Life in Lape Haven

Category - Encouragement

Cinnamon Rolls for a Really Good Day

Cinnamon Rolls for a Really Good Day - Life in Lape Haven. Some recipes are perfect for celebrating a good day (or making a not-so-good day better). These easy homemade cinnamon rolls will make any day special!

Some days I actually manage to get on top of all the craziness of life and check enough things off the to-do list that I feel accomplished and able to relax. Some days my boys are sweet and cooperative, I am focused and ambitious, and we have a really great day.

This was such a day. One Tuesday when Josiah (my middlest) was about 2 years old. I’d managed to straighten the house, vacuum AND mop the floors, and spend time with my littlest guy before he had a good nap. Josiah even managed to wake up on his own from his nap (instead of me having to wake him) so that we could go pick up Elijah from school. Elijah had had a great day at school – he’d taken in a story that he’d “written” and got to “read” it to his class. Plus the weather was nice enough that we even spent a little while at the playground, which my boys always love.

Everyone was having a fabulous day.

So when we got home, I felt like making something special for us. We do a lot of brownies and cookies around here, so I decided to veer a little off our beaten path and make cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon Rolls for a Really Good Day - Life in Lape Haven. Some recipes are perfect for celebrating a good day (or making a not-so-good day better). These easy homemade cinnamon rolls will make any day special!

I have a really easy recipe that my mom found years ago that is delicious. In theory, it shouldn’t take more than two hours from start to finish, with lots of down time while the dough is either rising or baking. My house was fairly clean, my boys were happy, and dinner was already made (leftover Beef, Barley, & Veggie soup). I could do this. No problem.

Mixing up the dry ingredients went well. Adding the water, butter, and egg was simple. Letting it rise the first time was actually so easy that I let it go a little longer than 30 minutes. My boys were happily playing together, and things were good.

And then it came time to roll out the dough, and my boys volunteered to get in the way and make a mess while they ignored my directions help. Whatever playing they had been doing since we got home seemed to have amped them up to busy levels too fidgety to be truly helpful with the dough. After getting out unnecessary utensils, rearranging the mail on the counter, getting into the flour one too many times, and someone shoving someone else AGAIN, they were sent upstairs to play so that I could use just a few minutes to spread out the dough, smear butter on it, and top it with cinnamon and sugar before rolling it all up together into a happy little tube of deliciousness. It would take me 10 minutes tops.

Josiah must have known the perfect moment that Mommy’s hands would be covered in melty butter, cinnamon, and sugar and busy wrangling stickier-than-normal dough into a long tube.

That’s when I heard the squeal-meets-laugh from Elijah and his yell of, “Josiah is trying to flush stuffed animals down the potty!”

So, I had to leave my cinnamon half-rolls, hurriedly rinse my hands, and sprint to the bathroom to rescue a random toy from a swirly. I was bit too late – when I got there, Elijah was giggling while holding a dripping, soggy Cookie Monster over my just-mopped-this-afternoon floor, and Josiah was standing with his hand on the toilet handle, excitedly waiting to flush it again.

Josiah was “firmly informed” that playing in the toilet is not allowed. After wiping up my bathroom floor with a disinfectant wipe, I “adamantly requested” that my boys take all the other stuffed toys piled in the hallway – How did all these get downstairs? – back upstairs and put them away (there were at least a dozen of them). Elijah was stationed on the couch, punished as an encouraging accomplice. Josiah was relocated to the high chair in the kitchen where I could keep an eye on him while I somewhat discouragedly finished rolling, cutting, and moving cinnamon rolls to the pan.

LifeinLapehaven.com: Cinnamon Rolls for a Really Good Day. A rewarding recipe for every day life.

With a sigh, I put our “treat for having such a good day” into the oven.

By the time the rolls were baked, cooled, and covered in icing (I adapted a recipe for icing from here), all warm, gooey, and cinnamon-y, the boys were behaving better, finishing their dinner, and regaling Daddy with tales all about their day.

They told him about going to the playground, Elijah reading his story at school, Josiah doing puzzles with Mommy that morning.

They left out getting in trouble for fighting, playing in the flour, and flushing Cooking Monster (okay, well, Elijah made sure to mention that, but not his part in it).

They only focused on the better parts of the day.

