Early Christmas

Dan and I got our Christmas present early this year. We upgraded our camera. While I still have a long way to go in understanding all the bells and whistles on this piece of technology, I am immensely enjoying the quality of pictures I am getting. So here are a few of my current favorites. Enjoy!Can you tell what I most love taking pictures of? I could follow them around shooting all day!

After hearing some real "gems" from Elijah recently, I realized that I should be writing them down! So that is exactly what I am doing here:

I was reading a book at the breakfast table one morning and Elijah was up earlier than usual. I explained to him that I needed a little quiet so that I could finish the chapter in my Bible Doctrine book. A few minutes passed and then he asked me, "Mommy, are you going to the Doctor's today?" When I replied in the negative and inquired why he asked me that, he answered, "Then why are you reading a doctor book?"

Elijah has discovered the world of bubblegum and asks for a piece quite often. He watches intently if Dan or I blow a bubble and asked if we could show him how to do it. When we tried to explain it, he understood that it would be difficult to learn and decided that his "special trick" with gum would be to "chomp it."

I attended a friend's baby shower last week and brought home some candy. Elijah saw it and asked if it was from the "baby's bath."

And finally, in an effort to get to eat dinner early, before his father had come home, Elijah whined to me and said that "eating together stranges me out." Now explain that!?!?!

Email Forwards

I received this email today and laughed out loud! It is too funny not to share. After all, have you ever sent one of these forwards?

SUMMARY OF MY LAST YEAR ON THE COMPUTER
I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put "Under God" on their cans.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 I dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy gas from certain gas companies!

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician...

Have a wonderful day....

Oh, by the way.....A South American scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse. Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late.

Weekend to Reflect

This weekend found me attending a wedding, a funeral and a baby shower. All in three day's time. These events, in and of themselves, usually cause a person to reflect, to become sentimental, to cry. I did all. To add to the craziness of the weekend, I found out that my cousin has lung cancer and her father, my uncle, was diagnosed on the same day with Parkinson's Disease. Throw it all together and what do you get? A perfect opportunity to reflect on the brevity of life. I feel like I experienced an entire life's worth of "special moments" this weekend and it propelled me to ponder the meaning of life.

Now, I am a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ. I am fully aware of the meaning of life - to glorify God in all that I eat or drink or whatever I do. But even fully devoted believers have moments of self-introspection and questioning. The greatness of having those moments means that the Holy Spirit has another chance to speak to your soul, to remind you that life isn't only made up of those grand occasions, but that life occurs every day in the mundane moments. It is easy to judge a wedding or funeral to see if God was glorified, but what about the way in which I served lunch to my kids today? Did I honoring the gospel in my interaction with my neighbor as we walked together early this morning?

And the most amazing thing about remembering that we have these moments to show the glory of Christ is that He gives me another chance to do it again tomorrow. It's all about grace . . .

Another Reason . . .

. . . that I enjoy my "once-a-month-cooking" habit is that it frees up my kitchen during the day to bake my own bread or other goodies. I don't feel so overwhelmed at being in the kitchen "all day" because I know that dinner is already made, only needs heating up, and I am free to use my time to experiment with new side dishes or other fun recipes!

*This post is for my facebook friends who have been asking about my oamc fixation.

Eating my Veggies

I was taking a leisurly shopping trip to Sam's Club a few weeks ago (the kids were home with Dan) and happened upon a cookbook for sale that was all about incorporating veggies into your "kid friendly" meals. I was instantly hooked. We really struggle to get Elijah to eat his vegetables, so I decided that anyway we could get some in his body would be worth it. So I bought the cookbook and proceeded over the next 24 hours to absolutely devour it. I read it every chance I could get and started making a list of veggies to buy to try the recipes.

Well, by now the whole world knows about the cookbook, because the next day, the author - Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife) was on Oprah. And within a few weeks the book was surrounded in controversy because apparently there is a similar cookbook already on the market.

My attitude toward the controversy? Who cares! I just love the ideas presented! She starts with vegetable purees and adds them to almost everything. And since I have been trying to eat more healthy (my brother's heart attack affected my diet, too) I love all the ideas.

We have already made hot chocolate with sweet potato puree, sweet potato pancakes, pumpkin oatmeal, scrambled eggs with cauliflower and beet pancakes. As you can see, I especially like the breakfast dishes because it is a way to sneak veggies in a meal where I usually wouldn't even think about it! Besides, because I make most of my dinners ahead of time, I am not able to add veggie purees into them now. But next month I will!

We have enjoyed trying the new dishes and I love knowing that Elijah is getting some vegetables that even I don't like (beets and sweet potato are not on my "must eat" list). I still prepare veggies for dinner, but I know he is getting more than what is required for him to eat on his plate.

My biggest surprise recipe? Adding chickpeas to chocolate chip cookies. If you mix them with a hand or stand mixer, it chops them up enough that they basically disappear when you bake them. You seriously cannot taste them! I made a batch and took them to a chili supper at my church and handed them out to a ton of people and got their reactions. No one could taste it at all. And because she uses trans-fat free tub margarine in most of her baking, all the recipes are low fat, too.

I cannot emphasize how much this has made my cooking more fun. I try to hide some kind of vegetable into almost all my meals, including squash in macaroni and cheese and carrot in cornbread. It has been a blast! What are your secrets for eating healthy?