we interrupt our regular programming...

earlier this week I was thinking wistfully about another baby.  isaac is so big.  i want a big(ish) family.  i love being surrounded by my little chickies. 

it's amazing how a good solid case of food poisoning/stomach flu/whatever this awful thing is can knock those dreams right out of your head.  i never realized how much early labor resembles some horrible intestinal ailment.  but it does. 

foodie friday will return next week.  not even going to try today. 

reflecting

Something I realized today as I was accepting my courses for fall:  this will be my seventh year of university teaching.  I taught my own courses at BYU for two years as a graduate student (and was a TA for two years before that).  When we moved here for Neil's doctorate, I casually contacted the English department about the possibility of teaching and was offered the chance to apply for a full-time position.  While I passed on that, they hired me to teach without even an interview, based on my prior teaching experience and grades.  This will be the fifth year I've taught here--at one of the top schools in the country.  The department has been so incredibly accomodating with my desire to maximize my time with the children and has been so supportive of our family.

Little did I know that my humble master's degree would prove so fruitful--when I prayed about graduate school and was directed to English (not law or business, as I had planned all through my undergraduate years), I was so confused, and quite frustrated (make that really upset, actually).  Seven years later, I feel so incredibly blessed by my opportunities.  I know that many women balance part-time law/business practice with stay-at-home motherhood, but this has been so perfect for our family, especially while Neil is in school.  Yet another testament to me that the Lord truly knows what He's doing. 

image

end-of-April garden

planted out the broccoli last week; it seems to be doing well.  everything outside needs to be weeded and thinned.  transplanted the tomatoes into bigger pots yesterday and planted the next batch of seeds; started hardening off the brussels sprouts and a couple of trays of flowers.  only a couple of weeks left until we can move everything to the garden and finally get the bathtub back!

some thoughts

• Yesterday was one of "those" days--everything combined to make it really rough (question of the year:  will Isaac ever outgrow the need for nebulizer treatments?!).  I was SO glad I had a frozen lasagna to pull out for dinner.  I made 13 freezer meals before Isaac was born and I'm thinking I need to spend a few hours some Saturday morning filling up the freezer again--I love having those backups for crazy days.  I used this recipe for the one we had last night (I also layered in some leftover roasted vegetables--eggplant, mushrooms, carrots, onions, and asparagus).  And I'm not exaggerating when I say that the tofu + nutritional yeast totally tastes like ricotta.
• Neil surprised me with a potted orchid yesterday.  I found a little home for it on my desk, and I love it.  It's the perfect note this room needed to finish it off.
• After my run this morning, I felt so energized that I started looking up marathon dates for the next year.  Too bad I only ran four miles and that's why it felt so good!
• Our bathtub tomatoes are about a foot tall.  I have to transplant them to new containers today--still 3 weeks before they can go outside!
• Speaking of the garden, I love looking out the window and seeing all the green leafy things.  It's gorgeous.
• I think I'm going to do some dandelion painting with the kids today.  We certainly have enough of them...

elsewhere

read me here today on starting your garden!

race day

First of, let me say that I didn't get a photo and I'm pretty bummed about it.  So much so that I may take a picture with our numbers pinned on and our "finisher medals" the next time we go running. 

The forecast today was for thunderstorms and a high of 51 degrees.  Not optimal.  Neil and I drove the course last night, and let me tell you, the race organizer and I apparently have very different opinions about what constitutes a "significant change in elevation."

I could make this a really long post, but I'm exhausted, so I won't (maybe I will later, but not now). 

Long story short:  it was pretty awesome.  I had butterflies in my stomach as we lined up at the starting line.  It was overcast and cloudy, but nary a raindrop did we see all day. 

