Month: October 2013

This morning Misty came over and generously babysat my kids so I could go play the piano for a church meeting at Arlington Hills Nursing Home. I loved playing the piano for those sweet people, and they were so nice. They made me feel like I did a great job, even though I had serious difficulty at every page turn and made a ton of mistakes. What a great group of people.

After I was done, I came home and had a great play date with Misty and her kids.

They were pretending to be a choo-choo train, and Sophia specifically requested a photo shoot. So happy to oblige.

Mary has been so fussy lately that I honestly started to wonder whether she has special needs I just don’t know about. For example, maybe she’s autistic? But she relates really well to me, and she seems socially in tune, so I ruled that out. Abe thinks she’s just teething, but he didn’t watch her turn purple from screaming for an hour today.

Perhaps it’s simply a straightforward addiction to chocolate chips. When I just can’t handle the screaming anymore, I give her a handful of chocolate chips and she transforms into a (somewhat) happy baby. By the end of today, Mary had polished off…a bag???? I think/hope/fear I helped…

Other than feeding my kids a million times and cleaning the kitchen two million times, my main accomplishment today was organizing the toy bins. In the midst of the mess, Mary found a ball on the floor and proceeded to play catch with me for twenty minutes. I did not even know she could throw a ball! Obviously, she can not actually catch one, but our game nevertheless bore a striking resemblance to catch.

Abe spent the evening studying and is practically at death’s door from exhaustion, so this is me hurrying up and finishing this blog. I still need to clean the whole house (it is a TOTAL wreck) before going to bed. Since Abe is pretty much in bed already, I need to work fast!

Today Lydia was supposed to go to preschool, but I was so tired last night I did not read the preschool email properly and got mixed up about the location. By the time I contacted the host mom, preschool was almost done. Lydia was heartbroken not to see her friends, but the good news was this: Dan and Preethi were in town for one extra day! Also, Kristin and her girls were still here until almost noon, so Lydia still got to see lots of friends today.

When we got home, we played a little inside and then moved our play date outside. A brilliant transition! It was gloriously beautiful today–even warm enough for Lydia and Nat to play in the water. Can you believe we just had snow recently, and now it’s warm enough for the kids to play in the water outside? I’m not complaining, though.

We literally took over a hundred pictures, and it was incredibly difficult to pick which ones to include in the blog. I have about forty pictures in my WordPress media library ready to insert into this post, so we’ll see how good I am at narrowing down these gems.

 

 

We will miss the Harbucks so much, but we feel really blessed to have been able to spend the time we did with them while they were in town.

After the play date, I put the girls and myself down for afternoon naps. Well, what really happened is first I had some cake. Abe made fun of me because during our phone conversation after the play date I kept trying to end by saying, “Well, you must be busy so I guess I’ll let you go.” He kept telling me that he actually had some time to chat and wanted more details about the play date (he was jealous I got to spend more time with the amazing Harbucks and he didn’t), but finally I just came out and told him I had to get off the phone because I NEEDED to eat the last piece of cake, and I just could not focus on anything else until that happened.

After my cake, I lay in bed and slept for an entire hour. It was so blissful that at one point, I thought I heard someone breaking into the house, and I didn’t even care. They can break in, I thought. As long as I can keep lying here, I don’t care if anyone steals all of our stuff. But, thankfully, the noises I heard were probably just house creaks, and when I finally got out of bed, everyone and everything was safe. Phew.

Post nap I fed the girls, talked on the phone with my beloved mom and grandma, played with Mary (Lydia was watching the iPad), vacuumed (one-handed, holding Mary) the entire downstairs and basement, roasted squash, and practiced the piano (I have to play at a nursing home tomorrow).

I sent Abe out to do some errands, and when he gets home, I hope to have accomplished 1) this blog post, 2) cleaning the kitchen 3) folding one of the four loads of clean laundry currently hanging out in my bedroom.

So…I took pictures today, but I never noticed that there was no card in my camera. Darn! Lydia spent the whole day playing with Kristin’s girls, and there were some sweet moments. Selah loves to read to Lydia, and Lydia LOVES having Selah read to Lydia. I am so upset I don’t have the pictures I took of this darling activity.

