Throw water balloons at Carter

Want to throw water balloons at my face?

Our little story

Li made this movie.

He is so good at movies.

Another reason to get off your computer...

Spring is in the air!!

Can you feel it?  I felt it yesterday. 

 I passed two different (and competing) track teams running, while I was driving to the mall all by myself.  As in, with no kids.  

I had completely forgotten what it was like to shop without a cart.  

What are you supposed to do with your hands?!  

And then I left the mall and drove to DI where I bought myself a whole new wardrobe for $32.  

But back to spring.  

It's coming.  

And I for one could not possibly be more excited. 

 I'm ready to cut all my pants into shorts and put some miles on my bike.  

But first things first.  Today is March 1st.  Time for me to get reading the Book of Mormon.  I'll be reading 17 pages a day this month.  And I invite you to too.

Pin It

It just might change your life. 

In case you're new to the Book of Mormon Challenge, it goes down like this...

In March you are invited to read the whole Book of Mormon.

This breaks down to 17 pages a day.

You can read it, listen to it, watch the ASL version.  Whatever.

If you're already part way into the book that's okay.  You can start where you are and read 17 pages a day and then start over.  Or you can start over.  Or whatever you want to do.

If you happen to be seeing this after March 1st it's not too late!  Just start today.

The goal is to read the whole book this month. 

The important thing is to read more than you normally would so that when General Conference rolls around you are ready.

You can do it.

Why you should get off the computer

You do it, I know you do.  

We all do.  

"Pin" things with the intention to do them someday.  

Come to think of it, I even have a board called "To do someday."  

Well, if you've pinned this....

then "someday" really ought to be this one.

Here's the link in case you aren't a pinner.

Megan and I just made them while Carter is napping.  And I'm thinking I'll let Carter help me roll them in balls when he wakes up.  If there is anything left when he wakes up.  They are so yummy.

A few notes...

I used natural PB and raw honey and they were a little bit hard to mix, so I had to do it with my hands.

I used sweetened coconut flakes and I think it might be better with unsweetened.  But I have tons of sweetened left over from my wedding.  That's right, I said my wedding, in 2007. 

It's about time I found a recipe to use it.

Megan can't eat honey yet and I'm not sure I want her eating PB so I'm gonna go make a batch with almond butter and maple syrup.

Seriously, get off the computer and go make some.

Right now.

****post update****
The almond butter/maple syrup version is now in the fridge.
It might be even better.
I may or may not have eaten it with a spoon.

*****another update*****
Just made another batch during naptime.
With PB and maple syrup.
I'm eating it with a spoon without bothering to refrigerate.
I'm hunting and pecking on my keyboard right now because my fingers are sticky.
Obsess much?

Easy, cheap, and practically vegan taco salad

This is not a recipe.

It's quite laughable that I'm actually about to post this.

But it's one of my favorite meals lately.

And on the off chance it never occurred to you to try it,

I'm gonna share.

Open a can of refried beans

Add a few shakes of taco seasoning

Heat

Add some chopped up lettuce

 Eat, using chips as utensils

A few notes...

My taco seasoning has whey, that's why I called it practically vegan.

Obviously you could add more steps like tomato, salsa, avocado, cheese, sour cream or whatever.

But then it wouldn't be so lazy easy and cheap.

I keep lettuce chopped up and ready to go.

I'm much more likely to eat it that way.

I put the refried beans in a tupperware so whatever I don't eat goes straight to the fridge for next time.

Megan loved the chips covered in beans.

She wasn't sure what to do with the lettuce.

(She still has no teeth!)

But mostly she loved fingerpainting with her smoothie.

Fresh Meat

I haven't been eating much meat lately.  

And then I watched a documentary and a cow got killed.  

I am such a sissy pants.  

And now I'm eating no meat. 

I'm not saying you should do the same.  Not at all. 

I just thought this video was hysterical.

The suck

I wrote this post on my secret blog. 
The one that no ones reads but me. 
But today I want to share it.


I  know that it isn't all or nothing.  Life isn't either peaches and cream or else "the suck."  But it sure does feel like it sometimes.

It's like I think I have it all figured out.  I have all the answers.  Not necessarily that everything is perfect, but that I have the tools to make everything okay.  And then something happens and I get completely knocked off my rocker.  And suddenly life is  "the suck" again.

