My Prayer for Today

Dear Lord,
As a new day begins and yesterday ends,
renew me.

Perfect that which is lacking,

soften that which is sharp,
for You have entrusted so much to my care.


Amen.

Overheard in the house this week 11...

"My tongue is OPEN!"  

~E-Bear, mouth wide open and tongue sticking out, employing a new tactic for getting a snack from T, who was eating from a bag of potato chips.

T:  "Have fun at Vacation Bible School today, G-Bear.  Your hair looks pretty in that braid.  Did Mommy braid your hair for you?"
G-Bear:  "No, Miss R did it for me.  She knows how to french.  Mommy doesn't know how to french, do you, Mom?"
(You should have seen the look on T's face!)

"My tummy is FIRSTY!"

~E-Bear, expressing a need for something to drink.

"Look, Daddy, that car doesn't have a top!  It's a Breezy car!"
~G-Bear, as we passed a parked convertible.  Now we are all calling convertibles "Breezy Cars!"






While reading What Do People Do All Day, by Richard Scary:
Me (reading): "Some workers do their work in one place, others travel from place to place to do their jobs.  What do YOU do?  Well, you two are good helpers, aren't you?"
G-Bear: "And, I work hard at dancing!"
E-Bear: "And I play hard with my toys!"

At least we are all doing our part around here!

Grocery Bag Returns

This week marks the return of Grocery Bag for the first time since Baby Bear's arrival eight weeks ago!  I can't believe it has been almost two months.  As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have an army of angelic family and friends to thank for providing all of the meals and support that has enabled me to take so much time off from meal planning.  We are a blessed family!  May God help us to give as we have received.

Its time to start planning again, however, as summer is in full swing, our move approaches, and I have to start confronting our pantry.  Here are some new favorites for our week!

Day One

Greek chicken with potatoes and mushrooms  from Food.com

This recipe is fabulous and fabulously simple.  I use half the oil called for in the recipe.  It comes out lovely, tender and delicious every time.

Recipe and photo from Food.com

Day Two

Pasta with mushroom cream sauce from The Culinary Chronicles

with strawberry and spinach salad

I have not attempted the homemade gnocchi that is part of this recipe, but the homemade mushroom cream sauce is simple and wonderful with any pasta.  

Photo and recipe from The Culinary Chronicles

Day Three

Shrimp Korma from Cooking Light Magazine 

with basmati rice

I chop up the shrimp and veggies into tiny pieces for recipes like this.  Fewer shrimp go further, cook faster and the kids are more willing to eat them that way.

Photo and recipe from MyRecipes.com

Day Four

"Black and White" lentil couscous salad

with garlic ginger carrots from Cooking Light Magazine

and whole wheat tortillas from Finding Joy in My Kitchen

I have been experimenting with all different kinds of lentils since T gave me an Indian cookbook for my birthday.   Here we used black lentils and israeli couscous, and it turned into a hearty, delicious vegetarian meal.

"Black and White" Lentil Couscous Salad

by Happily Ever Johnson

1 cup dried black lentils

5 1/4 cup water, divided

1 cup dried israeli couscous

3/4 tsp salt, divided

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/3 cup craisins

1/3 cup finely chopped cucumber (optional)

1/2 tsp chopped dill

grated zest of one lemon

juice of one large lemon (about 3 Tbs)

2-3 Tbs olive oil

pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Rinse lentils with cold water; drain. Place lentils and 4 cups water in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20-30 minutes or until tender. Add frozen peas during the last 2-3 minutes of cooking.  Drain and rinse with cold water; drain.
2. Bring remaining 1 ¼ cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan; gradually stir in couscous and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook 8-10 minutes. Combine lentils, peas, couscous, remaining ½ teaspoon salt and remaining ingredients in a large bowl.  Serve immediately or chilled.

Day Five

Chicken pesto mozzarella pizza

This is one of our favorite pizzas.  If we want dinner to go, I fold the pizza dough over and make two large calzones.  This is our favorite dough recipe.  Yum!   

Pizza/Calzone Dough

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 Tbs olive oil

3 3/4 cups bread flour

1 1/2 Tbs sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp rapid rise yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp regular yeast)

Mix together in a standing mixer or add to bread maker on the "dough" setting.

