i'm readin' a book, kid; i'm readin' a book.

As I was looking through our recent photos, I started noticing a theme - lots of reading happening around these parts.  I think because of our slow pace during Advent, with very little screen time and very little on the agenda, the kids have been more inclined to grab a book and dive in.  Penelope and Atticus are actually both reading the original Christmas Carol in their free time, of their own volition.  Craziness.

As for me, I also have about fourteen books going at the moment, because I've also scaled way back on my own media consumption lately.  I'm very near the end of Goblet of Fire, for one, so it's nearly physically impossible to get me to take my nose out of my book at this point.  All this reading time almost makes up for the outrageous amounts of Seventh Heaven I was watching there for a while during the first trimester.  Almost.

'what's up' weekly (and a few advent musings).

This week has been so full and so fun!

I have already given you the skinny on decorating the tree, so I won't beat that dead horse.

But I WILL tell you that I've been doing more Christmas decorating elsewhere in the house, which I would like to show you soon... except for the paralysis that comes with posting photos on the internet.  "If I show them where I hung my stockings, I will also have to show them that the wall they're hanging on sports like twenty paint swatches and some damaged drywall, so maybe not..." and "When I moved the radiator, it became apparent that I need something hanging above it, but I don't know what, and anyway, it's just living here for a month, so is it really worth the hole in the wall?" and "There's not enough natural light in here for decent photos, so maybe once I put in a skylight or two..." and on and on.  Because I think by now you have gathered that our basic decorating style can be summed up by the phrase, "hobbled together, but trying our hardest."  I would like to have nice things.  Every once in a while, I do have nice things.  And then... family life happens.  (My couch cushions got pen AND coffee AND chocolate AND beef tallow on them just this week.  Jealous?)

So anyway.  Perhaps I'll show you a few little holiday glimpses around here soon, if I either get up the courage to post it all for public scrutiny, or get the energy to just paint the dang basement wall already, which I'm honestly sorely tempted to do.  All things are possible through Christ who gives me strength... and who also gives the baby strength.  So even more 'all things' are possible when I'm pregnant because I actually possess the strength of two people.  It's just basic math.  Between the Holy Spirit and my pregnancy biceps, I find that I'm MORE than 'more than a conqueror' for a couple months in there, so now is a golden time to tackle the basement.

Anyway, after that borderline joke, let's move on.  This week kicked off our Advent season, which we are loving.  We decided that we wanted to be more intentional this year than we have been in years past to make this a time of scaling back and refocusing.  I got all my Christmas shopping done in November, which has left this month wide open for rest.  We have cut out most TV time, other than a few evenings here and there watching our perennial Christmas movies.  We've spent quiet evenings baking, playing games, reading the Bible together, going through a couple of Advent devotionals, and reading through Wind in the Willows.  Last night, we had a popcorn party in the living room while I read.

We also observed St. Nicholas Day yesterday; not that we're in the habit of observing saints' days (we're not), but as Todd's family is uber-Dutch, I thought it would be fun to incorporate some small Dutch Christmas traditions in with our regular celebrations.  I literally know almost nothing about Saint Nicholas Day, so I'll probably want to brush up on more info before next year, but I worked with what I had.  We checked out a few books from the library, and I pulled out the collection of wooden klogs I've been gathering from garage sales and thrift stores throughout our marriage.  Each kiddo had one shoe to represent them under the tree, and I put a few little items in each one after the kids went to bed - three chocolate coins, some milk chocolate klogs I'd ordered from a website called All Things Dutch, and some tiny chocolate Santas that I had every intention (but no follow-through) of dressing up like Saint Nick (special fancy religious hat-thing, golden staff, the works).

The kids seemed to have fun with it, especially since I let them eat some of their chocolate for breakfast.*  I also ordered these cookies, straight from the heart of Holland, which were supposed to look like Sinterklaas and his sidekick Piet.  (There are some serious PR issues that go along with Piet, so we kind of glossed over him.  We might be Dutch, but we're still Americans after all, and defend to the death our right to forget about Piet if we feel like it.  #freedom)  They got those with breakfast, too.

