Change

I know, I know...I've changed the design of my blog like 3 or 4 times in a month. What gives?

• Outward shows of inward stirrings
• Restlessness to get stuff done
• Change in the atmosphere and this little blog is a teensy, tiny, itty-bitty thing I can control
  
• Love of design - really I should have been a graphic artist, so I could get paid to doodle and mess (maybe that will be another stage. Right now I am unpaid to change others doodle .... by that I mean my kids :) )

OK - side note: my mind did an automatic fill in with itty, bitty....titty committee. As my six year old son would say...that just "vexes" me!"

Life is full of a whole lot of change - I can't see it, but wow can I feel it! Kind of like an iceberg - only about 10% is above water, but that 90% can sink ships and change land mass. Did you know that when an iceberg melts, it makes a fizzing sound called "Bergie Seltzer"? The sound is made when compressed air bubbles get trapped in the iceberg pop.



Chunks of me are moving under the surface as I commit to change. No pithy words or grandiose explanations for these sensation other than it is becoming well with my soul.

So, if you hear me fizzing, it's just part of the change.

Where I Want To Be

Every once in a blue moon I am going to post a random picture that draws something out of me when I gaze at it. You know the kind - the kind of art that tugs on your soul just a hint.

This is one such photograph. The artist is Albena Markova; a Bulgarian Photographer who (is that supposed to be who or whom??? - I know - dismal! ) captures spectacular landscapes, oftentimes with an orange hue in her photos.

Being a point and shoot Neanderthal I am not sure if the hue happens in the development process or because of an aperture setting or ???, but Orange is my color these days. Let me clarify - in my house - as accents people! As much as I'd like to pull off some sort of burnished bronze or vibrant tangerine dream wrapped in folds about me - my skin would give out a gasp and keel over.

My G, G - Little Bean

This is Gabriel.
Nickname - Little Bean, which came about as he was quite long when he finally popped out.

His silly side is definitely coming out while greeting` his newborn brother Phineas.

Thinker, Explorer, Artistic, Dramatic, Sensitive - all describe Gabriel. I can barely keep up with his brain sometimes - it moves fast.

He is reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy with dad right now ( yes I do mean that HE can read it and get the themes and humor). Right now his favorite song is some mumbly jumbly about Bilbo Baggins and plates, etc. (If you have watched the older cartoon version of The Hobbit you'd recognize it).

I had to put this picture in. It is one of my favs. He was three and adorable as the day is long.


By the By - I've added quite a few posts this week - about 3 on one day that I had in the blog cache. Take some time, grab a cuppa joe' or a spot of tea - whatever your fuel might be - get a scone and sit down and catch up.

Hugs -

2nd in the lineage

Here's are sweet Riley.

She was a gift from God in the form of adoption and just about everyday we marvel that she is a part of us.

Loving, precocious, genuinely friendly, great hugger - all describe her. Even the way she greets you gives warm fuzzies.


She's my precious pie and I love her to the universe and back.

Scrumptious little bit of love

This is Phineas!



The little dude is just as cute as his picture shows. He's 5 months old here, but is 9 months old now and off the charts in every way.


I throw out some big babies and he is no exception.

We are falling madly in love with Mr. Smiley Pants.

