21st Century Child

He may not know the difference between recording a video and watching a video, but he certainly knows how to use an iPhone. This is none of our childhoods!

 

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Quick Dinners

One of my goals for this year is to have a few fast dinner recipes as go-tos for those days when 1-hour-meal prep isn't feasible. As Isaac's activity level increases and as our family grows, I'm going to need to start thinking about fast gourmet. But I also don't want to give up on eating healthfully. So I've been kind of picky.

 

 

 

Here is a quickie that you probably already know about:

 

Herb Roasted Potatoes

 

What I didn't know is that it's much faster to thinly slice them into wedges and throw them into a bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil and spices, and to toss them in the bowl -- as opposed to sprinkling each spice over an entire cookie tray, flipping the wedges, and spicing the other sides. (See, I knew you already knew not to do that. I, however, spent an entire year of marriage doing that. Thanks to Cooking Light, I know this trick!) Also, I've started skipping all the seasonings except for salt, pepper, and thyme. That's really all they need. Rosemary and sage are totally unnecessary. Rich and I love these potatoes added to almost any dish. Roast at 425* for 28 minutes.

 

 

 

The potatoes pair really well with red meat, but since we are trying to eat red meat only once a week, I pepper-crusted and pan-seared chicken with the gremolata from this recipe. It worked pretty well. Isaac even enjoyed taking the herb stems and throwing them into the garbage. This was a fun meal to make with him. It took about 25 minutes, most of which was spent on the gremolata:

 

Peppercorn-Crusted Chicken with Gremolata

 

 

 

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Of course, when you want fast, pasta is at the top of the list. This recipe combines some freshly-roasted tomatoes with a canned, pureed sauce. Boil & drain noodles, mix in spinach until slightly wilted, sauté tomatoes and garlic, add pureed canned tomatoes, and top with 2 tablespoons of Burrata cheese. This dish is excellent. There are a hundred variations on the tomato, cheese, leafy-green pasta; but I've enjoyed every last one. This took about 20 minutes. It was so fast that Isaac didn't even beg to help. He did, however, beg to eat some.

 

Spaghetti with Seared Tomatoes, Spinach, and Burrata

 

 

 

 

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I don't turn up my nose at canned food outright, either. We always have turkey chili, cheese, and  onions on hand for those days when five minutes of prep is what we need. Our favorite cornbread is this stuff. I particularly like that it has fewer calories than a lot of mixes, including Trader Joe's cornbread (one skimpy slice is more than 300 calories). So there you go:

 

Turkey Chili with Cornbread

 

Photo Credit: ClubTraderJoes.com

 

 

So, what are your favorite, fast dinners? What do you make when you're in a hurry but also want to eat on the healthier side using something you have at home?

 

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Thursday Treat

We try to limit dessert-intake to Thursdays & Sundays. It makes those days special and makes us appreciate dessert more. So today I bought Isaac something different because he's been really fascinated by cupcakes since this trip out. He was pretty delighted.

 

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The State of Our Union

Sometimes I reflect upon how blessed I've been to be married to Rich. Other times I'm so busy with housework and caring for Isaac and growing a baby that I don't think about it at all, which is kind of embarrassing because I've been so blessed in Rich. But this morning, after having the winter blues all day yesterday, Rich sent me out for a freshly-roasted coffee latte. Twenty minutes of sunrise and caffeine. All. By. Myself. I forgot how happy that makes me.

 

 

Rich is the perfect balance of intelligent and unpretentious; hardworking and laid back; professionally adept and humble (he knows he needs God). He helps with child care and housework and works on his shortcomings. Really, I don't deserve him at all. But I'm so grateful that the Lord reunited us anyway. Being with Rich reminds me of the promises Jesus makes about heaven -- a place where hopefully we all arrive -- but where no one actually deserves to be. He reminds me that it's good to have big dreams and to believe in them. I don't know where I would be without him (probably single and bitter).

