Roll Call, April 30-May 6

Last week in review:  good recipes. Make again.  Followed menu first half of week; for Super Date we just ate leftovers before we, uh, left; Can't remember what I did on Friday - maybe leftovers again - but didn't make the soup.  Saturday I ended up making something like this for a friend who just had a baby - and so we had the pasta, too.  Sunday was ... sandwiches for the picnic.  And Pirate's Booty.

This week thusly far:
Monday - Black Beans n' Rice; cornbread; green salad, steamed broccoli, dressing (Missionaries here.  Poor missionaries).
Tuesday - Tikki Masala and na'an (Ethan's goodbye meal)
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday -  Split Pea Soup with Barley (Crockpot)
Friday - Slow Cooker Italian Beef (Crockpot)
Saturday - Leftovers
Sunday - Chicken Pillows for a Pillow-y Waistline.

Blogger has a new layout and so does gmail -- what's up?

That title has nothing to do with post content, so don't even try.   Lately, Sydney has taken to gazing adoringly at me (who doesn't?) and asking wistfully to do something "special".

The past couple of Saturdays have been entire days of "special".

For example,  we went to the zoo.  It happened to be Packy's 50th birthday. Clara can't stop talking about the elephant that lumbered toward her.  She sounds like this when she's talking about it: "Armpit! Coming! Big!" 

We played on this sunny hillside whilst Briton ran the Wildwood.  The slope-age was perfect for rolling down the hill.  Then we went to Pizza Caboose. Clara sounds like this when she talks about Pizza Caboose, "Lemonade!"

 

The following Saturday, Briton participated in a "low-key" (he emphasizes) 4.2 race called Pat's Run.  When I asked him how he did he sort of paused and stumbled over his words, "Well, ... I ... won."   He says it's sort of fun to be the first to cross the finish line.  Especially when the time keeper is using his iPhone to time the race and isn't sure if he started it on time so uses Briton's watch for his "official" time.  They gave him a $20 gift certificate to Foot Traffic.   This could prove a profitable way to keep fit.

Then he took the kids to a free movie.  IIAGPTW sponsored the movie and loads of treats.  The kids were downing popcorn, M&Ms and Root Beer at 10:30 in the morning.  That's definitely special.

 There's been a smattering of warm, sunny days lately.  The kids have been soaking up the Vitamin D.  Today I was watching them playing in the cul-de-sac: Talmage riding his bike, Clara barreling down the driveway on the Big Wheel, chortling with joy; Sydney immersed in imaginationland, narrating stories with random objects from the garage ... and I wished I could freeze time.  It was a perfect, happy moment.  This childhood of theirs -- it's all special.

 (Take such sentimentality with a nod to some other "less ideal" aspects of childhood:  I should admit that this morning I withheld all nourishment until they finished cleaning their room).

Roll Call, Review and as;dfklj

Last week -- wull -- that was a pretty gross week of eating.  In theory it seemed okay, but each day as I obediently followed the menu plan I wished I was making something else.  What, I couldn't say, but not what was prepared.   I think the recipes seemed appealing on paper, but ingesting them did not set well.  Like, the beef strogie recipe was fine and I was glad we had a crock-pot meal so I didn't have to think about it all day -- but by dinner time, after spending the day outdoors, I was more in the mood for something on the grill.  So this menu-planning has it's pros and cons.  This past Sunday was gorgeous and by then I'd had it with being a slave to some "menu".   We had a picnic at the park with the cuz's instead.  That was fun.  And tasty.  Clara had Cheetos for dinner. 

Fingers crossed for this week:

Monday - Tacos (Briton -- after enduring new recipe after new recipe: "What happened to the tried and true?"  So we had tacos).
Tuesday - Chicken Nuggets, asparagus, etc (except for Clara who only ate condiments)
Wednesday - Mediterranean Pork with Couscous (since we didn't make it Sunday)
Thursday - Super Date.  The kids can eat cereal or something.
Friday - Minestrone soup
Saturday -  something downtown with the kids since we'll be out that way.
Sunday - picnic with the cuz's (why mess with success?)

T-ball!

The first game. Talmage was excited to play and afterwards said he had so much fun.

I spy: Number 4. A texting parent. Sydney running in from the playground.

The kids play earnestly whilst the parents watch entertainedly.

Comin' on home.

T-ball parents. Huh. It shouldn't feel surprising. It's been so for 5 1/2 years now.

April 16-22, Roll Call

Review of last week: AS IF.

