it doesn't always work out the way it's supposed to.

3-13-9, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

living in a household with two little boys, food doesn't stay around for long. to be honest, food doesn't stay around for long with the big boy in the house either, but he tends to leave their favorite treats just for them.

i bought some delicious organic blackberries for my birthday breakfast. you see, chrispy makes delicious breakfasts and can you just imagine blackberries on fluffy pancakes? don't drool on your keyboard, but he also made a blackberry syrup. seriously.

so we had leftover blackberries, and left to their own devices, my little boys would have eaten them all up. i insisted that they'd make delicious muffins, and so i held the little wolves off. chris tends to brag about my cooking, amazed that i can just whip something up. he doesn't understand that it's about 10% skill and 90% luck. part of that luck is that i have a very good memory and that i tend to remember food combinations that i've seen before. ok, maybe i'll give myself 15% skill, but that's about it.

i had some bananas rotting away so i figured we'd make banana-blackberry muffins. we cut the blackberries into fours because those things are big and you'd probably end up eating a muffin with one honkin' blackberry in the center.

end result: beautiful ingredients in the bowl (see above). icky muffins popped out of the oven.

final determination: my boys will eat anything - they said they were fantastic.

grateful friday + a winner.

thank you for all your sweet responses on my last post. we have a winner!! Merideth is my lucky winner. you can feel free to message me on facebook or email me at maryelizabeth.orlowski@gmail.com. thanks everyone for entering!

3-13-8, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.
 taken tuesday evening, hanging out my bathroom window.

thankful this week:
- this beautiful sunset that just reminded me of God's amazing creation.  
- celebrating chrispy's birthday on friday with special time with the kids and a movie date in the evening.
- time spent with my sister this week.
- having a good friend that is always there to talk to on gchat.
- free books on my kindle.  i find that i am finishing books and reading more frequently and it feels great.

they say it's your birthday.

in true embee fashion, i started a craft about 2 weeks ago and just got around to finishing it. i do that far too often.

i've seen cute kid silhouettes all over pinterest but i've never had kids who would sit still long enough for me to take the right photograph until now. can you believe that my nursery school teacher created silhouettes of us for our parents by having us sit still with a light aimed at us, and she would trace our shadow - crazypants. ain't nobody got time for that.

the basic concept is this: you take a photo of your kid, and depending upon your tutorial, you blacken the image of your kid, and bam! you put it in a frame. i don't like to do things that simple.

truthfully, i saw plain unfinished wooden plaques in walmart and remembered that i wanted to make silhouettes. i also remembered that hey, i have kids that might sit still now. armed with some candy and my camera, i took a picture of each kid sitting in profile view. my plaques were something like 6" so i cropped and sized my image in photoshop and then printed it out. i taped the image onto the plaque where i'd like the silhouette to sit. then, taking a ballpoint pen, i traced around each kid's silhouette, pressing hard enough to leave an imprint in the wood. i went over a few times to get enough of an imprint. be careful you don't rip the paper and actually write on the wood, though. 

3-13-3, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

then it was time for me to stain the wood. i'd never done it before, but it was really quite simple. the only note is that by using a darker stain, you are less likely to see your imprint in the wood. but really, all i had to do was angle it correctly so that the light hit it and i was able to see the imprint.

3-13-4, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

let the stain dry for a while.  you might be impatient like me.  so put on the kettle get yourself a cup of tea and watch paint stain dry. this step is mandatory.

3-13-5, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

then i took white acrylic craft paint and painted inside my imprint. it took about 3 coats.

3-13-6, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

i let it dry for a few hours and it was ready to go. i love how the grain of the wood shows through.

3-13-7, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

now the only question is where to hang them? i originally planned to put them in the boys' room but now i love them so much that i'd like to see them out in the open. so to celebrate my birthday this past sunday and my return back to blogging, i'd love to give one of these away. the winner will need to send me a picture - it can be your kid, dog, husband, whatever.  please leave a comment on this post to enter. you can simply tell me how fabulous i am. i'll close the contest on friday at noon and announce the winner.

grateful friday.

IMG_0587, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.
just a pretty little weed to get me thinking about springtime, new growth, and sunshine

 this week i'm grateful for:
- forgiveness.
- playdates with friends.
- God's provision.
- having more than enough.
- hugs from my sweet little boys. 

respite.

life gets busy. i ended up with an unplanned break from blogging due to the busyness of life. the summer brought beautiful days where i spent many hours studying and then playing in the sunshine with my boys. the fall brought a mix of emotions as i completed the final leg of this teaching journey, but left christian for the first time.

here i am. finishing up grad school, trying to get back into my groove. bear with me, will you?

two recent pictures of my sweet boys. taken about a week apart - christian, outside in the sunshine, and andrew, inside during an unexpected 12 day break due to a blizzard.

3-13, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

3-13-2, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

three.

IMG_0307, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

his birthday arrived after a week of sickness.  mama stressed about another test.  not managing to do anything for father's day. i felt like such a failure.


seriously, i didn't have a card or a gift for him until chris and i went for dinner saturday night and popped into a bookstore to browse.  we found ourselves in the toy section and realized we hadn't even bought him a gift.  i'll admit that i had looked for one about  month ago, but the store didn't have it and i had resigned myself to not getting exactly what he wanted.


we had to postpone his party because he came down with the hand, foot, and mouth virus earlier in the week.  he had a mild case of it, thankfully, but i was totally out of birthday mode since we wouldn't be celebrating until the next weekend.


and then i spent most of his birthday weekend studying and stressing out.  and then i started to feel bad for myself because i'm no good at multi-tasking when it comes to my own life and my family. 


in the end it doesn't matter.  we sang happy birthday to our sweet little boy; had a wonderful breakfast out to celebrate both the birthday boy and his special daddy; ate yummy brownie sundaes; and his big brother picked out a special present for him.  we spent special time together despite my anxiety.


at the end of the night, i crawled right into bed next to my little boy.  three years ago i would never have imagined how much joy he would bring to our family, how big his smile would be, how bright his eyes would shine when would look directly at his mama.  happy birthday christian.  the past three years have been amazing.

grateful friday.

lazy daisy, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

- glitter nailpolish.
- exciting things on the horizon for our family.
- andrew's last day of pre-k. he's officially a kindergartner!
- yasso frozen yogurt bars. thank you, i'll have another.
- my wavy hair. it is starting to not irritate me.