The Sunday Evening Post, issue 21

Or, a quick run down...

Isaac is in the stage of ruckus maker.
Isaac: It's getting a little quite around here...
(Makes eye contact with me, Whack)
Natalie: "Mooooommm!!!! Isaac hit."


But he's so gosh darn cute and happy ALL the time. He even walks around the house in a sing-song voice, "happy, happy, haaappeeee" and when sent to time out (this really did happen) all the while singing "happy, happy, haaaapeeee" sitting up against the wall. Sigh. I love this boy.

He and I have been falling asleep to the Olympics the past few weeks. He makes a good companion. He also know he has to be or he'll be sent to bed. But the kids watched the diving events and now dive off our couches. Do you have little divers at your house, too?


We got Natalie's school supply list for school. I'm trying not to hyperventilate.

Jared's MIA. Poor guy. He recored himself telling stories to the kids and they listen to that at night. We went out on Friday night for the first time in months. We went to a little Italian place for Spumoni (a first for us both) and then ran next door to a sushi place. Jared humored me while I tried it for the first time.
Let's just say my reaction was not licking the plate clean.

I just feel so happy for this life I have to live. It's amazing how rough spots smooth out and I just can't wait for what tomorrow has in store.

The Sunday Evening Post, Issue 20

Or, Can I do this for the rest of my life?

Ice Cream consumed: 1/2 gallon (whoooaaaa)
Ice cream sandwiches downed: 3 bars
Bags of M&M's inhaled: 1
Cookies munched: unknown
Laps swam/swum: 0
Miles walked: 0
Weight lost: 5 lbs.
Breastfeeding: Priceless


Ethan's been relegated to the basement so I can get some sleep. I can hear him wailing, but just not every fuss and whimper. Some distance has become a necessity. There have been too many nights waking up to find myself with him on my lap and not even realized I fed him. Or looking at the clock and rationalizing that even though it's been only and hour and a half since the last feeding he must really, really be hungry. What a wimp am I! Resisting chocolate was nothin'! And, relatedly, too many days of muddled life from such outlandish wimpery seriously needs to go.

I feel like there is more I would like to say, but am afraid of glorifying the mediocre (Eric Shumway) and until I can organize my thoughts and shake them out into words I'll call it night.

Have a great week everyone!

p.s. Thanks for all your service ideas. We're just in the brainstorming phase and will keep you posted. Ha ha ha...get it. Posted. Lame, lame, lame...

p.p.s. Amy, I can't get a hold of you via email. So here's what I would do about your squash. Call your county extension office. They can help you figure out what is eating your veggies and what to do about it. Google their phone number. You'll want to talk to the agriculture agent. I really want you to win the contest! And it's such a lovely garden.

p.p.p.s. Rachel, Go read a book. You too, Laura. Shocking, simply shocking! Here's a good one: Montmorency by Elanor Updale. Don't worry, it's Young Adult fiction so noncommittal time-wise and it's all about thieving and redemption. Finished it last night locked in the bathroom pretending to be busy. Quality literature.

The Sunday Evening Post, 19

Or, it's a whirl.

Do you ever wonder what your memories would be if it weren't for photographs to give place to them? I think my kids will be able to remember things much younger because we have pictures to remind them. I also frequently think about my ancestors and what they recall of their children's faces. It's easy for me to think of Isaac as a baby because I can see a certain photograph in my mind. Anyway, our little sweet something is two. Make that, our little something is two.

The only time I hope to ever see smoke effects coming out of his nose. "Again!" is a well used word in our house. Those were hard working candles.

Each present was like a pot of gold. I think we spent $7 total on his gifts. A pack of gum (GUM!!! MINE!!!), a Thomas the Train book from Goodwill (Tchoo Tchoo!!!!! ME!), a lock puzzle board thing (Whoa. ME!), a pack of pencils with balls on the me (BALLS! WHOA! ME!!!!), a Thomas the Train movie (the biggest "TCHOO TCHOO" ME!!!!!!!).
It's worth noting the pack of gum was gone by 7 am this morning. I can see exploding seagulls in my head...

Whenever my kids have a birthday I can't help but think of all the other kids who were born about the same time as them, and equally about the women I pregnant with. Happy birthday in the next little bit to Alyssa, Dylan, and Armour---and here' to you Meg, Melissa, and Beckee!

