Not only did I have this on my list of things to do this weekend … I also had this.

Nom nom nom.

Kind of like perfection … which is totally heaven in your mouth.

My mom had printed out the directions and brought them up with her, but I’m a picture girl (surprise huh?) so I stuck with my trusty Kitchen Companion and went for it.

I like to measure my success as I go against the photos Pioneer Woman provides along the way.

Some times I completely freak out – but keep going and trust that the end result will at least resemble 10% of what I’m really supposed to be doing. In this case, we did just fine.

Rinse and repeat about 32 times. Give or take.

I had a blast.

Which is kind of what this Life List is all about, any way. Living the adventure of life as if it’s a front row seat on the roller coaster you’re strapped in to. And oh-my-ever-loving-goodness … when someone tries something I’ve made, baked, cooked – whatever the case may be – and their eyes shine with delight … there’s is nothing higher on the list for me in the form of a compliment. But it’s not even that – it’s knowing my hands are capable of love in forms I haven’t even recognized yet.

It may be called a “Life List” but it’s really just a recipe for a full life, a sweet, full life.

Here are photos of the entire process:

I’ve been on quite the journey to be a more healthy person, inside and out, over the past 4 years. Lots and lots of credit goes to Jill Tanis and her understanding of food and our relationship to it.

One of the biggest take-aways I had was to eat MORE MORE MORE dark, leafy greens. So I did. I love kale and beet greens – we’ve tried endive, we eat tons of spinach, broccoli rabe (or rapini) and romaine, I’ve taken a gander with dandelion greens and I even juiced rainbow chard a few weeks ago. But eating swiss chard? No, no thank you. Have not had the bug in my pants to try this one until recently.

Here it is. You’ll need: EVOO, salt, pepper, swiss chard, and garlic.

Start by pouring some EVOO into a pan on the stove.

While your oil is heating up, chop up some garlic … and this I love to do. You get to get a little rough with the garlic. Knock it around a bit. Get a little frisky. Get angry, even.

Start with your cloves and a knife that would scare your grandmother.

Take one clove and set your large knife on top of it, like so…

Then SMASH it.

Success. You should be able to peel the skin off the garlic now and set it aside to chop after you’ve smacked around the other cloves of garlic.

When you’ve smashed and skinned all your cloves, chop them up. Be fearless.

Then toss them in the oil.

Add some salt (I forgot about the pepper)

(Missing photos)
Chop your swiss chard, I only used 5 or 6 leaves for this saute. They’re big leaves and being the first time trying it, I wanted to take it easy.

One you’ve removed the vein (stem) from the swiss chard (it’s bitter) chop up the swiss chard and toss it in with the garlic, salt and oil.

It doesn’t take long for it saute down.

Add to your dinner and try it … maybe you’ll enjoy it. Who knows!

We did not. It was a little too bitter for my liking and my very adventurous children spit it out. Can’t blame them. So I tried it again – only the next time I tried it … I added it to soup (substituted the spinach in the recipe for swiss chard and kale). Much better flavoring for me. I’ll keep taking swiss chard out on dates until I find the perfect fit. Why? Because it’s beneficial and worth the leg work to make it a part of our diets.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Today was a big day over here. Oliver got his first hair cut. 21 months old and today was the day.

Here’s a little story about hair. I love long hair on boys. As in, LOVE it. Always have. And curly hair on a boy? Oh my goodness. Stop it. Just stop.

Aaron’s parents weren’t huge fans of longer hair in the past – and I think it’s either grown on them or maybe they don’t have someone asking them to let allow them to grow it out. Not sure- but it seems like that argument has dialed down. Not that it ever was really – an argument. It was just a difference in me from them. One that we laughed at a lot together.

That’s important because I never ever thought Aaron would be the one who was against cutting Oliver’s hair. Everyone pretty much assumed it would be me waiting and waiting … hoping to see a curl and keep his baby hair growing – but nope. It was Aaron. He wanted Oliver’s hair to grow out.

Now.

Oliver might have curly hair one day. One day after a certain age and passage of time happens. I will not go farther with that statement. But who knows, maybe he’ll have curls before then. When it’s humid he has a few cutesy baby curls but it never lasts.

The funny apart of this is since he was born my mom has been claiming that he’ll have curly hair! He’s going to have curly hair! Look!! It’s curly! (No, no it isn’t) I love you mom.

So. After realizing that it was time and convincing Aaron it was time to cut it we took him in today for his first cut.

I’m not a boy and have never told a hair dresser what to do with a boys hair so I pretty much said … I want it shorter on the sides than on the top … and I want to be able to spike it.

And away she went.

I had a hard time not crying when this was happening because so much of his “baby-ness” is still tied up in his hair. Cutting it just draws another line in the sand of time. It’s sad. I’m not ready for it, but here it is. And he’s ready for it, and loving it. And. Tears.

Stop it. Just stop.

You are light to the darkness and salve to a broken heart. You are love. And you are mine.

Shhhhh.

I have a dirty little secret.

Cobwebs.

This one in-particular has been hanging from our ceiling for probably 2 1/2 years. TWO AND A HALF YEARS.

Do not tell my mother. Or my Grandmother.

And it’s not just that one … I have cobwebs in most of the corners of my home. And I even have a special broom to remove them.

I like to call him my Butler. Because it feels good to order this object around. BUTLER! REMOVE THE COBWEBS OR ELSE! He doesn’t listen very often though, so I have to take control.

