Smile, Laugh and Learn

CHICAGO

2011-07-18T14:38:00.004-05:00

David and I extended our travel time around the U2 concert to enjoy the sites of Chicago. I had not been to Chicago since high school so had a much different perspective of the city this go around. Plus, we had great tips from friends on places to see and eat that made our trip even better. This was our first trip away from both boys for a four day getaway...thanks to our parents!!

We enjoyed the beautiful view of the city from the Navy Pier.

You can't leave Chicago without some deep dish pizza (two times in our case)! We grabbed dinner one night with the family of one of David's friends. I am so sad that I didn't get a picture of all of us. I enjoyed finally meeting Pat and his wife, Holly and their three boys. David and he were friends the one year that David went to Butler. (They also went to the U2 concert!!)

Our first day in Chicago we strolled through Grant Park and also Millenium Park seen in the picture above.

A view of the beautiful architecture in Chicago during our architectural boat tour (thanks to all who gave us this tip!).

Another great view of the city from the boat.

We also toured the Art Institute and saw many famous paintings.

Our hotel was in the perfect spot for our stay. We were right on Michigan Avenue and had a beautiful view of the Navy Pier from our top floor window. We actually were able to watch the fourth of July fireworks from our room and didn't have to fight the crowds. It was also an easy walk back from the U2 concert which of course was key. :) Hoping to visit Chicago again...a little sooner than the last time.

U2 Chicago

2011-07-12T21:24:00.005-05:00

The day after the U2 concert in Nashville, David and I headed to Chicago for the next leg of the tour. We are not groupies...I promise! For the two previous concerts, we had tickets for reserved seats. We decided to do General Admission for the Chicago show to try and get a closer experience. However, in order to get this closer experience, we had to give up an entire day of our lives to waiting in line. We arrived at Soldier Field at around 8:45 a.m. on the day of the concert. We were not the first to arrive...ha! We were #523 and #524. Thankfully, we were positioned in the shade so this was the first of many things we were grateful.

We quickly made friends with those around us who were from the varying states of Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky. Each group had a different experience with U2 and a different reason for being there. We came prepared to wait out the day with cards and books but found that the conversations with those around us moved the time more quickly and didn't even need these forms of entertainment. Due to the warm weather, the stadium and U2 were concerned for our well-being and wanted everyone in the shade. So, the first 700+ of us GA's were moved to the inside of the stadium. Here we are inside at our new spot in line.

Three different times we were given "markings" to determine our "place." We were given our "un"official Sharpie # that marked where we were upon arrival in line. We then were given green bracelets to mark that we were general admission ticket holders. The black stamp was given to us for entrance in/out of the inner circle once we made it inside.

We had to choose our spot quickly once we were let onto the field of the stadium. We decided on the back railing of the inside circle so that we could get a full view of the stage, screen and have a level view of the outside ring where all four band members at some point during the concert would walk past us. We also had the bonus of being able to lean against the back railing, which was a life-saver on our backs!!

Here are a few shots during the concert. I had hoped to get better shots but it's difficult when it's dark and they are moving quickly. But I was able to capture the proximity of ourselves to the band.

At then end of one of their songs, it began to sprinkle for just about a minute. However, it was long enough that they put up their umbrellas on stage. How cool are they?!!

The entire day was an incredible experience and worth every minute of the wait! I would do it again....no, I don't have tickets for another show...yet! ha!

U2 Nashville

2011-07-12T21:02:00.003-05:00

David and I are pretty big fans of U2...okay they are my favorite band. We saw them in Atlanta in '09 on this same 360 tour. After that show, all we wanted to do was see them again. So, we bought tickets for their proposed show in Chicago in July '10. Bono hurt his back and all concerts were cancelled for the rest of the year. Our show was rescheduled for July '11. THEN, they announced they were adding a show in Nashville just three days prior to their Chicago show. We couldn't NOT see them in our hometown. :) So here we are at the Nashville show.

We caught dinner with friends before going to the show in Hillsboro Village. It was fun walking from dinner to the concert and seeing so many familiar faces along the way. It seems like almost everyone we knew from Nashville was going to the show.

What a fun night, especially when Bono referred to having dinner the night before with people like Jars of Clay, Amy (Grant), and Michael J. Smith (I will now also refer to Michael W. Smith as Michael J. Smith...if Bono says it, it's TRUTH. :))

construction zone

2011-06-23T14:38:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, the boys eagerly went to a construction playday with other boys from church (despite the temps in the high 90s and no shade in sight!). The boys didn't care that the dirt was dried up and difficult to dig in because what could be more fun than permission to use their big construction trucks and play in dirt and with construction hats!

Asher's good friend Ethan joined in the fun (meanwhile Ethan's sisters were inside in the air conditioning learning ballet).

Thanks to Lucas, the boys played with this really fun excavator!

The older boys made a quick connection that with they could use the water for drinking purposes to make MUD!!

Jonas knew that all construction men needed adequate water breaks while on the job.

Very busy boys working in the construction zone...if they only had cones!

blueberries

2011-06-16T20:59:00.004-05:00

So a couple of years ago, I posted this about blueberry plants. At the time, I was more than ready to plant a few of these bushes and start reaping the benefits since my boys (David included) have me buying frozen blueberries and fresh (when in season) on a weekly basis. Well, I am a procrastinator at heart so it shouldn't be surprising that two years later, I now have two blueberry plants finally in the ground. I was excited that they came bearing fruit and just needed sun and time to ripen. You can see above that we have harvested a few of these delicious berries. However, I failed to cover them with a net and so the birds have come and removed all the remaining fruit. Well, maybe in two more years, I will get some nets and we will actually have enough to freeze for the winter!! (I will probably need to plant three more plants as well. I read that for a family of four you need 5 plants to produce enough blueberries.)

star wars lego cake

2011-06-14T20:30:00.002-05:00

My most recent cake order was for an eight year old birthday party....star wars lego theme!

My boys had their first lesson on Star Wars characters. Jonas was running around the house saying, "d2, d2."

firefighters to the rescue!

2011-06-14T14:59:00.002-05:00

Our local Chik-Fil-A was having a Family night with Firetrucks and a police car. We didn't want to miss this! We also ran into our friends Lila, Ruby and Levi!

One brave boy got into the hook and ladder firetruck.

Another brave boy shook hands with the fire cow.

Jonas wanted his picture with the cone!

We feel much safer now that we have been in and around a firetruck and learned more about what they do.

Wilson Family Reunion

2011-06-14T14:29:00.003-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, we headed for the Smokey Mountains for a reunion with David's mom's family. This included twenty-three adults and children under one roof for four days and three nights!! Here is Kay preparing a meal for all of us our first night in the cabin (we took turns cooking each night).

To keep our sanity, we would all head out of the cabin in the mornings. For our first venture, we decided to hike up to the Laurel Waterfalls. The kids enjoyed any area where they could climb up and down a few rocks.

We also were privileged to see a bear during our walk. The bear was actually walking on the trail until it turned off and went down through the trees. You can see the park ranger in the picture so all were safe!

Our second day we decided to do try out a classic Pigeon Forge outing....putt-putt golf and bumper boats. Our family was the only one to do the golfing but the boys thought it looked fun (at least for the first three holes..ha!). Thankfully, they were free!

One night we headed to a creek and the kids loved playing in the water, finding rocks and of course, throwing rocks in the water.

I think Jonas could have moved to the creek for how much he enjoyed it.

One of many attempts to get a picture of all the kids.

Before we headed out of town, we stopped at a kids ride park. Jonas decided he wanted to do this...

We had a great time in the mountains and enjoyed spending time with family we don't see very often!

david's cake

2011-06-04T20:18:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I did not make this cake. It's from Whole Foods. After a busy week of making three cakes, David's birthday fell within this same week and I just couldn't bake any more.
We at least let him go get his favorite ice cream along with his cake...what a treat for the boys, too!

As you can see, Jonas is thoroughly enjoying David's birthday celebration.

cake three

2011-06-01T16:20:00.002-05:00

This is the third of three different baking jobs I had within a week! Wheww!! (See other two in the next posts.) This was a second birthday party for my niece, Skylar. There wasn't a specific theme so we just made it fun and girly. I think she enjoyed it!

cake two

2011-06-01T16:11:00.003-05:00

So, this isn't actually a cake. I made this for the groom's cake at a wedding. The groom requested a brownie pyramid. This was my first time to make anything for a wedding. Thankfully, the bride and groom were very low key and made this a much lower stress event. Thankfully, I also had two helpers that worked with me on the day of the wedding to bake 6 dozen brownies from scratch. Thanks, Katie and Danna, I couldn't have done it without you (or your kitchen, Katie!). I also helped coordinate the wedding ceremony and reception, which made this day even busier. David was recruited to be the "tech" guy and started/stopped the music for me. I think we just started our new family business! ha!!

cake one

2011-06-01T16:03:00.003-05:00

I made this cake and cupcakes for a wedding shower a couple of weeks ago. I took the flower design from the napkin that we used and the invitation had the hummingbirds on it.

ethiopia

2011-05-18T15:29:00.002-05:00

The Saturday before Mother's Day I went to the airport (and drug my mom along with me) to welcome home our friends, The Sandersons, who had returned from Ethiopia. They were there to finalize their adoption to this sweet little girl, Dinks!

