"Healthy" Cookies

I feel so much better when I limit or take out flour out of my diet. These cookies are great because they don't have flour. They don't have butter either! And, they are so very yummy. They would be great for a Valentines Day treat.

Flourless (gluten free) chocolate walnut cookies

low in bad fat, high in protein

2 1/2 c. walnuts (or pecans)
3 c. powdered sugar (I cut this in half and they were plenty sweet for me)
1/2 c. + 3 T. cocoa powder
1/4 t. salt
4 egg whites
1 T. vanilla (GMO free)
dark chocolate kisses or other dark choc. pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Finely chop walnuts and spread in thin layer of baking sheet and bake 9 min until toasted.
Mix sugar, cocoa, salt and then stir into walnuts.
Add egg whites and vanilla.
Beat with fork or mixer until JUST mixed--not too much.
Drop batter by teaspoonful onto baking sheet.
Bake about13 minutes.
Add dark chocolate pieces while cookies are still warm.
Delicious!!

Juicing!

Once when I was feeling like I was in a slump physically and just didn't have the energy I thought I should have, I remembered the carrot juice my Mom used to make for me and I bought a juicer. It actually did help my energy and I juiced religiously for quite a while. Then we moved and it got stuck in the back of the cupboard and I thought about it sometimes but didn't take the time to juice. Lately, I'm feeling great but sometimes think about the benefits of juicing and on one such day I took out a bunch of produce from the fridge and made some yummy juice after a long six mile hike. So good! It feels like organic, alive, nutrient-rich juice energizing the cells in my body! I'm going to have to start juicing again!


I had drank most before remembering to take a picture!

February ramblings and random pics of Micah

So here it is, February. I feel like I've been slacking in the blogging area but really we haven't been doing much. And we've been sick. Don't even get me started on how terrible the past week has been. A mother should not have to ever be able to be sick. Their are just too many people for her to take care of. I was dreaming of being sick and actually getting to rest.... someday. And when the husband/father is sick as well.... it's just too hard. Three of the kids were sick and needy and it was just not fun at our house. I'm glad I'm starting to feel better. It will help me tackle my problems of everyday life better. One of my big problems right now is my student teaching looming in my horizon. I only have two classes left that I will complete this spring. Then I only have my student teaching to complete next fall in order to graduate. I knew all that. What I didn't realize was that student teaching was a full time deal. Neither Micah or I are ready for me to be teaching full time! But I want to graduate too. I may, well.. probably will have to put it off. Too bad. I was just completing my education for the security of having it and knowing that someday I will probably want to/like to teach. My academic adviser was highly frustrated with me and I finally had to tell her that my family was my top priority, way above anything else and they had to come first. I told her that I take my job as a mother very seriously. She just couldn't understand why I would have trouble putting my baby in day care. Anyway, that has been on my mind. Enough rambling. I need to get on with my day. I'm posting some random pictures of Micah. He's a funny little guy and so fun to spend my days with.

So excited about new shoes!

Enamored with the new dog crate.

Micah LOVES to line up his cars (Jacen did too) and he has quite a lot of them since Linnea bought him a whole bucketful for Christmas.

70 degree January

We're enjoying our summer in January!
70 degrees

It's Potty Time

Yep, I got him a potty chair and its Cars and when you "flush" it makes an engine revving noise.
He's still pretty young (19 months) but he's been telling me when he needs to go to the bathroom or when he's gone to the bathroom so I thought we'd just get a potty chair and see what happens. I'm not going to push him. So far, he hasn't gone in it but likes to use it to store toys and the remote. Oh, he loves his Thomas the Train underpants that he picked out.

School on their Day Off

On Martin Luther King's birthday holiday from school, we still went to school. It's near our house, has a great playground, fenced, hang out for deer (which Micah loves) and the kindergarten playground is different for my kids who don't play there during school hours.

We saw SO many of these cool mushrooms on our way walking to the school. Their should be a toad or a mouse hiding under one! (:

We brought cars to play with!

Linnea rode her bike!

Micah wanted to ride it SO badly so I helped him.

It was SUCH a gorgeous day! Who gets a warm, sunny 70 degree day in January?!
Really, it was warm enough for the beach, but the school was just fine.

