Life Is Good

...Well, except the Lenten weather which has finally made its appearance halfway through this penitential season. But even the days on end (5 now, I believe, after 2 solid weeks of sunshine!) of overcast skies, fog and melting snow can't dampen my spirits because I'm hopeful that this means an early (for MN) Spring. Having said that, I give the weather until the first week of April before I will get up my hopes for green grass, flowers and leaves on trees - until then I have no real assurances that Ms. Winter won't "bless" us with an extended stay.

This morning was a bit of a victory for my brain. When Lydia was about 4 months old I was diagnosed with classic post-partum depression (PPD) and a blood-test also showed that I was low on many important vitamins/minerals/chemicals. Since then, I've been dutifully taking quite a few pills to get myself healthy and balanced. Let me tell you, I feel better than I've felt in years! To the point, I woke up early this morning to nurse Lydia and was actually excited about the day...excited! I remember feeling like that when I was under 10 - every day was a brand new adventure, even if there was nothing in particular planned. Under 10 to 28 - that's roughly 18 years and suddenly I had a little taste of that again. Crazy. Wonderful. It's amazing what being in optimal health will do for a person.

Besides feeling great mentally and physically (did I mention, I'm also now below my pre-Lydia weight!) We've had an exciting week, but it's March and that appears to be our pattern:

March 2005 - got engaged

March 2006 - moved to Minnesota

March 2009 - closed on our house

March 2010 - bought a minivan! Hurray!

We may own the most beautiful minivan I've ever seen - well, the exterior anyway. The interior is, uh, used. But to be honest, I'd rather have a not-so-nice interior than exterior. When we're driving down the street, no one will know that there are weird stains, worn seats and patches on the ceiling. All they see is a gorgeous silver Dodge Grand Caravan Sport (2000). Yes, it's pretty. Thank you, Jesus. It was also a steal at $1600. Crazy. God is good. Hopefully it won't die tomorrow (we did have a mechanic friend look it over before we bought it).

Mark and I are on a roll, enjoying the many home projects we can accomplish as a team. I am so grateful for how well we work together. Doing projects with Mark is a great joy and and it's so fun to stand back and marvel at them together when they're done. I may have mentioned that we finished the drop ceiling - all except the small landing at the bottom of the stairs. Maybe I'll get to that this weekend. The downstairs office, hall and bathroom look SO much better! Now we're on to an office-to-bedroom conversion. Well, actually it will be more of an office/bedroom combination. Since we've had an average of a house-guest a month since we've moved in, we decided (ok, I decided and got Mark excited) to make our office space downstairs a guest room. We have my sister followed by Mark's parents coming for a stay in the next month and we're looking forward to them giving the new setup a spin.

I apologize for the absence of any pictures in these past months of posts. I really should get some up soon. The kiddos are so big now - Iain looks like a little boy instead of a big baby, and Lydia looks like a big baby because, well, she is. The house is beautiful as always, and getting better project by project. Like I said, life is good. God is good. It doesn't feel much like Lent around here - thankfully (?) we have the weather to remind us of the season. :) God bless you all!

What's New

Iain is standing on a chair at the kitchen counter, taking cinnamon rolls out of the pan and "cutting" them with a butter knife. I can't say I mind all that much since I'm planning to make them into bread pudding; they turned out rather dry, but hey it was a yeast victory and they are 100% wheat flour. :)

At long last Iain has given Lydia a name. For the first 6 months of her life she was just "baby" but he has recently started calling her "Dia" (pronounced dee-ah). It's a name I hadn't thought of in all the months of wondering what he would call her. I always assumed she'd end up being "Wih-dee" or something similar. I think Dia is just lovely!

I think I have perfected my hummus recipe. Here are my last few tips... Garlic: a couple ROASTED cloves. Yum. Garbanzo beans: peel them. It's easily done by pinching/rolling a bean between your thumbs and index fingers of both hands. The bean pops right out of the skin. This makes for a smoother humus. For an extra yummy flavor, roasted red pepper is delish! Wait to add any water until after the red pepper addition - I learned this the hard way.

Glancing over at Iain, I'm realizing that my hopes for bread pudding may be evaporating as the cinnamon rolls are being turned into stuffing crumbs. Perhaps it's time to intervene. Happy Wednesday!

For Heidi

I did think about posting the hummus recipe, but my silly brain tells me things like "your blog is turning into a cookbook" or "people that like hummus probably already have a good recipe" so I didn't. But you're right, it's worth sharing.

A little background: On Wednesday I was making a mexican lasagna, a dish based on the what-do-I-have-around-here concept of cooking. I intended to include a can of black beans but a 3 ft distraction meant that when I looked into the can I had just opened, I saw garbanzo beans staring back at me. Oops. I had bought them on a whim a couple months ago thinking that perhaps I'd make hummus...someday. Needless to say, those little beige beans in front of me meant that someday had arrived, well, sort of. I put them in the fridge for a soon-but-not-now-someday and opened the correct can of black beans and finished dinner.

