Memorial Day Weekend Recap

Oh what a weekend it was, it was!

Scot had off the entire weekend and instead of studying like he's been doing, he actually just hung out with us the entire 3-day weekend. It was amazing to have him around just being apart of our everyday lives.

We explored the farmers market close to the house on Saturday with some friends and an amazing cup of coffee. It was such a fun experience!

We've played at different parks, watched movies, gone on long walks, and just had a lot of general fun.

Monday, though, just topped the cake! We literally rolled out of bed and went on a walk before hitting up a little parade and street fair. It was so fun. After naps, we pulled out the little sand turtle and filled it with water and let the boys just splash around.

Here are a few pictures (of just Monday, sorry!) for you to enjoy.

Buzzed

The boys each got buzzed tonight after dinner. I think it's a tad too short for my taste, but that's the joy of hair. It grows. Next time, I'll use the #4.


Evan is so happy-go-lucky and sensitive. Yesterday he ran up to me and told me "Mom, I love you soo much!" Made my day and made me cry (just a little). To which he told me "Don't be sad, mom. Be happy!"


If this isn't my dad's little look-a-like, I don't know what is! He is still my little cuddle bug and seems to always be up for giving and getting hugs and kisses.


Ahh yes. Walking. We're full steam ahead now and walking the majority of the time. It's a brave new world out there.


I feel like this picture just sums up life right now. A slight blur and potentially dangerous.
At all times.

Sleeping Babies

There is just something so sweet about watching your babies sleep - no matter how old they are.

Drew at about a week old


Drew last night. I don't know what it was about this picture, but I just love it. His totally relaxed face, the way he looks so much like Evan here, the way his cheek is all scrunched, or the way he's resting his head on his arm. I love it all.



And because I didn't want to leave him out, a picture of Evan at a month. Ahh, how tiny he was. And he still sleeps like this. Seriously.

The Help

This was my second May book and so much better than the first!

This book came highly recommended from several different people and I am now recommending it to you, dear reader. Whoever you may be. If you like friction, great -- this is fiction. If you like memoirs, that's great, too -- this may as well be one. If you only read fluffy stuff, this won't be too heavy for you. And if you like a book that makes you think, well, this one will make you.

Set in the early 60's when most homes in the deep Southern state of Mississippi still had "help", this book is all about what life really could have been like. The good, the bad, and the funny. Oh yes, and the terrible awful. The reader gets an inside look into three women in particular - two of them being some of 'the help'. It's a fabulous read and would be really good for a book club or a private reading.

I did have a hard time getting through the first few (6 or 7) chapters as it was mostly back-story and character development, but once you start getting entangled in the story (and you do get entangled at times!) it's hard to put down. I flew through the last half of the book, practically biting my nails to see what happened next!

I did find out that they are making a movie based on the book and after watching the previews, I think they may actually pull off portraying the book fairly well. Although, we all know that you can never fully capture a book on screen, but I like to watch to see what people come up with. I'm afraid they won't be able to truly nail the severity of the situation - the fear, the anger, the hurt, all coupled with hope in a time where hope of equality was merely a whisper.

I guess I'll just have to see, won't I?

Just something about the water.

Ask me any day, any time, which I prefer between water or mountains and I'll tell you mountains every time.

Why then, do I have water-scenes scattered throughout my house?!

I recently noticed how many lake/ocean prints I have and realized that while I'm a mountain girl at heart, there is a part of me, however big or small, that also enjoys the serenity of a calm lake or ocean view. Don't ask me to spend a week at the beach, though, oh no! But looking out at water. Oh yes. And the water-scapes show that. I don't go looking for them, mind you, they just sort of happen to come my way. I so look forward to finding more water treasures over the years.

This was the piece that inadvertently started everything. A garage sale find for .50 and what a good find it was.


This is probably my favorite water scene in the house. It was done by Sarah Collins of Sarah Collins Art. She does fabulous stuff. Seriously - go check her out!


This is "Venice" by Sarah Collins and it's Scot's favorite of all my "water pictures".


I recently got this one and I really enjoy looking at it when I come in the door and go to put my purse down. It's calming.



Scot's Uncle took this picture. Eventually, I would love to have a larger print of it, maybe even on a small canvas. I just love it.

Patience anyone?

We sing the "Patience" song around here a lot. As in a few times a day.

The other day I honked at a car as he busted out of a stop sign that he didn't really stop at and in the process almost hit my car. When Evan asked me why I honked, I simply told him the other man must have been in a hurry and not seen me.

His response to me: He should sing the be patient song, mom.

Sometimes I sing the "Patience" song to myself.

