Deliberately Domestic

Our Trip To Austin

Monica — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:37:34 +0000

So, yeah, things have been quiet around here lately, haven’t they? My apologies for not giving you any warning about that! We’ve been out of town for the past week — living it up in Austin, Texas.

Remember when I first met Beth of ThinkLiz? Well, it turns out what started as a blog friendship has turned into a really beautiful real-life friendship — not only for Beth and I, but also for our families. Jason and Brian get along swimmingly; Jude and Parker love each other to bits; and as couples we couldn’t be a better fit. We’ve got all the right things in common, with enough differences to keep things interesting. So, when Jason suggested we come down to Austin as a birthday gift to Beth, we were all for it!

The view of beautiful downtown Austin.

Easiest plane rides ever. Parker watched the iPad and Nolan slept and ate. So nice.

And, my oh my, what a wonderful trip it was. We ate, talked, ate, explored, ate, laughed, ate, watched the kids play, and ate some more. We had the most amazing food ever. Like, really, the best meals I’ve ever had in my life. And that’s coming from a foodie!

At Uchiko enjoying the best meal of my life. Words cannot describe.

On our date night, exploring more of downtown including the lake, the capitol building, eating at Second Bar and having drinks at Midnight Cowboy.

The boys eating tacos at Torchy’s.

The kids were ridiculously cute. Beth shared a few pictures here on her Toddler Tuesday post. It made for the most relaxing time for the parents. We could just sit and talk, uninterrupted for the most part, and just watch them play. It was such a nice break from the constant barrage of toddler neediness in my everyday life. Sigh. I can’t wait until Nolan is bigger so they can play like that!

The boys in front of the big fish painting outside of Chuy’s.

And believe it or not, Texas is more than just desert. Or, at least Austin is! We really enjoyed the hill country, taking a hike overlooking the lake, and spending time in the many parks. I especially liked Zilker park, which had a train that ran through parts of it — something the little ones loved!

On the train in Zilker park.

What a wonderful, wonderful time. It’s been a little hard to be back, to be perfectly honest. And it’s not just the I’m-back-to-real-life-after-vacation feeling. We really love our friends in Austin and it’s sad to be so far apart. Especially for Parker. He keeps asking for Jude all day long. The trials of living in an age where we can make friends who live so far away! But, all in all, I’m so thankful for the internet since it introduced me to Beth and her family. We love you guys!

Kids These Days

Monica — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:45:15 +0000

As much time as I spend cooking, gardening, sewing, organizing, cleaning, etc — I spend WAY more time just taking care of the kiddos. Sometimes it can feel like I don’t (or can’t) get anything productive done in a single day. That’s when I have to remind myself that I’m doing the most productive thing possible: raising the next generation.

It doesn’t feel like it’s important though, does it? I mean dirty diapers, snotty noses, saying “no”, jumping on the bed, breastfeeding the baby, forcing children to take naps — it all can seem so mundane. And exhausting. Especially at 5:30 in the morning. But it’s all part of the equation of parenthood. The mysterious, challenging, and amazing journey of creating a small life and nurturing it from the womb to the real world. Teaching them that independence is a wonderful thing as long as it is balanced with submission to authority. Teaching them that the world isn’t so scary when someone you trust is right beside you holding your hand. Teaching them that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn and grow through them.

It’s important stuff you know, getting over the fear of getting peanut butter and jelly on your hands during lunch. It may seem small in the moment, but it tells such a bigger story. And it’s beautiful, even through the mundane.

So what profound things have my kids been doing these days?

Playing with a new-to-us marble run picked up from Goodwill.

Learning the alphabet, numbers, etc through playing games on the iPhone.

Discovering that hands are amazing, fascinating, and incredibly fun to chew on.

And learning to fall in love with your brother.

And you know, lots of other “exciting” stuff that I won’t picture here.
In fact, I won’t even describe some of the new things we’re learning.
I refuse to share potty-talk on facebook or on my blog.
Your welcome.

Spring Garden

Monica — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:25:35 +0000

It’s that time of year again! It’s planting season. What I’m planting may look very different from yours depending on where you live. For us, it’s time to plant the “cold” weather vegetables — lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, asparagus, strawberries, carrots, etc. You see, we can still get a frost up until mid-May or so — that means no tomato planting until Memorial Day. So, for now, the cold weather veggies will have to do!

I made a trip a week or so ago to the fabulous Planter’s Palette to get my veggies this year. The only one I’m growing from seed is my carrots, the rest are from plants. I guess I’m just not much of a seed planter. I don’t have the space to grow things from seed indoors and planting actual plants in the ground seems to be so much more effective. They are still fairly cheap though, so I’m happy with my purchases.

My asparagus are on year 2, out of 3 I think.
The third year they start producing edible crops.
I can’t wait to eat you, my tender little asparagus.