Yesterday, I had planned on grabbing some Lenten Friday food at the grocery store. When my plans changed, I scoured the kitchen for a meatless meal solution. Lo, there were my garbanzo beans waiting for me in the fridge. ;) (hehe, yes, I just wrote "lo")

I've made hummus once or twice and I have to say I'm not a fan of tahini which seems a crucial ingredient. I've heard of substituting peanut butter but a) the thought kind of makes my stomach turn b) Iain's allergic and I really wanted him to be able to eat the hummus. Recalling that tahini is sesame spread, I wondered if I could substitute sesame oil. I googled it and came up with the following recipe from this link, that seemed quite promising: http://mideastfood.about.com/od/hummusrecipes/r/hummussesame.htm

• 1 can chickpeas or garbanzo beans, drained, rinsed and towel dried
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2-3 tablespoons warm water

Preparation:

In a food processor, blend chickpeas lemon juice and olive oil. Add garlic and spices, then sesame oil and water and blend to a smooth paste. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water if mixture is too dry.

I made a few adjustments to my version:

-I only used 1 tbs. sesame oil (the stuff is very strong)

-Because I used less of the above, I used a bit more water for a total of nearly 4 tbs.

-I did use 2 crushed cloves of garlic but even with 2 it was a LOT of garlic flavor. I'm thinking maybe next time I'll try using garlic powder for a less punchy flavor. That or perhaps just 1 fresh clove. If you try either, let me know how it works for you.

So, that's the great hummus recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you, Jesus, for friends!

Warning: this post may ramble.

Mark is gone for the annual Men's Retreat, leaving me here with my two favorite blessings. As much as I might gripe, internally (I hope), about Mark's busy work and school schedule, I must say that it has prepared me well to be 24/7 single-parent while he's gone. ...ok, except for getting up at the crack of 8 am with Iain. Yes, I'm spoiled.

Mark left at 7:30 this morning and I decided it was sleep-in day. Iain actually obliged after a bit of crying, and fell back to sleep (or gave up?) and we all slept in. I fed Lydia a couple times in there, but we all managed to get a few extra hours of sleep. It was wonderful. Surprisingly, Iain was rather hungry when we all got up and asked for "Daddy? Chicken?" as soon as I walked into his room. I'm sure it would warm Mark's heart to know that Iain has actually asked for him quite a few times today, and seems to know that it's just not right that he's not here.

Knowing that I had a full weekend of entertaining kiddos ahead of me, I planned, planned, planned. We started off with a bath for Iain, followed by running some errands. I was even successful in my find-a-reasonably-priced-exersaucer-hunt (from Once Upon A Child)! Iain seems to like it...Lydia does too, I think.

We all crashed for a late nap. I paid for it this evening, putting Iain down around 9 and having him up again for about 1/2 an hour at 10. Well, here's to hoping that he sleeps long in the morning (can you tell I'm not a morning person?) :)

I was going to cap off the day with a grocery run, but a friend called and asked if she and another friend could come over. Shortly thereafter, another friend called to say she was just finishing up Stations/dinner at church across the street and could she stop by. It was wonderful. I guess when the guy is gone the gals will call...hmm, that doesn't read as well as it sounded in my head.

The long and the short of it is that I had 3 friends over this evening and we all sat around and ate my homemade hummus (I found a great recipe!) and watched speed-skating for hours. We also drank some Baileys. yum!

Well, Lydia is crying. No rest of the...well-rested, actually :) I'm delighted to say! Let's pray it stays that way and that I make it to Sunday with my sanity intact-ish.

God bless you all!

"Why buy pizza ever again?"

This was Mark's question, last night, after a homemade pizza victory. To be honest, I've never tried to make homemade pizza. If you've read my recent adventure with cinnamon rolls, you may correctly guess why: pizza dough is a yeast bread. 'Nuff said.

Besides being scared off by the prospect of making yeast dough, there is just no way to get around the fact that homemade pizza is not the real deal. I suppose one might convince oneself that homemade pizza is a different product all together and thereby move beyond that hindrance, but as good as I might be at self-brainwashing, I still love "real" pizza too much, and hate yeast dough too much, to want to waste time on a sub-par homemade pizza. If you've ever had homemade pizza, you're probably well-acquainted by the deficiencies: (and I mean no offense to my mother who makes a darn good homemade pizza - as homemade pizzas go). The temperature (or lack) of the oven is largely to blame. Pizzas made on a cookie sheet or other flimsy metal baking pan are the worst of the worst. They end being something between casserole and lasagna. Whatever they are, they're not pizza. Pizza made on a pizza stone is a vast improvement, as the stone absorbs a great deal of heat and does to the crust what a baking sheet/pan could never do - gives it its crustiness. However, even this lends itself towards a dry crunchy/tough crust and, true American that I am, I'm not looking for some dry fancy thin crust, no, I want that amazing deep-dish experience that you can only get from your local pizzaria. You know what I mean - ok, let's admit it: greasy, crusty on the outside, soft and lovely on the inside, deliciousniciousness that is "real" pizza.

How to accomplish this? Was it even possible?

