Smiley Pearl Girl

Love, love, love this babe.

Old Mother Hunbard

She doesn't live at or house, but a look in our fridge might have you fooled.

I'm trying to see how little I can spend on groceries this week. I am close to maxed with the budget and I want to see how well I can do with our food storage and what I've already got. I am generally retry good about being frugal and making things stretch, but this week in particular I am flexing my "waste not, want not" muscle.

Happiness

The more I mother the Moreno see that happiness really does come in moments.

So often lately I just have wash over me the beauty of my life- our family, our home, this stage in our lives- and they are beautiful moments of happiness. 

Marvin Goldstein

Thank goodness for Marvin Goldstein medleys on YouTube. They are the one thing that soothe Pearl consistently. We listen to them every night. 

Favorite moment of today

My friend Sheila dropped by with some things for is this morning as Eliza and I were going out to get in the van. She dropped down on her knees to talk to Eliza , who became an little shy, but very sweet. Sheila asked her if we have a new baby at our house, to which Lyzie yes.

"What's the baby's name?" Sheila asked.

"Baby." Said Liza.

"Yes, baby, that's right," said Sheila, "and do you know her name"

"pearl," said Liza.

"that's right! And how old are you?"

"Two."

It was just such a sweet conversation.

My little Lyzie, the big sister! getting so grown up.

On Failure

Recently we have been watching a Netflix Docu-series called Chef's Table. It is fascinating. Last night we watched the episode on Dan Barber, who is acclaimed as a leader in the farm-to-table movement.

He said something which I have been thinking about a lot:

"Failure is extremely important. It takes us to a place that we never want to go back to."

Whole Wheat

A few months ago we invested in a high quality wheat grinder. We now can produce our very own stone ground wheat. It is awesome.

In consequence of this, we make a lot of whole wheat bread that Tinoa takes to work every day. He likes it VERY grainy and nutty and dense. I am also becoming very interested in this website: idareyoutoeatit.com and recently cooked a huge pot of wheat berries with my slow cooker. Oh the provident living.

All the wheat makes me remember my freshman year at BYU when a friend of mine's older brother had written his fiance a song with the lyrics, "I want a 100% whole wheat girl."

Holding Hands

Yesterday we went to the Rec Center. We take the girls there several times a week to go swimming and it is a lot of fun.

As we were walking in, I was holding hands with Lyzie and Evie. Evie suddenly hugged my arm and said, "I love you, Mom! I really do!"

It made my heart smile big.

On Facebook

I imagine I am not the only person in the universe who has a love/hate relationship with Facebook. And also Instagram.

Sometimes I think they are awesome. I love feeling connected with people and seeing pictures of friends, family, and family of friends (as in, say, the adorable children of friends of mine from college) that I have not been able to be with in person in a long time. I also like it as a means for knowing what people are up to in my neighborhood, or as a way to spread news about events, or other such pros.

But sometimes it just ends up feeling like all those connections aren't very authentic and make me feel lonely.

Or I see that some people I know will post a status or a photo and get some 949 likes (this is literal, I follow a relative on Instagram who has gotten over 1,000 likes on her images) and I think, good grief, I don't even know 90 people, or 19 it seems. How on earth are there people so well connected that 949 people like what they post? When I get, say, 12 likes for a photo.

It makes me feel like I live in a small bubble and like I could potentially be happier if I just deleted my accounts.

Pros and cons, pros and cons.

Spanish Rice

Two weeks ago I found a recipe for Spanish rice. It is so easy and (in my opinion) so yummy that I am now a little obsessed with it. I have made it 4 times in two weeks. I am officially on a Spanish Rice Kick.

Because I know you now need the recipe, here it is:

about 2 T oil
1/4 C chopped onion
1 1/2 C white rice (don't rinse it!)
2 C chicken broth
1 C good quality salsa (so far I have liked Pace the best)

Heat the oil in the pan. Saute the onion until soft and golden. Add the dry rice and saute with the oil and onion. Stir in the chicken broth and salsa. Cover, reduce heat to low, and allow to cook for 25 minutes or so until the liquids are absorbed and the rice is cooked. Fluff and serve.

On Two-Year-Olds

Recently Evie came up to me holding a blue rubberband.

"Mom," she said, "This is a bracelet for bad people. Like," [with perfect listing intonation] "dinosaurs, bad queens, and lions."

"Oh," I said.

"Yes," she said, "So I'm going to find Lyzie and put it on her."