pyrex obsessed last week's finds

Savoring my SAHM Status

I've always known that staying home with the kids was not a permanent status in my life, and I have always been okay with that. I went to college right after high school, got my degree in elementary education, taught school for almost ten years, then my husband and I decided to grow our family.  I resigned from my position after the first semester in 2006, and began the journey of being a Stay home mom.

There were days when I was so enthralled with my newborn son, that my husband would come home from work only to find me un-showered and frazzled. Other days when he'd open the door to the scent of a savory new dish I had time to work on. Then the days when I was terribly lonely, and my thoughts mostly were, "I cannot wait until he (my son) is out of diapers and he can do things for himself, and I can go back to work."

When he was six months old, I conceived my second child, and was terrified at the prospect of raising two babies at the same time. I remember when I saw the positive sign on my pregnancy test I was stunned silent. I don't even think I spoke at all that entire day. Shocked would be an understatement.

My daughter was born when my son was 14 months old. He took his first steps while I was in the hospital with her. Bringing my little newborn daughter home and caring for a barely walking, barely speaking toddler was almost more than I could bare. The days were many when my husband would come home to a messy house and a pile of unfolded laundry...an exhausted momma.

My thoughts were mostly fantasies of getting in the vehicle and driving off into the sunset...just me...and then the desire for both children to be out of diapers, both speaking, both doing for themselves...and when oh when would I get to finally go back to work?

~~~~~~ Fast forward to the present.

You really couldn't say I have toddlers any longer. We just celebrated my little man's 5th birthday in December, and my little lady will be 4 early spring. They play together so nicely, I enjoy intelligent conversations with each of them, and they will be attending school in September. Just 8 months away from now. Just 8 months to sleep in and make breakfast and watch Disney Junior in the mornings.

How I would turn back time, to snuggle a thick black haired newborn close to my chest again! But those days are just memories, and I must make new ones, so I am savoring my status for these last 8 months.

Instead of serving breakfast in a flurry of frantic kitchen cleaning, I am purposefully making the moments count. I make a place setting for myself, I sit across from a sweet curly haired thoughtful little boy. We talk about machines and how he wants to grow up to be a man who takes cars apart for people and put new parts in and put them back together.

I enjoy my egg and veggie omelet, take a sip of coffee and whisper a thank-you to God for this moment. For the way He has provided for our little family on one income. How gracious He has been to us, to provide and meet even the smallest needs in unexpected ways. Allowing for me to be here now, in this moment at the table with them.

My little lady sops up her "gooey" egg with toast. She's adventurous, creative, wild at heart. She tells me that she's going to be an animal doctor and drive a mini van and then be a chef and have lots of babies. We giggle as they start singing a song they made up about their baby cars. I am blessed. I clean up their plates and they run off to play...their song inspiring the sounds of hot wheels being dumped onto bedroom floors. This is how these months will flow. Stopping to relish the mundane...to savor my status.

Every Monday, you will see posts labeled "Grace Laced Mondays" It's a blog link up and blogging challenge by my friend Ruth over at www.gracelaced.com . If you want to participate, DO! :)

My Take on Grain Free Granola

Our family has discovered a wonderful diet lifestyle, the Paleo diet. We did it consecutively for two months and really loved how we felt, how our clothes were fitting and how delicious it was. Unfortunately we allowed the holidays to dominate our diet, and we threw healthy eating out the window for sugar and gluten. Yick. This week we are back to Paleo, and I want to share a delicious recipe with you.
I adapted it from this WONDERFUL recipe over at www.paleoparents.com.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds removed from their shells)
1 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup chopped cashews
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup fresh dates diced
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (Trader Joes has a delicious one)

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the honey and oil. Pour over the nut and fruit mixture mixing well. (I used my hands to really get it all over) Spread on a large lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes at 275 degrees stirring once after 15 minutes.

This makes a yummy little snack, or better yet, pour in a bowl with your favorite non dairy, non soy milk, and enjoy the first bowl of cereal you've probably had since going paleo!

