Catching up, plus a recipe

This post began about five weeks ago as quick takes.  I've been meaning to publish it every Friday since, and slowly adding to it, but since I've only managed three takes, I'll just publish this now as an "updates" post rather than making you wait much much longer until I get to seven takes!

Welp, if there's anyone out there still reading this blog, hello to you.  It has been a busy, wonderful summer so far here in the Sugar and Spice household and I'm hoping to record some of it for posterity here.

Perhaps the biggest news is that I went on a European tour with my professional choir.  It's hard to find the words to describe how amazing it was in so many different ways.  I surely missed my girls and M, but at the same time it was really great to have a getaway from life.  Really, really great, actually.  I'm celebrating my 10th anniversary as a Mama this year (and N's 10th birthday of course... can you believe it?) and an all-expenses-paid European tour was the most wonderful celebration I could have asked for myself!  It was an amazing week of hanging out with the wonderful people in this choir, making new friends, seeing the beautiful sights of Venice, Vienna, and Prague, lots of walking, eating amazing food, seeing places where some of the most famous musicians lived and worked, and singing beautiful music.  The time away really clarified a few things for me about my own identity and calling, my current level of burnout, and what I want to focus on in the future.  More on that in another take!  The girls back home had a grand old time with Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, and I was able to see their smiles on FaceTime so I was able to have good reassurance and didn't feel any guilt at all about being away.  I could go into so much more detail, but for the sake of brevity I'll just share some of my most favorite pictures.

Amazing, I tell you.  Have I used that word enough yet?

In other much less wonderful news, head lice has made a comeback at our house this summer.  The last six weeks or so have been an endless mind-numbing cycle of head-checking, nit-picking, vacuuming, bed changing and washing, and mattress vacuuming.  That's probably the main reason that blogging has been so scarce... all my free time has been taken up with such activities.  *Sigh*

When I last blogged about our previous lice experience (BTW... the pictures in that post... sooooo adorable!!!) I mentioned that N has "the most hair follicles of any human being on the planet" and... welp, that's still true.  Lice on N are nearly impossible to eradicate through our own efforts, because when you're looking for teensy tiny eggs and baby bugs the size of the period at the end of this sentence in a head with so much hair, there's just no way you can find them all, especially when they're the same exact color as her hair.  What I didn't mention in the linked post was that we worked for about four months during that kindergarten lice episode, checking her almost every single day for multiple hours, vacuuming, washing, etc. and we were never able to get rid of them until our pediatrician prescribed what we called "the cancer shampoo".  Basically it was a super super strong pesticide AND ovicide and she had to wear it on her head overnight and we had to sign a waiver and keep her away from heat and flame for a few days afterwards.  But we had to do it, because nothing else worked.

So, when I first made the discovery of lice back in early June this year, I took her to one of those lice salons that I had heard good things about.  They're expensive but I knew that, given our last experience, we needed to jump straight to professional help.  They gave her the treatment and, $225 later, we left the salon "lice free".

And what do you know... two weeks later, those critters were back.

Anyway, we went through all of the same stuff to try to get rid of them on our own-- you know, the aforementioned vacuuming, washing, nit-picking etc.  We were definitely winning, but we never could seem to get a completely clean head check.  We would always find at least a few eggs and usually a live bug or two.

So off to the pediatrician we went, and he (in his usual wonderful, gentle way) sympathetically listened while N told the whole sad story, and then prescribed an antibiotic that is toxic to head lice but harmless to N.  So that happened, much to everyone's relief.

We just finished the course of antibiotic and after two checks we haven't found an egg or a bug!  TBH, I'm still holding my breath.  I don't think I'll feel like we're fully over it until it's been a couple of months bug-free.  The antibiotic was a little hard on N, too... it gave her quite the tummy ache.

Anyway, the reason I rambled through that whole big long story is that, as I said in my last post, I do really have the most patient wonderful daughter in N.  She endured all the hours and hours of head checks quite cheerfully, and one of her biggest concerns was that she might accidentally "infect" a friend or loved one.  Only towards the very end did she start to express frustration, and despite literally gagging multiple times on the antibiotic that, admittedly, smelled (and I'm sure tasted) absolutely disgusting, she took every single dose like a trooper.

And of course M was so very helpful and patient too, willingly sacrificing his time to do the lengthy head checks, helping with the laundry, etc.  I kept feeling thankful that this happened during the summer when he was home to help.

Soooooo.... hopefully we're out of the woods, but I'm not going to jinx anything.  I'll probably be back to vent some more if not!!

Lastly, I'd like to share a recipe that we're loving lately... since we have confirmed dairy allergies in the family (did I ever blog about that?) we are ever in search of tasty vegan dishes.  This one has been on repeat and has become one of our favorites-- it's definitely as good as our older creamy broccoli soup recipe, if not even better!

This is basically Elise's recipe, with a few minor tweaks.

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan butter or olive oil

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder (or more to taste)

16 oz broccoli (we use frozen organic broccoli)

1 can of white beans (or about 1 3/4 cups of cooked beans-- you can use navy beans, cannellini, great northern beans, I have even used pinto beans)

4 cups veggie broth

1/2 cup nutritional yeast (we use this)

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1) Before you begin cooking, pour hot water over the raw cashews (enough to cover) in a bowl, and set them aside to soak.

2) Melt the Earth Balance butter (or heat the olive oil) over medium heat in a large pot, then stir in the garlic powder.  Add the broccoli and turn up the heat a bit.  Stir frequently until the broccoli begins to brown slightly.

3) Add the veggie broth and beans, stirring to combine, and then turn heat back to medium.  If you're using raw broccoli, simmer for 5-10 more minutes until the broccoli is soft.  If you're using pre-steamed frozen broccoli, the broccoli should already be pretty well cooked at this point so you can move on to the next step!

4) Puree the soup in your blender in batches, or use an immersion blender if you have one.  Return the soup to the pot and add the nutritional yeast, a couple of tablespoons at a time, stirring to fully incorporate the yeast after each addition.

5) Drain your soaking cashews, then place in a blender (or use your Ninja's smoothie cup attachment).  Add the 1/2 cup water and 1/2 salt.

6) Puree the cashew/water mixture until it resembles heavy cream:

7) Add the cashew cream to your soup and stir until combined.  Now you're ready to serve!  We love it with oyster crackers or toast, alongside a green salad.

That's it for now!  Hopefully I'll be back soon to talk more about the many more exciting things and family updates that need blogging.  Ta ta!