{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Introducing…

This week we brought a new life into our home.

Meet Bubo the guinea pig!  She’s an adolescent and her size might double in the coming months.  Her first day was spent in seclusion, but the next day she rewarded us with a few gurgles and chirps, and today she seems nearly used to the chaos round these parts.

The kids adore her.  She was only on a hay and pellet diet, so she’s still exploring fresh foods (hello CSA veggies), but the seeds from her hay are her favorite now.  So, the kids love to feed her, and she is more than willing to oblige, dutifully nibbling away, much to everyone’s delight.

I had a hamster as a child, and it was nowhere near this fun.  Had we researched before buying, we would have learned hamsters are not social, and as such, not really cuddly pets.  I probably overanalyzed it all, but am very happy with her and hope she enjoys a place in our family for, oh, 5-8 years to come!

Co-op Cookin’: Emerald City Salad

I don’t buy many cookbooks nowadays, because I have plenty and have been procrastinating purging quite a few that are good, but which I simply never, ever use.  However, I’d heard so many good things about Feeding the Whole Family that I picked it up a few months ago.  As a person who’s trying to incorporate the amazing variety of produce provided by my CSA into our daily life, I liked that this book has so many recipes and ideas for veggies one might not find at the big chain groceries.

Last weekend I adapted her wild rice salad using what I had on hand, adding a bit of summer squash and broccoli, using more cabbage than called for, and skipping the kale/chard/collards because I was making massaged kale salad as another side.  What’s cool about these kinds of recipes is you can totally do that and still love the results, as long as you stick to the concept and substitute similar textures or flavors.

Anyway, I liked it a lot, and have been nibbling on the leftovers all week, because it also keeps very well.  This morning I added a couple of spoonfuls to my eggs.

Awesomely, the recipe is HERE.  I really do recommend the whole book.

with a side of freedom

We had a fun, low key, relaxing Forth… the whole weekend, really.  It was pretty hot, which meant either sitting in the shade or splashing in water.  Mostly the water was in our yard, but on Monday we went probably a whole 5 miles to visit with friends and sit in their shade and splash in their water.

This photo of Bun cracks me up.  She stayed in the water from 2-11.

She even ate in the pool.

Cole changed into his swim suit 4-5 times that afternoon, but during breaks from the pool he enjoyed the most fun place to sit and watch TV ever.  This ball pit is great, especially in someone else’s house.  I’d have balls spread the four winds if I tried to have something like that because I don’t like futile acts like putting away the same toys over and over, and I forget that they even should be put away.  The easels at preschool are the same – I like them being THERE.  Plus, how boring would it be to go to other places and have all the same stuff you already were tired of at home?

  

We stayed in the water until well after dark, and were “treated” to some fireworks courtesy of neighbors who’re total pyros.  People shoot off illegal fireworks all over the place here, which makes one wonder why municipalities don’t just have shows like they do where I grew up.  Seriously, which is more dangerous and causes more expense in the way of police having to go through the motions of finger wagging and patrolling to figure out where that bigass firework 75 feet in the air came from… or that one… or the other 5000.  Stupid!  The cops don’t even seem that into it when they do catch a cul de sac in the act of putting on a DIY show.  “You can’t do that… I have to tell you that.”

Ah well, it was very convenient to just look up out of the pool and see pretty colors in the sky.  :)

First Time

A few months ago the bigger 2 kids came back from a movie outing with Grandpa R very excited after seeing the trailer for Cars 2, and we decided this might be a great first movie for our favorite 3 year-old.

Cole was super excited about it all, and just getting past the snack bar was an adventure in itself.  I bought the huge honking refillable bucket for everyone to share, and Cole managed to knock it out of my arms before we’d even paid.  Thankfully they were very nice and, hey, it WAS refillable, so the only loss was a few million popcorn kernels and me looking like a fool who can’t hold popcorn and walk with a small child.

Cole says he had a great time, which makes me laugh.  1) He was kind of over the whole movie experience by the time the Toy Story short (very cute) ended.  2) He asked to go home about 1/4 into the movie.  3) He put his head on my arm/armrest as a pillow and fell asleep by the halfway point.  So, basically, he’d have been fine if there was a preview/shorts only show for toddlers.

The movie?  Meh.  I feel it’ll be better to watch at home and after a few viewings, but to be honest, I was bored in the final half and felt the spy caper was a bit too drawn out.  Let’s just put it this way:  Cole fell asleep, Carter did, too (but we woke him and he watched the rest happily).  We went with another family and two of them fell asleep, too!  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.