I had had time to get over my frustrations with curious, active boys who can go quickly from sweet and cooperative darlings to mess-making tornadoes with a tendency to argue and fight with each other. I decided to follow their example and focus on the better parts of the day. When I revisited it, the nice things definitely outweighed the bad, and it was still a pretty good day.

For that we all should celebrate. Thankfully, I’d made just the thing.

LifeinLapehaven.com: Cinnamon Rolls for a Really Good Day. A rewarding recipe for every day life.

Here’s the recipe for those special days when you need a little reward.

Easy recipe for delicious homemade cinnamon rolls.

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Great-Grandma’s Rainbow: A Lesson in the Little Things

Life in Lape Haven: Great-Grandma's Rainbow - A Lesson in the Little Things

When I was a little girl, my family lived about an hour or so from both sets of my grandparents and my two great-grandmothers. This meant that any time we got to visit them, it was exciting and special.

My Great-Grandma Leora lived down the road from my maternal grandparents, in the old farmhouse that my grandpa had grown up in. The farm was across the road from an old schoolhouse and a little white country church (which happens to be the church my great-grandpa & she attended, where my grandparents attend, where my mom grew up & was married, and where Brad & I got married).

Being that I was a little girl, I don’t remember much about my great-grandma. She was always kind to me and always had some kind of treat, but beyond that and what she looked like, I didn’t know her well. I imagine I was too busy at 5- and 6-years old investigating the old toys in her closet to really have an in-depth conversation with her.

Life in Lape Haven: Great-Grandma's Rainbow - A Lesson in the Little Things

My great-grandparents, my grandpa, & his sister in 1935. (I wasn’t around quite yet.)

I do remember, though, that her house fascinated me. It always felt as though you were stepping back into time, with old-fashioned doorknobs, a claw-foot tub, a door that led up steep steps to the attic, that closet full of toys my mother had played with when she was little, and an old-home smell that was part mothballs, part ancient wood, and part good home cooking. (In case you think I’m crazy, that nearly exact same smell can be found inside of the built-in-1856 home at the historical farm near where we live. Every time we visit there, I think of my Great-grandma’s home.)

Her kitchen was especially memorable, not only because of the yummy cookies that came from there, but also because of the rainbow of light that came from her kitchen window. Above my great-grandma’s kitchen sink was a window looking out to the yard, and in the window sill were 4 brightly-colored plastic coasters (I didn’t know they were coasters at the time). When the sun shone in just right, the coasters cast a rainbow of red, yellow, green, and purple onto the floor or wall of the room. I’m not sure if that’s why she had them there or not, but to little-girl-me, it was magical.

Life in Lape Haven: Great-Grandma's Rainbow - A Lesson in the Little Things

This little girl (little Kishona) clearly loved colorful things.

I remember visiting her with my mother when Great-grandma was sick, and I wasn’t much older than 7 or 8 when she passed away. When my grandpa and his sister were sorting through Great-grandma’s estate, they allowed each of their children and grandchildren to walk through the house and pick out things that they would like to have to remember her. When it was my turn, the very first things I chose were the coasters from her kitchen window. They were probably worth very little in monetary terms (looking at them now, they weren’t even as old I was, and they were just a promotional item for an event at Lazarus, so they were likely free). Even my mother seemed amused when I asked for them.

To me, though, they were special.

Now that I’m a mom, remembering the wonder I found in something so simple makes me pause, ponder, and consider the world through my children’s eyes.

It’s amazing what children notice, remember, and prize. Something that we grown-ups might see as insignificant or worthless can be a fabulous treasure in a child’s eyes. My boys get excited over lots of things, such as rocks in the driveway, random feathers on the ground, lightning bugs in the yard, and getting stickers from the cashier at the grocery store. Aside from the lightning bugs (I love to watch lightning bugs!), those are things I can quite easily overlook in my busy “mom” world. But they spark joy, curiosity, and delight in my boys.

God created a beautiful world for us to enjoy, and I think there are plenty of times that we get so busy and distracted that we fail to appreciate it. We dismiss this or take them for granted because it seems common or ordinary or invaluable.

Life in Lape Haven: Great-Grandma's Rainbow - A Lesson in the Little Things - colorful Lazarus coasters in the window

But children, with their innocence and inquisitiveness, never fail to take it all. Even though there may be times that I’d rather they didn’t notice every leaf, spider web, and bird in their path, (especially when we’re in a hurry, and I’m trying to get them into the car), I don’t want to do anything to discourage or dampen that fascination for them. I want them to hold on to that for as long as they can. It’s part of the sweetness of childhood – seeing the beauty and wonder in the common or simple things.

