Ding-Dong Dilemma

I gave my boys Twinkies today for the first time ever! I’m not one to forbid sweets, really. We eat ice cream often, popsicles now and then and little candies every once in a while. For some reason Twinkies just gross me out. I think it’s the 2026 day shelf-life. I mean the fact that a Twinkie has a better chance of surviving a natural disaster or a nuclear holocaust than my cat is a serious deterrent in my consideration of whether or not to eat the thing. (For the record, I wouldn’t eat my cat either). Today was the last day of school. We had a lovely, active time at the school field day and a sweet, together-time at the movie theater watching “Up.” To cap the day off I told them I would break my ban on Twinkies and allow them each a little taste. When we got to the grocery store and ventured into the previously undiscovered territory known as the hostess section they were momentarily overcome by the array of forbidden fruits that lay before them. Should they go with their instinct and satisfy their longing for a taste of Twinkie or should they act on a blissful impulse and go for a Zinger or maybe even a Ding-Dong? I jokingly told them that if they chose the Twinkie they wold only have to wait another eight to ten years before they were allowed to try another variety of Hostess cake. Jude, who never fails to put things into perspective, incredulously remarked that at that rate he would get his driver’s license before he ever got a Ding-Dong!

Three!

Hermanitos - Brother and sisters meet for the first time.

For the past several months we have been talking and praying about our expanding family. We have been in process of adopting our little girl for more than two years.  When we first met our precious baby girl we were told that she had two other siblings who were in process of being adopted by another family.  At some point over the course of these two years the family pursuing the adoption of these older two siblings was faced with the difficult decision to pull out of the process and discontinue their pursuit of forever family with these two children.  Because we believe that every child deserves a loving family, because we believe in the benefits of keeping biological siblings together in adoption, because we have room in our home and room in our hearts, and because we know this is the right thing for our growing family, we are now pursuing the adoption of these two children as well.  If the Panamanian government allows, we will become a family of seven.  I will officially be a “mother of many.”  We will have in our home five children, ages two, four, six, eight and ten!!  We’re totally excited, totally ready to tell everyone we know about all three of these amazing kids, not totally prepared (will we ever be?), but totally settled in our hearts about the family that God is designing for us with this adoption.  We just met them on our recent trip to Panama.  After spending just a very short while with these two sweet, vibrant, adorable kids, we are ready to introduce them to you all!

Rock Your Cake – and Eat It Too!

This recipe is going to rock your chocolate world!  It makes indulgence easier than ever before!  Your low-fat lifestyle just went out the window.  Because, now, whenever you get a hankerin’ for something chocolately, you are never more than three minutes from decadence!  Grab your favorite coffee mug, a few kitchen staples, snuggle up to your microwave, and you are on your way to chocolatey bliss in about three minutes.

The recipe works – for REALS!  Your mouth is SO going to love you for this!  Your thighs might just hate you for it.  But when was the last time you listened to your thighs anyway?

• 4 T. flour (cake flour is best, all-purpose will work.  Just don’t use bread flour – makes the cake all dry and dense)
• 4 T. sugar
• 2 T. cocoa powder
• 3 T. milk
• 3 T. vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• splash of vanilla
• handful of chocolate chips – Go ahead and be liberal with these.  They’re the best part!

Mix all the ingredients in a sizable coffee cup (no, you don’t need that gargantuan thing that your co-worker bought you from Starbucks for Christmas last year, just don’t grab that teeny little prissy thing you only pull out when you have some fancy company or something – it will totally overflow).  Mix them well so that none of the flour clings to the bottom of the cup.  (I actually find that adding the wet ingredients first, helps in avoiding those undesirable little clods of flour from congregating in your cup-corners).  Throw in a handful of chocolate chips and microwave on high for three minutes.  The chocolate chips will be all warm and gooey and melty in your mug!  The best thing to do is to add a big scoop of ice cream on top.  This recipe makes enough cake to serve two people nicely, or one, indulgently.  Go ahead – indulge!  Sharing is overrated.

Thankful Thursday

So this is my first shot at a “scheduled” blog post.  I can’t seem to think of much that is worth putting out there for the blog world to read lately, so I giving some kind of formulaic something a go.  Maybe this is what I need to get my brain kick-started for the jump back into blog land.  I’m not the best at rules-following, so we’ll see how this kind of thing works out for me. “Thankful Thursday” seems like a good place to start.  I have a natural tendency toward sarcasm, melancholy and sometimes cynicism, but think that gratitude and choosing to be thankful are important life-skills.  A weekly exercise in being glad for what I’ve been given, I think, is a good idea.

No, they don't always look like this. But smoothie moustaches are fun!

