This & That!

Things have been quiet here, sorry. But I have kept a list of a few things that I wanted to share with you all! Hooray!



:: Bird & Little Bird Family Read Aloud Book Along!

Such a fun idea! Families reading the same book aloud and then of course her SUPER cute "extras" to go with each book! Just shoot her an email saying your family would like to participate. This Thursday she is announcing the first book. We love to read aloud and are always looking for new titles! Currently we are on book #5 of the Nancy Drew series! My grandma bought be them when I was young and boy are the kids enjoying them!

:: Ben & Birdy's Recipe for DILL PICKLE POPCORN!

Ok so a little story for you all, first you must know I am a dill pickle fanatic fan. ;) Back in high school I got to go to Edmonton Canada for EFY and also got to stay with an awesome family, while there I discovered dill pickle potato chips! Seriously! If I had a contact in Canada or lived close enough to the border I would totally be eating these right now. Anyway a friend from college who happens to be Canadian but who now lives in the States (but no where near me) was flaunting her dill pickle popcorn spice! Seriously I am thinking I should move to Canada just for the dill pickle love! So I have been wanting some to say the least. Which lead to some googling and then this recipe. It was pretty good! But I'm still hoping to get my hands on the good stuff...

:: SARDINES!

I know! Seriously Danna? My Daddy was always a sardine guy and it always grossing me out! Well last summer when my boys stayed the week with my Dad he and Jake ate quite a bit of sardines and saltines from what I have gathered. I know they are so good for you, and I know they are sustainable and one of the cleaner fish, but... Well I buy them for the kids because they are so good for them and really its and easy peasy snack! Recently a friend shared her sardines with me, Bar Harbor Maine sardines. And... they were totally good! Of course they are a little expensive, so I buy some of those and some of the Trader Joe's ones the kids don't mind. ;)

A Baby Sardine

A baby sardine

Saw her first submarine:

She was scared and watched

through a peephole.

"Oh come, come, come,"

Said the sardine's mum,

"It's only a tin full of people."

:: Cloud Dough!

Oh yes, the mess! We really enjoy making and playing with play dough but today a friend shared this recipe and the ease sounds great! I haven't tried it yet but we are SO making this!!

4 cups flour

1/2 cup baby oil

THAT'S IT!!

Stay Tuned for more!

{this moment}

A moment from this week that I want to pause, savor, and remember.

{this moment}

Dandilions!

Spring has sprung and so have the dandilions all over town!! There are fequently dandilion flowers in my hair or sunhat, the girls love to pick them. But they also know that the greens are editable and yummy to boot! So the kids have cleaned out our yard a couples times and then last night they brought in a very large harvest and exictedly told me, "Tim let us pull all the dandilions out of his yard! He doesn't WANT them!!!" He He our neighbors most likely are now completly convinsed that we are loony! But this morning we enjoyed them in our dandilion & kale hash! We have also enjoyed a few green smoothies with them too! Now if only we had those lovely wild ramps we could find in our yard in CT. Yummmm!

Anything good foraged in your yard this spring?

395!

The kids and I went on a wonderful trip since Dan was gone for his own long trip! We got to drive through some beautiful country and enjoy peace and quiet!! The 395 through the Mammoth and Mono areas is just geographically beautiful!It is such a volcanically scarred area it is amazing!!

Mono Lake was on our list, it is a beautifully strange lake! It is 2X salter than the Great Salt Lake! They also have a really nice visitors center that is pretty new, with a huge piece of obsidian out front (I would have brought it home but it would not fit. Obsidian is my favorite stone!) There will be a post with more Mono Lake photos on our schooling blog!

 

We pulled off at Fossil Falls (south of Independence CA. & north of Manzanar), I visited here back in high school and knew the kids would love it!! It is a volcanic play ground!

 

 

 

 

It is a prehistoric riverbed, when the lava poured into it and the water cooled it quickly it created all of these tubes and caves. Then over time as the water swirled stones and such holes were bored into the basalt too!

 

 Here in the background of this photo is the Hot Creek hot spring (north of the Mammoth turn off same road as the Mammoth airport). In high school I got to soak in it but about 3 years ago it turned into a seathing geyser and so they have fenced off the creek and spring area. :( We hiked down and felt the water but were sad to not go in. But the brilliant blue water was beautiful!! 

{this moment}

We are back just last night from our walkabout! More pictures to come! And what is up with blogger changing while I was gone!!! This will take me a minute to figure all out!!

Happy Friday!

For Dan on Easter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once Upon A Time...

...we took a little road trip! We piled in and had snacks galore (two hours worth)! Dad treated us to a falafel, hummus, olives kind of dinner! And the kids were ready to permanently move into our hotel "house"!
All just to be here. With other LLL leaders. Can you feel the warmth in the room? An evening ice cream social with dancing and cape making, and then a day and a lovely potluck lunch with these amazing ladies and their families. New friends made and lamps filled.

