My New Favorite Blog

It's called Thank a Stranger. Check it out. It just might make your day. It did mine.

Ending the Debate

I've been debating for some time (like since I started my blog) whether or not I wanted to add a map to my blog. It seems that everyone I know who's done it gets a little freaked out and then makes their blog private. I don't really want to go private, and I've mostly been blissfully happy in my ignorance of who is viewing my blog.

But there is a part of me that is just so curious to know who's checking out my blog. I don't know enough people to equal the number of hits I'm getting each day--unless some of you check my blog multiple times a day. If that's the case, then thank you. I'm flattered.

But I can't leave that curiosity alone. So I added the map. Now I just hope that I don't get freaked out when I see where my visitors are from.

Thanks to those of you who leave comments--I love them. To all you lurkers--who are you? Leave me a comment and let me know.

That is all.

Two Firsts This Week

Ellie had 2 firsts this week: first prayer and first time-out.

First Prayer: I was thinking that it was around this age that we started teaching Makayla how to pray. So, I thought I'd start teaching Ellie. I asked her at dinner one night if she wanted to say the prayer. She nodded her head enthusiastically. Just as I was beginning to help her, she started jabbering all by herself. The only words I caught were day, food, and Jesus. Then she started clapping, all proud of herself for saying the prayer. It was so cute that, of course, we started clapping, too. But now, whenever anyone says "amen" Ellie starts clapping. For example, at church on Sunday she stood up on the bench and started clapping and cheering after one of the speakers. I'm pretty sure the speaker heard her since we were sitting on the second row in the center.

First Time-Out: Makayla and Ellie have a way of getting on each other's nerves, which, in turn, gets on my nerves. This morning I was getting dressed when the screaming began. I opened the door to see what the ruckus was all about. As I suspected, Makayla was trying to carry Ellie away from the toys she had stolen, and Ellie was fighting back by pulling Makayla's hair and screaming in protest. I figured since both were causing trouble, both deserved a time-out. I sat each of them on a kitchen chair, facing opposite directions. Normally Makayla puts up a fight in time-out, but she kept looking smugly at Ellie. (I suspect it was one of those misery loves company kind of things.) Ellie was sitting quietly in her chair with her head hanging low. Every few seconds she would turn around to look at me. Each time, I told her to turn around. She did, and it seemed like her little head kept getting lower and lower. I really would have liked to take a picture, but it seemed against the rules of discipline to show them a stern face and then turn around and giggle while taking pictures of their suffering. So, no pictures today.

One thing that has been reiterated to me this week: Motherhood is definitely not boring!

Twilight Teaser Trailer

The title says it all. Watch it here.

BLT Bites: You Will Love Me and Hate Me For Sharing This Recipe

My friend, Aubrey, gave me this recipe for BLT Bites a while back. They are the perfect appetizer/snack. But they are soooo addicting. I made some last night and thought I'd share the recipe---with pictures, of course!


Start by washing 25-30 cherry tomatoes. Then cut off the tops, scoop out the insides, and place them upside down to drain.

Cook up 1/2 pound of bacon. I used turkey bacon because I'm on a diet, but regular bacon tastes much better.

Chop up some green onions--1/3 cup worth and toss it in a bowl.

Add to that bowl, 1/2 cup mayo.

3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, (not the fancy shredded kind. Use the Kraft kind that comes in a green can.)

and 2 Tablespoons of fresh Parsley, or 1 Tablespoon of dried Parsley.

After you've cooked the bacon and it's cooled a bit, chop it up into small pieces. I just tossed mine in my food processor. If you don't have a food processor, use kitchen shears. Or, you know, a knife could work, too.

Mix that all together. This kind of looks gross, but I promise--it's sooo gooood!!!

Stuff the empty tomatoes and chill. I didn't want to wait for the chilling part, so I ate 5 of them before I put them in the fridge.

As I was making these I was thinking that there are probably some of you who don't like tomatoes. So, I thought of another use for this filling--stuffed mushrooms. Wash your mushrooms, pull the stems out and stuff them with this filling. Then top them with cheese--mozzarella, Swiss or provolone would be good--and then bake or broil them. I can't decide which would be a better way to cook them. I'll try it and let you know.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a pan of BLT Bites calling my name.

Saying More Cute Things

Ellie was trying to help me while I was putting groceries away this afternoon. She would grab something out of the bag and hand it to me to put away. Then she got to the chocolate Teddy Grahams. She pulled them out and said, "Ooooo! What's this?"

Then she started hugging the box saying, "Pleeeeease!!" She's so stinkin' cute!

Sorry this picture is so fuzzy. She was kind of swaying back and forth while clinging to that box of cookies.

The Many Faces of Makayla

In preschool, Makayla's class is learning about emotions and the expressions that accompany those emotions. Today she was showing me all the different faces she has learned. I thought I'd share them with you. They made me smile.

surprised

sleepy

silly

sad

pirate face

Her class is studying the alphabet and how it relates to pirates--the class's selected subject. For example, P is for pirate and parrot; T is for treasure; and so on and so forth. Hence, her "pirate face."

happy

embarrassed

angry

frustrated

(which she really was by the end of my picture-taking session)