...almost.. not quite ... good bye

summer.

not here.

yet.

we wait.

patiently.


Is this a foreigner in my car?  No, my mother, 'freezing' from the 68 degree weather we had last week.  In her defense, turns out she had a fever from a cold.  Sad goodbye as she goes back to Florida.

Is this a bugger?  No, a raisin.  Our first child to stick things up their nose.  What is our future with this one?

Did we have another baby?  No, this is Lexi with Wendell.

Is she crazy?  Yes, she finally got her head phones that mute out loud noises.  I will be using these this summer with an 'on break' sign.

Love at first site?  No.  She has just started enjoyed swinging the past month.  She enjoys swinging on the 'big' swing too.

Is slavery legal in the US?  No, but this is not slavery.  My kids help me clean.  This day was windows.

Challenge: find three ways for our family to save $$.  This is one that I thought of today.  (it has been kind of fun to hang them out)

Ridiculous: the price of these extra long pegs online.  This is a 'classic' or 'vintage' light bright and it works MUCH better than the newer cube version.  But finding pegs is difficult.  We lucked out and got some at Goodwill for $3.  A bargain!  Next challenge will be finding new papers.

Classic: picture of kids sleeping.  Did I tell you that our kids all sleep in the same room?  There is a slang term for this that I won't use.  The kids love it and it has worked well for the most part.  Glad that we haven't put raising our kids in a box of American expectations.  We are happy to have them all together and loving it.  It has allowed to have a play room upstairs.  This picture is a panoramic so it's a bit messed up.  And yes, I did turn the light on to take the picture.

Sad goodbye.  My brother is moving to California.  He's been offered an awesome opportunity for work that might allow him to be an entrepreneur.  A bit of a shark tank story.  He's not the shark.  We 're excited for him but will miss having him and his family in Iowa.

I'm sure we'll see them for holidays; and we know how to skype so all will be well.

Do you like green food?  Not really but this actually tastes REALLY good.  It is potato spinach soup.  Basically make potato soup but put lots of spinach in with it then blend.  It tastes like potato soup and is very good.  Now we just need to get past the 'greenness' of it.  A great way to use up the 'borderline' spinach.

We also tried zucchini chips which did not turn out well.  And a chick pea salad which was good.  I'll try and post another time!

Here is the playdough recipe that I like.  I especially The kids enjoy playing with it warm!
http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/