Adventures in Baking

One of the things that I enjoy most is sharing quality time baking with my daughter, so I was very excited, back in August, when my mother gave me three of her Gooseberry Patch Holiday cookbooks. I can't help it, I take comfort in reading cookbooks. I just love them!

My daughter and I went through all of them together right away and began flagging the pages of both the sweet and savory recipes that we thought would be fun to try together.

Just going through the books together, in itself, was great fun. I had some of those post-it flags, that she calls staffs... (she thinks they look like a Shepherds staff). As we went through the books, my daughter placed a "staff" on all of the pages containing recipes that looked good to us. We used pink and yellow for the sweets and blue to mark the savory dishes.

When my daughter and I bake together we make very simple, yet delicious treats. The recipes made from scratch are also very simple and most of them have been passed along by family members. I also have some favorites from the Food Network stars.

When we make cakes, cupcakes, brownies and muffins, I typically use a store bought mix, but then dress the recipe up a little or just have fun decorating. For instance, just a couple of weeks ago we made a boxed brownie mix, but then my daughter lined Reese's Peanut Butter cups, up and down the pan, after I poured the brownie mix in it. It was delicious! Another time we made store boxed cupcakes but then "mixed it up a little," like my daughter says, and decorated them with M&M's.

I made sure that all the recipes we flagged from the Gooseberry Patch books were simple. Well, they looked simple. This is going to be an adventure but one that I would like to share with you! I hope that you will try some of the recipes that I share, both new and old.  I hope that you enjoy the old ones and that we both enjoy the new ones too!!!

There is a comments section on my blog, so if any of the recipes look good to you, and you end up trying them out, I would love any feedback that you have. Also, if you have any simple recipes that you would like to share with me, I'd love to try them too.

So as not to make this a super long post, I am going to share today's adventure in a separate entry.

I Am Wherever You Are

I have been operating way outside my comfort zone lately and it has me all out of sorts. I hate feeling this way.  I am mostly unbelievably happy and optimistic about my blog, but sometimes I'm riddled with doubt.

I find this emotional rollercoaster that I'm on has me feeling a little off-kilter. We were at a party this weekend and although I was having a great time, I still sometimes feel a little uncomfortable when there's a lot of people around, mainly when there's a lot of people that I don't know well or haven't seen in a while. Unfortunately for me, and anyone standing next to me, when I feel uncomfortable, you just can't shut me up. I do not stop talking. I'm always thinking, "hmm, what can I talk about next?" and I talk and talk and talk and then start to feel uncomfortable by the fact that I'm talking so much.

I had to remove myself and my nervous chatter from the party for a couple minutes and went back to my apartment alone. I sat on the couch staring at the book that I have displayed on the mantle in our living room. It's called, I am Wherever You Are, (In the light of loss, paintings by N.A. Noel). It's a beautiful book that was given to me by a close friend a few weeks after Isabel was delivered. The paintings and poems still move me to tears.

I had received the package while headed out one day to a follow up visit at my OB/GYN's. When I arrived at my Dr's office, I was left sitting there in the waiting room, surrounded by all of these pregnant women for what seemed like an eternity. It was a difficult time. I was still carrying an extra 30 lbs and looked like I had just had a baby, but I had no baby to hold. My body didn't realize that my baby had died so I was still producing milk, but had no baby to feed. I didn't know what to do with myself around all of these pregnant women, so I decided to open up the package I was sent, and once I did, I saw this beautiful book sent to comfort me and I began reading the excerpts.

"It is not always ours to understand why morning passes to midnight without full chance of day. But in the darkest hours, the light you were given, however briefly, will shine above you...in the stars and in the eyes of an angel". - P.S. Points

and then

"The sweet Angels take us to peace, never fear, quietly, lovingly, the Angels come." - Marshall Stewart Ball

and then

"The time may be delayed, the manner may be unexpected, but the answer is sure to come.  Not a tear of sacred sorrow, not a breath of holy desire, poured out to God will ever be lost, but in God's own time and way will be wafted back again in clouds of mercy, and fall in showers of blessings on you, and on those for whom you pray." - Saint Therese

I was moved to tears and felt so comforted by these beautiful poems and paintings. I also felt comforted and loved and understood by my friend. The book was a perfect gift and one I will treasure for the rest of my life.

It's been two years, and naturally as time passes, the sting of it all eases. The birth of my son has brought us all great joy. I don't know who I would be now if he were not here with me. I am so grateful for him.

Still, there are times when I get these waves of intense grief. The other day someone announced that a little baby girl was born and I got all choked up. This morning at kickboxing Sarah McLaughlin's song Angel was playing during abs and I got all teary again.

"It's gonna be ok Mommy," was what my then, 2 year old daughter, said to me one day soon after Isabel's delivery. I had been resting in bed and she came into the room to see me.  I was so sad and here my amazing little girl was comforting me. 

And she was right...it's gonna be ok. Because, although there are still days like today, where I think of Isabel and feel a little sad, I know that I am blessed.

I am blessed in that, it is on most days, whether at the park with my daughter and son, or reading to them and mostly in times when we are just sitting still, and one or both of them are on my lap, that I am overwhelmed with feelings of profound joy and love and gratitude.

