Our Gifts of Grace

mother's day 2016...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 09 May 2016 19:13:00 +0000

I have had several people ask me to update here because they don't know what is happening with our family and I thank you for following along with us. I have a post planned that is an update post but it's pretty daunting, so I thought I'd pop in with a mother's day post.

My Mother's Day was lovely. It had literally rained for 47 days, so it was nice to see the sun. The only things I want for Mother's Day are flowers and having my family together. I got both, so it was a great day!

We started our day at church and the worship leader acknowledged that Mother's Day isn't always a happy day for everyone. I thought that was such a great thing to do, because I remember many Mother's Day when I sat in church desperate to be a mom and not able to be one. It was also meaningful to acknowledge that there is loss associated with this day because my ability to be a mom is born out of someone's loss. In the corner of my heart, which I don't usually examine, is fact that another mother's children call me mom. It is the essence of adoption. My children's start in our family is because they lost their first family. I always think of the three amazing moms who gave birth to my children and pray that they are well. I wish I could tell them the joy they have brought to our lives and let them know that we are loving their children well.

This year, I decided I wanted a picture with my kids. And I wanted it after church when we all looked nice. I'm usually the one taking pictures, so it's nice to get in front of the camera and capture memories with my tribe. We tried it outside first and the sun was in everyone's eyes, so there was whining and Grace wouldn't look up.

We moved the pictures inside and tried about 23 to get Grace to look up and smile. We finally called it a day and this was the best we could get (it didn't look this blurry on Mark's phone!). But I still love it. It captures my 3 blessings and Grace's love of her brother John.

After John's football game, we headed to my sister Cathy's house for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day and her son Will being confirmed. It was fun to get everyone together and we decided to get pictures with mom. It's hard to get one of all four of us looking in the same direction and not talking. So, this was the best we could do.

All my life I was told I was the shortest one in my family, but looking at this picture I realize I have been lied to my entire life. I'm not the shortest! My mom clearly is shorter than me. In fact, John is just about the same height as her (he's 12) and she is mad about it...

Since we were taking pictures, we decided to get the cousins together with my parents. It is always an adventure with this crew. Grace didn't want to leave the couch and I should have fixed her hair, but other than that, the picture looks good to me.

So that's it, Mother's Day 2016 is in the bag. I am going to attempt an update post and then to post on a more regular basis.

stop the r-word...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 18:02:00 +0000

Today is the annual day set aside to raise awareness that the use of the r-word. Using the r-word is demeaning and instead we should be respecting all people. In a time where people are so careful about the words they choose and our culture is encouraged to be PC, I find it shocking that people use the word retarded on a daily basis. In fact, I had someone describe themselves as retarded just this week when they were talking to me. People with intellectual disabilities deserve the same respect as anyone else, yet they often don't have a voice.

I was going to write a new post on this but I've had sick kids for 6 days and just don't have the capacity. Here's a link to my post from last year and I'm including the text from my post in March of 2013 below.

***

Today is national stop the r-word day. It is a day set aside to raise awareness that the use of retard or retarded hurts. It is slang and like other words of slang that are derogatory, it hurts. Unfortunately, I don't think people even realize that they are using it and that it can be a hurtful term.

I'm not an activist. I'm not someone who is going to jump all over you because of your views or opinions. But I am a mom. I'm a mom of a person who has been diagnosed with mental retardation. As such a mom, I hate the use of retarded as slang. It makes me physically wince when someone uses it casually in conversation. And I come across people using it in all walks of life and in all situations.

I have encountered it in casual settings such as parties, at family gatherings, in church bible study, in almost every situation you can think of, I've been around someone who said, 'that's retarded' or 'I'm retarded for doing xyz...'

I don't have a typical response or a standard rebuttal for someone who uses this slang. But I pretty much always say something to the effect of, we don't use that term anymore. Most people I am gently correcting know Grace and immediately say 'Oh sorry, I didn't even think'. Because my goal is not embarrassment and my tone is pleasant these encounters are not confrontational but rather educational. And I never (and I do mean never) attack anyone or confront total strangers about their use of the word.

I feel that part of my job as a mom is to be an educator. I take my role as my children's first teacher very seriously. Since Grace is significantly mentally and physically disabled, it is my job to give my kids information so that they can process and understand her disabilities. John and Luke are beginning to face questions about their sister and they need to have answers that they are comfortable with sharing. They also need to not only know when to speak up and defend her but how to defend her. I always tell the boys, that most people do not mean to mean they just don't know what else to say. So I tell people instead of using the term retarded, why don't you say ridiculous. It works just as well and doesn't hurt anyone.

Recently, I had the chance to tell someone who I had just met that I would prefer that he use another word. I explained that my daughter had a diagnosis of mental retardation and that when people used retarded as slang it was hurtful. I suggested that he say his decisions were ridiculous instead. Since I don't know him, I wasn't sure how he received my message but the people I was with said that I had done a good job of not insulting him and sharing my commitment to end the use of the r-word. I ended my little public service message by showing him a picture of Grace and saying that this was what retarded looked like.

So, I encourage you to just say ridiculous instead. Since this is the face of someone who is retarded...

***

I don't always speak up when people use the r-word around me, in fact I didn't say anything to my friend earlier in the week. I find that I either can't find the words to raise their awareness of the slight or don't want to cause waves. But I encourage you to spread the word to end the use of the r-word, together we can make an important change. People with intellectual disabilities deserve better and you are better than that...

happy birthday grace...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:34:00 +0000

It's hard to wrap my mind and heart around the fact that Grace turns nine (9) today! I know I say that for each and everyone of my kid's birthdays or homecoming anniversaries. But with Grace it's especially true. Our sweet and special girl may be a nine year old chronologically but cognitively and developmentally she is so much younger.

This past year has been one of slow progress for Grace. She has made some increases and progress, like getting off purees (thanks to our month at the feeding clinic) and she interacts more visually and purposefully. However, she remains super delayed in almost all developmental and self care areas.

Grace is in the same classroom as last year, in fact she has had the same teacher for the past 2 years. This has been a tremendous help to our family. Regina and Grace have clicked and they have a very special relationship. In fact, all of the aides and therapists in Grace's school have bonded with Grace. It is these bonds that have helped pull Grace out of herself and we can't express our thanks or appreciation enough for the school she attends. Grace will be switching classrooms at the end of this school year and I am already teary eyed thinking I will have to say goodbye to her team.

One of the reasons we got the puppies was because of Grace's love of the dogs who she interacts with at school and at our church. Although our puppies are so far (really super far) from the well behaved therapy dogs, Grace has developed her own special relationship with the puppies. She has started to pet them and they will sometimes lay quietly next to Grace if she is on the couch. In addition, every time Grace goes to her chair to be fed, the puppies RUN over. She loves to share with them.

It seems like every time I reach the end of my ability, the end of my strength, the end of my hope Grace has an achievement or a breakthrough that sustains me. I know that this is God, reaching down and blessing me. Letting me know that He is present and in control. It is a balm to my soul when this happens and it always saddens me a little that I need the reminders. But I know that God loves Grace even more that we do and I know that he has a plan for her that is greater than anything we can understand. These glimpses of progress also remind me that He has a plan for me and it is good. I may never know why God chose me to be the parent of a child with special needs, but I do know that I'm so thankful He calls me His daughter.

