holy heat wave, batman!

Today was going to be summer weather, so we headed to the beach (after we had much crying, a few tantrums, german pancakes (thank you, Jake), cleaned bedrooms, folded a load of laundry, napped the babies, dug out swimming suits and beach towels, packed the beach bag, searched for sun screen, packed up the diaper bag and who knows what else). Apparently we were not the only ones with this big idea. I could have ridden my bike there in the time it took us to drive. (And while I was stuck in the traffic, the girl in the car in front of me threw a box of cigarettes and a big empty cup out the window. Seriously? Do people still do stuff like that?)

It was hot.

Very hot.

So hot that my entire body was covered in a thick layer of salty stickiness.

On the way home, I needed gas (having almost run out, sitting in all of the said traffic) and pulled into the station. I actually had to get in line. I haven’t done that in…well, ever. And while the owner of the truck in front of me was apparently shopping for groceries in the “quick mart” I was hoping the babies lasted just a few minutes longer and stopping #2 from hitting all the girls with his huge piece of drift wood he took from the beach, and I started people watching. I couldn’t help it; these people were just begging to be watched. This long haired butt rocker looking dude was taking his sweet time putting his fancy shirt over his skinny torso while he was getting out of his bright orange fancy shmancy convertible while his butt rockin’ wife was putting on lip gloss in the passenger side. I was noticing their tattoos and the woman’s huge sunglasses and extra large lips when an oversized SUV started backing up. The woman was about to open the trunk of the orange car when *smack* and then, “You just hit my car, you *beep-n-beep*!!!” while she ran toward the SUV waiving her arms in her fancy bright heels with her long dyed hair blowing in the very hot breeze.

I watched a while longer and as I was pulling out mourning my missing cell phone and sun glasses, they were trading information and shaking heads atop their super thin bodies.

It was hot.

Very hot.

So hot that I noticed my early blooming rhododendron’s blooms were all droopy and wilted.

"girl, you huge."

I’m a little too worried about hills and valleys lately. There are hills where there weren’t before and valleys where there shouldn’t be valleys.

I have heard, “you JUST had twins!” several times. But now they are three months old. Do you understand what that means? It means that I have had to stand in front of my closet for almost 100 days and look for something to put on that doesn’t fit. That’s 100 days in a row that I have been a frustrated woman. And that’s not counting the time that I actually had two babies inside me. Yes, yes, I have needed time to heal, blah, blah blah. But now I want to feel like me again.

This morning after I fed the babies at 5 to 5:45am, I didn’t go back to sleep. I put on my running shoes. They were still all loose-laced from when my feet were swollen and I walked out of a hospital without my babies. I tightened them up and as I tied the bows I was grateful that at least my sneakers fit like they used to.

Pasty eyed and cotton tongued, I took to the street. Breathing in the morning air, I was glad to take the first step toward health. Was it really just a year ago that I was running this road to train for a half marathon? Yes, yes it was. And it will be this street that will help me move mountains (if you know what I mean).

warrior faeries

Laini Taylor’s second book in the Dream Dark series is coming out soon!! I can’t wait for the next adventure. Laini is holding a bribe fest right now, and I gave right in—and a couple days later I received some face tattoos (just like Talon, a Ratherstring warrior) and some gourmet chocolate (which somehow I “misplaced” and kept thinking, well, it will turn up eventually. It did last night. Or rather the empty wrapper turned up…under a table behind the couch. I heard faeries are sneaky little punks who steal chocolate from mannies and now I believe it. Well, not punks, necessarily, I just added that part in because I’m mad that my chocolate was stolen. Hmph.(insert big bottom lip and scowl here.))



My girls were on an adventure as soon as the tattoos were on their faces. They took off, calling each other by new names and played in the “garden of mischief” all afternoon.



After I helped the little one with her tattoos, I told her that she was now a fierce warrior faerie. That she could fight with the best of them to protect her kind and that she could hunt demons and wouldn't be afraid of big old dumb mannies (people. you know, like me). But this is the face I saw:



and she chose a peaceful afternoon instead of warring:

play with your food {yes, I included the cake balls in this post}

open-faced asparagus sandwich with parmesan cheese--this one is on my oatmeal bread, mmmm

A while back while I was taking pictures of my open faced asparagus sandwich {a nice, pleasant light lunch} my daughter made fun of me. “You always take pictures of your food,” she mocked me with giggles and rolls of the {beautiful chocolate} eyes.

