Ridiculously Awesome Gift

 For Mother's Day, Nathan gave me a ridiculously awesome gift.  He gave me a DSLR camera.  Now, for several years, I've been talking about how I'd like to get one someday, but I've not been in a rush, because they're expensive and I also figured I just don't have the time to learn about aperture and ISO and whatnot.  But I guess Nathan thought it was time!  It was really so sweet of him, and I was very touched.  And now, whenever I have a bit of spare time here and there, I'm learning the ins and outs of my camera.

This is the very first photo I snapped.  Pretty good, especially since I didn't do anything special.  Auto mode does a pretty good job--better than my phone, anyway!

 Noah was a willing subject.

 (Does anyone else think their kids look their most adorable when they are sleeping?)

 I love that boy.  Sometimes I can still see vestiges of his precious little toddler face in his five-year-old big kid face.

Has anyone else considered the strange aspects of digital cameras being so prevalent in our culture?  Our kids will have more thoroughly documented lives than probably any generation before them.  Food for thought.

Anyway, I'm so excited!  I definitely have a steep learning curve, but I'll be playing around with my new toy, I'm sure, and posting the results. 

Ticklish Clara!

Ticklish Clara from Lauren Benesh on Vimeo.

Garden Update

It's 9:30, and the kids are all asleep.  Here's a list of the many things I could/should be doing right now:

1. Blogging about my garden (check!)
2. Blogging about Jane's birthday or updates on the kids
3. Cleaning the kitchen
4. Crocheting Jane's neverending blanket
5. Finishing my book for book club (almost done!)
6. Cleaning out a set of cabinets to collect stuff for next Saturday's garage sale
7. Working out 
8. Resting (something I'm sure all mommies of several small children don't do enough of)

I have to say, not many of those things are unpleasant!  With three little children, my days are very full, usually of things that fall into the "necessary" category.  Fridays are refreshing because by the time they get here, I am so ready to have a day full of things that are on my list but are all more or less pleasant--that's a blessing. Anyway, since today was a special day in my summer garden, I'm here writing about that.

The reason today was good was because, voila, I harvested our first little tomatoes:

Now, I don't think I told you all what happened to all my lovely heirloom seedlings.  Well, we had some painters come in one day, so I set my seedlings outside to get them out of harm's way and ended up putting them directly into it in the form of too much sunshine.  Although I had been hardening them off a bit, they weren't ready for all that heat, and they dried up and withered away, never to recover.  I was pretty upset about it, considering all the care I had put into those dang seedlings for nearly two months.  But eventually I threw my hands up and went and bought plants.  I did end up getting a variety of heirlooms I think I'll be happy with.  Not so much disease resistance as the first selections, but in the end, I decided that I was having more trouble with overwatering than disease.  And so far, the pests are more or less leaving them alone, save one plant that's being pestered by caterpillars. Even my Brandywines already have fruit on them, and they never fruited all summer long last year!  I really hope I get some of those beauties.  I also have a Cherokee Purple, my trusty Husky Cherry Red, a Sweet Million (pictured) and a Sweet 100, a Mortgage Lifter (the name has a wonderful story behind it), and maybe one or two others.  I had really been hoping for some paste tomatoes, more color variety, or something interesting like red currant tomatoes, but it just didn't work out.  Oh well.  Maybe next year.  I think the variety of beefsteaks to cherries will be good, especially compared to last year.

My zucchini are starting to produce, as well as my cayenne peppers. (I'll have some to eat with my tomatoes, if all goes well! Last year, they matured at different times.)  And the herbs are doing well.  I even planted a tiny okra plant because I learned that they are related to hibiscus and have nice flowers.  Well, my plant is stunted or something, because it's about to keel over from the size of this one okra that's growing on it--so funny!  It's definitely not in there anymore in hopes that it'll beautify the garden, that's for sure!

All in all, things are going well.  Looking forward to more and more goodies coming our way from alongside our driveway....

Sometimes

As a novice cake decorator, sometimes your cakes turn out pretty well.

 Noah's castle birthday cake

Jane's princess birthday cake

And other times they don't.

