Music to my ears

And now for the long awaited debut of my little Bean singing…

Jan. 2008

Sweet, sweet music to my ears…

*grin*     tara

Frozen Banana Pops

I recently participated in a postcard swap, swapping kid’s snack recipes with other moms, hosted by Jo from A Bit of This and A Bit of That, and thought I’d share the recipe with you.  As summer (and hallelujia.. warm weather!) is fast approaching, I decided on a favorite of mine- frozen bananas.  I hadn’t made frozen bananas (except mashed for baby) for almost three years, since my pre-pregnancy days when I made frozen chocolate bananas, so I hit the net looking for a more pregnant lady and child-friendly (i.e. caffeine free) recipe.  I found a great one on Culinary.net, called Frozen Honey Banana Pops.  

Here’s my version of the recipe:

Frozen Banana Pops

• 4 just-ripe bananas, peeled
• 8 craft sticks
• 1/2 cup honey, *peanut butter or corn syrup
• 1-1/3 cups finely chopped nuts, coconut, carob chips, dried fruit, graham cracker crumbs, etc.

Cut bananas in half cross-wise. Insert a craft stick into each cut end. Freeze for at least 30 minutes on a wax paper-lined tray.  Meanwhile, spread desired toppings onto separate plates. Spoon about 1 tablespoon honey* over each slightly frozen banana, rotating and smoothing honey with back of spoon to coat all sides. Roll banana in desired topping until coated on all sides, pressing with fingertips to help toppings adhere. Return pop to wax paper-lined tray and repeat with remaining bananas. Freeze pops 15 minutes or more to set toppings. Serve.     Yield: 8 pops

These are the combinations we tried:  

• honey and finely chopped carob chips
• honey and finely chopped cashews
• peanut butter and finely chopped carob chips
• peanut butter chips
• yogurt and finely chopped dried mango *yogurt wasn’t sticky enough to adhere to the banana well
• honey and coconut
• honey and finely chopped peanuts
• pureed strawberries *again, not sticky enough to adhere to the banana well

So far my favorite combination is peanut butter and carob chips.  Yu-uh-mmy!  If you give these a try, let me know what combinations you came up with.  

As you can see my determined little cook had a great time making these…      

                   
   and she enjoyed every last bit! 

Hope you enjoy these too!     tara

Chemical Free Living for You and Your Little Sprouts

I’ve been perusing a new-to-me blog for several days now, specifically checking out recipes (under the categories section), and realized it has such good information about chemical free living that I needed to stop being selfish and share it with you too.. 

It’s dkMommy Spot written by Diane.  On her blog Diane shares,

I am a work-at-home mom who is fascinated with herbs, natural remedies, and healthy cooking.  When my son was born, I started wondering “How will I raise him chemical-free?  What’s the healthiest way to feed him?  How will I care for his baby ills naturally?”  I started researching and devouring all the information I could find.  It occurred to me that if I had all these questions, there must be other mothers out there just like me, looking for answers.  That’s when I started blogging and sharing all I’ve learned.  It’s amazing how many of us there actually are, and I love having a way we can all meet….

So go check it out, even if you’re not a mommy.  You won’t regret it!  

… and Diane, cheers to you for such great info!

Happy day everyone,    tara

Thievery… and hope

Our computer was stolen two months ago, hence the lack of posts here recently, along with our camera, and- darn it still stings- LOTS of pictures of our daughter from december 07 through now.  It was actually partly our fault since we left the garage door open over night… oops!  We’ve done that before of course, but this time someone actually decided to come into our house while we were sleeping and take some things for themselves.  I am so very thankful that no one was harmed, but I have to admit that it ruffles my feathers a bit every time I think about the pictures we lost…  captured memories of our daughter that are priceless to us and pretty much worthless to anybody else.  I’ve had to pray about this because it stirs up anger and grief in no time flat.  What is it with pictures anyways that we are so attached to them?  I guess for me I fear the memories I’ve lost that were captured in those photos because without the help of those pictures, I can’t yet recall the memories.  Maybe I should start there and write down what I remember about that time period specifically.  I love how the Holy Spirit speaks to us.  Just when we think there’s no other way to deal with a bad situation than simply endure it, He gives you hope.  

