A Few Things

~Oatmeal with apples and blueberries

~Lauren on my lap reading stories

~Freschetta Pizza

~Natural gas - under $1.00/gallon

~Tasteful, decorative toilet brush holders - YES! I finally found one. (one of my worst pet peeves: gross, disgusting used toilet brushes floating around with no really good place to store them!)

~Two hours to myself to browse the library, uninterrupted; and then Target, until closing! (where I found the toilet brush holder) Bliss!

~My wonderful husband who allowed the above mentioned 2 hours and bathed Lauren and put her to bed! :D

~Cold milk when you're really thirsty

~Strawberries and kiwis

~A new haircut and fresh color. Yay! Finally!

~Lauren's vocabulary and love of books.

~Flip flops

~Salmon and quinoa

~A family night together getting ice cream and then browsing children's books at Barnes&Noble.

Summer Dresses - no onsie - no undershirt - no tights. THAT means warm weather!

On Saturday, we went to Dave's nephew's wedding and the day was gorgeous! Lauren was in Heaven (literally?..) running around on the grass, free and easy in her cute pink dress. I actually pulled out the sunscreen! It was a great day.
Some really good advice was given to the new couple during the ceremony:
"Love at it's root is a decision" It's not just a deep, passionate feeling that transcends all conflict and frustration :D It's a choice.
I liked that.

A Toddler with Burnt Fingers is NOT a good thing

Obviously, allowing your little cutie to burn their soft fingers is not a good thing.

So, it follows, that it's good advice to avoid it at all costs!! (this is of course, clear to most of you who are reading )
DON'T LET YOUR CHILD BURN THEIR HANDS unless you want to spend your afternoon holding them with their hand in a cup of cool water, which apparently is the only way to relieve the pain.

Can they take a nap with their hand in a cup of water? No.
Can they play on their own with their hand in a cup of water? No.
Can you clean your house, make the dessert mentioned in a previous post, in addition to a double batch of home-made rolls, do dishes, water plants, vacuum, take a shower, do your hair, set up tables and chairs, set the table, place centerpieces, all while letting your sick husband rest with your child's hand in a cup of water? NO!

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad. But it did throw a wrench in our schedule, and Lauren did not have a nap, and she was sad and had a hard day :(
It all started so innocently - she was having a blast riding around on the "trAter" with daddy while he mowed the lawn. Then, she got down and curiously reached out to touch the searing hot grill covering the engine. :( I feel guilty talking about it. Poor Thing!
She's fine now, thank goodness, but is it possible to VOW never to let it happen AGAIN?!!!!

Mother's Day Desserts

These almost look better than they tasted :D

I made the trifle, and my sister made the "tart". They both drew out gasps and groans of delightful anticipation from our brothers, but we had to have a photo shoot before we dug in :).

The trifle involved making lemon custard from scratch (have you ever tried to pass egg yolks through a mesh metal strainer?), a lemon pound cake from scratch, berry syrup from scratch and whipping the cream. I'm surprised my fingernails survived all the grating for "lemon zest"!

And I think the recipe used a pound and a half of butter and like 12 eggs (I did double the cake recipe), not to mention a whole quart of cream :D YUM!

It was a lot of work, and maybe the 5 minutes it took to clear my plate of 5,000+ calories wasn't really worth it, but it was quite satisfying to put it all together and stare at it for awhile :) And how many calories in the tart????? Smooth rich cream, chocolate and raspberries.....YUM! Who really cares. We don't eat like this every day.

These were dang good desserts! And fun subject matter for pictures! (I think the tart was a 'Pampered Chef" recipe and the trifle came from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/)

THANK YOU to our WONDERFUL mom, who is more than deserving, and graciously appreciative of our efforts; and who taught us how to cook! (lest the focus of Mother's Day becomes the dessert and not the mom ~ oops. Sorry mom :)

Priorities

A good thought by Julie B. Beck from our regional conference today:

"When our priorities are out of order, we lose power."