Six Months and Cruzin'

My baby is 6 months already! I think these have been the fastest 6 months of my life! One child made time spin, but two sends it into hyper speed! 

Here we are sporting the new dress from her aunties who're fixated with anchors.

Both my children have made this hilarious face. I makes me bust out laughing. 

This child has a thing with her feet going every which way, so I had to add this picture because I find it so funny.

My son got up from his nap as our photo session was about over so we took some together. 
It's very challenging for me to take the pictures and try to keep both faces on me (I never claimed to be an excellent children's photographer; they are a special breed all on their own). 

Or to keep one from deciding to crawl across the backdrop.

But, it made for some entertainment.

We recruited Dad's help and were able to get a shoot with both kids in focus. 
And as it would be, someone had to make a face.

All for good laughs and memories! :)

A Boy Who Is Just So Cute I Can't Stand It

Here is a boy and his ball. 
 

 Here is a boy and his ball and his face that says, "I'm on an adventure. I'm going to throw this ball at the chickens."

Here is that boy carrying out his thought. Fortunately for the chicken, she is hiding behind the bush and she's faster on her feet than the boy. 

Here is the boy coming over to say "Hi" to his mother, who is persistent at sticking her head out the window and taking pictures of him. 

 I just love the back of his neck. He's just so cute. I love to squeeze him from behind and kiss the back of his neck.

 Some day he will be embarrassed by it. Someday he will be embarrassed by this post.

 I don't much care. I'm his mother. I went through all the pains of baring and delivering him, teaching and training him. I will kiss the back of his neck as long as I please.

And I will take pictures of him just being himself - being so cute.

Strawberry-Coconut Meringue

Yes, I know. These are not strawberries. I didn't have any on hand. So, I substituted with what I did have. You could, too! I'm sure this will taste just fabulous with any fresh seasonal fruit.

I don't make dessert all that often, but we had company tonight. We should have company every night. :) 

Strawberry-Coconut Meringue (I will rename it: Fresh Fruit-Coconut Meringue :))

Meringue
4 egg whites
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup shredded coconut

Filling
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/2 cup fresh fruit

To make the meringue: Preheat the oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Beat the the egg whites with the salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Beat in the cornstarch, lemon juice, and vanilla and continue beating until firm peaks form. With the mixer running, very slowly beat in the sugar (this should take about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes). Continue beating until the egg whites are stiff and glossy and the sugar has dissolved. Gently fold in 1/4 cup of the coconut.

Pile the meringue in the center of the parchment and spread to about a 6" circle (it will puff and expand about 8"). Gently smooth the top and sides of the meringue. Sprinkle the top and sides with the remaining1/2 cup of the coconut.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the coconut is golden brown and the meringue is firm on the outside. Slide the meringue and parchment paper onto a wire rack and cool completely. Gently peel off the parchment paper.

To make the filling: Beat the heavy cream in a medium bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until soft peaks form. Add the yogurt and sugar. Continue beating until firm, but not stiff, peaks form.

Pile the cream in the meringue. Top with the fruit before serving.

**Note:The meringue can be baked up to 2 days ahead of time and stored in an airtight container. To keep the meringue as crisp as possible, assemble the dessert right before serving. **

Rolled Pork Loin Roast Florentine with Skewered Herbed Potatoes

On days when it's just so hot, I don't care to bake in my oven. My sister had passed on Gas Grill Gourmet a few years ago and I finally thumbed through it in hopes of something tasty for supper tonight. 

Before we could partake, I had to shoot some pictures. I was so excited with what I made that I had to share with y'all. The pork loin came from a pig we'd purchased to butcher from our local vet. THE best pork I've ever tasted in my life is what I've had home-raised right here in my own county.  

Rolled Pork Loin Roast Florentine
One 3-5 pound rolled boneless pork loin roast (mine was not rolled, I just made a cut through it so I could follow the recipe)
1/4 cup dried rosemary, crumbled
8-10 cloves garlic, each cut lengthwise into 4 slivers
1/4 cup olive oil

1. About an hour before you are ready to cook the pork roast, cut the string that holds the roast together and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the crumbled rosemary, 8 or 10 of the garlic slivers, and salt and pepper over the inside of the unrolled roast. Roll the roast back up and tie with fresh cotton string. Using the tip of a sharp knife, make as many as you have remaining slivers. Insert the slivers into the incisions and rub the outside of the roast with the olive oil. Sprinkle the remaining 3 tablespoons rosemary over the outside of the roast, pressing it in with the heel of your hand; dust with more salt and pepper. Cover the roast with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to grill.

