Going with the flow

There has been a wave of people that we know getting 'pixie' cuts. Well, not to be outdone, ever the stylish L went for her own today.



She asked for it yesterday but we had planned a picnic today so we went before the picnic after going to Trader Joe's for extra snacks, "just in case mama"
L planned the whole picnic, even making and packing sandwiches, baby carrots, and cashews in the new bags that she picked out of the dollar section at Target.



Here's the birds smothering the sandwich triangle of almond butter and honey that C gave them....

A Four Year Old's Perspective

L: Meemaw's Gam died right mama?
Me: Yeah, she did.
L: and Meemaw was sad?
Me: Yeah, that was her mama.
L: Is she in heaven?
Me: Yeah
L: That is sad because then we won't see her anymore so she will be sad.
Me: Yeah, but she is happy there and she's not sick anymore.
(After thinking a little bit...)
L: Do they have chocolate milk there? Cuz, that would make her happy!

Later, obviously still thinking about it:
L: I know a god way to get to heaven.
Me: How's that?
L: Someone can have a kite and you could get on it and then they could let you go high and then let go. Is that a good deal?
Me: Sounds awesome
L: Then you could go to heaven at the park!

wordley doo

I have had THREE different people pass this on to me now and I finally decided to try it out.
Pretty cool stuff. I couldn't decide which I thought was better so I put my 3 favorite down there.



Click on it to see it better.









And then do your own and just for fun, link me to it in the comments!! I can't WAIT to see yours!
Here is the website:
"Wordle"

Full Circle

On October 29, 2006, my son was born in a blow up fishy pool in our bedroom.

C's first time in the pool: (with L looking on)

Recently I came across a post about something completely different and the blogger had her birth pool on top of her trampoline--which is where mine ended up after C was born and we had sanitized it. It sat in the hot desert sun for a week to make sure it was clean and then it was deflated and put away.

Being as it is over 100 degrees most days here right now, we do a lot of swimming. We typically go to a pool in our community as we can walk to one and bike to another.
I thought, "Why not just swim at home some days?"
We do have a smaller, shallower plastic pool to use but I have not been filling it due to mosquitoes.
(There were a good number of bites on the boy after a night in our bedroom with a stray bug flying around)
Normally there are not mosquitoes here much but we are in the height of monsoon season.
Both children were game, so we pumped up the pool and filled it with water. Oh the fun we had! We have passed on our trampoline so it rested right in the yard.

C and L's second time in the pool:



We drained it onto the grass at one end and tomorrow we will drain it onto grass at the other end. We pulled buckets of water out first to water our small garden.

Very Berry

Today was my first juice since I got home.
I had a huge basket of organic veggies from the weekend Bountiful Basket and my friend Amy brought it over last night.
L grabbed a plum out and ate it immediately.

Today for my juice, I tossed in

• 3 plums
• 6-7 strawberries
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 C rice milk

It had a very distinctive reddish plum color to it. YummY!!

A bunch of chicks, a batch of kids and a place to sleep...

We are back from the Rim Country!

Well, the weekend away has ended and we are all safely home. The kids were full of stories for Daddy and were very tired last night. (So was Mommy!) After unloading the car, starting the enormous pile of laundry and bathing the above children, we settled in to look at all of the photos. And what a lot there were!
I've chosen a few that capture the time we spent:

On a quiet road we stayed:


The Mamas:



Exploring the forest:


Done for the day:


Every kid needs a creek:


I think we will be laying low for a few days for now.
The kids are definitely worn out, but in a good way!

"The Rim"

Today, I struck out on my own with my two kiddos and we got a great view of "Rim country" We trekked up to Woods Canyon Lake and watched a bunch of people swimming, boating and fishing.

We then took a little hike around the edge of the Mogollon Rim, admiring the view and then took a relaxing ride back through some small towns to our cabin.

The kids got some much needed rest also while we were driving.

It was the first time that either of them had seen the actual edge. L was up here last weekend actually camping in the rain.

There's a wocket in my pocket!

Today, I am tired from a night of struggling sleep (which has mysteriously NOT affected C and L even though it was THEIR struggles..)

So, I am turning over some commentary to another mother.

In a cabin, in the woods:

• "My underwear is too big but that's ok because I can get some air"



• "Oh Darn it, it's light out and now I have to go inside to pee"



• "Is there a wocket in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"



• "Snort"



• "Is pretty much everybody around here a liberal Democrat?"



• "Karen, what the hell are you doing on the computer...am I still logged on?"

We're trying to plan a possible little trip to Tonto Natural Bridge today. We think the kids might enjoy it. So that might be in the works today.

