Dinner Win!

Last night I made the yummiest side dish for dinner. It was so yummy that all of the kids loved it! I was shocked because OMG it is actually good for you! I am going to call it Bulghur, Garbanzo and Orange Salad.

Here's the recipe(My husband :

Bulghur, Garbanzo, Orange Salad

2 cans garbanzo beans (14 oz)
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups dried bulghur
2 lemons
1 can mandarin oranges

So, you drain the garbanzo beans and put them into a pan on medium heat. Stir them around for a bit and add the cumin and red pepper. Once the garbanzo beans start to look dry, add 4 cups water. Turn the heat up to high. Once the water is boiling, add the bulghur. This will need to cook for about 15 minutes, or until the bulghur is tender, but not overdone (i.e. mushy). When the water starts to be absorbed, turn the heat down to medium. Stir this a lot!

In a separate bowl, drain the juice from the mandarin oranges and add the juice from the two lemons (if you're feeling like it, also zest the lemons, but I was too lazy). Then add salt & pepper to taste. You'll probably need quite a bit since the bulghur seems to suck up the flavor.

Once the bulghur is almost done, add the lemon juice mixture. Let it cook for a bit longer until the juice is absorbed. Pull off the heat, add the mandarin oranges and serve!

Yum!

Knitting. Yes, Really.

So internet, I know you thought I was kidding about knitting. But, I was not! See! I'm making some socks for my dad for Christmas and 1) they are actually turning out like they should and 2) they're not making me want to scratch my eyes out. Well, that's not entirely true. Since it was a new pattern and a new method of knitting socks (for me at least), I was almost driven insane by the cast on and beginning of the magic loop method. But, alas, I am (daresay) a pro now! I cruise right along knitting those things, and it's fun, not like the evil double point socks where the little dinky 6 inch toothpicks go flying every two seconds. No, the needles stay put and don't make me want to scream!

This is a picture of the socks. See, I'm really far along. Ha! This is like 5 hours of knitting. Kind of sad huh? I think I need to pick up the pace, or maybe learn to pick, instead of throw. (Knitters, you know what I mean).

I also realized today that it might really be time to clean the old house, since I could hardly find a clean place to take this picture. So, I guess that will be my weekend project.

I have a couple other projects in the works, but one is from "Santa", so I hesitate to post it here. See, I really am an elf! The other one, I cannot find my size 13 needles so I cannot actually start it.

Also, this weekend, Lily and I are going to work on her Halloween costume. She is a medieval princess. Of course, her dress is going to be bright teal and pink satin, which of course they had in the middle ages. But, it will be cute. She's going to help me so she can earn part of a patch for girl scouts. Really, I'm just going to see how much of it she will do herself so I can do nothing. Or fold laundry, which in my world is practically nothing.

So Internet, have a great night!

Half Marathon, say what???

So, I never thought I would be a runner. There's all of this huffing and puffing, and going in circles, or going nowhere on the treadmill. But this winter, I took up cross country skiing. This is a miracle in itself, but that's for another post. Anyway, as the season was winding down, and when I could no longer xc ski around the neighborhood, I decided running was the best way to wear our puppy out.

It worked great. I would take her for a run, she would pass out, life was good. Then, I started to like running. Not just tolerate, but really, really like to run. So, after reading a few too many Runner's World magazines while driving on our trip to Orcas Island in May, I decided I could run a half marathon.

Since then I've been running in fits & spurts, but now, I've decided, I am serious. There's a friend at work that is also training to run a half marathon, and I decided if she could do it, I can do it. Now, she's super thin, can run forever on the treadmill,you know, all things that would make a great candidate to run a half marathon. Me, on the other hand. I can run 2.25 miles, and I'm excited about it. I run it in an 11:30 minute mile. Speedy, huh? But, I've decided I can do it.

So, I made a training plan. I found a couple online, but I'm completely paranoid about injuring myself, so I decided they were too ambitious. So, I am going to increase my mileage by 10% each week for the next 20 weeks. By then, I should be able to run 13.8 miles at a stretch, and it will be a fabulous Christmas present. Gift to me? A 13.1 mile run on Christmas Day, assuming the roads are clear, of course. How far is that? Well, it's further than driving to my office, by more than a full mile.

I can do it, it's just 10.85 miles away...

What I should be doing

I have a list of things to do, a long list I might add. In fact, I've gone completely off the deep end and have decided to knit gifts for a LOT of people this Christmas. I know, it's only July, but knitting takes a long time! There's the laundry, the dishes, picking up dog poop (everyone's favorite, I'm sure), feeding my children, the list goes on and on and on and on and on, you get the idea.

