Savannah, after her nap

savannah takes a shorter afternoon nap than her older brother.  which means we have quality time for about an hour before he wakes up.

i have been trying to be intentional about spending that time paying attention to her.  {i can fold a load of clothes, or whatever, but really engaging her is my top priority.}  i really have to be intentional with my savannah time... because i have serious mom guilt over ethan getting 100% of me at her age.

its actually a good time to do laundry. 


and it is a good time to watch my soap opera.


sister likes it too.  {no thanks to anyone that wants to give me bad mommy comments}


and she likes to look at brother's toys.


anyway, her favorite game is to pull the wipes out of the container.  she. loves. this. game.  she carries the wipe all over.  she is obsessed.  perhaps she is trying to tell me to wipe the floors??



its been like this the past week... i've just only taken pictures twice.  and i thought about taking pictures another day, but she was having a bad hair day... {oh the things you think about with a girl!!}

but it is really special girl time for me right now.  i'm loving it.  i think she is too...

Carrot Soup

Saturday morning, my dear husband and son played outside... ethan "mowed" the bare garden, {in a shameful outfit that consisted of pajamas, rain boots, and a winter coat that i was too embarrassed to record in photographs.} While ethan mowed, faustino harvested our carrots.

we've harvested some here and there, but by far, this was the largest batch of them.  2 lbs!  these are fingerling carrots... they are small, and tasty.  pretty sweet.  but i must tell you that cleaning them was a labor of love.  little carrots aren't easy to clean.  and carrots are really dirty.  so dirty that from now on, i think i will make sure to only buy organic carrots. 

but back to the soup.

i had a bit of an Eeyore attitude this weekend.  so soup sounded like a mood lifter.  but i am also a procrastinator, so i didn't start on the soup until the weekend was nearly done.  anyway, when faustino asked what i was going to do with the harvest, i told him soup.  i figured it wouldn't be too hard, and i was correct!

and then i happened upon a carrot soup recipe in my google reader.  it was meant to be.

except i wanted more spices.  and garlic.  and i didn't want to shred my carrots.  but i liked the potato idea...

so here is my soup recipe, that is on my "make again" list.


Fingerling Carrot and Potato Soup

Ingredients:  
2 lbs baby carrots
1 lb white potato
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
vegetable stock carton
bacon {optional, but why not???}
salt
pepper
garlic salt
nutmeg
cayenne pepper
heavy cream {optional, but such a nice touch}


Directions:

wash and scrub your carrots, trim {these are pre-trimed}


saute diced onion and minced garlic in olive oil, until soft but not browned.


while onion softens, grate potatoes


add potatoes and carrots, cook for 5 minutes on medium.  add carton of vegetable stock and cover.  cook until vegetables are soft.


puree in batches in blender, and then transfer to pot. 


season to taste.  i am a horrible judge of salt, because i like salty things... and the garlic salt was a nice touch.  and the black pepper was wonderful.  i only used 2 - 3 pinches each of the nutmeg and cayenne.  i might have done more, but didn't want to risk it...


fry bacon.  i like to cut it up before hand, but you could just fry it up in whole pieces and then crumble.  i made extra bacon... i ate a lot of bacon.


serve with some cream and bacon on top. 

what a treat.  seriously.

and the owner of these chubby legs loved it too.

blog header.... where are you??

blogger has some crazy thing going on right now... where your header is super duper fuzzy.  So until they fix it, i took it down. and then i looked at my naked blog, and decided to post my header here.  


Magically, everything is better.  It drove me batty....


xoxo, stephanie

This Year

this year i want to be intentional.  i want to be authentic.  i want to be transparent, but i want what is seen to be positive and good. {boy, do i feel like i have my work cut out for me right there}

i have a lot of work to do on myself.  my patience.  my kindness.  my temper.

i have some "rising above" and some "taking in stride" that needs to be done.

i have some bitterness to shed.

i have positive routines that need to be implemented.

and i can use this blog to keep me accountable.


we are over halfway into the first month of the year, and i have yet to post my new years resolutions.  new years resolutions stress me out. 

