Food, Friends, and Other Fascinations

Life is chugging along here in Illinois. We've enjoyed the company of some good friends over the past two weeks and also some really good food. We made homemade ice cream for one of our Sunday dessert days last week and used our Easter candy as a garnish in the hopes that we would get rid of what we haven't already consumed. Thankfully some friends helped us out with our efforts.

Rowan was a willing participant in the cause as well.


We still have a babysitting swap going on with some friends. It's been great to continue to have some time off at least once a month and also get some social time for the kids. We've been working hard to gain the affections of Zach's sister, Halle, and it has taken several months, but last week she actually decided not to hate us. It was funny that we felt such elation about her not crying, smiling, and actually eating- it was great!

You like us! You really like us!


Zach and Rowan



3 out of 4 of us are in pajamas right now as I haven't been feeling that great today and as a result, only basic needs are being met. But we had a fantastic dinner- Jucy Lucys with fresh strawberries on the side. I found the idea for it on a new favorite cooking blog you can find here. There's some places in Minneapolis that claim to have come up with the idea, but suffice it to say it's a burger with the cheese cooked on the inside. When you bite into the patty, a molten lava of cheese oozes out- it's pretty awesome.

Before


After

Next time we'll probably cook them longer as it was a little more pink that I'd like, but we were running low on fuel for the grill. Apparently lean ground beef tends to stay pink even after it reaches the needed 160 degrees to be considered cooked, so I'm not sure if more time on the grill would have changed anything. Still one of the best burgers I've had in a long time!

Rowan had a hard time opening his mouth wide enough!



Definitely the way I will make burgers from now on.

Nadia had a doctor's appointment this week and underwent several forms of torture. We've been told multiple times that she has a heart murmur, but that it isn't anything to concern ourselves about. This time, however, the doctor ordered a blood test because of some other problems she has been having. I'm sure she's fine, but it was quite the ordeal to get her blood drawn on top of the 2 other shots she was due for. I just know that every time we walk into that place from now on, she's going to tense up like a pet at the vet.

A few days back I bought Nadia a new baby doll. She has one already, but it's a crawling one that she can't really snuggle with and it seems to be shorting out. She loves the new one and will snuggle with it and feed it with it's sippy cup, but she's very insistent that I help take care of it. Every chance she gets, she'll shove the baby at me like it's my responsibility- it's neat to see the maternal side of her come out though. The other day I was scrubbing the floor and she came up beside me, picked up a rag, and started to scrub right alongside me. I don't know why, but it really touched me. She's so little, yet learning so much and the fact that she learns mostly from me inspires me to be better than I am.
Rowan has also shown immense interest in the aforementioned doll. He's constantly fighting with Nadia over it and the other day I caught him watching a movie like this:


I think it's great that he sees being a dad as a positive responsibility and he certainly has a great example of that in his life. But it's just funny to me to see him with it all of the time. He's even holding it right now while I type this.




As for Steve and I, we've been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and enjoying them for the most part. There's enough similarities between this set of books and Harry Potter that it's hard not to notice, but we like it for its intended demographic better than Potter. Steve says you can tell a man wrote this series- Percy doesn't want to sit around and talk about his feelings all the time. He had some other funny insights, but I'll save those so I don't offend too many of our Potter-loving friends.

Anyways, all in all life is good. Love my kids. Love the hubbs. Love life. The end.