10 on Tuesday

1. Hannah is enjoying the independence of a 3 yr old. Everyday she picks out her own clothes. My only rules (at this point) is that she has to have long sleeves and long pants (at least when we are leaving the house). Today's ensemble includes red pants, a brown and pink long sleeve and a purple tank on top of that. And a request for white socks.

2. Leah is finally feeling better. Her neediness is going away and she is is also asserting her independence. She is crawling everywhere. Pulling up everywhere and is just starting to cruise the furniture a bit. I predict that she will be walking around her first birthday but we will see.

3. Leah's favorite activities at the moment are pulling the magnets off of the fridge, destroying the train table (much to hannah's dismay), eating paper (still), and hanging out in the bathroom (so far she hasn't discovered the toilet). Oh yeah and she has discovered the door stop in the bathroom...we hear "doing...doing...doing" all of the time...it so totally takes me back to hannah's fascination with door stops in our Mattawan house.

4. We are very tired of snot in our house. Both of our girls have been snotty all week.

5. Hannah made a rainbow in school made up of fruit loops and glue. Her teachers were very impressed with her ability. She was apparently the only one who used a single color for each row - even asking for more of certain colors to fill up the entire row. They said even kids in the class above hers don't do that. Maybe we have an artist in the family?

6. Andy went to India and took a bunch of photos for Hannah. He keeps forgetting to take the camera our of his backpack and I keep forgetting to remind him. Look for a slideshow soon.

7. We signed Hannah up for a local tee ball league. It was started by a local family whose son wanted to play but was to young for the town leagues (5+). It is only for 3-5 yr olds and sounds like fun. Andy let Hannah pick out a mitt - she picked pink and purple...go figure. We start mid-April and lots of our friends are also participating.

8. I am also going to sign Hannah up for a creative movement class thru town parks and rec. That starts this week. Assuming there is still room in the class, since we haven't signed up yet.

9. A friend is starting Kindermusik classes this spring and I am hoping to get Leah in a class. She loves music, noise, etc.

10. a new recipe

Sweet potato bean burritos

INGREDIENTS

* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 6 cups canned kidney beans, drained
* 2 cups water
* 3 tablespoons chili powder
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 4 teaspoons prepared mustard
* 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 4 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
* 12 (10 inch) flour tortillas, warmed
* 8 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese



DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Heat oil in a medium skillet, and saute onion and garlic until soft. Stir in beans, and mash. Gradually stir in water, and heat until warm. Remove from heat, and stir in the chili powder, cumin, mustard, cayenne pepper and soy sauce.
3. Divide bean mixture and mashed sweet potatoes evenly between the warm flour tortillas. Top with cheese. Fold up tortillas burrito style, and place on a baking sheet.
4. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven, and serve.


note: I rolled them and put them on a cookie sheet then froze them. Once they were frozen I bagged the individually. They have been great for quick lunches. I heat 1.5 min in the microwave (from frozen) the flip and heat another 1 min. Then top with taco sauce and a bit of cheese and 30 sec more. Yum!