Here's a video we received from her school last week. It shows Grace drinking from a cup without help. This is a HUGE achievement for Grace and another step in her progress toward self feeding. I love how proud of herself she looks. This is also something that Grace will now do at home, which is the true sign that Grace has mastered a task.

So, even though Grace woke up and has no idea that today is her ninth birthday, we do. We will celebrate her tonight with ice cream cake and balloons, which she loves. We will sing to her, which makes her laugh and take photos of her with her cake to remember the day she turned nine.

Happy Birthday Grace! Mommy and Daddy love you more than you will ever know...

sausage and potato cassarole {gluten-free and paleo}

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 15:34:00 +0000

Is one of your goals for 2016 to eat healthier? Or to meal plan so that you don't get to 4:30PM and realize you don't know what you're going to feed your family? Well, if you answered yes to either of those questions, I have a simple recipe that you will love.

I was given this recipe by a friend months ago and then she made it one night when I was at her house and it was delicious. It was during my first Whole30 last fall and I was excited to realize that I could eat it.

This recipe has become one of my go-to recipes and is in my meal planning rotation twice a month. It is is one of Mark's favorite meals and I sometimes make it just for him to reheat for lunch when he works from home or a snack after work. My kids will eat the sausage out of it but Luke only likes potatoes in the french fried form and John doesn't like potatoes at all (silly boy).

Ingredients

3 pounds organic potatoes (any kind you like, see notes below)
1 large sweet onion
1 pound pre-cooked sausage (check your labels if you are paleo or whole 30)
salt and pepper
avocado oil (or oil of your choice)

Instructions

1) Parboil potatoes and then cut into a large dice or cube. Basically, all parboiling means is you precook your potatoes so that they are partially cooked. This then cuts the cooking time down for the next time you use the potatoes. Here's a helpful link on how to parboil if you aren't familiar.

2) Cut onion into large dice, about the same size as the potatoes.

3) Slice sausage into rounds, again about the same size as potatoes and onions.

4) Combine in oven safe dish. Add about 1-2 tablespoons of avocado oil and season with salt & pepper. I use my hands to get everything really mixed in well.

5) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. You want to check and make sure the potatoes are soft and can be easily pierced with a fork. We like ours a little crusty so I leave it in for 30 but you may want to check it after 20 minutes to see if it is done to your liking.

6) Serve with a side salad for an easy weeknight meal your family will love.

Notes

1) I use Aidell's chicken sausage since I'm eating gluten and sugar free. But there are a number of quality pre-cooked sausages available that don't have a lot of added stuff. Just check your labels and try to find one that has 5 or fewer ingredients and ingredients that you can pronounce and know what they are.

2) You can use any kind or combination of potatoes you want. I use mainly organic red or organic yellow potatoes. I have made it with white and orange sweet potatoes but my family didn't like it as much. I also made it with purple potatoes once (as you can see in the above picture) and my family didn't know what they were so they were the only things left in the dish :).

3) You can also add in carrots which I have done but since I personally don't like cooked carrots I typically leave them out of the dish. Adding carrots does make it prettier and adds a sweetness to the dish. If you're going to add carrots, I would use 2-3 large organic carrots, wash them really well (leaving the skin on) and cut into rounds the same size as the rest of the ingredients. Just check to make sure the carrots are cooked through when you test the potatoes.

4) Leftovers can be kept in the fridge for 3-5 days in a tightly covered container. Ours never last more than 2 days, it is just too good!

5) I have made this dish for several families and they love it. It is easy to make and transport and stays good even if eaten the next day. One friend is gluten and dairy free and she loved it because her whole family could eat the same meal she was eating.

Let me know if you make this dish. Enjoy!

happy birthday luke...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 19:11:00 +0000

Our sweet and loving middle child turned ten (10!) on New Years Day. As always, it's so FUN to celebrate the dawn of a new year and celebrate this child.

Luke has grown and changed a lot this year and we have seen evidence of the man that he will become. He has grown into a really fun kid and shed all his little boy tendencies (much to my dismay). One thing that he has outgrown is his obsession with Spiderman and I have to say I miss seeing him dressed in his Spiderman costume all year round. Not all of the experiences have been good this year and Luke has had to grow through some challenges that we weren't prepared for but through it all, he remains my peace loving middle child.

We went out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings on New Years Day with my whole family. It was so fun to see everyone, but I think next year we are going to pick a quieter restaurant. He had a star wars cake because he is obsessed with star wars.

I got all the cousins off their devices long enough to take a picture with the birthday boy.

Luke wanted a friend birthday party because he had never had one. Which made us feel terrible, but it's true. Boy parties are hard in the dead of winter and I'm not super creative so it is always hard for me to plan parties, so since he never pushed for one we never threw him one.

But this year, he asked for a party with all his friends from school. We found one of those indoor play places that does everything and booked a party for the day after his birthday. Almost all his school friends and a few other friends made it. Luke loved it!! He had so much fun and was so appreciative that we gave him a party. I wasn't able to get many pictures during the party because the boys were all over the place but fun was had by all.

He woke up the day after his party and said, 'so what are we doing today for my birthday?'. I just laughed and said it's over until next year...

Happy Birthday Luke, we love you more than you will ever know!

a review of 2015...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 21:14:00 +0000

It's amazing to me that 2015 is hours away from being over. This year I decided to do a year in review post and just spent four hours reading old blog posts. It makes me so glad I blog and motivates me to blog more. So for this year I thought I'd post my favorite posts and pictures. In some cases the pictures go with a post and in others, it's just the picture that I love. So here's some memories of 2015!

I love starting my year (every year) off celebrating our sweet and loving middle child, Luke.

This post about the orange dump truck that Grace played with every day when we were at the feeding clinic at the Hershey Medical Center, is one of my favorites.

One of the highlights of our year was adopting our puppies, Kenzie and Parker.

The beach is my / our happy place, so of course I had to pick some beach pictures from our week in Nags Head with Mark's family.

Our forth year going to Joni and Friends Family Camp was such a great experience for our whole family and these two boys were a large part of that experience.

This picture is from my family's photo shoot, which was on Grace's 8th family day.

I dream of having a screened in porch but for now we created this outdoor space.

I love this picture of John from a day at the river with friends. I'm trying to shoot more pictures in manual and my friend Bri was helping me with settings that day.

This picture is from our beach trip for my birthday. We had SO much fun, it was nice to get away together.

John started middle school this year and this picture is from the middle school paint wars with the middle school youth group at our church.

I love this picture because of the friendship between these two that it represents. It also shows how warm our weather has been this year. This was taken in November and it really was warm enough for them to wear shorts.

My trip to Hong Kong and China with my friend Gretchen to visit our friend Beth was most definitely a highlight of my year! part 1 and part 2

Grace hanging her ornament on the tree, and looking like she knows I'm taking her picture is sweet.

There are so many more I wanted to add but I thought I'd limit it to fifteen pictures. I hope that you had an amazing 2015 and are looking expectantly towards all that 2016 will hold. We are just going to chill this year and ring in the New Year as a family. Happy New Year!

christmas traditions...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 18:36:00 +0000

If you've read my blog for any amount of time you know that it's no secret, how much I love traditions. To me, they are like the icing on top of the most beautifully decorated cupcake. That little something extra that makes everything more special and beautiful. Having and creating traditions for our family is one of the things I love most about being a mom. Many of our family traditions surround holidays, as I'm sure most of yours do. Some of our family traditions have been well thought out and planned, and some have just evolved as our little family of five grows up and experiences holidays.