I’m going to start here if you don’t mind…

I remember playing outside in the snow in December.. she made her first snow angels.  We both made them.  I had to practically throw her into the snow so that she’d sink in enough to make an imprint.  We also used her sled for the first time.  I pulled her up and down the sidewalk but she wasn’t as into it as she was into swinging.. yes in the snow.  She had to be freezing as the cold air blew in her face but she is in love with swinging so she loved it.  I recall her going down the slide to and flying off the end only to land on her bottom in the soft snow.  We had a great time!  Now that I think of it, I have a picture here at the bottom of this post that I uploaded for you all.  Ahh, that makes me feel a little better.  

Let’s see, we also went to a wedding in December, which she loved.  She danced on the stage and was really moving her shoulders and hips.  She wore her Christmas dress which my mom made.  We have a couple pictures of her in it too thanks to Gaga and Papa.  

This was our first Christmas together as a family where she really knew what was going on.  She remembered that day too that it was Jesus’ birthday that we were celebrating.  Having a birthday in November I had tried hard to drill into her head that it wasn’t still her birthday.  You can imagine how delighted I was when I asked her that morning who’s birthday it was and she said, “Jesus’!”  We invited Gaga and Papa over to open presents in the morning and had cinnamon rolls after that I believe, another thing that she really likes.  Maybe they have some pictures of this time??  And I think we may have some video too.  

I don’t remember much between Christmas and Easter- wait, I just looked at my calendar and I had my first quilting lesson in that time.  We spent some time with Nini (Matt’s grandma) and I took some pictures of Bean with Grandma Floor in a bonnet that she had gotten her at Sauder Village.  Bean also took some pictures with her dog Charlie, which she had just finally befriended, so that was cute.  I also took some close up pictures of my quilting progress and Grandma took some pictures of me quilting.  

I forgot my camera when we went to KS for bridal/baby showers but I think other than that we lost some nice Easter pictures from her Easter egg hunt outside.  Again, I have one or two that I emailed to my mom so I still have those and Gaga and Papa have a couple of her in her dress.  She looked cute hunting for easter eggs in her stocking cap and brown coat tugging a big round shallow basket.  (Makes me smile just remembering.)  She ambled from one egg to the next not having any competition to beat her to the next egg.  Then we brought them inside and opened them up one by one to look at all the goodies.  

What great memories.  Thanks for letting me share.

Have a great week!    tara

Celebrating life

Recently I completed a first in the project department.. embroidering on a t-shirt.  Actually, this is the first time I’ve ever embroidered anything and believe it or not it went quite well… the constant re-threading for each new letter… the hand drawn pattern that beckoned to be re-drawn as it continuously disappeared… the iron on adhesive I used as a stabilizer, leaving the paper backing on (not recommended for comfort, but I didn’t have time to order some of this T-shirt Stabilizer from Sublime Stitching)… and the stitches I made up when a letter wouldn’t curve right (which in reality is probably an actual type of stitch, and I just know that little about embroidering *grin*).  Anyways, it took me literally all night but was lots of fun and I was totally happy with the completed project.  Beanie Girl even recognized there was a bee on her new shirt.. YEAH!

So here it is, unveiled…

And a close up

So yes, we’re expected another little gift due in October, YEAH! *grin* *grin* *grin*  We couldn’t be more excited around here.  I know so many people having babies this fall things might turn a little baby crazy here on the blog, but it’ll be a great celebration of life.  I hope you keep stopping by.

Love to all, tara

A little late..

Ok, so it’s a little late to talk about Valentine’s day. But I so enjoyed a craft Bean and I did that I thought I had to share it with you anyways.. besides, I’ve been wanting to share about it’s source. Every morning when I came into the living room and saw the shadows on the curtains, it made me smile. I loved it so much it stayed up until only a couple days ago!

(pardon my poor camera lighting skills *grin*)

This idea came from Kids Craft Weekly. We used recycled tissue paper instead of colored cellophane, and I punched holes in the hearts to connect them together with ribbon instead of running a string through the set of hearts. I also loved the heart bough idea Amber shared.. maybe we can do something like that with the tomato plant stalks that were left to freeze in the wintry snow and blown out or crafted eggs… Easter is right around the corner.. and spring- yah!

have a great day! tara

4 things about me

I know I’ve been MIA for awhile.. seems like life just keeps creeping up on me these days *grin.* Everything is good here, just extremely crazy busy so, bare with me. Anyways, I thought this would be a fairly quick and painless post, seeing that I’ve received something similar in my email a couple of times here lately.

I have been tagged by Jo to do “4 things about me,” so here goes.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
swimming instructor, lifeguard, Mad Science instructor, chiropractic assistant

Four places I have lived
Fort Scott, KS; Lawrence, KS; Fort Wayne, IN .. yes that’s only three places.

