I'm a genius

My latest genius moment came in the form of a beverage. You've gotta try this.

So, you probably know what an Arnold Palmer is - a drink of 1/2 lemonade, 1/2 iced tea. Here is my version/specific way of making an Arnold Palmer - duh, you've probably made it before, but here's my way (and if you've made it this way before, don't tell me - let me think I've invented something) :)

First I make a pitcher of watery lemonade. Put in about 1/2 the amount of concentrate, powder, or lemons than you usually would add.

Then I put in my tea - and favorite new invention - Cold Brew Iced Tea bags. Really great! And again, if this is not news, sorry I was pretty excited about it

You could do the same thing with peach nectar for peach iced tea, add mint, sugar - Yum!!

sorry it's such a mess...

The "Minnesota Nice" thing is sometimes so funny to me. Everyone always makes excuses for their, well, everything! For my job, I go to people's homes and work with their kids. The kids are usually 2 or 3, and these people often have more than just the one kid. I'm typically greeted at the door with the mom saying "Sorry, it's such a mess". I smile, laugh and say "I have two little boys at home, it's not even close to what my house looks like." I'm trying to make them feel better, more comfortable, you know? But isn't it the truth?? If anyone even stops by at your house and it's not sparkly clean, (like you weren't planning a party in which your husband kept the kids upstairs or downstairs all afternoon so you could have a clean and organized house :) ) you feel bad having me over and seeing your stuff on the floor.I'm not lying. My house is worse!! Here is what I came down to after a shower today:



It looks as though everything was dumped on the floor!
Oh, it was!!
So, you see, you don't have to be nice to me when I come to your house. This is what my house looks like on a daily basis. I don't care! It's fun to dump all the toys out. It's fun to throw blocks around the house and sit on the edge of the mess playing, looking like you could not possibly have anything to do with what happened around you. None of that matters. Especially when you have good helpers to clean up after themselves.

Plug:
Luke is cleaning our hickory hardwood floors with Daisy Blue Naturals' Lavender Pine Cleaner. Non-toxic, safe for babies to help wash floors with. Ask me if you want any!! It's fantastic!!
(Really, I was washing the floors, and 2 helpers found towels and came to assist me. It was pretty cute :) )

ah...motherhood

A Mom. There is nothing in the world that I'd rather be, and with Mother's Day coming up, I'm getting all sentimental and "mommy"ish. There is nothing better than tonight.

It all started with an incident - which always seems to happen with 2 boys around my house. After baths, we bring the boys - in towels - to their room to get their jammies on. Tonight, we were short a diaper, so Adam ran downstairs to grab another one and what do you think happened? Luke disrobed, grabbed his blankie and nuk, threw his towel on the floor and inadvertantly pottied on it. It being the towel and the corner of his beloved blankie.
We tried to substitute the "back-up" blanket, but it just isn't the same, so Luke proceeded to cry and yell for his blanket. (Side note regarding twins: It was REALLY difficult for Luke to see that Andrew had HIS blanket, so we had to switch out Andrew's too. They both needed to be washed, so whatever, but what we do for one, really HAS to be done for the other.) Andrew took it in stride, looking for his blanket, but resolving to use the back-up. Honestly, until tonight I had no idea they were even attached to the darn things.

So back to Luke having a fit. I started the laundry and couldn't handle his crying; he was doing that multiple breath thing, you know, sobbing. I went in to rock him and try to help him relax. (I really take any chance I can get to go back into their room and hold them and rock them to sleep)

There is nothing better than rocking babies. Really - that's about the best thing ever. Seeing my little boy look up at me, feeling his chubby little hand touch my cheek (then dig his fingernails into it), giggling, and smiling at me, sticking his finger up my nose and trying to poke my eyes out. I really do love it all! I take a cuddle when I can get it because I know that it just won't be that way forever.

After a hard day of work, there is nothing I'd rather do than come home and just be "mommy". Mommy is pretty cool.