We have family traditions that were passed down from my family and Mark's and ones that we created as our own family. I love both sets of traditions and like to plan the month leading up to Christmas around these traditions. For some reason this year, I took a much looser approach to the holidays and let our traditions fit themselves into our lives, instead of rearranging our lives to fit our traditions.

Since I'm a planner, I'm not sure where this relaxed approach came from but it was great. I typically don't get stressed about the holidays but I do find myself putting pressure on myself to create a great experience for my family. This year, we eased our way into Christmas and still got all of our traditional Christmassy things done. My kids got to do everything they 'always' do but we all enjoyed them more.

This approach allowed me to let go of some of my perfection seeking tendencies and as I result I enjoyed Christmas more. I also consciously took fewer pictures and remained present with my family. And I am totally okay with the fact that most of my Christmas cards were received on Christmas Eve.

Every year we put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year since I was in Hong Kong visiting my friend we put our tree up a week later. Then our tree sat without any decorations until December 20th. Which was just fine with me. I loved how the tree looked with just lights on it.

Grace always hangs the last ornament on the tree. It didn't start out to be a tradition (which is how the best traditions start in my mind), it just happened. She doesn't use her hands much and always needs assistance with things like this. So once the boys have hung all the ornaments they wanted to hang, Mark will take Grace over to the tree for her to hang her one ornament. It is a blue angel from Guatemala that my parents neighbor gave me after we brought Grace home from Guatemala. This year, she totally posed in Mark's arms.

One of our traditions is to have a gingerbread house decorating competition. This year, Luke wanted to have each of us decorate our own house instead of a team competition. So I found a kit with four little houses and we each decorated a house, which the boys then made into a village. They said this is where we are going to live when they are older. Which this mama is all for!

Evidently, we are going to buy a farm and each get 5-10 acres of land and our own house. They lined up the houses in the order in which we are going live and put in a koi pond. First house on the left is Luke, then me and Grace, then John, then Mark. I'm not sure why I don't get to live with Mark but I'm all for us living this close together. I told their boys that their kids could walk over to my house for cookies every day!

I have very fond memories of my parents taking pictures of us hanging our stocking on Christmas Eve. So, we have our kids do the same thing. Can you tell my boys are used to posing for pictures? And Grace did not enjoy hanging her stocking as much as she enjoyed hanging her ornament.

I debated on whether or not to post that picture of her crying but in the end decided that this is what life looks like for us sometimes. And I think that picture sums up one of the reasons why I put pressure on myself to make happy memories and create traditions for my kids. I want my boys to look back on their childhoods and be able to recall them with fondness and an overall feeling that they were happy, not just that they have a sister with special needs and life was adjusted to fit her needs and abilities.

This is the only picture I have from Christmas morning and it represents another tradition borrowed from my childhood. My sisters and I would line up on the steps anxiously awaiting the go ahead to run down the stairs and see what santa brought us. John and Luke wanted this year's picture to include our puppies.

This is the picture I used in our family Christmas cards this year. I usually only put a picture of the kids on our cards but switched things up this year because this picture is one of our favorites. It is from our family photo shoot in August.

I hope that you had an amazing, tradition filled Christmas!

my trip to hong kong (part two)...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Day 3 was Friday and the day was beautiful. We had the most amazing weather for our whole visit and today was the best day of all. Beth had scheduled our Thanksgiving dinner for tonight, so we headed out early today to make sure we got in everything.

Beth drove us into the city and we parked at another mall and then walked to the Tram to the Summit Peak. We rode the cable car up to the top and were treated to the most amazing views of the harbor and the city. We took so many pictures, including a few of the three of us. It was such a clear day and HK was beautiful from this view.

After the Peak, we took a cab down the mountain and then a subway to the escalators. Which is basically a long street with escalators built into it. It was crazy crowded, as was most of Hong Kong. We took a bunch of pictures of the side streets and of the escalators themselves. It was so interesting to see the use of space in this city. I would have loved to walk around and explore this area more but we really didn't have time.

After the escalators, we drove pick up Beth's friend Lauren who was coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. We had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday because its' not a holiday in HK (obviously) and therefore, no one had off work on Thursday. We got to see Lauren's flat, which was tiny but an interesting use of space. Hong Kong is a truly vertical city, since land is at such a premium they build up. We stopped for some bubble tea on the way to get Lauren, which is an interesting drink that I'm not sure I liked. Once we got home we hung out with her family and rested a bit before the other guests arrived.

We wanted to see and do everything Beth does here in HK, so we went to the market with her to get some last minute items for dinner and to their club to pick up the cooked turkey and sides for dinner. Here are some pictures of their house and backyard. As I said, we had the most amazing weather and were able to eat Friendsgiving dinner with the doors open.

After dinner we watched Inside Out, which I had seen on the plane coming over so I slept through most of it on the couch. Beth, Gretchen and I wanted to stay up and talk because this was my last night but none of us could, so we went to bed early.

Saturday was my last day in HK and I was feeling super sad to be leaving. We were heading to Big Buddha before taking me to the airport, so I had to say goodbye to Andy, the kids, Marina and Ben on our way out. Beth drove us to the station where we were getting the cable cars to go up to the Big Buddha and the Ngong Ping Village. The views were breathtaking and again we had a super clear day. I loved the contrast of the huge city and the mountains in the background.

We had lunch in the village, which was amazing but I didn't take a picture of because it was good but not pretty. And then walked through the village to the base of the Buddha. All of the Chinese architecture was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. The Big Buddha is basically just that - a big buddha that was constructed about 20 years ago, at the top of a mountain. Some people go to worship and you could buy tickets to go inside the structure and have a meal. The climb up to the buddha was over 200 steps.

After our visit to the buddha, Beth and Gretchen took me to the airport for my evening flight and then they went home to rest :). It was super sad to be leaving. I wish I could have extended my trip but there were too many factors at home that prevented it. But I had an amazing trip and I'm so glad I was able to go visit Beth in HK.

Many thanks to my amazing husband who gave me the chance to go and held down the fort while I was gone. Which is no small feat, when you have a child with special needs. It was the best vacation I've had in a long time and exactly the time away I needed. However, now the travel bug has bitten me and I'm trying to figure out where I can go next...

my trip to hong kong (part one)...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 21:02:00 +0000

Three years ago, a dear friend and her family moved to Hong Kong for her husband's job. Ever since she has been over there, we have joked about me visiting. It just didn't seem possible. But since this was her last year there, I decided to see if I could make a visit work. I talked to Mark and he agreed that I could go the week of Thanksgiving. We always go to see Mark's family in West Virginia that week, so he already had the time off from work. So, as soon as he gave me the green light, my friend Gretchen and I booked our tickets!

We were scheduled to leave on Saturday and come home on Saturday, but we had a little issue with our Chinese visas. So my trip started on Tuesday and I still came home on Saturday. Fortunately, Gretchen was able to extend her trip and she got a full week away. Because my visit was now going to be 4 days, we hit the ground running the first day and didn't stop.

