Marshmallow Man

Timmy asked for marshmallows and toothpicks. I said we only have Popsicle sticks, and marshmellow man was born. 

Will made a really cool marshmellow dragon, but I didn't get a photo before he was eaten.

Popsicles Days

My kiddos love Popsicles. In the summer I love treating them.

This thing makes emergency Popsicles from juice in 7 minutes. I think it uses liquid nitrogen? Lexa is always trying to get me to save pickle juice when they finish the jar (in an hour usually) to make pickle pops.

I remember these from when I was a kid. I used to love, love filling them with blueberry yogurt.  They make silicone ones now that peel off easy too.

I like to keep refilling these with juice or yogurt each day of the summer. Then I can be the Popsicle fairy giving them their Popsicle everyday. 

My mother in law impulse bought this at Walmart for us one day, and we LOVE it. It's called yonanas. You just put frozen bananas and fruit into it, and it comes out an ice creamy texture. (So it's essentially a blender :)

Another summer treat I loved is frozen fruit salad, especially the frozen peaches. This is a big hit when I bring a big bowl to places like playgroup pool party.

Oh and one more summer treat just for me is frozen berries with lots of blueberries that I pour heavy cream over. The heavy cream freezes as it touches the berries and gets crunchy. I love that!

Morning Coffee

I love my morning routine. Now that the kids are home from school, everything is getting shaken up, but, more or less, this is ideally how I like to start my day.

1.Wake up and read a chapter of a good book before getting out of bed.(Ok, this rarely happens, either we have to hurry to get ready or Will or Hugh are not going to wait for me to linger in bed!)

2. Make the bed or pull the covers down to air it out. I can't really decide between these. So I just do each sometimes. Making your bed is supposed to make you feel accomplished and organized and set you up to do the next productive thing. Plus the room just looks so much better, and I love crawling into a nice made up bed at night. But then I've read about the recent studies that say airing it out is healthier to reduce the dust mites. So I do that sometimes too.

3. Get dressed in something I feel good in. This is usually workout clothes though, so that I'm more likely to do that if I'm dressed for it. After working out I like to wear some real clothes though and lip gloss and do something with my hair. I just feel better about myself that way, even if I'm not going anywhere. In the spring and summer I like to wear skirts and sundresses best. Wish I had more of them! 

4. Start the coffee, take my vitamins, and make breakfast.

5. Eat breakfast and have coffee on the back porch. The fresh air and nature really refreshes me. Swing Hugh. I've hung his swing from the porch roof right next to my chair. :) This is one of my favorite me times of my day. I usually read the news. I like The Skim email newsletters, and I read email, blogs, Facebook. There's never time to get through it all though.

6. Morning chores. I've been working on getting some clean up routines into my life. In the mornings I start my machines- washing machine and dishwasher. Sometimes I'll even do the whole house laundry hamper pick up. I start at one end of the house, tidy a room, and put things that go in other rooms into the hamper as I take it with me through the house. Getting these few chores tackled in the morning makes me feel more organized and sometimes leads to more organization and maybe even some more cleaning.  

 While I pick up I like to listen to podcasts. 

My favorites lately:

Sorta awesome

This American Life

TED radio hour and TED talks

Invisibilia 

All Songs Considered

I went through a phase of listening to Serial season 1 and all of the podcasts about it- undisclosed, slate serial spoiler special, serially obsessed, the serial serial, and truth and justice podcast

More podcasts I haven't listened to yet, but would like to try:

A slob comes clean

Inspired to action

The Moth

Criminal

The Chalene Show

Happier

How to do everything 

7. Exercise. This makes me feel better physically and mentally. I notice the difference when I haven't kept it up. 

Currently I've been going through dymatize transformed workout off of bodybuilding.com for weight training which I alternate days with bikini body mommy challenge workout videos on YouTube for cardio. I started these after finishing a postnatal program earlier this year. At the end of those workouts I love to do a short yoga video to cool down. I just finished 30 days of Yoga with Adrienne and doyouyoga 30 day yoga challenge off YouTube. 

8. Shower and keep the laundry train going. 

I'd love to include going for a walk in the morning too, but I'm terrified of poisonous snakes out here and I'm almost certain we'd run into one on the brushy dirt road here. We do go for walks in the cooler half of the year though, when the snakes aren't around.

As the weather's heating up I like to switch to a tall wonderful glass of iced coffee in the mornings. I use Pioneer Woman's  coffee concentrate recipe below and keep that stocked in the fridge all summer.

.

Perfect Iced Coffee

PREP TIME:

8 Hours

DIFFICULTY:

Easy

SERVINGS:

24 Servings

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound Ground Coffee (good, Rich Roast)
• 8 quarts Cold Water
•  Half-and-half (healthy Splash Per Serving)
•  Sweetened Condensed Milk (2-3 Tablespoons Per Serving)
•  Note: Can Use Skim Milk, 2%% Milk, Whole Milk, Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners, Syrups...adapt To Your Liking!

INSTRUCTIONS

(Adapted from Imbibe Magazine)

In a large container, mix ground coffee with water. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature eight hours or overnight. 

Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth and set over a pitcher or other container. Pour coffee/water mixture through the strainer, allowing all liquid to run through. Discard grounds. 

Place coffee liquid in the fridge and allow to cool. Use as needed. 

To make iced coffee, pack a glass full of ice cubes. Fill glass 2/3 full with coffee liquid. Add healthy splash of half-and-half. Add 2-3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (can use plain sugar instead) and stir to combine. Taste and adjust half-and-half and/or sweetened condensed milk as needed.

Porch Gardening

We'd love to set up a garden here, but since it would need some serious defenses and fencing to ward off the wildlife here, besides the fact that we're just renting, I've got a few potted plants on the porch this spring. The kids have been very excited about the tomatoes on the cherry tomato  plant. Lexa relished eating the first one that ripened.

Pinned Up

Hugh's pack and play is popular with many cats and children not named Hugh!

Night Reading

Lexa reads to me at night when she goes to bed, and then I read to her. She's been enjoying listening to the Beverly Cleary Ramona books that Aunt Sara gave us. 

Dear Tooth Fairy

Timmy is apparently making requests to the tooth fairy. I found this note under his pillow. (As usual at our house, the tooth fairy forgot to come last night.)

Big and Little

Timmy and Hugh find each other amusing.  That seems to be their general take on one another lately.

13 years

Patrick came home with roses, Italian food, and cheesecake for our anniversary. I completely forgot about it! He's so awesome. We sent the kids to bed early and ate while watching Game of Thrones. It was nice! I love him so much.