It's all in the ingredients.

I love to eat! In my family, gatherings revolve around the meal. It is all about the planning, preparation, and togetherness of the food. Phone calls and emails are sent before getting together to plan the menu. Though I love trying new recipes, they have to be simple at this stage in my life. There's no time to spend hours in the kitchen. :)

For two nights now, I've actually made what I consider to be tasty dinners. I rarely am organized enough to plan the meal and buy the ingredients in advance, nor have the time and energy to come home after a full day of work and prepare a home-cooked meal. (Sound familar, anyone?) This week seems to be an exception, which I'm excited about and proud of! Both meals have been VERY simple, but delicious. It's amazing what quality ingredients can do in a recipe, especially when that recipe calls for minimal ingredients. The fresh flavors really shine through in these simple recipes!

Ok, well the first meal doesn't really take a recipe. Tortillas, ground beef with a little seasoning, store-bought fresh salsa, plain yogurt, and cilantro...you guessed it, tacos! You may think I'm crazy to be proud of this, but it was executed well with planning, buying, and assembling ingredients. ;)

Tonight I made black bean soup. Dried beans that I soaked and cooked, the cooking water from the beans, chicken raised the old-fashion farm way (free-range, eats all the leftovers from the kitchen...I have a hook-up from a friend at work!), chicken broth made from the gizzards of said chicken, same fresh salsa from the tacos, frozen corn, sauteed onions, a little chili powder, topped with sharp cheddar (which I almost always use because it provides more flavor with less cheese - and Claire loves it!) and lots of the same ole fresh cilantro from the tacos. (Doubling up ingredients = smart planning when you're cooking for three.) SO good! Considering the amount of ingredients, I was worried it would be bland. I was pleasantly surprised and owe the tasty goodness of the soup to the wonderful ingredients. Very happy about these recent tasty meals! It feels so good to provide nutritious and delicious meals for Matt and Claire!! :)

Side notes:

Matt eats everything I make now, without complaining! He has no idea what this does for my soul. Most of the food he actually likes, too. :)

I highly recommend making this soup for yourself and your family - the recipe is at http://www.cookinglight.com/ when you search for instant black bean soup. I changed it a little based on what I had on hand.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the soup dished up - the presentation was fabulous with the cheddar and cilantro. :)

I will not, however, leave you without a picture. Claire is ALL OVER lately! She also loves books. She doesn't necessarily sit still to listen to a whole story, but she does like to look at, sit on, and turn the pages of books. :) She's talking up a storm in this picture!

(It's annoying me how the picture is not centered between the two side notes and I can't get a space between the last side note and this note, but it's almost 11:00 and way past my bed time...so I guess I'll have to deal with it.)

Happy Mother's Day to all women!

Mom - You're the best! I couldn't ask for a better mom. I'm the woman I am today because of you. I love you with all my heart, forever and ever.

Brenda - Happy Mother's Day! I am so thankful for you - you helped shape Matt into the wonderful man and husband he is. You're an awesome Grandma to Claire. I appreciate that you're always there to help when we need you. We love you very much!

Claire's latest and greatest:

"I surprised Mommy today! When she came out of the bathroom, there I was, standing up at the step to my room. I got her good! She thought I'd just be staying in the family room."

"Then, later this morning I was suppose to be napping. I got her again! I was standing in my crib...haha - it's so fun to stand! I got out of my nap...yesssss! Mommy took me with to ask the neighbor to lower my mattress, because Daddy is at Grandma and Grandpa's. She could have done it herself, but I was tired and wanted to be held and she didn't have enough time to try to figure it out! Plus, then I got to play with my friends Jeff and Cory. They're so fun! Jeff says he loves me. I can't wait until I can keep up with the older boys!"

Lauren's latest and greatest:

My goal this week is to sew wipes for Claire. I figure, I'm already washing cloth diapers, why not just throw cloth wipes in the mix. Apparently they're really easy to sew, we'll see about that! We've already made the solution before. We got the recipe from Jen and it's way easy! One thing that I got from my mom is the desire to use less. She was 'green' way before it was popular! Way to go mom! (That's one trend you set!)

At church today, all women were honored with a carnation (until they ran out - they'd ordered 4,000). Pastor Mike talked about the tradition of Mother's Day honoring all women, not just moms. Even if a women is not a mother, she sets a maternal example for the children around her. You can hear the sermon on podcast at http://www.hopewdm.org/. How true is it that all women are models to those younger! My life has been influenced by many amazing women besides my mom, especially my Aunt Chris! Happy Mother's Day to the best aunt EVER!

On the move...

Claire is crawling! As of yesterday, she can move both her knees and hands forward. It's shortly before her nine month birthday, and though I am excited that she's now a crawler, I'm thinking we're going to have to be a bit more on our toes! In the next few days and weeks, I'm sure she'll become a crawling expert. :)

A new favorite for 'unser kleines Maedel' is sharp cheddar cheese. She loves all finger foods, I think because she likes feeding herself. However, put a meat (chicken), veggie (asparagus), and cheese (bright orange sharp cheddar) on her tray and she goes straight for the bright orange!

I'll leave you with a picture for a laugh or two. We've started putting Claire to bed at 8ish this month because she got rid of her evening catnap and was just extremely tired in the morning...as seen here. Yes, she's asleep on the changing table. :)

Happy birthday, Aunt Lori!

Aunt Lori made the trip to see us all this weekend. If you asked her though, she was visiting to see her niece, and if you asked her again, she may have included her sister-in-law. She came down for a belated celebration of her birthday, which was March 25th. We went garage sale-ing on Saturday morning and got some cute summer clothes for Claire. We had a late lunch at Texas Roadhouse, her favorite restaurant, where she got to ride the saddle and have ice cream. Then we took a walk to the park yesterday evening where Claire and Aunt Lori swung together. Claire loves swinging! Daddy pushed her up high and she had a big grin on her face. :) Thanks for visiting, Aunt Lori!

Wet Diaper Girl, Wet Diaper Girl

Here's a lovely rendition of "Wet Diaper Girl," composed and sung by Daddy...

(not the best belly laugh, but Mommy grabbed the camera at the tail end of the song, and most of you don't ever get to see Claire laugh)

Ride, Ride, Ride, Hitchin' a Ride...

Since Matt and Lauren loved biking together as a couple, Mommy and Daddy were eager to get Claire biking with us as a family! We got a hand-me-down bike trailer, in excellent condition, from my cousins TJ and Lara. Of course we had to try it right away!

We tried it out Friday night. As you can see from the picture, I think we were both more excited than Claire. First Matt took it around the block for a test spin, then I did, then we strapped Claire in and went TWICE around the block. She was bored, or maybe just tired after a long day, but Matt thinks we need to give her a toy in there next time.

We're hoping to make great use of the bike trails in our city this summer! I'm so looking forward to summer with Claire. Maybe one of her buddies can even join us - there's room for two! (Consider that your invitation Annabelle, Norah, or Sage!)

In other news, we officially have a babysitter for next year! Our friend Sarah is having her third child in September and won't be watching Claire. The woman who gets to spend lots of time with our favorite girl is named Lisa; and we're excited because we've heard and thought nothing but wonderful things about her! She's a mom of four and will be watching two kids - Jack and Ellie, Claire, and another baby (cross your fingers that it's Sage!). We're convinced that finding Lisa was a "God thing" because of how everything fell into place. Thank you Lord! (One for example...we found her on craigslist of all places...which normally I would NOT recommend!)

Panther Pride

Can you believe that win over Kansas?!? We delayed our dinner plans so that we could watch the end of the game. I'm so proud of UNI! If only we were still in college, we could take part in all the celebration in Cedar Falls. We actually let Claire watch part of the game on TV - a big deal if you know that we don't let her watch any TV. ;) To dinner, we all wore purple, though I couldn't wear any of my UNI shirts that Matt loves because we had to dress up a little more than t-shirts. We got a picture, but it's on Julie and Dusty's camera, so it may make a debut later.

(Unrelated to the Panthers victory: To celebrate Laura's birthday, we ate at a Japanese hibachi grill and Claire's eyes grew so wide with the fire in front of us. Watching our griller Eddi work his grill magic was interesting to her. She also got sprayed with Saki. Did Eddi not realize that I had a baby in my arms?!? Does that make us bad parents? Also, Matt was very proud of himself because he ate a cucumber - only because Eddi threw it into his mouth though.)