The cheapest ingredients are water and air:
|
|||
 |
This just cracked me up:
I tried Honey Garlic Pork Chops last night for dinner. The marinade was very good, though the chops turned out rather tough. Because I baked them? Because of the less than sterling quality of the meat? I don’t know. But the kids didn’t seem to notice and snarfed it right up! I had cold leftovers cut up on a cabbage salad for lunch, and enjoyed the flavor again. Perhaps the marinade would be good on Costco meatballs for a quick and easy church meal or company dinner? Either way, with 4 ingredients and minimal prep time, I think this is a recipe I will use many a time! A Year Ago:
Holding his head up so well was a big accomplishment!
And Now:
Phinehas is walking! He started about 2 weeks ago, and now can walk pretty much whenever he wants, though it’s still an unsteady business. Fortunately, he’s very adept at realizing his balance is going and falling backwards to land on his padded posterior. As you can see, he has a toothy grin – nearly 8 teeth, I think. He can eat lots of things now. The other day he was very enthusiastic about sautéed cabbage. Strange, huh? He’s also eating strawberries at the strawberry field, as seen in the above picture. He liked them. He’s starting to respond to questions with enthusiastic yes and no movements: a quick “Aa” with a body shake for yes, and an emphatic headshake for no, although sometimes I think he gets the two confused. When he wants his blankie he says, “AahMMMMM.” No real words yet. He’s growing up fast folks! Well, there and back again. Family Camp went pretty well this year, I thought. I had frequently aired the opinion that it was going to be easier this year, so of course, every time that we had any sort of child-related difficulty (and come on, as long as there are children, there will be child-related difficulties) Michael would say, "Well, I’m glad that it’s going to be so much easier this year.." But really, without a newborn, and with two older kids who were able to largely roam free from gym to dining hall to meadow to playground, I feel that the year was definitely easier than last year. And more fun. But I’ll let the pictures do the talking:
Monica was the biggest fan of the cabin – she was especially fond of going into her top bunk (all three kids were able to have a top bunk, so everybody was happy)
The boys enjoyed going across the huge pedestrian bridge that the Twin Rocks Friends Camp built across the busy highway, to the beach, in the hope of preventing accidents. It’s a very nice bridge, but of course, makes a stroller nearly impossible.
What do they call it when you take pictures of people jumping?
Oh, yes, and I was there, too… the above and the two below were taken at Ocean Side on our Free Day excursion (Wednesday is Free day, which means there aren’t any scheduled activities after chapel, and you’re on your own for lunch)
And what could be better than a hot chocolate machine?!!
Yes, Michael was there, too. The boys did well in the annual track meet. Ezra won the long distance, short distance, and throwing contents in his age category. When Michael told him to run fast so he could try to get first prize, he responded, “I don’t care about that – I just want the candy.” Judah was second in everything – he moved up an age category this year, and the competition was stiff with another little boy, about three years older than him. He and his dad did win the two-player Foosball Championship. Alas, he was sick the evening that was announced, but Michael went up and got the candy prizes for both of them.
I never listened to an entire talk at Camp this year – again – but I thought that the speaker, Jeff Meyers, was good, and his message was sound and encouraging. They say that one of these years I will be able to listen to all of the camp talks without interruption or walking around outside supervising or carrying toddlers or babies. But I just can hardly believe it. My birthday was at Camp again this year, on Friday. My parents took Michael and I out to lunch, while my in-laws babysat. We go to this fabulous little diner on the pier in Garibaldi nearly every year – the floor is sloped and the angles in the corner are so askew as to almost give one a headache, but they have this wonderful crab and shrimp melt sandwiches that are just incredibly good. Afterwards we stopped at the Myrtle wood factory outlet on the way back and I actually bought something this year. It’s a myrtle wood breadboard, and is it not just the most gorgeous thing? (thank you Mom and Dad, and Grandpa Lew and Phyllis, for your contributions toward this birthday purchase…)
That was the high point of the day. Unfortunately, when we got home we found that Judah had fallen asleep during lunch and had been carried back to the cabin, where he slept all afternoon, got a fever, and eventually threw up about 4 times. He was only feverish and nauseated that afternoon and night, but he’s still not quite “how” as Eeyore would say, and is eating poorly and lying around a lot. We couldn’t really leave a sick child by himself, so we both stayed in Friday night, instead of going to the dance. It might’ve been fun, but oh well – next year perhaps! Taken altogether, I’m SURE Family Camp was better this year. But it still is nice to be back in our own beds!
