Upper Tampa Bay Park

We're off to a good start with some of our New Years Resolutions. The exercise ones? Not so much. I've been sick the past week with a pretty terrible cold and coughing fits every hour. Blah. I used the crockpot again and made a giant batch of Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup which turned out to be another winning recipe from America's Test Kitchen. They have you put the chicken breast in a foil packet on top of everything in the crockpot -- basically steaming it? -- to keep it tender and juicy. The results were delicious! I also parked myself on the couch one sleepless night and the following day, powering through all 530 pages of the book All the Light We Cannot See. What a beautiful, poignant book! The story weaves together the lives of an orphan German boy and a freckle-faced, blind French girl during World War II. Oh, and there are radios. There's a lot of talk about radios. I was completely captivated by the story and highly recommend it. 

Back to our New Years Resolutions. We had gorgeous weather last Monday and Robert was off for Martin Luther King Day so we decided to make some progress toward goal #4: get outdoors and explore more. The three of us had breakfast together at First Watch and then we headed out to our first state park. It was awesome!

My love of Spanish moss. And this little munchkin.

We "hiked" the Eagle Trail. There are 3 other trails we'll have to check out next time.

No birds to see today.

 

We didn't see any armadillos...

...or raccoons, either.

The park also had a great nature center.

This touch table was awesome. Snake skins, shells, etc. So cool!

 

Abby liked this beehive. She's been all about bugs lately. We've checked out several bug books from the library and she points and nods emphatically, insisting that "Abby likes!" everything. Abby likes spiders! Abby likes bees! Abby likes beetles! She claims she wants to hold each of these creatures in her hands. Yeah, we'll see about that little girl.

She also has a special love of seahorses. She saw this one, cupped her little hands together, and said "Mommy take out, Abby hold (in) hands." Sorry, pumpkin.

Robert wants to take her canoeing when she's a little older. We saw a guy in a canoe with a little dog and Abby thought that was pretty funny.

Overall, it was a highly successful outing enjoyed by all and we hope to go back again soon. We even got some ideas from the butterfly garden and we're thinking about planting a small one of our own.

In other news, I keep having too much fun with art projects. I recently picked up some Do A Dot Markers and glitter paints. (Notice Abby's second Minnie Mouse shirt. She'll drag these shirts out of the dirty hamper so I've had to start hiding them my own laundry. Serious Minnie love!)

My little Monet. Such fun and sweet days!

Abby + Emma

I met my friend Brandi and her daughter Emma when Abby was about 6 months old. Abby and Emma have been playing together -- while Brandi and I have been drinking coffee together -- ever since. Emma may be smaller in size than Abby, but she's a feisty red head who can definitely hold her own. Abby and Emma are in class together on Wednesday mornings at BSF and they are becoming good friends. We had a little playdate at Brandi's house yesterday to celebrate friend Briella's 2nd birthday.

Silly girl! I love her red hair.

Here's birthday girl Briella. Here mom, Alison, says she likes to wear pigtails and a headband just like Doc McStuffins. Too cute.

Abby and Emma love holding hands. So sweet!

More hand holding.

Brandi taught the girls how to play Ring Around the Rosy. (Gruesome lyrics, I know...)

Emma needed a babysitter later that afternoon so she came over to our house for a few hours. The girls liked snuggling in Abby's bed while looking at books. 

Look at my painted toenails, Emma. 

No, really. LOOK!

See?

The girls enjoyed playing together and Abby didn't need mommy's attention or entertainment at all. I'll take it!  

Next we got out a big bucket of plastic animals.

And built them a little house. 

Last activity? Blocks.

Thanks for the fun day of play, Emma!

What's for dinner?

We made some serious progress this past week with my "dedicated to dinner" resolution. Hooray! All photos posted below are taken from the internet as we have no windows in our kitchen and truly horrible lighting, to boot. I dream of having a bright and airy kitchen one day.

First up? Pasta Fagioli Soup from the blog Tina's Chic Corner. As a perfect example of comfort food at its finest, I seriously fell in love with this soup. Vegetarian friends, I think it would be just as delicious without the ground beef -- and swap beef broth for veggie.

(photo credit)

My mom bought me a copy of America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution for Christmas and we recently used some of the cash back bonus from our credit card to buy a new crock pot. Our old one was 12 years old, very small, and somewhat unreliable. Do you have any favorite crock pot recipes? Please share! We used ours twice this past week and I love how it simplified our evenings, especially on nights when I was teaching late.

First, we made Beer Braised Chicken from the blog Half Baked Harvest. America's Test Kitchen said you should always cook chicken slow -- on low -- and following that advice, this braised chicken stayed tender and moist. We enjoyed the meal but I'm not sure it merits a recipe card in the "keeper" file.

(photo credit)

I paired the chicken with these Beer Biscuits with Spicy Meyer Lemon Butter from the blog How Sweet It Is. The biscuits weren't quite as drool-worthy as I expected them to be, but I'm intrigued by the idea of beer bread/biscuits. I'm going to keep searching for the perfect recipe. Trader Joe's happened to have meyer lemons in stock this week so we whipped up some of the butter, too. It was good but I prefer simple butter and honey.

