Pesto-riffic!

My hands look EXACTLY like my mother’s, but, sadly, I didn’t inherit her green thumb. Truth be told, I hate yard work and gardening, and tend to kill flowers while the weeds in my lawn flourish.

But a corner of my yard this summer contains a handful of basil and tomato plants. Why? Because of this:

2 cups basil leaves, rinsed and drained
¼ cup melted butter
¼ cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup pine nuts
½ cup grated parmesan

In food processor, blend oil, butter and garlic. Add basil and pine nuts. Blend. Add salt, pepper and parmesan. Blend until smooth. Makes 1 ½ cups.

Cook up a box of pasta, roast some pine nuts, and dice some just-picked roma tomatoes. Toss it all together, and fight the urge to yell “OMG I LOOOOOVE YOOOOU PESTO NOM NOM NOM” after every bite.



I think this is my very favorite thing to eat in the summer. For real, if it gets ME to garden, you know it’s pretty delicious.

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Potty training? Frustrating? You don’t say.

Dear Henry and Eleanor,

Look, kids, I know you can do a lot. A lot.

You can explain the difference between an herbivore and a carnivore.

You can run, jump, stand on one foot, and slide on the tallest slides at the playground.

You can careen your tricycles across the driveway better than Helio and Danica.

You can create impressive imaginary set-ups involving monsters named Frankie, a dinosaur or two, and Lightning McQueen.

You can dress yourself, despite the occasional Kris Kross homage.

You can count to diez in Spanish.

So seriously, JUST POOP ON THE D@MN POTTY ALREADY.

much love,
your mother

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Glen Lake: By The Numbers

1 aunt
1 uncle
2 cousins
2 grandparents
2 boats
723 times Andy and I yelled “I’m on a boat!”
1 happy Holland hat
4 sad Nederlanders after the World Cup final
6 pairs of Keens
1 hike
2 children who whined and cried for hike duration
2 parents vowing no more hikes
1 trip to the playground
3 trips to the beach
1 climb up the Sleeping Bear Dunes
1 ice cream excursion
1 shopping trip with niece
1 scenic drive
1 jaunt to Leland
1 18th birthday
1 51st anniversary
5 books read
918 searches for Waldo
1,839,407 times kids yelled “Jorden! Jorden! Hey Jorden! Jorden!”
1 son awestruck by friendly policeman
1 rainy day
6 sunny days
7 days of swimming
2 bottles of sunblock
1 sunburn
10 bottles of Labatt Blue Light
3 pancakes/3 sausage patties/2 eggs consumed by kids at Art’s breakfast
3 petoskey stones found
1 fun week

(Wanna see pictures? Will be posting all to my Flickr photostream)

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Flesworthy Family Fun: Fabulous Fourth

The Fourth of July means all the obvious things, like being thankful for the freedoms of our great country, and fireworks, and Toby Keith songs about boots and rear ends.


But to our family, the holiday weekend meant even more. It meant

golf cart rides


big-kid swings


first-ever sips of soda


Canadian beer


chasing ducks


catching fish


marveling over chicken eggs you found all by yourself


sneak-attack cousin photos


and being thankful for a wonderful family.

Hope your Fourth was just as fabulous!

(Wanna see more photos? Head over here: I'm posting them to Flickr)

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Sister, Sister

Last fall my little sister Julie moved 1,886 miles away to Portland. I really really really miss her. Luckily for me, she was in Indy for a few days last weekend.

Why was I so excited for her visit? Because she’s my sister, of course. And because no one else has the exact same sense of humor that I do. Together, we’re…well, we’re not normal.

Like how I got a purple pedicure to match her cell phone.



And how she was standing next to a tree in her handkerchief-y shirt and in unison we were all, “OMG AWKWARD SENIOR PHOTOS!” and proceeded to have a photo shoot in my front yard.



And how remarking on the 80s-looking headbands I bought that afternoon turned into reenacting an Olivia Newton John video, complete with an exasperated-but-used-to-it husband forced to pause in his photo duties while I retrieved dumbbells from the basement.



