JPE...oh, wait, um...AVI of the Week!

Excellence Song from Octamom on Vimeo.

My inspiring little Word for the Year posting club is ready to post our February celebrations of our guiding words for the year. Someone came up with the idea of putting our word to a song...and so that little diddy you watched was my musical take on Excellence.

In case you didn't catch all those inspiring lyrics through the giggling, the words are as follows:

Excellence
Excellence
Do your work with excellence
Just try your best everyday
And don't worry much what others say.



Be sure and visit my '09 Word compadres to see their musical takes on their words for the year...

AVT Coach
MirusPeg
MommyVictory
FlyGirl

The Other Twins

We actually do have another set of twins. Canine variety.

That picture above is George. He's one half of the twin dog set we adopted before I realized I was pregnant with twins. Human variety.

George is not the alpha dog. And he knows it.

This is his twin sister Katie.

Katie is the alpha dog. And she definitely knows it.

Katie and George are the product of an illicit love affair between a hot little long-hair dachshund named Baby and the handsome Pomeranian she met named Cody. They dated, they dreamed. They shared some spaghetti--oh, wait, that was another dog couple...

Well, anyway, somewhere along the line, and I'm just guessing here, but it's assumed that Baby went into heat and Cody just acted like a hound dog. Even though he was a Pomeranian.

And Katie and George were the outcome of their passion. Along with three more litter mates. Which I guess should have made Baby the Pentamom.

We call them Pomaweennies.

This unique genetic blend yields a breed in which you get half the brains with twice the bark.

But we like 'em anyway.

In Your Neighborhood...

Got a little suggestion for ya...

Next time you go for a little stroll around ye ol' block, the next time you head out for your morning constitutional, take your camera.

And really look, really look, around you.

I tend to power-walk my way past some amazing beauty. Stroller, check. Dogs, check. Sippy cups, check. Garage door opener, check. Various Octamom kids, check. And away I go, intent on my route.

But when I slow down, take a look around, and frame up a few things in the eye of my camera, beauty abounds. The crimson of berries. The curve of the road. The incredible blue of a February sky. The faded gold of the grass.

And then, of course, there's the company...

So do me a favor. Go sightseeing...right outside your door...

No-Baking with 6 of 8

I didn't really plan to blog any recipes.
For one, there are so many amazing cooking sites out there, replete with amazing recipes and gorgeous photography.

And for another, most of my 'recipes' aren't really recipes at all, just culinary taste bud experiments with vague instructions tucked onto the dusty shelves of my memory, alongside the mental post-it notes about returning that blouse and trying to find that missing dance shoe.

In other words, I'm not sure I'd make a great cooking blogger.

But I do love to cook and it is definitely a part of my personality profile. If I love you, I'm gonna feed you. If I like you even a little, I'm gonna feed you. If you live within walking distance of my kitchen, I will keep you stuffed with pumpkin bread and sugar cookies.

I bake, therefore I am.

In trying to keep things coming from my kitchen fairly healthy, I made the decision a few years ago to focus on the things that tend to be staples in our diet. While I have a deep passion for sugar and caffeine and welcome their sustaining presence in my life, I do try to sneak in the good, nutritious stuff where I can. I began grinding organic wheat and making bread and also began purchasing organic milk. I figured if I could at least keep our bread and milk clean, then I could justify that vat of Crisco lingering on the pantry shelf. I also include a lot of whole grains in our diet, even when it comes to dessert.

The kids have always loved my whole grain concoctions, particularly when they get to help out. 6 of 8 was all Hollywood when we made these no-bake flax seed cookies. She's not big on clean-up, but she does love the culinary spot-light.

This recipe originated with my precious, uber-healthy, skinny, triathlon-fit buddy Kimmie. It's a good thing she's so sweet, because with all those gorgeous lean muscles and lithe figure, well, she can be a little intimidating in that super-healthy, got-it-all-together kind of way. I've adapted her original recipe a bit, but all kudos go to her.

Here are the base elements, folks.
3/4 c. ground flax seeds
4 TB dry oatmeal (extra for rolling the cookies)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 TB peanut butter (smooth or chunky is fine)
1/2 c. honey or molasses

Flax seed is a phenomenal source of Omega-3 acids. The dietary fiber content of flax is very high and there is evidence to suggest that flax can stabilize blood sugar. It is important to grind the flax seed to receive the dietary benefit.


I grind mine in my coffee grinder, but you can also find pre-ground flax seed in the grocery store.




It's also a great way for the kids to see the how a seed or kernel can be milled into a different texture.





