Stocking Up

Just before my shoulder surgery, my friend Summer and I got together and made a bunch of freezer meals for each of our families. We ended up with 14 meals for each of us and we didn't spend too much money. As I was enjoying the fruits of our labor, I considered all of my friends who often lamented about not having time to cook at home, or who just didn't know how to go about planning and executing meals for their families on a regular basis. As we got to the end of our stockpiles and decided we needed to do it again, we thought it would be a good idea to invite some of these friends, in addition to some friends who just liked the idea of having some ready-made homemade meals in their freezer.

I invited 6 friends to join us and promised that everyone would leave with 15 meals for between $125-$150. As the event drew near, I realized that 15 meals was a little too ambitious, so we settled on 10 meals and each family contributed $100. Here's a list of the meals we created: pot roast, chicken & wild rice casserole, king ranch chicken, baked ziti, chicken cacciatore, chicken coq au vin, bbq pork loin, crock pot ribs, meat loaf, and 3 bean soup.

When the ladies arrived, they were greeted with the pantry:

Here are some of the ladies as they worked:

Summer & Cathy -- the wine was for one of the recipes...

Jenni

Laura -- she needed the goggles to protect her eyes while cutting all the onions

Jenni -- staying away from the mayhem of the kitchen

Summer -- I made the mistake of freezing the pot roasts before I separated them. The only way for us to get them apart was to throw them on the ground (fully wrapped in plastic bags, of course). They split right down the middle. Don't tell anyone!

10 dinners!

The Season's Bounty

I'm assuming that anyone who reads my blog knows me well enough to know about my love of cooking and food. I mean, I am passionate about food. It is my creative outlet, it is how I serve my family, friends and my church, it's how I entertain, I often find myself thinking about new recipes or how I can use something fabulous that I found at the grocery store, and I really love to eat my (and anyone else's) creations. This might all explain why I still haven't taken off that baby weight...but that's another story.

You might ask yourself (or me), why don't you cook for a living? I've tried that. I owned a catering business for a while and I've cheffed for one of my friends. While I enjoy cheffing for pay, I've found that I find more joy in cooking when I'm serving my family, friends or church rather than getting paid for it. (Stacey--if you read this, I still really, really like working for you, so please don't take me off your email list).

All that to say, I have been in foodie heaven lately. Have you checked out the produce section at your local grocery store recently? Seriously, I'm like a kid in a candy store, and I can't stop myself from buying fresh fruits and vegetables. I've been buying so much that I'm having to give it away, make smoothies, feed it to my family at every single meal, or, shamefully, I've even had to throw some fruit away that I've let go bad. I know, that's horrible.

This love of all food is a lifelong romance for me. I will say, though, that when I was growing up there were a couple of things I absolutely could not eat: beef liver and tomatoes. I still don't eat beef liver, but tomatoes...

Tomatoes....

Now that's a different story. Particularly this year, I have ventured into the many varieties that are available at the grocery store. Recently, I bought yellow cherry tomatoes, cherubs (grape tomatoes), and I finally purchased a couple of heirloom tomatoes. Top that off with my friend Kristin's tomato garden. She bequeathed us with several large garden fresh tomatoes and a bag full of cherry tomatoes that you can pop in your mouth and eat like a grape. So...what have we eaten this week?

Monday we had baked potatoes with caprese salad (the heirlooms combined with Kristin's large tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil picked from the plant on our front porch). Who knew vegetarian could be so good?

Wednesday we had whole wheat spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce. I used every single little tomato in my house, fresh basil, store bought pesto, white wine, LOTS of garlic, lemon, salt & pepper...oh, and can you see the Parmesan?. I served it with a salmon fillet, but the kids and I didn't eat the salmon...this was good enough for us.

I dare you to try to eat better (or cheaper) out at a restaurant.

Best Encourager

Corinne participated in the Winshape C3 Camp at the Methodist Church last week. It was an awesome week of fun games and teaching about God being Enough in our lives. Corinne's activities were cheerleading, gymnastics and science. It was a great experience for her and a good introduction to camp without having to go out of town and spend the night away.

On the last day of camp, the families of the campers were invited to spend the day going through the tracks to see what our kids had been doing all week. First up was gymnastics. Corinne went through her routines and she was so thrilled with herself. At the end of the session, the instructor passed out awards to three of the campers. One of the awards was for the camper all week who had really cheered on her friends and kept everyone's spirits up. This was the Best Encourager Award, and it was given to Corinne.



This award really fits Corinne, and it warmed my heart as her mother when she received it. It's not because I've just instilled in her encouraging words and she's a reflection of my great inspiration — it's who she is. I truly believe this is a gift given to her by God that, up until this point, I have been woefully inadequate at helping her to cultivate (does that sound like a mother's guilt or what?). It probably has something to do with the fact that I don't get to witness "Best Encourager" behavior when she's with her brother...but that's another story.

Another example of this was at the swim team banquet where she received The Most Spirited Award for her swimming group. While she was spending her time diligently swimming her workouts every day, she still found time in between swims and sets to bolster her teammates, and her coach.

