I'll be there when the Bluebonnets Bloom

We finally made it out to the Bluebonnets this year.

Just in case you don't know, the Bluebonnet is the Texas State Flower. They start blooming in late March, on the highways, in fields, everywhere. To drive by a field of them can be almost breathtaking. Drive past any large field of them on a Saturday in April, and you will see oodles of cars pulled over with families and such taking pictures. It's a Texas Tradition. Seeing Texas in bloom this time of year almost makes up for the misery we all know we are soon about to bear. Unforgiving heat. And mosquitoes. I guess the flowers are nature's precursory peace offering.








Want to know how many takes it took to get those 5 pictures? 48. Yeah, that's right. So I hope you enjoyed them. And I learned something today. Apparently it's not illegal to pick Bluebonnets. All my life I've been told "Don't pick the Bluebonnets!" "It's against the law!" Now I hear that's just an old wives tale. That there was an article in the paper today. I had already told the kids the police man would put them in jail if they picked them. And now I hear it IS OK to pick them. From Grandma. Who's picking them right and left while the kids watch with their jaws open.

From the Mouths of Babes

If you ever want to see yourself how others see you, listening to what comes out of your kids' mouths is one way, I think. Lately I've noticed that the twins, Lilly especially, have gotten in the habit of repeating things that I say. I figure the things they say are probably the phrases that I use most often. This is what I've been hearing a lot of lately:

We DON'T scream at the dinner table!

It's OK if I need to go peepee in my pull-up. It's not like an accident.

You'll always be my baby, now matter how big!

YOU don't say that word!

I'm so proud of you!

It's such a beautiful day!

O Dammit.

Ah well, you have to admit that hearing your little angel say their first swear word is hilarious, I don't care how much you try to pretend it's not. It is. Even the 2nd and 3rd time are pretty funny as you try to muffle your smirking laugh behind your hand. But then reality sets in and you remember that you are now an adult, and not 19, and that now it's sort of not funny anymore. Because they go to "school" now, and repeat things you say, obviously. And as much as you're pretty sure most other mommies must also drop the F bomb or various other words at least every once in awhile on accident, that doesn't mean you want your kid to be the one all the teachers are talking about while the wee ones are napping.

So that being said, we are making a strong effort to cease all swearing. I've never considered myself a huge swear-er, but it's amazing how much you catch yourself saying bad words when you are making an effort not to. Or when your 3 year old points it out to you and suggests a time out.

Moving on.

We went to King's Orchard last Sunday morning to pick strawberries. We went last year when the twins were barely two and I was grossly pregnant. This year was much better. We had a lot of fun and the kids really did pick their own with a little guidance from us. I don't think I must have eaten any of the strawberries we picked last year probably because of the gestational diabetes I had. Because I'm sure I would have remembered how yummy they were otherwise. I guess this is the first time I've ever had fresh-from-the-vine ripe strawberries. They were SO yummy. And juicy. Perfect.

Like most 3 year olds, my kids love strawberries. And as good as the strawberries are, the orchard does use various nasty chemicals to support their crops. So I didn't want the kids to pop too many in their mouths before we could wash them. I told them they had germs on them and we needed to wash them before we ate them. They kind of understand the concept of germs so that worked pretty well. Lilly kept asking "does this ONE have germs mommy? I don't think this one has any germs. It's OK if I eat this one." I decided to live a little and be carefree, and just let them enjoy the moment and eat some fresh-picked berries. And just enjoy seeing the true pleasure in their eyes. In spite of the fertilizer, fungicide, and pesticides I'm sure they just consumed. So was it worth it to drive 25 minutes, and pay double what you would at the store to pick you own strawberries? Without sounding too much like a Mastercard commercial, I'd have to say it really was. I love making memories.












If you liked my last post about eating meatless and stuff, good! I'll be back with more. I have a lot of things on my mind I really want to write about and can't decide if I should create a new blog or just write on here. I'm thinking I want to keep this more about my kids and family, and start up a new one. But then again that's kind of ridiculous given that I post about twice a month huh? We'll see. Maybe I'll turn a new page. I really do like writing...

Meatless Monday!

OK. So I finally watched that movie Food Inc. And I also recently read Food Matters by Mark Bittman. The movie actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting, maybe because I was expecting the worst possible. Still it doesn't make you feel good to know how the animals are treated, and of course what they are fed. And to know that this is what most of us are eating. Yuck on many accounts.

