Overheard

Windham, too much acrobatics on the potty.

Harper, Master of the Monkey Bars

What We Eat (and how we do it)

Meal planning and shopping is always a struggle around the Holliman house.

Until now. I created a meal planner that has really made the difference for us in organizing, buying and keeping a record of what we eat.

1. Use the spots to plan your meals for the week. We have been using Fresh from the Farmer's Market with some amazing results: corn soup, tomato salad, onion crostini. Yum! You also have space to note the cookbook and page number for easy reference (and no extra memory required at 6:30pm on a Thursday night)
2. Create a shopping list based on your weekly meals. We have converted to Michael Pollan's rule of eating, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Granted, we still eat a fare amount of meat right now (we are working on reducing that and getting meat we know something about from Full of Life Farm). Also, keep the majority of your shopping in the perimeter of the store and stay out of the center aisles, that is where the processed food lives.
3. Once your shopping is done, put the meal planner on the fridge or somewhere in easy reach. Now you are set for the remainder of the week. And now you have an easy archive of your meals. This makes planning easier as you can look back at what worked and what the kids refused to eat! Of course, if you only offer them the one option, they will eat it eventually when they get hungry enough.
4. You can also print these double-sided and plan for 2 weeks at a time, if that is how you like to roll. Then keep them in a notebook or all together to make planning easier in the future.

I will begin to post our weekly meals and perhaps some recipes. 

If you want to try out the meal planner, click here to download. I would be delighted to know how you like it and how you have tailored it to your own planning/shopping/eating needs.

Who is that Handsome Man?

I went shopping with Poppy aka Big Joe aka my dad today. Our task from Nana aka Linda aka my mom was to find a polo shirt to go with some new shorts he bought. They are headed on an East Coast Tour and she needed her man to look sharp.

We hit the big and tall man's store and I immediately honed in on a lovely chambray shirt. I made him try it on and he looked dashing.

When I inquired as to which shoes he would be taking, the answer was unacceptable. White New Balance sneakers and Birekenstocks. No good. So we headed to the mall in search of a boat shoe.

This was no easy task as the man has some wide feet. We hit the major department stores only to find a dearth of wides. At the last store, we found some Clarks that were more supportive than the Sperry Topsider but had the same look. Brilliant!



Now don't he look smart?

Fan Love

Kids have fallen in love with the fan.

Balloons

Crimes Against Chocolate

Aubree: Laramie, I know what we should do with the rest of the chocolate you got for your birthday. We can make chocolate covered bananas.
Laramie: We can't do that, that's Chocolate Abuse.


- Posted using my fancy phone.

calisthenics with Ukle Bean

Ukle Bean missed the children while we were away. We told him we'd make him a BLT after he finished his dreadful 24 hour final. He thought he would spend a nice relaxing evening with his beloved niece and nephew, who had just shorn their hair to look JUST like him. Little did he know...

New Summer 'Dos

Uncle Ben stopped by today on his way to a haircut. Harper had been asking for short hair for awhile so after much confirmation and assurances she really wanted short hair, we went along with the uncle to the barbershop. Harper hopped up into the chair and the locks started to fall. Seeing the fun that was to be had, Windham starting asking for a haircut too. So up he went.

They both sat patiently in their chairs and let the gals go crazy.

Ta-Da!

That Girl Can Ride

While out in the country, Harper had the opportunity to ride her cousin Jasper's old bike. We lowered the seat and tilted the handlebars. It was still a bit too big for her yet she was determined to break that stead. She got on and just rode. She fell off and got right back on. We were so proud of her bravery and determination. Uncle Jake captured the moment in this one shot.


You go kid.