It also reminds me of the verse in Romans, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,” (Roman 1:20). My boys are noticing God’s “invisible attributes” in the world around them.

I want to encourage my boys to always appreciate the little things in the world, and I don’t want to be too busy myself to notice the tiny miracles around us.

Life in Lape Haven: Great-Grandma's Rainbow - A Lesson in the Little Things - Lazarus coasters

My great-grandma’s coasters are a great reminder for me. Those little plastic discs now rest in the window sill above my kitchen sink, throwing glowing reds, purples, yellows, and greens across the floor and onto the wall to enchant and delight my children as well as myself. (Typing this I can see the colors shining through onto my living room wall, and they still make me smile). They are a little more worn than when I first got them, but they are still beautiful when the light hits them.

Once upon a time, I was the one easily seeing the value in the ordinary, and now every time I see a rainbow in my kitchen window, I get to remember how important that is.

Tried It Tuesday: My Favorite FREE App for Kids

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday - My Favorite Free App for Kids - The Bible App for Kids

Each night in Lape Haven finds my husband and me guiding our little boys through their bedtime routine. Some nights it’s sweet and easy, and some nights it’s a struggle because “I DID brush my teeth” and “I want you to hold me” or “I’m too tired.” (That’s the boys, not Brad and me…usually)

However, no matter how delightful or frustrating the getting-ready-for-bed goes, we always finish the night with Bible reading. We generally have a bedtime story before our Bible time, but we have found that when the boys are not behaving during the getting-ready time, losing their bedtime book can be a rather effective punishment. However, we never take away Bible time.

Since our guys are little, we have various kids’ Bibles and books that we pick from for our nighttime reading, but our absolute favorite way to study the Bible with the boys is doing “Bible Guy” on Mommy’s phone or Daddy’s tablet.

The actual name for the app is The Bible App for Kids, but around here it is affectionately known as “Bible Guy” because when we first started using it, Josiah was just starting to talk. One day he wanted to play on my phone and kept asking for “guy.” It took a second, but I finally realized that he was referencing the icon for The Bible App for Kids, which is a cute cartoon Jesus. I asked him, “Do you want to play the Bible?”

His reply, “Bible guy.”

And there you have it.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday - My Favorite Free App for Kids - The Bible App for Kids

The Bible App for Kids is from YouVersion (makers of The Bible App, which is a great regular Bible app to have on your phone or tablet), produced in  partnership with OneHope, and is a FREE app of interactive Bible stories, with new stories added regularly. Each story is age-appropriately told without sacrificing the truth of the Word and features narration, touch-activated animations, questions throughout the stories, and special activities and challenges to help children enjoy and remember them.

One of the things I love is that fact that they don’t just tell your cookie-cutter “for kids” Bible stories. While they do include Creation, Noah’s Ark, David & Goliath, Daniel & the Lion’s Den, and Jesus’s birth and death, they cover the whole Bible. Some of the Old Testament stories include Adam & Eve’s first sin, Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son, the plagues in Egypt and Passover, Samson’s disobedience, Elijah’s challenge on Mt. Carmel (my Elijah LOVES that story), and Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. From the New Testament, they have stories about Jesus’s baptism (which sparked the conversation with Elijah that led to his baptism this year); Jesus being tempted in the desert; several of the parables that Jesus told; miracles that He did (including delivering the demoniac); His death, resurrection, and ascension; the coming of the Holy Spirit, Paul’s conversion and travels; and a glimpse into Revelations about Heaven. There is even a story that ties the whole Bible together, showing children God’s plan of salvation for them. And, as I said, they are updating and adding new stories frequently.

The characters and animation are adorable, and my kids love to see what part of the pictures “does something.” The creators of this app clearly love children and have a great imagination and a good sense of humor. My boys are engaged in each story, which means they will remember the truths they are learning. While their site says the app is for children 2-8 years old, my littlest guy loved it when he was even younger, and so do my hubby and I (and we’re slightly older).

