First off, my apologies! I should have been upfront last week that I was recalling the Power Balls recipe from memory, which evidently is not a reliable source at all right now! I made the necessary amendments to the recipe below, please forgive me if you tried it already. What's super funny, is I made them according to my faulty memory and they weren't all that bad, just gooier than usual. I don't think you can screw up Power Balls. Everything in them is yummy and you can't even burn them. I also added one tiny thing to the rhubarb recipe that I did in practice but wasn't on the recipe I copied down. I nuked the rhubarb for quite a while before baking it, so it was sure to be cooked through when the topping was done. OK, no more corrections for now.
I've been so very emotional this past week anticipating this baby's arrival. I've been soaking up every minute with Z as though it's our last few days together. I cried while Ben was trying to share an interesting part of his book with me because I wondered when the next time would be that we'd get to stay up and talk like that. The first year of Z's life was the hardest in our marriage and part of me fears we're in for another tough year, but I'm praying it won't be as bad. We'll be sleep deprived again, surely, but hopefully we'll be a little more seasoned as new parents.
The following collection of pictures were taken since last Thursday of our special time with Z before he becomes a big brother.
Mass producing chocolate chip cookies with Mommy
At the county fair with Daddy...
..."Poopy!"
"Hewhoa? Segobadoo manna gow. By-ee" Which is translated as, "Yeah, Mom? We're on our way home, so go ahead and start dinner, would ya?"
My mom arrived last night from Germany and is already anticipating taking over Z's care. She's asked for reminders on how to collapse our stroller, how to get to different places, for Z's schedule and details on how to put him down for naps. We're even meal planning and she's only been here a few hours. Finally, her jet lag kicked in and she's napping now. What a blessing to have her here in our time of need!
For those interested in my philosophical ramblings I finally updated Zerbik last week. I'm not sure when I'll post on any website next, if it takes me a bit, you'll know why! Make sure I have your e-mail and/or snail mail address if you want to know our baby's name. E-mail me: beccawigton [at] tusco [dot] net. Thanks for your prayers!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who creates theories. I'm currently working on a theory of what one's eye brows say about a person. The one I'm sharing today, however, has been in the works for several months if not years. I thought about it a lot as I worked as a mental health counselor for six years. I do know that there are much more qualified and well spoken people in the world who have probably spoke or written on this very subject. As with most of my Zerbik entries, this is just something that's new to me. Very likely it's not to you. The most exciting part of this is that in my struggling to understand this "theory", I feel God revealed something to me. Now I get to share it with you!! I'll be as succinct as possible.
MY THEORY The two primary foundations for relationships are trust and respect. Being able to rely on someone's integrity and knowing that they will not intentionally hurt you is how I'm defining "trust". Respect is more complicated. The dictionary backs up my feeling that there are two ways to really define "respect". One, is to like a person, the other, is to value the rights of another and to defer to them. In counseling couples struggling in their marriages, I found often that at least one person neither trusted the other or respected them, in either definition of the term.
TRUST I've shared before how excited I was to be rewarded upon entering marital vows to be given such a gift of trust between my new husband and myself. I still attribute it to demonstrating self-control (abstinence) for three years as we dated. Watching each other struggle and taking turns being strong to uphold our shared values paid off in a way we couldn't have expected. We were obeying God's Word just because we were supposed to. Who knew blind obedience to God could be so rewarding. We had many older couples tell us that we were very "mature" for a couple only married two years (now eleven). We weren't necessarily "mature", but we were able to give each other a freedom that didn't result in endless arguments. It also helps in preventing lots of bickering in our marriage when we trust that the other is on our side and not out to get us. I do forget sometimes, but how much worse it could have been without our gift of trust?
How can one build trust with others? I believe that following God's commands however they apply to you in your situation is the best way. We can NEVER trust another person so fully as we can trust God. We're fallible, He's not. Ultimately, in my marriage, it's not Ben that I trust, but God in Him. I trust him to trust God, do what He commands, be obedient to the best of his ability and that God will honor that and protect us where we fail.
RESPECT This is the area God has revealed the most to me lately. There's two major revelations I've been given. 1.) If you don't respect or like someone, the problem is actually in your heart. 2.) To respect someone is to truly love them.
These principles apply to relationships that aren't romantic as well. They apply to co-workers and churches and friends. If you struggle to find love in your heart for a person, simply ASK GOD. He will, I promise, give you love for that person if your heart is open enough to ask. As with developing trust you may find yourself being led in baby steps of obedience to God in loving that person. Sometimes, He just fills my heart with love and compassion for a person. Sometimes it's work and takes time.
NO TRUST In the situation that you cannot trust a person because they do not obey God and have proven themselves to be untrustworthy. It is still your job to love that person, however, do not marry them, if you're not already married! It is when we must have people in our lives that we cannot trust that we are to develop healthy boundaries with the person. Read "Boundaries" by Cloud and Townsend for more details on setting boundaries.
