Muffin Tin Monday

Finally I decided to take pictures of us doing a Muffin Tin Meal. Finally. SOME people do this weekly! And SOME people have really cute muffin tins, liners, and FOOD. I do not have that sort of time or energy. But. My kiddos don't care. They love anything out-of-the-ordinary. And today we ate our meal in the living room at our teeny, tiny picnic table while watching Charlie Brown. What could be better? 

Each child had six cups. We had homemade guacamole, organic tortilla chips, French-cut carrots, blueberries, olives and cheese, and banana boats.

Some of us even wore our fancy jewelry!

I only have gigantic 12-cup muffin tins, so the kids have to sit close together to share. It works great at our Little Tikes table, because they fit just right. The kids sitting across from each other share a tin.

Miriam and I had to eat our meal on boring, old plates. Talk about unfair!!

Today I'm linked up with Muffin Tin Mom.

Project 365: Week 30

Sunday, July 18, 2010

I often have to twist Noah's arm to get him to sit still and pick up a book, because he has a million other things he'd like to be doing, and...he says he doesn't like to read. That always makes me laugh. Because just look at him now. Engrossed. He didn't even notice me taking this picture (and consequently run away), and you know that's something!

Monday, July 19, 2010

A Room With a View

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I tackled the armoire this week and won.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Sometimes I make concoctions for supper. I come by it honest. (Right, Dad?) This one is a creamy corn chowder with sweet potatoes. I used what I had. No recipe whatsoever. The kids lapped it up. Success!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Muffin Tin Meal with Our Pal, Miriam

Friday, July 23, 2010

Today we pretty much did a lot of this.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Peach picking. It was hot, but beautiful. And oh, so delicious!!

 

This is today's haul. Minus my bar of blackberry goat's milk soap and our lunch: a few peaches, half a dozen eggs, and some butter. 

That's five bags of peaches and nectarines, a pastured chicken, three dozen eggs, a gallon of raw milk, raw cheese, raw sweet cream butter, spaghetti squash, a gargantuan watermelon from Tupelo, AR, purple hull peas, raw heavy cream, and a pint of fresh figs. Yummmmm!!!

Thanks to Sara for graciously hosting "Project 365." And in this HEAT, too!!!!!!!  ;)

Flashback Friday: My Man

I found this picture while cleaning out my closet this week. This is about the time I met my Paulie. He was on the tennis team at Lyon. He's the one wearing the cap. You know. The coolest one.

Doesn't he look like such a baby?! He was the best player on that team, in my totally unbiased opinion. Could've been the next Andre Agassi. ;)  (My man's a fan.)  I'm pretty glad he didn't, though. For soooo many reasons. Who needs Wimbledon??

Tackle It Tuesday: The Armoire

This week I had had enough! Our armoire is home to all of our visual media. For years I've stored the kids' movies in the deep bottom drawers. Both VHS tapes and DVDs fit just right so that the titles could be read at a glance. It was perfect. 

Well, except for the fact that FOUR children means FOUR sets of little hands pilfering through the movies at any given time and usually at multiple times per day!! We were left with lots of movies out of their cases, lots of cases out of their drawers, and lots of general mess! 

It was making us parents a little sideways. 

So. I rearranged and reorganized and redid. (If you don't know this about me...I love to rearrange, reorganize, and redo!!) It always makes a bigger mess than the one you had to start out with, but that's okay. It's a process.

 After getting rid of several movies we don't really care about, and taking better advantage of  the top shelf, I ended up with an entire empty drawer! I decided to put throws in there...because my hubby likes blizzard winds blowing on him wherever he goes. Ahem...

The little drawers are significantly less of a headache now...

These bottom drawers no longer have any kid stuff. Just boring mommy and daddy things. I'm hoping that will deter little hands from checking everything out all day long. 

All the kid movies are out of reach. (Until someone figures out to get a chair, right?) 

And, yes, I do feel the need to group the movies according to a system. It makes me feel good to have the movies like this while simultaneously living with cluttered counter tops, a (literally) crumby kitchen floor, and laundry that is perpetually coming out of my ears. Laundry, I've come to accept, that will never (can never) be all done. 'K?!