The first six or seven miles were really fun.  I was running easily, chatting with the people around me, enjoying all the people cheering from the sidelines, and very thankful for the awesome volunteers giving us water every mile and Gu packets every couple of miles.  Around mile eight, we hit a very large hill.   Lots of people were stopping and walking up it.  I kept running all the way up, but I had a little teeny side ache that took me the next mile to get rid of--just enough to be irritating, but not inhibiting.   Miles eight, nine, and ten were running around this lake in an insanely long trail that kept looking like it was going to end and DIDN'T.  (As in you would round a curve and see a big long loop in front of you, instead of the cute little bridge 100 yards away that you thought you were going to use to cross).  When we got back onto the main road at mile 10, I was pretty tired.  I also felt blisters starting (on top of a callus), so every step was like a little fire in the side of my shoe.  Honestly, that bothered me more than anything else the entire race.  That stupid little pinprick of fire in my shoe got pretty agonizing by the end--I was physically tired, but my joints didn't hurt and I wasn't struggling for breath--just that shoe of fire. 

Mile ten was the worst, I think.  It was not close enough to the end that I was running on adrenaline, but it was far enough into the race that I was really tired.  I survived that mile by telling myself "You can do anything for a mile."  Miles 11, 12, and the first half of mile thirteen were on the devil road of sharp pointy rocks sticking up through the asphalt.  One interesting thing I noticed at that point was that while during the first eight miles, everyone around us was pretty chatty and friendly, by the last couple of miles everyone was silent and super-focused (except for when someone on the side of the road said, "You can do it!  Almost there!" and Neil jumped up and clicked his heels together, and then everyone around us started cheering for him.  I was just wondering how he had the energy!)

When we rounded the corner and saw the finish line, I decided that I was going to sprint with 100% of all my remaining energy, since Neil had been running with me all day, and I wanted to let him run all-out at the end, since he wouldn't leave me.  So I ran faster than I've ever run before in my life, Neil said, "Wow!" and started running with me.  I could hear everyone cheering louder and louder when I started sprinting, and then all of a sudden the crowd's noise started to fade, my vision started to go in and out, and I could feel my skin turning icy cold.  Scary!  I tried to slow down a little bit, but I was pretty much over the finish line, and we were done!!!  (and then I turned into a chattering ice cube in the car, Neil decided I needed to get into a hot shower before I went into some sort of runner's shock, and hence, no picture.)

We ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 6 minutes, or just over 9 and a half minutes per mile.  My main goal was anything less than 2 hours and 10 minutes (my dreaming goal was 2 hours and 5 minutes), so I was really happy with the time and with how I felt physically when we were done.  I placed 258th out of the 640 women who ran.  I think Neil could have gone much, much faster without me, but we ran it together, and it was awesome. 

now I'm going to go limp over to the 'fridge (except not as much of a limp because my dad massaged my feet) and eat the ice cream that my mother has informed me I need to replace all the calories I burned this morning.  I love parents! 

Foodie Friday: Dijon fruited salad

True story:  I told Abigail she could have whatever she wanted for her birthday meals--anything. 

"Salad," she said.  "Cut-up apples and oranges."

"That's all?" I said.  "Nothing else?  Really, you can have anything you want."

With a speculative look in her eye, she said, "Salad for lunch and dinner." 

So salad it was.  But with a salad as tasty as this, you can understand her reasoning.  Go here for the recipe. 

tender mercies

Yesterday Isaac napped for twenty minutes total (yes.  That is right). It was a long day and a longer night.

Today at naptime I could not find a single correct-sized pacifier.  I searched the entire house to no avail, wondering where they had all gone since morning naps.  Finally, I put a hiccuping, exhausted, drippy-nosed, tired baby in his crib with a teeny-sized infant pacifier from the hospital.  He promptly spat out the pacifier, looked up at me, and coolly tossed it over the side of his crib.  I retrieved it and put it back in his mouth, kissed his forehead, and covered him with his blankie.  Then I walked out, shut the door and prayed that my child who has never slept without a pacifier would somehow cope just this once.

Five minutes later:  snoring baby. 