I miss her lots. And it was so nice to have her here. But perhaps it’s best she lives over past the Rockies. I don’t know if the world could handle the two of us together full-time.

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One Morning, Two Kids

Last Saturday Henry and Eleanor each got a haircut.


Each ate lunch out at a restaurant.


What’s so special about this? They did these activities independent from one another.

We’ve tried to separate them before, with not much luck—lots of tears and anxiety over being apart from one’s twin. But Andy and I decided we were up for another try, so off Eleanor went to Mommy’s salon for a haircut while Henry headed downtown to the barbershop with Daddy.

Both kids did great during their cuts and corresponding lunch dates. I think the anxiety this time was felt more by the parents. I had a moment of “oh crap! I forgot the kids!” as I backed the van out of the driveway and spotted the empty seat in the row behind me. It felt so foreign to not have two, to not have my attention constantly split. It also felt foreign to not attract the stares and smiles that being out with twins usually generates. But I think the outings were good for all four of us, and Andy and I look forward to more opportunities to get to know our children individually. I’m glad I live in twin world, but it’s nice to visit singleton world occasionally.

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Happy Father's Day

The father of me.

The father of my children.

The two best examples of fatherhood I know.

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Ice, Ice Baby

This doesn’t look like it’s worth $1600, does it?

This ice pack kept our in vitro drugs cool as they were shipped to me, all in one big, needle-filled, overwhelming box. As I unpacked the bags and vials and Follistim pens, I grabbed the ice pack and tossed it in the freezer. “We paid over a thousand bucks for that ice pack,” I told Andy. “We are NOT throwing it away.”

Fast-forward almost four years, and I have two living children who enjoy picnics on their outings to the zoo or park or museum. Every time I pack up our lunch, I tuck that same ice pack in our cooler to keep our Diet Coke and hummus nice and cold. And every time we sit down mid-day for a break and a snack, I get a reminder of how far we’ve come, and how lucky we are today.

$1600? More like priceless.

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Flesworthy Filler Friday: Special Sunday Edition!

It was Friday, and then suddenly it wasn’t any more. Where did the weekend go? Anyhow, some lists for your list-reading enjoyment.

Items That I Hope My Kids, Not Andy, Left in My Bathroom
penguin Happy Meal toy
board book about hamsters

Songs STILL Residing in My iPod Playlist, Some More Shameful Than Others
“Santeria” by Sublime
“All Summer Long” by Kid Rock
“Guerilla Radio” by Rage Against the Machine
“Stronger” by Britney
“Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer

Stats from Henry and Eleanor’s 3-Year Check-Up Held Friday
Eleanor:
height 39.5 inches
weight 32.5 pounds
Henry:
height 39 inches
weight 31 pounds

Items That Need to Hurry Up and Be Invented Already
Roundup weed killer that also kills moles and chipmunks
Roads that self-regenerate in the middle of the night so I don’t have to deal with construction traffic
Diet Coke that makes you look like Kate Winslet
Robot that potty-trains children and gets them to sleep before 10:00 pm

Occurrences That Made Me Feel Old
hearing Madonna played on a lite-rock radio station
commercials for The Karate Kid remake
hearing Eleanor say “let me see…” JUST like I do and realizing that when she’s older and says that she’s turning into her mother it will be ME she’s horrified to turn into

My Favorite Photos from The Past Week

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Carnival

On Sunday we took Henry and Eleanor to a carnival, which my Dinosaur Train-obsessed kids kept calling a “carnivore.”

It was a beautiful day in the sunshine with friends. Henry and Eleanor spent the afternoon bouncing from one ride to another, while I often stood to the side, watching them twirl around on the clowns and the cars and wondering how they are suddenly big kids who can fly in toy planes all by themselves, waving to me independently from overhead and NOT NEEDING ME.

I’m not going to handle this growing-up stuff very well, am I?




(More carnival photos are here. You know I upload all my photos to Flickr, right? Ch-ch-ch-check 'em out!)

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