spring sicks

Ick, ick, we are sick :(
We're on the upswing now, but last week was rough. Until now, twins have been fairly easy to coordinate, but last week changed my mind! Luke had pneumonia starting Monday and Andrew felt great. I stayed home with the boys and was ready to send Andrew back to daycare by Tuesday, but then he too got a fever. I was on the phone with the dr's office and nurse care lines more times than I can remember. We were back in the dr's office on Thursday and Andrew had bronchitis, pink eye and an ear infection. Thursday afternoon, I got sick. but that's beside the point. Sick twins are no fun.
Oh, I loved that they wanted to cuddle and just sleep with mom all day. So nice (since they usually don't pause to sit for anything!). But when one was being held, the other was jealous. So, you hold two. They start poking and slapping each other's faces, and we wonder why everyone had pink eye... They wake each other up. Throw food at each other (no one was hungry) and just overall brawl as well as sick kids can.
Over the weekend, Adam was the parent most of the time (because I got sick too), which was a relief! Plus, the boys feel much better now and are happy and playing once again.
A cute, positive story for you:
This morning, the boys were eating breakfast (more of a pre-breakfast snack, actually) at their little table and I was in the kitchen getting ready for work. Dad gave them some cereal that was left at our house and they hadn't eaten it before (Cinnamon Toast Crunch btw). I hear "huh?" crunch crunch crunch "mmm cookie!". Then "huh?" crunch "oh mmmm". I was laughing all the way to work. :)

Happy Twins Opener!

Happy Opening Day, Minnesota Twins!

(photo courtesy of Grandpa Don)

sorry - can't get the picture any bigger

P.S. Those footballs have since been eaten. By the boys. No, they were not edible.

vegan...again

I've been eating a (primarily) vegan diet for 4 weeks and have to tell you - I love it!! I have people roll their eyes at me (Nicole, my mom, my mother-in-law), and much to my sister-in-law's dismay I love eating vegan food! If you've ever thought about it - just try it - you will LOVE it! Here's my top ten list of why:
1) It's soooo much easier to cook! I like cooking, love it even, but I'm not good at it. I can't follow a recipe to save my life, and my poor husband lost a ton of weight just by eating my cooking. Sorry, honey! A vegan diet is mostly grains, vegetables, fruits, and soy products. Grains are about the simplest thing in the world to cook. I cook all my grains prior to cooking the "main course" (like on Sunday or the night before) and I can't even mess those up (too badly).
2) It's way cheaper. The first week was maybe about the same as my old grocery bill, but buying grain in bulk is cheap. Polenta was 2.99 and I made 2 giant casseroles with it and have a TON left to make more. Fresh veggies are fantastic (better for you and relatively less expensive than say, cheese or frozen meals).
3) It wasn't that much of a stretch (for me anyway). If you ever have been out to eat with me in the past 10 years, you'll know I don't usually order meat. I've had to have my poor friends check and double-check my chicken before I ate it, so I stopped ordering it altogether. Next, I started cooking less flesh at home - I hate cooking meat. I also hate milk. Yuck! (however I do drink soy milk with my nose plugged for B12 and calcium)
4) In 1 month I lost weight. So far, 4 lbs. down! Plus, I'm honestly not hungry. Grains, fruits and veggies fill you up really well.
5) I think about food differently. And that's a good thing! I used to envy people who looked at food as fuel. I'm there now! Don't get me wrong, I plan on socializing over meals, it's just changed my thinking.
6) I FEEL better. A biggie. I don't have aches and pains (especially my back). My allergies are not nearly what they used to be - in fact I haven't had a claritin all season yet!
7) My kids are eating better. They still eat meat and drink "real" milk. But they also eat my vegan food too and LOVE it. They are trying all kinds of vegetables and grains and tonight Luke asked for a third helping of polenta casserole. YUM!
8) Cheese substitutes aren't that bad. Really! I've made cheesecake and a red velvet cake that were both vegan. Not bad! (I do however love cream cheese and cheese in general and that has been the hardest thing to give up, but I've had some dairy here and there throughout the month - so I'm not a great vegan... - and then felt sick immediately following the dairy eating)
9) I can taste my food. I take my time to eat food - mostly because grains are chewier than swallowing a hunk of cheese. And my food tastes very different because it's all new to me!
10) I FEEL better!! I had to repeat my reason because it's my favorite one!! This whole month was a trial to see if I would feel differently. Would I feel weak? Sickly? Hungry? Could I really do this? I can honestly tell you that I feel good. I made a good choice!
Will I stick with it? Yep, sure will!! Forever? I don't know, we'll see. I'm not a vegan because I don't believe in killing animals for food. I feed my family meat sometimes. I have a whole bunch of deer meat in my freezer and 1/4 of a quarter of a cow (is that 1/16th of a cow?). I just wanted to see if I feel good - I do.

Happy Easter!

I thought you'd like these pictures. The boys are reading their Easter cards from their G-GA (Great-Grandma A).

They are also enjoying snack at their table - which they would like to eat all meals at right now because it's so cool :)