To Know Me Is To Love Me

That is what her shirt says. 

Test driving a bar stool

I think I'm gonna like it, after we find a new home for the trash can (and the Keystone box).  I think I even want another one to sit right next to it.  Thanks to my new furniture buddy, Raymonn, for the heads up on the very affordable stools at Target.  This might even atone for the fact that you killed a cow to cover the floor in your sitting room.

Should I share a recipe??? Why not?!?

I have been trying to make a very concentrated effort to change a few of my eating habits lately.  Not really for weight loss (although that is never a negative side effect of any change!) but more for the purpose of being a good role model to Willa, to have more energy, and to make good use of the things that are coming out of our garden and from the farmer's market.  I am a big fan of the "clean eating" movement, however I am just not dedicated enough to say I do it with consistency.  I am also a vegetarian (who sometimes eats seafood but avoids butter and cow's milk).  And thirdly, I have a huge sweet tooth, especially when it comes to baked goods like cupcakes, muffins, and scones.  I would kill for a scone right now.

Some of the changes that I am really focusing on for now, until they become habit and I can pick some new ones to work on, are:

-drinking TONS of water.  I used to be really bad about drinking water.

-having green tea at least once a day.  I love the stuff, and I feel like taking the time to make tea helps me to slow down for a bit during a busy day.

-having protein with each meal.  Whether it be eggs, hemp protein powder, almond butter, beans, tofu, or seafood.  Get it in there!

-Making the largest portion of at least one meal a day be veggies.  Lots of veggies.  I've really been digging bell peppers, kale, and zucchini.

I'd say these things are allllmost ingrained in my day.  Some things I'd like to work on next are buying more organic and local produce, limiting sweets to things that people have baked and that look delicious rather than just sweets that are available, and getting back into making green monsters for breakfast.  If you've never had a green monster, those things are like crack smoothies.  I always feel so happy and energetic after I have one!  For some reason, I get annoyed with having to use the magic bullet to make them though.

Now, you know way too much about my eating habits.  Let me share with you something really easy that I made and popped into the freezer for when I am too rushed for breakfast, or for when I need something sweet and chocolatey.  I found the general idea for this recipe here.  I just sort of picked and chose what I wanted in my protein bars and this is what I ended up with:

2 mushy bananas, 2 cups oatmeal, 1/2 cup shredded coconut, a handful of dried cranberries, a handful of mini chocolate chips, a big spoonful of almond butter, 2 heaping spoonfuls of hemp protein, 1 spoonful of ground flax, a few dashes of cinnamon, a tiny bit of vanilla extract and then enough agave and coconut oil to make the mixture sort of "wet."  Just a drizzle of both.  I mashed all these things together and then pressed the mixture into a cookie sheet.  I stuck the cookie sheet into the freezer for about an hour and then cut the mixture into bar shapes.  Wrapped them individually in saran wrap and put them back into the freezer.  They are really good.  The blog I borrowed the recipe from has a whole list of other ingredient options.  I would like to try them with dates and maybe with a little instant coffee.  Or maybe a variation that makes them seem like carrot cake?!?  Oooooh.  I just thought of that!  The picture below is from the yoga blog, but mine actually looked pretty much just like that.

Grandma's Day

July 25th was my mom's birthday.  55!  And she doesn't look old enough to be my mom.  If you've seen my grandparent's or any of her siblings, you'll know its in the genes:)  Willa adores her Grandma Luth.  My parents provide all of Willa's daycare, so she sees them pretty much every day, with our crazy schedules.  It is such a great situation for Willa (and for us).  She gets so much attention and love and one on one time to learn new things.  Most days she doesn't even want to leave their house!  I have to think of some insanely fun thing for us to do when we leave in order to convince her to go with me.  Good thing she thinks things like the grocery store, farmers market, Target, and running in our yard are insanely fun. 
Thank you, mom and dad for being unendingly giving, generous, caring, and devoted.
PS.  It was my dad's birthday 2 days later but the poor guy had to work all evening and we didn't get a picture. 

I wish Instagram could build me a boat

I am finally getting into my Instagram app on the 'ole iphone.  Could you tell?!?  It really makes me look like some sort of photographer.  Or someone who owns a camera, at least.  Which I don't.  

Enjoy this picture, as I don't appear on the blog very often.  Check those horrific tan lines!  From tanking, which was a BLAST.  (No pictures though because Allison+river+beer=well, we didn't find out because I didn't take my phone but it wouldn't have been good.)

Willa and I were on the dock at Branched Oak.  We got to go for a nice boat ride in a little jet boat that was sitting in our garage but that wasn't ours.  Why does this always happen to me?  Fun stuff sits in the shop and it isn't mine!  I'm not even clear whose boat this was, or is, or will be.  All I understood from the story was something about an evil mohawk.  Communicating with Brad is always fun. 

This outing left me wanting a boat.

In Willa's Top Five

We had to say goodbye to one of Willa (and Brad's) favorite people last week.  Darren was a co-worker of Brad's at Star City and one heck of a good guy.  He and his wife, Tori, moved to Kansas last week.  This is one person that Willa just loved to talk about!  If we see a truck like Darren's, or a building that looks like an apartment, she says "Darren's house?!?"  We are gonna miss those guys and hope that they are enjoying their new home and jobs (and that they visit often!)  The above pictures are of Willa "helping" them pack.  Gosh, she's good at that!!

Just because I love it

This birthday party picture gets a post of its own.  It is heartwarming.

Lookin' good, living room!

I didn't take the time to find before and after pictures of the living room that were very similar to one another, which is really annoying to me.  Hopefully you all can get past it and focus on what is really important here and that is THESE CURTAINS!!  As well as a much easier-on-the-eyes wall color and shiny white trim.  The painting in the main living spaces of the house is pretty much done, except for a little bit of touching up.  It really got whipped into shape for Willa's party, mostly thanks to the efforts of my mom who came out and painted almost every night for weeks before the party.  She also sewed the curtains from fabric that I picked out on clearance at Calico House.  I am such a sucker for that color scheme!  I thought I would branch out, try something new...but no.  Turquoise, grellow.  Maybe I'll get sick of it someday. 

And a little living room update, a package arrived on our door step today from our favorite friend who is named after a month and lives in Seattle.  It contained a really rockin' light fixture from Ikea.  Be on the lookout for a new picture of our entryway as soon as I have time to affix a gajillion little white flower-things to a gajillion white stem things.

Beautimous

This little sneak peak was sent to me while I was working tonight by the guy that lives with me and hangs my light fixtures.  And fathers my children.

Willa's Happy Party

Willa finally got her party time on Sunday!  We had a great day together on her actual birthday, but she was very excited to have a party with all her friends.  And to make candy fall from a tree, which she hadn't stopped talking about since we went to Ian's party back in May.  Memory like an elephant, I tell ya!  We let her have first crack at my home-made pinata.  It wasn't a very productive swing, but I think she enjoyed it.  If I ever paper mache a pinata again, I will know to do a few more layers of newspaper and maybe reinforce the top a little better.  Oh, and maybe make sure to have something on hand to string it up with besides dental floss.  At least it wasn't already-used dental floss, I guess!  I feel compelled to apologize to my mom, who volunteered to hold the pinata once it had detached from its floss and wound up with a badly bruised hand.  Oops!

Time for presents!  The other lovely lady in this picture is our cousin, Abbey.  Willa just adores her.

This cute pink Hawaii tee came pretty much fresh off the airplane from the rainbow state, as Aunt Marlys and Uncle Mel just returned from their vacation there!  Lucky ducks...

Willa's cake was pretty tasty, and very pink.  I think it was all the love that went into the egg cracking:)  Will someone please remind me next year that A GOOD MOM PUTS CANDLES ON THE CAKE?!?  How did I forget that?

Willa's Great Grandpa Ray always has stories to share.  Sometimes it is hard to even get him in the car when its time to go.  Which is fine with us, he can stay!

And at the end of the day, Willa's favorite thing to do is play with her very best friends.  Like brooke and Brian.  Thanks for turning 2, Willa!  It was a great day. 

She is like a Keebler elf

Willa was a great help to me, as I made her birthday cake.  She cracked all the eggs!  I don't know too many people who look that good, baking in their underwear.  BTW, I am not in the pictures, but it is NOT because I was baking in my underwear.  Its just a coincidence.

Our little mechanic

These are just a few of the pictures that our favorite Auntie brooke took for us as a Father's Day gift to Brad.  We snuck his dirtbike and a few tools out into the yard and bribed Willa (with cookies) to sit on it.  No bribery was necessary for her to poke at it with the tools though.  She LOVES to help Brad fix things.  The other day, he was laying underneath the bobcat, working on it.  So she layed underneath her tricycle and worked on it, too.  (And yes, I did say bobcat.  It is STILL in our driveway, broken.)  Today we were driving in Brad's truck and he had a part to a boat in a box.  She saw the part sticking out of the box and said "boat."  She saw Brad take the broken part off of the boat and recognized that this was the same part for the boat.  That is one smart cookie!

