5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

For school Matt loves to have things he can eat on the way in the morning. I made some blueberry muffins for him. I will put them in little zip locks and freeze them, then we can take a few out at a time. It works great! I love recipes the use sour cream. For some reason I find them to be the most moist. These were VERY good!

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups sour cream
• 2 cups blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 24 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. In large bowl beat eggs, gradually add sugar while beating. Continue beating while slowly pouring in oil. Stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda.
3. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream. Gently fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Homemade Pizza night!

{{{best part, it's for the bread machine. Makes it real but easy}}}

NY Style Pizza Crust

2/3 Cup warm water (put it into machine), add:

1 Tbls olive oil

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 tsp cornmeal

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 1/4 cup flour

put 2 tsp yeast on top of the flour

Set machine on dough setting.

About an hour and a half later this is what you'll have!

I put olive oil on a baking sheet and then sprinkle some cornmeal on top of that.

Dump dough onto the pan

Pat it out like this. I put it in the oven for a little bit before I put any toppings on it. Otherwise its very hard to get the crust done and the toppings not burned.

I did sliced tomatoes and feta cheese

Put a little sauce on top, then feta..

Then tomatoes..

Then mozzarella on top of that

And it's done! It was so good! Loved the feta because of the little bit of bite that it gives it. We love feta on anything:)

We had been looking at ways to repel bugs (mainly mosquitos) from Mylah w/o having to put actual bug spray on her. Also looked into those clip on ones but read that they shouldn't be inhaled, especially by young children. So, then Matt started looking at some natural ways to deal w/ bugs. He bought three citronella plants! These are the flowers from them. We haven't really had much of a chance to use them or see if they work. We've only gone out for walks in the dark or rain and the mosquitos aren't really out then.

Russian Sage

Hollyhocks. They were so, so pretty this year. Matt and I decided we will need more of them next year. The only ones we have, I believe, are the ones that were here when we bought the house and we just moved some into the full sun and they took off! They were the some funny back spot that was all shade. We are planning on getting many different colors for next year. They last a long time, too, because they have to bloom working their way up the whole stalk.

Phlox. We really only have this shade of purple. They are very pretty, though!

This is Summer! I am so thrilled that it's SUMMER. I don't do all that well in the Winter months. And I have a very hard time loving and appreciating things around me other then heat, headed mattress pads and blankets. And those aren't that fun to take pictures of;-)

Hen & Chicks

This might not seem like a very big deal to some...

But I have Hen and Chicks that are living! Not only living, but growing, thriving and looking so good! I have never been able to grow them, not anywhere, not in anything and not for any amount of time. I finally found a spot they like I guess and I'm so thrilled!

Kisses, kisses & more kisses

WHY MOTHERS KISS THEIR BABIES

BY: Judie Rall

After a baby is born, it is natural to see the mother kissing the baby. One would think this is simply because of the emotional bond that has formed between mother and child. While this is true, there are also other very compelling biochemical reasons why it occurs. These reasons reinforce the understanding that our bodies have inner wisdom which we seldom recognize or trust. Just as our bodies know how to give birth even if we don’t have intellectual knowledge of the process, our bodies’ biological systems also have reasons for the complex social interplay between mother and baby. It just goes to show that, more than ever, we should trust our mothering instincts.

Five Senses

When an animal gives birth, you will notice that the mother spends a lot of time licking her young. This exposes her five senses to the young so that she knows the taste, smell, feel, sound and sight of her new baby. In this way, a mother claims her child as her own.

When a human mother births a baby in an environment which allows her immediate and free access to her child, you will notice that over a period of time she performs certain behaviours called “claiming behaviours.” She will caress the child, explore the softness of the baby’s skin, and probably count and fondle the unique little fingers and toes.

She probably marvels visually over how much the baby looks like her or her husband or another family member. She will notice the colour of the hair and eyes and other physical features. She hears the baby’s cries and learns to distinguish them from all other cries. As she leans down to kiss the child, she undoubtedly smells the scent of her new baby and through the actual act of kissing; she comes to know the taste of him or her.

Just like an animal mother, she has now exposed her five senses to the baby so she attaches to him or her. She now feels he or she is her own. It is not unusual to find that women who are deprived of the privacy required to create this immediate bonding right after birth often say they feel a distance between them and their baby.

Health Benefits

Claiming behaviours such as kissing provide not only emotional, but biological attachment. There is a very real health benefit for the baby who is kissed.

“When a mother kisses her baby, she ‘samples’ those pathogens that are on the baby’s face. Those are ones that the baby is about to ingest. These samples are taken up by the mother’s secondary lymphoid organs like the tonsils, and memory B cells specific for those pathogens are re-stimulated. These B cells then migrate to the mother’s breasts where they produce just those antibodies that the baby needs.” says Lauren Sompayrac, author of How The Immune System Works.

We talk a lot about breast milk and how it conveys antibodies to the infant helping to prevent illness. However antibodies made for the mother while pregnant are not what the baby needs. He or she needs antibodies for the environment around them that they are in constant contact with now. Kissing her baby is a very important activity beyond its obvious pleasurable and attachment- promoting value. It helps mother claim baby, and helps her body determine the antibodies baby needs in the breast milk.

So mothers, kiss away on those babies!

Copyright 2001 by Judie Rall of Unhindered Living. Reprinted with permission in the Winter 2007 issue of Birthing Magazine.

This fun article is from here.

Isn't it amazing how God designed us and how our bodies work?!

How great is our God??

Favorite carriers and wraps so far:)

I love the Moby. It's like she's still inside me really, only much more still because she's usually sleeping in there. She LOVES the movement and noise of me moving around. The other day I was at the store and there was a couple a few checkout lanes over. The man went to get something they forgot and when he was coming up to pass the lane I was in he stopped and said he thought it was just a shirt I was wearing until I leaned over and he saw Mylah's head!

Matt has yet to try the Moby but he loves the Ergo. I always tease him a little because of how he wears it. Like he's all hunched over or like he has to keep his shoulders up or something. I guess he is new to this whole extra weight of carrying a baby in front of you thing. Me, I've been doing it a while and it's a natural thing for me to put my hand on her like I've still got her floating around inside me. Matt wears her well and she loves her daddy! Here we're shopping at Farm and Fleet - checking out their great kids clearance stuff:)

I have some other wraps/sings that I want to try but think they'll be easier when she can hold her own head up for longer then she does now.

Speaking of the wee one, she's up from a nap so I had better go relieve Oliver from her fussing:)