Not to smother artistic talent...

but, really, let's keep it on paper. If you have a little artist like I do, you probably have some walls that look like this:




BUT, with a little toothpaste and a lot of elbow grease (especially if you have textured walls...ugh) your wall can go back to this:



Yes, I used Arm and Hammer toothpaste because, really, it's not fit for brushing your teeth. Ick

Taming shrews and Culturing children

Phew, haven't done movie/book reviews for a while.


I love art. I hope my children love art too. Why not expose art to them now! The book is Children's Book of Art. I read it to Bryant. He lasted 2 minutes. Yeah, well I tried. I wonder how they chose the different pieces for this book. Well, I really liked it. Maybe it should be renamed Parents' Book of Art.





Tonight we watched Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's Taming of the Shrew. Loved it! I have seen it before but this was the first time for Ben. I loved that the costumes and scenery were set in Shakespearean time. I loved that they didn't modernize the script. I loved Liz's big hair. I just loved it. I wonder if Liz and Rich were like that in real life (the feuding parts.) After all...they were married twice. See this, you'll love it too.

Practically a new kitchen!

Ok, maybe not quite. But our new backsplash sure does wonders for our kitchen. I don't have a before picture. The backsplash was just the wall. It was hard to clean and ugly. So you can just picture something ugly and hard to clean. But here's the after!





We got the tiles online from here and we LOVE them! We're not quite done. Still have some to put up. And we have to order some more because my hubby decided to become a cabinet maker!







Yes, he made that. Now we finally have somewhere to put the mixer. He just has to put on the door and then we can paint. And I think I'm tired of the white. I was thinking maybe a creamy color to try and warm up the kitchen a little. That probably won't happen until after the Holidays. It took us a month to put up tiles and we're not even done yet. The projects never end. Good thing they're lots of fun!

Baby, it's cold outside!

It's freezing here. Literally. The tube that takes the water from the condensate pump (for our furnace) outside is plugged up because the water in it has turned to ice.

Goodee.

At least give us snow if it's going to be this cold! Hope you're all staying warm...and having a Happy Holidays.

Anyway, I love the smell of Christmas trees. Ours is up but not quite all the way decorated. We've been decorating it with the boys a little at a time.

Drosophila

image found here

Fruit flies. Ugh. I hope you don't have a problem with them too. Sure, we need to eat our bananas a little faster but sheesh! It doesn't take long for these fruit decomposers to make some friends. They can lay up to 20 eggs a day! No fair.

Well, if you do have a problem with them maybe you can try this homemade fly trap. Mix a cup or two of apple cider vinegar and a few squirts of dish detergent in a glass jar. Put some plastic wrap on the top and poke some holes in the top. Shake up the jar a little bit to make some fly trapping bubbles and there you have it.

Or, if your trap isn't working fast enough and the flies are REALLY getting on your nerves....you can fire up the vacuum. :)

Yum yum

I LOVE these. I personally can't justify buying them in the summer, but now that it's winter, I'm totally hittin' Costco to get me some mango goodness.

Partaaaaay

Today

Me: Bryant, what are you doing?

Bryant: Having a party under my bed!

Me: I see

word

U2

We went to the U2 concert in Vancouver, Canada. All I can say is AMAZING! Thanks Ben for taking me. And thanks Crystal for watching the kiddies!

Heh, you can see we were pretty high up, but I LOVED it!

Gotta love Halloween!

I love Halloween. Or maybe I just love the candy. Either way, this year was fun. And we must've somehow broke the curse because no one was sick! Yay! Our Halloween festivities started out with going to a pumpkin field.











The weather was pretty nice, but we didn't go house to house. That's ok, because our ward trunk or treat had plenty of treats.








That face says it all. CANDY!!! Yum.

Baba Gha-what?

Baba Ghanoush! Now why would anyone eat something called that? Because it's so delicious. And pretty easy to make. It's a dip/spread made of eggplant, tahini, olive oil and lemon juice. We made some last night and it was very good. Especially when you dip hot homemade pita bread, carrots, and sugar snap peas in it. Want the recipe? Here:

Baba Ghanoush

1 large eggplant, cut in half lengthways
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt (we used kosher)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat an oven broiler (we put ours on high). Place the eggplant halves, skin side up, on a baking tray. Cook the eggplant about 1 inch from the heat source for 20 minutes. Remove the eggplant and let it cool to room temperature.

Scoop out the eggplant flesh from the skin with a spoon, and place in a food processor or blender with the lemon juice, tahini, oil, garlic, salt, and pepper; process until smooth. Store in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Serve with bread and/or vegetables.

See, doesn't that sound easy? Well, it was. So go get an eggplant and try it! Now I'm not so afraid of eggplant.