Seizing My Day

My happy girl learning to skate for the second time!

My little man learning for the first time!

It is slippery on the ice... good thing they have 'walkers'...

"Daddy look... no walker"

Taking a lap around the big rink with Daddy !

Little man wants to try it alone too!

We had a great time ice skating!  One of my favorite family adventures!  We were so grateful for the walkers to get us started!   Lots of smiles and laughter… there were only a couple minor falls… After one hour we had a proud mommy and daddy… and happy kids feeling successful at their new skills!  We will definitely ice skate again.. when we find opportunities to hit the ice!!  Have a Great weekend !

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend.   Since I love Hawaii …. I thought maybe on Fridays I would take it easy from posting with Kailani from Islandlife808.com    So,  I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer…. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.  I look forward to learning a wee bit about ya’all… I am a baby blogger and hoping to connect with more of you amazing encouraging bloggers!   Please feel free to join me on my new blogging journey!  OK… My question for the day is inspired by a friend of a friend … and my little girl is a Girl Scout!  Besides…  who doesn’t love a girl scout cookie?!!

What is your favorite Girl Scout Cookie?

I love love the Samoas! Carmel, cookie, chocolate and coconut = Bliss!

I start with the recipe Straight off the Albers Corn Meal box… and make a few ‘heart healthy’ changes to the already very delicious recipe!

Sweet Corn Muffins

1 c. King Arthurs Unbleached Whole White Wheat Flour

1/2 c. Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Corn Flour

1/2 c. sugar (reduced from 2/3)

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. milk (reduced from 1  1/2 c.)

1/2 c. fruit or veggie puree (spaghetti squash or peach puree)

2 eggs  (only one yoke)

1/3 c. veg. oil

3 tbsp melted butter

Preheat Oven to 350 and grease muffin tin (or line)

Combine dry ingredients , combine wet ingredients and then stir together until blended.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 16-20 minutes.   I love making small muffins – we like to call them ‘fairy cakes’.  Of course you would reduce baking time to 12-15 minutes!   Wait for the yummy smell to fill your house and enjoy!!!  My kids love these with butter and sometimes honey!

Happy Baking!!

I know Happy-ness is not spelled right… I like the letter ‘y’… I hate giving it up!

Yesterday as I was blog surfing one of my new favorite bloggers “My Little Life” posted on Happiness.  OK… I will spell it correctly!  I liked it so much I decided it would be my word today! Happy comes to each of us in our own way…

My Happy~ness is :

My wonderful hubby waking me with coffee in bed every day

My kids sweet faces

Laughter .. especially the kind that makes you cry!

God’s unfailing love for me

My beautiful curious naughty puppy

Wonderful friends

Coffee… good strong coffee with cream and sugar

A Grande Hazelnut Latte with no foam… YUM!

Giggles from my kids

‘Hearing’ my kids mature in knowledge and heart …  my heart smiles knowing I contributed to that!

Homeschooling my son

days, weeks or months without any medical hiccups!

Watching my little girl play soccer

Expensive chocolate… melt in your mouth, smooth chocolate!

Spending less than $150 at the grocery store and feeling like I bought enough food for the week!

Staying home to raise my kids

Bed time

My bed

Beaches…

Warm Sunny Beaches

Vacations!  Adventures with my family … endless fun!

Listening to my funny husband read to our kids! Priceless Happyness!

Date nights with my hubby

Long walks with the sun shining on my face (cold and wind are allowed …with the sun!)

Did I mention Warm Sunny Beaches… 😉 I love love LOVE  being at the beach!

I could go on and on and on….   I ramble!    I will spare you!

What brings You Happy~ness?!!!

I know I don’t have a huge following …yet… but I hope for at least one comment!!  😉  Thanks for stopping by Happy Wednesday!

