uncle jake, he had a farm EIEIO

We went on a little weekend adventure on Friday. Had to go see the baby moo's and baby meow's. And the buzz-lips-like-an-engine tractors. It was a great trip. We all got to ride in the tractor with Uncle Jake, Ivar and his second cousins Ida and Stella became quick playfriends, Aunt Louie made me my alltime favorite spaghetti and cheese sauce, and Ivar let us know when it was time to visit the cows again by standing at the front door with his shoes in his hands yelling, "moo!"

The coolest thing at this farm right now are the farmers. Uncle Jake is now farming with his daughter Sarah. Sarah is my elder cousin by three months and is working to take over the whole operation one day. She's tough as nails, mother, wife and 31-year-old female farmer. I mean, for real. I just think this is so cool. I'm so proud of her.

On Friday night we were up talking and Uncle Jake came and gave Sarah instructions for the morning. She is driving this tractor lately, over the planted fields, pushing down the large rocks with those heavy rollers. Uncle Jake told her she had 1 1/2 inch clearance on either side...if she got the wheels of course at all she would rip up the newly planted beans with the tractor tires.

It made me think about how sometimes I hit that buzz strip with my ford focus on a large highway, and how Sarah only had 1 1/2 inches of grace with this huge tractor! It also made me feel badly that we had stayed up so late when I saw her in the field the next morning. No dozing on a tractor.

We went to a farm auction on Saturday morning. That was a whole new experience for me. We left for naptime, but they actually auctioned the entire farm at the end. It was an old farmer's place, now dealing with memory loss. Cool to see the community show up and so fun to take in the banter of an auctioneer.

 And then, perhaps the highlight for one person in attendance: we shot guns.

Even the 8 month pregnant mama shot a round. This gun hit my shoulder hard...I wasn't a huge fan. But my husband was a huge fan of watching his round belly wife fire a weapon. Which made it all worth it.

good reading

Sometimes blogging is tricky because you're just not sure what to say. This week Ivar and I have been taking lots of walks and spending lots of time with his new swing in the backyard that is tied to the lowest branch of our biggest tree. That's really all I have to report on.

But other people seem to be saying good stuff this week...and I thought I'd pass a few favorites from this week your way.

Jamie threw an amazing Watermelon party for her son's third birthday. I have already informed her that I may very well copy this one in the near 3-5 year future.

Sara was interviewed on some radio station and packs a good conversation in a short amount of time. The announcer guy is the quintessential radio personality. It's sort of a riot.

Flo wrote beautifully about her own mom.This blog is quickly becoming a new favorite. (and she goes to my church!)

Sara wrote a post on editing that makes me so happy to love words too.

Meta wrote an awesome piece about her favorite night of the week.

Enjoy! Happy Weekend!



our first photo booth

At church on Mother's Day they had a few photobooths set up for mom's to get a picture with their kids. I loved this idea so much... Just that week I had received an email that the church was looking for pictures of mom's and our kids for a slideshow they were putting together for worship and I didn't send one in because it has been so long since Ivar and I have taken a picture together...just the two of us. So this was a gift!

A photobooth with a one year old is hysterical. As you can see, he never took his concerned eyes off of the camera. He wasn't really into making specific faces (silly, serious, tongues out, smiling) with me for each frame. Which made me laugh. 

I love these shots. We'll be utilizing more photobooths in our future! 

babymoon

I wrote last week about how it dawned on me that if we are going to go anywhere before baby #2 arrives, we had better hit the road. And looking at our calendar for the weeks ahead, it became quite obvious that we needed to sneak in this trip as soon as possible.

Within 12 hours I had booked our favorite place on the North Shore and pulled some pretty mighty last minute favors for Ivar-care with grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles. It was amazing that it all worked out and made the whole getaway that much more charged with excitement.

I've written about our love of Lake Superior before...if you're looking for a fantastic vacation destination check out the posts I've written...this one on my personal north shore favorites here, why this place is so restful for me here and a lovely picture slide show from our trip a few years ago, here.

The new highlight for us this trip was our discovery of The Rustic Inn (or Rustic Cafe?) in Castle Danger. Looks like a ma and pa restaurant right on hwy 61, and blows you away with gourmet. It was one of those meals that we ate while talking about the food we were eating, unable to stop raving over each thing on our plate.

And as every getaway always proves to be, our time together was restorative, necessary and so good.

could I love him any more?

Nope. My heart is overflowing for this kid. This is his smile when we ask him to say, "cheese!"

Bapa!

