All Hail Her Classiness

Forget about the economy and petty politics. Michelle Obama has a rockin' wardrobe and a website, http://www.mrs-o.org/, devoted solely to her fashion choices. My little sister passed on the link and every few days I surf over to drool over the fabulous frocks. I love her style, classy yet hip, and like to imagine that we could share a closet.

Anyone else love Mrs. O? I noticed that she is the only person to grace the cover of Oprah's magazine besides the other famous "O" herself. Quite a feat.

Wait - Don't Throw That Out!

Do any of you have leftover Easter ham from yesterday's dinner and plan on chucking the big ham bone into the trash because you don't have a dog to gnaw on it and don't know how else to use it? Well today I discovered a recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that put our leftover bone to use with delicious results. Today was a quintissential rainy spring day and this soup hit the spot. Even Ben ate it, after ten minutes of protestation. It's amazing what you like when you actually try things.

You can make this recipe on the stove or in a crockpot and I opted for the lazy woman't route. Plus, electricity is cheaper than gas. Granted, the soup doesn't look pretty, but don't let appearances fool you. The bone gave the ham and bean soup a smoky taste. We also threw in some of the leftover ham so there were chunks mixed in.

The finished product - enough for another meal. Hooray!

Ham and Bean Soup - Serves 5

1 c. dry navy or Great Northern beans (I'm sure you could use canned to be quicker)

1 to 1 1/2 lbs. meaty smoked pork or ham or 1- to 1 1/2 lb. pound meaty ham bone

1 1/2 c. sliced celery (3 stalks ) - I didn't have celery and substituted this with 1/2 of a large green pepper

1 c. chopped onion (1 large)

3/4 tsp. dried thyme or twice as much fresh

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 bay leaf

1. Rinse beans. In a large saucepan combine beans and 4 c. water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for one hour. (Or, place beans in water in pan. Cover and let soak for 6-8 hours or overnight). Drain and rinse beans.

2. In a pan, combine beans, pork or ham bone, celery, onion, pepper, thyme, bay leaf, and 4 cups fresh water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 1 hour or till beans are tender. Remove meat. When cool enough to handle, cut meat off bones and coarsely chop. Discard bones and bay leaf. Slightly mash beans in pan. Return meat to pan and heat through.

Crock Pot directions: Prepare beans as in step 1; drain and rinse. In a crock pot, combine pork or ham bone, celery, onion, thyme, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in beans and 4 c. fresh water. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-5 hours or high heat for 4-5 hours. Discard bay leaf. Remove meat; coarsely chop. Slightly mash beans and return meat to pot. Cover; cook on high 5-10 minute more until heated through.

Note: You can also add vegetables like sliced carrots during the last 30 minutes or so.

Easter Happenings

Since Ben is finally old enough to grasp the concept of Easter egg hunts and other traditions, we decided to go ahead and celebrate in full swing. Somehow, making holiday-themed pancakes has become our M.O., so on on Saturday I made Ben Easter bunny pancakes. Martha Stewart won't be calling for any tips soon, but at least they were recognizable. Ben suggested using beans as the bunny's whiskers and he ended up trying them and loving them! This coming from the person who proclaimed last week, "Mom, I like soda, TV, and junk food. I don't like fruit." Pretty typical kid, I'd say.

On Friday night I made him a very basic Easter basket and set it on the kitchen table for him to find in the morning. Of course he ended up getting up for a drink and discovered his basket. We convinced him to only eat one piece of candy and leave the rest for morning. I then hid the eggs around our living room and he had fun doing a mini Easter egg hunt when he woke up.

If you're wondering where I got a strawberry blonde child, the answer is she isn't mine. A good friend is spending a month in the hospital on mandatory bedrest, so Ben and I went over to her house to decorate Easter eggs with her mom and kids. We managed to only spill a little bit of dye and the kids loved when I wrote something on their egg using the magic crayon and then they had to dye the egg to find out what I wrote.

