You may have noticed that I don’t write about a lot of the ebooks available out there.  I’m most certainly not “affiliate crazy” and I have no interest in suggesting you spend your hard-earned money on anything I can’t completely and totally recommend.  Happily?  This one is a no-brainer for me.

I [...]]]>

You may have noticed that I don’t write about a lot of the ebooks available out there.  I’m most certainly not “affiliate crazy” and I have no interest in suggesting you spend your hard-earned money on anything I can’t completely and totally recommend.  Happily?  This one is a no-brainer for me.

I first “met” Lynn way back in the fall of 2008.  That’s right– about 3 1/2 years ago.  That’s a LONG time in bloggy-land!  To give you an idea, this was back when people actually knew something about each person they followed on Twitter and engaged in friendly conversation throughout the day.  Ah, the good ol’ days, before Klout and Triberr…  I digress.

Anyway, the very first recipe of Lynn’s that I ever made was her Buttermilk Chocolate Bread and, ever since that day, her site has been one of my most trusted when it comes to finding good, family-friendly recipes.  Lots of new favorites have been added to our repertoire thanks to Lynn, and I love that I know I can ask questions and give feedback as a friend.

Not only do I appreciate Lynn’s universally appealing recipes, but I love her attitude and perspective when it comes to kids in the kitchen.  So, when I found out she had written on the subject in Cooking 101 For Kids, I knew it was going to be a winner.

And it is.

Cooking 101 For Kids offers straight-forward, easy-to-follow techniques and recipes to not only get your children IN the kitchen, but to help make them competent beginning cooks!  I’ll be the first to admit that, while I’m pretty good about letting my kiddos help me in the kitchen, I hardly ever let them branch out on their own.  To be fair, my children are younger than Lynn’s, but still– even with very little ones, there are simple lessons and steps taught in this ebook to get our kids off to good, capable start.

Right now, you can snag Cooking 101 For Kids for only $2.99.  That’s a great price for a book that will not only support you as you teach your kids, but will also provide resources and visuals your children can refer to again and again as they gain confidence in the kitchen.

I’m planning on doing a mini “Cooking Camp” over Spring Break with my kiddos and I know this book will prove invaluable and I plan little lessons for my little ones in the kitchen.  Doesn’t that sound fun???

To get your own copy of Cooking 101 For Kids., head right over here.

Disclosure: I was provided with a free copy of Cooking 101 For Kids for the purposes of review.  All opinions of Lynn and her book are completely and totally my own!

Leftover from the “snacks & apps” I served up [...]]]> I’ve warned you all before– I make a HUGE variety of oatmeal around here.  Perhaps it stems from some unwarranted mama-guilt over never buying the little flavored packets?  I don’t really know.  But I’m forever finding new ways to spice up the oatmeal routine.

Leftover from the “snacks & apps” I served up for A’s family party was about half a tray full of trail mix.  Though I’d been planning to make Maple Raisin Oatmeal for breakfast, my eyes fell on the tray.  Hmmm…

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 cup trail mix

Directions: Put water and oats on to boil.  As soon as boiling point is reached, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Stir in maple syrup until well-mixed.  Fold in trail mix.

This variety of oatmeal was very well-received by my kiddos and seemed to really fill them up… I can see it becoming a winter standard and also a good “pre-hike” fall breakfast!

What’s your favorite flavor of oatmeal?

linked to:

Tasty Tuesday

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

(Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some very personal stories.  There will be ignorance, learning, and hard choices addressed along the way.  If you have different views from mine– on either end of the spectrum– I am totally comfortable with that.  I do ask that we show one another kindness [...]]]>

(Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some very personal stories.  There will be ignorance, learning, and hard choices addressed along the way.  If you have different views from mine– on either end of the spectrum– I am totally comfortable with that.  I do ask that we show one another kindness and always remember that each woman’s journey is different…)

I can remember very vividly where I was when the phone call came.  I was standing at a teller window in the sunny Boca Raton office when our customer service manager told me I had a call.  I took it in her office and my stomach dropped when the man on the line introduced himself as the senior partner at the OB/Gyn office I went to.  I knew right away that wasn’t good.

