Heidi Herrera Studio

The Sunday Night Post

All the babies are quiet and I have a moment before hitting the sac so here's a weekend nightcap.

Saturday morning we woke up, having stayed up late into the night watching the waters rush over the farmland in Japan. Neither my husband or myself wanted to go to bed but we finally did, feeling so very sad. First thing Saturday morning, I flicked on the television and pretty much kept one eye or one ear to the news all weekend long.

All this spring beauty we are blessed with is such a stark contrast to the chaos and destruction across the ocean. It definitely makes me feel so very grateful to be here in this moment, safe and warm and loving my little life with all my girlies and my honey. We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday morning at the farmer's market and while all the vendors have finally returned I still had my eye in the sky on the blooms and the bees.

 

 

Oh, I love you Spring!

Today was a bit of a gloomy day, but the girls were very happy to spend the day outside with me. They "helped" me rearrange my front patio. Actually, they were very helpful and cleaned all the snails out of the herb garden. How I wish I had gotten a picture, Emma is like the snail whisperer, cute and a little gross at the same time! We finally had to give up rearranging when the afternoon rain became a drenching drizzle.

It was dinner time anyway. Time for a Jamie Oliver recipe.

 

This was his mother's broth recipe from "Jamie's Dinners." It was the perfect choice. I figured I'd get my chicken cooked for the rest of the week's lunches, and make some soup for dinner too. I will admit that I added an extra bacon slice for additional flavor and adding the rosemary to the pot for the last 10 minutes is essential for flavor. 

I picked up some beautiful mushrooms from the market and I really wanted to try them in a soup. So once the chicken was cooked, I pulled it out, strained the broth, brought the broth back to a boil, then dropped in the pasta to cook. I melted some butter in a pan, sauted the mushrooms with some garlic and some sugar peas. Once the pasta was doneI threw everything into the pot with some of the chicken I shredded and yumm!

Dinner was awesome! Lily asked me to make it again. I just love it when my girls ask me to make something again! Winner, winner, chicken dinner (literally!).

Little Alina was wide awake and joined us for dinner. She's such a cutey pie!

Tomorrow we have a doctor appointment for her. Time to find out what is going on with her eye. I'm praying it's nothing to worry about and I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that we have an answer as to what it is by tomorrow so that I no longer have to worry. Fingers crossed.

 

 

I Guess I've Been So Busy...

that I have completely forgotten to blog.

I've been cooking and gardening and walking and making new friends. It's been the best start to spring!

I learned how to make fallafel from scratch...so easy and completely worth the extra effort...

 

I started making bread, lots and lots of bread using this method, so you'll see way more bread show up here in the future!

 I've realized that I have all the igredients in my cupboard to make my own fantastic chai...seriously, why would I ever need to buy a box of it ever again?!?!?

I spent a little time on the front page of flickr! That was so much fun and I gained so many new flickr friends!

I made one of the best friends ever! Call it kismet, or whatever you want, but we just click and so do our kiddos! So looking forward to a super fun summer together!!!

I will definitely be making more of this by the boatload!!!

I really, really, really hope to have more photoshoots like this!!!!

And I seriously hope to be traveling to more magical places like this...

 

 Yay for spring and summer! I'm so excited it has finally arrived!!!  

Realities and Blessings

This post is totally and completely inspired by Maegan. Her realities and blessings post got me thinking about this week. It was a bit on the rough side.

Reality: I got a new computer and was unable to find my installation disks for my entire Adobe Creative Suite.

Blessing: Hey I got a new computer and can download photos 100 times faster than before and I downloaded the Adobe Lightroom 3 beta version and I love it, it has glitches but now I remember how easy it is to use and I want to own it as soon as it becomes available. Plus, I might have found a way to get my Creative Suite up and running, still not sure yet though!

Reality: My husband tried to remove one of the drives from my old computer and place it into the new computer, it didn't work, he's worried that all the data is gone...more than a year's worth of my photos may be completely gone, no backup, no nothing. Just gone. I cried.

Blessing: What I would miss most of those photos are the ones of my girls but I still have my girls and I can still take more photos of them. Plus, some of the photos were uploaded to Flickr, thank god for Flickr...they have my signature and are smaller files but I still have something. We have one more avenue to explore before giving up on the drive so I still have hope...a little shred of hope.

Reality: Emma is officially starting her terrible twos...tantrums, no-no-no, yelling, she actually goes into her room and closes the door! She's not even two yet!

Blessing: She's much easier to cope with than Lily ever was and I can almost always break her out of her tantrum by making her laugh!

Reality: It has rained a lot this week, rain = being cooped up inside.

Blessing: Due to the rain, we went out and got new umbrellas!!! I got a clear, bubble umbrella, thus fulfilling a long standing fantasy of mine! The girls got Tinkerbell and Princess umbrellas that they had been eyeing at Target! Plus, today's rain storm produced the most magical afternoon!!!

So, there are a few of my realities and blessings for this week. This might just become a habit!

Slamming into Spring

 

I am feeling very conflicted today. I opened up my entire house this morning, windows and doors. We went outside to play and after a short while in the sun, I actually got hot. It's amazing really, relaxing, rejuvenating, with a gentle breeze to keep one from getting too hot. But still...

Yes I know, a couple weeks ago, after so much rain, I was lamenting the long drawn-out winter, but it seems now, in a split-second, it's just gone.

I'm a little sad because this scarf will have to be finished and used next season and I was so looking forward to wearing it *sigh*.

I'm even more sad because we saw only one day of snow, and, as usual it required an hour and a half drive. It was worth it. It's always worth it.

Seriously though, we have the most boring winters here. No snow, ever. Just cold, some days foggy, some days wet, some days windy. It's hard to say whether that's better than somplace like San Diego, which we visited in the fall, it's almost the same temperature everyday! By the end of the trip, I found myself looking forward to the falling leaves at home again despite the beauty and warmth of San Diego.

What about the midwest, like Nebraska, ice cold and snowy in the winter...hot and death-defyingly muggy in the summer? That's where my grandparents live. Or maybe the east coast perhaps, similar to the midwest, uh, I think (right?), cold winters, mild to hot summers. Perhaps those climates are more exciting than mine. Here in Northern California we don't really drift gently from season to season, we practically slam into them full force as it seems we are today. One day we're freezing our butts off, wearing our Uggs and the next it's flip-flops and the realization that we desperately need a pedicure.

I guess this just means that I get to go flip-flop shopping so that I can take cute summery, flip-floppy  pictures! So, welcome spring/summer!!! Maybe you can now go visit everyone so we can all shop and be merry! And next year, don't be in such a hurry.