The kiddos and I made popsicles this morning.

They helped pour ingredients into the blender and turn the on and off switch. Their eyes widened with expectation and delight as we filled the molds. And then I whisked the popsicles away and said they wouldn't be ready till after naps. I remember reading in Bringing Up Bébé how, when French families make treats together, they make the bébés wait to eat them until the culturally accepted snack time. It teaches patience or something? So I felt very French as I tucked our treats in the freezer...and kinda mean. And I liked it.

I confess that I'm not such a big popsicle fan. I'd just rather be eating ice cream, so I do. The kids however love them, and since you can tweak recipes to make them more nutritious, I think they're real winners as far summer treats go.

As soon as we've made popsicles more than twice, I can justify upgrading from our dollar store molds and land me some of these. My minimalist leanings always fly out the window when I want to embark on some vaguely nutritious new kitchen adventure. I feel like I'm doomed to fail if I don't have all the right gear. Do you suffer from this?

Say hello to a popsicle recipe that's hardly dessert it's so good for you. Well, the popsicles are very sweet, so there is the sugar thing, but otherwise: Snarf 'em down kiddies! Even your hippy grandmother would approve because I snuck in some maca root and grassfed gelatin!

Banana Coconut Cream Popsicles

1 can Coconut Cream
2 Frozen Bananas
2-3 T. Maple Syrup
1 tsp. Gelatin optional
1 tsp. Maca Powder optional
1 Tbs. chocolate sauce optional

Blend all ingredients except chocolate in blender, pour into molds, dollop some chocolate sauce on top (bottom?) and feel very fancy while twirling it in.

If you have some killer popsicle recipes/ingredients/tips/gear - or if your name is Jenna and you make gorgeous popsicles and blog at Wilber Huset - you should divulge in the comment section!!!

I would be grateful. My kids would be grateful! And my husband would be grateful...so long as the kids eat them outside mostly naked and I tackle them with a wet wipe on their way back inside. #messophobicfather.

30 Weeks of Baby 3

I'm not a consistent blogger.

You've probably noticed.

This is a blog, and as such I think I've done a pretty good job at maintaining it in a certain tier. Mediocre design. Filtered cell phone photography. Rare substantial content. I don't see myself breaking from this trend as much as I would like to go all Camille Styles on you.

But I also have always managed to post a pregnancy update at 30 weeks with each of my now THREE pregnancies. So: Tradition! Tradition!

I'm a sucker for pregnancy updates and bump photos. When someone I follow on social media isn't bumpdating (sorry! ouch!) I get surly. And I always click through to see how much better/worse she wears this pregnancy over previous ones. I'm not critical. Just curious.

So here it goes. How I'm wearing pregnancy 3. Words first.

Ugh. This one's been tough. Nausea for 22 weeks. I earned myself some serious spider veins. I haven't had too much back pain yet, but I've had shin splints? Or something like them? My midwife was about 0% concerned about my shin pain, and so I'm trying not to be either. I haven't googled it yet, and that is helping.

I haven't been able to jog at all really. With my first I jogged till 34 weeks, and I managed to jog at least some with number two, but every time I try to up the waddle this time around, I get all kinds of weird pressure and pain. I have been walking a lot. If I don't walk, my shin pain and back pain get worse and I'm positively puffy by the end of the day.

When this pregnancy started, Jacob was working all the time, I was sick all the time, Lucy June stopped sleeping through the night, and Jakeboy became a holy terror of a 3.5 year old. It was rough. And then it got better. Then I picked my head up off the pillow to see that it was getting better. Around week 22, we suspended ourselves in a slow and hopeful dawn. Now the hot summer day is upon us, and life is pretty good.

Here's Jake @ 30 weeks. And Lucy June @ 30 weeks. And here's Baby #3 at a technical 30 weeks and 5 days (but who's counting...) (...me!)

And for good measure. Here's the paternal half at 30 weeks while I adjusted camera settings...

Such a sport. Such a sport.

Bye for now, friends!

Things I'm Loving this Summer

Hullo, July! I'd like you to note how relatively cool June was and its manageable number of mosquitos. Its watermelons however weren't that great, so you could totally one up her on that account.

Anyhoo, some things I've been loving this summer:

- 1 -

Grilling Pizza: We love pizza. A year ago I started using this recipe for crust from The Kitchn and haven't looked back. It's remarkably easy. Sometimes I'll put in a little semolina flour if I want a more crackery crust. We put out toppings and build our own pizzas on parchment paper and then toss them on the grill.

