Sweet Potato Chips

So I have been trying to get the perfect chip crunch. You know what I'm talking about. So first I tried the oven and maybe this works for people but it takes a long time and it still wasn't quite right. So I decided to fry them in coconut oil. Yup! They were perfect and it was really hard not to eat all of them in one sitting. Yikes! 

Sweet Potato Chips

ingredients:

1-2 sweet potatoes 

1/3 cup pure organic coconut oil

sea salt to taste 

directions:

Peel and slice sweet potato on a mandolin. In a large deep skillet melt the coconut oil down over medium heat. Let it heat up for a few minutes. Then you can start placing several slices in at a time. Make sure they aren't overlapping. Watch them cafefully as they turn light brown on the edges and look cooked in the middle. Flip them sporadically. Using a slotted spoon, place them on paper towels. Salt while they are still warm. Continue the process until you have fried them all. 

-also try yucca root or balanga blanca, 

So Many Things

So...there has been so many things that have happened since the last time I blogged. Scott and Christina came into town for a good couple of days. It was such a nice visit. I was so happy that we could send time with them alone and not have to share them with anyone else. Scott and Tim spent pretty much the entire visit together playing World of Warcraft. While, Christina and I did some shopping and lots of talking :) Lots of just catching up. It has been a whole month since I had seen her. :P so lots of course.

I had attempted to have our first MOPS playdate this past Thursday, but it fell thru because most of the mom's had sick kids. I guess better luck next time. I will say I was quite disappointed. I've been really wanting to get these mom's together with their kidos since we started MOPS back in September. I will add, that I'm not sure it would have worked out for me that day anyways. Joy woke up that morning screaming in pain and scratching at her eye. I didn't notice her eye being red when she woke up but at breakfast time it was so swollen and agitated. She would be okay for 5 minutes then all of a sudden she would be screaming for 10. It last all day. I simply thought that just something got in her eye. So I tried flushing it out, putting a warm rag on her eye, anything that I could think of. Then, my friend said that maybe it could be a food allergy. So then I started getting worried that what I fed her for breakfast set her off. Well, 4 o'clock came around and it hadn't gotten better so I called the doctor and she said to take her down to the ER. GREAT! The ER the last place I wanted to take her. That only made me freak out. So I got the kids in the car and met my husband at the hospital. Let me just say that I HATE (with a passion) the ER doctors. They were so inconsiderate. They asked us 3 questions. Does she have any green stuff coming of her eyes? Are her eyes red? And does she have a runny nose? NO. NO. NO.  "Ok well, she probably has conjuctivitis." What? That is seriously all they are going to do? We are at the freakin' ER. Take a look at her eye. She is in extreme pain. Flush her eye out, ANYTHING. What are we paying guys to do? They give us drops for her eyes and they don't even go ahead and put some in. oh man! I was so livid leaving the hospital. Thankfully, things have gotten better since then, but I'm not looking forward to getting a $500 bill for a doctor to ask 3 questions. good gosh! I would have just gone to our pediatrician.

Then, I had scheduled an appointment to get our family photos done for this year. Well, we get there and my kids all of a sudden will not cooperate for anything. Caleb is doing his own thing, putting his hands in his mouth, doing goofy faces, Joy didn't won't to sit on my lap anymore...let me just say it was a disaster. This was our first time trying to do a family picture so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but it was not pretty. So then, we made an earlier appointment for the next day. It still wasn't the greatest experience, but we got a half way decent picture out of it. Let me just say I don't look forward to doing this every year.

I think that is about it. I don't know. I'm trying to find time where I can just log on and ramble all my thoughts about things going on, but I'm having a very hard time finding any. I don't know what it is about this time of the year and every little thing starts to stress me out. oi!

The Little Things

Well, Tuesday night I had my discussion group meeting. It went very well. Most of the women got lost on the way out to Rockford because map quest came up with two exact addresses and no one understood why it took them 30 minutes out of their way. thankfully, everyone had numbers to call one another. It was a great night just getting to one another and to vent about any issues. Such a great group of ladies God has brought into my life.