I just read this article and thought I'd pass it along to all us moms out there in cyber-space. (thanks Carianne and Kari!) Such simple tips but ones that I can attest to (at least the sleep one and starting early!). I hope it impacts you like it did me!

I'm going to go get some water now.

Taking the plunge.

The first ever 100% whole wheat pizza crust to come out of my oven.
It was actually pretty tasty.

I would like to say that as a family we eat fairly healthy. Or so I thought. I make what I can from scratch, we don't buy pre-packaged dinners, we don't eat out very often (as in once every few months), we don't eat a lot of red meat (something we started when we got married), we eat a balanced diet with fresh fruits and vegetables, we're not heavy-handed with our cheese consumption (unless it's baked brie, and then I kinda go crazy), and we don't have dessert but a couple times a week.

That's my side of the story.

So when Scot told me last week that he wanted to start on this new diet created by a doc here at the Cleveland Clinic to reverse and prevent heart disease I was a little offended. I cook healthy already, what more did he want?

Dr Esselstyn's diet is essentially going vegan on steroids. Seriously. It's the no meat, no dairy, no eggs along with no fat of any kind. That means no nuts, no avocados and no Farmer Boy Greek Dressing because they all have, oh no, oil in them.

So what are we supposed to eat, I asked. Lots and lots of green veggies and whole grains. Sounds appetizing, huh? And for this cook, I was a little worried.

Now to back up a little, Scot gets on these "kicks" every now and again. Like the year we went without cooking red meat (and for the most part, we've stuck with it). Or the one time he came home from class and swore he's never eat another egg in his life. Thankfully, that phase passed quickly, but he has a self-proclaimed tendancy towards the extremes when it comes to things like this. It doesn't help that his grandparents and some uncles all died of heart attacks.

So I tried to be understanding, and through multiple talks this past week we've come to some safe middle ground for both of us. I'm a little nervous, but also a little excited to be eating even healthier.

First off, we're not going to the extreme of saying NO to anything - it's all about moderation, right? That being said, I will try to only use OO in cooking, and applesauce in baking when I can get away with it (not in cakes!), and I'll make sure that for dinners the cheese is optional, and we'll cut our meat-eating down to once a week instead of twice a week like it is now, and I'm going to make our own oil-free salad dressings, since with this diet you eat a lot of green leafy salads.

Oh, and did I mention that this diet doesn't have an end date? Yup, that's right folks, we're getting on the heart healthy diet. For life.

But only in the house. We do not expect other people to feed us this way. We do expect to eat this way when we're at a restaurant (unless it's Tommy's). And we will not feed guests this way either. Unless of course I find just fabulous recipes...

So what does that look like for us?

One of the things we discussed was that I would try my hardest to follow this diet for dinners, but considering the boys and their age and our bank account, I wasn't about to go and switch out our animal crackers and snack items for all non-processed organic items. Oh no. We're not there yet. And I will still feed them quesadillas and grilled cheese and mac'n'cheese for lunches. (Along with PBJs and leftovers and the like)

Changes though are quite a few, although not hard to switch to:

• All whole grains. Meaning flour for pizza crust or cookies or even bread?, whole grain pastas, using quinoa instead of rice, and buying steel cut oats for Scot since he has oatmeal every morning for breakfast.
• Picky on oil consumption. As long as OO isn't heated too high, it has a lot of healthy fats in it (and unless you're staring a quadruple bi-pass in the face, this is ok), so I'll still use it. Vegetable oil on the other hand, I'll try to substitute with unsweetened applesauce in sweet breads and muffins. I don't make normal bread, and if I do, it's what, 1 T of OO? Not going to quibble over that.
• Popcorn. I love my kettle corn. I love watching the 1/3 cup of vegetable oil on the bottom on my pan get hot, and I love watching the kernels pop in all that sugar....mmmmm....but now my kettle corn indulgence will have to be a very special treat. I'm going air popped from now on. And considering I pulled out the pot to make popcorn at least twice a week, this is probably a good thing. A lot less clean-up, too.
• White lean meat only. And only once a week. This one is not hard for me at all since we almost do this anyway. But I wish I would have known about this diet before I bought and browned all 10 lbs of that meat the other week.
• Peanut butter. If we're going to do nut consumption, this is really the only thing "nutty" we eat anyway. And if we're going to eat it, we're going to eat it as naturally as possible. And that means a trip to Whole Foods to use their handy dandy peanuts to peanut butter machine. It's actually less expensive than buying "All Natural" PB in the can and the kids love it.
• Diary. I don't cook with a lot of dairy as it is, so this one isn't too hard. Scot's the one who wants to go dairy free, so as long as he stays away from the milk and yogurt and cottage cheese in the fridge, he'll be fine. He did say that one night a week we can have a meal with diary in it - I guess that's our pizza night.
• Sweeteners. I haven't actually researched this much yet. Scot wants to get away from processed sugar, but I don't know how. I don't even know what that would like like. So for now, as we're easing into this new diet, this is the last on my list. We don't use is a lot anyway, so I'm not too concerned.

