Friends

Sigh! Did you hear it... listen... S I G H ! That was a heartfelt, happy sigh of thankfullness. How do women survive without other women friends? I just don't know. My friends bless me every day - I couldn't make it through life without them. Why do I love my friends so much? You're wondering aren't you? For one thing my husband is away for work every so often and it's nice to know there's someone who will help me out of a pinch at any time of day and night. Plus I do like to talk. Being connected to other people as a homeschool mom is necesary to my sanity. Believe it or not, my friends like to talk too! And usually longer than my husband. Though I do have to give him credit. He's my best friend and a pretty good listener. Unfortunately his testosterone and my estrogen don't always have us on the same wave length. He can't always relate to what I'm feeling or thinking (and vice versa). And for some reason homeschool curriculum choices, chore charts, and planning play dates just aren't his thing.

Back to my friends.

Having good friends also means I can forget my age and responsibilites once in a while and just be silly. Or watch a chick flick and have a good laugh or cry together. I have to admit I love going to the movies. The best one I've seen lately is Mamma Mia. Musicals are my favorite... but it's really hard not to just sing out the songs with all the enthusiasm inside me when I feel inspired to join in. I haven't actually done that - but if I did my friends (at least some of them) would join in with me, or just sit there and grin. That's the kind of friends I have. :)

A major bonus is that we all have children and most of the time they play really well together. They stay so occupied that us Mom's get large chunks of undisturbed time (atleast a half hour - sometimes more). That's worth it's weight in gold. I KNOW you KNOW what I mean. I think they stay out of our way on purpose. It's like they think "If we don't bother her she'll forget we are here and we won't have to leave as soon."

Today was a BIG TREAT! My children were with 2 of my friends and their children for three and a half hours. Without me! I had peace. The kind of peace where there are no other sounds except the ones you make yourself. And it was daylight so there were many options as to what to do during this FREE TIME. I had all kinds of ideas... go for a bike ride (it was around freezing temperatures but no snow), run errands in town (get some ideas for Christmas gifts), clean my house, nap, blog, play piano, sew the rip in MacGyvers pants, or do the many little projects that got left undone at some point in the last 6 months.

Wanna know what I did? Well I planned to go for a bike ride. I dropped off the children and came home with all intentions of gearing up for a bike ride. But then something happened... I sat down in my very quiet and peaceful house and simply sighed. IT IS SO NICE TO BE ALONE IN THE HOUSE! I felt a giddy sense of freedom. I couldn't bring myself to leave. So I did a couple little chores and then gave myself permission to get lost in my piano. For you music lovers out there you can understand what a gift that uninterupted time is. I probably had an hour of just playing whatever I wanted with no little hands 'helping me make the song prettier.' No one called "Mommy!' or said, "I'm hungry!" It was just me and the piano. SIGH!

Later though, I did go to the "not so quiet" house were the moms and ALL the children were. But by then I was ready. I actually missed them a little bit. I think it was a whole four and a half minutes before one of my children noticed me and said, "Mommy, I'm hungry." Music to my ears. It was a wonderful day. I might have to do it again soon. :)

Soup To Feed My Soul

It's my turn to catch a cold. The kind that makes you tired and unmotivated, gives you a stuffy head, and a sore throat. YUCK! Nothing other than school has been done (and I think we "forgot" to do some things in my tiredness). I don't keep the children on task as well when all I want to do is cuddle up under a blanket with a cup of tea and read until I drift off to sleep.

But we now have 5 loads of laundry to fold and put away. The house desperately needs a vaccum, the bathrooms need cleaning, and the kids room needs to be cleaned up! Whew, I need a nap just thinking about it! MacGyver comes home from work tonight and I like to have the house picked up... but not this time. We might just make a path to walk through...

I did manage one good thing however - Winter Greens Soup with Chickpeas! Ummm... if the antioxidants in this soup don't heal me I don't know what will! This is the second time I've made it and it's even better than the first. Now you should know, I did not grow up eating collard greens and chickpeas, but I have wonderful friends and in-laws who have introduced me to such fine foods as these. The pictures helped convince me to make it too. This is from the blog Wednesday's Chef. Thank you to her!

Soup Directions:

First you saute the carrots, celery, and onion until it's a golden brown color and very aromatic, about 20 minutes. Next add 4 cloves of minced garlic. Stir until fragrant, 2 or 3 minutes.

Add the mixed greens, one big handful at a time. Stir and allow the greens to soften and shrink before you add the next handful.



