About andrea

A Busy August

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:38:12 -0700

August has flown by without us even realizing. Arthur and I took a trip to Boston to check it out for a potential move. We liked the city, though I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t move there just for the fun of it. We saw some nice suburbs and went to the South Shore to see what the fuss was about. As of now we have a few weeks to make our decision about the move and new job so that is nice. We haven’t decided when we would make the move out. The company has given us the option of staying in Seattle for a while before moving, which would be helpful considering the changes about to take place in the family.

Arthur has a couple other job interviews for companies in Seattle lined up for next week. One of them is potentially a really great job so he is pretty excited about that.

When we got back from Boston we took the girls to Alki Beach for the day to play in the sand. You can look at our pictures in the photo album.

Last weekend we went to Remlinger Farms in Carnation. We’d never been there so we weren’t sure what to expect. It was great! I highly recommend it to anyone who has kids under 10. There are tons of rides as well as a little petting area, a hay maze, etc. We are planning to take Daphne back for her second birthday next month. I took tons of pictures there as well so go to our album to see them all.

Dance class starts back up for Naomi next week. She is very excited! Both girls will be starting gymnastics next week as well. We’ll see how that goes! Daphne will be in a class where parents have to be involved so Arthur will be going with her. We think both monkeys will enjoy it.

Naomi won’t be in preschool this year. She never really settled in last year and didn’t become comfortable, even at the end of the year, so we think we’ll bypass it this year.

5 or 6 more weeks until the baby arrives. We are pretty much ready as far as the house goes. Though, you can never really be ready for the sleep deprivation that a newborn brings. Naomi is excited about having another baby in the house. Daphne isn’t sure what to think. I am pretty sure she is a bit confused and anxious. We try to read her books and talk with her about it often to get her used to the idea.

We plan to head up to “the farm” for Labor Day weekend for some smores and swedish pancakes. Yummy!!

Still Alive!

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 13:38:41 -0700

It has been a busy Summer full of not much! We’ve doing a lot of hanging out and going on small adventures. We bought a minivan (gasp!) and sold our Mazda. We’ve visited parks and the aquarium and the library (over and over) and friends and family.

The girls are getting big (well, maturing anyway). Naomi is learning to read, which she loves. We’re hoping she is proficient enough in a year or two to read to her sisters! She had been begging to learn to read for a while so I finally started last week. I’d been waiting until I thought she’d be able to do it without getting overly frustrated or failing right away. So far so good. She is also maturing emotionally. She says some of the funniest things and she never forgets ANYTHING! She is pretty much fully potty trained and informs me that when the baby comes she is going to stop wearing pull ups to bed. We’ll see about that.

Daphne is talking up a storm. Recently she has taken up singing. She loves singing and is always telling me “My sing good.” She also likes to say, “my so strong!” She loves her sister and playing outside. She likes anything that has to do with me holding her. She’s become a momma’s girl in the past few months. She is about halfway potty trained. I’m not sure we have the energy to complete the process at this time though. We’ll see! She loves to look at books and play with blocks and other toys.

Arthur has the week off next week so we are planning to take a mini vacation. We’re not exactly sure where we are going yet but I’m sure it will be fun. The girls will love being able to see him during the week.

All is well with the baby. 9 more weeks to go! I can’t decide if that is a long time or a short time. It depends on how tired I am I guess. I’m anticipating that this baby will be really easy ;) It is great that we don’t have to buy anything this time around. We have all that we need (and much, much more).

Car 4 Sale

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:40:17 -0700

Well, after a year of use, it is time to say goodbye to the Mazda. Adios! We gave it a good cleaning last night. The girls loved helping. Daphne actually helped wash the car some. Naomi played in the bubbles and then washed her own car.

Weekend Festivities

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 19:47:24 -0700

What a long weekend! We spent the 4th with my brother, Scott, and his family. Scott and Cindy never fail to provide a full feast. We brought these as our contribution.

They were REALLY GOOD! I highly recommend them. Very easy and oh so good. I normally can't eat bananas but for some reason if I dip them in chocolate my body doesn't mind them. That is good news.

We spent family time on Saturday and then Sunday the girls and I headed up to "the farm" at my mom and dad's. We had a great time playing with some cousins and the grandparents and generally just running around. I had a lot of time to use my mom's awesome sewing machine without kids climbing on me. Double bonus. I'll post some pictures of the projects later.