Sidenote: I don't know why I'm calling it "the suck."  I don't say that.  Somehow that seems like the appropriate thing to call it.

And just as easily I think something small and insignificant can make it all better.

I think it's because I do it wrong.  Like what Isaiah said....
(or at least what I understood from what he said.)

 Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand—ye shall lie down in sorrow.

So I try to make my own light.  My own happiness.  Do it my way.  And it seems like peaches and cream.  And then crap happens and I lay down in sorrow.

But no one who does it the right way walks in darkness and has no light.

It's sort of like yoga.  (But what isn't?)  I can use momentum and swing my body into a pose and think I am a rock star.  And the next day my muscles ache from doing something they weren't ready to do.  Or I can use my bandhas and move slowly and purposefully.  Doing it this way makes it look like I'm not as far along.  But it shows where I really am.

So where am I?  And what is the right way? 

Dunno.

There is so much to do.  I need to decide what is most important to me.  I need to decide what I really WANT to do.  Not what I think I need to do.

Plating

 I got new plates for Christmas.  

White and square just like the cooking shows.

So naturally Li and I had a Chopped competition.  

The taste of our guacamole has already been judged, 

but will you please vote on who did a better job with presentation?

Number 1

or

Number 2

 or

Number 3

Megan's not actually in the competition.  

But I love the way she won't eat unless she can do it herself.

In theory I would love to keep things clean while teaching my little humans how to eat.

But I have to admit,

I smiled inside when she reached out and grabbed the avocado 

I was spoon feeding her.

That's my girl.

Ducks

I made a to do list on Saturday.  Not Saturday like two days ago.  Saturday like a week and two days ago.  If I actually finish writing this and get it posted I will finish my list.  All except get Carter's hair cut.  Whatever.  He's bringing sexy mullets back.  It was supposed to be a to do list for the day, not the next 10.  Whoops.

Which brings me to New Year's Resolutions.  I didn't make one.  Instead I invented "Operation Ducks in a Row."  Oh wait, I decided to rename it to "Straighten the Ducks."  Getting them all in a row seemed a bit ambitious.  I'm going to aim for less crooked.  Basically it goes down like this....  I want another baby pretty soon.  But my house and my brain and my life look like this.

I don't like it one bit. 

Carter keeps asking me adorable things like, "Mama wanna play trains?"  And I say, "Yes in just one minute but first I have to ________."  Only there are so many things I need to do before I can play trains that he's gonna be 45 before I fill in all the blanks. 

I'm working at a feverish pace to knock out as many projects as I can in the first part of the year.  Which I figure is the perfect New Year's Resolution because people normally do really well at the first part of the year and then they suck.  And that's my plan.  To do really well at the start and then suck.  And by suck I mean play trains and watch VeggieTales and ride bikes and fingerpaint.

baby food soup

And my final soup is....baby food!

I had such high hopes for this recipe I found in Parents Magazine.  I'm posting it with the hopes that some one out there can make some adjustment that can save it.

In a big pot heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium.
Add 1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
Stir occasionally
Cook 8-10 minutes until tender and starting to brown.

(I tasted a carrot at this point and it was delectable.)

Add 3 1/2 cups chopped butternut squash
2 medium apples, chopped
4 cups chicken broth

Bring to a boil
Reduce heat
Simmer uncovered 20 minutes until squash is tender
Cool slightly

Puree in blender or food processor.

Add black pepper and croutons

Easy and disgusting.  Li wouldn't even eat the leftovers and that's saying something.
I thought the croutons were mainly for garnish but if you omit them, you've got yourself a BIG pot of baby food.  I was this close to feeding it to Megan.

My mom suggested leaving out the apples.  Anyone else have an idea?

Macaroni and Cheese

I know, I know it's not soup.  But this recipe uses soup so I think it counts.  I am cheating though because Thursday was the night I clenched the world's worst mother trophy so you can bet your boots I didn't make dinner.

It's ridiculously easy to make.  You can probably pull it off, even on your bad nights.

I'm even going to type it out, it's that easy....
Over medium heat boil 1 can Campbell's cheese soup --- I use the fiesta kind, it's spicy
with 2 cups of water.

Add 2 cups uncooked elbow noodles --- I use whole wheat because I like to pretend this is better for you than the box.

Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until your noodles are soft.
Stir it every now and then.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese --- I used pepperjack once, and it was a bit much for me.  But maybe you like that kinda thing.