That was why I never wasted my time on homemade pizza. Until one day, when I had a three-word-epiphany:

Cast. Iron. Skillet.

Even then, it took awhile for me to brave the experiment. It wasn't until we were so desperately out of groceries that all I could scrounge up for dinner was a list of the following:

-Frozen roll dough (storebought - a wonderful way to get around making the dreaded yeast dough!)

-Sharp Cheddar Cheese

-Shredded Parmesan Cheese

-Ham delimeat

-Red Onion

And that's when I put it together, along with the jar of pizza sauce sitting in the cupboard, bought just after my epiphany, in hopes that one day the dream would come to life.

I defrosted 9 frozen dough balls in the oven and when doubled in size put them in an oiled bowl and kneaded them together. I let that rest for a bit and when it looked alive, I transferred it to my well-oiled (bottom and sides!) cast iron skillet. I only have a 12" pan, but I think I'll be buying a larger one for future pizza nights. (Note: I think 9 rolls was too many; I'll try 6 next time). I stretched the dough to fit, letting it rest for about 5 minutes when it wouldn't stretch more. (Note: I recalled, at the end, that the preferred method is to flatten the dough and grab it by the edge, so it hangs free and rotate the dough, allowing gravity to pull it to the preferred circular size. I will try that next time).

Having fit the dough to the skillet, I let it rise just a bit. Then came the fun part: making it yummy.

I put a garlic clove through a garlic press and spread the mush around the perimeter crust portion of the dough, followed by a bit of salt. (Note: I will use 2 cloves next time). The crust was completed by a liberal sprinkling of shredded parmesan cheese. (I left the cheese off a portion for Iain who is allergic to dairy).

I spread on the store-bought pizza sauce, cut up some ham, sliced some red onion, and topped it off with parmesan and shredded cheddar cheese (b/c that's what I had on hand).

I preheated the oven to a blistering 500 degrees and popped that sucker in. I baked it for about 12 minutes, but in the future will go for around 15, maybe even a bit more - we were hungry and impatient.

I also should have let it rest in the pan a bit longer after removing it from the oven, before serving it, as our seconds were a bit crispier on the bottom and thereby even more tasty than our firsts.

This was GREAT pizza. I highly recommend this method for homemade pizza. It bakes up to a delicious deep-dish crust with all the elements that I had previously found lacking in homemade pizzas: crispy without being dry, soft/chewy inside without being tough, good flavor (esp. the garlic/parm crust!), in a word: YUM!

Mark is attending the annual SPO banquet tonight, so I will be trying attempt #2 this evening. I'll let you know how it turns out. :)

P.S. You can't beat the price! I think the cost of this pizza was in the neighborhood of about $2-3. (Using cheese from Sam's Club cuts costs, otherwise cheese can get pricey).

Mommy's morning off...or not

I love my children; I really do. But when I got a call from the NET office, asking if I could come in for 3 hours to help address invitations for the annual NET banquet - with childcare and lunch provided, it was a no-brainer. Let's see: stuffing, stamping and addressing (which I enjoy doing) chatting with other lady friends (which I enjoy doing) letting other trusted folks watch my kids and give Iain some social time (which both of us enjoy) and free lunch (which I enjoy!) yep, sounded like a winner to me.

It was a nice morning. The only downside is that I had the "problem" children of the day. I told them, when I dropped Iain off, that he takes a couple minutes to settle in and goes through a bit of separation anxiety. This usually lasts from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. When he appeared with a NET staffer, not 5 minutes later, looking quiet content, I could only guess poopy diaper. Nope. Apparently, one of the other children told this NET staffer that Iain missed him mommy, prompting a visit to find me. Hunh. Any guesses how much childcare experience this staffer has had? I'm guessing not much. Perfectly pleasant Iain quickly turned into cling-to-mommy-as-though-your-life-depends-on-it Iain as I walked him back to the gym. About 10 minutes later a screaming Lydia was escorted to me, for feeding. I decided to keep her with me, as she does just fine playing on the floor. Not 10 minutes after that, another (inexperienced?) NETer brought Iain in again, with claims that he'd been asking to go to the bathroom. Now, Iain is big for his age, there's no denying that, but considering he was clearly wearing a diaper, it seems a likely guess is he's not potty-trained. Further, he wasn't poopy or very wet. Final verdict from every mom in the room: poor kid was trying any tactic he could come up with to use on these suckers to get himself back to mommy. Needless to say, he wasn't too happy about heading back to the gym, again.

After all that, I thought naps would be a cinch. But no, it was threatening to be a no-nap day for both my little ones, up until about 20 minutes ago. It's about the time when Iain usually gets up from his nap and I believe he's finally settled into one. Here's hoping.

