Don't be jeal

These cheeks are seriously irresistible. No seriously, I can't stop kissing them.

Celebrate We Will

In 1998, we spent Thanksgiving in Turkey. My mom had this grand idea - turkey in Turkey on Turkey Day. Turkey was amazing -- though I don't think we actually ate any turkey. My mom and her friend did crash a Turkish wedding. What? Your mom isn't a wedding crasher?

One year, Alan and I met his sister, her family and his mom in New Orleans. We ate at an Italian restaurant on Thanksgiving night. Afterwards Alan and I hit up Harrah's for some blackjack. What? You don't frequent casinos on Thanksgiving?

This year, we stayed put. We had a small Thanksgiving with our family and Gagi and Pop Pop. Celebrate we did. After all, it doesn't matter if you are in Turkey or Atlanta Thanksgiving is about being with the ones you love.

Friday, the celebrating continued. It was Gagi's birthday. We passed the day visiting with good friends and family. What a fabulous long weekend we had. I hope yours was just as fulfilling.

Gobble, Gobble

Sunday night I tossed and turned. Try as I might, I couldn't sleep. It was not how I had hoped to start off the week. And as used to sleeplessness as I am these days, this lack of sleep was not due to my children. This time, it was my dad.

Last week my dad had his annual physical and after describing shortness of breath he was ordered to take a nuclear stress test. That in turn led to an angiogram which led to an angioplasty (removal of a blockage in his artery and the implantation of a stent.)

In the end all is well. The blockage was found and fixed before he sustained any damage to his heart. My heart was heavy with concern all week.

This Thanksgiving I am thankful (as always) for the health of my family. This Thanksgiving writing those words carries a bit more weight, a but more realism.

Every night when we pray with the girls, we discuss what we are thankful for; our family, our house, our health, our friends, our dolls, the mailbox?? etc. In doing this, I hope we are teaching our children to be grateful all year, to be grateful in spite of and because of trying times and challenges. In doing this, I acknowledge all of the blessings in my life. And today, I am so thankful that our family is well and that we have the privilege of spending the day together.

Hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Gobble, Gobble!

Obsessed

I am obsessed - and no, not with the show. Have you seen that show though, Obsessed? Fascinating really but not where I am going with this post.

I am obsessed with quinoa (keen-wah). Have you tried the stuff? I started hearing a lot about it over the last 6 months. Something about how it is a grain, some sort of super food. It all sort of went in one ear and out the other. I am all about healthy eating and trying new foods - but I had never tasted quinoa and I had no idea how to cook with it.

For the record (and according to Wikipedia), quinoa is a grain-like crop grown for its edible seeks. To me, it tastes and acts very similar to couscous. I think it is often used as a rice substitute.

My mom makes one mean chicken salad. Usually, she adds wild rice and grapes to it. But a few months ago, she substituted the rice with quinoa. That was all it took -- I was hooked. I am kind of a texture eater and I LOVED the texture of the quinoa. Since then, I have been adding it to soups, salads, pretty much anything I can think of.

This weekend my mom made it with lentils. This is her recipe adapted from this one here:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 1/4 cups water, plus 2 cups
• 1/2 cup lentils
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 lime, zested
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2-3 celery stalks, chopped

Directions

Put the quinoa in a sieve and rinse in cold water. In a large microwave-proof bowl with a cover, add the rinsed quinoa and 1 1/4 cups water. Cover and microwave on high for 9 minutes. Let it sit for 2 minutes then stir. Quinoa should be tender enough to eat, but with a little "pop" upon biting.

Put the lentils in a sieve and rinse in cold water. In a saucepan,simmer the lentils in 2 cups water until the lentils are tender, but not mushy, about 30 minutes. Drain and cool.

Saute the celery and carrots until tender.

In a small bowl, whisk the mustard and vinegar together, and drizzle in the oil to make an emulsion. Add the garlic powder, lime zest, and salt, and pepper, to taste.

To assemble the salad: In a medium salad bowl, mix the quinoa, lentils, celery, carrots, green onions, and chopped cilantro. Top the salad with the dressing, toss to coat and serve.

Leave Your Sleep

Once upon a time, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to music. I listened to it as often as I could. I loved discovering great new songs by artists I knew and I loved discovering artists I hadn't heard of.

Then I had children.

Suddenly, the Wiggles sounded good to me. Imagination Movers rocked. And LIVE music -- forget it. How could I see a show that started at 10pm? That is when I am going to bed. It was a sad, sad situation.

To further complicate things, my children are really into music.....and they have very definitive opinions about the kind of music they like. These days, they ONLY want to hear female singers. Hey - at least we have moved beyond the Wiggles, right?

Recently I discovered Natalie Merchant's new cd, Leave Your Sleep. You can hear it playing in the background of the video. The girls LOVE it. They spent an hour choreographing dances to the cd on Friday.

The cd has so many different styles of music; from folk music to Irish/celtic to reggae. There are some musician who contributed who you will recognize (Medeski, Martin and Wood) and others you might not (Katell Keineg).

The lyrics are actually poems -- ee cummings, some nursery rhymes, etc. The song in the video is ee cummings.

I love it and the girls love it and thank goodness it isn't Imagination Movers!

You can listen to the song here. Check it out it will be worth you while.

P.S. Now watch the video again and check out Sweet Latham watching the girls dance.

MAGGIE AND MILLY AND MOLLY AND MAY

E. E. Cummings (1894 – 1962)

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

Kickin' it in the classroom

We have been kickin' it in kids' classrooms the last few weeks. I went to Vaughan's class to help with some sort of Garden Party. You see, the class has been working in the garden and this party was supposed to celebrate the final harvest. I'll be honest, I had no idea what the party was about. I just showed up and did was I was told.

The children read a book about a garden going dormant in the winter and then we "harvested" seeds for next year. Each child scraped out tomato seeds that are going to be dried and then used again next year for planting.

The party ended with a feast of fried green tomatoes and caprese salad. Vaughan made weird faces and refused to try both.

Alan also paid V's class a visit today. He lead the class in some hokey pokey. I am hoping to post some pictures of that soon - cuz I am thinking they will be pretty funny.

Last week at dinner, Vaughan announced something about the sun dying, being in heaven...She proclaimed that her teachers told her this. It was a cloudy day - but I found it a bit odd that her teachers told her that the sun had died.

Later that night, I received an email from her teachers. Sunshine, their pet bird, had passed away. RIP Sunshine.

Tomorrow - I am heading to Ellery's classroom. Nothing like kickin' it in pre-K.

Around here

We have been hanging around the house a lot lately - mostly because it is fun but also because it has been COLD here. Burrr...and, yes, I know I am a wimp. So those of you in MN, Canada, NY, just got ahead and laugh now.

Latham has become the ultimate cuddler. She gets in there good and close and breathes her sweet baby breath right on you. It is heavenly.

Oh and for those of you who have been wondering, Ken is alive and well and still, um, without clothes. For the love of grape seeds - can we get some clothes on the poor man? He must be cold!

So much to catch up on

I probably have a total of 90 seconds to get this post up. The girls are playing in the basement and the baby is on her mat staring at me. If she could talk she would be saying, "Mama, pick me up and love on me some." And that is just what I plan on doing in a few short minutes.

There is a lot to catch up on. We have been busy having Garden Celebrations at school, cooking lots of soup (potato leek, lentil, vegetable) and growing.

Seriously - check out Latham's cheeks. She is a growing girl. By the way, that is Gagi behind the Bert head. Her costume rocked and so did Halloween. I think it was the best weather we have had in a long time.

OK - time is up. I have lots and lots and lots of fun photos to share...hoepfully I will get them up here soon!