The Juggling Act!

Titus has had a hard time napping this week or so, he is sleepy and crabby but every time mommy lays him down he wakes up!  This became most frustrating this morning to me when it happened again and Tom was gone playing basketball and I had to deal with it on my own.  So I thought I had him down for the second try shortly after Tom got home but once I left the room he started crying again and I couldn't handle it.  I just got in the shower and left Tom to handle it.  Shortly after I got out I heard this hysterical laughter coming from his room and I had to catch it on video to share with you.  Enjoy!

For horse lovers young or young at heart!

Secretariat: Movie Trailer - Watch more funny videos here

 
I recommend this movie to anyone who loves horses, very clean and family friendly.  We watched it over Valentine's weekend and I was on the edge of the couch the whole time cheering on Big Red, aka Secretariat, but I grew up racing our own horses in our hayfield strips against my sisters!  Lol!  Sorry dad!

Happy Valentine's To You!

I thought I would post a cute video of our sweet man for you on Valentine's Day!  Sorry it is sideways, I thought YouTube would flip it the right way but it didn't, learning for next time for me.  Enjoy and remember to scroll down to music player at bottom of blog to pause the music so you can enjoy the sound on the video.

A Thoughtful Valentine!

So not only did we celebrate this weekend with trying new recipes out but Tom was very thoughtful towards me and as part of my Valentine gift he gave me some girl time on Saturday with a friend that he had arranged for me.  I got to go out with my friend Allison on Saturday for a few hours of girl time without any kids!  How lovely, she has two boys and is expecting their third child and I hardly ever get a moment away without my precious little man.  So we went downtown for a little lunch at the Pita Pit and then browsed the baby store down there and happen to see the cutest dressed little girl walking down the sidewalk with her mom.  Then we went to Cold Stone to get some delicious, fattening ice cream.  So lovely.  Thanks to my wonderful husband for his thoughtfulness and Allison for her lovely company.

Our Weekend Celebration!

So this weekend we kind of celebrated our "little" anniversary and Valentines all through the weekend with food!  Lol!  And we still have more to come tonight!  But most of you may know that Tom does 95% of the cooking in this home if not more.  I am more of a baker but I don't do it as often as I should.  I do make our own bread with this great bread recipe I got from a ladies Bible study years ago, but that is another post, maybe soon as I need to make some today if possible!  Anyway, Tom made us this awesome Crab dinner on Friday night for our anniversary, as our anniversary is more important to us than Valentine's Day.  He surprised me when I came to the table to find this whole crab "staring at me" from my plate.  We also love asparagus and he got some nice Rosemary spiced bread and sauteed some garlic to put in olive oil to dip the bread in.  To top it off, we had some Sparkling Cider.  I did make a Cherry Chocolate Brownie cake later in the evening for us to enjoy too.  It had Cherry Pie filling in it, and I actually made it wrong because during the process it didn't look right to me so that is why I'm not putting the recipe on here yet because I don't know how it would taste the right way.  It still turned out awesome though, no worries!

Tom made us a special breakfast on Saturday morning of French toast and fried plantains, we still need to perfect that recipe, we don't think the plantains were ripe enough.  Then on Sunday morning I made us a Mixed Berry French Toast with Sauce casserole.  So yummy and I wanted to share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:  12 slices day old bread, 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, 1 c. fresh or frozen (thawed) fruit of choice, 12 eggs, 2 c. milk, 1/3 c. of maple syrup or honey

Ingredients for sauce: 1 c. sugar, 2 Tbsp. cornstarch, 1 c. water, 1 c. fresh or frozen (thawed) fruit of choice, 1 Tbsp. butter or margarine.

we didn't actually have day old bread so I just put the slices of bread on cookie sheet and put them in oven to bake at 200 for 10 minutes and it gave them the perfect "day old" feeling.

Cut bread into 1 in. cubes, place half in greased 13x9x2 in. baking dish.  Cut cream cheese into 1 in. cubes, place over bread.  Top with fruit of choice and remaining bread.  In a large bowl, beat eggs.  Add milk and syrup or honey, mix well.  Pour over bread mixture.  Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.  Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, uncover and bake 25-30 minutes more or until golden brown and the center is set.  In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch, add water.  Bring to boil over medium heat, boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Stir in fruit of choice, reduce heat to simmer for 8-10 minutes or until berries (if chosen) have burst.  Stir in butter or margarine until melted, serve over French toast! Makes 6-8 servings.

We used mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and red raspberries) with the honey sweetener and it was so delicious.  This is a recipe from my mother-in-law and she made it for us over Thanksgiving with peaches and that was also so delicious.  Enjoy!

19 Months & Thankful...!

I am very thankful for our 19 months of marriage today!  I'm thankful that God is gracious enough to have given us a great love story to share with our child(ren).  Not only did He redeem me from the past I came from, which I had to share with Tom before marriage and will most likely have to share with my child(ren) someday, but He kept Tom all those single years of his just for me!  And because of God's grace and our determination to stay steadfast for God and trust Him for our future, we have no regrets in our relationship to the extent of silliness I am sure to most people out there!  We chose not to hold hands or say the words "I Love You" until we got engaged 5 months into our dating relationship!  And we chose not to kiss until, that is right, our Wedding Day, 7 months after engagement.  Which by the way was Tom's first kiss!  I share these things not to boast, because like I said in the worlds eyes and even in the eyes of some other believers, that is silly!  But I am sharing because I am thankful for that history between Tom and I that we can share with our child(ren) as he (they) grows up and we do our best to teach him (them) to make wise choices for God.  So, that he (they) too will not carry into his (their) marriage any regrets between his (their) spouse and him(them)self(ves).  And honestly in a certain way I am thankful for the history I do have apart from Tom because that too is useful to God in teaching and training our child(ren).  In a way of sharing that this is what happens when you choose not to honor God with your body, mind and emotions before marriage and these are the feelings you will regret all your life and will regret having to share that with your future spouse and your own children.