Natalie has been cursed with my soft voice and being four and a chatterbox about everything in the world and then some. Poor thing. It's a whole lot of talking that I can't catch. I'm trying to perfect the fine art of "Uh hun" and filter out what I can. Any conversation in the car goes out the window with her. Not so unlike the scene from Little Mermaid every day over and over:
Flounder (Natalie): "And whoa and arg, and the shark and ..................."
Ariel and King Triton (me):
Flounder (Natalie): "And then the seagull came and it was this is this and that is that..."
King Triton: "Seagull...seagull?"
All it takes is one word.
This is her first ponytail. She's being waiting for the official day of having long enough hair for one. A sure sign of growing up.

This is his I'm-so-happy-to-be-in-a-tree-with-my-mom-she-has-a-death-grip-on-my-legs look. Really, so happy.

Spiiiike. Way into his fingers and everything a normal baby does like cooing and being just gloriously adorable. Love babies.

A few other things.

I almost burned my kitchen up by leaving something on the stove. On high. I think I will be scrubbing my kitchen ceiling and cupboards and walls for a few more days. You know that pink stuff you chew that shows where you didn't brush well enough? Smoke is like that. It's caught into all the smudges, cobwebs, and grease tops of my cupboards (it is a kitchen folks). It's just everywhere and I'm seeing how clean my kitchen wasn't. Just grateful for two things:
A) Natalie was just standing there in shock next to the stove when I came in the kitchen and didn't try to do anything herself to fix it, and
B) I got there when I did. I was outside and could smell something burning and thought the neighbors must be cooking. Ironic. The Spirit pretty much shoved me and I went back inside the house.
A few more moments and something big, like a wall, would have caught. Maybe that's dramatic, but I kinda don't think so.


Breaking Dawn comes out this week. Don't pretend it's not on your calendar secretly marked as "Go shopping for butter." At midnight. When I was in high school every February the entire school filled out a questionnaire, then your answers were scored or something with everyone else's in the school and then on Valentines Day you could buy a little card that told you who your best match was. Did you ever do that? It was the most fun $2 you could spend in high school on valentines. Personally, I think Bella, Edward and Jacob should just do that. Solve all their problems. No really though, (don't finish this if you want want to read my prediction and I should also say I haven't read anything else about it so if you also have the same prediction or heard otherwise, okay, well, this is just from my brain) all signs point to Edward becoming human again. At a cost. I'm really curious how she's going to resolve the whole SOUL thing. Next subject.


I read the Book Thief by Markus Zusak this week. The Holocaust has been pretty highly documented, don't you think? So when a good friend gave me this book to read my initial thought was, "another Holocaust book" and don't get me wrong, I find the subject endless fascinating, I just wasn't prepared for this take and I complicatedly loved it. I had to re-read the first chapter twice to make sense of the narrator. I've never felt such a loss over a fictional character before. My heart just aches, still, for Rudy. I really enjoyed the author's writing. It is quite visual both graphically and literarily (is that a word? spell check says it's not).


Also read the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Not as good as Woman in White also by Collins. Nothing quite will be as far as suspense goes. It was a great read though. This book is the original detective book. Supposedly all others, including Sherlock Holmes, is patterned somewhat from it.

Whew. I should head to bed. I so love sleep.

Anyone? Anyone?

I need some ideas for fun service projects for Relief Society. (If you are unfamiliar with Relief Society, it is an organization for women in my church. Each ward, or congregation, has one and all women 18 and older are members so it's a diverse group. We focus on service, education, and womanhood. It also happens to be the largest and oldest organization for women in the world!)

What have you done that was memorable, unique, inspiring, enriching, life changing? Or just have a good idea? Remember to click on the title of the post (Anyone? Anyone? in this case) to comment. Or email. Or call. Thanks!

The Sunday Evening Post, Issue 17

Or, Mmmm...

I'm so glad you want these recipes, Sara. Just remember to call them "Jessica's muffins" and "Jessica's Pie Crust"and it's okay with me to add "amazing" in the somewhere. Preferably just before "Jessica"...just kidding...how obnoxious...put it after.

Cookie-like Pie Crust


1 1/4 c. flour
2 T. sugar
1/4 t. salt
8 T margarine, room-temp soft
1 ounce cream cheese
1 1/2 T. oil

Grease a 9 inch pie plate. I use oil. Whisk dry ingredients and set aside. At med-high speed on a mixer (or like a crazy person if you are doing it by hand), cream margarine and cream cheese until smooth, about 2 min. Add dry ingredients while mixer going at med-low speed until like cornmeal and scrape down. Turn up the speed and mix until large clumps. Drizzle the 1 1/2 T oil in as mixing until dough texture forms. (You may need to add a bit more oil if it still is dry or crumbly.) Press into pie pan evenly (bonus, no rolling!). No pretty crust edge, just press it in.

Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack.



Jumbo Blueberry Muffins

Struesel Topping
1/2 c. flour
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. butter

Muffins
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. brown sugar
4 T. butter, melted and cooled
3/4 c. butter milk (or 3/4 c. milk with a splash of lemon juice; let stand 5 min until curdled)
1 t. vanilla
1 cup frozen blueberries

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a jumbo muffin pan.
Whisk dry ingredients.
Whisk eggs and brown sugar until well blended. Gradually add melted butter, buttermilk, vanilla.
Stir in dry ingredients using no more than 26 good strokes. Gentle strokes. There should be a few clumps of flour.
Remove blueberries from freezer. It's very important to leave them in until the last moment possible or they will start to defrost and get soggy. Toss with 1 T. flour and carefully fold in the blueberries.
Fill jumbo 5-6 of the jumbo cups. Filling 5 makes for over the top large muffins. Filling all six of the cups make for more modest jumbo muffins.

Sprinkle ALL of the struessel topping over the muffins. It will look like a tremendous amount but as the bake and puff up, the topping will cover nicely. Trust me and don't skimp.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

*Thanks to Cooks Country magazine for a good portion of this recipe!

The Sunday Evening Post, issue 17

Or, a little ketchup.

I'm not sure how to respond to comments. So I'm going to "catch-up" a bit. Remember the $250 spring cleaning dollars? It's finally all spent...doing pretty much everything you all recommended minus the free brownie give away, which, Amy, happened to be my most favorite suggestion of all. It still makes me smile. Most of it went to a few free things we acquired and have fixed them up using the extra cash. This piano.

Jared's mom did a majority of the refinishing while she was here helping out after Ethan was born.

Here it in on it's back when we had to put some "stuff" into the pins before it could be properly tuned.



NJP, it is a nice sink. It was there when we moved in. It makes me smile when I clean it because it's pretty. The world needs more pretty sinks, yes?


Garage saling has very effectively whittled away a bit here and a bit there although I assure you it was all QUALITY stuff. My sister-in law Melissa was here this past week (along with Brad and Linnea which was the second time in two weeks---eat your heart out everyone) and she came with me to a couple around the block. She got to witness my infamous hemming and hawing along with talked me into a couple of deals. Thanks. I went back and got those two toy trucks. Isaac's birthday is around the corner and I'm so classy I picked up his gifts right there.

I've been cooking some.

Jared's bday cake. A pound cake and a pound of whipped cream.


Lemon Mereingue pie...this is the best pie crust ever. As a rule I use butter in baking and never buy margarine for anything but for some reason we had no butter and a cube of margarine in the fridge so there you go. I adjusted a few other things like from not having all the ingredients and a great cookie-like crust emerged.


We had some to-die-for blueberry muffins at a friends house. When pressed for the recipe he said he just combined a bunch of recipes he found off the internet. I hate that. So I did my own little search and combine and got these. YUM!


Natalie thought so too.

In case you didn't know, I make some sure good hamburgers. Jared can't always attest to this because he loads up with crazy toppings. This is a hamburgercheetoacononi not to be confused with his regular hamburgerfritoritoringaroundtheroni.




Here I am enjoying Chocolate Chip Cookies for the first time. Did this photo capture my "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm" well enough?

I didn't think so.


I must say though, it wasn't what I imagined tasting chocolate again I expected a little more died-and-gone-to-heaven reaction. But, it was instead a little more like, "hun...okay...pretty good." I meant to photograph everything I ate that day but got as far as breakfast. You probably don't need photos to know what it consisted of.


This jar of Nutella has been in my fridge for six months. Unbelievable. And no, I didn't eat the whole jar!


Jared through me a surprise death by chocolate party that night. I think I was a little dead in the morning. Everyone brought something chocolate. We had:
chocolate chip cookies (more) (and more)
french silk pie
rolos
m&m's
chocolate milk
(are you sick yet?)
chocolate dipped strawberries...minus the chocolate (?)
rocky road ice cream
brownie chunk ice cream
grasshopper cookies
peanutbutter filled chocolate cookies
(go throw up now)

Yes, Denise, it's that need for chocolate is kinda gone in me. It's no longer self-medicating. This new found self-control has spilled over into a few other areas of my life and for that I'm grateful.
So, one of my friends there cornered me later on in the week and asked if I wanted to go sugarless for two weeks with her. I (gulp) said, "Yeah, that sounds like fun!" What do I get myself into?!?! Completely sugarless, folks. Honey is okay and obviously natural sugars in fruit, etc OKAY.
I didn't realize how much sugar I was eating mindlessly. Yikes. Melissa, it is hard. How did you do it for a month? I think my cousin Dawn did it for a year as a teenager. Whoa.


