This Week

• In t-ball, the coaches started pitching to the kids in the third inning and Emma nailed it!

• In preschool, more art has been coming home than ever before. It's been a lot of easel painting but also a lot of drawing, asking the teacher to label it, and also things like stamping and stickers. It gives me hope that Grant's memory box will be as full as Emma's eventually.

• Yesterday I learned that I can't pop open the bathroom door with a bobbypin when Grant locks the door, then sits down to poop and refuses to open the door because he doesn't want to get poop on the floor. I found myself wishing I had an icepick while at the same time wondering who has icepicks in their house anymore.

• I had my first work vs. school activity conflict today and work had to win this time. School activity wins next week. It's a constant balancing act.

No Disney for dinner

Grant: Ew I don't want Pinocchio for dinner.

Me:  It's gnocchi Grant, gnocchi.

I need a wife

I'm leaving in a few short hours to go to the snow for the Women's Retreat through church. To prepare to be gone for the weekend, I've loaded and run the dishwasher, put dinner in the crock pot, stocked the frig with easy to cook foods, set the checking account to pay a few bills online, washed Emma's laundry so her uniform is clean for her t-ball game tomorrow, and taken the kids to the library for new books. I've also packed for myself, including spa products and snacks for my friends.

When Hubs goes out of town for a weekend, he packs for himself.

Note to self

Both kids in the dressing room with me means the entire dressing room area will get quite a commentary on my underwear, it's pattern, colors, and if said colors are particular favorites of the loud mouths in the dressing room with me.

Giving crayons a new life

After cleaning the art supplies section of the closet for the umpteenth time, I realized we have a ridiculous amount of broken crayons. Add that to the recipe Emma got at church a few months ago, and we had an afternoon project!

What you'll need:

a muffin pan sprayed with non stick spray and lots of broken crayons (burnt on muffin remnants you can't scrub off no matter how long you let it soak is optional)



Preheat oven to 200 degrees and put the pieces into the muffin pan. I chose a mini muffin muffin pan because I'm emotionally attached to my regular muffin pan and didn't want to risk sacrificing it to the crayon gods. No muffin pans were harmed in the making of this fun craft.



Bake for 9-10 minutes.



Then let them cool for 1 hour. We popped ours in the oven before resting time so they could cool during resting time.



Pop them out of the pan and enjoy!!

Aren't we pretty?

Homemade hummus

I just made my first batch of hummus and it's pretty good! I added a bit more garlic and bean liquid than the recipe called for, and I used sea salt instead of regular salt. Oh, and I didn't use the cumin because the smell grosses me out and I didn't have any, because the smell grosses me out. It made a huge batch, so if you aren't sure how you feel about hummus, maybe half the recipe. I got some tips from friends that I'm going to try next time, things like sauteing the garlic in olive oil first, adding cayenne, or adding soy sauce for a weird salt flavor. My overall plan is to perfect a sun dried tomato hummus recipe so I can stop single handedly keeping our local Trader Joe's in business.

How's that plant growing?

Remember that seed/ paper pulp disc we tried to plant over Spring Break but needed to soak? We finally got it planted, in between antibiotic doses and Disney movies.

Soak seed/ paper pulp, soak


Planted and ready to grow



Almost 2 weeks later. No change. Maybe by next spring?

Skiing, take two

After the disaster that was my birthday ski trip, Dad and I tried again today. We went to the same resort, partly to use my free rental voucher, and partly because he wanted to get a season pass for next year.

Determined to get fitted with correct boots, boot fitter guy and I went through 3 pairs of boots before finding a pair that fit correctly. Ski fitter guy asked me if I wanted demo skis and I almost said "Duh!" but really said "Yes!". So I had boots that fit and smoking rad skis.

And I skied my little heart out. It was an incredible day on the snow - not because the snow was great (it was a little heavy) but because the company was great, the weather was great, and my equipment was great. Any concerns that had been lingering about my skiing abilities after last month we gone as I glided down run after run.

Dad and I made a plan for the whole family to spend a long weekend together next winter so my kids and Hubs can get some lessons under their belts while my brother, dad and I ski, and my mom and niece have snow ball fights and make snow angels. We've named it Weekend 2.5.1. Short for 2 grays, 5 reds, and a brown.

Whew, that still makes me laugh out loud.

It didn't get much better

Spring Break didn't get much better. After two doctor trips over the weekend (one for each kid), we added one more doctor visit for Emma and one barfing episode on Tuesday night by Grant. I finally made it to work yesterday when my mom offered to come over and care for the still recovering kids. Basically, it's been a week of antibiotics, whining, and Disney movies.

We did however, finally get the garden stone painted and properly glittered.



And Grant did a lot of this



Tomorrow is the Easter Egg Hunt at church, and it's suppose to pour down rain. That should be be rad.