(awesome dishwasher spots on my plastic, right??!!)

Thanksgiving Thursday

I bought the book One Thousand Gifts on the recommendation of a friend for myself, my sister in laws, and my secret santa gift for Christmas.  I began reading it, and really evaluating my own moments of gratitude. What has really stuck with me so far, from the few chapters that I have read, is that taking the time to thank our Creator for the little things in life slows you enough to appreciate these little moments..as gifts from above.

This week I have really tried to slow, and appreciate sweet moments and each week I will list my thousand gifts. I want to encourage you to as well. We can make every Thursday a Thanksgiving Thursday!

1. little voices playing "kitty"
2. a husband who cooks delicious meals
3. little fingers stroking my cheek as I sing goodnight songs
4. taking walks on warm winter days
5. clean water to quench my thirst
6. never forgotten, always provided for
7. new colors on my wall

The Chevron Headband-it

I have my first pattern for sale in Ravelry. It will also be listed in my etsy shop. I am pretty excited about it and hope you are too. :)
J

ChachachaCHanges-Wordless Wednesday

DIY Roller Stamper

I want to start by saying I saw this ingenious pin on pinterest that lead me to DIY stampers which in turn gave me this idea. :)

Firstly, you need some toilet paper rolls, a large stamp pad, and foam stickers of your choice.

We'll go jungle themed

Just stick them on creating a picture horizontally...then roll in your big ol' stamp pad being sure all stickers are well coated, then roll away on paper. I am going to go create a bunch of these with my not so tots this afternoon!

EDIT TO ADD:

After playing with this craft WITH tots...we decided it was way more fun to place the rolls on a paint roller and roll the heck out of the paper on their IKEA easels! That's how we "roll" 

Formatting

In order to be more active on my blog, I need to have an assignment! In the next few weeks I am going to implement some changes in format to help me in that department.

Monday: Laced with Grace in conjunction with other bloggers following my friend over at http://www.gracelaced.com/

Tuesday: Craft-tastic Tuesday

Wednesday: Wordless Wednesday

Thursday: Thanksgiving every Thursday

Friday: Foodie Fridays

I look forward to filling my little corner of the cyber world with fun and useful and interesting tidbits! :)
Jenny

Did you miss me?

Well, for most of 2011 I had no internet connection...then, for the last part...well, I had slipper orders coming out of my ears! :)

Now I get to be a mommy. And a blogger...a little bit. Here are some of the crafts we've been doing around here:

Around Thanksgiving, we went on a little leaf treasure hunt...I cut out a construction paper body and the kids did the rest...they're turkeys!

Thanks to a Martha Stewart craft idea, I bought some jewelry wire, and cut a good length of it, bent the end, and the kids LOVED threading them with buttons! I didn't embellish any more than this, but a little bow would be cute too.

We went on a pine cone hunt a few days before Christmas and found a few pretty ones that we made even prettier with some glue and glitter. I used the jewelry wire again and just wrapped the heck out of the center of the cone to attach it. Then formed a loop and hung them on the tree.

Hubby and I (okay mostly I) did some holiday baking to help bring on the happy merry jingle bell feelings!

I got my secret santa gift from my treasury team mate. She made me some bookmarks with my new shop name banner. :)

And, I am wearing one of my first knit hats I made! I am hoping to have a nice supply of them in my shop when it opens up! Yippeee. 

Thanks for peeking over here at the toddlerwhisperer!

Beer Can Chicken (have you tried it?)

This post is dedicated to Mr Toddlerwhisperer...who really is our Grill King. :)

To start, he uses his well-loved, well-used charcoal grill. He uses hard wood lump coal...which makes a huge difference in taste. Notice, all the coal is piled on just one side of the grill? That's important.

Next comes the part every man loves...the lighting of the coal. Lighter fluid required. Notice how the flames on the left look like a cat trying to make it's deathly escape...Grill Master likes that part too. Now we wait. Wait until those flames burn every bit of lighter fluid off the grill...and the coals begin to glow white hot.

While we wait, we prepare our birds. 

Preparation is actually quite simple. You need a small beer can...like the 12 oz variety...we found Buds in this form, and this time we are using a local brewer's beer.  Salt, pepper garlic and oregano..

dressed

perched

telling ghost stories by the fire...actually, this part is important. you set the chickens on the side of the grill with no coal...you are indirectly cooking them. Cover, and leave alone for 1 1/2-2 hours.

This is the end result. Delish, perfectly roasted, juicy, falling off the bone chicken. Your life will never be the same. I promise!!