The Healthy Team

One of my kids didn't want to eat any candy because she wants to be on the "healthy team." The other one didn't want to eat dinner, just candy. Can you guess which one is which? Yes - Sarah is a girl after my own heart. Mmmm....candy.

I took the girls trick-or-treating tonight and left Matthew and Daddy at home so Erik could watch football pass out candy to the kids.

I started teaching last week. I have 5 classes this semester and it is rough. I've been up until 1am every night and I think it will be like that this entire 8 weeks. I'm not sure why my first semester back had to be so rough. I hope I survive!

Fortunately I have a wonderful husband who supports my job and helps me as much as possible. He has let me sleep in Friday and Saturday while he got all three kids breakfast and dressed. Something as small as that makes me happy.

Which brings me to an idea. I would like to buy him a Google Tablet for Christmas. I've been thinking about it for awhile and since he has been so awesome I thought for sure it would be a great present. But then, he never goes anywhere (literally...nowhere) so would it be useful for him? Would he really benefit from it or would I use it more? He sits in front of his computer all day. I'm not sure if I should get it or not. What do you think my vast readership?

78 points on quiddler today!

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off to Work I go!

Today was my first day back to work. It was bittersweet. While I taught two online classes last semester, this semester I am teaching two online and three onsite classes. It's really a lot for me and I hope I survive.

The first thing I noticed about going back to work is that my shoes don't fit anymore. My feet must have swollen big time when I was pregnant with Matthew.

Now that my feet are more normal size my shoes are falling off of them. Bummer. I'm not into shopping, especially for shoes. I may have to turn in my girl card because I will probably just have Erik pick up a pair of black flats at Meijer.

Probably the saddest part of going back to work is that Erik and I will not be able to play Agricola every night. We play so often that our 2 year old asks us at random times who is starting player. Back to regular hobbies I guess.

The girls dressed up for ballet today. These pictures I took with my fancy new droid phone. Sarah is in the yellow duck costume and Jenna is Cinderella in the pictures. The pictures didn't come out that great but you can see some of the other kids in the class too. Both of them absolutely LOVE ballet! If I could - I would enroll in the hip hop class they offer :).

We just finished week 5 of our 6 week Go Fish Bible study by Andy Stanley. I think he's a great speaker and his studies always spark good discussion. After the new year we will start another study. Erik and I discussed doing one of these two: Seven Pillars of Healthy Living or Christianity, Cults, and Religion. The first study sounds like it will make me feel guilty for eating chocolate and not exercising enough and the second sounds like I'll learn about all different religions of the world. They both sound good - so we'll see what the rest of the small group wants to do.

75 points on Quiddler today!

Beauty and the Beast

Our friends Aaron and Michele had their little girl 5 days ago. Her name is Vina and Matthew and I wanted to visit her (well mostly I wanted to visit her - Matthew just goes where I go). As you can see from the picture of Matthew and Vina he is about 20 times her size! Yesterday he turned 4 months old and I snapped his picture with the horse.

He's so big that I missed his feet in the picture. I might have to get Erik to help with the pictures.

Matthew has been smiling and laughing ALL the time. Here is a video of Sarah and Matthew smiling. The girls absolutely adore him!


Yesterday Erik and I played squash, came home and put the kids to bed. Then we played agricola (I lost), next we read and discussed Gardens of the Moon. What a cool husband! We both like the same things and have so much fun together!

I did terrible on quiddler today: 60 pts, but they let me use pern. How cool is that?

Sparkly October

Happy 4th of July...or October? We had some sparklers left over from the 4th of July so the girls played with them in October. The house is still standing and no one suffered any burns so it was successful. Even Matthew enjoyed it. I snapped a picture of him smiling at Jenna.




Our garden hasn't produced very many veggies for us this year. It has been rather disappointing. One of the problems is that we see deer almost every day eating our garden. Erik took a picture of the deer but usually they run away before we can get a picture of them eating our garden. They must have amazing hearing since they can hear us get the camera inside our house!


In other news:

1. I am reading the Blood Knight, book 3 of Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keyes. This is an excellent series. I love the story, the writing, and the characters. He ends his chapters like Martin - always tantalizing you for more.
2. Erik and I are still trudging through Gardens of the Moon. It is starting to get pretty good but since we read it together, it's been hard to find time for both of us to read without kids.
3. I start back to work next week.
4. It looks like I'll be teaching 3 onsite classes and 2 online classes. This to me is a lot even if I wasn't just coming back from maternity leave. It will be a tough semester but hopefully I will survive.
5. To help myself get organized I've started listing what I will accomplish everyday in three areas: cooking, cleaning, and work. It has helped me somewhat organize myself. I need all the help I can get.
6. 65 on quiddler today - no bonuses!

10-10-10

Today is 10-10-10! How cool is this? We should celebrate - I'm not sure how. But definitely celebrate (there is always a reason to celebrate!!). Maybe we can go out for ice cream or something. That is definitely a celebration!

Even though I got a new camera, the two pictures I'm posting don't look that great. The girls were outside playing in the leaves. The backyard is resplendent with fall colors. Yet my camera did not capture it well. The girls had great fun though.

I also posted a picture of the green beans and peppers I made. The dish doesn't look great but I promise it was colorful and yummyful! I adapted a recipe from taste of home to make pepper butter. I used:

Half a red pepper, half an orange pepper and half a yellow pepper diced. I sauteed them in butter until tender. Then in a food processor I put two softened sticks of butter, 3 tblsp of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, 1/4 cup pine nuts, and the sauteed peppers. It made a delicious pepper butter.

Then I cooked up some green beans and sliced red, yellow, and orange peppers and tossed them with the pepper butter. It was fantastic! It actually was very pretty even though you can't tell from the picture.
I served this dish at Bible study last Tuesday night along with cheesy mashed potatoes and brats. Delicious!

The other day I was singing "what if his people prayed" by Casting Crowns. Erik mentioned to me that the song is inaccurate and should actually be "what if his people prayed 10% more" since his people do pray, but not enough. Fortunately though, the majority of the people listening to the song are not my husband and can actually understand the message :).

Erik and I are still playing Agricola every night. It hasn't gotten old. In fact, we are always trying to do better. Last night we scored 103 points between us (53-50) which is a pretty high scoring Agricola game!

40 points on Quiddler today!

My princess' thrones

The girls decided they wanted thrones. Since they are princesses - obviously! At first I suggested the toilet (thinking...throne, haha).

Erik quickly helped me see the error of my ways. So I left the room. When I came back to the playroom, they had constructed their own thrones on the couch. OSHA would not be pleased.

They are definitely princesses.

And they are also great Mommies to Matthew. He LOVES them! He is so alert now and smiling all the time. Check out this awesome video of him smiling:

He however seems to prefer Mommy. Today I was at Walmart and Erik frantically called because Matthew would not drink his bottle. He calmed down when I got there and picked him up.

I also posted a picture of the salted dark chocolate chip cookies I made. Yum! I made my regular nestle toll house cookie recipe (on the back of the bag + 1/4 cup flour) and added 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp of vanilla. Then I sprinkled sea salt over the cookies before baking. They were delicious but could have used more sea salt. I will need to experiment (and eat the results!).

88 points on Quiddler today. The last word I made was "ending". What a perfect ending!!