Spring Break

We had the best spring break this year.
It was spent in eastern Pennsylvania with Carson's brother, his wife, and their FIVE children under four years old.
Did we get to relax? Yes, while holding a tiny baby, while reading to little girls, while enjoying the quiet of naptime and bedtime.
Did we sleep in? Yes, considering that I didn't have to be up as early as I do for work we did wake up late-ish.
Did we have fun "spring break" activities? Yes - we went to the park one day and were surrounded by crazy, yelling children for a good portion of our time.

I watched Carson change a diaper for the first time (and I took a picture so I could prove it) and it was  funny to explain how the little tabs worked.
We watched a lot of pieces of Disney movies.
We discovered that lots of laundry has to be done to keep up with toddlers and babies. LOTS.
I realized that my life is very easy and very self-centered.
We received many little hugs.
We learned to decipher little kid vocabulary.
We understand why chicken nuggets and mac and cheese are staples in toddler households.
We now know that princess dresses are made to be worn to bed and anywhere else imaginable.
We saw a lot of the color pink.
Carson learned how to burp a baby.

Chaotic? Yes. But so, so much fun.

Our Cheery Home

So I really love this house so much that I'm afraid that people think that I'm bragging every time I show pictures of it. And I guess in a way I am, because it's so cute and so perfect. It's really going to be sad to leave such a cute house - we really lucked out. It's fun to rearrange things, take old things out and put them in new places, and to sit and admire the great wood floors and the fun archways and trim.

I'm really loving this bookcase in its new home downstairs. It's fun to see our books in a different way - partially because they're organized in a different way, and partially because we could never really see them from far away while they were upstairs.

As much as I love new books, I love the cracked, worn bindings of some of my old favorites. 

On this shelf, I put a box I bought in Ukraine one year, a picture from my trip to the Netherlands, and this neat canvas/painting my mom bought for me last Christmas. I think it's from here. I went through a phase my first year in college where I read almost nothing but poetry (LOVED my literature class), so this shelf is in tribute to that.

One this shelf, some of my favorite books, a picture from the day we got engaged, the painting of Washington I did on a cardboard box, and a little owl from my mother-in-law that's actually a lip gloss but looks too cute to use.

And then of course, we have the basket of children's books. We found a couple more fun ones at a local thrift store (the same one that provided us with a table, a mirror, a rocking chair and our coffee table). I never put my Christmas books away so they're in there too, which makes it look like we added more than two books.

I found this great little Etsy shop with quite a few things that I wanted, and decided to pick one small thing to purchase. I chose this little print. It's actually a postcard, but I wanted to put it in a frame that I already had, so it's just perfect.

On this little table, there's a crooked lamp, a Scentsy warmer from my sister, an owl vase (from my mother-in-law and yes the owls are an intended theme - click here for that story) and a wedding picture on a canvas.

The little stand I bought to hold the picture up was apparently made for holding feathers, because it kept tipping over, so Carson bent wire to make it stand up, thinking it was a temporary fix and lo and behold, it worked perfectly!

This isn't in the living room, but it's right next door, so I thought I'd include. These shelves had been getting a little disorganized and crazy. There were plastic cups in one of them, plates on another, so I took everything down and rearranged. Now my cookbooks have a home (I typically use the internet for recipes, but they're easy to access with the help of a nearby chair) and everything is nice and tidy again. I love these cheery shelves. 

Touches of Green

Though it seems far away, Spring is coming! 

Because I have been to a Target recently, I know that most of the nation thinks of little bunnies and nasty Cadbury eggs when they think of Spring, but I don't. I think of sunshine and budding, growing plants. 

I haven't kept a plant alive for, well, ever. My parents are gifted in that area but I completely missed out on the "growing things" gene. I still like the idea of plants in my house, so right now there are plenty of green touches around as a tribute to the coming season. 

On the table, we have this lovely pot of fake grass, purchased three years ago with a Crate and Barrel gift card

And the mantel has green books, fake green plants, a green flower painting and pictures with green in the background (that part was an accident as I just wanted silver frames but it works!)

My dear Brooke bought me these as a hostess gift in December. I've always wanted to grow the real ones, but given my success in that area, these faux succulents fit the bill nicely.

I had a gift card to spend at Bed, Bath and Beyond and spotted this in the clearance section. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but now that it's at home, I really love it. 

