Category: Uncategorized

I found out this morning that I put the wrong date on Mary’s birthday evites. Oops! But guess what? The date I selected turns out to be October 26, so that means I have an entire week longer than I thought. Phew.

Also, thanks to all for your prayers and good thoughts for Abe. He had an excellent, successful morning, and we are grateful for all the love and cheering on he’s gotten.

Lydia had preschool this morning, and Sarah (one of the other moms) had to walk and take Trax around downtown to complete some errands. Mary and I tagged along and got our daily dose of vitamin D. It was nice to remember we live in a city! Even though our neighborhood is right next to downtown, it feels very separate and suburban-like. I loved our urban morning. While we were walking up Main Street, I even popped into the jeweler’s store that made Swathi’s engagement ring, and they cleaned my ring for free. Right next door was a new boulangerie, and I regretted blowing my weekly budget this past Saturday; I really wanted to try something! Good reason to go back when my budget resets in two days…

Then I picked up Lydia and we all went home where Abe joined us for lunch. After that, we drove to the Art Institute to talk to an admissions officer about their culinary program and tour the campus. I really want to go to that culinary school. My one problem is childcare. I can’t figure that out quite yet, but maybe an answer will present itself soon. In the meantime, the tour was awesome.

After the tour, we drove to Temple Square and I popped into the temple to do initiatories while Abe wandered around the square with the girls. In the bathroom, who should I bump into but Suzanne (Abe’s stepmom!). It was so fun to see her, and we got to chat again on the square after I was done in the temple.

Then Abe, the girls and I went to the downtown Olive Garden to use up a gift card we had. All I can say about that is, almost five hours later, I still have a stomachache.

When we got home, Abe let me practice the piano for two hours while he bathed the girls and got them ready for bed. Between Liszt and the sheer abundance of me-time, I was in heaven–but I did have this thought: did I spend thousands of hours of my childhood practicing…for this? Practicing so one day I could be background music as my husband chased my squealing girls (who were giggling so hard there’s no way they were paying the least bit attention to the music) above me?

And I came to the conclusion: Yes! Absolutely, this is what I practiced for. I practiced so someday I would have a skill set that freed my soul to self-actualize joyfully AND communicated to my children the value of music. Even if that communication takes the basic form of osmosis, it still conveys my hope that my children will become stewards of an ever-less appreciated art form.

After the girls went to bed, I walked into the kitchen expecting a huge mess. To my delight, Abe had cleaned most of it already. I have no idea when he even found time to do that! If it isn’t obvious, I kind of idolize my husband. Sometimes that mindset has its own set of problems, but seriously. Abe is awesome/scarily perfect at times. I am never scarily perfect (hence my problems).

Here’s a picture that Abe took at the north visitor’s center on Temple Square:

That’s kind of how this whole day felt like.

Did anyone see the most recent Smitten Kitchen blog? I checked it today and could not believe my eyes: Deb posted a glorious recipe for purple plum torte. This is relevant to my life. Highly relevant, because today I made the spur-of-the-moment decision that we are having a birthday party for Mary. Not only that, but it is going to be a Very Hungry Caterpillar party (inspired by this post on Preethi’s blog).

If you recall, the very hungry caterpillar eats, among other things, plums. Now if you don’t see the hand of God in the very hungry caterpillar’s preferences and the most recent post by Deb, then perhaps you did not feel the same sense of panic I did when I clicked out my evites today. What was I thinking?! Abe has a HUGE day tomorrow, and he’s out of town the following two days. And I have committed us to hosting a rather large party the afternoon after he flies in. Breathe.

I used to read The Babysitter’s Club books the same way I currently eat chocolate. In one quite memorable book, Claudia has an identity crisis because she thinks her parents adopted her and never let her know. Come to find out, her parents were just worn down because she was the second child, and they just never took the time to photograph her or dote on her the same way they did her older sister. That story stuck with me, and whenever I feel like I’m slacking off in the Mary department, Claudia’s tween trauma flits through my mind. As I was deliberating about whether to do anything about Mary’s birthday (which happened a month ago), I remembered Claudia…the next thing I knew, I’d sent out evites to, um, a large contingency of our local friends.