Their family was welcomed home by many friends and many signs made by the children.

We look forward to welcoming this sweet little girl into our church community, while also helping her remember the culture of Ethiopia that she left behind.

trains!!

2011-05-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

We had been hearing about the train display at Cheekwood for weeks and finally, we found a day that worked for our friends and the weather! This is a must see if you have children that love trains!!

This was when we first arrived and Crosby lasted about five seconds in the stroller before he wanted out with the rest of the boys.

All the kids waiting so patiently for their moms to get their lunches for them. We thought this was a perfect moment to try and capture a picture with all of them.

Sweet brothers!!

Waiting for the trains....(we kept trying to explain to them that if they just stay in one spot and wait, they will see the trains come around again instead of trying to chase them down.)

Since Asher was the oldest one there, I didn't know what his response to the younger boys would be. I soon found out that he took on the motherly role by helping Miss Danielle chase down Crosby. Asher grew very fond of Miss Danielle so I had to get their picture together to remember this sweet morning.

easter sunday

2011-05-11T14:43:00.000-05:00

After an Easter family service at church, we headed to David's parents' house for Easter. Kay (David's mom) made us a delicious lunch that we all enjoyed after the kid's hunted for eggs. Here are kids with Nana and Pops.

Cousins Elijah, Meadow and Skylar with Nana and Pops

Kay made these sweet little (edible) bird nests for the kids' table setting.

Our family on Easter Sunday.

Asher stubbed his toe right before the egg hunt. So he sat on David's lap, while the other kids hunted.

Ralph picked up a Bunny cake (from Baskin Robins) for us all to enjoy. Jonas is still talking about "bunny cake." It was a definite hit with the kids. The adults enjoyed it as well. :)

Hope your family had a special Easter as well!!

ladies' brunch

2011-05-11T14:42:00.000-05:00

We had a ladies' brunch at our church and I was one of the table hosts, which means I was responsible for decorating a table. The theme was "For such a time as this." To go along with that, I hung pictures on my spring branches of different members of our church from different times. I then had a sign on the table that said, "You are at Otter Creek and on this earth for such a time as this. How will you be remembered?" The green napkins were my grandmothers. :)

early egg hunting

2011-05-11T14:22:00.000-05:00

My mom came to visit before Easter so we decided to give the boys a little practice in Easter egg hunting. They enjoyed the candy inside but I think they enjoyed hunting even more. They would find the eggs and then kept asking us to rehide them. What fun!!

tulips in the park

2011-04-30T20:57:00.003-05:00

Every March, we have the tradition of taking pictures in the tulips at Centennial park. Here are a few of our favorites from this year's visit.

construction

2011-04-22T14:03:00.003-05:00

After continual requests for a construction vest, I finally went to the fabric store, bought bright orange fabric and reflector tape and came up with this.
Front

Back

Asher actually did have the final say in the design. We picked out several pictures of construction men and he decided which direction the reflection tape should go.

If you are in need of home or road repairs, please call Asher at 555-0000! :)

cake stands

2011-04-21T16:02:00.003-05:00

If you have been searching high and low for the perfect cake stand, dome or platter, you need to check out Sweet and Saucy Supply. They have vintage style supplies as seen in the photo above. If you are a cake lover like me, then you can just look at a cake stand and imagine the delicacies that could rest upon it!!

party time!

2011-03-26T20:41:00.004-05:00

Asher's birthday party kicked off with the kids decorating their capes and donning their masks. Let the fun begin!

After all were in their Super Friend gear, we headed outdoors to Super Friend training. First the kids created their own super hero by coloring and giving a name to their boy/girl hero.

We then headed to the obstacle course. Wish Asher got a great kick out of watching Elijah lead off for all the kids to see how to do it!

My original idea was to have each kid go through individually but they were too excited and just all raced through it together...which did make it much more fun! Sometimes it's better to have kids take the lead than plan ahead.

KB making her own design for Gotham City!

Jonas managing the back yard, ensuring that all of the friends are having a good time.

How do you manage this many kids to line up and take multiple pictures for you? You promise them cake right after it!!
FRONT

BACK

Singing Happy Birthday!

An exhausted family at the end of a very fun party!

We love you sweet Asher and are so thankful for making our lives not only better but so much more fun!! You continually make us laugh!! Thank you for letting us all celebrate your four years of life with you!

batman party theme

2011-03-23T15:07:00.002-05:00

What do you do when your almost 4 year old requests a Batman themed party for his birthday? You start by Googling images of Batman themed parties to gather your ideas and then let then fun begin!! We started off with homemade invitations. We used free printables from this site.

You welcome all your Superfriends arriving to the party!

You have a Batman cake (made by your mom)!

You make a birthday banner using recycled comic strips for the letters.

You have food inspired by this Batman party. Our menu included: Penguin's Pizza, Robin's Raw Veggies, Catwoman's Claws, The Flash's Fruit, Superwoman's Pasta Salad, Mr. Freeze's Fruit Tea (for the superfriend's parents), Wonder Woman Water and Joker Juice.

You use your Batman toy for decorations.

You have a drink station for thirsty SuperFriends (thanks Deanna for letting us borrow your beverage dispenser).

You hang bats made from foam from your lights!

You create Gotham City! I had recycled a box and turned it into Gotham city, using black spray paint, a silver marker to outline the city, cut out windows and lined with recycled yellow tissue paper and then placed a small desk lamp behind to give the nighttime affect. My mom had covered Asher's present with large Batman symbols so I recycled one and used it above the city.

You give party favors! I again loved the ideas from this party and for the party favors I found yellow buckets (for the boys) and pink buckets (for the girls) and attached a bat symbol with modge podge and filled them with SuperHero Snacks (again, free printable from here).

I also made each child a customized cape and mask. The capes were made from felt and I used felt with adhesive for the letters on the back. Each child then had 4 stars they could use to decorate their cape.

This kids loved running around with their capes and masks as they did the SuperFriend training outside.

pink party birthday theme

2011-03-23T14:57:00.002-05:00

We celebrated my neice's 5th birthday at the beginning of March (yes, I'm very behind in posting!). I made her cake for the pink party theme. This was my first attempt at making a bow. I learned a few things from it and hope to improve the next go around.

The birthday girl enjoying her cake!!

family dinners

2011-02-22T08:32:00.003-06:00

For Christmas, one of my favorite gifts was a book called, The Family Dinner, by Laurie David. I love our family meal times. In fact, it is my favorite part of the day when we all gather around the table and share in a meal together. It's been more fun as the boys have been able to bring their interesting conversations to the table. It is a special time of the day when we all can share parts of our day with one another and David can hear all about the things we did while he was away at work and vice versa. I love the idea of cooking together as a family. The boys already help me prepare many of our meals but when David is able to join us the evening is so much more special. One night we did breakfast for dinner. Asher and David were in charge of cutting the fruit and preparations for omelets and Jonas and I prepared the waffles.

valentine's day celebrated

2011-02-21T08:55:00.002-06:00

We had a busy Valentine's Day, going around town and delivering our Valentine's. Because we were so busy making Valentine's for others, I didn't have time to make the boys a special treat. So, I told them we would get cupcakes. We tried to go just before lunch time and the line was out to the street and you couldn't park anywhere on the street. On our second attempt, we thought the line wasn't bad until of course we unloaded and approached the line to see it was wrapping around the porch. Needless to say, we had a long wait....40 minutes!! But, the boys and I could smell the cupcakes and there was no turning back. We all waiting very patiently and hoped that they wouldn't run out by the time we got up to order.

As you can see, they were worth the wait! Jonas was cracking us up making the most hilarious faces while he ate his cupcake.

Asher savored his.

Cards from the boys with the warning from David that they picked them out so it may not say exactly what they mean.

For instance....

And Jonas has expensive taste, picking a card with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song when opened. Jonas carried his card (again, for ME) around all day and just kept opening and closing it!

pre-valentine preparation

2011-02-21T08:36:00.003-06:00

The boys were busy last week finishing up their Valentine's for family and friends. They poured out their creativity on paper with paints and used various painting tools-blocks, small and large brushes, sponge brushes. They added cut-out hearts to their paintings for some Valentine flair!! Asher is especially enjoying trying to write his own name.

