DIY Day: Printing on Brown Bags

Did you know that you can print on lunch bags?
It's pretty simple, as long as you don't buy the cheapest kind of brown paper lunch bags (like I originally did.)  If you buy the cheap kind, they'll get stuck in your printer.
Take a lesson from me.  You want a thinner kind of paper, preferably without huge folds.

Anyway...that's been one of my projects this weekend.

What kinds of DIY projects have you been up to lately?

A Year As a Family

How has it been a year?

A year filled with 365 beautiful, hard, complex, emotional, happy, grateful days.

Were we to do anything over in this last year, I think we would have given ourselves a little more grace in the first six months.
After Million came home, I stayed at home, and it took seven months for Michael to start his new full-time job.  Those were very very lean months.  Expressing thanksgiving when we had little food in the pantry was hard.  Parenting was hard.  Everything was hard.

I've compiled ten of the most honest and heartfelt posts about adoption and parenting that I've written in the last year.  

There were many days that flew by, happily.
There were many walks and talks and snort-inducing laughs.

These were hard posts to go back and read.

But they are true posts and a very honest depiction of the many thousand emotions and lessons we have learned in our adoption.

1. How Very Alike We Are

2. Lessons from a Familiar Song

3. Parenting is Really Just a Trump Card Game

4. To My Son At Christmas

5. Delight

6. Racism and My Filthy Heart

7. Six Months Behind, A World Ahead

8. Race Revisited

9. To My Son on His 2nd Birthday

10. Some Exciting News From Our Family

Tonight, we are celebrating with my sister at an Ethiopian restaurant.  Tomorrow is Michael and my wedding anniversary, so we chose to celebrate Million's "family day" a day early to keep the days separate, even though they happened on the same day.  


We are so grateful at how blessed and changed and stretched and grown we are as parents, as individuals, as a couple, and as a family.  I wish I could sit down and tell you story after story about how adoption has etched beautiful lessons into our hearts that I'm so grateful we had the chance to learn before expanding our family through pregnancy.  Adoption has been one billion percent hard work.  But it's also been one trillion percent worth it.   It's a beautiful thing.

Ecclesiastes 3:11a He has made everything beautiful in its time.  

We took Million to the fair today.
There were a lot of "firsts" packed into one day.

Tomato Eggs

There are reasons I am not a scrapbooker.
Rotary cutters are of the devil.
(Insert frustrated near-scream.)

In less dramatic news, Million learned about eggs today and that not all eggs are white and chemically processed.

We found a "local" farmer on Craigslist that brings his eggs into town twice a month.  We picked some up a week or so ago, but had to finish our store-bought eggs. 


Million's response to our brownish red, splotchy eggs: "Egg?  Tomato?  Tomato-egg?"  


More education needed.

Little Beauties

I mixed up some non-toxic wood stain in our kitchen yesterday.

Left to right: Steel wool/vinegar, tea/iron/vinegar, pennies/vinegar

Because I get grossed out by our dirt basement didn't know where our steel wool was, I had to wait until Michael got home for the one stain.  My idea is to try staining some of Michael's crates to see how they'll turn out. 

Isn't it great to be able to fill your life with beauty in simple ways?  

My sister-in-law gave me flowers.  I adore flowers.

My latest Pinterest-inspired project.  I'm about one-twentieth of the way done and will need a much larger vase when finished.

Popular Culture that I Somehow Missed Out On

I generally follow four categories of blogs, when I have time to catch up on reading.

1)  People I know in real life.  This will be my first catch-up filter, so I know what's going on with the people I hold dear.

2) Adoption blogs.  This has admittedly become a lower rung on the totem pole of blog reading, for various reasons----but mainly this: adoption is a life-changing event, but I'm not of the persuasion that life needs to be about adoption.  I need to be mindful of its influence on our family and my son's development, of course, but there is only so much I can read about adoption without starting to hyperanalyze everything in life.

3) Food blogs.  These I usually skip, but I keep them in my blog feeder if I'm ever needing inspiration.

4) Crunchy mommy blogs.  These I generally skip because of the guilt trip they provide, but every now and then I pay attention.

Today I paid attention to one of those crunchy mommy blogs and found out about something that APPARENTLY has been quite popular lately and escaped my notice---like many other things in life.

Glass straws.

Have you heard about the craze with glass straws?

How did I miss this, and am I really missing out?

The only time I use straws are at fast-food restaurants and gas stations---not usually the places I go when I'm feeling the most environmentally friendly.

I make smoothies often, but I use what came packaged as "ice tea spoons"---spoons with really long handles.

Not sure I'm going to jump on this latest bandwagon.  

Ultrasound Results and Annoying Children's Books

Two notes:
Million's renal ultrasound went well.  Perhaps I shouldn't say it went well, since that would not accurately depict the screaming and wailing and the loud and incredibly dumbed down Animal Planet kids' television show playing that made me want to scratch my eyes out and do some screaming and wailing of my own.
His results showed nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with him.
So we get to wait a few more weeks, and if he's symptomatic then, they'll do a more invasive test.

My second note is: Have you ever noticed how many children's books are written so that the main character goes to bed at the end of the book?  I read a lot of children's books in a given week.
A lot.
And I'm starting to get annoyed.  It's like authors can't write a children's book without subliminally trying to please parents at the end of the book.  It's like parents don't read to their children unless they're trying to con them into going to bed.  That is my slightly peeved declaration/observation for the day.

Collard Wraps...Should Not Exist

So about those collard wraps.

Michael bravely rated them an 8 out of 10.
He later changed his rating to a 4.
And then it migrated down to a 2.
And then he said "yeah...we're never eating them again."

Glad that was Michael's idea and not mine.  It would have become one of those "remember that time Heather did something incredibly stupid" stories.

