May 2012

Bruce is on the loose!

Probably the biggest news of the month is that Baby has figured out how to crawl - and he likes to move it, move it!  He can crawl from one end of the house to the other, and hardly needs to pause for a rest.  He enjoys scooting over to the glass back door window, and of course he likes to chase the cat around.   Mr. Pants appreciates that he shrieks as he approaches, giving fair warning of the ambush ahead.  But the absolute greatest, is when Charlie comes home from work and Bruce takes off as fast as he can, in an attempt to meet him at the door.  He also has started to crawl away a bit, and then look back at you to see if you're watching him leave, give an impish grin, and then take off again, glancing back every few feet.  Adorable!  Lately he's found great enjoyment with "Jungle Gym Mama" and crawls over me, up me, around me, under me - it's been so much fun watching him play in this way!  Bruce really loves to rough house now, and loves hanging upside down, being tossed around, anything to jumble him up!  Just in the past couple of days we've begun to see some first attempts to pull up on things, too, and he has the "Downward Facing Dog" yoga pose nearly perfected.  I don't know when walking will be in our future, but I'm plenty happy just with the crawling.  Bruce really seems to be so much happier with life now that he can take himself where he wants to go!

I'm convinced that Bruce comes from Bamm Bamm's ancestral line because in addition to the platinum blond hair and dinosaur grunts he makes all the time, Baby will bang on anything!  He is so curious about the different sounds things make.  He also really enjoys when we play the guitar for him, but it's hard to get a song out before he's pulling on the strings trying to "help."  It might just be wishful thinking, but I swear this baby can dance too, and is always bobbing his body when we turn the music on.

We celebrated Charlie's birthday the first week in May.  A couple of friends came over for a game night, but we ended up just hanging out and eating cake!  That same weekend, a good friend of mine from high school, Susie, came to visit.  She loved on Bruce some, we played some cards and caught up on life, and then it was time for her to head back to Colorado.  Wish it were a longer visit, but thankful for any time at all!



Playing in the water fountain
at the garden nursery by our taco truck

For Mother's Day we went up to Stillwater to spend the weekend with Charlie's mom.  It was nice to get away for a bit, and Charlie surprised me with another beautiful necklace that he found on etsy.  Have I mentioned how much I love that website?  And Charlie?  And Bruce?  They're my favorite.

Feeding cat food to Katy

I've spent a lot of time out in the garden this month - weeding, weeding, and weeding some more.  The plants are growing well, so hopefully the work will pay off and we'll get some yummy veggies all summer!  Unfortunately we lost all of the yellow squash plants last week to some Oklahoma winds that came "sweeping down the plains."  Then, this week a thunderstorm blew over all the corn, but I was able to stand it back up again.  Oh, the joys of Oklahoma gardening!  Bruce is usually out with me, digging in the dirt - thankfully he doesn't try to put too much in his mouth!  May was definitely salad season, and we had some kind of salad out of the garden nearly every night for dinner.  We've also been enjoying our fruit trees this month - mulberries and plums.  I love what the mulberry tree has come to represent for me over the past few years.  It's a tree we didn't plant, don't ever water, and hardly think about until those little red berries turn black and start to fall from the branches, covering the sidewalk and staining everything they touch - then we run out with our bowls to "shake the sugar tree."  After having a terrible experience with our first garden, I felt like God used that tree years ago to remind me that no matter how hard I work to make things happen, the best things are the things He provides for me despite all my efforts. Sometimes I need to "lay down that shovel and spade, lay down that labor in vain, lay down all the mess I've made, and lay down underneath His shade."  In addition to our salads, we've started picking some peas and the beets and and zucchini should be ready soon!  I've included some of my favorite recipes for this season at the end of the blog.  (I plan on doing that throughout the summer, too!)

corn and beets

cabbage and lettuce

tomatoes and peas

This past weekend we had some friends stay the night at Hotel Kolarik on Friday night.  It was great to catch up with Giancarlo and Leah and their precious boys, Chapman and Ethan.  As it seems to always go, the time was short, but sweet.  Then Saturday we went up to Kansas for the rest of the holiday weekend to help out with the wheat harvest.  Bruce and I rode around in the combine with Charlie for a little while and it was great to introduce him to the family legacy.  He didn't seem to mind the noise at all, or the huge machinery, and hopefully as the years go on he'll get more interested in the whole operation.

