You say Aweo, I say Weo! [Basic quiche recipe]

A couple of days ago we joined a few friends for a relaxing brunch on the beach.  Aweoweo Beach Park is one of those places we love we just donʻt make it there very often.  The beach park has clean bathrooms, a dilapidated playground & of course a beautiful view!

 To say Iʻve been a bit scatterbrained lately is probably an understatement.  As I was planning this brunch with friends I had grand ideas of all the delicious things I would make. in the end I had an hour and luckily a refrigerated pie crust and some eggs.  Which means, ta da! Quiche!  Quiche is one of the first foods I learned to make without a recipe and rarely fails me.  You can add whatever you have in the fridge and get a full meal with little prep or actual cooking. 

 A beautiful view of Aweoweo Beach. this is the view from our picnic table so the beach is pretty close to where you can set -up.  My favorite thing since eating food with sand in it is just not fun for anybody, except for maybe my 20 month old that eats sand by the handful. 

 For some reasons there were tons of sea turtles out that day!  I even got to put on the snorkel mask and swim around with them and creepily watch them as they eat limu off the coral reef. 

 Overall another beautiful morning in Hawaii, all of which I am very thankful for!  

Zucchini Bacon Quiche with Goat Cheese and Fresh Basil

1/2 package bacon, any kind works

1 small-medium zucchini, diced

5 large eggs

1 pre-made pie crust, I like Immaculate Bakery

3/4 cup heavy cream, or Whole Milk

Salt & Pepper

6 leaves fresh basil 

Goat Cheese, to taste

• Cook bacon until crisp, crumble and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees 
• Lightly saute zucchini in a little olive oil, just a few minutes, it will continue cooking in oven.
• In a pie dish, unroll pie crust and press firmly into dish so there are no air bubbles.  Crimp edge fancy if you want. 
• Sprinkle cooled bacon and zucchini on top of pie crust.
• In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, cream and salt & pepper.  Pour mixture on top of bacon and zucchini. 
• Cut basil into thin ribbons and sprinkle over egg mixture. 
• Crumble goat cheese on top of edge mixture, use as much or as little as you would like.  
• Bake quiche at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until itʻs no longer jiggly.
• Serve warm or at room temp! 

thankfultwenty. [Slow Cooker Beef&&Broccoli]

Nicole's Official Thankful 20.
It's the small things. :)

[Thankful for this crazy kid!] 

1.  Going pee BY MYSELF.  If this ever happens it's a miracle, a joyous miracle. A shower is even more awesome.

2.  When the Wii remotes actually have batteries.  This is a rare and elusive thing.  If they don't have working batteries I then try to rotate the same 6 batteries hoping some combo of 2 will magically work.

3.  Free stuff.  Anything free makes me pretty happy.  Things to do with the kids, free food, free baby-sitting.  I'll take it all.  And the best?  Free coffee of course.

4.  When you get a really good lock screen/wallpaper combo on your cellphone.  Yeah, that makes me happier than it probably should.

5.  Unsolicited advice.  I really love when a stranger tells me something I don't want to hear or care their opinion about.  Oh, the baby's too old to breastfeed?  You don't think my carrier is safe?  Actually that was a joke.  Please leave me alone.

6. Mom time.  I am so grateful to have such an awesome husband that is always encouraging me to take a little time for myself.  Trips to Target, coffee with a friend, a nap.  All awesome.  I love him so much for that.

7. The "ignore" button on my cell phone.  It's not that I'm trying to ignore you, I swear, I mean I acknowledged that you're calling me by hitting ignore. Right? ;)

8. Pacifiers!  Tulip is a pacifier baby, just like her big sister Lily.  Those little inventions have saved many a Mom [&Dad] hours of crying.

9. E-mail.  That way if I have something I need to say to you that's too formal to text but I'm really avoiding having to talk to you about than I can e-mail you!  Problem solved.

10.  Potlucks.  Cook one thing and you magically have a whole meal with lots of options!  Hopefully some of them are semi-decent.

[Thankful for my new Kitchen-Aid!  Thank you Mama!]

