BOOKS I FINISHED - JULY 2015

To Destroy You is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family, written by JoAn D. Criddle

It took me a while to get through this book, but I think there is value in reading about people who have endured severe hardships because it's good for keeping one's own problems in perspective. The horrible details of a Cambodian genocide combined with one specific family's personal experience of death, life, bravery, and fear, this story took place during my first few years of life.

The Phantom Tollbooth, written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer
This is a classic that Silas read for school last year. He thought it was great, but I'd never read it. I pulled it off the shelf one day, opened it up, and loved every page. It's witty, creative, and made me chuckle multiple times. The main character, Milo, is bored with life and finds himself on an adventure to all sorts of places, meeting all sorts of people and creatures, and learning all sorts of things. It's an easy read that, despite being written for kids, I'd recommend to any adult who's never read it before.

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MENU: 7/30/15 - 8/5/15

We tried a new recipe last week, a pasta salad I thought I'd love, but it was just ... blah. Not worth repeating. We'll be trying a couple of new ones this week and I'm hoping for better luck! I do have one new recipe to share, though.

* fig bread - We actually made this a couple weeks ago, but I didn't get it posted in time to share it with our last menu. It was my first time baking with fresh figs and everyone liked the bread.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* We'll make peanut butter and crockpot beans, just like we do once or twice every week.

BREAKFASTS
* lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry sauce
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x5

DINNERS
* kale frittata (except we'll make it a scramble)/toast
* new recipe/rice/frozen corn
* red lentil & veggie soup/buttermilk biscuits with chives & black pepper
* new recipe/rice/carrots
* lentils & rice
* leftovers 
* tacos - seasoned meat from the freezer, crockpot beans, and some other toppings served in a tortilla or bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* rhubarb crisp
* snickerdoodles (taking to an event)
* produce
* popcorn with seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

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7/30/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that this morning included Silas and Teebs making unplanned eggs and pancakes for breakfast and Devon offering to do the laundry.

What is one thing that you're thankful for?

FUN RUN - 2015

This is the fifth year that our family has participated in the Fun Run. It also happens to be the first and last year that all four little Ws could participate. Needless to say, I insisted on a sibling picture once they got shirts and numbers. One smiling (the half-hearted smile is excused from the one who got woken up from sound sleep for this event after returning from a week of camp) ...

... one silly ...

... and one that Tim took of them on a giant inflatable chair.

It was also the first time we got rained on. After several years of spending hours in the hot sun at this event, I was thankful for an overcast day this time around. It was dry when Naomi ran and while we ate lunch, but the drizzle started as Teebs was warming up and continued until Silas and Devon, whose heats got combined because of the weather, were done. That's fine, though. Water dries. 

The rain didn't stop Teebs from enjoying his first run. In fact, he finished the 100 yards for his age group, got his medal, and then kept running. He didn't stop until he'd finished a whole lap around the track!  

I'm thankful for all the sponsors, donors, and volunteers who make this event possible each year!

MENU: 7/23/15 - 7/29/15

We tried one new recipe last week that was disgusting, which is saying a lot for someone who's pretty easy to please with food, skipped a new recipe we had planned, and ate an unplanned blueberry pie that Naomi made. We're only trying one new recipe this week, so we'll see how it goes!

* blueberry pie - Naomi made this for us one afternoon and I have a sneaking suspicion we'll be using our stash of Gingerich Farm's frozen blueberries to make more down the road.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* We'll chop a ton of green onions and pop them in the freezer for future meals.
* We'll make peanut butter and crockpot beans, just like we do once or twice every week.

BREAKFASTS
* blueberry oatmeal cakes (These got skipped in favor of banana poppyseed muffins last week, so we'll try again.)
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x4

DINNERS
* buffalo slaw/rice
* new recipe
* lentils & rice
* Silas' chicken/rice/apple cranberry salad with honey dijon balsamic vinaigrette
* Dutch babies/smoothies
* leftovers 
* tacos - seasoned meat from the freezer, crockpot beans, and some other toppings served in a tortilla or bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* s'mores bars (We were given a bunch of plums last week and ended up eating plum buckle with vanilla ice cream, so we'll make these bars this week.)
* produce
* popcorn with seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

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7/22/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that Tim has had opportunities to work the last three summers. What is something that you're thankful for?

