the pensive princess

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Location: Grandview, Washington

Saturday, January 03, 2009

i just finished my january menu

if you're wondering how this came together, this is what i did:

i got a new cookbook for christmas- full of recipes for busy women; it has lots of slow-cooker recipes & 5-ingredient dishes; i went through it & marked all the recipes that sounded do-able; next i made every day of the week a category: mon- mexican; tues-tony roma's (kid's eat free on tues) or pizza; wed-casseroles; thurs- slowcooked; fri- meat'n'taters; sat-leftovers (or whatever sounded fun to make) ; sun- soup/sandwiches; last i went back through the cookbook and stuck the recipes in the calendar;

i'm not too strict about sticking to the menu. i mean if someone invites us over i'm not going to insist on staying home to eat leftovers. but it is nice to have a guide. you could customize with your own daily categories (like italian or asian flavors) or go online for recipe ideas.

something you may not have known about me: in high school i made monthly calendars of what i would wear each day. this wasn't too challenging- i just switched up my t-shirts and flannels :); nonetheless i wanted to remove the hassle in the morning of wondering what to wear so i planned out a whole month in advance.

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Blogger Vanderklok Family said...

What cookbook is this?

1/03/2009 04:59:00 PM  

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

two posts in one day!

well, it's only fair that i do an interview with danielle. i can take advantage of her patience for only so long :)

i believe it is a job of a parent to be a student of their children. parents should study their children and be very knowledgeable about that "subject". we must know what makes our kids tick, what excites them, what upsets them. for instance, danielle is a peacemaker; she is sensitive to the feelings of others and tries to make people happy. she is great company- she easily transitions between her sisters. nonetheless, danielle will not be pushed around. she's not the oldest, but she still works hard to get her way. somehow she's a peacemaker and a fighter at the same time. she is great to have on your side- if you're the underdog, she'll have your back. but if you're "not in her club" life's can be rough. (julia is ever trying to do the right stuff to be in danielle's club). anna has even commented "why is it that sometimes we're best friends and other times we fight?

she's always runnin' around and flipping upside down. we, as her parents, are constantly on her to turn right-side-up. it is fun to have a kid like danielle. i don't know if i could handle more than one of her, though. my girls are all so different. anna is very careful about whatever she does and is quite creative and scholarly; danielle is compassionate and a people pleaser; julia is a talker (grandma rebecca tells her she has the 'gift of communication') and is always ready for a party; rachel is determined to get what she wants and she has ways to get others to help her- with babbling, gestures, pinching, etc. sarah and naomi are still too young to label their personalities :)

anyways, its fun to watch them all grow up together and interact with each other.

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2 Comments:

Blogger abelara said...

i love the ending!

8/10/2008 11:15:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I totally would have guessed you were holding sarah. But you were holding her at a weird angle for me to tell. In my guesses (which are usually always right) Sarah has a rounder face than naomi.

8/11/2008 08:43:00 AM  

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i'm lovin' facebook

so, the other day, i got a friend request for facebook. well, i had no idea i even had a facebook account. i guess abe thought i should have one and he had created one for me. i already had accumulated a few friends- unbeknownst to me. so when i confirmed this friend, i discovered we had a few friends in common... and i had friends in common with their friends... etc, etc, etc. i began hunting for long lost friends: friends from school, past churches, the teen mania internship, christian house, cousins. i just kept finding people that i never thought i'd hear from again- and now i could see pictures of them and their families. it is great to strengthen connections again. i even located a friend from youth group when i was in middle school. she was able to come visit me at my home- it was so great to be able to touch base again. another thought i had was that, as a stay at home mom, i don't get to experience friendship with many people outside of my small circle. but, with facebook, relationships that i cultivated years before are bearing fruit and i feel the love without ever leaving my house :)

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have been dabbling a little on facebook. got a friend request from someone from high school. not really a friend, but i knew she needed Jesus then and probably still needed him now. So its been fun writing back and forth. although i don't necessarily want to go back to high school.