We also had a chance to see Heather, who was visiting her parents from CO at the time. Yeah! We love seeing Heather. BTW Heather, after you got out of the car Daphne said "bye bye Header." And then promptly fell asleep.

Heather even played Ring Around The Rosey with the girls, which is always a hit.

Daphne and Naomi are really afraid of dogs. At some point they stopped loving them and just "got fear." My niece Mattie has a little 6 lb. dog, Simon, who they have always been afraid of. My grandmother came over on Sunday with her little dog, Sunny, and put him in his little portable cage so the girls wouldn't be scared. For some unknown reason, Daphne took a liking to Sunny and asked to get into his cage! Naomi followed suit, a bit reluctantly. Sunny took this opportunity to get out of the cage and the kids enjoyed staying in. He thought that was great.

We drove from Bellingham to Seattle this morning for my doctor appointment. Naomi was excited to go but a little disappointed again when she found out we weren't going to get the baby out of my "tummy" yet. I tried to explain she has to wait 3 more months but that is a very long time for a 3 year old. Ok, let's face it, that is a very long time for a 30 year old to wait. And no, we have no name picked out yet. All of your suggestions are wonderful, but we don't like them ;) You can see all our pictures from the weekend here.

Great Food Friday

Thu, 3 Jul 2008 20:10:30 -0700

Head on over here tomorrow and add your favorite bread (of any sort) recipe.

Homemade: Popsicles

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:12:06 -0700

I have very fond memories of making popsicles as a child. We usually just mixed up some juice and poured it into the popsicle mold and waited for it to freeze (in the freezer of course). While these are good, they usually have the consistency of an ice cube so I thought I’d try to make something a little more like a popsicle. Well, we succeeded. We blended up some strawberries and blueberries and added a bit of water and then poured the mix into the molds. The results? Fantastic if you ask me or Naomi. Not sweet enough if you ask Arthur and Daphne. The consistency was just like a juice popsicle you’d buy at the store. So, if you want it to be a bit sweet, just add a bit of sugar while you blend. Enjoy.

I’ve been tagged

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:49:32 -0700

My friend Katey tagged me so here it is.

5 things on my To Do list: 1. Put together all the things I bought at Ikea on Saturday 2. Return things to Ikea that were in the wrong box. Argh! 3. Organize the play room 4. Organize the girls’ craft area 5. Get my hair cut. Amazingly it has been nearly a year. Gross. 
5 snacks I enjoy: 1. Crackers & cheese 2. grapes and strawberries 3. milk shakes 4. chocolate milk 5. chocolate!

5 things I would do if I won the lottery 1. Tithe/Give to different places 2. Make extra payments on my house 3. If it was enough $$ I’d move back to Seattle 4. Save for the girls’ schooling 5. Save in general

5 bad habits: 1. eating too much junk 2.Thinking I’m always right 3. Not making phone calls I should 4. Surfing the internet when I could do something else 5. Procrastinating

5 places I have lived: 1. Bellingham, WA 2. McMinnville, OR 3. Seattle, WA 4. Hoboken, NJ 5. Branson, MO

5 jobs I have had: 1. Probation Officer @ King County Juvenile Courts in Seattle 2. Residential Counselor @ Ryther Child Center in Seattle 3. Ride Operator @ Silver Dollar City in Branson 4. In Home Therapist @ Youth Consultation Service in NJ 5. Family Preservation Counselor @ The Lower East Side Family Union in NYC

5 friends who ghost read your blog and need to start their own: (I don’t really know who ghost reads it but here is who should start their own blog) 1. Elenita  2. Kirsten  3. Bekki
4. Carrie 5. Robyn

5 favorite things to do on the weekends: 1. Go to the park with the family 2. Go on an adventure with the family 3. Play in the backyard  4. Go out with Arthur by ourselves 5. Go visit my family

I am tagging Heather T. & Liz,

Fighting Global Poverty LOUDLY

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:06:56 -0700

Most of you that read my blog also read Eugene Cho’s blog. For those of you who don’t, I recommend checking it out. Today he posted this short video and blurb explaining about the organization he and Minhee will be starting shortly. In his words;

“We know that global poverty exists. We also know that it will always exists on some level but it doesn’t mean that it gives us a free pass to do nothing. Apathy is the enemy. Our vision for the soon to be made public organization focused on fighting global poverty seeks to invite and inspire the global community to join the fight against global poverty by creating a viral, grassroots, and global movement.”