3 girls, 4 cakes, 1 birthday party

2011-02-01T14:15:00.002-06:00

I have been busy cake making/decorating so have been absent for awhile. This last cake order was fun to do and brought new challenges to what I have done in the past. The party was for three girls with birthdays all within a couple of weeks of each other so instead of three parties, they decided on one party with the same theme and same friends. The theme was gymnastics and I really didn't know where to begin with a design. But, thankfully to Google images, I was able to find a cake that fit the description and we altered the colors to match their party theme. I matched the girls' hair color with the girl on top of their cakes. The most challenging part was making the fondant gymnastic girls. I had difficulty with keeping their legs, arms and faces from not falling off. You will see that I had to repair the girl on "Ellen's" cake so her leg isn't as straight as I would have liked. Thankfully, Ellen and her mom were very forgiving and layed back with the it all and were so fun to work with in the design. Each girl had their own 8"round cake to take home with them for their family party and then we did one sheet cake to serve their friends at the the party.

If anyone has had prior experience to working with fondant in this situation, would love to hear any feedback!!

vanlentine's crafts

2011-01-16T22:03:00.002-06:00

We have broken out the Valentine's Day decorations at our house. You may remember this heart felt garland from last year. I found this cute wreath below and am wondering if I am up to the challenge.

You can make your own felt heart wreath shown above by following this tutorial.
Do you have any craft ideas for Valentine's Day?

snow! snow! snow!

2011-01-15T20:25:00.004-06:00

Snow fell upon our city this past Sunday night and we woke up to a beautiful white blanket on the ground. Asher is now associating snow with Christmas morning and asked if Santa had come. Thankfully, we had traveled north for Christmas so we had our snowsuits ready to adorn.

Asher thought it would be fun to make different types of tracks in the snow, including bike tracks.

Jonas, my cleaner-upper, had to clear the snow off of everything in his reach- the steps, his sandbox, the car, the garbage cans.

Asher is always ready to have a snow ball fight!!

And of course, when you can't go anywhere, you do the next best thing...you invite your neighbors (Rebecca, Gavin and Zack) over to play.

My friend Rebecca's snow day tradition growing up was to make beignets (french doughnuts). We were more than obliged to help her continue this delicious tradtion along with our other neighbors Shawn and Sydney (wish I could have gotten a picture of sweet Sydney in her winter gear!).

remembering haiti

2011-01-12T16:48:00.002-06:00

image from here

It's hard to believe it's been one year since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Hoping to continue to find ways to help this country get back on it's feet!

wilson family christmas

2011-01-12T09:03:00.004-06:00

We kicked off Christmas with David's family on the night of Christmas by opening our stockings. We hoped that this would make the actual opening of gifts the following day not so crazy (and it worked!!). We enjoyed the time with all of our nieces and nephews. This is our niece, Skylar.

I finally handed my camera over to David so that I could be in at least one Christmas picture this year.

Opening of the stockings...

The next morning we opened all of our other gifts. There is never a dull moment at the Wilson's, especially when my father-in-law is included in the gift wrapping. This is how he wrapped my mother-in-law's gift! Hilarious!!

So we tried for a picture of all the grandchildren (at least this year my children were healthy for the picture...well, minus Jonas' seeping eyes). Of course there was no wrestling my oldest child into a Christmas sweater when his Nana had told him the night before that he could indeed where his Titans football uniform for the Christmas picture. So here it is folks, the best one out of what seemed like 50 shots of trying to get all seven children to stay in front of the tree at the same time (we gave up on all looking at the camera and smiling on about #5).

However after all the madness above, we did manage to get them to all be very still and quiet for longest time (unfortunately, Skylar didn't fall for our tricks, or drugs as it appears from their flat, solemn expressions).

And how did we get these six, very active children to stay so still and quiet, you might ask? We told them The Christmas story with Nana and Pop's Nativity set. Maybe Nana should do the Christmas Eve service next year. :)

Jonas finally saw through all of this and said, "please, can we stop with the picture taking and just open our presents already?!"

And so, we did, with a little help from Elf Jonas!

Christmas catch-up

2011-01-10T21:04:00.005-06:00

We had a wonderful month of December, counting down the days until Christmas morning. The boys' excitement grew as we made cookies and gave them to some of our community workers, bought presents for our Angel Tree, watched several classic Christmas movies, read great Christmas books, visited the Christmas train display in Cincinnati, spent time with my family in Cincinnati pre-Christmas and time with David's family post-Christmas (and that is our short list)! I wish that I had pictures for all of Christmas activity but Santa waited until Christmas morning to bring my new (well, refurbished) camera. However, I was able to capture some of these memories even post-Christmas!

The boys made these candy Christmas trees at Breakfast with Santa.

Our gingerbread house!

Santa brought the boys a parking garage.

David and his dad displaying their fun t-shirts. The boys got David a Green Lantern t-shirt for Christmas (this was one of his favorite comic characters growing up.)

Santa also brought Asher a football uniform that now has become his everyday uniform. He loves it to say the least!

better late than never...

2010-12-27T21:04:00.003-06:00

May your holiday season be filled with peace, joy and family!
Merry Christmas from The Wilsons!
David, Sarah, Asher and Jonas

snow day

2010-12-13T21:19:00.002-06:00

What should you do with two little boys when you are snowed in? Read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Spend as much time getting dressed in your snow pants, boots, coats, hats and gloves as you did spending time playing outside in the snow (it was only a high of 19 degrees today and then windchill was nine degrees...brrrrrr!)! Invite your friends from the neighborhood (who's preschool's were closed today) over for a playdate. Warm up spiced apple cider for your mailman and then miss him by a few minutes (we were terribly sad about this one and hoping we will catch him tomorrow). Spend time coloring pictures and completing a book of mazes. Go around your house and make "rug," "floor," "couch" snow angels because you forgot to when you were outside and it's just too cold to go out again and do the real thing. Sit on the floor and sing Christmas songs you learned in music class. Play chase around the house when your daddy comes home a few minutes early to surprise us!!

That's at least what we did on our snowy day! What did you do with yours?
(Sorry for no pictures of this day. We are still without a camera and are making mental and written pictures of these special moments. :))

camera problems

2010-12-07T14:32:00.002-06:00

This is a picture similar to my camera that is no longer working. Could this be worse timing? So now I am frantically trying to research what kind of camera to get, SLR or point-and-shoot? Should I go with a Canon or a Nikon? Oh, the questions are endless. If you have a camera that you love and would recommend to me, it would really help me out!!

count down to christmas

2010-11-30T22:16:00.003-06:00

So this is NOT my advent calendar above but the one that I got the idea from. You can go here to learn how to make your own from Jolly Allsorts blog...if you dare!! :) I would show you a picture of mine but my camera is not working. :( How can this be with the first day of December tomorrow. I may need one of my nearby friends to stop by daily and take pictures of our happenings until I can get mine fixed. OR, maybe I should change our first activity to "go buy a new camera." ha!! Well here is our final list that we hope to attempt this advent season. Would love to hear how you count down to Christmas! Special thanks to Carrie and Rachel for your ideas.

12/1 Read the Nativity story

12/2 Buy present for Angel Tree.

12/3 Watch Christmas movie of choice.

12/4 Go to Breakfast with Santa.

12/5 Make gingerbread house.

12/6 Make Christmas cookies.

12/7 Give cookies to trash men.

12/8 Make jingle bells and sing song.

12/9 Read a special Christmas book.

12/10 Give cookies to firemen.

12/11 Watch Christmas movie of choice.

12/12 Walk through Bethlehem.

12/13 Give cookies to mailman.

12/14 Take dinner to a needy family.

12/15 Donate winter coats.

12/16 Deliver gifts to Contributor vendors

12/17 Give cookies to policemen.

12/18 Clean out toys.

12/19 Learn a Christmas song

12/20 Go see Christmas train display

12/21 Watch Christmas movie of choice

12/22 Make a donation to non-profit of choice

12/23 Write letter to Santa.

12/24 Set out cookies for Santa.

12/25 Make donation to Heifer International.

2010-11-29T21:31:00.002-06:00

If you are looking for a unique look at Advent this Christmas season, the Martha O'Bryan Center has created a weekly look into some of their families' lives and sharing their stories. Go here to learn more.

Hoping to post my finalized count down to Christmas activities tomorrow!! Please feel free to share any more ideas you may have for our family.

christmas books

2010-11-28T21:34:00.002-06:00

We are pulling out the Christmas decorations and along with that some of our favorite Christmas books. The Jolly Christmas Postman was one of my childhood books that my mom just passed down to my kids. They have loved opening the letters inside and feeling as though they are the "Jolly Postman." Do you have any favorite Christmas books that you like to read?

advent sneak peak

2010-11-27T13:31:00.004-06:00

Here is a quick sneak peak of the advent calendar that I have been working on since LAST Christmas. I think it should be ready for December 1 of this year if I can get 5 more red buttons. The ones I went with were not what I had in mind but I gave up on it just to complete this already too long of a project. I still would like to solicit some of your help for this calendar. While I will go with the fun, traditional theme of filling each day with a special chocolate candy for us to enjoy, I also found a cute idea of including an activity for our family to do each day. Here is a sampling of things that I have come up with so far but would love any other ideas!!

