this moment

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Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

This week I'm going rogue and sharing a series of three photos because they are so adorable. And frankly so funny. But since this post isn't supposed to have any text, I'll let you decide what happened to our friend Clarence the Garden Gnome.

If you have a this moment post, please share it in the comment section. I'd love to see it!

Cooking Inspiration: Where do you get yours?

I love to cook. I love to bake.

These are some of my favorite cookbooks to flip through when I need a little inspiration. I also find myself going to the Internet as well.

But some days, when I just need a quick and easy recipe that I know I have all of the ingredients for in my pantry, I rely on this old standby:

 

What is your cooking standby? What are some of your favorite recipes or go-to-cooking sites? I'm looking for some new cooking & baking inspiration and would love to hear what you can't live without in the kitchen!

imom: Worst. Eye Mom. Ever.*

*This post is not for the squeamish.

You know your child goes to too many eye appointments when she immediately runs to spot in the office where they keep the model eye ball. And then takes it all apart.

OK, now that the formalities are out of the way, I need to share our latest eye-adventure.

Last Tuesday, the hubby took Ruby to the contact specialist because it was time to get her contact swapped out and clean. Plus, her allergies were bugging her and her eye was red. By the time the hubby picked her up from daycare, she had managed to rub it out of her eye. Luckily, they found it so all was well.

So they go on their merry little way to see Miss Susan at the contact office. They clean the contact and look at her eye and realize it's pretty red and just needs a break. The doctor looked at it for a while and thought it was just irritated. They sent them home and told them to come back later in the week for the new contact.

Two days later, two days with no contact and no patching (and hardly any battles....sigh....) she and I venture up to see Miss Susan again. I'm hoping the new prescription contact has come in (she had her new prescription lens in less than 24 hours when she lost it. Another post for another day when I have a gin & tonic in hand). But as I'm getting her into the car seat, I notice something in her eye: a contact. Now I know this can't be because they took it out 2 days earlier and said no contacts for 2 days. But yet, here was a contact. In. Her. Eye.

Maybe I'm crazy? Maybe I'm seeing things because I always want a contact to be on her pupil. Maybe she found one in her crib and thought, "Huh, what's all the fuss about anyway? I'll just pop this bad boy in my eye and let's forget the doc office & hit the park!"

Ruby & Miss Susan, our contact lens savior playing on the floor. Susan is pointing out the lens in her play eye - the one she is missing. I told Ruby to pick up the lens and put it in her coat pocket. I know, another parenting win.

I arrive at the office and promptly tell them I'm crazy because there's a contact in her eye. They give me the same look I'm giving Ruby. We all look and sure enough, there is a contact right on her pupil. Apparently, at the Tuesday appointment I missed, one of the doctors thought he saw something in the far, far corner of her eye but couldn't really tell because it was so red and irritated.

We pop it out and give it a good cleaning. We pop in another contact** (an older one because of course the new one hasn't arrived when I'm off of work). Susan and I both hope the mystery contact is in fact the new prescription one we thought we lost a week ago and it had simply been floating around somewhere in the back of her eye. 

However a quick check under the microscope reveals that no, it is not the new one, but an older one. Meaning God knows how long that contact had been floating around in my baby's eye ball!!!!!!

If you've just had that squeamish feeling run up and down your spine, then yeah, you're right where I was too. I freaked out for a second and then said, you know, this isn't the worst thing in the world. It clearly didn't bug her as she gave no indication there was something wrong with her eye (and trust me, she usually does.)

I've known something like this can happen and frankly, will most likely happen again. And again.

So for now, I just do my best to make sure the contact is on her pupil and we start the patching process again. We're down to just an hour a day again. However today, she proudly wore her eye patch all day. On her shirt.

Ah Ruby....good thing you're so damn cute!

