Weekly Meal Planning

The produce co-op is opening a new site THIS WEEK, on an every-other-week schedule a week off from our regular site, and I am on a mission to serve up all the produce we picked up on Saturday from the old site. I think....I think I can do it! We will definitely still have onions, potatoes, and sweet potatoes left over, but I'm OK with storing them. What is your favorite thing to do with sweet potatoes? My husband loathes them in all forms except deep-fried, so he's promised he's OK with taking his "no thank you" bite and eating bread and butter for dinner when I serve them. Haha!

Monday: carnitas and bean dip, with rice and tortillas or corn chips

Tuesday: fried rice with garlic scapes, kimchi, and spinach, stir fried romaine, and pan fried eggplant

Wednesday: salsa chicken soup with corn and tortilla chips, wheat bread

Thursday: spaghetti, sautéed zucchini with onions

Friday: popcorn and movie night!

Snacks: cauliflower with miso dip, corn chips with black bean dip and cotija, sliced fruit (apples, pears, honey dew melon, mangos, and kiwi)

It Never Fails

Put this outfit on the baby boy and BAM!




Meet Mr. Poopy Pants.

I wonder why Old Navy had it on clearance?  Think it was worth $1.98?

Get a Head Full of (No-Heat) Curls

My hair has never held a curl before.  N.E.V.E.R.  Plus, I don't even know how to properly use a blow-dryer.  (Can you see how sad my teen years must have been?)

Grosgrain featured this tutorial, and you MUST try it out!  It's super easy, comfortable, and looks adorable (I think!)

I washed my hair in the morning and let it mostly dry (dry, but still just wet enough to have some body), then ran a blob of mousse through (especially the ends) and tucked and tucked and tucked it around my headband.  I used a bit of hair spray to make sure it didn't unravel, and left it in till the next morning.

Also, if you happen to be around the princess-loving set while your hair is up...they will LOVE it.  Ernie is considering growing out her hair, just to have it up "fancy" like mine.  Knowing how much she loathes brushing her hair, that's quite a compliment!  You know, if you're into compliments from five-year-olds.  (Which I am.)

Having a Hard Time

"Hope you know...I'm having a hard time."

That's kind of our family's mantra this week, with temper tantrums, gut issues, sleep issues, scraped up knees, paper cuts, un-met WANTS, and all those other normal things that just seem hard at the time.

BUT...there are bright moments.



Glad to see the sun this week!  I found the girls playing on the lawn after lunch, with their scriptures, for "school."

I went jogging last night for the first time in...oh, a long time.  LONG long time.  It was acutely humbling, all 1/4 mile of it. (I might be generous with that distance estimate.) But I had a nice long walk after that, and look forward to getting reacquainted with my running shoes now that the days are longer!  I was almost up to a mile before I got pregnant, and at a healthy weight.  So I have...3/4 mile to add to my distance, and let's say 30 pounds to take off my gut?  My husband and I are racing to a 20 pound weight loss...but since he commutes in on his bike most mornings, and doesn't have free access to all the candy in the house (it keeps coming!!), and isn't trying to get through the day by inhaling Jelly Bellies.....well, I have some work to do to even the odds :)

Local Dialect Meme

I heard about this  meme going around from the spectacular Su and it looked like so much fun!

I hope you guys will play along too, it's really a hoot to hear all the different voices, and put voices to names!

Recording this was really fun...watching it was surprising, I don't remember the last time I really watched myself talk on video tape!  I didn't know I looked like this, haha.  I did a second take, just in case, but didn't realize my camera was zoooomed in on my face.  I watched it and all I could think was "HEY!  TEETH!"  This was was much better :)

If you do your own post, let me know, I'd love to come and see!


Myrnie's Dialect Meme from Myrnie Twin on Vimeo.


Here are the words I'll read, and the questions I'll answer:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And these are the questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

A Day at Home

Just a quiet day at home.  A little "journaling" to remember these days!

