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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. -Proverbs 1:7

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost you all you have, get understanding.-Proverbs 4:7


Friday, March 22, 2013

Stop the Music.



Baby Girl got a job.  This means she'll be able to pay for her learner's permit.  What?

Don't tell her, but I didn't really think she'd get hired from her first interview.  She's not even 16 yet.

I'm happy about it.  Really, I am.  But, the whole thing kind of makes me feel old.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

JRNE


I like to make myself comfortable in restaurants?  Meh.  Everyone else looks normal.  I like it.

Justified
Righteous
Neighbors
Empowered

Monday, March 11, 2013

"Weird Salad Night"

AKA "Clean Out the Fridge Before Trash Day Night"...or maybe some people just say "Leftovers Night" and leave it at that?


Saturday, March 9, 2013

Date Night

This is me.  I'm wearing my Kate Spades and trying to make fun of Alicia (who takes millions of pictures of herself while making weird faces).
 
She says I'm not doing the lip thing right.  Hmmm.
 
What you should know is under the Spades I'm wearing various eye shadow colors with names like  "snakebite", "suspect" and "half-baked".  This promises to be an interesting night?  Because my child talked me into it by telling me "those warm colors will bring out the brown in your eyes".  Let it be known it's the only makeup advice I took today.  One step at a time, y'know?
 
Let it also be known my hair is not orange.  It's actually the same color as my eyebrowns.
 
Clearly, it's a bright and sunny afternoon out there.
 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Around Here...

Just some random bits from the last couple of days...

It's a given we've been eating (a lot) right?


Black Bean/Sweet Potato/Spinach Quesadillas (minus the cheese...can it be a quesadilla without cheese?)


My current favorite dinner.  Asparagus/Chickpeas/Quinoa


Muffins for the kids


Cabbage and Carrots ("fried"...actually simmered until tender in vegetable broth).  Alicia loves cabbage.


I have a thing for pureed soups.  Brocolli/Spinach/Potato Soup with Pita Chips (because pita chips are good with anything)  It tastes way better than it looks. 


Here's a funny thing: It's cheaper to buy a sprouting lid with the jar than it is to just buy the lid...which meant I bought the whole contraption.  And now I can't get the sticker off.  I sort of miscalculated how many mung beans I should sprout and ended up with A LOT of them.  Ummm...

Stir Fried Mung Sprouts with Soy Sauce and Sriracha.  This was surprisingly delicious.



The first half of my books showed up.  I've signed up for 9 hours of Doctoral work that start soon and will end about the same time school lets out.  I'd prefer to be crazy like this during the summer, but the school's schedule doesn't really work out like that.


I sewed a dress yesterday.  And I like it.   A lot.  Despite the fact the only fabric I had wasn't what I would have chosen (but it works).  I only had 2.5 yards and really needed 2.75 (+ more for matching the print).  It took some brainwork, but I worked it out. 

The whole thing is done except for the bodice facing and inserting the invisible zipper.  I'm thinking about that...because here's the deal:  My school is having a "Biggest Loser" contest and I'm in.  I can be pretty competitive...right now, I'm planning on winning.  Which means the girls will be lost in this dress by the time June rolls up.  Hmm...decisions, decisions...finish it now and wear it until it's too big or hold off and adjust it when it's summer?

Or, I could just call this pattern my "dress of the year" and make another half dozen of them to carry me through the summer when summer gets here.  :-)


It's that time...72 seeds have been started.  Heirloom tomatoes (5 kinds), Swiss chard, peppers, Brussel's sprouts and basil.

Here's what you should know about me and my garden:  I pretty much grow it to feed the wildlife.  Not intentionally, it's just what happens.  Right when I was getting my seeds together, look what wandered up in my backyard:


I'd like to say this was an isolated event.  It's a daily event.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Fresh Bread


Fresh bread comes with two positives:

1.  Nobody complains about what I cook when I serve it with hot bread.  If I had time, I'd make it every night.

2.  My arms get a good workout during the kneading process.


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Game Night


How weird is it we've had this game for 2 years and the whole time it has been sitting in the living room still in its plastic?

Turns out...we like this game a lot.

Who knew?

Monday, March 4, 2013

Power Breakfast


Steel cut oatmeal with bananas, blueberries, walnuts, hemp hearts and a little bit of dark brown sugar

Trying a new thing...we'll see how long it lasts.   Because I'm not a morning person.  At all.

But, if I get up at 4ish (in the morning, duh), I can make a killer bowl of oatmeal. 

Steel Cut is the way to go if you have an extra 40 minutes to spare.

Sunday, March 3, 2013


Mostly for my friend who thinks vegan food = tasteless sticks and stuff.

If nothing else has convinced you...from Great Sage :

FLOURLESS MIDNIGHT CAKE
Dense, rich chocolate cake layered with raspberry mousse
topped with chocolate ganache (Gluten free, nut free)

We ordered one piece to share.  It was so rich, we only ate half of it.
Had to bring the other half home for later.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

T-1D

Ryan's Gift

Getting ready to go to dinner soon...
 
1.  It's really, really hard to fit 20 years into a single book.  As it is, this is bursting at the seams after I left a million things out.
 
2.  I discovered it's difficult to locate the line between "us" and "the family".  In the end, it's a mix of both.
 
3.  These are not all the pages, just some of them. 
 
4.  This project took longer than I thought.  Been working on it for awhile.  It's not finished.  The pictures and stuff are in, but it still needs the journaling part.  I'm out of time, so that will have to come later.  Pretty sure he'll think it's finished until I tell him it's not.
 
5.  20 years.  Where did they go?

 

It's probably a given we have a cheesy song?


Is it weird there's a picture of me and some other guy on the first real page?  Don't worry.  It makes sense.  Pretty sure Ryan was behind the camera.  This was the night before we left for Oklahoma City from Biloxi.  We weren't dating.  (I wasn't dating the guy in this picture, either.)  Who knew we'd be married a couple of weeks later?


A whole bunch of cool stuff I found that I didn't really even know I had kept.  Hotel receipt from our trip from MS to OK...ring receipt, journal pages, the calendar from his day planner...


The early days...I lived in Oklahoma City and he lived in Anchorage for most of the first year.  I keep trying to imagine that without e-mail and texting and unlimited long distance plans.  Because, none of that existed.  We used to talk for 1 hour every Saturday night.  That's all we could afford.  The whole thing pretty much sucked.





Sigh...AWACS.  Who knew the entire direction of our lives would be determined by a jet?


That picture was taken probably a week or two after we got married.  What kind of people don't take pictures on the actual day they get married?  Us.  The rest are pictures of Alaska.  Who leaves a place as beautiful as that?  Us.  Sigh...  The right side is in Ninilchik...possibly my favorite place on earth.

I was trying to present all the pictures/memorabilia/etc.. in chronological order.  It didn't exactly happen that way.  This project sort of got on top of me and became an organizational challenge.  While the front is in order, the back (mostly after kids) is not.  He won't notice.



Being able to apply stickers in a straight line is not something I've mastered...He won't notice.  :-)



He's going to love this gift.  Pretty sure of that.  :-)