I have written and rewritten this post. I have shared things, and then promptly hit the backspace button. I have been breaking point style stressed, pissed, elated, hopeful, overwhelmed and other contradictory emotions... All the while trying to explain my hopes and dreams for this year. If my memory is correct, I did something similar last year and ended up never posting {and never fully committing to} my intentions for the year. I want to be intentional in my choices this year. In fact, i want "intentional" to be my word for this year.

So this year, i want to:


::  clip coupons + menu planning

::  sewing project per month

::  read a book per month

::  craft per month

::  regular exercise routine

::  chore schedule

::  tackle my junior league placement

::  digital clean out

::  create an intentional time in the day to have a quiet time

::  better bed time for myself, train myself to rise early



I think the last one will be the hardest. And i think that managing my time to tackle my list will be incredibly difficult. Being consistent with these will challenging, but I am hopeful.

And because I want to post this now {and stop procrastinating!} I am posting without any pictures because I am sitting in the target parking lot while savannah naps. Ethan's at school...sister needs a nap...but mama needs to restock our pantry! {it is all about time management, right?}

Xoxo, s

Estate Sale Goodies

was your three-day weekend wonderful?

mine was mostly wonderful {ethan and i had some major head butting.  we need to control-alt-delete...but that's another post!}  we had some pajama filled mornings and took advantage of the gloomy weather and stayed in.  we did however, get out for some pretty jewelry...

i love enamel jewelry.  love it.  LOOOOVE it.

and then we went to an estate sale warehouse sale... where everything was 50% off.  now, for full disclosure, there was mostly crap.  or things that weren't crap, but weren't my aesthetic.  or things i just didn't need/don't have room for in our tiny nest.

but for a whopping $3.14, i managed to find a few treasures.



first up - grapefruit spoons.  these are quite ugly.  i want some that aren't quite so hideous, but it is citrus season, and i don't feel like holding out for the perfect spoon.  i would also like more than 2.  but for 25 cents each, i couldn't beat it!



i bought ethan a mickey book that i remember reading as a child...

some bias tape... vintage bias tape.  that i can surely use for something crafty.



and some vintage patterns.  i really wish they were in a size 2T {so savannah could wear them sooner}, but i think they will be fun in larger sizes too.  or maybe i can scale them down?  hmm.... {and they had some cute vintage ladies' dress patterns...in sizes WAY too big for me.  complete bummer}





and then i couldn't pass up this broccoli floret.  i know, it is random.  it smells like old lady house.  but it is really cool.  and it looks like a lot of time and love was spent crafting it.  it looked so lonesome... i had to get it.



my final treasure:  a vintage hand embroidered hanky.  love it.  delicate and in perfect condition.  the rest of them, not so delicate nor were they in perfect condition.  total score.



all in all, not too bad for just over three bucks.  random but interesting estate sale finds.  and my cat was really into the old lady smell.  at least one of us was excited about that aspect of my finds.




so, back to the weekend...

we ordered a pizza; i ate 6 slices.  and i bought braum's ice cream sandwiches.  i had 2 one day, 4 the next.

oink, oink.  :)

baby sister is in "baby jail" in this picture.  it's where she goes when i can't give her 100% attention, because lordy, she's a fast and fearless crawler that wants to pull up on everything.  and she has the darnedest ability to find dirt on the floor and make mud in her mouth.  GROSS.  {that's what happens when your entryway is your play area.}




and here is ethan, watching tv.  because i am an all star mom.  {i am still trying to balance a clean house and limiting tv.  i am convinced that people who really limit the PBS have housekeepers.  prove me wrong and let me in on the secret!  how do i balance it??}



and i have been doing some crafting of my own... what do you think?  its not nearly perfect... but i'm getting better and better.  i love flour sack towels.  maybe one day i will do some for my own kitchen... this is the first of four i need to make for a gift.  what do you think?  i wish the lighting had been better.  it really looks better in real life.  and i have no idea what Casa de CaVia is about.  it's what she asked me to do...






and i just finished thank you notes for ethan's birthday... so there is light at the end of the tunnel.  hallelujah!