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday - My Favorite Free App for Kids - The Bible App for Kids

This app is also available in many different languages, which I think is awesome. This means that children around the world are learning God’s Word through this app. In fact, one of our missions for the children at our church’s Vacation Bible School this year was raising money to help get this app translated into yet another language. (If you’d like to support OneHope, you can check out their ministry here.)

I should mention that there are NO in-app purchases, and it is not easy for your child to accidentally download something else. Just to rate the app, I had to hold down on the “Rate This App” button for 3 seconds before it would open up an outside link. As a mom who has found random apps on her phone from my child clicking on a button while he’s playing, I appreciate the child-proofing they’ve done with the app while still making it easy for my kids to navigate through it.

The only issue we’ve had with the app is that it used to crash at random times. However, they seemed to have fixed that issue lately, as they’ve brought out updates and new stories.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday - My Favorite Free App for Kids - The Bible App for Kids

The Bible App for Kids is easily our favorite FREE app for kids, but I would pay for it in a heartbeat. When something as simple as a phone app can get your child excited about the Bible, spark important conversations about their relationship with God, and help them see His love for the whole world, I’d say it’s worth it.


*Logos and The Bible App for Kids pictures are copyrighted by OneHope and YouVersion. *

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Better than a Fairy Tale

Life in Lape Haven: Better than a Fairy Tale - Mom on the rock

Once upon a time, a 13-year-old girl walked into the high school band room after a football game, searching for her older brother. Little did she know that that night would change her life, for that night she would meet a friend of her brother’s, a guy who was immediately taken with her and would one day be her husband.

At first meeting, however, he did not appear to her to be Prince Charming. She actually considered him more of a frog than a prince, and over the next year or so, that’s how it remained. However, at some point, she softened toward the skinny, shy guy, and they began dating.

By the time she was 16, they both knew that God had brought them together. In fact, at a revival meeting, the pastor called them forward and joined their hands, confirming what they had both already felt. Their lives had intersected, and now their paths would merge into one.

Life in Lape Haven: Better than a Fairy Tale - Cindy and Jerry on his graduation day

However, all was not well in their kingdom. While this girl loved her prince, she loved her God more and served Him wholeheartedly as she had done since childhood. She began to sense that her prince, while truly loving God, was placing her in the position that could only be filled by the Most High.

With an aching heart, she let him go and broke up with him, so that he might solidify his relationship with God. She knew that she could not trust him with her heart until his was completely God’s.

After a few months of separation, the Holy Spirit brought them back together, stronger and more founded in Him. And yet, their troubles were not over.

Being young as they were, not all were supportive of their plans to marry once the girl graduated high school. Her father was among them. This was probably due in part to the fact that her prince had proclaimed arrogantly that once they married, he intended to be a missionary in Africa and take his bride with him. Thankfully, that was NOT God’s plan for them.

Despite hardships and heartache, the girl planned her wedding, made her dress and veil, and decorated the church, and God guided them to their wedding day, where the two became one.

Now while most fairy tales would end here, quite prettily tied up with a sparkly bow and declare, “And they all lived happily ever after,” this was not the end of the story for the girl and her prince, but rather the barely-beginning.

The beginning was important, though, because the next few years, and the years after that, and the years following those, would all require the same confidence and trust in God’s plan, the same determination to keep Him as the center of their relationship, the same willingness to be honest with and accountable to each other.

Life In Lape Haven: Better than a Fairy Tale - A love story in reality that has brought my parents to their 40th anniversary. Wedding picture

That barely-beginning belonged to my parents, Jerry and Cindy, who are now celebrating 43 years of marriage. Forty-three years that have included better and worse, richer and poorer, and sickness and health, but also always included having, holding, loving, and cherishing. During those forty years, they have lived in five different states (and various cities within those states); worked many jobs; served in ministry in some way pretty much constantly, often ministering together (My father has been in music ministry, a youth minister, a home group leader, an elder, and a pastor, with my mother right there beside him all the way); and raised four children, adored 12 grandchildren (9 grandsons, 1 granddaughter, and 2 granddaughters by marriage), and welcomed one great-granddaughter.

Some might look at their lives and say it has been nowhere near a fairy tale, and they would be right.

Fairy tales aren’t reality. What fairy tale do you know that actually goes beyond the wild, exciting, romantic first year of meeting (and that’s being generous…most fairy tale princesses are married within a few months or even days of meeting their prince) and the big, beautiful, perfect wedding? Do any ever show the actual marriage??? No. Because while married life is wonderful, lovely, and blissful, it is also about self-sacrifice, commitment, hard work, giving, and forgiving. (My mother says, “Without forgiveness, we would not have made it 43 years.”)


