Going bananas!

Emma helped me bake banana bread the other day. We liked how it turned out, and so thought I would share the recipe here. I plan to make another batch of it before Christmas arrives, as mini loaves of bread (especially with icing ontop!) make a cute little gift that everyone loves!

Banana Bread:

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs, beaten

4 to 5 cups mashed very ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 9x5" loaf pans, or four mini loaf pans. In large bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, mix together oil, sugar, vanilla, and beaten eggs. Stir in mashed bananas. Add dry mixture. Stir until moistened. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake for 55-60 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Don't overbake!

Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack.

For a little something special, I made a quick icing out of just three ingredients: butter, powdered sugar, and cream (or milk). I melted about 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan until golden brown. Then mixed in about a cup of powdered sugar until a thick paste was formed. Added enough cream to make a smooth, creamy icing that could be drizzled from a spoon ontop of the loaves. And that was it!
Happy baking!

A decade of true love

Ten years ago today, I was preparing to walk down the aisle as a teenage bride.

I am sure that many people thought we were crazy to get married at such young ages (to my parent's credit: they didn't say a negative word about it!)...but from day one we knew we were in it for the long haul and had to make it work.

A decade later I can honestly say that I have

no regrets whatsoever and if given the chance to go back in time,

I would do the same thing all over again!

Who cares that I cringe looking back over our wedding photos at the "princess ball gown" style dress that overwhelmed my 5'3 frame and made me look like a big,white, lacy cupcake! Who cares that we couldn't afford fresh, exotic flowers or a fancy reception after the ceremony! All those things don't matter in the end. That is not what a wedding is really about anyway. :) What truly matters is the committment we made to each other on that day.
(We didn't let the predicted snow storm dampen our joy, either!)

Our relationship has grown and strengthened through the ups and downs of life. Unemployment and other job issues, buying our first real house, three children, the loss of a baby, my Dad passing away last year after a battle with cancer, various family dramas...the years have not been dull, that's for sure! The tough times have brought us even closer together, the great times have been that much sweeter.

In some ways it does not seem possible that my husband and I have now been married an entire decade! But it also is hard to remember life without him.

So on this day I thank Christ for bringing us together "way back when" and blessing us with a wonderful life. I look to the future with hope that we have many, many more years together here on earth. 

I'm excited to see the next chapters of our marriage unfold. 

Happy anniversary to my forever husband--and best friend!

Fun with felt

In our quest to have the simplified (and frugal!) Christmas that I have written about lately, my goal is to stay out of the stores as much as possible. So, when faced with the realization that the gifts I was wrapping were lacking that extra little something, I decided that instead of hitting the mall, it was a good opportunity to look around at what I already had near at hand and make use of it, rather than immediately buying something pre-made. Time to look in the craft drawers for something to inspire. :)

Lo and behold, I found a forgotten, full to the brim bag of felt squares that had given to me awhile back. Emma liked how soft it was in her hands and loved the bright array of colors. She had the brilliant idea of making ornaments out of this felt! It sounded great to me, so I dug around some more and pulled out ribbon, trims, odd buttons, sequins, and glue. Isaac heard about our crafting plans and wanted to
get in on the excitement, too.

Got everyone set up at the table and let them go for it! Nothing like lots of sparkly embellishments and pretty colors to get those creative juices flowing....

I cut out miniature stockings, trees, stars, and round ball shapes to decorate. I was impressed with their imaginative designs.

They are already planning on who the lucky recipients of these ornaments will be! It's so cute how excited they are to give them away. Of course, a few of these somehow made it onto our own tree.....

I worked along side of the kids, and ultimately ended up with 15 ornaments to use in my own gift giving this year. I have more cut out and ready to assemble, but haven't completed them as of yet.

This is as far as I have gotten:

So, this is a sampling of what we have been working on this week. Simple, cute, easy, affordable. These will be perfect as package toppers or tucked inside of an "edible gifts" basket!



Easy homemade granola

This is what we made the other day:

scrumptious granola drizzled with melted chocolate!

A few different recipes combined, with a few random touches of my own thrown in. It was so easy to make! 

I don't think I will be buying boxed granola from the cereal aisle anymore unless it is a really good sale! My husband and I both love having granola in the morning (with ground flax seeds ontop) and the kids like a little granola on their yogurt, or just

to snack on plain.

I mainly decided to put the chocolate ontop for a special gourmet look since most of this batch will be given away as gifts come Christmas! (It is still good without the chocolate!)

 Once the granola cooled, I put it into heavy duty ziplock bags, then put those right into the freezer. It will stay fresh and ready for gifting when the time comes! To package this as a gift, I will be putting a cup or two into a cellophane bag with a cute label and a pretty bow as the final touch.This will then be placed in a basket along with other goodies!

