Around the House

I am so craving summer. I cannot wait to get back to the Farmers Market and enjoy lots of fresh fruits & veggies. February is my least favorite month of the year, hands down. I miss the sun!

One little boy with Mama's old camera= happiest boy in the world!

A sick baby in the house this week. All he wants to do is snuggle, nurse and he CANNOT be without his bink!

My ongoing projects are starting to pile up, but I am close to finishing the kids Valentine's gifts. They are each getting a knitted winter hat. Miss {M}'s is currently on the needles and I LOVE the pretty purpley pink yarn.

Purple

It was a purple day here at the Kunklebaby household. This didn't happen on purpose, we started out with smoothies-yum. They usually turn out pink, but today we made them with fresh organic blackberries, raspberries, and a smidgen of banana & strawberry. They were super tasty & healthy too. I love making smoothies, they feed our large family quickly and without scrimping on nutrition.

We received these "blue" potato''s from our CSA bag [loving it!] last week, and they became lunch today. Turns out they are the prettiest violet color. They darken a bit into a deep purple-ish blue after they are cooked. I debated making eggplant for dinner to make an official full day of purple-licious goodness, but I think we are going for super quick & super easy tonight-and that doesn't come in purple [unless we decide on skittles...hmmm after the week I've had, just maybe!]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Hope your day was filled with good food, family and happiness!

Prepared

Lately I have been really prepared for things. It's funny because it's come after a several months long spell, of unprepared chaos in the house! It feels nice to seem to have things under control again. I spent the morning preparing for our Thanksgiving.

This will be the first year that my husband is joining us in an ALL Vegetarian feast. While me and the children are vegetarians, my husband is not. Usually we have family coming in to visit, so we make the typical American Thanksgiving food-turkey. With no one else to eat it, he has decided to skip it this year. I was really excited and wanted to prepare a few new dishes to help make it "easier" for him.

While we have some of the normal Thanksgiving staples, we also have several foods that we always make [carrot pudding], this year we are added a stew served with couscous, mashed turnips [which the kids actually love!], berry soup and a bananas cinnamon cake to the menu. Mmmmmm, yummy!

Our fridge packed full of healthy goodness!

I decided to make 3x the stew and turnips we would eat. I froze the rest for quick, healthy and easy meals throughout the next few months. I love making big batches of food and just reheating it later! It really adds almost no time to the cooking, just a few extra minutes to cut up the veggies and spices.

I was so lucky to have 3 little helpers today. The kids are really excited about helping prepare the food this year. I have been making them carrot pudding for Thanksgiving since they were born, this year they started asking if we were going to have it-weeks ago! It felt really great that it has become a "family tradition" food for the holiday.

Keeping Busy

Lots of quilting going on in the studio this week. I am hoping to finish 3 more quilts for the show on Saturday. It's an unrealistic goal, but hey a girl can try! I am almost finished with this green one. It turned out so nice! I used a fun abc & numbers print for the back. The two coordinate perfectly. I'm hoping to finish up my rocker quilt and a red, gender neutral one that I have been working on.

If they don't make it to the Independence Day show, they will be at Craftin Outlaws for sure. I'm also finishing up my application for Tiny Canary also. I had the BEST time at that show last year and would love to make it in again! It's so well organized and the crowd is awesome. Anyone local should check it out. Craftin Outlaws & Tiny Canary are great for stocking up on unique holiday gifts. We have been trying to give handmade for the past few years.

How about some good old messy faced kid pictures:

Her best impression of those old clown, hobo pictures. Haha, she actually had no idea her face was covered with dirt. She'll love this one when she's about 14 years old.

Sleeping after a hearty blueberry pancake breakfast