Archive | February, 2015

Gift Ideas for a Girl Who’s Turning 4!!!

February 26, 2015 at 10:59 pm

It is not a good sign that I spent twenty minutes making that graphic and then just now realized that it said “…for a girl who’s turning THREE” in big bold letters. I should be in bed!

But this post is fun, and I’d like to send it out into the cosmic void (name that movie), so here goes!

Lena turns F-O-U-R on April 3 and, like usual, I don’t think Elliott and I will be getting her much. Last year we bought her some craft supplies and the year before that I don’t think we got her anything. She has plenty of stuff! But that doesn’t stop me from coming up with things she’d like, of course.

Or things I would like for her. I know you know how that goes…

The first thing is a doll stroller, which Lena has asked for specifically. I actually do have one tucked away that I bought months ago and “hid” in the garage (she saw it) when I found a good deal, but then someone advertised this gorgeous thing for sale and I started to have second thoughts! Isn’t it darling?! Which one do you think she would enjoy more??

The second gift idea is Magna-Tiles, which I’ve had on my wishlist for the kids for awhile. Everyone raves about these nifty little magnetic building pieces, and the kids have enjoyed them at our friends’ houses. I recently heard, though, that Magformers might be a better investment because they have stronger magnets and the kids’ structures will hold together better. Do you have a recommendation?

One item on the list must be BOOKS. I preordered Heidi for my sister’s birthday last year and have been dreaming about getting them for Lena (and me, duh) ever since. For someone who loves Rifle Paper Co. and classic literature, these pretty volumes are a match made in heaven.

I’ve heard such good things about these magnetic toys, and I feel like Lena would love them. She spends hours making designs with these beads, but she’s often stumped about what pattern or shape to make next. Problem solved with this clever toy.

The Tea Collection is one of my favorites for their globally-inspired, ethically-sourced children’s clothes. They always have the most beautiful patterns and prints that remind me of places I love around the world! I shop for deals on eBay or during their bi-annual (I think?) 50% off sales, so I already have a beautiful Tea summer dress tucked away for Lena that I bought before Christmas.

And last but not least, something for the budding artist. I enjoyed these as a child and have wanted to get Lena and Gil a set of their own. I’m a sucker for classic toys that have stood the test of time and bring back the warm fuzzies, aren’t you?

Anyway, that’s a hodge podge of ideas. What toys have the four-year-olds in your life enjoyed? I’m all eyes!

24 :: in gift guide, Lena, wishlist

Catching Up on the 52 Project!

February 23, 2015 at 7:56 am

Last year I took a photo of each of my children each week as part of “The 52 Project.” I only made it half the year and it was sometimes a rather last-minute deal, but it was fun and worth it because look at Gil’s hair! And this is one of my favorite photos ever of Lena.

So I’m late this year, but I think I want to do it again. (Now maybe by March or so I’ll write down my goals for 2015… and do whatever else people usually do on January 1!)

Here are Weeks 1 through 7. I’ll follow up with Week 8 in a few days, hopefully after I get out my “real camera” and have some fun!

Week 1

Lena: Lena: She’s climbing anything and everything these days, and her brother isn’t far behind. This photo is from a quick trip the three of us took one morning to the San Diego Zoo, where Gil learned how to say “koala.”

Gil: Enjoying the last vestiges of Christmas with his Grampa. We spent most of the first week of the year in Virginia with our families. I miss those candy cane-striped pajamas already!

Week 2

Lena: We spent part of Week 2 and 3 up the California coast in Santa Barbara county, where Elliott’s friends have a ranch. I loved watching Lena slip right into ranch life. Look at the way she cocks her little hip as she watches her dad from the back of the flatbed truck! She rides on hay bales back there like a natural, too.

Gil: He rode his first horse at the ranch that weekend! BAREBACK! When we were there in September, Gil wouldn’t let us put him on Bliss, but this time he took right to her.

Week 3

Lena: So content and such a good traveler! She’s always been flexible and fascinated by new places, even when she was two months old and I flew with her to visit Elliott on an Army assignment in Israel. This weekend was no exception… except when we were in the car driving to and from Santa Barbara. That time was not so great…

Gil: We found a real tractor. He got to sit on it. Bliss x2!

Week 4

Lena: We started reading Little House in the Big Woods before bed, and I was amazed by how much I remembered from my own childhood! My mom read it aloud to me when I was about five, and in retrospect I think Lena was too young. We’ll read it again in a couple years when she’s ready for the rest of the series, too. We just finished Charlotte’s Web together last week, which was equally sweet and memorable for the two of us.