Other events since turning the big @&. :)

I let my drivers license expire. Whoops. So Saturday found me practicing parallel parking over and over and over and...on the curb in front of our house. This is just one of my free comic relief shows I've put on for our neighbors since living here. I did pass. And I will tell you my judge guy (what are they called? the people who have to drive around with you and pass you or not) almost fell asleep TWICE! I wish I would have driven an automatic for the test. I so would have used arm signals instead of a blinker but trying to shift and stick one arm out the window? I'm pretty sure steering with my knees would have lost me a few points.




The kids are fine and happy. Somehow Natalie is fixated on campers and wants to know what our dream campers would be like. Yes. Campers. Here she is pretending to be a strawberry. ??? She gets that from Jared. Although my mom would probably counter by reminding me when I was a piece of toast during a game of charades. Oh, and a pile of laundry folding itself.

She brought me a bouquet from outside. Nice change from the usual dandelion bunch.


I found these sticky-note people all over the desk one day. The black ones have a circle with a dash through it to signify No Frowny Faces allowed and the green ones have no "NO" signage and just mean Happy Faces allowed. I posted them on the fridge to remind me. She also drew a crazy looking face with a "No" sign around it on my June's budget sheet. She said it meant "No Nervous faces." ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! That speaks volumes.
Isaac is almost 2. That's all. Isaac is almost 2.

You can guess what he was doing while Natalie was being a strawberry.


Ethan. What a fun, fun baby. He's topping the growth charts in the 95th percentiles. He does everything normal like get all wiggly and cute when someone talks to him and his hands are endlessly fascinating. Very darling all around.

boys will be boys

Babies. Babies in the bath. Hardly a better photo opt. Really, we are the only ones who care to see 30 pictures of him in the sink. Perhaps there will be an opportune time to harass him in his teens with these, but mostly it is nice to know we will be WELL stocked with pictures of our kids to delight us to no end well through our golden and silver years.

So during our little shoot getting cute picts like Exhibit A...


We also caught Exhibit B...

The Sunday Evening Post, Issue 16

Or, Self Discipline what?



Tomorrow's a big day. Around the first of the year the thought came to me, "How long could I go without chocolate?" Oh, a year? No. Way too long. Six months? Yeah, six months. And then it was sort of a challenge to myself that I couldn't back away from. So, tomorrow's a big day.

Sunday Evening Post, issue 15

Or, no news is good news.

Don't you hate that saying? Great nothing is bad is happening, but still keep me updated, right? I'm falling back on it now to somehow excuse my ______. (Fill in the blank.) But really, all is well. Little Ethan is two months and although it's a rough work in progress, we've created a new normal. I made a rule for myself I would not get on the computer while my kids are awake because it was sucks too much of myself from them. The only problem is by they time they are all asleep I am too tired myself or gee, I don't know maybe I want to actually talk with Jared or something. That's the real reason. I'm trying to maintain some sort of balance and ya'll are more graceful than I. But I have to hurry and finish this post so I can go blog surfing to catch up on everyone. I'm dying to know all the going-ons I've been missing.

Three deep thoughts about having baby #3:

1. Until all my kids are 5 years old, in school, and can pretty much fend for themselves, I just need to accept that life can best be described as digging a hole. You are in a this hole, not a dark and deep place, a happy place, but a hole and constantly (even franticly) digging yourself out. You shovel as fast as you can to keep the walls from caving in and removing new dirt tossed in by outside sources. The thing is, you asked to be put in this hole and it's exactly what you want to be doing with your life and you find yourself deeply fulfilled by your task. Nevertheless, you are still digging. And digging.

Soooo deep. I know, I know. Okay, I promised three thoughts so here they are...

2. Mantra number one: "Manage Your Expectations." That's from my friend Susanna and I must say it's been wise, wise advice that has served me well not just with kids by pretty much everything. Not lower, just manage. For example: "Today we will eat." It might be cold cereal for every meal, but we will eat. Or, "Expect the remainder of this post to be a disconnected series of thoughts and reporting of events." Words, real or otherwise, will continue to appear on your screen. Yes, even pictures. End all expectations there. See? Brilliant, hun? Now all pressure to write clearly and properly have been neatly avoided and I can just write. Just clear out my brain of the overload of thoughts from the past few months and do what blogging is all about: connecting with you and sharing myself.

