THIN MINTS!!

The other day, as I was driving home, I passed some kids selling Girl Scout cookies. I don’t know about you, but I attach memories to different things, good and bad. Let me tell you, I have all kinds of great memories attached to those delicious little bits of heaven. There’s something nostalgic about them. Popping a sleeve of those guys into the freezer and then enjoying them while watching movies on Friday night... Ah, the good ol’ days.

I want my kids to have those same good memories attached to delicious little treats too, and this is what I was thinking about as I passed the Girl Scouts. Only, I don’t want them to have to eat a bunch of hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup or any other crap ingredients to be able to have fun, happy, party foods. This gave me an idea... Could I make thin mints?

YES!

Are they “easy” to make? Well, they’re not “hard”, but they’re time consuming. This isn’t that big of a deal to me though. Good tasting healthful food, takes time. My one rule in the kitchen is that is HAS to taste good. Eating healthful foods doesn’t have to taste like cardboard.

So, this is where I got the recipe. I had to adjust it a little to make it dairy, gluten and soy free (she gives some good ideas). Instead of butter, I used coconut oil. Instead of whole wheat flour, I used 1/2 C brown rice flour and 1/4 C sorghum flour. Instead of regular chocolate chunks, I used Enjoy Life soy-dairy-gluten...free chocolate chunks (I am in love with whoever started this company, by the way. I want to hug them for like an hour straight).

Now, she makes these cookies look like everything magically falls into place; but we know that when you’re actually the one making them, that rarely happens. So, I’m going to give you a pictorial play by play.

Should you choose to make these cookies, you absolutely will not be disappointed. I honestly like them more than Girl Scout thin mints, and I didn’t think that was possible. They’re light and crisp and don’t leave that plasticy feeling in your mouth when you’re done eating. Oh, my one bit of advice: don’t eat too much of the chocolate as you're baking them... you won’t realize how much you’ve eaten until you’re about ready to barf, and that just takes away from the goodness of the cookies:).


My thoughts at this moment are, what the eff? It's a bunch of crumbs!! Fight the urge to add water. She says to "shape into a ball and then flatten into a disc and then place it into the freezer". Right. As you can see, that didn't work for me. I just stuck it into the freezer like this (but don't leave it in the freezer too long or you'll have a rock on your hands... trust me).


After removing it from the freezer and pressing it around in my hands (a lot), and then rolling it out (I put a piece of parchment paper between the roller and the cookie dough) it came together like this.


I used a glass to make the cookie cut outs.


This is my hodge-podge of cookies.


Once they've cooled, right before the chocolate dip. You want to avoid making them too thin, or they'll crumble and you'll yell obscenities.


My homemade double broiler. Hey, use what you got, right?


Freshly dipped cookies. Had a little chocolate left over, so I grabbed some strawberries. Whoa, was that a good decision! To coat the cookies, I just dropped them in the pan (one at a time), spooned the chocolate over the top and then took them out with my fingers, shaking off the excess chocolate.


I like them best once they've been in the freezer for a little while. Oh my. These are so good. And the best part is that you can feel good about eating them!:)

[hash tag] #food allergies

I feel like my life the past 8 months could best be described as #dairyfree #soyfree #oatfree #glutenfree and most recently, #xanthangumfree. This has definitely not been by choice. Yet, in a weird way, I'm glad. I would never have discovered how many more options are out there, besides plane ol' wheat (in all of its beauty). I would never have realized that I could create recipes. I feel like a room to a different part of my brain has been opened. I see food in a completely different light. And it's all thanks to this guy:


Johnny:)
In the days following his birth I started noticing that, at times, he would sound like he was choking. I began hearing a gurgling sound in his throat, especially at night. It scared me so badly that I would hold him through the night to make sure that he wasn't choking. He was also "collicky", meaning he would cry and cry without end. He would only stop if he were being held. Exhausted, I felt like I was losing my mind.

