Summer time!

Wow!  Summer time is full of sun and fun!  But it's the crazy schedule that blindsided me!  I realized that my days were no longer going to be my own when school let out, but this is ridiculous!  Nick is on the MUAC swim team, so he's swimming 4 days a week.  We signed Wesley up for Miracle League baseball and that's two nights a week.  Between all that, I haven't got a second to think!  Ok, now that I have complained about how busy I am, let me tell you what's going on with us in more detail.

Nick decided to try the swim team.  Last year was his first official swim lessons, so he had no idea what freestyle was when it came to swimming.  MUAC, or also known as Morgantown United Aquatic Club, is a fantastic club!  They are a casual swim team that is only active for the first part of summer.  He only has three weeks left!  But it's pretty intense while they are doing it.  At the last meet, he got to swim the long and the short freestyle, and the backstroke.  He did have a problem with his goggles though, we will have to try and fix that.  He's doing fairly well and has expressed an interest in swimming year round...not sure if we will go that route this year or let him swim with MUAC again next year.

Wesley was signed up for Miracle League baseball.  This is a fantastic thing through Stepping Stones.  They allow kids with disabilities to play baseball!  They have buddies for the kids that need them and two teams of kids.  They play against each other each week.  They each get a turn to bat and there are no outs.  If they can't hit a pitched ball, they can hit it off the tee.  You should see how proud those kids are when they hit that ball!  You should hear the parents cheering for all the kids!  It doesn't matter which team they are on, we cheer for them all!  :-)  Wesley is NOT impressed with baseball...in fact, he will say, without fail, "No hit the ball."  He wants no part of it...well, except for the snack part!  Anyway, the last game was the parents vs the kids and we just let Wesley sit on the sidelines instead of fighting with him.  He did a fantastic job sitting and Rich and I had a blast playing!  The parents had to have a disadvantage when it came to their turn to bat, so we picked out of a hat as to if you were to bat blindfolded, with one arm tied behind your back, or with your shoe laces tied together.  It was a blast, seriously!  I think we are going to continue to take Wesley and let him watch the games and see if he ever decides to play.  I'm not holding my breath though!

Rich and I will be participating in a Chili Cook-Off this Friday at our church.  It's a fundraiser for some awesome friends of ours that are battling Mitochondrial Disease, the mom and all 5 children.  They need to see a specialist in Georgia and need to raise $4000 for the trip.  We need some more entries if you have a great chili recipe!  Here's a page to explain a little more of their battle: Laurie Family Trip to Georgia  I hope to see many people there!  You can also help them out even if you can't come to the cook-off.  Thanks for anything you can do!

Sodastream Fountain Jet Soda Maker review

We love soda here.  We are fiends for Coke Zero.  It's nothing for us to buy a 24pk of cans twice a week for our family of 4.  There are some major problems with this though.  First of all...it's not cheap!  Second, all those cans really pile up!  Yes, we recycle them, but you have to crush them and haul them away! (We don't have curbside recycle here.)


I happened upon the SodaStream...I fell in love!  Wanted one for ages!  I didn't know anyone who had one though, so I didn't know if it was an acceptable replacement for our beloved Coke Zero.  Then, I got one to review!  How awesome is that?
  

Let's start from getting the box.  I was worried that it would take an engineering degree to put this together.  Not at all!  You only have to screw in the carbonator canister and pop the back on it and it's ready to go!  How easy!  Wash the 1 liter bottle (these are NOT dishwasher safe), fill with cold water (the colder, the better!), screw it into the machine and push the button!  Could it have been any easier??  You push the button in small bursts until you get a loud buzz about 3 times.  And if you like your soda fizzier, push it a few more times!  That's the beauty of this...my husband and I like different levels of fizz, this accommodates us both!  Unscrew the bottle and add the soda mix.  Gently mix the syrup in and you have a great soda!


I received 6 different soda mixes to try and we loved them all, including the Zero Cola (except the energy, but I don't like Red Bull at all, and it tasted just like it.)  There are lots of different mixes to choose from, and they have diet versions of almost everything!  My son's favorite is root beer.  He especially loves it because he can make his own soda, all by himself!  He's 10, it's that easy.  


I received MyWater Essence flavors to try out as well.  We didn't like them that well, but we tend to go for more bolder flavors.  If you enjoy a touch of flavor in your water then this would be great for you! 


We found a local store that stocks SodaStreams and will switch out the carbonator canister, so we have never had to send the canister through the mail.  This store doesn't stock all the flavors of mix, so we have purchased other flavors online with great results.  