In case you're worried for my poor children, I'll add that I'm fairly sure that Iain is a mini-me in regards to his need for mommy-attention. From what I've seen, his behavior in settings like the above is a fairly good barometer of his need for quality mommy time. So, I see quite a bit of that in our future. :)

Iain's Spa and Style

Mark and I are hoping to go to Hawaii later this year to celebrate our fifth anniversary. This may sound like a bit of a crazy dream to some, especially considering Mark's uh, modest, salary. However, if orbitz.com's package deals are any indication, this poor economy in which we have been living may once again do us a favor. We shall see...there are still quite a few variables to sort through, not limited to a nursing babe, future pregnancy (last night I had a dream about #3!), the cost of central a/c, purchasing a new-to-us minivan, etc. etc. In spite of all these obstacles, I am a firm believer that, as my father always says, money is a tool. If it's a tool, it's not the ends, and I am certainly not looking for a pile of cash to sit in for our fifth anniversary (or to drive around in, for that matter). I believe that we will have a wonderful fifth anniversary, however we celebrate it. (Though, come to think of it, the nursing babe and future pregnancy aren't really obstacles that can have money thrown, or not thrown, or whatever, at them.) hmmm.

Just in case Hawaii doesn't pan out, I am blessed to live with Minnesota's greatest masseur. He's an exceptionally talented 2 year old. He doesn't know he's a masseur, and seems to be under the impression that mommy's back is the world's funnest jungle-gym. It works like this: I'm exhausted and lie down on the living room floor. Iain comes over and climbs, walks and tumbles all over my back. It's wonderful. What's not so wonderful, as I discovered this morning, is when he has shoes on - not because of my back; in fact, with the strength of the knots in my back, the shoes feel great - but rather because when he stepped on and subsequently slid off my head, my hair stayed with his shoe and I heard and felt a rather agonizing riiiiiiiiip and saw a lovely bunch of my hair walk across the floor attached to his shoes. Ouch. As much as I'd love to have a chic-short hairstyle, this isn't the way I had envisioned achieving it.

Married to a saint

Knowing that a happy wife makes a happy home, Mark spent the evening redoing my laptop. Being "amish" I can not explain what he did, but what I do know is this: things look a little different and my keystrokes appear immediately. Hurray! :)

For those of you waiting with great anticipation to hear what Mark thought about my outfit, yesterday, his exact words upon entering the house were "interesting outfit." He wasn't sold on it until he read my blog at which point he said he supposed he might be coming around to it.

As for my recent post about desiring greater creativity, I did not intend to belittle or ignore whatever "gift" I may have as a writer - and while I do acknowledge enjoying writing, I also know that my grammar, punctuation and word usage often leave much to be desired. I consider my writing akin to my opinion of playing basketball: I love "street ball," but start focusing on the rules and roles and I quickly lose interest. Additionally, writing is fun and I enjoy sharing my thoughts and stories, but it's not a material craft, and I suppose that's what I was getting at. All that aside, it's so nice to know that there are some out there in internet land who read and enjoy my posts - otherwise I don't think there would be any convincing Mark or myself that this was at all a worthwhile use of my time!

To close, I'll leave those of you in dreary MI wishing you were here: It's a beautifully cloudless sunny day and we've got about 25+ inches of accumulated crisp white snow on the ground. On the not-so-positive side of things, this is a classic headache day. It's just too darn bright. Oh the things I have to suffer through here in gorgeous Minnesota. :)

Sasquatch Lives!

Today, I feel ridiculously feminine and I'm hazarding a guess that it's a good thing Mark isn't here to "appreciate" it. I'm sure you recall my prior mention of a hatred for current fashion that demands layering in order to be decent. (I'm also feeling similarly toward my laptop, which is displaying my typing with a 10 keystroke delay.) Perhaps this is another veiled (pardon the pun) answer to my prayer for increased creativity, but I have suddenly found myself dreaming up strange new wardrobe ideas. Today, for instance, I am wearing my new post-post-partum-but-not-quite-"my"-size-yet jeans (regardless, I feel very skinny in them because the cut is fabulous!) and a gray turtleneck sweater on top of which I have on a short-sleeved, lowish-cut blue blousey shirt. I can only imagine what my sister, who never let me live down wearing sweaters UNDER my overalls as a child, would say! :) Yes, I have layered on top of a sweater. Strangely, I love the look - it's got an early 60s vibe to it, I believe. As I already mentioned, I'm not sure Mark would feel the same...but by the time he comes home from work I'll have had a few hours to decide if it's presentable enough to demand that he conform to my unusual fashion expression.

As for the title of this post, my look is completed by my new shoes. New Shoes!!! This is a rare treat for someone like me - wearer of the elusive size 12 shoe, as many of you know. On a family date at the Mall of America, we stopped in Norsdstrom Rack (think high-end TJ Maxx) because they carry larger shoe sizes, though their selection is usually paltry at best. Mark was excited to see that they have their semi-annual large shoe sale coming up on Feb. 20th and quickly signed up to receive mailings for these events. He felt a little silly signing up for women's shoe info, but I appeared at his side, large feet in tow, to save him from embarrassment.

