I've never been a cornbread lover. Like ever. If cornbread was served alongside chili, I would politely decline. Of course, I always made cornbread for my family on chili nights, but I would never eat any of it. My taste buds have just never been very jazzed about this particular bread.
Strange huh?
Well, that was before I was introduced to Scott's cornbread.
I was on Pinterest the other night and I was actually pinning things that had nothing to do with food (if you can believe that) and I started looking at a ton of homeschool resources that I could print. I pinned so much stuff and I got so excited with all the different ideas to help make school more fun and creative.
Just when I was about to hit print on some coloring pages for Eden, I realized I was nearly out of ink.
Womp. Womp!
1. The kids had such a wonderful Halloween. I was so happy that weather forecast said it wasn't going to rain after all. All the kids loved their costumes. Christian wore his Captain America costume all night, except he wouldn't wear the hat. Grace and Eden loved their dresses, and Teah (Coronation Elsa) had her mom make her costume and Emma (ballerina) looked so lovely in hers.
2. This past weekend was the first weekend in over a month where we had absolutely nothing to do. We just hung out around the house, wearing sweat pants and lounging. Aside from grocery shopping on Sunday and grabbing some Hawaiian food for dinner on Saturday, we never left the fort. Not even for church-because the kids were under the weather. [Read more...]
Happy Monday and happy first week of November! Halloween is officially over and you know what that means - bring on Christmas everything!! Right? Wait, no. We still have Thanksgiving to get through. I think it's important to not skip over the importance of this month and have a thankful spirit and attitude for all things. Life is more enjoyable for everyone when we stop and count our blessings. [Read more...]
1. Josh and the kids killed time at Ikea on Saturday while I was getting my hair done. Christian fell in love with this Castle tent. So while Josh and the girls were at Disney on Ice, I put the castle together for Christian and he just loves it.
2. Have you guys seen the Air New Zealand safety video with the hobbits? It's pretty funny but I much prefer the Virgin America safety video. It's more my style and I think it is really fun.
3. What are you kids dressing up as for Halloween? Grace will be Elsa from Frozen, Eden is going to be the Little Mermaid, and Christian is going to be Captain America! They all look so darling in their costumes.
4. I had my 3 week post surgery checkup yesterday. It went very well. My incision is almost healed and my Dr. is happy with the way things are healing. I'm almost healed up, except for some tightness around the incision, which will hopefully heal up normally. It may always feel off, but aside from some scar tissue things look good and I can blow my nose normally again!! I go back in another six months for another check-up and possibly another cat scan to make sure the infection is gone.
5. This is a great kitchen tip for cleaning pans.
6. My mom snapped this picture last night at her house. I hardly have any pictures of me and the three munchkins, but I am happy to have a recent one now-even if Eden and Christian aren't looking at the camera.
7. Have you guys seen this Disney music video of all the villains singing One Republic's Chasing Stars? It's pretty cute. My daughters loved it.
9. How many of you are schooled in Lightroom? Josh has been encouraging me big time on learning how to use it for more than just the basics. I'm scared because I'm a slow learned and I get distracted easily-which is easy when you have kids in the house. But I feel like I have only one life and I shouldn't let the fear of not grasping something quickly deter me.
10. This cake is so perfect for Halloween!
It is Halloween Week! SAY WHAT?! Where in the world did October go?
What's the weather supposed to do in your area on Friday? The forecast is supposed to rain here and I am not to happy about it. But my fingers are crossed because my little babies want to Trick or Treat!
Do you have any fun traditions for Halloween? My kids always trick or treat with their best friends and then they come back to our house and barter candy back and forth. And I always make chili on Halloween night. It's the perfect dinner for cold nights because it's warm and filling.
We were, it seemed, the last people in the Portland Metro area to dine at La Provence. While I'm sure that isn't true, it felt that way. We'd been getting recommendations from friends to try it for a year or two, and we'd been picking up bread and pastries from one of the restaurant's farmers' market stands for quite some time. Anytime I would mention the establishment to a coworker or acquaintance, typically in the process of raving about their baked goods, I would get the apparently obligatory, "You haven't been to the restaurant in Lake Oswego yet?!" Well, after going to the theater to see "The Hundred Foot Journey" a month or so ago, Chels and I were desperately craving some French food, and we happened to be at theater down the street from the restaurant, so we went.
French restaurants are not particularly common in Portland, and La Provence's take on the dining experience is not particularly common either. The local company has two "La Provence" locations, as well as four "Petite Provence" bistros (also the name used for the farmers' market stands) in the Portland area. As of this writing, we've only been to the original Lake Oswego location, but we have now visited twice - we simply couldn't get our first visit out of our minds, and had to go back! [Read more...]
1. Yesterday we got Gracie going on a little bit of school work. We don't have all of Eden's books yet and we're still waiting on Grace's spelling book to get here, but Grace got started on her math and working on her cursive handwriting by writing out a few verses from Proverbs. She also started working on her Awana verses last Friday.
2. This weekend, we took Grace pj shopping. She needed a new pair with pants and a nightgown. We went to Kohls, Target, Justice, and Macy's and not one of those places had nightgowns in her size. It's like they stop making once they reach size 10-and she is more of a 12 at this point. Are there other stores that you know of that sell kids nightgowns?
3. This article from the NY Times is awesome. I recommend that everyone reads it, especially if you have a kid with autism.
4. Wow- this bread pudding looks ridiculously good!
5. I usually am not really one to drink my calories, but this hot chocolate looks kind of worth it!
6. I gotta tell you, I was really surprised at how approachable this cookbook is. We're longtime fans of Geoffrey Zakarian and I'm well aware of how amazing he is in the kitchen. I thought for sure this would be a cookbook would beautiful pictures, but not really one I might cook from because the recipes just might have to much flair for my family. I was wrong-this cookbook was made for the at home cook and beyond. I cannot wait to cook a recipe from it. I'm so glad Josh surprised me with it.
7. Did you hear that Marvel comics has killed off Wolverine and apparently Thor is now a female!? What the heck! WHY???
8. I vow to never go grocery shopping in the later afternoon again. It is so busy and loud. I went yesterday after Christian got up from his nap and by the time I left-which was about 4:30pm I was losing my mind! When do you usually do your grocery shopping?
9. If you haven't entered to win your own brand new copy of Red Velvet Lover's Cookbook, today is your last chance. So enter if you haven't!
10. Anyone else play Scrabble on their phones? It's been down for almost a week and it sucks! I feel like I'm getting dumber by the moment because my brain isn't trying to scramble 7 letters into words.
Can you believe that after this week, it's Halloween week and then we're headed right into Thanksgiving? Why is it that summer always seems to drag by, but once we hit September we're on fast forward until the holidays are over. Maybe it's just me, because I'm not much of a summer person. I just want the weeks to slow down a bit so I can enjoy my favorite season.
Our weather is certainly becoming more fall-like every day. This week it's supposed to rain nearly every day! We had a beautiful weekend, so that is something to be thankful for. But the rain is here. I for one love the rain. Except when I have to go grocery shopping in it. Then it just kind of bites. But oh well. #Thatslife
