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Recently read a book that was alright but not spectacular. This is a quote that I liked from it. It was by Lauren Austin and she did a great job in the book of showing joy in the Lord through horrible situations. Which I appreciate. Not that I'm able, but it's so nice to read about people that are there and giving advice on the way.
Early in our marriage my husband was a Biblical Studies major and encouraging me to read the Old Testament more. I kept trying. I hated it. I told him so. I said, "I hate how God was then! I just don't see the connection between that God and Jesus." Robert ofcourse told me they are one in the same, which logically I knew. But my worldly human emotions would not accept it. I was so shallow and close minded against what God just IS vs what I wanted God to be. I wanted God to be quiet and gracious and moldable. "God is SO good!" I would've told you, but really there was this fleshly whisper in the back of my mind that said, "Yeah, Jesus is good, but the God of the Old Testament wasn't good. I'm glad He changed by the New Testament." I am learning to forgive myself for my past ignorance. God was gracious to me then with my lack of wisdom and I'm sure in 20 years I will look back to now and be thankful for Him being gracious to my lack of wisdom now! Lord willing I will continue to learn and be sanctified every day for the rest of my life! But what the last couple years has taught me is that God is good. No matter what He does or allows, it is good. He created "good", He is the only source of "good". We, as humans, don't know "good". At all. We think we do. What a mighty God that makes good out of ALL. "Often I have heard people say, 'How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!' Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. "No, Corrie," said Betsie, "He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him." Corrie concludes, "There is an ocean of God's love available - there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love - whatever the circumstances." Corrie Ten Boom "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 ESV My thoughts lately follow along a trail of being thankful and seeing that God is good in all circumstances. We had a particularily hard day yesterday. Poor behavior, more discipline, stress, feeling depressed, running unexpected errands. Bryse looks like Two Face because she has an awful case of poison ivy (or something like that) and it's my first time to deal with that. Cal is three. (That is all, he's three. That's all it takes to up the stress. Ha!) Darby is fixing to take her first unit tests. And Deakin just screams all day. Happy or sad, he's screaming! And not only that but after months of continually praying for opportunities to minister in our own neighborhood the Lord plopped a big ole' opportunity right in my lap! And ofcourse, it's one I wouldn't have chosen. ; ) But instead of begging God to change all these things, I want to thank God for them all. Instead of only saying He has blessed me when He gives me what I want, I want to say, "Wow! Yesterday was hard! God really blessed us with lots of opportunites for lessons and sanctification! He sure does love us!" Because they will work together for the good of those who love Him. Because He loves me enough to send me a curve ball so that I will cling to Him harder. This bread makes us stronger. Because a Father that only gives candy is a bad father. Thank you for the opportunities to disciple my children in their poor behavior, Lord. For the chance to teach them young so that they won't face worse when they are older. Thank you for the sanctification that it breeds in me! Thank you for Cal being three as I know that three, Lord willing, will lead to him being four and five and six and we will see the fruit of the lessons learned at this age. Thank you for Bryse's poison ivy! For the things her and I both are learning because of it. For teaching us that there are some things in this world we just need to stay completely away from. Thank you for Darby's Unit tests as they are a sign that we have survived the first Unit in all her subjects so far! Thank you for changing me into the mom she needs instead of the mom I want to be. And thank you for my baby that is alive and healthy enough to scream all day. Thank you for his passion in all things and thank you for the lesson he will conquer one day, that you have to channel those passions. And thank you for this opportunity to minister to neighbors. I am not here, in this world, for myself, but to serve You and others'. No matter how insignificant it might seem. I've finally settled into a routine with breakfasts that we seem to like. So I thought I would share it along with our recipes because I have had to do some tweaking of favorite recipes for dairy and soaking reasons. First, let me explain that I consider myself one of those huge fans of cold cereal. I was raised on it and I loooove it! Golden Grahms, Lucky Charms, Crispix, Rice Crispies, Frosted Flakes.... mmm mm mmmmm! Love 'em! Well, a couple years ago I started having friends share info with me about the unhealthiness of cold cereal. Notice, I didn't say they were judging me, they just educated me. And I said thank you, cataloged the new information and kept on keeping on shoveling the cold cereal down the gullet! Ha! You can get some pretty magnificent deals couponing while shopping for cereal. I was good at it! : ) But I knew my friends were right so I started cutting back on it slowly. Until we got to the point of only eating cereal once a week (or mama sneaking some after bedtime for a snack!). Then Deakin was born and I realized he was allergic to milk. I did give some alternative milks a shot in my cereal but none were good enough. And since I'm a meanie and couldn't handle watching everyone else enjoy one of my favorite things, I stopped buying cereal all together. That was almost a year ago. Since then I have tweaked and shifted and tried all sorts of recipes and ways of making breakfast. And the following is what we have fallen into and are enjoying quite well! The soaking steps I have developed on my own according to the reading I have done