Sunday muffins: my top 4

Did I mention we have muffins for breakfast every Sunday? Well, we do. While I'm allowing myself the option to change my mind later, I think I have finally settled on the muffin rotation. Poor Jonah and Josh kept asking why I made so many different kinds of muffins when there were already recipes they loved. Because I like to try new recipes, that's why. Some recipes have fallen out of favor and might make a reappearance for an odd weekday, but here are the Sunday muffins currently in rotation (plus one):

1. Everyone's favorite: Janssen's blueberry banana muffins. Seriously, though, no one would complain if I only made these.
2. Zucchini coconut muffins. In the interest of full disclosure, I only use whole wheat flour and they still taste great.
3. Pumpkin spice muffins. Again, because I can't be counted on to have wheat germ in the house, I use just whole wheat flour most of the time. I also dust the tops with cinnamon sugar. I have added a chopped granny smith apple before and it was great.

And what is number 4? Well on St. Patrick's day, we made Irish brown bread into mini muffins. I have yet to try these on a Sunday, but they were delicious and hardy and reminded me of a bran muffin. I wish I had all the ingredients to make them tonight. Like all of the muffins (regardless of what the recipes say), I made mini muffins and baked these at 425 for 10-12 minutes.

Remember what I said about #1 being everyone's favorite? On the way to bed tonight, Jonah asked me what muffins I was making tonight. I told him that I'd make the blueberry ones and he cheered in celebration. Then a few minutes later my niece asked and I told her the same thing. Her response? "Oh, those are the good ones."

a red-letter day

Today, conditions were finally right: Caroline has a good enough handle of the stairs, the weather was warm, the ground was dry, and both children were occupied with sidewalk chalk. On this day, the 29th of March 2013, I left both children outside unattended*. I feel like a free woman.

Legal disclaimer: "Unattended" in this context signifies without an adult present while said adult ran inside to use the restroom with an open bathroom window allowing any and all sounds from the outside to enter the bathroom through said window.

3 is wild

With grandma and grandpa here, we've been playing a lot of games. One game we've enjoyed is Five Crowns. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you happen to be sitting at her left), Susan often forgets which cards are wild and discards them. So this morning, Jonah made her a little cheat sheet.

After oo-ing and aah-ing over the picture, the following conversation ensued:

Josh: Jonah, did anyone help you draw that?
Jonah: Nope!
Josh: Not even the body?
Jonah: Nope!
Josh: Kimberly, look at the perfect square and triangles.
Jonah: Actually Dad, I think that's a rectangle.

March has been a good month

Looking back through the month, it's been a fun one! Maybe that's why the blog has been sparse. Or maybe it's because the weather has started to warm up (sometimes). Either way, here are some of the things we've been up to this month:

My sister came to visit! There was much rejoicing and talking and not very much sleeping. We did manage to take one single picture while she was here as proof.

 Caroline decided to eat with her feet propped up. She eats this way every meal now. I don't know what she'll do when her legs get too long.

  

We went to a lame carnival where Jonah refused to do anything but drink an Icee. He wouldn't even try cotton candy! (This picture is Josh trying to show Jonah how awesome it is.)

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day--the Flanagan way. Kaitlyn taught us what to eat and how to make it and we gorged ourselves Thanksgiving-in-March style.

Mom and Dad came to visit! They are on their way home from their mission in Virginia and stopped over for a week. We were so lucky to have them. Mom "helped" me (as in she did it all for me while I napped) make a quilt and Jonah helped her.

Then he sat outside with Grandpa who was happy to see the sun after 18 months in the shade of the hills.

[Picture pending..why won't me phone send it to me when I ask??!]

Then Quintin and Molly flew in to drive Mom and Dad's car home and there was more talking and less sleeping.

Here's to March!

It's not Jonah that's being cute around these parts

Though taking self-portraits is pretty cute.

As is going cross-eyed. What do I look at? Mom? The camera?

while browsing the Lego magazine

Jonah (pointing to the Star Wars Lego figures): Oh, I seriously love all of these ones.

Also, my mom and dad are here, so sorry for the lack of posts. We are far too busy doing things to sit down and write about them! (And by doing things, I mean taking naps.)

the best use of my time

I have been on a mad dash all morning long. Poor Caroline just laid down for her 9am nap (and it's 2:00 in the afternoon). I have an hour and a half until I have to be gone again with the house spotless so the landlord can show it to some potential renters. Today I don't have the luxury of feeling weepy. I have more to do than is possible to do in the time allotted me and I would really like to take a nap. So, what do I do first?

-Change out of the clothes my poor baby just peed on
-Put on some makeup and do my hair so I don't look like I've been on a dead run all day (though I have)
-Eat lunch
-Turn on some music and get to work

I think I'm going to go with #1 and #4. My mom says when you have a rough day and you have to be gone again all night, change your bra and your shoes and you'll feel like a new woman. Thanks, Mom! I'm repeating your new Southern Belle slogan in my head today, "Look like a cream puff and work like a Sherman tank."

well, he did get our unibrows

Today, I caught Jonah trying to pluck his eyebrows because, "I don't want them to get long like girl hair."

home sweet moving again

We showed a friend around the house yesterday. She and her roommates think they want to move in when we leave. It was really sad. I felt like we were trying to convince them it was a great place, even though we have no financial motivation to care who moves in when we're gone. There's plenty I don't love about this house, but I do love this house.

This was our refuge, our home again, our place to rebuild after the forced upheaval of the tornado. This is the house where barely 3-year-old Jonah fell asleep on the dirty carpet in the room he wanted to be his room. This is the house where we brought home Caroline. This was the place we were surprised to realize felt like home after a long trip. This is the yard and the porch swing that healed my soul when I need a home to make. A homemaker without a home is a tough job.

We are so excited to move, but so sad to leave this place. I know we have months still, but I'm already saying goodbye.

so glad we have Sue

Picture taken on Susan's ipod of Caroline rolling all over Sue's blanket. We love having Susan here!!

stuck in my head

La la la laundromat!

What is your favorite crayon color?

Anyone out there a coloring fanatic? Do you know the name of your favorite Crayola crayon? Mine is cerulean. Does anyone else love to line up the crayons by shade? Yeah, me too. So when Jonah got the giant 164 crayon box for Christmas, I was eager to see all the colors lined up in a row. Doesn't it seem like there are some colors that just don't need to be there? How many different shades of purpleish red does one box need? What about the crayons with the silly names? Well let me tell you that a few new colors have been added since I was a kid, and some of them are actually quite nice. For your random reading pleasure, I present the cool/not cool list of the newish colors in the giant crayola box.

Not cool:
-cotton candy: how many more pinks do we need? This one is too close to carnation to get any real use.
-scarlet: I do like this color, but it's just slightly more red than red orange
-mountain meadow: too blue
-timberwolf: too much like regular grey
-eggplant: looks just like an eggplant but hasn't gotten much use
-almond: almost the exact same color as the coloring book page. Maybe I'd like this more on white paper?

Cool:
-asparagus: I didn't love this color at first (and it doesn't look like asparagus), but we discovered it's the perfect color for chalkboards
-manatee: I wouldn't have thought I would like this grey, but it's different enough that I can now have 2 different grey elephants
-shadow: a really awesome dark grey that is too light to be achieved with the black but darker than anything a grey could do. Pretty much a perfect shadow color.
-outer space: not quite black and not quite navy. I love this color!
-wild blue yonder: If cadet blue and periwinkle had a child it would be this color. It's perfect for sky.