Zen and the art of watermelon eating

ommmmmmmelllllon

5 of 52

The Lake Tahoe addition.
I am a little late with my week 5 selfie. The past week was a doozy with work related crazy and an entire day on the couch due to vertigo- the room was spinning in at least three different directions the other morning and it was all I could do to talk and let Daddy-O know I thought I was going to be okay.
The weekend rounded things out however, and we hung with visiting and local family

Watching the World Cup, USA match. We must not have cheered loudly enough ;(

                   photo by cousin lauren, thanks Lo!

Watching the "kids" play in the back yard water park.


~~
On Sunday we headed to Tahoe. That lake is amazing. I could kick myself for not insisting on getting up there more often. I think three years have passed since we put our feet in the sand and crystal blue water. A true shame since we are so close!

I got in an hour or so after I snapped the shot above- nothing like the thrill of a full body, late June, dunk- takes your breathe away in the best sort of way. Growing up around this lake, you know you just have to do it and that you will feel a million times better once you are under water- the cold is something that cleans the soul and reminds you that you are truly alive.
We finally got O to go into the water, it took a long time in the sand

and then a little paddle boat ride to warm him up to the idea.

As long as Daddy was nearby he was okay.
Exhausted and refreshed, I am looking forward to the week and the long weekend ahead (the 4th is my favorite holiday).

B2B: City

B2B: City, originally uploaded by NessieNoodle.

Nevada (me) on the left, Maine (angela) on the right
Better Bigger
For more about this project go click here.

Next week's word: Blue

slip and slide

slip and slide, originally uploaded by NessieNoodle.

The kids all doing their own thing but together on Father's day.
O stands by and watches as the chaos is created and ensues. Once everyone has left the scene for something else he jumps in and plays.
E is the leader of the pack, both by age and because she is the only (mobile) girl cousin at this point so the boys follow her lead, her bossing and her silly.
N is the fearless one, the first to actually jump in and slide down the wet piece of plastic in the backyard and get up with a giant smile on his face.
B is reluctant like O but will get in there and play and splash it up because E is doing it (and if it is a sport this almost 2 year old is in and good at it)

I love watching all that kids play. We had a great father's day splashing, grilling and playing in the backyard all day.

Chocolate and Carrots

I have a stack of old Cooking Light magazines in my 'cook book cuboard'. I used to get them monthly, devour them and the recipes inside. But then the stack kept getting bigger and bigger and recipes seemed to be redundant so I decided that should cancel my subscription. Which was a good idea-you can only have so many cook books in your cuboard and stay sain. I kept all the old ones though because I didn't want to have to rip thru the magazines for the recipes I liked at that moment and I also didn't want to have to organize them somewhere else- plus there is a recipe index in the back of each magazine, something I am just too lazy (or don't have the time to do).

Lately, I have taken to pulling a couple out for the month that we are in (hey it's June, I bet I have at least 2 old June CL mags that have great dinner, BBQ, desert ideas for the season). And every time I do this I find a new gem of a recipe. I like how that works.
This past Monday as I ate my breakfast with O. I flipped thru the pages, sticky note and pen in hand and found Carrot cupcakes with chocolate. I stuck my pink note on the page and added carrots to the grocery list.

On Tues. evening after O was down for the night and A was busy surfing the web, I got the recipe out, along with my bowls and ingredients. Stirring and grating and baking away. Next time I make these I am going to not add as much sugar- almost 2 cups seems like a lot and carrots are so sweet on their own. I might also give a go with using applesauce instead of oil and adding a little cinnamon to the mix. (talking to my mom about these changes is probably a good idea since she is the baker and good at modifications)

I added a cream cheese frosting (because that is how my mom always makes carrot cake, with cream cheese frosting) to the ones we were going to eat and stuck the others in the freezer for later. They came out moist and yummy and the chocolate is just a fun surprise when you take a bite. Enjoy!

