  There had also been a lot of jokes about twins and the night before the ultrasound, my friend had a dream that Jared had warmed up 2 bottles and the reason there were 2 bottles was because we had twins.  I prefer to have one baby at a time, so that was good news to me. :)  I got to see the baby’s heartbeat (which was strong) flickering on the screen, and I got to see their little arms + legs moving.  It’s incredible that at 11 weeks the baby is almost fully formed!  Everything was there that was supposed to be there!  When I saw the baby, I said, “Wow!  What a miracle!”  We are truly blessed to have another miracle on the way! :)

Very Thankful

“The more I count these blessings, the more I realize that they really are not the product of my own efforts. They are truly gifts of grace from God above. It’s incredible to open my eyes to them week after week. And humbling. That I should be graced with such wonders? Me… whose heart is weak and black, yet covered with much mercy. How great is Your unfailing love, Lord God of all!” ~Sharaya Crossan

Today, I am thankful for:

591. Freedom to worship Jesus in this country

592. This, which I haven’t had since last year

 

593. When Blake says, “Hi!” in his cute baby voice

594. The gorgeous hoar frost on the trees a couple of weeks ago

595. Leftovers, which means less cooking for me

596.

597. Homemade lemonade, which I made for the first time yesterday and it’s great!

598. “Fun” toes (I decided to brighten things up)

599. When piano students catch on to new things

600. NEW LIFE!!!! :D :D

Wednesday Recipe

This is another soup that I make usually once a week.  I love it and since starting this diet, I have really come to enjoy mushrooms a lot more.  I still wouldn’t eat them plain or with dip, but I really enjoy them in soups and on salads and I don’t mind them on pizza anymore.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 tsp. olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped (I skip this)

3 cups white mushrooms, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced (I do 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)

1/4 tsp. basil

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

3 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. green onions, chopped

Bring these next 3 to a boil separately (makes a thick sauce):

2 tbsp. butter (I use olive oil)

3 tbsp. flour (I use white rice flour)

2 cups milk (I use almond milk)

Cook 1st 6 ingredients with olive oil until dry.  Gradually add broth + lemon juice and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, add the thick sauce and simmer for 10 min.

I’m really excited that I ate cheese yesterday and it had no ill effects on me!  Praise the Lord!  I really like meals with cheese, so I’m pumped about that! :)  Next experiment: pancakes made with normal flour.  Hoping and praying that goes just as well!

A Hard Week-end

This past week-end was definitely not the greatest. It started off with some really fun plans that I had for Friday night getting postponed, so that was disappointing. We were running low on groceries and I wasn't sure what to make for supper. It was really nice outside, so I suggested Jared should bbq some hot dogs. I, obviously, am not supposed to eat hot dogs, but I was low on food options, so I decided to have one along with a salad. I had terrible stomach pain after that and just felt rotten, and then that night I was up several times with the runs and one round of puking. Jared got sick the next day, but his symptoms were a bit different. He had a fever and a headache and we both just lay on different couches for most of the day. I REALLY needed to go to the store for some groceries but was feeling very weak and exhausted. I dragged my butt to the store anyway and picked up the essentials. Then, I came back and quickly cooked up some rice pasta and homemade alfredo sauce for myself. I took it along in my purse and went to that baby's funeral. I knew there was going to be a light supper after consisting of buns, lunch meat, cheese, etc. and I didn't want to cheat after what I had just been through, so I brought my own supper.