My brother in law even cracked an egg on his last week, and it was just about the most beautiful sunnyside up I'd ever seen.

- 2 -

Homemade Ice Cream: We have my mom's Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker on loan, and Costco has been keeping us in some decent quality cream. I've LOVED being able to try out all different flavors especially since our summer has been Blue Bell-less. And by all different flavors, I mostly just mean different ratios of malt and salt.

- 3 -

Hang Drying Laundry: I've gotten back in the habit of hang drying laundry. (I LOVE hang drying laundry. I even have a post in my draft folder all about how much I love hang drying laundry, but every time I try to publish it, I get nervous that it sounds all "Rah rah simple life! I'm doing it better than you!" - and since I am #nonconfrontational #forevah, in the draft folder it stays.)

Our dryer has been taking a looooong time to dry clothes, so out on the line they go, and I'm reminded of how much I love the activity. Admittedly, Houston is kinda soggy and even the sunny day turns on you in a matter of minutes, so while hanging the clothes out on the line may feel like a breezy pioneer poem, many a load has been frantically retrieved to the tune of thunder and in an onslaught of Braxton Hicks as I waddle dash outside to save the dry laundry.

- 4 -

A Zoo Membership: At the beginning of the summer we got a zoo membership. This is apparently something you "just do" if you're a mom in the city. I have no idea how to urban parent. All the parents I knew growing up just sent their kids to the creek and told them to watch out for fire ants. Things like theme parks and zoos were HUGE annual efforts. While I balked at getting a zoo membership, I love it. We can have a day there or a morning there or just drop by when we're in the neighborhood. We can plan a morning playdate there and see half a gorilla and call it good. We can picnic and get the kids completely zonked at the splash pad and head home in time for naps. And nobody makes any comments about how close your kids are together...because it's already a zoo.

- 5 -

Lentil Salad: A friend of mine tuned me into this lentil salad recipe recently, and it's changed my relationship to the blah lentil. I typically make it with more balsamic vinegar than ACV, maybe not quite so much mustard, and whichever of the spices I happen to have. New Roots calls it the best lentil salad ever, and I can't really attest to that, because it's the only lentil salad I've ever had, but it's delish. I've tried all kinds of add-ins, and haven't gone wrong yet.

Linking up with Jenna!

Catch Up Catch Up

Just shy of two months later and she's attempting another blogging reentry.

My lands how I've missed this space.

I think about you all a lot, but every time I try to write I end up like...crying or something. I don't know. These last few months - or let's just call it 2015 - has been TOUGH. But I'm learning about myself as a wife and a mother and as a woman and all that, so I guess it's also been good. But I'm a little tired of learning hard lessons.

Where have we been and what have we done??

I think I left off in April right before we went to watch my dad run Boston. How cool is he?? (And at mile 26!)

My little sister graduated from my old alma mater.

The nephew and niece played their parts admirably.

   

I'm still pregnant. So pregnant. Pregnancy nausea hung on to a ripe 22 weeks, at which point it became very manageable, and now at 27 weeks is totally gone. I'm still a little shell-shocked but so grateful it let up. I also weigh right about what I did when I DELIVERED Jake so...that feels good.

Jacob's work finally started to slow down a bit in May, he's home most days before five and even gets a couple days off every week. This is a far cry better than working till 7 every night 6.5 days a week. We both agree that he's been working too much. He's a contractor, so the more he works the more he makes, and it's hard to say no to work. His work is seasonal, but the busy season (right along with my nausea) hung on about eight weeks longer than expected. So after that experience we were both pretty zonked and ready to life overhaul.

Or at least I was ready to life overhaul. Jacob is more of a "just live" person and I'm more of a "plan to live" person. So I've been reading Charles Duhigg and Gretchen Rubin and imagining all the ways we can paint a deliberate life for ourselves, and he's been shaking his head.

Houston flooded at the end of May. My brother and brother-in-law were stranded in central Houston all night long, homes north of our neighborhood got over a foot of water, and we...slept...woke up to the thunder a few times...and read about it online in the morning.

It looks like we lost our beehive, probably because of the rain. They're queenless, and if they can't manage to hatch a new one soon, we'll lose them. It probably means it's time for us to move. We always lose hives before a move. My brothers, who live with and own this house with us, are under contract on another place, so we're talking about transitioning this house into a rental property.

The kids are growing right along.

