Date night suggestions?

Matt and I get a date night this Friday night!!!!

My girlfriends and I have recently organized a babysitting swap service. Since we don't have family in the area and we can't afford babysitters Matt and I very rarely get date nights.

Through our swapping system we'll watch each other's kiddos for credit and then cash in for some much-needed couple time. A win-win situation for all of us!

Our date night is approaching fast and Matt and I still don't have a gameplan. We hoped to go putt-putt golfing but the weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms. We'll most likely eat dinner at home with the kids and then sneak away for 3-4 hours.

We're thinking a movie and then maybe dessert somewhere. Any recommendations for movies? I am so out of touch with movies that I don't know what's playing besides Wolverine. Which we might end up seeing. :) Romantic, eh? We're weird that way. We like a good action-packed movie if we're going to shell out the money to see a flick on the big screen.

Any other suggestions for an on-the-cheap date?

A love hate relationship

I admit it. I have a love hate relationship with my kitchen. Tonight I'm verging on hate . . .

After the kids went down this afternoon I embarked on a marathon cooking spree. In 3 hours I whipped up peanut butter cheesecake brownie babies (for a pal's bday treat), honey mustard oatmeal bread, spinach cheese rice, spinach feta pie (for dinner tomorrow night), and now a turkey is roasting. Most of those entrees are for a needy friend's family. I volunteered to make a meal for them this week.

I truly enjoy cooking and experimenting with new recipes. Usually I thrive on the challenge of creating a weekly menu that's within our limited budget, maximizes fresh produce, provides the nutrients we need, and is tasty and appealing to all. And I'm learning that's a very tricky thing to do.

But tonight after hours of coordinating dishes, preparing ingredients, washing dirty bowls, and reading recipe instructions I'm beat.

My husband took one look at the messy kitchen (despite my efforts to continually keep washing dishes the dirty pots and pans inevitably conquered my counter space) and said, "Let's order pizza tonight." I love my husband. :)

What recipes have you enjoyed cooking and eating lately?

Some silly questions

My frazzled brain has been going in several directions lately. (I have a feeling that's the new normal for my thinking patterns. My reading habits are following suit. I have 4 books going right now and I hop from one to another during my nightly reading time.) Blog post ideas often pop into my head but then they just as quickly pop out again. :)

Instead of the usual blog post, I feel like asking you some random life questions. Just an informal query on what you all do, think, and live to satisfy my strange and curious mind.

1. Does everyone have a Wii but me? What's the big deal with those contraptions? I've never even seen one but I hear about them constantly.
   
2. How in the world do you cook with tomatillos? I tried and failed disastrously this week.
3. What food is your personal weakness? Mine is without a doubt cheese. I must eat it daily.
   
4. Do you paint your toenails?
5. HOW do you make time for mending?!? I have an immense mountain (not merely a pile) of small mending projects that are just not getting done.
   

All right, I've ignored my chattering son long enough so that's all the questions you get. I look forward to reading your answers, dear blogging friends!

Chloe at "school"

It really is astonishing to see the natural leanings and tendencies these children of ours possess. Chloe is extremely into drawing, imagining, singing, and telling stories. Clive is extraordinarily social, curious, destructive and mechanical. Maybe he'll grow up and operate a wrecking ball. :)

Chloe has a myriad of pretending games in which she plays various roles. "Mary" is a popular character for mimic at our house. At Christmas time Chloe donned a towel on her head and stuffed a pillow under her shirt to travel to Bethlehem. More recently she played Mary weeping at the empty tomb of Jesus. Sometimes she is Mary who had a little lamb and brings her pet to school. I think in her 3 year old mind Mary is all of those characters wrapped into one. :)

Other pretending scenarios have come and gone. Rescuing animals ala WonderPets style; planting and tending her garden; getting married and caring for babies; and playing Snow White in which she enlists me as her housekeeper (ironic, isn't it?) are all options in Chloe's pretending games.

By far though, her favorite imagining game involves school and teaching. When we came across an old-school metal desk at a yard sale this weekend I KNEW we had to have it. The new desk has jumpstarted Chloe's motivation! I had begun a simple phonics program with Chloe last fall but quickly backed off when I saw her love for learning turn sour. At the time it was obvious I was putting too much pressure on her.

But now the desk has worked some learning magic! Chloe sat at her desk and did workbook pages all afternoon! I simply read the instructions on each page to her and then gave her time to work. We are whizzing through that preschool workbook! And yesterday she uncharacteristically let Clive sit in her desk so she could be the teacher. (See video below - be sure to notice how the inattentive student tries to eat the crayon.)

