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Showing posts from April, 2011
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{this moment} {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Yogurt Snob

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Without meaning to, I've become a yogurt snob.  It all started with Yo Baby.   A bite for Holland, a bite for me, a bite for Holland, a bite fore me... and so forth and so on...  Soon I was spoiled for the cheap, fat-free stuff that I usually fed myself.  Next I tried Chobani Greek Yogurt.  It was on sale for $1.25/ 6oz container.  YUM.  It was SO good- but SO expensive.  Pineapple and Mango are my favorties.  My budget won't allow me to buy it often, but I just found out today that Sam's Club sells it by the case- and that's all I needed to know to decide to get a membership! Because Chobani was too expensive for my weekly budget, I decided there must be a way that I could still get delicious organic yogurt without paying way too much.  So I 've been buying Horizen Plain Cream on Top yogurt by the quart.  It is suprisingly delicious as-is, but I also like to add a little sugar or honey and vanilla to it, or top it with fruit.  However, I'm not the only

Easter 2011

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We had a really nice Easter this year.  We celebrated in Iowa with my parents.  We arrived Friday afternoon and then went to a Good Friday service at the Lutheran Church.  I feel badly for not doing more teaching with the children during Holy Week, but attending Good Friday services is something that I feel is such an important part of Easter, and I wanted to be sure that this was included in the week. Saturday we died eggs and made Hot Cross Buns Sunday we went to church.  Fisher went to Sunday School at my parents church and was able to participate in the kids bell choir- it was so cool! (Wish I had a picture). We had an amazing lunch made my mostly by my mom featuring leg of lamb .... mmmm so delicious.. Here are a few other cute pictures from our day... Holland with her grandpa and great-grandma My 90 year old grandma with 6 of her many great-greadchildren Easter Bunny and Grandma

Rainy Day Outing

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The weather here has been really crummy... rain, snow, sleat, 40 degrees.  Crummy.  The girls and I just had to get out of the house, so I packed a picnic lunch and we went downtown to the Washington Pavilion 's playroom at the Visual Arts Center.    Isn't it a beautiful room?  It even made a crummy day seem sunny...  Claire got busy with the art supplies.  Holland got right down to emptying out the ribbon bin...   Puzzle Completed! A whole wall of boxes to empty and then refill- Holland LOVED it! Hopefully the weather shapes up soon so we can enjoy some real picnics in the sunshine... April showers bring May flowers, right?

This Makes Me Smile...

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I love walking into Claire's room to find her babies tucked snugly in their beds.  She will often cary them all into a room and tuck them into various "beds"- shoes, boxes, hats...anything works.  Sometimes she even sneaks into her big brother's room and tucks a dolly into his bed.  All of a sudden.. CLAI-RE!!!! rings out, and I have to pretend to be upset and scold Claire for intruding into her brother's space...  then I walk away smiling :)

Hand-Me-Down's-- Hooray!

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This weekend I had my hubby get down the 18-2T bin of Claire's old clothes so I could get some things out for Holland to wear this summer.  Oh how sweet to finger the little garments that my Almost-Five-Year-Old used to toddle around in.  I remember when I was hugely pregnant with Holland and with my nesting-instinct in overdrive, I sorted through all of the clothes I had saved from Fisher and Claire.  Up to that point, I didn't know if I wanted a boy or girl as the next baby in the family, but once I opened up the bins of girls clothes, I knew that a MAJOR perk of having a second girl would be that I would get to see all of Claire's cutest frills come to life again. In the photo below, Holland is wearing what I think might be my favorite outfit of Claire's to-date.  My sister gave it to her almost a year before she was even able to wear it- it was that cute in the store and she couldn't pass it by.  My sister "Aunt Sigrid" has been really good at spoili
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{this moment} {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Holland's Favorite New Trick

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Holland loves shoes!  For some reason, it seems that there are always plenty of shoes laying around our house...  If Holland spies them, she scoots on over (no not walking yet) and slips her little paws into them and crawls around the house.  In this picture, she is combining it with her free-stand.  She has great quads....  but still, not walking yet (she's now 14.5 months). Lance and I were looking at a picture taken of her in September (7.5 months).  She basically looks the same... doesn't she look little??  We are glad that our last baby is staying a baby, but still... she could at least grow a little hair or something....

Rhubarb Crunch

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Since spring is officially here, fresh rhubarb will also be here shortly.  With this assurance, I felt safe in using up the last of my rhubarb that I had frozen last spring.  I don't have my own patch, but my neighbors have been good ones, and every year I've been blessed to tuck away several bags of rhubarb to my deep freeze. Rhubarb Cruch is my mom's go-to recipe for rhubarb.  It is sooo good- sweet, tangy, crunchy.  It is great plain, but whipped cream makes it even better. RHUBARB CRUNCH 1 cup flour 3/4 cup oatmeal 1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup melted margarine 1 tsp. cinnamon 4-5 cups rhubarb 1 cup white sugar 1 cup water 2 Tbsp. cornstarch 1 tsp vanilla whipped cream from topping Mix the first 5 ingreedients.  Press 1/2 crumb mixture into a greased 9" square pan.  Cover with rhubarb.  Combine sugar, water, cornstarch and vanilla in a small saucepan.  Cook, stirring until it boils 1 minute.  Pour over rhubarb.  Top with remaining crumb mixture.  BAke at 350 degre
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{this moment} {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  inspired by soulemama.com

Planting Seeds

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"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." ~ Margaret Atwood I am so glad that Spring is finally here!  March was such a cold, long month, and the warm weather and open windows are bringing joy to our home.  Holland is completely enamored with the outdoors, and as I remember my other children doing on their second Spring, she crawls to the front door, pulls herself up to it and points to the outside.  If that hint doesn't take, she begins to grunt loudly and suggestively, and if that doesn't do the trick, she lets the tears flow freely until I open up the door and carry her out into the world that she has just discovered.  She loves to sit on the ground and study the grass, leaves and rocks that surround her. Today after school I let the kids have fun planting some seeds that I bought at the dollar section of Target.  Cilantro, Basil and Sunflowers will be the start of our produce this year... oh I am so EXCITED to plant our garden! Wat

Why I'm Home

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I wrote this journal entry about three years ago.  I came across it the other day, and was blessed by reading it.  I am so thankful that I get to be home with my kids.  It's not always a easy or enjoyable, but it is always worth it. My mother always made it clear that staying home with my sister and I was one of the most important things that she'd ever done.  Growing up, I understood that this was a valuable thing... to be home with your children, even if it meant great monetary sacrifices. Therefore, staying home with my children became a goal of mine from a very early age.  It was something I always assumed that I'd do after a stint in the working world.  I planned on settling into a dreamy, cuddly world of mommyhood.  Visions of baking cut-outs, reading by a sunny window and running through the grass filled my imagination. But then we were blessed with a pregnancy sooner than scheduled. My husband's job didn't pay enough, our mortgage was too much, and I