Whipped Delight

When you have a kid with a dairy allergy, whipped cream is a no-no. Add a tree nut allergy and whipped coconut cream is also off limits. In addition to that, all non-dairy whipped toppings actually have milk in them. As such, the first five or so years of Matthew’s life were completely free of any creamy whipped delights. He didn’t know any different, but I really missed that creamy genre of foods.

When Matthew was six or seven, a food challenge with positive results brought whipped coconut cream onto the menu and that created a lot of possibilities. While I’ve taken advantage of canned coconut cream whole heartedly since then and always keep a couple of cans in the back of the fridge, the one thing they don’t really have is convenience. As vegan eating has gained popularity over the past few years, I’ve seen more and more dairy free whipped cream and whipped topping options hit the market, but they are never safe for Matthew. They either have cross contact with milk, peanuts or tree nuts or they contain pea protein. 

In past years, many products used soy protein as a stabilizer and that was not a problem for Matthew. But as more things have become increasingly “allergen free,” we are running into the use of pea protein instead of soy more and more often. And Matthew is allergic to peas which means we’ve actually lost some foods that he used to enjoy. His favorite brand of dairy free ice cream changed their recipes and now their entire product line is off the menu. That was a rough day for us, very emotional and disappointing. But realistically, those kinds of disappointments are pretty common for him. It’s just a part of his life as a highly allergic individual. 

But once in a while, things go our way. Today was one of those days. I have some fun food plans for the next week because it’s Christmas and intend to employ some heavy use of whipped cream in a can for the ease of preparation. I had planned to whip some coconut cream for Matthew, but I’m always on the lookout for new options and while I was at Sprouts this morning, I happened to spy a can of oatmilk based dairy free whipped cream. Oatmilk is fairly new on the market, and I’ve been seeing it used in more and more products because of the creamy quality if brings to foods. I’ve used oats in dairy free ice cream and can attest to the fact that they do indeed make things super creamy. So I was intrigued. I read the can, not expecting much due to past experience. And then the excitement came. Oatmilk. Coconut milk. No peas. No cross-contact warnings. I read the can three times to make sure it was safe and then I sent a picture to Matthew and put the can in my cart. And then Matthew was excited as well.

I intend to make use of the whipped cream for breakfast tomorrow, but that was too long for Matthew to wait. He had to try it right away. We have some fresh berries in the fridge, also intended for breakfast in the morning, but I figured that giving him a vehicle for his taste test of the whipped cream was a good idea. And guess what? The whipped cream is good. I tried it and liked it. There is a slight aftertaste of oats, but other than that, it tastes like whipped cream. But more importantly, Matthew liked it. His eyes lit up. In fact, his whole face lit up. And then he needed a few more berries. And then he experienced the nearly unavoidable overspray associated with whipped cream in a can. And it did nothing to taint the experience. In fact, I think it enhanced it.

Days when we can add new foods to Matthew’s diet are good days. Today was a good day.

Here There Be Dragons

Several days ago, I got a digital flyer from our school district highlighting a coming attraction. We get those from time to time, but I don’t usually pay much attention as they aren’t generally things my kids are interested in. However, this time the word “dragon” leaped off the page and captured my attention. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the event was in town one weekend only and the school district had arranged for a free ticket for every student in the district age 17 and under. I checked out the website and Kev and I decided it would be a jolly outing that Malia, our dragon lover, would enjoy. As such, we got our tickets, two of which were completely free, and headed to the expo center this afternoon.

The attraction was called “Dino and Dragon Stroll.” Based on the pictures, we thought it would be big statues of dinosaurs and dragons. We were sort of right, but what we didn’t expect was the fact that all the figures moved. The heads, arms, and wings moved. They opened and closed their mouths. They blinked their eyes. They even looked like they were breathing. It was pretty impressive. And of course, there were roars and other sounds that accompanied the movement.

Most of the kids in attendance were much younger than Matthew and Malia. The bounce house and rides were all geared for younger kids. But that did not detract from the enjoyment. We wouldn’t have wanted to spend an entire afternoon there, but we were all entertained for over an hour. And Malia got up close and personal with a dragon. I call that a successful outing.