If you've made it this far, bravo! I'm amazed. Really. I've almost stopped writing a couple times trying to figure out if anyone would even read past the first 4 paragraphs. But if you've made it this far, than you're almost there!

Scot is so good. He knows that I like to cook, and after almost being in tears last night trying to meal plan with all these new rules and feeling like I was going to be cooking inside this itty bitty little box, he finally got it. "This is really stressing you out, isn't it?" Uh yeah. It's kinda like my job and you're going in and changing the job description.

So we laid out a framework. He doesn't want me to lose my love for cooking (and neither do I!) so once a week I can do a new meal and be creative and if it doesn't fall in line with the diet, than I have 2 options. I can use it as my "meat meal" or I can use it as my "dairy meal".

Huge sigh of relief people. HUGE! I was wondering if I was ever again going to eat my favorite Homestyle Baked Mac 'n' cheese! (Seriously, this is probably the most unhealthy meal I make, but I love it!) And I'm pretty much signing up to bring an appetizer (read: baked brie) and a dessert to any social event we go to. :)

So now I just have to go through my recipe box and divide out my dishes into meat and diary and meat/dairy free. Oh, and good ones to make for company.

This is a huge step we're taking here. It's more of a jump-and-plunge into unknown waters, but I think it'll be worth it. We are to be good stewards with our bodies, and we eat to live and not live to eat -- at least these are the two things I've been telling myself the last few days as I more and more immerse myself in what it means to eat heart healthy.

And yes, I'm hoping to still keep up with the blog, too.

One fine late-Spring evening

Can't you just smell the fresh cut grass and hear the little squeals of delight?

Little feet that are too little to kick a soccer ball, but definitely big enough to crawl/walk around in the dirt.

Friends come to visit...

My friend Leah, who we went to see in Pittsburgh last summer, came to visit with now two adorable little girls in tow. We had so much fun with them and I can't wait until our next meet-up!

Drew was quite taken with little Elsa...


...and Evan with Miss Anna


We played chalk after a good long walk. It was such a gorgeous afternoon we just had to stay outside as long as possible.


Leah and Elsa enjoying the sun...


...and Drew obviously enjoyed the chalk.


Aren't they cute? Leah and I kept commenting that they really could be twins.

Evan Funnies

We are catechizing Evan and in this process it's fun to watch/hear him learn. We've gone from answering the question: Are there more Gods than one? with a simple "no" to the whole answer. "No. There is only one true God."

Along with these heart warming moments come some funny ones, too.

The newest question being introduced is "What is God?"

Evan's answer: "God is a spirit who does not have a bum like mans."

Almost, kid. Almost. The bum is part of a body - so you get partial credit. :)



Another heart warming answer, though, is his answer to "Where is God?"

In Evan!!!

I love it.

His newest phrase is big ol' and I wanna tell you something real quick.

As in: Mom, I wanna tell you something real quick! Look at that big ol' ant/bus/truck/crust/door/whatever he's looking at.

It's pretty cute.

Lastly - this afternoon I left the boys at the table eating lunch and Drew started to cry. As I was walking back in, I heard Evan say: It's ok baby boy. Your momma will be right back.

Totally gross, but...

...totally worth it.

I just browned 10 lbs of meat (5 lbs ground beef, 5 lbs ground turkey) so that I don't have to heat up our kitchen this summer. I still have to divide the meat into 1 lbs portions, put them in bags, and freeze them, but the fact that I won't be standing over a hot stove in a blisteringly hot kitchen this summer is so wonderful.

But the process of actually boiling the meat was utterly disgusting. And I didn't even touch the stuff! The most disgusting part of the entire ordeal? The leftover water/fat mixture that is currently sitting in a large bowl in my sink congealing. It almost makes me not want to ever eat a burger again. Except that I love burgers, so that'll probably never happen.

If you do want to save time, though, or have an un-air conditioned house like we do, this is great way to cook a ton of meat at one time.

A Year by Grace

It was one year ago today - skies gray and wet as they are right now - that Scot and I drove into Cleveland to find the house we thought we were going to rent a total mess and unable to be lived in. It was exactly a year ago that we got a call about the house we're in now in response to an email Scot sent out to about 20 different homeowners on Craigslist. And it was a year ago that we first walked into this house and knew that it was where the Lord wanted us. The full story is here.

