HWFD - 2 fabulous GF desserts!

I recently made 2 desserts which were super tasty!

The first is an adaptation from Sarah Fragoso's berry cobbler in her Everyday Paleo cookbook, but also found on her website here. She recommended using peaches as an alternate, and I had a bunch of fresh peaches from the farmers market sitting on my counter. I can't eat peaches raw - they make my mouth itchy, but I can eat them cooked. (Same thing with raw apples and carrots.)

Here's the berry version photo:

Here's the recipe, made with peaches:

Peach Cobbler
4 peaches, sliced
1-2 tablespoons raw honey
1 1/2 cup almond flour (I use Honeyville)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 egg
2 tablespoons cinnamon (I didn't measure the cinnamon, just shook a bunch on - I think it was closer to 1 T)
Coconut milk - a few tablespoons per serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place sliced peaches in a baking dish (I used a 9 x 7) and drizzle with honey.
In a separate bowl, combine almond flour, coconut oil, egg and cinnamon and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle over the peaches.
Bake for 35 minutes.

Serve warm, drizzled with coconut milk. YUM!! We went to a 50th wedding anniversary celebration last weekend and the cupcakes looked delicious but of course I couldn't have them. I made this later that night and it totally satisfied my sweet craving! :)

The second recipe I found through Everyday Paleo and pinned a while back. I made it for our July blogger meet-up and made it again this past weekend for a cookout.

Paleo Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Coconut Cream Glaze

 

It's as tasty as it looks!!

Enjoy!

What we've been up to & photo dump!

I have been such a bad blogger of late! I still enjoy reading all of your updates, even though I may not be commenting as much as usual. One of my goals this summer was to spend less time online. Some days/weeks were better than others! :) Part of it is due to C switching to one nap a day--occasionally he'll nap in the car in the morning if we're on our way back from Mass, or errands, but he always wakes up as soon as I take him out of the car. Anyway, I had a few projects that have been on my to-do list for what seems like forever and I finally decided I would tackle them this summer. It's amazing the things you can accomplish when you're not online!

1) I finally finished a skirt my sister R, bought in Italy in uh... 2010. She wanted me to - well, as she said, "do something with it." I'm not a great seamstress by any means, but I did what I could. She said I could take the whole thing apart, but I've never sewed a skirt with 2 layers, so I didn't. Looking back, I should have made pillow covers or something with it. It was a really great pattern, haha. Anyway, I finished "doing something with it" and gave it back!

2) More sewing - I am almost done with the Steelers quilt I've been meaning to make for... oh... since before I got married. I was tired of looking at the fabric and decided that I should have it ready for the start of this season. (Not that I'm expecting a great season, but I can still hope.) Anyway, both of the sides are done - one side is black and white alternating fabric with the team logo and the other side is alternating black and gold patterned fabric. I have to order the batting from Amazon and assemble it, but the hard work is done. I'll post photos when it's finished.

That's the end of my sewing. :)

3) We just came back from 2 weeks of vacation at the lake with my family and a few days in OH with DH's family while DH worked out of that local office. It was wonderful to be away! It wasn't as much of a vacation as I'd hoped though. My poor DH came down with a wicked sinus infection a few days before we had to leave. We thought it was just a cold, but then the night we arrived, he got much worse. A few nights it was so bad that he ended up sleeping downstairs in a chair so he could sit upright. I couldn't fall asleep with him coughing that hard and he was afraid to wake up C in the pack-n-play. Ugh. Finally by the end of the week he was feeling better, though he still has a bit of a lingering cough here and there. Also, the night we arrived, I found out my mom had gone to the local ER. She ended up having her gallbladder removed the next night! Fortunately, it went very well, and aside from the nastiest bruise I'd ever seen (it was the size of a softball), she was told she could resume normal activities. Except swimming, the doc said. (We told her she could still water ski, since she wasn't technically swimming, haha.) Fortunately, my sis and my aunt are both nurses (and I've seen enough surgical incisions to know what they are supposed to look like when healing) that we were all able to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't do anything she wasn't supposed to. Like lift C, the lumberjack. :) Anyway, despite the illnesses, and the weather being colder than it usually is, we had a good time. We were able to get in a few days of water skiing, and a boat ride with C. And DH and I got in a few rounds of bananagrams. :) And I finished a book!