*Okay, so I get that chocolate and cookies for breakfast are a big no-no.  Don't I care about my kids' health?! Don't I know that sugar suppresses their immune systems?!  Don't I know this is cold and flu season and a terrible time to feed them sugar?!  Yes, yes, and also yes.  Normally, this would get a hardcore 'no way, Jose' from me.  BUT.  We are Christians first and foremost - and if, at Christmas, we cannot feast, if we cannot party with abandon, if we cannot let go, for one tiny second, of the one million earthly rules and answers for what will save us from sickness and sin, how are we becoming people fit for heaven?  I genuinely ask you.  JESUS saves my kids, not their diet.  Not my rules or my research or my anxiety.  And JESUS knew when and how to party and feast and live it up.  And I think, during Advent, we should take a page out of Jesus' book (you know the one).  This is the time for feasting if ever there was one, so I'm giving my kids chocolate for breakfast!


In less rant-y, tirade-y news, everyone is loving Callista right now.  Finneas keeps hoarding her to himself so they can play 'family' (he's the dad, and she's the baby), and Penelope is getting all Little Mama with her, requesting I teach her to change Callista's diapers and wanting to rock her before naptime.  This is a terrible, blurry, poorly lit photo, but if you squint real hard, you can see how much both girls are adoring their rocking chair time before nap.

For his birthday, Atticus chose tacos for lunch, and his wish was my command.  He seriously could not have been happier.  Later in the afternoon, he mentioned more than once that he was thankful I cooked for him, and that he felt special and loved.  I am always blown away by how little our kids actually ask of us.  How easy it is to make them feel seen and special.  Why does it sometimes seem so hard?  Why do I sometimes forget?

And to wrap this thing up, I will tell you that I'm now 21 weeks along in this pregnancy!  I have been craving seafood, so this week I spent outrageous amounts of money on crab legs and gluten-free fish sticks.  I am still tapping into the well of superhuman motivation afforded me during weeks in the twenties, so I cleaned out the garage, switched out the kids' seasonal clothing, took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, went grocery shopping, braved Target with the kids in tow, AND am nearly caught up on all the missed schoolwork from my lackluster first trimester!  This part of pregnancy is the best.

how to make sheet pan pancakes ("sheetpancakes," because I just can't resist). grain-free recipe!

I posted a photo on Instagram last week of my latest shortcut in the kitchen: baking my pancakes on a cookie sheet instead of standing in front of the stove for a half an hour, churning out little individual disks.  Seriously, so easy.

View this post on Instagram

Lazy mom's pancake process: bake batter on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes; read Harry Potter while you wait for breakfast to cook, instead of standing over the skillet like a chump. Win at life, receive accolades from your kids.

A post shared by Paige Van Voorst (@theminivanvoorsts) on Nov 30, 2018 at 7:42am PST

You can really use any pancake batter for this, and there is no real science behind the method (that I'm aware of).  Make your batter, pour it into a pan, bake at 375 for around 15 minutes, or until it's firm in the middle.  Then you can just use a knife or a pizza cutter to blast those babies into like twenty little rectangles.  It could not be simpler to prepare, and not a single kid raises a stink about the fact that pancakes are square and not round, because they never really cared about pancake shapes to begin with.

(Before I go any farther, I would like to point out that I am anything but a food photographer; I am a mom who just pulled pancakes out of the oven, whose kids are foaming at the mouth and threatening a full-on riot if I don't hurry up and get these things cut and served.  So, like with any meal served at our house, the mantra behind the food photography on this blog is, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit.")

I used to use just a simple, run-of-the-mill pancake recipe, but I've been getting kind of experimental lately, because pancakes always make me feel so stinking nauseous.  I cannot for the life of me figure out why, because it's not like they contain any ingredients that bug me in other foods.  Before I was gluten-free, normal pancakes made me feel sick, and once I went gluten-free, I figured that changing to a normal gluten-free recipe would work, but I haven't had any luck.  Both boxed mixes and from-scratch recipes leave me wanting to hurl afterward, even though I really like the taste of pancakes.  It's the weirdest thing.

