I stole the title of this post from my friend Tiffany´s blog. She is an amazing mom, and will inspire you, so check it out!
Anyway, there are so many things that our kids do that are hilarious, adorable, infuriating, etc. but we start to forget them as time goes on. I was thinking today about the things B does, or did, that I don´t want to forget. As I think of them, I will blog them. Hopefully soon I can get started journaling to B, too, so she will have a record of how obsessed I am with her once she hits adolescence and starts thinking I´m out to get her!
Here goes:
Baby snores (louder than you might expect if you haven´t had a baby)
B´s little boogie dance she used to do when she was maybe 6 or 7 months old
The way she has learned that she can get herself out of trouble pretty quickly by giving mommy a big, sloppy kiss
¨Ah buh boo¨ (I love you), and the first time she said it all on her own, instead of just responding to me
B waking up in the middle of the night, shooting me a huge grin, and falling back asleep
Talking in her sleep, with mostly made up words...ADORABLE.
Asking me to put clips in her hair so she can go flirt with herself in the mirror for 10 minutes straight
¨Cah-Cown¨ (popcorn) B´s favorite food of all time (for now!)
Coming up to me randomly and asking to ¨Bay¨ (pray), which goes something like this:
¨Ka (God), Tah-tyoo (thank you), Ah buh boo (I love you), Men (Amen).¨
The way she can have just woken up from a nap two seconds ago, but if you say ¨vamos¨ (let´s go in Spanish), she´ll wake right up and say ¨VAMOOOOOO¨
Her obession with shoes. I spend all day taking off one pair of shoes and putting on another. And another.
The way she has always followed her own pace, ever since she was in the womb. If you just wait, she´ll tell you when she´s ready for the next big step.
B trying to feed a stray dog her lunch today at an outdoor restaurant. Too cute.
Her adoration of all animals, but especially ¨doks¨ (dogs), ¨mau¨ (cats), ¨sh¨ (fish) and ¨BEE!!¨ (birds)
The way she lovingly mothers her baby dolls. That makes me feel like I´m doing something right!
The face she makes when you ask her to show off, and you can tell she wants to, but she´s feeling shy/embarassed
The smile she has when she gets her way (or just thinks she does, like when we gave her a glass of juice and she seemed to think she somehow conned her way into some kind of glorious treat)
The way it feels to snuggle with her every naptime and bed time, and to feel like I wish I didn´t have anything else in the world to do but stay there and hold her (and sometimes, I just ignore everything else I have to do and hold her anyway!)
The way she always wakes up right when I´m in the middle of something, like right now!! Goodnight!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Easy (and healthy!) Toddler Ice Cream
Ok, I was trying to come up with a way to make smoothies for my toddler the other day while working around her food allergies. You can find the recipe for the smoothies I usually make at home right here.
B is allergic to bananas and she is lactose intolerant (hopefully just for now!). So that rules out the bananas and yogurt that I use for the smoothies, and there is no lactose-free yogurt in Ecuador. There is, however, lactose-free milk. So that got my wheels turning.
(On a side-note, this is SO easy, you could adjust it for your own toddler allergies, like using soy, almond or coconut milk, or just use regular milk for a toddler with no milk allergy. You can use different fruits and juices, too. I´d love to hear what you come up with!)
So here´s what you need:
B is allergic to bananas and she is lactose intolerant (hopefully just for now!). So that rules out the bananas and yogurt that I use for the smoothies, and there is no lactose-free yogurt in Ecuador. There is, however, lactose-free milk. So that got my wheels turning.
(On a side-note, this is SO easy, you could adjust it for your own toddler allergies, like using soy, almond or coconut milk, or just use regular milk for a toddler with no milk allergy. You can use different fruits and juices, too. I´d love to hear what you come up with!)
So here´s what you need:
Frozen lactose-free milk (or whatever milk you want to use), frozen in an ice tray
Frozen Strawberries (or any other frozen fruit you choose)
A very small amount of fruit juice (I used apricot nectar, you can use anything you like)
Put your ingredients together in a blender or food processor. For my almost two-year-old, I used 3 cubes of milk, about 5 or 6 strawberry slices, and a tiny amount of juice (maybe a teaspoon?)
