Loving Life

Hello again everyone!  I'm finally sitting down from the last week to catch you all up on the things we did.  I'm sure you're terribly surprised to find out that I don't have any pictures to share even though there were many picture worthy moments.  I'll try to briefly update you on all that happened this past week. Tuesday - Aaron's parents came to town!  There was much rejoicing from the kids over this long awaited visit.  It was difficult to settle down at bedtime. Wednesday: I went to town in the afternoon while kids stayed home with grandpa and grandma.  David had a ball game, or at least part of one before it got rained out.  Movie night. Thursday: Our annual end of school year personal celebration at Adventureland Amusement Park.  Abby got to stay home with Grandma and Grandpa all day doing fun things.  David and Ana LOVED every last minute of the 8 hours we were there.  By the end, I was just sending them on the rides and waiting for them at the end a

Garden season is upon us, and with that comes fresh salads!  My children love salads, especially when they can get it straight from our back yard.  Ana was hungry yesterday and found that she had a couple of radishes ready in her own little garden plot.  So she happily picked them, along with some lettuce and spinach and herbs and made herself a salad for a snack.  She then made some homemade dressing following my very detailed instructions: "Get a small bowl and put a bit of honey in it, add some lemon juice and a little bit of olive oil.  Then add some herbs if you want and some salt and pepper."  She was delighted to do that and ended up making a salad and bit of dressing three different times for her siblings and her to enjoy. I hung out my laundry yesterday to dry.  When I went outside to bring it in, I found David like this. Notice that he is situated right by the garden.  He sat there munching on spinach and dill.  He loves to eat fresh herbs, so much that his Grandma

My parents have a little fish pond at their house.  It's really cool - my dad made it, complete with a waterfall.  Anyway, I was over at their house last week and looked in their pond and saw about 30 million tadpoles swimming about.  So I thought it would be fun to bring some home with me.  I got a small container and scooped up some water and caught about 40 right there.  I'm sorry this is a poor quality picture, but I think you can get the idea.  They are still pretty small, but I have yet to see a dead one after a week.  We feed them lettuce and they go crazy over it.  I'm not sure what we'll feed them once they morph into frogs.  We plan on releasing them into the "wild" again should any make it to adulthood.  Abby has been wanting fish for a long time, so once these are either dead or released, we'll get some fish for her to enjoy (and name!).  Questions for you?  Did you have pets growing up?  Ever have any interesting animals/experiences with pets

Now that summer vacation is here (for us, at least), you may be wondering what I will do to fill up my piles of spare time now.  So here are some things I will be doing this summer and hope to accomplish before school starts in the fall, in no particular order. 1.  Garden! - I currently have two gardens - one at my house, one at my mom's.  There's a possibility of getting another one too.  Not sure on that.  So traveling about tending my various gardens will take time 2  Baseball/T-ball - The month of June is ball season.  We will spend at least three nights a week - sometimes four at various games of David's and Ana's.  I am helping coach Ana's team again this year. 3.  Declutter - I am dedicating this summer to lightening up my life.  That includes not only my house, but how I run my life and the organization of it.  I need to bring a certain degree of organization to my life so that I can happily do the things that I'd really like to do.  This will be a

I apologize once again from my absence.  The weekend got a little hectic.  We had a major cleaning frenzy on Saturday since we were having a pile of people over on Sunday after church.  The kids did an awesome job of helping us out.  Definitely appreciated that!  I also did a large amount of cooking and baking over the weekend - unfortunately there's nothing left to show from that activity.  But the rhubarb pies were delicious!  Monday morning brought our last birthday celebration for Abby.  We invited four of her little friends over (two sets of siblings) to spend the morning with Abby.  She got some fun stuff including her very first Barbie.  She likes it a lot because it has hair extensions you can put on and "cut" off.  She is also enthralled with her birthday balloon that was given to her.  Here's a picture of her opening presents with her little friends watching. I am not one of those parents who go all out for birthday parties.  I do not decorate.  I do not ha

