Feeling Bloggish

Hi everyone. I don't have anything exceptional to report, but I have some free time and have been feeling "into" the blog lately. So I'm just here to say hi, and update on minute things.

For those of you not living in IA, the first of March also brought us the first taste of spring. 55 degree weather! I love my birth month :) However, it was too weird when after a day of 55 degrees and melting snow, we wake up this morning to 17 degree weather and 4 inches of fresh snow. Iowa never ceases to amaze. Mike and I took advantage of the warm weekend to paint the ceiling in our basement. We're hoping Thursday will bring back the heat again so we can paint the walls for Mike's day off. Then we just need to wait for the carpet installers to come and we'll be ready to move the office downstairs. Thanks to all who chimed in on the low light houseplant question, by the way. I'll see if I can take your suggestions and make them work.

I'm excited to get the basement finished so that we can move onto Jack's new room. He's very into trucks, so that's the theme. I've already got the quilt and curtains, and plan to paint red halfway up the wall and leave the rest white. Here's a photo of the bedding set I bought for him:



Recently I also happened upon some local art that I fell in love with, and ended up buying matted prints of the sketches for each of our bedrooms. The artist(s) who does the work is from Decorah, IA and the website for the art can be found at: Storypeople.com.
Here's the one I bought for Jack's room:



The one for Benjamin's room:



And the one for our bedroom:



The art is funky but I love the bright colors and uniqueness of it. And the sayings on each really speak to certain things. I found many of them that I really loved.

Let's see, what else is new.... in 8 days I turn 30. I used to believe I would absolutely freak out when the time came to leave my 20s. I reallly felt I would have a harder time with 30 than with 40. But now it's not phasing me at all. I think being a parent took me into a new era alltogether, and I feel far older...or shall we say, wiser? :)... than I do about entering my 30s. Mike and many of my friends are already in their 30s, so I guess I feel like I've been there for awhile, anyway. I love my life, so I can't imagine loving it less 8 days from now.

I recently took a 2-week traditional, vegetarian Thai cooking class through the DSM community education system. I picked up a few recipes I liked and some handy cooking tips. It was a nice way to get out and do something alone, and for no other reason than fun. Tonight I made green curry, and it turned out pretty well. The one thing I was definitely not into at the class was the use of a lot of fake "meat." The first week we made two dishes with "vegetarian chicken." It's this processed wheat gluten stuff that's molded into the shape of a little chicken. You cut it up and cook with it, mixing it into stir fries or curries. The second week it was "vegetarian prawns," which were the worst. They *look* like real prawns, but the texture is just like biting into a banana, and it has no fantastic taste to win you over. I think tofu has more nutritional value, anyway. I'd rather learn more ways to cook innovatively with vegetables than try to find non-meat substitutes.

Tomorrow I'll be at 32 weeks. It's still going FAST! I'm not sure I'm mentally ready still, but I'm working on it. I realized today that I keep waiting for the warm weather so Jack and I can get out and be free during the day more, but by the time it warms up enough to be out all the time, we'll have a new reason to be shut in. Hmm. Guess we'll figure it out one way or another. Hope you are all well. Here's hoping for more 55 degree weather....