 Blessings on your kitchen this week!

Playing with Playdough

Earlier this week, the kids and I embarked on an adventure to "Playdough School." Actually, it was a playdough make & play class offered at a local children's store.  G-Bear and E-Bear are pretty good at playing with playdough, so I was the real student at the class.  Believe it or not, I had never made playdough before, and I was really excited for the opportunity to learn.  I now wonder why I waited so long.  Making homemade playdough is the best thing in our house since homemade granola.

The recipe we used made the softest, smoothest, freshest feeling playdough I have ever felt.  It took our instructor 5 minutes to make it.  It used nothing but cheap, pantry staples.  It was like a dream come true!  Because it was a cooked playdough, so it came off of the stove quite warm.  Kneading the warm playdough is incredibly calming and therapeutic.  Making playdough might be the perfect activity after a long, stressful day!

When we got home, we dumped out all of our playdough gadgetry and set to work again.

We had been encouraged to store our homemade playdough in the refrigerator to preserve its freshness.  Playing with our playdough straight from the fridge was the perfect antidote to the hot, sticky weather.

Here is the super-easy recipe we learned at the class.

Homemade Playdough

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 c water

2 Tbs oil

1 tsp food coloring

Wisk together the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a large saucepan.  Combine the water and oil and then add water mixture to dry mixture gradually.  Cook over medium to high heat, stirring constantly until a ball forms.  Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly and then add food coloring.  Knead on wax paper until smooth.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  

Talk about great summer learning!  We'll give this class an "A+" ! 

Preschool Graduation Day 2

E-Bear: "G-Bear, I like your cake so much!  Papa and MoMo, do you like G-Bear's cake?"

As you can see, we all loved G-Bear's graduation cake.

The ten four-year-olds wowed us with their renditions of several songs, including "Where is Thumpkin?" "Five Little Ducks" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider."  E-Bear sang along from the audience.  

G-Bear may have had the biggest fan club in the audience.  Papa, MoMo, Aunty Cindy, The Amazing Miss R, E-Bear, Baby Bear, T and I were all there to cheer.  T even took the day off from work to be there, and Papa raced over from a lunch meeting.  Now THAT is commitment to our preschool grad! 

We shared lots of hugs after her great singing program.

G-Bear, her amazing teachers, and E-Bear

We are going to miss G-Bear's fabulous teachers so much.  

Her teacher is so humble: "It's just preschool, we're not teaching rocket science," she says.

Maybe not, but the things G-Bear learned from her loving teachers may be more important.

I mean, if all we really need to know we learn in kindergarden, we better be well prepared for kindergarden!

As T helped G-Bear into her pj's he said,

"G-Bear, I am so proud of you for singing so well in your program today."

"I am so proud of your for sitting and clapping," G-Bear responded.

"And Mommy, I am so proud of you for giving me a rose!"

Congratulations, G-Bear!

Thanks for helping us remember that sometimes it's the little things that matter most!

The Fanciest Car in the Lot

The kids and I racked our brains for a good way to make T feel special today for his birthday.

I mean, it isn't easy!  

1.  The guy is up and out to work right after Baby Bear and I fall asleep for the night (ok, this is a slight exaggeration.  Neither T's wake up time nor Baby Bear's sleep schedule is quite that bad),

2.  He is in the operating room all day (no chance of surprising him there), and

3.  There is always the dubious possibility of something mucking up our evening plans (for instance, last year, T was on call on his birthday.  By the time he made it home, we had finished eating dinner and we were singing "Happy Birthday" to his cake.  He blew out the candles, took one bite of his dinner and then got paged back to the hospital.  He didn't even get to eat his piece of cake!  Good grief.)

Whew.  What to do?

Fortunately, by the end of breakfast, we had come up with a plan.

We would decorate T's car.

Now, this is not as easy as it sounds.  

We had to overcome the following obstacles to succeed in our plan:

1.  We had to find the car.  T was going to be operating between two hospitals today, and we didn't know where he parks his car at either of them.

2.  We had to fit our secretive decorating in between our very important playdough making class this morning (hooray for summer learning!), an afternoon birthday dessert surprise pick-up (oh, we are so sneaky), a mid-errand potty break for mom, Baby Bear feedings, preschooler attention spans, and nap time.  