Gil: This little guy turned two on January 25! He couldn’t wait to get out of the bath that night to keep playing with all his new toys, and this ended up being my favorite photo from the day.

Week 5

Lena: She’s always coming up with new and hilarious games to play with Gil these days; this time it was finding pillowcases in the linen closet and announcing, “We’re ghosts!” I’ve waited a L O N G time for them to finally start playing together independently, and I feel like it’s finally, really happening.

Gil: Our church celebrated “Scottish Heritage Sunday,” which I’ve never heard of before, but we loved! So much plaid and so many kilts, even miniature ones on a couple adorable little boys! Maybe Gil needs one next year??

Week 6

Lena: Valentine’s Day! We were in the park when Lena’s little friend Caleb got out of his preschool Valentine’s Day party, and he sweetly sat down and shared his entire bag of candy (!) with his brother and his friends. Lena now wants to go to school. (Of course.)

Gil: I learned that our library loans out free passes to the New Children’s Museum downtown, so I took the kids one day. I’d heard so much about the museum for so long, and it did not disappoint! A table of KAPLA blocks, a whole tractor to paint, an entire balcony for blowing bubbles, a gigantic soft squishy playground, a whole room full of books and tent-making supplies, and even a bouncy house… felt like heaven to everyone involved. San Diego wins.

Week 7

Lena: She continues to be my effortless fashionista. (Either that or the topknot is the easiest and cutest hairstyle ever!) We’ve been going to the beach a lot lately, taking advantage of the milder temperatures and sun during the winter. It’s 75-80 degrees most days, so we should live it up while we can! (Did I mention that San Diego wins?)

Gil: Our local MOMS Club took a trip to the Coronado fire station, which was kind of stressful with 91 children (just kidding) but also totally fascinating and very “small town.” The kids watched a real fireman slide down a real fire pole and Gil has wanted to “see pole” (see the picture) every day ever since. Here it is, just for fun:

——–

And now a question for you: how do you enjoy and look at your pictures? All mine are on my computer! Do you print out individual photos and put them in albums? Or do you print photo books through a certain service? I am starting to worry that Lena will lose her memories of Sicily if we don’t reinforce them with photos, but I don’t have a single photo book — or photo! — printed. Help! Where to start?

21 :: in 52 project, memories, San Diego

For Everyone Stuck in the Snow :: Stay-in-Bed Stew and Biscuits Recipes

February 17, 2015 at 4:34 pm

I love all the snowy pictures in my Instagram feed this week, especially after a giant snowstorm hit the East Coast yesterday! So many bundled up children, so many snowmen, frosted trees, covered driveways, well-loved shovels, and ready-to-go sleds. I am almost jealous. ;)

I’ve been meaning to share these two recipes because they’re just too good to keep to myself. Elliott’s mom made this stew throughout his childhood, and we’d barely been married a month before I was learning the recipe myself. It’s the ultimate comfort food in our house on a cold day!

Also, as a mom and a minimalist cook, I love that the soup is a one-pot, throw-it-all-in-and-forget-about-it dish, and the biscuits are easy and fun to make with my kiddos. I have a picture to prove the biscuit-making part:

They both come running and line up like this as soon as I say the word “biscuits.” May you have as many happy memories with stay-in-bed stew and biscuits as we’ve had already!

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Stay-in-Bed Stew

Ingredients

2 lbs stew beef
2 cups peas (frozen or canned is fine)
2 cups sliced carrots
2 chopped onions
2-3 large potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tsp salt (I often use beef bouillon instead)
Pepper to taste
1 large can (not the traditional size) tomato soup
1/2 soup can filled with red wine (you can also use white wine or clear fruit juice works well too)
1-2 bay leaves

Directions

Mix all ingredients in dutch oven. Add water or beef broth to desired consistency. Cover. Bake at 275-300 degrees in oven for around 5 hours or until meat is tender.
OR mix all the ingredients in a large pot. Cover. Simmer on the stove for 3-4 hours.

Serves 6-8, and there are usually leftovers!

