Quote

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.


-- Goethe

Yum Sunday

Since I love food I though it would be great to share recipes which may be a regular series of Yum Sunday [my other name choice was Tasty Tuesday]...
I saw this movie "Waitress" which is a great movie and the main lady role has this talent for making pies- as I am watching the movie and the main character is describing different pies [also works in a pie shop] my mouth began to watered [Dan's taste buds were salivating] so I decided to make my first homemade pie!
The boys had gotten some wonderful Barnes & Noble gift certificates for Christmas and they allowed me to get a pie cookbook [nothing like getting Mama a cookbook for something you want to eat]. Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie by Ken Haedrich and made the pie on page 84: Peaches and Cream Pie using the homemade single crust flaky pie pastry crust on page 31. I used local frozen peaches [Willamette Valley Fruit] that are outstanding and within my "green" resolution of buying food grown/raised within a 100 miles or less. It was declared "Yummy" by the family. This picture was selected by Solomon [and Cyrus agreed not caring].

'Nuther Quote Y'all

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.


-- Theodore Rubin

Small things to Great things

When I started my blog it was from recommendations of other moms through MOPS. I thought this would be a great way to be more in touch with our family and friends who don't live in the same state which is 98% of you all especially with showing of pictures of the boys.
Then I started to read other blogs- many have a specific point: a journey, organizing, money tips, food, mothering, etc and it is just mind-blowing how much help there is from all these people who sit at their computer for an hour or so to type out lessons they have learned and joys they want to share...
I want to share with you a wonderful blog called Home Sanctuary [http://homesanctuary.typepad.com/rachelanne/] and the reason is that she is doing a series of "small" challenges that lead to "great" things such as a loving home and a family taken care of. Each day she'll post a small challenge that you can do and if you do it on that day- you get points and have chance to win prizes- but most importantly you are not alone in your desire to want a warm, loving home [plus you don't have to think of all the small things to do- others will help].

So yesterday's small thing was to write a housekeeping mission statement: (How perfect for the New Year!)
I want to delcutter and prevent my "piles" from starting then for it to be a habit for the rest of my life. To create a clean, warm, inviting home. I also want to be more green- be conscious about my choices and the envionment around us.

Lastly the ideas Rachel from the Home Sanctuary blog is coming up ideas [along with many others who are participating] based on 3 general ideas:
Peace: What are some ways that you bring peace in your relationships? How do you create a peaceful atmosphere?
Order: What are simple things you do to create quick order in your daily life? It can be cleaning, organizing, scheduling, budgeting, etc.
Beauty: How do you bring beauty into your home in ways that please the senses? What are things you do to make your home feel good?

What to read?

I love to read and readily admit that I am addicted to words. Some people can't go without coffee in the morning or a soda or something that has sugar in the afternoon or can't drive without music on in their car, for me- I can't start, have a middle, nor a end without reading. Did you know that before I gave birth to each one of my boys- I read about 3 solid days before giving birth because I needed to stock up before I had no time due to around the clock nursing, diaper changing, etc that they needed [of course I was happy to care for them] but then I would get cranky if I go too long without reading something!!!

I wanted to pass on a great recommendation that my Grandma gave me: Janet Evanovich is the author and there is this series about Stephanie Plum who is a bounty hunter in New Jersey and there is a number in the title and it goes up to 13 currently. The series is funny, fun, and just an all around great read! Totally recommend it to anyone especially women!

So there is the picture of the paperback first book in the series so buy it or borrow it from the library, fix yourself a cup of tea and have yourself a great read! It is always nice to have a break from textbooks, non-fiction or the load of parenting books that I read.

Bowling

I took the boys bowling for the first time on January 2nd! Cyrus used a ramp- see metal bar behind him in the picture of Cyrus- so all he had to do was push the bowling ball down the ramp and there are bumpers on the side. Solomon started the first 2 turns with the ramp but after seeing a boy bowl- he tried bowling without the ramp and did amazingly well! Final score: Solomon 91 and Cyrus 77. Pretty impressive for their first time!

Happy New Year!!!

My "old man" Dan with baby Cyrus [who is one week old here]. I have been looking through all the pictures from when the kids were babies- so cute and I just can't believe the kid size that they are now. I thought the picture would nice for the New Year!

Now for those pesky New Year Resolutions!

1] Join a gym and more importantly use it :) Today is nice enough for a walk- finally no rain!

2] Make menu plans for every 2 weeks

3] Spend intentional quality time with each boy. [Kind of have to follow a schedule here for that to happen, home to stay clean, and all my millions of errands to be done but intentional quality time sounds better than sticking to a schedule].

4] Make a friend who happens to be a Mommy too that I can hang out with and possibly our whole families can hang out together...

5] What New Year Goal you think I should think about?

Quote

"To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a
chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the
gravy."
-- Bette Davis

After spending time with my father-in-law who has an awesome camera and his talks about this photography class he has just taken- I am getting inspired- I want to get back to creating photos so I am going to try to take a class this summer and start on a portfolio. First I do want that better camera- I need something that can take pictures of my kids playing sports- my current little guy just doesn't cut it so what have you heard that works/recommendations?!

Pictures from Grandpa Dave's super nice camera