So I've been experimenting with grain-free pancakes, and let me tell you, these are INCREDIBLE.  My kids can't tell the difference between these and Bisquick boxed mix.  (Which food snobs might misconstrue as me saying these are no better than factory food, but you know what?  When SIX KIDS eat these without batting an eyelash, I refuse to turn up my nose.)  And what's more, I don't feel sick when I eat them.  That, friends, is an all-around win.

Not sure if you can see well in this photo, but the "crumb" of these is not dense, and not crumbly or gritty either, the way some gluten-free or grain-free baked goods can get.  It's soft and spongy and moist (three words that are only positive descriptors of food and nothing else), but they are much more filling than typical pancakes, and they don't spike your blood sugar!

Our Grain-Free Oven Pancake Recipe

This will fill a single sheet pan.  I normally double this recipe for our family, but that's to feed seven of us at breakfast time.  Likely you won't need to double this if your family is smaller, as these are extremely filling.

6 oz cream cheese
6 eggs
splash of water or milk of choice
1.5 c. almond flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar (I use a Trim Healthy Mama approved substitute to make these low-carb and blood sugar friendly!)


Preheat oven to 375.

Soften the cream cheese in the microwave, then puree in blender with eggs and milk.  Add almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and sugar, and puree until fully incorporated.  Add more milk or flour to adjust the consistency, which should be a little thin but not runny.  Let stand for 1-2 minutes to thicken.

Pour into a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, until center is firm and edges are golden brown.  Butter the top, then cut into squares.

The maple syrup totally cancels out all the Trim Healthy Mama, blood sugar friendly aspects, but what are pancakes without syrup?  My pancreas took one for the team.

And there you have it!  The easiest way ever to produce crazy amounts of pancakes with almost no expended effort.  Juuuuust the way I like things.

ATTICUS IS TEN! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!

Atticus is ten years old today.  Ten years.  One whole decade.

I cannot even believe it.

I know I say this every year, but he is still so Atticus.  From Day One, he has been thoughtful, meticulous, quiet and creative.  He is funny, and has such a great, whole-hearted laugh.  He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and is quick to uphold justice.  He is protective of his siblings and of me, and is servant-hearted and respectful.  He adores babies, and has told me that he's already praying to be blessed with a good wife and lots of kids.

His sights are still set on serving in the military - a dream he's stuck to, unwaveringly, for over half his life now.  He spends his free time reading books about World War II, drawing (really incredible, detailed) pictures of military vehicles and battles, creating D-Day models out of Legos, etc.  The quickest way to Atticus' heart is to strike up a conversation about German-designed Panzer tanks.

I am so proud of who he is, and excited to get to know who he's becoming.  He is still young, but I see frequent glimpses of the man he's growing into, and I am proud of him.  I respect his ready willingness to apologize when he knows he's wrong, and his reticence to make excuses for himself.  He welcomes and warrants being given responsibility.  He is strong, capable, goal-driven, responsible, and respectful, without being overly serious or heavy-handed: a difficult balance to achieve, but he comes by it so naturally.  He is equal parts tender-hearted and strong, compassionate and just, ambitious and fun-loving.

He numbers among my favorite people in the entire world, and the last ten years of life with him have been nothing short of a privilege and a miracle.  What a blessing he is to me!


Some tiny, pixelated, ten-years-ago photos that make my heart melt: 

it's only ever a matter of time before i start talking about harry potter again.

Well, it's now December 4, and I'm sorely tempted to break my "blog all the days in December" resolution already.  It's not that I don't have things to write about;  it's just that I'm so dang tired.

I am a woman on a mission.  I am in the process of cleaning out all the guts of our house - dresser drawers, toy bins, bookshelves, storage boxes.  I have produced bags and bags of stuff to take to Goodwill.  I will leave no stone left unturned, no closet left unpurged.

