My new breakfast

I'm in love. Seriously. I love breakfast, and I have a new breakfast love.




Don't judge it by it's green color. As Kermit the Frog reminds us, it's not easy being green. But it's easy to drink this scrumptious thing every day. Even the kids like it. And ask for more.

Thanks to a blog my brother told me about, I'm buying spinach by the pound now.

Here's the simple recipe:

2 cups fresh spinach (don't freak, you won't taste it at all)
1 cup milk (cow, almond, rice, soy, etc.)
1 banana
1 TBSP flax seed
a bunch of frozen fruit of your choice (I love strawberry, the kids ask for blueberry)

Whirl it all up in the blender, then enjoy. It's delicious and I find myself craving it in the morning now. And really, if the kids love it, you will too.

Don't judge a princess by her sparkly shoes

She skips through life, humming her favorite song, enjoying the clickety click her sparkly shoes make on the floor. She twirls around in the dresses or skirts she insists on wearing most days. Her favorite colors have been pink, purple, and red for over 3 years now. She shuns the white socks for the pink ones, she thinks the more dress up bling the better, she spends the day in her Belle dress, her Strawberry Shortcake headband is her current favorite. She squeals with delight at anything Disney Princess, she squeals when excited, she squeals just because it's fun to squeal. Her life's ambition, she'll tell you if you ask, is to simply be a Princess when she grows up. And that's been the plan for 3 years now.

She bops into basketball practice with her ponytail swinging, her pink Tinkerbell ribbon fastened tightly. She's the only girl on her team, the only one doing some dance steps during breaks, the only one whose shoulders slump when she discovers the team t-shirt is the dreaded, boring gray.

On game day, she decides pink socks would be best, chooses turquoise clips to hold back the frizzy hairs that escape her braids, and is the only one in a pink poncho when the team gathers around the coach.

The game is about to start, the coach decides to start her, and we shout out "Goooo EMMA!" She beams, does a little skip to get to the middle of the court, and the whistle blows to start the game. She takes off after the person she's suppose to be guarding. She switches between offense and defense, running to stay with the plays. She dives to the ground to catch a loose ball, she bats at the ball in her opponent's hand, she elbows other kids to keep them from doing the same to her. The assistant coach comments "She's a scrappy one, isn't she?" and several other parents comment on her ability to "hang with the boys".

After the game, she dons her pink poncho, sips her chocolate milk at Panera with her pinky up a little, and squeals with the anticipation of her friend opening her Polly Pockets gift at the birthday party this afternoon. She laments not being able to wear a dress since it's at the local gymnastics place. She discusses her Ariel birthday party in 7 months.

Princess, athlete, Emma.

What I've learned this week

1) Grant's toybox, when emptied, can double as a pretend bathtub. And it's more fun to pretend to be in the bath if he's completely naked during resting time.

2) Hubs is as committed to raising a self confident girl as I am as evidenced by his views on why Emma should play baseball t-ball instead if softball t-ball. And I quote "I want her to know that she can do anything a boy can do".

3) Grant's views on Hub's eyebrows:

Grant: Me touch your eyebrows?
Hubs: Sure
Grant: Oooo....them furry. Like bears.

4) Emma thinks she's a real life princess. We actually had an argument about it.

5) Changing our phone plan to include unlimited texting can be quite freeing.

6) Mig is a word. I don't know what it means, but my Scrabble app let me play it. And as I'm sure you know, what you read online must be true.

You can thank me in gift cards

I wore this cute black dress to church yesterday paired with some new jewelry from Christmas and I got so many compliments on it I had to pass it's wonderfulness along! The secret to the dress? The slimming skirt inside. It holds everything where it should be, rather than where it might be. The result is an awesome looking dress!

The love affair continues

I just finished updating my momAgenda mini planner in lime. Love it. I'm considering getting the desktop planner, even though I don't really need it, just because I love them so much. And they're on sale.

Winter Break

I expected to be over everyone by now and ready for Hubs to go back to work and the kids back to school.

But I'm actually enjoying the calmer mornings. We're cooking a hot breakfast most mornings (I'm perfecting my new waffle maker from the kids), I'm drinking my coffee leisurely, we've got plenty if time to read stories or build with the train set. And the kids are getting along better than I could have imagined.

I'm actually a little sad to see the break come to an end.

Our New Year's Dinner

In what I hope becomes our newest family tradition, we had cheese fondue for dinner. We brought Emma's blue table into the living room and sat on her stools so everyone could easily reach the fondue pot. The kids did great dipping their apples and bread, and everyone agreed it would be a great meal to have every year on Jan. 1. Emma even talked Hubs and my brother into having chocolate fondue for their birthday dessert when we all get together next week.

To add to the fun that was Family Fondue, the polka dot fondue pot was my parent's. They got it for their wedding, 36 years ago!