Life is good

Changing gears a bit here. I have been intending to write more often and about a wider variety of subjects here and never seem to find the time. We have lots of great stuff going on all the time and I would like to use this forum to share more than just pics of the kiddos. SO yeah....here it goes. Life is GOOD. Not all that exciting , nothing spectacular to share just a few notes on the in and outs of daily life here in our household. Someone asked me today what we "DO" without cable TV. I was flustered at first trying to come up with a list of all the fun stuff we fill our days with and then just decided to say......"we live!" Life is good, and busy here, as usual. BJ arrived home from a trip to Florida on Saturday afternoon. We spent the evening with friends and enjoyed some tasty free food food(oh yess Sara,the rhubarb crisp was amazing.......)and then spent Sunday completing some gardening projects including new plantings in the front and side flowerbeds and finally used the giant pickle jar I've been saving to make a terrarium. I am awful with house plants but been itching to have something growing indoors. Lilly asked me if I put the tiny wolfman figure in there "because he's really wild?" I'm gonna have Lilly and Logan help me make a few more and we'll have self sustaining plant life to enjoy. BJ has been realllly into maintaining the roses and found a beautiful yellow plant to replace the foxglove we had next to the front porch. Speaking of the front porch I painted it a few weeks ago and I am loving the custom color I mixed more each day. You can see a little glimpse of it in one of the pics.I also included a pic of what we had for dinner tonight. A simple favorite. Broccoli and cheese rice with garlic grilled chicken. I've been making garlic chicken in abundance(boneless skinless sauteed in olive oil lemon juice and garlic) and using it in various recipes all week long...southwest chicken salad, linguine with sundried tomato alfredo, ceaser salad, etc..BJ is off to band practice and I am headed to the balcony to read a few pages of a book while the kiddos relax in the cool basement...life really is good.....

THIS is how I get them to eat their veggies

I am probably jinxing myself by writing this but I'll go ahead anyways.....My kids eat veggies, and allll sorts of other amazing food. I hear other parents complain all the time about their picky eaters but I have been blessed with two amazing little creatures with well rounded palates. I suppose it helps that I am a pretty darned good cook(and modest too!..ha!) and I am always coming up with new ways to get 'em to try new things. Here are a few pics of some recent meals. I have a knack for turning simple things into something special. The pizza started out as a cheap frozen pie , but with the addition of chopped spinach, red bell peppers, red onion, diced ham and pineapple it was transformed into something quite beautiful and tasty! The chicken kabobs were so easy and sooooo good. I marinated some cubes of chicken breast and some yummy veggies in a mixture of soy sauce, honey black pepper and garlic and BJ grilled em up to perfection. Oh and don't forget sweet, yummy raspberry banana mango smoothies with a few baby spinach leaves mixed in. They never ever detect the veggies in that one!

Ocean Shores

We left early Saturday morning and headed to the ocean. We took our time and stopped at garage sales and farmers markets, scoring treasures all along the way. With a box full of second hand books and treats from the farmers market we arrived just after lunchtime. The hotel was great. We had a pet friendly first floor condo facing the beach. Sliding glass doors left open provided a beautiful ocean breeze. We spent the afternoon building sandcastles and exploring the town. Dinner and then off to the hotel pool for a swim. After dark we lit a fire in the fireplace and read books until the wee hours. A perfect beautiful weekend!