Today I Wanted....No, NEEDED Chocolate.

I am not eating sugar for 2 months.  I've never done this before.  Today was day three.  Ok.  Clarification:  I'm not eating treats and sweets and cakes, cookies, candies, etc. with sugar in them.  Ketchup and peanut butter have sugar in them, for crying out loud.

Today was sooooooooooooooooooooooo stressful and I kept almost heading for the pantry to snarf some Easter candy.  All. Day. Long.  And then it hit me, I usually medicate my stress with sugar!  It was so rough to not be able to calm myself with a nice, delicious peanut butter cup.  **sigh**

Why was my day stressful?  Well, it started out with going to bed too late and getting up too early.  Then Ash bawled all through breakfast because Britt got to say the blessing over the food.  And no, she didn't want to say a second prayer.  She wanted to give the ONLY prayer.  Then right after they were done eating, Ash flooded our downstairs bathroom.  Too much toilet paper.  It scared her to death and she sobbed (loudly) with fright.  Now she's afraid of that toilet and wants to use mine all the time.  The clogged toilet was not hard to fix.  But the floor was a bit of work.  Then....right after that?  Ash fell down the stairs.  She wasn't seriously hurt, but it did add insult to injury.  Not her best morning.  And Elle only took cat naps all day.  And Britt would NOT stop screaming.  She screamed when she was excited.  She screamed when she was mad.  She screamed when she thought Ash might take her toy (even if Ash was thinking no such thing).  **pulling out my hair**  Gotta take the bad with the good, right?  Or something like that.  I just thanked Heavenly Father for this day because it will help me appreciate tomorrow all that much more, because it WILL be better.  **said through gritted teeth**

Today I Simply Enjoyed Spending Time with My Babies.

(my little helpers)

It was a good day, though it did start out a little bit confusing.  I was still asleep when Tony came into my room at 8am and kissed me good-bye.  I vaguely remember that.  When I woke up around 45 minutes later I had completely forgotten everything except him kissing me and I thought he was still at home.  So, the sounds of Ash and Britt running around the house didn't concern me at all.  After all, Tony was baby-sitting, right?  I let myself gradually wake up over the next 15 minutes before going downstairs, where I was greeted by two very rambunctious and completely unattended little girls!  We are very lucky that they were good and didn't do anything naughty.  And it's a good thing that Tony locked the door behind him too!  I guess he'd gone into the girls' room and told Ash to go potty and then go back to her room to play while I slept and got Britt out of her crib to play as well.  I told him to please not leave until I'm fully awake ever again.  Now that the kids' bedroom door isn't right next to ours, Ash likes to try to sneak out in the early morning. 

(ash, punching down the dough. elle was supervising in the front pack, though you can't see that.)

Later on we had some fun making flatbread.  Ash really got into the kneading part.  I used it to make pizza.  A really fresh pizza!  I tweaked the flatbread/focaccia recipe by not adding thyme (I didn't have any) or any cheese.  I used fresh basil instead of dry to use it up.  I also put in about 2/3s white wheat and 1/3 whole wheat.  I'm trying to get my husband gradually used to the taste of whole wheat.  For the pizza part, I really took creative license.  I'd say I pretty much made up my own recipe and I'd bet it tastes better than the original recipe (from Better Homes and Gardens), which you probably can't even see unless you are a subscriber.  The original called for onions (yuck), beer (yuck, yuck, yuck!), cream cheese (trying to avoid cow milk), cayenne pepper (don't have any), pre-packaged flatbread (better and cheaper to make your own), and grilling (we only have a counter-top grill).

(best smelling dough ever, ready to go in the oven.)

So here's my version.  I'm calling it Flatbread Bacon & Arugula Pizza.  If you aren't one of those who likes to cook with your electronics in the kitchen or like to write recipes down by hand, I'm sorry that you can't copy and paste on my blog.  Let me know if you'd like me to email a copy to you. 

(good thing I remembered to take a picture before it was mostly gone!)

Flatbread Bacon & Arugula Pizza.

1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 oz garlic & herb goat cheese
1/8 cup water
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Pinch of black pepper
Dash of onion salt
Flatbread (I recommend the recipe I linked to above (it filled a whole cookie sheet)
1 cup baby arugula
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
6 slices crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled

1.  Bake your flatbread. 
2.  In a bowl whisk together goat cheese, enough water to make a thick liquid or watery paste, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper until smooth-ish.  Throw in a bit of onion salt, if you like.
3.  Spread this cheese mixture onto the flatbread.  Top with arugula, tomatoes, and bacon.  Broil on low for a bit (just to warm up the toppings a bit).
4.  Eat! 

(breaking the basil into bits and adding it to the dough.)

Elle has really been changing a lot in the past 3 days.  She's grabbing the hanging toys on her kick and play mat and moves herself around.  No more unsupervised sleeping on my bed for her!  She also speaks.  I've uploaded a video so you can get all gushy in your heart parts too.  You're welcome.  :)



Can you believe that she's going to be 3 months next week?!?!?  Yeah, me either. 

Today I Started a New Challenge.

My time is short.  So I'll be brief.  Today I started an 8 week weight loss challenge.  My sister-in-law instigated it and one of my sisters and my dad are playing along with us.  There are about 15 of us in it together and competing with each other.  Here's the link so you can start up one of your own groups if you are so inclined.  :)

Wish me luck!  I want to win this thing!

Today I Walked in the Wind.

Eastern Idaho is sooooooo windy!  I was told this, before moving here, but didn't realize how breath- taking-away it truly is.  And supposedly it's windy year round.  That'll be nice when it's hot, but not so much when it's cold. 

