Tapas

Dave & I expanded our culinary experience by eating at a tapas restaurant for the first time...AND WE LOVED IT!

If you aren't aware tapas is from Spain and basically you are served hot or cold appetizers one at a time. The food comes on small plates that have about 3-4 bites you share with your companion. It is a very leisurely eating experience(2-3 hours) as you don't have or even order your food all at once, only small portions one at a time.


As novices to the tapas experience, we were lucky to walk into the restaurant on the very day they started an all-you-can eat sampler menu. There were probably at least 50 hot and cold tapas items on the menu. You could only order each item one time, to encourage variety and sampling. It was perfect for us. Did I mention it only cost $15.95 per person?!

Suprisingly, our favorite dish was watermelon drizzled in honey and balsamic topped with goat cheese and pistachios. We also loved the bacon wrapped dates. Dave was crazy for the baked goat cheese, that you spread on thick-sliced grilled bread with tomato sauce. I liked the grilled lamb with orange yogurt sauce. Actually all the sauces were very good.

We want to go back, come with us next time!

Mind the Gap

This past week was tough on Paige. She only went to school one day this week because she was home sick with a terrible stomach virus. Poor girl couldn't keep a thing down. It was probably a good thing she couldn't eat because her two front teeth were super loose. So loose, that by the end of the week, both teeth were out. One went to the tooth fairy and the other went to dad. Dave, paid her double for the front tooth she chipped when she was 1. She wrote a note to the tooth fairy, it went like this:

"The TOOTH FAIRY,

i gave my Dad MY TOOTH Becas it was chipt AND it was cool it was my 6th TOOTH."

To commemorate the loss of her front teeth, I took her and Ashley to see the movie Tooth Fairy. Not really the best movie I've ever seen, but Paige loved it and that's what counts.

Bummer!

I have waited six weeks to eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup vanilla custard shake. Today was the day I was finally going to indulge. I ordered the shake, but when I brought it home and started eating it, I realized I was eating nougat and caramel not peanut butter. My shake got mixed up with Dave's, HE ATE MY WHOLE SHAKE AND DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE HE WAS EATING PB CUP INSTEAD OF SNICKERS UNTIL I COMPLAINED THAT MY SHAKE HAD THE WRONG CANDY IN IT!

Don't worry, I still ate the Snickers shake, but was just a little bummed it wasn't what I had been waiting for.

To Procrastinate or Not

I am a bit of a procrastinator. I say a bit because I don't do it all the time or in all facets of my life, but I do have a list and once things get put on the "Procrastination List" well, as the title might suggest, they stay on that list for a while.

Here are a few items currently residing on my Procrastination List. (I'm not telling how long some of them have been there!)
1- Sew the buttons back on Paige's peacoat
2-Clean out the Primary closet at church
3-Scrub the master bathtub
4-Move the water barrel to a better location
5-Finish passport applications

The list goes on, but you get my point. The funny thing is that as I look at this list, nothing is particularly difficult or time consuming, but these to-do items have made it onto "the list" so now they just have to wait. For me however, the irony of my Procrastination List is that although it is a source of guilt over things left undone, it also becomes a source of happiness, because if you need a pick-me-up, nothing is better than to do one item on that list. If I can finish and cross something off, TADA! I am feeling good and pretty happy with myself at least for the rest of the day. So in the end, maybe it's okay that I procrastinate?

V-Day

I don't know why but Valentine's Day this year just felt hectic. A lot of it had to do with school-related festivities, like making Valentine boxes, trips to the store for Valentine cards and candy, addressing all the cards, planning and volunteering for class parties. All this along with trying to maintain our family traditions made the run-up to Valentine's Day just plain busy!

MAKING COOKIES
(Yes, Paige is wearing a swimsuit in the middle of winter, earlier she was pretending it was a leotard so she could dance to Beyonce's All the Single Ladies.)

