Green Menu

We had a delicious green soup tonight in honor of St. Patricks Day. Everyone LOVED it and I couldn’t get enough of it. Can you guess what it was made from? It grows in my yard.
Did you guess stinging nettles? That right. And it was very tasty. Did you know that nettles contain the highest plant source of iron? It is an EXCELLENT source of vitamins, minerals and protein. It is literally a super-food and they are FREE! Stinging nettles lose their sting when cooked. They can be used in place of spinach or kale in most cooked recipes. They are best when picked young in early spring. You have got to try this. I do have a sting or two to show for it as I didn’t use leather gloves when picking it, but soo worth it. We also had edamame, salad, vegi booty and fruit rainbow shish-kabobs for dinner. Here is the soup recipe I made. I think this may become a tradition.

Nettle Soup
1 onion, chopped
2 TBL butter
1 lb potatoes, cut up (I used yukon unpeeled)
6 cups chicken or vegi broth
1/2 lb stinging nettles
1/2 tsp thyme
sour cream, yogurt, or cream for garnish (optional)

Saute onion in butter about 5 min. Add potatoes and broth. Boil then simmer for 15 min. Add nettles & thyme and cook until tender, about 10 min. Puree soup with an immersion blender or in a blender. Season to taste and serve.

I don’t think this is the last you will hear of me & my nettles.
Nettle Lasagna...Nettle Pesto...Nettle muffins...

home away from home

All this nice weather has got me thinking...my yard needs more kid elements. Wouldn't these playhouses be fun?




I am gathering some ideas and materials. Lets see how much time I have to get anything done! Got any plans yourself?

(playhouses from http://aplaceimagined.blogspot.com/)

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.-Plato

Boys.
Four-year old boys.
Someone forgot to give me the owners manual,
Specificly the troubleshooting chapter.

Did I feed him enough, or too much?
Did he sleep enough, or too much?
Is he bored or not getting enough attention?
Does he need to go run around for 2 hours or take a nap?
Should I sign him up for soccer, tai kwon do, art, music, wilderness survival?
Is this behavior normal? Should I be worried about this?

Many days we run the gamut of emotions here and I am often at a loss as to what to do. How do I tame this wild horse, but still keep his passions and confidence? Hmmm, maybe I will read up on taming actual wild horses.

Momentary Lapse in Reason

Ah life, so hard but so good. These little ones are keeping me busy, but I am loving every minute. My sweet Perrie is growing up, and she knows it. It is a full time job just keeping Owen fed, clothed, clean, rested and happy.



And Callie, my pretty baby, just squeezes my heart every minute. How did I ever get by without her? I love watching her mind develop and explore everything. She is so tiny but runs everywhere. It is very hard to get a good picture of her because she never stops moving. Anything with sparkles goes around her neck, and she already has many hats and glasses. She loves cats and dogs, like goes crazy screaming to see them. She adores her big brother and always tries to hug him, but he doesnt want anything to do with her. She is allowed to touch his shoe, that is about it.



This thing called life is really amazing when you stop to think about it.

holiday in a minute

The holiday season got underway right out of the shoot with Christmas parties, piano concerts, caroling, birthday parties, anniversary (11 yrs!) and lots and lots of family. It was jam packed fun.
Christmas Eve was spent with my extended family. There are 9 cousins on that side so the kids were well entertained. We had our first annual ornament contest, (thanks Erin.) We were all given a glass ball ornament and had to decorate it somehow by Christmas Eve. Then we voted an a few categories. It was awesome to see what came, and the kids were some of the best! Below is Perrie's, David's, Mine & Owen's ornaments.



We are a large adult group so decided to play a gift exchange game, similar to the white elephant game, but with new gifts. This was the first time trying this one and I think it went pretty well. Dave came home happy as a clam with his gift, which he had to bargain, beg and plead various people for. It is pink footed pjs, with bunny feet.(I stopped being embarrassed along time ago)

Christmas Day was spent with Dave’s family for a feast, games, and visiting.

Some of Owen’s favorite gifts are a stomp rocket and walkie talkies. We gave Perrie a creative puzzle set to design and had all the cousins playing on Christmas and some adults too. It is called Trapecolo.

For New Years Eve we had ice cream sundays, watched Night at the Museum and banged our pots and pans (east coast time) Each of us said something we wanted to do in 2010 and something we want to get better at.


Owen wants to drive a jeep and learn how to drive better.
Perrie wants to learn a new instrument and get better at art.
I want to visit my relatives in Utah this year and get better at doing yoga.
David wants to buy a gun and get better at shooting
(I’m cringing, this will not happen!)

A popular blog suggests having a one word theme for the year. Display this word in your home or workspace and ponder it. I think mine will be CREATE. Create a home, love, friends, good food, funny blog posts, art, quilts…. I think that word will do nicely. Happy New Year.

Guest Blogger

Meow. Hello there blogworld, this is PJ and Mittens filling in today. Did you know cats can type? We have been practicing and helping anytime one of our persons is on the computer. We love helping. Life here is pretty swell. We spend our days chasing each other, wrestling and hiding from Owen. He likes to cuddle a lot, put us in his train made of boxes, his backpack or trap us like we are a dinosaur he has caught. He does share his leftover oatmeal with us, our favorite, so we forgive him.

Now there is a little person who tries to snuggle us all the time, they call her Callie and she is not much bigger then us. She can move fast & likes to lay her head on us or hugs and roll around with us. I think she learned this from her brother. We do love any attention so don’t mind much. Then another person called Perrie comes home and loves to play dress up with us. We are usually pretty worn out from our day with Owen & Callie and don’t have much energy to resist her games.

The person they call Daddy might be our favorite. We are the first to greet him after his long day and like to play games with his fancy shoelaces. He gives us our proper 30 minute petting each night and loves us so much he sometimes falls asleep with us. Heaven.

We love going outside when it is not too wet. There are so many new sounds and places to discover, no to mention the lady cats next door. One of these days we will catch something and bring it in to show our persons. They will be so proud of us. However it has been wet and cold so we are inside a lot. We were getting a bit restless and bored then suddenly to our delight a large tree sprouted right in our playroom. Trees are our favorite! After climbing our new toy a few hundred times we realized this was a pretend tree and the limbs were not as strong. It was resembling a tree less and less until one day it disappeared.


We have it made, but if santa is asking what we want for Christmas, we would have to agree on some pipe cleaner.

Kisses,
PJ & Mitty

JOY

The holidays are in full swing around here, and that means crafts, crafts and more crafts. It seems like each year I have to create new decorations. Here is a few of my favorite things. I love these and want to make hundreds. We are making these for teacher gifts this year.

These are next on my list to try,

and these -

Ive made these in the past and still get questions about them -

And these look fun for the kids to decorate-


This is just the tip of the iceberg really, Ive got sewing and felting projects started too. See why I have not time to blog? Love it!

One more!