The Science of Bubbles

I have been meaning to post this for awhile now, and was hoping to have a picture of my kids with bubbles. Life happened, and I just haven't taken a picture. I googled "bubbles" under their image search and was reminded that Bubbles was also the name of Michael Jackson's chimp. This made me laugh and I decided it would be the perfect picture for my post on bubbles.


I had no idea that when I became a parent, I would have to learn the ins and outs of bubbles.

Over the past 2 years, I have learned the hard way that there are many different bubble machines. I just recently discovered there are many different kinds of bubble solution. Who knew!?

Thanks to a dad that posted a review of the Little Tikes Bubble Bellies Polly Pig Blower, I learned that Gazillion Bubbles solution solves all our problems.

All these times I thought our machines were breaking--it is possible that the bubble solution we were using was not quality enough.

Case in point, we had just purchased the Little Tikes Bubble Bellies Brown Dog Blower and had burned through the complimentary bottle of bubbles pretty quickly. I refilled the bubble machine with some bubble solution I had on hand. All of a sudden, no more bubbles. Very lame.

Anyways, I went online and found the review, ordered Gazillion Bubbles. I was very happy to see that the dad's review was accurate. I refilled the bubble machine with Gazillion Bubbles and "magic!" it worked again.

And all this time Mike and I thought bubble solution was just dish soap and water. Apparently there is a science to it. And when they named their company, Gazillion Bubbles, they were not kidding. The Brown Dog emits gazillions of bubbles.

Just file this under, "things they don't tell you when you get started raising kids."

And nope, I am not getting paid by Gazillion Bubbles. :)

Words from the "Wise"

Here's some stuff that Peter has said recently:

• on Easter Sunday, he wore a vest--something he doesn't normally wear--and he said, "wow, 2 shirts!" He then began running around the house saying, "I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor." Apparently he thought he was a doctor because he was gussied up. 
• He was walking around the house, wearing pajamas on his head and saying, "I'm married, I'm married." 
• He pronounces "macaroni" as "macaraconi" 
• He loves for us to tell him stories about cats, animals, going to Omi and Gramps' house, going to the park with his friends. He often will tell us "stories" too. 
• He loves an episode of Olivia that involves Olivia's grandma and tai chi (don't ask). He often informs me that he would like to watch "Olivia's gram-ma". 
• When I tell him stories, he says he wants to hear about "Kai Kai" and "Tai Chi." I don't really get the connection, but he loves his little friend, Kai (and he also loves Kai's grandma so maybe that is where it connects) and he loves that Olivia episode. I'm often talking about "Kai Kai" at the park doing tai chi. That's something I never thought I would be discussing with my 3 year old. 
• At night, when I say "goodnight," he tries to stall by asking me about everyone's status. "Where are all the babies?" me: "They are sleeping." "Where are all the birdies? Where are all the dogs? Where are all the cats? Where are all the grandmas and grandpas? Where are all the people? Where are all the animals?" This is is all spit out rapid fire as fast as possible and I reply, "They are all sleeping and Peter needs to sleep too." 
• When asked what time it is, he says, "30 o'clock."

Chocolate Chip Dutch Baby

Horrible, horrible name for a recipe. But what a delicious, delicious breakfast item (I am not sure it qualifies as a breakfast item, but it was in the breakfast section of my cookbook, so I am going with it.)

Best thing about it is that it is a pancake. With chocolate chips. And it requires no flipping. I haven't exactly inherited my mother's talent for flipping pancakes. She makes the best pancakes. Mine are messy and go all over the place. So I was super excited to see a recipe that allowed me to cook the pancake in the oven. And add chocolate chips. And Kahlua.

You can't really go wrong with all of those things!

Check out the recipe by clicking here

Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad

I recently had some friends from church over for dinner and made this menu. My friend asked me to post it, so I thought I would just post it here.

I love Taco Salads and make several different variations throughout the summer. I love this one because it is spicy but not too spicy. Super yummy. And the accompanying Watermelon Mango Salad with Mint is super refreshing. Enjoy.

r e f r e s h...............

Okay....it has been a little while. The holidays came and I wanted to put some pictures up but I never got quite around to it. And then I decided that I didn't really like how my blog was evolving.

I have been reflecting on the kinds of things I want to express here and as you can see...I wasn't really able to settle on one thing, hence the new title.

I love my kids, and I could just keep posting pictures of them, but there are other aspects of my life too that I wanted reflected. I love to cook. And I could just post recipes and talk about them but that would get repetitive. I love God and studying theology. That could swallow up 2 blogs. Or maybe more.

So I decided to just write about a little of this...and a little of that. Nothing fancy. Just whatever has inspired me for the week.

I recently watched one of my favorite movies, Julie and Julia. I got inspired to start writing here again after watching a particular scene. I couldn't find the scene on youtube, but did find the excerpt of the script:

Julie (voiceover): And then I came home and got a big vote of confidence from my mother.

Mom: Remind me why you're doing this...

Julie: Blog.

Mom: Whatever it's called.

Julie: It's a regimen, Mom. Like doing sit-ups.

Mom: Well, it's just adding pressure.

Julie: What pressure?

Mom: You have a full-time job, you have a husband, and now you're going to get sick from blogging.

Julie: It's sort of like being in AA.

Mom: What are you saying?

Julie: It gives you something you have to do every day, one day at a time.

Mom: How do you know this lingo? Honey, are you an alcoholic?

Julie: I'm saying it's good for me to have short-term goals.

Mom: Well, that is silly. That is just plain silly. Who's reading this blog?

Julie: People. People are reading it, I'm sure.

Mom: Well, it's something you decided to do, and you can decide not to, and not one single person's going to mind.

Julie: No, don't you get it? I just started. I can't stop. I have to finish--it's all I've got.

*Mom hangs up the phone*

Julie: Hello? Hello?

I liked her comment about it being a regimen. Just sounded interesting to me. And I loved the part where her mom says she might get sick from blogging. Hilarious. :)

Well, I definitely don't intend to cook through Julia Child's cookbook. And I don't intend to post here everyday. But hopefully I will find myself here more frequently than the past.