By the time, the weekend rolled around, Ashley was sick (poor girl couldn't move off the couch for two days) and Dave was working but we did celebrate with this

and this

and these


And the grand finale wasn't even food. We read the "Love Notes" we had been writing each for the past two weeks--there were lots of laughs, sweet thoughts, and tender moments. After it was all over, when I went upstairs to lay my tired head on my pillow, I was greeted by this note, taped to the wall by my 6 year old daughter:

Sometimes It's Better Not to Speak Your Mind

Ashley came home a few days ago excited to tell me that her teacher told all the kids to make a Valentine's box to bring to school Friday. There is going to be a contest and the person with the best box gets a free homework pass.

She was so excited but this is what I was thinking:

What? A Valentine's Box! We just made boxes for family home evening a few days ago--I am done with it, finished, crossed that bridge! If Paige's teacher can give parents plenty of advanced notice, why can't Ashley's teacher? The box Ashley made is too small to hold all the valentines she will get from school, so that means we have to make a new one, which means, more supplies, more mess, and more work...ugh! Plus it is a contest and she is probably going to want to do something fancy. I am leaving this up to Ashley, it's her project.

But this is what I said:

"How fun! Okay, I guess we have to make another box. Do you know what you want to do?"

Ashley wanted to make her box look like a Panda. Thank goodness for the internet. We Googled and found an example on line. I gave the girls the idea of using tissue paper for fur, but the girls did all the work. Paige was a great help.

UPDATE: Ashley's box won first place. She was thrilled.

Well, That Wasn't Too Bad

It's been done, it was painless, we survived, there were no surprises, no one seems to be emotionally scarred, in fact things are pretty much normal...

Yep, I sat Ashley down and had the first "birds and the bees" talk with her. Just the introductory basic stuff, with a few very scientific anatomy drawings.

Of course, I realized that I can't just do a huge information dump on her and expect any of it to sink in---this was just Round 1, we definitely have got a few more rounds to go as she gets older.

Sock Hop and Breakfast with Books

This past week has been very busy with school-sponsored activities. In addition to "I Love Math Night" the girls also danced the night away at the Family Sock Hop. Dave, who worked from home that day, went on SUPER DAD duty and took the girls to the dance, while mom stayed home to exercise and enjoy a quiet house.

This morning, we woke up early and trudged through the snow to Breakfast with Books. At the breakfast we ate some donuts and discussed the books we read as a family. 5th grade was assigned the author Andrew Clements, which was below Ashley's reading level, but we ended up reading "Lost and Found" about twin brothers. Kindergarten had to read an Eric Carle book, we read "Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother?" and the "Hungry Caterpillar."

We love Subway and Math

Our family is a big fan of Subway, especially when they are running a $5 foot long promotion. Yesterday, happened to be one of those days when, "mom just doesn't feel like cooking," so on our way to the school "I Love Math" night we stopped at Subway for dinner.

Everything was going well until the very end when an innocent looking teenager walked in to order a Subway sandwich. The girls were in the bathroom so I was just sitting at a table with a front row seat to watch this mild-mannered young man order what I consider to be the most disgusting and unappetizing sandwich every imagined:

-Wheat bread (at least that's good)

-Tuna fish (strike 1, I have an aversion to restaurant prepared tuna fish salad)

-Extra mayo (strikes 2 and 3, when I say extra mayo, I mean EXTRA. It was criminal how much mayo was slathered onto this sandwich.)

-Black olives

-Banana peppers

Call me judgmental, but yucko.

Fortunately, after losing my appetite at Subway, the girls and I headed to the school for math night. It was lots of fun, they had games set up for each grade. In the gym, there was bowling, jump rope, basketball, sit-ups and long jump all with accompanying math calculations. Paige bested us all with 27 sit-ups! The girls and I had a good time playing some strategy games of Mancala and Vultures & Crows.

Groundhog Day

When you are in Kindergarten, Groundhog Day is an important event. Paige woke up very early that morning so we could find out if the groundhog saw his shadow. He did and so the story goes--six more weeks of winter. Although, not too disappointed because here in Chicago you would have to be crazy to expect warm weather in six weeks.

Later that evening, in honor of the groundhog, who has decided to stay underground in his burrow for a little longer, Paige made the family chocolate pudding dirt bowls (inbetween playing dress-up.) Yummy. Good job Paige!

John 3:16

This week for family home evening, we learned and discussed the scripture:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Then we made Valentine boxes. Ashley made one for us to use at home. Paige will take her box to school, as it was a homework project.