All that said, This week (and always), I am thankful for my two boys.  When I was a little girl, dreaming about life as a grown woman, I never envisioned myself having boys.  I was an outright priss.  I might have done some things to appease my less prissy sister, like play Star Wars, but I was NOT going to be anything other than princess Leia herself.  No, thank you, you can be R2D2 today.  I would rather sit here and lead the rebel alliance in my flowy white robe with my hair in these super-pretty buns, thank you.  In fact, I was sure that the ideal kid-situation for me would be limited to a number of two, and include only sparkly, little, beribboned, curly-haired girls.  These were my foolish plans, anyway.  I am so grateful that God saw fit to bless me, instead, with two loud, smelly, hate-to-comb-their-hair, messy little boys.  Having a child, no matter what the gender, changes your life forever.  Having little boys has changed, not only my life, it has changed me.  Changed me to my core.  It has made me real.  They are my velveteen.  They make me loved.  They make me cry.  They make me frustrated.  They make me melt.  They have made me learn to love.  And love, not for an ideal, but for real.  They have taught me to cuddle, even when I would rather, clench my jaw.  They have taught me to laugh, even when I would rather yell.  They have taught me to discipline, even when I would rather smirk and giggle.  They have taught me to be patient and understanding, even when I would rather quickly judge.  They’ve taught me to get outside and run, even when I would rather sit.  Someday still, a little closet full of tutus and and polka dots, might be welcome.  But I wouldn’t trade a whole Barbie dream house full of hair bows and glitter for my precious, life-giving, heart-satisfying boys!

Not Very Inspired, But At Least It’s Something…

After being “tagged” one-hudred fifty-seven kajillion times on Facebook, I gave in to the peer pressure and compiled one of those random fact lists.  Probably some internet crime ring based in Zimbabwe is gleaning demographic information about me as we speak.  Either that or all my friends and family are fabulously entertained by my sparkling wit and candor.  Since I am sure this will make your day, I thought I would share it here, on my blog as well.  Enjoy!

25 Random Things

1. I believe Jesus was more than a man, more than a story, and I believe all His red letters.
2. I truly believe my life is not my own and try my best to live that way.
3. I tend to be very sarcastic and often have to remind myself to keep that sarcasm in check so that others don’t misinterpret and get their feelings hurt.
4. When I eat eggs I eat only the yolks. The whites are too slimy and slippery. This aversion leads me to believe that I would not enjoy oysters at all.
5. For a long time, like eight years or something, I did not eat any red meat. Now I loves me a good burger.
6. One movie quote which most often makes it’s way into my internal dialogue is not from an all-time favorite move (a good one, but not a total fave) The Constant Gardener:
“Be reasonable. There are millions of people, they all need help. It’s what the agencies are here for.”
“Yeah, but these are three people that WE can help.”
7. That and “Gee I’m real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky. The doctor says she’ll be alright, She just cant eat any spicy foods for a while.”
8. I have a penchant for all things Art Nouveau and wish I could live in one of its quirky little asymmetrical lopsided cottages.
9. I also have a penchant for all things chocolate, and often indulge. It is an unfortunate side-effect that my hips and thighs are the things that are most asymmetrical and lopsided around here.
10. Even though I know that lopsidedness is a byproduct of chocolate consumption I also indulge my aversion to exercise.
11. I love to sew, but I fear that mentioning that to others makes me look a little too “Pollyanna” for my own taste.
12. I would like it very much if my next vacation were to Spain and Morocco. Not saying I would turn down other vacation opportunities, but these are high on my list.
13. Other places I would also like to visit in the not too distant future: Prague, Brussels, Scotland, and Italy
14. Gardening makes me contemplative. For this reason I love it.
15. Even though I love to garden I ABHOR pulling weeds. For this reason my yard is often full of shabby patches and never looks very presentable.
16. I often dream about sloughing off my material possessions (except the sentimental ones) and moving somewhere far away with my family.
17. I love the ocean but hate the sand. I think this officially makes me a little uptight and have to tell myself to “just get over it” when on a trip to the beach.
18. I enjoy going to sporting events but do not enjoy watching sports on television. I don’t think I even know who is playing in the Super Bowl this weekend. It is this weekend, right?
19. After reading the above fact you might not be surprised to learn that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a jock. Even though I played softball for many years when I was young, I was most often stuck out in right field. This should speak volumes for my athletic abilities.
20. I heart New York. It was never on my list of places to see before I die, but I had the chance to go a few years ago and totally fell in love with it. This surprises me a little, since I am generally not one for crowds. There’s just something about it.
21. Chicago is also a place that I never had on my list. I visited there a couple of years ago and thought it was nice but didn’t like it as much as New York.
22. This may have something to do with the pizza. New York pizza is the crispy, crunchy, fresh and fired best! Chicago deep-dish is just plain icky to me. I seriously just can’t stomach all that cheese.
23. However, if there is one dessert that I regularly fantasize about, it is one I had in Chicago at a restaurant called “Hot Chocolate.” Warm brownie, fudge sauce, salted caramel ice cream, and a lace-thin pretzel for garnish. stomach-satisfying, sweetly, good!
24. As much as I loved this dessert, Creme Brulee is my all time favorite dessert. Warm, crackly crispness on top, cool, creamy blissfulness on bottom… This dessert is soul-satisfying good!
25. I love my husband with all my earthly being. I love my boys with all my motherly tenderness, and I can’t wait to grow my family. Oh – and my dog is the cutest too!