The idea came from the June issue of Good Housekeeping. They wanted to do it right away, so even though it was still cool and overcast they made some and went out first thing this morning to try them out. They were amazing!
My dad took this picture less than a week before her birthday. Monica seems to think that turning three is QUITE a transition point, and keeps telling me of the things that she is allowed to do, now that she’s three. Most of them are of her own fabrication! It’s startled me lately to see how easy it is to imagine the teenager that she will be in a mere 10 years. She really is growing up. Her daddy took her out for her first “birthday breakfast” this year – to Sherri’s, as is traditional for us. She was so excited about it, that she woke up before 6 and burst in all eager to get changed and go. So they did. Michael tells me she hardly ate a thing, but was very excited about getting her complimentary piece of birthday pie. When asked what kind of pie she wanted, she said, “pink.” But the only pink pie was strawberry, which she doesn’t like, she she picked “white” as a second and brought home a piece of coconut pie. She generously “shared” with her brothers and I just barely had a chance to rein them in and make sure they left some for her! I needn’t have bothered: she carried it around off and on all morning as happy as can be, but ate practically none of what remained. It got so battered from being rolled around in its plastic container that nobody wanted it and we eventually threw it away anyway. Sad, but it served it’s purpose of making her feel special, so I’m not too worried about it. By the time all’s said and done she will have celebrated her birthday three times this year! Once with my parents and sister the weekend before her birthday, once with her daddy on her birthday, and once with my in-laws and my brother and sister-in-law on Memorial Day weekend at a big May bash for all of the May birthdays in our family. Hurray for little girls! Ezra finished reading his first 20 books – that we kept track of – yesterday! Now he and his dad are going to go to Exodus Books on Saturday to order his very first Bible. He will be 6 in September. Congratulations Ezra! Phinehas, 11 months old, enjoyed sitting on the grass eating cheerios (of course) and snack handouts from other spectators. Where? Ezra’s first t-ball game, Wednesday night. Fun facts about Phinehas: when he wants my attention he crawls over and leans his head into my shins until I pick him up. He has also acquired the skills clapping and waving which he usually demonstrates in sequence.
In the dugout:
At bat. The game is played disappointingly free of outs. If, miraculously, the ball beats the batter to first base – they tag him – then let him keep running. Michael was rather irritated to hear that, and I have to say, it makes the game even more boring to watch than it would otherwise be.. ahem.
Ah, spring.
Ezra was thrilled with his new ensemble. And after the game there were snacks and drinks: what more could he desire? Hats and jerseys are included in the registration fee for Ezra’s tball team, and the finally handed out the hats on Monday night – the jerseys will come next week. Young Ezra’s eyes were shining when they got their spiffy new hats. On the way home from t-ball practice that night, I said something about how we were going to be able to go to the aquarium the next day. Ezra’s response startled me: “I don’t care.” Surprised and peeved I asked, “what do you mean you don’t care?!” (after all, it is no small thing to take 4 small children on a 6 hour round day-trip! And Ezra was the one who had been most excited about the prospect!)  Best of both worlds I follow a 6-weeks-on, 1-week-off year-round school schedule. But, although last week was supposed to be our break week, we kept chugging along so that we could have (drum-roll-please) a two week spring break! Next week is Easter week, which is schedule as a holiday for us, regardless, so I bumped the two weeks together, and here we are (one of the not-insignificant advantages of home schooling!) As today is the last day of Tax Season, Michael will have tomorrow off – we have a day trip planned. Newport Aquarium, here we come! Now I just need to figure out what productive things to get done during our days off: fortunately, Monday is always laundry day for me, so I have most of the day to think about it! IF I actually get anything done, perhaps I’ll post pictures. Judah had an odd stomach ailment, with a tummy-ache Friday and Saturday, and actual vomiting on Saturday. Even at the worst though, he just seemed to feel kind of low, never miserable, but the upshot was that our busy Sunday, including hosting a large church group (Parish) at our house Sunday afternoon, was torpedoed. Instead we tag-teamed church (Michael took Ezra and Monica to Sunday School at 9:30 AM, then raced back between SS and the service and I attended the 11:00 service with the two kids). As a result, our day was unexpectedly low-key and restful: since Phinehas was at home with Daddy, and Monica went to the nursery during church, I was able to listen to (almost) THE ENTIRE SERMON uninterrupted! ***** Monica came and asked me to read “Sam-I-Sam” (Green Eggs and Ham),which I did, then I realized