Sunny Saturday Morning

Well, we got up for our first Saturday of the year where it was warm enough to drink coffee on the front porch and take in the morning sounds and sights. Gracie woke us up about 7:40 which isn't bad for her or us. She has graced us with her presence and desire for fellowship as early as 5:40 so we were pleased to greet the day a good two hours later.


Gracie enjoys a cup of chocolate milk while we drink our coffee, and on normal days she sits between Lorianne and myself in our bed and reads books while we wake up and drink our coffee. Invariably asking us to read one to her, which always gets the reply "not until we've finished our coffee" which then signals that we are awake and willing to read "the best little monkeys in the world" for the 4798th time in the last 26 months. This books is so well known that Gracie can recited it word for word at the ripe age of two. Neal, you will have an honest challenger in the memory department in few years.


We noticed that one of our plants in the flowerbed bloomed all of a sudden this week, and it was a nice site so early in the morning. It's either a weed, or a left over perennial from a previous occupant. It's pretty so we let it live.



Not long after coffee was done, it was time for me to go in and make breakfast, which of late has been fresh juice, and fruit. This is how we go about it.

1. Get a good juicer, this means easy to clean, fairly quiet, and solid.
2. Find a way to shortcut cleaning. I found a tip about using a plastic grocery bag for the pulp catcher, so that removal is much easier.
3. Set up our veggies and fruit. Today it's 6 stalks of kale, a bunch of dandelion greens, a carrot, 2 apples, an orange, and half a lemon.
4. Feed it all in using the appropriate speed settings. High for apples and hard items, Low for soft fruits and leafy veggies, feed it in. Our Juicer has a pitcher with a lid that skims off the the foam that occurs during juicing.
5. This is all thats left on the counter after juicing. Everything else went in whole.
6. Pulp clean up is easy: pull out the bag, then it's simply washing out the top container and the blade unit with water and a brush that comes with the juicer. All in all, clean up is less than 3 minutes.
7. Voila, breakfast.
It's so healthy, Gracie is doing pullups at age 2. ....or almost..she needs help going up, but it is amazing how well she does. It's suprising to feel her pull herself almost out of your hands. Not a pull up, but she does enjoy showing off for Nana and Bronwyn. This was her 4th time of the day or so to do this.
Our chores today were done at a much slower pace than last year. We have no deadline and it's nice to go slow. We took several breaks today, and still got a lot done. We picked up the busted bricks, my 3rd time to pick them up. I laid down the bricks after our first flood last year, pulled them back up after the 2nd flood, and again now. It would be nice to do a project once, not three times. This occurance is due to the orange bricks being more porous and getting wet, then freezing, and shattering.

Also got our seeds started for the garden, we're doing tomatoes, several varieties of peppers, some melon, and the requisite squash and zuchini. We may need to get some spinach and other greens as rapidly as we're going through this stuff juicing!

We're now waiting for the heat of the late afternoon to dissipate, and do the final clean up from the outside chores, and a few final projects. Then it will be supper. Orange chicken stir fry with a dandelion green, peppers, carrots, and squash.

It turned out well.

It's evening now, Gracie is circling the drain for sleep, this means she's cranking up the energy machine to fight it. Singing, jumping, acting up, and and eating like a horse. Soon she'll go see Elly (her stuffed elephant) and then Lorianne and I will chill on the couch and read. Another successful Saturday in the books!

A Beautiful Day

It truly was a beautiful day! The temperature was right at 70 degrees, and it was sunny with a mostly gentle breeze.
Gracie and I went shopping. We went to JCPenney, Michael's, Target, and World Market. For once, I didn't have to get groceries, so we just did sale shopping, mostly. We also met up with Mom and Bronwyn and had lunch at Taco Bell with them while we were out.
My best deal of the day was probably at JCPenney. I got two pair of flip-flops (on sale-Buy 1, Get one for 88 cents), so the total came to $19. I had $13 on a store credit, so I walked out with two pair of flip-flops for $6.56!!
Gracie fell asleep on the way home, so I had a couple quiet hours after I got home.
For dinner tonight, we had grilled salmon basted with Teryaki sauce, Quinoa and Black Bean salad, and fruit salad. Yummy!
Here is the Quinoa Salad recipe, courtesy of Spark People emails.