It really is simple.  We keep the bottles full of water in the fridge, so we just have to grab one, buzz it, add the mix, and enjoy!  It is that easy.  Not only does this save us money, but it saves us from crushing and hauling cans to be recycled.  All this has to be better for the environment!  Win-win!


So, what are you waiting for?  Go buy one today!    


Disclosure: I received a SodaStream Fountain Jet Soda Maker for the purpose of review, however my opinions are 100% my own.  To read my full disclosure, go here.

Food Friday

This is my husband's absolute, very favorite dessert...EVAH!!  It's actually his mom's recipe, but I think I do it justice.  There is one currently in the oven as I type this.  :-)  Thought I would share!

Momma's Cheesecake

INGREDIENTS:

Crust: 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs 3 tbsp sugar 1/3 cup butter Filling: 5 eggs, separated 1 cup sugar 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese 1 cup sour cream 2 tbsp flour 1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Mix ingredients for crust and press into bottom and sides of a 9" spring-form pan.
2.	Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored. Gradually beat in sugar. Break up cream cheese; add to eggmixture beating until smooth. Add sour cream, flour, and vanilla; continue beating until smooth. Beat egg whites in separate container until stiff but not dry. Gently fold into cheese mixture.
3.	Heat oven to 275 degrees. Pour filling into prepared pan. Bake for 70 minutes. Turn off oven and leave in for 1 hour without opening the oven door. Remove from oven and cool. Top with your choice of fruit. Remove cheesecake from pan just before serving. Enjoy!

Follow through...

I have trouble with this.  It's not too obvious, is it?  :-)  Ok, I am making an effort here, people!  I get all gung ho about something and throw myself into it head first...only to come sputtering out the other side.  I have no follow through.  I do not know moderation.  How do you learn moderation??

So, here I am back here on my blog.  I am going to try for something other than an "all or nothing" kind of thing here.  Think I can do it?

We will see.  :-)

Christmas in Holland.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We just had our 3rd Christmas "in Holland."  Wesley is 4 and this should have been a really exciting Christmas for him.  But we are in Holland.  Things are not the same here.  I currently have 7 still wrapped gifts sitting by the tree, all with Wesley's name on them.

Christmas morning, he acted like we were trying to murder him when we tried to get him to open his gifts.  So, we are letting him do it in his own time.  Every now and then, for reasons unbeknown to us, he will take interest and decide to open something...then it's back to whatever he was doing before.

I mourn Italy on occasion, but I recognize the beauty of Holland.  Wesley greets me with great vigor every time I am away from him for a time...even if it's just long enough to take a shower.  :-)  He gets super excited for the smallest things.  "Cars" is his favorite movie and you can't help but smile when you see how excited he gets over it!  He loves to be praised and will look for it!  He likes to make you laugh, he just recently learned how to pretend to be a dog.  He will get in my face barking, panting and even licking until I just crack up.

Christmas...

Is for the birds!  Ok, not really, but sometimes it would be nice to say that!  But, I have kids, doesn't really work that well with kids.  My tree isn't up and there is only 4 days till that magical day.  Bah, Humbug!  :-)  I NEVER get my wrapping done before Christmas eve...it's actually become a tradition now.  Rich and I stay up till all hours of the night Christmas Eve wrapping.  Once we get the kids' presents done, we exchange gifts.  Simply because it's after midnight, so technically Christmas, and because we don't want to wrap any more!!

Rich doesn't get all into the idea and spirit of Christmas which makes it hard for me.  I have fantastic memories of putting up the tree with my family.  But Rich's family wasn't into all the "trappings" of Christmas.  So, he doesn't get into it.  It's almost like holding down a child to give him medication.  Yeah, that's what it's like.  It's not a fun experience, but it has to be done.  So, I am spending the day getting the room ready for the tree and when Rich is actually home for a few minutes, I will make it happen.

Food Friday

This one is so very yummy!  While my oldest LOVES shrimp...we just don't have it that often.  A little pricey in the purse, you know.  So, here's a great recipe that is reminiscent of the classic Shrimp Scampi...served beautifully over rice or pasta!  Yum!

Chicken Scampi

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup olive oil 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning 3 cloves garlic, minced (or more!)

3/4 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon lemon juice 4 boneless chicken breast halves, chunked

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a skillet heat the butter or margarine and oil over medium high until the butter/margarine melts. Add the Italian seasoning, garlic and salt and mix together in the skillet. Stir in lemon juice.
2.	Then add the chicken and saute for about 3 minutes or until white. Lower the heat and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear. More butter/margarine can be added if needed.