Adulting

Daniel had a concert last night. With Covid restrictions at the university being pretty much a thing of the past, we were actually able to attend the concert in person. Yesterday also happened to be Daniel’s birthday, so it was a perfect time for a visit. We took him to dinner and then attended his concert which was, in his words, the “perfect one” for us to attend this semester as all five ensembles in which he participates were performing. Yes, you read that correctly. He is in five ensembles this semester-wind orchestra, jazz orchestra, the Caine Sax Quartet, marching band and pep band. It is a lot. Even Daniel will say that, and he loves band. He does think that he needs to choose fewer ensembles in future though, so his schedule isn’t quite so insane and he can actually have a job.

According to Daniel, at twenty-one he is now old enough to legally rent a car and get drunk, not that he intends to do either of those things, but if he really wanted to, he could. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that I have an adult child. When I look at him, sometimes I still see the little boy he used to be, the one who loved Thomas the Tank Engine and wanted to be a paleontologist when he grew up. It’s in the light in his eyes, the one that glows when he is excited. It’s in his grin when he is doing something that brings him joy. It’s in his ability to focus for endless hours on the things that he loves. In some very fundamental ways, he is still the same person he was at age five and I can see that. 

I suspect having an adult child should make me feel old, but that isn’t really my predominant feeling. What I feel is a sense that time is moving much too quickly and I need to make sure to treasure every moment I have with these kids of mine, even the grown up ones. Before long, they will be establishing families of their own and while that is exactly what I want for them, it will definitely bring changes. So I’ll treasure the moments. Find joy in all the experiences we have now. And learn to look at the inevitable changes that having adult children bring with hope and anticipation rather than mourning the loss of past years. Because the future will be joyful as well. I may not know exactly what is in store for my little clan, but I do know that joy is not found in standing still. As bittersweet as it may be to watch my little ones become big ones, joy is found in progressing, in moving forward. Joy has a tendency to be intermingled with sorrow and heartache, but as I work to keep the big picture in mind, I know that all my experiences are so that I can gain even greater joy in the future. And the beauty of the gospel is that I will continue to share that joy with my family, including those who have yet to join my crew. Because that is my hope as well-that my children will find their sweethearts as I have and have a happy little troop of their own. 

I guess to sum it all up, having my children grow up and move on with their lives is still a fairly new experience for me. I’m still working on figuring it out. Add to that the fact that sometimes I feel like I’m just barely getting the hang of being an adult myself, and I still have a lot to learn. But to be completely honest, my big kids are still working on being adults as well. So I guess we all still have some learning to do. And I think the name of the class is “life.”

Joyful Noise

With both Daniel and Nathan away at school, the house has been quieter than it has been in years. Yes, Matthew and Malia make their share of noise, but with just two of them bouncing around the house, the noise level is automatically diminished. Factor in the piano and the saxophone, and the decibel level around here has been markedly lower. I appreciate having a quiet house on a regular basis as the quiet gives me a chance to gather my thoughts and mentally rejuvenate but having all the big bodies and the accompanying big voices and big noises around has been nice. Malia has been looking forward to a joint Chicken Invaders game like they played last year and that was most definitely not a quiet way to spend an afternoon. There was much laughter and conversation involved and I believe the quote of the hour was uttered by Daniel: “Matthew, I can’t see past your bacon!”

It makes me smile to hear my four kiddos laughing and joking together. While they all have their moments when they need a break from each other, they do actually get along pretty well nowadays. Having Daniel and Nathan staying here only periodically means the opportunities to get on each other’s nerves are greatly diminished. Add to that the fact that it takes a lot to ruffle Daniel’s feathers and his personality is naturally non-confrontational, and the presence of the college kids has been really nice. It has created a buffer zone of sorts between Matthew and Malia so that they get a bit of a break from each other. Like all siblings, the times when they get along are peppered with moments of conflict and adding the two older boys back into the mix changes the dynamic. There has been a remarkably small amount of bickering today.

There is also music. Oh, how I have missed the music! Matthew plays his trumpet and Malia is just starting to pick at the piano, but the days when I was bombarded with a cacophony of sax from one room, piano from another, and the trumpet interspersed are mostly gone. Daniel practiced for a couple of hours yesterday and it made me smile. Even the scales. Nathan sat at the piano and sight read through a bunch of music this morning and that was wonderful as well. The three boys all got out their instruments after lunch today to arrange some joint music numbers for our gathering with Kevin’s family on Saturday and it made me so happy to hear them all playing together. Malia has been learning to play the ukulele at school this year and Nathan got out his ukulele for her so she could add to the music as well.