We left New Jersey on Tuesday 11/24 at 1:00AM and arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday 11/25 at 6:00AM, local time. After Beth, her husband Andy and oldest daughter Grace, picked us up at the airport, we dropped Andy and Grace off at work and school respectively and headed back to their house. It is an awesome house with lots of space and huge windows. We got to see Sarah (their youngest), meet Ben a friend who is staying with them, and meet Marina their helper. I was so excited to meet Marina because I have heard so much about her from Beth and the kids in the past three years. She was just as sweet and wonderful as they all said. We decided the best thing for Gretchen and I to do was to try and acclimate to HK time as quickly as possible. So after breakfast and showers we headed out for the day.

We took a short bus ride to the subway station and then headed into Hong Kong City. It was so fun to see my suburban friend navigate this big city like a local. We went out to lunch with some of the ex-pat women that Beth has been friends with during her time in HK. It was so nice to meet them and we ate at an awesome Thai place, which had outside seating. The weather was in the low 70s and just perfect for dining outside. The food was amazing! I actually took pictures of most of my meals during this trip, which is not something I typically do but the food was always so pretty.

After lunch we headed back on the subway and took it to Shenzen, China to go shopping. It struck me as funny that we could go on a subway to another country. Shopping was fun but we were both feeling the affects of having traveled for two days and so we were very focused and didn't spend too much time just wandering around.

We got back to Beth and Andy's in time for dinner with the kids. Marina made an awesome Filipino chicken dish that we all devoured. She laughed when I asked for the recipe, but I was serious it was amazing. Gretchen and I did our best to stay up until 9:00 PM but neither one of us was able to...

Day two was another fun but busy day. We were both up early because of jet lag and our systems being off schedule, but that did not stop us. We took the subway to the kids school to see their weekly chapel and see the school that they attend. The school is huge and everyone we met was so awesome. It was a crazy day because it was only a half day and so the middle school was having a pool party.

We then walked to a huge mall and hung out in Pacific Coffee just talking, laughing and catching up. It was a balm to my soul to just sit and be with these dear friends. There are a lot of shopping malls with high end stores in them in HK. It felt like every time we went anywhere, we started or ended at a mall. It was also interesting that we never saw any shoppers in any of these high end stores.

We then walked around the flower market, which was a long road with the most beautiful flower stores on it. It was all decorated for Christmas and looked so pretty. I wanted to buy flowers at every store. We then walked to the bird market, which is something else. I can't imagine that there are enough people that want to purchase birds as pets that they need a whole market, but obviously they do. It was pretty to see all the birdhouses but birds just aren't my thing. We then met Andy back in the flower market to buy their family Christmas tree.

We had lunch at an amazing Vietnamese restaurant and I ordered the Pho. It was delicious and of course, I had to take a picture of it. After lunch we continued with our adventure and went to the ladies market. And no, you don't buy ladies there. It is similar to a large flea market with but with all new stuff. We picked up some souveniers for the folks back home and then took the subway back to the house.

We went back to Beth's house to help them get ready for Young Life Club. Which really means that Gretchen and I took naps and the rest of the family got ready for YL Club. We got to hang out with the 20+ kids who came the the house for club and it was really cool to see. Then at 8:00PM, Beth, Andy, Gretchen and I jumped in the car to go out to dinner at this amazing restaurant called Hutong's. It is on the 28th floor and has the most wonderful views of the HK harbor. The food was authentic Chinese food and Andy ordered us a feast. It was the best! We laughed and talked at dinner for hours, it was so fun to be together. Most of the pictures of the views are from my cell phone, so they don't do the view justice at all.

We got home pretty late and I called my parents to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. It was nice to talk to them but I have no recollection of our conversation because I was SO tired at that point. I thought, because it was so late and I was tired that I would be able to sleep longer but unfortunately I was up early again on day three.

Since this has become a mammoth post, I'm going to break here and bring you days 3 and 4 in another post...

words and pictures...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 23:27:00 +0000

Hello! Is anyone out there?

Well, I took an unintended two month break from this space. Thank you to everyone who reached out to me and checked on us. Yes, we are doing well. No, nothing major happened. It's just that sometimes life seems heavy and hard and sometimes it's light and easy. We recently passed through a season that was heavier than I anticipated, so I decided to take a break and pause this space. Then I realized that all of the sudden, two months had passed.

I've been trying to figure out how to restart, and decided to just post some pictures of what we have been up to in the past two months and then go forward. So here's what we've been doing lately...

Halloween 2015 = C3PO, Navy Seal and Spider-Girl

Grace's school picture

RC battles

Celebrating the season with the Starbucks (RED) cup. The boys thought the debate was nonsense and yes the weather was nice enough in November to wear shorts.

Parker and Kenzie guarding the back yard

Grace and Miss Regina took a selfie at the Veteran's Day Parade

Family outing at our favorite gardens

I plan on going back to regular blogging now that I've caught you up on the past few months...

birthday weekend get away...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 19:32:00 +0000

Last weekend, my husband and I were able to go to the beach by ourselves. Alone. Without kids. For three days and two nights and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Mark and I are both beach people and we live within 2 hours of the beach, so it was easy to decide where to go.

I literally started planning this weekend in January. It's important to us after 16 years of marriage to continue to sow into our marriage. We know that in order to have a strong marriage, we need to spend time together alone. Since we don't have family that is able to easily help us for more than an overnight and I really wanted to be away for two, we started asking everyone we knew if they knew anyone that could watch our kids for us. We found someone who was willing to help us out and seemed to mesh well with our family. I confirmed in June that she was good for this weekend and was able to handle the puppies too.

I joked with Mark when we adopted the puppies in April, that there went our weekends away. But in reality, it's not the puppies that concern most people about watching our kids, it's Grace and her special needs. But we were blessed to find a young woman from our church who not only works with special needs kids but likes dogs.

I told Mark that this birthday was making me feel like I was having a mid-life crisis. But not in a bad way, more like I have this strong desire to do stuff. I want adventure and to experience new things. I also want to travel but that's not in the cards for us as a family right now. With that in mind, I asked him if he would go Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) with me. He easily agreed, so I booked it for the Saturday we were going to be at the beach. The company called and said that Saturday's weather looked bad and rescheduled us for Friday. I'm so glad they did, it was too windy and cold to go on Saturday.

It turned out to be just Mark and I and the guide on our SUP excursion. He gave us some instructions on land and then we boarded our boards. My biggest concern was falling into the water. The canal was only 3-4 feet deep, so it wasn't because of the water. It was more because I, pridefully, didn't want to fall off my board. This caused me to clench my feet on the board, which made them ache something awful by the time we got half way. But overall it was really fun. Once we made the turn and I was able to stand up again on the board I was able to relax a little bit. I think it would be fun to go again.

The weekend weather wasn't that great, it was windy and cold so we were unable to sit on the beach and read. But we were able to walk around the town and do some shopping. I even picked out a new house for us. It should be ready soon...

It was awesome to sneak away with my sweetie and get some us time. We ate in restaurants that we wouldn't take our kids to and took naps in our hotel during the day. I can't wait to get away again with him.

chicken tortilla soup {paleo and gluten free}...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 17:20:00 +0000

I woke up today and it felt like fall. There was a nice crisp feeling to the air and it was 58 degrees. So I decided to make soup to celebrate the fall-ish weather. By the time I finished making my chicken tortilla soup, it was 78 degrees and I had shed my yoga pants and jacket for shorts and a tank top and was contemplating putting on the a/c. It's not uncommon here in the mid-atlantic to have a 20 degree change in the weather during the change of seasons, it makes dressing the kids for school challenging.