So, I encourage you to read the rest of his blog and see for yourself what they are doing. Many people have found their decision to publicize how much money they are giving to this organization in opposition to the idea that we should give anonymously but as he explains, they hope to inspire others. Giving away $100,000 when you are a family of 5 living off a $60,000 pastor’s salary in Seattle isn’t an easy thing to do and it is certainly inspirational. Part of what they want people to do right now, before they officially launch this organization, is to spread the word! So, do your part ;)

When Life Gives You Lemons (or shall we say, when you get lemons from Costco...)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:30:03 -0700

We made fresh squeezed Lemonade from this recipe today. If you like your lemonade a little less sweet I’d recommend adding less sugar. We love it the way it is written though! After a morning of playing outside riding tricycles, pushing cars, water plants, mowing the lawn and cleaning the car we needed something sweet to go with the hot dogs we bbq’d and the peas... Yes, I gave them hot dogs. I made the mistake of buying them from Costco for our party so we have a *few* left over. They have never really liked them until this past week. I didn’t want to turn the stove on to cook anything for lunch so I figured “why not barbeque?” I guess I could have done grilled cheese sandwiches... yum, now that sounds good.

I’m trying to think of something good to make for the neighbors for the 4th of July so if you have any good ideas let me know. Nothing too complicated or overly patriotic (not that there is anything wrong with that ;). How about an easy treat?

Swimming: Fun and Cold

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:18:29 -0700

Naomi had swim lesson number two on Thursday. It was a chilly 65 degrees during her lesson so she was quite cold when it was over. She did a MUCH better job though! She even jumped in off the side of the pool and went under water. Though, she wasn’t expecting to go underwater but I think she maintained her composure rather well.

Arthur got off work early so he could join us at the pool after Naomi’s lesson. There is a half an hour open swim time so we all jumped in the water and Daphne showed off her fearlessness. The water in the little pool is up to her neck but that doesn’t stop her from running around and galloping in the pool. She loved “swimming” with Arthur and didn’t want to stop.

Naomi swam with us for a few minutes but was too cold to stay in the water so she got out and got dressed. I’m not sure she really warmed up until we got in the car. Poor thing. It must be rough having such poor circulation. The girl’s lips are always blue. Usually that doesn’t stop her from staying out and playing in water but after an emotionally exhausting swim lesson (seriously, who would want to be away from me for so long?) she had enough. I’ve had many people tell me at the wading pool during the summer that my daughter is too cold and I should take her out of the pool. To them I suggest they try to get her out when she is having fun! I tend to be more laid back and think that if it isn’t bothering her then it doesn’t bother me.

This is Naomi while Daphne swam in the pool. She refused to wrap the dry towel around herself.

Here is Daphne having some more fun.

It is supposed to be in the 80’s this weekend so we are heading to the beach tomorrow!

The Girl Effect

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:57:49 -0700

I found this on Eugene Cho’s blog.

Swimming, Sliding, and Swinging

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:15:29 -0700

The past few days we’ve been soaking up the rays and enjoying the great outdoors. Naomi started swim lessons on Tuesday afternoon. She is taking them at the Lynnwood community pool. I like that pool because it is open air during the summer, which is fairly rare around here. We lucked out and the sun decided to shine this week so Naomi wouldn’t be traumatized by the cold weather AND the swim lesson. This way she was only the lesson to be traumatized by!

Naomi sat on the steps most of the lesson but did participate a bit when prompted by her teachers. We are hoping she is more comfortable today. The lessons last for 10 sessions so maybe by the end she’ll be confident. We may sign her up for the following 10 session as well if she takes any liking to it so she gets more used to water. She isn’t taking her dance class this summer (which she is really sad about) so this is the perfect time for swimming.

We’ve been going to different parks during the mornings. Daphne loves the swings and does really well on all the ladders and big slides. Even after playing for two hours they are sad to leave the park. Yesterday we were at Greenlake so we played on the playground for a couple hours and then walked over to the wading pool for a half an hour. Both girls fell asleep in the car immediately afterward. They were pretty exhausted.