Playing in the wheat truck

Here's to a great kick-off for a wonderful summer!

Mulberry Peach Pie
Ingredients:
1 double pie crust
3 cups total of mulberries and diced peaches
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
Almond extract to taste
cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves to taste

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp milk

cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle

Directions:

Mix together the fruit, sugar, flour and spices

Gently press one pie crust into the bottom of pie plate

Pour in the fruit mixture

Dot the top with butter

Use the other crust to make a lattice for the top, or to decorate as you wish

Brush top crust with milk

Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn down to 350 degrees for another 30

Let pie rest for 30 minutes to set

Mulberry Banana Bread
Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 c sugar
4 eggs
1 (or more) tspn of almond extract
2 cups mashed super ripe bananas
3 1/2 cups flour
4 tspn baking power
1 tspn baking soda
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves to taste
2 cups mulberries
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar
Mix in eggs, almond extract and bananas
Mix dry ingredients together, then slowly add to batter
Fold in mulberries (and nuts)
Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans
Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until done
*Can be made with different berries if mulberries aren't available!


Plum Chutney
Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups chopped plums
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup raisins (I use the gold ones)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp mustard seed (I use black mustard seeds)
1/2 tspn ground ginger
1/4 tspn salt

Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a large sauce pan
Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down
Simmer until thick (I let mine go for an hour or more because I like it thick!)
*Great served over grilled chicken or pork


Rosemary Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
Ingredients:
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 (or more) garlic clove
2 (or more) sprigs of fresh rosemary
1/2 tspn coarse salt
1/4 tspn pepper
2 tbsp water

Directions:
Mix together in blender until smooth
Chill
*Great served over a spinach and salmon salad with tomatoes and feta cheese


Radish Salad
Ingredients:
2 cups radishes, thinly sliced
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 can of Allen's Italian green beans (optional)
1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tspn salt

Directions:
Stir vinegar, sugar and salt together until dissolved
Pour over radishes and onion
Cover tightly and chill at least an hour to "pickle" radishes
stir in green beans
Serve cold
*Smells horrific, but tastes absolutely amazing!  Great served with bratwursts!

April 2012

April has been a month of traveling for our family! 

Charlie spent a good portion of the first two weeks of April working on projects in Colorado, Louisiana and Texas.  He was able to be home for Easter though, which was great!  We had our neighbors and international friends over to dye eggs and had our now traditional egg pageant and war.  With no Aunt Inez eggs this year, we weren’t sure who had laid the toughest shells, but Allison claimed victory with a fierce looking egg we think was one of Aunt Dooney’s.  Bruce didn’t dye any eggs this year, but he had fun playing with the plastic eggs and his Easter basket.  Charlie also let him suck on a chocolate bunny’s ears for a little bit which he thoroughly enjoyed.

teaching Bruce how to play

The Farmer's Market opened this month and we were able to get some seedlings and plant the rest of our garden towards the middle of the month.  In addition to the lettuce, cabbage, spinach, radishes, beets, and potatoes, we now have an assortment of peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, corn, squash, zucchini, and peas planted.  We ran out of time to plant the green beans and Korean melons, but hopefully when we plant the okra this coming week we can throw those in too and hope for the best!  We’ve had wonderful “growing” weather this spring, and if it keeps it up this summer, we’re in for a great garden this year I think.  We’ve already enjoyed many dinner salads with the greens growing so far!  Bruce really likes to “weed” with me these days – anything if it means being outdoors.  It’s been so sunny lately though, that I’ve started building him an old-school “fort” with the dining room chairs and blankets.  He seems to enjoy it, and I'm happy for him to be in the shade, so every one wins. 

It may not look like much now, but it's a start!

Corn and peas aren’t the only thing popping up in rows around our house – Bruce has sprouted two teeth as well!  He’s handled it like a champ, but good thing Uncle Willie stayed with us and left behind his homeopathic healing elixir.  Bruce spends a lot of time running his tongue over his teeth - I think trying to figure out what in the world they could be, and where did they come from?  He’s biting on everything, loves to scrape his teeth on anything that will make an interesting sound, and thinks it’s funny to “air chomp” with a silly grin on his face.