4) My sis V and her DH and daughter are on their way south to their new home. Unfortunately it is a plane ride away. :( My BIL is doing a doctoral program so they'll be there at least 3 years. I told her we better get frequent videos and photos of my niece! We won't get to see them all that often.

Photos from the last few weeks:

My niece, M. Isn't she the sweetest!!

"I'm keeping my eye on you, M." Actually, C was very good with her.
He gave her lots of kisses in addition to wanting to touch her a lot. :)

Not sure if he was planning to do dead-lifts with this one...

It was very windy the first several days we were there.
I'd take C out on the dock and he'd have his tongue hanging out
like a puppy. DH kept calling him MJ.

My mom's Christmas card photo already ordered and on it's way
thanks to the free 101 prints from Shutterfly this weekend! :-D

Not sure about the boat ride and having the floor move!!

Tired. Or bored?

Some cold days skiing, but this was one of the warmer ones.

My sis R and I had fun with the sports setting on my camera.
I hope to have a zoom lens by next summer!

Beautiful!

After-vacation weigh-in. Apparently everyone gains weight, haha.
His new car seat - a Britax Marathon 70-G3 in Cowmooflage arrived today, haha. :)

My cute nephew on DH's side of the family! He came the one
night wearing this and I had C's packed and upstairs in his suitcase!

And finally... once we arrived home, someone learned a new trick...

Today he climbed up and when I asked him what he was doing, he clapped.
Sigh... I think I better order that learning tower as well.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope to be back to blogging a bit more regularly now. :)

Little Crossfitter

After watching DH & me while we workout in the garage, apparently C has picked up a few moves....

It's Not About Me

Every now and then I come across a new (to-me) adoption blog and it's as though the author reached in my head and heart and put words to the emotions I'm unable to describe or explain.

In the 14 - almost 15! - months that we've had C, adoption is something I think about every day. Not because I feel any less toward C, as if giving birth to him would have made him more special. He is my son. It's that I remember that there is another woman to whom I owe everything. Every joy that I have experienced as a mother has come at a great cost to her. My joy came through her pain. I know she doesn't regret her decision - she has told me as much. In a beautiful way, she told me that my husband and I deserved the blessing - the gift that is a child. But she has also shared that there are those times when she is sad; when she misses him. How could she not??

The best is often brought about at the cost of great pain. As a child, it was hard for me to understand why Good Friday was called "Good." God was crucified. It's good because through that pain, through His Cross, Christ redeemed us.

Adoption comes from a loss - a loss of C's first family, of his first mother. Sometimes it just breaks my heart that he will know that pain someday. Now he is too young, completely unaware of his story. But someday, that pain will be there. I hope the love he feels from me and my husband, as well as his birth family, will help ease that pain.

C has been saying "mama" and "dada" for a while now. He tries to repeat words back to us when we ask him to - sometimes what comes out is pretty funny. :) Last week my husband and I realized that he is very clearly saying one word. He says it over and over again. "E-sus." Jesus. He recognizes Jesus in the Sacred Heart statue on the way into a church that we frequent for daily Mass. He recognizes Jesus on the Cross in our own parish. He recognizes him in the Stations of the Cross. He recognizes Him on the Cross outside the church where the scene is displayed from his Crucifixion with Mary and John at his feet. He recognizes him when we go to a church he hasn't been in before - he just knows. He raises his arms every time and says "E-sus!" Sometimes, like yesterday, he blows him a kiss without prompting. Each time it gives me chills.

His life is a gift. It doesn't belong to me. I'm only blessed - very blessed - to be his mother and to teach him about the One who made him, who designed him for His purpose.

My prayer for him is that someday he comes to realize the same thing I'm only beginning to understand.

It's not about me. It never was. It's about Him.

How will you use your beauty? The Bikini Question

The Bikini Question

Swimwear has been on my mind frequently lately, as C and I have been at the pool most days that it hasn’t been raining. 

This is a fantastic video of a presentation by actress and swimsuit designer, Jessica Rey that I just saw in an article on Mercator. (Her swimsuits can be found here.)

