What seemed like a good idea at the time:

Teaching Jonah that milk goes bad when it's warm.
...now he won't drink anything that is not ice cold.

Letting Jonah give his apple cores to Dixie.
...now he takes two bites and throws it in the mud "for Dixie."

Sleeping in for a half hour this morning while Jonah entertained himself.
...He tends to be more pleasant when he starts the day on a high note rather than wandering the house alone. Also, see below.

Buying that more expensive per ounce organic honey at Costco. It came in two little squeezy bears instead of the giant jug, so I figured it'd be easier to use.
...it was so much easier to use apparently that Jonah used all we had left "killing ants" this morning. As you can guess, the ants are still alive and feasting merrily on my money. I mean, honey. No, I mean money.

Trying two new muffin recipes this week.
...neither of which were any good. One batch of which ended up in the trash because they never got un-mushy.

living under my rock

...I missed the following (so forgive anything that is old news):


http://www.postsecret.com/ A site where people post secrets annonymously. It started as an art project.
http://www.ifoundyourcamera.net/ Pictures from lost cameras with the hope of reuniting picture and photographer. Alas, I was unable to identify any people..
http://readingforsanity.blogspot.com/ A book review blog with a section of each review "for the sensitive reader." This is good for me when I want to recommend a book (or for my own fuddy duddiness).
http://lifehacker.com/ A practically endless time suck with decent life hacks. It would be a better time waster if it loaded faster for me..

Josh declared it was time to take a bunch of pictures of Caroline, "now that she's chubby and cute." So I used our awake happy time to take a few. Here are the best and worst (or best and best depending on how you feel about bloopers):

"Let's take one of all of us!" (cue screaming both happy and sad)

memaw

If a buggy is a grocery cart, then memaw is grandma. I haven't figured out yet if it's always a particular grandma (wikipedia thinks it might be more commonly the maternal grandmother). I'll keep investigating.

what we've been up to, in pictures

We played with friends,

planted tomatoes,

let Jonah use the camera again,

 

 

 kicked a tree,

 found eggs,

 turned three months old,

 found wild blackberries growing in the yard,

 fixed Josh's bike,

 loved the spring weather. We've had over a month of 78-83 degrees. Yes, please.

a call for yummy muffins

Sundays around here are hectic. I made a batch of muffins one Saturday night for a quick Sunday breakfast (and snack and lunch and sometimes dinner). They were such a big hit that I started making muffins every Saturday. While I am not opposed to sticking with a few favorites (once a week means even if we only have 4 recipes we'll only eat each once a month), I'm still looking for a few perfect fits. Here are my criteria:

1. All or mostly all whole grain
2. Very little sugar (2/3 c. or less, preferably)
3. Moist
3. Tasty enough that Jonah and Josh will eat them. Josh will politely eat one of anything but not more if he doesn't care for them. Jonah is in a "I don't like that" stage, so it has to be good enough that one bite will win him over.

Here are the ones we've tried thus far:
Janssen's banana blueberry muffins (...also known as Jonah's favorite. He's always so disappointed when I make something else. Josh is also weird about chunks of banana, so I have to add a banana mushing-to-paste step when I make them.)
Almond muffins (These were neither moist nor tasty. I had such high hopes.)
Spiced sweet potato muffins (Josh watched me make these and turned his nose up at the sweet potatoes and then the applesauce and then the coconut oil. Despite his skepticism, they were tasty. I thought they were a little spice heavy and not quite pumpkiny enough, but that's likely because they weren't made with pumpkin at all. Next time I'll use carrots  instead and see if that gives them more flavor.)

I'd like a bran muffin and some sort of nut muffin. I also love any fruit or veggie muffin since I can tick one serving of whichever off my list for the day. I have a bran muffin recipe that I've made since I was a kid, but it's made with white flour and more sugar than I'd like. I could experiment with it myself, I suppose, but considering the depression I feel when baked goods don't turn out, it seems wise to let other more stable bakers do the recipe tweaking.

Oh, and happy Easter!

chills

At first, I don't even really notice what my ears are hearing. Then, my heart does a little panic while my brain catches up. Tornado sirens. Is it Wednesday? Yes. Panic shrinks a bit. Is it noon? Yes again. Much better.

Tuscaloosa tests the sirens the first Wednesday of every month at noon. Our big anniversary is coming up. We have a barbecue in the planning stages. I think we may have pudding cups for dessert.

timing

Timing the end of a book is tricky. If there is too much left, I will stay up all night reading it. If I finish too early, I mope around and wish I had another one to read. Even if I do, that is no good as it generally leads to staying up too late. Josh has a long meeting tonight and I was nearing the end of a book. So, I patiently waited for the kids to fall asleep so I could take my book to bed. Dang those extra pages and credits at the end making the book look longer than it is. I finished an hour earlier than I thought I would and it's just a bit too early to go to sleep.

Now I can either do the dishes (boo), wander around moping (most likely), or read something else (little sleep = grumpy me).

gnam gnam

I work with the young women at church (12-18 year old girls). The curriculum includes a goal setting/achievement program sort of similar to boy scouts. As a personal improvement and also to better help the girls here, I am working through the program (again. I did it as a girl) with them. This is my most recent goal:

"As a young woman you are blessed with divine feminine qualities. Increase your understanding of and appreciation for womanhood. Read Proverbs 31:10–31 and two talks on womanhood from a conference issue of the Church magazines. Review what “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (see page 101) says about being a wife and a mother. Then ask your mother or another mother you admire what she thinks are important attributes for being a mother. List the attributes in your journal. Then choose one of those attributes and strive to develop it. After two weeks report your success to a parent or leader."

Of all the attributes in the scripture and talks, the one that stuck out to me  is from Proverbs (vs. 14-16):

 14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

 15 She ^ariseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

 16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

Generally, when I think of what I want to improve as a person or as a mother, attributes like patience and generosity top the list. For the next two weeks, though, I am going to focus closely on feeding my family. That means getting up to make (or at least oversee) breakfast. This means preparing lunch rather than letting Jonah eat 7 apples a day (the only snack he can reach that has a permanent okay from me). Incidentally, this two-week goal also coincides with a very lean month for us, so it will be interesting to see how I manage to pull it off. I have high hopes that paying better attention will also save us money.

All of that to say, for dinner we're having salmon patties, broccoli, and Parmesan potatoes. Am I the last person on the planet to try the Ziploc microwave bags? I was skeptical when Stephanie used it (I tend to avoid newfangled things in the kitchen) but it made the best broccoli I'd had in a long time. Jonah also eats a full bag himself some nights, so at least he's eating something other than apples and Nutella.