reservations for 14 adults, 7 babies

Well, I have terrible pictures, but I really feel like I had better document this one. On Saturday our birthing class had a six month reunion. We met at Tavern on France and were told that the back room charged a ridiculous amount of money to reserve. So the mom making the reservations just said, we'd be happy anywhere. We'll have 14 adults and 7 babies. And guess where they put us? In the back room. A risky group, to be sure.

It was a super amazing lunch. The last time we had seen each other, we had just watched a birthing video and were all 8-9 months pregnant. Six months later and everyone had their 5-6 month old in tow, looked confident and collected (I thought it was good we waited for six months...I know I wasn't feeling confident or collected a few months ago) and we all shared stories of labor, our favorite diapers, and how our lives have changed in the most amazing ways in the past six months.

Mother's Day

I just came across these lovely posts from last year, written by seven of my favorite women in the world in honor of Mother's Day. If you're new to the blog, be sure to go back and read the wisdom written by seven hard-working, honorable mom's.

For the intro post, click here.
For the final post, click here.

And click on the names for the following words of wisdom from:
My mom, Margaret Harrington
My sister-in-law, Stephanie Morris
My sister-in-law, Lisa Groves
My mother-in-law, Marlene Groves
My sister, Annika Larson
My sister-in-law, Sara Groves
My grandma, Velma Bredberg

the princess of whales

While with my nieces this weekend, I was explaining to Sonna, the three year old, that there was a girl who was going to marry a prince and that after the wedding she would become a real life princess. Sonna, who is very much in to all things pink, jewelery, dresses and princesses asked with big eyes, "Who is she?"

I told her her name was Kate and since my sister was listening I added, "and she is just a common girl, like you and like me." Annika groaned/laughed.

And then I asked Annika what she thought Katherine would be called. Will she be the Princess of Whales?

Sonna confidently blurted out, "Oh, I already know that princess. It's Ariel."

Get it? Whales? Under the Sea? That's funny stuff and a pretty clever and concrete three year old.

Triple L Farm

"I remember a time when families all lived together/
four generations in one house/
and the table was filled with good food and friends and neighbors..."

This is a lyric to one of my favorite Sara Groves songs all about friendship. We got to live this lyric out this weekend and it was perfect. We spent the weekend at the Triple L Farm, my brother-in-law Jedd's family farm. His sister Sara wrote about the weekend here.

It was one of those awesome weekends where you are always aware and so grateful that God created us for community. There were 25 people, many working outside painting, scraping, raking, cleaning and using chainsaws. Some were inside getting the next meal prepared or washing the dishes from the previous meal. Others were watching various combinations of the five kids under age five. The farm was filled with energy and joy. As Sara wrote so beautifully, we experienced the power and pleasure in the act of being connected to land and place, friends and family.

The farm is on the South Dakota border, a pretty windy part of the state and a perfect place to fly a kite. At one point this kite got stuck in the very, very top of a huge tree and Sonna (3yrs) recommended that Grandpa Paul just find a big, big stick to get it out. Thankfully the wind got the kite out for us.It was so good to have sister time. And I haven't seen Jedd look so happy in a long, long time.
The babies were especially sweet, interested in each others toes and socks and taking turns sucking on various toys. I can't believe these little cousins are already half a year old!

more homemade granola bars

Last year I made Starbucks granola bars to take to camp for a healthy staff breakfast. I have been thinking about them a lot lately because I eat a granola bar every day. A hearty granola bar hits the spot for this nursing mom. But my guess is that it isn't really the healthiest habit, especially when I really don't know what is in the store-bought granola bars.

So I looked for another recipe and hit the jackpot. I filled it with all good things, cut the sugar and they are divine. So good that the pan is almost gone (next goal: moderation). These things are so satisfying. I love peanut butter and honey and oatmeal and raisons, so really it would be hard to go wrong with a recipe like this. I made mine with raw almonds, raw walnuts and raisons and they turned out superb.

I found my recipe here, at a food blog called Smitten Kitchen. Yum. I'll be working on variations of this recipe for a long, long time. I'd actually like to try to add in a lot of the starbucks healthy grains (wheat germ, wheat bran and flax seed) to this new recipe. And today I purchased Agave Syrup to try to replace the sugar and honey. I'll keep you posted as I search for the *perfect* granola bar.