Bringing Laughter Back

My 4.5 year old is very intuitive. He always has been. He knew I was pregnant with a girl without me even ever telling him I was pregnant. He can always tell when I’m sad. In between his LOUD yelling and silly persona, he occasionally comes out with these insightful things. This is when I should stop and listen.

The comment that made me stop in my steps.

A couple weeks ago, my husband and I were joking around in the car and I started hysterically laughing, a “I’m carefree and having fun laugh”. And then from the back of the car, I hear:

“Do it again, I love it when mommy laughs”

This made me pause. When WAS the last time I had really cracked up like that? I’m not an unhappy person or anything like that but ever since I had my daughter, we’ve been busier and adjusting. I feel like I’m still in survival mode. A baby is an adjustment, that’s for sure. But I think I deserve and my kids deserve, a mom who will stop and laugh at life.

In those 2 weeks since he said that, I have been working on being more relaxed. Someone who laughs with her family more. I have improved but I’m still in the survival stage and that’s OK. It’s hard having a baby. It’s hard having 2 kids. It’s hard trying to balance it all. But laughter is the best medicine right?

He may love it when I laugh but to me, there is no better sound than he and his sisters laughter. It’ll be my goal to make sure they grow up in a house full of laughter and joy.

What has made you laugh lately? How do you find laughter while going through the chaos that is life?

Cook with us – Peanut free/Gluten free Boysenberry Pie!

Boysenberry Pie, Oh My!

Back in March, we attending the Knott’s Berry Farm Boysenberry Festival. During that trip, we stumbled on a place to make your own mini boysenberry pie. My peanut allergic son was sad that this was not safe for him so my sweet friend decided that she was going to find a way to make a safe pie for him. We were all thrilled and I was especially touched that my friend would go to such lengths to find a safe pie for him! My son used to be allergic to wheat and often prefers gluten free foods so we decided to find a gluten free pie crust and everything else just happened to be gluten free so that was a bonus too! 

However, please keep in mind that we were only confirming the absence of peanut in the foods/facilities so gluten may be present in facility the ingredient was made in. After searching for recipes, I found a simple one on the Oregon Specialty Fruit website. You can find it here. We used the ingredients from the following companies below:

-          Oregon Specialty Fruit for the boysenberries (Allergen confirmation here)

-          Wholly Wholesome Gluten Free Pie Crust (Confirmation via Facebook)

-          Argo cornstarch (Allergen confirmation here)

-          C&H Sugar (Confirmation via email)

I knew my son who is 4 would want to help so I wanted to find a simple recipe that he could help with. He was so excited to be able to pour sugar and boysenberries. And the fact that this recipe just had 4 ingredients, it made it so he could be part of every step of the process.

1.       We first mixed syrup from one can of berries with cornstarch and half the sugar. Then once it was thick, we added the rest of the sugar along with the berries.

2.       We then put the filling into one of the pie shells and then used the other pie shell for the top (after breaking off the side)

3.       We cooked for 30 minutes on 400 degrees and voila! A perfect boysenberry pie.

So easy and safe for my little guy! I’m hoping to make him some more fun and safe recipes based off our favorite restaurant and theme park recipes and of course, take you all along the ride!