baguettes

Today we biked to the playground and had a picnic for lunch (pictures from that later). And then we all came home and slept for a long time. And woke up with plenty of energy and ravenously hungry.

So we transformed our kitchen into a bistro and had a salad of mesclun and spinach (picked from the garden before dinner), grilled sirloin, sauteed asparagus, watermelon, and fresh baguettes for dinner.

Oh, the baguettes.

They're so decadent. And so delightfully within your grasp.

If you have flour, salt, yeast, and water, you should go make these now. Start a movie, and by the time it's over, you'll be eating delicious baguette, and you will have only done about ten minutes of actual "work."

I cannot even tell you how much I love bread. Mmm....bread. And baguettes top it all. When I was eating dinner tonight I closed my eyes and pretended I was back in Paris (except without the frites).

funny

Today when I came home from the book sale at the library I dumped a shower of books into Abigail's lap. She flipped through them, then looked up at me with me a big smile and said brightly, "Mommy, I am very pride of you! I am very happy with this pile!"

Another great Abigailism--her prayer(s) last night: "Thank you that the rain and the funder and all the broken clouds can please go away and I can sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed and they will keep me safe from the broken clouds that are scary."

Speaking of book sales...how over the moon am I at the fact that I scored the Williams-Sonoma Bread Book and a vintage edition of From Julia Child's Kitchen for $2 each?!

I stand corrected

Here's what's worse than a sick kid on date night:

Taking one sick kid with you to the mall while the other one goes to date night babysitting.

Then the mall locks down because a tornado has touched down in the western half of the city...which is where your child is.

Also, your neighborhood's main street is nicknamed "Tornado Alley."

Also, you have no cell phone. Not that you could hear anything over the sirens anyway.

And the stoplights are out as you drive home (the tornado warning is now just a watch) and there's a LOT of water on the road and dumping down on you. Oh, and there's so much water dumping down that it's shorting out things in your engine for the first few minutes of the drive and the car keeps dying.

Fortunately all is well, and because everyone is a bit edgy, an unofficial family party ensues when you get home. Popcorn and chocolate cookies and perhaps a princess movie. And some serious thank-you prayers.

few things depress me as much as sick children on date night.

especially when date night is a rotating babysitting thing--you still watch the other people's kids. just no date for you because your kids got sick on a night you were supposed to have a date.

my children eat grass

For some reason I haven't been taking very many pictures lately, but this one from last year basically covers my bases this week: we're spending a lot of time outside beheading clover. Except this year instead of Abigail clipping off clover blossoms with needle-nose pliers, Juliet pops them off and stuffs them in her mouth. And then she goes crazy when I take them away and crawls off the blanket and defiantly stuffs a whole handful in her mouth. Is it possible for babies to be allergic to clover? Is that why she was running a fever last night, occasioning a frantic doctor visit this morning? (or was it, perhaps, that she missed the doctor's office, not having been there for almost two whole weeks? Is it just me, or are my children sick ALL THE TIME this year?!)

In any case, while Juliet slept the sleep of the well-drugged child this morning (we love Tylenol and Dimetapp), Abigail and I mucked about in the garden. Yesterday while I was planting more veggies (and while the girls were being blown about in their sun tent) I noticed things were looking a bit weedy, so we attacked the weeds this morning. Correction: I weeded. Abigail plucked out three weeds, then began collecting pebbles (also a great garden endeavor). Then she decided she'd had enough manual labor and told me she was leaving.

To be precise, she told me she was leaving for Mexico to swim with the dolphins. So she drove her little car across the yard to the gas station, sang a happy little song while she filled up her tank (with clover, natch), and then trundled around the yard commenting on the dolphins and sharks she waas driving by. Then she came back over to where I was busily weeding away at the lettuce and onions, wrapped her arms around me, and asked if I would please come to Mexico with her. Then she ran off again, enticed by the crimson promises of the strawberry bed. Oh, how I love that child.

