Our Life Lately

It has turned to fall in Wisconsin!  It is absolutely beautiful!  I do miss seeing the mountains in Utah but I can't complain about fall here so far.  We had rain almost everyday last week so the sunshine and warm weather is a welcomed surprise this week!  Next week my mom is coming to visit and I have a lot of really fun things planned for us!  I haven't done any of them so she and I will get a real Wisconsin experience this time!  I will have lots of stories and pictures to post from that soon!

Today Elise and I enjoyed the warm weather by heading out to the park.  I know that winter is just around the corner and I have a feeling it will be brutal so we are trying to get out a lot and enjoy this weather while we have it!  I let her crawl around in the grass and pull it up and pick up leaves and branches- she loved it.  She also loves to be pushed in the baby swings.  It is a lot of fun!

During conference breaks Zack and Elise discovered a new game. It is called, "give mom a heart attack".  He would let her crawl to the edge of the bed then catch her.  She loved it and would giggle as he chased her to the edge and caught her.

I planned a fun date for Zack and I the other day.  We haven't been on a date in a long time and it was much needed.  We don't have money for a sitter or for eating out anymore so it was just a simple date at home. I have found a couple of fun dating websites that helped inspire this one. Some of them are pretty cheesy but there are good ideas to be found or great ideas to get the ball rolling.  Zack really enjoyed this one too!  I made mozzarella sticks, chips and spinach dip and some very yummy punch for our food. I even dipped the edges of our drinks in sugar with a lime on the edge- go me!  I think it's the little things like that that help a person feel extra special.  We had a fun time!

I have been craving Cafe Rio for some time now and tonight I am making a copy cat recipe!  I haven't tried mine yet, but this is the same recipe that we used at Elise's blessing but I didn't make any of the meat or anything so I'm not sure how mine will turn out!  It smells delicious though so I am hoping for great results!  The closest Cafe Rio to us is about 1,000 miles away, so it will have to do!

Interruptions

"When you are exasperated by interruptions, try to remember that their very frequency may indicate the value of your life. Only people who are full of help and strength are burdened by other persons' needs. The interruptions which we chafe at are the credentials of our indispensability. The greatest condemnation that anybody could incur - and it is a danger to guard against - is to be so independent, so unhelpful, that nobody ever interrupts us, and we are left comfortably alone."

-Anonymous

from The Anglican Digest

My wonderful sister-in-law Mary had this up on her blog a few days ago and I love it!  It certainly puts things into better perspective and helps me to remember the things that matter most!  Thanks for sharing Mary!

Home Made Jam

My mother and grandmother would be proud.  Not only did I make my own jam, but I used containers that I saved and washed out.  This time I used baby jars but I also find myself keeping the containers from butter, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc.  My grandma Watkins was the Queen of saving everything and my mom told me it was because she grew up during the depression and was taught to save it all.  Well I didn't grow up during the depression but I still would agree that Tupperware is expensive!  I guess I'm making Mother Earth proud too :) 

On the Move!

She scoots, she's cute, she crawls!  At least she is getting there.  These are some videos (mainly for my family far far away) of Elise figuring out how to crawl.  She has perfected the scoot and can crawl but doesn't do it all the time.  She takes one or two then switches to scooting again.  Either way, it is so cute to see her learn something new and how proud of herself she is when she has made it somewhere new all by herself!  This top video is of her starting to crawl, the second is her scooting around.  Enjoy our cute girl :)

 

Swap Party!

I'm not sure what it is with me, September, and reaching out to my fellow crafters but something must always get me going!  If you are a regular reader of my blog you probably remember this post from a  year ago with the idea for a quiet book. This is not an idea for a quiet book but a swap of homemade goods!  I've seen lots of ideas for things like this on Pinterest and thought it sounded like a very fun idea! Plus, getting a package in the mail with present inside?!  What could be better?  I know I have so many talented friends, sisters, and extended family and readers I know we could make this good!

 

So let's do it!!  Let's swap!!  If you would like to participate go ahead and "enter" by leaving a comment with your name and email address. Once sign-up's have ended you will receive an email from ME assigning you to a partner.  Go ahead and email your partner and get to know them a little bit so you can make the gift more personal for them.  You know stuff like their favorite color, favorite fabric line, do they want a gift for a child or do they need something for their wardrobe or kitchen?!  That kind of stuff :)  Sign-up's will END on FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH. 

Once again, the gifts MUST must MUST be home-made.  I cannot say that enough!  Obviously a part of it can be store bought but you get the general idea. No buying stuff from a craft store that is home made but you bought it, etc. 

All gifts must be finished and post-marked by OCTOBER 15TH 2011.  No ifs, and's or butt's about it! If you need ideas or inspiration check out some of these blogs:
-Craftaholics Anonymous
-Make it and Love it

And a thousand more websites for ideas. And if you are like me you probably already have an idea in your head!!  Good luck, thanks for playing, and I can't WAIT to see what we all come up with!  Happy Crafting!

Farmers Market

Yesterday some friends invited me to come with them to the West Allis farmers market.  It is a neighboring city and they hold the farmers market every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. They had so much delicious produce there! In Wisconsin as part of their wic program, they also give you vouchers for the farmers market.  All of the food pictured above was completely free to me.  I feel like I am swimming in zucchini they gave me so so much!  The woman I bought them from told me to grate them and freeze the grated zucchini so I can enjoy "fresh" zucchini bread all winter long too.  I came home and was so excited with all of my new fresh produce I decided to make some zucchini muffins! Here is the recipe if you want to make some too!

Zucchini Muffins

3 eggs                                            3 C. flour
2 C. sugar                                      1 t. baking soda
1C. oil                                           1/2 t. baking powder
1 T. vanilla                                     1 t. salt
2 C. zucchini (grated)                     1 T. cinnamon
1 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Mix ingredients together. Divide batter into greased muffin pans or with muffin liners. Fill 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Makes about 24 muffins.
*If you want, you can make a somewhat healthy muffin totally unhealthy and add some chocolate chips to the batter as well.  You won't be sorry if you do.  Yum!

Projects

I have had several projects waiting in the wings for months and months that I didn't want to do until we had moved and were settled in again!  I finally got the motivation to do them on Labor Day.  Here they are:

These birds go in Elise's room.  The quilt that my mom made for her has cute birds that look just like this appliqued on it.  So these are a perfect fit!  All I did was paint them and modge podge on the fabric and voila!

Several months ago there was a groupon for this simple vinyl- I think it cost $1.00.  I bought it and made a promise to buy a plate to put it on for our weekly dinner menu.  I finally got around to buying a plate for it last week and put it together.  It was super simple and I just use a dry erase marker to write our dinners up each week.  I think it turned out pretty cute!