Something sweet……

With all the heartbreaking things going on around the blog world right now, I decided to post something sweet…literally. Many of you know baking and cake decorating are a little obsession hobby of mine.  This past week my Grandpa’s nursing home had a big carnival and bake sale to raise money for a new big screen TV. He asked me to make a cake for the bake sale, and seeing as how I adore him, my sues chef and I whipped up 4 fun cakes.

I am a perfectionist when it comes to baking (well, in most things really… but that is a whole other post).  There is just something about cake with homemade buttercream icing that you can’t get from the canned stuff. This is my favorite recipe for vanilla (white) buttercream:

Georgia’s Buttercream Frosting Recipe

.

Ingredients

• 2 lb bag of powdered sugar, sift for decorating
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter ,or margarine, room temp
• 1/2 cup hi-ratio or icing shortening- pure Vegetable shortening will work too
• 1/2 cup milk-minus 2 T in the summer
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon creme bouquet or almond flavoring
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (cuts the sweet)

  Cocoa for Chocolate Frosting

Preparation

Cream butter and shortening together until fluffy, with mixer on low.  Add the milk (-2T),1/2 the bag of sugar slowly, the flavorings and salt. Mix until creamy, slowly adding the remaining sugar. If the icing is too stiff, add remaining milk. In the summer leave out the extra 2 T.
Scrape the sides of the bowl. Turn mixer on high and beat for 6-10 min until icing has doubled in volume. Keep covered while working. Store in a tightly covered container (odor-free) in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks or freeze for 6 months. Thaw to room temp and re-whip.

For Hi-Humidity Frosting:
Use all shortening and no butter. Change the amount of shortening to 1 cup and omit the butter.

Chocolate Buttercream:
Make the regular buttercream as above. Add cocoa (start with 1/2-3/4c or more) and milk (1 T at a time) to thin. Add a Pinch of salt to help bring out the flavor. This icing will thicken as it sits. It should be made ahead and rewhipped to the right consistency.  Add more cocoa to make darker and richer and milk to keep from being too thick.

Another type of icing I LOVE is peanut butter. Give me a chocolate cake iced with this stuff and a fork and I am a happy happy lady. Actually, forget the cake, just give me the frosting and a spoon.  I use this recipe that I found on the Wilton website:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 4-6 tablespoons milk

Directions
Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.

So that is my sweet post for today. Do you make your own baked goods? Got any good recipes to share?

For my Yummy ideas hop on over to Blessed With Grace for Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

I feel completely shallow writing about our kid and his struggles right now. Even though things are scary and uncertain for us, things could be much much worse. Sweet Stellan (MckMama’s little one ) is very sick right now. He has a life threatening heart condition and is not doing very well. Treatment options are limited for a baby this tiny. Please join us in praying for sweet Stellan (and all those super sick kiddos).

This is the calm before the storm for us…..The next couple of days are going to be hard on us here it at the Ziegler Zoo, but hopefully they will provide us with much needed answers. Tomorrow we will go meet with the developmental pediatrician. Tests and evaluations will be done to see if Mark is “blacking out”, having something like an anxiety attack, or something else developmental. We have heard PDD mentioned as a possible diagnosis although not everyone who has seen Mark so far agrees with this. The behaviorist has also talked about possible medication.

Tuesday Mark’s hearing and speech will be tested. He does have some severe speech delays, but they are looking at his hearing and processing to determine the intensity of speech therapy he will need.  

The results from all these evolutions will hopefully provide answers for us as to what is causing the outbursts and frustrations. We can handle any diagnosis, we just want to know who to help our son. There are lots of discussions to be made over the next few days and we pray for the strength and wisdom to do what is best.

I am TERRIBLE at not being in control of everything (just ask my husband). I am so thankfully for all your love and support.

My blog is getting a much needed facelift over the next few days. Please excuse my mess…

Since I have been MIA for a while, I figured I would give TWO things this week that are finer things in my life.

The first one is being, FRIENDSHIP. I don’t have many close friends, lots of acquaintances, but very few friends I consider close. I “met” Amy on twitter a few months ago, and quickly struck up a friendship. We are both from KS, value simplicity in life, cherish our families, and feel being a Mommy is the most important calling in life. This past weekend, I got to finally meet Amy and her adorable family. Like old friends we laughed, talked and swapped parenting tips. Our husbands talked about manly things and our kiddos played and enjoyed each other. (Her littlest one stole my hubby’s heart) Being able to call her a true friend is a very fine thing in my life.

The second fine thing for this week is Old fashion CHARM. My husband is a true gentleman. He has the utmost respect for me, values all I do, and cherishes our marriage. He is raising our son to be the same way. As you know, our kiddo is facing some challenges, but that has not stifled his charm. Last week at the grocery store he and his daddy picked out roses for me, my mom and my grandmother. They then played “delivery man.” Needless to say, we are all touched by this little act. Just yesterday, I was cleaning the kitchen (for the millionth time) while listening to Point of Grace. My handsome 3 year old, came in and asked me to dance, just like his Daddy does. The charm of my little guy and his example setting Daddy are finer things in my life.