Speaking of my funny Abigail, she always likes to know what's on the docket for the day. I didn't realize how I always end the rundown with the same phrase until today she said, "Mommy, I think we will change Juliet's diaper and then read some stories and then take naps and then we'll go to date night. Ok? Does that sounds like a good plan to you?"

replenishing the soul

Today I have a reading hangover.

Yesterday I read four books (about 1300 pages). I don't know how I found time to do it in between running a house and mothering all day.

Oh wait. I remember. I didn't go to bed until 1:30 am (fully aware that Juliet would be up at 6:30).

Sometimes I overindulge.

But on another note, something I've been thinking about for awhile is taking time out for oneself (partially because this is the theme of our enrichment in a couple of weeks). What do you do that replenishes your soul, whether you're single, married, working, home with kids all day, male or female?

Mostly I read or exercise. Or I go to the library (by myself!!!) to find more books. Or I go running by myself. Lately I've been thinking about signing up for classes in something to further develop myself in a way that does not involve reading or running (especially on days when my calves hurt from running and my back hurts from reading in a crunched-up position). Classes like ballet (I haven't taken a dance class for about four years) or pottery or oil painting, all of which are taught at our local community center. Hmm.

What do you do to center yourself?

the perks of three-year-olds

Ways for a child to melt the mother heart:

Comment that said mother is wearing her pajama pants backward (not on purpose, I assure you).

Mother asks child to get dressed.

Child returns to kitchen and proudly announces, "Look, Mommy! My pants are backward today, just like you! We match!"

I'm sure enjoying this stage of "Mommy is cool" versus "Mom, your pants look dumb." I love my adoring little three-year-old.

I really should blog about the weekend (family in town over the holiday weekend) which was fun and delightful, but I'm a little tired and lazy and so I won't. Plus most of those of you who would be interested were here anyway. :-) And also I didn't even turn on my camera the entire weekend because I was too busy enjoying my family (although maybe they could email me some pictures?)

I don't really have anything especially exciting to blog about, other than to note that I've really enjoyed the last couple of days of really doing...nothing. The last few weeks I've been trying to be fairly low-key (since the semester ended) and just do little things with the girls that are fun and not necessarily a huge outing.

So yesterday and today we've been enjoying popsicles and crackers outside on a blanket while we read stories, biking to the playground (except if I'd thought beforehand about biking against strong winds for 7 miles while pulling 80 pounds of children and bike trailer we might not have gone after all), splashing around in the bathtub, and making good use of the new paints given to the girls by their grandpa this weekend.

That's all. And it's been enough.

snapshot

Yesterday at 5:28 p.m., this is what we were doing:

Rachael: chopping veggies from last year's garden (sun-dried tomatoes and roasted peppers) to make a sauce for tortellini

Neil: edging the lawn

Abigail: tucked up in the "princess castle" reading Fancy Nancy, which is one of our favorite books these days







Juliet: wishing she was outside with Abigail

Google Reader

If you aren't familiar with Google reader, you really should check it out (especially if you already have Gmail). You can subscribe to the blogs you read so you're not constantly checking to see if someone has updated. It really simplifies keeping in touch with everyone.

Unfortunately, when I read things in Google Reader it also means I don't comment on blogs as much as I usually do, because it entails extra clicking and linking and the like. But as part of my goal to follow the principles Elder Ballard outlined in his talk "Daughters of God," I'm trying to spend less time on the Internet.

So please don't think I don't love you and I don't read your blog. I do, I promise. I'm just not commenting as often because I'm trying to spend more time with my kiddies. And I also love you even though I took down my links list--I'm subscribed to your blog in Google Reader, so I took down the sidebar link to free up some white space on the blog itself.

