Happy Halloween

For the first time in 16 years, I didn't go out with them.  They are officially old enough to go out on their own. 

3 Necessities to Survive Hurricane Days

 

Random Knitting Projects:

Anything will do.  Just find whatever yarn you have and go to town.  If your kids used up all the ink printing out useless things, no worries...hand copy your pattern from Ravelry before the power goes out.  Tell yourself it's going to be a Christmas gift.  P.S.  It's more fun to start something new instead of picking up and working on what was supposed to be a gift from some other snow day.  If you can only find 4 needles (when you know it would be way better to have all 5 in terms of counting), no worries.  You will have plenty of time to frog.

 

Plenty of Carbs:

You can start out all fancy with vegan pumpkin bread.  Sometime, though, after you've eaten your stash of Halloween candy (Didn't Reese's Peanut Butter Cups used to taste much better?), your body is probably going to threaten a sugar-induced coma.  Should that occur, find a teenaged girl and mention how wonderful hashbrowns would be for lunch.  If she makes fried potatoes and onions instead?  No worries.  It's all good.  Everything tastes better when someone else cooks it.

Assorted Animal Costumes:

Because the reality is your pets are extremely happy you have decided not to go to work/school.  Why not make them even happier by spending some quality time with them?

Mid-Week Update

Was just going to make one update for the whole week, because I'm trying to have a quiet week.  Quiet = Not having a million obligations after I get off work.  In theory, I was just going to lounge about the house and be peaceful and hang out with God and all that good stuff.  It's going o.k.  I called off most of my regularly scheduled events this week.  It's sort of weird to be home.  At any rate, I realized it is easier to not wait a whole week to post about the minutia of my life.  And my grandma won't have to tell me I'm behind on my blog.

 

 

For the record, there are maybe 4 people who read this regularly; my grandma, the librarian from my school who retired (Please e-mail me...I lost your number.), my princess friend and my girl E.  They seem to be cool with my rambly life.  But...I probably shouldn't push it and put a week's worth in one post, right?

 

Sunday

So I bought this stalk of Brussel's sprouts, because I was pretty sure my kids had never seen how they grow.  I was right.

 

What I didn't think about was how many sprouts were actually on there.  Umm...a lot?

I roasted them and served them with red quinoa and a pumpkin soup I sort of made up.  In my opinion, the soup needed some help, but Alicia said it was good.  I probably shouldn't push my luck with that.

Monday

Like it really needs saying, but we eat a lot around here.  ;-)

A salad made with the leftover quinoa, corn, avocado, pinto beans, red onion, red bell pepper, grape tomatoes, cumin, lime juice and salt.  No measurements or anything.  Just threw some stuff in a bowl and stirred it up.  Easy peasy.  You can do it too.

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins- Ha.  I forgot to put the oil in.  Because people were probably talking to me or something.  Turns out...the oil wasn't even needed.  I haven't really mastered vegan baking and stuff is pretty much always a surprise when it comes out of the oven.  And that doesn't always mean "good" surprises.  I was going to link to the recipe, but I'd have to look for it.  I am surely making these again, so I'll link to it next time.

Tuesday

The last cross country meet of the year. 

Thinking about the holidays.  I always get some crazy idea I might make some gifts or something.  This is the year, people...this is the year.  I already have 3 ideas. :-)

Chickpeas ad asparagus with a (no lettuce) salad.  Have I ever mentioned I decided I like nutritional yeast?  Who knew? 

Wednesday

Playing around with yarn.  Mostly checking to see if I could remember how to knit.  I've only knitted (or is it just 'knit'?) one thing in all my life...a pair of socks.  I taught myself off the internet and I'm pretty sure you'd laugh at my form.  No worries, because I don't care about my form.  ;-)  The project I picked is a simple pattern, but still...better safe than sorry before I order yarn, right?  Turns out, I remembered how to do it.

Alicia wanted to make cupcakes for her small group.  Which translates into "she bakes them and then leaves them for me to decorate".  I refused to go to the store, so scrounged around and came up with this.  (Not vegan...baby steps, you know.)

Dinner was a baked sweet potato with spicy black beans and avocado.

I have a friend who journals a lot.  Before I met her, I had started the green journal.  It's not that I've never journaled before, it's just mostly a habit I'd only play with for a few days and then forget about.  I think maybe she inspired me or something.  Now, granted, it took over a year to fill the green one (it isn't even that big and the last few pages are unused), but it's surely the first time I've ever filled a whole notebook with day to day entries.

Then there is a gap of time not represented here.  I think, all about the house, are a few journals I started (I had to keep starting anew...I'm weird like that.), but who knows where they are?  The orange one?  It only took 3 months.  Granted there are about 5 empty pages, but I'm moving on to the next one.  For personal reasons, lol.

What else can I say about this?

Well...

I was reading through the green one and noticed a really cool kind of thing I didn't realize about me before?  A theme of sorts that's also present in the orange one.  Unintentionally there.  Which is kind of awesome?  For this reason, I think you should start journaling.  ;-)

I also feel inclined to tell you I'm a paper snob.  I'm (disturbingly?) picky about the paper I write on.  I don't know how this happened.  I wasn't raised like that or anything.  This whole journaling thing...there is no way I could deal with journals of varying sizes and whatnot.  No way.  It would keep me awake at night thinking about the mismatchedness of the whole thing.  For real.  Which is why I am uber-thankful for Moleskine journals.  The paper is perfect and all my journals are the same.  Which is more than kind of awesome?  ;-)

Don't Nobody Do it Like Damascus...

