Day 2

This morning I woke up to Little Man crawling into bed with me and waking me up, so at my first alarm the two of us woke up his sisters and the morning began.  I got the girls ready and out the door with daddy.  I started getting Little Man breakfast and started thinking I was too sore and tired to do anything today.  My next thought was how I am no longer fitting comfortable into clothing that was fine this spring.  We have had an absolutely insane summer and my coping mechanisms have been terrible. (Like one pint of ice cream in a sitting more than once a week, terrible.) Which have started to wane a bit, but I'm feeling the effects anyway.  So I put on comfortable clothes, turned on Issues ETC. on my iPod and set the timer for 15 minutes.  (I realize that it is only half of my time from yesterday, but I had to get to work, and something has to be better than nothing, right?!)  I "jogged" the first two laps around the yard and then walked for about 7 minutes, then jagged two laps and walked the rest.

I am super tired and achy today, but I hope I can keep up the momentum.

A New Habit, Day 1

Alright, I am trying something new.  I am going to start a new habit and try to track it here.  I should have posted this yesterday, but I didn't have time.

September 16, 2014

♪ For the first time in forever... ♪
 Ok , seriously, for the first time in a really long time I went to bed thinking I should wake up and work out. So this morning I woke up (1/2 hour after I planned too), and went outside to jog. I set my timer for 30 minutes, jogged for 2 minutes, switched to walking and walked the whole time, except one quick water break. I'm really excited that I did that, but also fairly certain I am now going to die. So loved ones, please check in on Leif and the family for me. :)

Celebrating our Little Man's Baptism

I'm back!  I have had a lot of post ideas lately, but haven't had a chance to write them down.  Hopefully I will get to them soon.  Today is the first anniversary of our little man's baptism.  Straight up, I am writing this post so I can always track down my recipe for the Coventry cakes.  However, when we were researching how to celebrate a baptism birthday I found a serious lack of places to look.  I ended up searching Lutheran, Catholic, and a random Britsh history page for ideas.  I just wanted to share our new traditions in the hope that it would help someone else when looking for ideas for their own families.

If you have read my other post on baptism, you know that I was raised Baptist and have now started the journey toward Lutheranism.  My husband is farther along on this journey than I am.  However, we have decided as a family to have our children baptized and to celebrate this.  My feeling is that if we are going to do it, then I want to know why and do it well.  So we have come up with a family tradition that we now do for each member of our family on his/her baptism birthday.

We start by letting the family know that the baptism birthday is coming up so that everyone is excited, like on their birth birthday. Our girls are getting to the question stage, so we answer questions and get them excited.  The next thing we do is make coventry cakes.  (I think this is actually what the girls are most excited about right now.)  During my research, I discovered something called a coventry godcake.  This was a British tradition in some places where it was good luck for a godparent to give these to their godchildren on special occasions.  You can read more about that here, http://globalcookies.blogspot.com/2007/10/england-coventry-godcakes.html. This seemed perfect for us to serve as a special treat.  We only make these for the baptism birthday celebrations.  I will have the instuctions at the end of this post, with the meanings we talk about with the kiddos.  This is something we have morphed into our own, but I really like it.  This year the girls are 3 and have been able to help me make these, so it is a family event.  The actual birthday celebration begins after supper.  When we are done eating our family supper, my husband lights the baptism candle.  Right now little man is the only one who has his own.  In lieu of our own candles, until I get around to finding and ordering ones for the rest of us, we use plain white candles.  After the candle is lit, my husband reads something appropriate.  Right now this usually just consists of the "Prayer in Remembrance of Holy Baptism" from the Lutheran Book of Prayer.  (Side note: The first time we celebrated one, my hubby had a very long reading picked out and it ended with our very small girls crying for the cakes. We now will adjust as the kiddos get older.)  After the reading we let the birthday boy/girl blow out their candle.  We then talk about the meanings of the coventry cakes and baptism while we eat the cakes.  This makes for a really cool evening for the family.  As the kids get older, we will have them call their godparent/baptismal sponser too.  I know this isn't a perfect system, or right for everyone.  However, if anyone else is looking for ideas, I hope this helps.