Let stand covered 10 minutes before serving --- we usually don't make it.

We all love this and I like to pretend Carter is eating veggies because the fiesta soup has red and green chunks it in.  I'm sure they don't really count, but maybe they'll prep him to eat the real thing some day. 

I don't even like cauliflower

Wednesday was Cauliflower Soup.  I feel special every time I type cauliflower and the red squiggly line doesn't come up.  It's a tricky word, right?

Here is the link to my cauliflower soup recipe.  I made this a few weeks ago.  It's incredibly easy and really yummy.  And Carter and I even ate vegetables without complaining.  It's pretty rich and creamy, so I did get a little bit of a bellyache after.

This time around I thought I'd get clever and make it with broccoli.  Which was a bad idea.  And then I got carried away with my vegetables.  I love a party and I always say the more the merrier.  But then I didn't want to add too many of those salty chicken cubes things so I didn't.  I just put in more water. 

It wasn't a horrible catastrophe. We ended up having to add more seasonings after it was cooked.  (I say we because I always call in Li to fix my kitchen blunders, I'm no good at anything but following a recipe.)  And the broccoli just made the texture yucky.  Next time  I'll stick to cauliflower and not invite extra veggies to the party unless I'm willing to add extra of everything else.  i.e. double the recipe, like a normal person.


Oh, and I followed the advice of one of the commenters and used a slotted spoon to put the veggies in the blender and then only added some of the broth back in.  Also, I don't have Worcestershire sauce (nor can I spell it without a squiggly line) I used some soy sauce and Tabasco instead. 

Try it.  You'll like it.

I was meant to be a Mexican

On Tuesday we had Tortilla Soup.

Yum.

Think of the yummiest thing ever.
And then think harder.

It's so good.

Out with peanut butter and chocolate.
Lime, avocado and cilantro is the new best combo.

(Okay, I guess PB and chocolate is still be the best couple.)


The only thing that would make this soup experience more wonderful for me would be some of these.

Does anybody want to buy me some?



I apologize for the lack of photos, I just doesn't usually occur to me to take pictures of my food.

Please don't read my blog

I've had mucho inner turmoil about blogging.  It seems the less time I spend reading blogs the happier I get.  But writing a blog makes me happy.  I feel a little like a drug dealer.  But I finally decided that I can't be responsible if ya'll wanna do crack.  I hope the real drug dealers don't see it like that.

Seriously though.  If my blog makes you unhappy, please don't read it.

If you're still reading I promised soup recipes this week so here goes...

Last Monday we had coconut chicken curry.  I didn't mean to make soup on Monday.  I had sweet potatoes that I wanted to do something with.  While searching for recipes to use them I found this recipe, which didn't even call for sweet potatoes, but I made it anyway and used my potatoes instead of regular ones.  It was yummy!!


I'd repost the recipe, but that's a lot of typing or copy/pasting.  I suppose if you really want to try it, you can click the link, right?  Here it is again, in case you didn't find it. 

I made a few changes....
Like I said I used sweet potatoes instead of regular.
I don't like peas so I used some carrots and put them in with the potatoes.
I didn't add the optional toasted coconut because I don't know how to toast coconut.
My coconut milk was about a month expired.  (I'm sure this is key to getting it to taste great.)

I did that whole step where you brown the chicken before you put it in the crock pot but I'm sure that next time, I'll just throw it in.  I didn't notice much of a difference.  And I spent way more than the suggested 15 minutes on prep and 10 minutes is usually my limit, so the browning step has got to go.

Also they recommend cooking on low 6-8 hours.  Maybe my pot cooks hot, but it was way done by 5.

We will make this again.

If I can find some more coconut milk that's not expired.

Now I understand why my parents put me in the garage

I had the sugary sweetest post planned for today.  

All about smoothies and matching clothes and kitty-cats and rainbows.  

Well, some of that anyway. 

Maybe another day.  

If you're good.

(I just realized I typed god instead of good.  Do you think God reads blogs?)

So maybe it was because I've been playing nurse to 2 sick kids for the past 6 days.  

Or maybe the fact that my baby isn't yet 5 months old, and hasn't started solids but I still started my period this morning.  

Or maybe the gravitational pull of the moon in line with jupiter.....whatever.  

I woke up from my 7 solid hours of sleep feeling like there was no way I could function without 7 more.

