A Very Special Birthday

My Mother

Who fed me from her gentle breast

And hushed me in her arms to rest,

And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?

My mother.

When sleep forsook my open eye,

Who was it sung sweet lullaby

And rocked me that I should not cry?

My mother.

Who sat and watched my infant head

When sleeping in my cradle bed,

And tears of sweet affection shed?

My mother.

When pain and sickness made me cry,

Who gazed upon my heavy eye

And wept, for fear that I should die?

My mother.

Who ran to help me when I fell

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss the part to make it well?

My mother.

Who taught my infant lips to pray,

To love God's whole word and day,

And walk in wisdon's pleasant way?

My mother.

And can I ever cease to be

Affectionate and kind to thee

Who wast so very kind to me,--

My mother.

Oh, no the thought I cannot bear;

And if God please my life to spare

I hope I shall reward thy care,

My mother.

When thou are feeble, old and gray,

My healthy arm shall be they stay,

And I will soothe thy pains away,

My mother.

And when I see thee hang thy head,

'Twill be my turn to watch thy bed,

And tears of sweet affection shed,--

My mother.

~Jane Taylor~

Tiffany

New Addition

This past week my room had a new addition. I had a very modern desk in my otherwise antique room. However my mom found a wonderful desk that matches my other furniture perfectly. So this last week it moved in.

Here is the full desk:


The orginal key is lost, so for now I have to use a screwdriver to open it.


I had so much fun arranging my things in all the little cubbies!


There is so much to show, but I just chose a few close-ups for now.





Welcome to my new addition. :-)

Tiffany

Whole Grains

About two weeks ago, I shared here how I was trying to learn how far to balance things out. Well, the Lord has a wonderful way of letting you know exactly how balanced things should be. I was trying not to become too obsessive about things, especially in the area of foods and "organic".

Then about a week ago, I was diagnosed as having low functioning adrenal glands. It can be a serious problem, but it can also be fixed with proper lifestyle changes (think in bed by 10:30), proper supplement support, and proper diet changes. The latter consisting primarily of cutting out all processed food.

Well, when you look around at all the food choices there are today, you discover that not many of them are unprocessed. Even many of the organic foods have undergone some sort of processing.

So I turned to a book I had gotten the week before, Cooking with Whole Grains. The first thing I tried was their granola recipe. It was too good. I made four cups and it was gone in about two days. I mixed up some more trying to get to the 5 cups needed to make the Granola Bars. But no sooner had I made the second batch then it was down too low. So I tried a third time. This time I had all the ingredients right there and made the granola and then immediately the bars. They turned out excellently. In fact, I might need to hide them.;-)

I want to share the recipe with you, because it is such a good treat and you control how processed it is. :-)

Good-for-You-Granola

Ingredients:
3 cups rolled oats

1 cup coconut (be wary of all the sugar that is added to this! I managed to find some un sweetened at the local co-op)

I cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1/2 cup sesame seed

1/3 cup maple syrup or maple-flavored syrup (obviously, I recommend the real thing. :-)

1/3 cup butter or margarine (again, the real thing)

1 cup raisins

Milk or cream (optional)

Directions:
Stir together the rolled oats, the coconut, the sliced almonds, the toasted wheat germ, and the sesame seed. Stir in the maple syrup and butter or margarine. Spread in a 15X10X1-inch baking pan. Bake in a 375 oven for 15-20 minuts, stirring once.

*My notes: I don't use the wheat germ, and only occasionly use the almonds. To make up for it, I add another cup of oats and a 1/2 sesame seed. Also, I only bake mine for 8 minutes. Any longer and they'd burn. They also recommend eating it with milk or cream, but since dairy products are also out for me, I eat it plain, or on salads and it's great!


Chewy Honey-Granola Bars

Ingredients:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/3 cup honey

5 cups Good-for-You-Granola

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Directions:
In a saucepan combine brown sugar, butter or margarine and honey. Bring to boiling, stirring constantly. Stir together granola and whole wheat flour. Pour brown sugar mixture over granola mixture. Stir till granola misture is well coated. Press mixture into a greased 13X9X2-inch baking pan. Cool; Cut into bars. Makes 24 bars.

*My Notes: I didn't use brown sugar, but just substituted honey, but the constistancy is quite soft...the bars don't hold their shape.

I hope you like these as much as our family does.

Well, I better sign off if I'm going to get to bed by 10:30. ;-)

Tiffany

Baby Dresses

Our church has been blessed recently with the addition of Paul, Missy, and Ellie. They are a very sweet family who moved here not long ago so Paul could go the Naval base here.

Missy was expecting their second child, a little girl. Our church is very fond of celebrating these new covenant blessing, so our family hosted a baby shower for them.

It was so wonderful to see all those ladies come together to celebrate with Paul and Missy. The fellowship was fun and encouraging.

As soon as Shannon and I found out we were hosting the party we got busy with plans for our gifts to Paul and Missy and the new little one, but we didn't want to leave Ellie out. We agreed to make Ellie and Aimee Kate (the new little one) dresses.

I had so much fun making and then photographing these pictures!*

I made Aimee Kate's and Shannon made Ellie's. They are exactly the same except for size, of course. :-)

I only got pictures of Aimee Kate's. We had gift wrapped them when we realized we didn't have pictures of them together. By then we were in the middle of cooking and really didn't have time to stop. But anyway, if you just imagine this dress two sizes bigger, that's Ellie's. ;-)

The first is a picture of the dress with the little shorts underneath.

For the back closure, Shannon had four buttons in her stash that were perfect. So two went on Ellie's and two went on Aimee Kate's.Shannon and I wanted rick-rack for the edging and found this perfect match!

And for the center front, we attached three little ribbon flowers.

We had such a lovely time at the party. Paul and Missy were able to stay later and visit. Aimee Kate got quite active and apparently punched her Mom's tummy three times! We were all quite startled and then laughed.

On April 4, 2008 Aimee Kate was seen for the first time. She weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz. We went to the hospital to visit, but didn't think to bring the camera till it was too late. :-( But you'll just have to trust me that she is the sweetest baby. Missy allowed Shannon and I to hold her, and you could tell she was still having a hard time keeping her eyes open (Aimee Kate, not Missy;-).

We look forward to the day when we see them again!

Tiffany

*Thank you to Shannon for letting me take pictures on her camera. I have misplaced the cord to mine and can't download any pictures. Thanks Shannon.