alphabet soup.

Two little buddies + magnetic letters + mixing bowls and spoons = perfect contentment.

a shameless plug.

The other day my friend Sarah made me a salad.
It was delightful.
Can salads be delightful? This one was.

Sarah is a fantastic cook. She confessed to me that in college she would just sit and read cookbooks. It paid off.
AND, lucky for us, she is generous enough to share her recipes and techniques (rhrecipes.blogspot.com).

We recently tried Sarah's recipe for Popcorn Chicken and Creole Sweet Potato Fries:

And my picky kid who won't eat vegetables? DEVOURED these.

Next on the menu, Sarah's Cuban Braised Beef.

Try it. You'll like it!

The Battle of the Vegetable

I have strategies.

I puree them and sneak them into sauces and sandwiches and mashed potatoes and pasta. I hide them behind things she likes. I dip them in Ranch Dressing. I let her see me eat them and make all kinds of goofy "yum!" faces. I've tried fresh, jarred, canned, and frozen. I've tried boiled and steamed and sauteed. I've even tried them in cracker form.

Not a chance.

She has tactics, too.

A few days ago I was so excited to see she had eaten her diced carrots.

But then I looked closer.

Smart kid.

all i needed was a little motivation. and a spreadsheet.

It's been hard to get back into the swing of blogging.

It's been hard to get back into the swing of anything, actually. We've all been trading off being sick since New Year's, and haven't had more than a few decent nights' sleep in two weeks. Maddi and I have spent a lot of time in our sweats, napping and reading and watching movies and not getting much of anything done.

Yesterday I'd had it.

I was tired of not being productive, but didn't feel like doing anything. Do Yoga, Micah said, that's usually motivating.

So I did.
And then I did this:

Doesn't it just make you happy? Nearly 200 movies, all cataloged by genre and
alphabetized in neat little rows?

A day well spent!

In other news...

we are moving to Texas!

Last week, Micah accepted a full-time offer with USAA in San Antonio. We are THRILLED. Come May, we will be Texans.

Y'all.

(just practicing)

Dear Blogosphere,

How do I get my kid to eat vegetables?!?

God be with you.

A friend of a friend's eight week old baby passed away this week.

I don't know this family. I don't know everything that happened. I can't even begin to know what they have gone through or what they must be experiencing now.

But I do know what it's like for someone to hand you a tiny little stranger and feel like they've just handed you the whole world. I know what it's like to see that baby in a big glass box, with wires in her head, chest, ankles and nose. I know what it's like to pray harder than you ever thought possible, for someone you really only just met.

I know my world would not be complete without her.

But I know that Jesus Christ has made it possible for this family to be with their baby again someday. I pray they will feel that peace.

And today, I feel overwhelmingly grateful for my beautiful little one.

I've been on vacation.

That's probably pretty apparent.

Sorry for the long break, friends! We are back in town, unpacked (which is a record- usually the suitcase sits on the bedroom floor for weeks...), and finally getting over the post-holiday cold.

Recaps and photos coming soon! (as soon as I get my camera battery back, which I conveniently left charging at my parents' house...oops.)