These would make a nice Father's Day morning treat if you are up to baking this morning!

~~~~

Carrot-Chocolate Cupcakes from August 2003 Cooking Light Magazine

1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced
1 3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons veg oil
1/3 cup low fat buttermilk
3 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 once semisweet chocolate finely chopped

1. preheat oven to 350
2. place carrots into food processor; process until finely minced (you could also use a cheese grater for this- grating the carrots keeps them from turning green)
3. Combine carrots, sugar, oil, butter-milk, and eggs in a large bowl. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.Add flour mixture to carrot mixture; stir until smooth. stir in chocolate
4. spoon batter into 22 muffin cups (reg size) lined with paper liners. Bake for 22 min. or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on  a wire rack and remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

If you are going to freeze these for later enjoyment don't frost, place in a zip top bag and place in freezer. To thaw individually place in microwave on medium 15-20 seconds or if you have more time let sit at room Temp until thawed.

You can either dust these with powdered sugar or do what I did and mix up a little cream cheese, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar to create frosting.

4 of 52

4 of 52, originally uploaded by NessieNoodle.

Week 4 of 52

The scar on my forehead from when I fractured my skull at age 3, the 'flesh tag' under my left eye, freckles from summer days past, wonky eyebrows, peach fuzz on my upper lip, my one eye that is sometimes a little sleepier then the other and droops.

all things that I see, but maybe others don't. Things that I know are there, that I know the story about. How many stories does your face tell that others have no idea about?

I love and dislike all these things at once. They are me, part of my history and self. Some have gotten smaller or lighter (that scar used to take up my entire forehead), other things stronger and darker (my eyebrow color, the lines under my eyes). I have heard people say they wake up one day, look in the mirror and don't know who is looking back at them. I hope that doesn't happen to me. I still see the 'little' me in my face, yet I can also see the big me too. it is strange and wonderful all at once.

basin to beach: Flight

heya!

Heya!
How the heck are you all? I am starting to feel a bit like "Large Marge", but know I have a long way to go in the belly size department. (Don't make the mistake that I did and look back thru your pregnancy book from last time around. I did this and got a little nervouse. I have nothing yet compared to the last few weeks with O! oye, it's gonna be a long summer, hee hee)

Thanks for the support on the recipe tab up there, I have so much fun in the kitchen and wish I could have all of you over for a big potluck to share food, photos, crafting tips, mamahood (daddyhood?) and chat. Isn't that the downside to this blogging thing sometimes, your stuck on yourside of the screen and me on mine? They need to invent a 'beam me up Scotty' machine so we can just town/city/country hop!
~~~

We had a great weekend.

SUPER busy and filled with family and friends. We started off the weekend on Friday evening with a bunch of family over for pizza and homemade ice cream (thanks Lo for the ice cream, it was soooo good). We got to meet the "girlies" (Daddy-O's cousin's little girls, if that makes sense) and had the whole cousin chaos over.

Bubbles and side walk chalk were a hit with this crew.

On Saturday morning I got up and I made these for everyone. I tweaked the recipe a bit and will share my adaptations in a couple of days (warning, these are a little dangerous with how crazy easy they are to make). Once we were coffeed and fed my cousin-in-law and I hit up a community garage sale. We found a few fun items while the guys took the kids to the park.

Saturday afternoon the family headed out to thier other family event and I snuck away (finally) into my sewing room while MrO napped. I have been wanting to reverse engineer the miracle blanket that we used for O. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as hard as I thought. I adjusted the length of the sack and made a few other tweaks (O used his for so long we ran out of leg room in ours so I wanted to make that longer) I am hoping to get a tutorial (a first!) together to share with all of you here for this. (I know this is not the best picture, but I needed a baby model to put in it for the full affect and didn't have one handy)

While I sewed and O napped, Daddy-O was out in the back yard hanging up the shade sails. He got two of the three up and the yard was perfect for lounging. Once O woke up from his nap we pulled out the little kiddie pool and cooled off. O had a great time running around (without any thing on) and I totally enjoyed putting my feet in the cold water. It was a perfect way to celebrate the first real 'hot' day of the year. Our friends from down the street came over for dinner with thier girls and we got in a good visit.

Sunday we made pancakes and said our goodbyes to the cousins. It sure was fun to have them here and to meet their 'girlies' (dang, they are cute kids).

We hung out, O played in the pool a bit while I worked on the Pebble (I am about half way done) and then O and I both took a nap.