-Give cookies to our trash men, mailman and local firemen and police men.
-Take dinner to a family in need.
-Make homemade decorations for the tree.
-Make cut-out sugar cookies and ice.
-Buy presents for an Angel Tree child.
-Make a gingerbread house.

first book

2010-11-26T19:10:00.002-06:00

The boys (especially Asher) love to do imaginative play and turn our couches into every type of vehicle possible (fire trucks, ambulances, excavators, dump trucks....you get the picture). On this day, they were pretending to be construction men on a crane and had been "moving" all the pillows behind them.

Since Asher's little mind was coming up with such an ongoing story, we decided to turn it into a small book. I had him tell me the title, Crane, and then he helped spell it by telling me the letter that came next after I would give him the sound of that letter.

He then colored this picture of a crane.

This is the story he came up with and I wrote it down word for word.

We should have the downloadable version up any day now for your Kindle! :)

happy thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T20:22:00.004-06:00

take one

take two

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!! May you take time today to remember all the things you are thankful for and would love to hear what those things are from you.

music for preschoolers

2010-11-24T20:09:00.002-06:00

Wednesday is music class day for my boys. We enjoy this sweet time together of making music with percussion instruments and singing fun songs. Today included a Thanksgiving song list. Above are a few of the instruments that they enjoy playing. If you are interested in finding these for your own home, you can go here.

keb' mo'

2010-11-22T21:16:00.001-06:00

Keb' Mo' was one of the performers last night at TOKENS. This was one of the songs that he sang and has become one of my favorites...hope you enjoy!!

hospitality on the streets

2010-11-22T20:44:00.004-06:00

Last night I was privileged to go to the Tokens Show at The Ryman. The night focused on "The Welcome Table" and living out hospitality. Hospitality comes easy when it's welcoming those who are just like us. It's not as easy to welcome the stranger. Daily, I try to find opportunities to demonstrate hospitality to people the world might quickly pass by. One great way to do this is to buy The Nashville Contributor from a street vendor. I can find ways in just those small moments to connect with someone who lives differently than myself. What is difficult for me is trying to decide which vendor to buy my paper from since I can see up to four or five vendors in a 1 mile radius. I try to change up who I buy from and often find myself with several copies of the same paper. Two of my good friends, Andrew and Lindsey Krinks, have written several articles in The Contributor. I hope the next time you see a vendor that you will use this time to demonstrate hospitality in Nashville...buy a paper and learn one thing about the vendor!!

mr. potato head

2010-11-19T09:28:00.001-06:00

The boys have been having a lot of fun playing with their Mr. Potato Head....maybe a little too much fun!

friday night fun!

2010-11-18T13:48:00.002-06:00

Sure wish we were going to be in town this Friday night to enjoy this! If you go, let me know!!

share the gift of HOPE

2010-11-17T20:08:00.004-06:00

This Christmas make a difference with the presents you choose to give! You can not only find a great gift for your friends or family but you can be spreading the gift of HOPE around the world this Christmas. Above is a picture of Elena. She has been orphaned and sexually violated because of the wars of Congo. She currently lives in Dina Center orphanage in Goma, Congo. Sponsored by eXile international. My friend, Bethany Haley, started eXile International and took this picture of Elena and shared her story with me. I am going to be hosting an open house on December 3rd from 7-9pm that will have jewelry from eXile International, as well as from KEZA and from my Ida's Modern Heirlooms. If you are interested in coming, leave a comment with your email and I will send you an invite!

Even if you can't make it to my open house, I would love for you to consider any of these great options for those on your Christmas list this year (my sister-in-law Angie past many of these on to me)!!

The Hunger Site (has a great selection of gifts for male, female and even kids and you choose on what you want to support from hunger, children's health, breast cancer, etc.)
Bongo Java (both local and fair trade AND great coffee!!)
Fair Indigo (again great for the whole family)
Ten Thousand Villages
Handcrafting Justice
TOMS shoes
Other great options include gifts from non-profits gift catalogs. Check these out...
Heifer International
World Vision
Samaritan's Purse
You can also check out Cool People Care every Friday when they recommend "Gifts of Impact" to remind us all that "Christmas is not your birthday."
Would love to hear any great ideas you may have for how to spread HOPE this Christmas!!

red button

2010-11-16T15:21:00.002-06:00

So, I am trying to finish up my advent calendar (that actually was started last year pre-Christmas) but I can't seem to finish it because of this one little item....a red button!! Actually, I need 25 red buttons that look like this one. I have searched the internet for hours and am done with it!! I have been to Joann's who had 18 of green and red but the greens didn't match and well, I need 25 NOT 18!! This is getting ridiculous and I have spent so much time on this that I have to see it completed. So, if you are out there and know where I can get this button (I will even take a Christmas green at this point), please help me!!!

reuse

2010-11-15T20:23:00.005-06:00

I loved this idea of recycled craft jars from the Playful Learning Blog.
To recreate this idea, first paint the lids to match with a low voc wall paint (or any leftover paint from previous projects). Then use masking tape to mark off your rectangle on the jar. You will then apply 2-3 coats of chalkboard paint, allowing it to dry 5 minutes between each coat. While the last coat is drying, remove the masking tape. You can use a razor blade to clean up your edges, if desired. Then you can write on your labels.
Would love to hear any craft ideas you have with reusable items in your home!!

bakers

2010-11-14T20:22:00.002-06:00

My mom made these matching aprons for Asher, Jonas and me. They have already loved wearing them. We each have a chef's hat on the front with our names' written on them. Now we just need to bake something.....

birthday cards

2010-11-13T20:10:00.002-06:00

One of the things I look most forward to on my birthday are David's homemade cards. I think he should quit his daytime job and go into card making. Below from left to right are cards from Asher, David and Jonas.

Inside of Asher's card...

Inside of Jonas' card...

Inside of David's card...

He does a great job of capturing the boys' personalities and what they really might say if they were writing the cards.
Love these boys and love my husband!!

batman & batman

2010-11-12T21:46:00.003-06:00

Asher and Jonas were so excited when they realized we had hand-me-down batman pajamas in both their sizes!! It is excitement every night when they go on. What are your favorite pajamas?

book club

2010-11-11T08:40:00.002-06:00

The Glass Castle cover

My summer book reading list has continued on into the fall. Once I find good authors, it's hard for me to stop reading. I have been rapidly reading through Jodi Picoult novels. So far, I have read Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, The Tenth Circle, Handle with Care, Perfect Match, The Pact, and these last two are probably my favorites so far, Plain Truth and Harvesting the Heart. If anyone wants to start a Jodi Picoult book club, I'm in!!

I currently am reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I typically would not pick up an autobiography, but it came highly recommended from my mother-in-law and there has yet to be a book that she has passed on to me that I have not liked! This book is a quick page turner and reads very much like a fiction novel. I constantly have to remind myself that it is a TRUE story, which is hard to believe once you read her daunting childhood tales yet discover the most resilient children beneath it all. This is a must read (and another great one for a book club)!

sick

2010-11-10T19:59:00.002-06:00

I said that I wasn't going to be a legalist about posting so that is why I missed posting yesterday. I had a fever come over me out of nowhere. And today, I am trying to get back to feeling normal. Looking forward to a good night's rest and hopefully a healthy tomorrow. I don't do well with sitting around doing nothing, especially on my birthday. :( I hope to be back to posting about normal life things tomorrow!!

independence

2010-11-08T20:02:00.002-06:00

It's not always easy to let your kids grow up, but there is something special about seeing them growing into their own independence. Since we have been preschooling at home verses at a "school" I have been trying to find ways to incorporate learning in our every day routine. I have found two blogs here and here to be helpful in finding ideas. Asher has really been wanting to do things for himself or things to help me around the house. We started with him working on getting dressed by himself and have now moved on to other areas. Jonas, currently, wants to do everything that Asher does so we are trying to find ways to allow him to be independent as well.

Some of Asher's tasks include putting the silverware away, setting the table, washing his breakfast dishes (yes, we do have a dishwasher, but he loves to do this so why not let him...I am hoping his wife one day will thank me for these things!), helping with most baking tasks (stirring, measuring, dumping), sweeping and dusting. Of course, these are jobs that we do when we have PLENTY of time to complete! The boys especially enjoy pouring their own juice in the morning. I found a small glass pitcher and these two small mugs at a yard sale. They love it!

