New Swimsuits!

My MIL Jayne bought the girls each a new swimsuit at Target.  They are super cute, and they got to use them yesterday for the first time:

They have little tutus on them.  How cute is that?!  And they were only $10.  I don't think that is a bad price for a swimming suit at all!

And look at what this little buddy is doing:

He's been drinking out of my cup lately so I thought I would give him his own.  He hasn't totally got the hang of it yet, but he does enjoy spitting water all over himself. 

Tomorrow we are taking our friend Elizabeth halfway home.  She has been here with us since Monday evening, and the girls have really enjoyed having her here.  I've enjoyed it too, but I'm also looking forward to getting those monkeys back on a regular schedule. 

Only 20 more minutes until the tornado watch expires.  I hate the thought of a tornado.  Talk about something that will make me nervous!

Monkey Butt

He rolled himself over by accident today from back to front...I don't expect it to happen again for a while!  He is currently sleeping in just a diaper on this hot and steamy night.  Hopefully he sleeps well or I'll be up all night:)

I'm not doing any crafts this week as I was in such a rush with it the past few weeks.  I'm just reading, watching some TV, and eating snacks.  Oh happy day!  I'm not burnt out because I'm already thinking of things that I want to make.

Pnut is having allergies.  I had wondered if she was going to develop them as she has had a rash in the spring the past two years.  This year her eyes are swollen and red and she is just very tired and sneezy.  She hates Benadryl.  I need to see if I can find some chewables so hopefully it won't be so bad for her.

It is almost time for Raising Hope...gotta find a snack!

Easter

We had a fun Easter, and the kids really enjoyed being together.

Pnut tried to bribe her Pap to get them a swingset and a playhouse.  I'm not sure he took the bait.

They stood outside and found almost all of the eggs before they could hunt them because they had to wait a few minutes.

Then they raced around like crazy and knocked each other over and displayed bad manners.

Pilly collected the most.  She was in super-fast mode!





Randa and I went to the craft show Saturday...not good!  It was in the middle of nowhere and only had a port-a-potty for a bathroom.  We had a corner spot so no one could really see our things because we couldn't set a table at the front of our booth.  The only people who really did well were a woman selling jewelry and an Avon lady.  But, we learned a lot from the lady beside us.  And we have some ideas for different things to do in the future.  Eric took pictures of all of our things, and as soon as he sends them to me, I'm going to list them in our etsy shop!  There is still hope!

Craft Show

The craft show is this Saturday so I am in super-fast mode and need to get as much done as possible in the next couple of days.  Therefore, I'm going to make this the last post of the week and leave you with a picture of my sweet baby:)  I'll let you know how things go on Monday.

Pirate

Pnut had a birthday party to go to that was pirate themed.  They were supposed to dress up so Joel thought we should make her a pirate dress.  He brought this home and thought we could just cut it up to make one.  I think he thinks I am magic:

So I finally figured something out and came up with this (click the picture for a better view...it is really dark):

She was happy and had a blast at the party!

Korean Beef with Variety Salad

Can you believe I forgot to take pictures of our meal?!  Scatterbrain!

I got these recipes out of Nourishing Traditions, which is an interesting cookbook about healthy eating that basically comes back to eating as much not-messed-with food as you can.  I've heard that the bread and muffin recipes in it can be a bit dry and the desserts aren't great, but I enjoyed the recipes I made!  The meat turned out delicious, and the salad went well with it.  Pnut even ate some of the salad with her supper tonight, which was exciting:)

Korean Beef
flank steak
1/2 c soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 T sesame seeds (I didn't have)
1/4 t cayenne pepper (didn't have so I put in a little hot sauce)

Slice the meat as thinly as you can without cutting off your fingers.  Mix all of the marinade ingredients and marinate the meat overnight.  Thread in a back-and-forth manner onto skewers and grill, about 4-5 minutes on each side.

Variety Salad
4 carrots, peeled and grated
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 tomato, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/4 head red cabbage, finely shredded or grated
Dressing

Combine the salad ingredients and pour dressing over. 

Dressing
1 t Dijon mustard, grainy or smooth
2 T plus 1 t raw wine vinegar (I just used red wine vinegar)
1/2 c EVOO
Mix and pour on salad.

The salad needed some salt, which I added some fermented ginger carrots that I had also made that were very salty and it balanced perfectly.  I think the salad was even better tonight at supper when it had sat in the fridge longer.  I think it is probably one of those that just gets better with time.

Rainy Day

Ugh, what a yucky day.  It was perfect for this though:

They had it up the whole day except for when I fed LB, and they were quite silly with it.