Her Very Own Special Happy Birthday

Today was the day that the youngest member of this Van Boening family turned 2!  And what a day it was for her (and for her family:)  Brad and I were up late last night, wrapping her gifts, making breakfast muffins, and strategically placing a few balloons and streamers.  Its hard to know exactly how much an almost-2-year-old understands about birthdays, so we wanted her to know as soon as she woke up that today would be cooler than all the other days of the year.  We were also up early, as we wanted to be all ready for the day before Willa woke up so that we could enjoy the morning with her and not be too rushed.  For anyone who knows Brad, it is a miracle anytime he gets up before 8:25.  He must really like Willa. 

When we could wait no longer, we woke the sleeping beauty and dressed her.  Isn't that top just so birthdayish???  I think we overwhelmed her just a tad by going into her room and immediately telling her about all the fun that awaited her.  She handled it well.  If I had been woken with that same enthusiasm and noise, someone might have gotten punched in the face.  WOW, we are not morning people:)   First things first, opening the wrapped presents (which included a few movies, books, and tees), sampling the mocha-chip muffins, and wailing on the noisemakers.

And the BEST part of the early morning, taking the brand new, battery powered, Kawasaki 4 wheeler out for a spin!  That thing is awesome!  Initially, I didn't think she was going to like it.  She took one look at it and declared it to be "yowd".  That is Willa for "LOUD".  She does NOT like for things to be yowd.  She is not a fan of the vacuum, my little food processor, or the lawn mower.  Once we got it outside and papa showed her just what the go button would make it do though, she loved it!  She even sort of figured out how to steer it, after a few run-ins with my flowers and bushes.  It was so much fun watching her learn to make it go!  Too bad we had to go to work at all today:(  But not without a few family pictures.

If I would have been thinking, I would have had one of the friendly road-crew workers come and take a picture of us all together.  They have been hanging around our driveway all week!
The rest of Willa's morning/early afternoon were spent with Grandma and Grandpa Luth.  I believe a trip to Toys R Us and IHOP were on the agenda. 
Brad and I were both able to be done with work around 2:00 today, so we grabbed the birthday girl and took her home for a little nap.  Which turned into a long nap.  Which sort of interfered with plans to go to the Lincoln Children's Zoo.  REALLY wish that place would stay open past 5:00!  Ah well, the pool was just as fun!  We didn't get any pictures there but I can say that Willa is very anxious to be big enough to go off the diving board.  She did her best to convince us that she already is. 

After the pool, we hit up Chuckie Cheese.  I personally was very skeptical about this idea.  Brad was just sure that this was the best dinner option.  I didn't think they would have any games appropriate for a 2 year old and I thought it would be, well, annoying.  I'm glad I gave in, because it was a good time.  Willa loved all the games, even if she was a little young for them.  And there were plenty of little ride-on games that were perfect for her, especially this horse.  It was a little loud and chaotic, but that's ok for Special Birthday Day.  Sadly, this is pretty much where the day ended for me, the boring night shift worker.  It was time for my nap.  As I was headed to bed, Brad and Willa were becoming reacquainted with the 4 wheeler and the new Lightening McQueen toy in the driveway.  When I woke up from my nap, both of my buddies were falling asleep to Cars in the DVD player.  What a great day.  Willa is certainly no longer a baby, but a very intelligent, kind and caring toddler.  The night before her birthday, we looked through all of her little Shutterfly books that I have made for her and remembered things together which was very fun.  She was able to name all of the special people in her books.  Last year on her birthday, we watched her birth video.  I am, of course, very glad we have this video, however I am ok with not watching it very often.  It makes me cringe.  In the same way that I cringe every time I go into a cleaning clients bathroom who has just had a baby and I see that little squirty bottle and the bottle of numbing spray.  And the Tucks medicated pads.  Oh.  Dear.  God.  Bottom line is, even after all that...hemorrhoids and all...I love my little peanut more than I would have ever thought possible.  Happy birthday, Willa!



This is the prize she won at Chuckie Cheese for being a master at ski ball.  Its a pink spider.  Its what she wanted I swear.

  

The start of a very important birthday week!

Willa will turn 2 this week!!!  On Thursday, to be exact.  Here is one of our very first family pictures that we took after bringing the bean home from the hospital.  It is amazing how it feels like that was forever ago and just weeks ago both at the same time...She was so tiny!  I was so big!  Brad...is the same size!  (I think he might have one less piercing, a few more tattoos:)  I love to look back at pictures of her and remember her personality as it developed.  She has always been a funny kid!

Such a nice picture with her papa, just a few days old.  Seeming to be so breakable.  But we didn't break her!  Or lose her, or forget to feed her...Success!

This picture was taken on her six month birthday.  Still no hair but crazy-funny and super-smart!