Why was he calling?  Why wasn’t I getting a postcard in the mail that just indicated everything was normal?  Why was there a human and not an automated “A-OK” recording playing in my ear?

I could feel the blood drain from my face as he delivered the news:  My PAP had come back abnormal.  They had detected cells that didn’t look quite right.  I would need further testing to ensure they were not cancerous or pre-cancerous.  

I didn’t cry on the phone.  In typical JessieLeigh fashion, I held it together and calmly scheduled the cervical biopsy I would need to undergo.  Tears burned behind my lids as I re-cradled the phone, but I walked back out into the bank and carried on.

The results of that biopsy revealed cervical dysplasia.   (If you go and look that up, you’re going to see a whole list of risk factors, none of which applied to me.  Just goes to show that illness/disease really doesn’t discriminate much.)  Cervical dysplasia is a pre-cancerous condition.  It is almost completely treatable/curable and often just requires observation.

And observed I was.  Painful biopsies every three months for close a year.  And then it changed.  The cells got worse and my doctor recommended I have cryosurgery to freeze and kill the cells.  I did.

As I sat at home for a couple of days recovering from that surgery, I started worrying about my fertility and how all of this could impact it.  I was terrified to think that my window for having children may have suddenly grown narrow or non-existant.  I went off the Pill.

The vomiting and fainting returned right away, but I was confident in the way that young women often are that I would get pregnant quickly now that I wanted to.  Except I did not.  Months would go by finding me curled up on the couch, my husband holding my hand and hair as I vomited in a bucket or shook in a pale sweat.  Fifteen months, to be exact.

Pregnancy, even with the discomforts and morning sickness (mine got bad enough to be classified as hyperemesis gravidarum), was a time of respite for me.  I was overjoyed to be having a baby and thrilled to be free of my debilitating periods.  I gave birth to a full-term, healthy baby boy and life was good.

At my post-partum check-up, my OB inquired about birth control methods.  Despite all the assertions and assurances of the medical professionals, I remained utterly unconvinced that the Pill hadn’t played a role in why it took me so long to conceive the first time.  I refused to go back on it.

I was pregnant again five months later.

to be cont.

A couple of weeks ago, I lost a mitten.  Now, that might not seem like such a huge deal.  But… this mitten?  Was hand-knit.  And it wasn’t just hand-knit by some stranger, it was hand-knit by my aunt.  And she didn’t just hand-knit it, she made it, specifically, to fit my hands.

I spent last Lent really focusing on a journey toward being less judgmental.  As a whole, I would say it was tremendously successful and, to date, I find myself happier and calmer simply because I waste far less time worrying about what others choose to do.  I’ve learned [...]]]>

image source 

I spent last Lent really focusing on a journey toward being less judgmental.  As a whole, I would say it was tremendously successful and, to date, I find myself happier and calmer simply because I waste far less time worrying about what others choose to do.  I’ve learned to ask myself some key questions if I feel myself getting riled up:

• Is this a big deal or a little deal?
• Even if it IS a big deal, how is this impacting me or my family?
• Are there grave consequences?
• Could this be an issue of opinion rather than “truth”?
• Does it matter if I don’t agree at all with this theory/process/action?

Very often?  I’m able to just dismiss it and stop fretting.  It simply DOES NOT MATTER if everyone sees eye-to-eye with me on every issue or method and there is no reason under the sun we can’t still get along.  That’s been very, very freeing for me.

I still struggle with two things, though… a lot.  The first?  I am not so good at letting it go when I feel I am being unfairly judged.  I have a much harder time shaking that off.  I guess I have some twisted idea that, if I’m willing to be open-minded about how you feed your children, I should be entitled to the same grace.  Life just doesn’t work like that and, frankly, I need to get thicker skin and get over it.  I’m working on that.  And I’m learning to care less and less what some people might think of me.

The second?  This is super hard for me to admit, but I’m just going to be very honest with you all:  I still judge people who are pro-abortion or who have had abortions in the past.