Sienna and Tanner, hard at work. We also got to enjoy strawberry shortcake after our decorating and Sienna went hog wild with the Cool Whip.

I love dyeing eggs, as well as eating the boiled insides afterwards. So Heather (and Julie) thanks for letting us come over and wreak havoc at your house, while I indulged my holiday urge.

Due to Popular Demand

Okay, really just the demands of my sisters. But when you have four sisters, three sisters-in-law, and two stepsisters, they begin to add up. So sorry everyone else, you'll have to put up with the requisite baby photos. This is the one ultrasound picture that is recognizable as human, albeit very akin to something off a horror movie poster. She is yawning in this picture, so you can see it as if the camera was looking straight down on the face from above.

Here's the first of the monthly belly shots. It will be fun to look back at the pictures. I can't hide the baby bump anymore and Ben told me this morning, "Mom, you're huge!" Oh buddy, you aint seen nothin' yet. Thanks to Kristie B. for letting me be the beneficiary of some of her cute maternity clothes. I've gotten lucky to be able to borrow lots of stuff for both pregnancies from stylish mamas.

Sugar and Spice

It's a girl! We had our ultrasound this morning and everything looks good, the baby appears to be healthy and thriving. Whew! The due date is still August 27th and we're now on the hunt for some possible girl names. Please pass on any ideas, as well as any decorating ideas for a bedroom. The one above is from Pottery Barn Kids, which has the cutest stuff. We got some new (to us) white baby furniture off Craigslist a few weeks ago, but now have to come up with some type of acutal decor. The room the baby will be in is actually a very light blue, so maybe we can do pink, purple, or yellow accents so as to avoid having to paint.

Nothing Says Spring Like...

Playing golf outside in your underwear.

Or running through the sprinklers with nothing but your skivvies on. Whose kid is that anyway?

We've had some beautiful weather lately (it hit 70 yesterday) and Ben requested a refreshing sprinkler romp. Of course, being a water baby myself, I obliged and didn't feel too bad about his lack of modesty since none of our neighbors are home during the day. Once he started hitting his golf ball out of our yard and through the two adjoining lawns, I thought it might be time to get clothed.

The April showers have official started and everything is perking up around here. Grass is green, trees are budding, and daffodils and hyacinths are poking their little heads up through the dirt. Aahh, what a glorious season!

On the spring theme, I am dying to plant a garden. After being the recipient of our neighbor's homegrown tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers last year, my urge to cultivate a tiny patch of earth has kicked into high gear. Maybe it's just my nesting instinct manifesting itself in an odd way since I have no decorating skills and therefore cannot throw my efforts into creating a cute nursery. Andy and I are discussing the merits of where to locate a possible garden in our postage stamp yard. My vote is to dig up a thin row of dirt along the south side of our house (pictured above) while Andy wants to either build a box garden and put it on a patio that we're hoping to pour (see below) or leave beds to line the patio and plant the garden there. I have a friend whose family swears by the merits of southern sun, so I think that would be the best place. Plus, when we decide to sell the house, we can always just plant flowers in the existing bed.

After two summers of barely using our backyard because there is nowhere to sit, we've decided that we'd like to pour a simple cement patio. Just enough for a table and some chairs and a grill (hooray!), with some space left over for a kiddie pool so we don't have to kill the grass. The only thing is I'm not sure if it's a possibility with our budget. Of course we'd love to have a gorgeous deck or paver patio, but that's not in the cards. Have you done your own patio or know anyone who does? Any ideas on what such a project would cost? We might end up doing most of the labor ourselves. However it turns out, I have visions of spending afternoons eating lunch with friends while we watch the kids run through the sprinklers and grilling out on glorious summer evenings.

What are you looking forward to when the warm weather comes?

Does Anyone Smell Bacon?

I was so proud to read in The Wall Street Journal this morning that my hometown, Kennewick, WA, was singled out on the list of shame for pork barrel projects in the new stimulus spending bill. Nothing like a little taxpayer funded earmark to make you feel confident that government is doing its job.