Encourage your toddler/preschooler to work along side of you and you will find that they thrive with this newfound independence and role in your home! Would love to hear any ways that you have your kids help around the house.

orphan sunday 2010

2010-11-07T16:01:00.003-06:00

This Sunday we recognized Orphan Sunday at our church. My friend, Carrie McLean, made the display above for our lobby. She is incredibly talented and I just loved her vision for this. I hope that many were inspired today to hear the cry of the orphan (or the 163 million orphans in the world per UNICEF) and take action. We used today to start the kick-off for Orphan Awareness month by putting together a burlap bag for every household that included an action/awareness calendar and a picture of an orphan. At the end of the month, everyone will return their bags filled with the money they collected over the month for each action day and that money will hopefully be enough to build a home for orphans in the Village of Hope that was created for displaced child soldiers in Uganda. My friend, Bethany, works with eXile International who is sponsoring many of these children and she has been able to use her counseling skills to help many of these children overcome their horrific past as a child soldier.

This is the video we showed today.

Orphan Sunday from Greg Buzek on Vimeo.

Would love to hear how you feel impacted to help an orphan.

hootenanny cakes

2010-11-06T20:48:00.005-05:00

My friend, Emily, was having quite a birthday celebration for her daughter and husband today. So she was in need of some cakes (yes, plural) and asked me if I would make them. We had several ideas but finally came up with the perfect design for a "hootenanny." We wanted the design to capture that it was for both father and daughter. Of course, we had to start with a smash cake for the first birthday!

You can see in this last photo glimpses of all three cakes. We ended up with a strawberry smash cake for Sophie, a strawberry sheet cake and a two-tiered chocolate cake. That's a LOT of cake! I really enjoyed making these cakes. This was my first time to decorate with fondant to this extent. I dabbled with fondant on Jonas' birthday cake but not to this level. I plan to build on this fun, new found skill!

free for life international

2010-11-05T13:58:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine just sent me a photo of this flyer. I have never heard of Free for Life International, but after doing a quick search, I learned a little more about this organization and how it got started from simply watching CBS's "48 Hours Mystery." It's amazing to me how one simple event can be so life-changing and for the good of others. I have a deep passion for helping girls sold into sexual trafficking. Our first connection to this extreme issue was through International Justice Mission. I would love to go to this event but even if I don't make it, I hope that simply learning more about this organization will spur me to continue to take action against such horrific events that are happening every day. If you would like to learn more about this event, go here.

NaBloPoMo

2010-11-04T14:34:00.003-05:00

NaBloPoMo....what??!!
It's that time of year again for National Blog Posting Month. I am going to try and post evey day this month. I already missed the first but I posted several on the second (so maybe that makes up for it). Also, it appears that I missed yesterday but what mistakenly happened was I picked a post that I never finished and completed it but forgot that once it's been saved, Blogger posts it on the day you saved it, not the day you published it. ARGGGH!! One of my many complaints about Blogger BUT it's free so I will keep other comments to myself. :) So here is yesterday's...dessert place setting.

Would love for you to join me in this challenge this month. So, let me know in the comments and post a link to your blog. THANKS!

Here are a few of my friends who will be joining me...
Danielle
Anne
Malia
Sara

(The picture of Asher has nothing to do with this post but wanted something to make the post more eye appealing and doesn't that face just make you crack up! :))

plan city at discovery center

2010-11-04T14:15:00.002-05:00

This picture captures two things that our boys love these days. The first being Plan City toys!! We love them and plan to continue to add to our collection for birthday and Christmas presents. Plan toys are socially and environmentally responsible and safe (no toxic chemicals!!). So if you are needing some creative ideas for Christmas presents, check these toys out. They are available through Amazon and locally, you can find them at Phillips Toy Mart (another one of our favs).

The second great thing about this picture is where it was taken---The Discovery Center in Murfreesboro. It's a bit of a jaunt for us to travel there but worth the extra effort for all the amazing activities they have for these children. We also love the old time firetruck that you can climb on and the donated firemen's hats, boots, coats and pants! Other favorites things include the mini excavator, trains, car garage station and Tiny Tot Town. If you live anywhere near Murfreesboro, you need to check it out (and invite us to come along!!).

trunk-or-treat

2010-11-02T14:45:00.005-05:00

For Halloween, we went to our church's trunk-or-treat. This is the way to do it if you want to maximize your candy volume while minimizing your distance traveled. It is even better when you have two little ones who are still a bit shy and who don't have the patience to go very far.

Our nephew and neices...

"Calling all units, calling all units..." Fire Chief Jonas

Costumes down to a minimum`````

The boys enjoying their candy on the way home.

Now we can put the costumes away and get ready for Turkey Day!!

trick-or-treating at david's work

2010-11-02T14:42:00.003-05:00

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is trick-or-treating at David's work. All of the secretaries set out candy for the kids to trick-or-treat. It's a very calm environment as you can imagine. Do any of you have fun traditions for Halloween?

halloween in hope gardens

2010-11-02T14:20:00.003-05:00

We had our neighborhood Halloween party on the same day as our music class dress up day. Since I had learned earlier that day that Jonas' monkey costume was not going to work, we pulled a quick wardrobe change and pulled the fireman costume from our dress up clothes. He was much happier (at least long enough to get pictures and enjoy a few minutes of the party).
Thanks to my friend Rebecca for the chef's hat, I was able to pull my baker costume together in five minutes! (David showed up late to the party as a "business man." ha!)

The party host family...Rebecca (the Cracker Barrel worker), Alex (the mechanic), Gavin (the firefighter WITH his fire engine) and sweet Zack (the race car driver)

And of course, "the baker" had to show up with some yummy treats! I made vegan chocolate cakes so that my vegan friends could enjoy them as well.

And what's a Halloween party without bobbing for apples?!

Sweet London who was quickly calmed by the sweet witch! :)

Our friend Jessi brought three very delicious butters that I could not stop eating! (Thank goodness I am not vegan. :))

Another fun time in the Hope Gardens neighborhood!!

music class dress up

2010-11-02T14:01:00.004-05:00

I signed up the boys for a music class this year with Music with Mommie. They have enjoyed it so far and have made some new friends. For our class this past week, the kids all dressed up. This was our first time to try out our Halloween costumes. Asher was excited about being a football player. Jonas liked the idea of being a monkey UNTIL he had to put on the costume. I couldn't even get him to put to hood on for one picture.

All the kids enjoying the music (although you can't hear it in this picture :)) and bubbles...minus one kid.

Here is the child missing from the above picture. Still quite unhappy with the monkey situaiton.

One of Asher's favorite things to do is to play the "big drum." It can get quite loud when all of them play.

Asher enjoying dancing with the scarves (not stars..ha!) and yes, that is the hidden Jonas, crouching monkey!

Well, at least one out of two enjoyed the dress up time.

gentry's farm

2010-10-18T21:05:00.008-05:00

I took the boys to Gentry's farm with some friends to enjoy a pumpkin patch day. It was our first time to Gentry's and I was amazed at all the fun things we could do and we ran out of time to do them all. Our morning began in the corn maze.

Luckily, the kids were able to find our was out!

We are already looking forward to going back next year!!

farm birthday party

2010-10-17T22:07:00.006-05:00

Jonas' second birthday party almost didn't happen. We scheduled it a week after his actual birthday due to David's dad, Ralph, having bilateral knee replacements in the hope that he could attend and even kept the invites to family only. Things got set back for Ralph, sickness invaded our home (including David's mom, David and Asher) and I finished up a week of playing nurse. However, the cake had been made! And, despite Asher having a fever, our family was still willing to risk it for Jonas' sake.
So we bought some balloons that I turned into farm animal heads.

I made a barn cake and with a few of Jonas' favorite barn animals (made of fondant) to go with it.

His favorite was the sheep (or baa baa as he likes to call it).

Both my boys go into their shy mode when the singing of "Happy Birhtday" breaks out.

However, there was no shyness when the cake was passed out to eat.

Asher and Daddy sporting their farm animal visors...and Asher's visor upside down pretty much sums up his entire party experience. Does this boy look sick or what? David and I would take turns sitting in the corner with Asher to keep him away from our guests. (We didn't find out he had strep until the Monday after the party...but I realize we still look like bad parents.)

The Party Guests!

I was so thankful my parents were able to make it down and were a huge help to make this party even happen. We all were pretty worn out and David's mom even came despite not being back to 100% from her sickness. I am thankful for our family's support to help us celebrate Jonas' second birthday and make it such a special evening!!

dessert place setting

2010-10-16T21:29:00.004-05:00

I helped with a baby shower awhile back and wanted to share these pictures.

My friend who was doing the decorations wanted to incorporate these pretty pink napkins as part of the place settings, so I decided to make sugar cookies and tie in the napkin theme with the icing. We also used my grandmother's green napkins. I love the pink/green combination. I also made mini chocolate cream pies for dessert.

It's so fun to make mini desserts and use colors, like pink, every once in awhile, especially when you are a mom of two boys!

hatcher dairy farm

2010-10-10T21:00:00.005-05:00

This past week we took a tour of Hatcher Dairy Farm. It is a local farm that has 4 generations living on it! We couldn't have timed this trip any better since it was Jonas' birthday week and he was wanting a farm birthday party theme.