on soaking. I'm not 100% sure I'm doing it correctly, but it turns out well. So if anyone with more knowledge in that area knows of something I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Sunday and Wednesday: Typically we do muffins. I serve the muffins with smoothies or fruit on the side. I have adapted a muffin recipe from Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking to suit our dairy free lifestyle and a few other preferences. Here's what we came up with. Banana (or blueberry) Muffins - 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour - 1 tsp baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp baking powder - 1/2 tsp salt - 3 ripe bananas mashed (or for blueberry muffins, 1 cup blueberries & 3/4 cup applesauce - 3/4 cup of honey - 1 egg, lightly beaten - 1/3 cup of coconut oil, melted Soaking step: The day before mix together the flour, coconut oil, honey, and 1 Tbs of water and 1 Tbs of lemon juice. Cover and let sit for 12-24 hours before finishing recipe. Preheat oven at 375 degree F. Put 12 muffin tins in a muffin pan. (12 is enough for just me and the kids with a little leftover for snack, but if we have visiters or Daddy is home then I double the batch) In a large bowl add baking soda, baking powder, salt, bananas (or blueberries and applesauce) and egg, mix together well. Fill muffin tins nearly full. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes and then cool on racks. Monday and Thurday: We usually do eggs on these days. I actually do eggs a lot more often but on these days I feed them to the kids too. Whenever the kids have muffins or pancakes I typically make myself a couple eggs instead. And I serve the eggs with a side of fruit. Here, since I don't have to share a recipe for eggs, I will share my favorite smoothie recipe. Our blendtec came with a recipe book and Robert discovered this recipe. While he was home he would make it at least once a day and sometimes twice! I didn't drink it much then but since he has left I've started having it often too. It's soooo filling and loaded with healthy fats! Again it's tweaked for our dairy free lifestyle. Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie 1/2 cup coconut milk 1 1/2 Tbs peanut butter 1 Tbs honey 1/2 Tbs cocoa powder 1 banana 1 cup of ice cubes (our ice maker makes big fat rectangles so I just count out 8-9 rectangles and that is perfect) Put all ingredients in the blender and blend! On the blendtec it's one round on the "sauces" mode. Tuesday and Friday
Here we do oatmeal! Here is my soaking, DF recipe. Oatmeal: 2 cups oats 2 cups water 2 Tbs lemon juice Put in container, mix, cover for 12-24 hours. Pour into a pot add about 1 cup of water and a dash of salt. Heat over medium heat for about 10 minutes stirring often. I set out chopped apples and dried cranberries on the table as an optional topping. And give the kids a choice between a sprinkle of brown sugar or dolop of honey. Saturday Pancakes or Waffles! If we have time. Some Saturdays we hussle out the door to go to the Farmer's Market in Manhattan and can't make the time to do this treat. Most often I do pancakes because they are easier. The waffle recipe I use takes a long time to cook and so I have two waffle irons going at the same time. Still it takes a good 45 minutes to complete a whole double batch. It is a recipe I found in Go Dairy Free book. I have tweaked it to soak the oats. The following pancake recipe is just barely enough for just my kids. If I want some or we have guests I double it. Again, this is a recipe that I have tweaked a LOT since I found it years ago on line. It's barely recognizable anymore. Soaked DF Pancakes: 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 2 Tbs honey 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1 cup coconut milk mixed with 2 Tbs lemon juice 3 Tbs coconut oil, melted The day before mix the flour, honey, milk, lemon juice, and oil together. Cover and let sit for 12-24 hours. Mix in baking powder, baking soda, salt, and egg with soaked mixture until well blended. Cook in a skillet greased with coconut oil on medium heat, cool on racks. We use maple syrup or honey to spread on top. Oatmeal Blender Waffles: 4 cups rolled oats 4 cups water, plus extra as needed 2 small, ripe bananas 2 Tbs coconut oil 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp salt The day before mix the rolled oats and water and 2 Tbs of lemon juice in a container. Cover and let sit for 12-24 hours. Pour soaked oats into blender. Add bananas, oil, vanilla, salt, and a little water as needed. Blend until blended well. Pour into waffle iron. I have to leave this batter in my big belgian waffle maker twice as long as usual. This recipe is enough for just my kids, but I increase it by 50% if we have guests. I have survived. I have persevered. We are pressed but not crushed, right? Sigh. The last three weeks have been rough. Three weeks ago was J's second birthday. A week and a day ago we started schooling. Five days ago was our ten year anniversary. And yesterday was D's first birthday! All of these things took quite a toll on my emotions. But God is so good and His grace is sufficient. I'm in awe of how we have come through the last three weeks so well. : ) I was not without tears, but it has been astoundingly minimal. The morning of our anniversary I cried quite a bit. But I cried off and on leading up to D's birthday enough that yesterday wasn't terribly sad. School is trying but encouraging at the same time. I will have grace with myself and not expect perfection and I will not let others' opinions of our choices and results bring me down in regards to what God has lead us to do for now. It's a continual prayer for me. Things should calm quite a bit for the next couple of months. Meanwhile, as seen in the photo, yesterday I got into my size 6s!! I'm about two pounds away from my pre-babies weight! EEEEE!! I'm so excited. I found a movie ticket in the pocket that was from Valentine's Day 2010! So that means that I haven't fit into these jeans in two and a half years! Since I was early pregnant with J! Mainly this has been from a lack of wheat and processed sugar. Not a diet, we just don't eat much of that anymore. I mainly use honey for sweetening