(photo credit)

The other crock pot recipe we tried came from the Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook: Garden Vegetable Sauce with Chickpeas. (I couldn't find a link to this recipe.) I really liked the more toothsome texture of the dried chickpeas and would like to use the crock pot to cook beans more often, but overall I don't think this recipe is one we're rushing to make again anytime soon.

Finally, we made Broccoli Quinoa Casserole from the blog Damn Delicious. This recipe is pretty much the broccoli/rice/cheese casserole we all know and love, with a few modern tweaks. Unfortunately, Abby was not a fan of the texture of the quinoa.

(photo credit)

What have you been making in your kitchen recently? Any drool-worthy recipes to share?

Why hello, 2015

Happy New Year! Here's what Abby's up to while I blog this afternoon:

I love looking at her while she's sleeping so peacefully like this. Two things to note: Minnie (on the right) was a gift from Grandmama Z when we took Abby to Disney back in November and Minnie has completely trumped Teddy as Abby's new favorite stuffed animal. Also, see Abby clutching onto those pacifiers for dear life? We are really trying to get rid of them. The original plan was to be paci-free when she turned two; however, she seems to be growing even more attached to them as time goes by. She can only have them at naptime and bedtime but we still think she is too old to have pacifiers. The strange thing is, she seems to find the most comfort from holding them and spinning them around in her fingers. We've watched her lay on her back at night, twisting and flipping them from hand to hand. So wish us luck. We keep telling her it's time to give the pacifiers to a baby but the mere mention of that has her insisting, "no, no, no! Abby baby."

Do you have any New Years Resolutions this year? I always do. A few of them are health related so of course it made sense to start out the year making these:

Oops. Ah well, everything in moderation, right? My friend Marci gave me donut pans for Christmas and the first recipe I tried was one she posted to her blog for Baked Funfetti Donuts from Sally's Baking Addiction. Abby is a huge fan of sprinkles, so it was a logical choice.

Happy girl!

I picked up this mug from the airport in Kansas City when I was home last month and it brings happiness to my mornings. It's the little things.

My parents left for my sister's house the day after Christmas and then Robert returned to work the following Monday. The first week after the holidays always feels like such a let down. Abby and I were home alone so we spent Monday in our pajamas, just playing. Note to self: two year olds love stickers. Frozen stickers for Abby this time -- but of course.

Then I was feeling adventurous (and/or stir crazy?) so we dragged out Abby's finger paints for the first time. My neat little girl had to be encouraged to make a mess. She kept holding up her hands and asking me to clean them off! But once she got passed the trepidation it was great fun.

I made some stamps using foam shapes glued to plastic lids. 

This takes serious concentration.

Oh boy.

Our completed masterpiece.

I asked you about your New Years Resolutions so I suppose I could share mine. I think I'll use this blog to help keep me more accountable this year. 

1. Run more. I miss running. I signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon next month (!!) with friends Josie and Tati and I have failed miserably at training. I've run the race before and it's so crowded you are often forced to walk. It also has many stops for photo ops, so this is not the race to really run. I supposed I point this out to make myself feel a little better about my unpreparedness. That being said, I would like to properly train for a few races this year and improve my time. I'm pretty out of shape and much slower than I was pre-Abby, so my modest goal is to run at 5k in under 30 minutes and a 10k in under an hour before the year ends. No excuses! I'm hoping to run 3 or 4 times a week and then attend 1 spin class at the YMCA each week. 

2. These first two goals are very cliche: exercise more and eat better. I want to be "dedicated to dinner" this year. It's been hard having dinner ready and on the table at 6:00 before Abby's 7:00 bedtime. Often we would make her a quick dinner, get her to bed, and then make our own food that we'd eat in front of the TV. Dinnertime is too important to fall into those bad habits, so I'm resolving to do a better job of planning meals, getting healthy food in the fridge, and having dinner on the table at 6:00. As Abby gets older I know dinnertime will be the time when we reconnect as a family and have a chance to talk. I want to get us started down the right path. I also resolve to use our Vitamix more. Abby is being a little booger and refusing all veggies lately so I'm going to be "that mom" (forgive me) and have her drink her veggies in green smoothies, which she loves. 

3. Spend time daily in prayer and reading my Bible. I've really been convicted of the importance of this discipline through Bible Study Fellowship. I was stuck in a rather negative, defeated, and anxious rut and just these past 4 months, in leading my group of ladies at BSF, I've experienced how rich, full, and at peace my life becomes when I spend this time with God. The key word is daily, as I tend to cram my studies into 2 or 3 days during the week. I'd like to get into the habit of waking up 30 minutes to an hour before Abby wakes so that I can make this the first priority of my day.

4. Have a monthly date night with Robert. We'll celebrate our 12th anniversary (!!) this August and I think we've become a little lazy. I want to leave him little notes like I used to. Put more effort into birthday and Christmas gifts. Acknowledge Valentine's Day. These things are important!

5. Get outdoors and explore more. We live in Florida and there's so much to see and do. I've already bookmarked several state parks with hiking trails and educational centers and I even bought a butterfly net, bug identification book, and Melissa and Doug "bug house" for Abby. Why not spend a 3 day weekend at the beach? Why not do a little gardening this Spring? It's time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine and time together as a family. Win-win.

Whew! This post got long. Here's to 2015!