Healthy and Strong

Wow, 6 days!  It's almost hard for me to believe that it's been quite that long.  But in case some of you were wondering if we just have had our hands full with the busy-ness of a newborn, the answer would be "not yet".  We're still in a holding pattern as someone said tonight at church.  So I think this should be a lesson to all us ladies out there.  Don't let your doctor convince you to move your due date up by 8 days when you are 99% positive of your calendar dates!  All the emotions of being "over due" could have been avoided if I had just stuck to my guns a bit more.  But in reality, I didn't have a choice in what my doctor called my due date.  But what I could have done differently was to just tell everyone July 30th rather than July 22nd.  When I use that date it makes me just a day a few hours away from my due date.  Now doesn't that sound better?  I think so.

So since I'm waiting--well we're all waiting--I figured I'd share a few thoughts I've had about this bun while it's been in the oven.

The phrase "healthy and strong" has been said a lot in our house over the past few months.  It's a blessing that we easily took for granted with our two older children.  But ever since about half way through this pregnancy, it's something we've daily thanked God for.  The main reason being that we got a bold reminder of how fragile our human bodies can be.  

A few days after our routine 20 week ultrasound, my doctor called to let me know there was a possible problem with the baby.  She went on to explain that in the ultrasound, they found "something" in the baby's stomach.  They weren't sure what it was, but there were a few options.  And the reasons that there would be anything in there at all were even more numerous.  They ranged in severity from a random piece of meconium (first baby poop) or skin tissue that the baby swallowed and would normally pass, to a piece of mucus that could be a sign of cystic fibrosis.  There was also the possibility that it was a structural deformity which would require us to deliver in Portland and for the baby to have immediate corrective surgery.  Plus there were about 10 other options that were mild to moderate in severity. 

It was a rough couple of weeks waiting for blood test results to come back.  But one right after another, each one came back negative.  Praise God!  I still remember where I was when I got the call on my cell phone that the cystic fibrosis test had come back negative.  That was the last blood test we waited on and what a relief that was.  Then there was the follow up ultrasound to see if the mystery item was still there or not.  And praise the Lord, it was gone!  No where to be found!  It seemed that the best case scenario--some accidentally swallowed poop--had likely been the issue all along.

But during those weeks of waiting, we grew.  I shed many tears for our child during that time, unsure of what the future would hold. I found myself clinging even more to our two older children, not wanting to leave them, realizing again how unbelievably blessed I am to be their mother, and how blessed we were to have two children who were healthy and strong.  After a few days sorting through my emotions, a peace began to come over me--a peace from God--as I realized that God wouldn't give me anything that I couldn't handle.  And of course, He had chosen Shawn and I to raise this child so no matter what the health issue might be, it wouldn't be more than we could handle.  It might not be easy, but if we relied on God, He would see us through.

Of course, we didn't know at first that everything would turn out so well.  We didn't know then, that the rest of this pregnancy would be practically worry free.  As it is now the biggest thing I have to worry about is whether or not this baby is going to be over 10 lbs.  And I suppose we don't know with full certainty that this baby will be completely healthy and strong when it is born.  But I do know that no matter what may come with this child or with our older two, God will see us through. 

Summer Made a Comeback

The month of July has been a particularly wet one for Juneau, in my opinion.  Actually I can only think of three days this month so far that were sunny and over 65 degrees.  For my midwest friends this probably seems shocking.  I just try to not think about it too much.  :)  So now you know why I refer to our spring time as summer.  The calendar may say that May and early June are spring, but that's when we get our best summer like weather.  Then usually sometime around the middle of June it's as if the rainy season starts.  We occasionally get a couple of nice stretches of weather in late June and July, but unfortunately we've only gotten one this year.  I'm not complaining too much about it this year since the crummy weather lets us stay indoors and get some much needed cleaning and organizing done before the baby comes.  At least the sun came out for a bit this month, even it it was about two weeks ago.  We tried to make the most of it anyway!

We started out with a trip to the beach with some friends.  And wouldn't you know it, but I didn't get my act together and take my camera out of the bag until after our friends had left. 

We all had a good time soaking up some natural vitamin D.

Even the baby!

And then there was all the fun of digging in the sand.

And finally posing long enough for momma to take a picture!

More fun building sand castles.

Then the next day we took a short walk along my favorite trail--the Airport Trail.  They've done a lot of construction on this area since last summer, so things looked very different.  One of the main highlights for the kids, as always, is having front row seats for an airplane landing.  So cool for them!

Then it was momma's highlight--pictures with the pretty fireweed.

Amazing that the shot of them together turned out decently.