And then we headed home...

And then we tried to put on our chains, yes chains!

Guess what... they did not fit. Do you know how expensive chains are on the side of the road in the must chain up area? Yea, painful.

So we headed out at 20 mph, very bumpy.

Oh yea we were crossing the Sierra Nevadas... Donner Pass... kind of looks like Narnia.

5 hours latter we made it over the "The Hill".

We slid, we slided, we held our bladders, and we burned ALOT of gas!

But it was worth it.

And every one wants to go again next year!! We'll just stay another night!!

{this moment} ~ blurry!

Caution: Crazy headless self portraits!!

I have found that I really like the warmth of having something around my neck, and I don't want to take it off inside. So I like to keep my eye out for scarves, I rarely (never) find good ones at Goodwill and new ones are really ridiculously priced (although Target seems to have some cute ones). Anyway back to the headlessness...

I found THIS BLOG where she shared a whole slew of recycled tshirt scarf tutorials!

So I made THIS one...
And THIS one. The only bummer about this one is she did not really use an old tshirt she used new knit so mine came out too short to loop a second time which would have made the warmth factor much greater.
I really like the concept of using tshirts, no only because they are 2 bucks at Goodwill but also because they are not too hot inside (nor are they itchy)!
Win win! I'll be making more! Which one do you think I should try next (ruffles are disqualified)!
Did you like the headlessness? Classy hu!

{this moment} ~ just a little late...

;)

Bollywood!

Yep that is right... Bollywood.

Dan and I have crossed over the line and have been thoroughly enjoying some great (and not so great) Bollywood films!

So I thought I'd share a couple with you in case you all need a new movie genre. The bonus, they are completely clean (they don't even kiss) and they are tons of fun!

The first is Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, this one was lots of fun! We laughed through it but it was also a really sweet love story!

The second I have to recommend is Aaja Nachle. We REALLY liked this one, there is always a bit of hokey in the Bollywood movies and the beginning of this one was really hokey but the rest makes up for it! Plus they tell the story of Layla and Majoon which is the eastern story that Romeo and Juliet came from. But it is a better story (and this from a gal who is a HUGE Shakespeare fan)!!

These are both on instant on Netflix! Happy dancing!

Lasagna

Tonight I made a yummy Gluten and Dairy free lasagna! I got Fern and Leili to eat it by reminding them that not only is lasagna Dad's favorite but also Garfield. ;) My dad always loved Garfield and he has passed it on to my kids. The picture up at the top, well that is what Dan looked like tonight. He He!!

I am not sure I have many readers looking for a gluten and dairy free lasagna recipe so I won't post the whole recipe but I will mention a couple products that made this yummy. First DeBoles is making rice lasagna noodles that are NO BOIL!!!! So lovely! I make a good ricotta with tofu based on a recipe in Vegan Vittles, and that new Diaya mozzarella is just lovely in so many many ways. ;)

As to the silence here recently well, we hit a rough patch. Dan has been gone tons, life has been a little overwhelming, and I have not loaded pictures off my camera (I lost PhotoShop with the computer crash and the free program I downloaded to use is not quite up to snuff...). So I'll be here with what is left of my sanity!

Ciao!

{this moment}

Out My Window

It's hard to remember the later when the former is what I see today. Isn't that funny?

I feel like a kid, I'm not sure how it is I have kids as I don't remember graduating to all knowing parent status. Maybe that is because I've never done this before, does that mean parents are not all knowing? I keep waiting to grow up, it will happen right? Or is this as grown up as I get? A childhood friend had her first baby recently, that made me feel a little old as I have 4 babies. She was the one who told me what a french kiss is, we were in my tree. I think she may be one of the only people who knows me completely without a filter. Sure we have now been apart longer than we were ever inseparable but still...

So growing up. Recently my mind has been heavy? filled? with the question of what I want to be when I grow up. Or what I will do in my next life, not in a reencarnation sense but in the sense of different seasons of life. There are a few things that interest me to prusue. Now thoughts of timing and order float through my brain, and I think I'm ready to start. Yes I know my plate is plenty full but after 11 years of constantly giving all of myself to my children I am feeling the desire to give a little to myself.

So do you feel grown up? What does it feel like? Tired? I feel that. Maybe that is what it feels like to be grown up.

And what do you want to be when you grow up? What will you do in your next life?

Good Night!

Running Away!

Last Saturday I ran away all by myself! I walked along the river and checked out the Co-op's new home. I also took my camera! So here is a little photo tour of this little part of Reno!

Hope you enjoyed my walk! ;)