So that’s where my energy will be for the rest of the week. I did, however, put some effort today into non-party things. For example, I changed the sheets, sneaked a shower (while Lydia cried downstairs), took the girls to the library, made butternut squash soup, cleaned the kitchen, practiced the piano, and had Family Home Evening (one day late, since Abe was gone yesterday). Here are the pics from those parts of the day:

If you think of it, please say a prayer or think good thoughts for Abe tomorrow! It’s a big day for him. Email me for details if curious since we can’t disclose on the blog.

I woke up this morning and knew that today was the day my house WOULD get clean. I resolved to put my children’s needs ahead of my goal, but I also promised myself that by the end of today, my whole house would be organized, picked up and sanitary.

I made little progress on that goal until I put the children to bed at 8:30pm. Between that time and now, I have reached my goal. I am so tempted to type the details of what went into accomplishing that feat, but I think that would make me look vapid and vain. So I’ll keep those [vapid and vain] thoughts to myself, and I’ll just tell you that right now I feel great about life.

Also, Lydia has been taking her angel pills lately. While I was organizing my closet this morning, she came over and–out of the blue–started giving me a foot massage. I eventually had to sit down because she was so intent on doing a good job. I love her.

Additionally, I realized I need to take a chill pill on 1) spills and 2) accidents. First of all, I, a thirty-year-old woman, still spill things, so surely I should not be shaming my little two-year-old for spilling her water. (!!) Secondly, I should cut her some slack in the accident department. This evening, Lydia had an accident right before bed, and I was about to get upset when she started apologizing all over the place. She apologized all the way to the bathroom, and then when I was saying our night prayer, she interrupted me to petition God for help so she wouldn’t have any more accidents. I felt appropriately awful about myself. From here on out I AM going to be a nicer mom. I hope, I pray.

Speaking of how I need to be nicer, here’s some visual evidence that I have ample room for improvement.

I suspected I wouldn’t have time to take more pictures today, so I prolonged Mary’s distress long enough to take one shot of Lydia. I just wanted to memorialize this day marked by so much angelic behavior.

I also abandoned Mary as soon as it started hailing outside. Leaving Mary wailing in her high chair, I ran to Lydia and carried her outside as fast as possible so she could learn about hail. I have no idea why I thought it was so important that she experience hail, but at the time it seemed urgent. I must be sleep deprived or something.

The only other thing of note today was my phone conversation with my mom and grandma. They are so sweet.

My fingers are on fire. Well, actually, they just feel like they’re on fire because I chopped a bunch of unusually hot poblanos today. The pain, hours later, is making it so uncomfortable to type that this will be a short post.

After church, I had a chance to talk with Abe about some things that have been on my mind. Actually, we talk about these issues almost daily, and we always go in circles. I’m left with this question: what does it mean to be a humble disciple of Jesus Christ? For example, currently there are a couple social movements within the church where activist members are pushing for change. While I share their confusion (in fact, I am boggled), my primary concern is this: what does Jesus expect of me?

Doesn’t discipleship, at least as its spelled out in the scriptures, mean exerting continual effort to act out of love and kindness? Shouldn’t political issues be ancillary? But when I step out of my own shoes (a heterosexual woman who has zero desire for any church responsibility, least of all the priesthood), and I consider the feelings of those who might feel differently, my heart yearns to respond with love and empathy. I imagine Christ is much more loving and empathetic than I am, and so the plight of those distressed by church doctrine tugs at His heart too.

At the same time, I truly believe this is Christ’s church and that we are led by an actual prophet who receives revelation for the church. I want nothing more than to follow Christ and humbly accept counsel given. The activists among us make the argument that doctrines have changed in the past and can continue to do so; they look hopefully toward the day when change will come. But what if change doesn’t come? What will we do then? Will we leave the church? As Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal life.”

And so my mind spins and spins, and I am sure I weary out poor Abe (not to mention God) with all of my questions, push-backs, and spiritual wanderings. Like I said, because I can’t solve the issues of the church as a whole, I always come back to the same question: What does it mean to be a humble disciple of Jesus Christ? As a true disciple, should I be actively looking out for those who are different or feel differently than I do? Should I, as a humble disciple, be pushing for change that affects my afflicted brethren and sisters? Or does true discipleship mean humbly, meekly accepting current prophetic direction, waiting patiently on the Lord, and trying my best to be a unifying force in the Kingdom of God?

