Days Like These

I am just loving this spring weather. I'm thinking having a spring baby is really going to work nicely in our favor, as we'll be able to get out and enjoy the sunshine. The sun really picks me up, and hopefully force me to get outside, even when I'm exhausted. If that doesn't work, I'm sure the kiddo below will encourage me to go anyway. :)
I am so impressed by this little girl that will soon be a "big sister". She has so much life inside of her, so much curiosity, so much joy. We've spent our fabulous afternoon playing outside, planting flowers, having some of Daddy's ice cream (shhhh!!), and drinking this. I love days like these!

God has made motherhood such a special responsibility. It's hard and demanding and tiring, but it's the most rewarding role I've had yet. :) I feel like I should be thanking her for being such an incredible person than for her to be thanking me for being her mommy. She's way cooler than I am, no doubt.

Lavender Body Scrub

This has been a chaotic week, trying to get my schedule figured out for next week, visiting daycare and organizing E's life for that (and ours), buying what I need to buy (all done!), and researching cell phone plans. L was out of town for a couple of days on business, and E is still getting adjusted to her sleeping schedule from camping (who knew it would take this long?). We're getting there, though, so I'm feeling much more prepared for Tuesday.

Thanks to all who offered activities that E and I to do. We've been outside a ton, played with other kiddos, read lots of stories, did chores together. She has started helping me in the kitchen (thanks, Kristi). Just yesterday, she helped me add all of the ingredients to the body scrub we made, and "helped" me stir.

This body scrub was fun and easy to make. I've had my eye on this recipe for months, but was in the process of using up all of my commercial products. Now that we've run out, I made this scrub, and now my skin feels so soft!! I used lavender essential oil (use it for E's wipes), and canola oil instead of olive oil. Anyway, it was a quick project that E and I had a good time doing together.

Well, it's off to do more chores. Now that I'm going to be gone a couple of days a week, I'm suddenly feeling the urgency to do all of the deep cleaning I've been putting off for weeks. I definitely thrive on procrastination!

Have a good weekend, All!

Mint Tea Punch

Since I bought mint at the farmer's market, it's been fun trying to incorporate in different recipes. I tried a punch over the weekend, and it was a hit amongst family. It's kind of a like an iced tea (which I don't like), but much better. :)

I found it on allrecipes, but here is the recipe:

Mint Tea Punch:

3 c. boiling water
12 sprigs of fresh mint
4 tea bags
1 c of white sugar (adjust to taste)
1 c orange juice
1/4 c lemon juice
5 c of cold water

Place tea bags and mint in pitcher, and pour boiling water over them, letting them steep for about eight minutes. Remove and discard tea bags and mint leaves, squeezing out any excess liquid. Stir in sugar until it's dissolved, then stir in orange and lemon juice. Pour in water and ice cubes.

Garlic-y Goodness

This was a meal that I made initially for a family in our church. It was a simple dish to make, and it called for six cloves of garlic-y goodness. What could be better? It is a vegetarian dish, which could quickly be remedied if you added chicken.

I did use fresh spinach that I got from our local farmer's market, but quickly ran out so I had to go out and buy from the store (which did NOT look as nice by the way). Anyway, the dish was yummy.

Please forgive the poor photo - my photography skills are limited, and the babe was on my heels. :) Here is where I found the recipe. Enjoy!!

Life

This is a photo that L submitted as part of his photography class. It made us chuckle, because it's a shadow of E with my shoe on her hand. Random. Who needs shoes on their feet, when you can wear them on your hands?

In completely unrelated news, I got a call from the hospital, and it seems they want to interview me next week. That's good news. Of course, now it means I might have to start looking into daycares/babysitters, and coordinating schedules with L more often. I'm already starting to feel guilty about returning to work part time. Ugh. Guilt. We'll have to see what the schedule entails before any decisions are made (provided the job is offered to me, of course).

And yes, the cloth wipes are going well, though I still need to make a few more and get my set up organized (waiting on a couple of things). I haven't noticed any reaction from the solution I've been using on her. I just made up this solution on my own, and will try others to see if it makes any difference.

This is the solution I've tried so far:

- Squirt of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap
- Couple drops of Lavender Essential Oil
- Couple of drops of Tea Tree Oil
- Water

I'll post others as I try them, but this one does smell nice, and I'm a sucker for nice smelling things. :)

Dinner Last Night: Turkey Chili. I know it's more of a winter dish, but I'm not convinced that summer has arrived just yet, as it was freezing yesterday.

