Sunday, February 24, 2013

how we weekend : february

www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
Oh I just love you guys posting all your weekend photos! You make the most boring month of the year look like one big never ending adventure. Our weekend involved
 -more boxes 
-robby building a shed in a blizzard
-lots of cookies. 
hopefully we can get out there and play with you in March. 

Now presenting......YOUR February!
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
find all these great artists on instagram: 
@haygardi / @mylifeatplaytime
@monniecox / @jibnut80
@ziziadventures / @juliafyfe
@mrshowiepc / @alliefinch
@ilovejep / @hancooper
@missenglebright / @whitneyingram
@julia_barger / @blackbiirdfly
@julia_barger / @_sheenarae
@stephjgill / @katejill
@aytzen / @amyrachel
@juliafyfe / @xojanice
@colleencrossman / @lauratosney
@heatherlynnroberts / @ziziadventures
@megwward / @katejill
@rachellewilliams / @amyrachel

Bring on March!

How was YOUR weekend?

want to be included in next month's post? tag your weekend photos #howweweekend

Thursday, February 21, 2013

lately

www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
I rarely get dressed. Sweats and slippers, slippers and sweats. 
Boxes and tape and labels.
and dust!! 
You don't realize how dusty your house is until you are cramming it into tiny boxes. 
....or maybe that is just my house.....?
I'm purging. 
It's so easy to get rid of stuff when you have the choice to
a) pack it?
b) donate it?
option b is winning quite often.
I'm getting nostalgic. 
Sifting through memories and Once Upon a Times.
Going through baby clothes is....hard....stuff.
....I think I have something in my eye.

Remember to tag your instagram photos #howweweekend so I can see how you're out playing--it's the last weekend in February! I'm hoping I can sneak away for a quick run.

Happy Weekend!



Sunday, February 17, 2013

just a few things.....

first things first.
THANK YOU!!! 
Thank you thank you for such a great response to last week's announcement of the 
One by One Project! (check it out HERE if you missed it).
Thank you for your comments, emails, ideas, and thank you for grabbing buttons and your help spreading the word. Thank you for sharing on twitter and facebook and pinterest and all the other little corners of the web--thank you! I am so excited for your help with this project, and I have so many ideas swimming around in my brain--this is going to be a lot of fun.

a little (ok, kinda big) announcement
My posts around here the next few weeks are going to be very sporadic......you see......we are moving! As in, packing up (oh dear) and moving. This little red house has served us well, but it's time for a new adventure in a new town (and coincidentally in a house that is even littler, and red as red can be.)
 www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
We have been feeling the need to move out of the city and simplify, and finally decided to take the plunge. This new (super old) little house will be a stepping stone for us the next couple of years, and we look forward to all we will be able to experience there.....it really will be an adventure!
We will be downsizing our home, learning to garden at a higher altitude, and finishing out the remainder of the school year testing the waters of homeschool.....so much to learn.
I can't wait!

and one more....
I realized a while ago that I have the BEST blog readers. In the universe.
You always have the smartest things to say and I love that I can rely on you for answers.
These next few weeks I may have to call on you for help.....
for example:
When we moved into this house six years ago we had a nearly two year old, a bun in the oven (about to explode out), and hardly any furniture at all. We had moved around several times our first years of marriage, and with few belongings....we were pretty good at it.
But now.....
well....
I don't know how to move now!
Share your moving tips if you are pros  (ahem, Hayley)

I'll see you around here and there the next few weeks--you can always find me on instagram because I can't go that long without taking a picture....
@_sheenarae

see you around!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

lovey dovey love love

dating. 2002. 22 and 19.
Roses are red and violets are....
blah blah blah. 