We briefly perused the rack where Mark found a shoe and tossed it to me to try on. I was skeptical until it was on my foot, then it was love. True love. I was even wearing normal socks, not thin ones, and it was the most heavenly shoe experience - there was even space to wiggle my toes! And did I mention the style? Beautiful brown suede "ballet" flats. So cute! So feminine! So......SIZE 13?!?!?! Well, that explained the comfort. I'm trying to laugh so I don't cry. Meanwhile I'm chanting to myself a mantra about size not mattering if they're cute and comfy.
We bought them and I'm wearing them, and I love them. I'm coming to terms with the fact that these may be the most comfortable shoes I've worn in years, and now I know why...my feet are bigger than even I imagined. Sasquatch indeed. Thank you Lord for Nordstrom Rack and their upcoming large shoe sale event. There is my silver lining.

By the way, for any of you fellow large-footed women out there, I've come up with a more self-esteem-friendly way to describe my large feet, as well as my large hands: I simply have long bones. Doesn't that sound so much more elegant? With the good comes the bad and a side-effect of having long bones, which makes for long legs (the envy of many women, to be sure) comes other long bones - feet, hands, arms (I've given up wishing for shirts that have sleeves that reach my wrists). So, I will try to be happy with my long bones that have given me long legs and be grateful for stores like Nordstrom Rack who have remembered us long-footed women.

A little bit of everything

The other night, I had a dream about grass...lawn grass mind you, nothing of the illegal sort. On that note, I'm looking forward to having some again in a few months. Last year I gave myself permission to ignore the yard while adjusting to a new home and a new baby. I knew I'd have 9 months of winter in which to plan exactly what I wanted to do with my 1/3 of a beautiful acre. Having awoken from my winter coma, I realize that it's already February and I haven't given our outside property a single thought, other than to occasionally notice that the sidewalks and driveway need to be shoveled. Some of our ideas include a "christmas" tree in the front, a bird-feeder within view of the kitchen window, a vegetable garden in the back, other flowers in the front....yes, well, we shall see.

In other news, my parents were here for the past week and we had a wonderful time with them. Iain is now a 2 year old and the proud owner of many fabulous new toys. I just hope we have more sons so that all these boy-toys get plenty of use! :)

For the past few months, I've been moping about not being a particularly creative person. I have so many artistically gifted friends that it makes my lack of creativity that much more apparent to me. Additionally, while they constructively spend their "free" time doing all sorts of wonderful crafty things, I find myself at a bit of a loss when I find myself with some time on my hands. While I could knit another scarf or do a puzzle, I don't simply want to waste time, rather, I have a desire to be productive even while passing the time. So, silly as it seemed, I asked my women's group for prayers in this regard. I wanted a worthwhile and productive past time or hobby. Little did I know, I was living amidst the answer.

Though it took a good two weeks or so to make the connection (how blind we are at times) no sooner had I asked for prayers for this, than I had a burning desire to finish the drop-ceiling downstairs. Additionally, out of nowhere I found myself dreaming about repainting the stairs. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that my first thought was "am I pregnant?!" How else could I explain this sudden nesting fit I was experiencing. As you might guess, I am not and further, as is true for most women, I do not "nest" until the latter months of pregnancy. It was not until I arrived at women's group on Monday that I made the connection. I excitedly shared the good news of my answered prayer and how I had just completed the office ceiling and am looking forward to finishing up the rest. "Ambitious" was the word one of them used, but I suppose it's all one's abilities. I consider many of their creative outlets quite a bit more ambitious than my ceiling or stairs simply because I do not share their natural giftings in those areas. Regardless, it's wonderful to have projects to do and insodoing improve our home and therefore our family life. Hurray! and Praise the Lord! :)

Could this be love? (er, of a materialistic nature)

Yes, I'm Amish. Ok, I'm not. I'm finally admitting it. I'm simply a computer-illiterate child of computer-literate parents with computer-literate siblings. That's why I think my dream may have just come true:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/27/apple.tablet/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Will I ever own one? Not likely. Will I insist on going to the Apple Store so I can see it when it comes out? Um, probably. :)

Is it time for a change?

Do you have the winter blues? Are you looking for more sun than not, fallen snow that doesn't melt until Spring and friends close by? Well, do I have the house for you!

Without giving out our exact location (I hope) I'll simply say that this house is close enough to ours that we could reasonably call ourselves neighbors...

http://www.mnhomesonline.com/HomeDetail.aspx?MLSID=3868967&MLSProviderID=6&ListingNum=1&SearchNum=1&SearchType=1

According to our county's website, this house is on the market for about 60k under tax value. That's quite a steal, in my opinion.

To Beat the Clock

It's nap time in the Archibald home, or was until about 3o seconds ago when I decided to start a blog entry. I knew I was running short on time, but had to chuckle when I heard the first sounds of wakeful life as soon as I opened my laptop. Go figure.

Just thought I'd share that I've had a truly wonderful day. After dropping Mark off at the office, the kiddos and I picked up "Ah-geek" (Iain's version of Lydia's Godmother) and off we all went to IKEA. We spent the better part of 3 or so hours wandering and rewandering through that delicious store. Yes, delicious. It's a feast for the eyes.

After successfully extracting ourselves, having purchased only what we intended to buy (unless you count a 99 cent lint brush, which I do not) I came home, plopped the kiddos down for naps and headed off the gym while Ah-geek stayed and held down the fort. THANK YOU! I watched parts of 2 Duggar episodes while working up a sweat and returned home.

