Homemade Corn Dog Muffins

Let me tell you, being GF is an adventure! I have tried and FAILED at many recipes. But after almost 2 years of being GF I have finally stumbled across a recipe for cornbread that I like. 

We have tried many cornbread recipes over the last few years. I would normally just buy Bob's Red Mill, but it made a ton of cornbread. Probably enough for a large dinner party or enough for about 3 meals. We can't do that much cornbread and we all know that cornbread must be fresh!! After all I am a southern girl. A southern girl that has never made homemade cornbread, what a shame. Also, I have come to the conclusion that I can't search of GF stuff!! So the other day I was on the hunt again. This time Pinterest was my guide. 

I am looking for a good cornbread recipe and I must convert the recipe myself. This could be trouble! And that is when I found a sweet little treasure!! My heart melted when I read about a Jiffy Cornbread Mix recipe!! Finally, someone understands what I have been seeking. Jiffy is my favorite, but have you looked on the box?? The ingredients list is SSSOOOOO long. Even if we weren't GF, I can't bring myself to eat it anymore. So here is the super simple recipe. My recipe is based on www.fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com.

Cornbread Recipe

Ingredients
2/3 Cup Flour (GF for us)
1/2 Cup Yellow Cornmeal (PLAIN! Not self-rising)
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 egg

1/3 to 1/2 cup milk (start with 1/3 but you may have to add more, I did)

2 tablespoons oil

honey (I don't know how much honey I put in there. Just give the bear a GOOD squeeze)

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Allow batter to rest about five minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until brown. 

**To make the recipe GF, I used Bob's Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour. Yesterday, I put Zantham Gum in it, but I don't really think you need it. Today's batch did not contain Zantham Gum and I liked it better!**

So you might be saying, "I thought this post was about corn dogs!" It is! I promise!

To make the corn dogs, use the above recipe for cornbread and 4 nitrate free hot dogs. Spray the 

muffin tin well (or you will hate me later). Fill a mini-muffin tin about 2/3 of the way full. Chop a hot dog into small pieces (about 8 pieces per hot dog) and push the little pieces down into the batter. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until brown. 

Note: If you have little ones, chop the hot dogs into smaller pieces and put 3 or 4 pieces into each muffin tin. 

My crew loved these! This picture is the second batch of the week and this is all that is left. I didn't bother to put them in a plastic container. I know they will be gone before dinner. I think the process took me about 20 minutes from nothing to the little ones eating (that is with cool down time). Now, how easy was that? 

Out of the Mouths of Babes

We can't quite figure out what Ansley is going to be when she grows up. She has the ability to question a person like I have never seen. Even as a itty bitty thing she was talking and asking a million questions. She once talked for 3 solid hours on a road trip. Should I mention that she was barely two at the time?

She also loves to ask questions. Her favorite question is, "what is his/her name?" When you answer, she wants their middle and last name. She gets very annoyed at me when I don't know the name of the guy in the car beside us. There was a time that I would make up names for people. She caught on! Why does she have to be so smart??

She will also ask you the same question in a different way in order to catch you in lie. Like I said, she is smart.

She is very in touch with her feelings and the feelings of others.

Lately she has been talking a lot about Parker. She wants to spell his name (his full name). She tells me almost every day that she misses him. I think she feels how emotional I become when she talks about him. She almost always speaks about him like he is sleeping right there in the room.

I tell you all of this so you will understand what happened today.

Today, we had both of the boys. Ansley was the first one up from nap and was super excited about our afternoon activity. She finally asked to go wake up the others. We woke up Charlotte first.

Charlotte was in a great mood (which has not been the case these last few days). Ansley, Charlotte, E and I were laying in the bed playing. I was doing "super baby" with Little E. He was high above my head when I heard the following: "Mommy, when you get to Heaven you can do that with Parker!! Won't that be wonderful and fun? That will make you very happy!"

Love that sweet love that she has for her brother. The brother she never knew, yet she speaks like they have been friends forever. I love that she knows. I couldn't imagine loving her any more than I already do, but I love her more every day!!

Psalm 10

At church, I help out in a 9th grade girls' Sunday School class. This class is fun and challenging. I don't really teach a lot, but I do help the teacher out when she needs me. This week, she needed me!

I was so excited about teaching the class. We usually have a lot of good discussions and I think it is great for the girls to hear someone different. When she asked me to teach I immediately said, "Yes!"

I probably should have looked at the lesson first. Yeah, that would have been smart. If I would have read the lesson, I would have told her NO. But, silly me!

