Ron Paul on the U.S.'s current war policy

No matter your political views, this is worth considering.

banana crepes

Okay, people, this is seriously the easiest recipe in the world that can still be considered cooking from scratch. It's my new favorite breakfast, snagged from Shelsea's blog. Gluten-free.

Ingredients
1 banana
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend the ingredients together with a blender or small food processer, and pour enough to look like a small pancake into a greased, medium-hot skillet. It is very liquidy - don't worry - it firms up! Cook for a couple minutes until there are tiny bubbles over the surface, flip, and let the other size cook for a minute. These crepes turn a dark golden brown. Serve with fruit, nuts, syrup, cream cheese, etc., or with nothing at all!

Notes:

• I also add a light sprinkling of cinnamon to the batter.
• The recipe is easy to increase or decrease because of the straight-forward proportions. If you add another egg, add 1/3 of a banana.
• Play with crepe size, depending on how you want to serve them. If you have a large skillet and big flat spatula that can flip a bigger, floppy crepe, you can make them big enough to roll up, like a tortilla, with fruit and such inside.

two months in Montana, part 2: the out of doors

"helping" the chickens under the fence

two months in Montana, part 1: family

I've seriously got to get these photos uploaded! Shoot fire - Rachel, Cam, Bennett, and David will be here in like 8 hours, and we're fixing to start a whole new bank of memories. So, with minimal commentary (unless I just can't help it), here we are with family over the last couple months.

When we arrived in late March, Rachel and Bennett were here from Portland to greet us, (along with those who live here, also of great importance). DOH. I started right off with commentary. Anyway, it was so cool of R&B to come, and it made our getting-out-of-Texas-and-into-the-northwest all the sweeter. No offense to Texas; you guys have some great turtles and frogs, and homemade salsa and tortillas. Rachel, having inherited a larger portion of the organization-focused DNA, already posted a lot of pics of our time together, so I will just grab a small selection from my camera.

Zoralee and Bennett - a clever People pairing by Rachel

We also had a precious 5 or 6 days with Papa before he headed to North Dakota.

one of my fave pictures of these two - both so gobble up-able (thanks, Heather!)




playing that chicken and pig game on Papa's fancy doodle phone 

ordinary life after the "extras" left - - -


reading Papa a story via Skype



helping Grandpa Larry "feed the forces"

(she still calls them that - we don't get it, but it sure is cute)

pitching hay

Other favorite activities with Grandpa Larry activities include wrestling, joking around at meals, reading, and gathering eggs from the chickens.

Grandma Rena is always up for a reading session, bless her heart.

Zoralee's latest thing is wanting Mom to read pages and pages of regular old novels aloud - like, adult mystery novels with complex plots and no pictures. Very peculiar.


She's pretty well infatuated with Grandma Rena, following her like a puppy all around the house. Sometimes when I enter the room, Z starts fussing, "Don't swipe me away from Grandma!" And she gets quite distraught if Grandpa ever leaves the house without giving her the option to go. It's funny that I don't have many photos of Grandpa Larry and Grandma Rena, but I guess that's the way it is when your daily lives are so entwined. I take more photos when we go in to visit Great-G & G, which we've gotten to do every few days since we've been here.

fiddle and tiny drum



fiddle and tiny fiddle



yet another toy from Grandpa Gene's endless collection of the silly and the strange



Great-Grandpa Gene is a wonder to watch around children. With boundless energy, he finds ways to delight and entertain them. He'll be standing there quietly for a few minutes, observing the child, then he'll disappear into a back room only to bring out some one-of-a-kind nic nac or wind-up false teeth or hat wig, just to see how they'll react. Or he'll suggest a "chore" they can help with, like carrying laundry. He always offers his classic healthy snacks too, Cheetos and gum drops among them. My mom says she remembers his brothers being the same way with kids - gentle, quiet, silly. Isn't that fascinating? How do you raise an entire family to be that way? I don't know, but now I'm reaping the benefits the second time around! 

blueberry art for Z by Grandpa Gene

painting a flower onto a rock

And of course, what good is performance without an audience? Great-Grandma Louise is usually the background person in photos, but that only points to her constant role of supporter, cheer-er, clapper, encourager - all of which she does with sincerity and joy, as though this is the first child she has ever heard singing their ABCs. And she's always good for some dollars to stash into Little Lamb's backpack.

Most of our time with Uncle Luke and Aunt Heather has been at their band's shows, for which I'll do another post. But this, feeding ducks at Woodland Park, was one of our outings together early on. Another was going to frozen yogurt and then the movie, Rio, Z's second-ever "thie-a-day-ter" [theatre] experience. She lasted for half of it, then zonked.


 

"Back away from the goose."

 



38.5 weeks

button over belly over boots



boots under belly under button

I am, as they say, full term with this pregnancy, ready to birth another member of the world! Any time I think much about this fact, I am once again shocked that a human's body can do this - produce another totally unique human with its own brain, personality, and set of preferences, all of which we'll have the joy of getting to know over the next half century, God-willing.

I've generally had more energy here in Montana than I did in Texas. Part of that is help with Zoralee, I'm certain, as well as cooler weather and less stress. But, some days are still pretty sluggish. I think of a t-shirt I saw on a woman in Anchorage a couple years ago; it said something like, "I'm pregnant. I'm up, and I'm showered. What more do you want?"

a few details:

• The baby has been head down for months, so we're good there. It has switched some between anterior and posterior (anterior being preferred, with the baby's back against my tummy). After I spent a great deal of time on hands and knees one week, it switched back to anterior, so I need to keep up the cow/cat stretching move. I also want to try this Rebozo sifting that both Marcy the Midwife and Cousin Autumn the Midwife told me about. Looks fun, right, having your belly jiggled with a scarf? I think I'll recruit a neighbor kid for that one, just to see their expression. There are some other neat things at the same website regarding baby positions during pregnancy and labor: www.spinningbabies.com. And Friend Shana the Nurse Practitioner reminds me against reclining positions, which I am SO guilty of this pregnancy, even during sleep (rather than side-lying). 
• The baby's heart rate has been great throughout - lots of variation based on external stimulation - and has been lower lately, more in typical boy range than girl, so ??
• I've had some extra menstrual-type cramping over the past month, which we weren't necessarily worried about, but because we didn't want an early labor, Marcy had me start on an herbal tincture called Lobelia, as well as drinking catnip and chamomile teas. Can you believe those cramps went right away? I think that's insanely cool! Jason and I like to joke about the magical potions and brews midwives seem to know about, and whether or not we should keep a frog's toenail on hand in case it needs to be added in to the mix.
• My blood pressure has been great this time around, which is fun. With Zoralee it was higher in the last few weeks, and I was mildly on bed rest - real annoying.
• I was GBS positive at 37 weeks, which I was disappointed about, as I had being doing some dietary things to change it. But alas. So I'm doing the Hibiclens routine, taking extra Vitamin C, and we're prepared for extra measures during labor itself. This is to avoid antibiotics during labor, which is totally my choice. My midwife could administer an IV, but antibiotics have always reeked havoc on my natural flora, and I've been reading about the range of potential side effects on baby (like compromising its immunity against other bugs), so we're going with these options and will of course keep a close eye on him or her in the first few days. A water birth should help too, as it instantly rinses off the little tyke's mouth.
• Jason arrives Friday evening, so I'd be all about a birth any time after that, to optimize his time off. Anybody is welcome to put in an order to that effect with the Good Lord.