Jessica Rey - The evolution of the swim suit

I highly recommend watching the video - it’s just under 10 minutes - but here are the points I love that she makes. 

• The bikini was invented in France by french engineer Louie Réard. He named it after the the site of the atomic bomb testing that year - Bikini Atoll. He thought the public’s reaction would be like an atomic bomb explosion and he was right. His design was based on exposing the belly button for the first time and he said it wouldn’t be a true bikini unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring. (Dang... that’s not much fabric!)
• It was so scandelous that no french model would wear it so he had to hire a stripper to debut his bikini.
• If you go to the beach today - it seems as though every woman is wearing one. It wasn’t an instant hit in the US however. In 1957, Modern Girl Magazine said it was hardly necessary to waste words on the so-called bikini because no girl with tact or decency would ever wear such a thing. One writer described it as a two-piece bathing suit that revealed everything about a girl except her mother’s maiden name.
• Obviously, times have changed. A NY times reporter called the bikini the millennial equivalent to the power suit. What kind of power does it bring?
• A Princeton study done asked How does the male brain react to seeing people in different amounts of clothing?
• When men were shown photos of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tools, such as screwdrivers or hammers, lit up.
• Some men showed zero brain activity in the medial pre-frontal cortex - the part of the brain that lights up when one ponders another person’s thoughts, feeling and intentions. Researchers found this shocking because they almost never see this part of the brain shut down in this way. A Princeton professor said It’s as if they are reacting to these women as if they are not fully human. It’s consistent with the idea that they are responding to these photographs as if they are responding to objects, not people.
• So... it does give a woman power - the power to shut down the part of a man’s brain where he sees her as a person, not an object.

Modesty. The word is often met with disdain. Does it mean we need to be frumpy, dumpy and out of fashion? 

Jessica’s goal is to disprove the age-old notion that when it comes to swimsuits that less is more. You can dress modestly without sacrificing fashion.

Her model/inspiration is Audrey Hepburn - she’s got some really cute suits such as this one named Holly:

Well, I probably won't wear my hair like this :)

Named for Audrey's character Holly in Breakfast at Tiffany's

Her tagline is - who says it has to be itsy-bitsy? Modesty isn’t about covering up our bodies because they are bad. It isn’t about hiding ourselves, it’s about revealing our dignity. We were made beautiful in His image and likeness.

Her final question in the video is: How will you use your beauty?

I confess - I used to wear them. Everyone did (still does, it seems) so I joined the crowd sometime in high school. I had some cute ones that I loved. And there is no doubt - they are much, much, MUCH easier to find than an attractive one-piece. I can remember one time while on vacation (years ago) that someone commented that they thought I was running around in my bra - not my swimsuit. Yikes! I remember feeling really uncomfortable, but I still wore them for a few more years. Finally, I really starting thinking about it more and realized it was exactly like running around in my bra and underwear... the only difference is the fabric.

What did you think of the video? And honestly asking - what are your thoughts on swimwear?

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Last weekend

Another busy week over here. After traveling, it always feels like I'm playing catch-up. While I try not to spend too much time on the weekends doing work around the house, inevitably when I don't have a weekend, there is more work during the week. Such is life! :)

We had a lovely visit with Caleb's birth mother. Really, the day couldn't have gone any better! It was such a joy to see her and to see how much she loves C still. DH & I were definitely both nervous heading into it, as it had been a year, and we've had almost no contact since then, other than the letters and photos we sent. But despite that, I still love open adoption. As I wrote in this post, I do hope we continue to keep in touch, even if it is infrequent. Maybe we'll have more contact now that we've exchanged emails. Only time will tell.