Jake turned four last week. We had an Octonauts party, and he loved it. His little friends came over and Jacob played carnie outside letting little people in and out of the treehouse.

I think he requested a Blue Octopod Reef Cake which I translated to a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting decorated with pipe cleaners and toys.

The cake inspired thievery which I took as a compliment.

The cute little girl in the green gingham got the "R" before we could say "make a wish." I have no idea who stole the Octonaut Penguin.

Throwing a four year old's birthday party was much more fun than I expected. He was SO. EXCITED. about everything.  

We bought Jake some big kid legos for his birthday, and now he plays legos all the time. I'm already mourning the day when moving Han Solo's head to an astronaut body no longer holds the magical quiet time charm that it has the past week.

Lucy June is 19 months of talking all the time. She snuggles and hugs and goes right down for naps, and - aside from the full body fits when I take away her beloved chapstick and the 6:05am wake up punctuated with her squeaky morning voice from the crib: "All DONE night night! All DONE sheeping!! Get OUTTA HERE!" - she's still as sweet as ever.

Like so sweet. Like she literally will walk up, wrap her arms around my legs, and say "Hug you wuv you, mama." Since Jake was about three before I got any spontaneous affection, I'm lapping it up. And praying that she doesn't turn on us in adolescence.

And that's mostly our story these days. I really hope summer inspires my blogging game. We shall see. We shall see. 

Fluffy Ramblings and a Bump

I started my last draft with a plan to go full fluff, but then things got heavy. I cried while I wrote it. I think posts no longer qualify as fluff once someone starts crying.

So I paused it. Went on a date with Ben & Jerry's, and now I'm back.

~~~

I've been combing the archives of this little lady recently. She's like the cutest ever, and she's about to have her first baby, and she's just so delightfully stalk-able, so go forth.

~~~

I've been experimenting with DIY shampoo again. (Ah. This life. Riveting!) It's actually a terrible time to experiment because during pregnancy my hair and scalp get super dry, so it's hard to tell what's causing what, but I'm on a castille soap/honey kick right now, and I'm moderately pleased with it.

I've also finally made some epsom salt spray - I used this recipe  - and don't you know I went the chamomile/lemon route because I'm always Hail Marying for highlights. Results: not in. My spray bottle kept getting clogged and leaking and the concoction would run down my arms, and I don't wash my hair regularly, so I can't experiment very easily with how much to use. Long story short: I'm basically Mrs. Paul Mitchell.

I'll probably just throw in the beach towel and buy some, but not before it sits in my Amazon cart for a couple weeks and I go through several cycles of buyer's guilt before I've even purchased it.

We all have our neuroses I suppose.

~~~

You want to know a fluffy secret I don't think I've ever shared? You want to talk more exemplary hygiene?

I don't shave my legs. Except for the very rare occasion, I haven't shaved in the last five years.

And this isn't like a hippy, crunchy thing. I'm not some kind of hairy feminist.

I got some waxing done when I was a blushing bride and went on a razor-free honeymoon, and after six weeks of hairless underarms, I was like: I'm never shaving again. So now I mostly epilate. Yes. It hurts. An Italian friend first introduced me to epilating. At about eight hairs in, I swore I'd never do it again. But once I'd had a couple waxes, it didn't hurt near as much, and now that I'm a few years in, I don't even flinch. And then I'm golden and hair-free for 6-8 weeks. Are there any other epiladies out there?

~~~

I'm trying to cut back on the amount of meat we eat. Since I've been sick with Baby 3, our food budget has been off the hook. I haven't been cooking ($$) and Jacob's been doing all the grocery shopping ($$$). So we're trying to venture back into the wide world of legumes, but as I make this valiant effort, I'm noticing that all my bean recipes are very wintery. So I'd love any recommendations you could send my way!

~~~

Lucy June talks a lot about my parents' animals. Their cat, Izzy, who scratched her (Izzy! ouch! Izzy! Hurting!) and also their dog, Beau. When we were at their house last, my parents tried to teach her how to give the dog commands, so now she randomly walks around our house lisping: "Shit, Beau! Shit! Shit, Beau!"

I know it won't last long. Good things never do.

~~~

And as titularly promised, here we are pushing 19 weeks.

On Friday we head to Boston, to watch my dad run the marathon. I'm so proud of him and excited to see ducklings and haunt lots of quaint coffee shops.

And that's all for now.

