Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Category: Parenting

Parenting

That Didn’t Work!

By Audrea2 Comments

So, as you may have noticed, I have not written for awhile. The last time I wrote I made all of these plans for myself to ensure I continued with my personal goals and passions while returning to work. Since I’m a teacher it is easier to keep my health and well being a focus during the summer. Even the summer can be a struggle sometimes since I’m also a wife and momma! But, once you add teacher to wife and momma it is SO easy to get lost!

And I did and I didn’t when I went “back to work”. Last year, my husband and I taught at the same school in the same district. This year, I went back to work without him! Our district has been changing at what feels like a lightening fast pace. As it changes, it is becoming more of an opportunity to practice being a citizen of heaven living in an alien land! So, to come back without him was SOOOOOO hard! That along with the transition for my daughters going back to school (which can be super hard) made going back to school a MUCH more monumental task than usual! Therefore, I did not write any posts and working out and eating right have at times taken a back seat. In that regard I got lost. BUT….

I also chose to get lost in that way in order to stay found in much more important ways. Last year was a SUPER hard year for my husband at work. In fact it was year 3 of extraordinarily hard years for my husband! And each year I gave EVERYTHING I had in order to lighten his load any way possible. Unfortunately that meant that I had less and less to give, I never managed to fill back up! By the end of last year, I was lost emotionally, gone, spent and felt like I had disappeared or desperately wished I had! I knew that in order to fill back up and be there for my family, I had to be purposeful at staying found this year. To accomplish that, I have been more honest about my heart, I’ve asked for more help, I’ve gone back to work without my husband so he can have a break and be a support for me this time. This means my goals didn’t work, they got lost, but I stayed found!

My girls need a momma and they need one that isn’t always impatient, mad or exhausted! My husband needs a wife who smiles more than she yells or cries (or at least as much, maybe!). I need a heart that will be still long enough to allow Jesus and the Holy Spirit to heal and restore and refill it! That means goals may drop, but I keep moving forward!

I don’t feel restored yet, and this has been my hardest year teaching EVER! My heart is with my family and yet it is needed over and over everyday in my classroom. It’s a struggle that I do not know how I will accomplish. I just put one foot in front of the other, raise my eyes to heaven again and again and again! I pray, I read Philippians 4:13, I trust, cry, and pray more. And, I am finally seeing some blue space in my skies to allow me to write again. To allow me keep trying to find the pathway that God has called me to while blooming where I am planted.

Here we go! Stay tuned, or at least check in from time to time, since who knows when I’ll post again. I’m hopeful it will be soon. Let’s walk this journey together! Tell me about your own journey, I’d love to hear from you!

FaithHealthParenting

My Journey to the Temple

By Audrea1 Comment

I am currently focusing again on health, well being and of course weight. However, in light of wanting a “forever fix” and having two adorable young ladies watching me, whose body image I want to cultivate instead of warp, I am trying to take a different approach than I ever have.

So, since one of the biggest motivations behind continuing to try to navigate this road and balance of life, motherhood, work, busyness, tiredness, weight and exercise is to truly treat my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, hence this title. I don’t want to just look a certain way or weigh a certain amount for myself. And it can NOT be in order to achieve some one else’s standard, because then, I will never succeed. I am on this journey wholeheartedly again, because I am not okay with where I currently am. However, I could convince myself that where I am is not that bad and that it is just the unavoidable consequence of birthing babies, getting older and having no time to myself! Yet, God has given me a higher calling than that that says just okay isn’t good enough. That calling is in the form of the command to treat my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19-20). It also comes in the form of being the momma of two little girls. It is the second form of this calling that compels me to find a different way than cutting out food groups or counting every calorie. My girls will watch everything I do and learn things, whether I am trying to teach them lessons or not. And following a specific, limiting diet and losing and gaining the same 20 pounds endlessly are not the lessons I want them to learn.

So, I start/continue this journey, trying to stay heavenly minded and find a healthy, long-lasting relationship with this fuel, gift, pleasure and temptation that we call food.

One of the things I am striving for is balance. I need balance in the ability to exercise around caring for the girls. I need balance in being able to eat all things. I need balance in this peculiar idea shared in Michael Pollan’s book, Food Rules, of “all things in moderation, even moderation”.

So far in this newly started summer break things are going well. I’ve been able to work out every day except Sunday which is what I wanted to accomplish. I’ve been able to embrace the idea of being done eating when I’m satisfied versus full (again from Pollan’s book). And I am even enjoying the accountability that I have set up with a friend who has successfully navigated a HUGE journey to the Temple herself.

