scenes from the weekend

I had such a good, improved weekend. I looked back at my calendar. Turns out the last time I had a somewhat "normal" weekend, with time at home and a Saturday date night with Ken, was in early March! No wonder I have been so cranky! Honestly, if I'm running around too much on the weekend, and since I work full time during the week, and I don't have time to tidy up and be domestic at all, it really takes its toll. I hate the feeling of being on a treadmill I can't get off! I require down time, for better or worse--it's just my make-up.

So, I cleaned, got a hair cut, washed new bed linens and put them on, went on a date with Ken, made green juice and homemade cookies with the boys, made dinner, visited my parents, and took the boys to the beach for an hour or so.  Sounds about right, right?

I have things I want to tell you about:  the cookie recipe from this weekend, the homemade ranch dressing I have been making, my new health goals, and the audiobook I just finished and loved!  So there are some blog post ideas--I hope I get to them.  See you soon!

PS--if you are interested, click here to see my outfits.  Happy Tuesday!

festival weekend

We spent pretty much the entire weekend going back and forth to this storytelling festival.  We've attended this festival many times over the years, but this is the first year that the boys were really old enough for us to commit to the entire weekend--songs and stories from Friday Night through Sunday midday.  It was truly fun, and I was thrilled that John McCutcheon was one of the tellers this year.  I never knew that he worked the storytelling circuit (he's more of a folk singer, or so I thought), but we loved his stories just as much as his awesome singing and instrument playing.  He is amazing.  Otherwise, there was tons of eating out, playing, reading to the boys, and we even had a little Mother's Day celebration since I'll be visiting Carrie next weekend.

And now we are down to the last 6 weeks of school.  Crazy! And oh so welcome and exciting. 

scenes from {mostly} last weekend

So sorry for leaving the blog vacant for so long!  I have no intention of quitting the blog--there are a lot of reasons why I haven't been posting, but the biggest is just out of tiredness/laziness.  At the end of the day it's just easier to zone out with my iPad and read other people's posts.  Maybe I'll do a post sometime about other reasons that I don't blog as enthusiastically as I used to.

I do still like blogging.  Here are some photos from last weekend.  You see, just looking at this small selection of photos makes me feel way more warm and fuzzy about the entire weekend.  I think that is a huge huge positive.  To be able to see your life that way.  To pause for a few moments and be thankful.

In the photos:
1.  Dieter is a crazy man, whipping through books on his Kindle.  He is devouring the Beast Quest series and I'm enchanted by his enthusiasm.  I also love that he reads aloud to his brother a lot too.
2.  We went to Ken's swim meet in Santa Clarita and it was freaking hot, but I loved seeing him swim. 
3 and 4.  We went out to Toppers with Jacob.  My favorite pizza parlor.  We even split a pizza cookie at the end, which we had never done before, and it was amazing.
5 and 6.  Took the boys to a few parks.
7.  The boys and I did a little baking project (banana bread) for the first time in ages and they loved it.  It filled my heart. 
8.  Dieter also loves reading the Greek Myths.
9.  Our yard is all in bloom and Ken brought in many bouquets of roses for me.

By the way, I'm starting a style blog for the over 40 crowd.  I'm not aiming to be the cutest 40+ blogger or have great photos at all (hardly!), but I am so curious about how to dress in my age group and I just love clothes lately and putting together outfits.  If you'd like to have a look, click here.

PS--Carrie and I are meeting in Covina next weekend for a friends weekend.  Please share any Covina recommendations you may have.

rewind to easter

We had a quiet and pretty sweet little Easter.  It was fun how it fell at the beginning of the break and then we still had a full week stretching out before us after the holiday.  I love it when that happens.  In the photos above the tea and cookie scene is actually from the day before Easter--it was our equinox tea.  We just used a Trader Joe's mix to make those cookies so they did not turn out as well as our usual, but the boys loved them nonetheless.

Dying the eggs was fun this year.  The boys are maturing so much!  No tears, no disappointment.  They seemed to understand the whole thing much more than previous years and got down to business and enjoyed themselves.

And are you curious about those baskets?  Such a far cry from the cute baskets I've done in years past.  It's partly because Easter fell so early this year and I just wasn't ready.  I ended up doing my entire basket shopping at Target--both toys and candy.  But also, my boys are growing out of the little wooden toy phase.  They were thrilled with Hero Factory and Silly Putty.  And it's really ok.  I'm going with the flow and I like it.

They were also really into finger knitting that weekend, so there you go.

Hopefully I can blog more frequently this week and share our trip to Santa Cruz.  It was so fun!  I might blog it in chunks, because there are so many pictures.  See you later this week (I hope)!

happy spring break!

The boys and I kicked off the vacation last night with dinner downtown and a nice long park visit. The weather was perfect and the evening so relaxed. And I love the age the boys are right now--everything is getting easier and more fun.

update: easter grass

I thought I'd pop it with a grass update. The basket was looking very sad and hopeless for the first four days and I was wondering if we'd gotten bum grass seed or if we hadn't covered the seed with enough dirt. Then lo and behold, along about day 5 the grass began to sprout. From there it fairly shot up and now we have this.  The picture is from day 10.  Still, next time I'll be more careful to cover the seed with a bit more dirt and I think the grass might even be thicker.  Did you try this?



PS--I have the day off today and we have been baking. The boys have a Kindermusik recital tonight. It is about the only time it is safe to bake because I know I can share with a large crowd. I''m making this and this (Rainer helped).

PPS--I put both cakes into my Recipe Builder for Weight Watchers and the points are ridiculously high.  The cookie bars are a crazy 6 points per bar!  The white Texas sheet cake is 7.   Good thing I'm taking these to a gathering!