Like Father, Like Daughter

Hopefully that's not too much information! :)

(And no, we're not officially potty training yet. Just getting her interested. We'll be working on it very soon!)

Those days . . .

Here is your honesty for the day . . .



It has just been one of those days around here.

My toddler scraped her tummy putting away a toy this morning.

She now has the cold. For her, colds have the potential to be more serious. She is coughing and wheezing now (while the other two have recovered). She even vomited today from coughing. She also felt the need to lunge towards me and her nursing sister while vomiting today. It wasn't a pretty scene.

She is coughing in her sleep at the moment. Ugh!

I have had two or three very motivated weeks. The house has been kept clean, I've worked a lot, etc.

This week however . . . I feel like it's pointless to do stuff that's only going to get messy again in a few hours time. I usually can't stand to be in my room during the day if the bed isn't made (my office is in here). Hmm, not today.

Not sure what I need to get a little spring back in my step. I suppose everyone being healthy would help. Or perhaps a whole night's sleep. I haven't had that in a few months now. I'm also sure that a nice sugary ice coffee would also do the trick.

Alas, we do not keep coffee in this house - for that very reason.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day!

Hummus and Tomato Open-faced Sandwich!

Hey all! Here is a yummy recipe for you!

I just made it up this week in an attempt to find something light for my lunches. I made it on Monday (oh, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday). I think I'm going to turn into a tomato.

Anyway, this is a light, healthy, fast and super easy sandwich.

First you need bread. I had some organic french bread from my Farm Fresh Delivery service. Sour dough would be equally as good, I think.

Slice the bread. So slice as many pieces as you'll need. They'll be open faced. Less calories that way. I toasted mine so they were nice and warm.


You need fresh tomatoes. These are from my garden. Yum! Slice them.

You NEED hummus. Don't leave this out. It MAKES the sandwich oh. so. yummy.

Spread a teaspoon to tablespoon of hummus on each slice of bread.

Layer it with a slice of tomato. Top with a slice of cheddar cheese. The cheese is optional. If you want to save calories, leave it off. The hummus and tomato are the ingredients that make this yummy!

I put a light sprinkle of salt and pepper on the tomato.

You could experiment with just a little grated cheese, or even a different type of cheese (feta anyone). In my world, I hardly have time to grate cheese. I have a toddler clinging on one leg - asking for her lunch and I have a baby crawling around on the floor trying to get stepped on. The name of the game for me is making something fast!

I calculated that one of these gorgeous little sandwiches is about 3.5 WW points. It, of course, depends on how big your slice of cheese is (could be about 4.5 points with a larger slice) and how much hummus you put on. Eat some sliced peppers, carrots, broccoli or even more fresh tomato on the side and you'll have a really light lunch!

Sister!

Elsie has made a pretty miraculous recovery (I think so anyway). Her nose hardly ran today and you could tell she just felt better. She still struggled with naps but that may be a separate issue.

Abigail woke up with a hoarse sound in her voice and I ended up wiping her nose a few times during the morning but she has been okay for the most part. Let's hope it stays that way!

For your pure entertainment, here is a video of Abigail and Elsie playing in my kitchen. The loud squeeler is Elsie, who is laughing hysterically at her sister!

Grandma's Knee

I just got word from my mom that my Grandma's knee replacement surgery went very well today. Hopefully this surgery will help her be able to get around without pain.

Thanks to all who prayed for her. Now we're just hoping for a speedy recovery!

Welcome Fall!

Okay, so my title is a little sarcastic. I apologize. I'm running on a little short on sleep!

Elsie and Andrew have runny noses. Nothing serious at this point, just annoying. It is especially annoying because my baby (Elsie) has rarely been sick. She just did not know how to deal with a stuffy nose last night.

She finally went to sleep at 10:30 pm. I was up with her at 11:30 (fed), 12:30 (paci), 1:30 (fed), 3:30 - 5:15 am (crying and fussing). I put saline drops in her nose and sucked it out around 4 am. Then I finally pulled out her swing, which I had almost put away, thinking she wouldn't use it anymore, and put her in it. She slept until 8:45 am! Whew!

Tired momma!

I almost gave in at one point and asked Andrew for help but I knew he wasn't feeling good either so I managed to let him sleep.

This morning he is graciously staying home from work so that I can go to the dentist and have some much needed work done. I appreciate this. It is good timing too since he could get up with Abigail this morning and I got to get a little extra sleep.

