In Iowa

Yep...I'm in corn country. NO corn to see at the moment, but it does smell like cow poop when the wind blows.
I'll get back to blogging when I return! Have a great week :)

Cool, crisp weather almost like a fall day. We snuggled up with tea, warm pajamas, and evening snack before bed... Tate hosted his first puppy dog tea party with his stuffed dogs at the table. It was perfect.

"Between the dark & daylight

When the night is beginning to lower

Comes a pause in the days occupation

That is known as the Children's Hour"

.

.

OK, so Tate got to bed wayyyyyyyyy later than that due to a trip to WalMart's toy section, but when I saw him find the baby spoons and coo at the stuffed puppies he had collected, I went with it.

My to-do list shot to H*%#

8a--What are we going to do today?

1. Breakfast

2. MTV Yoga Tape

3. Laundry

4. Make Soap

1pm-What was I thinking????

1. Breakfast took about an hour, mainly because Tate wanted to eat on the deck. It was fun, I'll admit.

2. When I put the DVD in, Tate just yelled "Backyardigans! Backyardigans!" and wanted nothing to do with yoga. He later used the yoga mat as his magic carpet...or train carpet, whatever.

3. Got one load in. That's it. It isn't even dry.

4. Soap Making--was fun for the first 5 minutes. It then was a disaster that ended up with my saying LOUDLY, "Lower your voice!" Yep--total parenting hypocrite. We do have few cute soaps that we ended up with though.

**As I was cleaning up the soap mess, I heard typing, but knew that Tate was on the deck right outside the kitchen. THIS is what I found when I went into the family room. Yep--Tate typing on the keyboard and ALL the computer stuff carefully turned toward the window!! (no--he doesn't know how to type for real yet. Hee Hee!)

Fashion, Feeding, Fun

FASHION- I realize when I became a mama, I thought "Oh cool! I can wear fun casual wear without having to impress a client or a boss!" You would think I would run with it, but instead, my wardrobe has become MORE boring and just plain functional. (I'm sure the extra 10 lbs on my frame has NOTHING to do with it. wink, wink.)

This Spring, I hope to change that. With a move coming up, I have an excuse to purge everything in my closet that I don't love. Any "fashion covets" that you have on your list for Spring??

FEEDING- Our friend, Jen, sent us a spring kit, complete with critter corn and birdseed. Every morning, we are outside even before coffee and I am really enjoying this new ritual.

FUN- Heading to Earth Day Festival today in St. Louis. We always have a blast and are inspired in new ways to help the planet in our everyday living.

Speaking of fun, here are some pics from CKC Scrapbook Convention:

Have a great day!!!

TAG overdue!

I was tagged by Lisa awhile ago...with the upcoming move, I'm just getting around to it:

1. Link to the person who tagged you - Done

2. Post the rules - Done

3. Share 6 non-important habits/quirks about yourself:
*Room must be clean before I scrap, but I don't mind messy once I am creating (Probably the only time I don't mind messy!)
*Habit--cuticle biting when tired
*I can put something off FOREVER, but if it gets put on my "to-do" list, for some magical reason, it gets done that day.
*Must close shower curtain after shower
*I have to eat Pot Roast with tortillas.
*I love tv, but I try to minimize it for Tate.
Yea, I know, I am a total hypocrite.

4. Tag 3 other people: I'm a passive tagger...if you read this consider yourself tagged if you want to participate :)

Mother's Day Cupcake Idea

I Want to try this!! She makes it look so easy...

Party Food

Paul wants to haev a big going away party before we head to London. Sounds fun and all, but the to-do list is currently GINORMOUS. To make things easy, I am thinking about:

1. Catering/Take Out

2. Easy Party Food

ANY SUGGESTIONS? If you went to a party, what would you want? What are your favorite party foods? Think about appetizers, main entrees, and desserts...

**Thanks in advance for your ideas:)

My *first* ATC

So here she is... Not sure how to start trading them, or who to trade them with, but sooo fun and ready to make new ones.

Happy Monday :)

Back from Blog Vacation

Lots has gone on since last posting. For this reason, I will list...
***Paul has camera, so pics next posting.

1. CKC St.Louis was GREAT! photos to come. My favorite part was making an acrylic album. So cool and pretty easy to make it look good.

2. Last Minute trip to FL--awesome to be barefoot, have to stop eating after viewing bathing suit pics.

3. Returning to tons of rain AND a crack in our basement. People are awesome, though, because the company we called that repairs basement floods, was booked a month out, walked Paul through step by step as to how to repair it.

4. Tate currently lying to me about his diaper status.

5. Market Research interview tomorrow about TV, Fashion, and Home Decor. Can't wait!

6. Bread Recipe from Shining Rivers Waldorf School: (we make it weekly into small rolls)

Shining Rivers Bread

1 ½ TBS dry yeast
1 C warm (not boiling) water
dollop of honey
1 stick butter
1 large wooden spoonful of honey
1 TBS salt
3 C warm milk (or warm water)
4-5 C white flour4-5 C wheat flour

Optional Ingredients: sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, raisins, millet, rolled oats, nuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle yeast in 1 cup of warm water mixed with a dollop of honey. Let the yeast float on top of the water without mixing. Put aside in a warm place until it gets foamy.
Put a stick of butter, the large wooden spoonful of honey and alt in a large bowl. Pour the warm milk (or water) over the butter, honey and salt. When cool enough to hold finger n for a count of 10, add yeast.

Sift in the flour, alternating white and whole wheat, stirring with a wooden spoon to make a sponge. The children love to make it “snow” in the bowl! Add and of the optional “secret ingredients”. Cover with a “blanket” and set in a warm place to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Add enough flour to make the dough kneadable. Put a little flour on the table in front of each child for kneading.
Yield: about 2 nations
Bake: about 30 minutes

Thanks Soulemama

I have mentioned this great blog that I regularly read called Soulemama. Well, here at the Schwartz house, we stole a few ideas.

Firstly, we made a birthday banner out of all the scraps of fabric we had in the house. I had white flannel, so I let Tate glitter/marker/paint/glue on those pieces. This took all week, but we will use it in in years to come. So much better than throwing a paper one away....

Actually that is the way I got the idea. I wanted to make a paper banner and then I realized at .60 a sheet of scrapbook paper..."let's opt for something else". I then remembered the collection of fabric that just sits in my house. In fact, I have a few friends that I am unloading the rest on to this weekend.

And our "bookmaking/art kit" that I mentioned in a previous post. Also from Soulemama...