A New Stage of Life Begins

School starts tomorrow. Our baby starts Kindergarten. Five and a half years ago, we sat in the NICU at UCSF, watching our baby, surrounded by other much sicker babies. I knew then, that Korbin would grow up and be a happy, blessed and healthy boy. And grow UP he has. He definitely got John's genes in height, just like Connor, while Aidan takes more after me. Korbin is tall and skinny, but cute as a button! He is, and always will be, our baby.
I know that there are mothers in this world who look forward to this day in their children's lives. I am not necessarily one of them. It is not that I don't want my children to grow up and experience life and all it has to offer them, because I most certainly want all life has in store for them to come to pass. It's just that there is this part of me who wants to keep my children little for awhile longer. I want to give them so much more to prepare them for the world. And yet, I know that we have done as much as we can and have taught them so much to prepare them for this stage of life, and we will continue to teach and prepare them for each stage of life.
Connor is off to 6th grade. Wow! Where did that time go? He is taller than me and his feet are only a size behind John's. He is ready for a new year of Science and History, and will even put up with Language Arts and Math.
Aidan is off to 4th grade. He is the cutest, freckle faced, blue eyed boy a mom could ask for! He looks a little small next to most of his classmates, but I am banking on a growth spurt to come along soon. He is excited for school to start and even more excited that Math is the first subject of the day.
I must confess, I cry on the first day of school every year. True story. Since I first took Connor to Kindergarten 6 years ago, I have cried when I say good-bye to each of them. I know and trust every teacher and staff member at our school. I love our kids teachers and I know my children are loved and cared for there. I know that we have taught our children and given them the necessary tools to make good and right choices. No matter all of those things, when I leave them at the door, I know that in the next 6-7 hours, I am not there to protect them from any evil or bad thing that may happen.
So, here we are, ready for school to start. Clothes are bought, folded and ready for wear. Everybody has a pair of shoes he likes and a backpack to match his personality; Cars for Korbin, orange for Aidan and black for Connor.
I have been doing some reflecting on the last part of our life and the next stage that begins tomorrow. I know our boys are prepared to take on the world. They have a sanctuary at home, to protect them from the woes of the world. They have parents who love them more than life itself. Not only that, they have grandparents and a great grandma who love them so much! They have aunts and uncles who love them and cousins too. And, they have an Oma, Nana, and Papa in heaven who are watching over them with love. So, while I may cry a lot tomorrow, I will remind myself of the privilege I have of raising these valiant spirits and the unimaginable love and trust that Heavenly Father has for and in John and I, to give us this undeniable blessing!


Never a truer quote have I heard than this:
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone~

Cowboy Cookies revised

Tonight I made Cowboy Cookies again...but I made them Gluten/Wheat Free and changed them up a bit!

Cowboy Cookies

Makes about 26 2-inch cookies.
ingredients

1 cup gluten free flour (like rice flour or bean flour) or gluten free flour mix
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 quick-cooking (not instant) rolled oats
1 1/2 cups Corn Flakes cereal
3/4 cup dried cherries
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a separate large bowl (or bowl of stand mixer), beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 1 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until combined. Stir in oats, Corn Flakes, cherries and chocolate chips until well mixed together.

Drop by generous 1 Tbsp. balls, about 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (* For more attractive cookies, flatten the balls by half and roughly shape into round circles. These cookies do not spread much and doing this gives a nice round, flat cookie as opposed to an irregular shaped, higher cookie).

Bake at 350° F. until edges and tops begin to brown, about 12-14 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheet set on a cooling rack. Once mostly cooled, remove from pan to the cooling rack to finish cooling.


I crushed the corn flakes.

Craziness abounds!!!

Life never slows down around here! With both adults in the house working at least a 40 hours a week and often more, plus Scouts for the older boys, School Board meetings for mom, Church callings and activities, and everyday family activities, it never stops! As I have said before, I do certain things to save some time...I make freezer meals, I prepare most necessary items for meal preparation on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. One thing that I rely heavily upon in my house is my Kitchen Aid mixer. I have had my Kitchen Aid for about 8 years, it will go for at least another 8, but I have really wished for the means to buy a bigger one with a lifting bowl. So, imagine my excitement when my grandma said she needed a new mixer! I told her that I could give her mine if I could find a great deal on a new, bigger one. An even better blessing came when my grandma said that she would buy mine from me. So, off to look on E-Bay I went. I found just what I wanted, red and all, and I bid on it. Oh how exciting it was to be the winning bidder, and all for only $220 with tax and shipping included! I got my new mixer today and I am sooooo excited to use it! The only bad thing? It doesn't fit on my counter under my cupboards, so it needs a new home. I use my mixer so much, that it isn't really practical to have it put away where I have to lift it up to the counter all the time, so I am going to have to think about where to put it. Until then, I will just have to do lots of baking. I made these yummy Cowboy cookies the other day...I think I will make them again tomorrow. Here is the recipe I used, with the changes I made noted at the bottom. (because I often make changes to recipes, that's how I roll):
Cowboy Cookies

Makes about 26 2-inch cookies.
ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 quick-cooking (not instant) rolled oats
1 1/2 cups Corn Flakes cereal
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a separate large bowl (or bowl of stand mixer), beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 1 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until combined. Stir in oats, Corn Flakes, raisins and chocolate chips until well mixed together.

Drop by generous 1 Tbsp. balls, about 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (* For more attractive cookies, flatten the balls by half and roughly shape into round circles. These cookies do not spread much and doing this gives a nice round, flat cookie as opposed to an irregular shaped, higher cookie).

