Thursday, February 26, 2009

ugh... sickies

I had 3 events to go to today:

A "caffeine kicker" at a friends house (get together and chat- can you say adult conversation!?)
C's Preschool Co-op
Stamp Club (making cards!!)

And I couldn't go to any because C is sick =( She woke up this morning with a sore throat and a fever that got up to 103. ugh. Not fun, especially since it's a duty day. It always seems to happen that way.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

the elephant song

we can't stop singing this today =)

Friday, February 20, 2009

21st Century Learners




This is why I'm homeschooling my kids.

"If we learn by doing, what are we learning sitting here?" I love that.

I really feel that more technology should be used in education. All people need to know how to use today's (and tomorrow's!) technology for information, for creating, for communicating. Student's are not learning this in today's schools, unfortunately.

My children will of course know the basics to learning anything: reading and writing. Then we will push learning further into utilizing technology in age appropriate situations. C at age 3 already uses our computer! She uses the internet to watch videos I've selected. She knows that when we're emailing, we're talking to real people. She uses Paint to draw. And this does not make her special! Most children today, whose parents have some type of technology in the house, are growing up with it from birth! So why is it not prevalent in most schools?!

I found this video posted on The Mom With Brownies blog. Thanks for sharing it!

Our new orders

I didn't realize that I completely forgot to post about our orders.

So.... we are going to Virginia!

If you know T, you probably know that he never wanted to go back to Virginia after going to school there a few years ago. When we were up for orders we tried to go to Japan twice, we were denied both times. Then we tried for Washington State or California, and we were pretty much told that west coast was not an option for us. Which left us Virginia, Virginia, or Virginia to choose from. =) It turned out for the best though, Tony and his best friend found a ship they could both go to, so that's where they're going.

We will all be going to Virginia in April for house hunting. Then I will stay with the girls and cats, and he will come back to Sicily until the end of May or first week of June. I will keep house hunting if we didn't find something we liked (we're going to be buying hopefully.) And hopefully have a house ready for us to set up by the time T gets there.

We're starting to get ready now. We're very excited to be going back stateside! We miss it very much. Three years here has been quite long enough. =) So, please, keep us in your prayers for this transition!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

hidden food, slow food, etc.

It's been a while since I've posted about food! Everyone knows my weirdness about food. Love cooking, love baking, but it better be healthy.... =)

So, how was I the only person on the planet who didn't know about the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld? I hardly ever buy nonvegan cookbooks anymore, so when I saw this at the Nex I was surprised that I was considering purchasing it. I talked myself out of it the first day, only to come back a week later to go ahead and buy it. I mean seriously, hiding pureed veggies into foods? Why didn't I think of that?! Now, C will try just about any vegetable... try, but not necessarily eat a whole serving. So, this definitely piqued my interest.

Honestly, the main reason I bought it was for the whole first part about what veggies to use for purees and how long to cook them. With the recipes, I figured I could veganize the ones I wanted to try. I've made the tacos, the pink pancakes (made with beets,) and the tofu cutlets so far. Beyond that, I have been basically adding pureed veggies to anything and everything that I cook. My spaghetti now has either extra carrots or squash included, and that basil pesto pasta that C loves? haha, it's got broccoli. =)

This has been very helpful making quick food (i.e. pasta) healthier since I've started going to cardio class at 5:30 PM. In my opinion, that's the worst time for a class, since it's our dinner time, but if I want to go I have to work around it. So, I had been cooking around 4:00 - 4:30 so that we could eat around 5:00. Thankfully, the class is literally across the street from our house! I hate to admit, we had spaghetti quite a few times in the past few months. LOL One week, I remember making it twice within a few days, and T said, "Spaghetti again?"

"Hey! I gotta hurry," I said, "and I added a salad this time, so it's special!" heh.

Lately, though, I've been trying to solve the time crunch problem by using my crockpot instead of resorting to quick cooking pasta. Love the crockpot! Yesterday, we had a South African Bobotie type dish from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. I served it with some green beans, and it was yummy. Everyone liked it. Today we had a BBQ vegetables dish from the same book, again, a keeper. Tomorrow, I'm trying a slow cooker potpie. I'm really enjoying it because it allows me to cook when I still have energy (mid morning or lunch time,) and I can leave it to cook all day when I'm at base (like today,) and have time to actually eat instead of cook right before workouts and Bible study! Very nice. I'm also hoping to try a few recipes from A Year of Crockpotting. She has a few vegetarian recipes I thought looked pretty good.

I'm also going to be making my first loaf of bread soon! I've been meaning to for a while, but just haven't set the time aside to do it. I'm hoping this weekend will be it. Hopefully, I'll get good enough at my basic recipe, so I can start searching A Year in Bread for some more exciting recipes. =D

So, those are my food adventures lately. OH! and this recipe will be made very very soon: Chocolate Covered Cherry Pudding over at Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. Oh, go take a look, that recipe looks absolutely divine!

Monday, February 16, 2009

morning musing

I love how 3 drops of neon blue food dye in pancake batter make me the coolest mom on the planet.
=D

Thursday, February 12, 2009

So how do I really feel about Valentine's?

Yesterday, while at base, I ran in to the grocery store (by myself!!) T had stayed behind with the girls. I was routinely checking my list as I raced down the aisles to find the few things we needed. As I was reaching to the top shelf for Chocolate Silk, C's favorite drink in the whole wide world, I dropped my grocery list. When I realized it, I had two cartons in my hands, so I readjusted to be able to hold both and be able to bend down to pick up my list. Well, an older man was standing near me, saw my list, and picked it up for me.

"You should be careful where you drop your lists, you never know what someone can tell about you from them." huh? I just smiled nicely, thanked him for the list, and put my soymilk into my cart. "I could tell just what kind of person you are from your list."

"Oh yeah?" I said.

He nodded, "May I?" I thought about it and decided I wanted to hear what he was going to say, thinking he would get it all wrong. I handed him the small notepad paper.

"Hmm... You are a very nice person. You live one day at a time, very easy going. 'Help me get through the day' is your motto. You're very emotional, but you try to hide it," he started. Yeah... but that would apply to most women, I thought. "You get angry, but you don't stay mad for long." Again, true... but a lot of people are like that. "Wait, what's wrong with Valentine's Day? You're mad about something with Valentine's Day."

"ummm..." I thought about it as I looked at the line he was pointing to: Valentine's Treats. Am I mad about Valentine's? I don't think so... Unless... Oh maybe. "Oh," I answered, "I guess that'd be because my husband has duty."

"Oh yeah, that's a bummer. I'm sorry," he answered. I think he was pleased that he'd picked that up. "You see how everything is straight, except for Valentine's? That's what it means. It's the only word that dips like that," he pointed out.

He went on to talk about other stuff, but I was still stuck on the Valentine's line. I was highly amused. After he was done, I admitted everything was, in fact, right on about me. It made me wonder if this was just a hobby of his, or if he was a civilian working on his 2nd retirement with the military or something, banking the money while analyzing people's handwriting. That would be a cool job, if that is a job. Who knows. If it was just a hobby, can you imagine how torturous it would be to go to the grocery store? Seeing so many people with lists that you just want to grab and run three aisles away so you can analyze it? Either way, whether it was a hobby or his job, I got a kick out of it.

And if I had been writing a note or list right then, I think it would have showed I was subconsciously trying to prolong my solo trip in the store. heh.

=D