Monthly Archives: September 2011

Five Question Friday

Posted on September 23, 2011 | 3 comments

It’s Friday, here’s what I think about that: WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!

My extended thoughts, in bullet form:

This week flew right by, it helps when we have plans 3 out of 4 nights (tonight will be downtime, I’m excited – almost as excited as Liam is to play Lego Star Wars; since the remote –> head incident, there have been no more flip outs, apparently I can teach a lesson)
Liam’s first soccer game is tomorrow, I observed at practice last night that Liam will be the kid who dramatically falls over. All. the. time. This makes me a little nutty. I’m also the yelly parent on the sidelines. I. need. to. shut. it. No one likes that parent, I don’t even like that parent.
ArtPrize will be hitting its stride this weekend. Can’t wait to check it out.
Sunday night is DATE NIGHT! Dinner + ArtPrize – bedtime routine = happy me + happy husband.
Next week I start a blogging gig over at grkids.com’s blog, Kids on the Grand – my first blog is scheduled for Tuesday on the topic of date nights… please stop by!
We’re more than likely moving spaces at work and I’m excited for a new place to call home during the work day.

1. Dream job…realistic and completely unrealistic.
Realistic: Freelance graphic design and stay at home mom.
Unrealistic: Philanthropist with independent wealth.

2. Do you fart in front of your significant other?
Yes. We’ve also been known to dutch oven each other. We’re sweet and romantic like that.

3. What’s the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home? How far and where was it?
Not sure if Kazakhstan or Australia is further away from Michigan, but I’ve been to both places. I spent six weeks in Kazakhstan the summer between sophomore and junior years of college with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship – truly the trip of a lifetime. And since meeting Simon, we’ve traveled back to Australia twice, once before we got married and once after with 3-month-old Liam. I never would have imagined I’d go to either place (I would not have been able to even tell you where Kazakhstan was or that it was a country prior to my sophomore year of college).

4. How do you celebrate birthday for your kids? Family only or friends? … Alternate for those without kiddos: How did you celebrate birthdays as a kid?
So far we’ve done family and close friends for both boys but now that Liam’s been invited to his friends’ birthday parties, we did have a friend party for him this year. Going forward, we plan to do friend parties every other year and then letting him pick one friend on the opposite years to take with him for a special outing. Hopefully we can stick to that.

5. Fave thing about fall?
Everything. It’s my favorite season (though I do enjoy the Christmas season). I love the colors and crunch of leaves. I love the abundance of apples, donuts and pumpkins. Friday night football games, bonfires and hay rides – some of my favorite memories are during fall.

3 Comments

Posted in Five Question Friday

Recipe Sharing: Lentil Barley Stew

Posted on September 22, 2011 | 7 comments

During my junior year of college I was a resident assistant (RA) in one of the dorms. Each Monday night, the RA staff (six of us) and our boss (RD) had dinner in the RD’s apartment and then had our “business” meeting. We all took turns cooking the meals, which actually turned out pretty well for college students who really had no experience in the kitchen. This stew was one of the meals our RD made for is from the “More with Less” cookbook (which I just Googled to find out is indeed a Mennonite recipe collection as I had correctly recalled). It obviously stuck with me since I am still making it over a decade *ahem* later. It is the perfect meal for a cool, fall day; plus it’s vegetarian-, budget- and diet-friendly – those Mennonites are so handy in the kitchen.

Let’s pretend I thought to take a picture of all the ingredients
(missing from the above: butter, celery, onion and carrots).

What you’ll need:
1/4 c. butter or margarine
3/4 c. celery, chopped
1 small yellow or white onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
3/4 c. lentils
6 c. water (or more – see directions)
3/4 c. barley (I used quick barley)
2 14-oz. cans diced tomatoes
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2-1 tsp. rosemary

Here is the missing butter, celery, onion and carrots, happily cooking away.

Directions:
Melt butter in large pot, add onions, celery and carrots and saute for 5 minutes over medium-high heat (until onions go transluscent and start to brown).