It has been VERY tempting NOT to share anything about this journey publicly! I mean, based on past experience, I’m going to fail. BUT, accountability is supposed to help and sometimes just knowing we’re not alone helps us move forward. So, I’ll share and hopefully propel myself forward and maybe help someone who reads this and maybe hear from you when you read it and that WILL help me!

Parenting

Just a Day

By Audrea1 Comment

So often I think that I cannot write unless I have some big epiphany or a new recipe or something specific to share. Instead this time, I am just sharing where I am. We have FINALLY started summer break from school!! This school year truly felt like a school year that would not end for SO MANY reasons.

Our summer has no major plans this year. Since we are just starting out in our new house (we moved in in November for those who haven’t read about that part of this journey), and we still need to finish our detached garage, fencing and build a barn. All of this on top of trying to financially recover from closing costs and whatnot from finishing the house. We did get the slab poured and finished for our garage and we are currently working on getting bids for drying it in. My husband is more than capable of framing it himself. However, God has continued to call him to coach football for the 7th grade, junior high and senior high football teams at our local school and that means practice all summer. He is also the one responsible for our fencing. Due to the lack of time all of that creates for him, we will be looking for someone else to do it for us!

Therefore, our summer break has started soft and slow the last 4 days after the whirlwind of end of year activities. The girls and I have been to the local library and all four of us have been to the park. We joined the girls and the rest of my family for Sunday dinner yesterday, after they spent the afternoon with Grammie, Papi and their visiting Great Grandpa and Adam and I spent the afternoon setting posts for the rest of our fencing. Then all four of us set the last 6 posts this morning before again joining my family at my mom and dad’s house to celebrate Memorial Day, complete with the annual trip that my mom makes to the local cemetery with the grandchildren. So it has been a wonderful time during this long weekend (Adam’s practices don’t start until tomorrow) just enjoying time off and together!

HealthParentingRecipes

Weggles

By Audrea4 Comments

I am trying to plan out my meals for the week. I feel the best when I eat a diet as full of whole foods as possible. I have recently been reading about the idea of doing hash browns in a waffle maker. So, today when the girls went to visit and craft at the neighbors, I decided to try a new concoction for my breakfasts this week and maybe the girls would like it for some of their mornings as well. I have christened this concoction Weggles for the base of eggs and the use of the waffle maker.

Here is the recipe for my invention:

6 eggs

5-6 medium potatoes shredded

1 Tbsp powdered Garlic

1-2 cups spinach

1/2 cup mushrooms (I used canned mushroom pieces from Aldi)

2-3 Tbsp bacon grease (I would think you could substitute coconut oil)

1 tsp sea salt

I mixed it all together and then scooped about 1/3 cup of the mixture onto a hot and greased waffle iron. I smooshed/smoothed it out and then let it cook. It took longer than typical waffles and the longer you leave it the crispier the outcome. I really like the flavor and combination of potato and egg. My oldest really likes it (in fact she keeps getting in trouble for sneaking bites, right now), my youngest gave them a passing grade, but not a very enthusiastic pass.

ParentingRecipes

Sausage to the Rescue! (Sausage Egg “Muffins”)

By Audrea2 Comments

Our other go to breakfast for school mornings besides our wonderful Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins are Egg “Muffins”. These are either a whole egg or some beaten egg, milk and/or cheese mixture poured over lunch meat, ham, bacon or porchetta. The girls love these and I love the high amount of protein and low amount of sugar they have! HOWEVER, I HATE cleaning the muffin pans after baking them. Inevitably some of the egg gets through the lunch meat and into the bottom of the muffin cups where I almost cannot get it scrubbed out.

The last time I made them, I decided to try sausage as the “crust” for my muffins instead of lunch meat. I was thinking about doing another Whole 30 and that led me to think of the Scotch eggs people often eat while doing Whole 30’s. And, drum roll please……. the sausage worked like a dream. The bottom of the muffin cups cleaned with barely any scrubbing or pressure. I had not greased the top of the tins and my sausage did not go all the way up the muffin cups. So, I did have trouble with the ring of egg left at the top of the cups. However, I got 18 muffins from 1 pound of sausage and 12 eggs. Next time I will either grease the tops of the cups or use more sausage so that it goes all the way up the sides of each cup. However, for both ease of cleaning and flavor sausage was a HUGE hit!! The girls always like these, but they had rave reviews for the flavor this week!

Sausage Egg “Muffins”

1 lb sausage

12 eggs

Olive Oil Spray

I just use my hands to press a small chunk (about the size of an unshelled walnut) of sausage into the bottom and up the sides as far as it would go (I tried to keep it about a 1/8 of an inch thick; just thick enough to not be able to see the muffin pan at all through the sausage) of each muffin cup. I beat the eggs with a whisk and then used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the beaten eggs into each muffin cup to about 3/4 full. I bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. When they are firm to the touch they are done. I store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator for the week, taking the ones I need out each morning and heating them up in the microwave. My girls (they are 4 and 6) each eat 1 or 1 1/2 “muffins” every morning. I usually eat 2.