In her unique cute way, Chloe reminded me when she'd had enough. After several workbook pages that involved tracing and writing numbers (a difficult task for her motor skills) she flipped the page to see yet another section of tracing. She looked at the page, looked back at me and then . . .

"Ding-a-ling-a-ling!" Chloe chimed loudly.
"What's that?" I asked quizically.
"School's over! Time for lunch!" Chloe replied and hopped down from the desk.




What tools and tricks get your kids excited about learning?

Happy birthday, Shauna!

I'm feeling rather old today. Today my little sister turns 30!

Happy Happy Birthday, Shauna!

My sister lives in one of the most beautiful places on earth - New Zealand. But right now I'm wishing she were stateside so we could celebrate with her. I'd give her 30 spankings. Followed by 30 loving sisterly hugs. And then 30 pinches in the rear. :)

In honor of your milestone, Shauna, I've made a list of 30 traits and memories of you that I love. (These are not in order of priority. They just popped into my frazzled brain in this weird order.)

1. Your spunkiness
2. Watching Back to the Future II with you over and over and over again (MUCK-FRY!). That will always be my favorite one in the trilogy because of the fun times we had watching that together.
3. Your infectious laugh
4. How you go out of your way to get to know Matt and include him wholly in our family.
5. Your thoughtfulness of others
6. Your silly blow-fish face
7. Watching you shine as the witch in Into the Woods. You stole the show!
8. Your hard work ethic
9. Playing cribbage with you and grandpa
10. Your crafty creative spark
11. Your willingness to play with Chloe & Clive and throw them around like monkeys
12. Your ability to look cute in ANYTHING you put on - especially hats (I'm more than a little envious of that one)
13. Thrift-store shopping at Value Village with you for hours on end
14. Your creative and adventurous cooking
15. Enjoying crumbled blue cheese over sour cream on a crisp salad with you. Where in the world did we cultivate a taste for blue cheese?!
16. Your acceptance and respect for our family and home
17. Jumping out to surprise you at the Auckland airport. The look on your face was priceless!
18. Singing with you in high-school musicals. Being in the barbershop with you in Music Man is my favorite musical memory. We kept those harmonies tight.
19. Your mad carpenter-skillz (Do you know how many people compliment the pedastals you made for us when they walk in our home?!?)
20. The time you got mad at me for something and you put all the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of our room but purposely left the quadrant above my bed empty. Ha!
21. Cooking and making guacamole with you
22. Watching the LOTR trilogy with bonus features on my teensy weensy tv. Yikes, that was torturous but fun. :)
23. Hearing you sing I Dreamed a Dream while I accompanied you on the piano
24. Doing a DIY wedding with you - thanks for your work on the bridesmaids' necklaces, my tiara thing, and the invites. You were a splendid maid of honor. You almost upstaged me. Good thing I had my faux tan to keep me looking cute. :)
25. Clothes-swaps in college. I vividly remember the mountains of clothes in our room and Aaron prodding us to wrestle.
26. Your travel guiding and planning ability (Our NZ vacation was incredible! I still can't believe how many sights we saw in such a short amount of time.)
27. Jumping on the bed with you to Green Day music
28. Soaking up the sun together with ma on our graduation cruise. Ahhh. Though I should have listened to you and worn sunscreen. My face is paying the price today.
29. Your extreme list-making and organization (Do you still make lists of lists?)
30. Your genuineness and honesty

Love you, Shauna and happy birthday. Welcome to the next age bracket! :)

New car for Chloe?

Chloe has been progressively waking up earlier as the sun shows it's cheery face earlier in these spring mornings.

Since both Matt and I like to get up before the kids (he's way more consistent about that than I am - I blame that on my thyroiditis but it could just as easily be my laziness) we NEED Chloe to stay put until at least 7:30 to make the most of the morning time.

Matt came up with the brilliant idea of getting Chloe her own alarm clock. He set the alarm for 7:30 and until she hears that alarm bell she is not allowed to get out of bed.

I was skeptical at first but we are talking about Chloe here and not your average preschooler. Chloe is the girl who didn't realize she COULD get out of bed without permission until she was 3 years old. (Don't worry, I'm positive Clive will make up for his sister in that area.)

