Melissa Park

We really do love oatmeal at our house. :-) And definitely not just hot cereal style, but oatmeal cookies, pancakes, bread and muffins, just to name a few of our favorites. This morning it was oatmeal pancakes--yum! Thought I'd share the recipe with you all: From the Joy of Cooking-- Oatmeal Pancakes Wisk together in large bowl: 1/2 c. flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt Beat in separate bowl: 2 eggs Stir in: 1 and 1/2 cups cooked oatmeal 1/2 c. milk or buttermilk (soy milk also works great!) 2 Tbsp. melted butter or bacon drippings Quickly stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. The batter will be lumpy. I often add a little extra flour if the batter apears too runny. And these do take a little longer on the griddle than regular pancakes.....at least for me they do. :-)

We've spent a lot of time at home the past couple of weeks due to coughs and colds. Well, to be fair, we've been home a lot the past couple of months! :-) I stand amazed and inspired by all you moms of more than two, and how in the world you ever leave the house! With nursing and nap times and possible car sickness in or more child.....my goodness. But it's getting better for us. I think George is finally moving to just two naps a day, with an early bed time, and Elizabeth is taking her one nap a day at a more predictable time each day. These changes sure help make life a little more manageable! Here are a few things we do with our days when we're at home...... We blow bubbles... We do laundry...... We hang out..... We try on hats..... We attempt to step outside...at least once in a day, just to make sure the sun is still shining, of course. Someone's gotta do it. :-) We bake bread..... I got one of the coolest books for Christmas, it's titled Artisan Bread in...

I’ve been working on creating my first blog post for months now! For heaven’s sake, it’s time it actually gets written and posted. I'm excited to try my hand at blogging so that our family and friends can see more of our family in action, even if they live far away and can't visit as often as they'd like. Sometimes I want to share more than what Facebook allows of daily happenings in the Park household. I also think this blog could be a fun way of documenting the amazing things that God is doing in my life and in my home. It’s so easy to get bogged down in the daily grind of diapers, nursings, story time, naps, non-naps, more diapers—you know? Whenever I see my precious family in pictures on Facebook or hung on the walls in my home, I tend to forget the trials of the day and instead I think about how precious my life is, how much I have to be thankful for....how many dreams have become realities, and prayers answered. It's helpful for me to shift my focus--to lift my ey...