What's Up

I recently did a freezer meal exchange and made my mom's recipe for apple pie for part of my dinner. I felt like a true Amish person... except for I have electricity and an electric stove... but still.


This is one thing I've been working on. I'm beginning to redo Zeke and Gwen's bathroom upstairs and I found two frames at a garage sale that I bought. I spray painted them and put burlap in the background to hang as decorations above hooks for their towels. Right now there is a towel bar, but they can't really hang up their own towels on that. So I'm installing hooks so they can be responsible for their own towels. I plan on painting a wooden "Z" and "G" and gluing to the burlap so they know which hook is theirs.

My herb pots are all ready to go. Now I just have to decide what I'd like....

It has been such a warm winter and early spring that I thought I'd take a little chance with this crazy Kansas weather and put some things in the ground early. I'm going to wait a few weeks on tomatoes... but I really hope this year is a better year than last. I want my tomato sandwiches! Last year we had a problem of rabbits getting into our garden and having snacks. Well... Ben took care of that with this little fence. I hope it helps. I put in romaine lettuce, brussels sprouts (my new vegetable obsession), and broccoli. My kids LOVE broccoli and Gwen really likes brussels sprouts. I think Zeke will learn to like them.

I will try to be better about letting you know what is going on. I'm getting lazy when it comes to blogging... but I do enjoy looking back and seeing how blessed we are.

I think everyone should have their babies feet prints to remember how little they are. These are Naomi's. Love baby feet!


We tried shaving foam painting today. It consists of putting shaving foam on a pan and putting paint drizzled through there and letting the kids swirl it and play with it and then putting paper on top and lightly patting it and pulling it off. After it dries a few minutes you scrape it and the paint stays and the foam doesn't. We cut these pieces of paper into egg shapes to give to our friends.

Ben reading to "the gang".

Around Town Continued

First off, let me show you something interesting. This quilt was made by my Great Grandmother and is going on display in Nebraska soon. It actually has my Grandfather's name "Leland" and his birthday sewn onto it. My Great Grandmother had 12 kids and wasn't very educated hence the misspellings and backward "N"s. I must say my relatives had some interesting names. Riller? Codle? If you'll notice that Preston is on there. That's my mom's Uncle and who my brother Preston is named after. Let's just say my ancestors aren't exactly gifted in the quilting department. :)

Saturday mom and I ventured out alone and found ourselves at this little coffee shop. I've seen it before and said outloud, "I'm going to stop there one day" and I finally did. It used to be a gas station back in the early 1900's. I had a chai latte and it was like drinking a gingerbread man.


We also went to Pryde's Old Westport. They specialize in hard to find kitchen gadgets and items. Let's just say I LOVE IT and it is not for the claustrophobic.

I also love these whisk chandeliers in there!

In the back they have a pie shop where it is always "pie o'clock" they say and this stove is back there. We didn't get a piece of pie, but I had to snap a picture of this stove.

Around Town with Grandma

Ben took Thursday off. Thank goodness there was someone else to ride on the carousel with the kids. I get queasy.... and of all things they chose a teacup!


Here they are waiting... and yes, Gwen wants to wear this get up in March.

At the library working with magna tiles. Those things are genius!

Zeke talks about Dairy Queen all of the time. You can see if from our back deck. We hardly go there though, but Grandma took us. The kids were very pleased.

Bouncing Eggs on Rainbows and The Children

Here's sleeping beauty with her bed buddy really close.


a tea party with hats. I had on a Santa hat.

Love Gwen's pose!

We made paper plate rainbows yesterday with Grandma as a St. Patty's day display and then today I saw these fun little eggs at Hobby Lobby. I had to get them. So now we have happy little boy and girl eggs bouncing off of clouds. Wow... weird, but I'm LOVIN' it.

Stuff and the Best Banana Bread on the Planet

The dreaded hand foot and mouth disease is back in our house this winter. There is no medicine for this... just have to wait it out. It's bad and it seriously limits getting out of the house. Well... I guess that's the way the good Lord has let us know we need to stay home more this week.

Here's my girl with the first sign of hand foot and mouth.


She wasn't feeling well so she laid down in her bed and Zeke decided on his own to lay down with her to keep her company. I found them in there listening to classical music on the radio (Kansas public radio) and talking. Oh, and yes, Zeke had it too and it turned into infantigo and now that that is healing Gwen gets it.

Our Valentine's boxes we made last week. Gwen chose a butterfly box and drew her own name on the box.

With a suggestion from his mama Zeke decided on a frog box.

and now... what you've all been waiting for... the Best Banana Bread Recipe I've Ever Had! Up until this point, my mother's recipe topped the charts, but this one I like better. (sorry mom)

2C flour

1 1/4 C walnuts (toasted) (I used toasted pecans instead and not as much)

3/4 C sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled bananas- mashed well

1/4 C plain yogurt (I used plain Greek yogurt)

2 large eggs, beaten lightly

6 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp vanilla extract (homemade if you have it!)

Bake 350 oven for 55 minutes in a loaf pan. YUM!

After the Doughnut

Snow Woman and Engagements

This is our snow lady we made today. Her name is Madame Clusoo.