Jenn~

Today I am finding it hard to blog about something light hearted… I hope you don’t mind if my ‘tale’ for the day is a bit ‘sad’.  Today would have been my mom’s 61st birthday.  In 2001, when my baby girl was just a few months old, my mom lost her life to cancer.  There are so many things I wish I had said to her, so many things I wish I had done with her when she was with us, so many things I might have done differently, and  so many things that I don’t get to do with her as I raise my own children… These are all my thoughts and feelings… but I can not allow myself to let those thoughts be what comes to mind when I think of her.   I prefer to choose to smile at the memories I cherish, as those are the thoughts that bring my heart peace.  Those memories also inspire me to create some of those same memories with my own children.  I love to tell my kids every year…. “Grandma Norma used to make this craft”… or “Grandma Norma used to make these cookies”  … or “Grandma Norma used to wrap us the most beautiful little packages on Valentines Day”.  My heart definitely grows sad at times… However…  it brings me joy to bring her into our lives by baking cookies with her recipe cards & baking bowls or by helping my kids do a craft she helped me with when I was about their age.  Grandma Norma has not been a physical part of my kids lives, but we bring her into our lives as much as we can!  Today, on my mom’s birthday I will take my kids to lay a rose on her headstone… and then perhaps we will come home and bake Snickerdoodles from her recipe box.   I miss my mom dearly, but I am grateful she left me with fond memories to share and re-create with my own little ones.

Tuesday’s  ‘tip’ or encouragement for January 19 is to find a memory that makes you smile about your loved ones…. If you have the opportunity – call them and tell them how much you love that memory!   If you are in my shoes and you can not… try bringing a fond memory to life!   I share memories with my kids now… wishing my mom knew how much I remember about the little things she did to make my life a little more fun!  I hope that one day my kids will look back at certain things I do and smile…  just as I do when I think of my mom.

Jenn~

Today I am driving north with my favorite hubby (oh wait… I only have one! LOL!) Anyway… we are waking up early, the kids will have hot cocoa and us grownups will have our much needed coffee,  we will take along yummy homemade chocolate banana bread and head North to see my husbands family in Canada.  Our weekend hopes include lots of fun with grandma and grandpa and the cousins – who are very good friends with our kids!  I love that they are such good friends!  Maybe us adults will have fun too!  We are hoping to take the kids ice skating … it will be our 7 year old son’s first ice skate… and our 9 year old daughters second skate.  So much fun!!  I had the chance to take just my daughter  in November when we were visiting good friends on Vancouver Island, BC… and she LOVED it!  And of course I forgot my camera for that great photo opp!  I love ice skating too, though, I have only been on the ice a few times myself.   I hope it becomes a fun memory and we can all keep ourselves in one piece!  We are also considering a sledding adventure with the whole gang…. it will be a bigger adventure… and the weather has to be nice to us… or we might  invade the local pool instead!  There are really fun swimming pools in BC for kids, they often have slides or wave pools!  Perhaps next week I will have some fun photos to post of our wee little adventures.   Our kids are not the most ‘daring’ actually … quite the opposite…. but we continually encourage exploring and new adventures!  It is fun to see them take ‘risks’ – no matter how small and try new things.  They often enjoy themselves along the way!  I love Saturdays…Saturdays are usually our family fun day… Seizing the Day to enjoy our day together!  I hope your weekend brings you a chance to find  fun adventures in your days!

p.s.   I probably will not be ‘here’ to post on Sunday… or Monday… as our weekend adventures might not allow me the opportunity to join the blogging world.  I will see ya all on Tuesday!  Have a Great Weekend!

Meet Merlin...he was so tiny when we first brought him home on August 30, 2009

Merlin got bigger…. isn’t he adorable!

He loves boots and shoes... (sigh)

He Loves the kitties.... poor Nelly!

and he loves his BFF Ned!

I love it when he sleeps... a sleepy puppy is a good puppy!

Merlin is six months now… he still eats my plants, and our shoes, and chases the kitty cats… he is playing  with his BFF Ned right now… and later… he will sleep … we love and adore our puppy even though he is curious naughty and has become a full time job!   We are blessed to have him !

“… clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…”

Colossians 3:12

Today we all have the opportunity to have compassion.  Today we all have the opportunity to love.  Today we all have the opportunity to put our compassion and love into action.  Gracefully sharing my thoughts is not exactly a strength of mine…  I ramble…  so I am simply going to say that I was so moved today watching the media coverage on the devastation in Haiti … I couldn’t bring myself to post on anything else… I can only imagine what I ‘think’ that kind of devastation would feel like… Today I want to encourage those who can give ~ to give.  For those who can not give ~ please pray.  Please  be sure to give with an organization that you trust.  Our local news channels have lists posted on their web pages of trusted organizations who are currently taking donations specifically for Haiti.   Today I can not go to Haiti and lend a hand…   I can have compassion, I can give and I can pray!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am only 4 days into my blogging adventure… and this post is arriving at nearly 10 pm.  Not exactly in my blogging plan.  Apparently,  I am still trying to find the balance of attempting to figure out how to put my thoughts out here and find the time to put my heart into it … while conducting life with two kids (one I home school and one in public school), a crazy puppy who demands much of my time, and the rest of daily life…. being a mom, a wife, a friend, a neighbor, and keeping up with housekeeping, cooking, laundry… whew!  I am sure this will get easier… I will find balance!   Thank you for having patience with me, eventually I will have rhythm and balance… and I hope that my posts will be live early in the day!