And yet, what is truly more beautiful? A story that ends with the couple riding off in a grand carriage, accompanied by rice-throwing mice and ribbon-draping songbirds, but never shows them triumphing through struggle, growing together, or giving more of him/herself daily for their spouse?

Or one that tells it all? Where the couple honeymoons in a fishing cabin with no running water (true story – my mom is a saint!), where they share years of laughter and tears, arguing and making-up, where they experience the joy and frustration of raising a family, and where every day, they rely on God through it all and He comes through every time.

I’ll take the “tell it all” version any day because it’s real. It’s life. And it’s the story I’ve read in my parents throughout all of their “happily ever after.”

Life in Lape Haven: Better than a Fairy Tale - Jerry and Cindy in 2014.

 

Happy anniversary, Mom & Dad! Thank you for living a beautiful example of all God created marriage to be. I love you both!

(Updated August 2018.)

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Making Grandma’s Lime Pickles

Making Grandma's Lime Pickles: Life in Lape Haven. While it might seem light just a recipe for making and canning lime pickles from cucumbers, learning my great-grandma's recipe for sweet and tangy lime pickles from my grandmother is a special inheritance that connects generations.

Growing up, family gatherings at my maternal grandparents’ farm were always packed-house events with plenty of love, laughter, food, and volleyball (it’s kind of our family sport).

Grandpa and Grandma raised five children in their three-bedroom, one-bath home, and with addition of spouses and grandchildren (which numbered 14 when I was a young teen), dinner time meant a main table in the kitchen and a kids’ table in the utility room (when there were just 6 to 8 of us grandkids) and/or in the living room. It also meant that you wanted to get in line for food before the older grandsons.

Thankfully Grandma made sure she always had plenty of her most coveted homemade offerings: mashed potatoes, green beans, yeast rolls, and a type of sweet and tangy pickle that my Great-Grandma Leora (Grandpa’s mother) used to make, called “lime pickles.”

Making Grandma's Lime Pickles: Life in Lape Haven. While it might seem light just a recipe for making and canning lime pickles from cucumbers, learning my great-grandma's recipe for sweet and tangy lime pickles from my grandmother is a special inheritance that connects generations.

I cannot remember a single “everybody’s here” family dinner where we didn’t have all four of those items on the menu. After church on Sunday, they were there. Every Christmastime, they were there. Easter, there. Birthdays, there. Always, there.

As I got older, I helped out in the kitchen prep for some of those meals, so I learned how to make mashed potatoes, green beans, and yeast rolls just like my grandma. I was only missing one part of that nostalgic culinary quartet. Even though I’ve opened countless jars of her pickles over the years, filling bowls and setting them on the table, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally had the chance to learn how to make my grandma’s (and great-grandma’s) lime pickles.

Having never canned anything ever, I admit that I was a little intimidated by the idea. But Grandma was, as she always is, remarkably encouraging and patient, “Honey, if I can do it, you can it.”

Since making lime pickles requires a 24-hour soaking of the sliced cucumbers in the lime solution, Grandma had done all the prep work the day before, bless her heart. She sliced the cucumbers from her garden and ones I’d sent down to her from ours, and she mixed up the lime solution and put the slices in the mix to soak.

As we started the process of transferring the soaked cucumbers slices to the sink for a good rinsing off, Grandma gave me a little history on this recipe. She learned how to make lime pickles from her mother-in-law, my Great-Grandma Leora. (I’d always figured it was something passed down to her from her own mother).

The first time she went to help Great-Grandma make the pickles, Grandma realized that Leora was using lime, as in calcium hydroxide. She asked her mother-in-law, “Are you sure?” All Grandma knew about lime was that it was something that they dumped a cup of down their “backhouse” (outhouse) every so often, to keep the outhouse from smelling. Great-Grandma assured her that lime was what they needed to use.

Leora got her lime at the feed supply store back in the day, but we used a package of “pickling lime” from the grocery store. The pickling lime helps to maintain the “crunchiness” of the cucumber, but since it is alkaline, it can neutralize the acidity in your pickles, leading to sickness, if you don’t rinse them thoroughly enough. We rinsed ours in four changes of water in the sink, until the water was clear.