 

I certainly wouldn't have discovered this place that roasts it own coffee beans every morning. Now this (below) is the best coffee I've ever had (to revisit the coffee post)! The roast is lighter, which is super-hard to find in the U.S. No more super-dark roasts that taste almost burnt (although you can order that if you want)!

 

Coffee with Rich's V-Day roses to me in the background. Have I mentioned that I love him?

 

 

 

For whatever reason, I've been a bit blue lately -- nothing super-serious -- just pregnancy hormones and a really long, cold winter (following an amazing winter last year) indoors with a toddler. It's just hard to adjust. There's a reason why so many people take vacations right now. Speaking of which, my amazing husband has something really special planned for us. I'm really excited but can't write about it yet. But I can say that it has to do with the little promise he made me when I was in labor with Isaac. :)

 

Foam: the frothed milk makes this drink.

 

 

One of the challenges of being in a relationship is knowing the balance between sharing your struggles and putting on a happy face because your spouse needs that more at the moment. One ladies' book club I attended had this discussion: what is the proper balance between cheerfulness and candidness? (We never came up with a solution.) I probably err on the side of sharing, but I'm also married to someone who prefers candid communication. So it works well for us most of the time -- like when I'm not using hyperbole to make a point.

 

Right now I am feeling really big and out of control. I feel big mostly because I still have 3.5 months of growing left. I'm on-target with my weight gain; but I'm also supposed to gain one pound a week between now and the delivery. That's hard to accept -- until I see Andre. Like Isaac, I'm sure it will all make sense when I hold him for the first time.

 

Keeping it real with my buddy at my side (...or standing on the table) and his finger smudges on the mirror.

 

 

On the positive side, I look at this picture and think that I look fine, and how lucky am I to have such a cute sidekick everywhere I go?! We can only do this stay-at-home-mom-thing because Rich worked so hard for it. Blues or no blues, I really love my boys and have a lot of good things coming!

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Grandparents Visit

Grandpa Richard and Grandma Helen came for a visit this weekend. Isaac went with his dad and Grandpa to see the Natural History Museum. They checked out some artifacts outdoors as well.

 

 

Isaac also practiced throwing and catching, which have helped him understand the concept of sharing.

 

 

 

Grandma made this book, Isaac's current obsession.

 

 

 

It has Velcro on it like his shoes.

 

 

 

And a zipper.

 

 

 

And a shoe lace.

 

 

 

And some snaps. Each latch opens to a surprise. Isaac enjoys opening them to discover what's inside.

 

 

 

There are buttons inside as well. He needs help with these "butts."

 

 

 

His favorite is what he calls the "buckle." He closes it and says "peas" until someone opens it so he can close it again.

 

 

 

There are a variety of latches, including some for more advanced fine motor sills. He loves a challenge, so this is good. He was thrilled about the zebra behind this buckle.

 

He points out things that he knows on the cover, like the penguin, giraffe, lion, and zebra.

 

 

 

On Sunday, we visited a remodeled McDonald's. I cannot believe how well McD's has adapted to the changing market throughout the years. It really is a perfect test case among free market venture successes. This menu listed calories next to each item. They offered at least three low-cal options. The McD's of today is not the McD's of my childhood. Isaac ate a sandwich.

 

 

 

I tried the Shamrock Shake because, of course, the MINT! Okay, it was good, but not worth 700 calories. I have to have one once a season to remind myself of that.

 

 

Isaac with Daddy, Grandma Helen, and Grandpa Richard. He was a little dazed due to lack of sleep due to teething pain -- poor little guy! He's working on the canines. They still haven't poked through yet. :(

 

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Mad Skills

Reading

 

 

 

Sliding

 

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Peek-a-Boo!

I wish I could take credit for these Peek-a-Boo skills, but I'm afraid an older guy in church is the reason Isaac knows it so well. At the end of Mass, Isaac always gets loud. We are almost always in the back next to another guy who likes to sit in back. Thankfully, the guy gets such a kick out of Isaac that he humors him from across the way. This makes Isaac laugh instead of scream, which makes us all much happier. This weekend, he was sticking his tongue out and playing Peek-a-Boo.