I called his doctor and explained what was going on and they wanted us to come in. It was confirmed: reflux. GERD to be more exact. Relieved that it was figured out, I filled the prescriptions. After reading the possible side effects of the medications, the risks far outweighed the benefits. So, I got him started on the more mild medicine and began my search to find out what causes GERD in infants. This led me to Dr. Sear's Elimination Diet. Sure enough, my diet was the culprit. One by one, I began learning which foods were causing his reflux.

I felt very lost at first. No dairy? Ok. I can do that. No oats? There go my favorite cookies, but oh well. No gluten?? Wait, what? Seriously?? What will I eat?? I mean, you can only eat so many salads. Oh, now there's no soy??? Who cares. I stopped paying attention after "no gluten." So this is where I decided that I had to do something because I love food far too much to be in misery for the next year. I dove into this whole thing head first, and it's actually been pretty fun. My only prerequisite: It has to taste good. That's non-optional. With that in mind, I'd like to share with you a couple of snack/breakfast recipes that we love.


The first is Maple Morning Granola Cereal

This stuff not only tastes great, but it's loaded with nutrients-specifically, protein. With quinoa as one of its main ingredients, it's one of the few breakfast cereals that provide a complete (meaning, it has all of the amino acids present) protein.

So, for this you'll need:
1 1/2 C Oats (if you're like me and can't have them, omit them and add more quinoa. Play with it to find the ratio that you like)
2/3 C quinoa
1/2 C pecans
1/2 C almonds
1/2 C walnuts
(the nuts were measured before chopping)
1/4 C cranberries
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C real maple syrup (if you want it even sweeter, just add a little more! But I'd start here)
Other optional highly recommended ingredients: 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 1/2 tsp coconut oil

Directions:
Heat large skillet to med/high heat and toast the oats, stirring often. Err on the side of a little too toasty. Once you begin to smell their nutty scent, add the pecans and continue toasting and stirring. I use this time to chop the rest of the nuts put the nuts in a zip lock and smash with a cup because I don't have a chopper! Next, add the quinoa and the rest of the nuts and cranberries and continue toasting and stirring (are you noticing a theme?). Add cinnamon and stir it all around. If you're using coconut oil and/or vanilla, (liquify the oil first) mix them into the maple syrup an then pour over the granola in the skillet and stir, stir, stir. It'll sizzle and be a little wet. Just keep stirring until everything is coated and it's completely dry. Allow it to cool.


And viola! All you need is milk, a bowl and a spoon:)
*If it didn't turn out as crispy as you would have liked, either you didn't toast it long enough, or you need to scale the recipe down for the size of your skillet.


Next are the Nut Bars (inspired by Kind Bars)
For these you can use whatever nuts and dried fruit that you have on hand (in all of my recipes the nuts I use are unsalted). All of the ingredients except the honey and dates are optional and can be interchanged.

What you'll need:
10-15 dates (remove pits)
1/3 C honey
1 C almonds
2/3 C cashews
2/3 C pecans
1/3 C sunflower seeds
1/3 C pumpkin seeds
1/3 C walnuts
1 or 2 tbs ground flax seed (I use my coffee grinder)
2 tbs hemp hearts
1/3-2/3 C cranberries
1 tbs chia seeds
3 tbs water

Directions:
Combine the chia seeds and water and set aside. Blend dates in food processor/blender until smooth (it'll be sticky and you'll have to scrape the walls a few times). Add the chia seeds, honey and hemp hearts to the dates, and pulse. Don't over blend, you want it chunky. Empty contents into a bowl. It will not all be blended. The majority of the nuts won't even have the honey/date mixture on them. Now, rub a little (I use coconut) oil on your hands and mix everything together. Next, empty the mix onto a piece of wax paper (on top of a pan) and flatten, press together and shape into a big square (keep adding oil to your hands to avoid it getting too sticky). At this point you can top it with any toppings you wish, or just leave it simple and plain:). Next, I usually dehydrate mine for an hour or so and then stick it in the fridge to firm up. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can either put them in your oven, on the lowest setting, for 45 minutes (give or take-keeping a close eye that they don't start toasting) or put them directly into the fridge, they just may not get as firm this way. After about 4 hours or so, you can remove them, cut them into bars and store them in the fridge. They usually don't last long in ours:)


Here's another batch topped with coconut flakes:)

Unless specified, my recipes are extremely versatile. You can interchange ingredients, omit them, add more of them... they're pretty hard to mess up.


