It is pouring rain, and Canaan just went down for a nap. It took amazing will power to come downstairs and piddle around here instead of napping alongside her while the rain beats on our metal roof. Amazing will power. Tropical Storm Beryl is making a ridiculously slushy day outside our windows, and entertaining a one year old inside all day long can be quite a bold and (pleasantly) exhausting task.
I read in a book one time about a rainy day that a mom saved from the doldrums by piling all of the pillows in the house on the floor and letting the kids have jumping contests. I tucked that little nugget away and it came in handy this gloomy gloomy morning. She isn't sure about jumping in quite yet, but she definitely loves the free fall, and personally I didn't mind just lounging on the super comfy pile. It was a complete win for both parties.
After you get done with your pillow party, you can make this simple recipe and eat bowls and bowls of it for supper. There is a pretty little blog I like to look at from time to time called Cucina Nicolina, and a few weeks back she posted a recipe for a Quinoa, feta, and mint salad that looked delicious. After just devouring the last portion for my lunch, I can confidently say that it is in fact delicious.
The cooking method for the quinoa is enlightening. You boil the quinoa in a rolling boil, then strain it, then steam it for a few minutes. This simple additional step creates a less bitter, fluffier, perfect for a cold salad, quinoa. I started into boiling my quinoa only to remember that I no longer have my large mesh strainer. Through a steady stream of improvisation we succeeded. I dumped the quinoa from the boiling water very carefully into my super too tiny mesh strainer. Then to steam it, I used a thin smooth cotton dish towel laid across the bottom of my large colander. The recipe calls for a towel to be laid across the top of the steaming quinoa, so I just wrapped the end of the towel up over the top, set the lid back on the pot, and it worked great. Another tip I suggest is that I had my tea kettle ready to go with hot water needed for the simmer so that I could dump that right into the pot when needed. The additional steps for preparing quinoa in this way might seem cumbersome, but in truth they were not that tricky, and the product is super deliciously worth it.
I added celery for additional crunch, and chickpeas (because I love them), and definitely suggest you do the same! We ate this salad alongside hot buttered corn and had strawberry peach pie for dessert. Um yes, it was great.
Quinoa Feta Mint Salad makes 6 good sized portionsadapted from Cucina Nicolina who adapted it from Gourmet
12 oz quinoa
Lemon zest from two (organic) lemons
Juice from both lemons
5 or 6 stalks celery, cut into small dice
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1 cup (or so) crumbled feta cheese
1 can drained and rinsed chickpeas
handful sunflower seedsdrizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste1. Rinse the quinoa in three changes of cold water to remove any bitter coating. Bring a 4- to 5- quart pot of salted water to a boil, add the quinoa, stir occasionally. Cook for about 7-8 minutes, until just slightly tender.
2. (see my notes in the text above for how I adapted this) Drain the quinoa through a fine mesh sieve, then set the sieve over an inch of simmering water in the same pot. (Make sure that the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the sieve.) Cover the quinoa with a folded kitchen towel and cover the whole thing with a lid. Steam until the quinoa is tender, fluffy, and dry, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, still covered, for another 3-5 minutes. Place in a large bowl.
3. Once quinoa is cooled completely, toss with remaining ingredients. Drizzle each portion with olive oil and serve.
Stephen just walked in the door from work, I poured myself a glass of Pinot Grigio, and am happily hiding typing away in the spare room upstairs. Canaan has become OBSESSED with my computer in the last week or so which means I can not even go near it during the day without her POINTING her sweet finger and going into a wee little fit if I don't pick her up and let her pounce on the keys IMMEDIATELY.
Ahhhh. So, like I said, Stephen just got home from work and I am typing upstairs so that I can tell you about two fantastic things.
The first thing is that I made a dress for Canaan today. There was no pattern, measuring, or ironing, just eyeballing, cutting, folding, and seeing what happened. It is by no means perfect, and I am sure that if I knew anything about sewing I would be able to see all the things wrong with it, but it was a really fun way to spend an hour or two. One beef I have with the way dresses are made for this age group is that the length of the skirt inhibits their crawl. So, I split the dress up the front so that her fast moving knees can do their work, and I added a little extra salmon fabric for flare (imagine an apron on the inside). Why are more dresses not made like this? I would buy ten for me and for you.