This recipe is so easy and it comes together in under 30 minutes, including chopping and dicing time. Plus it's chock full of yummy, healthy veggies.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

1-2 T coconut oil
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, diced or mashed
1 jalepano pepper, seeded and diced (leave in more seeds for more heat)
1 T chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
2 cans of diced tomatoes (no sugar added)
1 box gluten free chicken stock or 4 cups homemade stock
1 cup cooked and diced chicken

Directions

1. Add coconut oil to soup pot over medium heat, when melted add diced sweet potatoes. Stir often so potatoes don't turn brown, add more oil if you have to.
2. When sweet potatoes have softened, add green peppers, onion and garlic. Stir frequently, so garlic doesn't burn and until onion is translucent - about 5 minutes.
3. Add in spices and stir to coat all the veggies.
4. Add in tomatoes and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Taste it at this point and see if you need to add in more salt.
5. Use an immersion blender or regular blender to blend soup. I like my soup with small chunks of veggies, so I pulse half of it and puree half the soup. Be super careful when putting hot soup into a blender, it may explode on you and burn your hand if you're in a hurry and fill your blender too full. Ouch!
6. Add soup back to soup pot and heat on low until ready to serve.
7. Top each bowl with cooked chicken.

Notes:

* I'm not sure why I called this chicken tortilla soup, since there's really no tortillas in it but I guess the recipe I modeled it after had tortilla strips as a topping.

* If you want you can top with sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla strips. Of course, this depends on dietary restrictions you may have. Since I'm eating paleo-ish, I just top it with the chicken, but I serve my husband's with shredded cheese and the chicken.

* I sometimes eat this without chicken, it is super flavorful and doesn't require the chicken to be filling. In fact, you could make this with veggie broth for a vegetarian soup.

* I often make this with a can of rotel tomatoes, which already has the jalepano in it. So if you use rotel, skip the jalepano.

* This soup freezes really well. I freeze it in 2 cup servings, for an easy lunch when I'm busy.

family portraits...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 13:30:00 +0000

My mom has been talking about getting family portraits done with my whole family since we got ours taken in 2011. I can't believe it has been 4 years. Look at my babies. Look at how young I look. Sigh.

For whatever reason, we never took the time to plan it and with four families and fourteen people it does take planning. Due to a variety of reasons, my dad has bladder cancer being the main one, we decided that we were going to do it this year. We checked everyone's calendar and found one Saturday in the whole summer that worked. One, for goodness sakes. So we contacted my friend Becca, Becca Neufeld Photography, from church and we booked it.

We originally thought of having our pictures taken in a park but then decided on the University of Delaware's campus. My parents have lived in Newark Delaware since 1968, my dad taught at the UofD for 38 years, my sister, her husband and I all graduated from there and my nephew is attending there right now. So it is part of our family story. Plus it is so beautiful.

Prior to the shoot, we sent Becca a list of the poses that we wanted and combinations of family or people in each picture. Becca was so great to work with and was able to accommodate all of our requests. I'm so glad we finally managed to get this scheduled. Now I'm going through the pictures trying to determine how many is too many to order.

Aren't my parents cute? They have been together for almost 60 years and married for 53. I just love how she captured them together and with all their grandkids. And I just love the one of me and my sisters all throwing up gang signs. It was totally spontaneous and got an 'Moooom' from all the older kids. Too funny!

There are so many amazing pictures from this photo shoot that it was hard to pick from the disk she gave us and come up with just a few of my favorites to post here. I love them all so much! It just makes me happy to have actual portraits of my entire family. I do love candids but there is something special about memorializing your family in portraits. And I'm so glad that you no longer only have one indoor option, while I'm glad to have the totally staged Olin Mills pictures from my childhood, it's awesome that talented women (and men) will do location family shoots. We can't recommend Becca enough. If you are local and in the market to have professional portraits taken of your family, I urge you to go check out her website, Becca Neufeld Photography. She posted a mini photo-shoot special on her facebook page the other day and I actually checked the calendar to see if we could fit it in our schedule.

This last photo is hands down my absolute favorite. I've already ordered a large canvas of it to hang in our living room. I just love how she captured our family. It makes me smile to look at it and see that Becca was able to capture all of our personalities in one picture. It is also a gift that everyone is looking and smiling. Which is not something I can ever take for granted being the mom of a special needs child.

Before the photo shoot I sent everyone an email about Grace and the fact that if you were in a picture with her it was not your job to make her smile and / or look. But that you should hold your pose and let the people outside of the picture attempt to get her attention. As you can tell by the photos, Grace did an amazing job during the entire photo shoot.

back to school...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 22:59:00 +0000

First before I get to the pictures and updates, I want to acknowledge that it is 9/11. John came home from school yesterday talking about the conversations they are having in his history class about the attacks. And as he was sharing the stories with me, I teared up. When he asked me why, I said 'Because I remember. I know exactly where I was when I saw the second plane hit the tower.' I will never forget.

I'm so glad that my post 9/11 children are learning the stories of the brave men and women who gave their lives to save others, of the regular people who went to work not knowing it was going to be their last day and of the people that rallied around coworkers to ensure their safety. And I pray that it is only a history lesson for them, not something they live through and can't / don't want to forget.

The kids have been back in school for two week as of today and it has been an adjustment getting back into the swing of things. We were all glad when school started but getting back into the practice of getting up early and doing homework is not fun.

This year we have a middle schooler. John is in 6th grade and that means there are a LOT of changes for him at school. He has a locker, which is cool but it comes with a lock that caused him (and every 6th grader everywhere) stress. He has multiple teachers and classrooms to go to. He is no longer being told what to bring home for homework but having to depend on himself and his notes for that. And he has two electives, that he selected with my approval. He is taking cooking, which he loves and makes my heart happy and carving, which concerns me (there has already been two incidents where boys have cut themselves with their knives during carving class).

Luke is in third grade this year. He was ready to go back and see all his friends. He is not ready for the extra work that comes with being in 3rd grade but he loves the fact that they now get to play gaga ball during recess. He is off to a great start with homework and assignments.

Grace is back to the same school which is a great thing for our girl. She has the same teacher and we are super excited about that. Grace is evidently excited too because I got the following email from her teacher this week:

Grace had such a great day!! We had music first thing this morning and she just loves music!! I was working with her right after lunch and she was imitating me counting 1, 2, 3 and 4 (in my off key sing- song voice)!! Grace was handing toys back and forth with me, making eye contact and

I said "Thank you" when she gave me a toy that I asked for and she replied "Welcome". She also said "9". I think she missed me just as much as I missed her this summer!!

I hope your school year is off to a great start!

puppy update...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 14:20:00 +0000

Our little puppies

are now big puppies...

Can you believe how much they've grown? I used to be able to carry both of them at the same time. They are now 6 months old and we have had them for four months.

They wrestle and play for hours at a time. It is so funny to watch them interact. Each one has his / her own personality and they are funny. One thing we love is having a fenced in back yard. The puppies spend hours a day out there playing, wrestling, digging and defending our yard by barking at everything. Seriously, they bark at everyone and everything.

I spend my morning coffee time out on our back deck under my pergola, watching them play. It is so peaceful and I love our backyard. However, the puppies are still a lot of work. Way more work than we realized before we impulsively got two.