Oh, and if you're wondering about this guy...

He's been medication free for about 6 months. Anytime I hear some reflux, instead of reaching for the Zantac, I just realize that my cooking's about to get a little bit crazier!

Vaccines (part 1: birth - 6 months).

There has been so much controversy surrounding vaccines the last several years that it's made everything quite confusing. I for one, didn't even know that they were optional. I thought that you had a baby, they got shots, and that was that. No thinking required. After all, it's just a shot right?

The truth is, vaccines are here to protect us (though some would disagree, and that's fine). The truth is also that the Hepatitis B vaccine, given when your baby is a day old, contains 250 micrograms of aluminum. Aluminum is crazy stuff. The FDA has determined that a "safe" amount of aluminum is 5 micrograms per kilogram per day. So, a healthy 8 pound baby should be able to handle 20 mcgs of aluminum with no problem. Again, the Hep B vaccine contains 250 mcgs. In Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book, he references a study from 1997 (found in The New England Journal of Medicine) that gave 100 premature babies a feeding solution that had 500 mcgs of aluminum, spread over 10 days (50 mcgs a day). They also gave another group of premature babies a feeding solution that had the aluminum filtered out to approximately 10 mcgs of aluminum per day. They found that the babies who received the higher dosage of aluminum had "impaired neurologic and mental development at eighteen months, compared to the babies who were fed much lower amounts of aluminum." That's very concerning. Especially considering that autism has sky rocketed in recent years (going from 1 in 10,000 children, to 1 in 88).

Let me put aluminum in vaccines into perspective for you:

Birth: Hep B (250 micrograms)

1 month: Hep B (250 micrograms)

2 months: HIB (225 micrograms, there is also an aluminum
free brand), Pc (125 micrograms), DTaP (varies from 170-625), (There are also combo
vaccines that vary from 330-850 micrograms of aluminum per shot)

4 months: Same as above

6 months: Same as above, but also add another Hep B (250 micrograms)

If you do the math, at your baby's 2, 4 and 6 month doctor visits, he can receive anywhere from 295 micrograms of aluminum, to an astounding 1225 micrograms of aluminum per visit. The FDA says that premature babies, and anyone with impaired kidney function, should not be injected with more than 10 to 25 micrograms of aluminum at one time. But I don't have a premie. Well, according to Dr. Sears, there haven't been any studies done on healthy infants to determine their ability to "excrete the aluminum rapidly." So no one really knows where the toxic level lies.

What should you do?

First of all, educate yourself. You should do your own reading and research. I would start with The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Sears. Second, don't believe everything you hear. Many doctors will reassure you that vaccines are completely safe. This is simply not true. I have found, in my own experience, that some doctors will make you feel like a complete idiot for trying to understand and make an informed decision when it comes to vaccine safety and your children. But I have heard too many stories of kids going in for their shots completely fine, then within a week, stop speaking, begin banging on the floor, and are then diagnosed as "autistic". I'm not willing to take that gamble. Third, find a good pediatrician. To me, a good pediatrician is one who is experienced and knowledgable, listens to my concerns and questions, gives me his opinion, but ultimately leaves the decision for my child, up to me. You wouldn't drop your car off at the first body shop you found: so don't be afraid to shop around for pediatricians (I have a fantastic referral for those living in or
near San Antonio TX).

What do I do?

I vaccinate. Surprised? There are options! [sigh of relief:] Here is a kind of "play by play" of how I approach vaccines, and my thought process behind it.

