Resurrection Rolls

The Resurrection cookies were a flop! They didn't rise at all, which wasn't really a surprise. What was a surprise to me was that Kiliegh still wanted to try them. I ended up breaking a piece off of one of the "cookies" and gave it to her to try but noticed that the middle still looked wet, so she only got a taste She loved them and actually wanted more! I had to throw them away to keep her from picking at them! I am going to have to try the recipe again so we can all hopefully get a taste of what these cookies are really suppose to taste like.  

I had a back up plan already planned in case the cookies didn't turn out, I had read that they could be touchy and I ended up finding this recipe on the same blog that I found the Resurrection cookie recipe. This recipe was called "Resurrection Rolls" and the recipe was super simple and fail proof!

All you need is a pack of Crescent Rolls, cinnamon, sugar, butter and large marshmallows. If you want the actual recipe and directions you can go to Mother on a Dime and she will give you everything you need to know!

Jasmine and Kiliegh made the rolls. They were going to be our desert for our Easter dinner. (If you read yesterdays post, then you will remember that our Easter celebration together is actually today.) 

Vada supervised while eating the "faulty" marshmallows in the bag.

The girls gave Justin the honors of being the first to taste their desert and the first to look into the "empty tomb". They were proud of their desert and of their accomplishment and I was happy that it turned out for them and that the story of the Empty Tomb could be fully seen through this baking lesson.

Perfect Whole Wheat Pumpkin Scones

A perfect companion to hot cider, tea or coffee. Good anytime of the day! These whole wheat
pumpkin butterscotch chip scones are just what your Thanksgiving get together needs!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Scones with butterscotch chips and sugar sprinkles.

1C. Whole wheat flour
1C. All Purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Ground All Spice
7T. Unsalted Butter
1/3C. Pumpkin Puree
1/3C. Heavy Cream
6T Brown Sugar (I use dark brown)
1tsp. Vanilla
1/2C. Butterscotch Chips (or any other flavor--white chocolate is also very good! You could also use some sort of dried fruit like cran-raisins or raisins)

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (not required but it makes the clean up much easier). Cut butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back into the fridge. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt and all of the spices (*I don't like All Spice, so I sub extra cinnamon for it. You could do that with all of the spices if you want to.) Wisk together well. Place this bowl in the freezer.

In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar and vanilla. Wisk together well. Put this bowl into the freezer and take the other bowl out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge ans dump them into the bowl of flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a blender. When your where you need to be the mixture should resemble crumbs. Stir in chips or fruit.

Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and poor into the flour/chip mixture all at once. Stir until everything is moistened. The dough should be crumbly. Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured counter. Push pile with your hands into a pile, it should stick together fairly easily. Don't over kneed it. Pat dough into a rough circle about 3/4" thick. Cut like a pie, into about eight pieces. Place dough onto sheet and sprinkle with sugar sprinkles found in the cake /baking isle. Bake scones for about fifteen minutes. They should be light brown on the bottom. The tops will darken as they cool.

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If your not overly fond of 'pumpkin'-- I still have a fabulous scone recipe that is sure to please even the pickiest of picky people. Plus you can tweak it to your liking!

Jasmine making chocolate chip scones-- her favorite!

*Note, in this picture I have Jiffy boxes, they were not for this recipe. Don't substitute Jiffy for flour in this recipe.*

1-3/4 C. All Purpose Flour
1/4C. sugar
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 C. butter
1 egg beaten
1/2 C. chocolate chips (may sub with any flavor of chip, nuts, fruit or all three)
4 to 6 T. of half and half
1 extra egg, beaten, to be used to coat tops of scones

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cover baking sheet with parchment.

In a brown combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles fine crumbs. Stir in (1) egg, chips/fruit/nuts and just enough half and half to make mixture leave the sides of the bowl. Knead slightly. Roll into a circle and then flatten until it is about 3/4" thick. Cut like pie slices. Place pieces on baking sheet about 1/2" apart. Brush remaining (beaten) egg on tops (to help brown tops) sprinkle with sugar sprinkles. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Immediately remove from sheet and place on a cooling rack. Can be stored in a freezer for up to four months!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

Summer's Harvest

Summer is almost over and eleven and eight are that much closer to being back into school. (I took the numbers verses names from another blogging mother that I know-love it!) I look forward to the stability of our days, which comes with the steady schedule that gets enforced once school begins. However, I will miss their voices, laughter and the company that they gave throughout my this summer break. I can honestly say that this is the first summer that they haven't drove me so crazy that I was actually glad school was starting again. I know that may sound bad but sometimes, no matter how fantastic they may be, kids can overwhelm you, especially when there is more than one of them! It seems to me that mine, for the most part, are in a pretty good stage but then again maybe I am too.

We had some slightly alarming news today. I received a call from Vada's Geneticist, it was an expected call, however, the news that came with the call was not. While I think everything will end up being fine, it did tug at my heart strings a bit and push me into some old memories-we've been here before.

 A few weeks ago, while in Peoria, Vada ended up having a lot of lab work drawn, some was at the request of the Geneticist.

