Random Pictures...because I have learned how easy it is to share photos from my Smartphone

Words With My Son - aKa Scrabble lunch break

A charming pic of my husband eating a burrito the size of my arm

Joey is awarded first place for blind Kata at his first tournament

Queen kitty perches on a ladder in our bedroom

I ordered a truckload of sunflowers, for the yard. :)

Have a good Monday!

Progress Report

This is the treehouse today: it's delightful to watch my men work together!

Before School Starts...

A Thursday morning, this is how you might find us...

Painting, building, writing, and I would be cleaning or out in the garden. :)

A Place To Play

I'm certain that there is a boy in my grown-man husband. All other projects came to a screeching halt when the boys began asking about a tree house.

And so the work began yesterday, I don't know who is more excited...the boys or my handy husband.

Very fun to watch!

Fresh, Hot Muffins Any Day

Muffins are a quick, easy & economical breakfast for our family...& everyone seems to be happy with a muffin & a piece of fruit.

I want to share my new trick with you, of course I think it's a moment of brilliance & I don't have many of those so I'm sharing:

When I make muffins, I double the batch. Sometimes I make two different batches at a time. Then, rather than bake them all up, I pour the batter into the muffin tin with paper cups & pop the whole tin into the freezer. When the dough cups are frozen I drop them into a ziplock & freeze up the rest of the batter the same way.

Then in the morning when I get up, I can pull 6 muffins (2/ per boy) from the freezer & pop them in the oven. I bake them at usual temp for usual time + 2 minutes, and we get fresh hot muffins any old day.

My boys LOVE it!

AND I love that I can put good, whole foods in my boys' breakfast!

On The Pace of Change

That day, you look up from your work and think, "When did you grow so tall & capable?"

Seems like that's happening repeatedly these days, Nate can make his own eggs, start to finish. Joe is beginning to enjoy sitting with the adults for conversations to test his own story telling & wit. Elijah, who is nearly 7 but seems to be 9, is as independent one moment and snuggled up next to me the next is stretching himself to fit in the footsteps of his brothers as quickly as he can.

It's all just too fast, but absolutely correct, I say. Before I know it...never mind.