Life in Lape Haven: Making Grandma's Lime Pickles

Once the cucumber slices were rinsed well, they got to sit in a clean bath of rinse water for a few hours, during which time Josiah (who was with me) and I got to share lunch with my grandparents and just visit.

Any meal at my grandparents includes “visiting,” that time after everyone’s finished eating, but no one gets up from the table because you’re sharing and talking and laughing together. It’s almost sacred time, and there have been so many visiting sessions that I wish I could have recorded so that I would have my grandpa’s stories and silly jokes and Grandma’s laughter and comments to share with my children for years to come.

Three hours later, the lunch dishes were cleared from the table, Josiah was off to explore with his great-grandpa, and Grandma and I were ready to get to pickling. She had the canning jars cleaned and waiting in the oven, and she set the temperature to 200° to sterilize them as we cooked the cucumbers on the stove. Also on the stove, she had the jar lids and rings in a pan with water (about ¾ of the way full). Once they came to a near boil, she turned the burner down to a low simmer. Grandma explained that lowering the temperature kept the lids’ seals from sticking together.

Following Great-Grandma Leora’s recipe, we mixed up the brine in a large stock pot and created a “bag” of all the spices. (Grandma used an old kitchen washcloth, cut off a strip to tie it up, and then cut off the excess. You could use cheesecloth or a clean linen cloth.) Once the brine was stirred well and the bag of spices tossed in to float around, we filled the pot with our rinsed cucumbers slices. We actually had so many cucumbers that we had to make extra brine and spices to have enough to come up close to the top of the pot.


Setting the heat to medium-high and stirring occasionally, it was just a matter of time (about 15 minutes) before the first few slices started to become clear or translucent, meaning they were ready to go into a jar. Using a slotted spoon and a funnel, I ladled the first few slices into a waiting, very warm jar fresh from the oven. Once I’d found enough “clear” pickles to fill about half of the jar, Grandma used a towel to hold and cover the top of the jar, giving it a good shake or three, before allowing me to continue to fill it. When the pickle reached almost to the top of the jar, and after another good shake to make sure we couldn’t fit any more in, Grandma used a ladle and tiny strainer to add brine to the jar, filling it up to just where the neck of the jar starts. She gave the mouth of the jar a good wiping off and then using tongs, I carefully place a lid on the top, followed by screwing on the ring. (Note from my first experience: Don’t leave the tongs too close to the small pan on simmer. Metal gets warm there.)

With the jar filled, lidded, and ringed, we set it aside on the counter to begin cooling. (I was quite proud of the first jar.) Then it was on to Jar Number Two. By the time the cucumbers had been cooking for about 30 minutes, all of them were clear and ready to be canned, so Grandma and I worked out a good system of me filling a jar halfway, and then while she shook it down, I worked to fill a second jar. We went back and forth between them until one was filled, brined, sealed, and set on the counter to cool. Then we pulled new jar from the oven.

Life in Lape Haven: Making Grandma's Lime Pickles

We took turns spooning the pickles out of the brine because the hot vinegar in it can be potent and stings the eyes. However, while we worked, we talked and enjoyed our time together. I would ask her questions about making the pickles, and she would try to answer, but she laughed and told me, “I’ve never taught anyone how to make them. But I’ve made them enough that I should be able to tell someone how to do it!”

At the end of the day, we had 12 jars (10 of pickles and 2 of pickle brine), which we split between us since, as my grandma explained, she’d used mostly my cucumbers while she had supplied the items for the brine. (I would have been happy with just learning…and maybe one jar of pickles)

Grandma said they were ready to enjoy as soon as they’d cooled, or the next day, or a couple of years later (as long as they aren’t soft and don’t smell or taste funny). She also instructed me to remove the rings from the jars in the next day or two. Apparently my grandpa had once left some rings on and found out how hard it can be to remove them after they’ve been screwed on so tightly for a few years. He said, “You might need a crowbar.”

As we sat at the kitchen table, listening for the jar lids to “pop,” signaling that the jars had cooled enough and sealed properly, she shared some additional family recipes with me, including recipes from my great-great grandmas, both of my maternal great-grandmas, and even one from a great-great aunt. I definitely plan to try them out and share them with you some time. These recipes, like the one for my Great-Grandma Leora’s Lime Pickles, are part of my inheritance, and they are something I will share with my children throughout the years. Maybe someday I’ll get to teach them to my own grandchildren.