Ah-geek and I enjoyed an omelet apiece for a late lunch and then she headed out. I ate a bite or two of chocolate and headed for the shower. There is nothing better than a hot shower...esp. when the water doesn't turn cold 3 minutes later. Often that happens. I have trained myself to enjoy a snappy quick hot shower and jump out while the water is still hot rather than lingering until the 4th minute when the hot water runs out and I become wet and cold and shivery. Fortunately, my hairdryer that I left in MI over Christmas has been returned so I have that as a back-up for immediate heat if I miscalculate the amount of hot water I have left. A cold shivery end to a shower followed by hours of cold wet hair is not a pleasant experience.

As you may have noticed, that one peep has been followed by silence, and I have completed a completely random blog entry for your enjoyment. Off to start dinner. What a day :)

Of Yeast and...

Having recently acquired a beautiful Food Processor (FP) with a contraption and buttons that knead dough, I decided it was time to try my hand at a yeast bread...again. yikes. I've attempted a number of yeast breads in my 4 years of marriage. In all these attempts, I don't recall a success. What I do remember is hours of work and mess and waiting and more work and flour everywhere and at the end of all that, a rubbery underbaked non-risen lump of breadish substance. To put it bluntly, yeast bread and I are not friends.

As already mentioned, one of the reasons I desperately wanted this FP was that it removed me from the grotesque and laborious process of kneading. Yes, Amish though I will ever claim to be, I must admit that God knew what He was doing when he gave me life during this gadget-filled era.

While grocery shopping last week I managed to muster up enough courage to pick up 2 packages of yeast. For those frequent bakers out there, you know that a package is actually 3 packets in a row. How much each of those packets contains was heretofore a mystery to me. Thank you, yeast sellers of the world for simplifying and thereby confusing something so important. To my knowledge, there are no other baking items that are sold in individual portions for the "ease" (read: confusion) of the inexperienced baker who has to use that nifty invention called a measuring spoon/cup for EVERYTHING else that goes in a baked product. Well, complaining aside, I bought them.

Yesterday was THE day. I was going to put my beautiful FPs kneading thingy to work. Gloriously, both kids were sleeping and I knew I had a couple of hours free from motherly duties. I settled on cinnaomon rolls figuring that even if they ended up like my previous yeast bread attempts, at least they would still be sweet and cinnamon-y. In otherwords, I would still eat them.

Breaking the Cardinal Rule of cooking - make sure you have all the ingredients BEFORE you start -I realized too late that I was short on flour...about 1/2 short. Oops. My cupboards are full of an odd assortment of flour and flour-like substances. I quickly nixed the whole wheat option. I'm sure 1/2 whole wheat wouldn't have been too bad, but thinking I must have a better option, I kept hunting. That's when I came across an unopened package of wheat-free, gluten-free flour that I had bought for Iain a while back. It claimed a 1:1 substitution for wheat flour. Perfect.

Prior to adding the flour, I had to add the dreaded ingredient...the YEAST. The recipe, from my mother, stated "2 yeast cakes." Looking at my little row of yeast packets and knowing there was nothing resembling a "cake" inside, I picked up the phone and called my mom. Dad answered. Mom was not home. What I should've done next is turned to the internet, but no, I had a vague notion that the package would tell me. Low and behold, it stated clearly that 3 packets of yeast (1 package) equalled 1 two-ounce yeast cake. Problem solved. I had 6 packets which would equal 2 yeast cakes.

Looking at my recipe and my 6 packets of yeast, this seemed to me to be a great quantity of yeast, but I, the inexperienced and wounded yeast-baker, figured that I should probably err on the side of caution and add all the yeast that I thought was being called for rather than risk the alternative, with which I was too well acquainted.

In went 6 yeast packets, followed by a harmonious mixture of gluten-filled and gluten-free flours. I pressed the dough button. Hey presto, my mass became dough. Hurray!...until I took off the lid. PEEE-YOU! Something didn't smell right. Well, it's not like it was rancid (though that was my first guess, but the dates were all fine) but it certainly didn't smell like the cinammon roll dough of my youth. Nor did it taste like it.

By this time I was chatting on the phone with my sister, Heidi, who had by then suggested that perhaps a "yeast cake" equaled a single packet of yeast (which, by the way, was later confirmed by my mom) rather than the erroneous 2 oz yeast cake substitution mentioned on the back of the package (no doubt put there by yeast sellers who are trying to make a tidy profit off of inexperienced bakers who don't know what a "cake" is.) I explained the whole flour substitution to Heidi and how this mass just didn't smell right. While talking, I reached for the gluten-free package to determine exactly what "flour" I had just made my dough with. Ingredient number one: GARBANZO BEAN flour. Need I say more? fava bean flour was also mentioned.

Yuck.
Yuck.
Yuck.

Instantly I knew exactly what I was smelling/tasting. I was making bean-flavored cinnamon rolls. With about 3x too much yeast. So much for a healing-of-memories baking session.