The puppies chew on everything. They really do. I have always heard that from puppy / dog owners but until you live with it, it's just a concept. We are getting very good at putting everything up high. Just like when we baby-proofed our house. They are also not house broken or potty trained. For the first few months it was ridiculous, now it's down to just annoying. Truth be told, we are going to have to replace our carpets. Which was something we have always wanted to do, but we were thinking it would be a few more years before we took that step.

We hired a local trainer to help us, well, train them. Just like raising children, training the puppies is all about consistency. And, we've learned that we're just not that consistent. Plus, I think, having two makes it more difficult. But that can just be me making an excuse for why they aren't better trained.

Kenzie (our all black girl) is so ornery and instigates many of their wrestling matches. She is also the most affectionate puppy. She loves cuddles and will sit on or next to us all day long. Every night when Mark comes home from work, she meets him at the door and her whole body wags. She acts like it's been eight days since she last saw him, not eight hours.

Parker (our white and black boy) is just plain funny. He acts like an old dog until he gets the sillies and then he is all puppy. If I am showing any attention to Kenzie, he will walk up and body block her out of the way. He was the runt of his litter and that is why we picked him. Mark felt bad for him getting stepped on by all his siblings. He is now close to 25 pounds and bigger than Kenzie. I have to be careful getting him out of his pen because of the height of the gate and his weight put be off balance and I'm afraid I'm going to pull a muscle in my back.

He will also come up to a chair or couch (yes, we let them up on our furniture) and put just his front paws and top half of his body on the chair. He waits like that until I notice him and lift his back end and hind legs up onto the chair for him. I'm serious, this dog is so crazy. That's what he is doing in the picture below.

Grace is warming up to the puppies, since they have settled down a little bit and no longer puppy pile her when she's on the floor. She likes to pet Parker the most and when he sits next to her she will pet his back. Which I just love to see since one of the reasons we got the puppies was because of Grace's love of dogs. They also love to sit at her feet when she is eating. Seriously, as soon as I take the tray out of her high chair they run over and sit next to it. We are trying to train them to stay out of the kitchen when we are eating, but Grace is not making it easy for us. If she is having a snack and the puppies are next to her, she will feed them. It is so cute to see. And since it's a typical child behavior, I love it.

We also went out and bought them a baby pool so they could enjoy the water. I know, I know, we are spoiling them. But baby pools are on sale now since it's August and they had to make room for the Halloween stuff. We all thought that Kenzie would be the one to love the water. But as it turns out, Parker is our water loving dog. The boys want us to put an in-ground pool in, so they can teach Parker to swim. It's a great idea and I would love it, but that is totally not in our budget right now.

I totally love these two mutts! It's true what they say about pets giving you more than you give them. Our family has been enriched by having them. I just hope I feel the same way in the winter and I have to walk them in freezing weather by myself...

eight years ago...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 17:22:00 +0000

Eight years ago this weekend, Mark and I were in Guatemala finalizing Grace's adoption. This precious little girl rocked our world and enriches our lives every day. It's hard to imagine our family without her.

Grace has recently started to come up to Mark and I and give us hugs. This might seem like a minor thing for most children, but when she comes over to give me a hug with a big squeeze, I have to hold back the tears. My heart couldn't hold any more love for Grace than it does.

But that doesn't mean there aren't still days that I wonder what it would be like to have a typical 8 year old girl. That I don't long to have conversations with my daughter. That I don't want to hear her voice. That I don't start crying when she does because I just don't know why she's crying. I feel so helpless that I can't help her because she doesn't have the ability to let us know what has upset her.

Sometimes, I long for my boys to have a typical relationship with their sister. I wish my parents had a typical granddaughter, Grace is the only girl on my side of the family. Sometimes, selfishly, I wish it wasn't so much work to have a daughter like Grace. That it didn't stress me out and stretch me beyond my patience. That I was able to spontaneously go places and do things with all three of my children. But as I told my friend recently, I can be spontaneous with enough notice.

My wishing and longing are hard feelings to have. I have done a lot of reading on grief and I know that I will likely grieve in small (and big) ways for the rest of my life with Grace. Some days I am more okay with that than others. But through all these feelings, I'm so thankful that God placed Grace in our lives and allows me to be her mom. I get to glimpse a little bit of heaven every time Grace looks me in the eye and smiles.

Happy Family Day Grace! We love you more than you will ever know...

level up...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 14:00:00 +0000

A few months ago, Luke started taking Karate at a local studio. Mark and I both feel strongly that our kids should participate in sports. Mainly for the things that you learn from being a part of a team And even though everyone now gets a trophy for just participating, there is something to be said from learning to win and loose as a child. So we have let them try different team sports out to see what they liked. John is the more athletic of our two sons and has taken to almost all of the sports he has tried. Luke, not so much. He really doesn't like team sports, so we let him take a few years off.

After talking to a few friends and our friend who runs a karate studio, we felt that Karate might be a good fit for Luke. Our goals are for him to gain confidence, discipline and to learn the achievement of personal success. It's also a good sport for him, because John has never done karate so there can't be any comparison to his brother's accomplishments.

Luke recently had his first belt test. He was super nervous because he wasn't sure what to expect but was excited to pass and move to the next belt level. The whole family went to see Luke test. Which didn't really work out, since Grace decided she was unhappy. So, Mark had to take her out of the studio. Fortunately, he was able to see the test but not hear what was being said.

As the final part of his test, Luke broke a board with his fist. It was so great to see all the kids accomplish this. They all got to take the boards home with them. John took a video of Luke breaking the board and put it on slo-mo for the actual break. It looks so cool!

Luke was so happy to have passed and move up to an orange belt. After the test, we all celebrated with a trip to Rita's for some water ice. Congratulations Luke, we're so proud of you!

joni and friends family retreat 2015...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 00:12:00 +0000

Every year I try and come up with the words to describe just how amazing JAF Family Retreat is, and every year I fail. It is just too difficult to describe the many ways our family has come to love this camp and to long for it during the year.

The best thing about camp is the total acceptance that our family gets. No one stares at us. No one has "helpful" comments or tips about Grace's behavior, and my failings as a mom. No one laughs at Grace or at us. No one finds anything different or special about our family at all.

I also love the fact that for 5 days, I don't have to shop, plan, cook, serve, or clean up any meals. There is no housework to be done. No emails or phone calls to make or return. We have five days of being taken care of by the volunteers who come to serve our family. There is programming to allow Mark and I to worship together and then in our mens and womens groups. Mark and I got time to hang out and talk without distraction and it was good. We laughed a lot and I needed that.

Every year we are assigned the most perfect Short Term Missionaries (STMs) for our family. This year was no exception. Grace was assigned an amazing mom named Vivian, who was at camp with her husband, and two sons. It was fun to see them bond during the week. As the days went on, Grace got more comfortable with Vivian and allowed her personality to shine through. Luke was matched with a high school student named Liam, who was with his HS youth group. This was a perfect match, and gave Luke a number of STMs to hang out with. Liam's best friend Nate was at camp and Luke decided he looked like Peter Parker, so Luke followed him everywhere. It always makes me happy when my boys can see older boys serving, loving others and modeling Jesus to the world.

Ever since we have been home, Luke has told me that he misses Liam about 12 times a day. I always reply, me too, me too. Hopefully, we will be able to see Liam again as he goes to school about 40 minutes from our house.