I've found that when the kids are involved in the making of a recipe that may stretch their taste buds a bit, they are far more enthusiastic in the sampling if they have been the 'chef'.


I like to mix the ingredients in my mixer.  It's a fairly sticky substance, so the blades make quicker work of the mixing than I can with a spoon.





Next, add the oats and spices.





6 of 8 has a thing for cinnamon...





She's like her mama that way...





Go easy on the cloves, though.  Just trust me.  Cloves can clear your sinuses...and not in a pleasant way...


Next, add the honey or molasses.





Dump in your peanut butter of choice and get to blending.





Blend the 'batter' until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.





We've found the easiest way to form the mixture into balls is to use a cookie dough scooper sprayed with a little non-stick spray.  Plus, 6 of 8 gets to strike this infomercial pose to show you the scoop...





Place your cookies on parchment paper.





Now here's where you can take some creative license.  We like to roll our cookies in more steel-cut oats.  We've rolled 'em in cocoa.  Pecans.  Walnuts.  Brown sugar.  Pick your mix or just leave 'em au naturale.






It goes a little faster if you let your brother help you...even if it means he's stealing a bit of the spotlight from your photo shoot...





You can place your no-bake cookies in the refrigerator for a bit to help them firm up ...





But we usually have to do some taste-testing first...








Looks like the chef approves...and now from the impartial jury...







Happy No Baking!

Making Me...and a Giveaway!!!

The internet expands our world...and also makes it a little smaller.

Profound, huh?

That's how I roll.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a brave soul who is a published author. She keeps a cursory eye on her good name via a Google application and noticed that her name had been used on an article published over at Heart of the Matter Online. Curious, she clicked on over and discovered there was another author out there writing under the same name...and that would be me.

She graciously contacted me and asked me to review her latest book and also is allowing me to get a copy into one of my lucky reader's hands.


I like seeing my her name on hardbound book cover. 

Julie B. Carr has been writing books for expecting moms since the birth of her first son.  She also operates an online pregnancy store, MotherlyWay.com.  Her latest concept is a book for the expecting siblings, a unique journaling and teaching book that allows the big brother/sister-to-be to follow along with the exciting journey of pregnancy.  The book is written at a level for 5-10 year old.


My children have been fascinated with Making Me, delving into the developmental milestones of an unborn baby.  There are activities that allow the sibs-to-be to see what size the baby is at a given point in the pregnancy.  One day calls for a celebratory lollipop as the fetus gets close to developing their tongue at 7 weeks, 6 days.  The half-way point of the pregnancy calls for a coloring activity that colors in half a birthday cake.

Also included in the book is a little pencil pouch that includes colored pencils for use on the day-by-day pages and a tape measure for keeping track of Mom's and Baby's growth.  I love the fact that Julie chose to make this a spiral bound book;  the pages lay flat so that children can easy write and color on each day's page.

A border surrounds each two page layout that has a small picture of a car making its progress around a track, giving an easy visual for a child to see how much of the pregnancy has passed and how much time is left.  3 of 8 liked the fact that there are extra pages at the back should the pregnancy go longer than the textbook 40 weeks.


As a homeschooler, I absolutely love the idea that this book could be used as the basis of an interactive unit study.  We have always included the children in following my pregnancies, but to be able to use Making Me as a template of study would have been wonderful.  Math, science, writing, spelling, reading--it's all there. It also provides a wonderful impetus for special time between Mom and sibs-to-be, a way to have one-on-one time while preparing for upcoming family expansion. I'm thinking I need to stock a few copies in my gift closet to give to friends and family with kiddos who are adding to their families.

Julie has provided a copy of the book for me to give away and so now I'm going to make up a few giveaway rules. First, go check out Julie's online store, then come back and leave me a comment. Want to Twitter about it? Great! Leave another comment letting me know about your Tweet and get a second entry for your trouble. Want to post about it? Great! Post away and come back here to tell me. The contest will end Sunday, March 1st (how can we be this close to March, already?!?) at 11:59 pm, CST. I'll be announcing the winner a week from today. Good luck!

Monday Musings...Epicurean...Sort of...

"I'm not afraid to eat anything!...except the things I hate..."

5 of 8

I was baking with 6 of 8 Saturday when 5 of 8 wandered through the kitchen. We asked him if he would like to be our taste-tester and he enthusiastically agreed, stating, "I'm not afraid to eat anything!...except the things I hate..." It was definitely one of those mommy moments that in the interest of preserving the male ego, I had to choke back my laughter and nod knowingly at him.