 

 

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Sweet Bed Time Stories

Rich was reading bed time stories tonight when something odd and disturbing caught my eye.

 

 

 

From across the room, I felt someone staring at me. I looked up and saw this face. It took up the entire back of the book.

 

 

The best part about it is that it's on the book itself, in addition to the book cover. So the only way to get rid of it is to discard the whole book.

 

Note to self: Relax the forehead and smile before you plaster your image on a book for small children.

 

I guess if Isaac wakes up with a night terror tonight, we will know exactly why.

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Dagwood Bumstead

It recently occurred to me that Isaac has a cowlick

similar to Dagwood Bumstead's.

 

Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org

 

 

We went to visit Rich at work on Wednesday.

His receptionist said, "Aw. He looks like Dagwood!"

What do you think?

 

 

 

Here is the cowlick in action:

 

 

 

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Why Blog?

Lately I've been wondering why I blog. Sometimes it seems a little silly, I have to admit. Part of me realizes that I don't actually have anything important to say. Also, anything that I could share has likely been shared by someone else in a better way already. I'm not a great writer. In fact, I'm confident that there are grammar and usage errors all over my posts. I really don't want to come across as "preachy" by blogging because I certainly do not think that I have all of the answers. (I've been thinking a lot with this cold I've had for the last three weeks -- now a bacterial infection.)

 

Isaac's neck-pinching fetish has morphed into a belly-button-touching fetish. He calls it his "butt."

 

 

On the other hand, if I look at the reasons why I started this blog, they are really simple: to make a space where friends and family from out of town (or whom I haven't seen in a while) can quickly get an update on what we've been doing. Blogger is a good site for that. It reduces the size of photos automatically, so that when you open the blog page, it should pull everything up quicker than if you were logging onto Facebook or downloading photos from your e-mail (helpful for people with slow Internet connection -- Hi, Mom & Dad!). Unfortunately, most of our extended family lives a great distance from us, thanks to the nature of our economy and the field of law today.

 

 

Isaac really loves his dad. He runs up to him and throws books at him when he gets home from work.

 

Another reason I blog is that blogging is an alternative to keeping photo albums (which I have several stacks of in our closets right now). I haven't made any photo albums since about 2004 -- mostly for lack of time and space -- though before that I had volumes and volumes made (one for each year; one for each trip, etc.). Blogging isn't a perfect solution, but it does record things now so that when I have more time, I can look back and select what I want to pull out in hard copy. I would hate to lose all of these years of memories because I didn't record them digitally.

 

Three teeth came within the last week -- two of them, molars. Isaac had to take a bite out of the football.

 

 

One thing is certain: the work that I'm doing now will have a lasting impact (thanks, Rich, Isaac, and Andre!). So, in a way I feel that blogging actually is really important. I know that when I'm older and empty-nested, there will be days when I look back over all of the photos of this life I've been given and think, Wow. I remember that moment when they put Isaac on my tummy for the first time. We were so happy that we almost cried -- except that we were too tired to cry -- but we were elated nonetheless. I'll remember the moment when the doctor told Rich and I that Clair's heart stopped beating, a pain that we could not have anticipated. I'll remember my incredulity when I saw Andre on the sonogram screen and said, "Can it be another boy?!" He just spread his legs apart and was hanging out like that (so different from what I would expect of a girl). It really made me smile to think that the Lord was writing his own story in our lives: Rich's, Isaac's, Clair's, Andre's and mine. Our family looks different than all of the others in our extended families, which is kind of exciting and kind of intimidating at the same time. Clearly, each of us is unique. The Lord has something special for our family to do. I'm sure it will involve struggles and joys. But I do believe that it will be an exciting ride.

 

 (Isaac's improved spoon skills.)

So I've come to the conclusion that it's okay not to be an amazing writer and to keep a blog still. I don't have to have 700 comments on every post or amazing photos or perfect grammar and a large vocabulary (though, I really appreciate all of those things). All I have to do is take care of my own family and try to improve one thing each day. That I can handle. And that's okay to blog about.

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