Morning Questions From Our Eldest

Anyone who knows Elias knows that he is very inquisitive and talks a lot and asks lots of questions. But the best questions are saved for us right after he gets up in the morning. We wonder what he must have been dreaming about or thinking about right before he went to bed. I started writing them down and here are the first 10:

1)Why do our eyes open and close all the time?
2)Are we afraid of the great white owl?
3)What are people scared of?
4)How do fish sleep?
5)When can I have a vine so I can swing like a monkey?
6)What does the Hawk (from Super Friends) do with all his prickly things?
7)Do jaguars eat people?
8)I had a dream that Dora came to rescue me and I asked her, "How can I get to Nick Jr. Land?"
9)Is Chewy (nickname for Chewbacca) a Spanish word?
10)How do horses hug?

Let's go fly a kite

It took lots of tries from crazy mom running and jumping in the backyard but we finally got it up there...lots of screams and laughing when we finally did. If you haven't flown a kite recently, do it...very fun!

Garden To Table: Broccoli Raab

Harvesting the Broccoli Raab

Cutting it into 1 1/2 inch sections.

Voila: Broccoli Raab, Italian sausage, and Bow tie pasta.

In case you're wondering where we get our recipes, it's from The Best International Recipe cookbook. There isn't a bad recipe in there... I mean it, there isn't one bad recipe.

The Recently Ingested Quote

One of the things I think Jesus is doing is setting us free from the heavy yoke of an oppressive way of life. I know plenty of people, both rich and poor, who are suffocating from the weight of the American dream, who find themselves heavily burdened by the lifeless toil and consumption we put upon ourselves. This is the yoke we are being set free from. The new yoke is still not easy (it’s a cross, for heaven’s sake), but we carry it together, and it is good and leads us to rest, especially for the weariest traveler.

In fact, if our lives are easy, we must be doing something wrong. Momma T also used to say, “Following Jesus is simple, but not easy. Love until it hurts, and then love more.” My friend Brooke, with whom I went to India and later started the Simple Way, used to have the words “Simple but not easy” painted on her wall. And at one point, when things were particularly difficult, I graffitied over them, changing it to “Simple and hard as crud.” Dorothy Day of the Catholic worker movement understood this well. She said, “Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer.” This love is not sentimental but heart-wrenching, the most difficult and the most beautiful thing in the world.

- Shane Clairborne, The Irresistible Revolution

Tis The Season

I saw my first Christmas ad on TV so here we go again.

9 Months Old

I see it!

I'm gonna get it!

Hey, how did that happen?

Gotta put it in my curls again.


Forest is "real" crawling, pulling up to standing, eating only table food, and getting into everything! He is SO much fun right now and so cute I could just eat his cheeks.

Halloween '08

Pirate Deacon looking lots like Daddy!

Yar Pirates!! (Elias wiped his goatee off and the earrings hurt them, so one is on the monkey, one is on Elias' hat and his parrot was "sleeping" the whole time.)

Hey Spidey baby, your older brothers kept that hat on when it was their first Halloween! We had to snap fast before you took it off.