goodies. I eat a ton of coconut oil and homemade peanut butter! So we eat lots of good-for-you fats. I'm not starving at all, I eat a lot! I just eat a lot of meat, veggies, fruit, and eggs. I don't even buy bread for the house anymore. Although it is a goal for me to get around to figuring out how to make soaked sprouted bread from the wheat berries Robert bought me. Anyway, I run a few times a week too. But while I've lost the weight and fat, I'm pretty weak still. I gotta get on toning up! That is my next goal! ; ) I have withdrawn from facebook for a time. I don't know how long, it's nothing major, just needing to focus on the kids more. But I have had a couple of friends wishing that weebly had the option of subscribing. It has the option of an RSS feed, but I don't know a whole lot about that. I have decided that I will try to start sending out emails with a link to my latest blog when I type up a new one. That way it will be sort of like subscribing. I can easily create a group of email addresses of people interested. I will automatically put family and close friends in the group. If you are interested in this please get your email address to me and I will add you! Basically, if you are reading this because you clicked on the link in an email from me, then you are already added! : ) I fear this child will grow up to think everyone in every room is in love with him! His brother and sisters trip over themselves to give him anything and laugh at him. The girls will sit and look at pictures on my phone of him! They are all obsessed with this guy! At meal times he sits at the head of the table "telling jokes". He will make a serious face and gurgle some syllables and then slap the table and laugh histerically! Then he repeats: serious look, jabber, bust out laughing and hitting the table. All the while looking at each sibling expecting the praise he believes he deserves. And they do not disappoint! They all laugh as if Jerry Sienfeld were sitting at the table! I'm starting to believe that everything he does is a calculated plan to entertain anyone watching! It's crazy! Recently the girls taught him to hold his hands in the air, open his mouth wide, and sing softly. He will stop what he's doing, raise his hands and open his mouth and, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" A pretty little note. As compared to his normal ear piercing screams it's lovely. He took his first step when he was ten months but didn't start walking several steps until he was 11 1/2 months. Now he walks nearly everywhere but still can't stand from a seated position. He says no words. No "mama", "dada", "ball", "more", nothing. He smiles at us when we try to get him to. He doesn't wave, he just now started clapping but will NOT do it on command. He still hates water. Bathtime is abuse. He's quite dirty as a result. He's dirty anyway though! Dirt runs to him! He loves to play with cars. His favorite "street" is the treadmill. He takes his car selections to the treadmill and runs them all over it. He's been doing that for over a month. He's been sleeping in Cal's room now for over a week! And it is going spendidly! He still nurses once a night, which is cool with me. I'm happy to have my room to myself but feel lonely at the same time. He goes to sleep like a champ. I nurse him then carry him to bed and lay him down. He may gurgle some to himself for a bit, but nods off very quickly usually. Today is his first birthday. This time last year I was living through my hardest (and shortest, not counting early labor) labor yet. I was wishing for an epidural during early labor (which is obvious it was emotional and not about physical pain). He barrelled into the world at 11:42am weighing 8'12 and 21 3/4 inches long. Today he is our tallest one year old yet, almost a whole inch taller than Cal was at one! So sad that the babyhood is ending. Here comes toddlerdom. And with this little dude..... I'm scared and excited at the same time. : ) http://coffmanfamily.weebly.com/1/post/2011/09/we-have-a-new-baby-brother.html Our first date! Robert texted me late last night as he was getting up on Friday morning: "I've been married longer than you by several hours! Happy Anniversary! Love you." Hee hee! Today marks 10 years married to my man. I've gone a little over board with the pictures. I just went through all our pictures and tried to find ones of us together. (I would seriously pay someone to organize my pictures on my computer. Ugh!) I miss him terribly but am thankful for the season God has us in. We are more happy and in love today than we were a year ago, 3 years ago, and WAY more than 10 years ago! It's amazing what persevering through hard times and marital struggles does to your relationship if you just press on and cling to HIS promises!! God's plan is perfect. I will never love my husband well enough but by God's grace He will supply what we need in all ways. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33 ESV) One of my children has a hard time loving another one of my children. Hmmmm, I'll bet God has said those exact words a time or two, uh? Anyway, I'm always praying with this child of mine to help said child to love the other child enough. Tonight after, once again, watching this child endure a hug and kiss from the unliked child I made the reminder again. "Just a hug and kiss, that's all! You can do that!" The child whispered to me for the umpteenth time, "I just don't have enough love to give." And for whatever reason, this time the Lord put new words in my mouth. I held my hands out like I was holding water in them and said, "God will give you some of His love to share. It's like He's giving you a scoop of love and saying, 'Will you please share this with _____?' " And then I asked the child what type of hug God would give this unliked child if He were to, and the child hugged me fiercly. I told the child that we have to hug people for God right now and He gives us the love we need, HIS love, to do so. Our love is never enough.
Man, it always astounds me at the things God teaches me while I teach my children things that I never planned to. |
LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
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