No one has left under the cover of darkness in a huff, scattering foodstuff and dirty clothes AND no one has seriously injured (physically or emotionally) another, SO I think we're doing pretty good.

And ... we're here

MOST of us anyway (Shout out to Ann and her new boy!)



After a beautiful drive up and an easy check in (Keys under the mat), we're enjoying the great weather (76 degrees right now!)





We've had our first communal meal and our first communal walk and our first communal bedtime is upon us.



I will not have photos due to my laptop not connecting here though. There will be a buttload of them though...

Ahh, the feeling of not having to worry about anyone burning their feet on the ground.

Less than 24hr and counting...

.....until the cool mountain breeze blowing through the pines is kissing my skin...

Planes, Trains and Hammock Chairs!

We have been enjoying our lazy crazy summer days around here. There have been some peaceful play times and some not so peaceful play times.

This is one of the peaceful ones:


When we bought that train set for L a few years ago, we didn't know we were going to end up with a boy who liked "tains" so much.


He loves playing with his sister.

Also, yesterday during a Goodwill visit, I snapped up this comfy number



We are ALL enjoying this one.

Amy thinks it will be hers some day.
She may be sadly mistaken....

Maintaining veganism

Today's blend:

• 1 C carrots
• 1 mango
  
• 1 plum
• 1 nectarine
• 1/4 C honey
• 1 C rice milk

It was a pleasant yellow orange color and had a great taste. I have managed to sneak veggies into the kids every day with the latest concoctions.
This weekend my veggie basket included:

• 10 tomatoes
• 7 nectarines
• 3 pears
• 6 bananas
• 2 bunches of cilantro
• 7 potatoes
• 8 carrots
• 4 red onions
• 1 honeydew
• 4 pickling cukes
• about 5-7 plums
• 1 head of butter lettuce

So I have decided to make pasta sauce for our trip since I am cooking communal spaghetti one night. I chopped up some potatoes and served them sauteed with onion and cilantro along side a veggie burger from Meatless Burgers



The burger in question (and in the photo) is the Hearty Tofu Burger and it has onion, garlic, almond butter, Braggs, balsamic vinegar and tofu in it. I subbed in ww flour for the vital wheat gluten though.



C seemed to thouroughly enjoy his dinner and even shared a little with me....

Lunch juice today!

Running late to swimming this AM so made a juice for lunch. Mmmm!
It had the following in it:

• 3 figs (down the street local from a friend)
• 1 pear
• 3 nectarines
• 1 C shredded Zucchini
• honey

I really liked the zucchini taste surprisingly. I think that I will be putting it into more smoothies.
I then went to Sunflower market today and mini-stocked on some fruits and veggies. Yeah! Veggie basket this weekend from bountiful.

5 women; 13 kids; one cabin

Stay tuned....

Happy Birthday Owen!!!

Owen and Daddy...Brand New!!













Today is my nephew Owen's birthday. He is two today. He is such an exciting kid and so 'passionate' about things. I was there with his
older sister, my niece when he was born.

He was 7#7oz born on 7/7 at 8:07pm.

So happy birthday little guy!


Jersey Shore 2007 at a friends house on the beach:




















Easter 2008, hunting eggs

"There's a store with JUST Legos?!"

Sooo, I have this "job" that requires me to visit different local (or chain) establishments and, well, shop there.
I was requested to visit the local Lego store this weekend.
Keep in mind:

1. There's a Lego STORE!?
2. I have not been inside of any mall for at least a few years for any kind of shopping
3. I GAVE AWAY a huge tub of Legos because my daughter didn't really play with them and decided she didn't want them.
4. There's a Lego store?
   

There's a Lego STORE!
So we meandered down there and both kids had a blast! I wish we would have had more time there and a lot more money to spend. I felt a serious case of affluenza
hitting me....

Some highlights included the life sized Indiana Jones made entirely out of legos.
L visited with him for a while.....



















The awesome display of Duplos, almost preventing me from being able to decide for my son.. L chose
for him. He got one of the zoo sets.









There were all of these little port hole sized window top view stuff in at kid eye level. This one is a whole slew of Lego-ites. They were just all lined up in there. There was one of a garden scene, sheep grazing, people watching a movie, some really intricate sports cars and motorcycles.

They were very entertaining.






Another really cool thing about the store was the back wall. It was a whole bunch of portholes that went through to a place behind and each one was filled with different sized, shaped, colored bricks. It was called the Pick A Brick wall. You filled different sized cups with as many as you could fit and still get a lid on and they charged you 7.99 or 14.99 depending on the size.
Our friend, Aaron, helped L pick out a good selection. She was able to find some really eclectic ones.















