Onward & Upward with Laura

This has been a tough year. And it almost feels trite to be saying "Happy Easter" today, because I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that the blessings of this special day have never meant more to me than they do right now. This celebration of Jesus Christ's life, His atoning sacrifice, and the miracle of His resurrection is real to me in a way that's hard to explain. But let me try. This, is my Mom, Julie. This picture was taken on August 23rd, 2013--the day Ty and I were married for time and eternity. And my mom, she couldn't have been a happier camper that day. She was smiling from ear to ear. All. Day. Long. Case in point:   It was an amazing day for many reasons. Mom looked absolutely stunning, and we were all thrilled to be starting a new chapter as I joined the Keith family. It was also a very difficult time for us. Not to take away from how lovely my mom looks in these pictures, but you'll notice that she was in her wheelchair al...

Yesterday afternoon I whipped up a batch of this  yummy hummus, and it was very well-received by the fam. Especially Ty. He actually asked me to make it for breakfast this morning. Since he was 10 minutes from running out the door, I threw together a second batch of hummus as quickly as I could. In the process, I forgot what I believed to be a key ingredient in hummus--olive oil. But the thing is, it tasted just great without it! So, I give you my recipe for.... Quick, Easy, Oil-less Hummus Serves 2-4 Prep Time: 5ish minutes Ingredients 1 can chick peas (15.5 oz) 1-2 small cloves garlic, peeled 1/2 t salt 1/2 to 1 T lemon juice 1/4 to 1/2 c water Directions In a single serve (or regular) blender, combine peas, garlic, salt, lemon juice and water. Mix for 1-3 minutes until hummus is smooth and well-combined. Add more water if the ingredients aren't mixing easily after about 30 seconds. Enjoy with tortilla chips, pita chips, carrots... whatever you like!

...diarrhea, diarrhea. Sorry for the crude beginning. But, being totally real right now, so much of my last two days has been consumed by this yucky GI phenomenon that I'm almost completely desensitized to the grossness. It's definitely been a messy-face (not literally...) couple of days. Side Note: With regard to the title, if your dad never taught you this crass little ditty as a kid, you missed out. It's "The Diarrhea Song". Google it. But not Google Images. Oh my heavens don't make that mistake . Now for some brief maternal venting. To spare you some gory details, Let me just sum up the past two mornings by saying, I could smell it from outside the closed door. And yes, the pajamas were full. Of nasty. Heaven only knows how long my little guy was sitting in his own refuse... from both ends. I got Joshy hosed off, and wrapped him in a towel. Then of course, Miss Maddie, who's on the looong road to being potty-trained, had to go potty. Urgently...

This stuff turned out so good last night (*ahem* I mean, 47 nights ago when I started this blog post...), I just had to share. So, this was originally inspired by a butternut chili that one of my good friends made that was absolutely delicious . So, that led me to poke around Pinterest looking for that recipe, or a similar one. I stumbled upon  this  recipe, of which I did a lazy version that turned out pretty good. But last night, I took some creative liberties and perfected what will henceforth be known as Laura's  Pants-Kick Veggie (and beef) Chili!* Pants-kick because it definitely had some kick. Nothing too crazy--the kids still ate it without any complaint of it being hot. But the flavor was perfectly bold. Beef is parenthetical because I didn't put too much in ( we're  I'm trying to be more moderate in the amount of meat we eat). The flavor is dynamite, the vegetables are plentiful, and now I share it with you. Since this is the first recipe I'm ...

Sorry I can't introduce this blog post Mr. Rogers-style with a happy tune and trusty cardigan. Hopefully you don't feel too deceived by the clever title. But, no matter. Today is a messy-face day. And it's inspired me to finally start [insert removing 1 year-old from bathroom... it was almost a toilet splash party] this blog that I've been contemplating for the last while. I've felt a huge pull lately to let down my perfectionist façade and be myself. To learn from and revel in what our family calls the "messy-face moments" . Meaning, basically, any moment that's everything but  picture-perfect. In an era defined by how impressive we appear on social media--how seemingly flawless our lives are--let me be the first to say that my life is only that way about .000002 percent of the time. So does that mean the rest of it isn't noteworthy? Au contraire, mon ami. So I'm here to give others a glimpse into this messy-face life. Accepting thin...