The weather is supposed to be nice again today but I think we’ll just clean around the house this morning. We haven’t spent much time doing that this week and it is pretty obvious.

Here is a cute picture of the girls making pizza the other night.

Pizza, Pizza

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:54:43 -0700

I love pizza. We love pizza. This is the best recipe for crust that I’ve found. It is very airy and light. Combine with this pizza sauce and you have a great meal. The recipe is from Cooks Illustrated. It uses part cake flour, which is low in protein so it causes the crust to cook up with a tender interior and a crispy crust; more like a pizza in an 800 degree pizza oven. It is really helpful to have a pizza stone for it to cook up the way it should be.
1 1/4 tsp instant or active dry yeast
1 cup water, slightly warm or room temperature
1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 oz) all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 cup (4 oz) cake flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 500F with your baking stone on the oven rack.
Combine yeast and water and stir to dissolve.

Combine flours, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to blend. With the motor running, stream in water/yeast mixture. Continue to process for 1-2 minutes, until dough becomes smooth and satiny. Add an extra tablespoon of flour if the dough becomes too sticky.

Divide dough into two and shape each piece into a tight ball. Place on a lightly floured surface and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap or a clean dish towel. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Working with one ball of dough at a time, place on a lightly floured surface. Flatten the dough into an 8-inch disk, then stretch the edges gently until the dough is about 12-inches in diameter, rotating the dough by quarter turns as you work.

Transfer the stretched dough onto a baking sheet that has been covered with cornmeal. Spread it with a small amount of the sauce, toppings of your choice and slide it quickly into the oven.
Bake pizza at 500F for 5-10 minutes, until well browned.
Retrieve pizza with baking sheet or pizza peel.
Serve immediately and repeat process with second piece of dough.

I precooked the dough for a few minutes before putting the sauce and toppings on it. This gives it a crispier crust.

This is actually a very easy recipe. Enjoy!

A Week in Random Pictures

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:33:46 -0700

It is finally Summer! The girls enjoyed playing outside a lot today. Our grass was really thirsty so we gave it a drink. The girls took advantage of the semi-warm weather and the sprinklers. They soaked themselves and had a blast doing it.

I did a recount today and it seems as though we’ve made a total of $60.80 so if we toss in a couple bucks we can buy 9 mosquito nets! Yeah!

For those of you who have been asking about the Vita-Mix, yes, I still think it is great. Though, I haven’t made anything with it in the last few days. I made a bunch of lemon ice last Friday and that was delicious. We made tortilla soup with it last week as well as juice and smoothies. The soup was awesome. We threw in some carrot, peppers, squash, tomato, celery, onion, cabbage, mushroom, garlic, a corn tortilla, and chicken stock, blended for 5 minutes until it was steaming and then added some corn, black beans, and chicken and chopped those up then enjoyed. Easy and healthy. I still haven’t made ice cream with it and I know I told some of you I would so I could give you the low down. I will soon, I promise.

This is what the tortilla soup looked like before it became soup.

I did two weeks worth of laundry last week on Thursday, or maybe Wednesday... At any rate, here is a pic of the laundry after I put 2 baskets away! Man I hate laundry.

We made some more playdough last week, of course. Notice their different style of play.

This one is just cute.

We had 31 friends (including kids) over Saturday for a BBQ. It was great! The rain held off for us! I didn’t get my camera out but luckily a couple other people had theirs. These are courtesy of Emily.

This is the fruit salad.

That is Emily.

These are some of the great faces of the day.

This is a pic of my Mom’s Group from church (this is who we had over for the BBQ)

And of course, there are more pictures of the girls in the sprinklers today.

I’ve been making a lot of bread lately. I’ve been trying out different whole wheat and whole grain breads. I have a couple more I want to try out and then I’ll post my favorites. This is the one I made today. This will be our sandwich bread for the week. I haven’t tasted it yet but it smells amazing and looks great. Do you have a favorite recipe you care to share?

So I think that about catches us up! Naomi starts swim lessons tomorrow so pray there are no tears!

OK. It is late and I have been trying to get more sleep so I am off to bed!

Lemonade Success: Updated

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:20:07 -0700

We had our lemonAID stand today. The girls (and Arthur) walked around to all the neighbor’s houses before hand and handed out a little information about what they were raising money for and asked them to come to the stand. We didn’t put a price on our goods, which ended up helping us out tremendously. I think a $1 donation was the smallest we got. Well, that isn’t entirely true. A couple of the neighborhood kids came by with some coins and we gave them a few cookies each. They were pretty excited.