One thing that I've been thinking about lately is the way in which motherhood has changed my perspective on answers to prayer and revelation.  It seems like daily there is some small prompting or quiet whispering of the Spirit or a quick answer to a small insignificant prayer that doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but makes all the difference to me that day.  I am consistently amazed and grateful at how often my actions or words are guided by frequent promptings--things I would never think of on my own, but things that are imperative for me right then.  Or perhaps, things that aren't even that imperative, but things that make my day run more smoothly, or simply--quietly--reaffirm to me that there is a Father in heaven who is mindful of me. 

almost there

I ran my last training run this morning, it's "rest days" for the next two days until we run the half-marathon Saturday.

I am really, really glad we did this.  It's been a little difficult fitting in all the running, but I've loved doing the long runs alone with Neil.  I feel like I'm in better shape than I've ever been in my life (although please note that this does not correlate to weight loss; I still weigh exactly the same as I did two months ago, probably because after a 2-hour run I come home and eat everything in sight).  But on Friday night when I was running through the woods I realized that it was pretty cool that the worst part of running for me now is just getting bored--the physical exertion isn't an issue.  I feel like that's a real accomplishment.  One of our goals as a couple has always been to stay physically fit throughout our lives (we want to take advantage of those senior citizen ski lift prices!!), and it's been really rewarding to feel like this training is helping us to stay in line with our goals. 

I'm excited for Saturday.  I'm also really looking forward to being able to do different types of exercise--I've missed biking and aerobics and swimming and things like that, although running will stick around as my primary form of exercise.  (I should have been doing cross-training throughout, but it's been a logistical puzzle fitting in 25 miles a week around the kids, teaching, house, and garden!).  I'm also looking forward to not starting out my weekend with a couple hours of running--it feels like we've put a lot of things on hold for the last two months, and it will be nice to have some of that project-time back (especially now that the garden's really picking up!). 



Bottom line:  it's been great.  I'm looking forward to this race.  (also, can you tell from the general lack of energy in this post that I am really insanely tired?  Worn out.  It's been a rough couple of weeks, emotionally and physically.)

Five

Five seems so much more momentous than four. It's bittersweet.

Five years ago tonight I was twenty-one years old.  I was finishing my first year of graduate school.  I was a week overdue.  (I was curled up under the end table in my living room 6 hours into a 24-hour labor).

Five years changes a lot of things. 

Abigail spent most of her first year of life in the stroller--Neil was finishing his senior year at BYU and I was writing my master's thesis and teaching.  Six days after her first birthday (and the day we officially graduated), we packed up our U-Haul and moved here for Neil to begin his Ph.D. 

two

    four

yesterday

Five years has been long enough for us to clash and make up countless times, to swing the pendulum from unquestioning obedience to outright denial to considered questioning.  To read a million stories.  To listen to you read them back to me, sounding out each word.  Stubby crayons, muddy toes, wilted dandelions, sticky fingers warm and trusting against my palm. 

My Abigail. 

ps--another great link here regarding one mother's experience with National TV Turn-off Week (14 years ago). 

Turning off the TV

Great post here on some reasons to turn off the TV. 

Growing up, I never had a TV in my home (the first time I lived somewhere with a TV was in college!)  In our home, we have a beat-up old 12-inch TV/VCR combo (which someone gave us) that lives in the very back of our closet--behind my wedding dress and our 72-hour kits--and only comes out when people are throwing up (delightful criteria, I know!)  Neil and I also watch DVDs on the computer (and Hulu!).

When Abigail was younger, I definitely understood the temptation to just turn on a DVD on the computer--or even a YouTube video--so I could just have a few minutes to myself.  And I did, on occasion, but I found that we were all miserable after she'd watched a 20-minute Blue's Clues episode or something like that (she whined for more all day and I felt grumpy about the whining and the fact that I was using the computer screen as a crutch). 

