Reading lately

Pioneer Woman Dinnertime Kathie and I were stranded at a used bookstore in Washington for a few hours one afternoon. After I'd browsed and browsed to my hearts content, I found this book and settled down on a wooden chair near the children's book and read it cover to cover. (Sort of -- I read all the commentary and skimmed the best looking recipes :)

Stuck This picture book was Owen's Christmas present this year. And it's such a fun story that it was one of the presents I was most excited to give. A little boy's kite gets stuck in a tree and he spends the afternoon working to get it unstuck (but ends up with a tree overflowing with paint, firemen, a whale...) very silly and just so fun.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy I can only remember one book that I've read + finished and didn't like more than this one (Of Mice and men in high school English -- I don't even remember much of the story, but I very much remember throwing the book across the room because it made me so mad!)  We read this for book group and when I almost thought I couldn't make it through another page (not that it was so terrible really, just kind of nonsense?) , I realized I'd finished the book! (The kindle version said I was only at 64% but the last 1/3 was book group stuff, etc.) After talking to others at book group though, I disliked the book a lot less :)

Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother I loved this. There were definitely some over-the-top parenting strategies, but the things that really struck me as "I'd never do that!" were really just the things that I do more of than I wish. Even if I didn't agree with her style, her intentional mothering helped me rethink my own intentions. And it was just so interesting to see inside the life of a family very different from ours.

Michael Vey (book 1) This was Landon's Christmas present and I read it first just to make sure it would be good for him. It was a fun enough story that I have the 2nd on hold at the library (for me!).

Peter and the Starcatchers Jordan and Landon started reading this out loud together and I thought I was just catching up to them to join in, but then I got hooked and read the whole thing on my own again. These are fun and silly and I'm excited to re-read the rest. (They are much more fun listening to Jordan read though, so I'm going to try to be more patient and stick with them next time.)

The Gifts of Imperfection - I loved this. It was perfect for me right now and included so many things that I felt like I should be working on. I read the kindle version and highlighted a phrase from nearly every page. I've gone back a few times to re-read my highlights and I think I want to just make notes of each topic to focus on one at a time for a little while. And I'm excited to read more of her books.

Okay for Now - This is a companion/sequel to The Wednesday Wars that I really liked. And I think I liked this even more. Although, I cried through the whole book. (And I can't even remember the last time a book made me cry!) With heartache for Doug Swieteck and all the real kids in the world with similar stories. And with tenderness for all the goodness of the characters surrounding him and for all the goodness in the world and the people who I've known and have shown such love for me.

Humans of NY Stories - I didn't get very far into this before I decided the language was too much for me. I love the beautiful and inspiring stories and pictures he gathered, but not so much the rest.

How to be Lovely - I wanted to like this, just because I found it from a fun book club group on instagram where I've loved a lot of the recommendations. But it was kind of like a little souvenir book that you'd find if you'd just visited an Audrey Hepburn museum exhibit... so maybe you'd love it if you were already really so super interested?

Island of the Blue Dolphins - This was one that has been on my bookshelf for ages and I hadn't read it since I was a kid. What I loved most was reading the afterward and finding out it was based on a true story - can you even imagine??

The little boy who lost his name

Jordan discovered recently a fun book company that makes personalized children's books (lostmy.name). We ordered one for Owen, and it is just super cute. The little boy follows a trail of adventures through the story, picking up letters as he goes (an O from the ostritch, W from the wizard, E from the elephant, and N from the Narwhal) and in the end, happily finds his name. Ellie and Landon are hoping for their own books some time and they all had fun playing with the site to see what kind of a story they could find for names like "Anastasia" (with 4 A's) or Landon's choice, something like  "blablaglubglub".

around here

snow shoe adventure prep

Around here...

-- We made banana bread and muffins this morning and our kitchen smells just wonderful.

-- It is bright and beautiful (and cold of course :) and we are counting down the days till February. January has been crazy. But we're hoping some major things will be wrapped up/cleared up/worked out by the end of the month and for sure Jordan won't have to work any more nights or weekends. Woohoo!

-- I'm helping out with the Manners Tea at the kids school in a few weeks. We wanted to do some kind of a presentation about being kind, so I went in yesterday and worked with the lighthouse team to make a little movie. It was silly and fun and we got all the clips recorded in the 30 minutes we had, then I came home and put them together in an animoto and I think it'll work :)

-- I'd sent an email to the rest of the group involved with the steering committee with my concerns about some development the city is proposing near our home. In response, one of our city council members that I've really admired (Herm Olsen) reached out to me and took time to meet and talk about my concerns and what we could do, and I was just really grateful for that effort.  I'm still anxious about the whole issue though and trying hard to organize my thoughts well for the planning commission meeting tomorrow night.

-- Owen has been hooked on war (the card game) for the past few weeks. He's thrilled when he can find a partner, but almost just as happy to play his new favorite game on his own.

-- We're cleaning up spills. And more spills. And more spills. Porter has always kind of had a thing for disasters... but in the past week or so it's gotten a bit out of control. Pretty much anything he can get his hands on that has a bunch of something (the hot cocoa mix, the kids legos...) it's sure to be spilled and quickly scattered. I'm not sure what the solution is to this stage, any ideas?

-- Landon and I stayed up last night to work on his minion car for the pinewood derby tonight, and the kids are all excited for the little event.

