Since today was our last day of summer vacation (not counting this weekend) we decided to take a field trip. I thought it would be nice to visit the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. Blue Bell Ice Cream is a Texas insitution. It is completely revered and idolized. I’m not an ice-cream lover, so to […]
I’m trying to scrape together any shards of enthusiasm I have for the holidays and Christmatize my house. I realize most of you decorated the second the Thanksgiving dishes were clean, but holiday decorations are simply not my thing. Why isn’t a tree good enough? Why must I have bannisters wrapped in garlands? And […]
I’m always forgetting mothering lessons that I learned along the way. This is perhaps one of the most important. Particularly if your children are making you batty. It is one simple thing: Do not underestimate the power of of a fort. At least an hour of amusement and distraction. Even the most sullen and disagreeable […]
In honor of our item of the week (Oats! Buy some now!) let’s make some oatmeal cookies! This recipe is my favorite Oatmeal recipe ever. First of all let’s talk about oats; they come in Regular (also called Rolled) and Quick. The only difference is that Quick oats are rolled… Read More Every year on my […]
We’ve had some time to recover from India and Ethan’s wedding, so it’s finally time to get a post up with all the details. It was a very DIY wedding, due to the fact that I am me and why wouldn’t I do as much as I could? Also, the… Read More There have been all […]
It’s Monday, the day when I tell you this week’s item. Which will be THE most important thing in your entire food storage. And it’s not even food, it’s WATER! Fortunately you don’t need to have a three month supply of this on hand; although it would be nice. We’re going to take baby steps […]
More than any other nail art question, I get asked how to paint roses on fingernails. Everyone assumes that since roses are so pretty, they must be incredibly difficult to make. Not so! Making a straight line is about a million times harder! This tutorial will show you how to… Read More
As you probably know by know, we’re Mormon. And one of the rites of passage for Mormons is going on a mission when young adults turn 18 or 19 years old (it’s strongly encouraged for boys–being the fools that they are–but optional for girls). Part of the reason is to tell… Read More
I just saw my favorite movie of 2009 (at least through August). It was the charming, funny, ever so creative and slightly painful (emotionally, that is) movie 500 Days of Summer. The writing is great, the music is wonderful, and the story is probably all too familiar for every one of us. Mister loved it […]
It’s getting all Christmassy around here finally. I’ve been working so hard on my craft room that I really haven’t given much thought to decorating. Plus, I feel like my mojo hasn’t been around since I’m missing a third of my children. It’s just not the same. But I did… Read More
As you probably know, I live in Texas. I am in Austin and when Hurricane Harvey hit, aside from people creating a ridiculous gas shortage that was of their own devising, nothing much happened. There were copious amounts of rain and wind all weekend, and my brother–who was supposed to… Read More I don’t have cancer […]
At some point in every woman’s life, there will be a yearning to make cinnamon rolls. (OK, probably every American woman. I can’t imagine some Chinese lady in a rice paddy standing up one day and thinking “I would like to make a sweet bread I’ve never heard of.” Or… Read More
Tonight we had some time to kill after dinner so I took my kids to the neighborhood pool. SInce it was close to bedtime there were only a couple of families there. A lot of times if you go to the pool in the evenings, dads are on kid-duty and the moms are at home […]
Since we have been talking about presents and how I love them, let me tell you about a present Mister gave me a few years ago: a garbage can. Yeah, I know, lame. I thought so too. Let me backtrack a little. When we moved to Texas we left a house with a trash compactor […]