Adventures in Eating

One of the things that I want to do with my kids is to expose them to lots of different types of foods.  They don't have to love everything on their plate, but if they don't try they will never know.  I will often have the kids pick out something new/something weird to try at the grocery store. Then we go home and I have to figure out how to cook it.  They have picked things like eggplant, kiwi, starfruit, tamarind pods, cactus leaves and fresh beets.  Some are definitely stranger than others.  A lot of them have become favorites - like Charis and Brussels sprouts. 

Well once word gets out that you like to try new and different things people start giving you strange food items.  And I do mean strange.  Here is what we were given not long ago and I finally worked up the courage to cook.

RATTLESNAKE!
Now generally I am not very squeamish.  I'm not afraid of snakes, but this kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies.  It looks like a snake, but in keeping with what I'm trying to teach my kids, I tried not to let the creepy crawlies get the best of me.  I talked my folks into letting me make it at their house by offering a free meal - ha!  I was really amazed at my mom and how calm she was, she even took the picture above.  She is not a big fan of snakes.  We decided to debone it so we wouldn't have to worry about anyone choking.

I deboned, my mom chopped vegetables.

As nervous as I was in the beginning, once I got going it lost all of it power to make me feel woozy.  It just became like any other meat, well any other meat with a billion little bones in it.  I actually started to enjoy myself.  Here was our finished product.

Menu:

Green salad with Raspberry Dressing 

Rattlesnake in a Cajun Cream Sauce

Hand Picked Morel Mushrooms (left over from this summer)

French Bread with Homemade Butter (19 min. -that's for my dad)

It was so much fun to cook with my mom again and especially fun with out of the ordinary ingredients.  Next on the list...Rock Mountain Oysters (thank you Dr. Kyle)

Robot Invasion

Micaiah's 3rd Birthday Party

Micaiah is over the moon for Robots.  It started with a favorite pair of pajamas that he wants to wear constantly.  They are too small, but he doesn't care, he loves them. 

So the theme for his party this year seemed obvious.  I am a theme girl.  I love trying to come up with different things to do with a theme.  Unfortunately, I also get overwhelmed by lots of details and short time periods, so most of what I dream up never happens.  And I'm pretty sure the kids never know the difference.  As long as there is a cake involved, my kids are happy. 

I didn't really decorate.  I just put fun straws and pens out for the kids to use and then take home and put the craft out on the table.  

 

Everyone making "Robots":

 

 

 

Anya putting a little spit and polish on her masterpiece.

 

Charis admiring her work.

 

Jonah not sure that his dad knows what he is doing.

This was going to be a robot assembly station, but...that time thing got in the way.

 

Then the cake and ice cream!

 

And a little something to take home.

3 - Where Blog Meets Scrapbook

To my smart, funny, little...er..excuse me...big man:

Dear Micaiah,

You entered this world in a snow storm, and if weather has any bearing on personality a storm was perfect for you.  You are fiery and determined.  You challenge everything I ever thought I knew, or could know about being a mother.  It often makes my job as your teacher quite difficult, but I see that with Christ in you, you have the potential to take on the world.  -Lord please guide his steps and teach him to love you.

 
You do things differently than your sisters, as you should, you are all boy.  There is something genetically imprinted upon your d.n.a. to like robots and dinosaurs, to make weapons and sound effects to your every movement.  You are so so funny.  With your dimpled cheeks and your "up to no good grin", you make me laugh out loud each and every day.  This is not something I normally do, but you have a gift, and you know it.  I pray that you are able to use this gift to encourage others and to lift them up, and are not tempted to use your humor to make fun of others differences.

You are very smart.  Your computer and i-phone skills absolutely amaze me.  By the age of 5 you will probably know more than I do about either.  You know all your uppercase, lowercase and letter sounds. You are even beginning to string letters together to form words.  My hope for you is that you will not let your intelligence be a source of pride for you.  It is easy to think that those who "know" more are more, but that is simply not true.

You are loving.  My favorite time with you right now is bed time. I crawl up into your cubby hole (an interesting feat I might add) and we begin with a song or songs (depending on who wins.) You always ask for five, I always want one, we end up some where in the middle.  Then we have to give each other hugs, kisses, nugga noses (eskimo kisses) and licks (no we do not lick each other).  Then we do " I wish I were!".  This is something that has morphed from when I was little.  My dad (Papa) and I would press our noses together and close our eyes tight, then we would say "I wish I were an owl!" and on the word owl, open our eyes wide.  I'm not sure how that got started, but that's where I get my love of owls from.  You like to add sound effect and other animals into the mix.  You are very creative with this part. Your favorites include alligators and different kinds of bugs.

It's hard for me to remember that you are only 3 years old.  I often expect more of you than your little 3 year old mind can keep up with.  I don't do this because I expect perfection from you, or that I want you to be something that you're not.   I do this because your are not just a little boy, but you are a future husband and a future father.  You have been entrusted to me for only a short time on this earth, and I take this responsibility very seriously (with lots of silliness thrown in for good measure).  And as you continue to grow and hopefully mature this is my prayer for you.

Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I love you Micaiah David. 

An Afternoon of Lessons

It's hard for us to get school done around here. With a baby that isn't too fond of sleep, a preschooler that doesn't sit...ever, and girls that know every trick in the book for weaseling out of work, things tend to progress at a snails pace. My jobs seems to be that of a cattle driver...prod-prod, heyah! , move it-move it!  It's a good thing I'm not a cattle driver, because my version sounds more like "cattle nagging", instead of driving.  And it's probably about as effective on children as it would be on cattle.

On this particular day the girls went to a nature class in the morning and the boys and I went to Titus II (a women's group at church), so we were already behind schedule.  On the way home I was stressed and the kids were tired and hungry.  How were we going to get everything done?  It's difficult enough when we have the whole day to work on school, but I had squandered away the morning on something I wanted to do, so now we had even less time.  Spiraling into an ugly funk of self pity, I was about to start barking at the kids to start school when I remembered a verse from Proverbs 31 (My recent obsession.)

Pro 31:26  She opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

For some reason I never felt like this really applied to bugging the kids to get things done.  But I know I was being neither kind or wise in the way I was speaking to them.  We had also been talking about the tongue at Titus II, that very morning, and I had just kinda tuned it out.  Figuring that was for angrier people than me, or people that swear a lot.  How blinding that plank can be.

So with a new outlook on our day and hopefully on life, we ate a quick lunch and then...went outside to play.

We managed to have a snowball fight,

build a snow man,

make snow angels

and get school done all before dinner without any "cattle nagging" from me.  Granted dinner was at about 7:30 p.m., but no one went to bed hungry and we had a chance to make some great memories!

Stir Crazy

We have 10 inches of snow on the ground. What else are we going to do?