Whew!

Let's hope for a better night tonight. I'm thankful that I'm a stay-at-home mom. I've been a working mom too and I remember those nights of getting up for work after only 3 hours of sleep and it's hard to do. Much easier to lay around all day in your PJ's (if necessary - I actually did get dressed today . . . remember . . . dentist).

Crawling

I love my girls and especially love how they entertain each other!

You can see a good shot of Elsie crawling (with her dainty little leg sticking out) in this video.

Since we've been home . . .

I still have a few posts to do about our trip (sorry - I know those are kind of boring but I want to have them for memories sake) but I wanted to take a break just to say that we're here.

We're not doing anything very exiting! Just keeping our heads above water with house work, garden, real work (my work load got much larger since we got back), kids, etc.

It's all good! :)

I've almost gotten the whole house cleaned this week - just working on the upstairs today.

Tonight is homemade pizza night and a movie with Abigail. I'm looking forward to it.

I have a few recipes to share and a few videos of this week as well.

My life has definitely changed in the last two weeks as our youngest started crawling! Crazy girl. She can crawl from the living room to the kitchen very quickly so my time is spent watching her and keeping the floors clean. I can really only get things done when she's napping. That's okay. I wouldn't trade this stage for anything.

More to come . . .

2010 Trip Review

Fun at Grandma Fern's house!

Trip 2010: Kansas Time

We stopped at my parents for a week after our little Colorado vacation. I am so glad we had this time with my parents, brother, and grandma.

Abigail especially enjoyed playing in my old playhouse. My dad claims he's going to bring it to Ohio for her (so we'll see). It was just too hot to enjoy it for long periods of time.

Playhouse in the background and my ever-energetic daughter running towards her dad:



Running inside Grandma Fern's house. Abigail is a source of entertainment for us all!

Playing in the playhouse:

Playing on Grandma's arcade game (see the friendly Elk and Deer? Abigail loves to pet them!) with her Grandma RoRo (my mom).

Grandma and Elsie play!

Sweet Elsie!

My dad, brother, and Andrew taught Abigail all about the game of foosball. Oh my!

We had such a nice relaxing time. We played lots of games of 500 - ate lots of my mom's wonderful cooking - played at my Grandma's every day - enjoyed family time with my great aunt and uncle - took a tractor ride with my dad - and many other things!

Trip 2010: Colorado

After my last trip review post, we had just made it to Colorado. There were many different activites that the family participated in: white water rafting, hiking, the Alpine Slide, etc. The girls and I didn't do most of them (for obvious reasons) but we did visit a lovely children's "museum" (more like a play area) and we went down the Alpine slide.

On the next to last day, a group from our family decided to attempt a "fourteener" . . . meaning a 14,000 moutain hike . . . with no training.

They also didn't take enough water for the hike. My husband didn't end up making it to the very top but he got close. He definitely got high enough for some great views!

This is the group:

View!

This is the Alpine Slide. Andrew took Abigail down and she really enjoyed it. Too bad she won't be able to remember!

Here is a group shot of everyone who went up to Peak 8. Not everyone went down the slide.

Abigail by the stream that ran behind our rental house.

We took a tour of the Country Boy Mine. It was very interesting to learn how difficult the conditioners were for the miners (and children!) who worked there.

A group shot.

I finally got to visit the famed "Schechterville": a little piece of camp group property owned by some of Andrew's family (in his Grandfather's generation).

2010 Trip Part 4

You'll have to forgive me . .. these pictures are a little out of order. I'm still getting used to the multiple upload thing.

Sorry!

Hopefully a cute picture of the baby will help! :)

After stopping in Kansas for my Grandpa's memorial service, we decided to proceed with our vacation plans to Colorado. I call it a vacation in a very loose term. I'd rather call it a trip. Vacations (to me) do not include changing diapers (as much as I like doing that), calming tantrums, letting your child sleep in your bed, etc.

They do include, beaches, reading, eating, and lots of laying around. Maybe I'll take one some day! :)

Until then, I'll take trips with my family - which are very enjoyable!

We stopped at a scenic outlook on our way to Breckenridge for a few shots of our favorite scenery - our kids.

Oh and the mountains are pretty too.