If this is the stage you're in--and you're feeling a little despairing!!--I want you to know that it will pass!!  My children entertain themselves while I take a shower, make dinner, work out, etc.  This has taken a little effort on my part, but I've found that they are happiest being in the same room with me, even if they don't have 100% of my attention.  For instance, while I ran 4 miles this morning Juliet looked at books and played with her dolls on the floor next to me; while I took a shower she sat on the bathroom mat and we sang Primary songs together.  While I make dinner, the kids will often color at the table, play with their Legos in the hallway next to the kitchen, or pitch in with the cooking. About half the time that I'm doing something else they want to be with me; the other 50% of the time they're off playing happily by themselves, but I try to be ready to offer some sort of appropriate entertainment in with me if they're so inclined. It requires a little more creativity on your part, but I've found that my kids are quick to settle in a routine of "while Mommy does x, I do y," and it's smooth sailing from there on out.  (This is not to say that I have not found my entire living room covered in Sharpie marker when I got out of the shower.  They are not angels--just normal kids!)

If you're trying to avoid TV in your home--or just cut down on the number of hours--I can tell you that it will get easier as your children get older, but only if they're not used to having the TV as a resource.  Stick to your guns.  :-) 

I hope I'm not coming off as self-righteous; I really believe that there's real value in not using the TV as a babysitter, but I also understand how daunting it is to keep small people entertained and out of trouble all day.  What I want to convey in this post is that you're not alone!  It's possible!  And it's lovely to see your kids sitting and looking at picture books for hours on end--by choice. 

What do you think?  Is this an issue in your home one way or the other?  Are you happy with the current level of TV-watching going on in your house? 

Foodie Friday: Dad's whole-wheat waffles

image

No food blog would be representative of my favorites if it didn't include one of my go-to recipes (which goes WAY beyond breakfast!!)  My dad makes THE best whole-wheat waffles you've ever had in your life.  Go here for the recipe (may I suggest to you that these would make a great Saturday morning breakfast to start your weekend on a great note tomorrow?  Or brunch?  Or dinner?)

bringing your work home

**sorry about the pictures chunk and then the text chunk--I have no idea what's up with Blogger tonight and I'd rather go to bed than fix it!**

For the past year or so, Neil has been supervising undergraduate students who are building electric go-karts. The university here is well known for the standard go-kart Grand Prix that it hosts every spring; Neil's teams have been organizing the first electric go-kart race, which takes place this weekend. One of the decisions the teams made was to have the race be a family-friendly affair--their goal is to attract young eco-concious families, rather than the drunken college students that gather at the other race. So with that in mind, one of the events they'll be holding is a mini race for children, using electric Big Wheels. And some remote controlled cars.

Only problem? They needed someone to test it all out beforehand to see how easily the kids could operate the Big Wheels and time how long the race should take. We had some very, very, very happy volunteers tonight zooming up and down our street (they may be visiting the racetrack tomorrow for more time trials).  I must admit, I was totally jealous. 

And after the kids were in bed, Neil and I broke out the Ferrari Enzo and the Tesla Roadster and had ourselves some fun (we even went into the girls' room and tried to wake them up to play with us, since the cars have operational headlights/brakelights/turn signals and it was totally sweet-looking in the dark).

So. Much. Fun. Too bad everything has to go back tomorrow!  Although we may volunteer our garage as a storage space...

nine months

I firmly believe that this child is the most adorable boy in the entire world.



He's sleeping through the night, chortling in delight at his sisters' antics, completely in love with his special blankie, reaching his chubby arms out to be held, and devouring bananas whenever possible. He has the most adorable grin ever when he is truly delighted (it's almost an almost horizontal split in those plump little cheeks). Loves having his head rubbed and his cheeks kissed, thinks the baby swing is the best place ever, and is so delightful and sweet and sunny that I don't know how we ever got along without our little Isaac.

cleanliness is next to godliness? discuss!

Yesterday afternoon around six, I just quit.  I was exhausted, Neil was working late, and the kids were driving me crazy.  I'd sliced a big chunk out of my thumb early on in the morning (cutting up apples for Jules with a knife that Neil had sharpened the day before, which I had forgotten) and every time I jarred it, it started bleeding all over everything again (like a LOT, so much, for instance, that I thought one of the kids had dumped grape juice all over a puzzle when I wasn't looking).  So after dinner, I just sat down and let the chaos build around me while I tried to block it out.  When Neil got home, I ran 5 miles, then went straight to bed, ignoring the sticky floors and all the rest.