Here are the instructions for the coventry cakes that I make.  (Mostly so I don't misplace it again)  Please keep in mind that this is not a cooking blog. :)

Halvorson Coventry Cakes
Puff pastry
Nutella
powdered sugar
milk

First, we get a package of puff pastry from the freezer section of the grocery store.
 (I should add that I like this partly because it is easy.) Preheat the oven to 400F. After following the thawing instructions, I roll out the dough a bit and then cut it square again. I then cut the square into 9 smaller sqares (a 3x3 grid) and cut each smaller square diagonally once. This gives you a top and bottom for each cake. The triangle shape represents the trinity. Then cut three slits in the top piece, to represent the wounds of Christ. I have never done anything to the bottom piece, but today the bottoms puffed up and a couple flipped up on end, so next time I think I will poke the bottoms a few times with a toothpick so they bake flat. Then, add a tsp of filling to the middle of the bottom piece. We use Nutella, but the original recipe called for a mincemeat filling. Place the top onto the bottom, you can pinch the corners together if you wish. 

Bake for 15 min, or golden brown.  You can see in the picture below that two of them are up on end.

Let cool.  After they cool I place them on a special plate and make a quick glaze of powdered sugar and milk to drizzle over the top.  This represents the white of being washed clean in baptism. Enjoy.

Upon relection of having one child gone

One of our daughters went out of town this weekend with her Oma. With having her sister gone I have been able to see things more clearly that have been developing in our more passive daughter. 

She is sneaky.  This is good and bad.  I think this helps her get things she wants when her more dominant sister is around.  I think this means she also gets away with things I don't usually realize.  This morning she told me that someone was knocking on the door.  While I was downstairs checking, she was able to locate, open, close and return the cookie tin.  Had she not had a mouthful of cookie, I wouldn't have known she was in them. 

She definately has opinions.  We usually see her conceeding to her sister's desires.  She tends to be our peacemaker.  One day I heard the girls arguing and she turned around and asked "Mommy, do I like pink?"  I in turn asked her if she did.  And she said yes.  I told her that she did then, in fact like pink.  However, she definately has opinions and has been expressing them quite frequently.

She likes to talk.  Ok, I'm not a complete idiot, I knew this.  However, I am always amazed when I get to have one-on-one time with one of the girls and listen to their personality pour out in sentences.

Even though I have missed my daughter a lot while she has been on her adventure with Oma, it has been fun to see her sister individually.  I am excited to watch them blossom and develop as two different people as they grow, and I will treasure these moments I get to see them individually shine.

The Girls' Baptism Birthday and Reflection

Today is the girls' second baptism birthday.  In the last year and a half my husband and I have been attending a Lutheran church.  This change has been a struggle for me in many ways because I grew up in a Baptist church.  Although my big turn around was realizing that, for the most part, the way I grew up and what I am learning now are two completely different points of view in many different ways.  Take baptism for example.  I grew up with the view point that you are baptized with full immersion after accepting the lord as your Savior, because it is what the Bible tells you to do.  It is a symbol of being buried in Christ and born again a new creation.  I also grew up with the point of view that baptizing infants was completely ridiculous because they cannot "repent and be baptized" as in Acts 2:38. Oh, and how dare they only sprinkle them!  When I married my hubby we would visit this topic about once a year for a week and then agree to disagree.  However, when we were pregnant with the girls, we had to actually make a decision on how to handle this for our household.  It took me a year of research and study to realize I couldn't find anything in the scriptures to say that baptizing my babies would send them to hell.  Baptizing them was also really important to my husband and being head of the household, he got the last say anyway.  So, I told him we better schedule it before they turned one and were no longer infants. :)  So, on March 27, 2010 our girls were baptized into Christ at Bethel Lutheran Home.  However, my interest in the subject has not waned.  The big turning point for me was when I read (sorry, I really don't remember where) that by saying He was not capable of giving a helpless infant belief we were doubting God's power.  This is where I really started to understand that it was a complete change of perspective.  To a Lutheran, we are all completely depraved and helpless like an infant.  The fact that God gives any of us belief is as unconprehensible as giving an infant belief.  We are the ones who put worth on our knowledge and age.  To tell you the truth I am still trying to balance the way I grew up with my new found information.  But I have to say, I think the Lutherans have a point.  Who am I to say I can understand God's will any better than my girls can understand mine at times.  I mean really, they think they are big girls too.  However, they still don't understand why I say no to a snack when they are hungry, even though I know it is because dinner is in 20 minutes.  I really don't know where I fit anymore, I think I am somewhere between a Baptist and a Lutheran.  However, I gotta say I really like the reasoning behind sprinkling.  Because how much do you really need for baptism to count? :)  Happy baptism birthday girls!

