it's about time summer comes back.

I miss it.
Last night, snow was falling...and it was quite beautiful.
But.......but.....I want this back:

I dare you to tell me this picture doesn't make you wish for summer.
Today is winter solstice, as far as the men in my family told me. The shortest day, I guess?
And starting tomorrow, we get even closer to Spring; the sun starts to go inch back to the North.
That's my way of seeing it, anyways.

See that beautiful thing?
That is composed of the work of a vitamix blender.... and this:

And this:

And this:

Not my photos, of course. Do they look like it? Um...nope.
So....blend all that good stuff up.
It's like a sorbet.
Dump it in your mug, and stick a spoon in it.
It's a.ma.zing.
*happy sigh*

Of course, we just dump the whole 4 cups' worth of yogurt in the blender, since there's how many of us.
So I shared.
This wasn't all it made; just the first few to be served. How beautiful is that?!

Drinking coffee, writing on paper, and ....you can see the orange ^^ mug and Sugar In The Raw that Ben used for his coffee. I swear, he dumped in 2 tablespoon's worth. He just laughed at me and said that milk makes it not so sweet.
Well, forgive me. I've been taking mine with just milk in it lately.
He loves Julian Smith's song about coffee. Hahah. Ben drinks it practically white, I drink it nearly black. ;)

p.s. Mocha cheesecake sounds like exactly the right thing to do on this foggy, snowy Tuesday. So...there'll be a post someday about that. ;) Drool-worthy, of course.....

the end of me:)

2:05pm
nap time.
olive garden made me do it.
sorry, i didn't have the guts or brains to remember to take pictures while eating. i didn't grab breakfast before i flew out the door to pile in the van with the fam this morning, so.....i was hungry.

salad, bread sticks...two things that i totally could fill up on....

peach bellini tea and a refill... i love that tea. jen and pj introduced anna and i to it when we were down with them in september.

chicken alfredo pasta.
that's the end of me.
you know what i really like about olive garden? besides the food, that is...
their bathrooms. their golden ambiance. and how they play stuff like michael buble, and frank sinatra (my fav)....

on the way home, we finished watching green zone, and i ate an andes candies or two....
"anna. i'm eating chocolate and watching jason bourne/matt damon. this day could not get any better."
she just stared at me.
"actually....i haven't had coffee yet today, so it could get better........way better..."
hah:)
now, at 3:32pm, i really am going to take a nap. the [[web-logging]] blogosphere sucks you in, i tell ya! and i'll probably wake up when it's dark. :\ 4:30ish. ah well.
[4:12pm update: no nap today. rather, a mug of hot tea with honey sounds like just the right thing....]
how's your monday going??

okay, so here's a picture of the chicken alfredo i got. ohhh yes i just did that. :) *cue: moans of hunger* hehehe

ohmyword. anthropologie....

8 or 9 pm, saturday december 18 
here i am, after dinner of leftovers of this....
sipping water from a huge coffee mug and looking at kitchen stuff..... i've had a lot of coffee the past couple days, to deal with the early mornings and hours holding my own with those sweet kiddos. :)

these measuring cups....
can i have them, please?

this winter iris apron...
darling, huh?

this toile full apron...
i don't have the talent nor desire to sew my own versions of these personally.

buttoned lace apron....
ah. goodness.

extra ingredient apron....
sheesh, talk about chic in the kitchen!

the lady's apron....


golly. prettymuch too cute for the kitchen. :)

dotty match apron....
oh my, my, my. would so be mine if i had the guts, stupidity, extra cash, careless nature to get it...

spring mix apron.....
am i the only one loving this??? i'd have one of these for every outfit....mixing it up, of course, since in the past i've been called a version of punky brewster with my fashion style.

and how about this cute kebaya mug???
please. if only santa really did exist.

i like this mount kailash lamp, too. 
for my house or coffee house someday.

sip of nectar mug....
totally love their mugs.

verdant acres mug.....
my goodness. :)

comedy-of-manners mug...
i like it in the orange color.

oh my...i love these midnight courtyard curtains!
golly. *happy sigh* i love them. and now i'm hooked on browsing anthropologie, thanks to the introducing post of jessica jane. :)

sunday, december 19 7:53pm
mom and me took a roadtrip about 1 1/2 hrs up north to pick up anna.....and bring her home.
stopped by target, got a coffee mug for my brother ben 'cause his 22nd birthday is today!!! then....a book store.

then.....starbucks. i got an egg nog latte with an extra shot, because i hate paying good money for something that you can hardly taste the coffee in. :] anna got a pumpkin spice or gingerbread latte...can't remember... and mom got a ....a.....a mocha of some sort. i dunno. anna ordered it, and i was studying the barista girl and the menu.
while we waited for our drinks, anna told me random tidbits of her few days with our friends while a random guy buying something at the counter stared at us.
almost fell asleep on the way home. then we had to stop at michael's, which was okay since i had to use the facilities, but really? they kept discussing the different ribbons for tying up bouquets and single roses.....so i asked for the keys to go out and read while they decided when they wanted to go home. haha:)

p.s. i'm obsessed with this song and their sound, thanks to mandie dear:)

a few of my favorite things on a quiet day...

i have a thing for clean kitchens...

and the smell of good coffee brewing... this is the exact stuff we get, but co-op's price is $15-17 for the 2lbs, not 22...hehe:)
and music on my laptop playing...
and a pretty quiet house during all of this...

danny, sweet and excited about a lego man on his horse.

sweetie pie.
:)
hope y'all have a lovely saturday.... there's an awesome little 'round the world blog thang going on at amanda + don's today! 

p.s. rachel made these muffins earlier...i got the privilege to spoon the batter into the cupcake papers....

and eat the batter by spoonfuls with ben......

it was a yogurt-coffee-cake-like recipe, so it wasn't as baking powdery as normal muffins recipes.

so yum.
:)

there's nothing like ravioli... and community naps.

