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Farm Share, Week 24

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Tomatoes
Red bell peppers
Cantalope
Sweet corn
Carrots
Basil
Kale
Peaches
Pears

We had stuffed peppers again tonight.  Our farmer has just had a bumper crop of peppers this year, so we’ve had them a ton.  The bummer is that we love peppers on salad, but we haven’t gotten normal peppers and lettuce the same week, and I’m always leery of saving up too much into the next week because then I end up throwing food away.  So our favorite way to use up peppers is stuffing them.  Heavens, kale seems to be not only the best superfood for you, but the most hardy vegetable we’ve gotten this year.  If only we appreciated it enough…I think we’ll be doing eggrolls again!  Fortunately, we love fruit, so it won’t be hard to use everything up, even though we’ll be gone in Detroit this weekend…

Neighborly Kid Swap

My neighbor Katie and I have been working on getting a kid swap going so that we can each work out and do basic errands sans kiddos without paying the going rate of $12 an hour all the time!  Today we switched off watching all the kids twice so that we could both go to the gym and Target while Ava and Lizzie were sleeping.  It worked GREAT!  Now Lizzie just has to take a bottle from someone other than me and we can do it for longer chunks of time.  Meanwhile, Tommy and Juliet had a blast playing together all morning…
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Labor Day Adventures

Well, we made it out to have our family picture taken today. Despite crying and crabbiness getting bathed and ready, both kids were great for the photo shoot! Since we were already downtown, we decided to have lunch at Volare, our favorite Italian restaurant! Now if Tommy would just go down for a nap, our Labor Day would be perfect…

Site maintenance

Due to some recently-publicized security issues with WordPress, I upgraded our old WordPress files to the latest edition.  Unfortunately, that means there are a series of blog changes that look to be largely internal but may cause Em a little chaos in the weeks ahead trying to adjust to the new system.  But the blog should be safe!

Today four girls from church came over to watch Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth and me.  I pulled out all my real china and made scones and tea for everyone!  Yay for my first tea party in Chicago!  Elizabeth loved being part of it and cooed at all the right times, especially every time Colin Firth was on the screen.  True, she did take two naps over the 5 1/2 hours, but this is only the first of many P&P parties in her life…

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So while I was feeding Elizabeth this morning, the phone rang and I didn’t answer it because I was upstairs and it was downstairs.  Five minutes later, I went down to check the message, and an exasperated woman left a message about how she was trying to reach me because I was a reference for (our wonderful babysitter who is looking to nanny full-time).  She needed me to call her back TODAY because Kathy at the nanny agency was trying to wrap this up today.  No name, no number.  So I just hit redial on my phone and said, “Hi…this is Emily Muller returning your call…?”  Big sigh.  “Well, I’m going to have to call you back because I’m on a work call.  The number I gave you was my cell number, and this is my house number.”  I hung up, feeling righteously indignant.  Part of me thinks that our sitter doesn’t deserve to work for such a Pill (aren’t there NICE families looking for nannies?), but I know what it’s like trying to support your husband through grad school by nannying, so I don’t want to ruin her chances at getting this job.  So I’ll be nice for her sake when The Pill calls back.

I calmed myself down by taking pictures of my funny kiddos:

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Farm Share, Week 23

First of all, look what we got for free through Veggietrader.com!

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Everybody should totally check it out in their area.  The guy who grew these ichibahn eggplants, cuke, and romas just gave them to me since I didn’t have anything to trade.  Can’t beat that!  And here’s this week’s farm share:

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That’s a spaghetti squash, red leaf lettuce, a watermelon, four apples, a yellow tomato and some cherry tomatoes, four nectarines, three Japanese eggplants, three peaches, and a ton of peppers (mostly hot).  Since Tommy and I have a pretty low heat tolerance, we’re thinking of making salsa with all those peppers.  Anyone have a really good recipe to share?

Tommy loves playing with Juliet and Ava.  Today he wanted to put on his Christmas PJ’s while they played in the wagon.  That’s how to impress ladies…

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The house tour continues with our new living room!  We’ve had our new furntiture for a few weeks now, but it didn’t feel right until Mom and Dad Muller were here and helped us rearrange things for a more homey feel.  It’s come a long way from when we first moved in with just our old couch and some dining room chairs

We (okay, Derek and his dad) lugged this curio shelf back up from the basement where it wasn’t being used, and we’re storing photo albums, our theology books, and pictures on it…

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We still have quite a big open space in front of the window, but it’ll a great place for a gigantic Christmas tree again this winter…

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The new couches are comfy!

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And the new set-up draws you into the space SO much better than the way I had it before…

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I love our new recliner (and so does Lizzie)!

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Closer detail to see the fabric, which I love, love, love…

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The loveseat also makes a good garage…

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I am so geeked about this ottoman.  I got the idea in a design magazine about two years ago to use an oversized ottoman for a coffee table.  No sharp edges for little cruisers or hyper toddlers, guests feel comfy putting their feet up on it, extra seating when you have a crowd (ha…), extra storage (the lid comes up with a large storage space inside), and we can just use a big tray to put coffee and dessert on when it’s an adults-only event (the tray can be stored underneath while the kids are up).  I still have to get a tray that goes with this particular shade of brown, but so far, I love it!

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And the kids’ playroom section is more organized now that I moved one of the small bookshelves over there.  Tommy has plenty of places to put his cars and bins of toys, so he can clean up himself with minimal help from me.  And if he doesn’t, it’s behind the couch, so I might notice it for a couple days, anyway!

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Elizabeth's Nursery

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Hi!  Come on in for a tour of my new nursery!  Mommy and Daddy finally got my light-blocking purple curtains up this weekend, so my room is finally done!

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Mommy scoured Walmarts in two states to find the letters for my name above my crib.

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Most of my furniture and decor came from Tommy’s old room.

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But it’s definitely MY space!

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Every day Mommy opens up my closet and sees my dresses (I have 22 in size 3-6 month) and just smiles.

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And it’s a pretty comfy place for a bedtime story!

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Mommy was excited to find a rug in mostly primary colors of 30’s and 40’s reprint cottons–it fits so well with the theme of my room, and my brother thinks it’s a pretty good racing track for his cars.

So come on over and see it in person soon!

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