I guess I’m still searching for the answer there. But trust me, the search is an active one. SO active, that I forgot about my throbbing fingers as I tried to discern answers through typing. (I misplaced my scripture journal a week ago, so this is some of the pent up stuff that would normally go in there.)

Pivoting now towards the actual occurrences of the day, it went like this: church, nap, cook, clean, dinner (with Balu, Swathi’s cousin), Skype with Clark and Swathi, clean, clean, clean, and now blog.

Here are some pictures:

Below is my first attempt to upload a video. This is of Balu reading Lydia a postcard from her beloved stuffed cat. We misplaced the cat on our India trip, but Clark and Swathi found him and have been sending him around the States on an adventure. Every so often a postcard arrives, and Lydia is currently sleeping with the latest one.

This morning I took Lydia on an outing with Misty.

We went to Tony Caputo’s to try cheese and buy some necessities (cheese, gnocchi, chocolate, and a Happy Hippo). We crossed the street to the market, and I got to meet Misty’s friend, Trapper, who sells the best pumpkins from his stand. Afterwards, the three of us wandered through the market tasting everything. Lydia went through three sample cups of popcorn alone, and I feel suitably guilty for not actually buying any popcorn after letting her go to town on their generous, free samples.

Then Misty went home and Lydia and I proceeded on our Saturday morning circuit: Target, Trader Joe’s, Smith’s.

You would have thought that by the end, Lydia would be ready to go home and eat lunch, but unfortunately, all the places we went had fun things for kids (stickers! lollipops! cookies!), and she was less than enthusiastic about going home to take a nap. But home we went, and Lydia spent her whole nap playing vigorous games of pretend.

After nap time, we took the girls on a glorious bike ride up City Creek Canyon. The leaves have changed and the air smelled like Fall. The weather was beautiful, and we were so happy to be out partaking of the season. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year, and dried leaves are my favorite outdoorsy smell. (Pine trees on a mountain might tie for first…oh, and that briny ocean smell is good too. Hmmm…well, let’s just say I like that Fall smell a whole lot and leave it at that.)

When we got home, I cooked up a dinner proposed to me by the cheese guy at Tony Caputo’s: Saute some shallots and melt a half pound (!!!) of Gorgonzola dolce into that. Pour on top of gnocchi, and garnish with fresh thyme. That’s all, and can I just say, Mary ate that Gorgonzola gnocchi with a gusto that she’s thus far only exhibited for ice cream and chocolate chips. It was a good dinner.

After dinner, I cleaned the kitchen, and Tom and Suzanne came over for a bit to play with the girls. After they left, I made that hazelnut mousse chocolate ganache cake for tomorrow’s dessert, and then I spent too much time shopping on Zulily. (Hey, I have free shipping today!)

Today looked gorgeous outside, but I did not step foot outside today–not even to take out the six poopy diapers (go, Mary, go!) hanging out by the door. The girls and I were sick and cranky all day, so we stayed inside to play, read books, and throw tantrums.

It is totally ironic that I want to go to culinary school so badly because my very least favorite part of the day is meal time. Mary gets really impatient and screams from the moment I put her in her high chair until the moment I take her out–or until I produce chocolate chips. In the meantime, Lydia does her share of whining, fit throwing, and peeing–and every time I stop shoveling food into Mary’s mouth in order to take care of Lydia’s problems, Mary goes ballistic. Considering my children eat all day long, by the end of the day, I’m ready to trade lives with anyone. Please, please: Let’s trade.

Also, since I’m in whining mode: Mary was up at all hours of the night last night, and then Lydia woke up bright and early this morning. As wonderfully helpful Abe is when he is 1) home 2) awake, night time is 99.9999% my domain, so I was, um, a little tired today. I’m sure every mom can say that 99.9999% of the time, but hey–it still feels good to mention it.

But the laundry is folded! While I was blogging last night, Abe cleaned the house. It was such a nice surprise.

Since he’s not home yet, I’m not in for that surprise tonight. Oh, and there’s Lydia crying again. (She’s supposed to be asleep.)

[Break in blogging]

All better, for now. I did not take a single photo today, but here are some from yesterday. In the course of my organizing, Mary found a toy that’s been lost in the bins. She loved it, and she played with it again today, so these scenes actually are still relevant.

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!!!!!!