My strawberries are coming back up from last year and I hope we actually get some fruit this year.
Last year varmits took all of my yummy berries.
Squirrels and raccoons be warned — I’m declaring war on you!
Any ideas on how to protect those delicious red berries?

And my chives and parsley have come back in heaps. Yum.
Please, come use some of it because I know there is way too much for just our family!

Sharing the raised bed with the asparagus are my carrots,
two different kinds of romaine lettuce
(the little ones came back from last year’s leftover seeds — who knew?),
broccoli, and red cabbage.

And let’s not forget my basil. Oh how I love my basil.
It’s not planted yet because it’s still a bit too cold.
But I couldn’t resist buying it now because it’s just too good!

Sweet Potato Chips

Monica — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:23:14 +0000

I’ve been making sweet potato fries for the last three years, since I first discovered my love for them at my favorite local restaurant, Honey. Tossed in olive oil, salt/pepper, thyme, and parmesan and cooked for 20 minutes at 400 degrees — perfection when dipped into a chipotle, dijon, mayonnaise sauce. But for some reason, it had never occured to me to make sweet potato chips. Until I had a surplus of Costco sweet potatoes. Then it was time to find more options to use up my sweet potato supply! And since we devour bags of sweet potato chips around here, this was the logical conclusion: make Sweet Potato Chips!

So here is what I did:

Sliced three sweet potatoes with a mandolin slicer on the thinnest setting.
Tossed in 3 TBS of olive oil and 1 TBS of salt.
Lay out on a baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees for 8 minutes,
turn over slices and cook for another 3 minutes or until crispy.

Delicious!

Winners

Monica — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:02:46 +0000

Kristi and Heidi are the winners of the giveaway! Send me your email and we can get your address to ship you the products. Yipppeeeeeee. I think you’ll love them!

But wait, there is still something for those of you who didn’t win! If you make one Shaklee purchase in the month of April, you can get the lifetime discount for free! Just contact Harper to make a purchase!

Basement Organization

Monica — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:12:45 +0000

*** DON’T FORGET THE SHAKLEE GIVE-AWAY — JUST THREE MORE DAY TO ENTER! ***

So, our basement has been a bit of a work in progress over the past two years. We finished the actual construction in August 2010, but I haven’t really been happy with the organization and layout until now. We’ve flip-flopped some of the rooms a bit and have had major storage issues. We made sure to keep an unfinished area in our basement for storage, but we had one problem that kept it from being usable space: Books.

You see, Brian and I have a book problem. When we were first married we had FIVE book shelves in our tiny one bedroom apartment. And that was before I worked for a book publisher and Brian did his graduate degree. Yes, the book problem has only expounded over the years. And we have literally no place to put books in our house. We’ve been putting off the inevitable for two years but I finally took the plunge and did a major book purge. We’ve been finding that we are reading more and more books through e-readers so it didn’t feel as painful as it would have previously. Now our 10 bins full of books has been reduced to 3 and our local used bookstore if overflowing with new merchandise. That was a ton of work!

So here is the newly organized basement storage area:

I really wish I had taken a before picture. You wouldn’t have believed to ladies could have accomplished this much in just one week (during naps and evenings, mind you!). There is now a space for everything — and between our home improvement projects, photography equipment, kitchen supplies, and camping supplies there is a LOT of stuff to organize. We are so happy with the finished product!

My “office” or sewing area was being used a storage space for some of the extra stuff we couldn’t fit in the real storage area. So, now that all of that stuff is out of my office, we were able to reorganize my space too. We picked up a bookshelf (I had to keep some books, you know!) at a used furniture place (for $18.50! Woohoo!) and got to work organizing. Well, at least, we got to work organizing after the painful ordeal of having to take apart the book shelf and reassemble it just to get it down the stairs.

Here is the finished product.

Not bad, eh? It feels like a legitimate sewing room now!
Now to get going with some new sewing projects . . .

A Week with Gigi

Monica — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:17:03 +0000

It’s really hard to live far away from family. Especially when you have such an awesome family. My parents live 2,000 miles away. That’s three zeros too many in my opinion. There is only one upside to living that far away — when they come for a visit, it’s 24/7 interaction when they are here. If we lived close by, we probably wouldn’t get the kind of one-on-one extended time that we get when family members visit us in IL. For instance, this past week my mom came to stay (after my mother in law was here just the week before — I’ve been truly blessed!) and we had so much fun.

When she is here I get the bonus of having a lot of extra help around the house. Our project this past week deserves its own post (think major overhaul on our basement storage). More than just extra help, having my mom (or Gigi) around means lots of wonderful conversations, times of just being silly, good food, shopping, and having fun.