That´s it! Spoon into a bowl a serve immediately!
I told you it was easy! One tip: it melts fairly quickly, and then will be more of a smoothie consistency. (If you have an independent kiddo that insists on feeding herself, it will melt. B doesn´t seem to mind, though!)
I call this toddler ice cream, but I´m thinking of making a bunch for me! It´s so good you´ll want to just stick your face in it!
Super Easy and Yummy Smoothies
Every Friday, my husband fasts and does not join us for breakfast, so it´s my easy day. For B I make easy peasy toddler ice cream, and for myself I make a smoothie. This particular recipe is oh so easy, quick and yummy!
Here´s what you need (for one adult):
1 Banana (frozen if you like your smoothies thick)
About a cup of frozen strawberries
About 1/2 cup of yogurt (natural or flavored, you decide)
About 1/2 cup of milk
Put the dry ingredients in the blender: (Mine is dirty because I made B´s ice cream first)
Here´s what you need (for one adult):
1 Banana (frozen if you like your smoothies thick)
About a cup of frozen strawberries
About 1/2 cup of yogurt (natural or flavored, you decide)
About 1/2 cup of milk
Put the dry ingredients in the blender: (Mine is dirty because I made B´s ice cream first)
Add yogurt. (Yogurt in Ecuador is all drinkable yogurt. Mine is apricot. Very tangy!)
Add milk.
Blend.
Drink.
Easy!!
Oatmeal Creme Pies
While my niece is staying here for a week or so, and she was begging me to teach her to make cookies. (Baking is not a very common skill here in Ecuador.) I had been wanting to try to make homemade oatmeal cream pies, because they don´t have them here and I was craving them, so I decided we´d make those together as her first cookie experience. It was fun! My mother-in-law even joined in!
I looked up the recipe, but I used this recipe for the marshmallow fluff. It came out a little more runny that the store-bought kind, but it tasted the same. And we dyed the marshmallow fluff green.
It was fun to spend some ¨girl time¨, and even more fun because I was the only one who had really ever baked before, so it was funny to watch them learn and try things. It made me wish Bella were a little older so we could do those things together, but that time will come!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
I´m baaaack!
Did you miss me? I just want to issue an official apology for not blogging lately. It´s partly because there are so many things I want to post, and I am redoing the blog, and I feel like I can´t publish it all until it´s perfect! And it´s partly because there are so many things going on in our life right now that it´s hard to know where to start. And also, I´m a little bit lazy. I already do SO MUCH work on the computer for the ministry, that I´m tired of looking at it!
However, dear readers, I have not forgotten you! I wanted to take a break from talking about me, me, me and just share a little bit of what I have been reading in God´s Word. I really will update you all on us, just not today! I hope you don´t mind!!
Ok, so a good friend of mine recommended to me that I read Psalm 5. I wanted to really dig deep into the Psalm and get everything I could out of it, so I used an online commentary that was AWESOME. You should check it out.
I have like 10 pages in my journal just on this Psalm. And it made me want to just start in Genesis and do a verse-by-verse study of the whole Bible.Who knows, maybe I will!
First of all, this Psalm really encouraged me to get up early to spend time in prayer, before anyone else is up. I think there are a couple of good reasons to do it. First of all, it´s a smack in the face to the flesh part of us. And any time you can smack the flesh in the face, it´s a good idea to do it! Because the flesh in a loser. Also, it is probably the only truly uninterrupted time you´ll have all day. No one is going to call you. No one is going to show up at your door. No one is going to ask you to do anything, because everyone else is still snoring! And last, but not least, it´s the best start to your day you could ask for. It helps your spirit wake up along with your body, and it puts God in first place. If you start your day like that, you´re more likely to finish it like that.
So, check out this quote from the commentary:
When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave to do the like; our bodies but forerun the spirit's duty: true hearts spread and heave unto their God, as flowers do to the sun. Give him thy first thoughts, then, so shalt thou keep Him company all day, and in him sleep. Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should Dawn with the day. There are set awful hours twixt heaven and us; the manna was not good after sun rising, for day sullies flowers. Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut, and heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut...Go this way, and thou art sure to prosper all the day. Henry Vaughn, 1621-1695
Man, I wish I lived in the 1600´s so I could talk like that. Sigh.
