The Beginning of the End...

Well July has come to a close and with the end of the month, the anticipation of meeting our little boy grows. As of today, I am 29 weeks along and am now definitely in my third trimester. Yay!!!

My mom is coming next weekend and we are going to work on the nursery. I have been working on a valance for the nursery, but I am not sure that it is going to work. I have bought four different rugs for the nursery, but so far none of them have been "it" so they have gone back to whence they came. I think after mom and I paint the mural above the crib, I will hopefully be able to get the finishing touches in the nursery in place.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and it went well. The doctor checked our little guys heart-rate, measured my belly, and gave me another Rogam injection. I had the glucose test done to check for gestational diabetes and some other blood work done. The doctors office was getting the results back today and they told me to go by the "no news is good news" if I didn't hear from them today. I didn't hear anything from them, so I guess that things are good.

I have two more appointments that are two weeks apart and at 32 weeks I start having appointments twice a week until the little boy's arrival. My doctor wants to keep an eye on the baby to make sure that he doesn't start getting stressed. The presence of the anticardio lipins in my blood (one of the main reasons for my having to do the Lovenox injections) is making my doctor want to take extra precautions for our little boy's safe arrival and I am in complete agreement with her.

Now, we are just counting down the days.

Cinnamon-Oat Panckaes...

Happy Monday to you! I hope that your weekend was nice and enjoyable. We had a pretty relaxing weekend around here. We started watching Cleopatra (which I have never seen but always wanted to), but I fell asleep about an hour or so into it. I guess it will take us a while to watch it at the rate I am going.

Last week discovered a recipe for some pancakes and yesterday morning I gave them a try. We really liked them, so I thought that I would share the recipe with you. It is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. The recipe was featured in the Freeze It section and I must admit I never thought of freezing pancakes before. I have made up a big batch of waffles before and put them in the freezer, but the thought of doing the same for pancakes never entered my mind. The recipe uses rolled oats as part of the batter and I really like the constancy and flavor it gave them.

Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups milk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for skillet

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and 1 cup oats and pulse a few times to coarsely grind oats. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and oil. Add dry ingredients and 1 cup oats and whisk just until moistened.

Heat a large skillet (nonstick or cast-iron) or griddle over medium. Lightly oil skillet. Using 2 to 3 tablespoons for each pancake, drop batter in skillet and cook until a few bubbles have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until browned on undersides, 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat with more oil and batter.

They are great served with butter and syrup or bananas and powdered sugar.

Yield: 20 pancakes, 5 servings of 4 pancakes each.

To freeze: Cool pancakes on a wire rack, then arrange in a single layer on a baking shheet. Freeze them until firm, about 30 minutes. Transfer pancakes to a resealable plastic bag and store in the freezer up to 3 months.

To reheat from frozen: For a single serving, warm pancakes in the toaster or toaster oven. For larger batches, arrange pancakes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Cover with foil and heat at 350 degrees F until warm, 10 minutes.

Being Rich in Faith and Not Afraid...

At our church, we are just starting a study on the seven churches in Revelations. Last week our pastor preached on the church in Ephesus. This week he preached about the church in Smyrna.

"Do not fear! Be faithful to God in your tribulations and even your death!"

The above charge that was given to the church of Smyrna hundreds of years ago is still a great charge for us today. In some countries Christians are persecuted for their faith and for them this charge screams relevance. For those of us that are not facing persecution the relevance can seem minute. However, fear plays a large role in many of our lives. When we fear we are worrying more about the problem or situation at hand than we are trusting the One who is in control of it all. We should continue our faith in God no matter what our circumstances are; we are RICH in Christ.

Rescued from sin and death
Inherited the riches of the Kingdom of Christ (I Peter 1:4)
Chosen by God to proclaim His excellence (I Peter 2:9)
Hope that cannot be shaken (Jer. 14:22, Titus 1:2)

A Reintroduction...

Hi, I would like to reintroduce myself. My name is Charree. I was once not too long ago pretty good about regularly posting on this blog. However, as of late I have been less than reliable. I have hopes that I will once again become regular about posting the things that are going on around here.

Things have been pretty busy around here. My DH and I spent 2 1/2 weeks in Florida visiting our families and then I spent last week unpacking and getting things back to normal. I have pictures from the showers in Florida that I want to share, but that will have to wait until I get them all organized.

On Friday I started my 27th week of pregnancy. The official countdown in on, 87 days left until our little boy's due date. I can feel myself getting more and more excited with each passing day. I had a doctor's appointment last week and everything is going well. In fact, I have started my every two week doctor's visits and I have to do the blood sugar test next week. The picture below is of me at 27 weeks and 3 days.
I hope that your day is blessed and I look forward to catching up with all of my blogging friends soon.