That’s awful.  I know it is.  And it’s just not my place to judge.  I can have strong beliefs and convictions and will advocate ’til the end of my days for these precious babies, but it is not, and will never be, my place to judge.  But I do.  My opinion of women I know in real life has been forever tainted after having learned of choices they made in the past.  And that upsets me.  And shames me.

This Lent, I will be kicking off the season on Ash Wednesday with hourly prayers for the unborn– my passion for protecting the innocent will not be wavering.  I may post reminders on Facebook and Twitter if you’d like to join me in that, and I will be posting some prayer options right here in case you’re one who likes a little structure (like me).

For the remaining thirty-nine days, I want desperately to work on this side of me that just can’t seem to overcome judgment.  I will be seeking out some stories from women who’ve walked a walk I’ve never been in.  I will be asking for God’s help as I attempt to invite more love and compassion into my heart to displace the angry judgment that currently resides there.

I welcome your suggestions or insights for materials for me to read, people I should contact, or even specific Scripture that might benefit this journey…

Because the journey toward letting go of judgment?  Is never-ending.  And my work is far from done…

It’s happened twice now with our children– we take one of them in for a 5- or 6-year well-child appointment, and our pediatrician starts asking them about their diets and talking nutrition.  She talks about fruits and veggies and protein and, then, at the end, she reminds them not to drink very much [...]]]>

It’s happened twice now with our children– we take one of them in for a 5- or 6-year well-child appointment, and our pediatrician starts asking them about their diets and talking nutrition.  She talks about fruits and veggies and protein and, then, at the end, she reminds them not to drink very much soda.  And my kids?  Respond with, “we don’t drink soda– it would make us sick!”

Now.  Neither I nor my husband has EVER told our children that “soda will make them sick.”  We have not described it as poison or swill or nasty or anything like that.  In fact, my husband is a fairly regular soda drinker and I have some occasionally.  They’ve seen that and they’ve asked about it.  What we DO tell our kids?  ”Soda isn’t a good choice for a drink.  It doesn’t hydrate your body as well as water and it doesn’t have the nutrients of milk.  It’s sweet and sugary and can hurt your teeth.  Lots of people who start drinking it, like Daddy, have a hard time stopping because they get used to that sweet taste.”

And we leave it at that.  The result?  Our kids don’t want to drink it.  I’m not saying there will never come a time that they want to try it but, for now, we have a 2yo, 6yo, and 7yo who never touch the stuff– and not because we’ve told them they can’t.  Our words make sense to them and they believe us.  It’s that simple.

I think it’s interesting to compare that to one of my six-year-old’s sweet little friends.  Her mom preaches the evils of soda, sugar, and non-organic produce to anyone within ear-shot, but then admits she “sneaks” her Diet Cokes on the side.  And her daughter?  Has managed to “sneak” diet coke at birthday parties– at least twice I’ve seen it.  (She’s really pretty sly– there’s a little part of me that has to respect that. )

Some of this is just personality.  I’m not saying that, were this little girl my daughter, she might not be doing the same thing.  Could very well be!  But I also think that, perhaps, it’s also an indication that my children are very much like their mama.

I’ve made some significant, though gradual, changes in how I eat and drink over the past few years.  I’ve totally cut out margarine and corn oil, added in coconut oil, and embraced more butter.  I’ve stopped eating just the egg whites and added fat back into my milk.  I quit diet soda and added more whole-wheat flour into my baking.  There’s more, but that’s a quick rundown.  And I’ll tell you this– I’ve learned a lot from and made many decisions based upon articles and testimonials from other bloggers, nutritionists, and mommies.

Some words that I have heard but which have NEVER inspired me to make a change?

• “poison”
• “vile”
• “swill”
• “make you fat”
• “make you sick”
• “ruin your life”
• “stupid/ignorant/foolish/etc”
• “horrible/terrible/disastrous/etc”
• “worthless/junky/useless”

Some words that HAVE inspired me to tweak my diet?

• “nutrient-dense”
• “feel stronger”
• “more energy”
• “feel healthier”
• “simple/basic/intended”
• “happy/glowing/satisfied/nourished/etc.”

Do you see?  Do you see the difference?  I think I’m either immune to scare tactics or I’m just too stubborn to listen when someone tries to play the superiority card.  And I’m learning that my kids are very much like me.

How about you?  Have you made any changes to how you eat/drink?  What or who inspires you?

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I don’t care what all the nay-sayers say about consumerism and wastefulness and blah blah blah… I LOVE Valentine’s Day and I think it’s the perfect time to focus on doing something special for your marriage.  Need ideas?  I’ve got ‘em!

In our Taking Your Marriage from Fine to [...]]]>

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I don’t care what all the nay-sayers say about consumerism and wastefulness and blah blah blah… I LOVE Valentine’s Day and I think it’s the perfect time to focus on doing something special for your marriage.  Need ideas?  I’ve got ‘em!

In our Taking Your Marriage from Fine to Fabulous series, I was lucky to work alongside four talented bloggers who shared their insights and suggestions, too.  Here’s what we’ve got for you!

Should you find yourself in a bit of a rut, never fear:

In Getting Out of the Marriage Rut, Miranda reminds us how important it is to always make an effort:

I’ve learned though trial and error what my husband finds important. He doesn’t seem to notice make-up or hair as much but if I make his favorite meal, he really appreciates it. A little effort goes a very long way!

I shared When You’re in a Rut with you to encourage you all after I dug myself out of my OWN rut:

A couple of months ago, I decided I was sick of our “rut.”  We were fine.  We certainly got along.  We still loved each other, of course.  I was happy enough to see him come home.  He greeted me with a kiss and a “Hi, Hon.”  Ours was certainly not a marriage “in jeopardy.”  But somehow, I knew– it could be better.

Perhaps it’s time that, in order to get the big picture, you focus on the little things:

Ryan points out the importance of the little “in-between” moments in Tuning In– Building Lasting Connections Through Little Moments.

When time begins moving quicker than we’d like, we must focus on living in the present. While this might sound cliche, we’ve found that many couples can’t seem to move beyond their past, while others consume themselves with the future (“Scarlett O’Hara syndrome”). Either problem can cloud our ability to enjoy the present.

In her post on The Little Things, Melinda makes an amazing analogy between marriage and a quilt:

A good quilter knows that many small stitches hold better than a few big ones. The same is true of marriage. It’s the little things in daily life that will make a marriage strong.

Miranda writes about Cherishing the Small Moments and suggests that we can each find our OWN special little moments in our marriages:

In the mornings, my husband gets up to go to work at 7:30. I wish I could be honest and say that I get up with him but I don’t. I find that I’m a better mom if I get my sleep . Luckily, my husband does not mind so I say do what works for you! Find what fits your marriage and lifestyle and run with it.

Date night?  What’s “date night”, you say?  We’ve got tips:

Melinda shares beautiful wisdom gained through the years in Making Time for Date Night:

In time I came to realize that the goal of a date was to be together. Period. The details really didn’t matter.  It didn’t have to be expensive – it didn’t even have to be planned.  I lowered my expectations to just one – we needed to be alone.

I bust the myth of all those “parenting magazine advice columns” in Making Time for Date Night– Once and For All:

I think society (and women’s magazines) do young couples a disservice in their constant promoting of and insistance upon “Date Nights.”  I can remember reading articles that waxed eloquent on how vital it is to schedule date nights out just as soon as humanly possible after you have a baby.  I pored over pages that insisted that the best, really the ONLY, way to keep your marriage in good shape was to hire a sitter and go out!

Jill and Ryan remind us, in Winter Dates, that, well– ’tis the season!

… winter is the perfect season to be intentional about scheduling date nights.  What better time of year to schedule romantic dinners, movie nights, gallery showings, or other excursions to help you bond as a couple?

Wondering if marriage can be spicy in addition to sweet?

In Sex Not Fit for TV– Keeping It Sweet & Spicy, Jill and Ryan point out the beauty and richness that vulnerability can add to intimacy:

The thing that makes long term, monogamous sex so amazing is that you can be completely vulnerable with one another. You know each other in every possibly intimate way. You can be free to let each other know exactly what you like and don’t like (of course this should be done in a respectful way). You can be incredibly goofy with each other or deeply romantic.

And me?  Well, in Keeping it Sweet AND Spicy, I compare marriage to… um… booze:

Have you ever heard alcohol described as a mood enhancer?  Happy people often get happier.  Sad people get more depressed.  Mean people get meaner.  Flirty people get flirtier.  Angry people get angrier.  Well, at the risk of making a crazy analogy, I’m going to suggest that marriage can act in the same way– it is an enhancer.

And, finally, as you seek to build and strengthen and make fabulous your own marriages, it’s important to remember that “love”… is a verb:

I share a memory from early days of dating my husband, in Love… is a Verb, and reflect on how my vision of love has changed:

There’s a real danger in believing that love is something that happens to you.  Or that it is some elevated state of wonder that fills you with unspeakable joy.  I think there’s a danger any time we relinquish control and responsibility.  Yes, love is something you feel.  Yes, love is something you experience.  Yes, love is something you (hopefully) receive.  But, perhaps most importantly and most often forgotten?  Love is something you do.

In Love in Action, Miranda lists specific actions she can implement to enrich and deepen her marriage:

As the days go by, it’s easy for me to become complacent in my marriage. I then find that all my frustrations are directly linked to exactly that. I want to go on a mission and start making more of an effort in showing love to my husband.

I want to continue being the girl my man fell in love with it. Even though there are many qualities that I’ve gained that are better than me at 15, there are things that I want to recapture. I want to laugh more and smile more.

In Taking the Fall Out of Love, Jill and Ryan get right to the core of it by defining love as a choice:

Love isn’t a condition; it’s a commitment. Love is a choice, or more specifically, it’s a series of choices that live themselves out daily. Love simply boils down to a being committed to doing what’s best for someone else – to choose selflessness over selfishness. So when someone makes the decision to move on (often to someone other than their spouse), it may be liberating to think that it’s love’s doing, but that too is a choice.

And, in writing about how Love is a Verb, Melinda passes on two amazing suggestions that have served her well through the years:

1. Aim for unity in all conversations.

2. Aim for the good of the other.

Think about it.

So simple, yet so profound. And so very true.

I truly hope you’ve enjoyed this series.  It has been an absolute joy to write these posts!  I am passionate about making my own marriage stronger and better with time and I very much want the same for all of YOU.  If you missed any of the articles I linked to above, I suggest you pop around and do some reading– great wisdom and tips are out there!

(Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some very personal stories.  There will be ignorance, learning, and hard choices addressed along the way.  If you have different views from mine– on either end of the spectrum– I am totally comfortable with that.  I do ask that we show one another kindness [...]]]>

(Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some very personal stories.  There will be ignorance, learning, and hard choices addressed along the way.  If you have different views from mine– on either end of the spectrum– I am totally comfortable with that.  I do ask that we show one another kindness and always remember that each woman’s journey is different…)

I had my very first OB/Gyn appointment when I was twenty-two years old.  It is the first doctor’s appointment I ever remember scheduling for myself and I can still remember driving my pale green Saturn to the office.  Despite the giggled warnings from other young women in town that the doctor I’d chosen had “huge hands”, it all went fine.  I didn’t freak out during the exam and everything appeared A-OK.  As is typical, the doctor asked me about my usual periods.

I told him the truth.  They generally lasted six to eight days.  For two to three of those days, I experienced truly excruciating cramping.  I always vomited, at least once, and frequently fainted.  He listened to me, looked at me with kind eyes, and replied gently, “That’s ridiculous. No one should have to endure that.  We can do something about that.”

And, in that moment, I was thrilled.  Really?  I didn’t have to throw up and pass out?  I was filled with joy at the prospect.  I was so glad I had a gentle, compassionate doctor and I happily walked out with the blister pack of 28 pills in my hand.

Of course, I knew it was birth control.  But I also knew it was supposedly the answer to my prayers– I could hardly believe that I might be able to go through a month without the kind of debilitating cramping that left me weeping in a ball, but determined to muddle through.

I took them.  And, happily, I didn’t appear to have any bad side-effects.  My blood pressure stayed steady.  My weight didn’t climb.  I didn’t have any noticeable emotional changes with the hormone upheaval.  I felt… fine.

In fact, I felt better than fine.  For the first time since I’d been twelve, my periods were three to five days, rather than a solid week.  They came, on schedule, every 28 days and I knew exactly what to expect.  What I no longer had to expect?  Vomiting.  Fainting.  Collapsing as pain caused spots behind my eyes.

I moseyed on, refilling the prescription, and carrying on with my life.  At most, I popped a couple of Motrin each month and I could count on feeling just dandy.  While not at the level of miraculous, of course, it was, still, an amazing discovery for me and I was happy to keep right on taking them.

My reason for taking them was to manage the “ridiculous” pain from my monthly cycles.  However, I must be honest and say I wasn’t too upset about the fact that I wasn’t getting pregnant in those early, early days of marriage, either.  I liked being a wife.  I liked having two incomes.  I wanted to enjoy that phase of life before moving on to another.  So, while I may not have started taking the Pill to prevent pregnancy, I didn’t STOP taking it as soon as I was married, either.

In fact, I didn’t stop taking it until a routine exam came back with a whole bunch of jibberish written on my charts, but my eye could only see one word, buried in the midst…

CANCER.

to be cont…

Aren’t these little hearts just delightful??  They make me smile.  On the spur of the moment, I decided we needed a little festive sweetness around here.  So, in the ten minutes before nap-time, I whipped these babies up and tossed them in the freezer.  Perfect!

All you need?

8 oz. white [...]]]>

Aren’t these little hearts just delightful??  They make me smile.  On the spur of the moment, I decided we needed a little festive sweetness around here.  So, in the ten minutes before nap-time, I whipped these babies up and tossed them in the freezer.  Perfect!

All you need?

8 oz. white chocolate chips (or vanilla flavored almond bark)*

pink sprinkles or crushed pink candies **

silicone muffin tins or molds

Melt chocolate or almond bark.  (I did mine in the microwave on med-high heat.  It took 2 1/2 minutes, but that will vary from microwave to microwave.)  While that’s happening, scatter about a teaspoon of sprinkles or crushed candy in the bottom of each muffin tin well.  Spoon a good tablespoon of melted chocolate/bark over the sprinkles/candy.  Gently slide the tins from side to side until the chocolate settles evenly up to the edges.  Toss them in the fridge or freezer until set up.  They should just pop right out!

yield: 12 muffin tin hearts

* White chocolate tastes better.  Almond bark melts beautifully.  Totally up to you.

**I made 6 with sprinkles– those are the neater polka-dotted ones.  The other six five (whoops!) have crushed Canada mints and oh.my.word, they are wintergreen-y perfection.  Delish.

linked up at A Spicy Perspective, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

I’ve tossed a few ideas around here but, in case you’d like to read even more on the topic, [...]]]> Well, by now I’m sure you have all realized that I’m not afraid to just say it out loud– you both can and should have a hot and spicy love life in your marriage!

I’ve tossed a few ideas around here but, in case you’d like to read even more on the topic, you can hop over to Amazon right now and download a free Kindle edition of Under the Sheets: The Secrets to Hot Sex in Your Marriage, by Dr. Kevin Leman.  Amazon prices can change at any time so, if you’re interested, I recommend you take advantage of the zero dollar price tag as soon as you can!

If you don’t have a Kindle, there’s a free Kindle App download available right here.

(Disclaimer: I’ve NOT read this book.  Dr. Leman does write from a Christian perspective on sex and marriage, so I feel relatively confident sharing this deal with you.)

*hat-tip to Jessie– thanks for letting me know so I could pass it on!