that Phinehas needed his morning diaper change, so I did that too. Then Monica wanted breakfast.. *** After church, since I didn’t have a fussy tired baby, and since the kids occupied themselves, I actually stayed in the fellowship hall after the meal for longer than usual. *** Monica was done with breakfast and I went and got her down from her highchair*** When we got home, Phinehas had just woken up for a nap, and Monica went down for brief one before Michael took Ezra and Monica, again, to the Parish meeting, which had been relocated to a different house. That left me home with Phinehas (who was VERY happy to have me back) and Judah (who was feeling pretty good). Judah played the Wii for a while, then the three of us went for a leisurely walk in the spring sunshine. I even got some scrapbooking done! It’s was supposed to be my tax season project, you see, and since there was only one day of tax season left, I thought perhaps I should at least try it one time! Judah got inspired by my project and begged me to let him take pictures, so he wandered around the house and took 40-some pictures that he then wanted to print out. We came to an acceptable compromise on how many pages he could print out (3 – plain paper, not photo paper), and he got some practice in weeding out photos and making decisions on the sizes and number to print, all good mental tasks. My other people came home after 6:00, and Michael played ping-pong on the Wii with the boys for a little while, and I made myself an omelette with sauteed mushrooms, kalamata olives, gouda, and garlic-herb brie. Before we knew it, it was 8:00 – bedtime for the kids! Of course, they don’t go to bed all by themselves, and it was closer to 8:30 by the time they were actually all disposed of. When the house was (mostly) quiet, Michael and I played Angry Birds on our phones in bed and visited for a pleasant, long while. *** Monica needed bathroom assistance, and Judah is coming up and down and telling me which toys he wants to get rid of, and I am telling him which toys he actually still plays with and may not get rid of, and he is going down and coming up again to tell me about other toys he wants to get rid of and how he wants to renovate his room and move shelves around. He’s just supposed to be cleaning his room, not moving furniture around, of course… then Ezra has questions about how to make his bed**** Anyhooo…. I wouldn’t want to have sick children every Sunday of course, but it certainly is a nice break in the routine, from time to time! Especially when the children are not very sick and are merely being kept home to keep from infecting others, if indeed it was an infectious illness in the first place, and it’s a beautiful day fit for afternoon walks! So, hurrah for the occasional sick Sunday! “We’re having cauliflower” I told Ezra. “Cauliflower?!” and his eyes light up, “I LOVE cauliflower.” True story. My kids love cauliflower. The secret is that I only ever make “Cauliflower Deluxe,” with it, a recipe from my mother, that she got from someone else who claimed that it was a Weightwatcher’s recipe. I’ve always been skeptical of that last claim, but if your goal is to get your kids to eat cauliflower, this might do the trick. Cauliflower Deluxe
In reality, I don’t actually measure any of that, anymore. First wrap the cauliflower in plastic wrap, then microwave it until it is soft when poked with a knife. Then unwrap it and put it on a microwaveable plate. With a rubber spatula, spoon out some mayonnaise and spread it over the top of the cauliflower head. Squirt on a little mustard and spread it around as well. Grab a handful of shredded cheese (I buy Costco’s shredded cheddar, so I always have some on-hand), and sprinkle it on top. Top with paprika. Place the plate in the microwave and microwave it until the cheese melts on top. Slice in wedges and serve. I never make it any other way. Well, he’s finally on the move! At a little over 9 months, Phinehas finally figured out how to move forward (he’s been moving backward and sideways for a long time). He started army crawling two weeks ago, and this week he’s really started experimenting with those interesting and sometimes unpredictable legs to start crawling on hands and knees. I left him in the living room this morning, then went to the kitchen to do some dishes. A little later I looked over and saw him just stick his head out of the hallway into the dining room - “Hello, Phinehas – did you come to see me?!” He looked so pleased with himself. A little while later he crawled across the dining room floor and unplugged my printer. *sigh* It’s a gray time of year. Although the sun occasionally breaks through, it’s mostly been cloudy and rainy. Add to that Michael’s 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day work schedule, a plaguish sort of cold that took our family by storm, followed by a spate of ear-infections with a broken collar bone thrown in, and you would think I would be rather depressed. I’ll admit, I have been tempted to feel sorry for myself in the past couple of weeks – possibly even given in once or twice. But in the midst of it all, it’s been very encouraging to feel the support of our friends and family as we deal with these admittedly minor affflictions: my friend Joanna