Living, Loving, Learning

Always been a crafter.... I've been going through EVERYTHING, preparing for my first ever garage sale. It's going to be EPIC, OK, well, maybe it'll just be nice to pass things along to someone who might actually use them AND lighten our load. Just came across an old plastic lunch box filled with finished hemp/bead jewelry. I had made it in college to sell at Phish show lots! HA! How times have changed. It was fun to be like Oprah though, "You get a hemp necklace! You get a hemp necklace!" Every living thing in our home (or happened by our home that day - Hilary!) that has a neck got a necklace! Might put the extra on ETSY one of these days, you know, share the memories with others! It was such a bittersweet time going through so many boxes of memories. Some memories I realized, will always be with me and I don't need to keep a "thing" to help me remember it. Other items sparked a flood of emotion about a person, place or time in my life. Pretty heav...

We have been able to have a few really fun park play dates lately. Just thought I would post the best pictures from those days because I think I was the only one with a camera. Enjoy Ladies, you and your kiddos are so important to us, we love you!

We gave Griffin the same choice again this year: party or adventure???? Again, I feel like I won the kid lotto, and he chose adventure. SOOOOO , on Friday we head out to Mammoth Caves for 3 nights of camping, spelunking and relaxing! In the meantime, we were excited to celebrate Griffin on his actual birth day. Before you make fun of my mess of a birthday cake, remember it was the first time I had left the bed in basically 4 days due to illness and was not in top form!!! It was pretty crazy looking though!! LOL At least it tasted pretty good!! Griffin was happy to get to choose the menu all day!!! I can't believe the amount of food he requested and ate! I can see where this whole "growing boy" thing is headed!! Lucy was having a great time celebrating her big brother. She is his biggest fan, closest friend, and biggest annoyance! This was the first year that Griffin didn't get any "toys" in the classic sense. No plastic play sets , no brightly painted ...

My little buddy turns 7 today. I could not be more proud of him!!! He is such a hard-worker, so creative, so funny and so sensitive. I have a lot of Mom friends that talk about how sad they feel seeing their kids grow up, and while I feel a little bit of that, mostly I am SOOOOO excited! I love experiencing life with Griffin, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for him. I love you big guy!!!!! (I have been in bed for 3 days now with Bronchitis and have not done a photo shoot with Griffin yet, but no worries I will make some photos of him next weekend!) Griffin's Birthday Interview Age? 7 Grade? 1st Your teachers this year? Ms. Wright, student teacher Ms. Clark What activities/sports/clubs were you involved in this year? Basketball and Soccer What pets do you have? Lottie and Zed What do you want to be when you grow up? a horse racer Where is 1 place you really want to go? New York City What is your favorite…………. o Subject in school? science o Meal? Broccoli and Bacon...

We are having an amazing time trying new recipes out for our Meatless Mondays. It is giving us a chance to try out meals that highlight vegetables that we are not very familiar with. Arugula is one such vegetable. This recipe starts with an arugula based pesto-like spread on flat bread . We don't have so much time on Monday nights so for our first try of this recipe we just bought fresh flat bread . It ended up getting over cooked so next time we will definitely make this recipe on pizza dough. This meal was absolutely delicious. Bruce and I totally loved it. The kids were not crazy about it, but it was easy enough just to cook a few eggs up and some toast for them. I cannot wait to make this again!!! For those of you not ready to go meatless at dinner, this would make for an amazing brunch dish!

A few years ago, I ran into an acquaintance in Walmart. She had a cart filled with 3 fold black cardboard panels. I asked her if she was working on a school project with one of her children, but she told me they used them to make puppet theatres. They were on sale that week and she was stocking up. That was all the suggestion I needed, and I quickly picked up one for us. It was pretty easy to draw out the part we wanted to cut away and then Bruce used and utility knife to cut it out. At the time, Lucy was too little to use it and Griffin didn't quite have the patience for puppets so we put it away in storage. Meanwhile, we accumulated a collection of puppets, mostly given to us as gifts. We are currently cleaning out the house BIG TIME, preparing for our first ever garage sale. When this came out, it did not take the kids long to start entertaining us with puppet shows. A old/new favorite toy that encourages their imaginations to run wild - I LOVE IT!! They even put a special s...

I got this recipe out of Martha Stewart's Food magazine. I love the magazine and also this citrus twist on roasted chicken. It is a super easy meal that you can just throw in the oven and forget about. I would change a couple of things. First, our chicken was undercooked even though I left it in long after the cooking time, so next time I will probably raise the baking temperature a bit. The other thing I would do is put a few of the orange slices into the body cavity of the chicken. There was a wonder orange flavor in the potatoes but not so much in the chicken, but I think my solution would help this. Best of all though, the kids liked it!!! I am always looking for new things for them!!

After the Oaks we stayed at Devin's parent's house. It was fabulous, like a quaint B & B. We awoke refreshed and HUNGRY. Hilary had seen a show about this wonderful diner, Lynn's Paradise Cafe and suggested it. Bruce remembered seeing it on " Throwdown with Bobby Flay " and was easily convinced, so off we went. In downtown Louisville, it was pretty easy to find...follow the crowd. It was super busy but they had plenty of coffee available and even a bluegrass band jamming in the parking lot....our hour wait went so fast. Could not resist the cheesy photo ops...well, Bruce could resist... Once inside, there is so much to check out. Tons of funky lamps, artwork, toys, great people watching, so much fun! They had a great breakfast drink selection. I stuck with an oldie but goodie, mimosa. Hilary had an amazing bloody mary - 32 spices, bacon and fried green tomatoes, talk about blowing your taste buds out of the water! We all enjoyed the amazing food and atmo...

We have our own egg lady!!!! I absolutely love buying free range local eggs and what's even better is now I have a friend in the biz. This picture shows something I love about buying things straight from the producer - the variation. Look at that enormous egg in the back row!! Look at that flat egg in the front. I know, I am a total dork!! Thank you, Kelly!!!! I love being one of your customers.

On Friday, Bruce and I, along with our dear friends Hilary and Devin, headed out to Churchill Downs in Louisville. The day before the Derby is called the Oaks and we were eager to check it out. This is actually the 6th time Bruce has gone, but the first time for the rest of us. We got an early start and arrived in Louisville about 12:30. We found easy parking about 1/2 mile away in a backyard - there is a lot of entrepreneurship happening there this time of year. After a flub at the gate (no backpacks allowed!!!) we got in and got right down to business. First on the agenda, a round of mint juleps. I am not a bourbon fan, but when in Rome, or Louisville.....what can I say, Derby fever took over. It was the first gorgeous day we've had in a LONG time and it felt so good just to sit in the grass and enjoy it!!! There was a great crowd there, but I am guessing it was half of what is was the next day!! There were many more ladies in hats and stilettos than I would ever have imagine...