11. Coastal.com.  Free glasses?  Yes, please!  Without them I would be rocking 3 year old glasses with a super weak prescription or ripped contacts that I'm sure would be eating my eyes alive.
If you want a pair just use the code: FIRSTPAIRFREE  Your welcome!

12. Bobby pins.  Without them I would probably cut my bangs off in a fit of rage one day.

13. Group texts.  When I can't be with my best friends I can at least harass both of them via text about watching Magic Mike at noon on a Tuesday.

14. Airplanes.  Without them I would never get to see my extended family.  At least not without an 8 day boat ride.

15.  Pinterest.  I'm sorry I love it so much, I just do.  I have a rad shirt that says, "Keep Calm and Pin Something" I'm that cool.

16. Tom Hardy.  Especially in Lawless when he's wearing a cardigan.  Yeah, pretty much.

17. That I'm not in The Walking Dead and I don't have to listen to Andrea & Dale every minute of the day.  Two most annoying people EVER.  I hope the walkers get you!

18. Magic erasers.  Otherwise my kid's wouldn't get to use the walls as their own personal coloring pages.  Oh, there not supposed to do that?  Could have fooled me.

19. Cloth diapers. Thank you for saving us ridiculous amounts of money every month & covering cute butts in the process.

20. Breaking Dawn Part II.  Not because it was so good but because I can finally stop making Andy take me to see them and we can do something different for our anniversary than watch the world's most ridiculous love triangle made square.

I know this was supposed to be a Thanksgiving thing but I've been kind of grumpy lately.  Shit has been going wrong, life has been frustrating and hard but I need to remind myself there is SO much to be thankful for.  The big & the little.  Thank you God for it all. <3

And now I leave you with this tasty recipe for.....

Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli 

1 cup Beef Broth

2 tbs. Sesame Oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lb. sirloin, cut into strips

1 16. oz. package Broccoli Florets

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

2 tbs. Corn Starch

White Rice for Serving

[1] In a bowl whisk together beef broth and cornstarch.  Pour into slow cooker.

[2] Add sesame oil, garlic, brown sugar & soy sauce to slow cooker.  Mix well.

[3] Add in sirloin.  Cover and cook on high 6 hours or low 8 hours.

[4] Add broccoli florets, mix and cook an additional 30-40 minutes depending 

on how done you like your broccoli! 

[5] Serve over steamed rice! 

Rants, Raves & Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies.

Holy crap, I don't know how it happens but I swear every time someone posts an article from Huffington Post its always some asshole that talks about how they're not going to tell people what to do, but then there they go and tell you what to do. 

The last article I read, I also blogged about when I was a fledgling blogger, oh....about 4 months ago.  It was a woman ranting why marriage under the age of 25 is stupid, she got a divorce, we're all basically the same, blah blah blah.   So I already thought "Yippee!" [in my most sarcastic tone], when I see this article going around lately.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicola-kraus/detachment-parenting-sears_b_1852579.html

It's another woman talking about how AWESOME she is a parent and how easy it is for her daughter to go to sleep.  All the awesome sleeping & screwing she does and once again, why her way is the best.

I honestly don't know why I let these things get to me.  

First off, I am not an attachment parent.  I won't label myself in anyway cause if I do, I'll fall short.  I already know it.  I REALLY don't like being told what to do, whether by some random blogger on the internet or Dr. Sears, I'm sorry but each family works differently.  I personally don't feel like some random guidelines are going to work well for each child and unlike the writer of this article I have 3, soon to be 4, not 1 that magically did everything I wished. 

[I couldn't think of any clever things to put with this blog so I'll just entertain you with my awesome Instagram pictures.  Here's one of a double rainbow I took the other day!]

I guess in any article of this nature the thing that bothers me is her righteous attitude about what fools attachment parents are.  Like I said, I am not an attachment parent, but please, if I have the choice lump me in with the lovers cause detachment parenting just sounds cruel.  Being proud of how you teach your child to self-soothe from the day their born to poking fun at Mayim Byalik breastfeeding until the age of 4 doesn't make you seem better.  It makes you seem rude.  It makes me think your children will grow up with the same attitude of superiority complex that you have. 

Yes, I breastfeed my children until one of us is ready to stop.

At almost 39 weeks pregnant with a 20 month old that time might come sooner rather than later. 

But guess what?  My marriage doesn't suffer from that.

Yes, I wear my children.  But surprise!  I put them in strollers and other dangerous contraptions too.

To say you know my marriage because you might have some idea of how I raise my children is wrong.

My husband and I put each other first FOR our children. 

That doesn't mean we don't get kicked in the back when one of the kids decides to get into our bed at night, or that we're not sometimes sleep deprived, I've been sleep deprived since I was 17 so really that's just a joke.  I've just traded in Halo marathon playing sessions with trying to get toddlers with night terrors back to sleep.  Same, same right? 

[Me at my maternity photo shoot last weekend at 38 weeks pregnant. 

 See?  I do love my self more than my kids. ;)] 

I'm not saying she's wrong.  For her family she might be right. 

But I would love to see if her own advice works for her 5 years & 2 more children from now. 

Any who!  On to food!

My midwife told me to drink more water & eat more protein to get ready for this impending, 

seriously could be anyway [ahh!] birth.  I wasn't digging the meat and I made Andy some quinoa salad and had been wanting to try this recipe.  These came out pretty decently although I have gotten tips to use a little more Peanut Butter or Maple Syrup which I definitely recommend.  These could be vegan too if you get vegan chocolate chips and peanut butter?  Is peanut butter already vegan?  Hmm.

Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies

2 cups cooked Quinoa

1/2 cup Peanut Butter [I used smooth]

3 tbs. Pure Maple Syrup

3/4 cup rolled Oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

[1] In a bowl mix together all ingredients until throughly combined.

[2] Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

[3] If you want chocolate-y looking cookies mix chocolate chips in while quinoa is warm,

mine are more studded with chocolate chips cause I used cold quinoa.  Either way is fine and tasty.

[4] Using a tablespoon pack the tablespoon tightly and drop cookies onto parchment paper. 

You can put these cookies as close as you want to each other, they won't spread at all. 

[5] Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy! We ate a whole pan of these in one day. Oops. 

Vistorus Interruptus.

As much as I hate to admit it I am a creature of habit.  

I like to wake up every morning, enjoy my coffee, check my Facebook and slowly ease into my day.

Get my burst of energy by the time Andy gets home from work to start cleaning & doing school with the kids, etc.  Everyday may not be the same but most start with coffee and end with me snuggling with my love in bed.   

Having my Mom & sister here visiting from California is so awesome but it definitely throws off my Mama schedule and makes me let things go I might not usually be able to.  And while sometimes that is hard for my Type A personality it definitely does make things seem even more organized when I get back to it. So after a week or so of not blogging I actually missed it!  But time is short so I'll do my favorite type of writing, a list.  

My [current] life in numbers.

[20] minutes until I hope to be in bed. 

[19] the age my sister Jordan turned today!

[18] days till my first Hawaii doula client is due.  

[17] the age my sister Sierra turned today!

[16] my stupidest age, so far & hopefully ever.

[15] pounds I have gained this pregnancy.

[14] days until I start school again.

[13] pages of Fifty Shades Freed I've read.  I give up, I'm over it. 

[12] ingredients in the recipe below.

[11] babies latched on at The Big Latch-On West Oahu I hosted on Friday! 

[10] years I have been with the love of my life. 

[9] years until I am a midwife!  I hope. 

[8] weeks left in this pregnancy! Give or take a little.....

[7] months we have been back in Hawaii.

[6] tattoos I have.  For now.

[5] strawberry shortcakes I made for dessert tonight. 

[4] days left until my baby shower!  Yeay! 

[3] kids I have, for just a little bit longer. 

[2] notifications I have on Facebook, last time I checked.

[1] God I love! 

And by popular demand......

Homemade Jumbo Nutter Butters! 

from www.cookiesandcups.com

Cookies: 

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup extra sugar for rolling

Filling:

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup creamy peanut butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tbs. milk

For cookies:

[1] Cream butter, peanut butter & sugar in a stand mixer.

[2] Add eggs one at a time & then vanilla.

[3] In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda & baking powder.

[4] Slowly add dry mixture to wet in mixer, try not to over mix!

[5] When dough has come together roll into 1-inch balls and then form your balls into logs.  Ha. 

[6] Roll logs in sugar and place on ungreased baking sheet.  Keep them spread apart cause they get big!

[7] With a fork make a criss cross pattern on top of each log, while you're doing this pinch the log in the middle so it makes a peanut shape.  Very good. 

[8] Bake at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes.

[9] Let cool on a rack while you make your filling!

For filling:

[1] Cream butter & peanut butter.

[2] Slowly add powdered sugar.

[3] Check consistency and add milk if you like, may take a little more or less or none at all. 

[1] Spread filling between two cookies & chow down!

Nutter Butter time! 

A full plate is bound to break.

I've been starting to feel overwhelmed again lately.  God has been so good to us with Andy's new job and the time it gives us to spend together and pursue some things on our own has been amazing if not a kind of new concept.  So, at 7 months pregnant with our 4th child it yet again, feels like a new beginning.  We've just gotten ourselves mostly settled here, about 6 months in and we're TECHNICALLY unpacked while still moving things around, trying to find cheap furniture on Craigslist & finishing walls.......

So I guess I just feel the need to change things up,  I used to [ok, maybe still do] want knuckle tattoos that say "restless."  I just can't seem to stay still and we as a family seem destined for a semi-nomadic life.  Going wherever the wind & God takes us, which is ok by me!  

So I decided to become a college student again.  It's been almost 8 years since I have been in school, and it shocks me that time could pass that quickly.  When I went before it always seemed like a battle between school & work, of which I didn't have enough time for both.  Now I don't have time to go to the bathroom by myself so I'm once again reminded of the ridiculousness of my youth.  And while I have always loved learning doing it without a goal in mind made it hard for me to focus. 

I go back August 20th!  Because of my out of state resident status [errr!] And quite possibly because I will have a newborn baby along with a 6, 4, & 1 year old I decided just to take 1 class this semester.  I am so excited to go back while having a hard time struggling with the fact that somehow it feels selfish?  Maybe, because the past 8 years all I've known is being a wife & mother, and sometimes a Starbucks employee.  To take anything from my family makes me think that I'm not giving them enough.  But I have to remember that this is now my enough, that I love them enough to better myself.

So along with school & being pregnant I also signed up to host The Big Latch On this year to promote breastfeeding awareness and have two doula/birth photography clients both due the same month as me. It will be interesting to see how that all works out!  If I can complete the 2 births before I give birth I hope to be able to send in my DONA certification paperwork by January!

 So I pray for God's strength, my own discernment, and a wonderful husband to help get me to the end of this year!  

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" 

[Matthew 11:28]

And since I've been slacking on recipes, and I live in the great state of Hawaii I bring you a recipe for...

Cast-Iron Pineapple Upside Down Cake!

adapted from www.bigmamashomekitchen.com

Make this whenever you're in the need for a tropical getaway.  And no matter how bad for you I know they are I just can't resist Maraschino cherries.  They just taste fake but they are strangely addictive to me.  When I order drinks at bars, or Shirley Temples when I'm pregnant, I always ask for extra of these.  Ooh....red dye #40 you so tasty.

Cake:

2 Eggs

2/3 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Pineapple Juice

1 tsp. Almond Extract

2/3 cup AP flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. Sea Salt

Topping:

1/4 cup butter [1/2 stick or 4 tbs.]

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 20 oz. can Pineapple Chunks

8 Maraschino Cherries

Use a 10-inch cast iron.  The batter won't look like its enough, but it is! 

[1] In the cast iron pan on medium-low heat cook the butter & brown sugar together for about 3 minutes or until it starts looking caramel-y.  It's better to underdo it than over do it, like I did the first time, cause it will cook more in the oven.

[2] Drain the pineapple chunks [reserving the juice for the batter] and add pineapple to pan. 

[3] Cook for another minute or two spreading pineapple evenly on bottom, put the cherries wherever you want in the pan. 

[3] In a stand mixer beat eggs, white sugar, pineapple juice & almond extract.  

[4] In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder & salt. 

[5] Add to the mixer and beat until batter is smooth.