Ok, my other favorite thing about this Psalm is that apparently in the Hebrew, David basically says he will arrange his prayers before God like a priest arranges the sacrifice upon the altar. He will make his best effort to present his prayers before God in such a way that they will be pleasing to Him. I wonder how often we do that? I think most of the time we just let the words flow out without foresight or consideration, as if we were talking to any old person and not to the King of the universe. It really challenged me to sit down and journal my prayer requests and thoughts before prayer, and then consider more carefully the way I was addressing God. Sure, we can come to the throne room in confidence, but not in disrespect!
So, I will leave you with two awesome quotes:
For want of looking up many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this but to take his name in vain? O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise ... Mordecai, no doubt, had put up many prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the king's gate, looking what answer God would in his providence give thereunto. Do thou likewise. William Gurnall.
He is either a fool or a madman, he is either very weak or very wicked, that prays and prays but never looks after his prayers; that shoots many an arrow toward heaven, but never minds where his arrows alight. Thomas Brooks.
So, the question after reading that is, do we believe? Do we expect? Are we fools, or madmen? Are we weak, or wicked? Ok, that´s four questions. Whatever. Just think about it!
However, dear readers, I have not forgotten you! I wanted to take a break from talking about me, me, me and just share a little bit of what I have been reading in God´s Word. I really will update you all on us, just not today! I hope you don´t mind!!
Ok, so a good friend of mine recommended to me that I read Psalm 5. I wanted to really dig deep into the Psalm and get everything I could out of it, so I used an online commentary that was AWESOME. You should check it out.
I have like 10 pages in my journal just on this Psalm. And it made me want to just start in Genesis and do a verse-by-verse study of the whole Bible.Who knows, maybe I will!
First of all, this Psalm really encouraged me to get up early to spend time in prayer, before anyone else is up. I think there are a couple of good reasons to do it. First of all, it´s a smack in the face to the flesh part of us. And any time you can smack the flesh in the face, it´s a good idea to do it! Because the flesh in a loser. Also, it is probably the only truly uninterrupted time you´ll have all day. No one is going to call you. No one is going to show up at your door. No one is going to ask you to do anything, because everyone else is still snoring! And last, but not least, it´s the best start to your day you could ask for. It helps your spirit wake up along with your body, and it puts God in first place. If you start your day like that, you´re more likely to finish it like that.
So, check out this quote from the commentary:
When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave to do the like; our bodies but forerun the spirit's duty: true hearts spread and heave unto their God, as flowers do to the sun. Give him thy first thoughts, then, so shalt thou keep Him company all day, and in him sleep. Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should Dawn with the day. There are set awful hours twixt heaven and us; the manna was not good after sun rising, for day sullies flowers. Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut, and heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut...Go this way, and thou art sure to prosper all the day. Henry Vaughn, 1621-1695
Man, I wish I lived in the 1600´s so I could talk like that. Sigh.
Ok, my other favorite thing about this Psalm is that apparently in the Hebrew, David basically says he will arrange his prayers before God like a priest arranges the sacrifice upon the altar. He will make his best effort to present his prayers before God in such a way that they will be pleasing to Him. I wonder how often we do that? I think most of the time we just let the words flow out without foresight or consideration, as if we were talking to any old person and not to the King of the universe. It really challenged me to sit down and journal my prayer requests and thoughts before prayer, and then consider more carefully the way I was addressing God. Sure, we can come to the throne room in confidence, but not in disrespect!
So, I will leave you with two awesome quotes:
For want of looking up many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this but to take his name in vain? O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise ... Mordecai, no doubt, had put up many prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the king's gate, looking what answer God would in his providence give thereunto. Do thou likewise. William Gurnall.
He is either a fool or a madman, he is either very weak or very wicked, that prays and prays but never looks after his prayers; that shoots many an arrow toward heaven, but never minds where his arrows alight. Thomas Brooks.
So, the question after reading that is, do we believe? Do we expect? Are we fools, or madmen? Are we weak, or wicked? Ok, that´s four questions. Whatever. Just think about it!
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