Breakfast to Dinner

You know it's been a good day when the bookends of the day are molasses spice cookies (with coffee with cinnamon) in the morning and pumpkin bread at bedtime!  It has occurred to me that in this space it appears that we eat primarily desserts, which would be slightly misleading.  We do enjoy our baked goods, though.  But just for the sake of balance, here are some pictures of a tasty fifteen bean soup I like to make whenever we have a ham bone and some leftover ham pieces in the fridge.  The big kids have about a spoonful each with coercion, but Ben, the babies and I love it, and it makes plenty of leftovers.  And once it sits in the fridge for a day or two, it thickens slightly, and tastes delicious in a seven layer dip, so how's that for versatility?

It has been chilly and rainy these past couple of days.  The type of weather that makes you want to stay inside all day, which, come to think of it, is pretty much what we did.  I set the girls up with a pumpkin bread mix in the kitchen and challenged them to cooperatively make the bread entirely by themselves, and they succeeded with flying colors!  The only thing I did was pull down a bowl, a spatula, and then place the finished product in the oven.  See, this having kids gets easier and easier with time, and before you know it, they're baking you pumpkin bread!  (Note: that was yesterday.  Today the girls couldn't even take a bath without a conflict arising.  Hrmph.)

And while I'm still talking about baked goods, those spice cookies were really tasty.  They actually call for pepper, which I was quite skeptical of at first, but yielded a very tasty lingering flavor that didn't taste like pepper at all.  I'll add them to my list of tasty things with weird ingredients like black bean brownies.

I've been on a project to accumulate cloth napkins at the thrift store the past few months: my criteria was mainly something that wouldn't show stains (aka: with a pattern and not white) and made from a non-fussy and durable material.  We have quite the hodgepodge, but it has been a success, and I am glad not to be dealing with paper napkins anymore.  The added bonus is since they are unique and distinct from one another, we can remember which one someone used from one day to the next and don't have to wash them with each use.

And I must say a word about Hugo, who, as he reminds me throughout the day, is on my team.  "We're on a team today, Mommy!" He'll exclaim upon awaking in the morning.  And then he will ask to kiss me, and hug me, and walk around from one person to the next doing the same. He has so much love.  He says the most hilarious little things during these flurries of affection like, "You are so honored for me, Daddy!"  We don't even know what it means, but it is said with much love and energy and this little boy is the sweetest.  He also has such strong feelings about little things like, I don't know, which cup he gets at dinner.  We are always trying to help him out through involving him in what's going on, or asking him beforehand which he wants, or reducing the choices being offered (insert parenting advice of choice here), but sometimes he's simply frustrated and upset.  The trails of being three and a half.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.