A bull and pregnant momma cows...

one day old calf...

Let's have our turn at milking a cow....

Farmer John Deere...

the milking room...

mmmm....chocolate milk!

Highly recommend this tour if you are in town OR find a local dairy farmer near you and learn where your milk comes from!

happy 2nd birthday jonas!

2010-10-10T20:05:00.004-05:00

This sweet boy of ours has turned 2! It suddenly feels like we no longer have any babies in our home. Jonas is running around and keeping up with Asher's every move. He lights up the room with his sweet smile and contagious laugh. It has been fun to see his personality come out (even if it includes his individual stubbornness).
We celebrated Jonas' 2nd birthday on his actual birthday, October 4th with just our immediate family (and Nana). David's dad was in the hospital for bilateral knee replacements so Nana has been staying with us for an easy commute to the hospital. We had a simple dinner followed by cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection. Jonas and Asher had strawberry cupcakes. Nana chose chocolate and David and I had marble (vanilla and chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream and cream cheese frosting). They were delicious!! This past weekend we had a small birthday party with our extended family....pictures to come! :)

a week at the beach

2010-09-14T20:24:00.003-05:00

Last week we took a risk and headed to Destin, Florida during Hurricane season and in the midst of the oil spill. To our luck, we had blue skies every day and didn't see a single tar ball. So if you are considering heading down for one last beach trip...go for it!

These two boys kept us busy but we did find some time to relax, read books and go to a matinee (can't remember the last time I was able to do that).

David's parents joined us for the week and I think the boys were more happy to be on vacation with Nana and Pops than with Momma and Dadda.

We sure were glad they were there too!!

tomato recipes

2010-09-03T08:34:00.002-05:00

Tomato season is coming to an end but thought I would share a few favorite recipes that we enjoyed this summer.

Tomato Salad
2 lbs. assorted vine-ripened tomatoes
12-14 slices of fresh mozzarella
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. honey
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10-12 basil leaves, plus flowers if any
1. Slice large tomatoes; leave small tomatoes whole, or cut into wedges or halves. Arrange on platter with cheese.
2. In a small bowl, whisk 1 tsp. salt, the vinegar, and honey until salt is dissolved; whisk in olive oil. Spoon over tomatoes.
3. With kitchen scissors, snip basil leaves and flowers over tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt to taste.
(Recipe altered slightly from Sunset recipes.)

My friend Carrie shared this cherry tomato tart recipe on her blog and also made it for a group of women on night. It was delicious so I thought that I would give it a try with the cherry tomatoes with had from our CSA. It was super easy to make and the dough will definitely be used in future recipes.

bedtime buddies

2010-08-31T20:47:00.003-05:00

We are probably going to make the switch to a big bed for Asher soon. But until then, it's fun to watch Jonas climb into bed with Asher and they pretend to sleep. They turn out the light, grab their lovies, turn on the noisemaker and tell me to leave the room. It's just too cute!

Scooby, Dooby, Doo, where are you?

2010-08-30T14:04:00.005-05:00

We celebrated our nephew, Luke's, 5th birthday this weekend while David's sister's family was in town. So of course that meant some cake making went on in our house over the past week. Asher and Jonas decided they wanted to help me make the icing for the cake. Jonas is finishing up the last touches of the powdered sugar and of course, cleaning up!

Luke wanted a Scooby Doo cake this year so here is what I made for him.

My favorite part is always seeing the child's reaction with the cake. Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out in time to catch his first glimpse at it but he seems pretty excited about it in this picture below.

We had a fun birthday party with all the cousins!!

Downtown with Cousins

2010-08-30T13:51:00.002-05:00

This past weekend David's sister and two kids came to Nashville. We decided to hang out downtown on Friday by taking the free bus. The kids loved it as you can see below!

We decided to hope off near the Shelby Street Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge. The kids loved walking up the bridge and peering over the sides. We had great views of the city, the stadium and the river that had several boats for us to watch.

Highly recommend this outing if you have little ones!!

Step Into Africa

2010-08-25T14:05:00.002-05:00

I have been absent from the blogging world for awhile on account of two reasons: 1. I have helped coordinate volunteers for the Step Into Africa exhibit that our church partnered with World Vision a couple of weeks ago and 2. Our computer had major viruses and we were unable to download anything on to our hard drive which meant no pictures!! So hopefully, I can now get back into the swing of things and will have more to blog about since I have been gone for so long. Below is our family standing in front of the exhibit or "the Village" as Asher likes to call it.

Asher and Jonas both loved for us to be at "the Village" which we were at about every day that the exhibit was open.

I highly recommend if you hear of World Vision being in your area with the Step Into Africa exhibit YOU MUST GO!! We had close to 2000 visitors go through the experience. You get to choose 1 of 4 African children's stories and how their lives are affected by the AIDS crisis. The AIDS crisis is the largest humanitarian crisis of our time. If you would like to learn more about this and take your own journey, go here.

Porch Living

2010-06-12T14:44:00.002-05:00

We have been enjoying our lunch on the porch lately. Asher actually requests to sit out there despite the hot days we have been experiencing. Thankfully, our front porch is on the north side so it stays shady and a breeze often whips around the corner of our house. So, if you are ever walking down our street around lunch time, come on up and we'll serve you some lemonade! :)

1st Birthday Party

2010-06-05T20:13:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated my neice Skylar's first birthday. The theme was a simple first birthday theme based on this napkin below.

From this napkin, I used the design to create the large cake for the guests and the small cake for Skylar to eat.

I enjoyed adding the detail of the bugs on the side of the larger cake.

The birthday girl enjoying her cake!

Looking forward to making the next birthday cake on my list...but not for another month! :)

Mache Salad

2010-06-01T21:48:00.007-05:00

We have been receiving our fresh veggies from our CSA for a few weeks now. This week I was surprised to find what I believe is mâche. Mâche is a tender, heirloom variety of lamb’s lettuce. I had this recipe below (though, I tweaked it a bit)tucked away (from Southern Living) and had been wanting to use it for sometime but had never had the oppurtunity..due to no mâche. What a delicious summer surprise! Even David went back for seconds if that tells you anything!

Ingredients
Chopped pecans
Watermelon, cubed
Mâche
Vinaigrette of choice (I used Trader Joes Balsamic Vinaigrette..mmmm!)
Feta cheese

Preparation
Combine mâche and watermelon in bowl. Add vinaigrette, tossing gently to coat. Spread mâche and watermelon mixture to a platter, sprinkle with peacans and fetta.

Nashville Flood 2010

2010-06-01T21:23:00.002-05:00

I have been absent from the blogging world for awhile because of this...

The Nashville flood hit the city hard. This picture of above is two blocks from our home. It is the Farmer's Market that we had just walked to a day before the flood hit. It all seemed surreal and still does when I look back on these photos. It's hard to imagine that we were surrounded on almost all sides of our neighborhood by what seemed like a lake. It took just short of a week for these waters to finally receed. Below is where we exit our neighborhood.

I have been busy with flood relief since this all hit. It has been amazing to see the response of Nashvillians. I helped head up the relief at our church, helping organize volunteers and setting up a donation center. Daily, I would hear the most amazing stories of those being affected and those volunteering and giving of their resources to help rebuild lives. I just wish now that I would have had the time to blog and remember all the stories. My bed won over though! :)
We now have shut down our donation center and are turning our help in another direction. For the time being, I am back to a more normal schedule that I welcome. I am a routine person and found that doing this relief type of work was very "fly by the seat of your pants." I do look forward to finding more oppurtunities to serve flood victims this summer as we shift our focus. While I hurt for those who have lost everything in this flood, I am thankful for the community that was found and united in all of us Nashvillians!

Nashville Transit

2010-04-30T20:30:00.001-05:00

I love traveling to cities with great public transportation. There is such excitement in riding on a subway with so many other people all going in the same direction but to so many different places. Well, Nashville does not have a great system BUT I am pleased to say that they are making ground. We (the boys and I) along with our neighborhood friends have taken the Nashville City Circuit or the "green city bus" (as Asher likes to call it) on two different occasions. Our first ride we just took the entire loop to see where all of the stops were. The second time we took it was on a day we went to the library for a puppet show. We just walk to the Farmer's Market where we can easily hop on board. The boys love it, but maybe not quite as much as their mama. I have yet to tell you the best part of it....it's FREE! Can you believe that? Our family will be making many more trips downtown. If you would like to join us or want more info, let me know!!

Summer Reading List

2010-04-28T21:47:00.003-05:00

I have been spending most of my free time lately reading books...good books, in fact! I am always surprised when once I read one good book how quickly I want to find another and then another. Reading (for pleasure that is) has always been something that I have enjoyed since childhood. I remember looking forward to my summers when I could take out countless books from the library and just read all day long! So, what has been on my nightstand over the past month???
The Help by Katherine Stockett (as pictured above)
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent (a true story)
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers
and currently reading, The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearn

Would love to hear what you are reading, have read recently, or is on your summer list.