Landscaping is for the Bees: Before and After

**This post is sponsored. But please don't run away!! It's still me! Kate! Just with (very small) dollar signs for eyes and some lovely new plants from Monrovia.**

So you remember that we bought a house a while back.  A MAJOR fixer upper, and I've stopped talking about it because we stopped working on it right about the time Jacob's winter crazy season started. While we haven't 100% finished a single room, most of the house is mostly done. Except we've done virtually nothing to the exterior.

Friday found us traipsing to Lowes so I could find some plants for the little bit of landscaping in the front yard. 

I'm not good at gardening, but like making traditional sourdough bread, it's not something I'm willing to give up on yet for all its attendant heartache. Baby #3 ruthlessly threw down the gauntlet when it came to any real garden aspirations for 2015, so I've decided to satisfy myself with a little landscaping. Behold my canvas:

The front of the house is not pretty, and life's still too busy to paint it and replace the windows, but I thought maybe some flowers would make it look like somebody loved it because this mound of old stump plus weird grasses was positively haunting.

After our wisteria bloomed in the backyard and brought with it bells and bells of purple blossoms: I knew I needed color. With Monrovia's help, we scored some yellow lantana. Growing up, I loved lantana. In the hottest part of the summer, it would still be blooming. My grandmother insisted that it was a weed, but I always felt kinda sorry for weeds. Monrovia tells me it is not a weed, that it's a match for Houston summers, and that the butterflies love it.

The great planting effort went as you might expect. The kiddos "helped."  

We all looked very cute. 

 Even cuter.

Jake eventually got bored and adopted a snail he named "A-Snailia," and Lucy June tried to eat fertilizer. 

In the end we landed here. It's definitely suffering from some "I just got planted" syndrome - landscaping kinda goes through it's own little funky ugly newborn stage, huh? - but I think it says "someone loves me and her name is Kate and so long as she remembers to water me and keeps her son from overwatering me, things will turn out just fine."

We'll eventually plant some flowers in the empty spot and fill the bowl with a big hunk of Rosemary.

[Unrelated aside and poll: Jacob and I agree - to an unprecedented level of agreeing on anything ever - that Rosemary is one of the loveliest names. But she will inevitably get shortened to Rose - also fine - except for the whole...Rose Rhodes thing. That is my question: Rose Rhodes. Would you do it??]

When we got back from our Easter travels, I noticed that one of the plants I didn't rip out of the landscaping because it looked intentional bloomed and turns out it was a lily. So Happy Easter to you all from my gardening-high.

Thank you again to Monrovia for sponsoring this post and encouraging me to spruce up the yard. Be sure to visit them and learn all about how to keep the bees and butterflies happy in your neck of the woods!

Some Jake Talk

Today I'm giving you a break from nauseatalk and instead we're gonna talk Jake.

Jake is a pretty awesome kid; he's also very challenging. His favorite games to play with people all involve things like roaring in people's faces and sitting on people's heads, so you can imagine how smoothly life goes now that he has a prissy sister hanging around all the time. They do like interacting with each other, but I'm nervous Lucy June is going to develop a major victim complex because she's pretty much always a victim.

Except she DID get mad and pull his ear today. I burst out laughing.

The other day I couldn't find Lucy June for a terrifying 45 seconds, but it turns out Jake had locked her in his closet while he went to the bathroom so she would still play with him when he got back. So sweet. So wrong. So Jake.

>><<

As we park the car for a playdate at a friend's house:

Jake: (takes a deep breath in) Dis time, I'm NOT gonna hit Thomas in the head with a hammer. 

Me:

>><<

Jake is spastically dancing in the hardware store, and I'm trying to practice some enlightened parenting and bring some self-awareness to his behavior.
Me: Jake, do you see anyone running crazy in Lowes?
Jake: Yes! Me!

>><<

Upon my asking what happened to one of the wise men in his play nativity set.
Jake: Umm. I think he turned into a cow.  

>><<

At the end of nightly prayers:
Jake: ...And God bless Uncle John and Uncle Michael and God bless Grandpa Keith and God bless taxi vans. (pauses for a couple seconds) I LOVE taxi vans.

>><<

After he'd been working in his preschool book:

Jake: I made an R like in Bunny. And a Q like in Cucumber.

>><<

After having drawn only one ladybug in his workbook, when he was supposed to have drawn five.
Me: Where are your other ladybugs?
Jake: (shaking his head. clicking his tongue.) They died.

>><<

Gosh. If I don't love him to the moon.

And he loves me back.

Or something...