You wanna know about true love? 
Let me tell you. 

true love is wearing his Ts because they are WAY more comfortable. 
true love is HIM accepting the fact that my hair will forever clog the drains, and ME accepting the fact that he will never stop biting his fingernails. 
true love is when he always eats the end of the sushi roll because the ends are always so big! I'm just not a fan of end-sushi, I'm sorry.
true love is laying in bed in the morning lonnng after the alarm went off, and trying to decide who is making breakfast and what is for breakfast, and who is making lunch and what is for lunch. 
wait--is that true love, or just lazy parenting?
true love is that I always load the dishwasher wrong, and that he refuses to look behind things when he's looking in the fridge "I don't see it! we must be out" "uh, yes dear, move the ketchup".
true love is that sometimes we lay in bed at night side by side, each reading our own book and joke that we feel like the Huxtables (except my pajamas aren't as fancy).
true love is two Littles running around that are bits of HIM and bits of ME. 
true love is my very favorite person to run/hike/bike/climb/explore/laugh/eat pizza with. 

true love, my friends, isn't diamonds or chocolates or teddy bears or cards with kittens holding flowers and riding a unicorn......
true love is all the little things. the quirky things. the mismatched things that make you fit together. jussssst right. 

What is true love to YOU?

Happy Valentine's Day!


Sunday, February 10, 2013

a new project: one by one

Why hello there. 
If you are usually more of a skimmer and casual picture-looker, and not one that always reads my long winded rambles.....I ask that maybe I could just steal away a few minutes of your day and have you read this....just this one time. I need your help. 

(This is long. I am sorry. Grab a snack.)
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
I want to start something, a project, and I need you....and you! And your sisters and your friends and your uncles and your mom. All of you. 
In last month's post I had mentioned my desire to make this little Internet space different. 
Fill it with content that will be helpful and worthwhile, instead of just wasteful and time consuming Internet fluff.

When January got too cold, we ran away to the desert. After a long day of playing on the rocks and soaking up the sunshine, we returned to the house we were staying in, dumped the sand from our shoes, and got to work on dinner. We enjoyed a grilled feast with friends and spent the evening with full bellies and long conversations. We spoke of parenting and adventures and then somehow got on the topic of "making a difference". We had been talking about different documentaries we'd all seen, and while the end credits always left us feeling inspired, we realized that we really can't do much in the form of activism. As much as we would like to run off and "save the _______", being young parents with low budgets and day to day responsibilities, it's hard to get out and DO something, even if we really wanted to. 
How can one person make a difference? Can they
Can I?

I started thinking.
and thinking.
Woke up in the middle of the night......thinking.

Flash forward through the next few weeks.....more thinking. Pondering. Wondering. 
What can I do? 
What can WE do? 
How to make a difference......

I started to get ideas.....
As strange as it sounds.....bloggers have power.
Weird right?
I am sometimes amazed at how much time and money people put into their blogs. 
Why spend so much on something that's not even tangible--it's not real!
 It's something that won't even be around in ten years?! 
Crafts and new fashions and awkward self portraits.....why do we need these things?
Did you know there are conferences throughout the year you can go and learn to be a better blogger? I wonder if in twenty years people will look back and wonder why they poured so much money into something flashy on their computer screen. 
And will they wish for precious hours back with their friends and families?
So much time trying to better nothing more than an image and an Internet space, when that time could be used to better the world around us.

So.
Here's an idea.
What if we used the Internet--our blogs-- as a tool for good? What if we spent some of our time and energy and talents in actually trying to make a difference, instead of just growing our readership and making ourselves look fancy. 
Let's use the power of the Internet to do something meaningful. 
Something we can look back on and feel good about when we are 103 years old.
Let's join forces for good, shall we?
No plane ticket or fancy outfit required.

So here is my idea. It's small. Simple.
It has the potential to grow......IF you can help me. I can't do it alone.
What if every few weeks I posted a challenge. Something very doable that we ALL can participate in--I know you don't need another item on your to-do list. 
Just a small action that could potentially make a difference in someone's life. 
Do a small act of service. 
Write a note to someone.
Pick up a piece of trash. 
Or how about time spent that could make US a better person--enrich our REAL life, not our Internet life.
Read a book. 
Start a journal (using paper!) 
Turn our phone off. 

Imagine the possibilities! 
And if we were all doing it together, maybe we COULD actually make a difference.

