Grocery Bag

Hooray for our first meal plan from North Carolina.  After a great weekend visit from GranMo, our fridge is stocked.  What a great way to start a week of meals.

Day One

Sloppy Joes from the Pioneer Woman

with whole wheat hamburger buns and corn on the cob

Photo and recipe from The Pioneer Woman

Day Two

Chicken with coconut-lime peanut sauce from Tasty Kitchen

with lime rice and sugar snap peas

Photo and recipe from Tasty Kitchen

Day Three

Mediterranean bean salad and naan from Food for My Family

with roasted okra

Photo and recipe from Food for My Family

Day Four

Orrechiette & broccoli with mushroom cream sauce from the Culinary Chronicles

with blueberry spinach salad

I use the cream sauce recipe above and combine it with my own pasta and a steamed veggie.

Quick and delicious!

Photo and recipe from The Culinary Chronicles

Day Five

Larb and warm spiced lentils from Cooking Light

with homemade tortillas from Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Photo and recipes from My Recipes

Blessings on your kitchen this week!

Tips for Three at the Pool

Here in NC, our new apartment is in a lovely community that includes a beautiful pool.  In this fabulous southern summer heat, the kids and I are constantly dreaming of a swim at the pool.  Unfortunately, we have had to use a lot of restraint.  With three munchkins who all need help at the pool, I am outnumbered unless T is home.  I had resigned myself to merely waving wistfully to the pool as we walked by during the day.

Thankfully, I consulted my good friend and experienced mom of three, Texas Mommy.  She reminded me of her technique for bringing her three boys to the pool -- a necessary survival tactic for their summer fun at their home in Texas.  Her technique involves coastguard approved life jackets for the two older kids, giving them some freedom and adequate safety in the water, and a water sling for the baby.

I am so excited that my TaylorMade Mesh Water Sling arrived today via Sweetbottoms Baby Boutique.  As soon as I had it out of the box, we headed to the pool.  Baby Bear loved it and so did I.  E-Bear and G-Bear swam and splashed in the pool in their life jackets, while Baby Bear snuggled me in the sling as I stood in the waist-deep water.

Hooray for safer summer pool solutions!  I am hoping that we'll be getting a lot of use out of the sling and the pool in the next few weeks.

Lazy Summer Fun

Not to over-romanticize summer, but I love late-August playtime.  I've seen several articles lately bemoaning the loss of creativity in America's youth.  In our house, I am amazed by the wildly blooming imaginations.

"Mommy Holding Baby Bear," by G-Bear

Love it or hate it, our summer has been filled with pajama-clad lunches, art table rendezvous, sticker page porch time, and more episodes than I can count of the "quick, take-all-the-buckets-of-toys-to-the-couch-and-dump-them-out-to-play" game.  That game is especially ideal during weeks of moving, by the way.

"Our Family with Nana," by G-Bear

These days, I am thankful for how sweetly E-Bear and G-Bear play together *most of the time*, how imaginatively they role play if I give them space, and how cheerfully they invent new past times.  I am learning that I can fuel the fire by jumping in enthusiastically when invited (I was "Rabbit" from Winnie the Pooh the other day at the park, complete with a singing set of rabbit ears.  Then, I was asked to be "Kanga with Roo" when Baby Bear was placed in my front carrier), that a stressed or negative response from me can be contagious and squelch the fun, and the fun doesn't depend on me if I'm not available to play.  Thank goodness for the latest favorite games, including:

"New kitty," in which I am asked to play "Aunt Marty," one of the kids is the new kitten, and one is the proud new owner.  I am in charge of feeding and watering the kitty.  One must understand kitty mews to play.  You must also be willing to give "slimy fish" as treats for good kitty behavior.

"Tangled," in which G-Bear is princess Tangled and E-Bear is prince Flynn.  Most fun when played on a playground play structure with slide that can serve as the tower.

"Stick pile," in which E-Bear collects a huge pile of sticks.

"Restaurant," in which my college shower totes become grocery baskets, E-Bear makes soup and G-Bear offers me an iced coffee.  Ahhhhh.

"Mr. Evil Doctor Porkchop," in which someone, preferably Papa, is Dr. Porkchop from Toy Story.  The game mainly involves roars and chasing and sometimes tickles.  "Dr. Porkchop to YOU!"  is a common refrain.  I have no idea what that means, and that is one of the best parts.

The kids are fortunate to be surrounded by friends and family who encourage and stimulate these creative juices.  Over at our cousins' house, S and E are creating things like this everyday (cousin T is not far behind), and we always come home from their house with at least one new game and several more ideas.  One of their friends recently welcomed us to our new home with a big bag of art supplies.  G-Bear has been out on the porch everyday with the new stamps, markers, glue and construction paper.  Wow, so much fun.

So, as most kids here in NC begin school next week, I am thankful that my kids still have a few weeks of lazy summer fun yet to go.  Cheers to that, with a tall glass of sweeeet tea.

Caught red handed (and footed!)

 "Munch,"

 "munch,"

"munch,"

"munch?"

Two hands down.  

Time to move onto toes!

The North Carolina Farmer's Market

I am getting ready for the return of Grocery Bag on Monday.  Four weeks off, and I am craving the stability of the meal plan.