3. I forgot. Really. Sleep deprivation has awkwardly ended a good many conversations because I've simply forgotten what I was talking about.



I arrived home from church today about 15 minutes after Jared did. Natalie was with me and he had the two boys. I walked through the door and could hear crying as I made my way through the house to the kids room. The scene stopped me at the door. There was Jared looking more manly then any photograph in GQ. He had his white shirt sleeves rolled up (am I the only one who thinks that's so hot?) sitting on the floor cradling a crying child in each arm. He didn't look upset or harried. It was just, well, fatherhood. That's all I can think to describe the sweet scene that I wanted so badly to go scoop up. Isaac had gone too long without a nap. Sundays are rough. And poor Ethan sure couldn't get what he wanted from dad.


About Ethan:
He has curly hair. After a wash, tight tight curls everywhere. By mid day, a pile of fluff. And before bed, the curls are gone because we've rubbed his head or played with is hair all day and it just had great volume. Like a perm.
He's not big or small. Just right. I love how babies feel when they weight between 10 and 12 lbs. It's a good size. He is a happy baby and he looks like me when I was a baby. He's very cute. :)

Isaac. What a nut. I LOVE this kid. His oral vocabulary has decided to take the stage this week.
Come
God
Yummy
Clean
Smash
Jump
Bum
P-U or P-eeewww
Play
Heavy
Read
Book

His life still is all about tchoo-tchoo's. A few months ago Natalie put her hands on her hips and told Isaac, "It's not all about trains, Isaac." Well, yes, it is.

He is a chronically happy kid here at home and all the day long I hear peals of laughter and feet just running. There's plenty of crying and fighting over this or that, but for the most part he just acts so happy to be alive. Jumping and doing and being a boy.


Natalie is blossoming as a little girl. She's practically moving out of the house and off to college compared to Ethan. She is also so happy to be alive. Full of excitement and qwerky bits. Her little world has widened exponentially in the past few weeks as she's entered the world of words. She had finished reading Green Eggs and Ham by the time we were home from the library. Later that week while at the doctor's office she was standing next to me at the counter. She read while pointing at a basket with pamphlets in it "Take One" So she did. I half fell out of my chair when she was sitting at the table staring at my water bottle and asked, "Mom, what's a calorie?"


For the official record: We've had some rough spots. Natalie still talks about The Bad,
Bad Day. Ethan was about two weeks old. I think it was day three I had been completely on my own with the kids. Jared was working in the ICU (define ICU as 6-7 day work weeks, 12-16 hours a day and work defined as pulling the plug on patients). Aaaaand, as if my emotions weren't on the edge and tipping my entire Enrichment committee, leader and all were released or being released. And then while on the phone with my mom who was telling me my grandma has stage 4 breast cancer (read terminal) I look out the window and what do I see? Certainly not popcorn. Oh no no no. SNOW. Make that S. N. O. W. in May. It was a bad, bad day.

But all in all. This is exactly what I want from life. And I can't get over feeling so deeply grateful, shocked, and satisfied with the happiness that is mine.


Okay. For the photos. Couldn't sign off without them. I must say it feels good to blog. Don't think I actually wrote anything I set off to write about, but there's always next week. Or tomorrow! Whoa...whoa. Expectations...remember the expectations...

Big yawn.

Little old feet.

Thinking hard 'bout that sleep?

First jump off the diving board.

How are we really doing? A picture says it all and I can't believe I took a photo of this. She is wearing two shirts here, folks. See the strange saggy bottom? See the weird gold rope wrapped around her waist for a belt. Yup. We're raising ragamuffins. In fact we must have people worried because no joke we've probably had 10 boxes worth of clothes given to us in the past couple of months. Even a neighbor we've never met came over and asked if we wanted like hand me downs...they have one child. He's eleven. If you see Isaac this summer, you'll be swept away to 1996. These are my favorite of his new duds. He's pretty stoaked too. Train shirt. Train shorts. Train jammies.

Take two and call me in the morning.

Ethan

He's here. Happiness is oozing out everywhere and if you came for a visit it would probably be difficult to open the door. He's here!!!

A few Awards for the past week...

Best Quiet Moment (tie) :

Best Shape:

Best Reaction goes to:

The Sunday Evening Post, issue 14

Or, missionaries can do lots of things, but they can't...