Corinne has really had a desire to be a cheerleder, and for various reasons, it hasn't worked out for her to participate in that sport. I think the reason she really wants to be a cheerleader is because it really would fill a deep need inside her to encourage and cheer on other people. I'm looking for other ways to fulfill that need for her (I would take any suggestions).

I'm guessing the best way to cultivate this gift in my daughter is to be her Best Encourager, to tell her when she's doing a great job, and to point out when she could do better. And that's in all areas of her life...not just in sport. It's funny what a huge role sports have played in my life, and I think this is why: there's always a lesson to be learned, especially when you least expect it.

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time...

Ben's 5th birthday was last week. We celebrated with the family at The Great Wolf Lodge on Saturday night and then had a birthday party at our neighborhood pool with our friends on his actual birthday. First off, I will say that we loved The Great Wolf Lodge and I highly recommend it to anyone. But on to the birthday party...

Back in April we were visiting my brother and his wife, Paul and Kristi, and I was looking through this great book called Hello Cupcake. This book has really cute ideas about making art out of cupcakes. While I was perusing the book I came across cupcakes made to look like bowling pins. Now, anyone who knows Ben knows he has had an obsession with bowling for quite some time (this is putting it mildly...I could fill up several posts with bowling stories...but it's not about that right now). So, we decided that a bowling party would be perfect and we would make these fabulous cupcakes as the piece de resistance of the party. The only problem was I had surgery planned for the beginning of May to repair a torn rotator cuff, so I wouldn't have the use of my right arm for Ben's party. No worries...Kristi agreed to come to my rescue and help with the cupcakes. She is awesome!

In the meantime, Ben decided he didn't want a bowling party. He's on the swim team, and he really wanted a swimming party. Well, that's easy! We do live in Texas where it's regularly 100+ degrees in June, we have access to a neighborhood pool (with lifeguards) very cheap, and it will be easy to pull off. But, oh...the cupcakes. I know! I can make a cake to look like a pool with lane lines, and then, instead of making cupcakes look like bowling pins, I can decorate them to look like little swimmers, with swim caps and everything. It will be awesome!

My surgery came and went, and it turned out to be a minor inconvenience. After less than a week, I had the use of my arm back. I really didn't expect Kristi to come in for the party since I wasn't incapacitated, but that girl keeps her word, and she showed up, cupcake book in hand, ready to help.

We read the instructions for making the cupcakes, and it went something like this: Place one standard sized cupcake right-side up, and then place a miniature cupcake upside-down on top of the first cupcake. Finally, place a donut hole on the top of the two cupcakes, sticking each piece together with icing. Freeze this structure until ready to dip. When you have all of the bowling pins/swimmers assembled, prepare the frosting by melting it slightly in the microwave, then dip the structure into the icing to cover. You will end up with a cute little bowling pin/swimmer that you can decorate. Here is an example of one of the cupcake contraptions, dressed like a penguin:

Photo courtesy J. Trevizo

The night was going well, if late. We got the cake decorated, and I must say, it looked great! We used Lifesavers for the lane lines, and licorice for some of the finishing touches. See?

Now it's time for our little swimmers. We went through the whole process, dipped them in frosting (we even colored the frosting to make them flesh-colored), and got ready to put on their swim suits. We had the brilliant idea to use fruit rollups to make their swim caps and swimsuits. All we had to do is cut the fruit rollup in a circle and then place it on their head. They'd look like a swim cap, then we'd put a little face on them and somehow fashion a swimsuit.

Oh my...that doesn't look like a little swimmer, and it certainly doesn't look like a swim cap. I can't believe that it didn't occur to us before this moment that our little swimmer man could be misconstrued.

We laughed and laughed, and we took this to my husband to see if he saw what we saw when he looked at this. His response: "I'm not eating that thing." I guess he did see it.

We weren't sure how to respond to this situation, so Kristi went to work:

Here's what we came up with:

I thought he looked more like a construction worker than a swimmer, but at this point we were all laughed out, it was very, very late, and we were out of options. We decided to sleep on it to see if a fresh set of eyes might give use some new ideas.

After much thoughtful consideration (and no new ideas), we decided to use our little swimmer/construction worker as a finishing touch on the cake. Here's the finished product:

What really counts is that Ben liked his cake.

And at the end of the day, the kids ate it up!

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Today was my son Ben's 5th birthday. We had a fabulous time celebrating, first at VBS today, then with a really fun party with our friends tonight. I'll post later about the party (and the cake), but today I want to reflect on a time in my life where I saw God perform a miracle in our lives.

At 20 weeks of gestation with our son Ben, we went in for the ultrasound, not expecting to find out anything except whether or not we were having a boy or a girl. The sonogram technician spent a lot of time checking out all of the vitals on Ben, including really examining his face. She couldn't get a clear picture of his face so she asked us to come back in two weeks. Call it naivetee, or maybe God was just protecting my heart at that time (because I tend to worry A LOT), but I didn't think anything else of it and I was just excited to see our baby again. At the follow up appointment, the technician once again looked long and hard at his face and I finally asked what she was looking for. She had suspected a cleft lip two weeks before, but now after looking again, she was sure that's what she was seeing.