Looking at my rising mass of sweet bean dough, I knew I had 2 choices: forge ahead or chuck the thing in the garbage. Knowing that the hard part was behind me, I figured I might as well perservere too the end and if it was all as bad as I feared, the garbage would still be standing in the corner as a willing recipient of my hard work.

A bit of melted butter and a veritable ton of cinnamon/sugar (yes, I was trying to drown the bean flavor) a bit more rising and I threw them in the oven. 15 minutes later, out they came, looking absolutely beatiful and promising to be delicious morsels of tastiness...a promise I knew they couldn't possibly keep.

Iain and I tasted them while they were still warm. Iain enjoyed them, but then again, I don't think he's ever had cinnamon rolls so bean or no bean, he would love them. I on the other hand, definitely detected the bean flavor. Fortunately, post-oven the flavor was significantly reduced. Today, a day later, either my taste buds have completely failed me, or the cooled and rested rolls have assumed a near-normal flavor. The only significant evidence they give of the bean flour is their crumbly texture. As for the yeast, my mom further explained the yeast needs gluten to work, and using gluten-free flour probably wouldn't produce an adequate rise. Therefore, my overuse of yeast most likely worked in my favor.

Thank you FP for inspiring me to plunge into a yeast education. And thank you to my mom for returning my call.

All About Iain

Iain, who will be two at the end of this month, has recently developed a preference for nakedness (diaper excepted, thankfully!) Right now it is a frigid, though cloudless and beautiful, 1 degree and Iain is prancing around the first floor in only his night diaper which is sagging it's way down to his knees. Granted, I do have the electric fireplace on and he occasionally stops in front of the heat-blower and stands there for a moment warming himself before running off to grab another Cheerio.

Iain has quite an extensive vocabularly these days, though he has yet to string words together into sentences. He loves to learn the word for anything and everything and will frequently point to something and speak jibberish until we tell him the correct word. Other times, it's just a guessing game to try and figure out what he is trying to say to us, and we frequently find ourselves listing off possible words that sound vaguely like what he is saying, until he says "yeah" or "yeth" and nodds that we've landed on the word he was trying to say. The problem with this is that Iain is a yes man. I could ask him if he wants to eat cement for lunch or sleep in a big blue balloon and he will say "yeah!" Pretty much the only things he consistently says "no" to are getting dressed, diaper changes and nap/bed time (unless he's tired, in which case he readily agrees).

He is also trying to master on/off and up/down which he frequently mixes up. For instances, this morning he was trying to unzip his pajamas and repeating "on"....

Oh my! He just came over to me, patted his diaper, said "poop" and then faked a grunt - clearly not actually pooping. What a ham. I love this kid!

He has mastered "Mommy, Daddy, baby" however, he refuses to even attempt "Lydia." I know he can't say the L sound, so that's not too much of a surprise. I suppose "baby" will have to do for now.

Speaking of which, when Mark and I picked him up from childcare at the Y the other day, there was my little guy's guy giving a baby doll a toy bottle. When I called him over, he looked at me and reluctantly put down the doll and put the bottle in the play microwave.

He loves to keep me posted on all the various vehicles that drive past our house. With the snow we've been getting, this includes large snowplows, which he calls tractors, or "tah-tet." All large trucks and buses are "bus," as is any vehicle he doesn't know the name of. Occasionally he will substitute "ruuuuuum" (his version of a vroom noise) for "bus."

This has been a fun post to write; I don't think I do this enough, even if all you faithful readers find it a bit boring to read about my son. Thankfully for you, that night diaper is now sagging its way closer to his ankles and desperately needs to be changed. Poor Iain will soon be clothed and miserable. :)

Staying Warm In 2010

Eight hours after arriving, the heating company is finally pulling out of our driveway. They spent the day installing our new (and did I mention FREE!!! - I love my county!) 95% efficient furnace. "Buh bye," as Iain would say.

Today was a relatively warm Minnesotan day, hitting a high of 15 degrees (feels like 6). It was a good day to have no furnace for 8 hours, wouldn't you agree? So, one might ask, how do you stay warm for 8 hours with no heat when a temperature somewhere between 6 and 15 degrees is trying to creep its way into your home? Why, bake of course! Yes, turn on the trusty (electric) oven and bake your heart out. Apparently I have a small heart for baking, since I only baked one item, though admittedly, brownies almost made an appearance during the 7th hour since I was getting cold, again. Mark dissuaded me by explaining that I could simply turn on the oven and not actually bake anything. I still think anything - esp. no heat - is a good excuse for brownies, but perhaps another day. ...I should also give ample props to our electric fireplace which was our other main heat source for the day.