This morning the alarm-clock-method worked perfectly! Just like clockwork (sorry, couldn't resist the pun) I heard Chloe wake up near 7 and then she talked and sang until the alarm rang. Then she hopped out of bed and came downstairs.

As Matt left for school yesterday he told Chloe that he was going to buy her a special mystery gift.

Chloe: "What gift will you buy me, Daddy?"
Matt: "It's a surprise! Here's a hint. It goes 'beep, beep, beep!'"
Chloe: (after thinking a while) "A new car for me, Daddy?"

I don't think so. :)

How do you regulate your kids' waking times?

We made it!

Whew! Today was quite a busy day for our little family. Believe it or not I only got two photos of our adorable Easter-dudded darlings this morning. (Don't worry ma, I'm going to dress them up again and do an Easter reshoot.) Both the kids looked extra sweet this morning and the nursery workers uttered a unified "Awwww" when they saw Clive in his blue striped tie and pants.

As we scrambled to get out the door this morning on time I thought to myself, "No biggie. I can snap their pictures after church." No way that was happening! Our church was bursting at the seams today and we made a mad dash for the car after picking Clive up from nursery.

The title of this post refers to our endeavors with Chloe in church this morning. I expected our church worship service to be exceptional this morning as they planned a full orchestra, choir, and special soloists (the Gettys) to celebrate Resurrection Sunday. I REALLY wanted Chloe to experience the special music so we let her sit in the service with us. I prepped her with what to expect and we even practiced the Getty Easter hymn See, What a Morning for the past two weeks so she would be able to sing along. Chloe did fine through the singing and even the first 20 minutes of preaching. Then she got restless. But she made it through!

How many of you keep your kids with you through the service?

Our pastor did a great job this morning addressing the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. He pointed out that there is an abundance of historical, rational and empirical evidence showing that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. But, our pastor noted, the radical change in the disciples' lives affirm that Jesus was truly who He claimed to be. They began as confused cowards and became bold proclaimers of Jesus. (Pastor Begg said it way better than I'm summarizing here and honestly I didn't hear that much since I was focused on keeping Chloe occupied and quiet.)

I invite you to listen to our service this morning via this link. The music was stirring and the atmosphere was joyful as we celebrated the hope we have in Jesus!

A happy happy Easter to all of you!

Egg-stravaganza

I got a bit snap-happy today as the kids hunted for Easter eggs. There's just something indescribably adorable about little ones discovering eggs and I delightfully strove to capture their cuteness on camera.

After a yummy breakfast of pancakes (you have GOT to try this overnight pancake recipe), sausage, and fruit Matt sneaked outside to hide eggs in our yard. Matt excels at hiding things creatively and did a smashing job making the kids really search for their eggs.

As in everything Chloe and Clive approach things from completely different perspectives. At first Clive excitedly grabbed the eggs and put them in his purple basket. After three eggs, that got old. He then decided the eggs looked very much like balls and wanted to be thrown. And then he stepped on his eggs. What a BOY.

Chloe enthusiastically galloped around the yard looking and snatching up eggs. She ran as fast her little legs could carry her towards egg after egg. Apparently she was too excited to notice that she wasn't competing with anyone else for the treasured eggs. :)

The cutest part was when she found the one egg I had purposely left empty. We've been listening to the cd A Very Veggie Easter all week and doing lots of other Easter teaching activities so she knows exactly what that empty egg signifies. She opened it and cried out, "Mommy, look! He is not here, he has risen!"

Then after lunch Chloe and I ventured out to our city's annual Easter egg hunt at a local park. What mayhem! I've never been to a community egg hunt before and though it was well organized the zillions of kids present made me dizzy. Thankfully there was a fantastic (if not crowded) playground nearby where we could play a bit before the egg hunt began.

So misleading to call it an egg hunt. More like an egg free-for-all. They split up the age groups by year and then drew a large circle in an open field. When the announcer said go, the three year olds all clamored inside the circle to pick up the goodies. In a matter of seconds all the Easter loot was collected by grabby preschoolers. Surprisingly, no one was injured and Chloe gathered a good haul of candy.

Because of the egg-stra excitement today and added sugar intake Chloe didn't nap this afternoon. And this mama is TIRED out. I'm off to bed early so I can be prepared for the big celebration tomorrow. Don't want to be left with egg on my face. I'm no spring chicken you know. :)

(Sorry, the more tired I get the funnier dumb puns seem to be.)