On a semi-related note, I've been thinking about disabling the comments on my blog because I feel guilty for not commenting on everyone else's blogs. And because I'm always thinking, "Hmm, maybe I should check my email and see if anyone commented." What do you think? Keep the comments, or not so much?

sometimes this kid is so cute I just have to squeeze her

There are two things Julesie is really in love with right now as she plays the "explore the world game":

1) Rolling around naked on the sheepskin rug





2) ripping up clover by the handful and trying to stuff it in her mouth

And look! It was a "Daddy on patrol" day (I was working in the garden), as you can tell by the fact that she was brought outside with one sock on and no sun hat...just teasing you, honey. :-)

the walrus incident

During our Saturday jaunt to the zoo, we spent a LOT of time looking at the marine mammals (we visited some of them three times). They were just that popular with certain members of our family, who may or may not have been looking for mermaids in the dolphin tank.

In any case, we noticed that Juliet wasn't having quite as much fun looking at the "underwater" view, i.e. where you're standing at eye level with the animals watching them swim by. She would start to whimper nervously and then rock back and forth uneasily. So one of us would step back a little from the exhibit with her while the other held Abigail up to the glass so she could see what was going on.

On our second trip through the marine mammals, it had been several hours since the last trip and we'd forgotten about Juliet's neurosis. The four of us were watching the walruses, and we were particularly fascinated by an ENORMOUS (I asked one of the zoo workers later and she said he was about 3000 lbs) walrus that would swim pretty close to the glass. I was holding Jules at that point, and I was standing about 6 inches away from the glass craning my neck to see the walrus. Neil, holding Abigail, was right next to me.

The four of us watched the walrus swim closer.

And closer.

And closer.

Any minute now, it would swerve away.

Except it didn't.

It smashed into the glass, RIGHT at eye level with both kids. I've never heard such terrified screaming in my life. And I must admit, I yelped and jumped back too. Three thousand pounds of walrus six inches from your face is pretty dang scary, especially when it's covered with bristling whiskers and has another nine feet of walrus behind it.

The children screamed all the way out of the exhibit. Both of them were trembling. Neil and I were shaking too, but with suppressed laughter. As we walked out, a woman selling stuffed walruses (Abigail took one look and started crying again) asked knowingly, "Oh, did Brutus come up to the glass again? He just loves kids!"

Poor walrus. Poor children.

It was probably the funniest thing that happened all day.

what kind of a child am i raising here anyway?

Interesting things Abigail has said in the last two days:

• Refusing to help at dinnertime: "Princesses don't help to set tables."
• Looking around at the zoo: "I can't see the animals, but I can smell their butts" (this elicited some very wide eyes and smothered laughter from Neil and me).
• And after being punished for shoving Juliet to the floor (deliberately), when Neil said, "Sweetie, if you are nice then people will want to play with you, but if you are mean, they will run away," she responded, "I don't want to be the nice girl. I want to be the beautiful one."

Parenthood: every day's an adventure.

best day EVER

Juliet and I petting the elephant (I'm the one with the French braid and the Juliet)

Yesterday was, quite honestly, one of the best days of my life. It was like we'd all taken Felix Felicis (except, perhaps, for the walrus incident, but I'll save that for another post).

The girls woke us up yesterday morning at a fairly unpleasant hour for a Saturday--Abigail made her flopping-around appearance into our bed at 6:15 A.M., and Juliet's wailing wasn't far behind. Neil and I thought dazedly about what we had on the schedule for the day: cleaning out the garage, weeding/planting the garden, mowing the lawn, etc. Then we decided to throw it all out the window and take the kids to the zoo.

It was fantastic and perfect and fabulous. The weather was a breezy 60 degrees, the children were happy and excited and fascinated by everything (and ate lunch and snacks uncomplainingly, which was the most enormous boon, since Juliet has been fighting nursing lately and Abigail thinks she can exist on air), and the animals were generally out and active and visible.