Pnut showed LB and I many different dances that she made up herself.  She likes this dress her Gramma got her because it looks like Dorothy's dress.  She put a stuffed puppy in a purse and carried it around.

This goofball finally wore short sleeves today!  She wore long sleeves yesterday when it was 80 degrees.

I'm hosting Cooking Club tomorrow and have most of my prep done.  Hopefully I'll have some good recipes to share!  I'm going to go now and complete at least one nursing cover before I shred some carrots.

I have two nursing covers left to do.  I didn't do one tonight because we got back late and then I talked on the phone.  The phone...I do love to talk!  I may get something done tomorrow because it is supposed to rain all day.  All day!  Whose idea is that, anyways?! 

So basically I don't have a lot to say tonight.  Hopefully I'll have more creative thoughts tomorrow:)

First Homeschooling Paragraph

I only have enough fabric for 2 more nursing covers!  I still have to go get red thread to finish off the one that is half done, but I'm excited to be close to done with this stage.  It will be a nice change to start on the baby kimonos.  I might take one night and just do all of the washcloths at once too.  This is nerve-wracking.  What if no one buys anything from us?  I'll feel awful silly!

I might start talking about homeschooling on here as it is coming up more and more in our lives.  Pnut will start kindergarten in the fall.  I'm so thankful that I have the option to homeschool her.  I just can't imagine sending her away all day.  One of the reasons I want to homeschool our children is because I just enjoy being with them.  They are some of my favorite people!  We will be doing reading and math with a curriculum, but for now, I'm not getting anything else.  There is a neat book about God and Science at the library with lots of experiments so we may check that out.  I've heard good things about the Usborne Book of World History.  It covers topics from the beginnings of civilization until the early 1900's.  I want to use a lot of biographies and first-hand accounts because I think that makes history so much more interesting.  It will be fun to be able to go off on tangents of things that the girls and eventually LB find really interesting.  It will also be interesting to see how much my homeschooling technique evolves.  I've already changed things that I am doing with them, and we haven't even officially started yet.  I'm learning to be a lot more relaxed.  Pushing them just isn't worth it.  What good is it if they know something but didn't enjoy the learning?  All it does is bring a lot more stress to our day!

So there is my first homeschooling blurb.  It is 9:58.  I could start cleaning really quick.  Or not.  Hmmm...

What a Day!

Pnut took this picture today while I was trying to unlock the bathroom door that Pilly locked.  I heard Pnut say "Mom, she locked the bathroom door and she's not inside!"  She's never supposed to lock the door, but at least if she is inside, she can open it.

We took a walk while we waited for Joel to come home and unlock the door.  It took him over an hour until he had time and we had to get out.  There is something psychological about knowing that you cannot go to the bathroom that makes you have to go! 

So now I'm going to sew one nursing cover and then relax.  I haven't had time for a nap lately, and I am pretty worn out by bedtime now!

Organizing

Pilly opened her Scooby Doo Silly Bandz and promptly separated them by color.  Aren't children interesting?!  How much of this is just being a child and how much inherited tendencies?

Aren't these neat?  Melissa and Doug makes modern sets, but these were my Mother-In-Laws when she was little.  I think these are so much neater than the M&D ones too.

I got 1 1/2 nursing covers done tonight.  Then I ran out of red thread so I didn't want to start another one with only 20 minutes before bed.  I'll have to run to JoAnn's tomorrow.  Don't want to stop progress!

Someday I'll Slow Down

I fell going out to our car today.  On the sidewalk, there is a place where the cement is gone and I twisted my foot and fell, managing to save the pan that held the as-yet uncooked crostata.  It hurt really bad, but thankfully it was just twisted.  I thanked God for 2 things:  That my foot wasn't broken and that all of our neighbors had gone into their houses.  About 5 minutes previous, the street was full of people and noise.  I'm not sure what made them go in, but I was glad they were not standing around to witness that!

We've been having a really busy few days and tomorrow will be the last one for a week.  Mom's Group is here at our house and I am watching my niece and nephew for a few hours.  I also have to start getting ready for the craft show on April 23.  I have been doing stuff, but I want to try to complete one project each night until it is over.  Tonight I cleaned up or I would have started now.  I have about 7 more nursing covers to do and all of the baby kimonos.  I also want to get some checkbook covers made and finish up the flannel wash clothes.  It is a little overwhelming to think of so I want to break it down night by night.  Randa and I also need to talk about how we are going to set our booth up and display prices and things like that.  I haven't really even gone to a craft show before, let alone participated in one.

So now I need to fold clothes and pick up the last few things.  Tomorrow morning I have to vacuum and make a pie.  I'm beginning to think I enjoy the pressure.