easy and amazing homemade bubbles

i've posted these in a really old blog entry, but i've had so many friends ask me about them again that i thought i might as well repost it.


after i tried a batch of this mix, i haven't gone back to buying bubbles from the store.  as long as you have a great selection of bubble wands (or even just one), you're set.  they sell packs of bubble wands at the dollar tree.  you can even store it in old bubble containers.  the great thing about this recipe is that the bubbles are easy for little ones to blow out of the bubble wands by themselves.  they don't "pop" like normal store-bought ones do.


2 cups of water
1/2 cup dishwashing liquid (dawn, palmolive, etc.)
2 ts sugar


stir until dissolved. 


blow away.

Sold

MAY 13, 2008 - AUGUST 31, 2011.  it's finally over.  WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

whitney's homemade pizza dough

i've spent years trying to find a homemade pizza dough that, after the first bite, didn't make me wonder why i didn't just order out.  it's really hard to compete with domino's because, well, they're dominos.

squash bugs bug my squash

these...

turn into these...

photo not mine (thank you random google photo) because i freaked out and jumped when i saw my adult squash bug.  this is coming from a woman that kills flies with her hands and doesn't jump in a chair when she sees mice.  this thing freaked me out.  amen.

which turns these...

into these...

i think i'll go eat some cheetos and cry in my dark closet now.

in the blink of an eye

do you ever go through a season of life when every thought or circumstance is colored by reflection and sentiment?  then you well up with tears and think, "is it possible i'm going through menopause at 34?"  


i feel like i can't even sit across from reed during our every-day-6 o'clock-dinner table without having a flashback memory to the first time we had dinner at our first dining table we bought at our first apartment in nashville.  the quietness.  the excitement of knowing we found each other.


i can't clean a closet without finding a tiny pair of baby socks and being rushed back to the moments in our attic bedroom when strohm was 3 weeks old.  middle of the night feedings.  reed would help me change his diaper.  we were like a diaper changing pit crew.  i'd make sure those socks were snugged up tight so he wouldn't have the tiniest discomfort.  then i would lay his body in his little tiny bassinet next to my bed and listen to him fall asleep.


maybe it's because i'm realizing how time is slipping through my hands.  sure, there are days that it drags on and on...when i feel like if i hear, "mom!  mom!  mom!" once more or have to clean up a full bowl of rice that just got dumped on the newly mopped kitchen floor that i'm on the brink of committing myself to the nearest state hospital.


in spite of those moments, my heart is pensive.  is it because strohm will be starting a two-day preschool in the fall?  is it because i feel like i'm living somewhere between the past and the future because this blasted nashville house being on the market for three years has us in the worst state of limbo our hearts have ever experienced?  


is it because i'm watching my sister as her first born is entering into her senior year and knowing her heart is aching for time to stop slipping?

i'm overcome with emotion thinking about kaitlin growing up and leaving home for college. my heart hurts for my sister because i can't imagine the conundrum she and dane are experiencing; you raise them to leave.  they've done their job.  they've done it well.  that little girl is an amazing young woman (as are you, kiley).  she's full of life, love, emotion, and compassion.  terribly intelligent but wonderfully gullible.  in a little while, she'll fly away.  yes, she'll come back home, but the leaving makes home so different for those that stay.


so i'm trying to soak it up.  i'm trying to stay in the moment as much as i can.  to let some things go and just enjoy my baby boys because one day, they won't do things like this anymore.

"there is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and let's the future in."  graham green

spinach basil pesto

we recently hosted a couple's baby shower for some friends, and i was wanting to add one more pasta dish to the occasion.  i immediately thought, "pesto pasta!"