I wish I had some funny things to say or super exciting things to report, but I spent most of the day cooking food for a dinner party with our friends: Dan and Preethi (with kids, Nat and Kina), Morgan and Jesse (with son, Daniel), and Kristin (with kids, Selah, Liesl, and Ana-Lena). We put the ALL the kids to bed before the party, and they were great sleepers.

I made some phyllo tarts that I don’t have pictures of, a beet/arugula/goat cheese salad and this chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake:

We had SO much fun visiting with our friends that it is now past midnight, so all I have left in me is to post this recipe (for Preethi, with love!).

Here it is, in all its straight-from-Gourmet glory (I quadrupled everything for the party):

Chickpea, Eggplant, and Tomato Phyllo Tarts (serves 4)

1 (1 lb) eggplant

Salt

1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

1 med onion, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 California bay leaf

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 (14-15 oz) can stewed tomatoes, drained, juice reserved, and coarsely chopped

1/2 t. sweet paprika

1/8 t. ground cumin

1 (15-to-19 oz) can chickpease, rinsed and drained

1 tsp sugar

Freshly ground pepper

1/4 c. coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

6 (17-by-12-inch) phyllo sheets, thawed if frozen

Garnish: fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, torn in pieces

Make the filling: Peel eggplant and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Toss with 1 tsp salt in a large bowl and let stand for 15 minutes. Transfer eggplant to a colander, rinse under cold water, and squeeze out excess water.

Heat 2 Tbsp. oil i a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Add onion with bay leaf and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 5 mintues. Add 1 Tbsp oil, then add eggplant and garlic and cook, stirring, until eggplant is tender, 8-10 minutes.

Add tomatoes (reserve juice), paprika, and cumin and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add reserved tomato juice, chickpeas, sugar, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until filling is thickened and most of liquid as evaporated about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley; discard bay leaf.

Make the tarts: Put rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 425. Line a large baking sheet with foil.

Unroll phyllo and cover stack with plastic wrap and a dampened kitchen towel. Keeping remaining phyllo covered, lightly brush 1 phyllo sheet with some of remaining oil. Top with 2 more sheets, brushing each with oil. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. pepper, then cut stack crosswise in half with a sharp knife. Spoon 1 c. filling into center of each stack. Crumple edges of phyllo up and around filling, leaving filling exposed. Transfer to lined baking sheet using a spatula. Make 2 more tarts in same manner, arranging about 1/2 in apart on baking sheet.

Bake, rotating baking sheet after 10 minutes, until edges of tarts are golden, 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

The filling can be made up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated, covered.

The tarts can be baked up to 6 hours ahead and kept, uncovered, at room temperature. Reheat in a 350 oven for 15-20 minutes.

I am kicking myself for not taking the girls to Red Butte Gardens today. The weather was gorgeous, today was the monthly free day, and our play group was meeting there to boot. But Lydia said she wanted to go to the children’s museum, so I made a split second decision and went there instead. However, the girls were in heaven with all of the toys and activities, and I always love to watch them have fun–especially when I am not the fun generator.

Lydia loved the water toys.

Afterward, we dashed into Old Navy because at the rate Lydia pees on her pants these days, we need more.

On the way home, both children fell asleep, and so I decided not to wake them up when we pulled in the drive. Instead, I rolled down the windows and practiced meditating. I kept getting distracted by 1) a dog barking 2) a bird rustling in the bush 3) wondering if I will ever be good at meditating. I will say that even though I was distracted, it felt nice to be electronics-free and attentive to my surroundings.

Then the girls woke up and ate lunch, after which I immediately put them both back to bed. Mary proceeded to sleep for the next three hours, while Lydia just played lively games of pretend in her room by herself. I spent most of the time on the phone with a local culinary school recruiter, and I finally cut her off because I had a strong suspicion Lydia had pooped in her little potty in the midst of playing pretend.

I was right! And not only that, but there was poop on the carpet too. However, Lydia had done a surprisingly good job cleaning herself off and putting new undies on. She had also donned a pair of Mary’s pajama shorts, only she had put both legs into one leg opening and the other pant leg flapped behind like a tail. She informed me that she was wearing a “tutu.” A great imagination at work.

She then helped me make dinner, and the moment I stuck the dish in the oven, Mary woke up. I felt blessed by God because it would have been SO hard to make that chopping intensive dish with an awake Mary (which equals a one-handed Lily).