ParentingRecipes

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Granola

By Audrea3 Comments

I am trying granola recipes because I have the opportunity to sell some at an upcoming local craft event on Mother’s Day weekend at Granny’s Simple Blessings. And also because while I am not a big cereal fan, my girls and my husband are; and I am always looking for better, homemade options to replace (at least sometimes) their sugary choices!

So, once again I pulled out my Better Homes and Garden Cookbook to give me the basics for my recipe and started experimenting. This is what I came up with:

3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

1/3 cup Ground Flax Seeds

1 1/2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Ground Cloves

1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1/2 cup Honey

1 cup Raisins

I set the oven to 300 degrees. Whisked together the oats and spices. Used the life saving hack of greasing my measuring cup prior to filling it with honey, measured the honey and poured it into the oats and spices. Stirred together with my spatula (that I also greased with less success than my measuring cup). Poured into my 9 x 13 glass baking dish and a 10 x 10 metal baking pan. Spread out and baked for 20 minutes. I stirred the cereal and baked for an additional 10-15 minutes and then took out to cool. Previously when making granola I have always been SO FRUSTRATED with it sticking to the pan once it cools. I find the best thing to do to combat this is to stir it every 3-5 minutes as it cools to lessen (or in this case eliminate!!!!) the sticking. Once it cooled, I stirred in the raisins and then put it into old honey jars (1/2 gallon glass jars) to store! The cook book says a week at room temperature or over a month if you freeze it. You can freeze it right in the jars if you want to! Also, if you do not have old honey jars, you can use any air tight container, even a gallon size zippered plastic bag!

So, the girls and I tried some today for an afternoon snack/early dinner. It’s another crazy t-ball pictures/game and gymnastics night! My four year old deemed it “Really, really, really good!” when I asked for her honest opinion on the way to gymnastics. It was less sweet than I expected. I thought about adding brown sugar, but since I’m trying to avoid sugar as much as possible, I think I may increase the raisins and maybe add some dried dates next time. If you try it, let me know what you think. Be advised we like spice in our granola and baked goods! If you do not like a lot of spice you may want to try just 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and maybe just a 1/4 teaspoon of cloves. I upped the cloves for the spiciness and because I have read about so many benefits from cloves! I was a little worried about it after tasting a little straight from the oven. But, once I added the raisins and we covered it in milk it wasn’t too spicy at all! I used nutmeg to add warmth to the flavor.

Parenting

Magical Unicorn Tea to the Rescue!

By Audrea1 Comment

Every Spring Break my sisters and I try to go out together for the weekend, day or evening. We do this in an effort to maintain, build or even rebuild our friendship with each other as we advance through life and varying responsibilities. This year was harder than others to schedule a time to get together. So, we only managed to set aside a time to go out to dinner together.

After dinner, we stopped by one of our favorite “for fun” stops, Savoy Tea. They always have some different flavors of tea out for sampling. This time one of those flavors was Magical Unicorn Tea! Now, if any of you are Momma’s to little girls you probably know how exciting I knew this would be for my ladies! My girls have been privileged to grow up, like I did, having tea parties with their grandmas and nanas. I don’t like coffee, so there is always tea at our house and my girls often have tea with me. We even have our own “tea parties” at breakfast time on the weekends, replete with a tiny tea pot and tiny tea cups filled with real tea. So, the combination of unicorns and tea is perfect for an “I was thinking about you while I was gone!” treat for my daughters. However, I had to ask the fatal question, “Is there artificial coloring in this?” I had to ask this question because this wonderful find was a brilliant purple hue. I was overjoyed to find that my favorite tea company had come through yet again, when the salesman replied that the color was all natural from the flowers in the tea. He then showed us the magic of the tea by adding a bit of lemon juice and changing the brilliant purple hue to a wonderful deep rosy color!

Needless to say, I bought my girls a tin and took home to them some magical tea and the free unicorn stuffy that came with it! However, the magic of the tea was only just beginning. As I tried, once again, to focus on maintaining and reaching an ideal weight, I found myself craving something sweet. However, I was out of calories and carbs for the day. I remembered the girls’ tea. I tried a cup and found my own magic in that wonderful purple brew! Slightly sweet, warm and comforting, it calmed and fulfilled my craving! It also gave me a caffeine free option for a second cup of warm wonderfulness in the morning after my typical Benner English Breakfast Tea that I buy from Aldi.

So, Savoy Tea Company and a little Unicorn Magic have brought my daughters and I continued warmth, joy and magical moments. In fact, I just finished a cup and my oldest is getting ready to start hers as we read a book together! Magical blissfulness at its best!!