Thoughts for your Good Friday

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. - 1 John 4:10 [NASB]

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory




Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

How Deep the Fathers Love for Us - Fernando Ortega

A big huge chocolate bunny

We're not normally big on candy in Easter baskets but this year Chloe is getting a humongous chocolate bunny thanks to her mad coloring skills! This is the SECOND year Chloe has taken home the big prize in the world-renowned Discount DrugMart Easter coloring contest.

Discount DrugMart is literally around the corner from our home. We walk there several times a week and as my mom says, we spend our money there to help stimulate the economy and support local business. :) We know the DrugMart worker ladies by name and they in turn have enjoyed watching both Chloe and Clive grow.

Apparently the judges really liked the green sun Chloe drew in the background. :) I was impressed that she wrote her name so nicely at the bottom of the page and that she stayed in the lines so well.

The DrugMart ladies assured me they covered up all the names so they would choose fairly. But those ladies sure were excited that they had chosen Chloe's picture to win! They were all giddy when we went to retrieve the chocolate rabbit. Several workers came to congratulate Chloe and offered compliments on her superb coloring. They even had Chloe pose with her bunny for a digital photo shoot. What fun!

Back in 2007 Chloe won the same Easter coloring contest as a mere 19 month old. It does NOT seem like two whole years ago that I blogged about her 2007 coloring win. Look how my baby has changed!

Edible arrangement

Yesterday I received this cool looking edible arrangement from two thankful instructors I work with in my online job. Isn't it yummy looking?

As all of us love fruit (who doesn't?) I'm sure we'll devour this basket of skewered fruit quickly. The bonus in the arrangement was the two chocolate covered pineapple bunnies nestled inside. YUM! I never would have guessed chocolate + pineapple would be such a delicious combination!

Have you ever received an edible arrangement or cookie bouquet? I have no clue how much these fruity concoctions cost but I sure feel like a special gal for receiving one!

My poor tulips!

In northeast Ohio it has been SNOWING all day long!

It's actually been a lovely snow. Big wet flakes have fluttered down gently (but steadily) and covering everything in pristine whiteness. And of course Chloe is pumped about some unexpected snow playing time.

But my poor tulips just popped their heads through the soil yesterday! Pobrecitos!*

My gardener friend extraordinaire assured me the tulips should be fine as long as the flowers are still low to the ground. We also have some hyacinths that are sadly bent over from the weight of the recent snowfall. They were a beautiful vibrant blue while they lasted!

I'm hoping our front-yard flower bed will bounce back from this inclement weather. Slowly we've been adding perennials to our property. We began with 40 tulip bulbs in the front and now we also have a few lilies, parrot tulips, hyacinths, gladioloas, irises, a fledgling peony bush, and mums. We are ALL about perennials because of their low maintenance.

Are you experiencing springtime snow too? What flowers/plants do you grow?





*Pobrecitos means poor little ones in Spanish in case you were wondering. :)

What is it about white shoes on Easter Sunday?

I have been horribly delinquent in my blogging of late. And I feel like I always begin my posts by apologizing for that delinquency . . . SO I make a pledge to you (and myself) that I will post every day this week. Yup, you heard right. One post each day for the next seven days. I hope I can live up to my own challenge!

As Easter Sunday rapidly approaches, I've found myself getting nervous about Chloe's shoes. Her dress and Clive's outfit have been planned for awhile now but the shoes were the one missing facet. What is it about Easter Sunday that says little girls MUST wear white shoes? As I picture Chloe in her lavender Easter dress I can't imagine her wearing any shoes other than white. Black or brown does not compute.

Breezing through the Target shoe aisles I was unimpressed with their selection and value in white shoes. The cheapest shoes I found were $9 and had a 1/2 inch heel. C'mon! My dear Chloe is already so tall and oft-times awkward she certainly doesn't need a heel to induce more tripping (wait until you see the injuries she acquired when she tripped during a recent park outing).

This deep-seated cheapskate gene in me will not allow me to spend $9 on shoes. I can't do it. The old wisdom rings true in Chloe's case; why buy expensive shoes when you know she'll outgrow them in a few mere months?

Tonight I decided to make one last attempt at finding the elusive white shoes. I swung by my local thrift store and lo and behold -- $4 white shoes!!! And they're only a 1/2 size bigger than what Chloe wears now so I know they'll last us through the summer. YAY!

I'm definitely not as gung-ho about white for boys (Clive will sport his brown loafers on Sunday). What's your take on the whole white shoe thing?