Today was pretty much wonderful.
Thank God.
After last night, I needed something to finally go right...

[Lyd and me tonight, inbetween washing dishes...]

Right now, at 9:32pm, I almost feel like this should be a two-or-three part post.
Sigh.
Maybe waking at 7, spending 8 hours alone with two kids under 5, and making minestrone soup and cleaning the kitchen is getting to me.

Okay, so maybe it's the knowledge that there are 130 pictures in the folder from today......hmmmm.
Yes, I bet you that's what's weighing on my mind. :)
Who can blame me? I didn't take any pictures yesterday.

Ben took these, this morning, when he brought Mom's Canon over along with the whole freakin' pot of coffee so I could refill the mug I brought over. :)

Alright, enough of the cutie pie that Reese is. Where's Sammi??

.....Oh...just....y'know.....

Eating grits. :)
It's one of her favorites.

I'll be honest with you; it was so weird to just open something and pour hot water. Just open something, and dump it into a bowl and zap it to warm it up.

 [Looky there! It's Buzz Lightyear. His favorite toy. Unfortunately, it has working batteries in it....haha.]

So weird.
Several months ago, we ditched our microwave. It was several years old, glitching, and we were hardly using it anyways. Plus, if you've ever heard of the health stuff related to microwaves.... (okay, okay, don't worry; we won't go down that health-nut road!!)
Besides that, we do nearly everything from scratch at our house.
Not exactly convenience, and you have to pre-meditate much of the food. Heh.
So, this was weird. I mean, I watched Sam and Reese in early November... when Anna was gone to Alicia's for that week.

You can really see my birthmark in this picture. I just noticed that.
From this point of view, it's under my right eye. Literally, my left. Heh. It's like...the shape of an upside-down candle. :) It used to be darker when I was younger.

My breakfast. Cinnamon and spice instant oatmeal.... and reading in Isaiah or Psalms, methinks.

Our smiles:)

Oh hi, I'm just....gonna....do what you said not to..... and throw my sisters choice-toy-of-the-moment over the counter and into the sunroom! Haha!

Good thing she still loves him:) They're pretty close, and hugged randomly probably 5 times today.
It was so sweet.

Oh darn. This is what happens when you stop him, tell him to stand there just for a minute, and try to snap a picture. Well, his sister was having fun running across the living room and onto the couch like a flying squirrel, so I guess maybe we could say he was bummed about that.....

Just like that, Buzz was forgotten.... :)

"Hey, Beka, can I show you Woody?"
"Sure. Hold 'im up." Ask for a smile, or go with solemn, or just say something obvious that makes them smile...I was out of funny obvious things, so I just went with her solemn face.
On another note, I loved how it turned out with the light on either side....gosh:)

There we go....there's a smile:)
Gosh. I constantly had to re-do her hair; it's not that thick at all, and kind of wispy. She had probably 4 hairstyles in the 8 hours I was with them.

1. We listened to all sorts of music. Not that much variation of good stuff on Ken's player, but oh well.
We played Keep Holding On by Avril probably 7 times. Then there was Flyleaf, Red, and .....that's it. Talk about limited. Oh well. We did good and found all the acoustic songs by Red (like Already Over), and that was lovely.
2. More hugs.
3. "Look, Beka, there's a shadow like a paper airplane!"
So what did we do? We posed by it. Of course we needed a picture with it. my idea, yes.

1. Nothing like the look of ravioli on the faces of children......looks a little like vampires...or cannibalism...or.....nevermind me. They love ravioli. Just have to make sure you cover them with a towel, because gosh it gets messy.
2. Yeah, about my from-scratch background.... I stared at those three cans for a moment, sighed, and prayed for the food with the children. And added in my head, Lord, forgive me for my laziness. I could do better. We both know that. But wait; it's not fully my "fault", since Ken doesn't buy much "ingredients" to begin with.
Oh, and my second thought? Whoa, this is way too easy.....
Third thought? Ohmygosh...that thing I read the other day...linking aluminum to Alzheimer's....
Okay, let's not jump off the boat with that thought; let's not freak out. This is only one bowl of soup from can in, what, months and months? We always make soup from ingredients. Strange world out there.
3. My Cars-themed chicken noodle soup. For real. Cars? Really...
Uh. Yes.

I swear this is the dude who sells organic fuel.....

We went over to my family's house for a little bit in the late morning.
Caleb gave Reese a second...and maybe third....banana. I told him I'd bring Reese's horrible diaper home to him. Then he'd think it was funny.

After lunch...Reese: tired and snuggled in the bed with us. Community naps. Heheh. Not really.
I read Isaiah 55 to them while they played in the playroom. i love the book of isaiah.

.....After a while, Reese was out:) Like a light.

Before we knew it, he was up and biting the head of Sam's dragon, whom she dubbed Toothless...like the black dragon in How To Train Your Dragon.

Well, with this last image of posing before matchbox car races, I'm leaving you with a not-too-tired goodnight.
I might stay up a bit more and read Unforgotten. It's 11:55pm.
Tomorrow sometime I'll do a post of the minestrone soup I made tonight. This post is getting way too long anyways. remember, there are 133 pictures in the folder for today? hahah!