Jumbled Up V
Happy hump day, all! I logged in to blogger today and said to myself, "It has been over a week since I posted?? It feels like I wrote that last post just yesterday."
So much for me having oodles of blogging time after finishing work!
Let's do some jumbling up.
*****
The most exciting activity of the weekend was the older girls' dance recital. It was a thrilling event for them, despite a few mishaps. Their teacher had a last-minute medical complication (she's pregnant with twins!) that prevented her from being there. There were other teachers that took over and ran the show, but since N and L's teacher is sort of the CEO of the program, things were a bit hairy without her. But we still had a blast!
Good times with those guys. Such lucky little girls!
****
Over the weekend M and I watched the PBS special from Nova called "D-Day's Sunken Secrets". I found it really fascinating. It was pretty cool that we happened upon it and started watching it on the actual 70th anniversary of D-Day (June 6). It always blows my mind to think about the kind of bravery required to face that kind of a combat challenge at 18 years of age (as most of those young men were). It also made me wonder about the parents of that generation, and how they raised their children to have such courage and sense of duty. If I can even come close to raising children like that, I will be proud.
Equally mind-blowing, I thought, was the second-to-last episode of Cosmos. Did you watch it? Sort of along the lines of An Inconvenient Truth, but really eloquently done in terms of drawing scientific conclusions and comparisons, while at the same time remaining hopeful and leaving you with that sense of wonder. It's worth your time to watch, even if you're not a fan of the show in general.
****
While I'm making recommendations, I have to write down a few recipes here that we've had this week, because we really hit on some winners. I think I'll even include them in my recipe index for easy finding in the future, since I'm hoping they will come across our table many times this summer.
1) BLT Chopped Salad... Deliciously light and zingy, doesn't heat the oven so it's great for summer, contains ingredients my kids like, and it's cheap to free if you use garden produce. Win!
2) Hasselback Zucchini... I actually went out to the garden store today and bought a basil plant to squeeze into a corner of our garden, just so that I will have plenty of fresh basil on hand and I can make TONS of this when our three zucchini plants start to produce. (They are growing and spreading and starting to flower and in general just looking like they are gearing up to vomit tons of zucchini into our faces. It's amazing how fast those things grow. Pictures soon.)
3) This one is pretty much Elise's recipe, but I've changed it enough so that I'll just record it real quick right here so I can remember what I did. MAJOR win in the kids department. I made two loaves and they disappeared in a single day, with me only having two slices. So I didn't even get a picture of it. But we'll be making it again soon.
If you're expecting the normal sugary sweetness of banana bread, this won't be the same, but it's super moist and still very delicious. We've been eating it with peanut butter or cream cheese for breakfast. Yum.
So much for me having oodles of blogging time after finishing work!
Let's do some jumbling up.
*****
The most exciting activity of the weekend was the older girls' dance recital. It was a thrilling event for them, despite a few mishaps. Their teacher had a last-minute medical complication (she's pregnant with twins!) that prevented her from being there. There were other teachers that took over and ran the show, but since N and L's teacher is sort of the CEO of the program, things were a bit hairy without her. But we still had a blast!
 |
| Before |
 |
| After: medals, flowers from Daddy (pie in the sky!), and a completely wiped-out L |
M and I had to split up because there was a retirement celebration at our church in Boston for a much-beloved teacher, mentor and friend of ours. If there was ever a day when I wish I could have cloned myself, this would have been it. Don't you hate conflicts like that? But I'm glad at least one of us got to attend church and "represent"... and M was able to swoop in and catch the last half of the recital. It was a bit exhausting for me to fly solo and get everyone dressed and hair-did and made-up and onstage on time, while managing C and keeping her occupied for a 3-hour extravaganza of dance during what is normally her nap time, but we did it. The girls were all really great, C was an angel, and we enjoyed the performance, and then ordered pizza afterwards and crashed. Good times.
****
Since I've been done with work, I've had a bit more time for home management, and during M's vacation week after Memorial Day we did a bit of a spring clean (which really meant just basic house cleaning that we haven't been able to do pretty much since September). Our new vacuum cleaner purchase helped us out with this, of course.
I think both M and I had sort of reached a boiling point in terms of always having at least one really messy room in the house. So after the entire house was clean, we've both been on the girls' case about keeping it that way. Without the distraction of work, I'm finding I'm building in the extra 15 minutes to pick up before we go somewhere or move on to the next activity, and the girls are helping a lot more too, mainly because we're doing it every day, and they're getting familiar with the routine of it and remembering where things go. Let's hope it sticks.