Blogger’s Block

Dear Readers (if there are any of you out there any more),

I am sorry.  I have been a dead-beat blogger.  I have gone radio-silent for far too long.  I’ve dropped off the face of the blogosphere.  I still think this blogging thing is really cool, and pretty fun.  I still read loads of blogs (probably too many for my own good), and I think I ought to begin contributing again to the blogging pool.  I just haven’t had much I’d like to blog about lately.  In fact, let me be honest.  wrote the seven sentences above at about 9:00 this morning.  It is now 3:40 pm and I have absolutely no idea how to continue this open letter to you, my dear readers.

I guess my dilemma is this:  What could I write about on a regular basis that would be of any practical, inspirational, memorial, comical, or any 0ther-al value?  I honestly haven’t got a clue.  I would call it writer’s block or something, but I’m not a writer, so how can I have that kind of blockage? 

I think I need something to jump start my blog.  Something that would get me in the habit of blogging on particular days of the week.  I’ve heard of little gimmicky things other bloggers use.  Things like “Not-me Monday”, in which the blogger subverts the high cost of therapy by confessing their mistakes to the blog world.  Or other stuff like “Tidy-up Tuesday,” in which the blogger chooses one thing to organize or straighten and then shares that with the blog world.  Meh.  I’m not sure if I want to do those.  They’re good ideas, but I’m not one for organizing my pantry lately, and I think I might just cheat on the “not-me” thing.  I mean, I probably wouldn’t go around sharing all my major mistakes with everyone who has access to the internet.  I think I’d probably just share the dumb stuff like “I confess, I broke that three-second rule and ate something which had been sitting on the floor for an indeterminate amount of time.”  Gross?  Yes.  Funny?  Maybe.  Meaningful?  Hardly.  I think I’d rather just share the “innermost” stuff with a therapist.  (Kristen, are you taking new patients?)  There’s “Thankful Thursday.”  That one sounds like a good idea.  Maybe I should try an exercise in gratitude once a week.  It would probably be good for me.  But I, since I am a bit of cynic sometimes, I think that Thursday might roll around, rearing it’s thankful head, and I would be in a scrooge-mood and just feel disingenuous for blogging about how great my life is. 

So, readers and fellow bloggers, I need some inspiration.  What do you do?  What gimmicks do you employ to get your blog cogs turning?  Send your ideas my way!

Gratefully,

Sara

Gold Delicious

There is something about Autumn.  What is it about this season that appeals to me so much?  It could be the variegated combustion of golden-glow color that appears each year in the boughs of trees.  It might be the brisk, clear, cool air that begs for a bundled-up walk-about.  For me, I am sure it has a lot to do with all the stout, creamy, warm Fall fare that beguiles the belly and begs one to linger by an evening fire.

About a week ago, on the last calendar-day of Summer, we were invited to usher in this most ambling and soul-satisfying of seasons with an apple cider party.  A friend’s parents have a small cider press and practically an entire orchard full of apples.  The party was at their small farm.  There were poultry, a cow, a pony, a lovely garden, tire swings, trees to climb and bushels and bushels of apples.  From our surplus of produce foraged from the limbs of the trees and pilfered from the abundance of fallen fruits, we squeezed nearly twenty gallons of cider.  The kids had great fun plunking their crop into the carnivorous blades of the apple chomper.  Little apple bits were flung into a barrel where they were hand-pressed.  The juice was extracted, strained and funneled into gallon jugs, leaving behind a yummy pulpy treat for the cow out in the pasture.  Between shifts at the press we enjoyed a delicious homemade fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob, which came to us freshly picked from the garden not twenty yards from the kitchen where they were prepared.  It was a beautiful way to usher in the Fall season, a great day for a whole gaggle of little ones to run amok together, and a genuinely lovely way to spend several hours with some really good friends.