Being that Hepatitis B is a Sexually transmitted disease, I opt out of this one until my kids are a little older. This can also be transmitted through sharing dirty needles, so make sure your child gets it before his first tattoo. Seriously though, "theoretically" there are other ways to get Hep B: bad blood transfusion-which is very rare, coming into contact with the saliva of an infected person (which according to Dr. Sears is virtually unheard of), and if the blood of an infected person were to get into a cut of a non infected person. This vaccine is only available with 250 mcgs of aluminum.

I feel that the HIB vaccine is very important. While this illness isn't extremely common in the US, it is a bacteria, so you could catch it. It is treatable with intravenous antibiotics, but the potential complications are severe. There are two brands of this vaccine ActHIB and PedVaxHIB. I ask specially for the ActHIB brand because it has NO aluminum!:)

I also choose to get the PCV vaccine (it's called PCV13 because it protects against 13 strains of the infection). It's one of the most common bacterias that lead to meningitis. There isn't a brand that's aluminum free (it has 125 micrograms).

DTaP. This is a big one because it covers Pertussis, aka whooping cough. Pertussis is peaking right now, meaning it's really common. There are three brands of this vaccine. I ask for the brand, Deptacel. Deptacel has 330 micrograms of aluminum, compared to the brand Infanrix, which has 625 micrograms! The brand Tripedia is the lowest, at 170 mcgs, but this one also contains mercury. (I'll briefly touch on mercury in a moment, but in short, it is known to cause neurological problems).

Fun personal story about the DTaP vaccine:
Johnny and Ezra have different pediatricians (long story). While Johnny's doctor is nicer than some when it comes to choosing a delayed vaccine schedule (covered in Dr. Sears' book), he doesn't "advise" it. But then again, he doesn't think there's anything toxic about aluminum either. In order to let Johnny gain weight, and develop a healthy gut flora (through breastfeeding), I had planned on waiting to get him started on getting vaccinated until 4 months. Because we were doing this, we were very careful. We washed our hands like we were supposed to, kept him away from sick people as best we could, and I breastfed (which is baby's biggest defense against sickness. Breast milk contains antibodies that coat the lining of the nose, lungs and intestines, so that most of the germs that are inhaled or swallowed, are killed before they can stick around). However, at 4 and a half weeks old, Johnny contracted viral meningitis from something similar to the common cold (there is no vaccine against this form of meningitis). Before it was confirmed to be viral and not bacterial, they did several days of intravenous antibiotics as a precaution. Once everything was over, and we were back home, I wanted to give his body time to recover from everything. So, I decided to wait on the vaccines and stayed home with him as an extra precaution (until I felt he was well enough to be around other people). So at 6 months Johnny went in for his first vaccine: DTaP. When we got there I was ready. I wanted the Deptacel brand and I was really trying not to care if I sounded stupid asking for a specific brand of vaccine. When we got into the office Ezra decided to ask the same question over and over and over again, as I was nervously trying to talk to the Doctor. I told him that I wanted the Deptacel brand because I was trying to avoid aluminum. He looked at me like I was a quack job. Then he left and the nurse walked in and said that she was getting the shot ready. I ask her the brand. She left and comes back and said "Infanrix." Now, if you've ever tried to go somewhere with two little kids, you know that it can be very hectic. By this point I think I was threatening Ezra, bouncing Johnny, and now I couldn't remember the brand that I wanted! So, confused and frustrated, I'm like, "OK!" She left the room and I did a quick google search and realized that this is the worst one!!
Que the doctor.
He walked in with a huge unfolded paper and was reading every ingredient in the vaccine trying to see if it had aluminum. Finally he saw that it did and knew that I didn't want it. My head was screaming at me, JUST DO IT! YOU'RE WASTING THEIR TIME! YOU ARE NOT LEAVING HERE WITH NOTHING AFTER MAKING SUCH A SCENE WITH YOUR LOUD KIDS! But I couldn't. So I told the doctor that I knew it probably sounded ridiculous, but that I really wanted the other brand. To my surprise, he had no problem with it. Ezra was still acting like a 3 year old, Johnny was still needing to be bounced, and yes the shot was ready and waiting on a metal tray, but we left-looking like a circus act and all:) -and it was OK. It all worked out, and I felt like I had done the right thing. Now, they save the shots that I ask for in the fridge with my name on them:).