As you loyal followers know, a lot has happened in the year. We have wonderful friends. We found a great church and got plugged in. I became borderline depressed. I started taking "happy pills" - aka: Vit D Supplements. I have found that I much prefer gray rainy days with said happy pills to the hot and humid days July and August bring. I took up running. As a family, we realized what life was like with an intern/resident. We also desperately missed being a short hour away from family. We have all grown stronger. We have taken three different plane trips and four major road trips. We have had lots of visitors and I've learned to cook without using an oven on hot days. I drink tea out of my Denver mug almost every day. We've learned to cope with AC window units and fans. I have found some really great places to eat and play. We know what four months of snow really means. The term "lake effect" has a whole new meaning. I have discovered how many neat places there are only a days drive away! (NYC, to be one of them!) We almost moved and then reconsidered and decided to gut it out where we are. We have since made this house a home. I started a ladies Bible study. We have a fabulous neighbors. We're making it work day by day, week by week, and month by month. All through God's good grace and mercy.

Because without God's grace, I would be a depressed wife and mother who flew home every month for 3 weeks at a time and we would be in a cracker box apartment with central AC and good heat -- but since we wouldn't be there very often, I guess it wouldn't really matter, right?

Here's to another wonderful year of life! Thanks be to God.

2 little monkey...

...jumpin' on the bed.

The Cleveland Zoo

Our first trip to the zoo here was almost a year ago and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't the large open spaces, the bright greenery, the manicured islands between the wide walkways. I actually find it comparable to the Denver Zoo. Not as many animals, and it's a little more awkwardly spread out, but it's comparable and I was very pleased.

We made a second trip to the zoo this past weekend with Jamie and the boys to see the new elephants - or maybe just the exhibit they've been working on for over 2 years, I'm not sure which it is. Evan loved the giraffes as always and Drew delighted in the wolves that came just 3 inches from him. Thank goodness for thick glass!

Willie, the one-tusked elephant in his new home


Justin and Drew in matching strollers!


Colin and Evan watching the elephants




Jamie and the boys waving to the train

Safe Haven

This is just one of my May books. I'm about to go pick The Help up at the library tomorrow and start it as soon as I can. I'm pretty excited.

Save Haven was just all right for me. It was better than some of Nicholas Sparks' books (and I should know. I've read them all), but it was lacking in some character depth I know he's capable of creating. The over-all story was fun - don't get me wrong - if you're looking for a good beach-read or airplane novel, this could be it. But it's fluff reading. A slightly omniscient voice (and I prefer only being inside one person's head for a book unless there's obvious delineation between chapters), a slightly predictable story-line, and secondary characters who were a little too one dimensional.

Also, I think it was only average because I just found out that there is a movie being made from it. I don't know if he wrote the novel in order to make a movie (like he did for The Last Song), or if a producer just happened to like the book well enough in order to make it into a movie (like The Notebook or A Walk to Remember).

Also, I don't think that there was any personal story that went into writing this book like some of his other (better) novels. I read Three Weeks with My Brother - his memoir - a while back and loved it. It showed great insight to a lot of his novels and gave me an appreciation for him as an author and a person. If there's any Nicholas Sparks books to read - it's that one. Then you can just go from there.

All in all - I'm glad I read it. It's not his best, but it's certainly not his worst either. Don't read it if you're looking for something thought provoking or challenging. It's total reading-candy.

Mother's Day 2011

All ready for church. The boys loved wearing their ties and they got so many compliments on them! They are growing up so fast and I'm immensely glad that the Lord saw fit to have me be their momma. It's my dream job. Seriously.

Scot surprised me and took us all to these beautiful falls just 10 minutes from church for a picnic lunch. Such a sweet husband.


Us after our lunch and walk (in heels!) to the falls.


I'm including this picture because it just so wonderfully captures the boy's personalities. Evan slightly goofy and all smiles, and Drew, watching his older brother's every move.

Some wonderful brother-love on Mother's Day. There's not much else that warms my heart like unprompted hugs from one to the other.


I've been wanting a Dutch Oven for quite some time and now I have one. A beautiful 7.5 Qt enamel covered cast iron Dutch Oven. Ahhh....and for a steal! Originally $175 and we got it for (after a 50% sale with an additional 20% off and a $50 gift card) only $21. Yup. A steal.

A Fresh Start

For some time now I've been wanting a new look for our bedroom. I really like the browns for the fall and winter, but for summer? I wanted something fresh and crisp and not involving a down comforter.

