What We've Been Up To...

Recently it became evident to me that I don't post enough pictures here on the blog. Apparently there are some family members out there starving for visual confirmation that we do in fact still exist. So I thought I would give you a little visual update as to what we are doing...

Things have been going pretty well with Missouri-kid-Kentucky.  We went through a little rough patch not too long ago but have since patched up our differences and are all getting along much better. She has really gotten into cuddling on the couch and sleep on the big bed with me (yeah sounds like I've gone soft but as it turns out it's the best way to avoid finding a puddle of pee in the kitchen...who knew eh?) Here she is cuddling with Emmuska which is happening a lot more lately and is rather heartwarming to see. She is really settling down and enjoying non playtime touch without getting overly excited.

And Liberty is still traveling with her blanket - using it in as many endeavors as possible.  Here it has become an improvisational bed roll.  Funny thing about this picture is that Liberty is wearing snow pants.  One could make the assumption that she is all tuckered out from frolicking in the snow. Not so much. Emmuska very much wanted to go outside to play so I went down and got the only snow clothes we currently have - which fit Liberty.  Emmuska bundled up in two pairs of pants, shirts, winter coat ect. in order to go outside. Liberty was thrilled to see the snow clothes and almost immediately pulled them on.  After Emmuska had headed outdoors I asked Liberty if she wanted to go outside.  She responded with an incredulous look and then said. "No.  It's cold outside." and that was the end of that discussion.  These snow pants still haven't ventured out our back door and don't seem especially destined too this year.  (I've got to give the girl kudos though...it is cold outside. Really cold.)

Like I said, Emmuska wanted to go outside to play. Sometimes I wonder how she could possibly be my child (picture was totally taken from inside...me? outdoors? in this weather? not unless there was a dire emergency...and I'm still trying to figure out what said emergency would have to be to tempt me.) But then she reminds me that "(she)likes the cold, but you don't do you Mommy? No you like warm weather. but I like the cold." Alright - her compelling argument gets me every time and I decide that it's okay to like different things.

Recently the children came across some Easter eggs.  You can bet it's been one big party since then.  We've spent large portions of the last couple of evenings doing egg hunts.  Kids are hilarious when it comes to egg hunts by the way.  Emmuska hid all the eggs and wouldn't leave me alone until I helped her find them.  Only once I started looking she found everyone before I could get to it. That's fine...I'll man the camera.  Tonight Liberty and Emmuska took turns hiding eggs.  One would cover their eyes while the other ran off to hide an egg.  Only as soon as the person looking started the egg-hider would point or tell them where to look.  Thankfully this didn't upset anyone. In fact it would seem as if this was the way it should be in their minds.  A good time was had by all.

What else is new? Hmm...well there is my new plan for redoing my look.  Today I gave myself a manicure...with a crayon.  I sitting there coloring with Liberty when I decided to see how well crayon worked on fingernails.  Not too shabby thought a little too opaque for my tastes.  Still avoids a lot of the hassles of real nail polish. Like the smell, the potential mess ect.

And finally a couple of pictures of Samuel.  He has been drooling like a machine lately. (You know a really wet slobbery machine...) but at least he still has his cute grin and inability to stop laughing if somebody else starts.Yeah that river of drool headed right toward me actually on the mild side.  His shirts and jammies are generally in a state of damp.  I can't believe he could be teething already but it seems like the usual conclusion...still we will see. And finally one with Mycal and Samuel hanging out on the couch together.  These two actually enjoy time together and can be found hanging out a lot.

And there you have it a little something we are up to and some pictures.  If there are needs for more let me and I'll try to accommodate.  I'm even up for special requests. :D

Today has been Great!

Today was really an amazing day in many small ways.  Throughout the course of the day there were various little joys that made me smile and my heart happy.  Nothing big or spectacular (okay one thing was pretty spectacular) just small things that made me happy.

Like uncovering two couches because I folded all of our laundry. (After taking the picture I put everything most of it away - I had actually put a bit away before I took the picture because there was so much it was toppling over and all.) The laundry had been hanging out on two different couches, finishing it has opened up so much sitting room I hardly know what to do with myself.

Then there was breakfast.  Once again it's not that it was elaborate - just really joyful.  It's a homemade roll (thanks Tamara) warmed and cut in half spread with raspberry jam and topped with cheddar cheese (medium sharp I think). Delicious! Since the picture has both I'm going to go ahead and tell you that grated cheese is much better for this than sliced.  Which brings me to the second part of why this was wonderful and that is I used my new food processor to grate the cheese.  It was positively joyous.  Not only was it unbelievably fast and the grate incredible (look how cute and curly it is!) but it didn't scrape my fingers up and was so much easier to clean than my crazy grater.  My cheese grater is of such a design that it limits my grated cheddar intake simply by being a huge pain in the butt.  I've been wanting to make this little treat for a while but keep putting it off because I didn't want to grate the cheese and it's difficult to slice the cheese thin enough to make it really good.  I'm not even positive it will ever be as good with sliced cheese - something about the grated makes it much yummier on this dish.  But I digress; in short I hadn't made this dish yet because I couldn't face using and washing my cheese grater.  So I thought 'What have I got to lose? There's no way it can be harder to clean than the cheese grater...I'm gonna do it!' and I did and I loved it!  It honestly made this little snack taste even better.