First birthday!  A whole year ago.  Saying just a few words, eating a few things, not yet walking.  No hair.  Still.

And would you look at that?!?  HAIR!!!  Lots of curly, springy, blonde hair!  What a munchkin.  Quick Willa story, while I have your attention.  Yesterday I was cleaning some junk out of my car when we got home from a busy day.  Will crawled into the front seat and was pretending to drive.  I ran inside with an armload of the junk and when I came back out, she had strapped her stuffed dog completely into her carseat, propped up my checkbook in front of him so he could read, and crawled back into the front seat.  She told me "Goggie book.  Drive to Gramma's." 
Willa, we hope that you have a super-fun week that is all about you.  You are our absolute favorite.

I DARE you to work out with this girl!

If you are a reader of this blog, then that means you are either my mother or someone who knows me equally as well (most likely) and therefore you know that the chickie-poo on the left of this picture is my cousin, Katie.  If you are that one person showing up on my stats from Russia, then let me introduce you to my cousin Katie!  She is one of my most favorite people.  She is also a hair stylist to my hairs.  And thirdly, she is a huge fitness inspiration to me!  So, a few weeks ago I was in Katie's salon for a little emergency hair help.  It turns out, the nitrates in the water at the mini-farm were destroying my hair during the time that our water softener was not functioning.  So Katie was nice enough to squeeze me in and do some repair work.  (The end result: soft, manageable hair.  She is so good...) While the conditioners were doing their thing, Katie and I were having some green tea and chatting and she suggested that we schedule some time to ride bikes together.  So on Saturday we did just that and it was great fun!  We left from Katie's house, in the southeast part of Lincoln and took various bike paths/sidewalks to the Haymarket where we had a light lunch of salad, hummus, and sangria at the Bread and Cup.  Next, we rode from the Haymarket to Lazlo's on 56th and Hwy 2 for a quick glass of white wine and lots of water, then back to Katie's.  I really wish I would have borrowed Brad's bike speedometer thingy, because that seemed like a lot of miles!  My legs (and bum-bones) were sore!  I had almost forgotten how great a bike ride can be.  I really like to run, but sometimes biking is the way to go, you can cover so much distance.  The bike trails in Lincoln have got to be one of my favorite things about this city.  Now that I got that taste of biking, I want more!  I want a bike for my birthday.  I want to learn how to properly use the gears.  I want padded shorts:)  Just kidding but really, ouch.  Another bonus to our workout is that we both got to cross something off of our goal list, which was to ride with traffic on the street in downtown Lincoln.  We were a little nervous about that!  A big thank you to Katie for the great idea and the great company on a hot Saturday afternoon.  Also, thanks to Alicia R for unknowingly letting me borrow her awesome bike.

Before the sun went down

 Its the Luth's and the Petermann's!

In which I attempt to ride a dirtbike.  Note Willa on the pink Ninja:)

 

Every day starts off innocently enough

The first ever celebration happened at the mini farm on Sunday and it was...um...a success?!?  No one was killed?  No, I'm sure no one was killed.  That is all I'm sure of. 
We didn't quite get the to-do list finished, but we did hit all the important things like food, clean floors, and keg.  Didn't get all the way done with the trim painting or trimming the dogs nails but we'll get there.  The night started off with some dirtbike riding and food.  Brad and Sean did jump the smoke bomb, which was visually stunning.  I believe there is a video on YouTube.  I'll try to find it.  I even took my first spin around the track.  It was ugly but it got done.  I prefer the yard, where there are no hills.  After the sun went down, things took a turn for the "inappropriate" a.k.a. the fireworks got a little dangerous and shortly thereafter the keg ran out.  So that is when the little ones went to bed.  Willa at Grandma and Grandpa's and baby Jackson borrowed her crib.  But Willa didn't leave before a little country music dancing with her parents, swimming with Jackson, riding a pink Ninja, petting some frogs, and spending some quality time with her Auntie brooke and Uncle Chris.  (That makes them sound like a couple.  Which they are not.  They just happen to be 2 of her favorite people.)  Many, many thanks to everyone who came to help us break in the mini farm.  I apologize if you were in any way burned or if my husband shot you with a parachute.  I do recall saying (more than once), "Why is my yard on fire?  Could someone please put out the fire in my yard?"  But I don't ever remember being too concerned about the fires so yes, the night was a success.  I think that 4th of July parties may just become annual for us. 

PS:  YouTube video located, click link above.  Major excitement:)  I will share more pictures when mom, the photographer, gets her pictures to download properly.

Only like, 15 days till someone's party!

I spent some time making some invitations for a pretty lady's 2nd birthday party.  Now, if only I could find my address book in the mess that is our home.