We only had 2 cars stop to give us money and none of the people walking by stopped. We were glad we had gone by the neighbors! After about an hour the girls were pretty much exhausted from being out on the sidewalk and wanted to go inside so we packed up shop. Our final total was $45.80. Not bad considering our extremely low traffic location and the short time period. We had about 9 or 10 people/families donate all of that so like I said, it was a good thing we didn’t set a price.

Why we would do this with our kids, considering they are so young? It is never too early to teach kids that there is life beyond their little world and that Jesus wants us to care for one another. We want our girls to grow up viewing the world as God’s creation and the people in it as his children. Jesus commands us to take care of the children of this world (among many other things) and we want the girls to grow up with that in their hearts. How incredible would it be if they grew up desiring to serve others? So while this was a project about buying mosquito nets to save lives, it was also so much more than that.

As a parent you have to be a planner. Well, you don’t have to be a planner, but it helps. It is important to think of what exactly you are trying to accomplish with your parenting. Is it that you want your kids just to grow up and be self sufficient and possibly financially successful or do you want them to grow up and be kind, compassionate, patient, forgiving, generous, follower of Christ, etc. I’d say that it is important to have a game plan, or be an “intentional parent”, to accomplish this. The things you say and teach your children, and ESPECIALLY MODEL to them is incredibly important. I’d believe these things are more important than making sure your kid is getting good grades and making sure they get into a good college. Of course, teaching them that God created them and Jesus died for them is the whole foundation behind why you would want to shape their character. Have you thought about WHO you want to raise your child to be? I know everyone is wired differently and comes with a different personality and set of talents but there are ways that we, as parents, can influence the outcome of their character. I could go on and on but I’ll stop at that for today.

Here are a few more pictures from the lemonade stand and the girls eating Naomi’s delicious cookies. They also drank more lemonade than they probably should have.

Well, we just made $7 more. A few neighborhood kids came by while we were outside wondering what time we were selling cookies today. Thankfully I still had a bunch so I loaded them up with cookies and lemonade. That brings our total to $52.80!

Detox

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:35:19 -0700

So you’ve decided to take some of the toxins out of your daily life and don’t know where to start? Here are some great links to help you on your way. Take what you will.

Non-Toxic Kids has a great list of where to start

Not sure which produce is best to buy organic? (assuming you can’t afford to buy ALL organic)

Buying organic cost prohibitive? Check out this article at, yes, treehugger.com.

Safe Momma has put together some cheat sheets for buying bottles, soaps, etc. so you know which brands make PBA or Phthalate or Paraben free products for babies and kids.

And this one just made me laugh. I don’t care how eco-friendly you want to be, this just seems like way more trouble than it is worth.

And finally, how cool is this rain barrel?
I’m thinking I would get myself a couple,
if they weren’t so expensive.

The TROUBLE with Mosquitos

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:48:10 -0700

As I mentioned before, we are attempting to have the girls do a LemonAID stand on Sunday to raise money for mosquito nets for orphans in Liberia. The time isn’t set in stone yet but we will probably be out (weather permitting) between 3 and 5 p.m. so if you are in the area, or care to save a child’s life, stop by and get some lemonade. I am considering making it myself with the good ol’ Vita-Mix. We’ll probably make some cookies as well. The girls prefer to make chocolate chip so I’m sure that is what we’ll have! They may only be 1 and 3 but they can make some mean cookies.

The real reason I am writing about this, AGAIN, is that I want to encourage you to get your kids involved with the Kids Lake’s project this month. Did you know that Malaria kills 58 kids EVERY DAY in Liberia. A mosquito net can help protect them while they sleep and it only costs $7. These nets we are buying are for orphanages so up to 4 kids sleep under each one. Not much to save lives. If you don’t have kids or aren’t interested in helping them sell lemonade, please consider donating here. The goal is to raise $2,000 for nets this month.

Orphan Rescue & Relief has what they call Project 23. That is, $23. Did you know for only $23 you can feed an orphan for 90 days, or buy a 100 lb. bag of rice that will feed 8 kids for a whole month. Ever think you can’t do anything to make a difference? Can’t actually afford $23 a month (which I doubt), get your friends together and buy one. $23 is chump change to you? You can sponsor an orphanage for $50,000 to bring it up to the standard required by many organizations before they’ll even begin helping it. I’m sure it isn’t hard to believe that there are dozens and dozens of orphanages (just in Liberia) that have horrendous conditions because they have no outside support.

So there you have it. Start making signs and lemonade!

Keeping Busy

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:29:29 -0700

I’ve been trying to make sure Naomi and Daphne have lots of activities to keep them busy (and keep them from asking to watch TV too much). We tried out the Lynnwood pool on Tuesday. There is a wading pool, which is more of a shallow pool than a wading pool. The girls weren’t sure at first. The played on the steps for quite a while and then suddenly they became brave and ventured out into the deep water. It was up to Daphne’s shoulders but she didn’t mind. Naomi held onto a little kick board and tried to float around. They loved the slide. Naomi is going to start swimming lessons there next week so I’m glad she ended up liking it. They take the roof off the pool today and it stays off until September. Let’s pray for some warmer weather!

One of the girls’ favorite activities is to play in the culd-a-sack. They love pushing their little cars and toys around. Naomi still doesn’t peddle her tricycle but she likes riding it around and pushing with her feet. The neighbor kids were having a water balloon fight yesterday and thankfully nobody got wet from any stray balloons. We were lucky I think because these boys have really bad aim. After watching them play for about 20 minutes and NONE of them ever got hit with a balloon they finally gave up and went on to another activity.

I tried spraying my broccoli yesterday with some BT because I have Cabbage Loopers but my sprayer malfunctioned and sprayed me in the face. Good thing I was wearing gloves. I searched the bottle and there were no cautions about not drinking it or getting it in your eyes so I think I’ll survive. It is safe for organic gardens so it can’t be that bad.

We’ve been cleaning, getting ready for a big BBQ at our house this Saturday. We’ve been trying to plan this for months with my friends from my mom’s group at church and now that we finally have a date for it the weather man says we’ll probably have to stay inside. Bummer. Pray the rain holds off until after the BBQ. We could also use some sun so the girls can do their lemonade stand on Sunday. Though I am pretty sure we’ll never make what the boys have made.

The everything sauce

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:39:47 -0700

So Emily mentioned she was interested in a recipe exchange and so I thought I’d post an easy one for your viewing pleasure. I’m always trying new recipes. I have a problem with that. In fact, I usually never get around to making things twice. I’ve made a lot of different marinara sauces lately and this one is one of the better ones. The great thing about marinara is that it is versatile and it freezes well. Just make a big batch and use it in 5 or 6 meals. It doesn’t take that much labor to make either. You can store the sauce in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freeze it for several months. I recommend freezing it in the quantities you’ll need later.

What to do with it? Here are some ideas I found in Cooking Light;
Mussels Marinara. Use 3 cups of sauce. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper, simmer in a large pan over medium. Add 4 lbs. of mussels and cook for 5 minutes until the shells open. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.
Pizza. Combine 1 cup basic marinara with 1 tbsp. tomato paste. Use as a pizza sauce.
Use as a sauce for your favorite stuffed shell recipe.
Baked Ziti. Combine 2 cups of sauce with 1/2 cup of mozzarella, 2 tbsp. Asiago cheese, salt, splash or two of tabasco and some ground chicken or turkey (optional) with 6 oz cooked ziti. Pour into 8X8 inch baking dish (coated with spray), then sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella on top with 2 tbs. of Asiago cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Shrimp Fra Diavolo. Saute 4 cups of sliced mushrooms for 6 minutes, add 2.5 cups sauce, 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add 1 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp for 3 minutes (or until cooked). Serve over 8 oz. cooked spaghetti.
Portobello Parmesan. Remove gills from 8 portobello mushroom caps. Place caps underside down on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Broil for 5 minutes. Turn caps over, sprinkle evenly with black pepper and salt. Top each cap with 2 tbsp. marinara and 1 tbsp. grated parm. Broil 3 more minutes until cheese melts. Serve over a bed of pasta or as a side dish for steaks, roast chicken or pork.
Escarole, Three Bean, and Roasted Garlic Soup. Remove white papery skin from garlic head. DO NOT separate the cloves. Wrap head in foil. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, cool 10 minutes. Separate cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Combine pulp and 1/4 cup great norther beans; mash with fork until paste like. Stir in 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh sage. Set aside. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a dutch oven (or large pot) over medium. Add 8 cups chopped escarole, cook until it wilts (3 minutes). Stir frequently. Add remaining GN Beans (from 15 oz can), 4 cups chicken broth, 2 cups marinara, 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper, 15 oz can kidney beans (rinsed, drained), 15 oz can pink beans (rinsed, drained) and bring to a simmer. Simmer 20 minutes or until escarole is tender. Stir in garlic mixture. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with 6 tbsp. grated fresh parm.
Spread on a roll for a meatball sandwich.
Use as a spread on a burger with provolone cheese.
and my favorite so far- veggie lasagna. See the recipe below.

Marinara Sauce
Use a large dutch oven or stockpot.
3 Tbsp. Olive oil
3 cups chopped yellow onion
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dried basil (or 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh)
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed (I didn’t have any so I omitted this)
2 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar
2 cups chicken broth
3 (28-oz) cans crushed tomatoes

Heat oil in pan over medium. Add onion; cook 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add next 8 ingredients (through fennel); cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar; cook 30 seconds. Add broth and tomatoes; bring to a simmer. Cook over low heat for 55 minutes or until sauce thickens. It is important to cook marinara slowly. It should simmer, just a few bubbles at a time. Stir occasionally so the top layer is continually pushed back down into the pot. The final sauce should be thick. The liquid shouldn’t immediately separate when the sauce is ladled into a bowl. If it is too thick add a little water, bringing the sauce back to a simmer over low heat. This recipe makes about 12 cups.

Veggie Lasagna
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1 cup chopped onion
4 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (5 cups)
2 (8-oz) packages of presliced cremini mushrooms (or any mushrooms)
3 garlic cloves minced
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 1/2 cups fat-free ricotta
1/2 c grated fresh parm, divided
1 egg
5 cups marinara
12 precooked lasagna noodles (or use the no boil kind- much less work!)

Heat large dutch oven (or saute pan) over medium-high. Coat with cooking spray. Add peppers, onion, zucchini, and mushrooms. Saute for 10 minutes or until veggies are crisp-tender and mushroom liquid evaporates. Add garlic; saute 30 seconds.
Combine 1 1/2 cups mozz, ricotta, 1/4 cup parm and egg, stir well.
Spread 1 cup marinara on bottom of 9X13 pan coated with cooking spray; top with 3 noodles. Spoon 1 cup marinara evenly over noodles. Top evenly with 1/3 of cheese mixture and 1/3 of veggie mixture. Repeat layers twice, ending with noodles. Top with 1 cup marinara. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes. Eat.

Kids LAKE

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:33:51 -0700

My brother’s kids had a lemonade stand last weekend to raise money for mosquito nets for kids in orphanages in Liberia. They are donating through Kids LAKE which offers monthly ways kids can help feed, clothe and take care of Africa’s orphans. This month Kids LAKE is partnering with Orphan Relief & Rescue.

The boys did pretty well considering where they live. They raised nearly $82 in 2 hours. I was wondering if my kids would like it. I’m not exactly sure my neighborhood is the right place, since we live at the end of a culd-a-sack but maybe we’ll give it a try next weekend. $7 pays for one mosquito net that will cover 4 kids. So even if they make $7 that’s a success, right?

Action Packed

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:26:24 -0700

We had another busy weekend. Naomi had her end of the year dance recital. We had been a bit concerned about whether or not she would actually perform or do a repeat of her last show and just stand still and stare like a deer caught in the headlights. We were very pleasantly surprised to watch our little girl come to life! She stood still for a second and then put on a huge smile and started dancing her little heart out. They performed to the song, Baby Face, which they also sang along with. It is pretty cute to see 20 little 3 and 4 year olds screaming that song while dancing in little pink tutu. We couldn’t take pictures of video of the performance but we’ll buy the video and hopefully get her portion up on the website so you can see it.

We went to a neighborhood garage sale on Saturday and found some good finds. I got the last 12 months worth of Cooking Light for a dollar. Considering it is my favorite magazine that was pretty cool. We also got Connect Four and Trouble for $.50 each. We made a somewhat unnecessary purchase by getting another baby swing. Have you seen the new ones that are a bouncy seat/swing combo? This one family has 7 month old twins are were selling 2 in mint condition. We got one for our upstairs so we can keep the swing and bouncy seat we already have downstairs. Anything to help out when the baby gets here! Anyway, a practically new swing and bouncy seat at a garage sale price ($150 new!) was hard to pass up.

