Mommin' It Up!

March 1, 2014

Collecting Pie on Foodie.com

I love to bake. Like, a lot. I really love it. The problem is that I also love to eat baked goods, and I cannot be trusted to have them in my house. It’s a real conundrum, because I will eat all the things. I do tend to bake a lot around the holidays, and while I’ve mastered things like my famous pumpkin rolls, until this year there was one area I had not ventured in to.

Pies.

Making pie seemed so… complicated, and I really didn’t know anything about it. But, one night shortly before Christmas, I was up to my ears in flour and baking supplies, and I got it in my mind that I should make a pecan pie for my grandma – her favorite treat. I turned to my good friend Google, and before long I was whipping up the Karo syrup pecan pie recipe along with Wesson oil crust. Believe it or not, it worked.

At least, I think it did. I didn’t actually have a piece.

In any case, I no longer feel like pie is beyond my capabilities, and I am looking forward to trying out more recipes.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t even remember the last time I looked in a cookbook. I still have some, but they are downstairs and really don’t make their way to my kitchen. When I need a recipe, I bring my iPad into the kitchen and I’m good to go. Searching all over the internet for a recipe I ran across two weeks ago isn’t always convenient, and it’s good to have recipes in one place.

Enter Foodie.com. You can browse, sort and search more than a million recipes and restaurants, and collect the ones that interest you all in one place. Their toolbar makes it easy to grab recipes from all over the internet, too. The collection posted above is my “Pie” collection, but as I scrolled through Foodie I also made collections for breakfasts, desserts, slow cooker recipes, and appetizers/snacks. I’m sure there’s more where that came from, too. One thing that struck me about Foodie is that it’s JUST food – there’s less noise and it makes it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for. I think that this is a tool I will use a lot.

Check out Foodie.com and let me know what you think!

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This post is sponsored by Glam Media.

February 28, 2014

Insta-Friday

Today I’m linking up with our friend Jeannett at Life Rearranged for Insta-Friday. Head over there and check out all the insta-moments she’s collected today.
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Last Friday was the dreaded Valentine’s Day party. As it turned out, everything went fine at both parties, and Andy and I both lived to tell about it. And, I got the opportunity to bring lunch to Sam and Kate at school. As you can see from this picture, Sam was kind of excited about that.

Kate was happy to see me too. I wonder how long that will last?

Saturday I was getting ready for Kate’s basketball game, and I was drying my hair, not really listening to Sam chattering away beside me. Eventually it occured to me that he was saying “Mom, I want a mohawk!” and had Andy’s beard trimmer in his hand. So, we compromised.

Saturday was also National Margarita Day. I celebrated. Maybe twice. But I was just being patriotic.

This is Sam and my grandma, who would murder me if she found out I put her picture on the interwebz. Fortunately, the closest thing she has to a computer is a solar-powered calculator.

My dad gave Sam his cap from his Army days. Sam paired that with my grandpa’s army shirt, and he was ready to save the world.

Sam also turned 14 this week.

I swear I have two kids and love them both equally, but evidently I need to take more pictures of Kate!

So… this happened.

I’m sure that adventure is going to be bloggable, to say the least.

What did you do this week?

February 27, 2014February 26, 2014

Ten years, happy tears

When I had my babies, all of them, but especially the first, I could not, while sniffing their fuzzy heads and ogling their wrinkly fingers, even begin to fathom how they would look, smell, feel, act, or be on their tenth birthdays. I couldn’t even begin to grasp the idea of this tiny human, flesh of my flesh, being a big kid. A double-digits kid.

But now, I know. Because today, my baby is TEN. Years. Old.

Joshua is such a joy, and he always was. I sometimes find myself longing for the carefree days when he was a baby and a toddler, because he was SO easy, SO fun, SO portable, and always in a good mood. Bobby and I would take him everywhere. He was just a breeze. As much as I LOVE my other two, I can’t say I feel the same way about their babyhood. Joshua’s was honestly more play than work and if I could go back and do it again, I would. I know there will be other moments when I want to freeze my other kids (I think Sophie’s time might be this very year). For my sweet Joshua, even as he grows into a wonderful young man, I know it’s his babyhood I will miss the most.

But anyway. Here’s a story from his babyhood that I especially love, even though I wasn’t there when it happened. Joshua was born on February 27, 2004. But he was due the 25th. As it was a leap year, I was really anxious when his due date came and went, because I did NOT want to have a Leap Day baby. I would have been pleased, however if he’d been born on February 28th, because that is my oldest brother Charles’ birthday and my cousin Anna’s birthday – they are exactly 10 years apart. But neither the 28th or the 29th were to be, because on the 26th, I had a routine OB-Gyn appointment, and when I went in, my blood pressure was sky high. It had been fine my whole pregnancy, but now it was decidedly not fine. “You need to go to the hospital so we can induce you. You’re at risk of having a seizure. You can go home and grab your bag, but don’t stop for lunch.” my doctor told me. Well, ok. It was go time.

So I went in late in the afternoon of the 26th, and Joshua was born on February 27 at 9:00 a.m. exactly. Which as it turns out, is very fitting with his personality.

So he missed my brother’s birthday, and he missed Anna’s birthday, and thankfully he missed Leap Day.

But unbeknownst to be, he did arrive on another family birthday. And my mother, who witnessed his birth, knew it. It was her grandfather’s birthday. Taylor Dezarn, the father of my beloved Grandma Burns, my mother’s mother, was born on February 27, 1890.

Taylor collage — Taylor, my great-grandfather as a young man and in his later years.

I never knew him, but my mother has very fond memories of her grandfather, and it delighted her that my first child was born on his birthday (hers had been born just a day after!).

Which leads me to the story. My mom babysat Joshua when he was a baby until he was three years old, while I worked part-time 20 hours a week (did you know I used to do that?) One day, she and my Grandma Burns took Joshua to visit Grandma’s brother, my mom’s Uncle Neil and his wife Mae. The docile, sweet, portable infant Joshua was of course, an angel. And he was good for my Uncle Neil, about 81 or 82 at the time (he has since passed away) as he held him on his knee.

“How old is he?” he must’ve asked my mom, because she told him, “He was born on your father’s birthday.”

And then, an old man, holding a sweet young baby who was born 114 years to the day after his own father’s birth, got choked up, and his eyes filled with tears.

My great-grandfather Taylor with three of his sons. Neil is the middle boy, to Taylor's right. — My great-grandfather Taylor with three of his sons. Neil is the middle boy, to Taylor’s right.

Memory, family, blood, and the circle of life. It’s a powerful thing.

And I am as proud now of the sweet young man I call my son at ten years of age as I was of the baby who brought joy to an old man nearly ten years ago. Who shares his birthday with someone I never met but who was dearly loved by those I dearly love.

Happy Birthday, Joshua Kenneth. Here’s to many more happy years (and many more happy tears) of being your mama. I love you!