Someone should be collecting overtime

This post is all about the hardest working guy in our kitchen. And I'm sure you've all guessed that I'm talking about Chris, and while Chris works hard at his job, the kitchen is one place where he tries his best to not do any work. I'm actually talking about my Cuisinart food processor. This guy has been working awfully hard this week, at times getting so hot that I thought death may be knocking on his door. Today this guy pureed his way through peaches and peas for my sweet P.

You don't find colors like this in jarred baby food!

Then he pulverized his way through almonds making two types of almond butter, maple cinnamon almond butter and chocolate chip cookie dough almond butter. 

The maple cinnamon butter is for my sister who's coming to visit this week (surprise Meg! leave room in your suitcase) and the chocolate chip cookie dough butter is for my other sweet P's as they wanted a little something to dip their apple slices into this afternoon. The maple cinnamon almond butter is fantastic and turned out really well. The chocolate chip cookie dough butter is really my take on the linked recipe because as I was making it I realized that I was missing almond extract, which is identified as a key ingredient to the recipe. And when I added the chocolate chips to the almond butter the chips melted because the almond butter was still too warm. So my version ended up being a chocolate vanilla almond butter, but the sweet P's still gobbled it down!

Dreaming about the next flavor of nut butter to make

How about you, what's the hardest working appliance in your kitchen? I sure hope you don't say the microwave! 

Book sling for da boys

The craft bug has bitten again and here's the rundown on what I made. And maybe it wasn't so much as the craft bug bit as I had a buzzing in my ear due to some fortunate circumstances. See last week I received a yard of fabric in the mail that was destined to be a part of some art work that I was putting together for Conner and Nolan' fabulousity room. Only when the fabric arrived there was a dark spot on the fabric. So I immediately contacted the business which I bought the fabric from and informed them of the blemish. The company was awesome and without question sent me another yard of fabric. Well, while waiting on my new yard of fabric I decided to see if I could just work around the dark spot on the fabric to get my art project done, because I'm way too impatient to sit around and wait for the new fabric. And yep, I finished the art project with the blemished fabric (no worries, I'll share this project in the final reveal of Conner and Nolan's room) so when the new fabric arrived I had one yard of fabric and nothing to do. I know, the problems I face are really so tragic.

I have been seeing these fabric book slings popping up in nurseries everywhere and one thing missing in Conner and Nolan's room was any sort of book receptacle. So I found this tutorial for a fabric book sling and as luck would have it, one of these slings only requires 1 yard of fabric. But it did requiring a sewing machine, which I don't have. *sidenote- I would love a sewing machine. And since I know that Santa reads this blog, here's the link to the sewing machine I'm going to be putting on my Christmas list.* But then I looked at the directions and thought that I could probably pull off one of these slings using the heat and bond no-sew hems. I started in using the no-sew hem tape stuff and things were bonding well, and seemed to be holding together. I started to feel a little like Charlie Sheen, because it seemed as though I was winning in the craft world. That is it all went really well until the part where I was trying to fold the fabric over the dowel rod to create a pocket for the rods. It was here that the no-sew tape had met its match as I was trying to bond together about 4 layers of fabric and the tape just couldn't handle it. There might have been some stronger tape at the craft store but again impatience kicked in and I was determined to finish this project before nap time was done. And that's when the super glue was brought out. One tube of super glue later, I had a finished sling. All that was left was to install the brackets on the wall and voila, a fabric book sling to hold all of Conner and Nolan's favorite books!

Cost:
Fabric: free thanks to super awesome fabric company!
Hem tape: I think this is about $3
Dowels: maybe $5 for both
Brackets: $4 a piece, 2 needed for project
Total: $17
Total time: 3 hours, only because ironing on the no-sew hem tape takes way longer than sewing.

And one thing I've been meaning to share is a list of some of our favorite books that we have for the kids. We've been really blessed to have people find super cool books for the kids and many of them go under the radar of well-known kid's books. So I'm going to put the list together and hope that some kids out there are going to enjoy these books as much as my kids have.

300 circles of fabric on the lamp, 300 circles of fabric

While I've been focusing a lot of my home decorating thoughts on Conner and Nolan's room lately, I did find time to create a little piece of love for Elizabeth's room last week. When we moved into the new house, Elizabeth's room already had a hook hanging from the corner of her room. And when I suggested to my mom that we hang this old, ugly white Chinese lantern light from that hook my mom gave me a "you're crazy" look. 

ugly old Chinese lantern in desperate need of a make-over

But I assured her that I had big plans for that Chinese lantern and it wouldn't be an eyesore in the room. Via pinterest (the coolest website ever), I found a tutorial for jazzing up an old paper lantern. The tutorial was perfect for giving enough directions to make this little project but really, it wasn't hard at all. Get some fabric (and in my case, go back to the fabric store three more times because you totally underestimated the amount of fabric it would take), cut circles out of the fabric, and then hot glue those circles onto the lantern.

fabric circles

Mindless work really. I thought this would be a project that I could knock out during one nap time but in the end it took me about three nights to finish it (roughly 6 hours). And I'm not over exaggerating when I say that I glued probably at least 300 circles onto the lantern (which meant lots of burned fingers from the hot glue!). The finished product turned out really cute and Elizabeth loves it (so the burned fingers were worthwhile). And this is one project that I don't think you could mess up!

The finished product

And how it looks with the light turned on

Cost breakdown:
Chinese lantern lamp= already had so free, but I imagine you could pick one up for $10 or so
Fabric= 5.5 yards * $3 a yard (on clearance) = $16.50
Ribbon to hang light from= $1.50
Hot glue= already had it on hand
Total cost= $18.00

And this morning I had the pleasure of partaking in tea time with this princess under the light of the new lamp.

All you need is love

I don't post much about the joys and pains of being a mother (or father for that matter), mostly because I am just like the majority of parents out there- clueless about the right way to raise kids. And many times I get slapped in the face with the reality that raising kids is hard, really hard. Today was certainly one of those days. Remember how I mentioned earlier this week that Conner and Elizabeth started camp this week? Well, they started on Monday and I think they might have ended it on Friday. In summary, camp didn't go as well as expected. Monday was good. Positive reports from the teachers and excitement about returning on Wednesday. Wednesday was bad and a slight warning from the teachers that things needed to improve to continue on. Friday, bad again, and this time a more severe warning about improvement being needed for the kids to come back next week. And a few jabs at my parenting. Needless to say, we won't be going back for any more summer camp. I know when my kids aren't wanted.

Now, I know that my kids are a handful. And yes, my boy is trying. But, the reasons given for the kids being less than welcome are pretty much behaviors that are very common among 3 year olds. And I have to question the teachers in the classroom who were unable to find ways to deal with these behaviors. For example, do you know what the favorite word is for a 3 year old? I'm sure most of you do but in case you don't- it's NO! That was one of the offenses cited by the teachers, that Conner kept saying no when asked to do things. Of course I don't encourage Conner to take this stance when asked to do something but I'm kind of surprised that the teachers seemed so incapable of dealing with it. Umm, ever heard of distraction? The thing I realized today though, is that you really have to love a 3 year old to put up with their antics. And, these teachers didn't love my kids. How could they? They only knew them for three days and two of those days they acted like Satan's children walked in the door when we arrived. We were so blessed in North Carolina to have two teachers that truly loved the kids and man how I wish I could fly them out here this minute! And so this thought of love needed to live with a toddler made me realize something- maybe this is the universe speaking to me.

You see, I've really been struggling the past few weeks with the realization that I have no job out here in Fort Collins and that I am now a stay-at-home mom. It just isn't what I ever imagined for myself. While slaving away over my dissertation I never thought that my science skills would take a backseat to changing diapers, wiping snotty noses, and slathering peanut butter and jelly on bread every day. But what I was failing to see was that maybe being a stay-at-home mom was now my job. Like I said, you've got to love a three year old to work with them everyday. And who better is there to fill this job than a mom- a person who loves them unconditionally. All along when people ask me if I'm working I respond that I'm staying home to take care of Nolan because he needs me and I want to cherish every moment of his reliance upon me. What I failed to see was that Conner and Elizabeth need me just as much right now. They've just been moved across the country, put into a new house, without a complete understanding of it all. Yes, on the surface they seem fine but then you look harder and see more thumb sucking, more tantrums, and more requests for cuddling in the middle of the night. No wonder they didn't transition into a new school without problems. So all of this rambling is to say that I have now decided to take on this job of being stay-at-home mom, and I know that this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing- at least at this very moment. And with this new job comes new commitments- less blog reading during the day, more story times with the kids. And instead of thinking about home improvements, we are going to work on family improvements. Finding out more about how to parent so that we can look back on these days and feel confident that we truly did the best we good. And in the end, there is going to be a lot of love and really what more do you need?

Blackberry sorbet

Its summertime and the livin' is easy. At least it felt that way this past week. Yep, I survived a week at home with three kids and even found time to whip up something delicious to share with y'all. I made this sorbet last summer for my trifecta of red, white, and blue ice creams for our Fourth of July party. And though technically its more purple than blue don't let that minor detail deter you from making this yourself. It is so crazy good, way healthier than ice cream, and really easy to make (as long as you have an ice cream maker- which really you should). I adapted a recipe from David Lebowitz's book The Perfect Scoop. Only adapted because I actually don't own the book but did take some photos of recipes from the book when I borrowed it from a friend. The recipe photo I had was for blackberry lime sorbet, which I had made before but found that the lime was a bit overpowering and I prefer just the blackberry sorbet. I know, such nitpicking! Anyways, here is the recipe:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
4 cups blackberries
juice from one lime (blackberry lime recipe calls for 3/4 cup lime juice)

Heat sugar and water together until sugar dissolves. Let sugar water cool. In a food processor combine blackberries and sugar water (aka- simple syrup). Process until berries are all mushed up. Strain berry mixture through a sieve to leave behind delicious blackberry syrup without any of those seeds that will remain in your teeth and drive you crazy.

Squeeze juice from one lime into the blackberry syrup. Put syrup into the frozen bowl of your ice cream maker and spin until desired consistency (mine took about 25-30 min).

Then hurry upstairs because your little man has heard cooking going on in the kitchen and now is screaming for you to come and feed him something yummy too!

I like to freeze my sorbet a bit further after it comes out of the ice cream machine because I think it is too soft when it first comes out. I served mine with a few lemon cookies, which nicely complimented the blackberry flavor. Yummy, yummy- especially refreshing after a 18 mile bike ride!

Smoothies just got a whole lot smoother

Dear Mr. Postman,

Thank you for bringing a box of joy to my house today. You see, the heavy box you delivered contained a very special item. Inside that box was the blender of all blenders- yes it was a Vitamix! My blender died after I put too many strawberries inside so my lovely sister sent me her Vitamix. She hadn't been using it enough and a Vitamix is something to be cherished, loved, and used. So I gave my V-machine a quick cleaning and immediately decided to test it out with a very berry smoothie. Seriously, I made a smoothie probably only 5 minutes after opening the box! As you can see, this smoothie was full of good stuff and Lizzie kept asking why I put salad in the smoothie :).

Uh oh, my secret of stashing spinach or other greens in there might have gotten out. Man oh man, the V-machine did its job and it did it well! This smoothie was smooth and creamy and I think it might have even crushed the smallest of seeds from the berries. And this little girl gave the smoothie 2 mustaches up!

That is until she spilled half of it on my jute rug :(.

Speaking of Mr. Postman, do you have any tips for getting smoothie out of a jute rug?

4 months

A few days late posting but here is Nolan looking ever so cute at 4 months old (the pictures were taken on his 4 month mark). He's still just about as happy and healthy as anyone could hope for. This month he has truly discovered his thumb, even at times deciding he would rather have his thumb than oh say, the boob!

I know, way to offend your mother Nolan! We go to the doctor in a week so I can update y'all on the stats for this growing guy.