Recipe: Fruit Crumble

This recipe is so simple but also very good--all of the kids love it.  Probably because it comes out of the Desserts section of the cookbook I got it from but we usually eat it for breakfast.  The book is More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre.  We ate this a lot in the weeks before and after my 5th baby was born because it is so quick and easy.

Preheat oven to 375 deg.

Place in buttered 8x8" baking dish:

2 ½ C fruit--cherries, or pared and sliced apples or peaches [we usually use apples]

Combine in bowl and mix to form crumbs:

1 C Flour

1 egg

Dash salt

½ t. cinnamon

½ C sugar

1 t. baking powder

                        Sprinkle over fruit. 

Drizzle over:

                        ¼ C melted butter

Bake 25 minutes.

Jones Family Reunion 2011

CalvinistKickboxer couldn't come because he had just started a new job and couldn't take any time off yet.  However, the rest of us had a lot of fun at Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, VA.  My kids could not have been better travelers or sleepers on this trip.  Which is exactly what I needed solo-parenting.  This was the first time my kids and my brother's oldest daughter were old enough to enjoy each other which made the time together that much more fun.

On Losing a Baby

Not all things to be looked back on are sweet and happy. 


In August of 2011, we were given the wonderful news that we would be having another baby.  We were all so excited.  All of the kids were looking forward to another baby.  However, God chose to take that sweet baby almost as quickly as He gave.  After waiting for 3 weeks for a miscarriage to occur on its own, I eventually had a D&C.  That was our second miscarriage, but much more difficult when we added in the medical intervention. The baby was approximately 12 weeks old, I was about 15 weeks pregnant.  


I want to catalog a post here for my personal reference but I also think that you should take the time to read it too: What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Say to Someone Who has Lost a Baby.  You can read it here: http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-say-to-someone-who-has-lost-a-baby/.  I was blessed to have a great family and church family to come alongside me but I did hear several things on the Shouldn't list from well meaning friends.  Losing a baby for any reason is difficult, for those that lost and those trying to comfort.  


After my first miscarriage, in 2007, someone told me, "At least you weren't that far along."  They were right, I was not that far along at 6-8 weeks.  A lot of women lose a baby at that stage and not even know they were pregnant; loss of a pregnancy is most likely to occur those first 3 months.  However, when someone said that to me it hurt me so bad.  Yes, I was not that far along.  Yes, it did make the physical part of the actual miscarriage easier.  It did not, however, make it any easier to grieve the loss of our dear sweet child.  


When we lost this more recent baby, the most common response was avoidance-- by both me and others.  I did not handle the wait well (since it was a missed miscarriage my doctor gave me the option of waiting 3 weeks before a D&C), did not want to have to have the medical intervention to complete the process (thus my decision to wait though I did have the D&C in the end), and really just didn't want to see people's pity.  Overall, though, the people I did allow to mourn with me did so in a very loving, Godly way. 


 I did have someone tell me though, "At least you have so many other children." Really?!  Just because I have been blessed with other children (I do know that I am blessed with 5 wonderful children) does not mean that I did not love and want to watch the baby I was carrying grow.  

 ¹ For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

 ² a time to be born, and a time to die; 

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

 ¹⁴ I perceived that whatever God does endures forever;nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. ¹⁵ That which is,already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.^[a]

^{(Ecclesiastes 3)}

I don't want to seem trite, but I felt the most comfort when fellow Christians wept with me.  Really.  Not necessarily actually crying (though a couple did), but by sharing in my sorrow and caring for me through it.  I had lost a real life baby that we really loved and really wanted to welcome into our home and I wanted--needed--to know that our loss was not minimized.  I was also experiencing both the hormones of pregnancy and the grief of loss.  I am so thankful for the patience and care shown to us through that time.


Read that story from Naturally Knocked Up.  The author is spot on.  Especially take note of the list of Shoulds!

Things the kids say

From a post I put on Facebook last night:

As I was tucking the boys in tonight I noticed the word, "STOP" taped to the 6 year old's bunk. I asked him about it and he said, "I'm tired of the girls treating my bed like a museum and coming on here and playing with my animals and wrecking my bed." The older boy said, "Yeah, there's a 5 year sentence if you get on it!"

Sweet things the kids say 1

Sweet BKH (3) went with her siblings and Daddy to McDonald's this morning for their sort-of weekly Saturday trip to play and eat off the dollar menu.  He text me something that sweet B said to them while they were watching the movie, Milo and Otis.  