Four Places I have been on Vacation
Florida to Disney, Colorado to ski, Maui on my honeymoon, and Greenville, SC right before I had Bean.. and yes, I’d love to travel out of the US one of these days.

Four of My Favourite Foods:
Matt’s steak with sweet potatoes, tacos (mexican in general), pizza meatballs with freezer corn, and chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
skiing in Colorado, in sunny, warm SC visiting friends, visiting friends and family who live in other states, serving in a beautiful place.

And now I am supposed to tag four other people, but seeing that the only person I remotely know with a blog is Jo, who already did this… I’m leaving it up to the first four people who read this… Copy the above and add your own answers in the comments section. I look forward to reading your answers!

Have a great day!

tara

eggs

Can you believe it’s almost spring time?? Ok maybe that’s wishful thinking, but Easter is only a month away. So to help usher out some of the winter time blues and get us thinking about spring.. I thought I’d share a post from Craftastica that I thought was marvelous… naturally dyed eggs.

Aren’t they gorgeous? You should go check it out.. and if you decide to give it a try, I’d love to see your results and I’m sure Kristy at Craftastica would too.

Oh, and speaking of eggs.. if you are a common consumer of organic, free range or locally boughten eggs and have wondered what to do about those pesky red spots in the occasional egg- to eat or not to eat? According to Jill from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, “There is no health hazard from eating eggs that contain red spots.” Click here for a full explanation.

have a great rest of your weekend!

tara

Update: Unfortunately the valentine’s apron for my daughter has yet to be done and I still can’t seem to get the video of her singing off of the burned DVD onto our computer.. once I stop working so much this will be top priority people. thanks for being patient!*grin*

Music Together

Sorry for the temporary hiatus. I’ve been working more here recently (as in every Monday and Friday all day). And I started Beth Moore’s bible study Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent last Thursday (Woohoo!… more on this blessing later).

Anyways, onto our focus today.. awhile back I learned about Music Together while reading through one of my Montessori resources. So Bean and I recently started participating in a Music Together class. Now mind you, prior to this class, Bean and I were prone to frequent music/dance sessions (although akin to the dance scene here in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids). But we have really enjoyed participating in the class and have learned some cool, new ideas too. Today I finally put in the “home” CD they gave us at class and we have been listening to it pretty much all afternoon. It’s great because it has all the same music we do in class, so now we can sing and dance to it whenever we want! There is also a CD for the car and I’m curious to listen to it now. Our teacher Allison told us last night that this music has different rhythms than the the music our culture has, so it allows us to experience rhythms of many different cultures. We sing songs, play musical instruments, dance around with scarves or pieces of fabric (which I have in mind to make for home), do rhythm repetition, sway to lullabies and generally just enjoy the music.

One of the best things about this class is that Beanie Girl started singing around the house a lot right after we started going. This may just be coincidence because I know it’s a common developmental milestone at this age, but nonetheless it has been such a joy to hear her sing. She frequently sings “Jesus Loves Me,” (singing “Oh No” instead of “this I Know”) “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (singing “Bow Bow” instead of “Bow Wow”) and the phrase “Higher Higher Praisin’ the Y(L)ord” (which I think she made up trying to remember the words to “Hallelu Hallelu Hallelu Hallelujah Praise Ye The Lord”) *grin* We even got her to do it in front of the video camera the other day. I’ll have to post it once my dear husband edits it and burns it to a DVD, so stay tuned…

Other than our Music Together CD and Little Bean’s acapella singing, some other well-liked kid friendly music from our collection (including a music DVD) are: (in no particular order)

       

And a lifesaver from Bean’s baby days:

I hope this is helpful to any of you looking for some kid friendly music.

have a great day! tara

Happy Groundhogs day!

Happy Groundhogs Day everyone!

Ok I know, who really celebrates Groundhogs Day. But honestly, ever since I can remember my family has celebrated February 2nd. While we don’t celebrate Groundhogs Day, like apparently a lot of other people do, we do celebrate my little brother’s birthday today, so Bean and I worked on a little coloring project today. We had a little problem starting out…

but we finally got it right

complete with 2 lipstick kisses

Hope you had a great birthday Todd!

And since the most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow this morning, here’s wishing all of you a happy six more weeks of winter; hope you are enjoying it as much as we are..

Have a great rest of your weekend!
tara