Lemon Bars

Crust:
1 cup butter
1 3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup confectioner's sugar (plus more for dusting)

Topping:
1 1/2 cup plain sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour a 9 X 13 pan

To make crust:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and confectioner's sugar
Cut in butter until combined and crumbly.
Press mixture into bottom of pan.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

To make topping:
While crust is baking, prepare topping.
In a larger bowl, add sugar, flour, and baking powder.
Then add slightly beaten eggs and lemon juice.
Mix well and pour on top of warm baked crust.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
When cool, dust with confectioner's sugar and refrigerate.
Cut into bars and enjoy them cold!

This recipe comes from the kitchen of Sarah Blamires. Haven't tried it yet, but thought I'd pass it along. It sure looks yummy!

DAY 197

Grant Wood was an American painter born in Anamosa, IA. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century. -wikipedia

DAY 196

"The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire." -Sharon Ralls Lemon

I'm too tired to decide which picture. I like the one with the flowers, but my husband likes the one without. I'm still mulling this one over. Feel free to share your thoughts. We saw these horses on the way to the pool today. Luckily we stopped when we did because they were gone on the way home.

We finally had a lovely day at the pool today. It was in the low 80s and it was the first day that it was sunny and I wasn't covered in goosebumps shivering. The kids both made amazing progress. They both did front flips in the water. This is a huge feat for Little Man. His fears are slowly fading.

On another note, today I'm putting the love and logic book to practice. I've been reading it again, desperate to find answers to help me be a better parent. Tonight my husband called the children to dinner, twice. Then I called them. They were watching something on the disney channel. We decided not to wait. We had given them three calls. We had a prayer and had eaten half of our dinner when they mosied up. We told them that they missed the window and that they were too late. Hard core. I was struggling. I've never made the children go without dinner before, but I had just read a chapter about this very thing and it is a constant problem at our home. Whether it's time to go or time to eat... they are never ready. After dinner we were going to watch "Inkheart" with movie snacks. They were able to watch, however no treats were given. We don't let them have treats if they don't eat dinner. Surprisingly there was very little squabbling about it. There was no yelling and it actually seemed more peaceful. We were not punishing them, rather this was a consequence of their doing. Now we wait and see if these extreme consequences measure up.

DAY 195

“The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them.” -Charles de Lint

Where is July? I've been waiting for those warm, muggy days since back in December. I hear they had a few here the week I was away in TN, but since I've been home I have yet to see them. It's been cool and not very good pool weather. So, I've been resorting to other forms of entertainment. It's exhausting.

DAY 194

"A boy is a piece of skin stretched over an appetite." -Herbert Hoover

Today we ate at Subway and Little Man insisted on the foot long. Luckily they cut it in half for him and that kid ate every last bite. He's either about to go through a growth spurt or is developing quite an appetite. He's my kid that forgets to eat and that I have to bribe for after school snacks. But sit him down with food and he will chow.

It's kinda hard to tell from this photo, but the blackberry picking has led to an unpleasant case of poison ivy on his face. You can see it a little better in the photo below. The picture was taken early this morning before it spread more.

It started on his neck. We thought it was bug bites Sunday morning, but by this morning it was evident we were wrong. It had spread to his eye. This afternoon it had spread further under his eye and down his nose. By this evening he was calling me a freak because I was so overly concerned about him touching it. He's had it before, but never near his eye. He touches his eyes often, most likely due to allergies, hence the concerns. Right before bed we learned that it had spread to his arm. All efforts seemed futile. The doctor's office told me to not put any more hydrocortisone near his eye, so we gave him a dose of benadryl and sent him to bed. We have an appointment scheduled for 8:30AM tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed. I'm not sure the blackberry crumble was worth it.

The winners are...

June 1st Place Nature/Scenery Category is:

June 2nd Place Nature/Scenery Category is:

June 1st Place tie for People/Other Category is:

June 1st Place tie for People/Other Category is:

June 2nd Place People/Other Category is:

Thanks to all who voted. I know summer is a busy time and I appreciate you taking time out to participate.

DAY 193

“Each one of you has something no one else has, or has ever had: your fingerprints, your brain, your heart. Be an individual. Be unique. Stand out. Make noise. Make someone notice. That's the power of individuals.” -Jon Bon Jovi

Each of our children are so unique in their own right. Pokey has just been a little more vocal about it lately. She is a beautiful person, we just don't always see eye to eye. I admire her determination and her ability to know exactly what she wants. I'm sure these qualities will serve her well throughout her life.

