mindful Monday on a Tuesday...

1) Banana Bread!!!
2) food pantry thank you for overflowing my fridge with vegetables!
3) first taste of bok choy = delicious!
4) my big brother's birthday.  26 never looked so good Chris ;)
5) conscious birth class... just awesome.
6) a new rocker, courtesy of the across the street neighbors.
7)the pumpkin vine climbing the pea trellis.
8)enjoying meals with mom almost every night.  She's my biggest fan :)

Momma said there'd be days like this

DEAR BABY
 I'm having one of those days.  One of those days that loneliness and doubt creep up behind you and sit on your shoulder all day long.  A day where the voice in your head is not kind or reassuring.
I can't wait to teach you about what a cup of tea can do for a lonely rainy day.  It's medicine, kid, the kind your yia-yia learned from her yia-yia.
There's tea, there's chocolate, there's naps, and there's a good cry.  Never discount these things babe.

This pregnancy has reached a kind of transition place in my head...probably because I'm finally keeping my head out of the toilet long enough to think a little.  You are seeming so very real and so very close.  Now I know the next 5 months may end up dragging by I get more and more impatient to meet you but the crazy thing is that right now...you're closer than you've ever been.

Wow.

I've been waiting to meet you...whoever you are....whoever you want to be...since I was a very little girl.

And every day you get closer.

That certainly helps on days like this.

Broccoli Dip

My biggest goal for my garden this year is to use everything we grow.  So often we get piles of squash or something and can't use it all before it goes by.  So I'm trying to get creative especially since I still don't really know much about freezing and canning vegetables.  So I had a few heads of broccoli looking a bit bit wilty and decided to look into a broccoli dip recipe.  I found one, and made it :) and it was awesome.
Served hot, great with chips and salsa also good on chicken.

Ok here she is:

1 cup broccoli chopped into what size you like (smallish)
2 tbs chopped onion
2 tbs red bell pepper chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar...I used one of those Mexi mix bags if cheese like for nachos.
1/2 cup light mayo
1/2 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1 garlic clove
Some black pepper.

1) preheat oven to 375.  Combine all ingredients leaving out some parm cheese to top it with after cooking.

2) bake 20-25 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining parm and serve :)

We loved it!  I was surprised but very pleased :)

Dear Boaz

DEAR BABY,
I'm beginning to think of you as a boy more each day.  Maybe I'm wrong and I'll be happy either way, but I'm recording this thought.  Maybe it's because your dad and sister are on the boy train to boyville and hope to find you there...perhaps... but to record the moment...right now you're a boy ;)
I can't feel you yet but by the end of this week you'll be a whole 5 inches inches long and weigh 5 ounces.  How can you be that big and that small at the same time??? Man, I don't even look pregnant and you're hiding that much you somewhere in my belly?  Ps, please don't suddenly become ten lbs right at the end....small is ok...

So you're name won't be Boaz. I promise.  But it's the story of Ruth that I've been thinking of...
Not of Ruth and Naomi.
Or of Boaz
or of the romance.
It's of Rahab.  The harlot of Jericho.  The mother of Boaz. (See Matthew 1:5)
Boaz is this woman's legacy. King David was her great grandchild. You see,baby, it's not about where you come from, it's about where you end up.  Boaz knew the Grace of God and knew it well...and I bet he learned it through his mother's life.

You and I have  a long road kid.  But we have the same God that they did.



To my great great great granddaughter, live in peace.

To my great great great grandson, live in peace.

scripture typer app = way cool

So I downloaded the scripture typer app for my iPhone.  Heard about it through the Holy experience blog by Ann Voskamp and thought I'd give it a try.  I love it!!!!  Basically it is a system to help you memorize bible verses and passages.  It works through basic repetition and has you type verses, then pulls out some words, then makes you do it w no prompts....but it's really fun and effective.

Here's a link ( btw you can use it for free online without getting a mobile app if that applies better to you.)  www.scripturetyper.com 

This is the only sword we have...so we better always have it with us.

Mindful Monday's grateful notes:

1) Kimmy's eight year old hand resting on my 16 week belly for prayer.

2) A kiss goodbye.

3) A scalp massage ...wish it could last forever.

4) Watching the fish swim by at pinkham pond.

5) seeing an old friend in an unexpected place.

6) knowing I have friends praying for the same miracle as me.

7) broccoli dip that turned out so well. :)  fresh from the backyard.

8) blueberries are turning blue.

Goodnight you :)

Quebec Vacation

Sorry for my lack of posts...been having some trouble posting from my kindle.  Wish I had a laptop but oh well. Stuck on a touch screen for now.  At least the autocorrect is awesome.:)

So last week mom and I went to Quebec City in Canada for three nights.  It was really nice to get away for a bit.  It was like a vacation from my lack of work :-/  It is really stressful to be unemployed and have my parents kinda freaking out about it.  Believe me, I want a job...ugh.

So, first time ever in Quebec even though I lived in Canada for two school years while I was in college.  I was amazed at how super different the culture was there from Maine and from the maritime part of Canada.  I love traveling and seeing how just one province over is completely different from another.  Same as seeing the culture of the southern USA and then going out west.  You don't have to leave the country to see some really different people and places.

As far as what we did in Quebec it was mostly pretty low-key.  We went to the Museum of Civilization and saw the exhibition on the first nations people of Canada. Very cool. I love learning about native people and how they used to live...always kinda wished I lived back then.

And other than that we ate, poked around cute stores, mom got hit on by some cute old French man, and I finished my book (Game of Thrones: Storm of Swords.).

Good times.  Pictures on instagram.  :)

Mom's cancer report

Mom had breast cancer back in 2010 and was in remission by January 2011.  This January  2013, just 3 days before  I left on my wild adventures of WWOOFing, she was rediagnosed with stage four breast cancer that has shown itself now to be in her liver and in her lungs.  She was put on an oral chemotherapy that at first was pretty harsh, but it has gotten better as they have tweaked the dosage and length of time on and off it (currently one week on one week off).  She is doing really well.  She remodeled her kitchen in February and March while I was away and in June she did a week long trip to northern England to do walking tours of the Yorkshire mours.  She's just that cool.  She had a CAT scan when she got back last week and had the good news that things are shrinking and chemo seems to be working exactly as planned.

I told her she has to live to see this baby graduate from high school ... and hey maybe she will.  :)

So far so good in cancer land.  She really has almost no chemo symptoms and is working and active and awesome.