currently link up | I'm Darth Maul

Currently is a weekly link-up with ♥ Randalin of Harvesting Kale ♥ and I am her happy co-host each week. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. What have you been hoping, reading, wearing, making, playing this week? I hope you all had amazing Mother's Day weekends! Over here, we have been...

Hoping for sunshine, day by day. We got spoiled by an early summer, but it really is usually chilly and rainy here until about July 4th... so now that the weather is back to "normal" we are all ::frown, grumble, scratch head, stamp foot, shake fist::

Reading the same book I've been reading since February and it is ALL ABOUT CORN! (Meg if you're reading this bwahaha! ps. See: Weezin the Juice, below, always makes me think of you!) The book is called The Omnivore's Dilemma and it's great, an exploration of the path from "farm" (or factory farm/science lab) to fork. Unfortunately my best friend and I who are book clubbing the book are incredibly bad at making our book club dates and so we are only 6 chapters in and so far it's been a LOT of corn talk. We joke that we are unwilling corn experts. Because. Dudes. For real. We know a lot about corn now. The book has already made a big impact in the way I eat and shop for my family though, mainly when it comes to organic meats. I realized that it is healthier and more ecologically responsible and less cruel to eat organic meat occasionally than it is to be a vegetarian who eats non-organic eggs or dairy every day. It's counter-intuitive, but true. My husband is that kind of vegetarian and I am working on getting him on the organic bandwagon -- I don't care if he ever does or doesn't eat meat but I do care about the things that are IN the food my family eats and I also care about what happened TO the animal during its life. Moderation, for sure, but when I have the option I'm choosing organic always now... and I feel really great about making that choice for me and my fam.

||end corn talk thank ya for your time|| ps. If you want to talk more about food stuff just let me know or if you have questions about it or the book, I'm happy to go on and on and on, clearly :)

Wearing closed toe shoes but I want to be wearing open toe ones! I need to deal with these half-painted, beat toes of mine, like yesterday. Otto is wearing tanks again, at least on the warm days, and I secretly love that they are his passion and that they are so tacky, vom vom vom! It's an area where I can smile and let him be independent while shaking my head because he looks like an early 90s slacker from Southern California. Like Encino Man. I just need to find him pint-sized flojos.

ps. Weezin the Juuuuuuice ::wiggles fingers at YOU:: ::makes cheek/air sound over and over and over::

Making banana bread in a few minutes. Yum! Loretta has been making strides in learning words and babbles the most sweet-sounding Lilliputian gobbledeegoo while pointing and nodding and waving her arms around. LOVE. Otto has been making insanely great jokes, like mind-blowing. Here, see:

Otto: Want to hear a joke?
Rob: Okay
Otto: Say 'macaroni'
Rob: Macaroni.
Otto: You said 'smack a pony' I'm calling the police.
Rob: Haha
Otto: [pretending to be on the phone] Hello police, my daddy is going to smack a pony.
Rob: Um
Otto: The police are coming.
Rob: Is this still part of the joke?
Otto: YOU'RE UNDER ARREST [karate chops his dad]
Rob: Ow, police don't just hit people!
Otto: I'm not the police, I'm Darth Maul.
Rob: Huh?
Otto: Can I have a popsicle?

Playing in the front and back yard every single day and hope to keep doing just that, every non-rainy day, til the end of time. This weekend we will be playing with Katherine's girls at Rylee's Angry Birds birthday and I'm excited about that and Otto, well he is ecstatic! I'm also freaked out that so many of Otto's buddies are turning 5 and 6 and entering grade school.

That was this week. Here are next week's themes: 

eating, loving, missing, moving, taking

this boy and this girl

This boy...

popped into the bathroom while I showered this morning and asked if he could make himself a snack. "Of course," I said, "have a good snack." "Ok, thanks Mom," he said, "have a good shower." What a capable, sweet little person who stole my heart with his shower wishes.

This girl...

has strawberry blonde hair and seagreen eyes and a lumberjack's appetite and nommable thighs and fierce independence and a love of being barefoot the likes of which I've never seen and roughed up toes.

win win win Uncommon Goods! *CLOSED*

Congratulations to WeeMasonMan's Mom! You are the winner of this giveaway! I will reach out to you to coordinate getting you your prize. Enjoy!

Give us an excuse to turn a meal into a picnic, even a meal of Annie's mac and cheese, and we will take it! Noodles noodles everywhere. So long as there is sunshine and bare toes...

Today I am so excited to bring you guys a giveaway from an online shop I have loved for years and years. Uncommon Goods specializes in unique and thoughtful items for you, your house, and everyone in it. You can find a whole selection of their Father's Day gift ideas here. Yes some of their items are fancy and pricey, very much to die for, they also have a whole selection of gift ideas under $50 here. I myself am super enamored of their custom family drinking glasses (we got one for Otto and one for Etta, pictured, along with the photo card deck of the elements which we received c/o Uncommon Goods). I plan to complete our family drinking glass set very soon and also to give custom sets as gifts left and right!