Most of you know that i couldn't hear out of my left ear for more than month now. Well, I woke up Friday morning not being about to hear out of my right ear. Both my kids had been crying and it had seemed like they had been for while. It freaked me out. You never realized how dependent you are on hearing when you are a mother. I couldn't keep my eyes off the kids all morning because I was so scared something was going to happen and I wouldn't hear them. I called the doctor's office because I had some hearing but I would say only 10%. I went to the doctors with the kids which was a nightmare because we were waiting for an hour before we were helped. They flushed my ear and I never realized how bad my hearing ways. My ears were so sensitive all day. I could hear so well that all the little noises were freaking me out. What's that? Ahh! What's that?!

Yesterday, Tim and I took the kids to all the stores in their costume to show them off to all the employees. So cute! Then, we had family over for dinner and we took the kids out around a few homes. Caleb went to one home and after that he sold on going to every home on the hunt for his favorite candy, M&Ms. :)And tonight we are doing the same thing again but in Beth and Tyson's neighborhood. Caleb is all excited! Pictures are to come.

Wow! Time has Gone By!

Well, the Barker family has been very busy with business, MOPS, children, everything else that goes on with having a family. We had an amazing time in Memphis, TN. It was so great catching up with the other Barker Family and watching the kids play together. It was just so sweet to see how they play and love each other even at such a young age.

The ladies from my discussion group table at MOPS came over and we had a nice evening of bonding and food. That was such a great evening to connect and fellowship with my ladies. It was quite funny being October everyone decided to bring a dessert with pumpkin, well, all but one, which was a coconut cream dessert. yum!

Joy has started walking so well in the last couple of nights. She walked halfway across the living room. She has really figured out how to regain her balance while on her feet. Caleb will sit on the floor saying, "Come here Joy! Come here!" Caleb is having a hard time with all the attention she is getting with the new walking skill and trying is to butt into everything in a somewhat nice way.

I had the great opportunity of take some pictures of some friends of ours last week. It was a lot of fun! I don't do a whole lot, but this opened my eyes to how I really enjoy taking pictures of not just family, but friends as well.

Halloween is coming this weekend and though, we usually don't do anything crazy because its a holiday I don't like celebrating. We have carved out pumpkins and I did get costumes for my kids. Caleb was a dinosaur last year and this year he wanted to pick out his own. So we went to Old Navy where they had some great kids costumes that are very warm and fun. We went in there and Caleb found a CHEESE BURGER costume. I was like oh that's cute and directed Caleb to the Race Car Driver or the Football Player. oh no! He ran back to the cheeseburger and said, "cheeseburger, mommy, cheeseburger! I said, "well, what about this one or even the football player?" Caleb, "cheeseburger, mommy, please!" So I cracked up laughing because my son was set on the cheeseburger. I was like of course, Tim is going to love this...he eats cheeseburgers at every restaurant we go to. So I grabbed a cute Butterfly costume for Joy (it was on sale for 17.99 Reg. 22.50) came back the following week to see if he still wanted to be the cheeseburger. Oh and did he ever, but the price had gone back up. Well, Tim went in to get it for him last week and well it was on sale for $10. hooray! so yes, he is going to be a cheeseburger. Don't worry! there will definitely be pictures of that little one. haha! so great!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

The above pictures are of our friends Jason & Jennie!

These next clips are from our phones so they are great quality.

Well, just a quick update!