[5] Pour batter on top of pineapple mixture and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.

Let cool & then invert!

The Hectic Homeschooler!

This morning while I'm going to the bathroom Lily comes in with the iPad.

Me: Hey!  I don't want you to take a picture of me while I'm going to the bathroom!

Lily: It's not a picture, it's a video.

Fail. 

As we enter into our second year of homeschooling I have come to learn, that I still have a lot to learn!

Right now we kind of un-school, we don't have a set curriculum and the kid's are still young enough where I think it's beneficial to just learn by doing, trying new things, learning character and how to be as people just as much as book smarts.

We try our best tho and as Lily enters the 1st grade and Jonas goes into Preschool I'd really like to get into a more set schedule of things, I'm sure adding a new baby to the mix in a few months will really help.  Sarcasm for those who can't tell. 

The past few weeks I've really been struggling with the choice to homeschool, I've just been feeling overwhelmed and it feels like something I'm failing at.  I think these are just normal feelings and when I stop to think about it enough I realize how much I love having my kids home with me and how good it feels to be the one to teach them what I feel is important.  

That being said, I do need to catch up!  My goal is to have Lily be a solid reader by the end of this year and I've been trying to think of some things to help with that.  I saw these Speak & Say balls on Pinterest to use at slumber parties with like Truth or Dare questions and I thought it would work well for other things.  So I made one with Kindergarten sight words & one with easy addition problems.  

This was a really cheap & easy project!  I found the balls at Wal-Mart for $1.68, even here in Hawaii and permanent markers are one of my many obsessions.  

With homeschooling comes more hectic-ness that already comes with having young children.

Especially one named Oliver Crash, that child has been testing my patience everyday!  

I now feel bad for telling people Jonas is my "hard" child, it seems Oliver came along to prove his Mother wrong.  

So yes, off course, but coffee!  One of my loves along with my family, sleep, and organization.

Recently figured out how to make my own coffee creamer and I am in love!  I always have the ingredients on hand and it has so much less junk than the bottled stuff, not to mention cheaper since a small bottle can cost $5 here and I go through it like water, literally.

So far I've made up these two recipes and can't wait to try more!  

You can really do whatever sounds good to you but this is what I had on hand for my first two batches.

Homemade Creamer

For the creamer base you will need:

A mason jar

Heavy Cream

Whole Milk [or skim if you want it a little lighter]

Depending on your size jar use equal parts heavy cream & milk, make sure you leave a good enough space for about 1/2 cup more liquid for add-ins.

Vanilla Honey:

2 tsps. Vanilla Extract

1/4 cup Honey

Add to creamer base & shake well!  I like my coffee sweet so feel free to add a little more honey or sugar after you add creamer to coffee.

Maple Brown Sugar:

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup pure Maple Syrup

Add to base & again shake well!

The possibilities are endless really....can't wait to try some more! 

Mom enough?

I know I'm kind of behind on the big Time magazine cover controversy but that's ok, I have other things to do.....like, oh, being a Mom. :)

For those of you that didn't see it here is the cover of the magazine.

I will admit, I never read the actual article.  The debates people had about it were interesting enough, and I read a few good blogs about it.  In case you were wondering I have no problem with extended breastfeeding, although I've never done it.  I also have no problem with the cover in general.  I feel secure enough as a Mother, finally! to not really care what anyone else besides my husband and my God have to say about the way I parent my children.  But, this is supposed to be my attempt at a funny blog and I digress.

I am Mom enough, Mom enough to.....

• Wear my yoga pants inside out for over half a day because I don't pay enough attention to myself.
• Smash Kix into the carpet so they are easier to vacuum, rather than pick them up one by one.
• Allow my son to poop on TOP of the kitchen table because he has a diaper rash and I don't want to make him wear a diaper.
• Go a week without showering.
• Let my kids eat brownies in my bed for breakfast because I'm too tired to get up in the morning.
• Laugh at every joke my 4 year old tells even tho the punch line is always "diarrhea."
• Watch a slice of pizza fall face down on the floor of Costco and then let them eat it anyways.

Power to all you Moms out there trying your hardest to do the best for your children. <3

We are all in this together.