I wish we could go in the TV and save that doggie but we can't

TJ's book

(8 year old wants to blog as well.  This is his first.)


I have been reading charlie and the chocolate factory.  And it is about a boy who's parents were poor. And had Grand parents that were very very very old they were at least 98. His conditions were terrible but what happens read the book to find out.  

Of the Mundane

I keep trying to think about interesting things to say or things that I would like to journal about the kids but I keep coming up with nothin'.  I love the mundane, though. 


 I think when I die my kids will sit around the room talking about me and one of their most distinct memories will be of me walking around the house all morning saying, "Where is my coffee? Did you see where I put my coffee?"

In Which Mommy Realizes she is Growing Up Too

I realized something yesterday.  It was a wonderful, spring-like day here in East Tennessee.  We had (have) lots of inside work to do but after I realized how nice it was outside I sent the kids for play clothes and we spent most of the time between lunch and dinner outside.  I dutifully got a burn permit and made a fire.  We still have lots of leaves in our yard from the fall and I burned another pile.  As I watched the fire my grand epiphany came.  It was only about two months ago that I took my first-ever Aspirin.  Why wait until after 30 to take that first one, you ask?  Well, because my Mom ingrained in my siblings and I when we were little that we were to never take it.  The whole children and Reye's syndrome thing.  So in all my adult years, I have never even BOUGHT the stuff.  Mind you, my husband and I rarely take pain relievers...but when we do it is usually Tylenol...maybe Ibuprofen.  Well, when my blood pressure was elevated a few months ago and I was trying to figure out what Doctor to go to, my Dad told me to take Aspirin just in case, in the mean time.  It would have never occurred to me.  And then I realized, I AM OLD ENOUGH TO TAKE ASPIRIN.  Yes, it took me that long.


So why am I talking about fires and aspirin in the same post?  As I watched the fire burn I remembered that this is only the second fire I have ever started by myself.  Without my husband home to "watch" me, I guess?  So yes, I AM OLD ENOUGH TO BURN A FIRE BY MYSELF.  Because I am a big girl and I am old enough to handle fires and stuff.


Mommy's growing up too.

Why Blog and Why the Blog Title?

I enjoy Mommy blogs. I found www.largefamilylogistics.blogspot.com before she was at that current domain, about 6 years ago. I did a desperate Google search that said something like, "How to take care of baby and get stuff done" or "large family management". I was desperate because I had just had my second child and I felt like I was drowning in responsibility. My second child and I had a nasty case of thrush and were surviving on little sleep and I felt like I had been defeated by Mommyhood. Her blog helped me in so many ways but what primarily helped me was reading her schedules and lists. (She has since published Large Family Logistics: The Art and Science of Managing the Large Family which is basically the same content of her old blog but nicely packaged.)

Then, somehow I found www.inashoe.com. She and I were both expecting babies when I found her blog; I was expecting my 3rd or 4th and she was expecting her 7th or 8th. Her real life encouragement was also a tremendous blessing for me. But more than that, I was intrigued by what she says about her blog as her memory. She uses it as a journal for her family and I love that idea.

So here I am. A blog. I don't expect many people to read--my Mom and Dad, maybe my brothers for updates on their nieces and nephews. I have never been an exceptional writer, math was my forte in school. What I hope to accomplish though is creating a log of memories that I might otherwise forget and in the process if I too can encourage someone just starting out on their mothering journey I will be delighted.

The title of my blog: Henderson's: Growing Up is self-explanatory. I hope to write about things my children are learning, what they are teaching me, and things that we do that I never, ever want to forget. I have 5 children right now. T is the oldest, a boy. 8 going on 18. He loves to read; loves to make the baby laugh; loves to draw. He does not like to be very active, we are working on that. R is my next child, he is 6. He is tender-hearted and gentle. He still mimics much of what his big brother does, but is developing his own interests more and more. He enjoys Legos, exercising, and playing with his siblings. S just turned 5. She is dramatic and emphatic. She enjoys pretending to be a Mom and she also likes to wrestle her brothers. As long as she doesn't get hurt. B is 3 and she is turning into quite the comedienne. She also loves playing with the baby dolls and still loves to drink milk out of a sippy. I might not ever be able to rip that from her. J is 1.5 and he is such a sweet baby. He copies everything that the big kids do and say. He loves to run and dance in circles in the living room with his siblings.

We are a Christian family and belong to an Orthodox Presbyterian Church (www.opc.org). I am a stay at home Mom and my husband is a salesman. We homeschool and I tutor for a local Classical Conversations community.

Welcome.