What are your favorite books?  What are you reading right now?  We’re talking about the best of the best books over at Always Something to Talk About this week.

Check out today’s post.  Our hilarious guest shares how books and stories often overtake her and she needs her husband to bring her back to reality.  Do you relate?

The little dear needs a lesson in tenses.  Or maybe Daddy does.  At any rate, there is some confusion in our house.

Last night, during bath time, Lydia started scooping up the bubbles and water and depositing them in her mouth- you know, drinking her bath water!  Ryan said, “No, don’t drink the water.”

She said, “I drink water.”

He said, “No, don’t drink the water.”

She said more vehemently, “I DRINK water!”

He said, “No, don’t drink the water.”

She threw her hands in the air and yelled, “I DRINK WATER!”

Ryan thought for a minute and decided to determine exactly what she was telling him.  “Do you mean you DRANK the water?”

She replied with a sigh and a ”Yes!”

“Oh.  Well, don’t drink the water.”

“OK!”

Lunch today was a celebration of the little ground creature who tells us what to expect outside our window for the next 6 weeks.

Since Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, we will have six more weeks of winter.  I had a nice summery juice to drink today, just in case he predicted an early spring.  Instead, our drink for Groundhog Day was hot cocoa.  (it’s wintery).

In addition, as part of this incomplete lunch, we ate pigs in blankets (groundhog.  hog.  pig.  It’s a stretch, I know).

My husband pointed out that Fritos are made of corn.  Corn comes from the ground.  So do groundhogs.  Apples come from trees which grow out of the ground.  Groundhogs, as I have already so helpfully pointed out, also come from the ground. 

Much like our little paper groundhogs in dirt pie.

We keep it authentic around here.

We take Groundhog Day seriously around here.  When I told my husband I have a church meeting to go to tomorrow night, his response was, “Why would they have a meeting on a holiday?”  I’m not sure the rest of the world cares about Groundhog Day quite as much as we do, but here is a fun Groundhog Day recipe for celebrating the often-forgotten holiday.

Dirt Pie

You need:

We really like creative dates and we especially like when those dates are cheap or free.  What’s even better is when they inspire mushy-gushiness, romance and lots of kissing.

Enter my silly but mushy-gushy, romantic and kissy kissy Cheap Creative Date #1.

Supplies needed

1. m&ms or skittles

2. construction paper and scissors

3. pen or marker

Step 1.

Cut out two strips of paper for each color of m&ms or skittles.  Put in two piles.

Step 2.

Write silly mushy gushy discussion prompts on each strip of paper.  Things like: “Favorite memories together” or “Your favorite things about me” or “Things you admire most about me.”  Throw in some good action prompts like:

If same prompts are used for each pile, write them on different colored paper.

Step 3:

Get two bowls and put 55 m&ms (frozen if you want them to taste better!) or skittles in each one (that’s 1/4 cup, which is the serving size for m&ms.  It sounds like a lot- and maybe it is.  But they’re oh-so-good.)

Put your prompts in two separate bowls- one for each of you.

Now the game begins.

1. Decide who goes first.

2. First person chooses a color of m&ms or skittles and pulls all of that color out of the bowl to be counted.  Let’s say I pick red and have 12 red m&ms.

3. Then I pick the red prompt.  I do whatever it says or talk about whatever it tells me to talk about 12 times.  So I give 12 kisses on the lips or I list 12 things I admire about my husband.

4. Then I eat my 12 red m&ms. 

5. The game can be interrupted at any time for the cause of mushy gushyness, romance, or lots (more) kisses.

Have I ever told you about J. Kirk Richards?  If I haven’t, shame on me.  He is one of my very most favorite artists.  I love his colors and visible brushstrokes.  Many of his paintings even seem to glow.  How does he do that? 

Here are some of his latest works available for purchase.  One day, I will have enough money to buy an original!  Until then, I will just stare at his website a couple times a day to make me happy.

An Angel’s Whisper

Cantata (Wir eilen mit Schwachen)

Flower Garden

Holy Family

Children Singing

Woman with Holly

All pictures from here

Go check out my hubby’s guest post at Always Something to Talk About!

The songs we have sung to our daughter from her infancy have begun to manifest themselves in various form through her tiny toddler voice over the past few months.

We hear renditions of “Wheels on the Bus” mixed with “Happy Birthday.”  “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” quickly becomes the “ABCs.”

The sweetest, however, are the LDS primary songs she sings (children’s hymns).  Nearly every day, she will grab the children’s hymnbook, put it up on the piano, and say “Child of God.  Child of God, Mommy.”  The moment is too sweet, so I drop whatever I am doing and go find the song, “I am a Child of God.”  Lydia sits on my lap while I play.  We start singing together, but somewhere along the way, my voice drops out so I can listen to the sweet angelic sounds coming from her mouth.

It’s truly beautiful to hear my 2 year old sing these words in her tiny voice:

Go here to listen to children singing “I am a Child of God.”  The knowledge that I am a child of God has always been a part of my life and has helped me in many ways.  This song is something I often go back to when trying to figure out who I am and what I’m doing.

We had a real date this weekend.  It’s been a few weeks since we had a real one where we hire a babysitter and actually go out somewhere.  It was so much fun to go to the movies and walk hand in hand with my husband.  It made me feel giddy.

But the next night was even better.  After we put the little dear to bed Saturday night, we made some frozen hot chocolate and snuggled on the couch while we sipped and talked with absolutely no agenda.

Our conversation soon found it’s way to the topic of ourselves 5 years ago- pre marriage.  We laughed and smiled while we reminisced about the silly things we did to get each other’s attention.  We described and re-enacted the first kiss, the second kiss (which was way better), and the third kiss (which was truly magical).  We marveled at how incredibly easy it was to be in each other’s company right from the start.  We really could have gone on and on about ourselves to each other.

It was wonderful.  It made me fall in love all over again.

Next time you don’t know what to do for date night, use this easy date idea: make absolutely no plans except to reminisce about your courtship- no matter how long ago that may be for you!  It’s truly refreshing!

I couldn’t find any pre-marriage pictures on our computer.  This picture is pre-parenthood, which can also be a fun subject.

…washable markers.