As far as Polio and Rotavirus, I haven't decided on these yet. If we do them, I'll probably wait until we've completed the rounds of HIB, PC and DTaP.

Now, a little something that I do to avoid too much aluminum at one time, is only get one aluminum containing vaccine per doctor visit. Truth be told, I only get one, at the most two, vaccines of any kind, at one time for my kids. Sure, you have to take a few more trips to the doctor's office, but to me, it's worth it. I don't know all of the science behind it, but in my own experience, it's easier on their bodies this way: which in turn, makes it easier on me.

When Ezra was an infant, before I knew anything about vaccines, I had him on
the normal schedule. When I told his (former) doctor that he was extremely
fussy, ran a fever, and was sick for 7-10 days after each round of shots, he
told me that it wasn't related to the shots. Ezra also had 3 ear infections
before he could crawl. I began purposely stretching out his appointments so
that there was more time in between, and only doing one or two shots at a time.
His reactions were much more mild and, to this day, he hasn't had
one more ear infection. Skeptics would probably call this coincidence, but I
don't think so.

A *brief* note on mercury:
Mercury, also known as Thimerosal, has been proven, time and time again, to cause brain damage. If you give your child the seasonal flu shot, go to this page. This has a list of all of the vaccines and whether or not they contain mercury (not aluminum, just mercury). In infant vaccines, mercury is only in one of the brands of DTaP and 4 brands of the flu shot. But keep a watchful eye because the World Health Organization and American Academy of Pediatrics’ have just issued their support for continued use of mercury in vaccines. When considering the welfare of our children, this makes no sense at all.

Mercury has clearly been linked to neurological problems. Go to this page and watch the first two video clips. It's from C-SPAN, so at first it looks boring, but once you start listening to what they're saying, it's shocking. The second clip is especially insane. It shows an actual animation of a study recently conducted that reveals, "with direct visual evidence from brain neuron tissue cultures, how mercury ions actually alter the cell membrane structure of developing ions. Case in point: You actually see parts of the brain changing. I couldn't stop there, so I watched all of the clips:). The people speaking aren't all natural radicalists, they are congressmen who, like me, support vaccines. What they are working toward is removing the toxic ingredients from them. They believe that the surge in autism is related to these toxins. Once you watch the clips, you may be convinced too. It just doesn't makes sense that, to protect the unborn child, pregnant women aren't supposed to eat mercury; yet, we turn around and inject it into our children.

Don't take my word on all of this though. I highly encourage you to do your own research. Don't read one article saying that something is or isn't "safe" and believe it. Be well rounded in your research so that you can make an educated, informed decision for your child. This is vitally important because our kids don't have a choice in the matter; the responsibility lies solely on us.

Wheatgrass: It's so much easier to grow than they want you to know!

I am by no means a health nut. I eat regular people food. I buy organic when I can, and try and cook most of my food at home; but my family still eats pizza, cheese burgers and candy. In the quest for good health however, I've tried a lot. I've gone the route of cutting out all processed food, all dairy, all wheat, gone vegetarian, vegan... You name it-I've probably either done it, or researched doing it. But in recent months I feel like I've found my balance. My goal is not to cut out all of some certain type of food (I respect those who do!), but rather to add healthy foods into my lifestyle.

Something I've heard a lot about, and even tried a few years back, is wheatgrass. What is it? It's literally grass shoots that grow from wheat berries (fancy name for kernels. But no one knows what you're talking about if you ask for "wheat kernels"). It is said to have astounding health benefits. Not to mention that two ounces of wheatgrass juice contains the vitamins and minerals equivalent to 3 pounds of organic vegetables, and is especially high in magnesium, potassium, and calcium ( source ).