Here is the recipe I used:

Granola:

4 cups oats (I used half rolled and half quick)

1 cup flaked coconut

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup honey

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup dried fruit (raisins, chopped dates, cranberries, etc.)

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a large roasting pan or two baking sheets. Combine oats, spices, and salt in large bowl. Combine brown sugar, honey, oil, water, and vanilla together in a seperate bowl. Pour wet mixture into dry and stir very well until evenly coated. Use hands to mix if necessary. Pour into pans, press down firmly. Bake 15 minutes. Remove from oven, stir well, press down again and bake for 20 additional minutes. Stir well. When golden, granola is done baking. Remove from oven, quickly stir in dried fruit. Allow to cool. Melt chocolate chips on very low power in microwave. Stir often. When melted, drizzle overtop of granola. Put in fridge to chill. Break into chunks, place in airtight containers, or freeze for later use. Yummy!!!

He loves me!

This is what was given to me this morning by my son......

Receiving this causes the memories of tough times in child training to fade away, makes me forget the battles, the melt downs, the occaisonal parenting frustrations, the embarrasing scenes in public. Those things are just part of the package and there is so much more positive than negative experiences encountered in this journey of being a mother.  It is all worth it. It is so important to notice and yes, celebrate the "small things"!

What a great way to begin a new week! My heart is light, I have a big smile on my face. All because I know my little boy does loves me! :) 

Pumpkin spice bread

I love to bake, especially around the holidays, so it seems natural that this blog will have alot of baking subject matter. :) Yesterday the kids and I made pumpkin spice bread. All three of them gobble it up as soon as it has cooled from the oven. It's so good and makes the house smell great as it bakes.

We will be making another double (perhaps even triple?) batch closer to Christmas, this time in mini loaf size, to give as gifts. This recipe is very versatile. You can stir in chopped nuts and raisins, dried cranberries, or even miniature chocolate chips.

Pumpkin Spice Bread

1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup vegetable oil (I used unsweetened applesauce for half of oil)

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two large 9x5-inch loaf pans. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, sugar, and vanilla. In seperate bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Stir both mixtures together until just blended. Divide batter between pans. Bake 50-60 minutes until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out almost clean (don't overbake!).

Little Ethan gives it a thumbs up!

Savor the season

It's December! All I felt upon turning the calendar page to this month was excited anticipation, believe it or not. No stress, no frenzied panic, no "system overload" of mental to-do lists rushing through my brain. I am looking forward not only to Christmas itself, but also the upcoming weeks prior to it.

That's because this year is going to be a little different.

We have always been careful to emphasize with our children what the true meaning of Christmas is: Christ's birth and His love for us. We do put up a Christmas tree, we do give gifts, we bake a dizzying amount of goodies, we sing carols. BUT, at the core of it all, we have been teaching the children what the reason behind it all really is.

However.

It isn't the children that are the problem. :) For me anyway, it is so easy as an adult to get swept up into worrying about all the small things: such as if I have spent the same amount of money for each gift, if I remembered to give to everyone that gave us gifts the previous year...if I should make goodie bags for all the neighbors on both sides of our entire street since I gave a few bags out to our direct neighbors.. . I am often left feeling as though I have never done enough. Where does it ever end?!?

It goes beyond the mere gifts, though. Holidays seem to have a way of bringing out family drama. It is so difficult to celebrate and experience the joy when one feels pulled in a million different directions and spends the whole holiday running from here to there in an attempt to keep everyone happy. What I personally have realized is: I can't. No matter how hard I try! I, for one, am tired of guilt-filled Decembers.

Everywhere we look, we are bombarded with elaborate decorations, fancy foods, glossy catalogs and colorful newspaper ads promising great deals so we can afford to buy even more stuff than we normally would. There is always that long list of holiday parties, traditions, events, plays-- you name it--all of which we are "supposed" to be a part of. 

And then Christmas rolls around before we know it, and many of us are totally exhausted, broke, joyless. That is not how it is supposed to be! It's fine to give gifts, enjoy a good meal with our families, do some activites, but the key is finding a healthy balance, to examine motivations for why we are doing things. Is it out of enrichment for the family and bringing joy to others,...or is it because we feel it is what is expected of us, and we wouldn't ever,ever want to disappoint?

(I was inspired by the posts that my friend, Michelle, has written on her blog: The Adventures of Mommy Missionary . She has written about the subject of simplifying Christmas and "spending less, giving more." Lots of good ideas--check it out!) 

So, this year we are scaling back, carefully choosing a few activites to do (out of the many) that are important to our family, giving gifts to our immediate family and friends without worrying about keeping cost exactly even, doing alot of baking, crafts, rocking out to Christmas music, thinking of ways to play "Secret Santa" to those around us... and just generally slowing down and keeping things light, fun, and peaceful!

Every time I see these little faces, it sure brings things into perspective. Next to eternal salvation and my husband, they are the best gifts I could ever have under the tree on Christmas morning!