A Very Awesome Christmas Package…

…arrived in the mail from a friend who moved to some distant, cold and strange place this last fall.

It is completely adorable and has been one of the most sought after books in the house, of late.

Trux has pronounced all the recipes to be “Yummy!” and I have to agree with him.

Black coffee canes? Count me in!

The girls have been pulling out all their tea stuff, and pouring over all the vintage fashion tips, like:

Tying the vintage headscarf

and how to apply false eyelashes. Thankfully they haven’t tried that one, yet.

Baked grapefruit? What a great idea! I see a new Christmas morning tradition in the making!

Thank you Rowena… you’re awesome!

Joy Dare :: 3 Gifts Sweet

Mom and I were talking about Three Gifts Sweet, and we realized that could go a couple different directions. There’s sweet like, “Oooh, that tastes sweet!” Sweet like “Awww… so sweet!” and then sweet like “Schaweeet!” (didn’t think of that last one till just a bit ago, Mom!)

So, really, I only thought about the “Oooh, yummy!” kind of sweet.

We snagged these at our discount grocery store during an emergency run for flour and nutmeg. Yes, no nutmeg DOES qualify as an emergency. They were cute, festive, and dipped in white chocolate, which made the children very happy.

But look! Papa is helping the girls identify a bird that they spotted. Awww, so sweet!

I am very thankful that Dan can make it home on lunch breaks now. It’s nice to see an adult (and one I like so much!) halfway through my day. Plus, we give him a rundown of the school day while he’s here, and he often has something to add. It’s one of my happiest blessings right now!

I also managed to score this yummy Christmas-ish coffee at the discount store. Which is schawheet! (But shhhh… don’t tell anyone about this last one, because some just might make it under the tree for certain family members at Christmas time!)

When life gave us strawberries…

we made scones!

Nod to Rachel, at Song In My Heart

My previous attempts at scone failed ten out of ten times. They were gross and tasted like baking powder. Frustrated at my failures, I decided that that it was a possibility that my three year old baking powder (purchased in bulk from Sam’s) might be the culprit. I got another can of the stuff and sure enough, that solved all my life’s problems. Morale of the story: Baking powder does go rancid. Yuck!

Armed with a great recipe, fresh baking powder, plump strawberries from Aldi, and 2 quarts of iced coffee, I trotted into the kitchen to make us some breakfast, and all was good.

Springtime Breakfast

One of the things that we love the most about spring is eating our meals outdoors. Especially in that precious week of warm weather before the mosquitoes get involved. We enjoyed quite a few breakfasts, lunches and dinners outdoors last week!

The slightly cooler mornings call for coffee, of course!

Some of us take a little longer to wake up and get with the program! 🙂

Breakfast

Kinsley’s breakfast.

In an attempt to remove cereal from our diet, frozen blueberries and cream have become a breakfast staple for the children.

Sophie’s breakfast.

Truxton’s breakfast.

Mama’s and Gillian’s joint breakfast. It looks so much more appetizing before Gilli gets her grubby hands on it!

Oh, and did you notice the steam rising off my coffee?

Oh, the joy!

Please feel free to ignore these meal posts… we are attempting a healthier diet these last couple of weeks and I have been chronicling our meals for my own amusement and because I told a friend that I would do so. We are basically trying to eat along the lines of the Primal diet as outlined by Mark Sisson, but I think that it also follows a lot of the same basic principles of the GAPS diet, Dr. Weston A Price, and the Paleo diet. Basically we have attempted to eliminate sugar and most carbs, and eat a lot more veggies, healthy fats, and whole milk products! The children are eating a lot more fruit, too.

Lunch

Lunch today was so scrumptious and lovely that I felt compelled to share. Well not share share… more like gloat share.

It was a lovely green salad with leftover baked chicken, cranberries, sesame seeds, black olives, and avocado, with a bit of crushed garlic, a drizzle of sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce. Yum!

Oh and Rachel? I think there’s a pretty good chance that was your salad so I probably owe you a salad. And I am pretty sure that you owe me like, eighty-five cents.

Breakfast

Inspired by THIS.

Early Autumn Dinner

Cheap Entertainment

A small bonfire, marshmallows from the surplus grocery store, and my camera…

As you can tell, I could easily have been entertained all evening!

Our Valentine’s Day Breakfast

It all started out so… civilized.

Marme and Granddad brought the girls some Valentine’s Day balloons last night, and they have been the most exciting thing that has happened to the girls all week.

I made a replica of the breakfast which Dan and I shared (in bed, back then) on our fist Valentine’s Day together.

We had Eggs Benedict (my all time favorite breakfast, in case you’re wondering), but this time on homemade English Muffins, with asparagus…

and chocolate covered strawberries, though this time I made chocolate fondue and we dipped them as we ate them. So much easier! Strawberries and pineapple have been a part of every Valentine’s Day we’ve shared.

The infamous pink latte, with pink steamed milk for the girls…

Dan and I set the table last night before bed.

We actually have colds today, and Kinsley ran a fever off an on last night. It’s tradition, you know.

Looks fairly civilized, right?

Look again. Sophie really enjoyed the fondue. She eventually ended up shirtless, because she can’t stand a stain on her clothing. Strange girl.

Dan had an upset stomach, because he took a zink tablet on an empty stomach.

Kinsley’s dinosaur family made an appearance.

Grandma had dropped by with chocolate hearts for the girls.

Which they very much enjoyed.

In fact, Sophie found them downright inspiring.

We very much enjoyed our breakfast together, even though Dan and I often feel that we’re observing the residents of a loony bin, destined to be residents of a loony bin ourselves, as a result. What would we do without them, though?