Another thing I have been wanting to tell you about are the chocolate banana muffins I showed you on Friday. I snagged the recipe here, and changed just a few things. These are ridiculously simple, so quick to put together, and remarkably tasty. Bookmark these to make Saturday morning, or heck, even tomorrow morning before work they are that easy.
ok. Thanks for letting me spend this lovely little break with you all. Off to make some supper and play with a super cute husband baby.
Chocolate Banana Muffins Makes 12 adapted from simply recipes3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed (I used 2 because I only had 2)
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon strong coffee (I didn't use this)
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup toasted chopped walnuts (I used chocolate chips instead)
1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium sized mixing bowl, pour melted butter over smashed bananas. Stir well. Add in sugar, egg, vanilla, and coffee if using.
2. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over mixture. Stir
3. Fold in flour and nuts or chocolate chips. Stir gently
4. Pour* into greased muffin tins. Bake 25 minutes until brown. Enjoy
*By far the best way to measure muffin dough is to use a large ice cream scoop with one of those levers that pushes the ice cream out. You know what I am talking about? This way you get even amounts in the tin and no scraping off the spoon dripping everywhere mess.
When we lived in Raleigh, it was borderline ridiculous how many amazing people we met and were fortunate enough to call friends. If you are looking for good people, move to downtown Raleigh and get connected at this church. Good folks grow on that soil. One such good folk is named Jeff.
We love Jeff. He is pleasant, interesting, and completely in love with Jesus. Canaan ended up with a runny nose this weekend that trumped a lot of our plans, but I am not completely complaining because while I was upstairs holding her through a nap, look what the men did!
Homemade pizza with basil and oregano from the garden, fresh mozzarella, tons of garlic... AND it was ready when Canaan and I came down the stairs. Like I said earlier, good folk.
Stephen said how refreshed he felt from the visit. That is my hope for each one of us; to be a refreshment and encouragement to one another along this road of life. Through the relatively boring snotty days and the super exciting other days, I pray God continues to shape me into a living breathing refreshment to the folks around me. The wee one and the rest.
Though I loved biking before Canaan was born, I was a bit hesitant to get her on my bike because most of the baby bike seat options seemed too risky. I was not about to strap my little MacGyver into a seat behind me where I could not see her unbuckling the straps or doing some other completely brilliant (but scary) activity. So I kept putting the purchase off. Then a few weeks back my friend Emily sent a link to this super cute blog and the idea of a seat in front of me, between my arms and the handlebars seemed totally doable.
After some research I settled on the iBert safe-T seat and completely recommend it! The simple attachment to the handlebar stem allows for me to ride my bike normally (with just a slightly hunched reach to get my arms around her sweet ginormous helmet), while also feeling really stable. I expected much more wobble adding twenty some odd pounds to the front like that, but nope, just solid breezy fun!
So if you are in the "trying to figure out how to bike with your baby" camp, I suggest you buy one of these and these, and get riding!
I am thrilled and grateful to be at a point in my momming that I am able to create things again. Canaan is able to crawl around and help me while I hang pictures, paint, or cook supper. She especially appreciates when we work on her baby book and I let her destroy the pictures I do not plan to use. She feels incredibly triumphant crumbling them in her tiny hand as she piddles around the room getting into every possible thing she can find. I love it. I love to enlist her into a blank piece of wood that ended up as our key hook, or the map that we wrote on and hung in her playroom. I hope she likes to create things one day. I would love to watch her make something beautiful.
You can see in the background of this photo our Give Thanks board. This last week I was inspired by this video (warning: it is really wonderful but incredibly sad) and immediately got one up in our dining room. We keep the little papers in the center of the table and add new things whenever we think of them. Honestly at this point in life there are constantly things to be thankful for.
One delicious thing I am thankful for is Alice Waters' Strawberry Shortcake recipe. We had my mom, sister, and mother-in-law over on Sunday and celebrated being moms and the sweet little shortcakes that make us such. These are the bomb. Period.
I must say that I have enjoyed being back in this space over the last week or so and am thinking I might keep blogging. At this point in my life I really want to write about all of life and what I am learning. What do you think? Do I need to change the name of my blog and everything?