Imagine this (I like visuals)
Let's say I'm walking through a parking lot and pick up a piece of trash I see blowing across the pavement.
ONE piece of trash in the garbage.....meh. Big deal.
But let's say everyone that reads this picks up one piece of trash....right there we are filling up trash bags! Trash cans! Call the garbage man!  (double bonus if you sort recyclables!) 
Our streets and parks around the world just got a little bit cleaner. 
And then you tell your friends (and neighbors! and cousins!).....and they help out too. 
Do you see where I'm going here?

We can all work on this together--reaching out to those around us. Enriching our own lives. Little steps at a time. It's hard for one person to make a difference on our own......but one by one, maybe....just maybe....we can get something going.

Are you with me? 
I promise to make it easy. And fun! Always fun.
BUT.
One but.
Talking to the wise and knowledgeable Whitney Ingram (yes, THE Cookbook Whitney) she brought up a good point. The Internet (blogs, facebook, instagram, etc and etc) have made it so we all feel the need to brag about every little thing we do. 
This is what she had to say about serving others, 
"if you tell someone about it, it doesn't count."
I love this.
I don't want us to be bragging and posting photos of all our wonderful do-goodery. That is not the point. However, should you have incredible story of some sort, or a life changing experience.....please let me know. I would love to share your story here--it's good for us all to hear encouraging and heart warming stories of kindness. Has someone served YOU? I want to hear about that too.
But for the most part, let's keep our little acts silent, so they can all count.

Who is with me? 
Are you up for the challenge? 
Should we see if we can little by little, one by one, try to make a difference on this mighty earth?

We are going to start out as basic and simple as we can get. 
I want everyone to play along--no excuses! 
What's our first challenge?
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
Smile.

What?!

Yes sir and mam. Just smile. A little extra than usual. 
Smile at a stranger. 
Smile at that guy who took your parking spot.
Smile at the girl who puts her yoga mat waaaaaay too close to yours and you can smell her feet. 
Smile when you really don't want too. The world needs more smiles, so let's start today. 
You and me and you and you.

See?! Easy challenge to start us out. I would love to hear your ideas for challenges--I plan on rotating between ways we can better those around us, ourselves, and the Earth. I have my list going but would love to add some of your ideas. I want a good combination of small gestures we can do for others to spread happiness, and small changes we can make in our individual lives that will lead to us being happier.

And.....

Tell your friends! 
The more people we can get on board, the more of a difference we can actually start to make.

Please take a button if you'd like to post on your blog, and link to our challenges. 
(just paste this html code on your sidebar)
grab a button


grab a button


grab a button


Wow! Did you make it through that whole thing? 
Thank you for reading and for your support. 
I am so excited to work together and see what we can do.

now.....go smile at someone!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

the weekly juice

lately. 
lately the sun has been shining .
alot. 
we love it. 
lately I've been wondering what book to read?
what are you reading?
lately I've been purging. 
dejunking and tossing and donating and making piles all over the house.
(isn't funny how the house actually gets MESSIER when you are trying to clean it?)
must. get. rid. of. stuff.
lately I've been itching to run. and run and run. I could hit the road.....but I need my trails to not be under a foot of snow.
lately we've been spending a lot of time on the other side of the mountain. 
playing. breathing fresh air. dreaming of packing up and moving in. 
we looked at a house with pink kitchen counters and too many cats. 
we passed.

and yes, lately we are still juicing....never gets old. 
I found a new combination with beet that isn't as "beety" as our sweet beet juice we made. 
This has just a touch of beet, but lots of other flavors for those of you may not love a strong beet flavor like I do.
We loved this juice.....all of us!
bonus: lately I've been saving the carrot pulp and throwing it in soup. 
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
Lower the Beet Juice
1/2 grapefruit
1 orange
2 large carrots
1/4 beet
1/2" piece of ginger

What are YOU juicing this week?

more juice!

Monday, February 4, 2013

dear february (take two)

Dear February,
I'm sorry I was so rude in last week's post....let's try it again, shall we?
You're not.....that bad. You do have some good qualities going for you.....like the fact that you are only 28 days long.
Way to go February! You have finally done something right.