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Homemade Whole Wheat Biscuits

Ingredients

1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups white flour
6 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1-2 tbsp sugar (optional)
3/4 cup shortening (I use butter)
1 cup milk (I substitute Silk soymilk for the lactose intolerant, and it works perfectly)

Directions

Blend dry ingredients.
Cut in shortening/butter, preferably lightly and with a pastry cutter.
Add milk and mix till doughy and just blended.
Roll out with a little flour and cut out biscuits. You can use a water glass, but I love these biscuit cutters.
Bake on a greased baking sheet at 350F/180C for 10-15 min or until lightly browned and firm on top.
Makes 12-13 biscuits

13 :: in eat this, hospitality

On Becca’s Bookshelf // January Edition

February 12, 2015 at 2:03 pm

January was a wonderful, wonderful month. I am so thankful for January. It started off at home in Virginia with family, and then we came back to Coronado and really plunged into life here in a new way. I felt like a lot of friendships bloomed in January, and we celebrated Gil’s birthday and our 5th anniversary, and I made some new friends through this and this, and I did a couple cool things on the blog, and Coronado felt like home. Elliott’s schedule was also fairly light, and so we were together a lot as a family, which was especially sweet.

Why am I saying all this? Isn’t this post about books? Is it almost 10pm at night? Am I tired? Is there a glass of wine beside me?

Maybe…

So anyway, January came with some good reads. Well, ok, really just one, but all five were sweet and satisfying at the same time. Also… all fiction! (I’m remedying that in February by reading a massive tome on Hurricane Katrina and getting a seeeerious non-fiction fix.)

Here’s what went down in the reading department in January:

Delicious! by Ruth Riechl — After Garlic & Sapphires, I became a fan of Ruth Riechl, the former New York Times food critic. Delicious! is her work of fiction and seemed promising, even if I felt very confused by the first chapter… twice. (I couldn’t get into it, returned it to the library, checked it out again a month later, was still confused, pressed forward, eventually finished it.) The story revolves around the closure of a cooking magazine in NYC, and I enjoyed the emphasis on food and writing. There’s an Anne Shirley-ish heroine, a bit of romance, eccentric friendships, hidden libraries, and delicious cheese shops. However, too many aspects of the story felt unbelievable or saccharine. Overall, sweet and relaxing, but maybe too much so? — 3 stars

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion — I loved The Rosie Project, a hilarious first-person account of a socially awkward genetics professor on a quest for true love. The Rosie Effect is its sequel, and I put it on hold the instant it became available at our library. But oh… the disappointment of a reader’s unrequited love. The book was scattered, painfully awkward, and much too long. Better to have left The Rosie Project without a sequel. — 2 stars

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikr y by Gabrielle Zevin — I heard that this book was good for book lovers, so I picked it up at the library without knowing its premise. The story moves from believable to fantastical and back again, but it’s fun. A.J. Fikry is grumpy bookseller in a small, fictitious town off the coast of Cape Cod, but his dreary life changes abruptly one night when he finds an abandoned baby in his bookstore. Thus begins a journey of hope and restoration that is laced with good book references and nicely intertwined plot development. It’s well-crafted and ultimately satisfying. — 3.5 stars

Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes — Another Jojo book! (See my review of one of her previous novels here.) This is another of her earlier works, written before she exploded onto the international book scene with Me Before You and One Plus One. Just like The Ship of Brides, I found this book was too long, but this one is better crafted. The characters are easy to love, and the setting of a fading whale-watching town Australia has nostalgic appeal. The main character, Mike Dormer, is a flashy London developer who is commissioned to set up a beach resort in Silver Bay, but when he actually comes to know the inhabitants of the small town — and especially the salt-crusted Silver Bay Hotel — he begins to realize his work will destroy something fragile and precious in more ways than one. — 3 stars

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson — I’ve been meaning and wanting and trying to read this book for years now. Finally I ran out of books to read over Christmas and found this one in my parents’ house. It took me the whole month to read it — slowly, in spoonfuls, savoring and digesting — and I am so glad I stuck with it. People told me, “Nothing happens,” and they were right in some ways, but I found myself more fascinated with the innerworkings of minister John Ames’ struggle to forgive and to say goodbye than I expected. I also found out that Home and Lila, her more recent works, are written from the perspectives of the other two main characters in this story. What a fascinating idea! Have any of you read this or her others? — 4 stars

Of all these books, I’m most interested in what you all thought of Gilead. Have you read it? Do you want to? Did you ever try and set it aside, bored or disillusioned? Or was it the most perfect thing you’ve ever read? Spill the beans, por favor!

18 :: in book reviews, On Becca’s Bookshelf

My Favorite Blogs!

February 10, 2015 at 7:00 am

Recently my friend Jenn asked if I’d do a roundup of my favorite blogs, mostly because she wanted to know some of the resources that have shaped my views about marriage, parenting, and hospitality. It’s always fun to know what inspires your friends, don’t you think?

