All posts by Teri Maxwell

Outing with Grandsons

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We took John and Chelsy’s boys, Axton (2) and Elliot (1) for the morning to give John and Chelsy some time without childcare duties and to have some good time with our grandsons. John and Chelsy have a short-term apartment near the hospital, and only one parent can be with Madeline at a time. So that does leave one parent free to be back with the boys. However, with us taking the boys for a few hours, John was able to get more quality work done and the boys had something different to occupy them for a while.

We went to the Deana Rose Farmstead. It is a nice little place with farm animals in various displays and a few playground type areas. It seemed busy and popular.

At the end, we decided the boys might have been just a little too young to really appreciate what they saw, but they were happy and good. The report from home was that they talked a great deal about the animals they saw, so maybe more was going on with them than we observed.

Madeline is off of all supplemental oxygen now and doing very well. Praise the Lord!

“I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.” Psalms 119:174

Update on Madeline

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John and Chelsy’s premie baby, Madeline, born a week ago at 30 weeks is intubated and has also been having lots of issues with air outside of her lungs (pneumothorax) these past few days. Doctors moved her chest tube Thursday morning, but there has still been too much air, so they put in a second tube right under her arm in hopes of getting this air cleared. As of late Thursday night, that seemed to have worked.

A prayer request is that her lungs would heal and grow properly.

We are praising God for this precious little life, for God’s hand of protection over her, and for her care in the NICU.

“Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,
and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalms 107:8

Vegetable Stir fry without Oil

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A go-to meal for Steve and me since our diet change a little over two years ago has been vegetable stir fry without oil. I had no idea you could do that. Back then as I started learning how to feed us, I came across recipes that used vegetable broth or water to keep food from sticking to the pan. The combination of that and our Scanpans (see this post). allowed us to stir fry without using oil.

For Steve and my evening meal stir fry, this is my recipe:

3 cups diced onion

2 cups chopped kale

Several diced garlic cloves

1 diced chipotle pepper (from a can)

Whatever other vegetables are getting too old for salads. Often we have tomato in our stir fry.

Although this looks like an enormous pan full for two people, it has very few calories and cooks way, way down.

About an hour before we eat, I start the stir fry. I set my electric, ceramic cooktop burner to 2, put the pan on it. I stir it and flatten the vegetables out in the pan every ten minutes or so.

We eat our stir fry in Xtreme Wellness tortillas. We discovered these tortillas, which come in several flavors, and were delighted with their low-fat content/no cholesterol content. They are expensive, but our grocery store regularly has them for about 1/2 their normal price. They freeze well so we stock up on a sale week.

“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Memorial Day

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This morning despite rainy Kansas weather, Gigi, my sister and brother-in-law (who are here visiting), and most of the Leavenworth Maxwells gathered at the Leavenworth National Cemetery to visit my dad’s grave.

My dad did not lose his life serving his country, but he was seriously wounded in that service. God spared his life then, perhaps because he was not yet a believer in Jesus Christ. It wasn’t until his early 40’s that my dad was born again.

One of the things we did at the cemetery was share memories of Grandad, as he was called in his later years. The changes Jesus made in his life at salvation, that were evident right away and in the ensuing years, were a big part of those memories.

We sang, we prayed, and we shed a few tears. We rejoiced in his legacy, and knowing where Grandad is now and that we will see him in heaven one day.

As we remember and honor those who gave their lives in service for our country today, we are also reminded of the One Who gave His life to purchase redemption for every believer. His blood paid the penalty for our sin.

“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then,
being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him” (Romans 5:8-9).

Nonstick Fry Pan

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One of our Scanpans

Several years ago, when Teflon was being brought up as a health concern, we were introduced to a non-stick technology that wasn’t Teflon and wasn’t supposed to have the health problems of Teflon with its tendency to flake off. We bought Scanpans that used the new technology.

Not only are Scanpans nonstick, but you can use metal utensils on them. They are expensive, but we decided our health was worth it so we invested in two big skillets and one small one. We are quite happy with them and use them all the time from frying eggs to browning meat to oil-free stir fry (post on that coming soon).

Over the years, it seems that some of the nonstick has worn off, and there is a little build up on the pan. But usually if we follow the directions to boil water in the skillet and use a metal scrubber on it, we can get most of it off.

Our Scanpans are the Classic models. Since we bought ours, they have developed some other lines of Scanpans. We don’t know how they compare, though. The links below are Titus2’s Amazon Affiliate. (See our privacy policy).

Scanpan 12″

Scanpan 8″

The lids are sold separately.


“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).

Grandma’s Bookbag

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If you want to see other posts in my Grandma’s Bookbag series, see this link.

Through these almost thirteen years of reading to grandchildren, the Usborne touchy-feely book series “That’s Not My . . .” has been a top favorite. We have three of those books, but when I am at our married children’s homes, I see others in the series.

Our three books are:

That’s not my tractor (Titus2’s Amazon affiliate link are in this post–see our privacy policy).

That’s not my train (you’ll have to toggle to the different options, because the paperback and hardcover link wouldn’t show up)

That’s not my truck

These board books are toddler books designed for interaction. On each page, we learn why the tractor, or whatever the theme of the book might be, is not “my tractor.” It might have windows that are too shiny. On that page, the child can look into the shiny train windows. Perhaps the next page tells us the train has a side that is too bumpy where the child can run his fingers over a corrugated insert. The book ends with, “That’s my train” and the special reason why.

In addition to that cute theme on each page is a little mouse, bunny, or bird. That gives something else to ask interact with the child concerning. They can point out the animal when asked where it is after looking around the page for it. And I can teach them the animal and how to find it if they too young to do it on their own.

Two of those books, we bought twelve years ago and the other, I purchased used. They are all still in good shape and part of my toddler Grandma bookbag.

“And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little
child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4).