Eat: Simplest Summer Salad Ever

After eating my way through a five day trip to New Mexico, salad wasn't a choice so much as a desperate attempt to stop expanding. This is the easiest salad I know. No cooking, no heating, one bowl, easy clean-up, and easy to modify according to what's on hand. Not to mention I was able to use some of my tomatoes that went crazy in the garden while I was gone.

Lentil and Brown Rice Salad
I based this off of a recipe given to me from a friend of mine last summer, his version used different herbs, but I had to go with what is currently growing in the garden. My sister-in-law makes a slightly different and warm version using all pre-prepared ingredients from Trader Joe's. Either way, it's fool-proof.

2 cups cooked brown rice (I make my own in the rice cooker, but you could just as easily use the pre-cooked kind)
2 cups prepared lentils (I use TJ's)
3/4 c diced tomatoes or grape tomatoes (I use both because I have both growing, but it makes no difference)
2 T chopped chives (parsley would be good, too!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 T red wine vinegar
3-5 T olive oil
juice from 1/2 of a juicy lemon or a whole one if not so juicy
salt to taste
arugula

Dump everything but the arugula in a bowl and mix. Seriously, that easy. Add more of whatever to taste. Adjust the olive oil to combine the ingredients and use as little or as much acid as you like. Serve over arugula. You could also use it as a side dish or heat it if you prefer. See, I told you it was easy!

Baby Beck turns 3 moths old!

Baby Beck, how is it that you are already 3 months old?! (Three and a half, actually, but I'm a bit late with these things lately). In the last month you have begun to smile, coo, gurggle, and drool. You have (thankfully!) dicovered your jungle gym (which can earn mama up to about 20 minutes of hands-free time) and you have made it perfectly clear that you must have a nap that ends right at 5:00 in order to make it to bedtime (6:30) without an epic melt-down. The debate continues as to whether or not you will be a red head. You regularly spit up on me and I have never changed so many diapers in my life, but you are so darn cute I just can't get upset. You are perfect and I love you to bits.

Sprinklers!

We have a pool and I'm not a fan. Too dangerous. Too cold. Too deep. And, well, too bad I am a really terrible swimmer. Besides, the sprinklers are so much more fun.

And, of course, a little break to have a Big Stick.

Fourth of July Fever

All plans to attend the Fourth of July parade downtown were quickly thwarted by a sweet little two-year-old with a temperature. At 4 am I woke up to the saddest little moan of  "owwww...huuuurt....head hurt me" which was only calmed by sleeping in between our bed. And, right on schedule, Baby Beck decided to wake up and begin his Independence Day celebration at the crack of dawn (which, by the way, is at about 4:45 these mornings). And so began our day- Gabe and I trying to get even just a few more minutes of sleep while shoved to the very outskirts of the bed. As uncomfortable as it was, I have to admit that I kind of enjoyed it.

A Look Back

It's hard to believe that ten years ago I didn't have a cell phone, much less one that could take pictures and video whenever I please. Yesterday, however, technology snuck up on me and my phone was running out of storage space and I had to lighten the load. Needless to say, the hundreds of photos and videos were slowing things down. I downloaded (or uploaded? who knows) them all to my computer and now I'm ready to start all over! It makes me smile to look at the past couple of years as seen through the lens of my phone and know that these totally un-posed, unplanned, and often unclear pictures tell the story of my very ordinary everyday life.

Just a few highlights from the past six months:

 Anderson "helping" me to unpack the groceries

 First trip to 31 Flavors

 Washing daddy's car

 The "treat" Anderson insisted on having at the grocery

 Feeding the animals at the elementary school farm

 Unexpected hospital bed rest while Gabe was away in Austin

Baby Beck's early arrival

 First day home with my two boys. (Looking rather terrible, I might add!)

Love those little hands

Trips to Rite Aid always require a sit on the cows at The Beef Palace

Let's not forget how the nanny dresses Anderson

Anderson gets his own "coffee" when we go through the Starbucks drive-thru (A very regular occurrence since Baby Beck)

Anderson "making dirt" out of his crackers

 Baby Beck sleeping with mama in the mornings

 First smile

 Anderson's current obsession (which may or may not ever get hung from the ceiling in his bedroom as intended)

 Plop plop fountain at the Spectrum for Father's Day

 A very rare date night (it was our anniversary, after all)

 Trips to Rite Aid that ended at the Beef Palace

Baby Beck in a sun hat (too cute, really)

I bought this fabric at Ikea to make some pillows for Anderson's room and he carried it around the house for 3 days (I have yet to make the pillows)

Who cares that the quality is lackluster, at best. These snapshots of the everyday help this "mom brain" to remember even the smallest moments.

Bad Days

Bad days stink. I hate them. Fortunately I don't seem to experience them all that often, but when I do, watch out. Today was no exception. Just one of those days when you feel you'd be better off staying inside, under the covers, in your most comfy fat clothes with a bowl of ice cream. Of course, none of that was an option, but hopefully the dark chocolate bar filled with carmel and black sea salt I just bought will suffice.

5 Years

It's funny. I find myself on a daily basis commenting on how fast time seems to fly. How I feel as though I can't keep up and that I need the days to slow down just a little. Just long enough to catch my breath, take it all in, and get my walls painted. My boys are growing so fast and I'm certainly not getting any younger. But what I find most perplexing is that no matter how fast time seems to pass, I am always surprised when I think about my relationship with Gabe. Today marks our fifth wedding anniversary and yet it seems like so many more years have passed. I suppose it's in part because we were together for five years before getting married, but I also believe there is a quite different reason. When you are with someone who is truly your other half you just feel that they have always been there. Our lives have become so intertwined that it is hard to remember a time when he wasn't around. And I like it that way. And so happy anniversary to us. It has been a very {amazing, fabulous, at times difficult, adventurous, fun} real five years and I can't wait to experience so many more.

Third Time's the Charm (or something like that)

I have not posted on this blog since January of 2010 and, well, frankly, I have not missed it all that much. But just the other day I found myself thinking that I wish I were better about documenting life. That I really would like an outlet of sorts in which to scribe my thoughts, feelings, and general nonsense. So here goes. My third and final attempt at maintaining a blog. If I cannot keep it up this time I'm done. Finished. I will forever say goodbye to on-line journaling and hope for the best in terms of my memory. Though that really is a shot in the dark given what has happened to my once exceptional memory since birthing two kids. I can barely remember what I ate this morning and I have had to check my calendar three times today just to remember what I have planned for the week.

So here I begin to write, once again, with all the best intentions. And I am not going to worry this time. I am not going to bother to make attempts at witty posts or worry about how elementary my writing may sound. I am not going to take this little diary in any one direction to gain an audience. I'm just going to be me. If I want to talk about how my kids are driving me nuts or what I am making for dinner or why I just can't stop thinking about wallpapering at least one wall in my house, so be it. I will. And I know I'll be happier for it. Because I will have an outlet. A place where I can get things out and I can chronicle the ordinary days without having to touch pen to paper. Because really, I just hate the way my writing looks.

Here goes. Good luck to me.

Is Mr. Bubble really a killer in disguise?

While I completely agree that the reasoning, "well they did this when I was a kid and I didn't die" can be a bit dramatic (I mean, really, since when does not killing you mean it is good for you, anyway?), I have to say that I find even myself using it here and there since beginning on this journey through motherhood.

Now let me preface by saying that I consider myself a bit of a light green gal. A pale lime green, perhaps. I mean my son sleeps on organic bedding (it was on sale), he has an organic lined stroller, he eats in a sustainably grown wooden high chair, we take our own bags to the grocery, I don't use paper towels, and I  make all of his baby food myself using mostly organic produce. Oh, and I did buy him a really cute organic cotton onesie. ;) But bubble bath is where I draw the line.

So here is the story. Since day one I have used Target brand nighttime body wash. it smells fantastic and, well, it costs about $1.97 for a large bottle. On I went with the Target brand for months, not thinking anything of it. I would always see the cute "all natural, blah, blah free, organic" brands and think to myself that I was glad in this economy someone was making enough money to spend $14 on baby bath wash/bubble bath. So over time I read a couple of things here and there and listened to a few holier-than-thou mommies go on and on about how Johnson and Johnson put terrible things in their baby wash and it was a wonder we all did not turn out as inept mutants. (If Johnson and Johnson is that bad, can you imagine what my Target brand was like! I mean I am lucky Anderson's hair has not fallen out or that he has not grown a third nipple.) I digress. Anyway, Christmas was approaching and I decided that Santa could splurge and buy some $14 name brand bubble bath. And he(she) did. And because Santa could not wait to discover the true miracle of all natural, organic, blah, blah free bubble bath, we tried it a few weeks ago.

One would think that I would have known better upong reading the bold caveat on the bottle "due to the organic nature of this bubble bath...you must help the bubbling process by stimulating/agitating bubbles vigorously under running water...". What? I have to work to make my bubble bath bubble?  OK, fine. So I did it. I shook, I swished, I swirled, I agitated, I stimulated and still, no good bubbles. A fluke? Maybe. So I tried again with the same result. So what did I do? That's right- I went out and bought another $14 bottle of bubble bath. Guess what? Substandard bubbling once again. So I asked the lady at the store about it and do you know what she said? "Try Mr. Bubble. It's a classic. Marvelous bubbles and no baby has ever died from it." Good enough. $28 down the drain (literally) and my $1.78 bottle of Mr. Bubble proudly provides Anderson with a frothy lather night after night. And you know what, no baby ever died from it. It's true. I looked it up.

Farewell 2009

2009 was truly a life changing year. I considered journaling my reflections here but have decided that I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Perhaps in the near future I will put together a collage of the decade we now leave behind. Perhaps, but not likely. In any event, Happy New Year. Welcome 2010.