On Sunday Shepherd of the Valley had the annual petting zoo raising money for Heifer International. During the service my dad was leading the liturgy in the sanctuary that seats 900. We were in the third to last row and every single time my dad stood up to speak, Ivar would swivel his neck, get to standing position on my lap, point excitedly and yell at the top of his lungs, "Bapa! Bapa!"  It was hysterical. And loud. And it meant we had to keep leaving the service. But Ivar was thrilled to see his Bapa and wanted to make certain that none of us missed the fact that it was his Bapa up in front.

summer is on its way

I don't know what it was about Monday morning, but the sky seemed more blue, the sun seemed brighter and even though it was still sweatshirt weather, I felt my first taste of summer bliss. We took a family walk to Lake Harriet and it dawned on me that if we are going to go anywhere this summer, we had better squeeze in our trips before the doctors say I can't go anywhere before delivering baby #2.

So I've been in summer road trip planning mode this week. They have to be short trips, they have to be fairly close to the cities and they have to be relatively inexpensive. Any suggestions? Favorite small towns? Favorite state parks? Favorite one or two night destinations?

ladybug cupcakes

On Friday, Annika and I got together to frost Mara's cupcakes. Mara had found a picture in a kids cookbook of ladybugs. Aren't they cute?!!

I helped lead the games at each girls birthday party, and tapped into my inner camp counselor...big time. It was super fun, super comical and super exhausting. This first game was like a cake walk, except the numbers were scattered. When the music stopped everyone stepped on a number, we pulled a number from a hat, and the person on that number got a starburst. That's a winner of a game. Easy and active.

And what is a birthday party without the fishing game?!! The fishing poles were loaded on the otherside of the sheet with a gummy worm and sent back over. Yum and Fun.

Each party was a little different, as Mara's party had eleven kids around age 7 and Sonna's party had ten kids around age 5. Very different attention spans! :) But between the two, we also played Birthday Blanket Name Drop, Birthday Tag, Sonna Says, Duck Duck Grey Duck, Pin the Cloud on the Rainbow, Balance Beam (with a book and an umbrella), Birthday Tag, Stone Stone and at both parties a spontaneous dance party was held shortly after the cupcakes had been consumed, thanks to the sugar high.

rainbow cupcakes

Well, I think we can all agree it was just a matter of time. I finally made the rainbow cupcakes. This weekend was filled with birthday celebrations and cupcakes as Mara had her party on Saturday and Sonna had her party on Sunday.  So I gave the rainbow cupcakes a go, with a sweet request from Sonna to make them like the rainbow cake, but just with tiny cupcakes. They turned out splendidly.

This blog post was sponsored in part by Red Dye #40: Nothing Natural About It.

we never got out a christmas card, so...

...from our family to yours.

Little Little Mama

Ivar at 18 months (He’s one and a half!)

Ivar likes the L sound. We sing Allelu Allelu Allelu all the time. He has started saying a very exaggerated “he-LOW, hello” And yesterday in the car he kept repeating, “Lil lil Mama, Lil lil Mama” And it made me feel good, because this mama is feeling anything but little lately.

Ivar likes to lift up the cushion on the glider rocker and hide his trucks and balls there. So when I go in to read him books before bed, I often feel like I have just laid a few eggs. Sometimes I try to ignore the fact that there is a truck under me, but that’s a hard one to ignore.

I wagged my finger at Ivar telling him no, and now Ivar wags his finger back at me, telling me no.

He loves trucks, tractors, trains, cars and airplanes. We have a Richard Scarry book and he will only settle on four of the pages, the ones that have proper vehicles pictured.

When we are greeted at the door at church, the greeters will always try to talk to Ivar. And Ivar never says hello. He just buzzes his lips and points to the parking lot as if to say, “that’s our car and I love our car, and on the way here we saw all sorts of thrilling vehicles going fast on 494.”

Ivar’s words: ball, bottle, nana (banana), mama, dado, toonsie, kitty, bow wow, bapa, papa, mimi, meow, cheese, mo! (more), baby,  nigh nigh, nose, e’s (ears) tee (teeth), peas (please), am (ham), uh oh, no, esss! (yes), boon (balloon), Onna (sonna), nack (snack), fishy, wada bottle (water bottle), baththththth (bath), neigh, E-man! (Amen!)...

Ivar knows when a conversation needs to end. If he thinks we're talking to long to another person he will smile sweetly, wave and say, "Bah Bye. Bah Bye." He tried this at the doctor today when he was sick of being poked. He also pulls it out when we're talking to friends after church, people we meet while out for a walk, or anyone who seems to slow his pace of life...