My favorite part of having Gigi around, though, is getting to see her interact with my kids. It’s a new way of looking at how I was raised and how she must have interacted with me when I was a kid. Plus, it’s just super special to my mama’s heart to see my kid’s getting loved on. Want to see what I mean?

She could be seen playing in the backyard with Parker within minutes of her arrival.

And snuggling with Nolan up to the very last minute she was here.

And so many other kisses, hugs, laughs, tickles, songs, and games were given in between.
What fun! We miss you already, Gigi!

Touch a Truck

Monica — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:45:21 +0000

*** DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE SHAKLEE GIVE-AWAY. YOU HAVE UNTIL 4/26 TO ENTER***

Have you ever looked at the catalog that the Park District puts out each season? It is full of free or nearly free activities for families to do! I would have never discovered this wonderful Touch-a-Truck event if it wasn’t for that catalog. After getting that catalog, I decided to start keeping a calendar of all the events that are offered by the various programs in our area — it’s already turning out to be a very fruitful endeavor!

Anyway, back to the Touch-a-Truck event. Basically, they bring in all different kinds of vehicles and let the kiddos have free reign. Our firetruck/tractor loving boy was in heaven. I stayed home with Nolan that morning, but Parker had a grand old time on this outing with Ceecee and Daddy. Well, you don’t need me to tell you — just look at these pictures!

Tractors!

More Tractors!

Ambulance!

Making friends!

Driving a truck!

Now doesn’t that look fun?

Give-Away: Shaklee Products and Life-time Discount Offer

Monica — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:35:10 +0000

Did you guys know that Sunday is Earth Day? I used to totally balk at the idea of celebrating keeping our earth healthy and green — but that just shows you how much I’ve changed over the last decade. Not only does a healthier planet equal a healthier “me,” taking care of our earth is a God-given responsibility that we all have. So, how shall we celebrate? Let’s do a give-away! Sound good? I thought so!

Two years ago I did a little “Spring Greening” series where I shared all the household and personal care items that I use to be more aware of my environmental footprint. Back then one of my favorite cleaning products was Shaklee. And guess what — that hasn’t changed a bit! I love my Shaklee cleaning products. The concentrated bottle of Basic H that I purchased TWO YEARS ago is still going strong. How many of you can say you are still using the same bottle of cleaning product from two years ago? The concentrated formula allows you to dilute the solution at different rates (they give you the formulas, don’t worry about the math!) to create cleaning products for windows, mirrors, basic all-purpose cleaning, and heavy duty degreasers. It’s great! And they work well too! Being a mom, I’m particularly comforted by the fact that after I clean my windows I don’t have to be concerned when my toddler promptly puts his mouth all over the window. They are no nasty chemicals in Basic H, so I am worry free. Well, other than the additional cleaning that I will have to do!

Anyway, guess what I’m giving you guys an opportunity to win? A bottle of Basic H! Actually, TWO bottles of Basic H — so we’ll have TWO lucky winners! But wait, there’s more! (Feel like an informercial yet? Don’t worry, this product is as good as it sounds!) If you are one of our two winners, you’ll also get a FREE lifetime discount off which gives you a 15% off all Shaklee products for life. Pretty sweet, no?

Here are the Give-Away details:

If you are not already a Shaklee member (sorry members!), you can comment on my blog that you’d like to enter the giveaway. Please tell me why you are excited to try out Shaklee products in the comment. Also include your e-mail address so I can contact you if you are selected as a winner. The give-away will be open until April 26th at 5 p.m. central time, the winners will be announced on April 27th.

This give-away is being offered through my Shaklee representative, Harper. Please visit her website to check out all of Shaklee’s products! http://harperguerra.myshaklee.com/us/en/

A Boy and His Bike

Monica — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:28:10 +0000

Here is a fun story about a boy and his new bike.

One Friday evening, a sweet grandmother (let’s call her Ceecee) bought a new bike for a young boy (let’s call him Parker). Parker was so excited! He wore his new helmet through the whole store (even when it still had tags/cardboard attached to it). He kept talking about his bike and couldn’t wait for it to be set up.

Fast forward to Sunday.
Parker was so thrilled to see his bike being built by his daddy!

He watched in awe and tried to help out with the screwdriver whenever he could.
He could barely contain himself!

Despite a rainy day and a large thunderstorm brewing, Parker braved the outdoors to take his bike out for a ride for the first time.

This boy knew exactly where he wanted this bike to take him. “Let’s go!”

Turns out, riding a bike is a bit tricky when you are just learning. He got lots of encouragement from Ceecee, daddy, and mama. He’s still learning, but Oh! Is this bike thing fun, or what?

It’s hard not to be super proud of your boy after his first ride.
This mama couldn’t stop smiling at her big boy!

Let’s hope there are many more fun bike rides to come!