Later in the evening we headed up to a friend's house for another BBQ and visit. The kids bounced around in the little bounce house after dinner while the adults chatted and caught up with each other.  (O enjoyed smooshing his face against the side almost as much as he liked 'jumping')

What a great weekend. I am *almost* glad to be going back to work today for the down time!

food

Hi Gang!
So not sure if you noticed, but I added a few little fancy pieces to my blog lately. If you look just under the header photo at the top of the page, you will see a few new links:

Home
About Me 
Shop
Other Spots
Recipes

What I really want to call you attention to today is the last link, Recipes. I have gone thru and pulled together all my posts of the food we like to make around here. I will be adding a few more in the next few weeks. I added this link for a couple of reasons, When I can't find my hard copy recipe I will know where to find it and the other reason is to share with all of you.
Some of my favorite dishes are on those pages and I hope they make their way onto your table at some point. Food to me is a way to bring a community together, to make a family bond stronger and to not just nourish our bodies but our souls. So from my table to yours, CHEERS!

what I want to remember from memorial day

I haven't been so relaxed in a very long time.
We spent the long weekend up in Greagle. I know it has been a week but
I need to get these memories down before I forget them all.
Look back thru the pictures from the weekend makes me smile.
There was a lot to do, and yet it seemed that we had time to do nothing.

There was a morning walk
the guys went golfing
we napped
and knit
and watched the cousins play.



Forget "second breakfast", he had "third breakfast"
before 9:30.
including 4 of Grammie's pancakes,
fruit,
yogurt,
toast,
AND cereal
It was like the hungry caterpillar

another morning walk

some trespassing into the yellow flower field.

he road a train for the first time
and jumped a mile, then smiled when the whistle blew
and the bell clanged.
we could have explored the refurbished cars for hours,
next time we will.
(this part of the weekend deserves it's own post)



We drove to the nearby campground
just to check it out (again) and note what sites
would be fun to stay at.
There was snow everywhere
and the creek was raging under the bridge.



He requested to hear "someday" (One Day, Matisyahu)
and then fell asleep on the ride home.
2+ hours of knitting while
dad took a nap with the boy.



Not a lot of things can top
Beer drinking in the afternoon sun
naps in a chase lounge chair in the shade
card games before bed.



I got to hold my new niece
A wrestling match between all the (little) boys
and Daddy-O resulted in lots of giggles.
Bath time is getting crowded with all those long legs
and bubbles to the ceiling.



It was a wonderful three days off.

hills and valleys : week 2 of 52

As I move from second to third trimester, I watch as my tummy gets larger and the movements from within become more visible to the outside world. We are still sifting thru name possibilities. I feel like I need to connect a little more to this babe to know what will fit. Maybe a little yoga this weekend during O's nap will help.

MrO has taken to saying, "Mummie's tummy. HI baby!" and giving me a little pat pat along with a giggle or three. He also has taken to asking if Daddy ha a baby too. It cracks me up. Little does he know how things will change in just a few short months. I worry a little that he will not adjust well or that we have spoiled him in only child-ness over the past 21 months. But I have to let that go and just know believe that he is going to be a sweet (yet bossy) older brother to this new baby.

A weekly update, I will include this in my weekly self portrait shot because I not only want this to be a visual journal of my year, but a written one as well.

I am feeling a little lost in my work place. There are a lot of changes (budget cuts and layoffs) and my motivation for the work I once loved seems to be fading. I am struggling with being happy that I have a job and, for the most part, freedom to make/take the position in whatever direction I choose. But at the same time feel a bit overwhelmed (or perhaps underwhelmed?) with the open-endedness and lack of direction/support from those in charge. I am stuck between wanting to do something else and wondering if that something else is just me doing a "Grass is greener" scenario. How do you find the balance between reaching for your dreams and wishing your days away?

We disconnected the Dish and have been TV free for a week or so now. My laptop also caught a nasty virus and so was in the shop. I have it back, but haven't plugged it in for a few days. This meant having to go upstairs to surf or play on the computer and it took a bit of the ease out of it and has left the living room quite. Thus giving me some of my off line time back. I like that.

Due to the unplugging, I have found my knitting rhythm again. I am working on a Pebble vest for O and hope to find a yarn I like to cast on for the Tea Leaves cardigan for myself. I also have a few dish/wash rags in progress for mindless knitting here and there. I also hope to find my way into the sewing area for a bit of fabric therapy sometime soon. I have a queue FULL over on My Sewing Circle and I am itching to start a project or 5.

Daddy-O's cousin and her family will be staying with us this weekend. It should be a nice visit. They have twin girls that are just a few months older than O. The in laws are coming over for dinner tomorrow night and we have been cleaning and readying the house in chunks each night after work. Pizza, homemade ice cream, sidewalk chalk and bubbles are on the agenda.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend.

B2B:Flora

This week's lovely pairing for Basin to Beach.
a little alder (from me) and some lupin (from Angela) for the theme of flora.


To see it bigger click on the image

next week's word, Flight