Thankful

This Thanksgiving is especially sweet to us. We now understand how rich a blessing it truly is to have two healthy children in our family, to have a healthy, loving marriage, and to have a family who really does love each other.

I was looking at Baby Pear this weekend trying to figure out how she is already 10 and a half weeks old. Then I though about all she had been through already and wondered how she was so little. And snuggled her a little closer.

I looked at Miss Pear and thought about what she has on the horizon, still not truly understanding how it is possible when she looks so healthy AND WILL NOT SLOW DOWN! And dropped an extra little kiss on her head as she zoomed by (her favorite game "zzzzzoooooooooommmmmmm" as she runs past).

I looked at my husband as he slept, after I returned from nursing baby last night, and realized how blessed I was.

The Lord has blessed us richly, and my heart over flows with thanks.

Mystery Meals

You may recall that whenever I talk about freezer meals I mention the importance of labeling your meals!

At the minimum be sure to include what it is and when you made it.

Ideally also include cooking instructions.

If you neglect these finer points of freezer cooking you will find yourself where I am, with mystery meals in the freezer.

Sigh.

So today I am freezing the mystery red meal. I am thinking that it is actually either pizza sauce for mini pizza buns or a spaghetti sauce. I am really not sure.

So, when you practice freezer cooking, please remember to label everything, and if you could label mine too that would be great....

Umm....maybe not

I had to laugh this morning when I read Donetta's Note to Self while I was waiting to see if Baby was going to go straight down for her nap or need a bit of help.

In all honesty, my note to self would read as follows.

Dear Brain,

The rest of the body would like to remind you of two things:
1. You are not super woman despite the faulty reasoning that refuses to be removed from the thought process.
2. You have a 3 year old and a 10 week old in the house, and no help during the day.

Therefore the very idea of getting caught up this week was a high, lofty, and unattainable goal. We know you like to set high standards for yourself, and understand that motivates you, but it exhausts the rest of us.

Therefore, while the girls nap today, can we nap too?

Thanks,
The rest of your body.


As a result, I am going to give my granola one more stir, and then nap....

Traditions

It seems like this time of year we all start to focus on traditions. What our families do for each of the special holidays that come up. And it seems like the stranger the tradition the better - like how the girls in our family always wear sandals to Christmas Eve service for no other reason that we now live in Southern California and we can!

But sometimes it is the more year round traditions that cause the most laughter.

Growing up in Canada meant that both my husband and I grew up playing neighborhood hockey (both on ice and on the road) and loving it, all but living the season right long with our favorite teams, and being heart broken when they would get knocked out of the playoffs, assuming they made it! So we do try to share these things with our girls. I think hockey was one of the first things Miss Pear was actually aloud to watch on TV - after all, the Canadian Women won the gold medal last Olympics!

So this weekend there was a game on TV (rare in Southern CA), so we decided to watch it as a family fun thing. After all, we have to pass down the tradition of loving hockey! And as always it is the funniest things that children catch on to and that fascinates them. This time Miss Pear was fascinated with the concept of penalties and the penalty box. I think she was amazed that these big hockey players could be put on the big trouble chair just like her.....

The Best of Intentions

Remember how I said that this was the week I was going to catch up??? Well, I am working on it, but it is slow going.

The Santa Ana winds blowing over the weekend brought in such low humidity that it is messing with all of our sinuses, so that is slowing us down, and Baby Pear is not sure about this either! You know it is dry when the weather announcer is thrilled to announce that humidity is back into the double digits - 11%

I have managed to finish the thank you notes for the meals we received after Baby was in the hospital, to instill order in the kitchen, to bake cookies, to make a grocery plan and go shopping tonight, and to do tons of laundry. Oh, and yesterday I baked a 21 lb turkey for meat all this week.

But you know how when you have the best plans stuff always happens to change that plan?

Well, Baby has decided not to nap much while Miss Pear is napping, which is fine, but she did it back to back days, and that has not happened yet as far as I can remember...

Miss Pear needed some reminding about listening and not arguing about stuff on Monday, and for some reason this kind of stuff always seems to be harder on mommy that on children.

And those two things are not things going wrong, they are parenting things which are always more important than my plan.

