What I Love about Being A Mom

In No Particular Order Of Priority

1. Having a baby snuggle under my chin
   (Negative is, I get a lot of zits there...)
2. Being able to go to playland at McDonalds
3. An excuse for having a tummy... But for real, it's not baby-fat, it's fudge-brownie-how-I-cope-with-kids fat. 
4. Food... I happen to have a secret love of rice cereal (I'm serious)
5. I can SING, and they not only don't care, but like it.  Blake Lee was humming along today, completely melted my heart.
6. I love worshipping God with my kids. Raise hands, sing, pray, I am least self-conscious, and most God conscious then.
7. I make better biscuits. (think it has something to do with not having time to over-work the dough)
8. Insomnia doesn't happen around here.
9. A reason to paint a bedroom tangerine
10. Little brown shoes, and teeny pink toenails
11. Belly laughs
12. Big words out of her little mouth
    "Driving me crazy" - reciting to herself while picking up laundry
    To uncooperative toy "Listen to your mother!"
    "Oh My" >Here she pauses, I'm sure debating whether she wants her mouth washed out with soap, or not< "Goodness"

So much to appreciate if I choose to do so
       I snuggle in with her and watch the moon come up, she tells me that "it looks like rain" in true Farmer's Almanac style.  I pick him up and his tears stop. It's brutal, hard this whole mothering thing. But it's not thankless.

 

Pumpkin Picking

Gorgeous Morning
Had our homemade Hot Pepper Jelly on eggs for breakfast
Bronz needed to have some work done on the car, so we drove it into town, and then talked him into buying his girls some donuts. Yum yum
We sat at the picnic table and enjoyed this perfect morning while Bronz ate apple crisp.
(Our treat for him!)

I started Ann Voskamps book One Thousand Gifts this week...
It is an easy day to be thankful.
I look around and see beautiful, not ugly beautiful.
Thankfulness is a response this morning, not a choice.

 

This little cutie happens to be four months old today

 

Bronz planted a pumpkin patch in our feed lot, once the cows were on pasture.  So we picked them. Kamie was our spotter, Bronz cut them off the vine, and me, I was the baby holder, well most of the time.

Except when I was doing important things like running for the camera or ducking under the fence.

 

We even took our Family picture for September...

Happy Harvest Everyone!

Good Busy

 I'm thankful for 'normal' busy, racing from here to there, sopping up whatever just landed on the kitchen floor.  Doing a quick intervention between Kamie & a basket of eggs. That's been the life lately. 
I spent my Friday with the lil brother-in-law, that guy is a riot.  We were listening to Tim Hawkins, a comedian, and he was coming up with his own parody titled "Things you don't say to your sister-in-law" Including 'Your feet are three feet wide', and 'your breath stinks'. ...If you want to live a long and healthy life... A school assignment was to write a short story using certain spelling words.  "Is it okay if I write 'Once there was a boy who had to write these words >spelling words< and he got very sick.'"
Friday night we packed up and had a girls sleepover. Relaxing, and crazy me, I actually went to bed before midnight.  Something about two kids and the rarity of synchronized naps, I guess.
The rest of the weekend included down time at my Mom's, shopping, fun bonfire at a neighbor's, Sunday dinner with a friend, and some salsa makin'. 
Really wasn't sure which pile to tackle first this morning... All while keeping Blake fat and happy, keeping Kamie out of trouble, and getting some school done with the brother-in-law. (Doing some 'subbing' due to work scheduling) 
Happy to report that:
Quite a few of the piles are smaller. (in the interest of fair reporting, some are larger, namely the laundry one.)
School went great.
Kamie took a three hour nap.
I canned the salsa.
One batch of hot pepper jelly, completed.
Only rubbed my eye once after cutting up jalapenos. (But, really who would do that twice)
And I'll end with a confession.

I actually like Mondays.

Stuffed Tomatoes

 

We're all about tomatoes this week. A friend of mine picked up 14 boxes for me at a produce auction... for the grand price of $76

We had a canning day and put up 45 quarts, froze 100 lbs.

Soup, sauce, grilled, fresh... We've had them

Today I decided to get kind of 'foodie'. 