We've had two very exciting events this past week.  Yesterday was Abby's birthday.  She is now a big five year old.  We woke her up before Aaron had to leave for work, so he could watch her open up her presents.  I didn't find a time to get to the stores without kids at any point before her birthday, but thankfully Ana had a friend who had a birthday party a few days before Abby's.  I let Ana in on the secret that we would be buying a present for Abby as well and we worked out a code on how to talk about what present was for whom.  Abby helped pick out this present because she really thought it was nice and wished she could have it, but understood that it was not going to be for her.  She was very happily surprised to see it when she opened it up.  More little dolls to play with along with an assortment of clothing!  Later on in the morning, Ana went with her own money and bought Abby a giant sucker at the convenience store nearby.  Abby was very excited about eating i

I had a very delightful Mother's Day yesterday.  Long ago, I released Aaron from the hassle of buying something for me on Mother's Day (& Valentine's Day).  I prefer he does things because he wants to, not because he 'has' to.  And he does.  Throughout the year, he'll surprise me with little things here and there, lilies he picks from a ditch as he drives home from work, a bar of chocolate, a little note expressing his love, etc.  All of these things are way more meaningful to me than an obligatory card he picked up with overpriced flowers.  So all that to say that my extreme enjoyment of the day was due to getting to spend the day with my family, not because of some amazing thing I received.  And since Abby's birthday is always near Mother's Day, we end up having a little celebration in honor of her with my side of the family.  Three years in a row now, Abby's birthday cake of choice is a "funfetti" angel food cake.  Why?  Because it h

On Thursday, I made my very quick, easy go-to meal on a busy night - taco salad.  I had one last avocado to use up before it went bad.  And when I used it up, I discovered something tragic.  I have eaten so many avocados in the last three months, that I ended up over-indulging in them and now I no longer get giddy over them.  I could seriously have not had an avocado on my taco salad and still enjoyed it very much.  It kind of left me sad feeling.  It's like saying good-bye to a dear friend.  My last experience with avocado left me kind of feeling sick (bit of an upset tummy to start with and then ate too much of one and regretted it for several hours until my tummy stopped feeling like it wanted to puke).  So I guess I'll take a break from them for awhile - my grocery budget will appreciate that.  Maybe the next time I have one, it will bring back all my previous happy avocado experiences.  I just overheard Abby saying this to Ana, "When Mom and Dad die and we have maca

I got to enjoy the first fruits of my garden last night!  I know this doesn't look as appetizing as it actually is.  It looked better last night.  These are just my leftovers.  I got to pick my very first asparagas this year from my new patch.  I finally have some big enough to use!  It was exciting.  I celebrated that by throwing it into some shrimp risotto for supper.  I didn't have enough to make it worth being the main vegetable (only 5 stalks were ready), so I threw in some broccoli and tomatoes too.  Yummy!  I was glad there were leftovers for me to enjoy today at lunchtime.  I've spent the last school year struggling with Ana during math time.  She disliked it very much and we would butt heads with each other on doing it and getting it done.  She is very good at math, so it's not that it is difficult for her to do it, but she just didn't like doing it AT ALL.  I never knew what attitude to expect each morning when it was math time. She finished her math book

I keep meaning to blog more than I do, but apparently I am only capable of 2-3 times a week, so perhaps I should readjust my expections of myself and be happy with my 2-3 times per week.  : )  Can you live with that?  More than that will be bonus gravy!  So while I had plenty of good picture opportunities, I only got one picture.  This is it. It was taken Thursday night at our family tea party.  Aaron had a busy first three nights of the week and wasn't home much, so we had family night on Thursday.  It started with supper, followed by a family tea party (complete with cute little pastries I made), and ended with a movie together.  Fun was had by all.  Movies are way more fun with the kids since they laugh hysterically at most things that are remotely amusing. Friday night was date night for Aaron and me!  The kids were overnight at friends.  We decided on a home date.  We took a walk together, had a nice dinner together (grilled chicken, fresh Parmesan herb bread, salad, and a del