Yesterday, I found myself scrubbing my kitchen cabinets, sorting through the kids' dress up basket, getting caught up on laundry, and taking every last book off our bookshelves and evaluating its continuing presence in our lives.

It feels good, but since I've only recently bestirred myself from the couch after a 20-week-long pregnancy coma, it's also pretty tiring.  I'm just not up to full capacity yet.  Mentally, I'm all, "IT'S FINALLY TIME TO DO SOME STUFF!" and physically, I'm all, "How do I use my legs again?  It's been a while."

So, all that to say, I could be writing some stuff, but by the end of the night, during "Blog Time: It's Time to Blog!" all I want to do is eat potatoes and read Harry Potter.  So sue me.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I introduced the kids to the first book recently!!! We listened to the Jim Dale audiobook, which was just excellent, and the kids were completely enthralled.  They're begging for the second book, but I'm being a Mean Mom and forcing them to finish the Little House book we're currently in the middle of.  ("Awwww!  Nothing against Laura, Mom, but she just doesn't make me feel excited and scared."  That's a fair point.)

To fill their now Potter-less time, they've been accessing their creative strengths.  Penelope has created her own series of Harry Potter-esque adventures ("Pian Okey and the Room of Lies," etc.) and Atticus gifted me this:

You better believe I've tucked this little gem away in my mind as one of the things I'll ever need to save in case of a house fire, along with my kids, Todd's Bible, the hard drive with our family photos, and my wedding ring.  The rest can burn.

putting up the tree.

Every year we get a real Christmas tree.  We're now eleven years into marriage, and this year held, by far, the most fun we've ever had picking it out.  (In contrast, there was that year I cried about the tree.  That was by far the worst tree year.)

First, we didn't fight about whether we should get a live tree or a fake tree this time.

Second, we took all the kids with us, which made it delightful. (Rocco kept wandering around the tree aisles at Lowes going, "Is this Christmas?")

Third, I handled the sawing of the stump and setting it up in the tree stand.  Todd typically handles this part since he loves me, but it's an annoying and sticky job.  This year, I got impatient and did it myself while he was at work.  (A quirky little neighbor kid was walking home from school while I was doing this on the front porch, and he was like, "Working hard getting ready for Christmas?  That's always such a hard job!" and I was like, "It IS a hard job!  Thanks for the affirmation, Eleven Year Old Child with Apparent Lumberjacking Experience!")

Fourth, I have finally - finally - figured out a way to streamline the kids' ornament-hanging endeavors.  They each get about three ornaments each every year from ourselves and relatives, which means we're adding around 18 new ornaments per year at this point.  It is crazytown how many ornaments our modest tree is expected to support.  (Maybe I should name it Eddie Murphy?)  The chaos of the kids trying to get them all hung can be a bit overwhelming.  For the last few years, I have just kept a plastic tub for each of them to keep ornaments in (and I Sharpie their initials on every last ornament so there's no ownership confusion when it comes time to put them all away), and they just bring their ornaments to me for hooks.

Todd put on classic Christmas music, I changed into pajama pants (why I wasn't already wearing pajama pants is beyond my recollection), and we were ready to get started!

When Rocco's ornaments were all hung, it was time for him to head to nap.  This is how he felt about that, and how I felt about him feeling that way:

The kids did eventually get the tree completely covered, which may prove problematic, as Callista's ornaments still aren't on, nor are the ones belonging to Todd and myself, nor are the silver ball ornaments I like to hang at the end to kind of tie everything together.  Oh well.  Maybe we'll just worry about Callista's and forget the rest; it's actually looking pretty cute as it is.

Soon, I'll be getting some other décor out, but I'm enjoying the slower process of letting the decorating unfold over the course of Advent.  It helps me reflect on the fact that we're still gearing up for the main event.

'what's up' bi-weekly.

Because I've been a no-show around here for a while, I actually have two weeks of life to catch you up on, and they've been really full weeks, so brace yourself.

