Neighborhood Park

One of the things that drew us to purchase our home was the community. It's clean and quiet without any real through streets and has a great little association park just three houses down. Our back yard is a great size for us but we probably won't ever be installing a large play house and swing set. The park is a great place to run, wander and climb. I don't have to pack up snacks and diapers and the like. If she gets tired or bored after five minutes, it isn't a big deal, we can always come back in an hour if we feel like it. If we do feel like an adventure, we can pack up and head to one of the other parks nearby, but our little one usually hits the spot for wanting to stretch our legs.

The baby swings are fun, but don't usually last too long.

The lady bug didn't last long once she realized there was nothing of interest in it. And heaven forbid Mom should make the thing bounce; you would have thought I was torturing her.

Last Friday nothing could be more interesting than the bicycle rack; she went back and forth for quite some time.

Most of our time is spent wandering the pathways. She just wants to be " 'side." However, after a time, Mommy sits down on the big kid swing and Lily toddles over exclaiming "up-a, up-a." We sit and swing while Mommy sings. My current favorite pastime.

Not Fair!

Kids say it all the time; "It's not fair!" Only most of the time it comes out as, "Ugh, no fair!" I hate that phrase. I hate the whine and the stamping of the foot that goes with it. But I found the phrase drifting in and out of my head this weekend. What people really mean when they say life isn't fair is that either "I didn't get what I think I deserve," or "someone else got something I want, too."


But I praise God that I don't get what I deserve. Sometimes I forget how ugly my sin is. This sin that has a cost, a penalty, a price. God paid the price for me with His son. In just a couple of weeks we will celebrate Christmas and praise God for sending His only son to be humbled as a human and to be crucified so that I can spend eternity with the Father. He offered me a gift I don't deserve. Something I cannot earn. It was given in grace. If I was given what I deserved, I would spend eternity separated from His love. Scripture says that "while we were still sinners," while we were still enemies of God, Christ died for us. Wow, was I really an enemy of God? My sin made me God's enemy. It was only by accepting the gift of life and hope that am not longer His enemy.

Jesus Christ had no sin and yet died an enemies/a criminals death. He died for my sins. Not very fair, was it?

For some reason Matthew 7:9-12 keeps popping up in my head; “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

But right behind that, Proverbs 19:21 rings loud and clear in my ears; "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails."

Jeremiah 29:11-12; "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

God has a plan. He has a purpose. He has good gifts for me.

Walking the Huntington Gardens

Kevin has last Friday off for Veteran's Day and we had two passes to the Huntington Library that were going to expire so were headed west for the afternoon. There really was so much to see, I'm not sure we saw half. But our newly walking daughter did not want to be strapped into the stroller, so she did some walking of her own.

In the still pictures, you can see she is holding our hands, but as the afternoon went on, she became more and more confident eventually refusing to hold our hand. I think this is part of the reason she walked so late. She never did like holding anyone's hand and I think in her mind she said "I'll do it myself, or I won't do it at all." She is a little Miss Independent. I have no idea where she gets it from . . .

I Scream, You Scream

Lily and I headed to Riley's Farm today with my family. We had a wonderful time walking around. looking at pumpkins, and EATING ICE CREAM! This was Lily's first taste of ice cream, and on a cone no less! We had a blast! And it was mmmm, so yummy!

Fork This

"So after months of eating with my hands, you want me to use this instead? What do you call it? A fork? Are you sure, Mom?""So I stab it like this?""But by the time I get this sucker to my mouth, the food has fallen off. This is going to take a while.""What if I put it on the fork with my other hand? Does that count?""Like this, Mom?" "This does not taste like I thought it would."

"Oh! It's a green bean! Mmmm!"

"Look, Ma! I know what forks are for now! I found this giant plastic one in my play picnic set, and I am using it to eat food off the ground!"

"You can't tell by the picture, but I got the fork to work and I ate the fallen grean beans without using my hands!"

We Be Jammin' - Part Two

When I turned 30 someone asked me how I felt. I told them it wasn't that I felt old, I just felt that the speed at which I was turning into my mother had kicked into high gear. Maybe it was when I quit my job. Or maybe the cloth diapers. Or maybe when I took over the bread machine. Whatever it was, I have become my mother. It's not a bad thing, just a fact.

When I was in junior high, my mom and a girlfriend of hers starting make jam, jelly, and pickles. They were simply wonderful. And while I'm sure she gave them away, we had a go to stock in the pantry that was wonderful; triple berry jam, spiced peach, spiced pear, and grape. One day I will tell you all about camping pies made over the campfire with butter, cheap white bread, and homemade jam. They are amazing.

This summer when my mom started sending me pictures of her amazing blackberry harvest, I started to reminisce of triple berry jam made with blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries. When I told my mom, she offered to share her harvest (she brought me 3 quarts) and told me we could make jam when she visited this summer. It technically would be fall, but it was still over 100 degrees here in Sunny SoCal.