Back to the one item I did bake - I'm afraid I may have made a stomach or two grumble as I fried up bacon and onions for some DELICIOUS cheese, bacon, onion quick bread. Yes, bacon, cheese and bread. What more could you want? Mark was nearly speechless with delight and wanted to know how in the world I came up with such a brilliant idea - well, first I had the idea and then I looked it up in my cookbook and followed the recipe. Sneaky, I know. As for the poor grumbly stomachs [of the furnace guys], no, I didn't offer them any. Maybe I should've...and maybe I should've also offered some to the officers in the 2 police cars sitting in the church parking lot driveway directly opposite our house. A speed trap, no doubt. Mark suggested that perhaps they were staking out our house, but something tells me even with 3 heating company vans parked at our house, we're just not that interesting...perhaps its the "pumpkin people" next door (that a story for another day). The police left as soon as the children came out for recess, or as I put it: "Make the cops go away, send the children out to play." Thank you, please hold your applause until the end.

On a completely different note, you may have noticed that the title of this post is "Staying Warm In 2010." I'm guessing that if you're like me, when you read, you "hear" what you're reading - so, what did 2010 sound like as you read it?

Poll:

Is this year, 2010, pronouced:

A. Two-thousand-ten

or

B. Twenty-ten

Please let me know. My mother is adamant that it is B, and while I have to admit that twenty-ten is what my brain tells me when I read it, I still think that 9 years of saying Two-thosand -xx can't just instantly morph into Twenty-xx....can it?

Thank you, YMCA!

Thanks to my frequent visits to the fitness center of our local YMCA, I managed to shovel our front sidewalk, 2 private sidewalks, front steps and our driveway. I must give credit to our mystery neighbor who gave me a HUGE leg up by snowblowing most of those areas, giving me only about 1/3 as much snow as I might otherwise have had to shovel. The packed down areas on the driveway and the mounds of packed snow from the snowplows gave me some grief, but those back exercises I've been doing really paid off!

Did I mention I did this all during naptime and, miraculously, the kids are still sleeping. One cup of coffee later, I'm nearly thawed out (the temp is in the single digits). Oh yeah, and dinner is staying warm in the crockpot - butternut squash soup - easily made thanks to my new Cuisinart 11 cup food processor! (Thanks Mom, Dad and Mark) It was a birthday/Christmas present that I've wanted for over 4 years now, but was always scared off by the price tag.

Feelin' Blessed

As many of you might already know, Mark has recently become a "MacHEAD" (to quote a documentary I just dorkily watched). :) Anyway, the point of that is that I have inherited his Dell laptop and as a result I am able to write this post from my kitchen counter inbetween reheating leftovers for dinner. Yes, it's one of those nights. Iain is kneeling on a 2-step ladder by the counter while absent-mindedly eating a rice cake and playing with the top of one of my water bottles. Lydia just woke up from her nap and started crying. I guess this will be a short post.

For those of you with a YMCA in close proximity, I thought I'd share how much I love the Y!!! We are eligible for a discount which, combined with our Health Insurance discount means that if both Mark and I go 12 times a month, we pay a whopping $8 a month for our family. Yes, $8. Now, in reality, Mark doesn't go, but that's still just $28 a month for our family...and did I mention free childcare for up to 2 hours a day? Yep. Free. Wow.

If I'm not in stellar shape by my next birthday, I have NO excuse. ...don't quote me. ;)

Ok, hungry baby calls.

Some days are good days

I've been making it through each day. Not exactly words that make you smile, are they? I've realized this pattern in my life and I take full responsibility. I recently realized that I live each day looking forward to something, but that something isn't a date or time or event. In fact, I don't think it actually exists, but in the meantime I have been just trying to make it until then. The problem with this philosophy is that I have been missing the joys of each moment. The "now" if you will. In an effort to change this pattern, I'm trying so hard to find the joy of each moment.

Today, that has helped me particularly productive. I would also like to thank my children who have napped well and in fact are napping at the moment.

Today I:
-Ate breakfast before anyone under the age of 28 woke up. Hurray!
-Managed to feed, change and dress Lydia without waking Iain
-Got Lydia down for her nap
-Managed to get Iain fed, changed and dressed without any tantrums. Hurray!
-Took a prayer time with Iain, in which we looked through his Bible and thanked Jesus for everything he pointed to.
-Prepped a large picture frame and a larger mirror for spray painting
-Spray painted 2 coats on the picture frame (I'm afraid this sucker will need quite a few, darn oak!)
-Fed Iain lunch
-Got Iain down for a nap without him so much as tossing his pacifiers overboard in disgust
-Made "Peanutbutter chewies" with the gobs of ingredients that we have on hand (thank you WIC for the jars and jars of peanutbutter you bestow upon us.)
-Emptied the dishdrainer and washed all the "chewie" and breakfast dishes
-Cleaned out the refridgerator - who knew mold came in pink? well apparently it does, at least on zucchini.
-Somehow even managed to get in a blog post before heading off to do some laundry.
-Did I mention that it's only 1:30 in the afternoon? This might be a record for me (sorry if that sounds pathetic to you; perhaps you need a vacation!)

Special thanks to Lydia for helping me stay on top of laundry - last night was her 2nd blow-out-poop-in-the-armpit diaper. To be quite frank, there was about 1/4 as much IN the diaper as there was up her back. I'm not sure how she managed it, as it all happened while she was lying horizontal in my arms. You would think it would all go in the general direction in which the force was proppeling it, no?