We kicked off the last stretch with some routine surgery.  You know.  The way people just casually say stuff like that.  To be more specific, Atticus had quite a few mouth ties that he needed to have released in order to keep moving forward with his braces process, so Todd took the day off work to drive him to Kansas City for the appointment.  They used a laser to release his tongue tie, as well as four tethers in his cheeks.  It was a major ordeal, and Atticus spent a few days in quite a bit of pain, eating only very soft foods and resting a lot.  We're still in the healing stages, working on stretching exercises with him and applying different healing methods.  He had his follow up appointment this past week, and things are looking good, but still aren't fully back to normal working order.  We have photos of the gory details, but I'll spare you.

Luckily, his mouth was feeling better by Thanksgiving, so we all piled into the Kristy Chrysler and headed up to my mom's for a few days.  Penelope and I had spent the previous couple of days preparing a few things to take for the big day, including Penelope's special cranberry sauce, which she made entirely independently this year.  I got brave and made some pate (I don't have an Apple keyboard, so imagine an little accent mark on the end of 'pate,' so I don't look like a complete pagan), but otherwise just planned to wing a cheese platter for lunch, which required very little advance prep.

HOWEVER.  The prep time on the actual day of was more involved than it needed to be, as I just sat there for over an hour, completely reveling in making things pretty and snacking as I went.

As luck would have it, lunch was a hit with all the kids.

Funnily enough, Callista's very favorite part was the pate, which she kept demanding I hand-feed her.  What. A. Diva.  "You, there.  Servant.  Feed me fancy foods.  Straight from your fingers.  MORE.  MORE, I SAY."

We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing, helping in the kitchen, eating entirely too much (my mom made gluten-free stuffing, so I gorged myself as though I was trying to make up for all the lost years of stuffingless-Thanksgivings), and spending time with family.  My sister and brother-in-law were there, along with my tiny, perfect new niece, Hyler.  It was the first time the kids got to meet her, and they were enamored.

The next day was Black Friday, and instead of attempting any shopping shenanigans, we hunkered down for a day of crafting, "daddy dates" with a few of the kids, and playing outside.  (Have I told you before that I've never once been Black Friday shopping?  I'm more than okay with that, too.  I feel like the crowds would just send me into full-on catatonia.)

The next day we celebrated Atticus' upcoming (TENTH.  No, God.  No!) birthday by going to the Science Center to see the Lego exhibit, and having a party at my mom's house.  I'll post more on that once he's actually ten, if the Lord doesn't return before then and spare us, like I've been praying.

We headed for home Saturday night, since the Blizzard Of The Century!!!!!!! was predicted for Sunday.  Callista snuggled in for the ride.

We got home to discover Stumpi had survived our 3.5-day absence, which was welcome news.  I'd put an extra dish of water in her cage, and had sprinkled some extra food around, but she often dumps her water out and refuses to eat anything less-than-fresh, so I wasn't sure it would be adequate care for our longer-than-average truancy.  But it turns out she's a stalwart little thing, and I love her all the more for it.  We could not have landed a more perfect pet for our hands-off approach to pet care.

This week has been full of our 'old' ordinary, and a 'new' ordinary I'm attempting to instate.  I'll maybe blog about it more in-depth at some point, but I'm making a few changes in the name of being intentional and building an actual culture in our home.  So I've been playing music more, limiting my time on social media, and trying to be present with the kids.  Not a single dinner this week has involved nuggets of any kind.  Hot dang, y'all.  I served my kids tea.  I even baked bread.  WHO AM I?!  I can feel the winds of change blowing.

On Wednesday night, we took the kids to pick out our Christmas tree.  It was frickin' freezing, Mr. Bigglesworth, so I really have no idea if we picked the best one they had, or if it was just the best one I could find in ten minutes or less.  Either way, we'll be bringing it in tonight, and decorating it tomorrow, and after that it is going to get full-on Christmas in here.  I CANNOT WAAAAAAIT!

Whew!  And here ends an ENTIRE WEEK OF BLOG POSTS!  I told you the winds of change are a-blowing.