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad
Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups quinoa
1-1/2 cups canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1-1/2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1-1/2 cups cooked corn (fresh, canned or frozen)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 scallions, chopped
1 tsp. garlic, minced fine
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped fine
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/3 cup olive oil

DIRECTIONS
1. Rinse quinoa in a fine sieve under cold running water until water runs clear.
2. Put quinoa in a pot with 2-1/4 cups water.
3. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 20 minutes or until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender.
4. Fluff quinoa with a fork and transfer to a large bowl and allow to cool.
5. While quinoa is cooking, in a small bowl toss beans with vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Add beans, corn, bell pepper, scallions, garlic, cayenne and coriander to the quinoa. Toss well.
7. In a small bowl whisk together lime juice, salt, cumin and add oil in a stream while whisking. Drizzle over salad and toss well with salt and pepper. Salad may be made a day ahead and refrigerated, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Gracies 1st Snow Day - March 2nd, 2009

Our Snow day in March

Small little cottage, whole lot of snow, big yard. That says snowball fight, snowmen, snow icecream, and tons of fun and frolic right?


Gracie says no




Well in early March we got a decent snow day for us Texas transplants to Virginia. It started snowing Sunday afternoon around 3pm, and didn't stop until late Monday night. I took Monday off and we played football in the snow with Garrett and Bronwyn, drank a few dozen gallons of coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate, read books, played with Gracie, and staring at the snow. We tried numerous times to get Gracie out in it, but for some reason she was petrified of the snow, of being in it, being carried across it, and everything in between.

So, as it was all around us as you can see, we had a lot of crying this day. But we overcame it. Gracie learned to be tough....from a distance. We spent some time over and Joel and Janet's, but poor Bronwyn came down with a bad throat, and wasn't feeling so hot, so we went home so she could rest. Gracie being full of hand me downs, goodwill purchases, and gifts from others, probably had the warmest, but least color coordinated outfit of the family. She stayed warm, figured out what pockets are for, and talked around her BAP voicing her displeasure about the snow often. Once away from it we were fine and she was happy as normal.

I think she got tired of just mom and dad, and we were eagerly anticipating some conversation and entertainment with friends, so we reached out to Brett and Leah Corle and offered to bring dessert if we could come up the hill and chat, play games, and fellowship. They agreed.

So we drove up the road to Brett and Leah's in the evening. We took brownies, played board games, visited, and let Gracie play with someone besides mom and dad. It got down to about 8 degrees by the time we said good-bye to the Corle family and their wonderful wood stove and began our ill fated journey back down the 300 yards or so to our cottage. There was nowhere to turn around and there is a ditch at the end of their road, so I backed down it, turned the front of the truck towards home and promptly slid into the ditch. The truck tilted at about a 30 degree angle with Gracie at the lower end of this pivot. She started yelling, "we're down, we're down!!!" So after many attempts to dislodge ourselves in the rapidly freezing slush, Lorianne and Gracie walked home while Brett and I using his tractor worked on freeing the truck from the ditch. I did say it was 8 degrees right? I was in jeans, t-shirt, light weight pullover, and ball cap. I was COLD! Lorianne promptly returned with my coveralls, greatly increasing my comfort level and we not long after got the truck out of the ditch to stay. Big thanks to Brett and Wyatt for braving the elements to help me at 11:30 at night, and to my wonderful bride for walking that distance in the cold twice to make my life easier. I told Wyatt "find you one that takes care of you like this and you'll live a happy, long life!" He agreed enthusiastically.


The next day, with Gracie watching happily from the window, I built the snowmen that I've been waiting almost 30 years to replicate. My last snowmen being in the late 70's with my dad when he was my age. But with Gracie being scared to death of "white stuff" we chose to let her watch from a distance, where it was ok for Daddy to expose himself to the dangers of the snow, just not Gracie!




So the turn out wasn't so bad for a snowman rookie. Though Gracie quickly tired of meeting them in person as she realized they were made of that terrible snow stuff!



In the end, we survived, thrived, and had a great time with the best snow day I've had in over 2 decades, and Gracies first. We had snow on the ground in small patches for almost 5 days, and by the next weekend it was 65 - 70 degrees and sunny. With that big swing, I almost felt back at home in Texas again!

An Introduction To Our Life

This blog will hopefully chronicle some of the day-to-day meanderings that our family experiences. Gracie's antics, our close quarter living, and our attempt to build a Godly home for the Lord.

Spring is just around the corner, and we are turning over the garden! This weekend will see more weeds pulled and some seeds planted. We hope for a full crop this year, which will help supplement our healthier way of eating....which is leaving me hungry frequently.

We are trying out eating only fruit, veggies, and meats, with the occasional snack of cheese, eggs and nuts. It's very tasty, and very refreshing! We start the morning with coffee (haven't given that up!), and then breakfast is a plate of fruit. Lunch is a big bowl of salad, maybe a snack mid-afternoon, and then dinner...you will see.

Tonight we had a dinner of grilled chicken, very yummy, and sauteed zucchini, red bell pepper, orange bell pepper, and grape tomatoes.

Then, for dessert, we had sliced strawberries drizzled with a delectable 9-year old balsamic vinegar.

And here's a couple pictures of Gracie. She wanted Pappa and Mamma to see the puzzle that she did tonight.


From last Sunday: