My Little Buddy

Sam has been with Auntie Brenda some this week and having the best time! He wishes he could come here every day. He says Granna is okay, but nothing compared to Aunt Brenda. Today we got to give him a bath... I hadn't given a little one a bath in several years and I had forgotten how soft their skin is and how nice they smell when they come out. Sarah spiked his hair.

Then this afternoon I was looking for my strawberry shake from Sonic.... hmmmm... wonder where it is?

I guess I should have bought him his own.

Movie

Have you seen "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"? The short-story by F. Scott Fitzgerald made into a LONG movie with Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt? We saw it last night and despite it being too long, it is a really touching movie/story. I highly recommend it. We watched it with Sarah and "fast forwarded" through a couple love scenes and had to answer a couple questions about outside-of-marriage relationships. There was only one really bad word that I remember, and it was spoken by a child with "dementia"... so we forgave. :-) What struck me about it was the sweetness with which love and acceptance were given and received by the characters. It's still with me today. :-)

Soup & Biscuits

Two nights ago was rainy, dark and a little chilly and I decided to make soup for dinner with some ground beef I had in the freezer. Brenda's housekeeping tip for the day: I highly recommended cooking extra of meats like ground beef and chicken when you are already doing it anyway, and putting them into the freezer in portions you can use later. You can use it for soups, spaghetti, tacos, etc. and save time on busy days.

I thought biscuits would go well with the soup and for a change, cut them with my heart-shaped cookie cutter. We all thought they tasted better in this shape! :-)

Below is my anniversary gift from Tim (from January). He got me soup bowls (actually called "Gusto bowls") and some of the little fruit bowls to go with my Fiesta dinnerware set. On this particular night, we used the fruit bowls to hold our biscuits. :-) He also got me the square baking dish and I LOVE to bake with it. :-) I've been meaning to show them off because I really like them. I actually LOVE to receive pieces for my set. I'm glad I discovered Fiesta because they're wonderful every-day dishes!
And here is a picture of the family (minus me, as I was taking the picture!) enjoying our dinner. It was hard to get everyone to cooperate (they were too excited eating their heart-shaped biscuits, I guess), so this was the best shot I got. Tim doesn't look his best, but we'll just call it pay-back.

Strawberries

I usually like to go and pick my own strawberries every spring because it's my one time of year to pretend like I am a farm girl. I bring them home and eat some and make freezer jam and enjoy it all year long. In my next life, I'm going to come back as a happy farm wife who bakes pies and bread every day, tends her garden, sleeps on sheets that have hung to dry outside on the clothes line and lives in a big, beautiful old farm house with a red-checked table cloth on the kitchen table and a jar full of homemade cookies. My children will frolick happily on the farm and play in the tire swing and we'll never leave the farm because we'll have no need.

(Don't ruin my dream telling me I'll have to get up at 4:00 in the morning to milk cows and about the blisters on my hands from the garden hoe!)

This year I hadn't the time nor the inclination to pick strawberries myself, so I just stopped at a local roadside stand and bought some. It wasn't as emotionally satisfying, but still a step up from buying them at Kroger.

Now, God knew that we needed to eat as humans to fuel our bodies and he provided all sorts of options and variety for us to eat. He could have just created one kind of fruit and one kind of vegetable and said, "Here, live on this", but he was thoughtful and kind enough to provide variety and I sometimes think that the strawberry is the supreme example of this loving provision... the perfect strawberry is deep red, with little seeds all over it and a green stem. It is sweet and juicy and, picked and eaten straight off the plant after sitting in the warm sun, one of the most heavenly natural experiences there is. True, we are capable of doing all sorts of things to our food to "improve" on it... we are even known to dip our strawberries in chocolate! That's okay. But when you take away our improvements and it is just us and the earth that provides us with food, you have to admit that strawberries are a special gift. Only a loving God would think to provide them.

Isn't he cool?

Mother's Day

Jacob is growing up, but he's still kind-of cute (to me). This is part of what he brought home for me from school for Mother's Day. I translated below in case you can't make out what he wrote. 10 Things I know About Mom
My mom was born in.... 1919

My mom looks like..... a lover

She likes to wear... clothet with hearts

I think my mom weighs.... 115 lbs (close!)

The best dish my mom cooks is... pizza, spgeghetti

My mom always.... naps and waches tv

My mom never... gets a cat

I love it when my mom.... will give me a pupy

She likes to say.... I love you

But the most important thing about my mom is.... her

My Mom is Special

My Mom is special because .... she might give me a dog and I want her to do that, dogs are cute

I like it when my Mom.... cooks

My Mom can do many things! I think she's best at ..... exercising

My Mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by..... makeing my I brow go up and down

My Mom is pretty as a .... pup

My Mom is smart! She even knows... what 1000 x 1000 =

Plinky Prompts for Fun

My answers to the Plinky Prompts from all last week:

1) Who was your arch enemy when you were 10 years old?
I honestly don't remember having any enemies when I was 10 unless you count my brother. Or maybe, now that I have thought about it- there was a big bully across the street named MELVIN. I didn't like him so much.

2) What was your go-to "broke meal"?
I remember three things I used to eat all the time when I was in college and "broke"... Spaghettios w/Meatballs, Potted Meat sandwiches (yum!) and another thing I did frequently was to buy the 4-count can of biscuits and 4 eggs. (At Meijer at the time, you could buy eggs in 'bulk', so you could buy just one if you wanted). The biscuits and eggs together would cost less than $1 and would be good for two meals! I still like all of those things, although I'm glad I don't have to subsist on them any longer.

3) Are you a dog person or a cat person?
Although I'm no sort of animal lover at all, I prefer dogs to cats. For one, I am allergic to cats. I think even if I wasn't, I'd prefer dogs. And although I'm not a dog lover, there are certain dogs I love or have loved.

4) If the shoes make the man (or woman, in this case), what do your shoes say about your right now?
I am barefoot right now... which says that I am a stay-at-home mom who only puts on shoes to leave the house, but not necessarily to go out to the mailbox or garbage can. (That is obvious if you look at the bottom of my feet). If I wear shoes, the more comfortable, the better. I won't sacrifice comfort for the sake of fashion. :-)

5) What musicians would you like to see join together to make a new band? This one stumps me. One thing I was thinking was that if a band like The Indigo Girls, that I generally like, would join with a christian band, they would have good music AND good lyrics... that would be a good thing.

6) What two cities should be moved closer together? Huntsville and Flint. For obvious reasons.

7) Which movie's characters would you befriend in real life? Officer and a Gentleman. I'd try to set Paula up with another guy and take Mayo (naise) for myself. Ha ha. Just kidding.

Funny

Jacob and his friends were eating lunch a bit ago and discussing how much money their parents make and trying to outdo each other. Alec was telling the other boys how much each of his parents make per hour and then he added, "My dad would be rich. But he has to do bills".

That gave me my big smile for the day. :-)