Gingerbread Boys and Girl

I'm finally getting around to posting these but we were late doing them too. I make gingerbread houses with the kids every year. Some times we buy a kit and sometimes I make from scratch. This year I had no motivation to make them but the kids kept wanting to. Christmas came and went and still we didn't. Then I saw these gingerbread kits at Trader Joes and they were even marked down to 99 cents because it was after Christmas so I got them and the kids were happy with them. Maybe next year I will want to do the whole house scha-bang. We'll see. I'd be more inclined if I knew the kids thought of it as art work and less of it as how much candy can I stick on this thing to be able to eat later. (:

No Pregnancy

I guess I announced too soon.
I am the girl who conceives super easily and
carries her babies without any trouble at all.
Not this time.
Miscarriage at 8 weeks.
I am fine and feeling fine.
I was happy to be having a baby but I realize that miscarriages are
nature's way of dealing with potential problems.
I guess this pregnancy wasn't meant to be.
It is difficult to transition back into the mode that I'm not pregnant any more.
And I feel sad that my children will be sad about it.

Anyhow... on to normality. (If their is such a thing!)

Can I Just Say?

Can I just say how much I love Anthropologie?
These shoes were on my wishlist.
Being the frugal girl that I am, I was patiently waiting for a sale.
They went on sale and within an hour they were all sold out.
So I started checking ebay. None.
I had dreams about these shoes two nights in a row. Is that weird?
So I called Anthropologie and told them that I had to have these shoes. They located one single pair in my size in Colorado. I called and got the amazing sale price and they were shipped out free shipping that same day.
And...shoes are so worth it. My size never fluctuates. (:
YAY!

A Positive Test and A Scare

The first time I posted this picture, it ended up HUGE so I decided to trade it out for a smaller version, unsure if you really want a huge picture of my pee sticks glaring at you in the face. (:

Yes, it was a Surprise.
Yes, my husband made me go buy a whole pack of tests to double and triple check the first.

We found out the Wednesday before Christmas and told our families over Christmas.
My siblings thought it would be fun to play a little joke with it and let my parents know that one of us was pregnant but didn't tell which one. They didn't even suspect it was me. When they found out I think they were disappointed. They wanted it to be my brother and his wife.

I am 6 weeks and a few days and guess my due date is late August but planning on mid August since my doctor induces me two weeks early for my huge babies.

The kids are excited.
Gavin is already picking out names that no parent who loved their child would even think about.

Albert and I are getting more used to the idea.
I'm bracing myself for a long and difficult pregnancy. Not fun. But I know it will be worth it.
I can't believe we will have FIVE! Yikes.
But more than that, Micah and the baby will only be 2 years and 4 months apart. Some can do that distancing well. I usually need several years. Seriously, I'm still nursing Micah. I don't know if I can be ready for another baby by the end of summer. I guess I have to.

I know that we'll look back someday and wonder how our family ever felt complete without this little person.

So, on to the Scare.

Yesterday I got up and went running.
I came home and a couple of hours later I started cramping really badly. I looked it up on the internet and it seemed kind of normal. I lied down for a while.
Albert came home not feeling really well.
I started cramping up worse and wondered if this pregnancy could be an ectopic pregnancy. I had one about five years ago and nearly died from it. Having one increases ones chances of having another. I called the doctor and they told me to immediately go to Ryan Ranch and have an ultrasound done. We got in the car right away with the three younger children. Jacen was in the garage room playing x box and we didn't even take the time to tell him we were leaving or where we were going. We drove out highway 68 and passed the hospital to get to highway 1 to take to Ryan Ranch. I was in a LOT of pain. At that point I was sure it was a tubal pregnancy because of the amount of pain I was in. I felt myself struggling to keep coherency and conscientiousness. I could feel dark fog trying to cover my mind. I was trying to fight it. I could hear Albert (from what seemed like a very long ways away) asking me if I could hear him. I struggled to answer. I wondered if this was what it felt like to die. I thought maybe if I let myself go into the fog, I wouldn't feel the pain. That is when I lost consciousness and Albert did a quick and illegal u-turn to head to the hospital emergency room that we had just passed. He said I looked as white as a sheet and dripping with sweat. I awoke looking at the emergency signs and in no time was being wheeled up in a wheel chair. I don't think I could have stood at that point. I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I was taken immediately into a room and within minutes I was changed into a gown and blood was drawn and an IV in me. The nurse explained that if it were an ectopic pregnancy, it was life threatening, which I well knew.

The good news? The ultrasound showed that it was not an ectopic pregnancy. I started feeling better and my stomach cramping lightened immensely. The doctor concluded that it was merely a bad gastrointestinal virus that my body was dealing with harshly perhaps because of my pregnancy. I wonder if I panicked because of the last tubal pregnancy episode and that made everything worse. At least all is well now and it was only a scare. I grateful to my sweet husband to take care of me and for my sister who graciously came and got the children. And when we arrived home... Jacen was still playing x box and didn't even know we had left. He was probably pleasantly surprised not to be asked to get off and come in.