Now add 8 cups water, 1/2 tsp salt, the rosemary and the chickpeas. You can add the rind of a Parmesan cheese if you have one around. Bring this to a simmer over medium-high heat, then cover and decrease temperature to simmer until the broth is deeply flavored, about 45 minutes to one hour.



When your ready to serve, stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Place 2 slices of toast (rubbed with garlic) in the bottom of each soup bowl and ladle the soup over top. Sprinkle with more parmesan as you like. Enjoy!!

Winter Green Soup with Chickpeas

1/4 cup olive oil
2 carrots, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1 turnip, diced (I didn't use one since I didn't have one.)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound chopped mixed greens (mustard, kale, turnip, etc.)
Salt
1/2 teaspoon minced rosemary
1 (16 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, or more, to pass at the table ( I used fresh Parmesan)
16 slices baguette, toasted, or whatever bread you have
Freshly ground pepper (one option is red pepper flakes)

Off to the Fire Station

I finally bit the bullet and put Bam Bam in preschool. I thought the girls and I would do school and he would sit with us and quietly color or do puzzles or whatever other activities I had scheduled. But NO! He wanted to cut and paste WITH MOMMY, then do flashcards WITH MOMMY, and then do puzzles and read WITH MOMMY!! Do you see the trend here? Now don't get me wrong... I love doing all those things with him - just not while I'm teaching his sisters. When daddy is home it works out well. First they shoot Bam Bam's BB Gun (thanks to Grandpa Doug who bought it for him when he was born!!) and then they FIX things in the garage. I've actually went into the garage and both of them are UNDER the truck or car doing whatever it is that needs to be done. It's priceless really!

Too bad Daddy can't be home every morning when we do school! So we decided pre-school was the way to go and started last week. PRAISE GOD FOR PRESCHOOL!! I love that Bam Bam's doing all the things he loves. Ms. Debbie (his teacher) said he's the most enthusiastic little boy there, especially with the crafts. They made a building with paper fire coming out of it last week and he kept saying, "I love this! This is awesome!" I also love that I get 2 uninterupted hours of school time with the girls - we are having so much fun learning about George Washington and the Declaration of Independance. Who knew history could be so much fun!














So today was the trip to the fire station. I think Mac Jr. was a little scared of the fire chief dressed up in her 96 lbs. of equipment. He didn't let go of my hand or sweater the entire time. Though, I did manage to pry him away long enough to sit in the fire truck. We had a great time.

FLOURISH

2 weeks... that's how long I've wanted my own blog. Over the past 2 weeks I've had SO MUCH I wanted to write about - making applesauce, biking 20 miles on a Sunday afternoon, and even rediscovering my natural haircolor (it's been 19 years of highlights) thanks to MacGyver's enthusiastic persuasion. How is it that he is almost always right!? Are your husbands that way too? It's a good thing I've started listening, and occasionally following, his advice. It has proved to be rewarding. Anyway, all those exciting things don't seem quite as exciting anymore, so they'll just have to be happy memories.

Let's begin with last weekend. FLOURISH is the name of the ladies retreat I attended with friends from a different church. This time of year is not my "flourishing" time. I think the changing season affects me more each year. It's more the feeling of wanting to give up the responsiblility of the everyday, boring, hard things (like teaching my - oops! I mean OUR children. He does remind me that they are OUR children and will probably read this at some point). I'd prefer to just hike, bike, try new ethnic recipes, and bake banana chocolate chip muffins. Ooooo, by the way they are soooo delicious! My children have NO idea that they're made with whole wheat four and flax seed. It's one of the first times something that healthy REALLY IS that good. I'll make them sometime and post the recipe...

Anyway, our speaker was a bright, passionate lady from England who wanted to push us out of our comfort zone and make us squirm. She told us so! Well, she was the best speaker I've ever heard! Or maybe God just knew this weekend she had to say what I needed to hear. She spoke about how the Lord created us to Flourish and referred to the passage on faith, hope, and love. Each session she focused on what keeps us from hope, then on faith, and then on love. She then taught us God's promises referring to each one and to 'have courage' to claim those promises for ourselves and our families. Well, it connected for me - in both my heart and my head. It's always hard to take a weekend like that along with what I've learned and merge it with my life's reality. But I'm up to the challenge! Im looking forward to it at this point.! I do feel like I've been set free from the duldrums of my boring life this past month, or so I felt then. Those boring everyday things have a whole new wonderful and exciting meaning now. I feel it from the top of my head to the tip of my toes! It must show because my KK came up and hugged me just out of the blue today. You'll learn that she's pretty reserved with being the first to offer physical affection. I felt priveleged!

Playing with the blog

trying to figure out how the pictures work