Vibrant Colors

Vibrant (natural) colors in food signify nutrition, not to mention it just looks good. Todays dinner was full of color, crunch and flavor. Portabello Mushroom Tacos with Salsa Verde were not only pretty, but they were a big hit. They were accompanied by a side of Lighter Refried Beans. I'm always thrilled when J and the boys really enjoy something I've fixed and today was no exception.

I'm not really up for typing out the recipe, but I will tell you what's in it. The ingredients are: portbella mushrooms, sala verde (tomatillos, poblano pepper, garlic, onion, cilantro, agave, salt, pepper) avocado, cabbage, tomatoes and corn tortillas. It's really tasty and simple to make.

Canning Pears

While yesterday was spent on the farm, today was spent in the kitchen canning. I picked a lot of pears. The funny thing is that I don't really care for pears. IJ reminded me of this as I was peeling, cutting and coring the basketful that I had brought home. Know what I told him? "I think I'll like these better because I picked them." I don't know if either one of us believed that, but it sounded good. It took quite awhile, but when I was done I was rewarded with 12 quarts of canned pears. These were canned with no added sugar, just 100% white grape juice. I'll let you know how they turned out.

A Day on the Farm

Today began a bit overcast but soon the sky cleared and the sun warmed up quite nicely. The boys and I headed about 45 minutes outside town to spend the day with my friend Rachel and her children on their 40 acre farm. What an adventure we had. I can't decide what was more fun, so I will not even try. Instead I'll tell you all about it and let you decide.

We arrived later than planned after making an unexpected detour to the dentist this morning. I won't bore you with the details, but luckily the visit didn't last too long. As we headed south and east of the city we watched as city streets gave way to lush green fields. Our first view of the nearly 200 year old farm house and the surrounding beauty brought whispered "wow's" from both IJ and JJ. I had barely stopped the van when we were greeted by the two oldest boys and their dog Patty. The boys had not seen oneanother for quite awhile, nearly a year, and all four were thrilled to be together again. The moms were quickly forgotten as my boys were whisked away to explore the grounds of this haven our dear friends are blessed to call home. Take a look at some of the cool things they saw and did.

Picking muscadine grapes

Checking out the chickens
Riding the zip line

I really thought I didn't have a favorite, but every time I look at this picture I feel joy from head to toe. My boys were having an absolutely awesome time swimming in the pond with the dog and all of the catfish, bass and brim. They were able to catch a couple too.
Earlier in the day they went hunting, bow and arrows in hand, for wild dogs and whatever variety of snake they could find. Luckily they didn't find any dogs and only one snake that they all swore was a copperhead. Yikes! Whatever it was no one was injured, so I was quite happy about that. On the downside, IJ and Rachel's oldest son found themselves on a fire ant hill and came running inside to soak their feet in soothing baking soda water.

My tour of the farm included a garden chock full of wonderful produce. Rachel is such a lovely person and generous beyond belief. We walked through the garden picking tomatoes, squash, banana peppers and muscadines.

After depositing those goodies we grabbed another basket and headed to the orchard to pick apples and pears. The branches of the pear tree were so full they hung to the ground.

The result: I came home with bags of freshly picked produce untouched by pesticides and memories of a day with a great friend.

The View From My Front Steps (10 minutes ago)

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

9 "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you

10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.

11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:

13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,

15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

Saturday Morning at the Farmer's Market

I didn't think to take the camera with us this morning to capture it, but Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market is one of my favorite family outings. I get inspiration from the variety of colors, the diversity of people and the freshness of the food.



Our mission this morning was to find fruit. Currently there are lots of peaches and blackberries, two of our favorites as well as humungous watermelons. While we passed on the blackberries this week, the peaches and melons were a must have.




Inspiration hit me somewhere between the baby bokchoy ($1 for 5) and the chinese eggplant. A few minutes later I had ginger root, bean sprouts and mushrooms. Sunday will be a nice day for stir fried vegetables.

Further inspiration came in a 4oz container of fresh goat cheese with garlic and chives. The mounds of tomatoes had been calling me from the time I stepped from the van and now they had a purpose. Can you see it? Farm fresh tomatoes, goat cheese and basil (straight from my patio garden) all atop a lightly toasted foccacia roll. Lunch was served.



Does summer get any better than this?

I Love To Cook

but from time to time I do need a break. Today I get one. Every Sunday evening we meet with our Life Group for Bible study and dinner. Last nights dinner was baked potatoes and chili. The thoughtful couple who provided the chili often thinks of us. They prepared a pot of delicious vegetarian chili along with the meat chili. There was plenty for us to eat last night and more than enough to bring home for today's dinner. To top it off, the family who provided the baked potatoes insisted that we bring home the leftover potatoes as they had many more at home.

Voila! Monday night dinner is served and my food for the week is stretched another day.