This past week was really busy, so I did not even look at the lesson until teacher's prep on Wednesday night. **Note to self, always read the lesson before Wednesday.** That is the first time I discovered the topic.

I was supposed to teach on Psalm 10. Have you read Psalm 10?

Basically, the author is asking God "Where are you? Why are you hiding?"

I sat in the meeting and listened. I took notes. I was screaming on the inside. "You have got to be joking!! I have got to teach on God's perfect timing?" I left crying. I lost my shoe trying to get out of there.

In our heads we all know that there is a time and a place for everything. God has His perfect will. My heart even tells me that is true. But waiting is a very difficult truth to grasp. At least it is for me right now!

This has been an extremely difficult week. I spent most of the week praying for something and the answer has been clearly "NOT NOW, KENAN!" We had an open house today and it rained! Another, NOT NOW moment. I have cried and prayed. I am surely living the Psalm 10 passage.

Do you know what is great about this passage? Our God is the King of Kings! He is Holy and Just!

Every week we try to send the girls home with a challenge. This week the challenge is to pray back what we believe about God. This practice is so we may remember how wonderful and merciful God is. This challenge is for me!

God is patient with me even when I am not patient with Him!

Spring Update!

What an absolutely beautiful time of year!! I love the spring. Winter is so blah! Everything is gray and brown. But just look around now!! Everything is green and growing. I think God must give us winter so we can truly  appreciate the beauty of spring!

I imagine spring at our house looks like spring in most houses. We plant a lot of flowers and a number of vegetables. The grass is growing extremely fast (thanks to my "yard man" and a lot of fertilizer). Cole and I have a pretty good deal. He does all the grass stuff and I do all the flower stuff. This time of year is really busy for me, but he is out in the hot summer sun. So I guess we are even! :)

The house is still on the market, but it is showing rather nicely. The feedback we have received is all a matter of taste. For example: "the yard is to small". Well, there is nothing I can do about that. I truly believe that God is telling our family that it isn't about us, but about Him.

We continue to ride through the country looking at houses and land. Dreaming and making plans like we will be forever young. I assume we will always look at ourselves like young people. Even though my oldest loves to remind me that "this year I turn five and that makes you sad".

When Cole and I married, we told everyone that we would have babies until we turned 30, but we wanted to be done by then. Wow, how things have changed! We now understand how fragile life is. We also have a new appreciation for the plan of God. It was music to my ears when just yesterday I heard my sweet husband say that he wanted more kids. Not just one more, but more. And when questioned about more girls, he simply replied "It doesn't matter to me, just more!" He sure know how to make my heart smile.

So we have been keeping on keeping on. Trying to raise our babies to love the Lord and grow them and ourselves in every way. We are truly grateful for some amazing friends and family. There are have many moments of tears and questions, but we have some amazing friends who have held our hands and wiped our tears. We are now learning to smile through heartache, because Jesus lives and Jesus loves!

New Normal

Well, I think we are finally starting to settle into our "new normal". By that, I mean we are getting into a good routine. People can stop by without me flipping out (on the inside) because the house isn't clean. My brain is focused (somewhat).

Things around here have changed a lot!! Since we lost Parker, I have cleaned like a mad person. I never saw myself as a stress cleaner. I have always loved organizing my junk, but never really liked cleaning. However, we have cleaned and organized every room in the house including the attic.

We are finally back on track with school. I had horrible sickness when I was pregnant, so school got pushed back. Then we had Thanksgiving and Christmas and school was pushed back. Then our world was rocked and school was pushed back. But, we are finally back on schedule. We will have to do school during the summer and that is okay. This is one of the wonderful things about homeschooling. When life comes up, we can push it to another day. When it is 100 degrees this summer, we can catch up. Also, Ansley is only supposed to be in 3K. We did 3K last year and 4K this year. She should be reading independently by summer. She is doing such a good job. I am very proud of her!

Cole and I also learned that there is no reason to put off our dreams. Many times as parents, we have put ourselves on the back burner. We have said, "Oh, we will do it when the girls are bigger." But God gave us a wake-up call. We are not promised another day. He has taught us that life is short. So we are going ahead with a dream we have talked for a LONG time. We put our house on the market and decided to build our country dream. Why not? The house has never been cleaner! ;)

We are very excited about this process. We are excited about the lifestyle we will be able to share with our girls. We are excited about the things to come.  God has taught us so much! We are so glad to hear what he is teaching us!

Update!

Well, it has been exactly one month since our world completely changed. I have had many people tell me that it will never be the same. And I totally believe them.