After enjoying my snack I read about a quiz that a lot of Americans aren't doing too well on.  It is ten questions on basic Revolutionary War knowledge.  Of course I had to head over and take it (you can take the quiz here) and ended up doing quite well. (I got nine out of ten and almost went back to change the answer on the one I missed but thought about all the times I second guessed myself and regretted it so didn't...isn't that just the way it goes?) Of the ten questions I think that most Americans should know at least four, three should be know but it wouldn't surprise me if they aren't and three were a little harder.  Anyhow it made my day that I did know as much as I thought I did about our country.

The next item of joy came in the form of a little thing I had picked up at the grocery store on Saturday. While there I stopped by the deli to see if they had any baby Swiss (it's hard for me to describe baby Swiss cheese other than to say it's got a great flavor just a little less sharp than regular Swiss. It's really yummy.) (side note: apparently being a mom is doing some damage to my adjectives - in our world there are two types of food: yummy and yucky) They didn't but they did have a little package called bits and pieces which is exactly what it sounds like it would be - a package that has a bunch of the ends of meat and cheese.  It looked promising and for a dollar didn't seem too extravagant.  I broke into it yesterday and really enjoyed snacking on the different flavors of meat and cheese I don't normally try. It was a lot of fun and really tasty (yay! I thought of another food adjective!)

Then there was the moment when I realized that my children were pink squared.  They had both of their own accord chosen two items of pink clothing each. (And to top it off Liberty was packing the pink scissors...) Apparently Liberty has decided that pink is plenty okay as she is choosing it more frequently lately. This reminds me of something else I completely enjoyed about the day and that was reading a new Fancy Nancy book with Emmuska.  I love Fancy Nancy.  If you've never read it I would ask you to go to the library and check it out. After reading it let me know who Nancy reminds you of.  The one we read was about Nancy's first book report. To complete her book report she has to go to the art supply store to get the necessary supplies and proceeds to make the most dazzling cover (her words).  I won't give more of the plot away but I can just imagine this is exactly how Emmuska would approach a book report.  (I tried to get a picture to put with this but was experiencing difficulties - go here to check one out.) Seriously anybody who knows my girl needs to read Fancy Nancy. 

Perhaps it was because so much was going well so my brain shifted into 'sensible functioning mode' who knows but for some reason while Samuel was taking his nap and the girls were playing on Nick Jr. I decided to do something well sensible.  I grabbed my pillow and blanket and lay down on the couch to take a nap.  And that's what I did.  I don't remember what woke me but it wasn't something dramatic and it could have even been *gasp* me just waking up on my own.  Shortly after my extraordinarily refreshing nap I got a text message from my sister Bonnie telling me that her name was on Jimmy's board for a free rose.  Now I can't adequately express how exciting this was for me.  Having my name on this board has been a dream of mine for years. Seriously.  Ever since I was aware of this store and their give-away I've hoped to see my name up there.  I introduced Bonnie to this board and she became my cohort in this dream.  She and I talked often about how fun it would be to see our names up there and get our free roses.  Having her name up there was about as thrilling for me as having mine up there would be. It was really exciting. Get her story here.

January 6th is Shortbread Day according to one of my favorite websites so I had decided that I was going to celebrate by making shortbread (naturally what else would I make?) I've made shortbread before so I thought I'd try a little something different in honor of the day and made two kinds of shortbread. Traditional and Parmesan-Pepper.  I got the recipes from the insert of my Food Network magazine. (Yes I get Food Networks magazine and I absolutely love it!) But if you are interested you can grab the recipes here.  Making shortbread is great because it generally has about five ingredients, maybe a few more for something fancier.  It's easy and fairly rewarding.  The basic shortbread turned out pretty nice - though I think I might have over cooked it a little bit (and according to the recipe I pulled it out early) but that's okay if I'm dipping it in hot chocolate.  It takes on a slightly caramelized flavor.  Better than biscotti for sure.  The Parmesan-Pepper shortbread has a fun and subtle flavor. Liberty categorized it as yucky but I don't agree.  I'd say it's definitely more of a savory shortbread best matched to a soup but I've still enjoyed snacking on them (they are the smaller ones in the picture).  The best thing was making the celebrated food item on its day.

Yes it's been a great day. 

Days

Because Emmuska's birthday is approaching we've had a lot of these conversations lately:
'What present do I get to open today?'
'None it's not your birthday yet.'
'Is tomorrow my birthday?'
'No'
'Tomorrow's tomorrow?'
'Yes tomorrow's tomorrow otherwise known as the day after tomorrow is your birthday.'
'Is tomorrow yesterday?'
'No tomorrow is tomorrow.'
'Is today yesterday?'
'No today is today.'
'Is today tomorrow?'
'No today was tomorrow yesterday.'
Yeah try to wrap your head around that. The first time I said it I had to sit there and make sure I said it right. Of course it is now almost like breathing as we have conversations like this a lot. (Minus the birthday bit - that's new we usually just jump right into the Is today yesterday? part.) My almost four year old - helping to keep my brain active.

Things I apparently say too often

Given what Emmuska says back to me I'm guessing that these are just a couple of the things that I say too often...
"Come over here - does it look like I have gorilla arms?"
(Today when I told her to come closer she said "Because you don't have gorilla arms?" which she has been saying to me for a couple of days however it was followed by this new little gem... "Maybe you should buy some gorilla arms they'd be really good" Good for what? Helping her put her panties on from across the room?

Then there would be this exchange:
"Emmuska get ready to go."
"I am getting ready"
"No you're sitting there like a dead fish."
I apparently say this too often as when she is doing something and I tell her what a good job she is doing she replies "yeah I'm not sitting like a dead fish!" (said with a huge grin).

Now you essentially know everything that happens at our house...