Yummy Roasted Veggies

I have discovered that vegetables I thought I really didn't like are actually among some of my favorites. It all comes down to preparation. Roasting brings out amazing flavor in so many vegetables. Root vegetables, like rutabaga and parsnips become sweeter and more mellow. Brussel sprouts, which I would not touch, are now edible. JJ actually begs for them. Asparagus was another that I avoided because it was always over cooked. I now love it so much that I eat it whenever I can fit it into the budget. Thus the reason for this post.

Yesterday I ran into Harris Teeter and discovered asparagus for $.99 per pound! This was amazing and boy was I glad to have an extra $3 in my pocket. The boys and I quickly scooped up 3 pounds and headed home. The question then became when to have it, and what else to serve. I remembered a head of cauliflower in the fridge and along with seasoned brown basmati rice, today's menu was decided. Cauliflower has always been a favorite of mine, but even more so now that I've discovered this recipe for Oven Roasted Cauliflower with Rosemary and Garlic.

This is so good! The first time I made it I didn't think it would make it to the dinner table because the boys were eating it from the pan like it was popcorn! Definitely give this recipe a try!

Looking for Some Sunshine

I'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been 6 months since I've posted anything here. Writing is not my strong suit, therefore blogging is work! Yet, I just had to share this cute picture I took of JJ this morning. This child loves sunshine and every chance he gets is spent trying to soak it up. Here, he has pulled the coffee table over to the patio door in order to be in the suns path while completing an assignment. I loved watching it, and thought I would share.

So, this got me to thinking about how the Son radiates his love to us all the time. We (I) don't have to look for a ray here or a spot there. The Son shines everywhere, he wants to illuminate all of the dark places in my life. In turn he wants us to be "the light of the world" as he tells us in Matthew 5:14. He doesn't want just any light though. What good is a light that is not lit? Jesus wants us to be lit and on display, bringing light to all those around us. So, let your light shine (5:15-16), you never know who might be looking for some Son shine.

The Vikings Have Landed!

While school officially began 2 weeks ago, today we began inquiring about the first European explorers to see North America. Yes, the vikings. From Norway to Iceland to Greenland and eventually to Vinland (Newfoundland) we mapped the voyages of Erik the Red and his son Leif Erikkson. While Leif seems to have been a good guy, his father and grandfather were quite the hotheads both having been exiled from their homelands for murder. Leif followed in their footsteps, not as a murderer but as one who sought new land to explore and settle. The boys were thrilled with the study of vikings since it led to the construction of weapons. Here you can see them making their very own viking shields.

And of course if you have a shield, you must have a sword. Here they are in battle.

Each with his own shield.

First Day Success

While summer is technically still here, summer vacation is officially over. Yesterday was our first day and we got the year started with a bang. I remember loving the first day of school...new outfit, new backpack, new crayons (I loved the crayola box with the sharpener), new lunch box...and I want my guys to have happy memories too.

We began the day, as usual with chores and breakfast. Chores come first because I am seeking to instill in my guys that if a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat. They have a tangible goal to reach and a time frame to work within. Next was the Pledge of Allegiance, Bible reading, a hymn and prayer. I then spent time with each one discussing our schedule, expectations, goals, behavior, attitude etc...

Next came the fun stuff. As I said, I like to give them something fun to remember. Last year we began with a study of the military, and the first 3 days were spent in boot camp. Well, this year we kicked off with a treasure hunt. I hid a few special items (cute pencils, pencil grippers, small dollar store toy, sports notebook, snack, $5 ChikFil-A gift card) around the apartment. I made up clues for them to follow and sent them on their way. They had a ball. Here they are with their loot.

They were so geared up that by this time they were ready for math drills. There was still extra loot, so for each correct answer they could choose another "prize" (erasers, pencils). Other than a little journaling and letter writing, the boys had not done much composition for awhile, so they each wrote a paragraph about their first day of school. My academic goals for the day included Bible (check), math (check) and writing(check). All of this before lunch!

Speaking of lunch, if you've read this blog before you know that food is very important to me. My kids are also inheriting this trait. First day festivities around here included a meal of their choosing. They had been asking for months to make paninis. IJ bought me a panini press for Christmas that had yet to be used. Why did I wait so long? If you don't know, a panini is really just a grilled cheese sandwich, however there is something about the use of that caste iron weight that makes the bread so absolutely golden and delicious! Take a look. This sandwich was made with roast turkey breast, provolone cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, salad greens and pesto (made with basil from our garden). Yummy!

What would the first day be without a picture of those happy faces, full of anticipation for all the wonderful knowledge to be gained? Here they are.

First day of 4th grade

First day of 2nd grade

If you've had your first "official" day of school for the year I would love to hear about it. I'm praying that all of you homeschoolers will have a great year of guiding and directing your children and that their hearts will be turned toward God.