We got front row seats to the dolphin show despite arriving in a packed arena only 5 minutes before it started, fortuitously happened upon the elephant bathing show right as it was about to start, and spent one of the loveliest fifteen minutes ever watching ducks and flamingos drift around the island home of ring-tailed lemurs (mostly Neil and I were watching the tinier-than-palm-sized baby lemur be given a bath by several adults, and Abigail was feeding the ducks sticks). Neil and I both admitted later that we'd gotten choked up and teary at various times throughout the day because it was so wonderful to simply spend a day focusing on nothing but having a fabulous time as a family and be in a place where we weren't worrying about other responsibilities--just enjoying our delightful little family.

When we got home, Neil cooked up one of our favorite curries for dinner, and then we went on a seven-mile bike ride to the playground. We had a delightful time (especially since it's a fun adult playground too with climbing walls and rope thingies and the like) and then came home and made some cookies.

Then Neil and I watched the second half of Gone With the Wind and I fell asleep in my husband's arms right as Scarlett declared, "After all, tomorrow is another day!"

Most. Perfect. Day. Ever.

Oh man...what are we going to DO all day?

Do you ever just have days where you wake up and you feel...bored? Before you've even climbed out of bed?

I always struggle with this sort of ennui when I'm not teaching (I love my children, but I also love having a little intellectual kickstart at 7 am), but it's especially bad on Fridays, because we've exhausted my creative energies and I look at the children and think "how am I going to occupy you today? All day long?"

Usually I try to bounce myself out of this with some fresh air, or kick up the endorphin levels, but today after I biked 5 miles with the kids and then ran a couple more (I was already sweaty so I figured I might as well make the shower really worthwhile) I still felt blah and gray and like I wanted a break from my daily life. We need something FUN to look forward to or do or SOMETHING, I don't know! The garden doesn't need any digging about, it's still too wet to go run around in the yard, we're sick of crayons and play-doh and we missed storytime at the library (and our getting-new-books time) because we were biking, and I'm done with housework for the week, because I'm tired of cleaning surfaces that are immediately begrimed by fat sticky fingers and curious hands. I need something to get me going and excited, rather than lying on the floor and watch the ceiling fan rotate.

So what do you do when you have days like this?

happy parents' day

Tonight we went and picked up our collective Mother's/Father's Day present, a Trek Go Bug (quite exciting because it was special-ordered and then we had to drive an hour and a half away to go get it...so we've been looking forward to this for some time now).

Anyway, I am SUPER EXCITED!!!!!! So are the girls. :-) Hurrah! Last summer Abigail and I biked all over the place (which was fun being 8 months pregnant and toting her on the child seat strapped to my bike) and we totally loved it. It's great to be able to go out and have fun without paying through the nose for gas, plus we live a few miles away from lots of playgrounds so it's great exercise for me with a fun interlude for the girls. And while we haven't tried out the trailer yet with the kids in it, I must say I'm very impressed with the construction. Sleek, light, and smart!

what I'm really passionate about these days

If we're friends on Goodreads, a month or so ago you probably saw my rave review of Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (and I was happy to see that a lot of you added it to your to-read shelf!)

If we're not friends on Goodreads, first of all you should get on Goodreads and then add me as a friend, because I like knowing what you're reading.

Anyway, this book is my new favorite book. I checked it out from the library a month ago, devoured it, renewed it a few times while I thought about it, and then I started reading it again a few days ago (after I finished my ten-day Harry Potter marathon. All seven. It was delightful, especially since I only allowed myself to read when the children were asleep and I had to be in bed by eleven).

I love this book. It's very thought-provoking, especially because it touches on a subject that I've been researching a lot lately. I love Kingsolver's works to begin with (especially The Poisonwood Bible and Animal Dreams), and I enjoyed this book every bit as much as those two, if not more.

