March Recap

March is always a bit crazy around here with Lent and the restlessness that arrives at the end of winter and the end of textbooks. We survived.  The weather was unusually nice.  The kids (and I) appreciated being able to play outside.  I remember one afternoon they set up the sprinkler and sun umbrella and were all running around in swim suits.

  

We all went to my 20 week ultrasound on March 13.  Its a boy!  Everyone is excited about another little brother.  We haven't picked a name yet.  Boy names are hard!

 

We had dental cleaning appointments.  We see the dentist that my family also saw while I was growing up.  My grandma was also getting her teeth cleaned at the same time.  Family reunion at the dental office!  Dr. Thomas knows my entire family.  Remarkably we are not the only 4 generation family that he takes care of!

 

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the usual corned beef feast.  My parents were able to join us.  Black and tan anyone?

 

We bought a new rug for the study.  We love it, but it didn't match the blue paint.  Off to the paint store!

  

Chris and I liked the blue walls, but we LOVE the gray.  Complete serenity to relax in the study at the end of the day now.

Getting bigger!  I'm currently measuring about month bigger than normal.  I'm feeling all the horrible pregnancy symptoms.  I love the babies, but pregnancy?  Awful.  I'm not looking forward to being 40 weeks pregnant again.

My sister and I threw a diaper shower for our sister-in-law Grace who plans to cloth diaper.  I decorated diaper cookies to send with the invitation.  I have a new admiration for cookie decorators.  Painting with frosting is terribly hard.  Royal icing is the stuff nightmares are made of.

 Chris says that they looked like basketballs.  Ha!

 We sent the cookies and invitation in little boxes.  The packages turned out pretty cute!

 

Chris turned 36 at the end of the month.  Cake and presents.  It was a fun evening.

 

My siblings came to Wisconsin...

...and I cried like a baby when they left.

It is a great picture Dad.  I wish you were in it too.

Mardi Gras Party

I made a mini King Cake this year, which Chris referred to as the King Bagel.  Ha!

2009
2010

Happy Valentine's Day

Made these Cinnamon Roll Scones for our special Valentine's breakfast.  Super duper tasty!

Marbled Paper

We marbled paper with our homeschool group last Friday.  The papers turned out fantastic and the kids truly enjoyed making them.  I looked at a bunch of marbling tutorials on the web, but finally settled on following this one because of kid-friendliness and because it was easy on the wallet.  It's very messy, but fun.  Highly recommended!

Another List

1.  I like lists.  I have notebooks filled with them.  I happen to really like posting in lists lately.  So neat and organized and structured.  Makes me feel like I'm structured.  Ha!

2.  I give myself a big, fat F for exercise this week.

3.  I drank my first cup of coffee this morning in weeks (months?).  Delicious.  I've got my inner happiness/ calm/ peace back just like that.  Though Tazo's Wild Sweet Orange tea was getting me awfully close to my inner-yogi.

4.  I'm feeling fine.  My belly hurts sometimes--round ligament sort of achy-pain.  I am sometimes sitting and reading books to the kids and I start to feel contractions. I don't remember contractions this early with the other pregnancies, but I'm sure it is normal. Who knows?  I'm getting older, its my fifth pregnancy, my uterus is tired and knows it needs to start whipping itself into shape starting immediately?  I'll ask at my next appointment for sure.

5.  We had the most awesome dinner tonight.  Chicken Gyros.  I made the chicken as the recipe suggests. I mostly followed the recipe for the tzatziki sauce.  I didn't strain the yogurt and I omitted the cucumbers and served them sliced on the side instead.  Other toppings included red onions, tomatoes, feta cheese, pepperoncini, kalamata olives, shredded lettuce and sliced bell peppers.  Really delicious.  We were all licking our plates--Gus literally did.

6.  I tried to pickle my own pepperoncini this past summer.  We love to eat them! The final product tasted good, but the seeds inside were all black and gross, instead of white and firm.  I'd like to try again this next summer, but I should probably wait a year.  I am going to be pretty busy around harvest time.  If you have thoughts about canning these peppers, I'd love to hear them!

7.  I am reading the My Father's Dragon trilogy to Gus and Isabel.  Really, really adorable and a great chapter book for little kids because it has pictures.  We all love it.

8.  I just finished reading A Wrinkle in Time to Claire and Lily tonight.  It was every bit as magical and amazing as I remember.  It was my favorite book for a long time when I was a girl.  Such a good adventure!  I cried at the end.  The girls think I am a sap.  I kissed them and hugged them tight and sent them off to bed.

Happy Birthday Gussy!