Loving Life

Ana was on the food committee for her class' Halloween party.  She volunteered to bring brownies, suckers, and candy monsters.  She was most excited about making candy monsters.  Here's a sampling of her work. I know it's hard to tell what everything is since they are all bunched up together, but they turned out super cute.  Each one is different.  She couldn't wait to go to school today to share them with her classmates. These are currently the best things ever. Caramel Pear Scones. My recipe made 10 of them.  There are currently nine left.  I want to soon make that eight.  If someone tries to help me not over-indulge in these lovely things, they may get their hand bitten off. Someone needs to teach David to put his school work away as he finishes it instead of moving to a clean spot on the table for the next subject.  This is the table at the end of his school day. This is baby's stuffed doggie and blankie. My mom has bought each child a dog when they

Aaron and David are at the State CC meet this weekend. So tonight, it was just me and the girls.  We decided to have a girls night in.  Once they girls got home from school this afternoon and finished up their couple of chores, we went down to the grocery store to get provisions.  I haven't been in much of a cooking mood lately (which is normally not like me), so we bought a rotisserie chicken for our supper.  I did steam some carrots and boil a couple of potatoes.  The roll is from a friend who supplies us with all sorts of goodness. To properly have a girls night, one must eat supper in your Goodwill bargain fairy dress.  It also helps to make goofy faces when your mom tries to take your picture. The other two essential items we got at the grocery store were a rented movie and a cup of ice cream.  We rented Madagascar 3.  Despite it being the third movie of a popular first movie, I actually enjoyed it. You should know that it's not saying much since I am easily e

I had a lovely surprise this weekend. I tried planting some cauliflower this year in my garden (three plants) and due to the heat and lack of rain, they didn't seem to be doing anything at all other than getting super leafy.  So I forgot about it and figured I'd pull them up once I got around to cleaning off my garden (not sure if that's happening this year or not...).  Anyway, I glanced out at my garden this weekend and happened to see these two beautiful heads of cauliflower poking out among the prolific leaves of the plant.  The huge one on the right - about 10-11 inches in diameter was a bit past its prime, but still quite edible.  I roasted much of it for supper on Saturday night and topped it with a bit of browned butter - can't ask for a more delicious or simple dish.  The one on the left is absolutely perfect - bigger and better than anything you find in a store.  It's almost a shame to eat something so beautiful!  But don't worry, we will soon scar

I guess we're back to poor quality self portraits in the bathroom.  Here I am with my torpedo belly.  Isn't it lovely?  When I'm pregnant, I only stick straight out.  I never "drop" - probably due to the fact that even if the baby drops down, there's still a whole lot of baby left to fit in my uterus! - I'm doing pretty good for the most part.  I'm definitely getting ready to not be pregnant again.  And the thought of having a baby instead is making me excited. - My level of achiness and general weariness is increasing, but that's to be expected. - My belly button is sticking out farther than it ever has before. - The baby must be sucking the calcium out of my bones as I'm craving milk and dairy products like you wouldn't believe. Normally the thought of drinking a glass of milk just because it sounds so good would have never crossed my mind. - The baby is also sucking the iron out of my blood. I was anemic on my last blood draw

...having your son volunteer to bring cookies to the end of season cross country party, and then making them all by himself without any help or reminding from me.  Aren't these beautiful?  They tasted delicious too! David's cross country season is now officially over.  He is sad.  He loved it so very much.  Now it's the long wait until track season starts. Soon the high school cross country season will be over too and then Aaron will join him in that sadness and anticipation of track season.  Districts are this week and state is the next weekend.  The nice thing about CC being over is that I'll get to see my husband a little more in the evenings as he won't be at practice or meets anymore. Happiness is also cleaning your grimy windows.  I try to get my windows clean before winter sets in and I'm stuck inside looking out more and more each day.  Today, I tackled my kitchen windows.  They are so clean and shiny now - it makes me happy every time I pass by

We've been taking care of my in-laws chickens while were gone this past week.  I wait until the girls get home from school to do this chore, as they love to help! While the chickens are let out to get some exercise, dust baths, and fresh air, the girls happily go tromping off through the woods to build fairy houses. They had already put the roof on by the time I got there to take a picture, so you can't see all the cute little furnishings they made for the fairies on the inside. The one day I did bring my camera was the day it was just about ready to start raining.  Therefore, these pictures in the woods look dark and dreary.  Just imagine beautiful afternoon sunlight streaming through the golden leaves and you'll have every day except this one.  :) Yesterday, the girls found an exceptionally large egg in the coop.  We suspected it might be a double egg. We cracked it open for breakfast this morning.  Yep, a double egg it was!  They were very excited and

Abby has developed a habit of "smiling" whenever she is placed in front of a camera.  I'm not sure what that is all about. It seems to have started when she lost her front teeth.  Perhaps she was self-conscious of the gap there, though her grown-up teeth have finally grown back in.  But anyway, when school picture time came around, I knew I couldn't trust her to make a normal looking smile so I didn't order any pictures from school (plus you pay about $70 for three pictures - that's only a slight exaggeration).  I think my fears were justified.  Though we struggled and struggled to get a normal looking smile at Sears , I think we did better than this school picture.  : ) Sunday night, I made some supper.  That's an unusual thing for the weekend.  I usually do not cook on the weekends and we eat either leftovers, or odds and ends of whatever we can find.  But this night I made a delicious supper.  I called for Abby to come to the table and did not get