Essentially, this is the story of a year in Kingsolver's life (and that of her husband and two children) spent as a "locavore," i.e. eating nothing that originates further than 100 miles away from her home. The book is part memoir, part nonfiction account of what we're doing to our planet and ourselves when we consume pesticide-laden food grown thousands of miles away, processed, packaged, and flown to our supermarkets. I admit I'd never thought before about the "cost" of said travel--Kingsolver notes that it takes 87 calories of energy, on average, to process, package, and deliver 1 calorie of food. As a sometimes vegetarian, I was also interested to read her assessment of the cost in animal lives of vegetarianism. Her descriptions of organic farming were fascinating, as well as her assessment of factory-raised everything (did you know, for instance, that free-range eggs have half the cholesterol of regular store eggs?)

This is one of those books like Freakonomics that I think everyone should read just to be informed, even if you're not really into the whole local eating or slow foods movement (which, however, you may find yourself leaning towards after you finish the book). More importantly, perhaps, it's an easy, fascinating, and illuminating read. Kingsolver's characteristic lyrical prose carries through here just as it does in her novels.

I will admit that I've gotten pretty passionate in the last six months about our food choices. At our house, we no longer eat anything containing partially hydrogenated oils or high-fructose corn syrup, and I'm now trying to cut out MSG. And buy locally. Like this beautiful asparagus, for instance, which was harvested this morning, purchased at the farmer's market this afternoon, and sauteed in butter and eaten for dinner this evening.



It does seem a little faddish, I know, and there are times (like today when I spent about half the day in the kitchen chopping ingredients for salsa, rolling out tortillas, baking apple-walnut whole-wheat bread, and strolling through the farmers' market) that I wonder if I'm making too much fuss over it all, but then I realize that if I'm going to make a fuss about something, worrying about what I'm feeding my family every day and whether it's laced with hormones or antibiotics or pesticides is probably a good thing to worry about. Additionally, there are several things that really appeal to me about locavorism:

• supporting local farmers
• not supporting concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO--you know, where the animals are stacked on top of each other). Did you know that 1,152 chickens can be fitted into a 6x8 room?
• reducing my food's carbon footprint--the difference between buying something from someone who lives two miles away and food that was grown in Chile and took a ton of high-priced gas and packaging to get to me. This is becoming especially important to me as gas (and food) prices climb.
• food that is simply healthier

No, I don't buy organic fruits and vegetables, I haven't sworn off CAFO meats, and I don't refuse to buy anything that came from outside the state, but I feel like I'm putting myself in a position to make more informed choices. I'm researching a lot about what local growers and farmers are raising and what's available around here. I've doubled the size of our vegetable garden. I've had really interesting conversations with local beekeepers and poultry farmers, and it's been a fascinating learning experience. If you want to find out more about what's available in your area, I think the best starting point is Local Harvest. I found farms in my area that I didn't know about, and I'm pretty well-informed after the last couple years of frantic summer canning and preserving.

Here's what I think the best thing about locavorism is: the food is tastier and healthier. Today I saw with my own eyes a nine-month-old baby chomp her way through about twenty inches of asparagus. And possibly even more miraculous--her older sister wasn't far behind. Miracles do happen!

Your thoughts?

daddy-daughter time

How to know your husband sneaked in a few good baby snuggles and kisses before he took off for work:

A: when your baby's head smells like aftershave.

It's weird, but kind of cute.

pieces of my life

When Abigail was first born, I was petrified of going somewhere alone with her. The first time I went to the grocery store alone with her (i.e., without Neil) was a big enough accomplishment that I glowed about it the rest of the week.

Which is why our Mondays are interesting days. You see, that's the day that Neil doesn't get home until 8 pm (putting in a 12-hour day at the lab rather than the normal 9-hour day). We decided to run his schedule this way so that we could see a little more of him on the other days of the week (so we can all eat together as a family, since Juliet absolutely goes insane with rage if she eats dinner any later than 5). When he first started staying late last semester for his TA position, I hated it. The day seemed so long and awful and the kids always seemed so much more challenging.

But now, I confess, Mondays are (usually) one of my favorite days of the week. You see, I'm not looking forward all day to when my husband will come home and take some of the kid-chasing-pressure off, and in a weird way, it makes the day a little easier, because I know it's just me all day without a "relief shift." Knowing I have to push through makes it more doable, if that makes sense. And then I don't bother to make a real dinner, so I have more time to just play with my kiddos.