After dinner and baths, we were just getting the girls ready for Family Home Evening when we heard the front screen door slam. It was kind of terrifying, and Abe ran down to see who was there. Who should it be but my dear friend Kristin–the one who gave me long distance magnetic therapy not long ago! She is a single mother with three young children, and she had just flown in from a long journey. Her luggage had been delayed until tomorrow morning, and so she was stranded here in Salt Lake (she lives in Manti).

I was sorry for her dilemma but incredibly excited because that means — we get to have a sleepover! The last sleepover I had with Kristin was when I was a senior in college. I remember roasting asparagus, eating chocolate from the co-op and talking for hours. This time we get to do it again, only it’s five children later. Can you believe how time flies?

After Kristin got settled in, I came upstairs to find her fiver-year-old daughter, Selah, reading books to Lydia. What a sweetheart. We cut The Giving Tree short, though, so Abe could put on a puppet show about prayer. Then it was scriptures, prayers, and bedtime.

Now it’s upload-picture time and then bedtime for me!

Oh–and I am on the Martha Stewart Blog!!!!!!

General Conference Sunday was a pajama day for everyone but Abe, who had to drive to Idaho an hour after the afternoon conference ended. Since we can watch conference from our computers (could not get our television working, sadly), we didn’t have to leave the house. We did go to the park after the second session of conference, but everyone except Abe was in pajamas, and it was with great reluctance that I even donned a bra. I am still wearing what I was wearing when I went to bed last night, only now I’m decorated in food smudges and cookie crumbs. Perhaps after I blog I shall shower and change into a fresh set of jammies.

Except that there is something more I want to do, and that is: research culinary school. Abe called me up during his drive to Idaho, and he was very excited about a certain daydream we’ve had for a couple years. Up until now, it’s only been a day dream, but he seems to think it’s an actual possibility. Who knows…we are always thinking up new life plans, and but after our conversation this evening, I think culinary school is at least worth looking into.

So let’s do another day in pictures, shall we? Only first, can I just say that I kind of loved the talk wherein the speaker compared spiritual fitness to physical fitness?  I want to recommit to certain areas of spiritual development (family history, in particular) so I can become more masterful and spiritually fit. If you aren’t LDS, you might think doing family history is a strange way to become more spiritually fit, but in a Mormon paradigm, I think it makes perfect sense. That talk also made me want to just delve into the scriptures for hours every day, or at very least meditate with more regularity and discipline.

I’m sad General Conference is over, and I’m even more sad that I missed so much of it this weekend. Hopefully I can watch some of the talks I missed during the girls’ naps this week, and I can not wait until the conference issue of the Ensign comes out.

Okay, enough blabbing. Here are today’s photos:

I am taking a break from having children. I mean, I want more eventually, but right now, my cup runneth over at two. Last night I got up multiple times to attend to hungry/poopy/crying children, and this morning Lydia wet the bed at 6am (Abe got up that time. Thank-you, Honey.). Just as I sat down to blog, Lydia ,who was still awake because we didn’t think to stick her mattress cover in the dryer until right before bedtime, freaked out and poured her full potty all over the white carpet in her bedroom.

Sigh.

Shall we just do this day’s post in pictures? That sounds nice to me.

We went over to Dan’s parents’ house for the second session of General Conference.

The next bajillion shots were taken by the incredibly generous Preethi. I read an article a while back about this one mom who did not want photos taken of her post-baby. She then had this epiphany that her kids needed pictures of her being with them so they could look back and see how present she was in their lives. It was a really pretty article, and ever since I’ve been thinking I need more pictures showing that I am present in my kids’ lives. The only problem is, I, like the author, abhor my post-baby body fat and have a slight aversion to cameras. But I am so glad Preethi took these photos because one day Mary will grow up and probably not want to be around me all the time, so I will have these to remind me what a cuddly relationship we once had.

Here are Mary and Kina together.

Also, Nat was so sweet and took Lydia’s hand to lead her to his gym.

Since I was busy doing errands and getting distracted by cuteness, I only heard conference in snippets. The talk that I am most sad I missed was President Uchtdorf’s talk.

Everyone is talking about it, and from things I’ve heard and read, it was a great sermon on allowing every one the right to worship or not worship according to the dictates of their own conscience. He emphasized how we should not judge those who choose to worship differently than we do or who abandon our beloved religion (and perhaps break out hearts in the process). Wouldn’t this world be better if we all decided not to judge each other? Sign me up!!!