Life

Well, we made some progress last night with dinner. L loves thai and chinese food, so I made a thai vegetarian dish (modified a bit: we added chicken). I knew it'd be a hit with the husband, but didn't really plan on the kiddo eating any of it. What do you know... she loved it! She ate the broccoli, potatoes, carrots, and yes, even the chicken... all with the green curry. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

So this is how we've been spending much of the kiddo's awake time. She knows the word "outside" and will cry until we go out there. I haven't minded that much - I'd much rather be playing in the sun, too. My goal: to start studying different birds and trees, so when the babe is older we can start identifying them.

So my kid can climb up stairs. I wonder how long she's been able to do this?

This was the perfect ending to my nine mile bike ride last night. It's grapefruit tea, and boy, is it yummy! In fact, maybe I'll go make some in a little bit.

Red Grapefruit Tea (Martha Stewart's site):

A red grapefruit, squeezed
1 - 2 tbs. honey
1/2 tsp. allspice berries (I just used cloves)
1 Cinnamon stick
1/2 C. of water

Put all ingredients in pot and bring to a boil. Strain tea and enjoy.

Green Smoothie

Sooo... as gross as this might look, it's actually pretty tasty! I've been experimenting with green smoothies for sometime now - trying to find one that actually tasted decent - one that both the babe and I both love (L seems to be able to drink the not so good ones). Well, today I think I have found it! The babe drank two cups of it, and I downed mine pretty quickly.

This is what I did (so I can remember):

A handful of spinach
Banana
Pear
Half Mango
Blueberries
Ice
Water

Blend and taste it's goodness!! This one gets two thumbs up! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

This was part of my Valentine's Day gift to the husband. It's homemade chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting (his favorite) with strawberries. This is the most amazing cake I've ever had! I also made a stir fry with homemade stir fry sauce (five cloves of garlic.... yum!).

Green Goodness

I am in love with salads. It happened just recently when I started experimenting a little more with what we had to put on our greens. It's goodness has drawn me in, and now we've a salad with almost every meal lately.

The one pictured, above, though is one of my favorite salads. I just made it last night for the first time, and it was YUMMY. It's simple, too...

Ingredients:
Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Pomegranate seeds (I froze some seeds over Christmas)
Pear
Toasted Walnuts

Normally L's not a fan of fruit in his salad, but he gobbled this one right up. I even made my own dressing, but it wasn't something I loved, so it needs to be tweaked a little bit.

Loving the Art of Cooking

Sooo... the photos are from the weekend. This is my attempt to love cooking. :) It's not that I HATE it... I just don't enjoy it. Hopefully as photos are taken of what we're eating, it'll spark. some of the creative juices (they've gotta be there somewhere) inside of me, thus, inspiring me to press on and cook (or "create") some more.

My hope for cooking more at home is twofold: it's healthier this way (you can adjust the ingredients), and two: it's cheaper to eat at home. We're cheap in pretty much every area of our life, but dining out. And it's gotta stop... or at least cut back.

This is just a different way to serve my family. I really want Eden to grow up in the kitchen, cooking with me, and enjoying her own "cooking creations". How do I do this? I have to model it for her, make it a way of life.

Anyway, about the pictures below, the pizza was pretty simple, but I tried to add as much as I could so we'd feel full and satisfied.

Our toppings included:
* little bit of olive oil
* tomato sauce
* skim milk mozzarella cheese
* onion (mmmm, but that was mostly on my side. L isn't a huge fan)
* green and red peppers (second, mmm)
* garlic (of course)
* chicken
* olives (my side only)
* spinach (we both love this)

The cake I made was a blueberry-banana cake. I won't get into the whole recipe, but why I chose this one was because it uses banana, blueberries and maple syrup instead of refined sugar. Also, it uses whole wheat flour instead of white, so it's better for me. This is how I justify eating cake. :)

Hopefully I will post what I'm cooking periodically. Tonight: turkey chili. Our good ol' standy. :)

Food... In Pictures

Pomegranates!!!

They're beautiful (and so good for you too)! I just couldn't resist them when I went to the market recently. It's a newly acquired taste that has just developed, but now I've been scouring all things pomegranate. I'm thinking about making some fresh juice for e, and then doing some marinades for chicken.

But I found this recipes spice pomegranate apple cider that sounds delish!

6 cups of apple cider
6 cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
1 - 1/5 cups of fresh pomegranate juice

Heat apple cider, cloves and cinnamon until juice reaches a simmer; remove from heat. Let steep, covered for one hour. Stir in pomegranate juice. For each serving, heat 3/4 cup mixture (do not boil).

Yum yum!!!