My kids are actually pretty good about eating all kinds of different dishes. We introduced them at young ages to steamed artichoke hearts, lemon and dill salmon, dark chocolate and pomegranates, quinoa, bleu cheese. For the most part, they are quite willing to give my stabs at gourmet a try.

But every now and then, I will place some new recipe in front of them that brings their sense of gastronomic adventure to a screeching halt. Sometimes it's the color. Sometimes it's the texture. They won't even dip their spoon into the concoction without some stern encouragement and a round of 'how many bites' negotiation.

I try to be somewhat sympathetic. I tell them that all I require is that they just give it a taste. How will you know if you like it or not, I argue, just from the appearance alone? Just give it a taste. And, ironically, sometimes some of the dishes that have initially received the strongest amount of protest have ended up being some of their favorites.

So I say all that to say...I am a hypocrite. Because I am a visual, textural eater. If it looks a little off, forget it. If the texture looks odd, no way. A trepidacious epicurean. That's me.

Don't tell the kids.

There are some dishes that I avoided for years which have ultimately become some of the items on my top ten list. Sushi was one. M would travel on business and rave about the sushi bar he found in Manhattan. We would be getting ready to go on our Friday night date and he would start in about wanting to take me out for sushi. I would hem and haw, look askance and decline.

And then I tried it.

Oh, my.

My initial concerns about texture were abated. My fear of strong, fishy taste was assuaged. I fell madly, deeply in love. The same with ceviche, a seafood appetizer 'baked' in a marinade of citrus juices. Strong French cheeses, calamari, ahi tuna, I love it all now that I'm past my previous concerns.

But I still hate Brussel sprouts. They are evil.

So what have you feared to ingest, only to find that you have now developed a deep affection for? Or are you willing to give just about anything a good college try? Do you stay close to the shore when it comes to your gourmet adventures or are you willing to sail the high seas in anticipation of a mystery dish? Post about your taste bud tendencies and come back here to enter your name and the url of your post in the Mister Linky's box below, or simply post a comment about this topic. Let's see what kind of eater you are!

Sunday Selah

...and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Cor. 3 :17

As the story goes, there is a tried and true method for training that largest of land mammals, the elephant, to never stray, to stay bound to the trainer and the camp in which it resides. When the elephant is very young, it is leashed with a very heavy chain around the ankle to a stake. Because of the baby elephant's small size in comparison to the strength of the heavy chain, the baby elephant over time learns that it is futile to try to break away from its fetter. As the elephant grows, the trainer replaces the heavy chain with smaller and weaker chains. The deeply seated stake is replaced with more shallow pegs. And ultimately, a full grown elephant will be tethered to a delicate chain attached to a small picket, never straying, never wandering. It easily has the physical strength to simply meander off, snapping the weak links of its confinements. But it doesn't. The elephant has become so convinced of its captivity because of the early confinement of the heavy chain it wore as a baby that it never breaks free.
We throw around the loaded phrase in our spiritual walk, our 'freedom in Christ'. It attracts us, this notion that we can throw off the burdens and cares of this world and run with Him unfettered and unafraid.

But so many of us are in reality trepidacious pachyderms. We wear a shackle on the limbs of our heart. We only tread within the confines of our experience. And if we tend toward the outer borders of what we know, the chime of dragging chain lurches us back to awareness of our boundaries.



The links of that chain are made weak in Christ. It is our strength of belief in the old confinement and our lack of belief in His freedom that keeps us tied. The link of "what will so-and-so think?". The link of "but we've always done it this way." The link of "it makes me feel uncomfortable." The link of "past hurt, past failure, past embarrassment." The link of "pride." The link of "caring more about what the family will say over what the Lord is asking." The link of "tradition."

Links strung together, creating a weak chain that stoutly binds us to a static, stagnant, limited enclosure.

He came to give us so much more.

And He has freed the captives.

But there is a little something required of us, something that can be daunting. Something that requires putting aside past association. Something that requires a singular action.

That action is this:

A step of faith.

A simple swing of a formerly shackled leg, a stride toward the outer edge of the familiar. A step of faith.

Because in that one action, in that movement toward belief in His gift, the chains of confinement and limits and fear are snapped. The links are rendered useless. And with that step, the clattering confines of our impotent chains recede into a tiny echo behind us as we cross the boundary of limited understanding into the vastness of His heart.

We are free, my precious friends. Sin's hold has no power over us now. Move. Step. Feel those chains fall.

And run.


Straight into His arms.

Selah.

JPEG of the Week

~Captain Croup & His Magic Nebulizer~
(it's been a bit busy and sleep-depriving around here...)