we're going on a lion cicada hunt

this morning the kids and I went on a hunt for cicada shells. this time of year you know it's going to be a hot one when you hear the buzzing of the cicada. we've been hearing them a lot these last few days so we looked at each of our trees and found 3 shells. we'll check for more in a few days.

wordless wednesday

new pumpkin patch!

here comes the sun!

voila!

looking for an easy way to use up a lot of Zucchini you might be overloaded with? i found the answer while flipping thru the latest copy of 'Better Home & Gardens' -- i just love that magazine! it was an advertisement for butter but looked good and called for a lot of Zucchini, which i have a ton of these days. turns out it tastes pretty darn good too!

you should try it...

Stuffed Zucchini

5 med Zucchini, halved lengthwise

3 tbs butter

1 med onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves, crushed

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

preheat oven to 375 degrees. scoop out pulp from 8 zucchini halves; set aside. arrange zucchini halves on baking sheet. meanwhile, coarsely chop remaining zucchini and pulp.

melt butter in skillet over med-high heat and cook chopped zucchini and onion, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender.

add red pepper, garlic and oregano. cook, stirring frequently. 1 minute; cool slightly. evenly spoon vegetable mixture into zucchini halves.

bake 30 minutes or until tender.

top with cheese.

camping 101

last weekend we put our family to the test and went tent camping with the kids for the first time. my worst nightmare of Cameron crying all night didn't come true but it was definitely not the quintessential perfect family camping trip. taking away many of our daily comforts really put stress on all of us and we did not use this power for good. now, don't get me wrong we did have some good times but the kids were a bunch of needy, complaining, annoying little people. we decided that they must be like this all the time but we mask it with things like TV, internet & life's busyness. Chris and i both think this is something we need to be more conscious about and perhaps look into changing. i don't think it's their faults, i blame the parents... but i refuse to raise brats and i feel like maybe we're headed that way. they've never been ones to just run off and play -- our kids need to be entertained all the time and that was very obvious this weekend.

another problem is that we are a very routine based household so it's hard to throw the kids into a new situation without a lot of headache. we seemed to be resisting the change rather than embracing it. we just weren't working in harmony out there. i think we should have started with one night instead of two and perhaps we should have started with a cabin and worked our way down to a tent. but to be honest i'm not sure it would have been much different if we stayed in a hotel! on our last night we were *this* close to going home early. we let Mayden make the final decision and she decided we'd stay in the tent so we did and it turned out to be really nice and we actually seemed to be starting to click. we changed sleeping arrangements a bit and all got more sleep than the first night (which always helps!). i was happy we stuck it out and didn't give up early. in the end though i'm just not sure it was worth it.

we learned a thing or two...

Cameron calls his feet "socks"

pie irons are great to cook over the fire with... we did hot dogs, grilled cheese & pizza

we need a bigger cooler

kids + water = a good time

children can survive on mostly pretzels & goldfish for at least 48 hours

Cameron sleeps best (away from home) right next to his mama

i shouldn't bother bringing a book for myself

more pictures here

book # 10 of 2009

We Took To The Woods

by Louise Dickinson Rich

we'll it's a good thing i was ahead of schedule a few months ago because i've definitely slowed down! not for lack of trying, just for lack of time. it's hard for me to slow down and read with all this warm weather calling to me.

this book was a wonderful read though. i don't know what i was expecting but when she says "woods" she really means "woods". they were in the middle of nowhere Maine living a simple life although they did their fair share of "mail order" which was a little disappointing.

this lifestyle genuinely interests me. i'm not sure if i could live in quiet the seclusion that she did, but something less suburban might be nice. i still haven't made up my mind as to weather i'd like to be a city dweller or a country dweller... i say my mind because i think my husband could be swayed reasonably easily either way. my favorite line in the book was:

"I think, probably, whether you're better off in the country or in the city depends, in the final analysis, on where you'd rather be. You're best off where you're the happiest."

wordless wednesday