Hope your enjoying your summer days.  And if you're not in Juneau, enjoy some heat and sunshine for me since they seems a bit scarce up here this year.

Salmonberry Freezer Jam

Life continues to be busy around our house as we get ready for baby #3.  Tomorrow is my official due date, but I had a doctor's appointment this morning and it doesn't seem like I'll be in the hospital in the next two days.  We shall see though.  With both of our older children, I didn't have much "warning" before labor started.  I was always just doing my normal thing and intending to go about my planned activities the next day when labor started during the night.  So we'll see when this little one decides to make it's appearance.

**********************************

About 2 weeks ago now, the kids and I did some berry picking.  Our berry of choice was the salmonberry.  I think I've heard of these berries before this summer, but definitely not before we lived in Alaska.  They may grow in other areas, but I don't remember ever seeing them in Oregon.  Even though I think I'd heard of them, I didn't know what they or the bush they grew on actually looked like.  So of course, I didn't know what they tasted like either.  I'd have to say that a fair amount of what I have learned about Salmonberries this summer has come from my 5 year old daughter.  She did some salmonberry picking with her aunt about three weeks ago and soaked up a bunch of knowledge that she shared with me. 

Salmonberries look a lot like raspberries, but are rounder.  They also come in two colors: yellow and red.  The yellow ones especially look like clusters of salmon eggs hanging from their bushes.

After picking a few more berries with Shawn a couple of days later, (I thought) we finally had enough to make a batch of salmonberry jam.  I got my recipe (and some more knowledge) from a book a friend gave me called, Alaska's Wild Berries. Unfortunately when we got home, I realized that we only had enough to make 2/3 of a recipe.  I say unfortunately, because that required some painful math to make an otherwise simple recipe.

First we took our berries and smashed them.

And smashed some more.  Don't ask me why she was wearing pj's.  It was a Sunday afternoon, so she had to change her clothes before we went back to church that evening.

After removing 1 cup of the seeds, we strained the juice from the rest of the seeds.  Salmonberries have a lot of seeds.

Then we added back the reserved seeds to the juice and added some sugar.

Then we boiled 2/3 of a box of pectin with some water.  The sentence before doesn't sound like the math was that complicated, but since one box isn't exactly1 cup, things were less than simple.  I finally just measured it by weight with my kitchen scale.

While I got the freezer jars ready....

The little missy stirred the juice/seed/sugar mixture with the pectin/water mixture.

And she mixed some more.

Then we poured the hot jam mixture into the jars.  After sitting out for 24 hours, they were ready for the freezer.  Probably one of the easiest and tastiest jam recipes I've made before.  Unfortunately we only got 4 jars of it, but that's probably enough for our family.  Now I just need to make some homemade bread to slather some of this jam on.  Mmm.

What berries are you enjoying this summer?

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Before my adult years, I don't think I had ever really tried rhubarb.  I'm not sure if it was because my one of my parents didn't care for it, so we just never had it growing up or if I just thought it would be too tart and I wouldn't like it.  We'll I believe the first time I ever tried it was when we had been married for about two years and were living in Japan.  A friend of ours (Jim Holmes) grew rhubarb in his garden and gave us some stalks.  Shawn was so excited about getting fresh rhubarb, but I had no idea what to do with it.  Plus I didn't understand why he was so excited about something like rhubarb anyway.  Fortunately, my mom had sent me a Family Circle magazine several months before--just for some light reading in English that was sometimes hard to find in Japan.  Well, anyway, I remembered that there was a recipe using rhubarb in that magazine.  Not knowing what else to do with the pink stalks, I put the recipe to the test.  I remember liking it and my new husband being content with how we'd used this precious garden harvest.  I'm not even sure if I ever made this again while we were living in Japan, but we enjoyed it so I hung on to the little magazine clipping.

Fast forward several years, we were back in America, living in Alaska of all places, raising our first child, newly pregnant with our second child, and had just bought our first home.  (In fact, the friends who helped us move into our home didn't even know I was pregnant and made some comment about us having an extra crib mattress. :-) )  Well, buying a house in Alaska in late January means you're probably gonna find some "treasures" in the yard come March or April when everything melts.  By far the best treasure we inherited were the mature rhubarb plants in the backyard.  The other backyard "treasures" were just too numerous to list!  Since the first summer in our home, I've made this recipe several times and it's definitely one of my favorite rhubarb dishes.

This summer I made it for the first time about a week ago.  I know, what took me so long, right?  Well I've been trying new rhubarb recipes--I just love the stuff!  And I know understand why my husband was so excited about getting some from our friend in Japan all those years ago.  Anyway, the experimenting was fun, but it was time to make the "old faithful recipe".  I also need to exchange this recipe with a couple of ladies at church, so posting it on the blog is a great way to get it in a written format I can share.  And I need to share it soon, so I can get their rhubarb recipes.  So here it is.  Even if you don't have a patch of rhubarb in your backyard, this recipe can be made with about three stalks.  So it shouldn't be too much to buy a few stalks at the grocery store if you'd like to try it yourself.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
(adapted from the tattered Family Circle magazine clipping)

Heat oven to 350*.

Crumb Topping:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup oats (old fashioned or quick)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
6 Tablespoons butter, melted

In a medium sized bowl, stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger until well blended.  Stir in the melted butter until the mixture is evenly moistened and crumbly.

Fruit mixture:
2 cups diced rhubarb (1/2 pound)
18 medium-large strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered if large
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons constarch
a little less than 1 cup water
about 2 Tablespoons white wine

Coat a 2-quart oval baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.  In the baking dish, mix together the rhubarb and strawberries.  In a small saucepan, stir together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and corn starch.  In a 1 cup measuring cup, put about 2 Tablespoons of white wine.  Fill the rest of the 1 cup with water and add to the saucepan.  (Or if you don't care for the wine flavor, you can just put in 1 cup of water.)  Mix until smooth.  Over medium-high heat, cook the sugar mixture, stirring occasionally, until it thickens, about three minutes.  Pour over the rhubarb and strawberry mixture and mix.  Top evenly with the crumb mixture.

Bake at 350* until bubbly and the topping is browned, about 40-45 minutes.

If desired (and really why wouldn't you desire this!) serve with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ahhh, the perfect summer dessert!  At least, if you ask me.

Pillowcase Dresses

A few weeks ago now, our little girly had a birthday party to attend for one of her friends that we go to church with.  And our church family is particularly blessed with an abundance of boys, so the girls really have to stick together.  I'm really glad these two girls have each other.  So when it came time for this birthday party, I thought of my friend, Amy and how she made some pillowcase dresses for her daughter and daughter's friend for a birthday gift.  So after not finding what I was looking for on the internet, I emailed Amy to get the links that she had used. This one was what I was looking for, but it didn't have pictures and that's what I've come to appreciate with craft blogs.  So I decided to take pictures of my process as I used the steps from the ehow article Amy sent me.  Hope you enjoy this photo tutorial.

To make 2 coordinating pillowcase dresses in about size 5/6, I purchased: 2 yards of coordinating fabric (1 yard of each), 1-3 yard spool of 7/8" ribbon and coordinating thread.
To cut the fabric, measure from the back of the child's neckline to the finished length + 2 inches for seam allowance and cut your fabric to this length.  For me the measurement was 23 inches.  So 23+2=25 inches.  With my fabric folded in half, I just cut it into a long 25 inch rectangle.  I also added a 6 inch piece of the coordinating fabric to make a band around the seam.  And I think I also used a 1/4" seam allowance unless otherwise mentioned.  (On the second dress, I made that coordinating band 8", just to make it a bit wider.)

Now time to press:
With the wrong side facing up, press the top edge of the fabric in a 1/4" all the way around.

Then fold and press 1".  (You're prepping the casing for the ribbon around the neckline.)

Then I pressed that 6 inch piece in half, so it's now 3 inches.  (On the second dress, I pressed the 8" piece in half making a 4" piece.)

With right sides together, I pinned and then sewed the double sided 3 inch band to the bottom of the main fabric piece.  Then I pressed the seam up toward the main fabric.

Next, fold the fabric so right sides are together.  Measure 6 inches down from the top of the casing folds.   Mark with a pin.  This will be the top of the one side seam and the bottom of one armhole.  Now sew up this side seam.

Then I went back down to the bottom of the dress and sewed a top stitch to keep the band laying nicely.  This was about 1/8" seam allowance.

Now back up to the armholes.  On the folded side, you will need to measure 6" from the top of the folded casing, mark it, and cut the fold apart.  NOTE: If I make these again, I'll be doing the armholes differently.  Either, I will trim the fabric for the armholes at a curve or just finish the edges with bias tape.  It was really hard to get the seam right on the corner around the folded side.

But I followed the directions I was using and folded the armhole edges in 1/4" on the selvage edge, and 1/4" plus one more 1/4" fold on the raw/cut edge.  Then I sewed these seams, but it was really tricking.  Not my favorite part of the dress.

Then it was time to sew down the casing.  I did this seam really close to the edge of the casing fold.

Lastly you put a safety pin on one end of the ribbon and feed it through the  casing to the other side.  Singe the ribbon edges and tie in bows.  And that's really it!  Not too bad, pretty quick.