We've had some funny/saucy moments from the girls about it, too, and I just had to share the ones that have given me a chuckle:
N came in off the bus the other day and tossed her backpack on the floor. I reminded her to pick it up and hang it on the hook in her room. She replied, "Don't worry, Mama, the maids will do it."
One day, I had instructed the bigger girls to clean up the porch while I went inside to help C with the potty. When I came back out, they were cleaning up, but L said to me, "Mama, N and I decided that, instead of cleaning up, we would just... burst into song!"
Also unrelated to cleaning up, but I have to include this quote from C... my peonies that I mentioned in my last jumbled up post are really opening up this week. They're so beautiful! I don't currently have a pic but I'll share one soon. Every time we go outside C says with rapture, "Oh! Your panties are growing, Mama!!"
****
Found this fun video of the girls climbing some stairs during our weekend in PA.
Good times with those guys. Such lucky little girls!
****
Over the weekend M and I watched the PBS special from Nova called "D-Day's Sunken Secrets". I found it really fascinating. It was pretty cool that we happened upon it and started watching it on the actual 70th anniversary of D-Day (June 6). It always blows my mind to think about the kind of bravery required to face that kind of a combat challenge at 18 years of age (as most of those young men were). It also made me wonder about the parents of that generation, and how they raised their children to have such courage and sense of duty. If I can even come close to raising children like that, I will be proud.
Equally mind-blowing, I thought, was the second-to-last episode of Cosmos. Did you watch it? Sort of along the lines of An Inconvenient Truth, but really eloquently done in terms of drawing scientific conclusions and comparisons, while at the same time remaining hopeful and leaving you with that sense of wonder. It's worth your time to watch, even if you're not a fan of the show in general.
****
While I'm making recommendations, I have to write down a few recipes here that we've had this week, because we really hit on some winners. I think I'll even include them in my recipe index for easy finding in the future, since I'm hoping they will come across our table many times this summer.
1) BLT Chopped Salad... Deliciously light and zingy, doesn't heat the oven so it's great for summer, contains ingredients my kids like, and it's cheap to free if you use garden produce. Win!
2) Hasselback Zucchini... I actually went out to the garden store today and bought a basil plant to squeeze into a corner of our garden, just so that I will have plenty of fresh basil on hand and I can make TONS of this when our three zucchini plants start to produce. (They are growing and spreading and starting to flower and in general just looking like they are gearing up to vomit tons of zucchini into our faces. It's amazing how fast those things grow. Pictures soon.)
3) This one is pretty much Elise's recipe, but I've changed it enough so that I'll just record it real quick right here so I can remember what I did. MAJOR win in the kids department. I made two loaves and they disappeared in a single day, with me only having two slices. So I didn't even get a picture of it. But we'll be making it again soon.
If you're expecting the normal sugary sweetness of banana bread, this won't be the same, but it's super moist and still very delicious. We've been eating it with peanut butter or cream cheese for breakfast. Yum.
Blender Banana Bread (sugar free, gluten free)
1/4 cup coconut oil
3 very ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 handful of spinach (about 1 cup)*
1 T vanilla
1 1/4 cup your choice of GF flour (we've used millet flour, rice flour, buckwheat flour, oat flour... take your pick)**
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 T chia seeds (optional, or use flaxseed if you got it)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
*This is an optional ingredient. I'm also interested to try zucchini (vomit away, zucchini plant) but spinach was what I had at the time, so... yeah.
**I might try subbing some flaxseed meal (hello, Omega-3s and fiber!!) for some of the flour in future. I'll let you know if it turns out.
Combine the first 5 ingredients in a blender and blend for about 1 minute until the bananas are well whipped. Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender and pulse until well combined. (Scrape down the sides of the blender with a spatula if needed to mix the flour well.) Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes at 350.
****
We found some of our favorite Skippyjon Jones books at the library with audio CDs included, and they're read by the author. The girls have LOVED them. I've been finding them at random times in their rooms just listening to the stories together (they have M's old CD player in their room... loving that.)
It brings back memories of me listening to my old Little Golden Books with accompanying records that I would play on my old Fischer Price record player, usually with my sister. Such great times! I need to encourage more of this. We'll definitely be checking out the book with audio section of the library more often.
That's all I got. Sweet dreams, everyone!
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