Hello Monday..

Hello Monday, oh how I did not miss you this 4th of July week/weekend.

I miss kids and babies and hot weather at the lake!

Hello daddy who took a day off work!

Hello brightest moon ever at 5:30 am July 5th

Hello Grammy and Melanie on the boat!

Hello little Ashlyn in the oversized life jacket.

Hello good times on the boat!

Hello Pirate Island..thanks Grandpa for boating us over there!

Good bye 4th of July through the weekend fun and hello Monday.

I linked up with this blog for my hello Monday post.

If I could..

I would go back to the day I broke my ankle in her backyard (both times) just to hear her voice again. I would give birth all over again to my first born daughter just to see her visiting me in the hospital telling me my baby is beautiful. I would do pretty much anything...if I could turn back time for one more hug, one more piece of advice, one more book to borrow or share with her, one last phone call, one more visit so my kids could get to know their great grandma more.

She made me feel special. Always thinking of me. Forever taking time to do things just for me because she knew I was coming over. A homemade custard, a coin with an angel on it set aside for my daughter who was having bad dreams at night, digging out a bag of marshmallows from her freezer just because my kids asked for them while at her house, special books and toys ordered just for our visits.

Jeopardy, Star Trek, fruit snacks and cartoons, Safeway's Homestyle Vanilla ice cream, slippers, and her cozy red chair...all reminders of a grandma that cared.

"I love you Marts, more than you know" she would tell me. What I wouldn't give to hear her say that to me one more time. These memories make me smile through the tears and with blurry vision I look at my kids and think about how much she adored them. Oh, how she loved my kids. And they sure loved being around her.

Thinking about how very special she made me feel, it makes me wonder how she did it? Four daughters, eight grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren and somehow she managed to make us each feel special, as if we were the only one that mattered to her in the whole world. It came natural to her.

She never drove a car, she didn't vote, but she sure knew how to be loving, understanding, and how to sneak my sister and I fruit snacks even when my mom told us no.

As much as I want to turn back time, I know she is up in heaven wanting to fast forward to the time when her family comes to join her in Paradise.

What I'm feeling now is a conglomeration of sadness and joy, the bittersweet realization that although I'm without my grandma, heaven has gained another citizen and she is basking in the bright light of our great God.

Take ten for your pet!

The other day at Target the kids and I decided to splurge on our dog, Guapo. And by splurge I mean we spent 2 dollars on new plastic food and water dishes with rubber bottoms to keep them from spilling. He has been needing new food and water bowls for a while now, because the mismatched tupper ware we were using were always being kicked over and spilled by accident.

Take ten to take care of your pet! The kids will love it!

1.) Find something for your pet, nothing expensive, but something to show you care.

2.) Let the kids be in charge of putting to good use whatever it is you buy for your special friend.

3.) Talk to the kids about taking good care of pets.

Take Ten!

Cold toes and popsicle stained faces...

Cold toes on my leg really bother me and this morning is no exception. My daughter keeps lightly touching me with her cold toe just to bug me and I have been pushing it away for the past half hour.

 There is a song that says "you're gonna miss this, you're gonna want this back" and as much as the cold foot bugs me now I can't help but think someday I really will want this back. When she is a teenager or maybe even before that she won't want to play those silly cold toe games.

 Then I think about other things that bother me. Will I truly want the messy meal times back? The dirty diapers? The melt downs and embarrassing fits? Probably. These are the things that make us mothers. I guess I know I better start treasuring even the inconvenient and annoying nuggets of life so I don't look back and regret anything.

 Popsicle stained faces, cereal on the floor, a change of clothes right after getting dressed, and cold toes poking my leg...the good stuff in life for the moment..in a blink it'll be gone. 

The only thing I want to regret is any of my bad reactions to the things I consider to be irritating now.

Cheers to even the irritating things that will be missed when they're gone!

Finding the good stuff in gluten free!

Peek a boo, we're gluten free!

In an effort to find a more filling breakfast for my now gluten and dairy free kiddo, I made up this oatmeal breakfast cookie recipe. I was not expecting anything great, because I've never really made up a cookie recipe before, but my kids loved them!