Here are the girls in their dresses on Sunday morning.  They seemed to like coordinating.

But most of all they liked to twirl together!  And who can blame them?

Homemade Ice Cream

My, my, my...the month of July is already flying by for us.  I can't believe that we're already into double digit dates and I'm just now putting up my third post of the month.  I suppose I better get used to it, since July is just going to get busier with my due date for #3 being July 22nd.  Lest you think I've been laying around with zero energy these last few days, I assure you our days have been full of projects and activities.  Thanks to some friends taking my kids for a few hours a couple of days this week, I've gotten quite a big of necessary nesting done.  I just haven't been able to do as much blogging as I normally like to.

Another thing about July--or rather a fun fact--is that it's National Ice Cream Month.  Now this is a holiday I can really get into!  And actually we have, even before we realized the official celebration.  Shawn and I started getting the bug to make homemade ice cream in late May when we were having some fabulous summer weather.  Our first recipe was a basic (no cook/egg) vanilla that I got out of the little owners manual that came with our ice cream freezer/maker.  Incidentally, we got our maker as a wedding gift from Bob McCoy (and his wife, but I can't remember her name right now) from Pocatello.
Anyway, the vanilla was good, but I was wishing it didn't melt so quickly.  So for our next ice cream adventure I went looking for a custard recipe--one with cooked eggs.  We tried this chocolate recipe and it was fabulous!  It truly lived up to all it's reviews.  In fact, do I dare say it could be better than Haagen Das?  I'm sure some of you will want to take the blindfolded taste test yourself.  If you're in our area, I'm sure we'll be making more of it this summer, so you could come over--with your own pint of Haagen Das--and try it for yourself.  I'll even supply the blindfolds!

Here's a lucky little lady enjoying the chocolate ice cream in a cone.

Then when I found peaches on sale at the store a few weeks ago, I had to get some to make something with. At the time I hadn't decided on exactly what, maybe crisp or a pie.  But finally I decided on ice cream.  Then I went searching for a recipe and found one called Georgia Peach Ice Cream.  I figured if anyone knew how to make anything with peaches it would be a Georgian. I had to convince Shawn to try this recipe though since it didn't have eggs in it and we were both so impressed with the cooked egg chocolate recipe.  I'm glad we made it though.  It was delicious!  And it even passed the test of a native born Georgian as well as some other friends at a cookout the other night.

Here it is with and without the flash.  I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

Next, there's two recipes I'd like to try.  One is called Cinnamon Ice Cream.  I know that may sound a bit weird.  But I was curious as to why it had so many stars and so many top reviews.  So after reading a few reviews, I decided we're gonna have to try it for ourselves.  228 cooks can't be that wrong, right?
The other recipe I want to try soon is a Peanut Butter Ice Cream with chunks of chocolate peanut butter cups in it.  That just sounds like a perfect combination to me.
Again, if you're in the area, we'd be happy to share some of our frozen treats with you.  Just come on over and bring a spoon!

So what are your favorite summer treats?

Sights from the 4th

We had a pretty good, but wet 4th of July this year.  The fabulous weather we had last year really set some high expectations for me.  I mean look at this picture I took last year.  You can almost see the sweat and warmth of the day on her face.

This year was about as opposite of weather as you could get.  But despite the cool weather and rain, we still got out and did just about everything we did last year. And now that we've been here a few years, we've learned there are some "must sees" to a proper Juneau 4th of July celebration.  Here's a photo recap of how we checked all the necessary details off our list to celebrate the birth of our country.

fire engines at the parade...check

the police department color guard...check

the Juneau Volunteer Marching Band...check

(apparently this trombone player didn't get the memo to wear a crazy hat)

(oh, whew!  she got the memo)

the Philippino community parade entry...check (always a highlight)

(Only problem this year is that their colorful bird costumes scared the living daylights out of the little missy.  She was cowering behind me when she saw them making their way back up the street on the outbound side of the road.)

the toe tapping beat from the percussion group of the Phillippino community parade entry...check

the Phillippino princesses...check

(not sure how this gets decided...maybe it was just Shirley's turn to be queen this year?)

classic cars with waving politicians...check

classic cars with flames spitting out the back...check

shriners in mini cars...check

little girls in kilts and xtra tuff boots (this is Juneau after all)...check

bagpipe players following the kilted girls...check

ballerina's with tutus and xtra tuffs (told you this was Juneau)...check

cops on bike patrol...check

heavy equipment from one of the local mines...check

cute kids watching the parade...double check

a fun fireworks show to finish off the night...check

Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July celebrations whether they were familiar sights or new ones.