25

1. One of my best friends in grade school, Jeff Schiewe, cut the side of my nose in half with a hoe when we were building a neighborhood garden.
2. I was a rodeo princess in my senior year of high school. The Queen and I traveled to podunk rodeo's across Oregon. We'd sing Judd's songs to promote our local rodeo. One time while on stage, at our county fair, my voice warbled. I blame it on the hot guy in the crowd.
3. I've owned 3 horses - 2 Arabians and 1 Tennessee Walker.
4. In Junior High, I had a Farah Fawcett hairdo. My feather was so big that the sides of my hair wouldn't fit into my school pictures. I had braces on top of that. Messed me up something fierce.
5. My real name is Marcelle. Too chic for my small town tomboy ways, but I kinda like it now.
6. I grew up near the ocean and miss it just about everyday.
7. I bicycled in England, Wales and a wee bit of Scotland when I was 20 for 3 months - alone.
8. I have worked for the Romania and Hungarian Government teaching English.
9. I could eat sushi rolls, miso soup and tempura just about everyday and be satisfied.
10. I have a thing about "spatula hands" in men. Gives me the heebie jeebies!! I cannot justly describe what the spatula looks like, but I can certainly show you. EEK.
11. Fidelity in family and friendship is important to me. I'm still sad over friendships ended.
12. I'd love to hike the Appalachian trail, the hill country of England and bicycle the Oregon Coast with my family.
13. I put glue on a fat girls chair in 3rd grade and I still feel bad about it. It was a cruel moment.
14. Once when Scott and I were trying to figure out if we were going to date I used the phrases..."I am highly date-able material" and"If you don't bust a move, I am going to bust on outta here". Sigh.
15. I'd love to live in community on a sustainable farm. Caveat: all families get their own homes.
16. I'd love to design and build a green home with my husband, Scott. He is a brilliant and creative person and most people don't really get to plumb the depths of who he is.
17. I love Jesus and really want to be known as His Friend in the end.
18. I almost drown in a Costa Rican rip-tide. While being churned in waves, I worried because my shirt kept pulling up and I didn't want the guy I had a crush on to see me dead & shirtless.
19. I worked at a place called the Bad Ass Cafe in Dublin. The name still makes me snicker.
20. Each of my children have 2 middle names. Once the ball started we had to keep it rollin' aaaaannnnd rollin'.
21. My ideal vacation would include the ocean, good food, friends, no cooking, no cleaning, a nanny and some sort of adventure.
22. Graduated Cum Laude and when they gave me the medal I told them I was pretty sure they had the wrong person (seriously).
23. 3 of my favorite jobs: Summers working at a kite shop on the Oregon coast, teaching Mosaic Art and teaching English in Romania ( I met Scott there).
24. I have a plan, on paper, that needs about 200 million dollars and has at times increased up to 2 billion. It includes well projects, a prayer room in South Africa, orphans in Uganda, churches in Vietnam, making a way for people to adopt who would like to if they had the money, supporting the Translation of the Bible into the TAT language, etc.
25. I regularly look at adoption websites and weep. Not only am I aware of what a special thing we've been given in Riley, but I'm aware what she has been saved from...make me undone.

It's the little things that count.

It was summer.

We were on vacation.

Actually...we'd just started our trip and we're in the middle of Missouri.

Everyone was piled up in the van (minus Mr Phineas, as he was not on the scene yet) and like Lewis & Clark we were heading out into the big world on a 5 week adventure crossing MO to the Oregon Coast and back. Along the way we'd swing into Idaho, visit the family, pick up Grandma Jones and then cruise a bunch of back roads over the mountains and through the woods to the Coast.

The van was clocking along, kids were playing and we were talking about what-not, when all of sudden Scott hits the brakes, and swerves to the side of the interstate.

I' m thinking .... accident? blown tire? overheating? diarrhea?

He's thinking ....turtle.

Scott had seen a turtle getting ready to make its final debut in a suicide crawl across the interstate and for whatever reason he turned into Mr Turtle, Turtle Superhero (name that movie) out to save the Terrapin.

He and Gabriel rushed out of the van and were overjoyed to find their turtle was of the snapping variety. They shoved sticks towards it's mouth provoking it to snap (over and over again) AND tried extremely hard to convince me to let the little guy join us as a fellow sojourner. When it was quite clear that Mama ain't no fool, they finally put it back in the ravine it came out of.

The ravine ran along side a field
The field held cattle
Cattle poop
Poop has to go somewhere ...and now you can image what the ravine smelled like.

I'm sure the turtle had come OUT of the ravine in a desperate attempt to escape; tired of stinking it up to high heaven and back. I am guessing that somewhere in that turtles' little pea brain it was really DE-LIGHTED when Scott and Gabriel picked him up. He was laughing as he rubbed some of his funky belly stank on them as payback for jabbing at his mouth with a stick.

Now ole' Scott and Gabriel may have deserved that smell, but us poor girls waiting patiently in the van...well - we were innocent bystanders. It took a trip to Walmart, a nail brush, hydrogen peroxide, strong antibacterial soap and looooong days for the odor to fade, but it was an experience I'm sure will remain with Gabriel.

Maybe the details won't stick in the memory banks, but the impression of a dad who thought saving a turtle was important will stay catalogued in his head and heart somewhere.

Life is full of a multitude of little things making up the big event. It is the nuances, the feelings evoked, the laughter and the tears that mark us. It's the smell of Grandma's night cream, the taste of strawberries in the summer, the sound of your best friends voice saying it's going to be alright that move us. It really is the little things that matter.

One day, down the road, Gabriel will be out on his own and a smell will trigger a memory. A connection will fire in his heart and suddenly he'll be thinking of his father and a turtle and he'll feel love.

This is good.

Capturing Hearts

There are times were my house stays clean for several days in row and I feel like Rocky Balboa at the top of the steps (absolutely recognizing that little analogy is going to date me).