-- I've been trying out new recipes (more about those later, maybe?) and have been so happily surprised with the last few and how quickly they've come together.

--  I brought home a pot of pink tulips that were on sale at Sam's club today and they are so bright and cheery on our kitchen table!

Happy Birthday Ellie Anne!

We had a little birthday party on Saturday for Ellie. She and I sat down one evening over Christmas break and Ellie came up with a theme (A Castle Pajama Party -- "so it's fun for boys and girls" ), and we made a list of possible activities. A few days before the party, we narrowed down our activity list and Ellie made me a shopping list. When I realized the day before that I hadn't done much preparation, I was a bit worried till I reviewed my list and remembered everything was pretty low key  (Which turned out to be an extra good thing, because Jordan got sick the morning of the party so I was on my own to make things work!)

Don't eat Pete, a cup castle contest, cookies on a string, and a lava jumping (long jump) contest, a homemade piñata (which Ellie saved an oatmeal container especially  for a few weeks early) and some cake and ice cream and Ellie and her friends had a happy time!

Ellie at seven years old: 

Favorite foods: Kitkats (but no plain chocolate), Chick-fil-a sandwiches (but no other sandwiches), cookie dough ice cream

Favorite colors: yellow, then purple, and blue is great to use because it always makes all the other colors next to it look good. 

When she grows up, she wants to be: A scientist (who will do projects and experiments for people when they want to figure something out), and an art teacher (with an art studio right at her house), and a mom. 

a few little pregnancy thoughts

and a cute baby Ellie just because

When I was pregnant with Landon, I remember thinking I'd just tell my friends at work when I started to show, probably around 3 months or so. But then that time came and went and 4 months came and went and 5 months was approaching (or  somewhere in there, I can't remember exactly) and I was still snapping up my favorite jeans...when thankfully my best friend let the secret slip and then I could stop worrying about when the right time would be :)

After that experience, with every following pregnancy, I was sure in the first few months that I must be having twins because my tummy was growing so quickly! And for the first three months of each pregnancy, I just had this constant worry getting dressed every day of "oh dear, this makes me look pregnant!"

Until this pregnancy (at last, hooray!) Somewhere in the post baby-weight time after Porter was born (a time which also stretched out significantly with each baby), I finally found some better clothes to wear! Clothes that didn't make me stress about whether I still looked pregnant when my baby was x number of months/years old. Clothes that helped me settle into the important truths I'd found and was working to remember. 

I can't remember getting dressed one morning in the last 16 weeks and feeling any concern about looking pregnant. If the thought crossed my mind, it was immediately followed by the happy conclusion - "I am pregnant! How wonderful!" My jeans have gotten a little snugger along the way and I grabbed a hair tie for the top button on my favorite pair last week. And I've happily worn my favorite sweatshirts and pullovers through these winter months. 

And yesterday as we bundled up for snow shoeing and I had my snug under-layers on I looked in the mirror and saw that I really did look pregnant. And I was so excited that I went out and showed the kids - look how my belly is growing!

What a happy feeling. I hadn't stopped to think about all this so much, but what a blessing it has been to just be happy and content with my body these past few months and not have all that extra worry and concern that I carried with me along with my other tiny growing babies. 

just a lot

just for fun, brothers + blanket fort

whoosh. This has been an intense January.

A few days ago, one of us (I'll protect our identity here :) was pulling out of the garage for a meeting and suddenly there was a loud crashing sound... and a broken garage door. (At least it was just the bottom of the door that hadn't made it open quite yet, not the whole door crashed through, that's good right?)

I think it was a bit of a 'hey guys, maybe you're spreading yourselves a little thin?" message. But we've kept on and our efforts to resolve the problem so far have been working hard each time we come and go to get the buttons just right and hopefully get the door at least mostly closed.

You always hear the advice not to spend too much time looking forward to some future time when things will be happier/calmer/better... but truly I think Jordan and I will both just be breathing a little easier in a few more weeks when things are settled a bit more!

cooking

Last week's homemade mac&cheese by Ellie 

Week 2 of my new try-new-recipes goal has been a fun success.

We made molasses bread (fine, but made delicious with a neighbor's cider cinnamon spread). I'm new enough to making homemade breads that I thought I'd timed all the rising/etc.  to be ready for an after school snack, but instead we had it for a just before dinner snack. Also, I think because our kitchen is a bit cold maybe it didn't rise as much as it should have? Maybe I'll try again sometime if we get through the 2 extra loaves now in the freezer :)

Last night I made this indian butter chicken.  (I don't know what the difference is between 'butter chicken' and 'chicken masala' or ' chicken tikka masala'... but this tasted just like my favorite chicken tikka masala from our favorite  Indian restaurant here in Logan) It was great! This was another one I wasn't so sure if I'd like, and I was pretty sure the kids wouldn't eat. But I thought it was super, and the kids even liked it a bit too -- hooray! Jordan and I had the leftovers today for lunch piled with shredded cabbage (me) and lots of other veggies too for Jordan. I also made this Indian flat bread, which was not awesome. We ate it, but it was not so great -- definitely a new recipe next time.

And last weekend Ellie tried out her new kids cookbook with homemade macaroni and cheese. I'd love to find a really fantastic mac&cheese recipe to add to our dinner rotations this year. This was fine (and very fun to help Ellie!) but we all decided that we need to keep searching for a favorite.