Sweet Friends

2010-04-11T21:41:00.003-05:00

One of our dearest friends, Jackton, from Kenya was in town this past week for a fundraising dinner along with Irene, another staff member at Made in the Streets. Even though this was our first time to meet Irene (she started working for MITS after we moved back to the States), we fell in love with her immediately. We made an instant connection with her and loved the way she brought joy and light into a room. This was the first time for Asher and Jonas to meet any of our friends from MITS (well Asher had met Mbuvi but I am not sure how well he remembers him). The two boys fell in love with our Kenyan friends. Today was our last day with them and we all dreaded the good-byes. It's always a very sad day for me when we have friends from Kenya visit and we have to see them go. I am so thankful for their time with us and thankful to hear all the amazing things that continue to go on at MITS and how so many boys, girls and even mothers with babies are being drawn into this family and being shown love and gaining hope for their lives. As we drove away from church and left our friends with their last leg of hosts, tears fell from all of our eyes, including the boys. Asher even said, "I don't want to go home, I want to see Jackton." We look longingly into the future when our paths will meet again.

While today was a sad day with our friends leaving, I was filled with even more sadness. Above is a picture of Lucy, who was my student while we lived and worked with MITS. Lucy always struggled with authority and it was very difficult for her to change from her past life on the streets. She began acting out violently against some of the other girls. And after many "second chances," Lucy was eventually returned to the streets. I continued to ask about her from friends in Kenya about her whereabouts. Lucy grew up on the streets with her mom and seemed unable to find a way out of them. She became pregnant, which is almost inevitable when you are a girl on the streets, and had a baby boy. This was the last I had heard about her until today. David was asking Jackton about her and later told me that Lucy had committed suicide. Lucy's mother recently learned she was HIV-positive. I don't know if Lucy was. I don't know what drove Lucy to taking her life but I know that she was living a life so unimaginable to me. I can't imagine having to live on trash with my baby and having to find food for him daily or myself. I don't know what has become of her baby but hope to follow up with some of the staff members who work on the streets. I share this story so that Lucy's life will be remembered and not go unmourned. I loved her dearly and hope that from this tragedy I can find a way to help another girl struggling on the streets, and hopefully, this time she will find a way out...she will find hope...she will find a future.

A Week of Celebrating

2010-03-22T21:52:00.006-05:00

It's hard to believe that Asher turned 3 on March 12th! We have been celebrating his birthday in many ways over the past week. Since Asher doesn't like large groups, I had our neighborhood playgroup friends over for a lunch and firetruck cookies. On the day of his birthday, Asher wanted to eat at Pie in the Sky so just our immediate family took him there and we ended with cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection (a local cupcake shop a couple of blocks from our house!). Below is Asher enjoying the the cupcake at Pie in the Sky.

My mom and stepdad, Bruce, and my aunt Candy all traveled down this past weekend for us to have an extended family party for Asher. David's mom and his brother's family all joined us as well. We had taken Asher to the party store to decide the theme of his birhtday this year. It came down to Thomas the Train or firetrucks and he chose firetrucks.

Below is Asher asking me if we can have his birthday cake yet. So sweet! (Notice he is in his fireman boots.)

I asked Asher if he wanted a hook and ladder truck or a pumper truck for his cake. He went for the hook and ladder. David said it was funny that we even know the different types of firetrucks.
And here is the cake (my final cake for the month of March)......

We are singing "Happy Birthday" to Asher and you can tell he wishes he could disappear. He definitely does NOT want to be the center of attention.

Jonas thought that he would get into the mix of opening presents. I suppose he figures that he will get to play with them as much as Asher. Elijah (Asher's cousin)is dressed up in Asher's firejacket.

I was thankful that my mom was able to come for the party. It was nice to have her help, along with my aunt's and even step-dad's (who helped me put together the ladder for the cake) to make the party a success.

For our goodie bags, we gave everyone an iced sugar cookie of a firetruck.

It was such a special time to celebrate Asher's three years of life. I am so thankful for him and all the ways he has changed our lives!

Princess and the Pauper

2010-03-09T20:17:00.004-06:00

My neice, Meadow, celebrated her 4th birthday this past weekend. She wanted the theme to be Barbie Princess and the Pauper. I believe it is from a video but since I am a mom of boys, I don't know much about the Barbie scene. So, last week kept me busy making this cake...

I must admit that these types of cakes are not my favorite because I have never been good at drawing (or decorating with buttercream icing) faces. Cartoon type faces I am better at, but human like faces, I am not. So, I was not as pleased as I would like to have been with this one. I did try to recover with my failure to replicate faces by highlighting some of the details of the dolls. As seen below...

I was unable to get a great picture of the blonde Barbie close up but with this cake, I even used some gold dust (edible) to create the gold in her crown, on her necklace and gown.
This is the month of cakes...next up, Asher's!

Paint and Pour

2010-02-28T21:09:00.002-06:00

This weekend was all about letting the creative juices flow. This was my frist time to paint on canvas and I loved it! It was so much fun. My friend, Kara, and I met at Paint and Pour/Paint Along and completed the above paintings in two hours. My painting is on the left and Kara's is on the right in the above photo. Below you can see us with our paintings and see some of the other paintings they have to choose from. There are several of these painting classes popping up in Nashville and they have some really fun paintings to choose from. It is a very relaxed atmosphere. I brought us some dessert treats and Kara brought us drinks.

We both were already thinking about doing another one. If anyone would like to do this with me, let me know!

Baby boy shower

2010-02-28T20:50:00.003-06:00

This weekend I made a cake for a baby boy shower that my sister-in-law was hosting. She gave me a napkin they were using that had a train and stripes on it. So, this was the design we decided on. This was my first time to do stripes on the sides of a cake and found them to be challenging to get completely straight. However, I enjoy new challenges with each cake that I try.

In the Neighborhood

2010-02-18T20:36:00.007-06:00

For weeks now, David and I have been wondering why there have been so many cars at an old factory down the street from us, espcially on weekends, since it was supposed to no longer be in use. We also kept seeing a former car lot filled with cars and signs saying, "Extras" and "Catering" and "Event Parking." Very mysterious!! Just the other day we learned that Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow were making a movie in in this old factory. I learned tonight that Gwyneth was seen at a restaurant in the neighborhood next to us. I keep hoping to see her walking down the street. Ha!
Picture above from here.

Homemade Valentine's

2010-02-17T21:38:00.003-06:00

I was trying to come up with something crafty for the boys to make for Valentine's gifts for the grandparents (my mom and stepdad came into town Valentine's weekend and babysat so we could have a date night!!). So, we decided to do more painting on canvas with Valentine's colors. Asher painted the top two (with a brush and his fingers) and Jonas did the bottom two. Now, I am wishing I would have had them make me one!

Mini Desserts

2010-02-16T20:16:00.004-06:00

I have been plotting a new business idea. I am always trying to come up with something for myself to do other than hanging out with the boys. I love being a stay-at-home mom but sometimes I need another outlet. So, my newest idea is making mini desserts. I made some this past weekend for my friend, Rebecca. She was having a nice dinner for her entire family and asked me to make three kinds of mini desserts to serve. We decided on these three desserts: mini raspberry apple pies, mini vanilla cakes with Nutella frosting, and mini tiramisu eclairs
Now I just need to come up with a buisness name...Sweet Bite Delights, Mini Bite Delights, Little Bite Delights, Tiny Bite Delights...hmmm? Maybe someone has a great suggestion for me.

Cloth Napkins

2010-02-10T20:46:00.002-06:00

My friend Rebecca has started her own business making organic cotton blankets. The story behind the blankets is beautiful...you'll have to ask me about it sometime. So, I have been wanting to come up with an easy project for sewing since I am getting back into it. I decided cloth napkins would be an easy start. Rebecca had some leftover scraps from her blankets; a friend in the neighborhood wanted some napkins for her upcoming progressive dinner; I was asked to make them. Above is the finished project. My friend Carrie sent me a napkin tutorial that helped me get started. I might try and tackle a few of the other type of napkins for my next project.

Making us laugh

2010-02-09T21:16:00.004-06:00

Asher's imagination has really kicked into gear over the past few months. It's been so fun to hear what he is thinking up. Today he was playing he was driving a tow truck and said he was going to visit Mary and Joseph (he has been learning about Jesus growing up in his Sunday school class). I asked him where do they live? He replied, "Thompson Station." This is where David's parents live. Hilarious!

Today he asked me if I was "a little bit cold?" I said, "yes, I am a little bit cold, are you?." To which he replied, "No, Asher big cold."

Chocolate desserts

2010-02-08T20:44:00.003-06:00

I made two desserts over the weekend for a Super Bowl party. Of course, they were both with chocolate.