Is it really?

Is it really the end of July already? Where has the summer gone? I will make no excuses for not blogging. Instead I'll take a line from my friend Stephanie who posted that she has been too busy living life to blog about it.

So, what have we been up to? Well, there's been swimming, summer movies, play dates, gardening, catching tad poles and fish, observing bird eggs until they hatched, a track meet and a weekend in Augusta, GA with J's family. I've done lots of reading and am now trying to get myself geared up for another year of learning and exploring with my guys.One of the nicest parts has been the lack of a schedule. Most of what we've done has been without planning. I've loved it! The best part has been that we've done it all as a family.

Hope your summer has been as good as ours!

No Bragging, Big Brother!

Music lyrics, movie lines, video game strategies and most certainly commercials are all so easily memorized and internalized by our kids. Yet there are some Bible class teachers and children's church leaders who don't give them enough credit for being able to learn and process scripture. They need to play, do crafts, sing and dance. That's just how kids learn. Well, I beg to differ. We are creating another generation of kids with the inability to sit and think without having 5 different things to "stimulate" their senses. When will they learn scripture? When they are teens? Young adults? By then their hearts no longer belong to us and they most certainly do not belong to God because they have no real knowledge of him.

J and I do not rely on others to teach our children scripture. That is our job. Deuteronomy 6 tells us

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Why is this on my mind today? Well, yesterday IJ was doing a bit of bragging about getting something right. JJ recognized it for what it was and called him on it. Did he yell at him or tell him to stop? No, he attempted to read Proverbs 16:18 to his brother.

Pride goes before destruction,a haughty spirit before a fall.

Now it had been at least a month since he read this verse, yet he remembered it and knew how to apply it. My 7 year old did as Paul did to Peter in Galations 2. He confronted him with his clearly wrong behavior, in love. We need to give our children credit for wanting to know what's right and more importantly we need to give God's word credit for convicting them just like it does us.

Happy Birthday JJ!

Today is my baby's birthday. Yes, I know he's seven and technically he is not a baby any more. However, if you are a mother then you understand that he will forever be "my baby". He is learning and growing by leaps and bounds and each day makes me want to hold on to the day before. What happened to my tiny 4lb 14 oz baby? That's about what he weighed when we came home. Well, look at him now!

JJ loves to swim, so he had some friends over today to join him at the pool. It was about 86 degrees, so the weather definately cooperated. After the pool they dined on vegan cupcakes that were absolutely delicious, if I do say so myself. After their sugar fix, they quickly headed back outside for a water balloon fight. Great weather, great friends and an even greater God make for a day to be thankful. I am so greatful for my wonderful little man. Happy Birthday, JJ!

Wild Days in the Animal Kingdom

We have been doing some really interesting things with our unit studies. Science is not my strong point, so I've really been stretched as we've studied animal classification. Thanks to Jessica Hulcy (Konos author) and the other Konos moms for the tips and encouragement. As a side note, Mrs. Jessica was in an awful car accident last week and suffered some very serious injuries, including broken ribs, torn diaphram and punctured lungs. Please be praying for her as the Lord is healing her a little every day. You can visit her Caring Bridge site here.

The character trait we are working on for this unit is orderliness. God has created an orderly universe and it is so evident in all of nature. First let me say that I am not orderly by nature. In fact, keeping entropy (I love this word) at bay is a great challenge for me. God is truly working on me as I work on training my children to tame the clutter that invades our home.

Animal classification has been wild in more ways than one. Oh the stories I can tell. We began our unit with the Tree of Life. I was not at all sure how this would turn out, but have been very happy with the results.

I used a seperate posterboard for each phylum, adding a picture and characteristics (given by the boys) as we studied each one. This worked well because it gave them a quick reference when they went to write about any given phylum. Learning the classification system was fun. I even made up a rap to help them remember Kingdom, Phylum, Class.... Anyone want to hear it? I'll spare you, but they won't ever forget what comes next.

We collected earthworms to observe, and tried to count their segments. The most fun came on a day when we were babysitting my 2 year old god-daughter. She was thrilled beyond belief that she could hold the worms and look at them with the magnifying glass. The following week when she came over she looked at our Tree of Life and pointed to the worms. She wanted to see more!

Things began to get creepy when we tried to combine this unit with lunch. As we were studying mollusks we decided to purchase fresh clams. We observed them, watched them shoot out water when touched, close when they felt threatened, looked at all parts etc... All was fine until I cooked them. They looked great. I prepared them in a garlic and wine sauce and tossed with pasta. Sounds good doesn't it? What we discovered is that you can't eat science projects and that we need our food to be dead before it comes into our home. Just know that we will not be purchasing any more food that has to be killed before eaten. We just couldn't do it. A lot of food went to waste that day.