Thoughts On Being A House Wife

Hello again! I apparently have an off again, on again (mostly off again) relationship with blogging.  I get ideas on what to put down, and then all of a sudden, it has been several months.  My husband keeps encouraging me to put my thoughts down and I decided today was a good day.  Today I have been thinking a lot about my life.  I should premise by saying I never ever, ever in my previous life wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.  I had decided that I paid all that money for college and was not going to "waste my time" at home.  This didn't change until after my girls were born and I went back to work.  I missed them, and being involved in daily activities.  My husband switched jobs and we moved to MT for many reasons, one of which being that we would have more time with the kids.  It has been a big adjustment.  We used to share most of the household duties pretty evenly.  We both cooked and cleaned, and it made sense because we had the same work hours.  I have had to adjust my thinking about not expecting him to do as much at home.  Don't get me wrong, my husband is a GREAT helper.  However, this is now my job and I had to get used to the duties.  It isn't always easy, but I don't want to sit here and complain.  Today I want to reflect on the good things.  I realized today that I am actually gratified by this.  I have enjoyed being with our children, but I didn't recognize that I relish the whole package.  I love being home with the kids, cleaning, cooking, and attending activities.  I have become one of "those moms" I never thought I would be.  I do dishes to relieve steam when I am angry, love teaching my children little things throughout the day, and experimenting in the kitchen.  In the last year, I have learned how to make homemade yogurt and bread and improved A LOT in the kitchen.  This is what I was thinking about while shaving a pork roast on my mandolin slicer for lunch meat.   A year ago, I would have eaten it for 3 night in a row and forgotten about it in the fridge.  I am proud to be a person that stays home and it is in no way a waste of time.  But I also need to acknowledge that I am unbelievable impressed by the role models in my life.  My mom and grandma still amaze me, they reached all of these milestones without technology.  I must confess, with out Google, my family would probably starve to death and we would all be going insane!  I know this was a lot about me, but I had to write this down while I was thinking about it.  Hopefully, this blog will be slightly better kept up in the future :)

Adventures in Potty Training

As the mother of twin 2 year old girls, my life is now nearly totally consumed by potty training. I am really starting to wonder if I should take up residence in the bathroom. As I finally got to shower at 2pm this afternoon, I was thinking about the things people never tell you about having toddlers. So I've decided to compile a list of a few that have taken me by surprise.

~Even though my kids are toddlers, a successful day may include feeding everyone AND getting a shower.
~I may get covered in poo
~I never thought I could be so proud of someone going potty in the potty chair
~I know the inside and out of the Disney Junior lineup
~I will get covered in poo
~Just because one twin is ready to potty train, doesn't mean the other one is interested
~Potty training with a pregnancy gag reflex is not smart
~I am not the only thing that will get covered in poo
~Children are amazing to watch
~They learn things even when I don't realize I am teaching them
~I didn't realize how many questions I could get in one day

I have also realized that I don't mind these things as much as I thought, because along with the "drop everything" bathroom runs and being a human jungle gym, I get to watch my beautiful girls grow, learn, and love.  I have this precious chance to admire how amazing God truly is!