She made me a little flower display from them.
"Here Mom, these are on a patio. You can out them on your window sill so they get sun."
I have them sitting above me as I speak.
Ah, what a fun day. I came home and then searched Craigslist for anyone 'giving away' any Duplos this week.... I'll probably have to watch Freecycle for them. C came home and played with them until bed...

Easy day

Today I just whipped in the blender the following:

• 1 1/2 Cups fresh squeezed OJ
• 1 1/2 Cups rice milk
• couple drops of vanilla
• 5-6 ice cubes

Viola! Almost Orange Julius! It was a nice change from my more full drinks. I was a little tired this AM and we were heading out for a very full day that just ended.
I'll be posting about our various adventures later.

Freedom from boring breakfasts!!

Pre blend jumble...











Today's concoction was

• 1 1/2 Cups rice milk
• 3 kiwis
• 5 peaches
• 1 necterine

I managed to score a bunch (about 12) of organic peaches yesterday for 50cents because they were getting 'soft'. So I made a drink and I am marinating the rest in some citrus for tofu ice cream later!






Mid blend

Cinnamon made it taste so spicy-good!

That was the key today. Cinnamon!
The following were included in today's fare:

• 1 banana
• 1/2 Cup of cantaloupe
  
• 1 Cup of raw soymilk
• 1/2 Cup water
• dash or so of cinnamon
• 1 plum
• honey to taste (again about 1/8-1/4 Cup.

I swore I'd never take pictures of food creations but since I have already crossed that line in a million different ways:



















The kids are always enjoying these too:

What a satisfied pair they are!

Daily Dose of Lovin'

Lately I have been drinking a smoothie/shake/juice/drink every morning. We get a vegetable/fruit basket every week now (organic alternates with regular) and I have been cooking a lot of veggies but also trying to not waste any of them either. Well, that has led me to peruse the Big 'Ol Web in search of recipes.
I discovered that actually all anybody that daily juices/blends/vitamixes really usually just tosses in whatever's there.

SOOO AN IRL friend who I talk with q morning suggested that I post what I am juicing. So I will be doing that starting today. On Saturday's I'll tell you what came in my basket for that week.
This past week was the following:

• green onions
• nectarines
• plums
• cantaloupe
• lettuce
• rainbow chard
• zucchini
• eggplant
• bananas
• kiwi
• grapes

I think that was it.
I also got a 12lb bucket of honey (raw, local honey)











AND someone gave me a bunch of mint there.

My blend of the day today was:

• 2 Cups of raw soymilk
• 1 banana
• 4 kiwis (1/2 skin on)
• 4 mint leaves
• honey (a good amount, maybe bout 1/4 Cup)

Awesome. The mint has really made a difference in a lot of dishes that I have made lately.
So now on to day two tomorrow!

What would the homeowner association say about this?

WHAT an inspiration!
(Of course, maybe we should start a garden out back first...)

Here's an article about the "cultivated yard":
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1816764,00.html

Oh what I wouldn't do to have this front yard.
There were some interesting facts:

1. The average salad travels 1400 mile to your door.
2. They get 6000lbs of vegetables and fruit on 4300 square feet.
3. They cook with a solar oven outside.
4. They live in the burbs of Pasadena CA
   

Fire On The Mountain

Coming back from Austin, we saw what I thought might be a fire in the desert. It was outside of Sierra Vista and this is what we saw:











It was right before sunset and it was a plume of fading sunlight drenched smoke billowing up in an almost motionless pillar. It appeared to be reaching up to the clouds to join with them.
We stopped after that view at a Denny's and the cook, who was outside on a break, told Bryce that they had been watching it for 2 days.
After we left the Denny's and headed home, we were greeted with this view on the other side of the mountain:

The entire mountain was literally on fire. It looked very surreal. We had to stop the car.
I pulled over and we took a few snaps of it but no photo could do it justice.

Living in AZ, we have wildfires every summer and are accustomed to the dropping ash and occasional waft of smoke-tinged air, but this is the closest I have ever been to one. It was pretty incredible looking, the power of nature.















Then the other night, I learned of a fire burning in the west valley and captured these photos from our carport:
This fire was across town from us and yet, the smoke from it was obscuring our view of the sun and dropping white curly ash residue onto our cars.
It was 100% contained 2 days after this was taken. "Percent Containment" is a hot topic among residents when discussing the fire season activity.....














Even L came out and took pics with her Fisher Price camera.
But, sadly, she accidentally deleted them before I could get them downloaded....




L is very excited about sunsets anyway and has enjoyed A LOT of them from this vantage point before. She has perfected the appreciation of one to an art.