Wedding last weekend

Anne and I went to a wedding last weekend. My good friend Steph Wilson was shooting the wedding and wanted to "borrow" Anne for a few pictures. What kind of crazy would I be to say no?!

Fall pictures

I tried this Sunday to take pictures of Anne. I always like to take pictures this time of year, because it's her birthday, but also because the views are so pretty. :)

Fall!

I've been trying to be more intentional with learning/creating activities with Anne. Last week, the leaves were just beautiful, so we had to do something with them. Here's what we came up with. One day we picked up leaves. The next we made the garland. She even helped iron the waxed paper together. She felt very "big."

Summer 2010

So I guess I was on a blogging vacation for the summer. lol Anyway, I'll post some pictures to catch up.

 She's decided she likes to play pretend. Her favorite pretend at playgrounds is restaurant. We take turns making and serving food. :)

 And we went to a Royals baseball game. She loved it. :) I thought she might be bored, but she totally wasn't. She was interested in what was going on and cheered when they hit the ball. It was great!

 I put her hair back in her baseball cap. Her hair was made for it. :) She looked so cute.

The summer was great fun. We spent so much time outside learning and playing. She's talking so much more and it's been so great getting to talk to her and figure out what's going on in her head. Next up: Fall!

Un-professional, here I come

Let's start with this - I love my job. I love being able to take my daughter to work with me. I love that I don't have to dress up. I love having flexible hours. But sometimes all of those things backfire!

Yesterday, since Mindy is out of town, I picked up some donated (free!) onion starters and seed potatoes. And so today I'm in gardening clothes and flimsy washable flip-flops. But I forgot that a representative from a Xerox printing company was coming to meet with me today. And of course he was in a suit & tie. Now, I love my job and I love being a mom and I love that they mix so well, but today I felt like I looked like a "mom." Slouchy clothes, hair not done, not much makeup on. Toys and dolls in the office. And I had to tell him to be quiet so he didn't wake up my sleeping child.

Maybe the lesson should be check my calendar so I'm more prepared?

Whole Wheat Soda Bread

Okay, so this is the bread I made last week, for those who came to my party on Saturday. It's super easy and tastes great. It's best right out of the oven with butter, in my opinion.

Whole Wheat Soda Bread

Ingredients:
1 c white flour
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs cold butter
2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 c buttermilk (I used soured milk - just add vinegar to sweet milk - but don't be skimpy - the acidity in the milk reacts to the baking soda to make the bread rise)

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine the first four ingredients and mix well. Cut in butter. Stir in whole wheat flour and oats. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in buttermilk. Mix with a fork just until blended. Knead on well-floured board 1 minute (Not too long - too long will make the texture too tough).
Shape in a ball and set on greased baking sheet. Press into 6 in circle and cut a cross in the top. Bake 40 minutes or until well browned and the loaf sounds hollow.

I made this on Sunday evening, as well, and that time I gave Anne a small ball of dough to knead herself and shape into a ball. She thought it was pretty cool, but wasn't too excited about the messy hands. I say this to say that you can make the bread the size you want - just adjust the baking time.

Things to read and a laugh

-Reading this made me laugh more than I have in a couple of days. If you have kids, especially, it's a must read. :)

-Seeing this made me want to city camp on our back deck. Ben thinks it would be fun, too!

Happy Monday!

A Clean House

I'm all about this!

I think I'm going for it

I'm going to do it. You know, the jars? I'm so in love with the idea, that I'm determined to try it. But I don't have matching jars, and buying jars would not only require money, which I don't have, but would be beside the point. :) So since I don't have beautiful matching Ball jars, I'm going to repurpose glass jars I empty - spaghetti sauce, salsa, etc. To create some sort of match-y-ness, I think I'm going to paint the jar lids a matching color. That should help, right? And I'm going to store things in them. Cocoa, baking soda, maybe icing sprinkles (they are so colorful!) - I'm sure I can find lots of stuff! Yay! I'm so excited, I've already started taking the labels off a couple of jars. By the way, I'm sure this will be the yuckiest part of the whole process.

Kitchen Organizing

OMG! I so love this system! It's gorgeous AND functional! Granted, the countertop would have to be clean to be able to see all of that loveliness, but still. I officially have jar-envy now! All of those beautiful Mason jars. I have un-matching glass jars, but it probably wouldn't be as wonderful that way, huh?

This was a tip on SimpleBites and the picture is from there.