Dear  My Voice,
Where did you go????! I woke up Friday morning and you were nowhere to be found. NOWHERE. Saturday you stayed away. Sunday I had to yell with all my might just to get a squeak out. 
Monday I sounded like a man. Please come back. please.

Dear Tubing,
oh so many stories to tell!
You are so much fun. Especially when two moms (one of them.....me....) go barreling down the hill so fast (like, breaking the sound barrier, fast) and are UNABLE TO STOP AND CRASH THROUGH THE FENCE. That happened. Oh, and remember how I had no voice to warn the children I was crashing into??!!!
nice.

little tubers waiting to head up the hill
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
Dear anyone who has asked about 
The Cookbook in the last few months.
We. Are. Almost. Done. Just a few more shoots and then off it goes to The Man, who will turn it into a pretty book (The Family Flavor) for your hands to behold.
(if you are just joining us, I am photographing a cookbook for one of the coolest gals around, Whitney Ingram. You will most definitely want this book.....this girl can cook)
Follow us on instagram for weekly updates of what we are shooting (I'm now @_sheenarae on IG and whitney is @whitneyingram)....see  you there!

Dear anything above 30°,
YOU FEEL LIKE SUMMER!
Oh how I love when the sun warms me all the way through. After all our single digit temperatures we are basking in this warm weather. Windows open! Bike riding! Wishing our legs weren't so pasty!

Dear Chacos,
hello old friends. It's been a long few months without you. If it's over 30° you'll be on my feet as I head to yoga. Glad we are back together.

Dear Rock Wall.
You are fun. Thanks for entertaining us through the winter.
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
Dear Cyber World,
Ok, I am putting this out there....
I figure it can't hurt.
We are looking for a home to rent in the Heber/Midway/Charleston Utah area--
sometime within the next few months (ish). 
If you know of someone who has a rental property up there, could you email me at sheenajibson at gmail.
We are on the hunt!
(and I will let you know when we put our house up for rent (again, hopefully within the next few months(ish) (fingers crossed)) and you can tell all your friends to come and rent The Little Red House!

Dear Readers,
Here is your February desktop calendar! Sorry there is only one.....I really don't have any snowy February pictures because if we are out playing in the snow I usually don't have my big camera. 
But besides.....by February we are usually tired of snow (right?!) so here is a nice, bright, non-wintry desert for your desktop.
(I spy a tiny moon)
feb.desert1920x1200

Dear Soup,
we always like you.
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
Lentil and Coconut Curry Stew 
I love the warm flavor of curry in the winter (posted a curry recipe last February too) and this soup did not disappoint. I found the recipe on the Scaling Back blog and just tweaked it a little bit....I added some carrots, and a few more spices, used full fat coconut milk and yellow lentils instead of red.
This soup is hearty and filling,
 and warms you up on a dreary February day.

2 cups lentils 
1 onion, finely chopped 
1 red bell pepper, diced 
2 large carrots, sliced
1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and diced small 
2 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced 
1 heaping tablespoon red curry paste 
1 teaspoon garam masala 
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/3 cup tomato paste 
7 cups water 
1 can coconut milk 
1 15-ounce can of chickpeas 
2 tsp salt (or salt to taste)
juice of two limes 
fresh cilantro and lime wedges for serving 

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil and add the onions, bell pepper, carrot and jalapeno. Cook until veggies begin to get tender. Add the garlic, ginger, curry, spices, salt and tomato paste and continue to cook for 2-3 more minutes. Add the water, coconut milk, lentils and chickpeas, bring to a low boil, and cook uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, until lentils are tender. Stir in the lime juice, and give it a taste to see if you need any more lime or salt.  Serve with cilantro, lime, and fresh naan.
enjoy!

Sincerely yours/all my love/thank goodness for sunny days/23 more days to go,
sheena

How do YOU feel about February?

Friday, February 1, 2013

dear february

dear february,
aye aye aye!
can I just close my eyes and dream you away?
www.inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com..
yes, that's better. 


happy weekend!
don't forget to tag your weekend photos #howweweekend