This was uploaded that day from my cell, to my Facebook. 

The call today was to give the results from their tests. It turns out that all of her levels, and this is including her Vitamin B12, are normal-except her Methylmalonic Acid levels. I have wrote about MMA and in regards to Vada, here and quite possibly in other places that I just can't think of at the time. The concern is that she isn't just having spikes in her MMA levels but that she has a more serious problem called Methylmalonic Acidemia (MMA) also known as Methylmalonic Aciduria (note if left un-diagnosed or untreated it could cause death, great huh.).  Here and here give's some decent information that's fairly understandable, especially to those who don't have a medical back ground. Trust me when I say that even those with a great medical back ground have a difficult time deciphering this one.

Anyway, while MMA is a concern, it is not where our first thoughts goes. If you do go read about it then you'll see that Vitamin B12 deficiencies can play into MMA, however, her levels are fine. Mine however may not be. Every time I have my labs drawn, (even while I was pregnant), they always come back showing that I am either borderline anemic or just anemic. The thought here is that Vada was being breast fed almost exclusively by me, a mother lacking in her own vitamin supply. So were thinking/hoping/praying that this is all caused because Vada wasn't getting what she needed from me. There are case studies where solely breastfed babies of Vegan mothers have similar, but much more serious MMA occurrences. While I am not a vegetarian and nowhere close to being a Vegan I don't eat a whole lot of meat or animal by products which is partly the reason that I fall into the borderline anemic category. That and the fact that I rarely remember to take my daily multi-vitamins.

I should be getting another call with in the next day or so from the Genetic's office on the "game plan" but since Vada is no longer being breast fed and is eating every kind of food that we offer her were praying for some upcoming positive lab work to be done. While this MMA business may sound alarming, and it does have us a bit nervous, I feel like it truly was caused by my lack of nutrients. I feel like this is God's way of saying "See, Tara, it really was time." (You know, for me to stop nursing her.) I told Justin my thoughts tonight and he said that he had felt the same way, only he felt like God was telling him that this was time for him to step in and take over. (When I was recovering from my tonsillectomy and Justin was taking care of everything.) Either way, tests will be done and we will do what we need to do to keep our girl healthy. I truly feel whole heartily that this is going to be okay.

Putting today's call aside...,

These last few weeks have consumed me. So much has happened and it feels like even more has changed! While most of these things would not be overly interesting to anyone other than myself, it has been quite eventful none the less.

I have healed almost fully from my tonsillectomy and I am eating solid foods again-which I might add has been a delicious experience. However, I have not, out of fear, ate my Darito's-yet. I did end up loosing eight pounds throughout these last two weeks but since I had gained prior to the surgery you couldn't really tell. I say "couldn't" because I went six days where I only drank water and now that I can eat I am eating like a horse! (Neigh, baby, neigh!) I haven't got back onto the scale, mainly because I don't care enough to do so but I am pretty for sure that if I did, I would see that I have gained those lost eight back.  I am sure that all of the baking I have been doing had nothing to do with the that either!

These were the first homemade cinnamon rolls that I had ever  made... and my throat, at the time was too sore to be able to eat them! Jasmine liked them however and said that I should open a restaurant. I take that compliment for much however, because if I were to put sugar on spinach, I think that she would say the same thing.

Vader's likes to help whenever she can and since she follows me into the kitchen each time that I go, she gets her own utensils.

Eleven is currently doing College For Kids and has just finished her fourth or fifth year of softball. She is anxiously awaiting the beginning of Jr. High, which now starts in sixth grade versus seventh grade-her class year is the first for this change over.

Eight is having some testing done to evaluate for a possible ADD (Not to be confused with ADHA, this girl is as sweet as pie and not overly active! She is just having a very difficult time focusing, which goes back to the beginning of school for her). She has two more sessions before we really hear the doctors thoughts. She too is looking forward to seeing all of her friends at school although I think she may be experiencing some slight anxiety about returning to the classroom.

Justin is working-a lot. This week he is working T, W, Th, F, S and Sun. He works a two week rotation of days and then nights, all being twelve hour shifts. Luckily, this week he is on days, which means, we get to see him for a couple of hours during the nights.

The greatest thing about all of this business is that it practically has nothing to do with Miss V (and I can say that because again the MMA is only a small possibility.) . Besides her weekly visit with Kim, her PT, Vada is just hanging out and along for whatever ride(s) may be taking place on a particular day. I cant tell you how pleasing this is. We went from weekly (sometimes even bi-weekly) trips to Peoria (which was a minimum of three hours of driving each time), daily intramuscular injections of a nasty steroid, tri-weekly home visits from a nurse, seizures, heart murmurs and seclusion from life as we now know it to this...the activeness of what I now consider a "normal life". It's great. God IS Good! I am so grateful for good health. For this life. For this family. For my husband, children and for my friends. Life has its moments but at this time I don't pray for an explanation.

Tonight, for the first time we picked a real (mini) harvest from our little garden. It was so much fun, however, we have yet to get any tomatoes which is the key to what vegetables we did plant this year.