Two-Bite Chocolate Cream Pies (from myrecipes.com)

Ingredients
Cooking-oil spray
About 30 chocolate cookies, such as Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 large eggs (1 separated)
1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons cornstarch
5 teaspoons Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 2 mini-muffin trays (12 muffin cups each) with cooking spray. In a food processor, whirl cookies into fine crumbs. Measure; return 1 1/2 cups crumbs to food processor, along with 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar, the salt, and 1 egg white. Pulse to blend evenly.
2. Spoon 1 tbsp. crumb mixture into each muffin cup. Press crumbs over bottom and up sides of cups. Bake until set, 15 minutes.
3. Put chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe container and heat in 30-second intervals, stirring often, until melted.
4. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar, the cornstarch, and 4 tsp. cocoa. Pour in a few tbsp. of the milk and whisk into a smooth paste; whisk in remaining milk. Transfer to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until thickened and large bubbles appear, about 3 minutes.
5. Put reserved yolk and remaining egg into a medium bowl. Whisk in about 1/2 cup hot milk mixture. Scrape egg-milk mixture into milk mixture in pan and cook, whisking, until just starting to boil, about 30 seconds. Whisk in melted chocolate and butter.
6. Spoon hot filling into chocolate shells. Press plastic wrap over surface of mini pies to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until set, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
7. Remove pies from trays. Whisk cream with remaining 2 tbsp. sugar into soft peaks. Spoon a dollop of cream onto each mini pie. Dust pies with remaining cocoa.

This second dessert is a chocolate cupcake with Nutella frosting. I used the recipes from my previous post. Hope you enjoy!

World Nutella Day

2010-02-05T11:30:00.004-06:00

Today is World Nutella Day...who knew?! What a great day for it to be when it is so rainy and gloomy out. There are so many ways to eat Nutella. Above is one quick way to use your Nutella. Simply cut out 2-inch rounds from refrigerated piecrust, press into minature muffin cups (prick bottom of circles) and bake at 425 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Then, simply pipe Nutella into the shells and top with whipped cream.

Here is another way that I am going to be trying Nutella. I let you know how it turns out!

Nutella Frosting
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons nutella
1 1/2 cups of sifted confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
Little sprinkling of salt
4 teaspoons milk
recipe from Ice Cream Before Dinner.

Let me know if you have any fun ways to use Nutella.

Painting on Canvas

2010-02-04T21:28:00.002-06:00

Nothing is more fun than painting. But, it's even more fun when you get to paint on canvas! I have been wanting to add some artwork to the boys' rooms but have not found anything out there (that isn't ridiculously priced). So, I thought why not have them make it for me. The entire projet cost less than $5! I bought paint in colors that would match their rooms. Here is Jonas with his aqua blue and chocolate brown. He loved it! Maybe a little too much...I had to keep pulling it away from his mouth. :)

So, the color idea to match their rooms worked with Jonas, but Asher wanted to use the colors he wanted...not the ones that I had in mind. Oh well, I still love that I have artwork made by them.

The finished projects...

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2010-01-29T14:59:00.004-06:00

Valentine's Day!! My friend, Carrie, made a cute heart garland made of felt and so I decided to try one myself. The results are above. It was so easy! I am back to sewing again...I think the last time I sewed was in high school or even earlier.
I also made these hearts to hang from our lights. Another, quick and cheap project...wax paper and red crayon shavings! Anyone else have any good Valentine's decoration ideas?

What you buy matters

2010-01-27T08:26:00.003-06:00

Some of you may feel overwhelmed when going shopping and wanting to pick out a product that you know is safe for your health, safe for the environment and safe for those making your product. Well, you no longer have to be overwhelmed. You may have already been to Cosmetic Database and found this helpful. I just came across Good Guide that also rates your comsmetics along with cleaning products, food and toys. Hope this helps you in your purchases to make good decisions for your family, the Earth and the treatment of the workers! Remember, every time you make a purchase you are making a vote. Let me know what you think or if you know of any other good sites.

Chicken Tacos

2010-01-23T15:34:00.003-06:00

In our attempt to go sugarless this month, I have found that I am trying to also get away from many other processed things. One thing I have made this month and highly recommend is a taco seasoning for chicken taco filling. Hope you enjoy!

Chicken Tacos
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup minced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeno pepper or 1 serrano chili, minced
1/2 cup tomoato sauce
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
12 whole wheat tortillas
toppings of choice

Heat the oil in a large skilled over med. heat. Add onion, garlic and pepper or chili. Saute' for about 6 minutes, until the onion has softened. Add tomato sauce, cumin and salt and continue to cook for one more minute. Add the chicken and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Taste, and adust seasoning as necessary. Serve in tortillas and top with choice of toppings (we like tomatoes, avocado, mexican cheese and sour cream). Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Would love to hear if you have any recipes for pasta sauces, pizza sauces, salad dressings, etc. I will be sharing some of theses that I have made up soon but am still in the tweaking phases.

Netflix?

2010-01-23T15:13:00.003-06:00

(Picture from here.)
Several of my friends have been pressuring me to join Netflix. However, I have been a Blockbuster member for several years now and feel comfortable with going to the store, holding the dvd case in my hand while reveiwing it's description, being around other movie renters (I am a stay-at-home mom who doesn't get a lot of adult ineraction during the day.), and then having interaction with the workers who check my movie out. Last night, I went to Blockbuster on a typical Friday evening and found it strange that rows were empty in the "new release" section. Then I noticed as I took my movie to the front that the entire section to buy movies was empty. I asked the girl checking me out if they were moving. To my dismay, she informed me that they would be closing their store and that this was the last weekend they were open. I asked both the workers if they were going to be moved to another store and they said they were not. I was terribly sad to hear that they had only been given a couple of days notice about the closing and were losing their jobs! Now, I am going to have to succomb to Netflix. Yes, I have heard all the great things about it--cost, selection, not having to leave my home, etc. But, through all of this, I am realizing that jobs are easily being taken from people from companies like Red Boxes and Netflix, where in many cases you can just download to your computer or tv. So, I will slowly become more tech friendly but less social. :(

Sugar Free

2010-01-21T19:45:00.004-06:00

(picture from here)
I am not much of the new year's resolution type. I have never been successful in setting a resolution and then keeping it for an entire year. However, I do like the beginnings of a new year and starting out fresh. One of my friends, Carrie, challenged several of us on Facebook to do a month without sugar with her. She did it in November. I said there was no way I would give up sugar the month of my birthday (plus most of David's family's b-days) and Thanksgiving. I love b-day cake and Thanksgiving pies too much, plus the tradition of it all. Then, December was of course out. So, here we are in January and both David and I are charging through the month without sugar. I wish that I could say that we are TOTALLY sugar free but our bread does contain it. However, I believe that is the only thing that we are currently allowing in our diet with it. We are trying to only use natural sweeteners/sugars, such as fruit/fruit juice, honey, agave nectar.

Through this challenge, I have discovered several things. First, sugar is in EVERYTHING!! You may not even realize all the things you buy that contains it (pasta sauce, peanut butter, crackers, salad dressings, soups, and many other things but these were the first that came to mind). It took me forever to complete our grocery shopping the first week of this because I was reading every label. We have been amazed at how we have made it this far and have decided to does this the first week of every month (excluding February...we need a reward!). Second, sugar is addictive and the more you eat the more you crave. If you stop eating it, you loose the addiction to it and you don't crave it as much (realize I said "as much"). I still can't wait to eat a piece of cake or pie but mostly chocolate again!! However, I think now we will change many of the things that we were eating that has unneeded sugar in it.

I have made a banana bread this month that contained agave nectar instead of sugar. I would like to find other recipes to substitute sugar with a natural sweetner. Please let me know if you have any to share. I have also been using agave nectar to sweeten my green tea. I will continue to use this instead of sugar.

So this is what I have been up to for the past couple of weeks. It has been quite an adventure but a good one. I feel like I have more energy and my body just feels better. Let me know if you have ever tried this or if you would like support from me in taking this challenge!

A baby shower

2010-01-14T21:10:00.005-06:00

This past weekend I helped host a family baby shower for my friend, Tracey. Her husband and three boys moved back to the US last year after being missionaries in Togo. They were surprised when they found at they were expecting again...and to find out it was another BOY!!! So, we decided to have the whole family at the shower to help their boys (from 6 to 11 y/o) be a part of welcoming this new baby. One of the families wrote out advice for the three boys on how to be a good big brother to their baby boy who will be arrving soon. It made the afternoon very special. I was in charge of making the cake for the shower. I decided to make a baby block and spelled out "BABY" with a letter on each side.

Since there were kids at the shower, I decided to also make mini cupcakes as well. The cake was chocolate with buttercream icing and the cupcakes were vanilla with a buttercream glaze icing.

Looking forward to making my next cake! Anyone in need of one?