Well, I thought about it, and I realized I don’t read very many blogs that specifically address any of these things. I don’t read blogs that are faith-based, and I don’t read blogs that take themselves very seriously. However, all of the blogs I do read tend to have common themes that influence my marriage, parenting, and hospitality. Those themes are:

Life is brutal and beautiful (thank you, Glennon), your husband is your best friend, your kids deserve your respect and your adoration, and the happiest place in the world is [often] a dinner table with friends and family.

The really deep stuff — the nuts and bolts and wisdom of parenting, marriage, and opening up your home — I find in great books, wise friends, and my own husband. Probably you’d say the same? (But if you do know good blogs for these things, please share!)

So anyway, without further ado, my favorite blogs:

Motherhood is Crazy (& Wonderful)

Camp Patton, aka Grace, for her ability to make me laugh till I cry. She’s a young mom of soon-to-be five (!!!) kids and wife to a medical resident, and her life revolves around feeding her children and going to Costco in order to feed said children. She has admirable fashion sense and flair for the dramatic, and her posts are always the first I read. This is one of my favorite posts by her. Her Instagram is fun too.

Love Taza because hers was the first blog I ever read regularly and because we lived on Capitol Hill together with our baby daughters at the same time (although I didn’t find that out till after the fact…). She’s sunny and kind and loves being a mother, which is refreshing as well as inspiring. Plus it’s fun to get an inside view into a family’s life in NYC.

Kate Baer for her amazing monthly music playlists, her honest writing about motherhood and womanhood, her short and poignant posts (definitely not my strong suit!), and her pretty Instagram feed. She challenges me.

Tulips & Flightsuits because Mary is a fellow UVA grad and a military wife, and because she writes so beautifully about what is good and true in this life. She doesn’t blog often because she just had her second baby, but whatever she writes strikes a chord. Her archives of her newlywed life are so fun, too!

Glennon of Momastery because of this. And this. And THIS.

Life is Lovely

Dear Friend for the beauty in Anna’s soul that infuses her blog and pictures and clothing and home decor and life! Hers is my favorite Instagram feed, maybe because she lives in Boston. She’s getting married in June!

Reading My Tea Leaves for Erin’s focus on simple, beautiful objects and clearing out flashy clutter. She lives with her husband in a tiny apartment in NYC and just had a baby, and I really respect a lot of the choices she makes about “things.”

Tales of Me and the Husband because Bridget also has great taste and honest words. More points for Boston, too!

Accomplished Women

Modern Mrs. Darcy, aka Anne, because her tagline (“redefining the accomplished woman”) is so awesome and so broad, as is her blog. However, she focuses primarily on books, and her recommendations are spot on. She’s never led me astray in what to read, and my reading list is heavily populated by her favorites now.

A Cup of Jo because it’s like reading a smart but relevant women’s lifestyle magazine in tiny doses every day.

Putting Me Together for her budget-friendly style advice and clothing round-ups.

So Creative!

The Purl Bee because everything they make is so gorgeous and — usually — so simple. Their abundant free patterns for knitting, sewing, quilting, and embroidery make them my #1 resource for patterns and inspiration.

Camellia Fiber Company because her knitting is everything that knitting should be: warm, beautiful, homespun, and filled with love.

(I do not read one single cooking/foodie blog. Bad or good?!)

Friendly Hall of Fame

Our Beautiful Mess which belongs to our favorites, the Arthur family. Her weekly portraits of her children are a labor of love and capture their personalities so well!

Joy of Jo which belongs to my dear friend Johanna, who just started a cooking blog with delicious, homegrown recipes.

Flourish by Esther which belongs to lovely Esther, a magnificent photographer and deep, thoughtful soul.

Journeys of Jax and Oliver which belongs to my college friend Jen. She has beautifully chronicled her son’s successful recovery from scoliosis!

Jumbled Up Joy which belongs to my internet friend Joy, homeschooling mother of soon-to-be FIVE and the first person I’d want to see in Hawaii.

Live in Love and Love to Live which belongs to another internet friend, Carrie, who is raising her family in Mexico, and blogging beautifully about it, too!

Happily Married… to the Cows! Alica lives on a farm in Amish Country in Pennsylvania, and some days I want her life and some days I don’t. ;) She blogs faithfully and honestly about life on a small dairy farm.

… and more that I know I’m missing! … and there are so many friends out there that I wish would blog!

But are blogs becoming a thing of the past? Maybe…? Do you read fewer blogs than you used to? I’ve been wondering this lately.

Curious to hear your thoughts and your favorite blogs!