Inspired by SouleMama

And speaking of healthy things my kids love to eat, these little snacks are pretty yummy.



Erika and I have been making these a lot lately. Sliced banana with peanut butter and a chocolate chip on top. The best part of these is that Erika can make them herself and feels really proud of herself for doing so. I saw these somewhere in the blogosphere, but can't remember where (bad blogger). If you know where this idea came from, please let me know....

Edamame beans are young soybeans. They are full of protein, easy to make (all you have to do is boil them!), and fun to eat. At least our kids think that they're fun to eat. Audrey was trying to crawl across the table to get her hands on more tonight and Erika eats them faster than M&M's. And we all laugh as they shoot out of their pods and across the room.

Dear Audrey,

Two days ago I sat in the middle of your room taking apart your crib with tears rolling down my face, is disbelief at the passing of time. Unthinkable that less than two years ago I was holding you in my arms wondering who you were. And now, there is no doubt as to who you are: brave, loving, determined, wild, a dancer.

You started climbing out of your crib a few weeks ago. Climbing out and over everything in your way, actually. I wasn't sure how you would do in a toddler bed, but I should have guessed it would be as easy as it was because that's just your nature- to go with the flow, ride the wind with open arms. "Go Mama," you told me as I stood in your doorway yesterday at nap time, thinking that you might run out and try to avoid your nap. But you looked at your book for a few minutes, put all three babies in your bed to sleep, laid your head on your blankie ("bok-bok"), and slept for hours.

Time will pass quickly. You will grow up much faster than I care to think about at the moment. I will try and savor each moment and dance with you often.

Erika and Audrey both enjoy painting, but with the weather so warm it's been hard to keep them inside. So, we moved the easel outside! Erika started out painting our street, but ended up painting a few "pages" for her book about "the whole world". After Antarctica, Austria (inspired by The Sound of Music) and Australia, she got distracted by the dirt, her bike, and storytelling. Audrey lasted for only a few squiggles before running off to chase a cat. This nice weather is still new and I didn't expect much more from their attention, but I see a lot of outdoor art in our future.

For me holidays are all about family and food. An excuse to get together in a world where people are increasingly isolated. An excuse to bake a cake. I wish every day was a holiday. Today we had a small brunch with quiche, fruit salad, bread, cheese, and, of course, cake.

As I was uploading pictures of the girls to our flickr site for my family in California, I came across this picture which I had hurriedly taken earlier.



The silver platter in the upper right was a gift from my Mom and she is perfectly personified in it: strong, modest, beautiful, practical. Below that are some plates from a set that my Dad found for us at a second hand shop and lovingly flew out to Michigan from California. Dinner plates, salad plates, cups and saucers all flown out because he thought they were beautiful and thought that I would too. And he was right. The silver platter to the left of the plates is from Iran and a reminder of how much the idea of "home" can change over the course of a life. The silverware on the platter was a gift to my parents when they got married, a gift given to them with love more than thirty years ago and then, again, given with love to me from my mother.

And my cake lies on a white plate that Corey's Mom gave us when we moved to Michigan almost four years ago. Having left a lot of what we had back in California, this plate, and the others she gave us from her own cupboards, represents the foundations of the life we have built here. We fit what we could in a small trailer and a car and have made a home with it, with some help from our family. So, as I look around me now I don't see things anymore. I see the history of those things, the lives they once sat amongst, and the love of those who gave them to us.

The table holding up all this love is from Corey's Grandmother's home and, luckily, it is heavy, sturdy, and large.

Inspired by SouleMama