DH & I thank you all for your prayers for our visit! I'm sure that things went smoothly in part based on your prayers!! :)

Other than the visit, we're settling into summer over here. I LOVE having our local farmer's market back - we had to travel a bit more for one during the winter and DH & I would go on Saturdays with C. We tried to limit it to once a month - we were the ones buying 10-12 dozen eggs, haha - but we always seemed to pick the coldest weekends to go! Now that summer is here, the Thursday one I like better is back open, and C and I go in the mornings before his nap. I'm trying to buy almost all our food there - we've had delicious squash, potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, asparagus and of course a lot of meat and eggs. :) Yesterday, I was washing up the strawberries and blueberries and C was walking around the kitchen, occasionally getting samples of blueberries. At one point I looked over and he was munching on the green stem of an onion! City girl here - I never knew that onions had those green stalks attached to them. I pulled off the one C munched on and sliced up a bunch of the rest for our eggs in the morning. As I tried to fasten the container (holding C in one arm as he didn't want to be put down), I dropped it. Slices of onion went everywhere, and he dove right in to help me pick them up by eating them. I grabbed several of them out of his hand, but he got another one in his mouth and was running out of the kitchen so I couldn't take the last one. As he was running, I heard him happily crunching with his teeth. :) Onions and blueberries... what a combination!

Happy Friday everyone! :)

This and that

I can't believe it's already June! What a crazy few weeks we've had around here...

1) Memorial Day weekend was our 6th anniversary. My parents came for a visit... they watched Caleb (who apparently could have cared less that we were gone :)) while we went to see Iron Man 3 and get ice cream at SweetFrog. The movie was great, and so was the ice cream. :) I never had any interest in comic books, or movies made from them, until DH.... and now, I will happily watch any movie and The Avengers is one of my favorites. Who knew! :)

2) My students had both their spring adjudications and recital last week. They all did well, but we had a bit of an adventure at the church where the adjudications took place. The night before they were to take place, there was a really bad storm - lightning took out a very large tree and left the church without power. After one of my students auditioned by whatever light we could get using the windows, we ended up moving to another teacher's home because we couldn't be in the building without power. The parents were awesome and understanding at the change of location - and some of them I had to call en route! I really work with amazing families. :) I took this week off though, and will resume lessons next week. Summer is always a lighter schedule which I love!

3) Last weekend, my sis R came for a visit. She's awesome and C LOVED playing with her. And she's the PT so C got a bunch of treatment while she was here. He had no idea - she makes games of everything. No wonder her families back home love her! :)

4) C got a TOTcollar as one more item to help treat his torticollis. He still has about a 5 degree tilt... the TOTcollar wasn't fitted properly however, so he hasn't been wearing it. It actually made his tilt worse, so we're going back to get it refitted next week.

5) In other health news, C apparently has an allergy to strawberries. Whatever it is - he has a bad case of eczema on his shoulders and upper arms. I couldn't figure out why it was so bad, but then DH and I wondered if it was the strawberries - he loves them and was eating them all day! So, we dropped them from his diet and his skin seems to be improving. Maybe we'll try them next year. He doesn't seem at all bothered by it - he's not scratching at all, but it was clear something was up.

6) I have hesitated to say anything about this on the blog, but we have a visit with C's birthmother this coming weekend. We haven't seen her since last summer... I'm nervous and excited at the same time. Please pray for a good visit!!

7) We've spent a good amount of time at the pool lately. Fortunately, there is one in our development - we literally have to walk out the front door. Love that convenience of townhome living! C has NO FEAR of the water... and while I'm grateful that he doesn't seem timid, him wanting me to let go is not exactly what I had in mind! Hopefully he will enjoy swimming in the lake later in the summer as much!

8) We broke down and got a baby gate. While DH & I know C can climb the stairs fine on his own, he was getting a little to ambitious in his bolts for the stairs down to the front door. I spent almost 30 minutes talking with a story employee to get the right kind of gate. As you can see, we have the gate stretched across 2 sets of stairs so I needed a really wide gate.

We didn't want to drill into the wall or the banisters, but kind of made our peace with it being necessary, until I thought of these little babies - at $6 for 3 (I had one leftover from a garage project), it was better on the wallet than the $50 we originally spent on the banister and wall mounting kits!

I'm sure zip-ties could be used as well! I like that these are rubber and have a great grip on both the banister and the gate.

9) One more prayer request for a special intention. I can't go into detail yet, but hopefully will be able to in a few weeks. (And, no, I'm not pregnant and we are not adopting again - at least not yet on the adoption part. :)) Just prayers for a personal situation. Thanks!

Sorry to have been MIA for a while... I hope to get back to blogging - and commenting more - on a regular basis in a few weeks. Hope you all are having a great week! :)