The Shuleys took off early this morning. It was a very quick visit, but glad they could stop in. After church we had a nice nap and then we took an afternoon drive. We heard about a new BBQ place off of C St, so we started our drive in that direction. It's called Dry Heat BBQ. We didn't go far and we found ourselves surrounded by farmland. It was a beautiful day and the rolling hills covered in green were beautiful. I attempted some photos, but I couldn't seem to get high enough to capture the essence of it. I did manage to cause a stampede of cows though. I snapped a photo and for some reason the flash opened and they took off running. Haldan and the kids got a kick out of it. I've never seen anything quite like it. The picture definitely didn't do it justice. We also managed to finally used the blackberries that the kids have been picking off and on for the last couple weeks. We decided on a blackberry crumble because we didn't have enough for jam and we thought it would be easier than pie. Both the kids helped and it turned out yummy. Little Man decided that he liked my apple crisp better because there are no seeds.

DAY 192

"Life is a rough biography. Memories smooth out the edges." -Dante G. Roque

This POTD (pic of the day) is definitely more about the memory than the photo. My sister Tonya and her family stopped through on their way to Colorado. They made it around 2:30PM and we hung out for a while at the house, had dinner, and then decided to take the boat out on the river for a quick spin. Before we even got out on the water there was someone in need of a jump, so Dave stayed behind and helped for about 20 minutes trying to help. We made a quick loop and then there was a boat in distress. Haldan slammed on the brakes (or let off the gas) and about sent me and my camera overboard. That boat had run out of gas and so we gave him a tow back. We hadn't even made another full loop before we found another stranded boat out of gas. Haldan gave him a tow and before we finished the long, slow ride back in the kids had expired. There was hitting and pushing and all sorts of silliness (and naughtiness) going on. They were all ready to get off the boat. While towing the 2nd boat in we saw a 3rd boat rowing his way back to shore. He, too, had run out of gas. If we could have taken the short, fast spin as planned it would have gone over a lot better with the kids, as it was, it was too slow and too long. 3 mph just doesn't cut it with kids!! Haldan says we were paying it forward. I was in no mood to pay it forward today. I guess the moral of the story is: make sure you have plenty of gas.

DAY 191

“Good relationships get in big fights over big things and little fights over little things, but great relationships get in big fights over little things and little fights over big things.”

I thought a quote about fighting would be appropriate for this pic because the kids never made it to the end of this game. Pokey started whining when Little Man took two of her checkers in one turn. She thought that was unfair. Her whine turned into a cry and it lasted long enough to earn her an hour in her room. Maybe the evening swim time slot is too late for the kids. They totally have me miffed. This morning upon waking I found them playing together nicely in the playroom. I told them they needed to do their chores. They promptly told me they were already done. They earned 4 legos each for our "building a firm foundation" bucket for a wonderful morning. But in a split second it can all turn. They remind me of Dr Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde. Don't know if they are too much alike or too different, but nice moments are short lived around here lately. I'm not quite sure how else to encourage kindness. I'm hoping it's just a phase and that one day they can be friends for longer than moments. On a side note, Little Man is really good at checkers these days. He beat me twice earlier in the day. The 2nd time I gave it a little more thought and he still beat me. It's a little embarrassing.

DAY 190

Toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Frogs and toads all belong to the “frog” order, called Anura, which is divided into families. The “true frog” family is called “Ranidae,” and the “true toad” family is called Bufonidae. -suite101.com

Toads are different from frogs in six ways:
1. Squat bodies with short hind legs

2. Dry, bumpy skin

3. Glands that secrete toxins

4. Tiny teeth on the lower jaw

5. Structure of chest cartilage

6. Laying of eggs in long strings of jelly

In other news, we finally had a boring day. I would say boring summer day, but the temps have been so cool it hasn't felt much like summer. We all slept in and managed to make it to the tail end of playgroup at Jacolyn Park where Little Man spent an hour building sand castles, the kids weeded the yard to earn a little money, Pokey caught a much treasured toad while weeding (which became the coveted pet for the day), the kids swam in Emma's pool, and we watched "Heidi" on demand with root beer floats to close our day.