So on Mondays, you will find us happily making enormous messes, eating whatever we want for dinner (yesterday I chose omelettes, while Abigail picked cornbread and chocolate pudding with sprinkles, so that's what we had for dinner, except everyone had to eat their omelettes first)...

...and taking innumerable walks (yesterday we took 3, including one to the woods to pick some more of our favorite wildflowers).

Although, of course, we always prefer Daddy days. :-)

Mother's Day

Dearest little people,

Thank you for making me a mommy. I love watching you learn and grow so much. My days are often long, but there are shining moments that make them all worthwhile--like today, when I watched all the Primary children go up to sing to their mothers, and thought about how neat it will be next year to watch Abigail go up too...and then they began to sing "Love is Spoken Here," and you turned to me, Abigail, and said excitedly, "Mommy, it's your song!" because every night you ask for a song about Mommy and every night Daddy sings that song to you, and then you sang the whole song sitting on my lap along with the older children. That made me cry into your fluffy little blonde head, and when you sat on my lap for the whole song and didn't wiggle off until you were done singing, that made me cry more.

And then I cried some more when you said the blessing on dinner and specifically said, "thank you for Mommy being a mother and it is Mother's Day" (and by the way, you got really upset every time I cried, because you thought you'd done something to upset me, at which point Daddy explained, "Mommies cry when they are happy. That's the difference between mommies and daddies.") In any case, you've told me "Happy Mother's Day!" about every five minutes today.

I sure love you two and your daddy.

food for thought

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the spiritual nurturing of our children, especially after Conference. While I feel like we do pretty well on having family scriptures/prayer and individual prayers with both children, I'm curious as to what you/your parents do/did to really teach your children about the gospel. What do you feel is most effective? What is hardest for you to implement? Where do you feel like you're really making a difference? Please comment, because I'd love to know what's working for you.

One of our goals is to be more regular with Family Home Evenings. Our evenings are generally really busy, and for the last semester Neil's had to work late on Monday evenings anyway, so sad to say, the formal FHE hasn't been happening as regularly as we'd like it to. So we're stepping up to the plate this summer. We've also found it most effective to have family scriptures at 7 am together before Neil leaves for work (last semester we did it in the evenings since I left so early and it was much harder to be regular).

One area where I feel we're really doing well is in talking to our children about what/why we're doing church-related things and including them as much as possible as we fulfill our responsibilities. For instance, I always take the children with me when I go visiting teaching, and Neil often will take them home teaching as well. When I heard Abigail explaining to Juliet that we were going to be leaving in a few moments to "go take my friend's mommy a dinner, 'cause she is sick and that is a nice thing to do to help her out," I really felt like I'd accomplished something that day in teaching my children about compassion and service.

On a semi-related note (related to me because it was a rough morning that required a lot of patience!), here's one of my new favorite quotes (from Elder Russell M. Nelson) on child-rearing with the Spirit: "Do not try to control your children. Instead, listen to them, help them to learn the gospel, inspire them, and lead them toward eternal life. You are God's agents in the care of children He has entrusted to you. Let His divine influence remain in your hearts as you teach and persuade."

And on a completely unrelated note, last night the wind really hit our crabapple tree. While I'm sad to see the blossoms go, I fell in love with the aftermath--doesn't it look like a (pink) fairy garden? Beautiful!

my funny pie

Today we went shoe-shopping to replace the sandals I killed a few weeks ago (no, I didn't buy the pictured shoe, Abigail just thought it was cute when we looked for pictures of shoes).

Anyway, when we were walking down the aisles, Abigail looked at all the single shoes on display and gasped in horror. Her little eyes grew wide, and with a tragic tone to her voice she gasped out, "Mommy! Mommy!"