So, how can you get some? You can go to your local health shop and buy an once for about $3, order the grass online with overnight shipping, or you can grow your own. I opted for the third.

Now when I set out to grow my own wheatgrass I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. When I got online to research how to grow it, one of the first websites I came across was one "exposing the truth" about the difficulty of growing wheatgrass. They explained how hard it was and basically prepared you for the fact that you were going to fail unless you ordered their monster starter kit. Oh, and it cost about $300.

I was ready to quit. But thankfully, I kept researching and I eventually found this website that walked me through everything. (Now this lady sells stuff on her site, but doesn't push it, which I like).

In the tutorial below, I'm going to share with you, step by step, how I grew my wheatgrass, as well as give you some pointers that helped me.

What you'll need:
-A tray roughly 21" x 11" (I found this one for $5 at WalMart. I just took out the little cardboard looking cups and set aside. I then cut slits in the bottom for water drainage, and set the tray inside of the lid so that I wouldn't have water all over the place)



-Top soil (Found this for $2 from WalMart. It's recommended that you use non-organic top soil. I mistakenly purchased organic and have not had any problems)

-Paper towels (enough for two layers to cover the top of your tray)

-Organic hard red or white wheat-NOT SOFT (I found organic hard red wheat for $1 per pound at Whole Foods).

-Water

-A container to soak the wheat berries in

Preparation:
Measure a cup and a half of wheat berries, rinse them, and then put them in a container covered by about 2 inches of water to soak for 12 hours



Day 1:
Once your berries have soaked for 12 hours, pour a layer of top soil into your tray (about 2" deep) and then rinse and drain your berries and pour them over the soil



Next, spread the seed around. Now, by this point you may be thinking, why only a cup and a half? Why not load it down to get the highest yield? At least that's what I was thinking. Well, as it turns out, the biggest enemy for wheatgrass is mold. There are different types of mold (scroll down towards the bottom and this guy gives a pretty good description).
Basically, the mold is caused when there isn't enough circulation in the grass. To ensure circulation you can use a fan and point it toward your wheatgrass, but you chance drying it out. The easiest and best recommendation I found was to plant a little less and you don't have to worry about it.

*If you do however, notice a little white, cotton ball-ish like mold, don't freak out. This is an airborne mold that can easily be washed off. If you don't feel comfortable with that, just cut above it.



Next, cover the tray with two layers of paper towels and pour about two cups of water over the towels (this keeps the moisture where it needs to be, over the seeds).




Next, water the towels once in the morning and once in the evening (the idea is to keep them moist). You'll know that it's time to remove the paper towels when the grass shoots push the towels up about an inch.

Keep your tray in an area where it can receive indirect sunlight (direct sunlight is too harsh). I keep mine on a counter about 20 feet from a window and just leave the shades open during the day.

This was my grass by the afternoon of day 4:




Here it is about 6 hours later (11pm):



You can literally almost watch this stuff grow!

Day 6 (noon):




Day 7 (11 am):





Day 8 Harvest day! (10:45 pm):

(That's the root system)




At the time of harvest, your wheatgrass will be between 7 and 10 inches tall (you can cut it all at the same time, making sure to cut as close to the roots as possible, as this is where he highest concentration of nutrition is said the be). The wheatgrass will store in the refrigerator, wrapped in paper towel, in an airtight zip lock, for 7 days. (Make sure not to wash your wheatgrass until right before you juice it).

Important fact: Once juiced (make sure your juicer is able to juice wheatgrass), it needs to be consumed within 30 minutes or it will go rancid.

I personally don't care for the taste. I've tried mixing it with other juices-some of which turned out ok-but I'd rather get it over with quickly. So I take mine like shot, down the hatch! And then chase it with apple juice.