Instead, I have been perusing the internet for the last hour. An hour! Of sitting and doing nothing but staring at a computer screen. At first I was outside, but then G wanted to watch Iron Giant (be proud, we've graduated from Car Guy). Sitting and checking my internet, blogging, which as you can see, I apparently don't have too much time for.

So, I am going to commit. I will do the things on my to do list, and blog about them. I will tend the garden - where the plants are being dwarfed by the weeds that I CANNOT pay my son to pull. And believe me, I've tried. There is knitting, and sewing, and cooking. I will blog and take pictures and everything. You will all be so proud. So, keep checking in, it will get more interesting I'm sure.

Of course, there are always stories about my children...

Spoiled Milk

So, the past couple of days have been interesting. It stared when my husband S, had breakfast yesterday morning. It started out just like every other day with s and is convinced hredded wheat and milk. Well, then everything went sour. Ha! So, the milk was spoiled, and yet he ate it anyway. And now he's sick. Now, he did notice that it tasted funny, but he thought it was the shredded wheat, or something.

So, then my son, M had some cereal, and milk. Yay.

Then, S starts to get a tummy ache and blames it on the milk. I just assumed that he was joking around. Well, it turns out that he wasn't. He whined and whined and went to be early. I went running with L and Queue.

I awoke this morning to a son that was puking away in the loo. Ewww! So, I cleaned him up and put him back to bed. Then, he was puking some more. More yay... Well, h started feeling better, but he still hasn't eaten a real meal yet.

Didn't I say the other day that there's never a dull moment at our house? Case in point...

Longing for a Dull Moment

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a dull moment. I was talking with our nanny yesterday, and jokingly said that we never have a dull moment around here. She agreed - every day is something new.

The lastest not dull moments involve lice. Yes, you read correctly, lice. Creepy, crawly, egg laying, multiplying, disgusting little lice.

M had lice a couple of years ago. We bought him a new snowboarding helmet, and we're pretty sure the little buggers were hiding in there. Anyhow, they were everywhere, it involved a lot of combing. I thought that it was terrible, because his hair was pretty long (for a boy, you know).

Well, it's gotten even more exciting... In addition to M's new case of lice, L now has lice. Her hair is thick, and down to the middle of her back - almost to her waist. AAAAHHHHH! The washing, and combing, and using tweezers to get little teeny tiny nits that will not come off with the comb. Speaking of combs, who designs these things? The ones that come with the treatment are terrible, so when M had lice, I bought a different set, which works better, but still doesn't get the teeny tiny nits. So I use tweezers instead. It's quite laborious. Quality time with the kids though, right???

So, today I stayed home from work to wash and comb my children's hair and do lice laundry. I am now excellent at both. Great skills. :-) Hopefully you never, ever have to deal with lice. It is terrible!

Car Guy

Car Guy, who is Car Guy, you ask??? Lightning McQueen - according to Disney. To G, it's just Car Guy. He is the bain of my existence. While I love Disney, and I do love the movie Cars, I cannot take it anymore. G has figured out that watching Cars is the best thing EVER, and we watch it everytime we watch TV. When someone wants to watch something else, G screams, and throws a fit and bellows "No!!! Car!!! Guy!!!".

It's been an obsession since the middle of May, and at first it was a great distraction. I could, for example, take a shower and dry my hair and put on makeup - UNINTERRUPTED!!! Or, I could cook dinner, without holding a toddler. What bliss! But now, the little one has become more demanding. I must sit next to him and WATCH Car Guy. I can, for short durations, sneak off to do something else, like go to the bathroom, or get a binky, or get Master G a snack. But, he comes to find me if I take too long and states simply "Mom, Car Guy." Okay, I say, and we wander downstairs to watch Car Guy. If I try to sing along to the songs, he puts his hand on my mouth and shushes me. So I tried lip syncing to see what he would do, and that was also unacceptable. We may need to work a bit on a certain someone getting his way.

So, G now has Car Guy underpants (newly purchased as incentive to actually use the toilet), Car Guy cups, and Car Guy pull ups. But, he also has Toy Story pull ups. Now, some nights I can put those on him, as long as he doesn't notice. But, if he does notice, he demands we switch to Car Guy. And the sucker that I am, I make the switch.

This weekend, we were able to venture out of the box and watch - you won't believe it - The Incredibles. (We are a family of Disney freaks, I tell you.) He actually watched about half of it before demanding to watch Car Guy. And now, we are watching Toy Story, but only because he knows those are the guys on his pull ups, and he finally conceded. We're 20 minutes in, and no mention of Car Guy yet...