We're still braving the world of vegetarian food.  We made an exception when my sister and her friend came over today.

Can you tell I'm still really excited about the crates that Michael is making me?  He's made me seven sizes so far, and I'm loving it. 

And then there's this little boy who has been sick for upwards of three weeks.  He's got a renal ultrasound on Tuesday and another consultation, so you can keep us in your prayers.

Crates

Michael is building me some crates for a shamefully low price per crate.
It makes me so happy.
That is all I have to say.

But we are having collard green wraps tomorrow, so I *might* have more to say then.
The idea scares me. 

Sweet Potato Fry Recipe

Per request, here's our sweet potato fry recipe!

Preheat oven to 450.

We took 3 large-ish sweet potatoes and skinned them and then sliced them into very thin fry-like strips.

We lightly misted a baking sheet with olive oil, placed the sweet potatoes on and then lightly misted the tops of the sweet potatoes with olive oil.  (If you haven't got an oil mister, they're well worth the investment and save you from continually buying aerosol cans. Here's one for $9.99 at Target.)

For the seasoning mix, I just kind of threw together coarse salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and papkria... I would give you amounts, but ours was a tad on the salty side for general consumption, and I'm not really a measuring kind of cook to begin with.  :)

Sprinkle the seasoning on the top of your fries and bake for 20 minutes.  They won't be crispy like french fries, but they will be absolutely delicious. 

Meal #1: Bagel Sandwiches and Sweet Potato Fries

Our first flexitarian meal was a huge success.  

Michael found this recipe, and we adapted it in very minor ways. (Involving mincing pickles so Million wouldn't complain and shredding his lettuce along with using a different kind of bagel, cheese, and cream cheese.)  The basic concept was the same, and we gave it an A+.  I took pictures of one of the "adult" sandwiches, so you could actually tell what the ingredients were.  

I made us some seasoned sweet potato fries which were also a hit.  

If it says anything, our 2-year-old bird-like-eater ate three-quarters of a bagel sandwich and about 1/4 cup of sweet potato fries.  And it was healthy!

I'm almost hesitant to make any food today because last night's meal was so good.

Superstitious much?  

I've been looking at vegetarian boards on pinterest, but it seems that even vegetarian boards are 70% junk food/dessert and only 30% actual dinner recipes.  Pinterest will be responsible for a rise in obesity, I'm certain.  But it will creep on us every so silently in beautifully colored and wonderfully flavored superbowl party hors d'oeuvres..  

After dinner, I was privileged to see my husband working on a project once again.

This time he's building me little mini-crates.  

The Flexitarian Life For Us

Collard greens
Green onions
Bell peppers
Zucchini
Peaches
Nectarines
Corn
Tomatoes
Mango
Avocado
Celery
Kale
Red Onions
Cilantro
Cucumber
Lettuce
Sweet Potatoes
Baby Carrots
Whole Carrots
Granny Smith Apple
Spaghetti Squash



That's a sample of our grocery cart this morning.
When we got to the very last item and it was a pork shoulder roast, the checkout lady gave me a double-take....like "wait...aren't you supposed to be a vegetarian?"

This morning, I found a word to describe what Michael has set a goal for our family to become...it apparently was voted one of the most useful words of 2003, and I hadn't heard of it until this morning.

Flexitarian.

No, blogger spell correct, not egalitarianism.  I know what that means, and it's nowhere close.

Flexitarian.

It's a person who consciously chooses for whatever reason to eat mostly vegetarian meals.  They are not against eating meat or dairy products but eat them on selective occasions.  For us, it will probably look like vegetarian weekdays and meat-eating weekends, because we visit family the most on weekends, and our families love meat.

Michael has chosen this path for us.  His plan is through February, and by that time, I think we will safely have found enough vegetarian recipes to satisfy our palates.  


I'm not opposed to the lifestyle change.  I've been trending towards whole foods for the last several years and to make this switch should be relatively straightforward and a fun adventure.   I won't say that I wasn't a little sad to think of saying a more permanent goodbye to weeknight chicken tenders, but I want our boys to grow up in the minority in America---boys who eat and love produce.  

So with all that said, I should have a new topic to blog about occasionally---our failures and successes with our flexitarian lifestyle.

Imagine With Me

Imagine that this post has a lot of descriptive words and enjoyable tales of a weekend spent with my entire family.

Please do.

While you're imagining, you can imagine that I have our laundry and menu-planning situation under control.  You can also imagine that someone did not only take a 15-minute nap before I had to wake him for a doctor appointment. 

Those kind of imaginations are fun.

The No-No Bird

I'm the no-no bird,
That's right, that's me.
I live up in
The tantrum Tree.

I'm the no-no bird,
I won't say why
I stamp my feet
And shout and cry.

I'M THE NO-NO BIRD!
I sulk and sing
NO! NO! NO! 
To Everything.

by Andrew Fusek Peters

I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, 
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck- hand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morn-ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Hot Date

Million and I had a hot date today.

It was 96+ degrees, and we don't have air-conditioning in our 130-year-old house.

But we ate lunch together and talked for awhile before each returning to his own business, he being primarily concerned with whether or not BonAmi should have barked at the postman.

(It's a very serious question that must be given some thoughtful consideration before justice is meted out, apparently.)

Any perpetrator of the law must cower before such a judge.

Purple

Purple was my favorite color when I was three.

When I was three, I named my Cabbage Patch doll "Lemon," and my grandfather praised me and told me that "lemon" was a "25-cent-word."  

I also inherited a happy-go-lucky little brother, and later on that year, my mom redecorated my room with stenciled pink and purple flowers.  She even stenciled my doll furniture to match my room.  

I was in love with purple.   

I had fun playing with purple today.