It just looks so much better, if I do say so myself. (I even dusted!)

Now I can close the doors and know it's gorgeous inside! :)

Order. Don't you just love it???

This post linked to...

Project 365: Week 29

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Arkansas Traveler's Baseball Game

This is our viewpoint. Because Paul's firm has box seats that we can sometimes get for free. Awesome.

After church we discovered that Noah's friend would be going to the game as well. They exchanged each other's phone numbers. (Okay. Their daddy's numbers.) This is Noah taking his friend's call. Then they described their locations to each other and commenced to waving their hands in the air like crazy people. It was really cute.

 

It was Mascot Night, so we had to chase down various "people" for photo ops. Not sure how Iron Man is considered a "mascot," but anyway.

This guy is famous. We see him standing on the side of the street all the time.

Ummmm...yeah.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Our friend Dane spent the day with us. His mommy is on a mission trip in New Mexico.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Breakfast.

Frozen strawberries, kefir, coconut milk, raw (pastured) egg yolk, maple syrup, a tiny bit of white grape juice, diatomaceous earth, and a daily herbal supplement (my vitamins). And I'm not being one bit sarcastic when I say, "You should be jealous." It's yum!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Gabe has to be retested for speech to see if he qualifies for the state's services for three-year-olds. Part one of the evaluation--language/communication--shows no need for more therapy. Praise the Lord! (Part two will be administered next month. Articulation. Yikes.)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

My kids like to play church.

A tent revival perhaps??

I'm happy to see the church is open to having babies/small children in its services.  ;)

Friday, July 16, 2010

The big kids went to another local VBS this week. They had such a good time, but I was unimpressed overall. It was FAR too big and FAR too unorganized. Every day I had to worry about finding a parking place and making sure not to lose any of my children in the CROWD! Good grief. Big churches are not for us. Now...let's play "Find a Davidson":

Noah brought a friend, aka "Mr. Intensity," to watch. He played the role of Big Brother while the big Davidson children performed.

And THEN we all went to a local meeting. I'm serious about my raw milk.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Today Gabriel got a hair cut.

It was time.

Ahhh...that looks better...and obviously feels better, too.

This week was just a little too hot with a little too much going on. I'm hoping to get on a regular, stay-at-home schedule this week. If only to regain a little of my sanity. "Project 365" is hosted by Sara at ...make music from your heart to the Lord. See ya next week!

Tackle It Tuesday

Honestly, I'm usually in no mood to tackle anything, but today I'm planning to give it my best effort...

You see? I have these jars. It's a jar collection, actually. (I need these jars! So save your breath if you're thinking of talking me out of it.) And the collection? Well, it doesn't have a good home. And it's starting to drive me a little batty. It's certainly driving my hubby batty, so I've got a responsibility to fix this little probleeem-o.

It may take a while, as there will need to be some considerable shifting around amongst the cabinet contents. It's not going to be a pretty process. But I'm diving in. To tackle it. Regardless.

*takes deep breath*

Finding a place for jars prompts...

finding a new place for the waffle iron and toaster...

which reminds me that I also really want to put the kids' plates and bowls down low for better accessibility.

Of course, moving the plates and bowls to their better, new home displaces a few things...

which have to be moved amongst the baking pans, etc....

which need to be reorganized.

Some of the smaller jars have been living WAY up above our small, very crowded shelf of herbal supplements, medications, etc., so they're taking a trip to a much lower home...,

making room for my hand-choppers and my new prized-possession, an emulsion blender.

Then there is the pantry, which turns out to be a great place to store my larger jars!

But the pantry is, to say the least, in sad condition.

Let's just say I fill a trash bag and leave it at that, shall we?

The coconut oil gets moved from a very inconvenient location to a much more convenient one. That, in itself, is reason enough to shift things around!

Now? Well, I'm not ashamed to say it...

it makes me downright happy to walk over to the pantry for the baking powder or a sweet potato. 

Happy, I tell you!!

Because my pantry is awesome!

I even end up with an empty cabinet (where the jars used to be and where they had begun to overflow). It's always nice to have a little extra space left over...

And...ahem...now no one has to know I have a jar-collecting problem...

You know. As long as I keep the cabinets closed.