Blissful E

drink pink

blissfule — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:21:50 +0000

My favourite smoothie is a happy combination of apples, bananas, strawberries and blueberries. We simply call it "pink."

Kids like it, too!

watercolour painting

blissfule — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:24:22 +0000

Nikki asked to paint, so I set her and Michael loose with the watercolours.

Nikki also painted the reverse of that same page.

Her current style could be called 'saturation.'

artisan bread in five minutes per day

blissfule — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:32:09 +0000

In the spirit of doing less this year, I plan to periodically share some of the shortcuts that allow me to parent more efficiently and work smarter.
~ ~ ~

So I got really excited about making my own beautiful bread with very little effort and mixed up a batch of artisan dough (enough for four one-pound loaves) in the largest container I have in my kitchen.

Then I left it to rise for a couple hours.

Realizing my mistake, I moved the dough to a big stockpot and stuck it in the refrigerator as the next step.

After the older kids were in bed, I removed a grapefruit-sized pound of dough and transferred the rest back into the yogurt bucket to take up less room in my refrigerator. I formed the dough into a free-form ball, let it rest on my pizza peel, and slashed it.

Into the oven, and thirty minutes later - well, if I hadn't seen myself make this bread I wouldn't have believed it.

Ben sliced into the warm crusty loaf, and we each ate a delicious piece before going to bed. This was easy and fun, and after we devour this batch, I'm looking forward to trying the healthier version here.

pink and blue stripes

blissfule — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:30:03 +0000

A happy Baba home from work and holding baby Vi.

jam session

blissfule — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:11:20 +0000

Percussion instruments are all the go in our house!

Ben asked if I initiated the jam session. Not at all - my only contribution was getting down on the floor and pressing the "record" button. Nikki and Michael set up the instruments and began playing on their own. They just love music!

the spoon is better than the food

blissfule — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:40:01 +0000

Vi has tried banana, avocado, and apricots.

She still prefers the spoon!

Michael Foreman’s Nursery Rhymes

blissfule — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:59:24 +0000

Nursery rhymes are "the bottom-most layer of the comfortable hereditary clutter of mottoes, proverbs, and half-remembered tales that we use to ornament conversations throughout our lives, knowing that they are common currency." - Iona Oprie

Michael Foreman's Nursery Rhymes was a fabulous find on our latest trip to the library.

Nikki adores the funny sayings and memorable incidents recorded throughout. Michael enjoys the visual humor, for instance a rat shown walking from one relevant rhyme to another on the next page.

Nikki happily recites the rhymes for Michael, as in the video below.

She is also beginning to create scenarios of her own with the characters.

Fun-loving children + a book of silly rhymes = good times.

learning from Jonah

blissfule — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:18:22 +0000

Ben and I like to ask each other what we learned from the sermon during our drive home from church. Tonight we got distracted, recounting our conversations after church instead.

image :: original artwork by Fred R Shepard

When we got home, Nikki took it upon herself to ask me what I learned. I told her, and then she asked me to ask her what she learned! Of course I asked and she told me that she learned about "growing our hearts to be more like Jesus, and prayer [Pastor Mike talked about Jonah's prayer in the belly of the big fish]."

A few minutes later Michael asked me to ask him what he learned ("Mama, what Michael learn?"). So I asked him and he sat up very straight in his chair and forcefully enunciated his answer: "worship God!"

have you any S-N-O-D?

blissfule — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:21:07 +0000

With sharp-eared small children around, adult conversation can be a bit limited. Sometimes Ben and I spell things rather than say them.

That means, of course, that when we're spelling, it must be important.

Nikki heard some spelling and thought we were saying "S-N-O-D". She now thinks that S-N-O-D is very important.

Ben and I have no idea what we were spelling when our daughter heard S-N-O-D, but the acronym has clearly taken on a life of its own.

Sometimes when we're about to eat, Nikki will ask if we're having S-N-O-D. Or she'll ask if we're going to get some S-N-O-D. Click here to listen to Nikki's imaginary phone conversation about S-N-O-D (transcript below).

Uh, hello?
I'd like to get S-N-O-D, and Mama wants it too.
So... uh... we're pretty nice, so...
Have you any S-N-O-D?
Yeah? OK.
Bye bye."

If anyone, uh, has some S-N-O-D, I think my daughter's expecting some in the mail...

Vi’s chat show :: promo pictures

blissfule — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:13:57 +0000

Vi has a way of making those around her feel special.

She smiles so much when people talk to her that she is a natural choice for hosting her own chat show.

Six months into the series, the producers have just released several new head shots to meet growing demand from all of Vi's fans.

For those of you who haven't seen the show, Vi insisted we include a sample from her favourite segment: "Fashion DOs". Bottom ruffles are very NOW.