"Meet Your Camera" Tutorial

There is a great little tutorial over at iHeartFaces for Beginners week. Its called "Meet Your Camera" and is a very basic yet very useful overview of your cameras features and functions. If only they could just write the manuals this way... Please go check it out I think you will really learn something. I did! It took some experimenting but I did figure out how to get a decent shot in manual mode.

She Can Do It!

Remember at Christmas when Santa brought Cali a "big girl" bike? Well she can officially ride it now. She maintained interest in the bike but would often go just a few feet before asking for her trike instead. In the meantime she ended up becoming a pro on the tricycle; able to go a couple blocks at a good pace. I thought this was good progress and very promising for the "big bike" but just let her choose which bike she wanted. Well, this week she stuck with it and really got going on the big bike. At first she'd get frustrated that pedaling backwards made her stop, but she worked it out and seems to have it all figured out now.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ShutterCal.com

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. First off its FREE so go over and sign up right away. You simply click on the calendar date and upload a photo for that day and you have your own daily photo calendar. I take photos nearly every day anyway so this is perfect.

See mine here. Later I'll figure out how to put it in my sidebar.

The Creativity Project

Feeling a little less than creative lately? Feeling extra creative maybe? Check out this Creativity Project. Its nothing more than the idea to try something creative every day this month. It doesn't mean you have to create something every day but to even think creatively and hey even coloring with the kids counts! Check out Lisa's blog to see if you want to play along and follow along with other creative folks.

Messy

iHeartFaces has a special "Beginners" category this week for their Messy theme. Here is D after thoroughly enjoying a cupcake. When this boy makes a mess he just goes all out! Be sure to visit the iHeartFaces blog this week to check out all three categories and see all the great messes!

Robin Miller

If you're a busy mom (wait is that redundant?) that likes to cook for your family and haven't heard of or seen Robin Miller's Quick Fix Meals you should check it out. You can look up the show times at FoodNetwork.com, or see her list of books at Amazon.com. She uses methods like pre-prepping the meals and planning ahead for the leftovers so you get multiple meals out of one dish. Tonight I'm making her Oven-Baked Fried Chicken. Kind of like a homemade version of the old classic Shake-n-Bake. Here it is all ready to go. I'm serving roasted asparagus and veggie rice on the side.


I learned this Asparagus recipe from my dear friend Shana. It is true what they say about kids needing to try something up to 15 times before they like it. After many, many tries both kids now LOVE asparagus. So much so I may need to start doing two bags because Dave & I aren't get as much as we'd like anymore.

Garlic-Lemon Roasted Asparagus

1 bag frozen asparagus, preferably thawed but its ok if you forget
2-3 cloves fresh mince garlic
sprinkle of kosher salt
fresh ground pepper (to taste)
Juice of 1 lemon

Arrange asparagus in one layer in square baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, mince garlic on top, use a brush to spread the oil & garlic evenly. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Roast in a square dish @ 400*F for about 10-15 minutes depending on how firm you want it (or if you remembered to defrost). I always just throw it in with whatever else is baking and don't pay much attention to how long it stays. After the aspargus comes out squeeze the lemon juice on top. Enjoy!

Kite Fest '09

Just home from a long, fun day in Austin. The Kite Fest was a lot of fun. Tons of kites of course and fun to see all our friends there too. Was happy to find my friend Emily who lives in Austin. We were even able to visit their beautiful new home and let the kids play for a bit in the afternoon. A huge, delicious dinner at Cheesecake Factory, a little walk through the nearby park and finally the drive home. The kids only made it half-way before their little eyelids just couldn't stay open any more.