Add water and lentils and boil 20 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients and simmer 45-60 minutes. I think because I used quick barley, I needed to add more water and perhaps the cooking time didn’t have to be as long for this bit, just watch your pot and make sure it doesn’t all dry up or you will have a burnt mess. You can add more water without ruining the recipe (I rinsed the tomato cans and added that water and probably another 1.5 cups worth in the end).

Enjoy with some hearty bread!

7 Comments

Posted in Food, Life in general

Lists

Posted on September 21, 2011 | 4 comments

I’ve mentioned a time or two that I like to make lists. Mostly I make them for myself since neither of my kids can read and my husband is an adult who can make his own lists. But with getting everything ready for this past weekend, I needed Simon to run to the store on Friday morning while he was at home with Jack so I started him a grocery list and I added a note for him to pack for Liam since he (Simon) was Liam’s responsible adult for the weekend. Simon added “clean van” for himself. And when I asked him to take a pan of rolls out of the refrigerator for me before I got home, he snottily told me, “Just put it on the list. If it’s on the list, I’ll do it!” Oh really… let’s see. So I added two more things along with taking the rolls out of the fridge.

Because I can be snotty, too. (I also thought I had better be specific, otherwise his buying me flowers at some point in the distant future would fulfill his duty to the list.)

For the record, he forgot to take the rolls out of the fridge.

And while he didn’t buy me flowers on Monday, I did find this when I got home:

Close up on the note:

I’ll give him extra points for flattery, plus he also got me pink and white athletic socks.

The jury’s still out on item #4. As Simon himself said, “I don’t like your chances on that one.”

4 Comments

Posted in Life in general

Our Weekend in Ten Photos*

Posted on September 20, 2011 | 2 comments

Liam spent the weekend at his first Spartan football game, joining the older boys for their annual football weekend – he thought the game was “super!” Ironically, he spent a great deal of time watching the game by lying on the cement underneath the bleachers and playing Angry Birds on Simon’s phone. But despite his lack of interest in the game, he had a great time with the boys!

While Liam was being indoctrinated into the life of a Spartan fan (it’s all heartache, just when you think it’s going to be great), Jack and I hung out with my mom, my SIL Joan and my nephew of the great- variety, Max.

We walked around a local arboretum in the morning. Stopping to feed the fish some bread and get some lovin’.

We also spotted wildlife: some wild turkeys at the entrance (no photo) and a doe and a fawn just waking up for the day much to Max’s great delight since he was asking for deer the whole time we were there. I felt like a magician to be able to point them out to him. He then chased them down the path and would have followed them into the woods had Joan not caught him.

The boys were very interested in a caterpillar we found on the path.

Though Max was more daring and would actually touch it, while Jack preferred to admire it at a safe distance (you can never be too careful; this care for things stops at touching caterpillars since he has no qualms about eating boogers and drinking bath water – two GROSS things he absolutely delights in to my horror.).

Joan and Max took a side trip to the library while mom, Jack and I checked out a local art fair. After naptime we rejoined for more fun (a.k.a., general trouble-making and wrestling by the small crowd).

Sunday we went to church and played outside until the big boys came home. Jack was a little sad to say goodbye to the life of an only child. It was fun while it lasted. He reverted to his usual second-child mentality within minutes of Liam’s return.

And then we spent the next 3.5 hours in the car for the 1-hour trip back home. Nope, nothing’s wrong with my math, it was a LONG trip – finding us traveling 2 miles in 60 minutes. I took the photo below while we were sitting on the highway, going nowhere real fast. There was apparently an accident that resulted in a fatality and we were diverted off the highway.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend, too!

*Smaller photo groupings count as one photo; using that thought, this totally counts as 10 photos.

This post is linked to Oh Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday.

2 Comments

Posted in Life in general, Top Ten Tuesday

Music Monday: Rainy Day Songs

Posted on September 19, 2011 | 2 comments

It’s raining here, which is perfectly fine because the weekend was perfect – my kind of weather (60s-70s and sunny). And though I’d love to be at home, curled up with a blanket and a good book (or, rather, my Kindle), I’m at work. I thought I’d take a quick minute to share some of my favorite rainy day comfort songs before I tackled the day.

Fire and Rain | James Taylor