3.  Dreaded decoration malfunctions!  We had brought ribbons, party hats, streamers and recycled printer paper to decorate the car.  But, woe of woe, we forgot the markers at home!  No markers to write a happy birthday message on the paper?  Eek!  Quickly, we searched every nook and cranny of our spacious Sienna minivan and came up with one dried up black pen.  Seriously?  My car is not that clean.  How is it possible that there is not a single lost crayola, rejected restaurant crayon or forgotten med school highlighter anywhere in the car??

Well, we figured out which hospital to go to, thanks to T, who called with his update as we left our playdough class.

We found his car, thanks to some sharp thinking (and a few prayers to St. Anthony for help!).

We managed to apply the decorations before any of us died of heat stroke in the 100 degree parking lot.   Thanks to my hearty helpers, E-Bear and G-Bear, our nearly dried up black pen, and Baby Bear who looked on contentedly from his car seat:

Me: "G-Bear, you hold the ribbon bag and hand me the ribbons!"

G-Bear: "Okay!"

Me: "E-Bear, you hold the letter pages and tell me the letter as you hand it to me!"

E-Bear: "Okay! First one is H!"

Me: "Great!  Now, somebody hand me the tape!"

The car looked sufficiently silly by the time we finished.  We wished the car a happy birthday (at E-Bear's request) and then headed home for naps, miraculously before any of us had a melt down.  

Needless to say, T was very surprised.  Everyone in the parking lot wished him happy birthday :)

Oh, the things we do for love!  

Happy Birthday to my love

There is only one Prince T,

and we are celebrating him today!

I am hoping that I am the first to wish him Happy Birthday this morning.  

He's bound to receive many kisses from the royalty around here,

which of course is well deserved.

And, even though he is our hard working daddy,

we'll be working hard to make him feel special today.

Happy Birthday, my love.

Praying for GG

We are praying for our GG today.  

She is brave, she is strong.

She is a great example of faith, a strong pillar of our family.

We love you, GG, and we are praying for you today.

Preschool Graduation Day

G-Bear has had a special year at school.  Today is her Graduation Day program.  We are all excited to celebrate with her class.  Her teachers and classmates have been an irreplaceable part of our year.

The shirt G-Bear's teacher made for her this year.  Everyone feels special in G-Bear's class!

G-Bear may have said it best last night as T was tucking her in to bed:

"Daddy, tomorrow is my last day of school and then I am going to be very sad because I am not ever going to go back to my school.  I am going to have to give my friends lots of big hugs or else I might cry!"

Something tells me that G-Bear will have so much fun today that she won't be shedding any tears.....

.........but T and I might have to blink a few back.

Insight from Shel

T recently made me a new compact disk for use in the car.  It is a disk of Shel Silverstein poems from "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "The Light in the Attic" performed by the author himself.  Shel's reading of his works is strangely soothing and almost magical, not to mention creative genius.  The car has been virtually silent (say what?) the past few car rides, as the kids are transfixed just listening to the poems.  

Amidst the fabulous silliness of Shel's poems, there is also a lot of ironic wisdom.  One of the poems we listened to today struck me as being particularly insightful and poignant.  Silverstein fans will know the poem well:

The Little Boy and the Old Man

by Shel Silverstein

Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon." 

Said the old man, "I do that too." 

The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants." 

"I do that too," laughed the little old man. 

Said the little boy, "I often cry." 

The old man nodded, "So do I." 

"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems Grown-ups don't pay attention to me." 

And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand. 

"I know what you mean," said the little old man.

Tonight at dinner I sat between my 90 year old grandmother and my 2 year old son.  I noted how, as always, Papa and MoMo treated E-Bear and GG with the utmost respect and care, listening carefully to them in conversation, assisting with menus, and attending to physical limitations.  The world doesn't treat the very young and very old this way.  This is one of the many reasons I admire my parents tremendously.  This is one of their many qualities I wish I could perfectly reflect.  

May our family always be a haven for the very young and very old, 

for one has all the innocence, and the other, the experience,

and both are a treasure to behold.