Grace got her annual hair cut at camp. I love all the little extras that you get at camp and all the ways that people find to serve our families. Grace can't go to a salon because of the noise and the lights and all the people and the noise. So it is great that she's a girl and can go a whole year without a haircut and still look cute. This is the third year that Denise has cut Grace's hair. She always tells Grace how great she did, even though she cries and screams during the whole thing. And then she allows me to ugly cry on her shoulder as I try to express my thanks for her donating her time and her gift of cutting hair. I don't think I am able to express adequately how much this means to me. But I do know that she probably needs to change her shirt after I've cried on her shoulder.

John has been a part of the middle school program for two years now. This means that he doesn't have an STM assigned to him. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to bond with any of the kids in his programming so he was at loose ends a few times. But this allowed Mark and John to spend two afternoons together playing mini golf and pool. It was a great time for them to hang out and bond over learning to play new games. I think it was the highlight of John's week.

The camp had a new zip line this year, that was open a few times during the week. I was able to sign up with my adventure loving son, Luke. He was so pumped about going on the zip line. He has always been to young or too little to go on other courses. The camp required you to be 10 years old but they let Luke go since he is about 5 months away from turning 10. We had originally planned on going down side by side, but one of the lines got tangled and so we had to go separately. Luke wanted to go first and he wasn't scared at all. In fact, when he was part way down the line he turned around, waved to me and said 'Hi Mom'. It was classic Luke. I wished I had had a camera to snap his picture, because his face was lit up with the biggest smile ever. Once he was unhooked, it was my turn. I kept both hands on the tether and didn't wave to anyone. It was SO fun. We both wanted to go again.

I was able to reconnect with moms that I had met in previous years and meet some new ones. It is always so encouraging to talk to other moms of special needs kids. All the typical barriers are gone at camp and it is so easy to be honest, open and transparent. Many tears were shed in my womens groups and I loved it. I told Mark it is the one week a year that I give myself permission to feel everything and therefore, I cry a lot. Every morning worship had me crying. But they are good tears. Tears of mourning and acceptance and grief and healing and pain and joy and longing. Some of the women were calling them camp allergies, but not me. I'm happy to call them what they are because it is the one place I can be totally truthful about my journey and totally loved for my journey. It's a little slice of heaven here on earth and I can't wait to go back next year...

beach trip...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 13:20:00 +0000

“I walked far down the beach, soothed by the rhythm of the waves,

the sun on my bare back and legs, the wind and mist from the spray on my hair.”
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

The beach is my happy place. I can always feel myself relax and my body sigh when I get to the beach. Mark and I dream of living at the beach and every time I visit the beach I never want to leave. Last week we went to the beach with Mark's family and this annual trip was one of the best so far!

Thanks to my amazing mother in law, we stayed in a house that was right on the beach. Literally, right on the beach. Her wish for her 80th birthday was to go to the beach with all her kids, their spouses and children. So, she rented the house and invited us all to join her for the week. It was so fun to all be together and celebrate her birthday together.

This last picture of Grace is one of my favorite ever. Grace does not love the beach. Every time we go, she has to get used to it all over again. I never realized just how overwhelming the beach could be until I took a child with sensory issues. The ocean is loud, the is sand hot and hard on your feet, the sun bright, the sea gulls noisy and they swoop down overhead, and then there are the voices and radios of the other beach goers. While I always feel soothed by it, I have found it can all be a bit much for someone who gets overwhelmed easily.

This year Grace warmed up pretty quickly and spent a lot of time on the beach. We took daily walks with her and every time she avoided getting her feet wet. One day, we took a walk with Grace and then stopped to talk to Mark's sister Melanie and her husband Mike. We were all talking at the waters edge and watching the boys jump waves and catch fish in a net.

After a little while, Grace started walking into the water all by herself. She would walk in as the waves went out and then walk back out when she heard the waves coming towards her. It was so amazing to watch, we were all kept saying 'did you see that?'. Mark's mom, sister Melissa and our nephew Mitchell were on the balcony of the house and saw her walking into the water. They kept saying to each other, they are not close enough to her, she's going to get taken out by a wave. We were closer than it looked to them and could easily have gotten to her before she got taken out by a wave. But we wanted to see her explore and see how far out she would go. She was smiling and happy the whole time.

I love watching Grace experience new things and grow and stretch outside of her comfort zone. It is always such a great teaching moment for me to remember that personal growth and change happens when we take risks and challenge ourselves to try / do new things.

We had such a great week, we are already talking about going next year! I shared many of these pictures on my instagram account. Check it out here if you're not following me already.

so long june...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 11:34:00 +0000

June may be one of my favorite months. I love the fact that school lets out. I love the warmer weather and the longer days. I love the promise of so many things to do without a strict schedule.

In past years, the kids and I have created a summer fun list (you can see last year's list here). This year, for some reason, we didn't create out list. We talked about it for months but never sat down and compiled a list. We have a mental list of things that we do each year as a family and enjoy. So, we've been doing some of those but I find that I'm missing the list and the outline for our summer. I'm thinking that we will sit down this weekend and write one...

So far, we've done a good job of mixing active days with days at home and lazy days at the pool. We've had fun busy days when we were all exhausted and days when the kids stayed up past the sun and fell into bed with smiles on their faces from the day.

June allowed us to ease our way into summer and gave us days with no schedule. However, July is packed out. The boys each have a camp, Grace has her summer school program and we are going to the beach (yay!). So we will be on a stricter schedule for some of the month. But that's okay. It's all a balance and it's what works for our family. I'm loving summer and so happy that I'm more focused and intentional with the kids. Summer vacation truly is a magical time for all of us. I hope you're enjoying your summer!

roasted shrimp over sauteed cabbage (paleo and gluten free recipe)...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:22:00 +0000

We are in the thick of summer here. We are having hot and humid days and the only good place to be is in the pool. However, this week we have had to remain close to home because Grace has been sick since Sunday. We had a super busy weekend full of graduation parties, play off football games and picnics. Somewhere between church, a football game in the hot sun and a graduation party, Grace spiked a fever of 102. She may also have a sore throat but being non-verbal and non-communicative, it's pretty hard to tell.

So needless to say, this week has not gone as planned for our family. The boys are being good sports about having to stick close to home but there has been a lot of down time for them. We have continued with our daily worksheets from the summer bridge activities workbooks and daily reading program. Basically, I'm paying them in ice cream to read books this summer. It's not what I thought I'd be doing as a parent but it's what is working to motivate my boys who don't love to read.

Thankfully, Grace's fever was gone when she woke up today. So she'll be going to school tomorrow, she only has 1 and 1/2 days left before summer vacation. That means the boys and I can hit the pool! Yay!

Like everyone else, when the temps climb the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time in the kitchen. But I still want healthy, delicious food. So, one meal I have been turning to for years (even before my recent bent toward gluten free / paleo-ish eating) is roasted shrimp over sauteed cabbage.

It's so good.
It's so easy.
It only uses 3 ingredients, plus oil and spices.
And best of all only takes 10-12 minutes to prepare.