 We have a very little yard and in that little yard we have an even smaller patch that gets good sun. Therefore, we are not only limited on what we plant but also on how much. This year we planted tomatoes, yellow and red peppers, jalapeno peppers and red and yellow onions. Then on the deck we have a hanging pot that has herbs growing in it. Basically, we planted everything we need to make a good hearty salsa but you cant make  good salsa without tomatoes.

We may have had a good pick of vegetables tonight but I want those damn tomatoes!  Hopefully, what is growing will get the chance to ripen and not be eaten by some animal in the night. So far all of the tomatoes have had at least one bite taken from them. Justin thinks its chipmunks. Either way, I'll be sure to let you know when we do make our salsa because I am sure your on the edge of your seats with this one!

Speaking of gardening and visitors..., check out this guy that we found in our peppers! I have never seen in them in their cycle before, just the shells from afterwards. Kind of interesting.

A Lovely End to an Even Lovelier Weekend

Sometimes, I just want to do nothing. Which seems a bit lazy, considering I cant really go anywhere. You'd think that I would want to be doing something..., but this weekend, I was really looking forward to just hanging out with Vada and trying not to worry about anything. Over all I accomplished just that.

Justin had to work nights on Friday and on Saturday so he slept during the days and then he headed to Chicago this morning for training classes, also for work. (He'll be there all week.) Both Jasmine and Kiliegh were at their bio's, so that left Vada and I.

What did we do?

I already told you.., nothing.

We'll that's not completely true. We stayed in our sweats. We took long bubble baths. We made baby food and baked some delicious Toll house cookies.



Plus, we played and then when we were done with that..., we played some more.

For dinner tonight, one of our good friends brought us some homemade pizza which really helped me on dishes and time and I was able to have more "playing" time with the kiddo's! Plus, it was really good.

Kiliegh and Jasmine came back home tonight about an hour apart from each other. Kiliegh was first. We played a game called Stare Junior and then we played office for a few minutes. Afterward, Kiliegh and Vada got into the bath and they played for awhile.

Kiliegh wanted to make Vada into "Santa" and then proceeded to do the same for herself.


This was Vada's second time taking a bath with Kiliegh and she loved it!


Kiliegh was just getting out of the bath when Jasmine got home and came into the bathroom to say hi. Jasmine is turning into a little "mother hen". She is just blossoming into this wonderful young lady. I am so proud of her and all that she is doing. (We have had some really hard times with her over the past couple of years, but she is just turning into an amazing little person.) I don't mean to sound bias, but well, really..., I think all three of my girls rock!

Anyway, Jasmine took over playing with Vada while I finished up with Kiliegh and then followed right behind me as I took Vada over to the hanging table. Jasmine likes to help dress Vada and lather her with lotion, but as soon as I start to give Vada her medications she steps away. She jokingly says that she doesnt want Vada to get mad at her for letting me give her such horrible stuff. Its more of a joke, but I can tell that Jasmine feels badly that her baby sister has to go through so much. I love how much she loves her. It warms my heart and fills me with even more pride.

After I was finished "torturing" V, I rocked her for a bit to calm her down (she does not like her medication and since I have personally tasted them all, I don't blame her.) then I gave her to Jasmine. Jasmine love to hold her, especially when she is sleepy. They cuddle together very well, and Jasmine rubs her head, which is something V seems to really enjoy.


Thanks to Jasmines help I was able to pick up the mess that I had made over the weekend and prepare for the Physical Therapist who I think (I may have wrote it down wrong) is suppose to be here tomorrow.

Yesterdays plan was to take V into the hospital tomorrow (Monday) morning, however I forgot that Jasmine has an appointment and Karate, plus the PT appointment. I want to keep those and really, there's not whole lot of difference in one day, so were going Tuesday instead.

I try as hard as I can to not disrupt Jasmine and Kilieghs life/regular routine. They get thrown off every now and again, there are things that they miss and things have defiantly changed, but over all I think I am balancing things out pretty well for them. More than anything, I want their experiences and memories of growing up with their sister to be positive memories, not resentful ones, because they missed out.

The night has come to a wonderful end. I have tucked Jasmine and Kiliegh into bed and Vada and I are following shortly behind. I have talked to Justin who made it safely to Chicago, checked into his hotel, played some of his video game and even concurred a whole 16" Chicken Thai Pie from Old Chicago, by himself..., I'm so proud. (Since you couldn't see me while I was writing that, I was rolling my eyes and shaking my head..., I don't know how he does it!) Oh yeah, I even planned out our dinner for tomorrow. Since we are going to be quite busy I wanted to figure out something healthy to make instead of "picking something up". Eating out is nice, sometimes, but I really don't like fast food and I really don't like feeding it to my family. Plus, it just makes me feel good when I cook a meal for them. Especially, if they enjoy it!

This weekend started out nicely and ended up just as well. I'm feeling pretty good with all things considering and I am able to step back and not only know in my mind but feel in my heart that I am blessed beyond any measure. (Sometimes, when my depression really "kicks in" its hard to feel the good in life.)