The Big White Farmhouse | intentional living, little by little

September 5, 2011

{in the kitchen} A Family Attempt at One Bowl Apple Cake

Source: mayamade.blogspot.com via Ashley on Pinterest

To round out our first week of school, I thought a little “cooking school” would be fun. The boys are always begging to help in the kitchen, so I sifted through my “to bake” recipes and found this gem: One Bowl Apple Cake. In theory, it’s the perfect recipe for baking with little people. One bowl. Easy ingredients. Easy peasy. I couldn’t wait for our special baking session.

HAH. Oh man. Let’s just say, when you have an overtired baby attached to your hip and two over-eager kids fighting to help, cooking is more than just cooking…it becomes an experience!

The cake was definitely good, but because of all of the above mentioned craziness, I didn’t watch the last few minutes and almost burnt the whole thing. Nothing a little (or a lot) powdered sugar won’t fix! The boys were so excited with their creation. Their giddiness make “cooking school” totally worth it, so I know we’ll be baking together again soon.

I’m definitely going to make this cake again…all by myself!

September 2, 2011

{ramblings} A Stranger’s Act of Kindness (and how I want to be more like her)

So I’ve been thinking a lot about this crazy life called motherhood. It’s a wild ride with lots of ups and downs, don’t you think? I want to share a story with you about a particular “low” I had a few years ago…

This story takes place at Mass one winter morning. I was still getting used to being a young mother of two children. My oldest was a fidgety two-year-old and I had a new baby, only a few months old. We managed to get to church on time, but decided we’d better stay toward the back. My toddler was in rare form that morning – and with insufficient sleep the night before, he definitely was acting like it. Because he wouldn’t stay quiet, my husband took him to the back, much to his dismay! He fussed and caused a minor scene. At about the same time, my new baby started to whine. He had a minor case of colic, possibly acid reflux, and he constantly had to be upright and bounced. I stood up and moved to the back wall of the church.

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed and exhausted. I could feel the tears coming, but I kept trying to push them away. I poured my heart out to God in my head: “I’m so sorry my children are misbehaving in church today. I am so embarrassed that people are looking at us, glaring at us, judging us. I am trying to participate as fully as I can, but today just seems so hard.”

Most of the Mass seemed like a blur. I just couldn’t shake this awful feeling like I was a horrible mother, that I shouldn’t even be at church, etc etc. Before I knew it, it was time for the sign of peace.

A woman and her family of a few teenage children were also standing in the back. She came over to me as I was consumed with bouncing my baby, put her hand on my shoulder and said smiling: “You’re doing a great job.”
Those words just meant the world to me. Although she could probably see the exhaustion on my face, she had no idea the inner turmoil that was going on inside that day. She didn’t know how much I needed to hear those words. She didn’t have to come to me, she didn’t have to say anything at all. She didn’t have to, but she did.

I am challenging myself to go a little outside of my comfort zone and let a fellow mamma know what a great job she is doing. You never know the depths of what a positive word can do for someone. I know that kind woman did that for me!

Have a great weekend!

September 1, 2011

{reminder} I Am Enough

From here

I needed this reminder today…maybe you do too?
Have a good first day of September, friends!

August 31, 2011

{kids crafts} A Year of Interviews

Can I just say how much I love the preschool age? My kids are hilarious…their thoughts, the stories they come up with, what jokes they think are funny…the list goes on and on! As a mamma, I want to bottle up this time of unfiltered thoughts and keep them forever. But how?

Inspired by Becky Higgins, I created “A Year of Interviews” scrapbook for the 2011-2012 school year.

I just used a 3 prong folder (is that what they’re called?), a pack of page protectors and some colored cardstock. M designed the cover with a “swirly rainbow” that he drew and cut out himself.

The title page will have a photograph of him once I get my pictures printed.

The plan is that I will interview him every month. The questions will all be different.

This is what I did for September and the start of school:

I asked him to write his name (I want him to write his name at the end of the year too, to see how much he’s improved)
I asked him general favorites: color, food, toy, etc.
We traced his hand and we’ll do that again at the end of the year too, to see how much he’s grown
On the other side of the two-page spread, we’ll include some pictures of activities/projects we did that month and maybe a drawing

At the end of the school year, we’ll have one little book full of memories. Hurray for documentation without lots of clutter!

Now onto his request for learning this year: how Marines do their fighting. Hmm.