2. Preheat the grill with all the burners on high for 10 minutes and the lid down.

3. Once the grill is hot, turn of the center burner and turn the other burners to medium. Place the pork roast over the center burner, close the lid, and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, depending on the size of your roast. With a cut of meat this size, it's essential to use an instant-read thermometer. The roast will be cooked to medium (when the pork is its most succulent) when it reaches 160F and well done at 170F. Once the roast has come within 10 degrees of the desired final temperature, remove it from the grill.

4. Place the roast on a carving board, loosely tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 10 minutes or so, during with time the pork will continue to "cook" to the desired degree of doneness; then cut the strings off the roast and cave into fairly thin slices. Serve with any juices you may have accumulated on the carving board. 

Skewered Herbed Potatoes
20 new potatoes, each about the size of a golf ball
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (I used dried) (dill, basil, oregano, rosemary, mint, or any combination (I used them all))
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon freshly grate black pepper
kosher salt to taste
bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes and drained

1. Wash and scrub potatoes. Pat dry, but do not peel. Place the potatoes in a bowl and toss with the olive oil, herbs, garlic, pepper and salt. Thread 5 potatoes, with their sides touching, on each skewer.

3. When the roast has 15 more minutes, add the skewers to the center burner of the grill, close the lid and cook until easily pierced with the tip of a sharp knife, about 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so. Serve hot off the grill.

For dessert, we had this!

To Cherish My Children

I love cutting my grass. The smell of a freshly cut lawn brings me back to comfortable memories of my childhood when my father would mow our yard. 

Not only for the smell, but also for the time to think do I love mowing. I have a pretty big yard and it takes me just about two hours to get the whole thing done on my riding lawnmower. It's too loud to listen to music or sermons as I do when running, so what else am I going to do to pass the time but think? :)


What I've been pondering today is motherhood and cherishing my children. 

I live in a society that seems to turn from cherishing our children to viewing them as just a possession, a bother, a mistake. True, some days are very hard with my children. Some days I really miss pre-kid time with my husband, but it only lasts for a short while because I make a point of looking at the blessing that they are. The Bible says that children are a blessing. A blessing is a good thing. One to give thanks to the Lord for. 

I have been privileged to have two blessings. Others have more, others have less. Each should be a blessing to that family, not a curse. No matter the circumstance in which the child was created, God saw fit to place that child in the care of the parents that are raising him or her. He saw fit to give them life. He saw fit. 

I recently was part of a conversation in which someone mentioned a family they know that has 15 children. Most were natural, some were adopted children with a disability. A comment was made about how many children that was! Yes, it is a lot. Yes, our culture looks at it as weird. But God doesn't. He saw fit to bless that family with all 15 of those children. He created every single one of them. He created them to be cherished. Not criticized for existing.

Sometimes I think about the things my husband and I will be able to do after our kids are grown and gone. Sometimes I hear society say the same thing, we think life finally begins after the children move on.

In the past month, I read a blog post (that unfortunately I now can't find) about a woman who worked at a grocery store. So many of the mothers who came in with their children spoke harshly to them while shopping. The author spoke of the need to cherish our children, even on hard days. 

      It made me really consider that  

how I interact with my kids shows how much I cherish them,

                  even to a stranger.

Who knows what memories a child will retain? 
Will mine remember me as a mother who got upset over spilled ice tea on the brand new Lazy-Boy? 
Or will they remember me greeting them each morning with a smile because I love them and am eager to see them that day?

Maybe, just maybe, the more I exude an attitude of cherishing them they will remember that. The less I allow myself to be frustrated, maybe they won't remember the times that I forget.

I picked up my current read this morning (Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst) and was transported to a time when she served at a homeless shelter for a week in LA. Sometimes I get bogged down with being a stay-at-home mom. I used to live in an area where I served in a homeless shelter. I can still remember one of the wonderful conversations I had with a woman there. Right now, I don't live in an area with soup kitchens, or homeless shelters. My church is small and doesn't have a whole lot of outreach ministry opportunities that I'm able to help with at this time. I live in a small community and my home is out in the country. 

As I was thinking these things and reading this part of the book, my heart longed to be able to do this kind of service again. To serve others with these two hands. To see lives being changed before my eyes. 

While reading this book I was nursing my baby and my three year old was happily playing with his plethera of tractors. He made a one of his tractor noises and I glanced up at him playing. 

                    My longing heart swelled. 

Right now, he is my ministry. Right now, my nursing baby is my ministry. I can serve these two precious children with these two hands. 

I can start by cherishing them. 