Most people start off with an ounce and gradually build up to 2 ounces. It is a detoxifier, so it may leave you nauseated for a little while in the begining. They say it helps to drink it on an empty stomach, but ummm, no thanks. I'm not that hard core yet.

After you've harvested your wheatgrass, toss the old stuff and start back at the beginning. You don't want to keep growing and harvesting from the same grass because after the first harvest, its nutritional quality is significantly reduced.

I am at the beginning of learning about wheatgrass. There's a lot more out there. You can compost your soil and add different things to it to yield higher nutrition in your wheatgrass, but I had to start simply. Don't buy into all of the hype of starter kits and special soil. You can put together your own "kit" and start growing your own wheatgrass for a grand total of $10.

Kids do the cutest things

We've finally moved [again] and, with the exception of the lack of decor throughout our house, are settled in. I'm sitting here with Pandora playing a mix of Regina Spector through our dvd player, and the door open blowing in nice crisp Texas winter air.

When we decided to take the plunge and have a kid, I had no idea what I was in for. I didn't know that I would stop every five seconds and just stare for no apparent reason. I didn't know the feeling of protecting someone else without a single thought about myself. I didn't know that sometimes I would stand, not knowing what I should do, as my child threw himself around screaming and rolling on the floor. I didn't know that my body wouldn't actually ever be the same again. I didn't know how deeply a little person could touch my heart. I didn't know how much I would actually enjoy having a kid!!

We usually hold hands and pray before our meals. One day a few weeks ago, Ezra (who is almost 15 months), decided he wanted to be a part of this and started holding our hands as we prayed. One thing you need to know about Ezra is that he LOVES food. Nothing pleases him more than eating, so you can imagine how surprised we were when he grabbed daddy's hand and stared at us as we prayed.

Yesterday Ezra and I were sitting on the couch and I randomly grabbed his hand to see how long he'd let me hold it before he jumped off and got into something (Ezra never sits in one place for more than about 10 seconds). He looked at me, looked at our hands, looked at me again and held out his other hand while grunting "uh-uh-uh." So I gave him my other hand and he gave a slight grin, looked down and started very sweetly and delicately gibber-gabbering "uhhhnanan baanananana jeeenenen habababa..." Then, he looked up and let go of my hands. All I could do was laugh out of shock! He said his first prayer!

Kids do the cutest things.

Later on in the day he touched the dvd player, which he knows is a "nono." I rushed over, "Ezra, that's a 'nono.'" He touched it again, ever so slowly and lightly, so I swatted his hand. He looked at me, looked at the dvd player and very passionately pointed his finger to the dvd player and yelled "NO NO!!" while doing the face squinch only he can do.

I love my little crazy kid:).

{heading to close the door to the winter air, I'm as crisp as I can stand}

"Christian" people get on my nerves

Sometimes "Christian" people are so rude. I'm trying to think of another way to put it, but that's it. Rude, mean, and ugly...

What is "being a Christian?" What comes to your mind? I think a lot of people are going to be surprised. "... And in that day I will say to them, depart from me ye worker of iniquity. I never knew you." What does that mean?

I think it's a lot simpler than we make it.
Let me start with what "being a Christian" isn't:
It isn't rude, ugly, irritable, mean spirited or judgemental. it
isn't fast to get angry. It doesn't think of its self as better or
knowing more "how to be like Jesus" than the next person. It
doesn't meet at church and find everything wrong with everyone
and/or everything.

Now, as far as what a "Christian" is:
A Christian is loving. A Christian looks at people through eyes that say "I care
about you. A Christian chooses to see the good in people. It sees
other's best potential in them right now, but doesn't point out every area that they need to change. It genuinely wants people to meet
Jesus-to feel his love and fall in love with him. It wants others
to get to know for themselves how amazing God is, and how much he
cares about them.

I get annoyed with "religious" people who think they know SO much about God, but are missing it altogether. They are the hardest for me to "love." People who are so caught up in "following" God, that they end up following nothing but their own rules.

