Etsy Twitter Treasury

This beautiful treasury was done by HuayruroPeru, one of my Etsy Twitter members. She has done a great job, hasn't she? After you visit the treasury, go on over to her shop and take a look. It is beautiful!

My birthday card is the top middle one.

Julie, Julia, Butter and Waistlines

I love food. So does my husband. We are what people call "foodies". We dislike chain restaurants, with the exception of a handful, and prefer the independently owned restaurants where there is someone cooking, not following a corporate recipe. One of the things we do when traveling is trying new restaurants and visiting old favorites.

I also love food. I love how it smells, I love the different flavors and textures, I love trying new things and going outside of my boundaries. I love learning about new foods and new ethnicities of food. Recently, for example, we had sweatbreads. We have some friends that we go out to eat with when we can and they were trying to find a place to go. She said, "do you think Beth and Chris will like...?". He said, "there isn't anything Beth and Chris don't like.". And that's true.

I also enjoy cooking. When we moved to Canada, I wasn't working then, when I found work, was only working part time. One of the things I did was cook. A lot. And from scratch. But, kids came along and I didn't have time to spend hours in the kitchen and my cooking took a back burner.



Yesterday, I had the pleasure of seeing Julie and Julia. What's not to like? Julia Child, cooking, Meryl Streep and an afternoon with good friends. It's a wonderful story based on blogger Julie Powell's year of cooking her way through Julia Child's cookbook. It was an hilarious, stomach-rumbling, sweet story. And, it made me want to cook again. I'm not talking about taking up the mortar and pestle and journeying through Julia Child's cookbook, I'm talking cooking a fabulous meal when I can, saving the leftovers, then cooking again a few days later. I'm a realist. Between school, soccer, dogs, housework, my business and everything else I do, cooking A Meal every night is not attainable at this point.

Now, here is my problem; I started Weight Watchers a few weeks ago. I haven't seen my waistline since the birth of my first son. You know what I'm talking about; the subtly feminine curve that starts just beneath the ribs, goes in, then comes out again just above the hips. I said curves, IN, not OUT as mine does. And if you read Julie's blog, she says she gained weight during her year of cooking. As I'm contemplating French cooking a la Julia Child and Weight Watchers, I realize those two things do not go together. Has anyone ever put Julia Child and Weight Watchers in the same sentence? Without their computer imploding? Probably not.

So, what is a food loving, waistline desiring, middle age ( I can't believe I just typed "middle age" in reference to myself) woman to do? I have a plan. It's a multiple step plan, but we will see how it works.

1. Dust off the wii and get back onto a exercise regimen
2. Buy Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
3. Buy butter. Lots and lots of butter
4. Hope that Cooking A Meal two or three nights a week while exercising ( literally, I hope) my butt off works

I'm sure my husband's heart just leaped for joy. He reads my blog, you know.

And So It Starts...

Every Mother longs for this. A child's first unprompted word. A word uttered on his own without Mommy saying "say momma" a hundred times. Tonight, my youngest said his first unprompted word to me.

Can you guess what it was? I'll give you a hint; it wasn't "momma".


I told Bohdan to stop doing something and he looked right at me and said "no!". Daddy and Wok were no help. They were laughing to hard.

Wok's Card

Today is Wok's birthday. Wok, in case you didn't know, is my mother. Once my husband and I settled down and quit moving around, she packed up and moved to our state and bought a house on the next block. We love having her so close. The boys get to see her all the time and have a really close relationship with her.

I've been asked about her name. We aren't sure where it came from. My oldest named her. We think it was because when he was around two, she would come over and ask if he wanted to go for a walk. We think "Wok" may have been his two-year old way of saying "walk". He would say it every time she came over and it stuck. And she absolutely loves having a special name that the was chosen for her by her grandson.

I made this for her today. Her friend, Helen, is up and we are going to cook out tonight after they are done doing girly things.

Happy Birthday, Wok!

Testing, testing...

I wanted to see how my images would look on my blog at full size. Feel free to ignore this post.

Kids and Gardens

We had high hopes for our garden this year. We watered, planted, tended and the like. It's not doing so well. My husband thinks it's us. We just can't grow a garden. I'm willing to try again. Maybe next year when the baby is a bit older, I can spend more time and attention on it.

In the interim, our lantana grows like a weed. These are blooms the kids brought me. Nearly every time we go outside, the boys bring me blooms.


My roses aren't doing well either. I only have myself to blame. I haven't given them the attention that they need. They are still producing a few blooms. My Falstaff rose produced a beautiful bloom a couple days ago. The smell is just divine!

We do have some tomatoes coming in. These may make it into the house if the kids don't pick them and eat them right away.

Our tomatillo is blooming. My husband is hoping for a good crop for cooking. I'm hoping for salsa!

This is the baby. Naughty, cranky boy that he is. Good thing he is cute and sweet also. Daddy helped him climb a tree. Basically, he puts him up in it and holds him there. He is very pleased with himself when this happens. You can see his boo-boo on his chin. It's much better now although he keeps pointing to it as if he still has the steri strips and band-aid.

This is how I love him and his brother; sweaty, dirty and happy.

My oldest. He will be starting kindergarten this year. How did I get a five year old? He is so sweet, tender hearted and a lot of fun. He looks like such a boy here; the baby is gone.
Our newest family member. She would spend all day outside with the boys if she could.

The Wonder Pets Save the Day

My youngest son is crazy for the Wonder Pets. C. R. A. Z. Y. On Sunday, he had Daddy singing the theme song to him over and over again. By the end of the day Daddy had used up so many animals that he was on to saving the baby giant squid and the baby Sasquatch.



That night, Bohdan just would not go down. He was fussing till after 9. I thought maybe his molars had started bothering him again and was going to snuggle him and give him some Tylenol to help. Daddy said I had to go up because he'd have to sing some more and he was done for the day.

Sure enough, I got up there, snuggled him and he wanted me to sing. I sang a verse then told him that Lenny, Tuck and Ming Ming were all asleep so they could get up the next day to save another animal. I asked him if he was ready to go to sleep like the Wonder Pets. Yup, sure was. He laid down, stuck his thumb in his mouth and was out.


We told him that again last night and it worked like a charm. Genius!