I'm actually not a fan of raspberries (at all) so I opted for blackberry-strawberry with the strawberries we picked up at the Kaiser farmers market. They were the sweetest I've had all year. And Lily is a huge fan, gobbling them up faster than I can cut them.



Oh, the smell of the cooking sugar and berry concoction was just divine! I opened a jar as soon as mom left (not sure why I bothered sealing it) and devoured it all by myself in 5 days. Mom made a couple of batches to share. I, on the other hand, will probably be hording the blackberry for myself. The peach, the pepper, and the strawberry-peach can be used as gifts.



We made a lot of jam in two days (maybe 3, I can't remember.) You really only get 5 or 6 jars per batch.

After mom left I tried a batch on my own. Spiced peach. It didn't set as well; I think because the peaches were frozen. I'm sure it will get eaten. It tasted good to me.

We'll be trying spiced pear next week. I have over 20 pounds of pears in my refrigerator as I type. I might even try some canning.

I am my mother and I love it.

Twelve Months

I'm late as usual with my monthly posts. But as the onesie stickers have run out, this should be our last "official" monthly update.

As of 12 months (and 13 months) Lily is still not walking. Nor is she showing any interest of walking. She is just now starting to stand on her own without hold on to anything for balance. In her defense, she has tiny little barely size two feet. We aren't in any hurry. She is quite mobile and is filthy by the end of the day.

She is becoming less and less picky at meal time eating lots more; both in variety and quantity. Unfortunately, I think we might be regressing with our milk intake. But today alone she had cereal, applesauce, acorn squash, peas, cheese, green beans, grapes, zucchini casserole, and of course, gold fish crackers. She is doing really well with her signing; more, please, all done, eat. It really is adorable. I think Daddy would give her just about anything if she signed "please" after asking.

And I know she understands me and my tone of voice. She obeys (sometimes) when I ask/tell her to do something. She jumps when I catch her doing something wrong. She has already begun the defiance of watching me while she is doing something wrong to see how I will react. This is most commonly seen in the Battle of the Hair Bow. I put the clip in, she puts her hand up just hoovering over the bow, not actually touching it, and watching me, waiting for me to say no or flick her hand. Sigh. This is the main reason we have started the pig tails; well, that and they are just too cute.

Her vocabulary is growing, too. Besides hot dog and all done, she says Bye, Meow, Bubba, Mama, Dad, and Bebe (her name for GlowWorm, not ours.) In fact when she is ready for bed or a nap, she starts asking for Bebe. She is getting closer to saying Charlie, but Bubba is so much easier. In fact, all dogs are called Bubba.

After two viruses exactly 4 weeks apart we seem to be healthy again. She has had a rough first year. Here is to hoping year two is healthier than the first.

She is hysterical and completely nuts. We love it!

We Be Jammin' - Part One

I planted my first garden this year. Some of it didn't work out too well; the squash and I weren't friends. But peppers, tomatoes and I have been pals since May. I'm not sure why, but I had great success with thw tomatoes and peppers; good soil, good light, super easy plant, not totally sure. But I've had a blast this summer and the plants are still going strong. Except for the cherry tomato plant that was trampled by 5 different dogs this past week. But until recently, I've had tons of cherry tomatoes.

I've had a blast cooking with everything. We done a couple pasta salads with the cherry tomatoes but our favorite has been the roasted garlic and tomatoes on flat bread (or ultimately, thin pizza dough.) We've done fajitas with the garden peppers., both tomato and watermelon salsa with the jalapenos, tomato pie, jalapeno-cheese bread, BLT's, and lots of garden salads. But I still had a lot of peppers and tomatoes left.

When my mom came down for a week after Lily's birthday, I told her I wanted to make jalapeno jelly. I said jelly, but what I really wanted was Harry and David's Pepper and Onion Relish. But we (and by we, I mean my mom) found a recipe for Sure Jell Hot Pepper Relish. It may not be Harry and David, or $6.95 a jar, but I think it is wonderful! I took my first jar to a party last night, spread that bad boy over some low-fat cream cheese and served with wheat crackers. Today I ate the leftovers for lunch. It was so good! I really was surprised at how flavorful it was.

It's not as spicy as I would have liked it so I am excited to try a new batch. I am also nervous to do the jam alone. Having mom here with me, and two in the kitchen allowed for us to get the batch done during second nap!

I was also trying to come up with ways to use up all the tomatoes I had. I already had a bunch of spaghetti sauce in the freezer so we ended up simply canning crushed tomatoes.

It really wasn't hard, but is a little time consuming as the tomatoes needed a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. However, the jars of crushed tomatoes will be perfect this winter with my favorite crock pot recipes!

A Slice of Fun

Lily turned a year on August 25th! My how fast that went!! During Labor Day weekend all of our family came out to celebrate Lily's big day with our watermelon themed party. We had watermelon slices, watermelon salsa, watermelon cupcakes, and watermelon pops! Such a fun time!