And control I do take. Let’s assess this awful situation shall we?

GROSS.

Now, Butler, get to work. We have cobwebs to attack.

No … not the floor, you’re the wrong kind of broom for the floor, Mister. Get up there.

Much better.

Now it’s time to conquer Fred from the ceiling. It’s a sneak attack. I’m actually sad to see this constant little friend be destroyed. Sort of.

HELLO CEILING! GOODBYE FRED!

Oh, corners … how I’ve missed you.

You’re looking beautiful in this sunshine today.

Butler … you need a shower, but you get a cookie first.

So there you have it. My dirty little secret. Cobwebs. I have a hard time paying attention to those kind of details when I’m not at eye level with them, well, ever. Out of sight, out of mind is a theory my cleaning tactics have borrowed.

What about you? Do tell! Divulge the information! I know you want to. COME CLEAN.

This is a simple lesson in sex education to be completely honest. In order to keep your cut flowers fresh longer and looking nice you have to understand the inner workings of how a flower procreates.

I’m going to go with the terms we know and understand as male and females and won’t go into the jargon of Botany – this way I assure you I’ll keep your attention a little longer. Maybe.

The flower has a vagina and a penis. The vagina is the white head in the middle. When it’s time to pollenate – err spread the seed, it’ll get sticky and moist in order to attract the pollen (sperm) from the penis of the plant … and there are many – all those little brown things. Little wieners.

So you’re going to need one of these:

And then, very simply, you’re going to render the plant incapable of making the pollen deposit … you’re going to neuter the flower, one by one.

Even the smaller flowers have plenty of stems to extract.

See the difference? No little wieners = no pollen to hasten the death of the flower.

So what did we learn here, kids? ABSTINENCE!

Also, how to keep your fresh cut flowers last up to 2 weeks longer.

Today over on The Pioneer Woman’s photography page she has a Short Depth of Field assignment.

Now, I’m not technical when it comes to photos AT ALL. Something I’m trying to learn more about, but how I take it is this: Short depth of field is a close up with a very defined focus for the photo. Not that I made it sounds any less confusing … but thats how I understand it in my head. Without all the technical terms. So I entered her flickr photo-pool and then compiled some of my favorites through the last couple years for this slideshow.

There are so many people who are way better skilled at this than I am, the photos stuff and who understand the technical side of things and when the two marry – it’s like magic. Really … it totally is. But I just like to take photos, the ones that tell my story.

We totally hit the jackpot on personality with our kids. Jessica is our drama with a side of seriousness that makes your heart melt and Oliver is our goof with a lovers smile … this ones all about Oliver.

Let’s just say I hope they’re still doing slide shows at weddings when my babies get married.

We don’t have pets but my husband and I both grew up with them. We often get asked why we don’t have a dog for the kids … For The Kids. Which just kills me because that is a ridiculous statement in my book. One: The “kids” are 5 and under – they can’t even wipe their own butts and you want me to get an animal that needs tender, love and care FOR them. I would like to rub your nose in poo for suggesting this to me. Two: Having a pet does not instantly teach a child how to care for something or automatically give them responsibility.

And Three: We have chosen to have humans, not animals, live in our house. They take up enough of my time with feeding, cleaning and picking up after them. Adding another breathing soul to the mix with lots of hair makes me want to pull mine out.

Plus I think they stink and having them inside of a house kinda makes my skin crawl, if you want me to be honest. I know that I don’t clean my floors often enough to warrant all the extra hair and stink of an animal running about.

My dad, though, loves dogs. LOVES them. He has always had one and they really are a mans best friend. I get it, I enjoy visiting animals and I love watching my kids interact with them … but I still don’t want to own one. Now, my dad is an airline pilot so he’s gone an awful lot of the time and when he’s home he loves to have his trusty companion at his side.

This was a first though, this past week my dad came into town to visit us and brought Dotty along. Inside of my house. All the way in, all the way down, on my carpet.

After the initial shock of a hairy animal in my house that I didn’t recognize as something I would ever open my door to … it finally hit me that this was Dotty which meant my dad must have arrived. The kids were understandably beside themsevles with excitement.

A DOG! A BALL! INSTANT GAME FOR HOURS!

This went on for a while but was very short lived once I got the camera out … Dotty doesn’t like the big black thing next to my eye clicking at her. I can see why.

But she’s a beautiful dog with all kinds of love to give.

And it felt a little funny having a dog in my basement on my carpet. Partly natural and party very unnatural. Jessica was a bit more timid about having an animal in her personal space where Oliver couldn’t get enough of telling Dotty to fetch and then sit and then NO! for no real reason.

But you can bet I cleaned all my floors instantly to make sure there was no lingering hair or smell. It doesn’t matter to me how clean it is, it’s still a dog … in my home. And no. Just, no.

Also, we’re almost certain Oliver is allergic to dogs and cats so putting him up close and personal with one for an extended period of time was a little un-canning to me but he survived. We all did. And we even enjoyed it a bit.

But don’t tell anyone.

We take a lot of photos in this house and Jessica, our 5 year old, has started to ask to use the camera too.

This summer we let her take charge of the Nikon for the first time.

Turns out she’s amazing.

So this past week she was BEGGING me to use my camera again … here’s her tour of our house on any given morning. I love the way she sees things.

My sweet, sweet baby, you are a breath of heaven.