A good part of Friday was spent at our church building pulling together all the details for a funeral. The kids were so great thanks to the nursery closet of toys, plates and plates of cookies, and two missionaries who would come graze in the kitchen when they weren't involved in the funeral. It's a toss up who did the entertaining.

Around dinnertime I made up a little plate of food for the kids and told Natalie she had to eat in the kitchen and not wander around while eating. She grouchily hunkered down at a chair in the corner. When the missionaries came in yet again, she called them over and whispered something to them. One of them replied, "Oh, I don't think your mom would like that very much." I asked, "What's this?" Natalie looked at me kinda sheepish and he laughed and said, "She just asked, 'Can you guys sneak me out of here?'" I've never heard such gut busting laughter from a group of Relief Society ladies before.

Even though putting together a large meal and luncheon was a huge process, it was really nice to hang out with women that I normally just see in passing or church meetings. We laughed and told stories and tried not to get on each other's nerves because we all have different ideas on how to cut up the cakes. Good day.

Changing pace a bit...
Let's say you come across $250 dollars unexpectedly as you are spring cleaning. Surprise, surprise! Unaccountable money---free money! What would you do with it?

The Sunday Evening Post, 13

Or, deep questions that sparked great conversation this week.

"Mom, do mermaids have lungs or gills?"

"Are these trash or treasure?"

Jared's parents pretty much cleaned out their garage by giving Jared all his stored boxes of stuff from growing up. I'm so happy for them. 10, 15, 20 years worth. Natalie has been his little side kick going through the "treasure boxes" and they play Trash or Treasure to determine if something is to be kept or not. As a last resort, my role as consultant is sought. Last resort because t'was I who gently, oh so gently, mandated, ahem, requested a reduction of sorts in the first place and I'll admit my totally and completely objective point of view could be softened just a bit. When he brought these "treasures" in and asked me "Trash or Treasure" I could NOT not take a photo. You have to ask? A bucked tooth sock puppet horse wearing sunglasses and rider? Treasure, honey, those are treasure.

"Why are you laughing?"

My response to Jared's when he saw my silent tears as I stared out the window at this one morning earlier in the week:

The Sunday Evening Post, issue 12

Or, Ladies and Gentlemen: the Easter Bunny has left the building.

What's wrong with this picture?

We celebrated Easter, St. Paddy's Day, and Halloween this week! Not really, but we still have an uncarved pumpkin hanging about around our house. This kids love to roll it about and sit on it. It's a nice bit of whimsy I'm not too eager to release. Any day it's sure to bust open spilling rotten guts (and then we can cry out "I hate your rotten guts!" and mean it.) We still have our Christmas tree in the backyard, too. (It's finally made an appearance after the snow melted.) We should have brought it in and ate turkey under it.

The Isaac egg.

The "me" egg.

The after math of breakfast.

He woke up around 6:30, and after such a healthy breakfast was back in bed fast asleep by 8am. We may be implimenting a "peep in the morning, peep at night" routine at our house.

Happy SPRING this week!



He's suffering from Pica. Outdoor, fresh air, sunshine pica. Alright, alright. Let's go outside already.

The kids have been spending hours a day outside. One of their favorite things to do is make stew in the empty sandbox. They collect mud, snow, rocks, balls, who knows what and stir it up into soooome treat.

A leprechaun visited our house and played all sorts of mischief. We didn't catch him, but he left us some green goodies. He also played some tricks around our house. Natalie loved that our little leprechaun liked her boots so much he wore them around while playing and got them stuck on the light. Isaac was seriously distraught to see his boots on the door hinges. Isaac was also pretty concerned about the turned over chairs and couch. He walked around the house saying, "Uh Oh!" Natalie on the other hand said maybe next year we should play a trick on him and already mess up our house. Then maybe he would clean it up instead.

Tried grilling lettuce. Looked nice, tasted awful.

Natalie picked out an artichoke at the market this week. I've never cooked artichokes before and only eaten them in dips or sauces. Now I know why I've only had them smothered in cheese and butter.

Jared was home on Friday. When we picked him up from the hospital, Natalie repeatedly asked, "Are your really coming home? Are you going to stay all night?" He built some bear dens in the basement and he and the kids had a sleepover.

_______________________________________________


Last but certainly not least... Congrats to everyone who celebrated and to everyone who cried on Match Day this past week. You'll end up doing enough of both over the next few years you can't worry too much if you matched right. First choices become last choices and last choices turn into firsts. Try to keep your chin and make the best of it. Oh, and cushy seats will always make things better.