twice filled the gap by babysitting my kids (including a last minute call for help before a trip to Urgent Care for Judah’s broken collar bone), my mother-in-law came right over when I needed someone to babysit my older 3 sick kids while I took the baby in for an ear-infection, and to top it off my mom dropped everything to come and stay with me for a couple days, babysit for doctor’s appointments, help me dig out of the mess brought on by all of this sickness and lift my spirits with her company. It was wonderful! I was hoping that this week we would all get over all of our sicknesses and be ready to return to regular church attendance, but the week wasn’t without incident: Ezra’s ear infection didn’t quite go away, so I had to take him in on Thursday, and got another, stronger round of antibiotics. That time I brought all of my kids: but I gave myself lots of time to get there, and remembered to bring books for them all and snacks, so it went surprisingly well. He’s doing well now. Then last night Phinehas woke up crying and had hives all around his neck – they’re gone now, and he seems to be doing fine. And this morning, Monica claimed her throat felt icky and has a really runny nose – so I’m just quaking in my boots, afraid that she’s getting another, NEW cold, and that we’ll be out again for another 3 weeks! Possibly she’s just draining from the end of the last cold though, so that’s what I’ll hope for. I’m hope, hope, hoping that we’ll be able to ALL go to church tomorrow! Well, they say when it rains, it pours. And if sickness and doctor’s visits are rain, then we’ve had a deluge around here. But the sun is shining today, so I’m hoping for better things! It’s been two months already since Christmas! Only ten more months to go. Amazing how quickly time flies, now that I’m getting older. Not as old as my husband who is turning 29 TODAY. 29! Nearly 30! Definitely in the “late 20s,” and he kissed, “mid-20s” good-bye quite a while ago. I, of course, am still merely 28. My birthday’s not ’til June. Anyway, I suppose it must be about half-way through tax season now and I just got back from my annual tax-season trip to sunny Tri-Cities to visit my family and friends. It was, as usual, a very pleasant trip. Mom and I and sometimes Katy, who is a busy college student now, sat around and drank pot after pot of tea and coffee, and supervised children and made and ate food, and talked non-stop, and watched a few TV shows together. The kids had a lot of company. I went over and fetched my brother’s two oldest children on Tuesday for a playdate and got to see his brand new baby, Prester, while I was there. (Very round and cute) On Thursday, the kids were delighted to play with their Tri-Cities friends. My two girlfriends and I, who got married the same summer, now have 12 children between the 3 of us. Amazing. While we were in town my mom did color analysis on my 3 older kids – spring, winter, winter, in case you were wondering – and trimmed my hair. I don’t know why I’m surprised, but Michael noticed the missing inch or two almost right away last night – his powers of observation have always been exceptional. After drinking as many caffeinated beverages as reasonably possibly, and eating my parents out of house and home, we returned home yesterday afternoon. The trip was not great – Phinehas cried for probably an hour of the four – but in spite of some slick roads in western Oregon, we arrived safe and sound and happy to get out of the car! Mom and Dad were both pretty sick with colds while we were there this week, and sure enough, Phinehas seems to have picked up a cold. He’s pretty cheerful in spite of his red eyes and occasional cough. The rest of us are healthy SO FAR, and hope to stay that way, at least until after the birthday party at my in-laws tomorrow. After all, one doesn’t complain too much about having to skip school and lay low on a Monday or Tuesday, but having to miss church and a birthday party is an entirely different deal! Now that we’re home it’s grey and cloudy and still cold, though not as cold as it was in Eastern Washington! The kids were delighted to see a few skiffs of snow left on the ground from the snowfall we had while we were gone and stayed out yesterday to throw a few snowballs around. Today we’re just cleaning up and cooking and relaxing, tomorrow is church and party, and Monday we’ll start school again. Ah, school breaks. Always too short! But that could be because time is speeding up as I get older… Judah’s memory poem: OVERHEARD IN AN ORCHARD Said the Robin to the Sparrow: I should really like to know Why these anxious human beings Rush about and worry so.” Said the Sparrow tothe Robin: “Friend, I think that it must be That they have no heavenly Father Such as cares for you and me.” Elizabeth Cheney A good daily reminder for me! As I was practicing narration with Ezra yesterday, I read him a sentence, and asked him to to tell it back to me: “‘Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines,’ now what did I say, Ezra?” “Solomon had 700 wives and 300… porcipines?” Hmm… possibly… |
||
|
Copyright © 2012 Home Despot Elly - All Rights Reserved |
|||
![IMG_7412[1]](http://www.homedespotelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IMG_74121.jpg "IMG_7412[1]")
