Recipe of the Month - Nanaimo Pops

This recipe looks great!  I haven't tried it yet but came across it in Canadian Family magazine and thought I need to document this cause I love Naniamo Bars.  So if any of you give this a try let me know how it goes!

Nanaimo Pops
1.  Combine 1/4 cup butter and 2 Tbsp sugar in a bowl and set over a pot of simmering water, stirring until butter has melted.  Whisk in one egg and stir until mixture has thickened, about 5 minutes.
2.  Remove from heat and stir in 2/3 cup chocolate cookie crumbs, 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut.
3.  Spoon heaping teaspoons of mixture and form into 1 discs.  (These will be the bases of the pops.)  Chill while making next layer.
4.  For the filling, cream together 1/4 cup butter and 1 Tbsp creme fraiche or whipping cream.  Mix in 1 Tbsp vanilla custard powder and 1 cup icing sugar, adding additional cream if mixture is too stiff.
5.  Mound 1 Tbsp of the filling over the chilled discs.  Chill in freezer until firm, and then insert a lollipop stick into the middle of the filling.
6.  Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in a bowl over a pot of simmered water.  Stir in 2 Tbsp butter and mix until combined.
7.  Dip each pop into chocolate and let excess drip off.  Set on rack to dry then transfer to freezer until ready to server.

Enjoy!

Moving (hopefully)

It looks like our family will finally all be relocating to Grande Cache, a huge answer to our prayers.  Phil has been living with a few guys from work.  They rent a house there and every guy has his own room.  Two of the guys there have requested transfers to go to other institutes.  One of the guys got his approved and will be leaving sometime in the beginning of September.  The other guy is waiting for his transfer to come through and be approved and then he will be on his way.  So the guys there are going to go and play musical rooms and one guy will move to the basement and Phil will move upstairs and we'll move in too!!

All we need to do now is find someone to rent our place!  So, prayer request one has been answered now we have one more!!!  But we know that God is good and will provide!

Big Boy

My little boy is getting so BIG.  He had his two month immunizations on Wednesday and weighed in at 12 lbs 7 oz and he's in the top percent for his age.  He is almost half the weight of his two year old sister! Here are a few photos of the little guy.

Five Weeks

Trying to decide what to do next...

Six Weeks

Chillin' with Dad (probably watching sports!)

Seven Weeks

Everyone needs a bath photo at some point

Seven Weeks 

So handsome

My foot

Back in March I posted this blog about my foot.  As of the beginning of this month it still was hurting.  I had an appointment with a orthotics company.  The guy checked out my foot and said he didn't know what the problem was.  He said it looks like it is the beginning of arthritis (which I figured as I tried to self diagnose myself via the Internet - reliable I know!).  He said there wasn't much that could be done.   He could make me a little orthotic (about $300) or I could go and buy a new pair of Birkenstock (my last pair was from my backpacking trip to Europe about 11 years ago!  I guess I need a new pair).  So that's what I did.  I went and bought a new pair.  He then said if things didn't get better in six weeks to go to my doctor and have them x-ray my foot as they couldn't do it earlier as I was pregnant.

I was talking to my mom on July 1 and she had just returned from a personal renewal conference in the States.  The speaker at the conference has encouraged people to begin praying for healing.  The Bible commands us to pray for healing, for ourselves and for others.  While at the conference my mom and her friend were prayed for and both of them experienced heeling's from illnesses that had plagued their bodies for years.  So, starting on July 1 I started praying for my foot.  I placed my hand on the sore spots and began praying.  A few days later the little bump that was on the joint of my big toe had reduced it's size and the pain was very minimal.  I have been praying every day since July 1 and can now walk without pain and can wear shoes that I wasn't able to wear previously.

I wanted to share this with you my fellow readers and bloggers because I think that the God who did many miracles back in the day still does miracles today - all we have to do is have faith and believe.  I'll admit, the pain isn't completely gone, but I'm trusting that God has a plan.  Maybe there is more healing that will come in the future, maybe this is as far a the healing goes.  Whatever it may be I am so happy that I can walk without pain and wear my shoes again!  I encourage you, if you need healing, pray and have others pray for you - It Works!

Last 5-10 pounds

Now that Taylor is 7 weeks old and I've had my doctors appointment and everything looks good, they said that I can start to exercise.  I think, that's great, but when am I going to have time to exercise?  I can't do very much during the day (I guess chasing around a 2 year old is some exercise, but not the get out of the house and run till you sweat and can hardly breathe).  At night I can't leave the house when the kids are sleeping without any supervision.  So getting to a gym is out of the question.  We try to go for walks in the day, bu the weather lately has not be accomodating.  In the morning it's either pretty cool, windy or rainy.  Then in the afternoon it's either too hot, windy or rainy.  I have not been too happy with the weather.  The other day I figured I need to get out of the house so we went for a walk but it was so windy it wasn't that much fun.

I've got about 5 lbs left that I'd love to lose, if I could lose 7 that'd be sweet!  The other problem I face is lack of self control.  Since there is no one around to monitor my eating it's totally and completely up to me what I eat.  In the summer I typically don't eat a lot, especially if it's hot.  But since I'm nursing Taylor I figure I do need to eat some thing.  So after dinner when Makayla goes to bed, all I want to eat is sweet things.  It's not good.  Eating cookies and ice cream and caramel covered popcorn at 9/10 at night does not help to get rid of this spare tire.  In my head I know what needs to be done, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  I have been doing some little exercises when I can score a few minutes when the kids are sleeping or playing and Makayla has enjoyed having dance times, so we'll put on a groovy cd and dance around the house - good times!

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas on how to lose these last few pounds and rid myself of this spare tire?  Because even though I'm almost at pre-pregnancy weight, my "normal" clothes still aren't fitting right.  ARG!  I can't wear maternity clothes forever and I refuse to buy new clothes (cause who has the $$?).  I guess I need to start with not eating junk at night, right?  I'll give that a go and see what happens!

***** I realize that I shouldn't complain too much as they do say it can take up to a year to get back to "normal", but I see this as the last little hurdle that I just can't get around.  

To nap or not to nap

Makayla is a religious napper.  I am so thankful for that.  She usually naps for about two hours depending on what we have been doing that morning.  She is also a great night sleeper as well - has been since she was about two months old.  I love my sleep too, and having a newborn kinda puts a kink in my sleeping patterns, although I am sleeping better now than in the last few months of my pregnancy.  Taylor has been pretty consistent in the sleep department since coming home.  This last week however I believe he was going through a growth spurt.  His afternoon nap time has been pretty short as he has been wanting to eat in the day like every hour.  But today, he had a glorious 3 hour afternoon nap!  That meant that for the first time in the last week I got a nap too (longer than 20 minutes).  It seemed like I would get him down and then I would lay down and then Makayla would be awake.  Sigh, I have been super tired.  With Phil being out of town that leaves me to do it all.  I was averaging a total of 5-6 hours at night and then a 20 minute nap in the afternoon.  Boy, the days can seem long.  Last night we had a nice couple of long stretches of sleep and a nice long nap this afternoon and I'm feeling pretty good.  Although it took me about 3 days to get my kitchen cleaned up and then in a matter of making dinner it got all messy again!  Oh well.  As mentioned in my last post, life is busy, but nothing that we can't handle!