Someone said to me and a friend the other day when talking about having kids "My (live-in boyfriend) doesn't have to marry me to 'prove' his love for me in order for me to have his children!"  I have been thinking about that statement since then because of course it bothers me, but just thinking about it in light of today too.  A commitment isn't about 'proving' your love, it's about saying "I Do".  I Do want to honor God and the design He has laid out in His Word for an intimate relationship between a man and a woman.  I Do want to honor you as a person who loves God and be an encouragement in your relationship with Him, not the person who leads you down the wrong path away from God.  I Do want to produce a Godly legacy with you AND for our children to feel secure that they have a committed father AND mother.  I Do want to mirror God's image to the world in our relationship of His perfect love, commitment, forgiveness and unity He desires with us.  I Do believe we mutually complete each other and I believe you as a person are worth making a commitment to.  I Do want to let the world know that I am a committed person to one other person by the outward symbol of a ring.  And I am sure I could come up with more reasons if I wasn't holding a crawling monkey child right now ;)

Our first kiss! I love the smirk on Daisy's face, all the girls in bridal party blew their party whistles and the guys in bridal party got out their cell phone cameras as we enjoyed our first kiss!

Oh The Places You Go....!

Today was a very productive day for Mommy!  Titus got his morning nap and then off we went to run some errands.  We do not do that very often I have to say, so we basically stay home A LOT.  But today I wanted and needed to get some things done outside of the house, outside of these four very white boring walls!  I love my time with my family, don't misunderstand that and lately I am loving the freedom that comes with a now 8 month old crawling and exploring!  Not only is it freedom for him no doubt but it means more freedom for Mom.  I don't have to be present (within arms length) to satisfy my sons every want.  I can actually do the dishes, with one eye on Titus, while he explores the living room!  And it is VERY FUN to watch him explore, at least at this point it is.  He is pulling himself up to a standing position on anything that is even the least bit stable, which includes a rocking chair! 

But today we went to the great store of Wal-Mart to work on some Valentine projects Titus wanted to do!  We went to the grocery store and had lunch with my aunt Mary, which the company was way better than the food I have to say!  We went to the mall to pay our cell phone bill, ugh!  And we went to see the pretty nurse at Titus' doctors office so that we could see how big we are getting!  His last check up was at 6 months in December and his next one won't be until he is 1 year in June, so we were curious to see how much we have grown and 6 months is way to long to wait!  Well, he has grown but not as much as mommy and daddy were thinkin he has.  He is now 17 lbs. 11 oz. and 28 1/2 in. long.  Only about 1 pound up and a 1/4 in. longer since his last checkup!  So technically he could stay in his infant seat still since it goes till 30 lbs. or 30 ins., whichever comes first.  We just got him this convertible seat (rear-facing to front-facing) thinking he was beyond the 30 ins. by now and it looks like a captains chair off of Star-Trek!  It does kind of go into a laying position for the rear-facing but not enough cuz when he falls asleep in it his little head hangs forward and I feel terrible for him thinking that has to be so uncomfortable.

Titus is also beginning to love his solid food, he seems to no longer really take the time to taste it or move it around to check out its texture, he just eats it!  Unless of course he doesn't like it, like pears, he seems to not like them.  He takes after his mom on that one, I do not like the grainy texture of pears.  I do like his pureed version of them but he doesn't seem to?  But he likes bananas, apples, carrots, sweet potato and parsnip so far.  Next is butternut squash, mmmmm!

I thought I would add a pic of a tasty dish Tom makes for us sometimes, also great for any vegetarians!  He buys frozen pot stickers (aka gyoza in Japanese) and fry and steams them on the stove top.  And he sautes frozen green beans in soy sauce and oil or butter.  Then he has this amazing rice cooker, that cooks the rice perfectly sticky in just 10 minutes and voila you have a wonderful Japanese style meal!  So yummy!

Anyway I should go, I don't think I forgot anything important!?

A Reminder

Today, in my quiet time I was reminded of how much God loves Me...He loves Me...someone who doesn't deserve HIS love of everything that gives out love.  Most days I don't even make the time for quiet time with my Heavenly Father and when I do He blesses me for it and gently and lovingly reminds why I need that time with Him.  Anyway I wanted to share a small piece of it with you, an exercise I went through and was reminded why God is SO GOOD.  Read the following passage and list at least five of the many ways God shows His love for us.

Psalm 103 (New Living Translation)


A psalm of David.


1 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
6 The Lord gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.


7 He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
10 He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
13 The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
14 For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
15 Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16 The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
17 But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
18 of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!


19 The Lord has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.


20 Praise the Lord, you angels,
you mighty ones who carry out his plans,
listening for each of his commands.
21 Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels
who serve him and do his will!
22 Praise the Lord, everything he has created,
everything in all his kingdom.


Let all that I am praise the Lord.

Now write Jesus a letter beginning with "Lord, I know You love me because...," and list the ways He has shown His great love for you.