In Case You’ve Ever Wondered…

What happens to a zucchini if you just let it sit in the garden and forget to pick it?  I just wanted to let you know…

This is what happens!

Gargantuan summer squash, you can hardly eat for the grainy texture, but hate to throw away because, gosh darnit, I grew that thing myself! My only recourse was to pulverize that overgrown lummox of a vegetable and whip it into creamy zucchini soup.

I have such an overabundance of zucchini right now.  Not only do I have a freezer full of zucchini bread muffins, but I am also preparing to make another double-batch of zucchini bread and making zucchini pancakes (sorta like squash-y hashbrowns) to accompany our dinner tomorrow night.  And if that wasn’t enough of a gourd gorge for us, we got a big ol’ bag of summer squash in our CSA box today.  erp.  I think I might just open up a road-side stand out in my driveway.

Please note. I have always been one to make it known that I do not enjoy clothing with cartoon characters emblazoned on the front (or the back for that matter). I made a HUGE concession in allowing Evan to get this shirt. It is the first piece of clothing that he has ever bought with his own money. He is DARN proud of that shirt.

First Day of School

Evan and Jude are off in their world of elementary academia today.  They were both up at the crack of dawn this morning.  In fact, when I dragged my groggy bones out of my fluffy comfortered bedroom haven, I saw that Jude had his light on and was already fastidiously preparing for the day ahead (er, or he was busy crashing toys into the wall intending to wake his brother in the next room – something like that).  They sweet-talked me into pancakes for breakfast.  Or actually they pleaded with me to give them something other than a cold bowl of cornflakes since, afterall, it was the first day of school and everything.  In a celebratory gesture I conceeded and dragged my berobed body off the cushy couch and into the cold kitchen.  I stealthily disguised a whole bunch of healthy gunk in pancake form (thanks for the recipe, MamaManifesto!) so their little summertime cartoon-over-dosed mush-brains might be prepared for the rigors of actually doing something.  Then, after I engaged in the all too foreign experience of dressing myself and combing my hair before 10:00 am, we headed out the door for the obligatory front-porch pictures, and set out for the school around the corner.

I am hopeful that this will be a good year for them both.  I am praying that they grow in knowledge, experience and wisdom.  My wish is for them to be academically challenged, socially encouraged, and physically safe.  I want them to be blessed and be a blessing to those around them.  I am really praying that they are guided in making good decisions about all their school work as well as the friends they make.  I know that they are going to face some challenges (that kid making the gross noises and giving Evan the “Indian burns” on his arm during the assembly this morning better watch out for this mother-hen if there is any trouble!) and I hope they will see great successes in lots of areas.

Plastic grins on the front porch

Rabbit ears in the front yard

*sigh* I feel sorry for their teachers.

Old Friends

What is it about old friends that is so special?  What is the thing that makes a room full of people who haven’t seen each other in sixteen years able to chat like their last lunch together was yesterday when, in fact, the last meal shared may well have been somewhere in a smelly school cafeteria on a dirty carpet in front of some old 1970’s pumpkin colored lockers?  I recently had the honor of attending a small reunion of sorts with some of my dearest high school friends.  Each of us is on different paths.  Some of us are still single.  Some of us are in long-term marriages.  Some of us are just entering that bond.  All of us has experienced some kind of life-changing struggle whether dissolved marriage, the death of a parent, life-altering illness of loved ones, injury with long-lasting effect, adoption, or murking through the process of raising a child.  Despite all the growth, change, and alteration that we each have undergone I think there is still something of that naive, hopeful, inexperienced, and simple young woman on the cusp of adulthood reticently leaving childhood behind that resides in us.  I think this is the thread that connects this group of experienced, full-fledged adults who have each experienced some kind of disillusionment in our lifetimes.  Each of us still carries that girl in that simpler time with her.  That “uncomplicated me” is the thing that makes us feel connected after so many years.  It is the bond we shared so many years ago, the history, that enables us to make confessions, share silly stories, and express future hopes without concern for judgement or ridicule.  And here’s the great thing…  There have been so many years that have lapsed between our shared experiences that I know there are loads of stories I have yet to hear and many tales I have yet to tell.  I look forward to pursuing renewed relationship with these ladies.

The weather on this day was EXCEPTIONALLY bad. One thing I love about these ladies - Even though we each may have started out the day with lovely locks, the rain made vanity, well, a vain pursuit. The GREAT part, truly no one cared. These girls are without pretense. I really appreciate that.

Some of us are still more like ten than teen on the inside. Thanks for the rabbit ears Jen! Loved being goofy with you - always have, whether at eight, twenty-eight, or someday at thirty-eight!