Add it to Your List

The kids and I spend a lot of time in Barnes & Noble. Partly because it's something to do, but mostly because I love to buy books. All kinds of books. I buy a lot of children's books and since having kids, mostly non-fiction for me. I read a lot of books on child rearing, books on politics and above all else, I love cookbooks. My love of food and cooking will be a common theme in my blogs. Lately though, I've been keeping the Dummies books in business: Blogging for Dummies, How to Get Published for Dummies, Search Engine Optimization for Dummies...you get the picture.

I also buy a lot of books from Amazon.com, as I find filling my electronic shopping cart up highly enjoyable!  But there's just something very comforting to me in walking into any bookstore and walking out with a book that I get to take home and read, or at least flip through, right away.

On one of our recent outings to B&N, my daughter was eyeing a couple of those stuffed toys that they sell. This time she wanted Ho Ho and Tolee from that cartoon, Ni Hao, Kai-Lan.

I said no to the toys that day but told her that she could add them to her list for Santa. She was upset and also worried that by the time Christmas came around, there would be none left in the store for Santa to buy for her. I wanted a quick end to the conversation, so I told her not to worry about it and that I'd send Santa an e-mail as soon as we got home.

I wasn't expecting the sudden look of excitement and happiness that spread all over her face....."You're friends with Santa?!!!" I've never seen anyone so impressed with me than in that moment.

Side note... although I tell her to put things she wants on her list for Santa, I am clear about the fact that Santa does not buy everything on the list. That being said, in this instance, I felt compelled to come through with Ho Ho and Tolee.

So, I went back to the store while she was at school one day and was really excited that there were some left. I picked them up and thought how great it was going to be that she'd think that Santa made a special trip to the bookstore just for her, all because of an e-mail from her mommy. I knew there wasn't going to be time to drop the bag off at home before pick-up, so I thought that a clever thing to do would be to pick up a small book to give her that day. This way there wouldn't be a lot of questions as to the contents of the bag.

She WAS super excited about the book. We had errands to run so I threw it back in the bag.
Our first stop was lunch and then the hair salon (we both needed haircuts) and I didn't give the book another thought. We get to the salon and as I'm sitting there in the chair, I suddenly hear, "OOOOOOH, Mommy, thank you so much!" I turned around to see my daughter holding Tolee in one hand and Ho Ho in the other.

She had discovered the toys while going into the bag, to take out the book, that I so cleverly bought for her that day.

Deep sigh.

                         

What time is it?

"Mommy, what time is it?"

It's 6:39(am) honey.

"Wow!"..."That's A LOT!"

Cool Find - The Zoo

I thought that from time to time, instead of my usual blogposts, it would fun to share product recommendations, recipes, and maybe some photos too. 

In this blog post, I want to share a cool product that I found on the internet. We bought it about 1 1/2 years ago. It's a unique stuffed toy storage unit called The Zoo.

Due to my daughters love of stuffed toys, our place was beginning to look as if Noah had unleashed the contents of his Ark all over every single room in our apartment!

I started surfing the web for a solution to our stuffed toy clutter problem and stumbled upon the Zoo.

It's worked out really well for us. It was pretty easy to put together, a.k.a. there were no tears shed or expletives unleashed during assembly . We haven't had any accidents, a.k.a. my son hasn't pulled it down on top of himself. You can actually fasten it to the wall but we haven't had to do that.

The only down side is that when you over stuff it, as you obviously aren't supposed to do, but we do anyway, some of the animals fall out of the back. Another downside to overstuffing is that the kids definitely have a harder time getting the animals out themselves. I guess though, with proper use, we wouldn't have these problems.

I've provided a link so you can check it out.

Do you have any cool products that you would like to recommend?

The Zoo by Beaver Works Inc. Your playroom storage solution!

Are You Decent?

Tonight my sister and I took the kids out to dinner. We planned on her coming back to the apartment with us afterwards to hang out for a while before she made her way home.

We're halfway up the stairs to the 3rd floor walk-up, my sister leading the way, when she suddenly turns to me and asks...

"Does Stephen know I'm coming over?"

Yes....Well, I think so....Well, I'm not sure if I told him.

Without a moment of hesitation, my daughter whizzed by my sister up the stairs and shouted in our hallway....

"Daddy put your pants on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Penny for Your Thoughts

Stephen and our little guy were having the best time playing the other day.

Stephen was really enjoying the interaction they had going on together. He was making funny faces and the baby was sticking out his tongue and babbling happily. He doesn't have a very extensive vocabulary. Our son I mean, not Stephen (ha, ha, ha). He says mama and bye, hello and bath, cheese and shoes. But, Stephen swears he hears him say, I love you daddy.

Stephen was overjoyed at how amused the baby was by the funny faces he was making. The baby kept sticking out his tongue and saying aaah. This happened over and over again. The more the baby stuck out his tongue and said aaah, the happier Stephen became... "My son and I are bonding!"... "I am the funniest daddy in the world!"

There Stephen was imagining again that his amused little fan was saying, aaah love you daddy!

But soon Stephen realized that the baby wasn't saying, aaah love you daddy at all.

Our little guy was simply, and very proudly, showing Stephen the penny he had placed on his tongue.