ParentingRecipes

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (sugar-free ish)

By Audrea1 Comment

I have been working to do more food prep on the weekends to simplify making 20 lunches and breakfasts and usually 5 dinners every work week. It gets hard and it gets old!! BUT, I really care that my family, and my girls especially, have healthy food to eat. And, when you’re trying to use whole wheat flour and avoid artificial colors and stay on your budget, homemade is just about the only option there is. I like and even, on occasion, love cooking and baking. However, cooking and baking on top of a full time job away from home, in addition to parenting two energetic ladies and supporting a husband who coaches two sports and teaches English (not his favorite subject) and helping at church every Wednesday evening and keeping up with homework, gymnastics and t-ball it can get a little overwhelming sometimes!!

A couple of months ago, I added homemade breakfasts to my agenda. I did this after deciding that I just couldn’t condone the amount of sugar I was feeding my girls in the form of pop-tarts and granola bars. In addition to that, I decided that as much as possible and tolerable we should have truly whole wheat baked goods.

I’m not going to lie, it’s been a struggle!! I take the time to make something and usually the girls LOVE it when it comes out of the oven and even as they snack on it for the rest of the weekend. However, it seems invariably as we start the week that: “I don’t like that!” or “That’s gross!” or “Not again!” are the comments I hear. And it’s FRUSTRATING!! I’m trying to compete with Daddy’s Pop Tarts and I feel the need to give good, nourishing food that promotes focus and is filling for school! I spend extra effort and time because I believe it’s important and I love my daughters and it is SO easy to want to give up!

And so, drum roll please!!!!!!! Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins to the rescue!! We have successfully and deliciously made it through an entire week that ended with the very last of the bread for a bedtime snack because the girls liked it THAT MUCH!! I had been finding the recipes I was trying with whole wheat flour to be okay, but often dry or lacking flavor or just not as good as the “real” thing with white flour and sugar.

So, I pulled out my beloved Better Homes and Garden Cookbook and used their “Make it Mine Muffins” recipe as my guide. The result was a low fat, moist, light, DELICIOUS muffin with no white flour or sugar (except from the chocolate chips) that my daughters thought was a treat EVERY SINGLE time they ate them, my husband said was good and that I felt actually proud enough of, that we shared with our neighbor! So, here is the recipe:

BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS (or bread)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease muffin or bead pan. Yields about 29 muffins (I made 18 muffins and four small loaves of bread from my batch)

4 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1/2 cup honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups mashed bananas (I used thawed frozen bananas)

2 Tbsp ground flax seeds

I whisked together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, flax seeds and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Then I whisked the milk, bananas, honey and eggs together in a smaller bowl. I poured the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and mixed by hand until combined. Then I mixed in the chocolate chips by hand. Then I scooped into the greased muffin pans and loaf stone. Then I baked the muffins for 15-20 minutes and the loaves baked for 25-30 minutes.

HealthParenting

Respiratory Relief

By Audrea1 Comment

My youngest daughter has struggled with congestion and snot, literally from the day she was born. When she was tiny, I often wondered if it was because we had her at home and maybe the midwives were not as thorough, as the hospital had been with our first daughter, at sucking out all the gunk from joining our world. I then wondered if it had to do with the rate in which my milk would come down while she nursed. It was so much faster and so much more than I had had with my oldest that maybe that was causing the problem. I mean it certainly caused more spitting up than I had had with my other daughter. Then I thought of dairy and so cut all dairy out of my diet and that seemed to help her some.

Even so, she had ear infections, runny noses and then croupy coughs for almost all of her infancy. I knew they weren’t nearly as chronic as a lot of other kids, but it was so much more than I was used to. My oldest has had one ear infection and that was just this year at 6 years old. Once my youngest could blow her own nose it helped A LOT. The snot didn’t get the chance to sit and grow infected. However, she continued and continues to struggle with allergies. She’s taken prescription Zyrtec, we’ve used Vick’s vapor rub, she’s taken Benadryl for days on end. Then the last time she had a lot of drainage even those medications didn’t seem to help dry it up.

So, I tried essential oils. Many they would help her be able to breathe better and be able to sleep without constant coughing. But, still nothing dried up her drainage. She has outgrown much of her sensitivity to dairy, but continues to be prone to seasonal allergies and irritants like pets and smoke (cigarette and even wood). After reading on their website and finding a large variety of their oils at our local drugstore, Teasley Drug, I tried some of Northridge Oak Oils Respiratory Blend. It not only helps her breathe more easily, but I truly believe it dries up her drainage. I am SO thankful to have something to help her that doesn’t make her sleepy or hyper or have any other unwanted side effects!!