However, this morning, my plan was to drink coffee while I clipped my coupons and organized stuff for my shopping this evening. Things were going great. I was almost done. And then I sent my FULL cup of coffee flying.

Did I mention that we have carpet under our table?

Yup, my plan was toast.

But Miss Pear had a great time retelling the story.....

And she assured me, "That's okay, Mommy, accidents happen."

I love being a mom!

How great the privilege

I was thinking today about the privilege we have in raising the next generation, that God entrusts us with His children! It was awe inspiring, and very daunting.

So I started thinking what I had done yesterday being a wise caretaker of this gift:

1. Continued to work hard on obedience, even when I just really wanted to give in. And made sure to tell Miss Pear how much I love her and give her lots of hugs and kisses at bed time.
2. Had family devotions (okay, so Baby was sleeping, and we are not exactly on track with this since her arrival, but we are trying).
3. Continued to work on a sweet little song I am teaching Miss Pear, I am not sure of the real name of it, but it begins, "Two little eyes to look to God," and I sang it when I was little
   
4. Cared for and loved them.

Sometimes I thing about raising kids with a kingdom focus and I get so overwhelmed! I think of all the things I could be doing that I hear other families are doing. But then I remember that God made my family the way it is and put us in this season. As long as I am doing #4 for His glory I am on the right track. It is all about what God is leading our family to do, not the one next door!

Right now we are kind of in a strange season in our life. With the medical stuff that is now not an every day thing (Baby Pear is fully recovered, and Miss Pear is in the waiting and praying stage), it is adapting to life with a new sweet little one. I just remind myself that I will not get this day again, that I will not have my girls this age again.

So while I do my best to catch up, and keep the house neat and tidy, I remind myself what God has shown me.

If my well loved family is fed and has clean clothing to wear, I have met the minimum requirement, all else is basically a bonus.

Not to say I do not want to get caught up, and the sooner the better, but this is my perspective check.

(And in the mean time my computer time comes in snippets as I use time when they are napping and rely heavily on autopost! Although sometimes I sneak an extra minute like right now when I am waiting on baby to go down for her nap and know she will need me one or two more times, and would prefer not to dash up and down the stairs!)

Catch Up Week

I am determined to make head way in catching up this week.

It was wonderful to have the grandmas down to help, but as all women know, it is never the same if you don't do it your self. After their visits I always find I need to hunt for things in the kitchen as it is never where I would expect it to be. So we need to catch up from that. Plus the general stuff that comes with a new little sweetie being added to our family, plus the added stuff of that little sweetie being sick and in the hospital.

The last three weeks knocked us flat, and now it is time to catch up.

Along with my normal cleaning routine, which I hope to get through all of this week, I am hoping to:

1. Finish all thank you notes
2. Box up clothes the girls have outgrown
3. Sort through the hand me downs we have been given for Miss Pear and put the appropriate ones in her drawers or in a box to pass on (leave rest for her to grow into).
4. Bake a 21 lb turkey Monday for meat during the week (follow up suppers will be wraps, white chili, and bbq turkey buns with the remaining meat being either frozen for enchiladas or made into enchiladas)
5. Update the household binder with a new weekly plan
6. Begin thinking about a new daily plan that is more than just take it as it comes and hope for the best!
7. Make scones for the freezer
8. Make muffins for the freezer (2 new recipes to try)
9. Compile some new breakfast ideas
10. Tidy and declutter! (This could be a week long project in itself! This one always gets out of control with company).
    

Yeah, I am not sure I will get through the list too, but I have to start somewhere!

And the big item on my list that is not something I can check off is to continue to work very hard to find a time when I can have my quiet time with God.

Of course, this is all Lord willing! Miss Pear seems a bit off her game on the weekend, so I am praying that she is just feeling a bit low from the Santa Ana winds that were blowing and nothing more serious.

What are your plans for the week?

Miss Pear and the Cardiologist

I was waiting to write this after our company left. I had started it and looked at it many times, but was never comfortable enough about it to hit the publish button. I realize now that it is not the post that has me uncomfortable so much as the harsh reality of it. So now that Baby is doing better, it feels like time to share this too.