NO RESPECT Again, God made this very clear to me, that this is due to sin in my heart, not theirs. Do we hold them to a higher standard than ourselves? Why can we not find grace in our hearts for this person? If you don't respect a person, I'd like to say that you're not likely to have married them in the first place, but it happens all the time. The wife looks down on the husband for being unmotivated, the husband looks down on the wife for being emotional or weak. There's too many scenarios to list, but there's no problem too big for God's love to heal. We will only grow closer to our God and become more like Jesus when we weather those storms in our relationships.
THE BEAUTY OF IT ALL We all know that there is "give and take" in a relationship. Our sinful hearts are so easily tempted to make gods of our own pleasure and focus on what we're getting out of a relationship. Here's the true give and take in relationship: I give God my trust enough to obey His Word and His leadings in my heart in loving others and simply living as He has called me to live. I, then, receive the trust and respect of others and am filled with God's love for others irregardless of how much I "get out of a relationship" with them. Every relationship is an outpouring of our relationship with our heavenly Father. Our God is a God of reconciliation. When there's trouble in your relationships, throw yourself down before the throne and ask for healing in your own life. When you've gotten right with Him, you'll see with new eyes the others in your life.
This is what is going on outside as I write this. Ben took the day off to get caught up on stuff he wants to do. Little did he realize what a helper we had under our own roof! Earlier they stacked a bunch of wood that Ben had already split and Z scratched his cheek all up from carrying the wood. Now they're out there unloading the wood in the truck bed and splitting more (hence the ear protection). Perhaps I'm not the only one nesting... As I mentioned before I have two recipes to share. They were SO awesome and I was just too busy this summer to blog about them sooner. POWER BALLS (found in the Wonder Years magazine) Mix 1c. peanut butter and 1c. honey Add 3 c. rolled oats, 1/2 c. flax seed, 1 c. dried fruit (ie. raisins, craisins, etc.) and nuts, 1 c. chocolate chips. Mix well, roll into balls. Refrigerate for an hour or freeze.
Now here's my feedback after making them three times. I recently added a half cup of wheat germ and would have added nutritious yeast if I'd had any at the beginning with the flax seed. Don't use too much flax seed as it gets overwhelming, but in moderation it's my favorite part of the texture. I did a cheap version and a fancier version. I love it with pecans, walnuts and craisins, but honestly it's just a good with cheapo nuts and raisins. I did not like the chocolate chips in it and omitted them all together this last time. I added chex cereal and some granola in it's place. Tiny choc. chips might be OK though. Also, I like these straight out of the freezer, but maybe that's because I'm pregnant and I like frozen stuff more right now than usual. They are very gooey and could be called "Gooey Balls", but they're easier to manage when frozen. Oh yeah, spray the bowl before you start and spray or butter your hands before rolling to help with the stickiness.
Rhubarb Crumble from Grandma J. in TN (Thanks Grandma!!) 1/2 c. walnuts 1 c. flour 1/2 c. rolled oats 1/3 c. packed brown sugar 1/2 t. cinnamon pinch of salt 1/2 c. unsalted butter at room temp. 2 lbs rhubarb 3/4-1 c. white sugar 5 T flour
Preheat oven to 375 F. Toast the walnuts in a baking pan until lightly browned and aromatic. Let cool and coarsely chop. Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and stir to mix. Working quickly with your hands or a pastry blender, add the butter until the mixture has a crumbly texture. Stir in the chopped walnuts and set aside.
Wash and trim the rhubarb in a large bowl and add the sugar and flour. Toss until the rhubarb is well coated. Microwave for 8-10 min., stirring occasionally to pre-cook the rhubarb. Spread the rhubarb evenly into a 12 in. baking dish. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and bake until the rhubarb is tender and bubbling, approx. 45 min. to an hour. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.
You can replace half the rhubarb with strawberries for a yummy twist.
Feedback: This wasn't as hard as it sounds, I realized I had a pastry blender and didn't know it, so that made it quick and easy (it's a hand tool, not electric!). I made this for a vegan friend of ours and used Earth Balance as a butter substitute. Worked great! I think I doubled the topping as that's my sweetie's favorite part. I made this at the end of rhubarb season and wished I'd tried it earlier. Next year, we'll surely be using this as an alternative to pie, which is usually all we do with our rhubarb. I highly recommend printing this and saving it for next year or buying some frozen rhubarb so you don't have to wait. It's that good.
"Hewhoa? Segobadoo manna gow. By-ee" Which is translated as, 
My mom arrived last night from Germany and is already anticipating taking over Z's care. She's asked for reminders on how to collapse our stroller, how to get to different places, for Z's schedule and details on how to put him down for naps. We're even meal planning and she's only been here a few hours. Finally, her jet lag kicked in and she's napping now. What a blessing to have her here in our time of need! 