The funeral was sad, of course, but also filled with hope as the focus was on Jesus. Part of the message that stood out was when our pastor said, "When you're filled with pain, the best thing you can do is worship Jesus." He's the only one who can take away the pain. There were a few difficult moments for me. The first was when the couple came walking in and the Dad was carrying a little white box with his baby's body inside (it was closed). They walked in while the band softly played an instrumental version of "Jesus Loves Me." It made me want to bawl my eyes out, but I managed to not. Then, the pastor told about how their baby died in his Mom's arms with his Daddy holding his hand. That was really hard for me to hear. They picked the songs for the funeral and they chose: Amazing Grace, How Great Is Our God, and It Is Well With My Soul. Wow! To me, that was a testimony of their complete trust in the Lord. The other hard part for me was right as the meal was starting, they showed a slideshow. The first part was one song with mostly maternity pictures. The 2nd part was them with their baby and the song they chose was "You Are So Beautiful To Me." I start to cry every time I think about it. They took quite a few pictures in the 23 hours he was alive with family members and some just of him and there were some really beautiful ones. The hardest ones for me were when they were bending over and kissing his face. I decided ahead of time that I wasn't going to go see the burial and it turns out I was so weak that standing and walking were difficult for me. I bottled up most of my tears and then let them all out after I got home. I was sitting on the rocking chair in the living room, reading my Bible and talking to Jesus and I just sat there and cried. The next morning (yesterday), I woke up and started praying and just started crying again. I'm extremely blessed that I've now only been to 3 funerals in my life. The 1st was my Grandpa when I was 2, which I don't remember. The 2nd was Jared's uncle who died of cancer when I was pregnant with Kiera. I think I met him once at our wedding, so I totally didn't know him.

Yesterday, I played keyboard and sung for praise + worship at church. During the practice, I still felt really weak and had to sit on a tall chair. I prayed and asked God for special strength to be able to stand for worship during the service, and He answered and I was able to stand! After, I was so exhausted just sitting on a chair during the message, but felt a bit better by the time we got home. We ordered a pizza for lunch and I haven't had any problems from it, so I'm wondering if my body is ok with wheat + dairy. I haven't tried them just by themselves yet, so I'm planning to do that in the next couple of weeks. Jared went to go see a movie with friends in the evening and I really wasn't looking forward to being by myself with the kids, but it went really well! We ended up dancing and running around in the kitchen singing, "You're So Good To Me, Lord!" Then, we rested and sat down on the floor and sung, "Amazing Grace." It was just one of those moments I want to save in my memory forever. So, the week-end was hard but it ended off really well and I experienced God's grace. He is so good in every situation!

A Surprising Invitation

On Monday, we had a knock at our door. We opened it to discover our neighbor standing there. She handed us an envelope and said, "I'm here to invite you to my wedding." WHAT??!!! She's in her 60's, never been married, and we had NO idea there was a man in her life. She said she's only been engaged for a month and the wedding is in 3 weeks! She's marrying a man from down the street who's wife died and he has a big family. She wears dresses and her hair up in a bun, covered by a black cap and that's the kind of church she comes from, so we were very surprised and delighted to be invited! I'm planning to wear a nice sweater, a long black skirt, my hair up, and not a lot of jewelry and make-up. I just want to respect the way they do things and not draw a lot of attention to myself, although people will probably notice that we're "different" anyway. Maybe if I could find one of those black cap things...(hee hee) She said we don't need to RSVP as their weddings are fairly casual and there's just a light lunch after. Their weddings are part of their Sunday morning church service, so we get to experience a different kind of church service than what we're used to. We're very happy for her as she is such a nice, sweet lady and we'll miss not having her right next door, as she will be moving into his house. She said we could gladly bring our kids, but we're going to a hockey game the night before, so my parents are taking both kids for the night. That way we won't have to worry about attracting even more attention to ourselves during the service/wedding as Blake likes to walk around and make a lot of noise and Kiera likes to dance. We won't know anyone, except for our neighbor, so that's an uncomfortable thought for me, but it's good to get out of my comfort zone! Should be interesting!

Dress It Up

It's time for another mid-week recipe. I've had to start reading the ingredients on everything that I buy and sometimes I've been quite surprised. There are so many chemicals! I was shocked at how many cans of soup and packaged soups have MSG in them: Monosodium Glutamate. Anyway, I have to make my own salad dressings because there is soybean oil in basically all of them, plus some of my favorites also have dairy + eggs. This is by far my favorite dressing so far! The salad I eat it with consists of romaine lettuce, cut up apples, and cut up broccoli. I also add chicken sometimes. I know that sounds strange, but it tastes SO good! Here is the recipe:

Lemon Poppyseed Dressing

1/4 cup white sugar (I do less sugar and then add some agave nectar)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. diced green onions
1/2 tsp. mustard
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp. poppyseeds

Put it all in a blender and that's it! It tastes EXACTLY like the bottled dressing. I do have to go to a mirror and pick poppyseeds out of my teeth after, so just a warning! :)