This morning when I got up, I realized that the house really and truly was a mess.  Mostly the kitchen--the dishes from dinner were washed but that was it.  I hadn't finished putting away laundry (kept bleeding on it!), and everything needed to be vacuumed or swept and mopped.  Everyone was hungry and grumpy and the mess seemed to exacerbate it.  I was irritated with myself when I realized that I had to make up for everything I hadn't done the previous night, plus run this morning and go to the grocery store so I had something to feed the missionaries this evening. 

I read a couple of weeks ago a quote that struck me, "Cleaning house with small children is like shoveling during a snowstorm."  I've also heard, "Don't worry about the mess, your kids won't remember it when they're older" and "cleanliness is next to godliness." 

My personal inclination is to keep my living spaces as clean as possible.  And yes, this does entail some frustration as the mother of 3 small children with less time and more mess than I'd like.  I've got a pretty good system figured out, but I do devote a fair amount of my "free" time to keeping things orderly.  Some of this, I think, simply has to happen in order for life to function smoothly (laundry, dishes, etc.) but some (such as disinfecting the counters or organizing closets) may just be icing on the cake.  Personally, I get really stressed if there are messes, so I feel it's worth the trade-off for my children to have less time with me if I'm cleaning but for that time to be more quality time since I'm not frantic about the sticky floor we're sitting on (I do also try to involve them in the home upkeep).  I do worry, however, that we're missing out on fun things because I always want to get the work done first.  (This is a big worry for me:  I want them to remember their childhoods as fun, not just "broom in hand," but I also want them to learn how to keep things clean and orderly). 

What do you think about all of this?  Do you feel that a clean home helps your family to be more calm and happy?  Do you think that the season of small children is not the season to be dusting and mopping?  How do you balance the care of your living space with everything else you have to do?  Did you have a clean or messy home growing up?  Did you notice?  Do you live differently now?

Juliet was here...for the third time

(the strawberry box was left in the 'fridge--she just kept sneaking tiny bites all day until Abigail noticed and alerted me)



ps--no Juliets were harmed in the creation of this post. But it was close!

garden 2010

I realized yesterday that I should post about our gardening efforts this year, since we're almost a month in already!

This year we tried something new: growing our transplants from seed. These are normally things we'd buy at the nursery, but we wanted to give it a shot ourselves. Eventually we'd like to be saving all our seeds and replanting exclusively from those, but we're easing in to it.



Oh--and our seed-growing spot? Master bathroom. Bathtub. (really looking forward to taking a long luxurious bath again one of these days...)


Our original plan this year was to nearly double the size of our garden, but Neil remembered (as he was tilling, and fortunately before he tilled that area!) that our electrical lines run right through the planned expansion site. So...our garden is a little bigger than last year, but not as big as we'd like. We're still contemplating our options and dreaming about the day when our garden will be the size of our current backyard.

A couple of weeks ago we planted peas, lettuces (lots of different kinds), a couple of varieties of spinach, green onions, leeks, kale, and radishes. All of those are now up and growing happily; yesterday we planted turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets, and more radishes (interplanted with the parsnips to break the soil for the weaker parsnips). Ideally, we would have planted those earlier, but we had to wait until we re-tilled the almost-bricklike clay that comprises our backyard (awesome developers who scalped and sold off the topsoil).


Jules standing near the lettuce box (you can see the just-transplanted leeks in this shot)

The chives have been up for about six weeks now and we've been eating them quite a bit; the oregano and rhubarb are up as well and almost ready to begin harvesting. The raspberry has put out a million new shoots and we really need to get pruning there...

