Birthday Boy

My oldest son turned 8 yesterday. On Sunday, we had his birthday party. He requested a weather theme. I love how creative he is with what he asks for for parties!
I didn't take very many pictures, but here are all of the birthday snaps, including the ones from yesterday morning, when I served up the tradition Birthday Breakfast: pancakes. Although, I went a little un-traditional and made pancakes from scratch that were almond flour/oatmeal pancakes and also eggless (the almond flour/meal was intentional as I am trying to experiment with using less processed white flour and more gluten-free options. The eggs were less intentional as I had forgotten I had used up the last of them on sunday and hadn't bought more)
I let the kids decorate their pancakes with icing and they loved it!

At Liams party, I served weather-decorated cup cakes, blue jello with whipping cream on top (sky with clouds) and then chips and salsa bar and pop corn barn. It was easy and yummy!
We had the party at some good friends' house and am so grateful to them! It was a good day!
Also, I made my three kids matching cloud shirts for the party. And, yes, Liam wore his all night.
Happy Birthday, Sweet Liam-boy. I love you.

Smoothie

We were blessed with a Vitamix blender for an anniversary present....last year, I think, and we love it. I try to make Green smoothies often, and we play around with other kinds too.

Lately, I've been making Oatmeal Smoothies. They are so filling and yummy! A little gritty, but it is really not too bad!

Here's my recipe:

1 1/2 or 2 cups Almond Milk (really any kind of milk works---cow, goat, coconut, soy, rice, almond, et cetera. In fact I made it with lactose free cows milk this morning because I didn't have any almond milk and it was tasty!)
1/2 cup Rolled Oats
1/4-1/2 cup Peanut Butter (I usually just eye it)
Honey, Cinnamon and Chocolate syrup to taste
Ice (not going to give a specific amount, just add slowly until you get the desired consistency)

I usually put all the ingredients in the blender in the order I listed. I saw some recipes said to blend the oats up first into a powder and that would make the smoothie less gritty, but I've tried it both ways and do not notice a difference in grittiness. I do suggest that you immediately pour it into cups and drink it so that it's all mix up because the oats WILL settle.
This recipe makes enough for me and three kids, who you can see from the pictures, really like it!
I've seen recipes online for oatmeal smoothies add things like strawberries, bananas and other fruits. I haven't tried adding fruit yet, but want to. A pumpkin oatmeal smoothie sounds super good!

Science Center Fun

We went to the Science Center at the beginning of February, meeting up with some very good friends who were in town for vacation. We haven't seen them in many years and it was such a fun thing to get to spend the day with them!
I haven't been to the Science Center in years and it was so much fun too. My, Jon and Liam's favorite thing was the butterfly house.....so many beautiful butterflies fluttering around everywhere and chrysalis's on display and we had just finished learning about butterflies in school so that was really cool. David's favorite was the dinosaur exhibit and I am not sure what Heidi like best----but she had a blast running around too!
We hope to go back really soon!

FMF: Bare

Todays Five Minute Friday word prompt is Bare.

To be bare in any sense is to be vulnerable. When a wife bares herself for her husband that first night, she is being incredibly vulnerable.When a person bares their heart to another, it can be the same.
One has to trust another to feel confident in being vulnerable. One doesn't just bare one's heart to anyone, just like one does not get naked in front of a crowd of people. You have to believe that you will be taken seriously, gently and confidentially.
There is a lot of things about me I will share, but only to a point. At that point, I really have to know you. That's my baring point. We all have one. For some of us, that point is deep, for others it is quite shallow. Some have been hurt in the past and are extra cautious about trusting their deepest selves, others have nothing but trust for most people.
We all need someone we can trust. Someone we can bear our hearts to. That can be a parent, a good friend, a spouse, God. But we all need someone. Because in whispering our deepest desires, fears, even sins to another can be freeing and fulfilling. Yesterday, it was said to me that no one person can do that for us, but it has to be a combination of people......and ultimately it has to be God. Because only God can journey far enough into our hearts to truly reveal ourselves. I believe that.


These past couple of word prompts have really challenged me.....I guess that's a good thing.
Read more of "Bare" at the Five Minute Friday community hang out.

Gotees

Just a little fun we had the other day.

FMF: Afraid

Little late for Five Minute Fridays, it being Saturday night and all, but better late than never.

I've known about today's.....err, yesterday's word since...well, yesterday. But can I be honest? 
It's a word that makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable. Why?
Because I am afraid of so many things, and I don't like talking about it.
even now, I just stare off into space wondering why I don't just hit the "close" button and move along, forget this word even exists.
because I hate afraid. I hate being afraid.
and I don't think I can do "afraid" justice in just five minutes, because I need more time to process "afraid".
What am I afraid of? So many things. So many things that CAN happen.
And then, I start feeling guilty. Because I am a child of God and I shouldn't be afraid.
But I am.
Does that mean I do not trust God enough? 
Does that mean I think the things I fear are bigger than God?