This is maybe going to make my friend Betty sad.  Because she moved away to Florida and pretty sure she misses this.

(My camera doesn't like it too bright and doesn't like it too dark...it is what it is...)

Homecoming in Damascus:

Hey.  I've ridden in the back of this truck.  :-)  That's my pastor driving...

I had this little moment of "Wait.  2015?  2015 is in 2.5 years."  Don't sometimes things just hit you?  Girlie is graduating in 2.5 years. 

Sophomore (Alicia's class) float.  The themes were "countries".  They got Japan.

 

Seniors got "USA".   

Damascus football is like how small town football used to be.  The whole town stops.  EVERYONE is there.  If you weren't there, you don't admit it.  Lest you get looked down upon.  ;-)

It was cold out there.  Don't let this picture fool you.

My favorite part of any Hornets game is the drum line.  I can't ever get good video even though I try every time.  My camera is just not a fan of darkness.  And for some reason it likes to add a purple line when there is any bright light.  But, you get the idea.

Good Mail

Look what finally showed up.  I was wondering if I'd actually get a piece of paper.

Surely, nobody ever took as long as me (6.5 years) on something like this.  It was a complicated situation.  Complicated by the fact I lost interest.

Finishing it was supposed to be the highlight of my summer.  It wasn't.

Still, I guess I'm glad for the paper?  It's weird they put my whole middle name on there.

Isn't this one of those occasions where somebody is supposed to take me out to dinner or something?

Or should I just settle for my current snack addiction?  By all appearances, all of the major food groups are covered.

Last night's dinner (posted today, because someone was hogging up the computer working on some boring math project for half of the night, last night): Roasted Butternut Squash with almond/walnut "cheese", Green Beans and Vegetables with Raspberry Vinegarette.

Knowing Jesus is like having all the candy you can eat.

How is that for a simile?  Metaphor sounds better.  I recently corrected someone on saying metaphor instead of simile, but then discovered all similes are metaphors.  So, I don't know...I'm not an English teacher or anything.

The weekend recap (backwards) for my Gram... :-)

 
Candy night at FUSE!

Some game.  Pretty sure I could have taken the championship on this, but it IS youth group and I can't take the championship with everything EVERY week.  I decided to sit this one out.  Still content with being the reigning arm wrestling champion for the girls.  ;-)



We have the best worship team.  For real.  Should get them on Sunday morning..when it isn't dark and they are all there...ahh...so awesome.  I love my church.

Last Night...Trip to this corn maze.  I was the driver.  Duh?  Photographer called shotgun.  Total of 6 teenagers (and me) in the car.   Not going to say anything more about this experience.  Too incriminating.

Sam getting attacked by some corn or something.

 

Guess who didn't understand how a corn maze works.  Who knew you are supposed to follow a map to find checkpoints in the pitch black via the light of your cell phone?  Sam has mad corn maze skills.  Seriously.  I'd still be in there wandering around.  Good thing it takes 90 days to starve to death?

They had "Pumpkin Chucking." 

Eating and Eating and Eating...

Tonight:

This recipe . Enough for 4 instead of 2.  Not because I was under any illusion my kids would be all over it, but because maybe I'm going to want lunch tomorrow.

Her plates are prettier than mine and I used pencil thin asparagus (because I'm a sucker for that) which makes mine look a little less substantial.  She must use some other kind of quinoa, because hers is really dark.  I used the "Everyday Seasoning" from one of those Trader Joe's grinders instead of Herbamare (because I don't know what Herbamare is?).  All of that said...so delicious.  Like "my new favorite dinner" delicious. 

Pretty sure there's going to be a fight over who gets the leftovers for their lunch tomorrow.

Happy Fall, Y'all?

Fall started last week.  I am aware.  ;-)  I'm just now getting to it.  Because that's how I roll.

Lazy day...but at least I cooked dinner?  Kale salad and baked sweet potatoes.  Truthfully, I don't like kale.  But, Ryan loves it.  I decided to try this salad.  Turns out, I can eat kale this way.  This salad is awesome.  For kale.   I left out the goji berries.  Because, while we have some and I kind of like them, I have to draw the line somewhere regarding weird things in my salad.  Oh, and the hemp seeds.  We don't have any.  I added celery.  Because I must have been out of my mind last time I bought it.  Who buys a dozen celeries at a time anyway?  Umm...me.  Evidently.  I think I was going to juice it or something.

At this point, I feel the need to enter into the real world.  The world where my kids are pretty sure I'm trying to poison them.  On. A. Daily. Basis.  They are loudly pretty sure.  "Kale salad again???"  Because, you know...I'm always making kale salad.  Not.  Remember...I don't even like kale. 

Pretty sure my grandma thinks I'm trying to poison them, too.

At any rate, I tricked them into tasting the kale with strategic placement of pasta and chicken.  With sauce.  Vegan, organic sauce.  But, I didn't tell them that.  Because then I would have had to hear "Vegan?  Again?  Organic?  Why can't you just be normal?"

Sigh...I've never been normal.  Why is this still a question?