Tuesday and Wednesday did not happen. I might have made something else that was more last-minute and gross. Don't remember. Thursday we ate at Heidi's -- that yummy Tikki Masala and Na'an meal. Friday I cleaned all morning and didn't want to mess up the kitchen again -- so we ordered pizza. Saturday we were outside the whole day and played a lot - so it only seemed fitting to cap it off with going out to eat. Our poor kids' character ....
Sunday? Did I remember to thaw the roast? So, basically, we had fridge rummage for dinner.

This week I will try to do better.

The plan:

Mon: Crock-pot Creamy Soft Chicken tacos (and this will happen because it's already crocking away).
Tue: Creamy Spinach and Avocado Pasta
Wed: Sugar Snap Pea and Ham Risotto
Thur: Spring Penne Pasta with Light Butter Sauce
Fri: Best of the Week in Review
Sat: Beef strogie
Sun: Mediterranean Pork with Couscous


Well, we'll give this week a whirl, eh? The three slow-cooker methods will abet my low motivation to cook.

April 9-15, Roll Call

Monday: We had enchiladas from the deep freezer. Days like today -- That's what it's for.
Tuesday: Italian White Bean Soup (The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen)
Wednesday: Cozy Comfy Chicken and Rice (ibid)
Thursday: Pork Chops (Cook's Illustrated, p 398) and Quinoa Pilaf (TCFK)
Friday: Split Pea
Saturday: Pizza
Sunday: Crockpot Roast, etc.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Briton: I love watching what you choose to get excited about. It's so unpredictable.
Me: There's no rhyme or reason (or something to that effect).

Some holidays/birthdays I brush off with nary a trace of sentimentality. It could be any other day as far as I'm concerned. But then, for no explicable reason, there are other times when I go all out. This Easter I pulled out all stops (well, almost all of them) to make Easter dinner "count". Since I lack an inherent gene for how to make something count and haven't acquired a vast database of how-to's and what-nots, it was necessary to lean on the expertise of the More Knowledgeable on how to go about an Easter Dinner.

The menu was pulled from melskitchencafe. Jo and I salivated over her food pictures and decided on not one, but two desserts. We did have the traditional ham, potatoes, hot veggies, rolls, fruit salad, detail, detail, detail. And then Jeff volunteered to make ....

Cedar (seder ... ha ha ha) Plank Salmon.

Oh, my, it was gooood. It was way more delicious to eat than it was apparently pleasant to grill. (I appreciate that Jeff is wearing a loincloth in this picture. To be modest.)

Besides all-out food, we needed a fancy table setting. Who else to turn to for advice than Dear Alisha? She hammered me with all sorts of links and suggestions and generously lent her linen napkins (which I don't think anybody dared to actually use ... ruffians!) and offered servingware, etc.

The place cards were from one of her suggested links:


Hilary took these photos:
Sometimes at Downtown Arby's, they don't use knives or matching silverware or press their linens. It's considered shabby chic.

And again in color!
Wanna know how to make the jellybean vases? That was Alisha's idea. And Briton was the gopher late on Saturday night to find the beans.

Did you also notice the birds' nests with color-coordinated chocolate eggs in them? How could you miss them?! Martha Stewart. Yep. Stewart. And Briton. Same late-night, 3-grocery-store run for the eggs.



I swiped the cluttered family photos off the Museum shelf and replaced with some flower arrangements. I thought up the sheared heather in the trifle bowl all by my own brainsome. It was just a whim, a fancy, as I strolled through the yard on that beautiful Easter Sunday afternoon. Note: the centerpieces got thrown onto this shelf about 2 seconds into dinner because you couldn't see the person across from you, what fer all the foliage.


White blossoms and cherry blossoms and daffodils all stolen from the neighbors (which I'm counting as friends in this post title).

Then Briton and Jolynn were on deck. Briton was in charge of the kids' treat/craft. He made cupcakes and was thinking of having them decorate them into bunnies. But in the middle of stake conference he was hit with an Eureka!

He ended up telling the Easter story, using the leftover cupcake batter that he'd made into a round cake as the "stone" over the shoebox tomb. He engineered paper people of all the characters in the story that each kid got to play the part of/color. The kids really got into it. Clara was Mary and ended up decapitating her. But other than that it was relatively reverent.


Then he handed out the cupcakes as miniature "stones" for the kids.