Exactly one week before Baby Pear was admitted to the hospital Miss Pear had her annual check up at the pediatric cardiologist for her heart murmur. We were not concerned when we went in, we knew it was a preventative thing to monitor her as she grows. And she was saying cardiologist as only a 3 year old can...it was so funny.

The appointment basically went as expected, except for the last part.

Miss Pear has a small membrane in her heart. It is something that is not there at birth, but develops and seems to accompany her kind of heart murmur.

This year it was causing things to be louder. So that means that at some point in her life, preferably before she is 6 she will need to have heart surgery to remove it.

The surgery will be to ensure she remains healthy and to protect the valve. But it will be open heart surgery.

It is very weird. Outwardly she is the picture of health. I guess inwardly too. But if we do nothing, she could need valve replacement by the time she is 20. The surgery will be preventative, which seems so strange.

We are not to do anything for a year. We go back to see our cardiologist in a year, and he will evaluate her again, and likely refer us to the surgeon then. We asked if it was safe to wait a year, and he assured us that it was, we just needed to start thinking and talking about it now.

Of course it was a week later that we ended up in the ER with Baby Pear, so the combination pretty much threw us, but God is faithful, and He is going to see us through this and all of life's trials.

It is two weeks since we landed in the hospital, three since we heard the words open heart surgery. It all still seems so overwhelming, but somehow it feels like God is strengthening us to help us get back on track and do what our family needs, to keep things running, and to re-establish normal.

To be honest, we are not really sure how to pray. Mostly I pray for God to protect her, and that she will have a long and healthy life. I pray that she will be mostly oblivious to what is going on until we absolutely have to tell her, and that she will quickly recover. And I pray for miracle healing, that as medically unlikely as it is, that the membrane will be gone or at least markedly smaller next year.

Pleasant Surprise

So we needed to do a milk run - for some reason this time while I am nursing I am drinking milk like crazy! And we had a Costco list, so we combined them.

It is a cool evening, and so without even thinking I just grabbed my jeans to change into. I have not worn my jeans since last winter! And I was thrilled to find out that they fit great! Baby is 9 weeks old!

Had I not been distracted I probably would have bypassed my jeans in favor of something more forgiving, but sometimes distractions are a good thing!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I cannot remember where I got this recipe from, all I know is that it was my go to recipe for years, until we could not have nuts in the house. Now that tree nuts are once again aloud, my trusty recipe is back!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add milk and vanilla, blend until creamy.

Beat in egg.

Combine dry ingredients and add gradually.

Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes

Million Dollar Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is one of the recipes Miss Pear and I made on Sunday. While I got the recipe from a friend, the original comes from
(sorry, I cannot get just the text only to load).

It was a delicious recipe that is supposed to make 10 dozen cookies, and I think I actually came pretty close to that. While the cookies are a fair bit of work, they are worth it! Here is the recipe!

Million Dollar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 10 doz.

2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
4 cups flour
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure then blend to powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 8-oz. chocolate bar, grated (I just used bakers semi sweet chocolate as it was all I had)
3 cups chopped walnuts (optional, and I skipped this one)

Cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together and then stir in salt, baking powder, baking soda and flour; add blended oats. Mix in chips, grated chocolate bar and nuts. Roll into balls (I use a medium cookie scoop) and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 375 F.

Freezer Blessings

Throughout our pregnancy and recover and adjustment the freezer has been our friend with well packed goodness to thaw and bake or thaw and eat.

Never was I so grateful though as the weekend Baby was in the hospital. We did not know that all my meals would be provided, so Mr Pear raided our freezer packing me a snack bag of muffins and granola bars. Even though I did not need them for breakfast and lunch, they were fabulous midnight snacks!

This week I need to begin replenishing the freezer baking. We are low on cookies, muffins/loaves/granola bars (for breakfasts), and hamburger buns.

We were not able to go to Church on Sunday, Baby was still needing the quiet, so after nap time Miss Pear and I played in the kitchen, something that has been much harder to do since Baby arrived.

We made two batches of cookies, one was just a large recipe that completely filled the BOSCH, and one I doubled. I will include the recipes later this week.

What I have discovered lately is that freezing the cookie dough is working much better than baking all the cookies and then freezing them. I find that once frozen the cookies bake up better, they always taste fresh (some cookies get that freezer taste very fast), and they store better.