Today we had a really special play date with our friends, the Harbucks, who are in town from D.C.. Dan was angelic and babysat the children all morning while I got to make waffles and chat with Preethi. I follow her awesome blog with devoted regularity, and when I met Kina (her baby who is one week older than Mary), I honestly felt like I was meeting a celebrity. If you check out her blog or scroll down on this blog, you will see that Kina is a stunning child, but trust me–she is even better in person. And I always have Nat in mind when I pray daily for God to prepare a good husband for Lydia. He gave me a sweet hug at the end of the play date, and that about just made my day.

All of our play dates are Lydia centric, and so the result is Mary doesn’t interact with kids her age very much. In other words, she lacks friends. I was SO excited to see her play with Kina, and oh my goodness, I about had a cute heart attack seeing these two together. I can’t wait until they get to play again (tomorrow!).

After our wonderful play date, I took an actual nap while both kids napped. It was delicious. Then they woke up and I realized it was almost dinner time and I did not know what we were going to eat. After frantically thumbing through several cookbooks, I settled on a vegetarian chili recipe from a cookbook Dan and Preethi gave us when we got married. (They created the cookbook themselves, so we not only had a play date with them, but we ate their chili tonight, too!)

After dinner and bedtime, I raced around cleaning the house because my wonderful home teacher from Evanston arrived tonight and will be staying with us this weekend. This weekend is our church’s General Conference, which is basically like Salt Lake’s Mardi Gras for Mormons. Everyone converges upon the city and it is prayers and parties galore for two straight days.

We’re looking forward to it tomorrow!

Today I vacillated between periods of extreme inertia and not-quite-as-extreme activity. After Mary’s morning nap, I took the girls to a school playground. We all had fun sliding down the double slides together, and Mary was beside herself crawling up the stairs on the playground equipment. In her excitement, she detached her binky, and so I returned to the park to retrieve it. When I went back, some kids were in recess and one mischievous boy was trying to sneak out of the park. I guess I have a much more effective glare now than I ever did when I actually taught; he took one look at me and scampered right back towards the playground. My immense self-satisfaction after this incident was slightly ridiculous.

After the park, we headed over to Misty’s house for a play date. Misty kindly listened to me rave about my favorite subject, Martha Stewart. Something interesting about Martha (since you asked) is this: The only time she ever seemed brusque was when I started expressing to her how much of a fan I was. All she said was “That’s nice,” and changed the subject. I wonder if it’s strange to have someone you don’t even know appropriate your identity through intense fan worship. Whatever it was, I was impressed that Martha was so humble and didn’t need to hear someone else tell her how wonderful she is. That is part of what makes her so wonderful.

The girls fell asleep on the way home from Misty’s, so I put them to bed and proceeded to lounge on the couch for the next three (yes, three) hours. Way to go, children! I was in such a great mood after that, my children probably did not even recognize me.

When they woke up, I toted them to the library where I sat Lydia down and read to her for an hour straight in order to pay off my very large library fine. Our library has this awesome policy that says you get a dollar off of your fine for every ten minutes you read to your child. Since I had two children, my time counted double, and by the end: voila! No fine, two happy children, and the evening was almost done. My good mood preserved!

We came home and Lydia wanted me to read her the books we had brought home from the library (funny), so we did that until Abe came home and we ate yesterday’s pizza for dinner. Well…Mary mostly ate cookies, but every so often she gnawed on the pizza. I am a great mom, I know.

And yet, I still felt good despite my children’s terrible dinner diet. I gave them a bath together, vacuumed the upstairs, folded some laundry, put everyone cheerfully to bed, and pranced downstairs to blog about it all.

All that’s left is to post these pics, clean the kitchen and shower. So close to bedtime–yippee!!

 

Today was a great day. The girls woke up late, so I actually got a chance to study my scriptures and write in my scripture journal before they woke up, and wow–what a difference that made. I wrote down everything that bothered me about yesterday and realized that I get frustrated at Lydia because I am profoundly confused. I don’t always know what to do to help both girls feel loved and protected, and things happen so fast that in the moment I just give up and get mad. Since my own confusion is the real problem, I decided that today I would just make a point to remember that during tricky situations. Remembering helped me be calm(er) and made it possible for me to end this day with no keep-me-up-at-night regrets.