Concerned, I asked, "Honey, what is it?" and she replied, "Oh Mommy...look at all these shoes! All the girls lost their shoes and they will be so so sad because they forgot where their shoes are and left them all here! Oh Mommy, I am so sad for all the girls!"

I thought that was just about the cutest thing ever (a close second to her impassioned pleading a few minutes later that we "just gotta stop at the grocery store on the way home, 'cause we are all outta strawberries and ba-nilla yogurt and bunches of oats. And we just gotta get some more!")

And now you'll have to excuse me, because a swimming-suited little banshee just ran past the computer, and I think we're about to have some small people dancin' in the puddles outside if they're not caught soon! (although now that I think about it, that would be pretty fun).

Last night I went for my first outside run in months. I was overwhelmed with gratitude while I was running--for a healthy body, for springtime, for antibiotics (while I only felt up to running 2 miles, that was so infinitely better than how I felt just a few short days ago). The world is a beautiful place. And I am so grateful to be able to run outside again!



Oh, and this morning I'm grateful that I was able to vote. Hurrah for democracies!

happy birthday!

Today/tomorrow (May 6) is my Grandma Colleen's birthday. I am so excited to be able to write about some of my favorite things about her (and I need to write a half-birthday post in a couple of months for my grandpa, since I was away from my computer at his birthday right before Christmas).

I've written before on my blog about how a lot of the motivation for my blogging is due to my grandma, who is the queen of memoir writing. She actually teaches a memoir class--how cool is that?! Anyway, one of the things that impresses me most about my grandma is how diligent she is about recording things. This is probably due in large part to her career--she wrote for The Deseret News, The Salt Lake Tribune, and the Church News, which means we got to hear lots of really cool stories when we were little kids about all the things she reported on and the people she met.

In any case, one of the things I really treasure is a box full of letters from my grandma when I was a little kid. The letters are full of little stories about what she was doing that week (accompanied by drawings done by my grandpa) and every so often I get them out and read through them all to Abigail. What's even more impressive to me is that she's never stopped writing me--I can always count on an email every week and a "snail mail" letter every month or so. I always feel like I'm up-to-date on her life (and I aspire to be as regular a correspondent--I'm working on it!), but more importantly, I feel so loved because she takes the time to write to me so regularly.

On that note, another thing that I really appreciate about my grandma are the "good manners" things that she's instilled in me. She is incredibly diligent about writing thank-you notes, which means that I've become that way too (especially since my mom always encouraged us to be prompt with our thank-you notes to my grandma, since my mom knew that was something that was important to my grandma). For years, my grandma has given me boxes of the most delightful stationary so I always have something fun and cute to write my little notes on. It makes it so much more fun. :-)

One of my favorite things about visiting my grandma's home is looking around at all the things she's collected over the years. This isn't a "favorite thing" just because it's fun to look at all the interesting pieces; it's one of my favorite things because everything has a story attached to it and when I look around I remember that she took the time to explain to a very curious child why each thing was special to her. Whenever I visited my grandparents, I always looked forward to the stories they would tell me. My grandma's stories were always fascinating because they were about my mother as a little girl, or a particularly interesting experience my grandmother had, or a story from my grandma's childhood. My grandpa's stories were fascinating because I always had to figure out what was true about them (it was years before I realized my grandpa couldn't really take his head off and roll it down the stairs), but that's another story.

With all of these fascinating things to look at and learn about, my grandma's home could be like a hands-off museum--but it's not. We loved going there as kids because she had special dressups for us, special dishes for us to play house with (which I loved so much that I've tried to find the same for my own home now), and we could always play with her enormous collection of teddy bears, which Abigail also loves whole-heartedly.

Another thing that I love about my grandma is how stylish she is. She always has her toenails flawlessly painted (a lot of the time that I'm sitting next to her I look down and realize that I need to repaint mine! I don't know why, but I'm always so impressed by this. Maybe because it's something I always forget to do), she has the most gorgeous white hair (my mom and I had a lively discussion recently about how we're really hoping our hair achieves the same glowing white shade as we get older), and she's always beautifully accessorized, often with a piece of jewelry that one of her granddaughters gave her (and she always remembers who gave it to her, even if it was ten years earlier and says something like, "Do you remember when you gave me these earrings? I love them! Thank you again!").