These are some ways I have been intentional about right now:
1) smile and hug my son, even when he wets the bed for the third time this week and I need to change and wash the sheets, again
2) tenderly help him put items in the shopping cart as we pick out groceries
3) praise him for his efforts in trying to help, even if it spills
4) rejoicing in a crabby baby as a chance to yet again cuddle before she's grown and gone
5)  quietly correct disobedience in the presence of others so as not to make him feel ridiculed and embarrassed for his faults (read this in Tedd Tripp's book, Shepherding A Child's Heart)

In what ways do you show your children that you cherish them?

To those who are Anti-GMO

Ok. Here goes. I generally like to shy away from controversial discussion because I don't like creating problems and am terrible at debate. But, I've decided to get my feet wet in this one.

To those who're Anti-GMO:

Before getting too excited about posting and blogging about your obvious dislike of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), I highly recommend you sit down with my husband and hear the "other side" of your debate. 

Sit down face-to-face, not Facebook or email. 
Come on over, have a nice glass of freshly brewed ice tea and civilly discuss with a kind, manly man this issue in its entirety.


The research that you've been reading is not 100% accurate in its studies against Monsanto and it's Round-Up ready products. All the studies are funded by someone who's already biased and has an agenda against this globally benefiting company.

While you have the choice of what you fill your four-walled kingdom with, there are millions of people globally that have a much smaller choice than you do. Their choice is either to live another day by eating GMO food, or die. Your choice is much more extensive. You can pick the products that you like and don't. Your choice of food does not cost your life. 

There is the possibility that genetically enhancing a seed in order for greater productivity to feed more people could maybe cause cancer in some, or maybe create infertility in others or maybe destroy the ozone layer or maybe kill some stupid insect that I would just squish with my bare fingers if it crossed my path anyway! (please note all the italicized maybe's)

We are ALL genetic modifications of our parents and their parents and their parents and...

I'm tired of this blame game. While people sit at their computers and read articles and even this blog and think "Oh, every thing must be true! We're all going to die if we eat this stuff! It's all so-and-so's fault! Ban them from the world!"

Well, guess what? We ARE all going to die. But, not because of Monsanto. Because of SIN. 

Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-6). The perfect place. No hard labor, no death, continual unbarred communication with God, the Creator of the Universe. The only thing He told them not to do was to not eat from a certain tree. 

They disobeyed and ate anyway. And since then, we've been living in a world marred by SIN. Cancer is not a direct result of GMO's, its part of what happened to this world by sin. We no longer live in a perfect world. We live in a sin-filled world. *

So yes, it's possible. Eating GMO corn, or soybeans or wheat or sunflowers could maybe aid in detrimental illnesses and the like, but they are not and never will be the sole reason. Driving your car could maybe result in leaving one paralyzed, but we don't ban cars.

Companies like Monsanto have genetically enhanced a seed in a lab in order to resist weed killing chemicals, so that when it's sprayed shortly after planting that all the weeds will die, leaving the crop to grow and flourish and have an abundant harvest. More abundant than if the weeds grew up along side it and the crop struggled to grow and there wasn't as large of a crop. (Can you imagine the cost of paying workers to hand weed a 150 acre corn field?!) 

More crop with less input equals more people getting to eat.
More people getting to eat equals less global starvation, food at a less expensive price. 

That single Mom can afford to buy a $1.70 loaf of bread** to make her little boy a sandwich for lunch. You go ahead and keep buying your organic, GMO-free, gluten-free $8 bread. You apparently can afford it. While she works two jobs, struggles to pay rent and deals with her alcoholic ex who won't help take care of his child, you go on and enjoy your "better" food. But remember, there are others out there. Others who're more than grateful for $1.70 bread and a company that helps her through one more day. A company, I might add, that from where I sit looks a whole lot more Christ-like in helping widows and orphans (James 1) eat. One. More. Day. 

I have written this not to spark irritation and more debate. I don't want my in-box flooded with hate mail and your reasons for buying non-GMO. I already know your reasons, you've made them very clear. I'm just trying to help you see the other side and the good in it.

If I have peaked your interest into the bigger picture of this discussion, I again welcome you to converse face to face with my husband. He is much better and more eloquent at explaining this issue than I am. And, maybe he'll even let you take a ride in the combine. :)

Cheers! :)

* I'm most happy to share about how though we live in a sin-marred world, we haven't been left to just fend for ourselves. Another chance to sit and enjoy some fresh brewed ice tea. :)

** Mandating the labeling of GMO foods will also raise the price. Companies that wish to have to charge more for their products. That single Mom should still be able to purchase cheaper bread, while you can choose to buy from other more expensive bread companies who can choose, on their own, to mark their packaging.

~Four Months~ A Sweet Baby

 My little sweetie is four months already! 

She truly is a sweetie and I just love her more each day!

To all those who've seen pictures of me this age, I assure you, this is not me. :)