So I searched on line and in stores and everything was too expensive. Until I found something on clearance at TJ Maxx and I was sold!

The light washed the photo out a bit, but you can really sense the newness this brings the room.


A better picture to really capture the color.

Now to figure out if I want to tackle the project of refinishing our bedroom furniture from honey-oak to something darker and richer.

Spring is in the air....

There's something just so fresh and wonderful about this time of year!

Senior Picture, anyone?

I remember getting my senior pictures in the mail. All the different sizes, but the most prized, for me, were all the wallets I had my mom order. I brought them to school and church and handed them out to everyone with sweet little notes on the back. Almost like they were business cards. And everyone was doing the same thing. Just recently, actually, I went through an old box and threw out some sr pictures of people I barely knew, but somehow had their prom or sr picture in a keepsake box. Ahhh....high school.

When I had my Sr pictures taken for highschool, it was not yet trendy to have them taken outdoors. Cute poses in the studio, yes, but since photo journalism wasn't popular yet, I have very traditional shots to look back on. And frankly, I like them. I'll have time from here on out to have cute outdoor pictures taken!

My favorite Sr picture is the one with the black drape -- probably because it reminds me of my own mother's Sr picture. I hope one day my boys (or their children) can look back on my picture and admire it like I do my mother's. It's a timeless pose.

Anyway, it has been gorgeous out here the last 2 days with only scattered clouds and thunderstorm and we've been going on lots of walks when possible. (I feel like the boys still have pent up energy from the 10 hour car-ride). Also, because Scot is home studying, I've been able to get out while the boys are napping. I made a trip to the Goodwill yesterday in a nice part of town and scored majorly. I love a good sale and boy did I get a few. (Kathryn and Bek, if you're reading this, you would have loved it, too!!) For $1 each: a cute GAP skirt, adorable Old Navy brown Bermuda short, GAP dress shirt for Evan, 5 name-brand (Nautica, GAP, Banana Rep, H&M) button down shirts for Scot all in mint condition. For 2.75 each, A fun skirt for me, a dress tank from the LOFT, and another dress shirt for Scot. Um yeah. Score!

On another afternoon I went and got my hair cut (well, just trimmed and reshaped, actually). When I got back, we went for a walk and I brought the camera. Scot snapped a couple picture for me since I felt I needed a new non-blurry picture for the cooking blog. I was really just goofing around, but the picture that turned out and that we both loved was this one.

It looked very Senior Picturesque to me. Except there's no way I would ever be mistaken for a Sr in highschool - dear me am I glad those days are over!

Here are some other pictures from the walk:

NC Trip: Days 3, 4, 5 & 6

After a ten-hour car ride back (where only one hour was spent not driving), and passing though NC, TN, WV, VA, and OH, we are now home. The boys did great. They were very happy with books and toys and snacks. (And yes, I am saying that we did a trip that long without a DVD player. I did it as a kid -- why can't they?) We were pleasantly greeted with warm yummy pizza and company from Jamie and her boys. Scot is on call for the last time before boards and when he gets home tomorrow night he will have total rule over the computer - so I'll be scarce on here until then.

But until that happens -- an update.

Our days in Asheville were packed to the brim. I can't even begin to walk you through what we all did, but I will say that we walked a lot, went to lots of parks, went to the YMCA (where I ran almost 3 miles for the first time since the fall), had lots of fun girl hang-out time, went to the "mountains", and was in foodie-ville.

Amazing.

Brevard is this cute town just 20 minute's away from Sarah's and houses not only "The Coolest Toy Store on the Planet", but also some lick-smackin' good BBQ. Oh yes. And did I mention the Gelato shop with the Australian owner? Oh yeah, it was a good trip. We went to Hourglass Falls after a beautiful drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway through the Pisgah National Forest. It is a gorgeous part of the country. The drive down was great, but being there and experiencing Asheville was so much fun.

The boys (Thomas is 4) had some good fun together, too. We went to the Western North Carolina Nature Center the day before we left and had so much fun looking at all the animals native to that part of the state. Black Bears, River Otters, all types of Wolves, Foxes and much more. Evan had a blast running around and looking and calling out and making animal noises.

Over-all, it was so fun to reconnect with my friend, Sarah, have good girl time after seven years without, watch our little guys play together, eat good food (to include amazing Greek and even better Thai!) and just have a mini-vacation in the middle of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Which are really just Mountainettes. Just sayin'.

Oh. And the 70 degree weather calling for shorts and short-sleeve shirts wasn't too bad either.

Pictures of the fun are here.