Jake recently got engaged to be married to a fantastic woman named Melody. On a side bar, I took Zeke to another ENT for another opinion and they finally scoped him. Well... he's got vocal nodules which I knew, but I actually got to see them this time and the placement of them they said is due to misuse of the voice. He's so young now that voice therapy wouldn't do much, so there's nothing I can do except encourage him to use a quieter voice. So, he doesn't have to take the prevacid tablets he was prescribed or go non dairy or the nasal spray that he was prescribed. I'm just thankful it is nothing more serious and now I feel as good as I can about the situation. He's still my little butter ball and so we always want to see them whole and well and wonderful don't we? Just thankful for him.

Zeke and Jake... he loves his Uncle Jake.

Aunt Melody and Gwen. (or she will be Aunt Melody) I have applied for Gwen to be in a preschool classroom for several hours a week. We'll see how that turns out, but in Kansas you can send your child to school at age 5. I think I'd like to do that with Gwen and I think this step would help her transition better. She is doing very well with learning academic things... now we are in a season of obedience training again. It comes in waves for us with her. Just when you think you are in the clear... here comes another tide of challenge. Oh well... we love her dearly and she has come so far this year!

Land of the cheese heads

I went to Wisconsin for the first time ever this past week to sing with my choir at a convention. Here's a strange sighting in the airport. A Best Buy vending machine. Does anyone else think that's weird?

I went into the capital in Madison because I was told it was the second largest rotunda in the nation... second to the white house. Here's lady Liberty. I liked that she was a little chubby.

Unhappy Bunny

Ben subscribed me to a magazine called Create and Decorate and it has some weird stuff in there. I'm not sure who is writing this stuff, but I am loving this bunny they have in this month's issue. I thought it would be a good discipline tactic to say "if you don't obey you have to sit with unhappy bunny." Think it would work? :)

Quotes of the day

Ben here. This morning I was exercising and Gwen & Zeke decided to join me. I said:

"Good stretching Gwen!"

... to which she replied:

"Yeah, it's like we're a real family!"

Later Zeke was trying to tell me something and it's sounded like "I want ehhhshuhh". I asked Gwen for her spirit of toddler interpretation but she couldn't understand it either. Through a long process of elimination we figured out Zeke wanted to watch the kids alien movie ("Planet 51") that we've been watching recently. ehhshuhh = aliens.
As I started up the movie, Gwen laid back in the recliner and sighed: "oh Zeke - you said aliens... I'm so proud of you!"

Questions to Consider

Ben sent an article to me with these questions in it and I printed it off and have it on my fridge. I try to look at it every day and think about them. I thought you might find them interesting too. (whoever you are!)

1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?

2. Have I done something today that improved the world?

3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong, flexible and resilient?

4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?

5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?

6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?

7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?

8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?

9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?

10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?

For Uncle John

This is for Ben's brother in the Navy, Uncle John.

Heart Pies

I finally tried out my heart shaped pocket maker. I've got a whole assortment of little pocket makers. I've got little empanada kind, heart shapes and a mini lattice pie one that I haven't tried out yet. I wasn't able to have one of these heart pies, but they were fun to make with the kids. These had cherry pie filling in the middle.

Kids and Meal Plans

I became a brunette this week. Here it is. I'm not really sure why I wanted a change, but there ya go. I think this is living on the wild side when you're a stay at home mom.


My new meal plan organizational thing. Instead of buying those weekly stick on calendars, I can see the whole month at a glance. I got this with a gift card someone gave to me and put command stripes on the back to make it adhere to the fridge. So far it's working great. I'm experimenting with planning two weeks of meals at a time. That way I can really work hard at using what we already have and going to the store for a smaller amount of the regular fresh stuff we get. I have started using www.saymmm.com Check it out if you have the time.

Here are the kids playing dress up. Zeke wants to do everything his sister does. Today I let him go around with a bow in his hair. It's so cute to watch them play. Gwen is the leader of the two and she tells him that they are baby kangaroos and he just hops right to it. Sure, they fight some, but mostly they are excited to be with each other. Have you seen two cuter faces than these? Ok, so I know I'm biased. :)

Pawpaw and Chowder

Might I suggest a children's book to you all? We got it recently from the library and it's called "Chowder" by Peter Brown. It has some funny pictures like this with the dog on the toilet. I get a kick out of it.

Pawpaw is moving back to Florida and so we said goodbye. We will miss him nearby but hope this new job is a good one.

Sewing and Movies

My mom got a sewing machine for me for my birthday.  Up until this point, my crafts have been centered around paper mostly.  I'm a little afraid of fabric.  There, I said it.  A piece of paper?  Well... I can just wad it up and throw it in the trash.  I mean, how much does a piece of paper cost anyway?  But fabric?  Yikes!

But today some friends from my small group who also want to learn got together and learned how to thread our machines and fill bobbins and such.  So far my favorite words are "feed dogs" and "bobbin".  I'm going to try to work that into my everyday speech.

Here's my machine.  Ain't she pretty?

This is my first project that isn't done yet.  I took a size 3 skirt I found in the thrift store and I'm making it into an apron.  I will put on a pocket and side straps to tie round and a thing around my neck.  We decided it looks a bit like the little mermaid makes an apron... but I can live with that! Did I mention it's a size 3?  I just think that part's funny.

Yesterday the kids went to the movies for the first time.  We saw Beauty and the Beast.  They had a ton of popcorn and water and loved it.  The first movie I saw in the theater?  I think Bambie.

They also really appreciated the hand blowers.  Those things are pure power!