My Friend, Kelly

my sweet friend kelly, who lives in arizona, made a visit to longview for the christmas holiday.

we go back... WAY back.

as in, she was the first "playdate" without my mother when i was a toddler.  we went to church together and endured hours on end of low budget youth group entertainment... and mission trips.  and sang in youth choir together.  and laughed inappropriately in church.

i am so blessed by her friendship.  its the kind that everyone would want... filled with memories and inside jokes.  we must have won the award for being annoying to other people.

she taught me how to pluck my eyebrows.  {for that, i feel forever indebted!  haha!}

we've had our fair share of sisterly style fights, but we've made up every time... i have always felt like she was a sister of mine {and ironically, we shared the same last name}.  we've laughed, cried, and prayed for one another.  there was a long period of time where we set our watch alarms and synced our watches so that we would stop and pray for the other at the same time every night, no matter what we were doing.

she's been a special friend.  an inspiring friend.  she is a gifted artist.

we went to college together. {seriously, kelly, my photos of us are scarce... can you supplement me?}



she introduced me to my husband.  {kelly, do you have any photos of that trip?}

we traveled to italy together. {kelly, do you have yours scanned in your computer?  i would LOVE them...especially since my camera was stolen in milano}



we were in each others weddings. {kelly, i can't find any of my santa barbara pics from YOUR wedding!  help!}




and now we've had babies at the same time.  and i needed to meet those babies of hers {can you believe that we have kids nearly exactly the same age??}

it was a short but sweet visit...

















and at the end, it was sealed with a kiss from kelly's adorable little girl to my little boy.  seriously sweet.

and sweet of her husband to snap some photos of us.

i miss you, kel - xoxo, s

A Sussy

on saturday afternoon, i had the delight of opening a package addressed to me.  it was from a sweet friend that lives out of town and there was no reason for sending it.  just because.  it wasn't anything terribly expensive... but it was thoughtful -- a note, a starbucks gift card, and two christmas ornaments for next year.

it makes me want to randomly send someone else a little sussy.  completely unexpected.  for no real reason.

in january.

when people aren't accustomed to getting gifts. 

because it made my day.  perhaps you, too, would be interested in sending a random friend a little gift?  its fun...

His First Real Birthday Party

kids around here have birthday parties.  major parties.  well, some are bigger than others, but they involve things like magicians, traveling zoos, ponies, trains... i kid you not.  they are productions.  even ones that are scaled down are still productions.  or they are parties at a fun location.  but a cake and ice cream party where people play a few games in the family room, open presents and then leave... they don't really happen.

and if we decided to have people over to our house?  well, i don't think the birthday party game they had in mind was sardines.

anyway, i knew that this was the year we would start birthday parties for ethan.  he's really into birthdays.  the cake.  the candles.  the excitement.  where he didn't get it at 2 years old, he gets it now.



but his birthday is on december 17.  we celebrated christmas with my family on december 18.  so did other people.  can we say, inconvenient timing?  i figured that we could celebrate after christmas...

and i sought out a fiscally responsible party... and i kept my wits about me.  because i could add a few touches here and there, but breaking the bank on things like favors, was not going to happen.  i tried to cheap out as much as i could, and all in all, i am quite pleased.

i had an etsy artist design the invites... and i printed them at costco.  5x7's are a steal!



and the cake i bought from a lady that lives south of town... it was tasty and another bargain.  thank you amy for the recomendation!



the favors?  they were crap.  but i was okay with it.  the table runners?  {not the cutest} sale fabric from joann's that i pinked {the pinking olfa rotary cutter is pure genius, fyi}





the food was from the cafe, and it was quite tasty {not to mention, i didn't have to cook}  the drinks were a rip off, as they only had the tiny juice boxes... whatever.

and i have a bunch of leftover crayons...  i don't want them.  any takers?  i feel bad just throwing them out...

sister was tired... but well behaved.



this is her, "i'm trying hard to be happy face." 



all in all, a great party.  i did think ethan was going to lose it in the planetarium, when he looked at faustino and said "i can't like this"  {damn, captain eo at disney world!}  but he quickly got over it.









when i asked ethan what his favorite part of the party was -- the cake!




and one of the sweetest gifts?  my sweet friend sabrina took all of these photos for us.  she blogs here and here... and was my sounding board for the party.  thank you, sabrina!