8/10/2008 10:21:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I use facebook to keep in contact with old friends too. but I mainly use it as a mass communicator. Such as I can post that I'm having a baby and reach all my friends at once instead of having to call everyone individually.

8/11/2008 08:28:00 AM  

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

interview with another princess

so we interviewed anna yesterday to learn more about her. and then i had to interview my other girls. you know how some kids are more, well, patient. and others tend to have a "my turn, now!" attitude. well, let's just say danielle graciously let julia be interviewed first. nonetheless, we had a few distractions during this interview. rachel wanted to be on the screen; danielle, who was sitting beside us, picked a scab off her leg and was insisting we look at her blood; anna kept whistling from the sidelines because it made the audio level thingy go up.

AND NOW.... HERE'S JULIA!



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1 Comments:

Blogger abelara said...

what a cutie patutie.

two catchy tunes in one video, sweet!

8/08/2008 01:36:00 PM  

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

interview with a princess

recently i went to a bridal shower. one of the games was a questionnaire about the bride- to see how well we all really knew her. clearly i did not know that much about her likes and dislikes. it was amusing to see that the bride's mother did not know everything about her daughter either. but then the ladies at our table were trying to answer the questions about our own daughters. i soon realized that there was a lot about my girls that i didn't know. so i decided to interview my daughters to find out more about them.

And now, HERE'S ANNA!


1 Comments:

Blogger abelara said...

what a great interview.

it's cool to get a snapshot of anna's likes/dislikes at age 7. it'll be fun to see this video in a few years.

8/06/2008 08:27:00 PM  

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Friday, July 25, 2008

are you done having kids yet?

in this video i discuss our decision to stop having kids and reveal a minor pet peeve of mine.

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6 Comments:

Blogger Matt, Mel, Josh and Caleb said...

I could not agree with you more! Good for you guys! I wish I could convince my hubby of the same thing :)

7/25/2008 01:08:00 PM  
Blogger Sarah said...

i agree. if i didn't have such hard pregnancies i would have more children to spite people too. i know, terrible, but true.
(we had actually thought when we 1st got married we would have 7)

i also HATE it when people say "about time tim did something" EXCUSE ME???? AHHHHHH.

Ok. done venting.

how did the consult go? we got tim another consult with a different doctor, hoping this doctor has better bed side manners.

7/25/2008 01:23:00 PM  
Blogger Jen said...

I imagine if I were in your shoes, I would feel the same way. However, I'm not & the fact remains that you are *choosing* to have as many (or as few) children as you want for whatever reason you believe is appropriate for your family.

If asked how many children you're going have, regardless of who is asking, you can simply say that's between you, Abe & your God.

Honestly, I don't know why I feel this, but I'd like to see you with one more. After Abe announced he was going to the doctor, I thought to myself, "noooooo".

I wish you the best of luck w/the urologist!!

7/25/2008 06:26:00 PM  
Blogger Deb said...

OMG! That is the BEST rant EVER!! Loved it. Why does anyone feel the need to comment on our kids? Their genders, their size, their number -- ANYTHING? That stuff makes me nuts.

Good for you!! Enjoy those girls!

8/06/2008 05:00:00 PM  
Blogger JoAnn said...

I'm pregnant with our fourth. So far the reaction has been mostly negative; however, my husband has come up with a great answer when asked how many we are having. He simply says, "All of them."

8/06/2008 09:59:00 PM  
Blogger Dianne said...

You are so cute...I loved it!!!

10/15/2009 09:10:00 AM  

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Motherhood in Action

an update on life with the twins featuring the TWINS. :)

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

family vacation in seattle

a little update from our vacation, enjoy!


family vacation from Deborah Lara on Vimeo.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Always love to see your updates when I check in from time to time! Hope to catch up with you soon! Glad you had some R&R... although I think taking kids anywhere can be exhausting, but fun at the same time!

6/15/2008 09:31:00 PM  

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