Recipe: Chicken Gyros

I was not gifted with a wide palate for culinary cuisine. 

Growing up, I ate a lot of white rice and a lot (or so it seemed) of pork chops  It was what my dad loved, possibly what he grew up eating, so it's what we had for dinner. I was a generally picky eater and liked/like food that's pretty simple and bland. 

The first time I had anything that was in anyway very different was on a cruise my family went on when I was fifteen. I don't even remember what I ate (I think I may have tried Caviar), but I remember  being out of my meat-and-potatoes sort of bubble. Up to that point in my life, Ramen was a cultural experience. 

Then I went to Ukraine and ate things that I couldn't pronounce and it FREAKED ME OUT. One year (this is terrible), one of my roommates and I were so convinced that we were eating rabbit that we waited until our hosts left the room and scraped the bunny off our plates. I cringe thinking about that now. I have also eaten rabbit since that point. 

I went to Germany and tasted sauerkraut (sorry, not a fan), to Greece and had Mediterranean meals (the best) and to China where I ate strange foods (and learned to eat with chopsticks - which I now use all the time). The other places I've traveled didn't provide much of a challenge for my taste buds  because I'm pretty sure that I mostly ate pizza and other safe foods. Living in Spokane actually gave us some tastes for different foods - I tried Thai, Ethiopian and some other cuisines while we lived there. 

-- 

So now what we eat is more of a hodge-podge. We'll have breaded chicken and salad, typical pastas, red meat occasionally, white rice never (we use brown) and usual, basic meals. Thanks, however, to the birth of Pinterest, whose praises I've sung several times, we have enjoyed new and different meals that have become favorites in our house. 

Most recently, I made Gyros, following this excellent recipe, which I'll hope you will click on because you should make it too! It's not too crazy out there if you're a pork chop and rice kind of person, but it has a lot of flavor and it's different enough to feel special. 

Here are my tips, should you decide to make this: 

I made the Tzatziki sauce and marinated the chicken before I went to work the day that I made it, which was about six hours before dinner. I recommend that you make and refrigerate in advance to achieve maximum flavor. 

We also cut the chicken into strips/pieces before cooking and next time I'll marinate them sliced up. 

The recipe calls for red wine vinegar, but I accidentally overlooked it and just bought the white wine vinegar, which worked perfectly. 

I also forgot to serve with tomatoes, which didn't really bother me since I'm allergic, but Carson thinks that they would be really excellent in this.

I found a cucumber salad recipe here that I felt went with the cucumber theme of the evening. This tasted so similar to many of the salads I've had in Ukraine (it's because of the dill), but it still went perfectly with the Gyros. The modifications I made were to use plain Greek yogurt instead of light sour cream, I used white wine vinegar since it was out, and I probably used more dill than recommended since I didn't measure it. It turned out well and I think we'll have it again - I'm looking for more creative ways to serve veggies than just leafy salads and boiled green beans and this fit the bill.

Bad Haircut.

Once upon a time, Carson needed his hair cut. It was okay on top, but the edges were getting a little long. Instead of just fixing it where it needed fixing, we decided that the whole head needed a trim. I've cut Carson's hair many times before, but this time, something just did not work. He wanted it shorter on the sides, longer on top. And we decided from looking at it that we should use the 3/4 inch hair trimmer guide.

We were wrong. 

We could not stop laughing when I finally looked at it from afar and Carson saw it in the mirror. 

It was absolutely terrible. Worse in person, if you can fathom that.

So now it's all the same length because we could not fix that and he looks a lot less like this guy.

Spring Break Plans

Carson is on Spring Break this week,

(already???!)

so we're off in Pennsylvania enjoying some family time,

some time off work, 

and some reading-for-fun time. 

Happy March

It's the first day of March and I'm so happy. Of course it's not the most beautiful of months, but it's still one of my favorites for several reasons:

- My birthday. I love my birthday.

- Spring will begin! Just knowing that it's springtime, even if it's snowy, is such a joy. The end is near! 

- My brother's birthday! He'll be 18 this year which scares me. 

- St. Patrick's Day (I just like the excuse to wear a lot of green)

- Easter will be celebrated in March this year 

Lots to look forward to this year!

March 18th, 18 years ago.