Strawberry Shortcakes adapted from Alice Waters makes 6Strawberries
4 cups strawberries, sliced
1/3 cup sugar
Cream
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar
Cream Biscuits
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons really cold butter, cut into small pieces
about 1 cup heavy cream
1. Stir the sugar into the strawberries and set aside
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees
3. In a dry bowl mix flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder together. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or two knives until crumbly. Fold in cream and knead gently in the bowl a few times. Turn out onto floured board, roll 3/4 in thick and cut out biscuits. Reroll the scraps if necessary
3. Place biscuits on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until golden
4. Whip whipping cream with whisk attachment until thickened. Add sugar and vanilla and whisk a bit more
5. Take 1 cup of strawberries and puree in blender. Add back to strawberry mixture
6. Layer cream and strawberries on top of biscuits. Serve and enjoy!
Stephen finished my mother's day gift today, and because he knows me so well (that I do not like surprises nearly as much as being able to know and be excited for days and days), he went ahead and gave it to me tonight. He completely and entirely has made me feel like I can fly.
While Canaan and I were at the beach this afternoon, he put together a year in pictures slide show complete with slides affirming how proud he is of me, how grateful he is for how I love our daughter, and other such wonderful words that set me soul alight. It was even set to music! He has gifted me completely perfectly. I was tired (literally yawning) before I opened my gift, and now I can hardly sleep for excitement for another day as Canaan's mom and his wife.
My moral of this story is that if you know a mom that is doing a swell job, or you admire something about someway that she moms, tell her. TELL HER. Tell her in a note or email or phone call or write it in the sky with stardust, just tell her. My heart feels so happy with his sweet words running through my mind, and every mom should get to feel this way too!
There are so many women that long to be pregnant, give birth, and know the joy of tiny fingers wrapped around the back of her neck. Every day at least once I can feel my heart beat faster as tears form on the edge of my eyes and the words catch in my throat, "God has given me a child." His generosity takes me to my knees. A child of the most High King, filled with gumption, strength, and joy, is beginning to say that one syllable that makes me smile more than I ever imagined it could, "Mom." She is His, and He trusts us to love and raise her. I beg Him to call her, protect her, and fill her where our love falls short. I trust Him. As hard as it is to realize that ultimately I am not in control, that I can't keep her safe forever, I am trying to lean into our Refuge that is and will.
Becoming a mother reconstructed my heart. I remember in those early days of holding Canaan, when breastfeeding was going terribly, and we weren't sleeping, I remember thinking that perhaps this baby thing was a mistake. That I just wanted my old life back where I could focus on loving my husband and doing ministry... You know, real ministry out there on the streets... How sad and small my heart was. Canaan in only 11 months has shown me the beautiful work of real and genuine grace filled love.
Loving Canaan has shown me that I am dependent. I am dependent on God for the energy and grace to love her and Stephen well despite the long (sometimes boring) days. I am dependent on help from others in ways I never imagined I would be. Learning that I am dependent has been a critical piece of my walk with Christ.
Ego and control are in direct conflict with dependence. Learning to accept my position as needy in my mothering is a constant reminder of my neediness of my Father. I would say that I am a good mom, but I absolutely know that the wickedness of my heart would win every time if it were not for the sweet spirit of grace combating my selfishness, constantly.
Being a mom is viewed by many as the job you hire a babysitter for so that you can continue your important career. I pray that one day I get to watch my daughter take over the world as she holds her brand new baby in her arms. Sure, she could be Secretary General if she wants to be, but now that I am here, loving her, here, wiping the green beans off her cheek, here, reading her books about Rosa Parks, flowers, trucks, and God, I don't think that I could be convinced of any career more critical, challenging, or lovely than this.
It takes the long term view though, to be honest. There are those moments when I am not that interested, actually, in stacking the cups one-more-time. In those moments I pray for visions of a woman, in love with her Savior, living her life of mission and purpose no matter what her hand finds to do... I picture Canaan as that woman, but sometimes, in His loving sweetness, God reminds me to see myself as that woman. Patiently, I am learning how to do that.