Roasted Shrimp with Sauteed Cabbage

Ingredients:
1 head of organic green cabbage
1 pound of shrimp (I buy the easy peel fresh shrimp or high quality frozen)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Peel and devein shrimp, if necessary. Wash and pat dry.
3. Place shrimp on baking sheet, coat with oil (I use avocado oil), sea salt and pepper. Put in oven for 8-10 minutes. Until the shrimp is a nice pink color. Roasting them like this give the shrimp a nice carmelized flavor, plus it's Ina's recipe so it has to be good...
4. While the shrimp is in the oven; quarter the cabbage, remove the stem part and cut into thin strips. I'm sure you could use your food processor to shred the cabbage but I find it just as easy to do by hand.
5. Heat avocado oil in pan over medium heat. Add the garlic to the oil, and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly to avoid burning it.
6. Add cabbage to pan. Season with sea salt, fresh ground pepper and red pepper flakes (to taste).
7. Continue to stir the cabbage until it is all coated with oil and spices. I cook mine for about 10 minutes. I like it softened but still with a bit of a crunch. Taste it at this point and add more spices if necessary.
8. Put sauteed cabbage on plate and arrange roasted shrimp on top.

I love how easy and simple this meal is! I never have left overs, but I'm sure they would be great heated up the next day for a fast lunch. Enjoy...

this transformed our mornings...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 13 Jun 2015 13:30:00 +0000

I love having other mothers as friends, don't you? They have typically been the source of the best parenting information I have ever received. They were the ones that spoke the truth when the books and bloggers made it seem like my child was the only one who wouldn't do something. They are also the ones who have given me the best product tips.

So, I wasn't surprised that a comment made in passing turned out to transform our mornings. I was at my friend Jocelyn's house to pick up a baby gate for our puppies and for some reason, she mentioned how amazing a new brush was. As soon as she said that there were no more tears in the morning and it made brushing Lily's hair so much easier, I was sold.

Grace hates having her hair brushed. She would fight and try and grab the brush or cry because of the knots. So something that could take away those behaviors and make brushing easier was something I was totally interested in.

It's called the wet brush, but it can be used on either wet or dry hair.

I love having Grace's hair long but it can be a challenge to brush it. Not only because of her special needs but because it looks like two cats fought in it every morning. I mean really, how does her hair get like that? What is she doing in her sleep?

Here is a picture of her hair after using the wet brush. I do tend to spray her hair with water or a leave in conditioner in the morning. But I have used this brush on her dry hair with the same great results. You can tell by the photo below that she is close to needing her annual hair cut, look how uneven her ends are.

As soon as I posted about this brush and our results on instagram, I heard from other moms who love this brush and how easy their mornings are now.

This is not a paid endorsement or a sponsored post. The Wet Brush company has no idea who I am or that this little blog exists. But I just had to share with you because it has totally transformed our mornings and I know it will make brushing your daughter's hair easier.

end of school...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 12:11:00 +0000

June means the end of the school year, which our family eagerly anticipates. We love summer! We welcome the lazy days of not having to get up and out the door and relish the nights when the sun stays up later than we do.

John and Luke have already been out of school for a week. The private school they go to is super committed to getting them out of school in early June. While, most of our friends are either just finishing or still have a few more days. However, they all got a spring break and we didn't, so it all evens out in the end.

I like to end the school year with something special, so we usually go out to lunch or out for ice cream or have ice cream and cake for dinner. This year, the boys wanted to have lunch with their cousins (Joe and Will) who were also finished school for the year.

These are the bonds that I work hard to cultivate with my kids. I want them to grow up knowing that family matters. That you make time to spend with family and you choose family over friends. I want them to look forward to seeing their cousins and to enjoy the time together. These cousins live close so we are in danger of taking that for granted and need to be intentional about getting together with them.

After lunch Joe and Will came back to our house to hang out and play with the puppies. Later that night the boys asked if we could have them over again to play. So, now we have play with Joe and Will at our house on our summer fun list.

It's going to be a great summer!

where did may go...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 14:43:00 +0000

This is the final week of school for my boys. They have a half days today and tomorrow and that's it. I can't believe another year is in the books.

The month of May flew by me. We had a busy, full schedule and I blinked and it was gone. We spent May at sports practice and games, doing homework and studying for tests, playing with and trying to potty train the puppies and it seemed like our schedule was full every weekend. We have also been discussing some decisions that our family is facing. None of them are big but some of them are life changing and life giving.

With that said, I'm really looking forward to the slower days of summer. We have been working on our backyard and are going to create an 'outdoor living space'. I'd love a screened in porch and have been asking for one since we bought the house over 8 years ago. Some days, I take my coffee (or wine) and say I'm going to sit in the screened in porch. My family just rolls their eyes at me. But truthfully, it's not in the budget right now, so we are adding little elements to create a 'room' like atmosphere out their. I can't wait to show it to you and have you come hang out...

Here are some pictures of our May

The boys had field day and both did really well individually and on their relays. It is such a fun day for the whole school.

Grace loves to swing :)

Luke in jedi training

The puppies play in our sandbox more than the kids do

We were giving the puppies a bath and after the pups were out the boys got in the tub. So I told them that was their pool for the summer. Of course, being boys, they played in the tub for hours.

We've been playing a lot of basket ball, which is so not my sport but it's something the whole family can do. However, Luke frequently uses the net for more jedi training.

The pups have quickly learned to sit at Grace's feet when she eats because she sometimes drops food. The other day they worked together to get onto her chair. It was hilarious.

Hope you had a great month of May and are looking forward to school being out for the summer.

homemade blender salsa (paleo and gluten free)...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 05 May 2015 18:04:00 +0000

It's Cinco de Mayo! So in honor of the holiday, I'm making homemade blender salsa. It is so good and easy. It goes perfect with chips and all Mexican food really. It is the perfect thing to make for your Cinco de Mayo party or for a regular weekday meal.

I actually had no idea what Cinco de Mayo celebrated so I had to look it up. As you may have already known, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1962.

I'm sorry to say that I just use it as a reason to make mexican food and eat lots of guacamole and salsa. Actually, I don't need a reason for that and we typically eat some version of mexican food at least once a week. And I think adding salsa and guacamole to any meal makes it better...

Here is my version of homemade blender salsa. I know, I know, there are so many good salsas in the stores you can buy but try making your own. It's easy. It's fast. And best of all, you control the ingredients. So you know exactly what and how much is going into your food. I love that about making my own food.

Homemade Blender Salsa (paleo and gluten free)

3 Cups fresh, local and/or organic tomatoes (if you can't find good quality fresh tomatoes, use 2 14.5 oz cans of high quality canned organic)
1 bunch of Cilantro, with the stems removed
1/2 sweet pepper, use red, orange or yellow or whatever you have on hand
1/2 sweet onion
1 clove garlic
1 jalapeno pepper (you can adjust the heat by removing the stems and seeds)
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp salt

Put all the ingredients into your blender and blend until you reach the desired consistency. My family doesn't like a real chunky salsa so I blend mine a little more so it is smoother.

Notes:

You can adjust the ingredients to suit your tastes. For example if you don't like cilantro (which I can't imagine but I've heard such people are out there), you can omit it all together. For hotter salsa add more jalapeno. You get the idea.

For a sweeter salsa, add up to 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen pineapple. If you want a really sweet salsa I would omit the jalapeno and just add the pineapple.

This salsa keeps in the fridge up to 7 days in an air tight container.

I like to put this salsa on pretty much everything I eat - on my scrambled eggs, on my salads instead of dressing, on my tacos or other mexican foods and of course chips. Right now I'm not eating processed foods so I am using plantain chips instead of corn or tortilla chips.

Obviously, this picture has nothing to do with Cinco de Mayo or salsa but it sure is cute. John is holding Kenzie our 10 week old border collie mix puppy. The puppies are a lot of work, but we love them.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!