ORDINARY MOMENTS

Here are a few recent pictures I've taken of the little Ws doing things that are just routine, seemingly no big deal, but which capture who they are and make me smile.

Devon is frequently found sitting outside with a book opened in front of him.

Naomi often pulls these two stuffed animals into bed with her, a rabbit handmade my one grandma and a teddy bear given to her other grandma as she was dying.

Silas is totally in his element when speaking to a large group.

Teebs once had to have a long-sleeved shirt tied around his waist while on a walk and loved it so much that he now frequently requests that I tie one as part of his completed look for the day.

ON DIFFERING BELIEFS

I shared the following quote from Ben Carson in a post about books last year.

Both beliefs require faith in things that have not been proven and neither has the right to proclaim the other as foolish.

~ Ben Carson, speaking about the beliefs in creation and evolution in One Nation: What We Can All Do To Save America's Future 

I have absolutely zero interest in a conversation about creation and/or evolution and ask people to refrain from having that discussion here, but I really like this quote because it's similar to things I tell the little Ws all the time and which apply to so many other areas of life.

* Always respect the right of other people to believe differently than you do and be grateful for your right to believe differently than them.

* Always remember that people who disagree with you on a topic have often/usually put just as much thought or study into it as you and have simply come to a different conclusion.

* Always stay humble, realizing that you may be wrong and that being right doesn't make you smarter or wiser than those who are wrong.

* Always see those you disagree with as human beings, not just as their religious belief, stance on a social issue, parenting method, and so on.

* Always speak with tact and respect, as people often change their views about issues over time and it's much easier to admit you're wrong or that you changed your mind about something if you don't have to go around apologizing for how you previously mistreated those who you now agree with.

* Always be kind because no one enjoys or respects a condescending or rude person, regardless of what they believe.

GARLIC

I planted garlic last fall for the first time and recently harvested it. Garlic usually just gets tossed in the produce bins on our kitchen counter, but I wanted to try something different with the stemmed garlic that I'd grown myself. Apparently there's no better time to start a project outside than after it's dark, so Tim and I headed out and worked on our first garlic braid long after the little Ws had gone to bed. Here we are with our creation, though it looks a little wonky being held from the bottom.

Here's a close-up of the bulbs.

And here's a view of it stretched out, not bunched from the bottom like it was in the picture of Tim and I.

We didn't get the spacing as tight as we could have, had to use some small bulbs near the top because that's all we had left, and didn't get some bulbs as clean as we could have, but I confess that I'm a little more excited about our first braid than is probably normal. I'm going to plant a lot more garlic this fall ... and make a lot more braids next summer!

If you'd like some info about to grow garlic and/or make garlic braids, then here are the sites we used.

* How to Grow Garlic - Growing garlic is as simple as shoving some cloves in the ground in the fall and harvesting some bulbs in the summer once the leaves start dying. Easy peasy, but Angela at Frugal Living NW spells it out for you with a little more detail and some pictures.

* Bloomingfields - I found this site when I swagged for braiding instructions and it was awesome! Clearly written directions with really helpful illustrations for every step of the way.

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MENU: 7/16/15 - 7/22/15

We tried a few new recipes over the last week, two of the three I had planned and one spontaneous one, but I don't have any to share with you yet. One wasn't that great and we probably won't make it again. The other two were good, but I haven't typed up the recipes yet.

Some of the Ws went on a camping trip last week, which meant I made a few extra things on top of our regular menu. Along with things like cereal (I never buy cereal, so that was a treat), sandwiches, and produce, they also took creamy white bean chicken chili, cornbread, black bean dip, and lemon bread.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* We'll make peanut butter and crockpot beans, just like we do once or twice every week.

