home!

we are so thankful that we made it home safely. we pulled into our driveway on friday afternoon and it was such a strange feeling to actually be at home. i was expecting to be giddy with excitement at being home, but found that i actually felt very disoriented.

we found the house to be in pretty good order. there was a telephone line down in our driveway, which jeremy picked up as he walked up to the house. that prompted a lot of screaming from me as i thought it was a power line. it seems that someone stole our city garbage can. who would do such a thing? and the most disappointing find of all was that someone broke into our garage and stole our grill and all of our grilling accessories. that is a huge bummer.

but in the grand scheme of things, those are all relatively minor challenges. our house is still standing and we are thankful to be safely home. we put 5800 miles on the car this summer and the only car trouble we encountered was a leaking tire, which was fixed for free!

we are slowly settling in and feeling less disoriented. it was wonderful to attend our church this morning - we felt so welcomed back! and last evening was spent at a nearby fair with some of our friends who we missed all summer. the demolition derby was definitely the highlight of the day! jeremy doesn't go back to school until the end of this week, so aside from a few meetings he has over the next few days, we have a slow start to the week to get things in order. unpacking is happening at a steady pace and all of the stuff we hauled in from our car is slowly disappearing into the drawers and cupboards where it belongs. we took our house off the market for now (due to a variety of reasons), so it is nice to be settling in without having to worry about that at this time.

i think the fact that i was away from our house all summer really took it's toll - i'm full of inspiration for little things i want to get done around the house! my first priority was giving our little one an improved play space, which i have already begun working on. we actually rearranged some living room furniture today, despite the unpacking and putting away we have yet to do. i am excited about her space, and about having a house and furniture of our own to work with. photos will come when her space is put together.

i am tired tonight and i think i will spend some time relaxing on our couch. ahh...home.

on the road again

we are on the way home. today marks the halfway point in our nine day trek towards home. so far, we have been through five states - three of them i had never been in before.

in between staying at the wigwam motel...

 

stopping at the albuquerque  balloon museum...

visiting the ghost-town of cuervo, new mexico...

and doing some spray painting at cadillac ranch...

...we've been putting lots of miles on the car and taking in the scenery. we've also been listening to a lot of old mcdonald, which is a frequent request from the backseat. the little one calls out "yiyiyi-o!" until we put the song on. while she is napping, we've been listening to tim mcgraw and some other country music - it just seems to fit. we make quite a few stops throughout the day...a four hour drive can easily take us seven hours. we always find interesting places to stop and let the little one run around. she is so, so cute and she just seems to get cuter every day. we both love this stage with her, and these travels are fun, though stressful at times. 

we are settled into our hotel for the night. tomorrow will be another full day. goodnight!

moved out

we are officially packed up and moved out of our "summer house" and are spending a few days visiting with family before we head for home. ahh...home. we are ready to see you.

the highlight of the day was meeting our brand new nephew. sweet baby boy. we are in love with him.

and our girl has a thing for glasses. even glasses that don't fit.

saturday date night

we stayed in. appetizers while baby ate dinner. 

 

the main course after she was in bed.

and then dessert!

banana peanut butter smoothie shake

i went to make smoothies for breakfast this morning, but felt like making something a little different than our usual blend. i threw a few things in the blender and ended up with a wonderfully yummy treat that i will definitely be making again in the future!

ingredients:
frozen bananas (mine were peeled and cut into chunks before freezing...makes them easy to throw in the blender) - it was probably a total of two or three bananas
ripe (non-frozen) bananas - i used two
cocoa powder
peanut butter
whole milk

i often don't measure when i'm making something, so i don't know how much of each thing i put in. i just tasted it a couple of times to get it right. this totally tasted like a peanut butter banana shake. it was so good!

homemade veggies

we have less than two weeks left in our house here. then we will spend a few days staying with family before we hit the road for home. we've been sick this week. my love was sick on monday...fever and all. i was achy for the last two days, but i struck up a fever during the night. today was my day to be ill. i do not have a fever tonight and am feeling slightly better. my hubby is at basketball camp at the church every night this week (except for monday when he was sick), which leaves me to do the night time routine on my own. difficult when i'm not feeling totally well, but it went okay tonight.

believe it or not, there's actually been some crafting going on around here.

i really wanted to have a garden this year...but when we found out that we were going to be gone from june through august this summer, i knew that was not going to be a possibility. i was bummed that i was unable to grow vegetables this year, but that did not stop me from "growing" some vegetables from wool felt!

i made them for baby...to stock the play kitchen i am planning on making for her when we get home.

i got this book for my birthday:

 

it had been on my wish list for a while, and i am really enjoying it! it has patterns for all kinds of felt foods, but also for a tool set, campfire, toy purse, and more things made out of felt!

the patterns are easy to use and the projects come together easily and quickly. 

 

i am proud to say that i finished all the vegetables in the book (minus the white radish...didn't think a white felt toy would stay white for too long, so i decided to skip that one!). 

 

this has been a really nice summer project for me as it doesn't take a lot of supplies and the outcome is quick and satisfying. and i love seeing baby's face when i hand her a new vegetable! there's nothing quite like putting time and effort into making something for her. that smile on her face when i hand her a momma-made toy brings me so much joy!

she had a hard time leaving the veggies alone long enough for this little photo shoot the other night. i didn't mind.

since finishing the vegetables, i moved on to fruits. so far, i've finished a banana and a pear. the apple and kiwi are next on my list.

i got my felt from this shop on etsy.

my needles and thread came from a sewing set i got for a dollar at rite aid (actually a pretty great set - it came with ten different colors of thread!).

and i've been using the plain old pair of scissors i brought along to cut the felt.

it's all working out alright, but i can hardly wait to get back to my sharp sewing scissors and my own collection of needles and thread.

banana boats

we're both feeling achy today, and baby is taking an extra-long nap...we must have caught something.

besides that, there's not much to blog about today, so i want to share a dessert we had a couple of weekends ago. i had seen ideas floating all over the web about making banana boats in the campfire. we will definitely be making these on our next camping trip, but we couldn't wait that long to try them! one night, we grilled chicken for chicken salad, and i knew it would be the perfect time to try this treat, so we put them together and put them on the grill for a bit. it worked great and they were so yummy!

to make your own, take a banana and carefully unpeel one side of it. scoop out a little channel in the banana and fill with whatever you would like. we used raspberries and dark chocolate, but you could really use any kind of fruit, or nuts, or coconut. be creative! wrap it in tin foil and put it on the grill for a few minutes. peek at it after a bit...once the chocolate is melted, enjoy!