Cole and I are in a good place right now. We have started making plans for the future. We are staying as busy as we can. We have organized closets, cleaned out the attic, and painted the front door and shutters (not to mention the swing). It is nice to have projects on hand. I am running out of projects. So now, I am inventing them. For example: there is a little bit of paint flaking from the air return. So I am going to paint it. School isn't running as smoothly as I would like, so I am making a strict schedule (which I have already done). Anything to stay busy!!

The girls are doing great. Ansley still rubs my belly and asks questions. Her favorite is, "Mommy, when will you have another baby in your belly?" I don't have an answer for that one. I simply tell her that Jesus knows the answer and we will have to wait on Him. She talks about Parker playing in a field of flowers chasing butterflies. I love to hear her talk about him like she knows him personally. It is almost like they talk daily. :)

Physically, I am doing good! We finally heard from the doctors and there is no known cause of the miscarriage. That is pretty good news. It means no cancer (which is always a possibility with a miscarriage). I made it through the followup appointment without throwing up. I was so nervous about being in that office. I had to go there without Cole a week ago and thought I was going to have a panic attack. I was so glad I decided to take Charlotte with me. If not, I am sure it would have been much worse. It was once a place of wonder and joy. Now it is kinda scary. The nurses and doctors are wonderful and I love them. They have gone out of their way to make us feel at ease. They are still walking on pins and needles around us. But I can't blame them.

Many people keep asking us about when we will start trying to have another baby. There is no trying. If the pregnancy with Parker has taught me anything it is, there is a time for everything. God will bless us again, if He sees fit. We will simply let God work in His perfect timing.

A good friend let me borrow a book yesterday. She has gone through a similar trial. The book is called "Mommy, please don't cry" by Kinda DeYmaz. The book was beyond sweet. It is about Heaven written from a child's point of view. The last two pages are the sweetest words:

"Someday, Mommy, we will hold each other tight!

Then you will cradle me in your arms,

and stroke my hair...

And once again, our

hearts will 

beat together.

Mommy, please 

don't cry...

I'll wait right

here for you."

I don't cry as much right now. I celebrate the life that I was given to hold. And that I am thankful for!

Rough Patch

I know it has only been two weeks. But these have been the fastest two weeks and the slowest at the same time. I feel like my life changed dramatically so fast that it is hard to breath.

Many people keep asking me how I am doing.

Physically, I am fine.
Emotionally, it depends on when you ask (beware, you may get a laugh, a tear, or a punch in the face...jk...I think).

I have heard that all the emotions are perfectly normal. I sure hope this is not my new "normal". I do not like it at all. I have always been someone who was pretty steady (I say "pretty steady" because I can have a temper). These "ups and downs" are driving me crazy.

I know, I have told Cole at least 10 times that I feel like I am going crazy. It is hard to put these feelings in words. I am sad, happy, and angry at the same time. There have been many time I have been sitting in the living room perfectly fine and all of a sudden get the urge to run into the street screaming and pulling out my hair. I told you....CRAZY!!

Something silly may make me cry. Like today, I remembered that next month is February. We were supposed to find out Parker's gender the week after Valentine's Day. All day, just hearing February or Valentines makes me tear-up. But, while I am teary, I may burst out in laughter at something the girls said or did.

I am so thankful for a very good friend who just listened today. She knows exactly what I need to hear and knows exactly when I need her to listen. And sadly she knows my pain.

I don't tell you these things for you to feel sorry for me. I am trying to be perfectly honest with you all.

I have found the most support in women who have also been through a miscarriage. I am so thankful that some of these women have shared their stories with me.

Why share my grief and craziness? Because I know there will be someone who reads this that will go through this exact same thing. If what we have experienced will help someone, I am glad to share.

One last thing before I stop my rambling:

Read these words out loud! They have given me such comfort.

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because i am fearfully and wonderfully made;

You works are wonderful, I know that full well.

MY FRAME WAS NOT HIDDEN FROM YOU

WHEN I WAS MADE IN THE SECRET PLACE.

WHEN I WAS WOVEN TOGETHER IN THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH,

YOUR EYES SAW MY UNFORMED BODY.

ALL THE DAYS ORDAINED FOR ME WERE WRITTEN IN YOUR BOOK

BEFORE ONE CAME TO BE.

I know Parker came to this earth to teach me something. I just have to be willing and open to listen to the lesson being taught. Today, I read "When you are down to nothing, God is up to something."

And that gives me hope!