To store the cookies I first line a sheet pan with waxed paper (parchment would work too) then use a scoop to make rounds of dough. If the batch does not all fit on one pan I will often just layer them by using another sheet of waxed paper. Then I freeze the dough. Once frozen enough to easily work with I first freeze one freezer bag of 24 dough balls - 2 cookie sheets worth - 1 cookie jar full. I then use the Food Saver to freeze the rest so that the dough will last longer.

In the freezer I stack the Food Saver cookie dough on the bottom of the pile making sure the newest is on the bottom. On top of that I stack the bags, again making sure the newest is on the bottom.

The reason I do this is that the Food Saver bags are more expensive, so if I am going to bake them in the next month or so there is no reason to use them, a freezer bag will do great!

Sunday we baked to trays of cookies, froze 2 bags of cookies and 2 Food Saver packages! Very successful afternoon, and lots of fun!

Click over to Tammy's for more Kitchen Tips!

Click over to Mrs. Dryer's for WFMW!

My Freezer My Friend

Our upright freezer was completely out of control. I had lost track of it while pregnant, and then my MIL riffled through it to find stuff and left it in a way that I could not find things I knew were in there. So desperate measures were called for.

I set up a card table beside the freezer and started sorting.

The top shelf is now for baking only. This naturally includes baked items and items that are ready to be pulled from the freezer and baked - such as cookies. And ice cream on the right so it does not get too hard.

The next shelf down is for prepared meals. Both left overs and freezer meals.

The next shelf down is for meat on the left and extra meal space on the right or miscellaneous.

The bottom shelf is for cheese on the left and all other things on the right.

The door is for veggies, butter, and other baking supplies.

Now all I have to do is make a chart for the front of the freezer so that anyone messing in there knows where stuff goes rather than just shoving it wherever it fits, which happens more than I care to admit.

I love using my freezer to help me care for my family, but it only works if I can find stuff. Unfortunately, like many women, I had completely lost track of what was where! But just like the rest of the house, a little organization goes a long way in the freezer.

Now I feel ready to tackle freezer cooking again!

Click over to Tammy's for more Kitchen Tips!

Click over to Mrs. Dryer's for WFMW!

Baby Pear Update

It has been one wild week considering that a week ago we were in the hospital!

Baby Pear had her follow up appointment with her pediatrician on Wednesday, and she was very pleased with Baby’s progress. From last Thursday to Wednesday morning she did lose 6 - 7 oz, but considering how sick she was we are thankful it was not more (and I am confident that by now she is at least at a plateau if not gaining again as we are back on track with nursing). We talked about Baby’s improving and only slight/occasional sensitivity to light (only direct sunlight and florescent light are issues now), and that was to be expected. We also talked about her continued sensitivity to sounds, and the doctor was actually pleased to hear that, it means that her hearing was not impacted in any way (we did not know that hearing loss is often an unfortunate side effect) so we are very thankful.

While Baby is still uncomfortable and therefore a bit fussy (I say a bit because each day gets better, and today was light years better than say Saturday and even Wednesday), her napping is almost back to normal!

Although I have to confess, we miss the panda bear wall hangings at the hospital. I would take Baby for laps around the ward, and we would always stop to look at the pandas, and they would always make her happy. She would smile and coo at them. In fact, if I tried to moved on before she was ready she would fuss. So far nothing at home has caught her interest like those pandas. It is funny the things that help and make little ones so happy.

Today is the first day I can honestly say that I can see "normal" creeping back into our day, and for that I am very thankful!

Thank you for all the prayers and encouraging emails, they mean so much!

Baby Pear vs. the Hospital

and Baby Pear is victorious!

On Thursday evening we took Baby Pear to Urgent care as she had a fever. We were quickly referred to the ER across the way so that tests could be done with the results back ASAP. The end result is that we were admitted to the Children's Hospital while Baby was treated for meningitis.

There is lots of news about that and miraculous answers to prayers that even left the doctors confused and surprised.

But the end result was that we were released this morning with a diagnosis of viral meningitis. So while we are home, Baby has a couple rough days ahead of her, so I will not be here unless an update is required.

But she will make a full recovery, and is recovering so fast it is startling for even the medical pros who took such good care of her and lavished love on her, and for that we are incredibly thankful.