Life on our corner

½ cup all-purpose flour ½ cup whole wheat flour 1 Tbs baking powder 1 tsp salt ½ tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground nutmeg 1 cup cornmeal 2 large eggs 1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or freshly cooked and processed) 2/3 cup brown sugar ¼ cup canola oil 1 Tbs molasses Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 10-inch glass pie pan or 9-inch square baking pan. Sift flours, baking powder, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in cornmeal. In separate bowl, beat eggs lightly. Whisk in pumpkin, brown sugar, oil and molasses. Make a well in the dry mixture. Add pumpkin mixture and blend batter with a few quick strokes (just blend with a fork- don’t overmix.) Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cornbread is browned and the surface has a slightly springy feel.

1/3 cup shortening 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1/2 cup pumpkin Coating: 1 stick of butter, melted 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3/4 sup sugar In a small mixing bowl, beat shortening, brown sugar and egg until smooth. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice; add to the sugar mixture alternately with pumpkin. Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full (don't use muffin liners). Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. Meanwhile, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll the warm puffs in butter, then in cinnamon-sugar. ( or roll powder sugar.) Serve immediately. Yield: 1 dozen.

I felt like this week went Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday, Saturday, Sunday. This has to be one of my favorite weeks of the year! Monday I took Reuben to the Dr for an ear check since he has had so much trouble the past months. Two wonderful things happened. First, his weight stayed the same two weeks in a row (25.4) and second, his ears looked great! We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house. (Jordan's mom was sick:(.)It was my first day back on dairy. I didn't go crazy because I didn't want to make myself sick! I discovered that I have become a chocolate snob and now really like the dark stuff over regular milk chocolate. I have yet to have a glass of milk, but the cheese that I have had over the last couple of days has been great. It is very freeing to eat food without reading the ingredients first. Reuben has made a hard transition causing me to ask "why go through all this?", but I after grocery shopping and meal planning for the week it will

I listened to a really convicting broadcast this week on being thankful so this week I will try to highlight things that we are thankful for. I am thankful that Audrey is being such a good sport about wearing her thumb guard. I am so surprised by how much she is able to do with it on and that she doesn't make a big deal about it even when people comment. (Many people think that she has broken her thumb!) The down side is that during naps she is sucking the opposite (right)thumb. It is so much less compared to what she sucks the left. Only to get to sleep not through the entire night and not during the day. Not sure what to do about that yet. Tonight she asked me to put a thumb guard on the right thumb as well. "I need two of them." It is as if she wants to stop can't. :( I am so thankful that Reuben's second tooth popped through and that he has not had an ear infection or been on antibiotics this week! Happy boy again! I take him to the Dr. on Monday just to get

Tomorrow marks a big day for the Vos family, Audrey will begin to wear her thumb guard. For two and a half years that little left thumb has been her best friend, and now it is time to say good-bye. We had decided to "take it away" for two reasons 1) the dentist said that we have until age three before she does real damage to the shape of her mouth 2) we can only wonder how many germs and bacteria have entered our house through that cute but dirty little thumb. So for the next three to four weeks day and night she will wear a rubber thumb guard. I am sad for her. Another day where parenting means choosing what is best and not what is easiest. It seems like I have had a lot of those lately! We had a great week getting back into the swing of things after being scattered abroad. Reuben is doing really well at night and we are getting close to sleeping through. Hooray! I tried to get the kids out and about as much as possible this week because cold days are around the corner and e

At this time last week Jordan was dropping off the older two and I was packing our suitcases for Florida. Jordan had a business trip that I got to piggy back on and since I am still nursing Reuben he came too. Reuben did pretty well on the flights down. We had a layover in TN and that two hour flight was interesting because we were separated from Jordan and I had to sit between (although more accurately put on top of) a guy that looked like Harold Krenshaw from Monk and a woman in her mid 40s who wasn't a "baby person." Reuben kicked her the entire flight. I told her she paid her dues and I hoped that she never had to sit by a baby on a plane again. Florida was beautiful. I think that I was made for paradise. Jordan was not and said I had to come back to Iowa. There were tons of shops and places to eat right by the hotel and I enjoyed the simplicity of walking for whatever was needed. It reminded me of the small town I grew up in when I would walk to Terlow's Market f

OK, my goal was to post once a week so I had better not drop the ball the first week! I think that we are all recovering from everything. I am thinking about getting us T-shirts that say "I survived the Plague of 09." Jordan says that the side effects of all the medications that we were on are just about as bad as being sick itself. Reuben has terrible diapers and now a diaper rash. We cut Audrey's last two days of prednisone in half because we couldn't handle her biting and pinching people any more. (The doctor had left the length that she was on this to our discretion.) I am not taking my antibiotic tonight because it feels like it is burning a hole in my stomach. Jordan got a lot done this weekend. He raked and bagged leaves and got the shed almost painted. He ran out of trim paint! We (Jordan, Reuben and I) leave bright and early Tuesday morning for FL. I think that I am excited. I didn't think that I would be anxious about leaving Jonah and Audrey. I also saw