Here you go:

1.5 cups oat flour (I just blended oats in a blender to make this)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbs coconut oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tbs almond butter
1 dash salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 dash cinnamon
1 cup oatmeal (not ground)
1 cup raisins

Mix the coconut oil and sugar together, then add the egg, applesauce and almond butter. Add the rest of the ingredients one by one until everything is well blended. Lastly add oatmeal and raisins.
Bake @ 350 for 14-15 min. (Unless you flatten these out and shape them into a cookie like shape before baking they will stay in little round lumps, but they taste good either way)

We have been introduced to many new things on our adventures in this new diet. Some of our favorites have been coconut milk ice cream, rice milk ice cream, almond milk on our gluten free cereal and for drinking, gluten free noodles, almond flour for baking, and most recently rice flour for baking.

The hardest things about going gluten and dairy free are thinking of meals and keeping grocery costs down. It's expensive to buy the different kinds of flours and of course the special ice creams are not cheap either. But I have found that doing things homemade and from scratch keeps it on the cheaper side. It just takes prep and time.

My son's eczema seems to be subsiding since going on this diet, he also does not wake up with a runny nose every morning. However, after being around cats, his eczema inflamed again and his nose and eyes became runny and watery once again. So, now we know it is not just diet, but other environmental and animal allergies too. Poor kid.

We are on our 12th day of the diet. My plan is to go 20 days and slowly introduce some of things he is allergic to and see how it affects him.

Wish us luck! And pray for healing! We would love for him to grow out of all of this!

How connected is too connected?

I do not have internet on my phone, but if I did I'm sure I would check my Facebook in the middle of a dinner date with my husband if I could. This would annoy him to no end, which I understand, but I have to admit, I am a little addicted to social networking.

I'm not alone, I know there are others out there more addicted to it than I am. This leads me to some questions. How connected is too connected? Do my friends truly need to know where I'm at, what I'm eating, and see a picture of it? My logical self says no, but my Facebook self says YES, post it, and then check your comments and likes every ten minutes thereafter.

It's fun seeing your friends, what they are doing and being able to "talk" to them without actually leaving to see them. It is especially nice for a stay at home mom like me, who sometimes gets stuck in the house with 3 sick kids and no adult to converse with until my husband gets home.

I know I use Facebook too much. I sometimes ignore the real world in favor of the computer world. The world where we can be whoever we want, say whatever we want, make our lives look perfect, or create drama with someone without seeing their face. It's not a good thing. My husband says it's a big platform for everyone to have a chance to post something stupid. I have to agree. I've said a few stupid things, read a few stupid things, and seen things I didn't need or want to see.

So where does it stop? I see people talking to others in a restaurant at the same table, while only half paying attention to real life because they are more caught up with internet life on their phone. It bugs me, yet it draws me and sucks me in.

I can't say that anything I've posted on Facebook has been real. It's more general or unnecessary information about my life posted in hopes my friends will like it and write a comment back to me. Not that I plan to stop using Facebook, but it is good to think about these things and rearrange our priorities in life.

I believe true relationships should be based on real things. Can anything be truly real on Facebook? Maybe, but I know the stuff I only want my true friends to know wouldn't be posted online.

This is what it comes down to...
I think maybe the problem is we're not too CONNECTED we're too DISconnected.

What do you think and how are we going to change it so we don't raise distracted and fake kids?

Convictions...

Have you ever read the book of James in the Bible in one sitting? I read it the other morning not thinking I would be convicted. I was actually looking to be uplifted and encouraged, which I was, but not in the way I thought it was going to happen.
I decided on James because I was thinking the verse that says "ask and you shall receive" was in James. I was wrong. But God had another message in mind for me that morning.
You see, I've been struggling to see what God is doing in our lives right now. We've been trying to get renters while paying 2 mortgages for the past 3 months and it is getting very nerve racking. And, although I know God provides and does not let us down, it is really hard to keep that in focus.
This is what God reminded me to do last week.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 
Wow! What I was expecting from this reading and what God wanted me to learn and remember from this reading were 2 very different things.  
So, now I pray and wait, while being joyful that my faith is being tested. I know I can use a little more faith. Okay, A LOT more faith. 
Obviously God has something for me to learn, and my goal is to be patient enough to trust Him enough to strengthen my faith.