Thank you for visiting –   please come back again!

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people…”

Galations 6:10

‘All people’ are made up from our family, our friends, our neighbors, our kids teachers, the vet, the dentist, store clerks, any people we meet.  Each day brings planned opportunities and unplanned opportunities to ‘do good’.  My wish is to seize those opportunities to build a memory, to make someone smile, or to give someone the help they need…to make a difference in someones life.  Even when the days opportunities are limited to my kids… I want to close my eyes each night with peace in my heart, smiling that perhaps I left a foot print today. On days when I feel satisfied that I seized a few opportunities to ‘do good’…I am the one who feels rewarded.  Life is full of beautiful opportunities.

Seize one today!

Today I can honestly say I seized a few opportunities… to do something nice for each person in my family, to help a teacher, to get to know another mom, to get to know a neighbor and to make a few people smile.  Today I will close my eyes grateful for the opportunities I seized … that probably blessed me more than it did the people I interacted with.  😉

Posting at 8 pm is not in my blogging plans!  Today has been one of ‘those’ kind of days…. this post was nearly done this morning … and again this afternoon … and tonight I deleted half of it twice??!!  sigh!  Apparently it is a “lesson learned day’ in the life of my new blog!   I did not Seize My Day very well!  I am very grateful for tomorrows when today feels like a wash!

Tips and Tales is my current idea for Tuesdays.  I hope to blog useful tips I have discovered in my journey called life and I will attempt to tell a tale about something slightly comical in my life.

Today’s Tip: You can hide spinach in your baking!!  You can give your family a bit more nutrition in a tasty way!  You can hide many healthy foods in baking – beans, prunes, fruit or veggie purees – even BEETS!   Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious cookbook is a great resource for tasty healthy cooking!  Much to my families dismay, I have always liked to experiment with exchanging applesauce for sugars, lighter bake options for oils, and using healthy flours, etc. etc.   Some of my own attempts fail miserably, while others are quite yummy!  Jessica Seinfeld’s recipes help me find better ways to improve my baking skills while adding healthy foods.   If you are looking for yummy ways to offer slightly healthier cooking and baking to your family – her cookbook is worth the investment!

Today I used  My regular banana bread recipe and Jessica’s concepts :  I simply exchanged lighter bake for the oil, I cut the sugar in half, I used 1/2 brown rice flour and 1/2 whole wheat white flour, and I added  1/2 cup very finely chopped spinach to the banana puree (if you puree spinach it creates odd colored food)  and I have discovered the beauty in using a 2-3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder to hide the color & taste changes  – and the kids love getting chocolate muffins.  I even put an m&m on the top of each muffin!

After I get a bit more blogger savvy – I will actually post a link – but given my day today –  I will simply give you the web address!

www.deceptivelydelicious.com

Today’s Tuesday Tale “tail”

Merlin is our adorable six month old Cocker Spaniel/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel puppy mix.  (perhaps photos next week!)  It is a good thing he is SO cute and happy  or we would never survive his mischief!  Puppy training is a 24/7 job!  We have grown leaps and bounds in our training skills with the help of professional dog trainers, the Dog Whisperer, puppy books and from friends who have been here recently.  But at the end of the day, Merlin is a puppy and will continue to need correction for a long time!  Shoes have been our biggest challenge… mostly we keep them ‘out of sight’… but he finds ways to sneak away with them.  Though he is corrected daily with stolen shoes, he just can’t help himself, they smell so yummy!  This week he has been extra sneaky.  Our puppy has discovered that he has more time to chew his stolen shoe when he quietly takes a shoe and sneaks into the kids ‘hide out’ under the stairs… Lets just say 3 out of 4  family members need new shoes this week!  😉