As we re-build our fridge and pantry her in North Carolina, we have been going in search of local farmer's markets.

We have found one so far and look forward to discovering more.  

The markets are a great way to get to know regional produce.  

T and I already noticed differences in the offerings.  

Apples in August?  

Cider from peaches?  

Greens called collard?  

Okra, not zucchini?  

It's fun to notice the differences.  

I am excited to try new things and enjoy a few month's difference in the availability.  

Our first trip to the market, and our bags were overflowing with:

honey

peach cider

 pastured pork tenderloin

pastured pork sausage

grass-fed ground beef

cage free eggs

honey crisp apples (made me feel right at home, just a few months early)

peaches

strawberry preserves

We had to pace ourselves.

The kids could hardly wait to get into the car to eat one of the apples.  As soon as they were buckled in, 

they shared one

right across the back seat.

Now that is something to sink your teeth into :)

This week we'll try the veggies and the strawberry cider.  We'll definitely repeat the apples, because word has it they will be gone by September.  Sniff.  

Grocery bag, here we come.

Overheard in the House This Week 12

"Papa, can you turn off the TV?  It's making me look at it."
~G-Bear's remarkable recognition of the power of TV over humans.


"I love Pooh Bear!  He's my favewit!"
~E-Bear's exclamation as we walked into the theater to see Disney's new Pooh Bear movie.
We all have a soft-spot for Pooh in our family.  I think I belly laughed through the whole movie.


G- Bear:  "Mommy, do you know what kind of cake I want for my next birthday?"
Me:  "What, sweetie?"
G-Bear: "An Ariel cake."
Me:  "Oh, what a great idea.  Thanks so much for telling me, G-Bear."
G-Bear:  "No, Mommy.  I don't need to tell  YOU what I want on my cake.  I need to tell MOMO.  She's the cake person."

(I guess she has MoMo figured out :))

"Mommy, is the TV awake yet?"
~E-Bear, wondering if our TV, finally out of the box, had been hooked up to watch Sesame Street.

Supermen

Like Father,

Superman T, who wore his Superman pjs everyday for years.

like E-Bear!

This sighting was yesterday at the Mall during North Carolina's back-to-school no-tax weekend.  As Aunt A said, Super E-Bear was no doubt planning to use his superpowers to "slash high prices, obliterate taxes (at least in the short term) and vanquish the chocolate chip cookies at the local kiosk!"

I think we have a new favorite shirt.

Happily Ever,
Queen B

Baby Bear on the move

At last, we are coming to the end of our three weeks of moving.  Our cross-country trek notwithstanding, Baby Bear has made the biggest progress of us all over the course of our move.  After all, when you are only 3.5 months old, three weeks is almost a quarter of your life!  There are so many things that he is able to do now that he couldn't do when we left Minnesota.  Mr. Happy Eyebrows keeps us smiling.

Baby Bear is wowing us all by flexing his tummy muscles and starting to sit up.  He owns the Bumbo and loves to sit up and watch the action around him. He has found his toes, loves sticking them in his mouth, which usually ends up tipping him over on his side.   He'll be rolling over before we know it!

We love our Baby Bear!

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Grandmother's Strawberry Pizza

We are sock up in the thick North Carolina heat around here!  Not that Minnesota was much cooler; the week that we left the heat index was 120 degrees!  In late summer months like these, we have a few favorite cool summer desserts to help us chill out.  One of our favorites is a recipe we learned from T's Grandmother Johnson.


T's Grandmother Johnson was an amazing cook and hostess.  Her abundant talents earned her the nickname "Grandma Cookie" from her grandchildren.  Grandmother Johnson's legacy of graciousness and hospitality lives on in the members of T's family.  The anniversary of her birthday was the weekend we left Minnesota.  It is quite fitting, then, that T and I recently shared this cool summer recipe with the Bears.  

Grandmother Johnson's Strawberry Pizza

Crust:
2 cups flour
2 sticks margarine, melted
1 cup chopped nuts
Mix together and press into a pizza or jelly roll pan.
Bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees, then cool completely.
You can also use a refrigerated pie crust or your favorite pie crust recipe.


1st Layer:
8oz softened cream cheese
3 cups confections sugar
12oz cool whip
Mix together and spread on top of crust, leaving a raised edge margin.

Second Layer:
1 quart strawberries
Slice and place on top of the cream cheese layer.
This is a fun part to do as a family!

Top Layer:

1 package strawberry glaze

Spread glaze evenly over top of strawberries.  Chill.

Serve chilled :)

Just to vouch once again for this dessert, it is one of Papa's favorites and one of the only desserts that I've seen him ask for seconds!

Happily Ever,

Queen B

A Walk in His Shoes

Before our move last week, T took some pictures of the shoes he wore during residency.

These shoes were too worn to make the cross country trek with us, but oh, the stories they would tell if they could talk!  They saw it all with T, whether in the clinic or in the OR.  

Seeing them is like a window into the life of a resident.

This week T will be wearing a new pair of shoes both literally and figuratively.  Today T starts his new job, this time as a fellow.  We are so excited for him as we continue the process of adapting to our new home.   For us, it is another day to pause and reflect on how far he has come.