Baby fell asleep at 10 last night, and I went to bed at 11.

Baby woke up at 3, and went back to sleep at 4:30.

Husband's alarm went off at 4:30
Husband's alarm went off at 4:40.
Husband's alarm went off at 4:50
Husband's alarm went off at 5:00.

Mimi got out of bed at 5:00, wanting new pajamas.  No.  I tucked her back into bed.

Husband's alarm went off at 5:10.
Husband's alarm went off at 5:20.  I think he must have had a REALLY late night last night, working!
Husband got in shower.

Both girls were up at 6:00.  Husband turned on cartoons for them before he left for work.

Mimi came in at 6:30.  "Can we watch another cartoon?"  Yes.

Mimi came in at 7:00.  "Can we watch another cartoon?"  Yes.

7:30, I got out of bed, and made breakfast for everyone.  (Leftover waffles, yum!)

8:00, first piano lesson of the day

8:30 Ernie's piano lesson. We learned about quarter notes today!  I love her piano series, not least because it actually instilled a sense of rhythm in her, in about 3 months time.  Impressive!

9:00, I took my shower.

9:30 started a batch of bread, and did some work on Rae's Spring Sewing Week.  Last day to enter your spring tops!  Roughly half of all the tops entered in the competition have come in the last 3 days.



10:00, baby woke up for the morning.  He ate, and I got the girls going on some workbooks.



10:30, did a little something with my hair.  Mimi says I have LoLo hair now!  Yes Mims, it looks very short :)



11:00, bread went in the oven.  Baby is playing on his mat.



11:30, lunch!  Is hot, fresh wheat bread with butter and brown sugar healthy?   Hmm.

12:00, baby eats again, falls back asleep.

12:15, put baby down in his crib, collect the girls from the front room for their naps- they're currently "cows" and mooing very loudly.

12:30 Turned off the girls' light, after reading them each a story.  Hope they sleep, they OUGHT to be tired!  Worked on figuring out billing snafus in the piano studio for last month, and getting all the receipts sent out.  OK, WHEN exactly are all these makeup lessons going to be scheduled?  And they need to happen before the recital?  Yikes.  I think I might need to hire a sitter for an afternoon and just pump everyone through!

1:30 Ernie is DONE with reading, and has come out to tell me she loves me (three times), beg for a piece of candy (alright), and work on her workbook some more.  I'm still sorting through piano studio messes, and e-mail back and forth with Aunt LoLo about recital details.  One family is owed FIVE makeup lessons from throughout the year!  One family hasn't paid!  One family paid double for their books!  TWO families aren't even on my e-mail distribution list, mysteriously enough.  I'm waiting for the next photo moderator to come online and enter more of the last minute entries for Rae's contest, so I can send them out in batches of 10 to the judges.  (I've kind of been up since 3...I'm thinking I should have taken a nap, and worried about studio business later tonight...but I have a presidency meeting for the Young Women's organization tonight, and hope to go to sleep when I get home, assuming Baby will fall asleep in the car on the way back!)  Oh, and Ernie still thinks my hair looks cool.

1:35 Baby is starting to make war whoop noises. I think he's awake!

2:30 Everyone is up, two diapers have been changed, baby's eaten again, and I'm making strawberry-spinach smoothies for snack.  The girls insist they're chocolate, because of the color...but they drink it all!  Hooray for leafy greens!  Smoothie was frozen strawberries, frozen spinach, orange-flavored Metamucil, brown sugar, and water.

3:00 Girls are playing music in the front room on ALL the percussion instruments, baby is chilling on his mat again, I'm paying bills and getting things ready to put in the mailbox.  I'll send Ernie across the street to put everything in the box, she LOOVES doing that chore.  I will watch from the window.

3:15, nurse the baby, put him down for another nap.