The girls had a great time running around the streets while we were at the sale. The poor things were a bit under dressed for how cold it got while we were there though. They didn’t have coats on and a lot of the other kids we saw had coats and hats on. Oops! We aren’t perfect but the kids have survived thus far.

Of course Fathers’ Day was Saturday. The girls had made some collages that we framed for Arthur’s office. He is still undecided whether or not he will actually put them up on his wall though. I think they are beautiful ;) We also had our pictures taken on Friday and gave him a framed one. It was a good surprise because somehow he never figured out that we got the pictures taken.

We played (or attempted to play) tennis with the girls in the afternoon. Naomi actually tried to hit the ball with her racket. Daphne was a bit less motivated but did like her racket.

Here are some photos from the past few days. This one is Naomi before her dress rehearsal on Thursday night. I had to put a lot of makeup on her for the show. I even had to pencil in her eyebrows.

Here is Naomi cheesing it up for pictures with Arthur before we dropped her off at the stage door.

All the grandparents turned out to watch the recital. Naomi’s Auntie Mary, Cousin Mattie, and her Grandma Clara’s sister Lynn also came.

Here is Naomi and Mattie making funny faces for the camera. Mattie loved the show. We left after the first act but she stayed for the whole show. Mattie has her own dance recital this coming week.

Arthur teaching the girls to play tennis. Naomi is learning not to THROW the racket at the ball. All these different sports get so confusing.

If you are in the NW, enjoy the SUN!

Colossal Fit

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:20:02 -0700

We had our biggest fit in public today. It was so big that I’m sure everyone else that was at the store is still thinking about it. We went shopping today, at perhaps a bad time considering Daphne pulled an all nighter. Ok, I’ll slow down and start at the beginning.

Daphne woke up around 1:30 this morning. She was wide awake and kicky for an hour. I finally told her if she wasn’t going to sleep she had to go back to bed so I put her back in her bed, much to her disapproval. She protested pathetically for about a half an hour when she started yelling that she lost her pacifier. I got up and went to her only to find that she is smarter than I and still had it. She knew I’d go to her for that. Hmmm... After she saw me she got mad and screamed for a while until around 3:30 I got tired of it and brought her back to my bed. She prefers to sleep on me, as if I’m her mattress, which isn’t very comfortable for me these days, but I let her anyway so she would fall asleep. She finally did sleep and I laid her beside me. She woke up again for a round of the ABCs around 5:30 (the usual waking time) and THANKFULLY fell back asleep for another hour. At any rate, I knew better than to have her out after lunch, right before her bedtime.

So, back to the store. Everything started falling apart when she saw a pirate ship. She loves pirate ships. She asked me to hold the pirate ship for her but I put it back on the shelf. She got it again and demanded I carry it. I put it back and attempted to pick her up and carry her to the checkout where we had to complete our trip. She squirmed and tried to get out of my arms. The screaming was phenomenal. We got to the checkout and I set her down to pay for our item... she took off running through the aisles. I had to leave all our stuff at the checkout and chase after her. She threw herself on the floor, screaming. I had a hard time picking her up because she does this thing where she lifts her arms up and slips out of your arms. When that failed she tried to wiggle out of my arms. Somehow I managed to pay while holding the screaming kicking child and Naomi (who was an angel) carried our things out to the car.

Once out of the store she was absolutely fine. No indication of any of the fit that had just occurred. Fabulous! Now at least I know some day I can make a fortune as her manager.

Learning to color

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:55:54 -0700

Naomi loves all artwork. She loves to paint and color. She is struggling a bit with coloring more than lines and the occasional circle-like-figure. I got this Kumon Let’s Color book hoping it would help her. Well, if you ignore the price ($5.95 on Amazon or buy 3 get 1 free) it is a great book! I highly recommend it to anyone with a kid older than Daphne. Actually, Daphne could probably benefit from it as well but let’s do one kid at a time. There is actually a whole series of these beginner books that we got and I love them. Just wanted to pass this along... In just a day I can see improvement in Naomi’s ability to control her crayon.