Heart Shaped Pizza, Creeping Jenny & The Sound of Daddy's Guitar

Tonight I felt obliged to make a heart shaped pizza for my little ones. I dropped the ball in swinging this one on Valentine's Day itself. Then Amelia found a Papa John's ad with a heart shaped pizza which she kept oohing and ahhhing about all weekend. A heart shaped pizza that was no longer being served up post Valentine's Day, so the creation of any such pizza was suddenly left up to me. I figure the entire month of February should be about love anyways, right? And in my book any day is a good excuse to share and show a little love.
Please forgive the very abstract nature of my heart. It is a cross between a commercial and anatomical rendering. Not really, but that sounded like a good cover-up for the fact that when I hand stretched the dough I wanted to be sure that I made a pie big enough to feed all 5 of us so I stretched and stretched and ended up with a amorphous blob that I like to call a heart. But it tasted good, even if it wasn't exactly pretty. And besides, I still think it's kinda cute. And the kids loved it.

In other news at the end of last summer I planted Creeping Jenny in the hopes that it would grow up and over the last remaining bastion of brick wall that we have in the backyard after adding on to our house. I love many bricks, but not ours (except for the moss covered bits), so I am desperately trying to cover it. The plan is to also have Michael build an arbor over the back garage door which when paired with the Creeping Jenny should actually evoke some charm rather than make me want to avert my gaze. Here is the progress so far. I want to document the growth and see just how long it takes to achieve this goal. And perhaps putting it out there will make us more proactive--
We also still need to paint the house, so I am hoping this year will be our year for these larger exterior house projects now that the little ones are getting slightly more manageable and independent.

Last, but not least, here is Michael playing his guitar. I am so happy for him that he has been able to enjoy playing once again so very much. It is soothing to hear him strumming away while I work at night once the kids are all in bed. Do you remember being a kid and going to sleep at night to the reassuring sounds of your parents and their nightly routine whatever that might have been? Mine was hearing my Mom cleaning the kitchen and preparing the next day's lunches sometimes paired with sitcom laugh tracks carrying down the hall to me from our family room tv that my father was watching as I drifted off. I like to think that Michael's guitar provides the same comfort for our kids (and for me) each and every night.