Life in Lape Haven: Making Grandma's Lime Pickles

It might sound silly to some, but I felt so privileged to be able to learn from my grandma how to make her pickles. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, and I know I have cousins who would have loved to have shared the experience, too.

Grandpa told me later that my grandma had been “really looking forward to doing this with you.” It almost made me cry. It made my day to know that it was important and special to her, too.

Setting aside this time to allow my grandma to pass on her knowledge, recipes, and stories brought us both tremendous joy and beautiful new memories to cherish together…and five jars of lime pickles each.

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Homemade sweet and tangy lime pickles from my great-grandma's recipe

 

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Honing My Mommy Skills

Life in Lape Haven: Honing My Mommy Skills

On Sunday, I earned a small feather in my “mothering” cap, a little mental badge of “Way to Go, Mommy!” There was a moment Sunday when I was not only surviving, but I was dominating this adventure of parenthood. It felt pretty great.

We were getting ready for church (and not running late, which is another WIN!). I was in the bathroom, finishing my hair and makeup. Brad was checking the diaper bag and helping our boys get their shoes on the right feet.

Suddenly, I heard Josiah half-crying, half-yelling, with a slight edge of panic in his voice.

And I KNEW. I knew with 100 percent certainty what was going on. I knew this cry. Somehow, I just knew exactly what it meant.

“Brad?” I yelled to the kitchen. “Brad, Josiah is stuck in something. What is he stuck in?”

Then I heard Brad, who hadn’t replied to or acknowledged me, ask Josiah, “How did you do that?”

Again, I yelled to the kitchen. “Is he stuck in something?”

Apparently Brad finally heard me over Josiah’s complaints. “Yes. He got his finger stuck.”

I smiled at myself in the mirror, feeling rather impressed with my mother “skills.” I had called it. I knew his “I’m stuck” cry-whimper. It was like leveling-up in my “mommyness”!

When you bring home your newborn baby, you feel like such a “parent” when you finally start to differentiate your baby’s cries for when he’s hungry, tired, or needs changed. You get to know his reactions to everything: you know which toys he loves, what food he’ll eat, what food he’ll throw over the side, and which people will make him cry just by talking to him.

However, lately, I’ve been fine-tuning my “mother’s sixth sense,” that instinct that makes our kids believe that we have eyes in the back of our head, that certain awareness for knowing exactly what your child is doing without having to be right beside him.

I’ve learned the sound of the refrigerator being opened. I know when they’re being TOO quiet (pretty much ANY TIME one or both boys are quiet and not sleeping). I can tell from something in their laughter that they are wrestling and one of them is sitting, standing, or lying on top of the other one (Do you know how often I say, “Get off of him!” in a single day?).

Now, I wish I could say it’s just because I’m awesome that I can tell Josiah’s “I’m stuck” cry-whimper from his “I’m just faking this” cry, but that’s not it.

And it’s not just because I have to, although it does help to prevent certain disasters when I can anticipate or at least catch them doing some things BEFORE they do it.

It’s actually really simple. It’s because I know Josiah. I know Elijah. After spending nearly every single day of their lives with them, including their time in utero, I know my children very, very well.

As I looked at myself in the mirror, feeling excited with my “momtasticness” (I don’t know if that’s a word, but I like it), God dropped a verse in my heart.

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.” (Psalm 34:17)

The Bible tells us that when we call out to God, He will answer us and help us, but I’d never really thought about the fact that, just like other parents, God knows what each of our cries mean. He can tell OUR “I’m stuck” cry-whimper from our “I’m just faking this” cry. (Hmmm…)

He hears, and He delivers us from our troubles.

God knows what we need because He knows us (also because He’s God). And while I’ve only been a mother for a little over 5 years, God has been a Father for quite a bit longer. He’s got this parenting thing perfected. He’s known us from before we were born, before we were even conceived, and He knows not only our past, but God has already written out His plans for our future. (Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 29:11).

So while I felt pretty “parenting level: expert” on Sunday morning, as much as I love my boys, pay attention to their intricacies and quirks, and can anticipate to the second when a meltdown is going to hit, God reminded me that my skills are just a drop in the bucket compared to how capable, equipped, and on-it He is when it comes to caring for His children.