BREAKFASTS
* egg & veggie scramble (We skipped this last week because Devon made Dutch babies instead.)
* blueberry oatmeal cakes
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x4

DINNERS
* leftovers 
* tacos - seasoned meat from the freezer, crockpot beans, and some other toppings served in a tortilla or bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice
* herb & cheese stuffed burgers/potato wedges
* lentils & rice
* Jen's chicken (raw in marinade from the freezer, crockpot)/apple corn muffins/apple cranberry salad with honey dijon balsamic vinaigrette
* new recipe/store-bought rolls
* garlic quinoa with parmesan/cilantro peanut slaw

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* s'mores bars
* new recipe
* produce
* Crunchy Flax cereal (We've scored a several cases of 12 for $4.99 at a local discount store over the last several months, so we've been using it as a snack. We either eat it with milk as a cold cereal, over yogurt with fruit, or mixed into homemade granola.)

* popcorn with seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

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7/16/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for electricity.

What is one thing that you're thankful for?

SILAS' BIRTHDAY, PART TWO - 2015

Silas asked if he could go camping with a couple friends this year to celebrate his birthday instead of having a party and we gave our approval. We could only coordinate schedules with one of the friends, so Silas and Toby headed out to Lost Lake with Tim mid-morning on Sunday.

Although we paid for the trip, Silas used some of his spending budget to treat everyone to some spontaneous movies both on the way out and on the way home.

They (unsuccessfully) hunted squirrels with slingshots, threw knives ...

... relaxed around campfires, hiked around the lake ...

... posed so that Tim could take a close-up picture of them together like I asked him to ...

...  climbed a gigantic hill, waded in water ...

... and jumped in water.

They got home late last night and Silas said it was awesome. "Three days. Outside. With my friend. It can't get better than that."

MENU: 7/9/15 - 7/15/15

We tried (and liked) three new recipes over the last week, so we'll start off with those before launching into our new menu.

NEW RECIPES
* screaming ginger cookies - I've had this recipe bookmarked for a long time and finally got around to trying it. They were delicious!

* Basque salad - Multi-colored bell peppers, cukes, tomatoes, onion, and a tasty dressing make a pretty awesome salad.

* nutty granola - It's been a while since we tried a new granola recipe and I tore this one out of a magazine years ago, so we gave it a try. It was a hit with everyone, even though I baked it a little longer than I intended.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* We'll make peanut butter and crockpot beans, just like we do once or twice every week.

BREAKFASTS
* egg & veggie scramble
* apple & fig granola over yogurt (We ended up trying the nutty granola I linked above last week, so we've got this on the menu again.)
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x4

DINNERS
* leftovers 
* tacos - seasoned meat from the freezer, crockpot beans, and some other toppings served in a tortilla or bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice
* new recipe/mashed potatoes/tomatoes
* lentils & rice
* meatballs (from the freezer)/rice/oven-roasted broccoli
* Mediterranean black bean salad over spinach
* creamed eggs & toast/fruit & spinach smoothies

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* caramel apple cookies
* new recipe
* produce
* Crunchy Flax cereal (We've scored a several cases of 12 for $4.99 at a local discount store over the last several months, so we've been using it as a snack. We either eat it with milk as a cold cereal, over yogurt with fruit, or mixed into homemade granola.)

* popcorn with seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

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7/9/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for candles that smell good and bring to mind the people who gave them to me, the time I bought them, or some other memory.

What's something that you're thankful for?

FUN WITH A FRIEND

Naomi and Keira have been wanting to get together for a while, so the moms and all the kids except Silas met up at Town Center Park last week. We spent a couple hours chatting, enjoying the sunshine, eating picnic lunches, visiting with people we knew who were also there, enjoying the water, and playing capture the flag.

Silly girls with string cheese ....

... and smiling girls who were happy to spend part of their morning together.

MY FARMER

Devon planted a few grains of wheat alongside our other plants and flowers back in the fall and snapped this picture of their growth in early May.

He decided it was time to harvest the wheat about a week ago and I got this picture of him processing it.

Here's part of his bounty.

Bounty's probably too strong of a word for the half-cup or so of grain that he got from his few plants, but it's still cool to see the fruit of his labor. For a variety of reasons, it would not surprise me at all if this boy of mine ended up as some kind of farmer (plants and/or animals), either as a profession or just for his own household. Not at all!

MENU: 7/2/15 - 7/8/15

We had one new recipe flop last week. Well, it tasted fine, but the texture was completely wrong and we're going to try it again before sharing it. These two things were good, though!