That’s right. I take great pleasure in my food. {Play-sure}, that is. It looks pretty—like a little piece of art waiting to be enjoyed. It smells wonderful—the olfactory glands telling you, yes, this is good. Then you EAT it and it is sensory overload bringing the senses of smell, touch, taste, and sight together making the process of food delightful to me.

Plus the whole thing about food memory. Take the asparagus sandwich pictured above. I would have never thought to make and eat that, except that my sweet mother-in-law made it for me one happy spring morning. While going out to check out the garden, there are left over asparagus from the previous owner (which is very nice for me) and since there are only a few that pop up, I had been just breaking them off and munching them as I wandered happily around my yard in the springtime sun. One day they were cut lovingly with spry little garden savvy hands and chopped and cut and steamed and put over toast (with butter and a little bit of the water that it was steamed in spooned over the top). It was the loveliest spur of the moment meal with someone I loved. And she had had it prepared for her by someone she loved. And so it goes. Now when ever I have that meal it feels like spring.


i made the easter eggs from this tutorial

So. The cake balls. I thought I had blogged about that before, but whether I did or not, I will share the secrets of cake balls with you right here and now. {they are very yummy} My wicked awesome cousin made about a million of them and blogged about it and I reacted the same way you all did. “What are cake balls? How do you make them? I want to eat one today!” So I will send you to the place I learned about cake balls, *bakerella* and instead of making you read all the millions of comments, I will tell you what I learned the hard way…

*make a cake, any cake. Boxed, homemade, chocolate, yellow, any cake will do.
*let it cool completely and toss it into a big mixing bowl and crumble it all up. Seriously.
*put the frosting you would have frosted the cake with in the bowl and stir it up.
*it will stick together now and you form balls with it. Put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze them
*if you want to put them on sticks, do it now, but keep them in the freezer
*melt the chocolate.
*take the cake balls out about 5 at a time and dip. The reason this is important is that if they are not frozen-ish, the cake ball won’t hold together and will slide off the stick.
*if you’re going to sprinkle something cute on it, now is the time. Ideas: sprinkles, nuts, coconut…
*push the stick into a sheet of Styrofoam until the chocolate hardens
*enjoy them by looking at them, smelling them arranging them in some cute fashion, sharing them with people you love and of course by EATING them!

This process takes a while. Don’t try to procrastinate with this, you need to do it in steps, but it is worth it in the end. They are a big hit.

happy

her day was happy.



she was happy i made her cake balls.



she was happy to get mail.



when i asked what she wanted to write on her wish balloon, she said "happy life" and we shortened it to "happy"

giveaway!

Hello friends,

Just thought I'd send you over to twilightMOMS because they're doing a giveaway with one of my aprons! Go check it out--Georgia is having a birthday and is also giving away a beautiful photo of the forest outside of Forks, WA. Fun stuff!

Good luck!

B.

what was the last brave thing i did?

The evening promised to be a difficult one. With the chaos of a bunch of hooligan kids and the babies screaming in her ear, she put on a brave face and spoke gently to soothe the pandemonium.

Dear Fellow Visting Teachers,

Here's the April installment of our visiting teaching message. Feel free to print it out for your personal visiting teaching pleasure. I am planning to print it on some ivory card stock and bake something yummy to deliver to my girls. We'll see if it actually happens!

Hope you have a great Conference weekend!

yours truely,

Britt

confessions on a cold and rainy spring day

taken by her big sister

I forgot about my son’s dentist appointment—it’s in five minutes.

I yelled at Jake in the middle of the night. (It had to do with crying hungry fussy babies and sleep) (sorry, babe.)



I can't get this one to stop fighting with her brother.

Lactating for two is a messy business.

I’m wearing a Spidey band aid and under it is a dying wart. (eeew.)

check me, check me out

i'm over here today.

they've got all kinds of

tutorial goodness

happening this month.