And so I stuffed them.

Cut the top off of tomato

Hollow out

Sprinkle tomato with pinch of salt

Put about 3 Tb of filling in

i.e. mushrooms, peppers, onions, rice, cheese, bacon

I cooked up some brown rice, with some of the previously ousted tomato, then added green and red peppers, side pork, garlic salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes

Top your custom filling with an egg, cracked directly into tomato

Sprinkle with more salt and pepper

Parmesan Cheese

Fresh Parsley

(my only herb that has survived the drought)

Bake in a 425 Oven

Baking time is somewhat subjective

I like my eggs over hard

So they spent 40 minutes in there

Yummy, I added a dollop of sour cream before serving.

Duh, of course I made this while Bronz was gone.

Bike-Like Faith

Last week I wrote about faith, a few hours later I was tucking Kamie into bed and asked her what she wanted to pray about.  Usually it's a rotating list of favorite family members, neighbors, and their animals. (I've prayed for dogs, kittens, donkeys, Abe the calf...) This night though, she told me to pray for a bike.  Kamie adores bikes, and 'more bicycles'. Commentary after seeing a semi, or more like every semi goes like this. "Meme scared of semi's"  "Meme like bikes". But this was the first time she'd wanted to pray for one. 
I prayed for a bike. 
Next day we went on a three county garage sale spree. Sure enough as we pulled in I spotted a pink bike, with a helmet, needed a new inner tube on the front tire but other than that was in pretty good shape, and they wanted a grand total of $1 for the ensemble.
Ever feel like you just got a hug from God?

When Cliches Don't Cut It

I've had a lot of hard questions circling in my head.  I keep struggling for answers, and finding that I can come up with solutions if I focus just on the outcomes of people. I can also get answers if I look at the Bible, but the two aren't meshing. My people solutions look very different from my God solutions. This is hard. 
I keep wrestling. 
When younger, I'm pretty sure I would have just gone with a pat "All things work together for good to them that love God." And then attribute wayward children, hurt marriages, bad things... to a lack of love of God. I'm not so sure now, people that genuinely love God are suffering these very things. Did they go wrong? Or someone else?
I believe God's word is true.  So did He mean something different by the good things he promised for those who love Him? 
I keep wrestling.
How can I keep myself from falling... If these people who I respect, can't stand? I know as well as anyone else that I'm just as prone to sin as they are.
Then it hits me - Faith.  Faith is what we hold onto when we don't see, when it doesn't always makes sense.  I know enough about My God to know that He is True. That He is Trustworthy. That He is God. 
These things still don't make any sense.

I continue to search for my answers...  And I have peace, because I can trust God, because faith is a choice. And I choose.

In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer,

I have overcome the World. ~Jesus

Apple Cake

Yumminess...

I make this almost every fall for Bronz, cuz he likes it, the recipe is super easy, and it's topped with a butter sauce. Umm Yeah!

It's out of a church cook book we received as a wedding gift. One of those churches that's been around forever... 1879 to be correct. And has its own collection of folklore.  I think the best story an older guy, named Bill told us.  He was attending a wedding there, and arrived a tad late, as he came up some kids asked him to open the door for them, since their arms were full. Full with bags of pigeons they'd caught.  They released them into the basement, where the reception was to be held.  I guess the birds were about as happy about the whole deal as the church board.  The police showed up a couple days later at Bill's and told him that the church wasn't going to prosecute, but demanded all involved attend a board meeting.  (That could sure cut down on crime!)  They were thoroughly chewed up one side and down the other, until finally there was a demand for an apology.  Everyone looked at Bill, since he was the oldest, Bill being innocent of the matter wasn't going to apologize, so after several long minutes of silence, the board told them to catch the last two birds in the bell tower and never do anything like that again!

So here's the recipe:
Apple Cake
Stir and let stand until juicy:
3 cups diced apples
1 cup sugar
Add:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix and put in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 until done.
Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 heaping tablespoons flour
1 cup water
Cook until clear, add 1 stick butter.
Pour over warm cake.
Enjoy with whipped cream, and a hot cup of coffee.