So with that, I had better sign off. Bah Bye.

all sorts of random

                                                                                  
***Sara, Lisa and I made these sugar cookies for a bridal shower. 65 of them. Aren't they adorable?

***I walked into the church bathroom on Saturday morning and the lights were out. The door closed behind me and I began swinging my arms around to let the motion sensor know that I was in fact there. For quite some time. But nothing happened so I opened the door again and was then able to see the light switch that was on the bathroom wall. The old fashioned kind...one that I had to physically flick up. Oh right, I thought. The light switch...

***I forgot my Pinterest password for the last week or so. Couldn't remember it for the life of me. And that was probably good. Took a breather. But today I tried a few more random rounds, trying to get into my inner-brain and I cracked the code. Oh Happy Day.

***I am ravenously hungry this week. Something important is going on inside of my womb because I cannot seem to fill up. Ever. So I started a new pinterest board for high protein snacks and smoothies. It's lovely. And hopefully filling.

***My folks were over last night to watch Ivar and when Rory and I returned they were in the middle of a news tv show that they wanted to finish. So Rory and my dad sat through the last hour of a program on the financial collapse of wallstreet. And then I got to listen to my husband and father debate for another hour. They seem to enjoy it. They're both well read and educated, but land polar opposite. Made me wonder if anyone else has these lively conversations in their family.

***I make the best burgers. I'm just going to say it. I've never had a better one than my own. It's good to have one meal that you can hit out of the park. Good for the self esteem. The secret? A whole lot of chopped onion, minced garlic, all spice, pepper, worcestershire sauce and A1. Yup. All of that. In one burger.

***Ivar speaks in sound effects. When we see a truck he buzzes his lips. When we see a dog he yells, "bow wow!" When the cat comes in the room Ivar greets him with a falceto "yowwww." We are hopeful he might be the next Michael Winslow.

it's may day!

Ivar started out his day wishing Toonces a Happy May Day. Toonces was thrilled!

You may remember that I take May Day very seriously. I've written about it here and here. And thankfully my neighbors do too. Last night when we got home from a night at the mall of america we found this note on our garage door. Kathryn came over and gave us a beautiful basket with a bouncy ball for Ivar and brownies for the rest of us. I asked Kathryn why she was a day early and she said, "well, I volunteer at the elementary school all day and tutor kids all night. Didn't want you to think I had forgot." 

banana punch

My cousin Sarah made banana punch for Kathy's shower. And Kathy had made banana punch for the shower she threw for Sarah and me almost a year ago. I swear there is no better punch out there.

We did not have tea at this tea party. Instead, we kept refilling our tea cups with this slushy goodness.

I took my first sip and had one of the strongest taste associations of my life. The moment I took a sip I was back in the entryway of my Aunt Louie's house, offering punch to who ever was visiting for what ever open house it happened to be. It is a sticky mess, fiercely addictive, and I believe Sarah and Kathy and I, serving as the punch pourers at every open house, drank as much as all of the other guests combined.

Banana Punch
makes 25 servings. Or three servings, if it's Sarah, Kathy and me.
4 cups sugar
6 cups cold water
46 oz. can unsweetened pineapple juice
12 oz. can lemon juice
Two 12 oz. cans orange juice concentrate
5 bananas (blended in blender)

Stir sugar and water until dissolved. Stir all ingredients together and freeze in a 5 quart ice cream pail (or a couple gallon pails). Set out so it gets slushy before it is time to serve. Mix 1/3 of the mixture with 1 liter of 7-up. (By mixing it in thirds, it will stay slushy for a longer period of time.)

**FUNNY STORY: my mom made this for my brother's confirmation and had just put the mixed, not yet frozen, banana mixture into the freezer in an kemps gallon ice cream container. My brother, not knowing it was not ice cream, grabbed the handle and pulled it out of the freezer, which dumped the sloshy punch stuff forward, spilling the lid and spraying a gallon of sticky juice stuff on every surface of the kitchen.

My mom has not made banana punch since.

Kathy's Baby Shower

We celebrated Kathy and the little life growing inside of her on Friday with a Baby Shower Tea Party. It was a lovely. It was good to be together just two days after Aunt Jan's funeral. It was good to celebrate life, to share a meal together, to ooh and ah over tiny baby things.

Kathy had lots of help opening her presents. I believe the five little girls in attendance (all under age six) were more than willing to help pull out each gift, get the tape undone on the sides, and start to take the paper off...all to assist Kathy.

A favorite moment: Kathy got a picture frame with a poem etched on the side. Mara said, "you probably could just take out that picture (the generic black and white photo) and put in a picture of your own baby when the baby comes." We all agreed that was a very smart idea.

The menu was divine:
Ham balls from the Welcome meat locker (like meatballs, but ham. blew my mind.)
Cucumber sandwiches
Tortellini Pasta Salad
Fruit Salad by Aunt Diane
Aunt Annie's Deviled Eggs
PBJ's cut with heart cookie cutters
Aunt Jan's shrimp dip with fritos
Clementines
Gold fishy and Animal crackers
Candy from Sugar Sugar
Frozen fruit cups
Cupcakes
Banana Punch

Oh did we eat well. And in a crazy twist, there was no tea consumed at this tea party. But that banana punch has earned itself a blog post all of its own. Stay tuned for that one.

28 weeks

...and 35 weeks!

Did you know that 28 weeks is the start of third trimester?!! Neither did I until the good people at The Baby Center sent me an email to let me know and I am elated. This has been one long pregnancy and I am happy to have hit this milestone.

However. Just to keep things in perspective. This picture is me and my cousin Kathy. Kathy is 35 weeks and is finishing her FINAL rotation of residency. She's a pediatrician and works 30 hour shifts. THIRTY HOURS! And she doesn't get any naps! She is one tough mama.

My belly is getting bigger. Ivar used to see my tummy and say, "baby." But now when he sees my tummy he says, "ball." It got a lot rounder this month.

Aunt Jan's banana bars

Aunt Jan was known for her date bars, brownies and banana bars. But given then choice at any event where all three happened to appear, I chose the banana bars. Emphasis on the plural of bars. Because I tend to have no self control when it comes to cream cheese frosting and don't believe I have ever eaten just one singular banana bar.

Here is the recipe. It is a winner.

Aunt Jan's Banana Bars
Cream Together:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs (beat)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana

Mix dry ingredients together and then add to above mixture:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt

Bake in a 9 x 13 baking pan for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

And the Cream Cheese Frosting!
1/2 cup softened butter
8 oz softened cream cheese
4 c. powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

beat well. Be sure the bars are completely cool before you frost them. And then cover and keep these bars in the fridge so they're well chilled. I think this was key to how much I liked them...they were nice and set up by the time you ate them at room temperature...not too runny or mushy.

"you're looking sharp, kid."

My Aunt Jan passed away on Friday night.

A long battle with cancer makes the ending a bit more complicated. There is relief mixed in with the grief. She fought hard. She fought long. And part of me is comforted by the fact that she is comfortable again. And feasting at a heavenly banquet after two years of a feeding tube. She has a voice again, with a whole and healed body.

But she still died too early. Cancer is cruel.

When Ivar and I were in Mesa he loved visiting Aunt Jan's house, because Aunt Jan clapped. And he could clap too. Without her voice, this is how Aunt Jan got our attention to look at her laptop or notebook so she could contribute to the conversation. Ivar thought this was the greatest. Before we'd even get through her front door he'd start clapping. "I like this lady, she's the one who knows how to clap!" And they would smile and laugh and clap and delight in the other.

Today we'll join in the clapping. Applause, applause to Aunt Jan, for a long and strong fight. For loving her grandkids to pieces and scrapbooking their childhoods (HUGE books for each of her grandchildren!), taking the time to interview, compile and print our family lineage, history, stories. Applause for maintaining strong relationships with our Swedish relatives through travel and endless correspondence. For spending her working days as an advocate for those with mental illness. For making the world more beautiful through her art: stained glass, knitted sweaters, rosemaling, and numerous crafts. For her love of color and kosta boda glass, her bright blue couch, thanksgiving feasts and banana bars.

Applause for coming to so many of my band concerts, plays and recitals. And for always saying the same thing each time she saw me, "You're looking sharp, kid."

pardon me, as I eat my words...

Last Monday I had 17 tabs open on the top of my computer. Saving recipes, future art projects, blog posts I really enjoyed. And my favorites column on the side of my computer is complete madness. Over 100 things bookmarked that I hope to bake, make, organize, duplicate etc...

The next day I went to make sugar cookies with Lisa and Sara and we started talking about Pinterest.

I have forever said I would not go there. I was certain it was a black hole time suck and that I would never, ever get out if I stepped foot in that lovely land that everyone raves about.

But then I started looking around a bit, and I realized this: Pinterest is like Computer Organization. There is finally a home for all of those posts I have marked in my favorites column. Essentially, Pinterest provides a labeled tupperware tub for various online ideas. And you know how I love me a labeled tupperware tub.

And so this is how I am justifying my leap into the land of Pinterest. Sounds good doesn't it? Justification is always an interesting thing. Truth be told: It has been a black hole time suck. But actually, not that black. It's a super colorful, inspired time suck. And I'm smitten.

So watch me eat my words. My apologies to all of you that I gave my monologue to about my plan to look but not touch. I'm all in.

And if you want to see my boards (is that even what you say? I don't know the lingo yet...) you can check me out at http://pinterest.com/joyfullybecca/  and follow all of my colorful finds.