Easy Peasy! 5 in 5. 5 Fun Projects under 5 supplies!

I love projects.  Projects to do with my kids.  Projects to eat.  Projects to help me save money, to organize, to clean, etc.  I'm a project kind of girl.

Here are 5 really easy simple ones I have done in the past few days.

More to come. :) 

Try them out for yourself! 

1.  Easy bubble refills!

[1] Empty Container [2] Water [3] Original blue Dawn

The simplest of all the projects is making bubble refills.  I am constantly buying little containers of bubbles for the kids, they love them, they're fun and easy to do outside.  How can I say no?  

But moving back to Hawaii I'm realizing just how pricey this stuff can be so after buying the latest bubble installment of 2 bubble wands and they used them up in about 30 minutes I decided no more!

Besides the waste factor it's just so easy to do with something I already keep on hand, for stripping diapers, plant spray, etc.

Basically just mix the Dawn & water together, each container is a different size so the ratio will always be a little different but it's super easy to tweak.  Try and blow a bubble, didn't work?  Add more Dawn.

Now go have fun!

2. Banana Pops!

[1] Bananas, cut in half. [2] Popsicle Sticks [3] Melted Chocolate [4] Toppings

With all these easy projects they really are pretty self explanatory.  Something I like, sometimes I'm not in the mood to read directions and if I think I can figure it out on my own I'll usually try.

With these banana pops you just cut the bananas in half, insert a stick [be careful depending on how ripe your bananas are] dip in melted chocolate, chips warmed in the microwave work fine here & then sprinkle with whatever toppings you like!  I did chopped almonds for me and sprinkles for the kids.

Then you can either refrigerate them or freeze them depending on your mood.

I did fridge cause it's easier for the kids to eat.  Enjoy!

3.  Home made multi-purpose cleaner.

[1] Empty spray bottle [2] Citrus peel from one fruit [3] White distilled vinegar [4] Water

I have been looking for ways to save money all over, reduce waste in our home & environment and find some non-toxic ways to clean around all the babies.  Vinegar and citrus go great together!

After you eat a fruit, any kind will work and it will give the cleaner a slight smell, lime. orange. grapefruit. lemon.  Cut the peel into pieces that can be put into an empty bottle, make sure you don't have any of the fruit left on the peel, scrape it really well.

Add some white vinegar, a funnel is handy here if you have one.  I do enough to submerge the fruit about halfway and kind of use the end of the sprayer to poke the rest down.

Let that sit as long as you want, an hour or 24 if you feel like it.

Then fill the rest of the bottle with cold water and shake!

I actually don't know if this stuff "goes bad" I clean A LOT and my bottles are always empty before anything funky happens.  I haven't figured out a method to get the peels out of the bottle yet tho either......

4. Grape popsicles!

[1] Popsicle Molds [2] Halved red seedless grapes [3] White grape juice

Being ever thrifty this project is even a free one for us!  We get white grape juice & fruit vouchers on WIC.  Oh yes, thank you Women, Infant & Children.

Fill the popsicle molds with as many halved grapes as you want.  I like mine full because the frozen grapes are my favorite part, the kids only like a few.  Top off with the white grape juice & freeze!

A pretty healthy snack and nice when I'm sweltering to death 5 months pregnant in a 3rd story apartment with no air conditioning.  Boo.

5. Coffee Pot Fish Bowl

[1] Marbles, rocks, etc. [2] Water [3] Old Coffee Pot [4] Fish [5] Fish Food

This one really is as easy as it looks!  I cold brew all my coffee and someone had given us this coffee pot so I just put it away knowing eventually it would be good for something!  A few months later, someone gave us a pregnant guppy, now named Rainbow Dash, thank you Lily & that's the story! 

You can cut the cord off the coffee pot if that kind of thing makes you nervous, I just put tucked ours into the space for it on the back of the maker.  I took the filter out of the top too so I can store the fish food up there and there's no muss, no fuss!

Just keep swimming! 

 Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors,
Deuteronomy 30:8-10

Mom's Day Out [w/ What to Expect When You're Expecting review]

So, I'm new to the blogging world.  Kind of.  I've always loved to write in journals and then on-line. 

