Banana Quinoa Chocolate Chip Muffins

This morning I woke up to being the mother of a 16 year old.  How is that possible?  He was just a tiny baby and now he is almost a man.  We will celebrate his birthday this evening by going to dinner tonight with his Nana and Grandpa.  He only agreed to go to dinner if I promised no one would sing Happy Birthday.  So far the weekend is going well.  The sun is shining and and it feels good to sit here as it streams through my living room windows.  We are in the process of renovating our back deck.  I am so excited! The men are here as we speak hammering in the names and cuting the planks. It will be over double the size of the original.  I look forward to our first party on it this spring. Yesterday we booked the hotels for our trip in September  to Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. Good thing we did as the rooms are filling up in Munich since it will be Oktoberfest. Well, are off to dinner!  I made these muffins this week.  The are fantastic and a huge hit with the children.

Keeping Warm "Corner View"

This morning we woke to an inch of snow which may not sound a lot, but for the south it is enough to cancel school.  The children missed two days last week due to frozen rain.  Really the streets were fine, but due to a situation last year where children were stranded for 8 hours on school buses the school districts are being overly careful this year.  Staying warm hasn't been an easy task.  I will be happy when warmer weather arrives.  It hasn't helped that I have been sick for the last week with a cold though you wouldn't know it from looking at the baptism photos.  I got up that day despite being sick went to the hairdressers and put on a smile.  That is what mothers do though and I was happy to do so.  He is still smiling from ear to ear!  The only good thing out of being at home so much is that I have been watching Foyle's War a British TV series.  It is fabulous!  The series begins in 1939 as England is entering the War against Germany.  I adore Honeysuckle Weeks, who plays Samantha (Sam) hair!  Thankfully, each season only has a couple of episodes, so it is easy to watch all 8 seasons and I am waiting for them to release season 9 here in America.  I also was able to complete printing off one year of my blog into a book format.  I use Blurb!  It is great because it literally loads up all the content from your blog.  I like that you can also move text and pictures into a layout you like and are not stuck to the simple layouts of ones blog.  It should arrive any day now!  I have done this in the past and like having our blog in print. Oh, if you are wondering about this adorable hat I did not make it.  My mother did!  She is amazing at knitting, crocheting, and sewing.  I didn't get that gene!  Hope you are keeping warm in your corner of the world.  See you soon!

Corner View is a weekly gathering - each Wednesday - created by Jane of Spain Daily, where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme. If you'd like to join in, please leave a link to your Corner View post in the comments below, and be sure to visit other participants too.

Roman's Baptism

Yesterday, Roman and his two friends were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.  The sprit was strong.  It was a perfect day!  So grateful to have the gospel in our lives.  It is such a blessing.  

8

Happy 8th Birthday Roman!

You are the best!

Love "Corner View"

flowers from my liebling

traditional Valentines doughnuts=Happy Children!

in full blown Valentine making mode.  Saying, "no to candy this year."

A Marathon

If you look closely these medals are not running medals, but they are FBLA medals.  Now, you are probably wondering what FBLA is and who got these medals.  Harris is a member of the Future Business Leaders of America group at his school.  He has been working on several projects with this group and received these awards for his hard work and placement in the competitions.  Even I have a hard time understand exactly what this group does, but I believe it challenges students to think outside the box and come up with inventions and ideas for the future business.  I am just happy he is involved in something he enjoys.  I titled this post marathon not just because the medals look like runner medals, but because having a child is like running a marathon and their high school career is even so more like a marathon as boy it is so hard to get through and one has to pace themselves. Harris is working hard to get into a good university.  He wants to be a computer engineer.  We are praying he will get an internship this summer and could use your prayers.  He needs things like this on his resume if he wants to get into the school of his choice. I am so proud of him for working so hard.

Celebration 8!

Roman will be 8 soon!  So hard to believe!  We didn't even know if he would make it through open heart surgery and look at him now!  We love him to the moon and back! So in celebration of Roman turning 8 and his upcoming baptism I made this little video to take a look back on his life.  Happy Birthday Roman!

The Hawks

Hi!  Hope you had a good weekend! Did you do anything exciting this weekend? We have been just hanging out with grandpa and getting ready for Roman's big baptism day in two weeks.  Lots do to!  We think about a 100 people will show up. Anyway, last weekend Winston had the opportunity to go to a basketball game.  It was the Atlanta Hawks vrs.  Philadelphia.  He was in heaven.  He loves sports.  It was also Frank's first NBA game. Upon coming home, Frank said soccer was still his favorite along with hockey.  Oh, I also went to see movie the Imitation Game.  I loved it and at the same time it made me so incredibly sad to think he killed himself because he was gay and was forced to take medication to suppress his homosexual desires.  The medication also took away his ability to think clearly and he could no longer do his work.  Alan Turing was brilliant!  His brilliance saved over 14 million people from dying during WWII and he was the father of the first computer.  The movie leaves you with lots to think about in terms of how we treat others who are different from us!  We also went to see the movie Paddington Bear.  It was OK!  Wasn't prepared for the adoption line, and while I like how movies are trying to make adoption seem like a very OK thing does every child movie have to have some kind of abandonment  theme.  I don' t want Avery to have to go to movies and feel like she has to relive her story.

A Photoshoot in Seattle

While I was in Seattle, I was given the sweet priviledge of shooting my good friend and her daughter.  Even more special is that their daughter will be getting baptized soon.  So excited for their family!  

Pear Tart "Poem Corner View"

Isn't life poetry in motion. Doesn't this tart look like a perfect piece of poetry. It is! Served with whip cream or drizzle of Carmel sauce this tart is perfect for a cold winter day.

The Snow-Storm

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,

Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,

Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air

Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,

And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.

The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet

Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit

Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

Come see the north wind's masonry.

Out of an unseen quarry evermore

Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer

Curves his white bastions with projected roof

Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.

Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work

So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he

For number or proportion. Mockingly,

On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;

A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;

Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,

Maugre the farmer's sighs; and, at the gate,

A tapering turret overtops the work.

And when his hours are numbered, and the world

Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,

Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art

To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,

Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,

The frolic architecture of the snow.

Pear Tart

1egg

1cup of flour

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

1/2 slightly ripened pear slices into very thin wedges

cinnamon sugar sprinkled over the top

bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

let sit for 30 minutes after baking

In a mixing bowl combine eggs, sugar, extract, and butter.  Then add in dry ingredients of flour, salt, baking powder. Slice pear in thin wedges.  Butter a spring form pan and spread out batter than add the pear wedges.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake.

Corner View is a weekly gathering - each Wednesday - created by Jane of Spain Daily, where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme. If you'd like to join in, please leave a link to your Corner View post in the comments below, and be sure to visit other participants too.