For more finer things in life, visit Amy’s Finer Things Friday

There are so many things I could write about, but nothing can top the support  love and prayers from all of you. Yesterday, after a long bloggy absence I posted this about our little guy and his current issues. Not having a large readership, I was totally shocked with the outpour of support. Within minutes, so many people were @zieglerzoo ingme and leaving comments with words of encouragement and offering tips. It was so comforting to know that there were people who had been through similar situations and theirkiddos are now thriving.  I love being a blogger and am forever grateful you are on this journey with us

For more expressions of gratitide head over Heavenly Homemakers!

I have sat down to type this post about 100 times this past month, each time I wind up in tears, angry, or just plain too tired to get the words out. I know many of you are wondering about me, so I figured I would update on what we are finding as our new sense of normal…..

Let me start at the beginning, Mark was diagnosed with a glucose conversion problem last summer. Not really anything too serious just meant we had to limit his sugar intake, watch for signs of hyperglycemia, and make a few diet adjustments. Starting in May, Mark began to have these “outbursts” where for no real apparent reason, during which he would become violent. Flipping tables, throwing chairs, physically hitting Dale and I. These fits didn’t last long and Mark always seemed to be fine at he got over it quickly. He never seemed to act this way in front of anyone else but us, so we had just written it off as a phase.

These little events seemed to happen more and more frequently, But still with no rhyme or reason. We also started to notice Mark holding his ears and his head frequently. So, we assumed maybe his blood sugar was being wonky again or he had an ear infection. Monday I called our pediatrician, who wanted to see him right away. After a very long day, it was determined that no one really knew what was going on, and our doctor wanted us to see a “team” of experts.  Knowing how long Children’s Mercy takes to get an appointment with, I figured we would just go home, make our appointment and live happily ever after. Ummm…. Wrong. Our doctor personally called the office, and we were scheduled for two days later. According to our pediatrician, this was not a time to “dilly dally”

Long story short, Mark has stumped the best doctors in the country. Over the next few weeks, he will be undergoing a ton of tests to see if his outbursts are caused by seizure like brain reactions, something medical, a behavior disorder or something else. His team is made up of a psychologist, a developmental pediatrician, our pediatrician, a speech pathologist; a PT and an OT. We do know Mark has some severe speech issues, and some fine motor planning concerns which he will start therapy for soon. He also may have some hearing loss.  The doctors are also 98% sure he does not have true “autism” but may have a form called PDD.

 Dale and I are, of course, heartbroken for our son. Right now, not knowing is the hardest part. We are confident with God, our supportive family and amazing friends, we can get through just about anything. We know he has the very best team of doctors in the country, and are very confident they will be able help our sweet little boy.  

I am gratful for all your support and prayers.

Has it really been over a month since I posted something? Really? Oh my how time flies. Well, let’s take a second and catch up.

This around here have been going along swimmingly. Our days have been filled with lots of giggles, popsicles, and sun…..

Our world has changed quite a bit, I will post more about our new normal later on. 

Over the past month we have celebrated birthdays

We celebrated our freedom

And had LOTS of fun!

So, that is a quick recap about what is going on around here….What’s new with you?

It was one of those wonderful summer nights. Warm but not too hot. Nice breeze, no bugs, and Dale and I sat out on our back deck talking.  Soon the couple who lives behind us came out to chat, then the family a few doors down joined the group. 5 families and 2 hours later, we all finally retired to our homes. We have lived in this house for almost 4 years and have never spoken more than a few words to these people. We saw each other coming and going, and would maybe wave while doing yard work, but we never actually had conversations.  Over the next few days, I noticed people in our neighborhood outside, walking in the evenings, gardening, even just sitting and chatting. 

Why were we all of a sudden becoming such a community? One afternoon as my neighbor and I were watching our kids splash around, we were talking about our husbands and their jobs, how both families were trying to save money and swapping tips on grocery deals when it dawned on me: the economic crisis was actually helping us create a community.

Families are trying to save money.  We are not packing our kids’ schedules with camps, classes and clubs, which leaves more time for impromptu firefly catching. We are eating at home, which means more backyard grilling conversations. We are finding ourselves stepping out from behind the windshield of the gas guzzling SUV and walking to the park, which means seeing more of our neighbors.

Please don’t get me wrong, the economic meltdown has devastated our little part of America.  There have been jobs lost, homes foreclosed on, even families torn apart. But if there is a silver lining to this storm cloud, it is that we are returning to the simple things in life.  We are realizing the material things are fleeting, and it is the relationships we have that get us through the day.

I am dying to know if you have noticed any positive changes come about with the changes in the economy. Please share your thoughts!

As moms we wear many “hats”. Some days we wear just a couple, other days we wear everyone one in our collection. There is the nurse hat, the cop hat, the friend hat, and daughter hat, the maid hat …. I could go on and on.

While I feel forever blessed with all the “hats” I get to wear, I am working on finding a balance. The end of April and May are crazy times in the education world. So, please excuse me if my posts are sporadic for a few weeks. I am putting my blogger “hat” on the sidelines for a little while so I can focus on finishing up this school year. And of course, enjoying my most important (and cutest) “hat” of mommy.

Hugs!!!!

J