 Tiered wedding cake I was supposed to make for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary

Ha ha!  Well, you can't win them all.

Honestly, I can't stop laughing every time I look at this picture.  It's just such a complete and total disaster!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

So it's several weeks past Easter, and we still have a couple of bags of Easter chocolate lying around.  For the sake of my diet, I've got to get all this chocolate out of the house.  So last night, I searched online for a muffin recipe I could throw a bunch of chocolate eggs into, and after a little tweaking of this one, I got what I wanted.  The recipe says it makes 18 muffins, but I made mini muffins and got about 40 of them.  Many happy chocolatey bites for my little family.  So here you go, folks.  A semi-healthy muffin, for your enjoyment.

--

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

1-2/3 cups rolled oats
2/3 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. canola oil
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips or pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare muffin pan with spray or muffin cups.

Place oats in a food processor; pulse 5-6 times until oats resemble coarse meal.  Add dry ingredients (flours through salt) to a bowl with the oatmeal.  Stir to combine and make a well in the middle.  Combine buttermilk, oil, and eggs and pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients.  Stir until just moist.  Stir in chocolate pieces.  Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake for 10 minutes for mini muffins or 20 minutes for regular muffins.  Muffins are done when they spring back slightly when touched lightly in the center.

Enjoy!

A Wee Bit of Catching Up to Do

So I have a wee bit of catching up to do on the blog, eh?  Just a tad.  I had three blog posts last month.  Three.  The lowest monthly number ever.  Oh well.  Life is busy!  And I've been busy living it rather than writing about it!

I'll try to write individual posts about bigger events like Jane's birthday, but for now, here are a few random pics from the last little while.

For Valentine's Day, I made these cute little lavender filled sachets/ornaments.  I think they turned out so sweet.

By the way, I got the idea and the how-to from Pippa Middleton's book, Celebrate, which I would recommend.  It's an event planning book, organized by season, and I really like it.  When I opened it up, I expected that she would be trying to be the British Martha Stewart, but, actually, her ideas are far less fussy.  There's nothing in there like a craft that will take me an entire weekend and make my fingertips sore, for example. :)  But everything is still classy, sweet, fun, and thoughtful.

This is my Janey Beth after a party at Mother's Day Out.  My happy girl. :)

Jane and her friend, Elizabeth, having a little play date at our house.  In their laps: Jane has Pink Rosie, and Elizabeth has Pink Rosie's friend, Banana Pink Rosie. :)

I ran across this handsome guy at a lovely garden store I just discovered.  I want him.  But I have no place to put him. I'm tempted to buy him and save him to put out in my cottage garden I dream of having one day.

That's it for today, friends!  More later.

This and That

• I was feeling pretty annoyed that this one woman I follow on Pinterest has posted about 100 pictures of stuffed bunnies over the last week, flooding my "home" page, until I took a step back and realized how funny and absurd that really is.
• Noah's gymnastics classes are going well.  He definitely gets a lot of energy out in 45 minutes!  Today, I was glad he got all his roaring out while he was there.  :)  He's learning to do a cartwheel, but so far, all he does is put his hands down on the ground and, instead of his feet going over his head, they spin around from one side to the other.  So funny!  I wonder if, in his head, he sees himself doing something different.
• Janey still loves ballet.  She asks me almost every day if today is Monday.  I have to say, she is one of the most coordinated in her class.
• Clara's giving kisses now.  Big, sloppy, wet baby kisses.  It's so sweet!  She grabs your face with both hands, pulls you in, and basically sucks on your chin or your cheek.  It only sounds gross if you're not her parent. :)
• We have a lot of Easter chocolate around here. A lot. 
• Noah: "Why is it called Sin City? Is there a lot of sin there?" "Um, well, yes." "Oh.  That's not good."
• For some reason, Jane pronounces the "ed" on the end of all past tense verbs.  Like "I brush-ed my hair," and "I fall-ed!"
• By the time 8:00 rolls around every night and the kids are on their way to bed, I am too brain dead to blog.  It is now 8:21.  Good night.