See just some of the lovely things you can find at Uncommon Goods...

I could go on and on. I mean forget about that baby quilt, amaaazing!

Now it's your turn because one lucky Ot & Et reader (U.S. only) will win a $50 gift certificate to Uncommon Goods. There are a few ways to enter.

- Visit Uncommon Goods and tell us your favorite finds. Include a link in your comment to the item you just love. You can do this up to five times (one comment for each of your up-to-five favorite items).
- "Like" Uncommon Goods on Facebook.
- Sign up for Uncommon Goods emails.
- Pin Uncommon Goods items to your Pinterest. Include a link to your pin. You can do this up to five times (one comment for each of your up-to-five Pins).
- Follow Ot & Et on Bloglovin or Facebook (each an entry).
- Tweet about this giveaway with a link back to this post and mentioning @OTandET and @UncommonGoods (can do daily until giveaway closes).

Just be sure to leave a comment with your contact information (email) for each entry you choose to do. I'll choose a winner soon so this giveaway is open until it says it's closed. Good luck!

currently link up | fruit water yeah

Currently is a weekly link-up with ♥ Randalin of Harvesting Kale ♥ and I am her happy co-host each week. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. What have you been learning, gathering, giving, working, playing this week? Over here, we have been...

Learning the names of everything. Loretta can't sleep at night without first touring her room and pointing to every little thing... "Oh this? This is a baby doll. Night, night baby doll." Some of the time she will try to say it back to me, "bay daw, yeah." Other times just, "yeah!" and then onto the next thing. It makes me personally excited about things like hangers, for the first time in years, haha. It just makes everything seem so fresh and new to be able to share the names of things with her. So anyways, I just love this new nighttime routine.

Gathering dates. This summer's social calendar is filling up fast. We already have people planning visits and plans of our own to visit Portland for various events and also, hopefully (fingers crossed like crazy) a little trip to Disneyland. Travelling solo, I want to visit Chicago in July (BlogHer, hello!) and NYC in August. This summer there are weddings and weekends and all of it fun, but until I sit down with a calendar and plot it all it's feeling a little overwhelming to me. I am easily overwhelmed though. So whatever.

Giving killer massages. I have always used Berts Bees oil (it smells amazing) on my kids and done baby massage... The whole concept of loving touch just really hits home with me and so they get foot massages and arm and leg massages and back massages. There is an irony in this; as no one on the planet enjoys a nice massage more than this mama and I haven't had one in a few years. I will let a single, solitary teardrop roll down my face about that.

Working at my new, old job and loving it. The stress of changing jobs twice in the past few months has not escaped me but I am lucky to be back in the groove and appreciating that it was the right choice to return to this gig. I think in a week or so we'll be back on track. There's been a weird lag between paychecks that means we're on a "spending freeze" and doing "fun" things like eating up food in the cupboard versus lovely meal planning this week. I don't mind it, but please don't interview Otto about his feelings on baked potato, broccoli, and chili/cheese bowls night. RE: That: My thought is that whining your way through a meal or two builds character, right? Also, don't whine. We had a lot of "do-over" moments during that dinner. Once we have a food budget again I am excited to start cooking my way through the It's All Good cookbook my mom sent me for Mother's Day. The recipe I'm most excited to try is the mint watermelon agua fresca! I used to get agua fresca occasionally when we lived in AZ and it is so good! But I have never made my own. I may add a little cream to mine. Wild and crazy plans for fruit water! Don't slow me down, haters. Nom nom nom nom nom!

Playing in the front and back yard every single day. Sometimes eating meals out there as well. The difference in my kids' personalities is so well illustrated by our sidewalk chalking and water gun adventures. Loretta will happily sit in a puddle of ice cold water she made on the sidewalk (splashing away in a water bucket) while she roughs up her hands and feet by clumsily chalking the path all the while trying to sneak-eat chalk every minute or so. This sweet, bold girl! Otto will meticulously draw rocketships, ninja turtles, and dinosaurs and attack us with the watergun with the most devilish grin. However, he has yet to learn grace under fire. In other words, he gets incredibly upset every time we super soaker him in return. There is also lots of daredevil scootering where he toes the safety lines we created on the sidewalk (keeping him off the neighbor's driveway and always in sight)... It will be hard for me to let him grow up. My heart races in a panic every time he puts a toe over either safety line. Le sigh. Well anyways, my favorite games to play outside are with the big bouncy ball because both kids can participate and I love seeing them start to play together.

That was this week. Here are next week's themes: 

hoping, reading, wearing, making, playing