I really recommend reading the book Food Matters. The guy that wrote it apparently has written quite a few books and is pretty popular, but this was the first I had heard of him. I liked that he isn't trying to convince us all to be vegetarians, but more to eat quality foods and to eat responsibly. One example he gave that sticks out in my mind is about how energy-consuming the production of (gross) meat is. He said that for all the energy required to provide a family of 4 a steak dinner, you could instead use that much energy in the form of gas, driving around in your big SUV for about 3 hours. As a big SUV driver myself, I have to admit it made me feel a little better about driving it, ha. He's talking about the energy necessary to create and feed the livestock you will eventually eat. And to transport and "process" said livestock to the slaughterhouses, and eventually to your grocery store. That was the gist of it anyways.

So, because I think too much and like to make my life voluntarily more complicated and make up little games in my head, I'm really trying to watch the amount of meat our household consumes, and try and see that most of it is better meat. From what I've read, the meat you want to eat is from grassfed animals. Animals are meant to eat grass, but of course we know that's not what they're eating on these grow farms. They're eating cheap, cheap corn and stuff.

That brings me to the title of today's post. I didn't make it up but Meatless Monday sure has a catchy tune to it doesn't it? I'm trying to go veggie at least a few days a week and mostly meatless a few more days. It's actually been kind of fun as I like to cook anyways and like trying new recipes. Also, I've reached the point in my life where I'm willing and even wanting to try new things and flavors.

I know some of my friends are reading the same things and thinking the same things so I thought it'd be fun to share our meal ideas. I've found the hardest part is to create meatless meals that aren't super high carb. Both Paul and I come from a long line of diabetics, plus I had gestational diabetes with both pregnancies. So we are really trying to be proactive with our lifestyle in order to delay, offset, or minimize what is almost inevitable. The fact that we both have a very high chance of being diabetic at some point in our lives. A large part of that is purely genetics but I'm trying to at least do what I can about the non-genetic part. So, any meal that I share here will also be relatively low-carb as an added bonus.



I so love Suddenly Salad! I'm sure it wouldn't be so hard to buy my own noodles but until I figure out what it is they put in that little seasoning packet, here we are. As an added bonus, I found a great recipe on the back of the box. Basically I added two large broccoli crowns, 3 medium shredded carrots, tbsp of lemon juice, 1 diced cucumber and 1/2 cup of ranch dressing. One of those recipes you can kind of add and subtract whatever's in your fridge. And it's yummy!

OK so the hubby and friend just read the blog and made fun of my big box of pasta after talking about low-carb. I'd just like to point out that we need some carbs! There's more veggies than noodles in that salad and I'm standing my ground! Moderation, right?

Strawberry Spinach Salad

One of our favorites, especially with fresh-picked strawberries from King's Orchard. My kids love this salad because the dressing is sweet. The dressing is super easy. I got it from allrecipes.com but basically 1/2 c olive oil, 1/2 c sugar (you can go a little less), 1/4 c apple cider vinegar and 1 tbsp of poppy seeds. Mix it until it's uniform, and dress. I added sliced almonds tonight but I've done pecans too. Or maybe you can add some type of cheese too.

Add some cottage cheese if you're craving more protein, and dinner is served!




One last thought. One of the things that did disturb me about Food Inc was a section where they had an overweight family going through a drive thru, ordering from the $1 menu. They said something about how until the movie people talked to them, they thought any food at a restaurant would automatically be healthy for you or how could they serve it? Well I won't waste text breaking that thought apart but anyways they also said it was cheaper to eat junk food and that healthy food was too expensive. They later showed that same family at the grocery store, where one of their children wanted some pears. They were $0.99 a lb. The mom made the girl put some on a scale to see how many pears were in a pound. There was roughly 2 pears to a pound, meaning they'd cost about $0.50 each. The mom said that was too much and they could buy a lot more of the other foods for $0.99. She didn't get the pears!

So I know they put that segment in the movie to make a point, and they did. The point being (store brand) sodas, and basic crap food were cheaper than fresh produce. The father also said why would I pay $1.00 for a head of broccoli when I can get a double cheeseburger for a dollar that will fill me up? Wow. So I wonder how many people out there actually feel this way. My family and pretty much everyone I know is fortunate that we have enough money to make some decisions about what we eat. I certainly can't afford to buy as much organic food and grassfed meats as I'd like, but we're lucky enough that we can afford healthy food.