**I love how I say "pop the contact in" like it's a breeze when the truth is we can't do it ourselves. We have to go into the clinic about every other week to get it switched out and cleaned. It takes myself, an assistant and Susan to get the contact in her eye. She's a fighter. And a screamer. And a kicker. But with three of us (OK, somedays it takes 4 of us)....we can make it happen. Susan and I have also decided this counts as a workout because there's a lot of stress, increased heart rate, sweating, tears (mostly Ruby's. And if we're honest here, mine too). And then Ruby & I go to Starbucks for a treat which is thankfully next door.

F.O. Breckenridge Cowl & a weekend away

Somehow from all my blissed out relaxation time I forgot to blog about my knitting weekend retreat with my knitting group in early May. It's our annual trip to Port Townsend to stay in the officers housing at the military base of Fort Warden. (For all you movie trivia buffs, this is where they filmed an Officer and a Gentlemen. I should really watch the whole thing one day.)

It was a great time with great friends. A lot of knitting was done. I also went on many walks along the beach (basically right outside our front door!).

I think the pictures speak for themselves. 

We had a knitted gift exchange this year. The theme was an accessory that has cables or lace. Since I'm anti-knitting lace, I opted for cables. This is Breckenridge Cowl from French Press Knits. It was for Cara who loves jewel toned colors. Plus I thought it would look great with her beautiful red coat.

Erin had my name and I received a beautiful pair of pink cabled fingerless gloves which I don't have a picture of. You'll have to take my word that they are just lovely. 

As you can see, it was the perfect weekend for knitting and relaxing!

FO: Poppy Cowl from Pepperberry Knits

I just finished this luscious Poppy Cowl from Pepperberry Knits. 

It's from her handspun cashmere yarn in bulky Honeycomb.

It is as soft and delightful as it looks!

And because I live in Seattle, and because it's Memorial Day weekend (which means it's raining), I can wear this right away!

Ravelry details can be found here.

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Library Time!

Who doesn't love the library? So many adventures waiting to be had! One of the many things I love about the Seattle Public Library are these great book bags. They are customized for either toddlers or preschoolers. And there are on every topic you can think of. From zoo animals to potty training to season to becoming a big brother/sister. Every topic. Seriously. 

They were very highly regarded by some of my friends with kids, so I decided to try them out. I strolled down to the main branch on my lunch break to see what they had. I opted to go with farm animals.

The bags come with about 8 books including and activity book for parents and kids and a CD. We lucked out and scored with an Elizabeth Mitchell CD which I loved a bit more than Ruby!

As you can see, it was a huge success! She loved it, I loved it. If you haven't checked one out yet, do so. And if you're not in Seattle, maybe your library has something similar.

Happy reading!

imom: Will Patch for Cake

That's just one of the fun and great designs by Jessica Butler, founder of Eye Power Kid's Wear. She's another imom just trying to do the best for her little boy who, like Ruby, was also born with a pediatric cataract. 

She's got a kickstarter campaign for her t-shirt designs that are aimed at kids in glasses and patches. The fun designs and tongue-in-cheek sayings pretty much sum up things when our kids are out and about and people say things about patches and glasses. (Editor's note: Ruby doesn't wear glasses with her contact and patch but she will sometime I'm guessing within the year.)

I'm partial to the shirt with a super hero cape. Frankly, the world needs more shirts with super hero capes.

Especially for imoms. (Editor's note: that was totally and completely biased.)

Ruby will be sporting one of these Will Patch for Cake shirts soon. Because, really, what wouldn't you do for a yummy cupcake?

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Little Free Library

Have you heard of them?

Little Free Libraries are popping up around neighborhoods all over the world. They are just that, little free libraries that people set up in their yards with the purpose of sharing the love of reading.

On a recent morning walk, Ruby and I discovered one in our neighborhood.

We peeked in and low & behold, we found a little board book by one of our favorite authors. 

Ruby was thrilled! 

Now we just need to head back to this little free library and return one of our books to pass along for someone else.

P.S. Aren't these Little Free Libraries so cute? I kind of want to build one in my front yard! Don't you?

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's hoping your Mother's Day was filled with flowers & homemade cards.

 And a few adventures in parks with lots of smiles & giggles!

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!