As I ponder today on how thankful I am for the multitude of blessings that are mine, the joyful noise created by my children is a concrete reminder that of all the things that fill my heart with gratitude, my family is right up at the top.

Turkey for Breakfast

I’ve never made Thanksgiving themed pancakes. I don’t know why since pancakes are one of my fun food staples, but it just never occurred to me. For some reason Thanksgiving has been overlooked in all my themed food endeavors. Maybe it’s because I’m so laser focused on pie that I don’t think about anything else. Of maybe it’s because food is such a huge part of the holiday that I never thought to branch out from the traditional offerings. But whatever the reason, Thanksgiving has been sadly overlooked where fun food is concerned. This morning was flex Friday which meant Matthew and Malia didn’t have to go to the actual school building, so it seemed like an opportune time to rectify my oversight with some fantastic turkey pancakes. No, they did not have any actual turkey in them. That would be…weird. And a fine way to ruin a perfectly good pancake. Unless it was a potato pancake or a crepe and then maybe…but I digress. Turkey pancakes. Good times. Gotta love fun food. 😊

Honor in the Honor Band

 The return to a more normal school years means the return of a variety of opportunities for the kids. For Matthew, the latest opportunity was the chance to play in the district honor band. The most skilled students from each middle school in the district were invited to participate. Most of the music was learned on their own and after just a handful of rehearsals, they kids were able to perform for a live audience of their families and friends. Matthew was super excited to be invited to participate and had a fantastic time. He neglected to tell us that he was give the honor of being first seat in the first trumpet section, but I’m so pleased with the work he has put in to be able to earn such a position. It was a great concert as well. The kids did a super job!

An Old Favorite

In the last little bit, Kevin and I have realized that as our youngest child, there are a lot of things we haven’t done with Malia. Activities, outings, disciplinary tactics, etc. that were commonplace when the boys were all young were left by the wayside as they grew up. As the youngest by a pretty big span (there are nearly eleven years between Daniel and Malia), Malia has missed out in some ways due to that mental “moving on to a new stage.” Once we made that realization, Kev and I have been working to fill in some of those gaps.

When the boys were young, the zoo was one of our favorite places for an outing. Malia has been to the zoo on multiple occasions, but it has been a while, two and a half years in fact. I like to blame a pandemic for part of that, but the other part was the waning interest of the boys. When family outings occur, Malia has gotten outnumbered, and we have ended up going other places. The last time she got voted down we ended up in a trilobite quarry, which she enjoyed, but she was really sad about not getting to go to the zoo. Knowing Malia didn’t have school today, I put a trip to the zoo on the calendar. Matthew still had school and Kev had work, so it was a girls’ day out.

Going to the zoo with a ten-year-old Malia was calmer than our trips were of old. I didn’t have to run to keep up with a pack of little ones with miniscule attention spans, tell anyone to stay with the group, or prevent anyone from climbing into the bear habit. We shunned our traditional route through the zoo and wandered wherever Malia’s interest took us. We saw all the animals, but we did it in a different order. She still got to ride the carousel, which she has always loved. We saw the rhinos closer than we ever have in all our myriad of previous visits. We also caught a glimpse of a one-month-old Colombus monkey and got to see another young monkey lose its balance and fall off a branch which was super cute. We wandered past the sea lions just at training time. As we’ve discovered in the past, the animals are more active in the cooler weather than in the heat of the summer which made for a fun morning.

Taking a step back to have these adventures with Malia is good for her, but it’s also good for me. Sometimes I get too caught up in the whirlwind that is life and taking time to smell the roses (or the rhinos, which is not nearly as pleasant from an olfactory standpoint) is a blessing. Having adult children comes with its own set of challenges and being able to take a morning returning to an old favorite gave me a much-needed bit of calm. Malia loved it too. And we got to stop at Crown Burger for lunch on the way home which we could never do when Matthew was with us.

I think we had better plan more of these outings because as I well know, before long she’ll be too old to spend a morning with her mom talking to the animals.

First Pie of the Season

Last year we ate pie for FHE throughout the month of November rather than only eating pie on Thanksgiving. Our reasoning was that we could enjoy all the flavors of pie we like the most without feeling like we needed to eat our way through a dozen pies in one weekend. We enjoyed that change in routine so much that we are repeating the experience again this year and I suspect it is here to stay. Malia had the honor of choosing the first flavor of pie which means that the top of our apple pie was adorned with dragons. It looks lovely. FYI-cookie stamps work great on pie crust!