That being said, I thought it'd be fun to come up with a Dollar Dinner. Meaning that you could feed each person in your family a wholesome meal for about a dollar. Kind of competing with the fast food dollar menu if you will. So I'm going to kind of cheat and give myself the challenge of feeding my family of 5 (2 adults, 3 yr old twins, and a baby that eats table food) for $6.00. I figure that's fair because who really only orders one item off the dollar menu plus there's sales tax involved. I have no idea what I'm going to make but I'm pretty sure it won't be horribly hard, and I'm pretty sure they'll be beans involved, hehehe. Check back.

This & That

I know they say the older you get, the faster the months go by, but it never feels more true than March. I can't believe it's already April, and a third through at that. The good news is we can't complain of boredom any time recently. There's always something to do and the weather has been ideal. We've had spring break, Paul's birthday, and Easter all in the past few weeks.

My parents came for a few days during Spring Break. I like to take advantage of extra hands so we took a trek down to the Houston Museum of Natural Science where I've had free tickets burning a hole in my pocket for months. Our main goal was to visit the Butterfly Room, and the kids loved it. If you haven't been, it's basically a big glassed-in terrarium full of butterflies and other amphibians. The twins loved it. What's not to love about butterflies and lizards? They also liked seeing the big dinosaurs in the entrance and had a pretty great time. Going on a rainy day during spring break probably wasn't my greatest idea ever but we had a good time and I'm looking forward to a few return visits.

Paul's birthday is always during spring break. He didn't take a day off or anything but I made him a nice cake and we had a steak dinner. He always likes to go to an Aggie Baseball game for his birthday so we hit Olson field that Sunday. Unfortunately, it was crazy windy that day. CRAZY WINDY. I tried to pretend like I was enjoying myself for several innings. But really. We tried to carry hot chocolate into the stands, and the hot chocolate was blowing out of the cup. Now that's crazy. So around the 6th inning, the twins and I left. Actually I think they were still having an OK time but it looked better if I was leaving for their sake and not my own selfish reasons. We enjoyed french fries and coffee in the comfort of the McDonalds across the parking lot until the game was over. Unfortunately the Ags lost to Tech.

Next we went to Wings n More, an Aggie standard, where we watched the Ags lose yet again in basketball, to Purdue. Paul has a theory, or maybe more like an observation, that whenever he goes to College Station to watch the Aggies play a sport, whether live or on TV, they lose. Seriously, I think he's like 1 for 9 or something. Being the superstitious person that he is, we may not be making any more trips to Aggieland in the foreseeable future. A big thanks to my friend Michelle for watching Baby Ginger on our day of fun. I wish I had taken a picture of those two girls but I forgot. She was a good sport and watched her for the better part of the day, and said she had a good time. And she was still smiling when I picked Ginger up. She mentioned she didn't get much "Ginger time" at the twins birthday party, so I figure that made up for it. hehehe


We had a nice Easter and the twins loved the multiple egg hunts they went on over the course of several days. Of course, they don't really understand the concept of finding eggs. This year I decided that perhaps the Easter Bunny could be a little more sneaky with egg placement. I suggested s/he not just throw them out onto the grass in plain view, but be a little creative. I'm not talking hide them under huge bushes or up in trees, I just mean like on the other side of a tree trunk or on the swing. Perhaps we overestimated the ability of 3 year olds. Most of our egg hunt was spent having us point at an egg, the kids walking right past it numerous times, and us pointing again and giving exact directions. Oh well.

I've been in a major sewing phase lately. I made this little bunny rabbit for my littlest Bunny's first Easter. I hope she likes it because I'm pretty proud of it.

Kids at the museum next to a dinosaur. ROAR!

Ginger and Gran

Lilly loves to touch bugs and stuff.

Owen doesn't.

We're not really dressy people but I saw this idea on Etsy and had to make Owen this tie shirt. Doesn't he look super sharp?

I loved letting the kids paint outside. Something out of the normal and definitely a special treat!

First time to dye Easter eggs.

I made this tote bag and thought it came out pretty cute. Don't worry Michelle it's just practice for the super-awesome one you're gonna get ;)

The picture doesn't do it justice but this rose bush is just brimming with beautiful pale orange roses. It's an antique rose we picked up at the Rose Emporium in Brenham a few years ago. It's really taken off. I love this time of year!