3:30, start first afternoon piano lesson, and the girls come tearing into the room.  "Mom!  We want a snack!"  What about that smoothie I just made?  Not a snack?  Alright, send them out the door with a bowl of corn chips, and a promise they will PLAY OUTSIDE IN THE SUNSHINE.  Sunshine is hard to come by around here, OK?

4:00 start second lesson, girls turn on their cartoons, and I hear a gasp from Mimi.  She comes to me with hand extended "Mommy!  I stuck my hand in my pants!"  Fist full of poo.  Wow.  That's a first!  Student is totally not fazed, he keeps playing his song while I head off to disinfect my child.

4:30 start third and final afternoon lesson.  Beyond baby waking up, pretty uneventful!  I put him in the swing next to the girls, so Elizabeth can push him.

5:00 nurse the baby again.

5:30, throw some rice in the cooker and pull all the bok choi I can find out of the fridge.  Realize my kids are never in a million years going to eat that choi, and dig around for sliced cucumbers.  I realize their lives are one big carbo load.  

6:00 Daddy gets home.  Serve steamed rice, leftover ratatouille, sliced cucumbers, and stir-fried bok choi with oyster sauce.  Five veggies on the table, and my kids eat white rice with yoshi sauce.  Ernie had a few slices of cucumber, and a "no thank you" bite of choi.  (She had her "no thank you" ratatouille last night.) I'm going to have to be happy with the fact that Mimi did not throw a fit about the vegetables I placed in her bowl- for now, merely allowing them to stay in the bowl IS her best effort I think.  

6:30 Throw the girls in the bath!  Experimental head dunking of Elizabeth resulted in water inhalation.  I need to go Google what the repercussions of that are.  I feed the baby one more time.  SO glad Daddy is home, the girls actually get their hair washed tonight!  He even does the de-tangler and hair brush routine...wow!

7:30, girls are out of the bath and mostly dressed.  We read scriptures in their room.

8:00 leave for a presidency meeting

10:00 leave presidency meeting

10:15 Pick up my husband's bike from a friend's house.

10:30 HOME.  Put the sleeping baby in his room, download a few pictures, and I'm going to bed :)

Do you ever just make a list of everything you do in a day, to see what happened?

Ocean Shores

If you want to find long sandy beaches, big waves, and moody grey skies...go to the coast.  The Washington Coast is simply gorgeous this time of year, and free of the tourist crowds that come later when the weather warms up.

We took an impromptu family vacation recently (like, we booked it on Wednesday and left on Thursday...and booked the hotel room for an extra night once we got there!)  We've never taken a family vacation like this, without anyone else or visiting anybody, and it was wonderful!  We stayed at the gorgeous Shilo Inn, with ocean views, big beds, and a pool.  The kids were in heaven!

Jumping over puddles.  Didn't make it.




I had to laugh, because we arrived at 3, got settled in, and left the room at 4 to walk on the beach and fly kites.  Ernie, Coren, and I spent the next hour walking to the beach, and sprinting back to the bathroom/changing table/nursing chair.  It was crazy!  Ernie was so tired at the end, she said she never wanted to walk back to the beach, because it was too far- I pointed out that it's not NEARLY as far if you don't make the journey back and forth four times!  Lucky for her, she was only sick for an hour every afternoon.  Not bad, considering the quality of food we were able to find!  (Take note, SELF: No McDonald's.  Ever. Even if those dang plastic Zoobles toys kept the girls occupied for the entirety of the 6 hours in the car round trip, and all free time at the hotel.)

Took advantage of a trip back to the room to do his diaper business.  Twice.  Wow.





We had a great time walking and driving on the beach, bowling, seeing the interpretive center, finding treats at the sweet shop, swimming in the pool, and driving around seeing all the crazy houses with lighthouse turrets and purple paint.  Gotta love coastal houses, and the drastic measures they'll take to stand out in the fog and grey cloud cover.  

Better

I have a sleeping baby on my lap, and an entire TRIP to tell you guys about, but I just have to share something that I am so grateful for.