Jo Lynn told the Easter story using Easter eggs with an item in each one that represented part of the story -- like a sprig of rose thorns for the crown, a tiny scrap of white cloth for the burial clothes. And the last egg was empty. There was a scripture for each item, and as she read it, each kid got to open their egg in turn. Pretty fancy stuff. It was a great Easter day.

For the record, though, we still did not give our kids Easter baskets.

A Friendly Wave from Little Bumblebee

Due date: mid-August. Boy, oh boy!

An Expensive Workout

One idea for Super Date is to do a sprint triathlon together. In theory this is a good idea if you both train for the event and neither participant is very pregnant (a little pregnant is okay ;). As it was, neither of us trained very well and one of us is 22 weeks along. Briton pushed himself, but was still sunk by the swim. This worked well for a date, because after my Michael-Phelp-ish swim at a different pool, but then leisurely transition ("Does anyone have a hair dryer and curling iron?") we ended up seeing each other in the bike transition area.

Back up a bit ... for some reason, we made it into the transition area before the race without being marked, so that happened at poolside. Briton found someone with a ballpoint: Number 3. That's pretty cool!

I found someone with a sharpie and good handwriting: On the other leg they write your age. I liked that aspect of the race -- checking out everyone's calves to see how old they were.

The "race" was in Corvallis. The night before we stayed at the parents home of some friends. Great folks -- they made us feel like we were at a Bed and Breakfast.

Back to the race: Corvallis is beautiful countryside to pedal through. The weather was comfortable, even at 7 a.m. The 5K circled a campus block three times. This was handy for me when I needed a bathroom break after one mile of shuffling along. I was able to cut across the street to a building and use the bathroom there, "down the hall and to the right."

I finished 401st out of 409th. Heather always told me, "There will always be someone faster than you, and there will always be someone slower than you." She was right once again. Tho' barely so this time. I'm sort of envious of number 409th and wonder if they have a good story.

Briton's take on the event: He was glad when the swim was over, and glad he didn't have to wear a swim cap.

Here we are, commemorating the event as we jet out of the place.
We only had eight hours left of our super date and wanted to get back to Portland for some serious bonding over yard work.

Roll Call, April 2-8

Mon - Spaghetti w/ red sauce, peas, salad. It was a beautiful day today -- who wants to be inside cooking???
Tue - Stacked Chicken and Zuchinni Enchilada with Creamy Green Chile Sauce (Perry's Plate)
Wed - Baked Fish Fillet with yogurt topping (Perry's Plate)
Thu - Southwest Chicken Barley Soup (PP)
Fri - Super Date
Sat - Super Date
Sun - Easter Dinner con familia

Conference Weekend, April 2012

For the first session we went to OMSI with the cousins to see the Lego exhibit and etc. The below picture could be considered symbolic of our religious priorities.



There were two areas sectioned off for Duplo building and little Lego building. Sydney set to work in her imagination land with the Duplo people and blocks. Talmage wanted to go in the little Lego area but saw the sign that said "6 and up only" and came back to me in tears. "You have to be six!" So I taught him another important religious principle about how some rules don't apply to you. He got busy building a set of jeeps and a garage.



While the older kids watched a show at the Planetarium, I took Isaac and Clara to the kiddie play area. They spent a solid hour playing in the water. Clara was soaked to the bone by the end. She loved it.




It was a very profitable morning at OMSI and we hope to take advantage of the cousins' membership there for many conferences to come.

OH! And mom came home from Bolivia on Friday. That was another exciting thing about this weekend.

As Sunday morning session of conference was beginning, we were digging into breakfast. Here, Clara literally feasts on the word.

"Gifts from Heaven":



Later in the day we took a stroll to the mailbox to see what we could find. Heather sent Syd some summer skirts she'd made (all lickety-split and fancy as she is won't to do -- zippers and bows and everything). She sewed up this Easter dress, too, as an after thought because, get this ... she was "already making three for Rick's grandkids, so why not make just one more?" Sydney loves the dress and wore it most of the afternoon and even wanted to wear it to bed.


Briton played with the kids all afternoon. They constructed this Rube Goldberg contraption. I'm including all three videos because: a) the contraption that took two hours to build was destroyed by the end of the evening. Honestly, some kids have zero sentimentality!


and, b) in this first one you can see how the ball triggers the button to activate the counterweight, that then sets in the car in motion, which hits the hammer to kick the wheel




c) in this middle one Clara is hilarious



d) this last one you can see the ending path the best

It has been a very enjoyable conference weekend. Look forward to hearing the talks now.