I would have liked to look at more insects but the boys were not okay with "putting them to sleep". The one thing we have actually mounted on a foam board is a very large crane fly which did not go to sleep without a fight. Seeing this was a bit disturbing, so I put it in another room. We captured several spiders to observe and spray painted a few webs gold so that we could see the intricate designs woven by the spiders.

For the past 4 weeks we have had a painted turtle that the boys named Shelly. They have never had a pet, so we have learned about pet care and turtles at the same time. She is the one critter that is starting to grow on me, although the plan is to return her to the pond from which she came.

Although we were done with this unit, no one bothered to tell the critters. Since this little green guy saw fit to make his way onto our patio I figured the least we could do was take a picture of him. Isn't he cute?

So, now lets see. We've caught toads, frogs, turtles, slugs, worms, spiders, various insects, lizards, birds (shells at least), and clams. I think we've had a well rounded animal kingdom experience. Are we more orderly for our observations? The jury is still out on that one. I'll have to ask J when he gets home.

The perfect way to end this unit was with a trip to the zoo. I'll share the pics from that trip in the next post.

Our Story

Just yesterday I was reading Mama Jenn's blog where she told how she and her hubby met. What a great idea and amazing timing since today is our anniversary.

The story begins on May 2, 1992 on a Big Ten campus somewhere in the Midwest. Saturday night a couple of weeks before finals is not a pretty sight. Most people are in sweat clothes, no one bothers to wear make-up and I have no idea if I had combed my hair that day or not. One of my sorority sisters begged me to go with her to visit this guy she was dating. She didn't want to go alone because he would be with a bunch of his frat brothers. I reluctantly agreed and off we went.

When we walked through the door of the apartment there were quite a few guys, many of whom we knew, but some we did not. The first one to speak was my handsome honey J. He said, "hey I'm one of those Q-dogs" (his fraternity). I said "so, I'm one of those Zetas" (my sorority) and walked away to sit down. He followed me and we ended up talking all night. By all night I mean until nearly 3am! I was pretty much hooked at that point but didn't really know how not to show it. I really liked the guy. The tough part was that he didn't go to the same school. He was just visiting from a school 45 minutes away. Luckily he had a car so he was able to visit often. Phone bills were crazy high, since this was before unlimited long distance.

That summer he went back home to work while I went to summer school. Home was 2 hours away but he still came to visit most weekends. We had lots of mutual friends and things were good. We dated long distance for 2 years. I graduated in December of 1993 and moved back home to begin my job as a youth counselor at a correctional facility. He graduated the next semester in May 1994 and moved to the same city.

By this point I'm thinking it's time to get married, but J is not one to be rushed. We actually broke up for a few weeks late in the year, but got back together in November. J proposed on December 30 and we married the following year, May 27, 1995.

Now, here we are 14 years later. When I think back over those first 3 years of our relationship I know that God was looking out for me when I was too unaware to look out for myself. He had plans for me when I couldn't see past the moment at hand. He has given me a good man to spend my life with and I am so thankful for him.
Happy Anniversary Honey!

He's a Winner!

My handsome honey is a winner and I'm a witness. Last Saturday we drove 2 1/2 hours so he could participate in the USA Track & Field Masters SE Regional Meet. He ran 800M in an impressive 2:12. Here he is before the race.


To the right is him just before the finish. IJ took this great picture.
Would you believe that I have no pictures of him with his medal? Not sure how that happened, but here he is after the race with the boys. We are so proud of his accomplishment.

Garden Update

A couple of weeks ago I shared the beginnings of our patio garden. My mom, the green thumb of the family, has made this a project for the boys. Because we live in an apartment, everything is planted in pots and an upside down patio garden. This is just a quick update to show how things are going.

The organic salad greens are beautiful. I love these because they grow quickly and require nothing more than water and sunshine. It has been 3 weeks since the seeds were planted and I'm expecting 1-2 more until we have our first homegrown salad of the season.
The tomato plants are growing nicely. Aside from the slugs who keep eating the leaves, the plants seem to be quite healthy and strong.
I missed getting a picture of the basil and rosemary, but they are growing well also. I used the basil in my roasted vegetable pasta salad a few days ago. The leaves were large, beautiful and full of flavor. The slugs seem to agree, as they are dining on this plant as well. As for the squash, well it's not going to happen this year. One of the boys (I won't say who) thought it was dead, so he pulled the plant out. We will have to try that one again next year.

To the right are the green bean plants. The picture does not capture it, but I love how the vines are wrapping themselves around the stands. Seems they know how to stabilize themselves without any help from us. The lemon balm is growing like a weed. I need to pick some for a nice cup of tea. So far it has not attracted the bees like I expected and I am so glad for that. I'll share more when we pick the salad greens.