Laundry is done, fresh sheets are on the bed, toilets sparkle, kiddos faces and bottoms are clean, leftovers are actually IN the fridge and the sweet, melodious sound of the dishwasher hums. It's like a bam, and double bam, I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan kind of moment. When these little bits of glory happen I relish in how well the day was juggled. It makes me breath easy when my head hits the pillow, but I am aware that when I rise the cycle will begin again.

I have MANY years left of motherhood and at 40 that can be a bit daunting if I let it. It takes energy to parent. To put it into perspective, I'm going to be 61 when my littlest turns 20 and sometimes I feel like my uumph has run away, but I usually finding it hiding in some corner, give it a little pep talk and send it back out in the game.

When I was little I thought adults were plumb crazy reminiscing about time moving fast, but I get it now and even though I can't see the finish line to this segment of my mom assignment, I know the end is going to make an appearance just on the horizon in about 2 minutes.

I find even now that I will be doing some everyday thing with one of my children and have that kind of moment where everything slows down and I am aware "this will never come again"; holding Phin to give him a bottle, Riley's sweet toddler talk, Gabriel cooking up some "recipe" in the kitchen. Present moments that in seconds are gone and counted as part of the past.

I'm learning to let go of the house being tidy, clothes needing to be folded a certain way, dishes being in the "right" order. Those who have seen my office would say I have truly thrown the baby out with the bath water I have "let go" so much.

I am learning that with 3 young children I just won't get to tick off 10 things on my to do list; 3 is a success.

I am learning that being the kind of mom I see in my mind is a daily decision to live in the present and sometimes - many times - I have failed and am going to fail. Yet the capacity of children and mommies to love is a deep and mysterious thing all wrapped up in the heart of God and as I learn more about that heart - I am able to parent stronger.

I am learning that what I want more than perfection is satisfaction that I have gotten down on my kids level and reached in and touched their hearts at some point during my day.

I am learning that captured moments mean captured hearts and that's what love is all about.

Popcorn Yumminess - and healthy to boot.

Attention all Popcorn lovers....check out this tasty, tasty recipe for good old fashion popcorn made with a healthy twist. I love popcorn, but it doesn't always love me (let the reader fill in), so I have an unspoken agreement with my gut to drink A LOT of water while ingesting so the digesting goes well.

Let me clarify...I love REAL popcorn. Not theater popcorn, not microwaved popcorn...just the real deal. About a month ago my salty taste buds must have awakened with gusto and so I went in search of a recipe that would satisfy the palate, but soothe the stomach. What I discovered was the BEST tasting popcorn recipe. The star bit that makes this magnificent recipe shine is that the butter is included in the popping process so the step of melting and coating the popcorn after the corn has been popped has been eliminated. Gives it such a lighter taste.

I am giving ya' two recipes with: one using safflower oil and one using coconut oil

A few tips first:

1. If possible use organic popcorn. It makes a difference I buy mine in bulk, but you can get this by the pound at whole foods or wild oats. The fresher the corn is the better the pop.

2. Use BUTTER - no margarine or any other fake stuff. People!! - get rid of that margarine and other saturated stuff. Spend a little extra and treat your body well. The taste is far superior, you anytime you can understand all the ingredients on a label it's a bonus.

3. Use an oil that can get hot without turning into a trans fat, such as safflower oil or coconut oil. Don't snub the nose - coconut oil has been a main ingredient in popcorn for nigh on centuries lads and lasses.

4. Use pan that has a thick bottom and you will eliminate the need to shake and shake AND shake. Unless you want to.

POPCORN LOVE Recipe #1

1/4 c. veg. oil; safflower
3 Tablespoons salted butter - If you don't have salted you can just put your salt right into the pot before the corn pops.
1/2 c. corn
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 quart pot
Combine oil, butter and corn.
Turn heat on med to med-high heat.
Once oil and butter have melted, shake pot SIDE to SIDE to coat the corn.
Once kernels start to pop, put on lid.
Corn is done when the kernels start to lift the lid off of the pot or you hear no more kernels popping:

Pour into large bowl and shake salt over the corn and toss until you get the salty taste you like.

I put a bit of seasoned salt called Kelly's because has no MSG in it. It is a bit like Lawry's Seasoning.

POPCORN with Coconut Oil

2 rounded teaspoon coconut oil
2 rounded teaspoons salted butter
1/2 c. popcorn.

same process as above.


Small newsflash on coconut oil:

• One of the most stable oils you can buy; does not turn rancid
• Considered a medicine food by many civilizations.
• Considered a low fat; quickly broken down by liver and used as energy vs. stored as fat.
• Increases your metabolism
• Antiviral, anti fungal and antibacterial

Happy Snacking my friends.