Goodbye Dress, Hello Skirt!

There are too many dresses and skirts in my closet that I rarely or never wear, for various reasons. I could give a few for this maxi dress, and for why I'm turning it into a skirt.

I bought this dress from Target four years ago for $13 and have only worn it a handful of times. For one, it's a tube top, so I always have to wear a cardigan with it...not exactly a Summer dress. It's also a bit short on me (it hits my ankles) and this makes matching shoes with it difficult. Heaven forbid I ever wear this around children because one tug and it'll fall right down.

My dress has also begun falling apart. See the ruffle at the top of the dress? So I figure that by turning my dress into a skirt, I will be able to match more tops with it, and make it so the skirt covers my ankles.

I followed this tutorial on "Make It & Love It". All I needed to buy was elastic for the waistband ($5), and it really didn't take long at all. Ta da! It hits the floor and is much more comfortable than before.

Cinnamon Banana Muffins

(scroll down for full recipe; makes 12 muffins)

Ever have bananas turn brown before you have the chance to eat them? Well, I have never liked bananas, but I have always heard that overripe ones are great for baking into bread. So after Jared's giant Costco bunch literally fell apart, I decided to make cinnamon sugar banana muffins. I can tolerate banana bread, but I knew it would be even better with extra sugar on top.

First, take four bananas, peel, and mash them. I had to cut off a couple of small brown spots and then I mashed the bananas with my knuckles. Don't worry, they were clean!

Next, add butter, sugar, an egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and flour. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar for the topping. Now you're ready to go!

Fill muffin cups about 1/3 of the way with muffin batter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, top with more muffin batter and more cinnamon sugar. Your muffins will have four layers. And your muffin pan will have lots of sugar sprinkled all over it.

Bake in an oven preheated to 350°F for 25 minutes, and let cool. You now have twelve very moist muffins to share or throw in the freezer for later when you need a snack. Just kidding, who actually does that?!

Muffin Mixture

4 overripe bananas, smashed

1/3 C. butter, melted

3/4 C. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 C. flour

Cinnamon Sugar

1/3 C. sugar

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare muffin pan with paper liners

2. Mix bananas, melted butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl

3. Add baking soda, salt, and flour, and gently stir

4. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon 

5. Fill the muffin liners 1/3 of the way with muffin mixture

6. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar onto the muffins, then top with remaining muffin mixture and cinnamon sugar

7. Bake for 25 minutes, cool, and enjoy!

Nutrition

I attempted to calculate calories per muffin, and each one has about 220. To decrease this, use one less banana and less cinnamon sugar. You can also substitute some or all of the butter with applesauce. 

That Baby

In 2012, after seven years of being the only married child in the family, my sister gave birth to a little girl. 

Before that, I always said that I loved babies, but why? Well, because they are cute. They are tiny, delicate, and dependent. They need love.

Photo by Lindsey Stokes

Since she arrived, my niece has been the topic of discussion in my family. We have an ongoing group message on our phones where you can bet daily that someone will ask, "Where's the baby?", and receive pictures, videos, and stories in return. 

When you have a baby in your life, that's actually a part of your life, you have the chance to witness something miraculous. I have always been fascinated by pregnancy, the miracle of life. You start with something microscopic and it rapidly grows into a tiny human. That tiny human resembles you in looks and maybe even develops a personality and interests like yours, and you get to be there to see it all transpire. You get to see a life begin, and I mean a life in the sense that this baby has a future. This little one will grow up to be someone with hobbies and passions and a history, and you can be there from the beginning to help her discover who she is and what she can do. You have the privilege of introducing her to the world, and the fun part is seeing how she reacts to it.

For a long time I admired babies from afar, hoping their moms would ask me to hold them. Now I have that baby whom I'm always thinking about, always asking after, and of whom I love to see a new picture. Never mind the fact that she's an absolutely cute baby; she's just plain fun. She's fun because she is new to the world, and the world is new to her, and as young as she is, it's true that she is discovering herself and the part that she plays in all of this. 

They say that the first year passes all too quickly, but I hope that each of us sees the miracle in its occurrence by finding that baby whom we can love. Because however you come to know that baby, she allows you to be a part of something precious when you allow her to be a part of your story too. 

"When do you suppose babies became so very precious? Are they more valued now because they can survive or do they survive because they are more valued?"

-Sister Monica Joan, Call the Midwives