I've also had two older women (one of them being my paternal grandmother) recently tell me that their new born babies got bad colic from the wind.  Wasn't so happy to hear that!

Well, the 3 girls and I went outside this afternoon.  Ash and Britt rode their "bikes." Actually, Britt just pushed hers.  We walked, pushed and rode our way to one of the many playgrounds in our community.  I was a bit worried about Elle as her breath kept getting taken away by the wind.  But she didn't complain.... 

Until about 4 hours later she had a mini screaming session.  So, I don't know.  Can't really call it colic because it didn't last hours.   But, I'm certainly going to be a little more choosy about taking her outside until she's a bit older!

And I need to give a shout of praise to Tony.  I woke up in a terrible mood (up late and up early is not fun for me).  The unpacking and cleaning and organizing just isn't coming together as quickly as I want and I let him know.  I was feeling very burdened and grumpy and behind.  When I was taking an unplanned nap this afternoon, he got Ash to help him get the living room looking like....well, a living room!  He vacuumed and tidied the kitchen too.  It was such a relief to wake up to that.  Thank you Babe! 

P.S.  Blogger appears to be back to normal tonight, though a bit slow.  But I still can't get Flickr to work.  **bummed**

Today I'm Trying to Navigate the New Blogger.

What is with all of our online communities constantly changing things up?  Are the rest of you with a blogspot address seeing a weird layout when you are composing posts and managing comments?  I sure am!  My biggest annoyance is that Flickr won't work on here now.  Boo.  And Facebook's timeline is taking some getting used to, though I don't hate it like some of my friends do.  I guess they're all trying to keep things fresh and new, but for busy people who don't really have the time to re-learn things.....

Yeah.  Anyways.  Still settling in and unpacking and all that stuff.  Today was a good day though.  I cooked yummy food and played with the girls. 

(somehow we were enjoying our easter so much we only got a couple of pics of the girls in their pretty dresses.  ** irritated **  here is elle on her first easter.)



Elle was happier today, which is good.  She's been super fussy since the move.  Poor Britt is still taking moving pretty hard.  She's a bundle of angry energy at the moment.  I hope she calms down soon.  Ash is doing pretty good.  I laid down on the sofa during Elle's and Britt's naptime and let Ash do my hair.  Of course I totally fell asleep.  Meanwhile she put a bunch of clips in my hair, pony tail holders on my fingers and hair accessories ALL over the living room floor.  Good times. 

(beautiful britt.  if you think she looks short in this picture, it's because she is.)

I also spent quality time with the Hubster today.  I love when we just sit down on the sofa for a cuddle and a chat after the girls go to bed.  He's doing well.  Still graphic designing for his family's business from afar.  He's had one job interview so far and is scheduled for another one tomorrow.  He starts school on the 17th and is taking 5 classes!  We'll all be really busy.  I've also been trying to figure out a schedule for our days and what I want to focus on for homeschooling.

(ash was soooo excited to be at her great grandma and grandpa c's house.  and she's not wearing her cute white shoes because they were brand new and within 5 minutes of putting them on she had huge bleeding blisters on both ankles.  bare feet are sweet too, though.)

Today I Ate Too Much Easter Candy.

Did everybody have a good and meaningful Easter?  I hope so.  We spent ours with family.  My dad's side of the family.  We moved on Friday (drove aaaaaaaallllllllllll day).  My dad was Superman and drove the moving truck so that Tony could drive our car so that I could keep three baby girls as happy as possible (I was about 50% successful).  The Easter Bunny visited my girls early Saturday morning.  The came out of their room and immediately began egg hunting and candy eating.  Nice nutritious breakfast!  We also unpacked and organized and went shopping on Saturday.  On Sunday we drove 2.5 hours to my dad's parents' for church, dinner, and an easter egg hunt. 

(britt collecting "canee" eggs)

(and ash taking a break in the gathering to taste some)

It was awesome.

And now is the let down.  My dad has gone back home and I am far, far away from my family.  I am so terribly homesick and heartsick and so are my kids.  I think that even little Elle is sad (she has certainly been out of sorts since we got here). 

That's life, right?  Time will help it hurt less and we'll get settled in and find a new comfort and routine.  I can't wait for that.  Making friends isn't always easy for me.  I'm not into upkeep, know what I mean? 

One extra plus is that I'm now 4 hours away from one of my sisters and 4 hours away (in a different direction) from one of my brothers.  So, we'll be able to see them a bit more often.

And now for the giveaway!  I forgot how much fun these are.  Should do them a tad more often, right?  ;)  I punched the numbers into random.org and the winner is........................

MommyMert!  Congrats, girl!  And thanks to everybody else for playing. 

Today I'm Giving Away Leftovers.

Hahaha!  Nice, eh?

I will post pics of Britt's (and Ash's) party when we've moved and at least slightly settled.  But, just know that it was a blast!  I totally over planned the food and we've got corn dogs coming out of our ears.  Ash is pleased with that and even asked for "hong dogs" for breakfast this morning! 

Anyways, wish I could package up some of the food and send it your way, but it would probably be pretty nasty by the time it arrived.  So, how about some fun party favor prizes? 

Just leave a comment, be a follower, and cross your fingers.  :)  You've always wanted some mini mushroom erasers, gnomie pins, green gummi frogs and coconut-lemon mushroom candy, RIGHT?  :D  Your location doesn't matter.  I'll ship to wherever you are if you win (chosen by random.org, of course. 

I'll leave this giveaway open until next Tuesday evening.  That's the 10th (for me anyways).  Thanks for reading!  :)

P.S.  The packing is coming along.  I'm thoroughly amazed.  Especially with Elle going through a growth spurt and wanting to (try to) eat every hour.