Everyday Life

We ended up celebrating Laurel's birthday a few times this year.  We had the celebration with both sides of the family after Nicolas' dedication.  Then on April 6 we went to Pella and celebrated birthdays with the Evenhouse side of the family--April 6 is my Mom's birthday, April 7 is Laurel's birthday, and April 14 is my brother's birthday.  Then on Laurel's actual birthday we had a mini-family celebration.  I hope she doesn't expect multiple celebrations every year!

Scott was gone for a few days last week, and I got to experience being a single mom for a few days with a 2 year old and an infant.  That was tough!  Laurel doesn't go to sleep well, so bed time was tough.  I ended up just getting ready for bed at the same time as her, and rocking a fussy Nicolas to sleep in my bed while also putting Laurel to sleep in my bed...which involved her talking and singing and kicking and talking some more until Nicolas fell asleep and I could just snuggle with her.  And they alternated nap times every day, which meant that I had no time alone for three days!  I have huge respect for single moms!

Right now my goals for the day are to 1) take a shower, and 2) make food for supper.  Part  I have a few other long term project I'm working on (organize my recipes, get our household emergency kit ready, etc.), but they are not a priority.  One of my goals for this year is to be less dependent on processed foods.  One of my experiments is making my own rice milk.  I love cow milk, but if I drink it often, even just having it on my cereal for breakfast every day, my tummy is not very happy.  I've been drinking rice milk or almond milk bought from the store, but there are a lot of additives in those.  So I looked up some recipes for making rice milk, and decided to go with a method of making raw rice milk from dry, uncooked rice.  Basically, you soak the rice overnight in water, then put it in a blender with fresh water, blend it all together, and then strain out the solids.  I'm working on figuring out how to use the leftover solids and make them into rice flour to use for baking!

One jar of freshly strained, homemade rice milk.

One of my goals for my marriage is to find a homemade bread recipe that Scott will love!  He eats toast for breakfast every day, but really likes the lightness and softness of store bought bread.  I have made some homemade bread that was soft enough for him, but my homemade bread tends to be denser than he prefers.  Last week I tried out a "Depression Era" bread recipe that basically consists, of flour, yeast, and water.  It is tasty, easy, cheap, and doesn't have a lot of preservatives.  I haven't tested it out on Scott yet.  :)

One batch makes 5 loaves of fresh bread.

Laurel wanted to put the earrings from Mr Potato Head on Scott's ears.  He thought it would look better on his nose.

 Nicolas has started to smile and make cooing noises at us.  He is turning into a little cutie!  He is becoming a lot happier now--he still fusses a bit at night, but not all day long like he did for a couple weeks at the beginning of his life--thank goodness!!  He isn't as much a snuggler as Laurel was--quite often he is content just to lay on the floor or lay on the bed and have to come over and talk to him every once in a while.

Laurel still loves being outside, and now that the weather is getting nicer, she would like to spend all day, every day outside.  We walk to the park regularly (it is a couple blocks away), and she really likes going there, but sure doesn't like to come home!  When we aren't at the park, I let her play out on the back deck, and she does a good job staying there, so I can get a few things in the kitchen while she is playing.

Laurel drawing on her new dry erase board outside on the back deck.

 Last Friday Scott wanted to go to Pella to get his hair cut, so the kids and I came along and walked over to West Market Park to play while he was in the chair.  She had a great time running around, climbing on the playground, and going down the slides.  She went down most of them by herself, but wanted Daddy to go down the twisty slide with her.  What fun! 

Laurel must have really enjoyed the slide, because she spent hours talking about going down the twisty slide!