"stuck" under Grandma Pat's ottoman

Other news on the baby front:  

Bruce rides my hip like a little jockey, complete with spurring my flanks as if telling me I’m not going fast enough.  He still isn’t crawling yet, but can scoot backwards until he gets stuck somewhere, and pushes up sideways liking he’s going to get into a sitting position any day now.  He gets up on his hands and knees regularly these days, and sleeps in a little ball every night with his knees tucked up under him and his rump in the air, which is insanely cute.  He’s eating his baby food well, but has been having a bit of a problem with digestion for awhile now, so we’ll have to go in to the doctor this week to see what, if anything, is going on.  He already thinks he should be feeding himself though and often tries to grab the spoon from my hand.  Sometimes when he has a spoon of his own, he holds it up to me as if he wants to feed me.  I oblige, and take a Peter Pan mouthful of imaginary deliciousness.  His affection towards stuffed animals has grown, and it’s squeals and giggles now every time he spies one.  Among his favorites are a fuzzy-tailed chicken and a new Hereford bull Charlie got him.  He continues to be crazy about details and is always investigating the ins and outs of anything he can get his hands on.  He loves to squeeze his toys so hard he turns red - I like to think he's trying to turn them into diamonds.  He enjoys anything that rolls or spins, especially the wheels on toy vehicles.  Bruce has given up on trying to master the traditional milestones quickly, and has opted to develop his monkey feet skills instead.  No one can maneuver things with their feet like this baby!  Bruce loves to play various forms of peek-a-boo, and his all-time favorite game is when he and Charlie play "chase mama."  He has had a touch of stranger anxiety lately – but that may be because of all the large groups of people we’ve been around this month.  They may be family, but they’re still pretty strange! 

We drove down to Louisiana on the 16^th for Charlie’s grandmother’s funeral.  It’s always sad to lose a loved one, but we were able to have a nice family reunion, which I’m sure would make Grandma Scottie proud.  We stayed a couple of days, and then Charlie’s mom joined us for the drive back to Oklahoma.

Lovin' on Granny K!

napping with Aunt Claire

Matthew playing on Bruce's head

Bruce eating Matthew's sock

Cousins!

The next day, Charlie went up to the office for a bit, I did some laundry, and then we loaded up again and drove to Kansas for a Kolarik family reunion.  There was a good turn out, and we had a nice weenie-roast and picnic on Bluff Creek.  Charlie’s brother Willie came back to Norman with us afterwards on Sunday and we spent the evening playing the Atari, which always provides good laughs.

Bruce with Aunt Ann

Kolarik Cousins

We all enjoyed a couple of nights in our own beds, and then on Friday it was time to head down to Texas for my sister-in-law Leah’s baby shower.  Several of the ladies from my hometown church drove out to help celebrate.  It was great to catch up with them and hear fun stories from generations of motherhood.  We can’t wait for Baby Jocelyn to arrive this summer!

It was the first time for us to stay at my mom and Rick’s new house in Horseshoe Bay, and we had a wonderful visit.  They had put up a little swing for Bruce in one of the trees in their yard, which Bruce thought was great fun.  Paul and Courtney came down with Leah for the weekend and we had a fun time exploring the oriental gardens and picking wild flowers on the side of the road.  Poor Charlie loves me so much that he was even willing to lop off some of the blooming prickly pear cactus paddles that I wanted.     

my niece Courtney climbing a rock to scale a wall
in flip flops - a girl after my own heart!

Paul and Courtney in the Oriental Gardens

Tickling the ivories with Grandma Pat

We drove back to Oklahoma today, with interesting Texas Country music radio stations helping us pass the time with ridiculous songs of love and loss and wild living.  Bruce has been such a good sport about it all.  He’s tolerated the long car rides better than we could expect or ask for, but I think we’ll all be happy to have life settle back in our normal routine for a while.  It might have been a coincidence, but Bruce did kiss the carpet when we got home.  My sentiments exactly. 

Loved seeing everyone, but it's great to be home!  

Bruce in the car seat after a road trip segment where I was
driving alone with him and had to keep tossing toys
back to him when he started to fuss...