The Weeping

I have an old journal that says "the soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears". I made this piece as I was letting go of past regret, resentment and sadness. A weeping willow is such a beautiful metaphor for letting go. The loose branches and swaying leaves lack control and rigid structure. And the softness of it is what makes it so magical. Cheers to the letting go of all the junk that hardens us and to becoming the soft loving souls that are our true selves. Ironically, this is one piece that is going to be very hard to let go of if/when it sells!

Available now at my etsy site.

Apple pancakes - vegan & gluten free!

Some of my favorite memories growing up was my mom making us pancakes on Saturday mornings. What a treat it was to look forward to each week. I miss those kinds of days with my mom. I was thinking of that this morning and decided that I needed to create those memories with Finn. And, since I'm in love with my vitamix, I went to the vitamix recipe book (which is amazingly vegan and has really delicious stuff) for a pancake recipe. The Apple pancakes caught my eye. I have apples ... done. I wasn't expecting much. I actually stopped making pancakes years ago because I couldn't get the right texture with buckwheat flour. They were always dry or too dense or too light. Never quite right and never delicious. But these looked so promising. As I was mixing the batter, I could tell they were going to be delectable circles of warm apple-y goodness. And apple-y goodness they turned out to be. Holy moly. I even cooked them on the waffle iron/griddle my mom used growing up. The thing is so ancient but is kickin' like a high schooler. I threw some coconut oil on the griddle to get the edges just the right kind of crispy. Oh my ... heaven. Finn loved them too. He's never had pancakes before. He was always a waffle kid. But my little man scarfed down two good sized pancakes this morning, like he's been doing it all along. Check him out.

Hmmm, I'm not sure about these, mom. But I'll give em a shot.

 

Why have you been feeding me kale waffles this whole time? You've been holding out, mom!

Here's my plate. This is two stacked on top of each other, but you can see the moisty goodness! I put a teensy bit of agave on them, but you can dowse them in maple syrup, if you want. I was really treating myself this morning and wouldn't normally put anything on them other than coconut oil. But...sometimes you gotta add a little topping.

Want the recipe? For once in my life, I actually followed this recipe (almost) to a "t". I'll show you my version. I was tempted to throw kale in there, but he already had some in his hemp milk this morning, so I left it out. But I bet you could get away with it here! I was uber tempted to add cinnamon, since I'm an avid believer that apples cannot have enough cinnamon....EVER. But I kicked even that temptation to the curb and obeyed orders. I'm glad I did. These are PERFECT just the way the recipe is. ENJOY!

Apple Pancake Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup buckwheat flour (can use whole wheat if not on a gluten free diet)
• 3 teaspoons aluminum free (for health reasons) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (aluminum free)
• 3 pitted dates (recipe calls for 3 TBS sugar, but we're a sugar free household now)
• 1/4 cup egg substitue (or 1 egg if you are not vegan)
• 1.5 tsp heart-healthy butter spread (coconut oil!!!)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (I use 1/2 because I love me some vanilla!)
• 1 cup coconut/hemp/almond/rice milk (or regular milk if you like cow teat)
• 1/2 medium apple (I used 3/4 because I wanted to compensate for the buckwheat flour being a bit drier than whole wheat)

Instructions

1. Blend first 5 ingredients in medium size bowl by hand – set aside
2. Place last 5 ingredients in Vitamix (or blender) and secure lid
3. If using Vitamix, select Variable 1 and then quickly increase to high for 30 seconds
4. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and blend by hand until incorporated
5. Let batter sit for 5-10 minutes (be sure not to skip this step...it gives them fluff n stuff!)

Fun with letters

My husband always has the cutest learning games for Finn. Last night, while I was peacefully showering, he decided to take Finn's wooden refrigerator letter magnets and teach Finn what kinds of metal they stick to. Around the house they went with over 40 letters, and many bits of metal objects here and there and everywhere, saying "stick. stick. stick". I think it's an awesome idea for a fun lesson on how magnets work. But now, every where I turn, there's a letter stuck to something. I've been finding letters all day today.

At first I thought it was going to be kind of annoying to be picking up letters all day, but in the scheme of things....it's actually not annoying at all. Every time I find one, I smile and think of my husband and what a great father he is.

Not only that, but I also realized how amazing it is that he shows his love to me in such simple and clever ways each day. This was my favorite find today. That's a picture we took almost ten years ago when we first met. Apparently the frame is real metal ... to my benefit today. How romantic. :)