Of course, we were devastated to hear that news. The doctor was called in and he agreed with the technician's observations. They didn't see any other abnormalities in our baby, but they did send us for a level two ultrasound with a perinatologist.

The perinatologist performed the level 2 ultrasound and didn't see anything else wrong with our baby, but he couldn't be sure if he was seeing a cleft palate or not on the ultrasound. In the meantime, we were referred to two different craniofacial surgeons in the area and we made appointments to meet with each of them in the coming weeks. We also scheduled a follow-up ultrasound with the perinatologist.

I've heard it said over and over that the times you cling to God the most is when you're in a dark time in your life. Prior to this situation, I hadn't ever felt like I was in a really dark time, but now I was there, and I spent a lot of time, especially late at night, praying. I would pray for wisdom in choosing a craniofacial surgeon, I would pray for my own heart when I gave birth to this child because I wasn't sure how I would feel when I saw him, I would pray that he would be able to eat without a feeding tube, but I didn't ever pray that he would be healed. I just looked at this situation as a foregone conclusion and I had to do everything in my power to prepare for his birth and then whatever trials would follow.

As time went on, the shock wore off, and we just spent our time excitedly preparing for our baby boy's birth. We had the follow up appointment with the perinatologist, and on this appointment he was able to see a cleft palate as well as the cleft lip for our son. This was bothersome news because we had learned while visiting with the craniofacial surgeons that the cleft palate is a more life-long situation that our son would have to deal with, with surgeries every couple of years to compensate for his growing palate. It was bothersome, but I wasn't surprised at this point.

Along the way, God answered our prayers and He was with us during this time. He provided a fabulous craniofacial surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Fearon, who Dan and I immediately trusted and knew he would take care of our baby, He worked on my heart so that I wasn't scared of our son being born, and He held Dan and I very close together during this scary time.

An interesting thing happened about a month before Ben was born. I had gone to our church's women's retreat and Dan had gone to church at home while I was gone. I got home that afternoon and Dan said our pastor had been preaching out of Matthew where Jesus is performing miracles because people were asking it of Him and they believed that He could perform those miracles. Our pastor said--and I'm paraphrasing here--that we must not pray to God in a watered down pansy sort of way. We must ask of Him our true heart's desire and have faith that He can answer, but also know and be thankful when He doesn't answer like we want.

Then my husband said something crazy...he was going to pray from now until Ben was born--4 weeks--that our son would be healed in the womb. I told him I thought that was a great idea and he could do it, but (and I didn't say this out loud) I didn't really think it was a possibility.

Fast forward four weeks to this day:

And then this:

Our son Ben was born with a very minor cleft lip and NO CLEFT PALATE! It was truly a miracle that could have only been performed by God. I am so thankful that He heard my husband's prayers and He answered them so fully.

I like to remember this story because it is the most concrete example of God's power in my life. It's so easy for me to forget, but all I really need to do is look at this handsome face to remember.

Trying to Capture Some Memories

I'm not a scrapbooker, I haven't filled out my kids' baby books, I used to very rarely take pictures, but then I got a Sony a200 for my birthday and a Nikon Coolpix for Mother's Day. Since then, I've been picture crazy, but I don't do anything with them except load them up on my computer and scroll through them every one in a while.

So...in an effort to somehow document our lives, I'm starting a blog. It will probably mostly be boring stuff that only grandparents, other family and good friends want to look at, but maybe every once in a while I will say something profound, funny, or profoundly funny. We'll see.

Here's an intro to our family:

I have two really funny kids. My daughter C is 8 and she's super smart, sweet, artistic, and athletic (because I really encourage the athletic part). My son B is almost 5 and he's also super smart, hilarious, very persistent and also athletic (not so much at my urging). I am sure you will hear LOTS about the kids.

I am married to my high school sweetheart, D. D is a great guy, super athletic, plays the guitar in our church worship band, and the hard working breadwinner of our family. We have been married for 13 years, together for 5 before that, so we've been together for over 18 years (which is over half of our lives). I still really love my husband and am committed to being married to him til death parts us.

I've been a stay-at-home mom for a little over 6 years, and I've been going to school part time to complete prerequisite courses for nursing school for the past 2. I will start an RN program in August 2009 that will take me two years to complete. I wish I had pursued this years ago, but I don't regret the last 6 years, being home with my kids. Once I'm done with nursing school, I will pursue part time work in a hospital, probably working nights, so I can mostly be a stay-at-home mom still, while serving people, and making money.

I hit an age this year that I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around. You see, I was the youngest member of my nuclear family, and the youngest grandchild on both sides of my rather large extended family. I am by far not the youngest any more (at school, at church, among my friends, and even in my family), and it's really weird to me, something I've thought a lot about over the past few months since my birthday. Maybe I'll talk about that later, maybe not.

That's it for now. I will commit to posting to this blog 4 times per week for the rest of June and all of July. By the end of that time, I'll know if this is going to stick or if it was just a flash in the pan on a day at home with a sick child.

80 Degrees in February

Today we took advantage of the lovely 80+ degree weather to head to the park after school with friends. Enjoy the pics!