If you're interested, here's everything that's going into our garden this year:

• Broccoli (Calabrese)
• Herbs (lavendar, rosemary, dill, cilantro, basil--oregano and chives already growing)
• Peppers (Sweet Red, Sunbright, California Wonder, jalapeno, Anaheim)
• Leeks
• Eggplant (Black Beauty)
• Tomatoes (Fourth of July, Brandy Boy, Big Mama, Best Boy, Steak Sandwich, Super Sweet 100)
• Okra (Clemson spineless)
• Brussels sprouts (Long Island Improved)
• Watermelon (Sweet Scarlet Hybrid)
• Cantalope (Ambrosia)
• Pumpkin (Small sugar)
• Peas (Super Sugar Snap, Little Marvel)
• Radish (Cherry Belle)
• Turnip (Purple-top White Globe)
• Spinach (Baby's Leaf & Harmony hybrid)
• Parsnips
• Yellow onions (sets)
• Beets (Detroit Dark Red)
• Kale (Vates Dwarf Blue)
• Swiss Chard (Bright Lights)
• Lettuce (Simpson Elite, Vivian, Burpee Bibb, Little Caesar)
• Beans (Bush Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder)
• Corn (Early and Often)
• Cucumber (Sweet Burpless hybrid)
• Squashes (zucchini hybrid, Pic-n-Pic, Waltham Butternut)
  

Foodie Friday: oven-roasted vegetables

Have you run out of creative ways to serve up vegetables? Is there a pile of aforesaid vegetable friends languishing in your fridge or on your counter? What's the solution?

Roast them!

Click on over for the details.

the pitfalls of solely backwards locomotion

This happens about a bajillion times a day--and let me tell you, he is very LOUD when voicing his displeasure!

Design Mom today!

Not posting here today--but I'm over at Design Mom as part of her pregnancy stories series! (Can I just say I feel SO honored?!)

good things

before breakfast dancing at the window

• running errands this morning with the kids (dentist and grocery store among them) was actually pleasant. Surprising! And so nice to have fun together instead of gritting my teeth and wishing the lines would go faster.
  
• Neil is tilling up the garden tonight (we planted things in the box almost two weeks ago, so peas and lettuce and onions and spinach and radishes and things like that are sprouting, not to mention the broccoli, eggplant, brussels sprouts, peppers, tomatoes, and flowers that are under lights in one of our bathtubs).
  
• Someone gave me all their boy clothes from 0-4T this morning. The boxes filled my entire car. Seriously. So. Generous.
• I found this poster today. Fell in love the moment I saw it (although sadly it was sold out when I clicked over!)
  
• chocolate soy milk--out of vanilla at the grocery store. the chocolate kind is really good!!
• Strawberries and asparagus were on super sale! Abigail is in heaven.
• I went running this morning before breakfast. So indescribably wonderful to have that out of the way before the day has really begun (I really, really, really need to do that every day--I am officially announcing my goal to get up earlier than the kids, because I've been half-hearted about it lately).
• My sister and her husband are vacationing in Taiwan right now; their posts are fascinating!
• I can't decide what I'm making for dinner tonight because I'm looking forward to everything we're having this week. I LOVE spring and spring-y food!! (tonight I'm leaning towards tropical bean wraps with spinach/avocado/strawberry salad and sugar snap peas on the side).
  

What are you enjoying today?

yay Neil!

Remember our last-minute proposal-writing last week?

Guess who was awarded a full fellowship to the NSF summer institute (at Northwestern) on laser nano/micro manufacturing processes? Hurray for Neil!!!!! And while we're congratulating him, he also received notification that he was nominated for the university's premier teaching assistant award. He spends so much time and effort working with his students, and I am so glad that his dedication was recognized (we even went into the lab during our date Friday and he was helping students out).

The only downside to the summer institute--he'll be gone for 4 days in Chicago, and I can't think of any way to make it fun for all of us to go with him, although he suggested it (I guess I could get really creative and look for things around the city to do with the kids...but am I feeling that adventurous?) Should I go for it?

Monday morning with Isaac

Making faces at Daddy during conference

.
Little legs the first warm day of spring


Playing in Mommy's bed


Ceiling fan!


Lion face!


Tofu lasagna? Three ecstatic helpings for Isaac, please.


When he gets tired, he grabs at the hair on each side of his head and pulls until it's all sticking straight out.

Is he not so adorable?