Wobbly Walker

Monday, September 23, 3013

"Who you looking at?"
"Want to say that again to my face?"
LOL. Oh, the many expressions of Maddie. 

Well, it’s been a fun couple of weeks, aside from the continued fussiness, although that has diminished considerably.  Maddie still has no molars, but is chewing on her hands and pacifier a lot.  We shall see if they pop through anytime soon. 

Look at all of those teeth. Oh, and those overalls are pretty cute, too, if I do say so myself (sewn together by mom earlier this week).   :) 

Speaking of teeth, my tooth saga continues. I went to the dentist again on Friday to have a post and core put in now that the root canal is finally done and found out that now I need to have gum surgery before I can get my permanent crown done.  AHHHH!! Will it never end?!?!?!

Maddie met Mr. Andy for the first time last weekend,and they got along like they were the best of friends.  We only wish that Mrs. Susan could have come, too, so Maddie could meet her and say "hi" to the developing friend inside Mrs. Susan's tummy. A new playmate for Maddie is coming soon.  YAY! 

Well, back to Maddie: this little girl is making some major strides (pun intended) towards walking! I think she is going to be running around this house within the next couple of weeks. She is becoming more and more brave and will let go of the couch and just start walking on her own now….towards nothing.  Ha! She used to only come to me or Phil, but now she just takes off.  She’s learning to catch herself with her hands when she falls now, so that’s good.  This weekend, though, it was amazing! I was around the corner in Maddie’s bedroom and she was at the baby gate at the top of the stairs. The next thing I know, she is walking around the corner and coming straight towards me.  Way to go, little girl! She is still wobbly, but balances herself out on her long journeys across the room. 

She is finally learning to tip that sippy cup up all on her own. 

Other important milestones to note in the life of a developing child: banga cauda.  Yes, it is official! Maddie had banga cauda for the first time (aside from the time when we dipped her pacifier in it when she was only a couple months old) and liked it a lot! Hahaha. She is her parents’ child. 

Maddie eating banga cauda. Yum!  

Phil and I joined a community group at church, which has been a huge blessing in our lives already. I also have started going to the women’s ministry Bible study on Wednesday mornings and can’t wait to go again this week.  Maddie loves going, too, because she, on both occasions, gets to play in the church nursery with all of her adult and baby friends.  It’s a win-win-win all around. 

Ah, a refreshing day spent with our dear family. We really enjoyed going to church together yesterday and fellowshipping afterwards with some delicious pizza. 

The Saddest Baby in the World

Friday, September 13, 2013

This week has not been fun. I entered this time, knowing that I was going to be an emotional wreck because of having stopped breastfeeding, but on top of it, Maddie has been a beast.  Remember back to her colicky days? Well, I do. I thought we were through the never-ending crying and done with the unceasing fussiness, but apparently not. 

Maddie has wanted nothing other than to be held this week. She doesn’t want to play. She doesn’t want to be in the stroller, she doesn’t want to eat, or walk or crawl. She wanted to be held while whining.  So, that’s just about all we did this week. 

I feel like a horrible mother because all I wanted to do was to scream at her to shut up, but I know that would only serve to make her cry more. You think you are stronger than all this stuff. That if your child is crying, your one and only response and sole instinct is to comfort and sing and rock, but the truth is that after a day or two or three of hearing nothing but cries, you go crazy. Or at least I do. There you have it: I’m human.

I did not respond well to this week and I know it.  I have started every day in prayer, not that Maddie wouldn’t be fussy, although I did ask for her comfort and happiness to return, but I prayed for patience, perseverance and for my joy and contentment to return.  Every day I made it until around 1PM and then my attitude went downhill fast. I know God is using this circumstance to my good. He is perfecting me and making me more and more like Jesus, but this week has been a startling revelation of just how far I am from perfection. 

This picture breaks my heart into a million pieces.

So, we’ll see how today goes and if I’ll have any reprieve before the weekend and if Maddie has any comfort.  I think she might be teething.  Phil mentioned that he thought he might have seen an enormous, white mass underneath the surface of her gums. A molar, maybe? She had her first fever this week, too, and runnier than normal poo poos, which is consistent with teething. Poor little girl. 

Lord, give me compassion, peace, joy, perseverance, understanding and patience.  Here we go! 

Grape Jelly!!!

So, this happened: I made grape jelly.  YAY!!!! Here's the process with pictures.  

 My friend, Vicky, gave me 6 pounds of grapes! I was so excited because I have always wanted to try making jelly/jam, but Phil and I only grow veggies and herbs.  Boooo.  Anyway, I tried crushing them by hand with a potato masher.  That was too hard. Then I remembered.....

 I own a food mill! So, I got to cranking.  I had to do this in small batches....

 Every pound of grapes gave me about a cup of juice.

 And I kept cranking, cranking, cranking until I had nothing left but a bunch of skins and.....

....a bunch of juice!I needed 5 cups of juice for the recipe I was using, so I saved the extra cup in a mason jar and Phil and I drank it with dinner.  It was so yummy, pulpy and deliciously fresh!

 But, because it was pulpy, I decided to strain it to make it more of a pure liquid. I did this a little at a time, too.  It seemed to take forever! So, the next step was to turn this wonderful juice into spreadable jelly. I went all over town and couldn't find pectin!!! UGH! So, I ordered it online and waited for it to come in the mail (2 day shipping) and froze the juice to preserve it until I could carry on.

Meanwhile, I went out to the garden and found this poor cucumber.  Poor, poor cucumber, never to be eaten or sliced.  How sad!

So, I ordered some pectin, which is a gelling agent, from Amazon and got it in the mail pretty quickly.  So, the next step was to heat the juice and add the pectin and sugar.  I got the No Sugar/Low Sugar variety of Ball Pectin, so I didn't have to use a lot of sugar to get a yummy, sweet taste.  First, I measured out 5 tbsp of pectin and mixed this together with 1/4 cup of sugar. Mixing these two together is supposed to help prevent the pectin from clumping.  I added the sugar-pectin mix and brought the juice to a full boil.

Once the juice/pectin mix was boiling, I added the rest of the sugar and let it boil hard for another minute.  

 Oh, I also sanitized the jars and rings during the process.  And, I put the rings in a hot water bath to soften them up so they will seal properly.

 I filled them and hand-tightened the lids into place....

 ....and processed them in boiling water for 15 minutes.

Finally, I removed them from the water and set them out to cool.  I didn't go far because I love to hear the "pop!" of the lids sealing.  Sure enough, within an hour, all of them had sealed and were ready to store.  I opened one the next morning for a taste (if you don't wait long enough for them to cool, you will just have a runny,watery mess) and it was delicious. I will definitely be making jelly again soon.  Peaches, maybe?  :)

I Don't Tell You Enough...

The younger you, before I knew you: If only I could watch and observe the child playing with beanie babies and action figures, being formed into the slightly older you that I would soon meet.

An inexplicable protection surrounds you, guiding you towards me and forming you into the man who would one day lead our family and become my best friend. You advance through life, naive to the dangers of this world and then collide with the Me who likes the cute You. And then we grow together in 
Faith
Love
Endurance
Patience
Friendship
Kindness
Gentleness

And, now, everyday I see you, I want to love you more. So I do. With such ease. 

God created us for great things and I don't know, yet, what all of those are. I do know that He created us for each other. He protected and formed us, not so we would complete each other, but so we would find ourselves complete, walking hand-in-hand in the fullness of Christ. 

I love you, my husband, Phillip Karl, and am so grateful for the privilege of having known you for longer than I haven't.