I've gotten flack from these people in the past. Why? because I genuinely believe that God called the true believers to LOVE, not judge. I should know, I was on the other end of that for so long. In my mind, I wasn't judging, I was discerning, or observing the facts, 2+2=4 kind of thing. I felt compelled to discern between the "right" and the "wrong" of what people were doing. I felt that if I didn't I was somehow agreeing with the "wrong" and that I would get deluded into being "ok" with "sin." So many "Christians" fall into this trap.

By loving people you aren't saying that everything's ok, there is no right and wrong. It's the exact opposite. You want to save people from the judgement of God for their sin. Why do people try and save people from judgement, with judgement?

When you love people you'll find that you genuinely care about them, and the quality of their lives. You'll find that you want people to meet Jesus because you want them to have peace in their souls and feel unconditional love. You'll find that it's not actually your responsibility to judge everyone. You'll want to see the good in people over the bad. That isn't saying that the "bad" isn't there, but what point is there in pointing out everything that's wrong with them? How do you feel when that is done to you?

For me, I've changed the most in the absence of judgement. Every person, at the end of their life, is going to be judged by God, it isn't our responsibility to do it now. What point is there in judging them for the sin that we want to see them freed from? I want people free, not "obeying" God out of a pressure to do the "right" thing.

Take a gander through the Bible at the people Jesus had the biggest problems with... He embraced the adulteress-she knew she was sinning, she didn't need to have it spelled out. When he spared her life, He told her to go and sin no more. The Pharisees, however, he called a brood of vipers. A brood of vipers.

Inspired by my friends...

... who update their blogs; here's another random update!

Seriously, all these friends of mine who keep a regular presence on their blogs, you are amazing. I get overwhelmed. With everyday happenings such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, babies, phone calls, errands, facebook... who has time for blogging? Plus, how many people actually care enough to read it?

I have a new answer to things that, at the moment, are too much for me to think about: Who cares. I often find myself getting really worked up about nothing. It doesn't seem like "nothing" to me at the time, but when it all boils down, who cares? Worst case scenarios usually aren't that awful. I don't want to give myself a heart attack, or even worse, WRINKLES (!!;) because I spent most of my life worrying over just about everything. That's a concept Josiah has wordlessly taught me.

Speaking of wordless teaching, if you're wondering, that's the best kind. I can't say that I am a wordless teacher yet, but being around a wordless teacher is pretty great. Josiah hates me saying gooey gooey stuff about him, so, this is not gooey gooey. It's the plain, cold, hard fact: He's a wordless teacher who doesn't ever judge me. Ezra, be like your dad:).



The other day our dear dear dear dear dear dear dear friends, Summer Ryan and Audra came to town. It was getting late and Ezra and Audra were getting-nono-they were tired! Ezra was holding a little ball. Audra wanted it. dun dun dun dun. So Audra took it and walked away. Ezra, in shock that someone took his toy, began hyperventilating-deep breaths in and out, in and out. He had a look of, WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!? Followed by a I don't even think so! So he huffed and puffed and crawled, faster than I'd ever seen, over to Audra, climbed up her back and held on to her for balance. In the process of climbing up her back, he'd ended up pinching her. In pain, Audra began crying. Ezra looked at her, determination to get his ball back turning into bewilderment. Summer (Audra's mom-Audra is 3 by the way!), told Audra, Audra, you took his ball. Give it back. The ball was handed over to Ezra. Tired and upset, Audra continued to cry on mommy's shoulder. SO, in his first ever attempt to make things better, Ezra, staring intently at Audra, gave her his ball and went and started playing with another toy! Aww, my little pookie bear! I was so surprised, and entirely delighted.




If you know me at all, you won't be surprised that since then, I have randomly started crying (to see what Ezra will do). That's wrong I'm sure. He brings me his toys until I'm "better" - Ah, he is *so* cute!