Bake at 350° F. until edges and tops begin to brown, about 12-14 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheet set on a cooling rack. Once mostly cooled, remove from pan to the cooling rack to finish cooling.


I crushed the corn flakes. I used a full cup of raisins. I added 1 cup coconut. I added 1/2 cup peanut butter chips. I didn't do it, but I think that adding a little bit of wheat germ or a little bit of flax seed would be yummy too.

Enjoy! I will have to post some other recipes as I create with my new mixer.

8 YEARS HAVE PASSED

8 years ago today I sat in a hospital holding a hours old Aidan in my arms. He didn't have his cute freckles yet, or his cute tooth filled smile, or his sometimes not so desirable attitude. But, he did have my heart, completely and fully. Today he has an abundance of freckles across hi nose, the angel kisses we call them. He has an infectious smile and laugh, and beautiful blue eyes. He has an undying yearning for learning, which we try to encourage everyday in the hopes that he never loses it. He is a great big brother and an appreciative little brother. He is a true and wonderful blessing in our family!

We chose the name Aidan because we loved that it was such a strong Irish name, and the bonus was that it meant "fiery spirit," which is Aidan in a nutshell. His middle name is Bryant, his great grandfather's surname. Aidan has a lot to live up to if he wants to become like his great grandfather, and I know he does. He will certainly accomplish all he desires, he is stubborn enough to never quit and smart enough to do it all! There are already so many things about Aidan that remind us of Papa, almost as if they were kindred spirits. Amazing!!

Happy birthday to you Aidan Bryant Ireland!! We love you so much!!


Ready to start Scouts, very intently reading his Wolf book



Happy to open some presents before dinner


Aidan chose where he wanted to sit and Gaga made him a sign to mark the chair

I have survived....

I have survived several things in my 37 years...including earthquakes, floods and childbirth. As of today, I have survived 2 slumber parties in my house! I am fairly certain that is a huge accomplishment. The noise level during last night's balloon fight was something to be reckoned with. I survived it. Craft time and creating of one's own pizza? Survived it. Opening presents and treat bags? Survived it. Movies, popcorn, and sleeping? Survived it. Fun was had by all.

I made a pretty awesome camouflage cake with army tanks and guys on it. As soon as I figure out how to get the pictures off of my camera and on here, I will post.

One more day until Aidan turns 8, officially. Four more days until Aidan is baptized. Still have to find a pianist and decide on songs. Happy, happy days!!!

Crazy Fun Days.....

Through the last nearly 11 years of being a Mom, I have been a Stay at Home (working) Mom, a Work outside of the home, a part time stay at home/work outside the home mom, and a Full-time student/stay at home/work outside the home mom. I'm sure you see the trend there...I have been a Mom for nearly 11 years, and I have worked for many more than that! I am in a Work outside the home Mom stage now, and probably will be for the rest of my days. I am okay with it, probably because I have a job which allows me to have "Family Sick Leave" time, vacation time, and many holidays to be home with my boys. In fact, I took the whole week off this week, to be with the boys, and plan for Aidan's birthday and baptism. Let's just say that working outside the home is much easier than staying home! Don't get me wrong, I have great kids! It just takes much more energy to be home than it does to go to work each day.

Today's activities are a great example:

*Help Connor make breakfast for everybody, while doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen
*Clean the house, with help from boys (help=asking the boys to stay on task once every 5-10 minutes for 2 hours)
*Clean up the bathroom floor and part of the boy's room floor, using all but 2 towels in the house, after the toilet overflowed
*Make 2 different dishes for lunches for kids, while realizing that we were late getting Korbin to school
*Getting Korbin to school
*Errands in Eureka to get the remainder of birthday party supplies (I hope) and birthday presents (this included far more than I planned on spending at the Scout store!)
*Stop for Connor and Aidan to eat
*Picking up Korbin from Gaga and Pop's house
*Feeding 3 boys again, while they watch a movie

Still left on the list?
* Bake the cake and make the army colors frosting so that tomorrow I can make an "Army fighting" scenario come to life on the cake. (any idea how to make land mines?)
* Put together treat bags
* Clean the bathroom
* Fold mountains of laundry (including all those towels used to clean up the toilet water)
* maybe get some sleep

Being home takes much more out of me, but I am surely more rewarded by being with my children! I am grateful for each of them!

Trying Something New

I am going to try something new...my great friend, and former mission companion, Cathy, has a great blog that I follow. She manages to write on her blog pretty much everyday. I am going to try to do this...I am going to try to write more like she does...you can check her blog out over here: http://theoldsfamily.blogspot.com

I started something else new just about a month ago. I started making freezer meals for our family. I have always been good at budgeting and spending a small amount on groceries for our family size. Our average monthly grocery bill over the last few years has been $300 or less, including buying food storage food for our family. I noticed, however, that after I started working in our Garberville office, I was spending more than that. I noted that it was because I was getting home later and probably doing more "convenience" kind of foods than before. In order to get away from that, and get back on budget, I decided to try to use the crockpot more and to try freezer meals. Freeze meals have been great! I spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon cooking 6-10 meals and then I freeze them. I can take most from freezer to oven and have dinner within an hour to an hour and a half after coming in the door. It is the next best thing to having dinner in the crockpot!

I have found some great recipes on this website: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com
One of the kid's favorites is this: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2009/07/chicken-cordon-bleu-bake.html

I have spent less than $300 on groceries in the last month and I have added to our food storage. That, my friends, is awesome in my opinion!