The last thing that I want to write about is how thoughtful my grandma is in her gift-giving. She seems to have a feel for just when I need a little pick-me-up, and I'll go out to the mailbox to find a card with some money for Neil and I to go out to dinner, or I'll have a really dismal gloomy day and get a box from my grandparents containing a set of colorful funky placemats and some of my favorite magazines (oh, and it's entirely due to my grandma that I get my favorite Martha Stewart Living every month!). The very first Christmas that Neil and I were married, we were in Utah, I remember crying myself to sleep on Christmas Eve because I missed my family and our "traditions" so much. On Christmas morning, I opened a present from my grandparents that contained placemats and napkins that were the exact pattern (right down to the gold threads) of the tablecloth that my mom always uses for Christmas dinner. I can't even tell you how much that meant to me to be able to set our teeny tiny little table with those happy red-and-green squares! Another gift that meant the world to me (and Abigail!) is when my grandma bought Abigail some storybooks for Christmas and then made an audio tape of herself reading the stories so that Abigail could listen to her great-grandma reading to her while she looked at the pictures. Abigail loves that tape (it's our regular lunchtime request!) In short, my grandparents are always thinking about other people, and it's something that I really admire about both of them.

So happy birthday, Grandma! I am SO EXCITED to see both of you in a couple of weeks!!!!!! And yes, that is another amazing thing about my grandparents--they come to visit me!! (They even took the Amtrak train out to Utah to visit us when we lived there! Isn't that awesome?! It means a lot to me to have them come visit, even though they know I can come visit them, it's so exciting to be able to show them around my life and my little places and home and things like that.)

I love you so much--happy birthday!

the considerate child

Noticing her mother's longing for antique (and unaffordable) furniture, Juliet the problem-solver steps up to the plate.

"See, Mommy? Lookin' vintage already!"

oh...got the munchies for some homemade (no trans fat!) oven fries? Hunger no more!

a letter to my garden

Dear garden (especially the crabapple),

I love you.

This delayed our departure to church this morning because I saw this and it was so beautiful it hurt and I had to take a picture right that second.

Oh, I love spring. Even with strep throat and an aching head and sick little kiddies, how I love spring.

meaningful prayers

update on sickness: we're doing better (we being me and also juliet, whose ear infection was so bad that the doctor described it as "blisters." note also that we were at the doctor last week because I was worried that her cold was turning into an ear infection...but there were no signs of any infection. sigh. i think this child may be headed for ear tubes. anyone have experience with that?)

Today being Saturday, we headed outdoors to brave the wind and dig up our lawn some more and plant things all over it. During the course of the morning, Abigail was finally ousted from Juliet's baby swing so that Juliet could have a chance to swing too. Abigail's grievance over this became only too clear today at lunch while she was saying the blessing on the food:

"Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. And thank you for the blue swing that Mommy would not let me ride in and I was very sad because Mommy was mean and said my turn was over and thank you that I had to ride in the yellow swing that was slow because Mommy didn't push it high enough and thank you that Juliet sat in the blue swing and that made me very sad. And thank you for the food..."

I'll spare you the rest (it was reeeeeaaallly long)...I got reprimanded in a prayer by a three-year-old! I guess those "prayers are when we talk to Heavenly Father and tell him our feelings" discussions are sinking in a little too well.

hiatus in recipes due to tonsillitis/strep throat (although the doctor noted brightly that it might also be mono--we'll just have to see. where would i get mono?).

back soon. hopefully. i never knew my throat (or the rest of me, for that matter) could hurt this amazingly horrifically bad(ly?).

but i am very much enjoying reading everyone else's descriptions of their fun eats! keep 'em coming!