Look close at these pictures.

January 10th


February 22nd


April 9th



April 15th



May 5th



In January she was our round-faced girl, grinning like an idiot at being the "Pretty Pretty Princess."  By February, she was sick, and a little quiet.  By April she was skinny and hollow-eyed, with a huge bloated stomach.  Her ribs, her spine, her collar bone, her shoulder blades...they all stick out.  She's lost 10% of her body weight (although the doctor we visited said she's now a "perfect" weight.  I still don't think her bones should be sticking out like that.)  But please look at the last picture...I see a slender girl, who is starting to feel in control of her life again.  Who has a handle on her emotions.  Whose stomach doesn't sound like a melon when I tap it.  Who has come back to us.  And who is healing.  We've had a few relapses with her tummy issues that are a symptom of all the stress she's feeling, but we're moving forward.  And not eating fatty foods and dairy.  And we're getting better.  I am SO grateful for that last picture.

Thoughts on Osama, and Blogging

I think the best response I've seen to the death of Osama Bin Laden popped up on Facebook:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
--MLK, Jr.

Was his death "justified?"  Oh, absolutely.  Thousands of times over, by law.  Am I comforted he isn't out there, waging war against us?  Yes.  But I'm not HAPPY he's dead.

Phew.  OK, got that out of the way.

I've been thinking about my blogs, too.  DIY Mama.  The Chow Review.  Mormon Mommy Blogs.  And that little blog I started for family.  I have to wonder, why do I have all these blogs?  Why am I blogging?

The family blog, for now, is completely neglected.  It had turned into photos with captions, read by about 5 family members...who all have access to my Flickr account.  The ones who don't get updates, I send them (her...hi Mom!) e-mails when some great photos pop up.

DIY Mama is where I keep track of everything crunchy that we're learning about.  We've learned a lot in the last few years, and want a place to keep track of what we've done and what we've tried, and I want to keep a record for anyone else interested in what we're doing, and maybe giving it a whirl.  Things like gardening, home schooling, attachment/Waldorf/love and logic/it makes sense to ME parenting skills.  How to  make things naturally and cheap.  Off the beaten track remedies and foods.  You know, all that "scary" stuff that's made us so happy the last few years.

Mormon Mommy Blogs...well, I'm a monthly contributor in the "Homemaking and Everyday Life" section.  And really, it's just for fun, a chance to write for a broader audience.  I get a bump in "click backs" on the days my posts are live, and I enjoy checking out the blogs of like-minded mamas and papas that I find in that community.  Plus...well, it just gives me a tiny ego-boost I guess to know that somebody wanted me to write there, when I applied!  (I've had opportunities to write for other online avenues, but they weren't good fits.)

The Chow Review is still, as it's always been, a place for my family (Hi Aunt LoLo!  Hi Uncle Bear!) to store recipes we L.O.V.E.  Recently, my sister updated our bread section with home made cinnamon chips, and her favorite bread recipes.  Recipes for the SAME bread she sells to paying customers.  It's that good.

This blog here, I Wonder Woman, I think I'd been the most confused about.  It started out as a "family" blog, writing about silly things my daughter did and said.  Then, I started learning how to make simple gifts for cheap to satisfy my "want" to give presents to EVERYONE without spending beyond our limited student-budget means.  I started writing a few tutorials to give back to the community a bit, and they were pretty popular.  (Especially these earrings, holy cow!)  I started thinking I needed to be a craft blog, since that's why people were coming.  Unfortunately, I don't always have time to craft, and it turns out that I'm just not that good at it.  Ha.  (It's just the truth- I can't even use a glue gun properly!)  I still love to craft, but most of all I love making new connections, and writing about what I see.  You could shorten that to "I just love to write what I know."

And, obviously, now that I've written this whole spiel out, I'll go on a craft bender.  Hee.

Do you ever stop and think about WHY you blog?  Or what you blog about, really?