Also, preschool went really well. I rummaged through the house last night and found these oval shapes: an Easter egg candy, a ring, two spoons, a lemon, a teething ring, and my kitchen radio. The kids seemed to enjoy pulling surprises out of my bag and sorting the ovals from the squares. And later today, when I was reading a book to Lydia, she pointed out an oval! That made me feel good.

Just as our last preschool friend was pulling away, who should show up but Anthony, Malika, and Emil! I was so excited to see them, especially because they live in Switzerland, and so an in-person visit with these friends is a treasure. Knowing Anthony and Malika, I just knew Emil would be a special baby, and he was. He was so calm and cuddly. I got to hold him for a moment at the end, but he much prefers his mama, and really, with a mom like Malika, he can not be blamed.

As soon as they left I ate lunch and cleaned the house. I had the preschool kids eat their snacks right next to the closet where I keep the vacuum, and as I cleaned I congratulated myself on that excellent foresight.  I also internally debated whether I should follow through on my plans to accompany Abe to Moab tonight. Since Arches National Park is probably shut down from the government furlough, I decided against going.

Abe still came home for a little bit, though, and that made it possible for me to run some flowers over to the hospital where our friend, Jill, just had a sweet little baby, Griffin. I got to hold Griffin, and I could not believe how calm and alert he was. The whole time I had to fight back tears because Jill’s husband is being deployed for six months starting this Sunday, and Jill has three other little kids. I do NOT know how she does it, but I admire her so much. She is so strong, calm, and kind–and also, I just have to say, did not even have the slightest hint of a postpartum belly. I want to be more like Jill!

After that inspiring visit, I dashed to the grocery store and rushed home to start some pizza. I kind of messed up the dough, and I should have caramelized at least twice as many onions, but the pizzas were still tasty. Only I know that, though, since the girls got hungry before the pizzas were done. I won’t tell you what they ate instead. It’s simply too appalling.

Then I had a magical time feeding and rocking Mary after her evening nap. (Her schedule was wacky today on account of preschool.) It was SO wonderful to cuddle and play with my baby, although in the back of my mind I still couldn’t shake the bad-mom guilt; that time was bought by allowing Lydia to burn away her chance for normal vision by watching…the iPad.

When I couldn’t stand the idea of Lydia staring at a screen any longer, I came down and coaxed her upstairs, where I gave the girls an early bath together. Then we read and played for the next two hours until bedtime. I then showered, cleaned the kitchen again, and am now blogging.

[break in blogging] WHOA! I just ran upstairs because Mary was crying and discovered that she had pooped so much that her diaper came off. I gave up cloth diapering a couple months ago because the incessant laundry (with our machine in the basement, no less) was too overwhelming, but after this incident, I am rethinking that decision. My goodness!

Here are today’s pics:

Lydia gave me plenty of opportunities to practice my resolve to be more patient!

Ugh. I hate when I lose my temper at Lydia. I kept trying to control myself and give her second chances all day long, but finally, right before bed, she started melting down because Mary came near her books, and I lost it. I said some things I really hope neither of us remembers, and then I refused to read her bedtime stories (aside from the first couple pages of I Feel My Savior’s Love…oh, the irony).

Ten minutes later I heard her sobbing and pleading for tissues, so I went in, rocked her and sang to her until we all calmed down.

 Sometimes Most times, I forget that the poor thing is only two years old, and I should really cut her more slack. She is sweet and kind hearted, and there is nothing more adorable than watching her be kind to Mary. But nothing grates on my nerves more than Lydia’s constant meltdowns–usually about nothing. For example, in the time that it has taken me to write this blog to this point, I have had to interrupt twice to go to Lydia because she starts crying in bed over crazy things. It is 9:45pm, and since the kids got up at 7am, by now I am just plain snappy.

I also have yet to do the prep for preschool tomorrow.  I am the host mom tomorrow, and I have to review letters A, B, C, D and teach the kids about ovals and squares. Squares are pretty straight forward–but ovals? If you have any oval shaped objects lying around, let me know, because I’m pretty sure I don’t. I was going to do a simple category activity for the shapes part, but the ovals are throwing me. I am so jealous of the mom who got to do circles.

The pictures are from today when we went with Balu (Swathi’s cousin) to the mall and to dinner. He took amazing pictures of the girls with his iPhone.

Maybe some inspiration about ovals will hit me while I’m cleaning. Here’s praying.