I was a big Myspace fan, yes I'm dating myself but it is true.

I had a TEEN Live Journal, super cool and a few other Blogger blogs along the way that I've kind of just forgot about, or forgot the password to.  But this time I'm committed!  I swear.  I would love to be able to look back at this 10 or 20 years from now and remember the things going on in our lives, my kid's when they were little and it's kind of like a virtual scrapbook, something I use to enjoy doing when I was younger, like high school, if you haven't gathered I was/am a nerd. 

That was a long winded explanation as to what this blog will be about, while I would like to envision sharing my wisdom, reciped, diy, cleaning, perfectionist tendencies with the masses I would also like this to be a personal journal of the things I enjoy, the people I enjoy doing them with & the God that lets me enjoy them at all. 

Had a great Mom's Day Out yesterday! 

Since getting to Hawaii I haven't really been able to connect with anyone too much despite having lived here before.  For me, that's hard, I'm a people person and while I do love my computer as much as the next person I like BEING with people.  Actually being with them, letting our kids play together, talking, eating, and more often than not drinking coffee.

So when the opportunity came up to spend the day with a new friend from church I pounced on it!

I met up with K at Ala Moana Mall in Honolulu, it was a perfect timing since she's actually in the hospital today delivering her 2nd baby, a sweet girl named Noel, by C-Section today.  Many prayers and birthing dust sent her way!

We're both bargain shoppers, I love a good deal and really try to teach my children the true value of money.  So we shopped around the mall for a bit, I found the perfect kitchen table for us at Sears for $89!

I'm really excited for this one since we've been using a folding table and chairs since we got here.  The benches open up for storage which is also a huge plus for me!  I've also started Christmas shopping as well, in May, I know.  But with 4 kids this Christmas as well as everyone else I try to pick up a few things here and there that I find for cheap so it's not overwhelming us towards the end of the year.  I don't believe Christmas is something to get in debt for!

Got Lily a "My Dad is Rad!" shirt, Thor & Hulk Ugly type Dolls at the Disney Store for Jonas and an adorable yellow plaid jumper for Tulip.  Also my beautiful friend K brought me a bag of brand new clothes for Tulip!  It amazes me how God can provide so much through the people that truly care about us.

After some very fun shopping we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.  Food is one of my greatest pleasures, both cooking it & eating a great meal someone else prepared!

                              Small bites! Asparagus & Arugula Salad with Korean Beef Tacos.

Our preggo lady fancy drinks for lunch.  Peach & Raspberry Italian Sodas with cream.

The food was great and the conversation was even better.  It has been so great to find some really good Christian women friends in that we can encourage and support each other without gossip or negativity, two things that I really cannot stand in my life anymore.  It has been hard lessons learned that these things we're not doing anything for me.

After lunch we ended our wonderful day out with a trip to the movies!

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Pretty fitting if you ask me, although if you ask me I would also not recommend that book to anyone pregnant woman!  We do not need a scare manual, pregnancy is a beautiful, natural process that we as women are blessed to get to experience. <3

The movie follows 5 couples as they go through the journey of being pregnant.  

I thought it did a really good job in showing the many different sides of pregnancy, they depict a miscarriage, someone that ends up getting a C-Section & an adoption.  All sweetly and without too much drama.  I read some other reviews that talked about the thin plot line, etc. And yes it doesn't have the most in depth stories ever but they are all done well and my favorite part was the Dudes Club, a group of Dads that like Moms complain about their kids and how challenging it can be at times but also love them and feel happier than they have every been in there lives.  It really reminded me of my husband and what a great Father he is, if you've seen the movie the Chris Rock character reminds me of him the most! 

Maybe I'm getting older, or maybe life has been harder on me where I don't want to see fights, back stabbing, affairs, or maybe I have gotten *gasp* more conservative but the light hearted story line was exactly what I was in the mood for. It is definitely one I will buy when it comes out, plus anytime I see a newborn I pretty much bawl. 

All in all a great day, awesome deals, good lunch, and a cute movie.  

Can't wait to do it again!

My beautiful friend K, the day before she gave birth to her daughter Noel & me at 21 weeks with Tulip!