NEW RECIPES
* bok choy with garlic & ginger - We had some bok choy left after making spinach salad with almond butter dressing, so I made this for dinner one night last week. I loved it!

* garlic kale mashed potatoes - Kale in the freezer and a bunch of potatoes that needed to be used up turned into this, which I served with frozen veggies and Elizabeth's meatloaf.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* We'll make peanut butter and crockpot beans, just like we do once or twice every week.

BREAKFASTS
* apple & fig granola over yogurt
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x5

DINNERS
* leftovers 
* tacos - seasoned meat from the freezer, crockpot beans, and some other toppings served in a tortilla or bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice
* Hawaiian chicken (raw in marinade from the freezer, crockpot)/rice/green salad with Italian dressing
* dinner at a birthday party
* quinoa patties/new recipe
* lentils & rice
* crockpot ziti/tomatoes with pepper

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* oat & almond bars
* produce
* new recipe
* Crunchy Flax cereal (We've scored a several cases of 12 for $4.99 at a local discount store over the last several months, so we've been using it as a snack. We either eat it with milk as a cold cereal, over yogurt with fruit, or mixed into homemade granola.)

* popcorn with seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

** This post contains affiliate links and we're grateful when people use them. ** 

7/2/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for time spent watering plants in the quiet, relatively cool morning before tackling the day.

What is something that you're thankful for?

BOOKS I FINISHED - JUNE 2015

The Dean's Watch, written by Elizabeth Goudge

Heidi recommended this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, all but the second chapter, which I confess I found boring, long, and almost made me give up on the book. Wealth and poverty, kindness and mistreatment, prestige and inconspicuousness, friendship and love, elderly and young, faith and a lack of it, marital strengths and weaknesses, needs and service, problems and solutions, bad attitudes and good ones, art and literature. A neat story of unlikely friendships, people moving outside of their comfort zones and thinking past themselves, lives changed ... all sorts of good stuff. I'm definitely going to look for more books by this author!

p.101, (speaking of compassion) He saw now that it was the very first necessity, always and everywhere, and should flow between all men, always and everywhere.

p.108, "They have their own life," said Isaac. "Clocks are like children. You can start them off right but you can't do more."

p.118, They did not know how vivid are the memories of the old and that only the young are housebound when they can't go out.

p.200, But joy is a homing pigeon.

p.251, Better to struggle through life with a broken wing than have no wings at all.

p.262,  ... she had not the slightest idea of what she was and what she did. That was as it should be, for to have begun to know her value would have been to begin to lose it.

A Land More Kind Than Home: A Novel, written by Wiley Cash
I read out about this book in a magazine and it intrigued me. Now that I'm done with it I have mixed feelings. The nutshell is that two brothers each see something that was supposed to be kept hidden, first one and then the other, and the fallout of what they saw is really bad. People say and do things they shouldn't, with consequences that are huge. The "life can be really rotten, but we'll survive" ending almost seemed more pessimistic than realistic. On the other hand, the writing style and story line totally drew me in and I enjoyed reading the book. I loved how the story was told in the first person from the viewpoint of several characters and I found myself drawn to the humanity of each of them, regardless of whether or not I liked them. Maybe I'll try another book by Cash and see if there's one that draws me in without having so much sadness and dysfunction.


BOOKS I BAILED ON

Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children, written by Po Bronson

In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed, written by Carl Honore

I know people who love these books, but they bored me. Maybe I just wasn't in a mood for books with lots of stats and research quoted on every page this month.


BOOKS THE KIDS REALLY LIKED

Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France, written by Mara Rockliff and illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

If ... A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers, written by David J. Smith and illustrated by Steve Adams

Your Skin Weighs More Than Your Brain: And Other Freaky Facts About Your Skin, Skeleton, and Other Body Parts, written by Barbara Seuling and illustrated by Matthew Skeens

Before We Eat: From Farm to Table, written by Pat Brisson and illustrated by Mary Azarian
This rhyming books reminds us of all the people involved in putting food on our table. - those planting and harvesting fruit, veggies, nuts, and grains; people raising livestock and bees or catching fish; those filling crates with food, driving delivery trucks, and scanning groceries at the store; the ones paying for our food and teaching us to be grateful for it.

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