Living in Munchkinland

Last weekend I packed up the boys, kissed Michael good-bye and flew with my mom and dad, sister and nephew to Little Rock. (Michael couldn't go because he had to work.) Then we rented a car and drove another two and half hours north into the Ozarks where we met up with the rest of our family to celebrate my cousin Jackie's wedding. My uncle and aunt have a gorgeous ranch there called the Rafter D . The wedding was held at the ranch and it was absolutely beautiful. My cousin Marcie was there with her family (and new baby!) and my grandparents had driven up in their trailer. We all stayed in a small bed and breakfast in Melbourne (about 15 minutes away) called Ashley House. The boys had a blast with all their boy cousins. They played in the dirt all day and were in heaven. They dug out a race course for their monster trucks, wrestled, rode a horse, played football and set up boobie traps under the wooden footbridge. I got a tour around the ranch with my cousin Lane, snuggl

Sam turned four years old on Sunday. We have been celebrating his birthday for several weeks though. He had a special birthday with Martha and Clark while we were in New Orleans. Then he had a big "Cars" birthday party at the Baptist Church playground with all his friends and his mom and dad and other grandparents last Wednesday. I made him banana cupcakes and we had a pinata (his very special main request). On his actual birthday we were in northern Arkansas celebrating the wedding of my first cousin and so he had a birthday party with all his cousins, great aunt and uncle, great-grandparents, Aunt and Mom. He loved all of his celebrations. Right now if Sam could have a blinking sign over his head it would say "Make them Laugh!". It's sort of his motto. He is very silly and loves to make people laugh. He also loves anything that goes- trains, planes, cars, rockets, spaceships. His imagination is huge and he is constantly telling us the stories he makes

This is what I usually find when I go in to get the boys up from school. The boys, under Davis' bed wrapped up in blankets and surrounded by stuffed animals. Usually with books and often accompanied by lots of giggling.

I found out what may be causing my daily nausea. At the end of my rope and with some encouragement from my family, I went to see a doctor at the Austin Wellness Clinic. I had hesitated to see him before only because they don't accept insurance. I talked with the doctor a long time about my symptoms and he decided to give me a hormone test (which I haven't taken yet) and two blood tests. One blood test was for food allergies and the other was a test to see if I was gluten sensitive. I got the results back right after New Orleans and I was, indeed, allergic to quite a few foods that didn't show up on my skin test at the allergist. The doctor put me on a cleanse diet for 30 days to try and get rid of the toxins in my body and then I can reincorporate the foods I am not allergic to. Eventually we may begin to try and work back some foods that I am allergic to, but not for a while. I am on day five of the cleanse. The first few days were awful as my caffeine withdrawal h

We had a fabulous trip to New Orleans last week. We left the kids with my fabulous mother-in-law and went with my parents for five days in New Orleans. It's the longest I've ever left the kids and I missed them very much. It's funny, I really needed to get away and have a break and I rejoiced in all the small gestures of independence and autonomy that I had available to me. I also missed the children deeply and achingly often throughout the trip. Still, it gets easier every time and it helped that I trust my mother-in-law implicitly and know that they are safe and happy. But about the trip- we stayed in my parents condo which is absolutely fabulous. It's on the streetcar line and we walked and rode the street car every where. The first day we arrived, we dropped off our luggage, had a glass of wine and then walked up to Williams grocery to pick up our trolley passes. After we had those we caught a street car and went up the quarter. We went straight to Acme Oys

Um, I just made something awesome. Uncle Larry and Cousin Hank have been gifting me with produce from their garden. I appreciate this a lot, but it occasionally leaves me searching for a new way to use produce. Today I had already made a soup using the mustard greens he bought last week and a really tasty ratatouille from the eggplant, peppers, and squash he had gifted me with and I still had a huge pile of rainbow swiss chard staring at me. I started googling. I found the original recipe for this on epicurious. I had almonds, but I had to run over to my mom's to get the raisins. I used elbow macaroni because that's what I had. I added the cinnamon and cardamom because I thought it sounded good. You could probably get away with regular paprika and allspice if you had to, but I can't say because I didn't. I made this instead and it turned out really, really, really good. So I had to share. Enjoy! ANd let me know if you make this. P.S. I did a lot of serious