Hello Hello Hello,

Yes, I know it has been quite some time since I have updated all of ya'll of what we have been up to. I should of told you guys that I left Friday morning very early to head down to Nashville, Tennessee. We left around 5am and arrived around 1pm their time. I attended a very nice Bachelorette Party for my Dad's wife April.  I ventured out with many of the ladies to see the night life of Downtown Nashville. And let me tell you that I now see why its called Music City. We went from bar to bar just listening to some awesome music. I was out until 2am. Oh yes! Late night! It was fun because my little brother Luke came out to be our (the ladies) body guard. It was nice having some time with him. Let me say I was hanging by a thread when I got back though. I had very little sleep in my body. Well, let me skip ahead to Sunday where I was apart of a BEAUTIFUL wedding. I had the honor of standing up with my Dad as he married his love April. She was a gorgeous bride. Although, that day was full of pain, tears, stress, anxiety, and hurting feet,  the Lord was GOOD and blessed with the day with sweet memories. Monday, we headed out to Memphis to see some more family: Mike, Allison, Jude, and sweet baby Sammy (new addition). It was so nice to finally meet my new little nephew. Boy, is he a cutie! Let me also mention, that Tim was terribly sick monday morning and was OUT all day long and on the drive over Caleb stuck a tictac up his nose. Yes, It was an interesting drive over to say the least. Anyways, we also had the pleasure of having Tyson and Beth Garner (siblings from GR) there with us for a couple of days. We have just been having fun hanging out, playing games, watching the cousins interact, and catching up. Last night, I attended Allison's Monthly Women's Night. They spoke about being imitator's of Christ,  being clothed in humility, and just trusting in the Lord. The passage was 1 Peter 5:1-11. It was so good. definitely what I think I needed. We just sat in prayer afterwards and it just felt right. I knew God had wanted me to go since when Al had mentioned it to me. I just understood why. And now I do. The Lord is always looking for new ways to grow and strengthen us. And boy, he is doing that in my life right now. Well, I can't give you all the details right now about our trip because I have very limited time, but its at least a little something. I will post pictures when I get back.

The Questions of LIFE

Did you know that one word...one act can change a decade of healing? One's intention to heal and open can be changed to destruction and closer. So many emotions are being thrown out into the wind; to not really know where they are going to go or where they are going to fall... Why is it when you feel like everything is going right in your life that something magically starts going wrong? Or that you finally reached healing in so many areas of your life, but then to realize that you have so many more problems you need to work on? Why does it come so easy to judge others? To see someone's flaws before seeing beauty? You're never really sure where you are going in life... you trust, right? You trust that you are making the right decisions, that you are listening to the Lord. In much of our life its like rolling a dice. You aren't sure if its going to be in your odds or not.  Everyone does stupid stuff in life. Its whether or not you can see them for who they are and what they are trying to be. Can you forgive? Forgive... why is it that we can play this word over and over in our mind? Why is it so hard to do? Why is it something that tears people apart? Matthew 9:5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sin be forgiven thee; or to say, arise, and walk? So these are the questions of life. These are the questions that are rolling around in this overwhelmed mind. Its like looking at poet who has poems coming out of pockets or holes in his outfit. Crazed by his creative, yet, overwhelm mind of ideas. No where to put them, but on a piece of scrap piece of paper... This is my piece of paper. This is my found writing instrument that allows my perplexed mind to have some alleviation. 

This would be a picture of mind.

Getting back to Normal

Well, the weekend started out absolutely amazing with the Love and Respect Conference. Granddad, Grandmom, and Uncle Dale surprised us by coming down to Grand Rapids. They wanted to check out the new kiosk. We went out to Red Robin and Caleb just downed some french fries, but didn't eat much of anything else. Joy hadn't had much food all day and still didn't want to eat much by dinner. 9:15pm came around and Tim heard Caleb crying. We went in there and he was crying in a puddle of his own vomit. I just wanted to cry/vomit at that moment. I'm one of those people when I see and smell vomit, it makes me want to puke too. I kept myself together and I stripped him down and everything else and got it all in the wash without, well, you know hurling... so I got his bed made back up with some new sheets and what not. I get back up stairs and he his hurling again and again. poor child. several pjs later... it stops and he is sleeping with Tim, but now Joy is awake from all the noise. I finally get her to sleep and he wakes up and wants to sleep with me. He wasn't wanting to go back to sleep. He wanted to drink water and do something other than sleeping. Let me just say it was a very LONG night of no sleep. Sunday morning comes around and guess what? now I'm puking. The stomach flu hits me HARD. its wasn't just a a couple hour thing for me...it was from morning til I went to sleep. The only thing I had to eat yesterday was a couple bites of soup and that was right before going to bed. I couldn't even keep water down. Thankfully, today I'm slowly getting my appetite back and my kids are feeling pretty good. Joy has had a runny noise for two weeks now, but that is showing no signs of letting up. Thank you everyone for all your prayers!