march 25.2008
So our bird loves Madison. He tolerates the rest of us, because he loves attention and to be taken out of his cage, but Madison opens her bedroom door and the bird can hear her a story down. So I captured this moment of her reading to the bird, because, here in the Olson house, we promote that everyone needs to read. So the bird is in training! Ahh, I wish this blog thing started nine years ago, then I could have captured more memories and my other children would know that they did daily cute things before 2008. Granted I’ve kept journals for all of them, that gets written in every few months, but this is so much easier, this blogging thing. So good thing I’m starting now. Photo albums will be something my children will probably have to put together themselves. At least we’ve kept pictures in some order before the digital days!

march 25.2008
What can I say about peanut butter and chocolate chips. It’s the best combination to tempt the appetite of even the most avid chocolate lover. I have to give it to Vitamix, weird name, but amazing blender. You can drop a whole orange in it, and it won’t leave one little lump. So you can make homemade peanut butter, smoothies, grind your whole wheat into yummy fresh flour, soups, baby food, puree chunky spaghetti sauce because your four year old doesn’t like “chunks” and so forth. Amazing kitchen gadget for 2008 goes to Vitamix in my eyes. Anyways, you throw peanuts in this thing, it mixes in a minute, and you have warm homemade peanut butter without preservatives and whatever else. Then you add chocolate chips, and it melts into a heavenly confection that can only be washed down with an ice cold glass of milk. So if you get a sweet craving, I’ll pass this quick treat along, as it was passed to me. Even if you can’t make your own peanut butter, it’s just the same scooping a spoon and dippin’ it in chocolate chips. Enjoy!