A New Caprese

We've gotten to love Caprese "salads".. fresh mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and home-grown basil leaves.  We sometimes add cucumber - but this time I added steak!  I pan-seared a flank steak to about medium, let it rest a bit, cut it against the grain, cooled, and slid it on to the end of the caprese skewers... they joined some other goodies for Mike's mini-party.  Yum!

To whom my heart belongs...

Are You Ready For Some Football!?

We are!  Today was Mike's Fantasy Football Draft with his friends in Michigan - I really wish he could be there to enjoy the "man-ness" with his friends.  He had to be Skyped in ... but I did everything I could to make him feel like he was part of the party. Following his "party", we watched the Lions win.  Yes.. I just said WE WATCHED THE LIONS WIN!  Everybody else in the world is so concerned about Hurricane Irene that they probably won't even notice!  [side note - thoughts and prayers really DO go out to those affected by the hurricane .. including our family in Virginia]. 

Madelyn will be 5months old on Monday and she is showing more and more signs of crawling - craaaazy!!  Tonight she took a 20min nap on my tummy and it really made me miss her newborn days -  

DIY Fabric Wall-Covering

One of the hardest parts about living in a rental home is the fact that we can't paint the walls.  The starch-white walls that landlords leave their tenants with is enough to drive a sane person crazy.  I caught an episode of the Nate Berkus show and he saved us!  He shows an easy way to put fabric on the walls!  SImply apply liquid starch to a blah wall and lay on a top of it a bright fabric!  Voila!  You have color!!

Our Sprout is Growing Her Own Personality!

Madelyn's Nursery

I haven't posted a new blog since before Madelyn was born - so, if you haven't heard...IT'S A GIRL!  :)  She's a few days shy of 19weeks - so just over 4 months old and growing leaps and bounds.  Sometimes I feel I put her to bed and she wakes up so different!  Different good.  I'm finally starting to "know" my baby and it's not so much a "guessing game" anymore.  When she fusses, we know what she needs.  We know how to make her smile.  We know when she needs a nap.  Parenting has definitely grown on us, as I knew it would.  Tomorrow is Aug 15 and school recommences but I will not be returning.  I didn't love teaching, to say the least, and I'm still having a lot of inner turmoil as to whether or not it was due to so many different factors that went into my first year of teaching:  we lived in a new city, had no friends or family to help alleviate stresses, I was pregnant, I didn't feel welcomed at the school (by the principal and many of the staff), I was teaching something I'd never taught before to groups of kids who, for the most part, didn't want to be there.  So needless to say, I'll be sitting the next few months out with my sweet baby girl. I don't think I'll want to be a housewife forever - I just need to find something that I love enough that will make enough sense for me to be away from Maddie all day, 5 days a week.  Until that happens, I stay busy trying to be the best mom I can be to the cutest baby in the world.  When she naps, I try to keep up with housework.  If I'm lucky enough to have a sleeping baby AND a cleanhouse, I like to stay busy with crafty things.  I've just about finished her nursery (something that didn't really get underway until after she was born and we knew we had a "she").  I'll post other crafty things as I finish them.  Happy blogging!