And, that's five minutes. Five minutes of me trying to explain my own struggle with fear. And, in being true to the Five Minutes, I leave it with questions I honestly do not have the answers for. Maybe someday I will.

Can I give you another five minutes? Would that be okay? Five minutes about a different aspect of Afraid?

My daughter, who's two, comes running to me out of the blue and whispers, "I'm sceerred", while burying her head in my shoulder. Come to find out, one of the boys has been growling at her, pretending to be a wolf or a bear or something. I tell them to knock it off and be nice to her, even while my heart is simultaneously breaking and singing.
Breaking because she is scared.
Singing because it is such a SAFE thing she is afraid of.
Childhood fears are often that way: very, very real but yet safe. Her brothers would never, actually, intentionally hurt her or even scare her. They are just playing.
I want to keep her fears just that: safe. But I know she has to grow up, learn about the world, and see that not everything out there is safe. That sometimes, the things we're scared of are well worth the fear.
But, not yet. For now, for just a little longer, I get to hold her and tell her she'll be okay and tell her brothers to knock it off and they will. And she'll go back to playing with them and all will be well....
I wish it could last forever.

Five Minute Fridays can be found here.

Just Takes Two

My mom and I have been talking about the idea of doing a quilt along together----you know, same pattern, each person doing their own quilt type thing----for awhile. I have also wanted to do a sampler quilt for a long, long time.
So, when my mom told me about the Just Takes Two sampler quilt, I jumped on board without even taking a peek at the quilt. I choose my fabrics and mom gave me the patterns needed for the first 6 blocks.
It wasn't until quite a while later that I found out just what this quilt entails. There are SO MANY blocks and I got a little overwhelmed.
Especially after I made the first block, which required a little bit of hand applique and I discovered I HATE doing hand applique. It came as a surprise....I love quilting and crochet and embroidery, how could I NOT like hand applique???? But, I found it tedious and annoying.
So, I was even more worried that my mom had bought me a ton of fabric for nothing.
I resolved to figure out how to get it all done because I love the colors and the quilt itself and I knew I'd learn a lot. But all those applique blocks had me worried...
Enter the In Your Words blog hop and as my vision for my project evolved, I decided to use some of the fabric from my Just Takes Two quilt. The original idea was to have a wall-hanging that would match the quilt I would *some day* finish, a little incentive to want to finish the quilt. (ended up making it a pillow which will someday sit on top of the quilt on my bed!!!)
And then, I decided to do some fusible applique on the project and I discovered how easy fusing makes applique! Even if I had hand-stitched around the flowers (which I did not do, I machine-stitched), it would have been fine.
So, I have new incentive to do my quilt! I worked on it the other day, when I had a Craft Day that sadly no one came to, getting 3 blocks finished before I stopped to make dinner and burned my hand and couldn't keep piecing that night...but I am excited to keep working on it and the applique blocks no longer intimidate me!
Here's the blocks I have done so far, the three from last night and the two I had finished awhile ago:

Puppets

We bought a puppet for Jon almost a year ago (was it our anniversary???? I really can't remember)
and David has been gaga over him ever since and begging for his own "Herb". We obliged for Christmas.......having no idea that he meant to actually NAME his "Herb". Ha ha ha. So, now we have "Big Herb" and "Little Herb". The last picture in the collage is the Herbs meeting each other.

Little Girl Hair

.....hopefully she'll change her mind soon, because it's fun to "do"

FMF: Again

It's friday and that means it's time for Five Minute Fridays!

Here's my five minutes on "Again".

A mother's life is full of agains. Doing the laundry. Again. Loading the dishwasher. Again. Changing a diaper. Again. Having to give the 7-year-old a talking to. About the same exact thing. For the hundreth time today.
Again. Again. Again.
Sometimes, I feel like all the "agains" will drive me crazy.
But, then there are the agains that make up for all the crazy ones.
My daughter gives me a kiss when I ask her to. Again. And again.
My boys surprise me with their creativity and imaginations. Again.
My husband compliments the meal I made. Again.
God gives me grace and love. Again and again and again.
Looking at the word, pulling it apart and what do I see? A GAIN.
And, whether it's something that is threatening to drive me crazy or it's something that fills my heart to overflowing, it's a GAIN.
A Gain in clean clothes to wear.
A Gain in clean dishes to eat off of.
A Gain in LOVE so completely given that it takes my breath away
A Gain. God, let me always see the word "again" as "a-gain".


See what others have to say about AGAIN at the Five Minute Fridays Community.