But I yanked myself out of bed and Netflix and I did our best to raise these children.

(Megan likes to watch Carter while he watches TV.)

I remember wishing that Li had a sick day so that he could come home and I could have a sick day.
In retrospect, that should've been a red flag.

Megan finally fell asleep so I stuck Carter in his bed and fell asleep.  

Carter did not go to sleep and got into...well, I don't want to get arrested....so, something he shouldn't have.   

I was still desperate for sleep so I locked him in his room and he started yelling.  

Of course. 

Then my tender little Megan started crying in her sleep because Carter was crying.  

Ugh.  

As if I hadn't already blown the competition for world's worst mother out of the water.  

But yelling and door slamming and stomping around were soon to follow.  

Putting him in the garage to keep him quiet would've been much kinder.

(How could I get mad at a face like that?)

How much would I love a phone call like, "Please take my kids for an hour I'm desperate for a nap."?  So much. 

I know for a fact that if I had posted something similar on facebook I would have had multiple offers of help in minutes.

I watched Carter yank on a hose tonight for several minutes crying his brains out because he couldn't move it any further.  (I really am a mean mom, huh?)  When I finally convinced him he needed help it took me all of 30 seconds to fix his problem.

"I wanna do it myself."

Well I can't. 

And neither can you.

Or maybe you can.

But you don't have to.

And speaking of food, which we aren't, but my original post idea was going to... everything I wanted to make for dinner this week was soup.  So we ate nothing but soup all week.  And next week I'm going to post a recipe a day.  It should be yummy.

Ride with Sophie

This is how I feel since getting my new wheels.





Did you watch?
Tell me you don't want to hop on a bicycle and get some ice cream.

My daughter's a dummy

I spent the whole entire day flipping Megan from her tummy to her back.  She's a back to front expert.  She's back on her tummy as soon as I let go.  And then she screams.  It's like a compulsion.  I wanted to shout, "Hey dummy! Quit doing that."  But I didn't.  Because she's a baby.

I got home from Zumba last night with a rather large list of things I wanted to do.  Some how I found myself going from facebook to some blog I hardly understood and eventually wound up on an article about why barefoot is best.  (Which I already knew.)

Why do we do things that don't make us happy?!

I have a little bit of a crush on James Altucher these days.  It's okay, I think Li does too.  I recently read a post that mentioned we should wish people well.  Not really a novel concept I guess, but it smacked me on the face.  I don't do that.  More often I see people and I think I'm better than they are for some ridiculous reason, or I hate them because I can't come up with a ridiculous reason why I'm better than they are.

But I've been extra conscious of what makes me happy and what doesn't.   A few nights ago I went to bed early and then got up early enough to ride my bike to zumba.  I got there and found myself thinking things like... She has the best smile.  Her butt looks great in those pants.  Her personality seems so fun! (Are you recognizing yourself here fellow Zumbis?)  She is so adorable pregnant.  (Yeah, that's you Melis.)

I did it.  And I think it was because I was happy myself and so I wasn't threatened by the happiness of others.

I'm being proactive about happiness.  I'm having a book party.  Here's a link to the info on facebook.  I probably sent you an invite.  But for those of you who avoid facebook here's the details....

I'm reading this.

On Thursday October 20th at 7 I'm having a party to talk about it.
Please come.

If you can't come, you can still read it and talk to me about it.  I'd love that.

And while writing this post I checked facebook again.
And another blog.
Dummy!

Bone Tired

And tonight I'm the kind of tired, frustrated, annoyed blah blah blah where all I want to do is cry.  

But I'm too tired.

(Just wanted to keep it real.)

Li is talking to Megan while she sleeps.

(This is when Li proposed to me on a mountain.  I had no idea I was picking such a yummy life by saying yes.)

I am so happy and so lucky tonight. 

My kids are great and adorable.  (And sleeping.)  

I love my husband. 

I am stoked that I get to bike around town instead of walking or even driving. 

I finally have the means to be committed to a regular yoga practice with an inspiring and helpful teacher.   

Li is starting school and happy.

Is this sounding a little "Seriously-So-Blessed-esque?"

I don't know what to say about that.

(Really I don't.  I've written and erased multiple explanations.)

Bottom lines is I'm really happy and I felt like saying thanks.

I started blogging in the first place with this picture and the hope of being more grateful.

And tonight I just want to shout, "Yippee Skippee!"