a picture a day...

...i'm realizing i'm not so good at keeping up with a blog, so i'm going to try to post a picture a day to just give a glimpse of life. i have a feeling i won't make it every day, but at least it's easier than trying to "catch up". so...today's picture is of the shirt i made for maja. i have been in some children's boutiques this year and every time i see a cute shirt i can't help but think, "i could make that," so i did! greta has one too (her shirt is the reverse fabrics of majas)...maybe someday i will take orders, but for now this is it!

now picture a cute little 3 1/2 year old wearing it! can't wait to give it to maja in person when we're at her house in a few weeks!

recipe

i have said i would post this recipe forever, so here it is...now that i'm back to the land of blogging. although i do think i jinxed myself when i wrote that i am the only one who hasn't been sick b/c of course the next day- i'm sick!

Pulled Pork Tacos (adapted from Real Simple)- they are delicious and super easy!

3ish (plus or minus) boneless pork shoulder
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pepper
1 c apricot preserves
1/2 c bbq sauce
1 red onion (decent size) chopped

1- rub the pork with the mix of cumin, salt & pepper
2- put the rubbed pork in a crock pot on low (or dutch oven at 250)
3- pour the apricot preserves, bbq sauce & onion over the pork and coat, turning the pork
4- let sit in crock pot for about 4 hours, pull pork and then let soak in juices for another hour or so (i left it for 3 hrs b/c that was how long it took us to eat!)
5- serve with tortillas, black beans, cheese, avocado, sour cream- whatever your poison. i added tortilla chips & mike's mom cole slaw (a bag of slaw with some miracle whip, sugar, dash of white vinegar, chopped apple, raisins & a little pineapple- it was a great touch to the meal!)

there you go- super simple & everyone has asked for the recipe...enjoy!

read at your own risk

there is the cutest children's store in portland. i adore it. it's called posh & it's just that- posh. the thing i love about the store is that they started selling products made by local moms. it's since expanded and they have a variety of high end things...many of which are now out of my-husband-is-a-grad-student budget (aka- i shouldn't spend loan money buying anything that can be called "cute"). they do have a great sale though. so i was online looking on their website, trying to figure out when they have their sale...only to stumble upon something called "girlfriends pick-me-up breast lift tape". they describe it like this: We all know sometimes it's about the perks in life. So, if gravity's got you down, don't fret. Say goodbye to breast lift surgery and hello to two inches of gravity defying pick-up. what they also have on their website is a picture of two boobs...one with the tape and one with out...but did you read that right- they have the BOOBS for the world to see!!! i was so shocked when i was on their website & then i started laughing b/c i couldn't believe that they actually had the picture, but then i thought- should a website with children's products also have nudity? it does demonstrate how the product works very well, but don't you think they could have done that with a t-shirt over the model? am i just that big of a prude that i care? I found myself thinking- what if a teenage boy was on the website or looking over his mom's shoulder while she was on the website-is that okay? i'm curious if anyone else cares about the nudity...if you want to see it, you can go to their website here & find it for yourself (since mike told me i'm not allowed to post anything that would link someone to nudity- and like i said earlier ***at your own risk***):

http://www.poshbabyllc.com/posh/

ps...i still think the store is adorable and would tell anyone in the portland area to check it out!

we're back...

if only i had kept a diary of all our illnesses from this winter. it would look a little something like this (you'll notice that i've been the "healthy" one, which means i've been the care taker, which is even more tiring than being sick!):

jan. 1- greta throws up
jan. 2- calla throws up
jan. 3- mike throws up
jan. 4- sarah throws her hands up in the air b/c she is covered in throw up!
jan. 5- calla spikes a fever and is covered in a rash
jan. 6- greta has an ear infection
jan. 7- mike has shingles
jan. 8- sarah faints of exhaustion from tending to the ill

we made the maybe-not-so-wise choice to get kaiser for our insurance out here. good, cheap insurance...a LONG drive to get to a provider. a drive i'm all too familiar with this year. so this week when greta woke up with gunky, crusty eyes i decided that we were going to just use natural products. i went to the co-op, bought some similasan eye drops and called it good. the only problem is that it wasn't good. it took DAYS for her pink eyes to get better (days of being basically home, which is not that fun for a 3 year old), which then made me feel like a bad mom b/c i didn't just take her to the doctor in the first place. i didn't want to make the drive. i just didn't feel like driving an hour each way, paying a $30 co-pay, having the dr tell me that she has pink eye or conjunctivis, whatever you want to call it, and then paying another $10 for the prescription. i just didn't feel like it. i know that pink eye runs it's course in time and i have used similasan drops in the past for myself and they have worked just fine, but after 3 days of greta having gunky eyes and no fun (and knowing the eye drops from the dr would have worked in one day), i felt bad. should i feel bad? she's fine now, we went to the park, went for a walk with friends, had some of her friends over to play this afternoon, but i still feel bad. i'm just using the excuse that on wednesday morning (the day after greta woke up with gunky eyes) calla woke up and threw up on me. yes, on me. so in reality i would have been a bad mom if i had taken a throwing up baby on a long drive, made her wait in the dr. office and then made her take another long drive home. so really, if you look at it that way, i'm a good mom.