Before driving up into the mountains to Breckenridge (previous pictures) my cousin Laura and her husband Matt were gracious enough to let us stay in their house in Denver after only moving in about a month ago! Thanks so much guys!

We had a fun time playing with blocks, going to the park, playing with their dogs, watching movies, getting in the hottub (the adults), and having a delicious dinner together. They have a beautiful place! It was the only night in our 16 day trip that Elsie slept through the night!

His and Hers coffee makers! So cute and funny! (I especially love their kitchen!!).

That next morning we stopped in Denver and ate breakfast at Lucile's - a Creole restaurant. It was delicious.

Andrew had biscuits and gravy, Abigail (who got the best meal I'd say) had Banana Coconut pancakes with ginger syrup (she has mature tastes - ha!) and I had the Farmers Eggs (yum!). Farmers eggs consisted of sausage, peppers, onions and potatoes all scrambled together with eggs. I'm going to attempt to make it at home sometime.

Pictures from Lucile's

Trip 2010 & Tribute

I obviously do not have any pictures or videos of my Grandpa's memorial service but I do have memories.

For as long as I can remember, my Grandpa has wanted his friend, Bob, to sing "The King is Coming" at his funeral. Bob's health hasn't been very good these last few years so we weren't sure he would be able to do it but he did sing it and it was very touching.

Here's the Gaither version.

2010 Trip Part 2

Once arriving in Kansas, Abigail quickly warmed up to everything . . . espcially her Uncle Brett (seen in the pictures below).

One video is of Abigail "encouraging" Uncle Brett to play hide and seek with her. The other is a video of Elsie on our stop in Kansas City (on our way to Kansas) that is of her conducting with a straw. :)

2010 Trip Part 1

We started out our trip on Thursday afternoon and headed for St. Louis. We stopped at a hotel for the night. Andrew was able to take Abigail swimming but we didn't have time to do much except sleep . . . oh and snuggle in bed! :)

It was fun to have a big King Sized bed so we could all snuggle. Neither girl slept very well or very long so we had a little rest time in the morning (sorry for how I look - ugh!).

Abigail is very mothering to Elsie - sometimes a bit too much as you will see in this video in our hotel room.

We're Back!

Whew!

3300 miles in the van

18 stops at the gas pump

43 hours in the van

20 times listening to the princess and the frog book

Many many memories made and people visited.

We're glad to be back home (pictures will follow soon!).

Wonderful Tribute pt. 1

We're in Kansas visiting my family and having a great time.

I just wanted to reflect a little on my Grandpa's memorial service. It was really very nice. One of the highlights (for me) was a poem read by my dad's cousin, Marc that my sister had written for my Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary . . . 10 years ago.

Here is the poem:

If you'd let me paint a picture with words today,
I'd tell you how blessed I've been every day.
Since I was born - from my first day -
My grandparents have lived a mile away.

And ever since then, they haven't been far,
Whether cheering at my games or fixing my car.
I've never been to a daycare, you see,
'Cause Grandma could always babysit me.

When Mom and Dad were gone, Grandma would be there
To stay with me and play with me and let me do her hair.

Now Grandpa, he works on the farm and never will retire,
And yes, some days the cows are out, and the wheat - it could be drier.
But one thing I could count on, come wind, hail, or fire
Is that Grandpa'd always stop his work to fix my leaky tire.

And when I stayed at their house and couldn't sleep at night.
I'd wake one of them up and everything would be alright.

I've run in many track meets and played in many games,
But honestly at my age now, they've all become the same.
One thing I will remember more than the loss or win
Is having my family in the stands - time and time again.

And for Easter sunrise services, Grandpa'd always pick me up.
He'd wrap me in a blanket and we'd watch the sun come up.
Shopping trips with Grandma aren't that easy to forget.
We bought so many cltohes and not many didn't fit.

A time I still remember well happened fairly long ago.
I sat in church and heard a hymn and wondered who would know.
I wondered if the words were true and who better to ask
Than my own Grandpa and Grandma who'd lived through so much past.

I heard the words to this old hymn and asked if they were true.
When Grandpa replied, "Yes, Honey, they are," it was then for sure I knew.
This gave me confidence and hope that the Christian life was true
And made me realize how many blessingsI could look forward to.

Describing my grandparents in this poem on this stage
Is like trying to write a doctoral thesis in a page.
But even so, they need to know what I've found to be true -
"Each day is like heaven, my heart overflows.
The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows."