So chill.

August 29, 2010 | Filed Under Andrea, Crossfit, Daniel, Eliza Dove, Friends, It's What's For Dinner, Judah, Photos | 3 Comments

Sunday was fantastically chill. No drama, no huge tantrums from anyone – parents included. There was church in the morning and we were actually early – wonders never cease! After church everyone piled on mama and daddy’s big bed for loads of tickling and uproarious laughter. Following the tickle-fest of 2010 there was a lunch that everyone finished without the need for threats to life or limb, errands, nap time, dinner, and then our highly anticipated “dessert and drinks” with friends in the park.

Daniel was able to sneak away for a bit during nap time to check out a gorgeous 1966 Chevy truck. He’s in great need of a vehicle to drive to work both here, during the winter, and once we arrive in San Antonio. New Mexico is an ideal place to buy a classic vehicle due to the roads being salt-free in winter and the price being low as a reflection of volume in the market. Time will tell what he decides to do!

“Dessert and drinks” was a blast, as always. Gorgeous perfection in the weather department, zero flies (a terrible problem here), and plenty of amazing friends…

Gingersnaps disappeared in record time…

Gorgeous Abby was showered with love…

The swings were never empty…

What’s life worth without friendships? I never want to find out.

I rounded out the day with a back squat workout. I have a tender spot in my heart for back squats. I love them, I do. But last night… no love. The muscles across my shoulders were angry with me from the previous night’s sumo deadlifts and push jerks. Laying the heavy bar onto those sore muscles was no fun… no fun at all.

I set a personal record – which isn’t much so don’t get too excited – my body isn’t built for strength. I was happy nonetheless. I did get stuck once, thankfully Daniel saved me. The last time I dumped the weight while in a back squat I did it incorrectly and hurt my back, I had much trepidation about dropping the weight again. I’m grateful for my man who lifted the bar off my shoulders like it was a feather.

Before we headed to bed, Daniel and I watched a couple of episodes of “Friends.” I love ending the night in gales of laughter…

And now, a brand new week!

Saturday.

August 28, 2010 | Filed Under Andrea, Daniel, Eliza Dove, Eve, It's What's For Dinner, Photos | 6 Comments

I never really know how Saturday is going to play out. Sometimes Saturday is great. Sometimes Saturday just sucks.

Last Saturday… sucky.

This Saturday… great.

I think the problem lies in Saturday being a wild card day, and I just don’t deal well with that. I have the same basic structure every day of the week with the kids. Sure we change activities once in a while but each day is pretty much the same. Routine is good for the kids and good for me.

Weekends though… we flail.

I don’t like flailing.

Today I took the bull by the horns. I planned ahead and decided that I would keep the day as much like our regular week days as possible. You know what, it worked beautifully.

The only thing that changed was that we didn’t work on any school. Judah was sad and grumpy about that. I tried to appease him by telling him that we could work on a small school project but I just realized that I forgot to. I feel terrible! The boy loves school and I am stinkin’ thankful for that.

This morning and into the early afternoon all five of us worked on chores around the house. We cleaned and laundered and vacuumed and mopped; I even took the kitchen table out to the driveway and scrubbed the tar out of it. Sadly I think I may have scrubbed a little hard because I actually took the varnish off. Our poor little table looks awful now. I’m bummed!

Lunch time and nap time stayed the same, we played with friends afterward, and dinner was normal. Our day worked and I am happy.
Gosh, you know, as I write this I realize that at times I am a slow learner. I should have realized that the loss of routine was the problem way before now. I guess the saving grace is that at least I’m learning.

Daniel made sure to spend some time with each of the kids individually today. He’s been working long days and time at home has been somewhat limited. One of the characteristics my husband has that I appreciate is how he plays with the kids in the way that works for them. Today with Judah he built a high tech airplane out of legos; with Eliza he played house; with Eve he played monopoly.

Eve mopped the floor with her Daddy! And clearly, she felt terrible about it.

Daniel and Eve… two peas in a pod. Terrifically alike in every way.

Eliza and I spent some time beautifying ourselves this evening. The girl is crazy about nail polish; when she spied me painting my toes her main focus in life shifted from sucking her thumb to having her fingers and toes painted too.

The weather was pretty iffy which meant at one point we were polishing amidst sprinkles. But it was fun and she was happy as a clam. And if you’ve ever seen Eliza happy as a clam you know that there’s not much you wouldn’t do to make her be that way again. She’s delightful.

Dinner tonight was BLTs and if you know me at all you know that bacon is one of my love languages. I was a happy girl. I even had two sandwiches. I’ve cut bread out of my diet by about 95% so this was a big deal! I loved every bite.

I rounded the day out with an awesome (and hard!) CrossFit workout. I even learned a new movement – the “push jerk.” Learning it took me more than a few tries, but that was okay! I had ninety-three times to figure that bad boy out. From what Daniel, my coach, said – I got it. I’m pretty stoked about that!

I have to be honest here, I feel like I’m always saying that my day was great… Let me be clear on this, there are times in every single one of my days that are bad – maybe even awful. But when I stop in here at night to think on and write about my day, I can’t help but focus on the happy parts and thankfully, the terrible, horrible, very bad parts slip out of view.

So are we perfect here? No way! We’re just really good at forgetting the yuck.

Pears and China.

August 23, 2010 | Filed Under It's What's For Dinner, New Mexico, Photos | 6 Comments

Sweet pears resting on beautiful china.

I deemed today “Fruit Day.” I had seen a great looking fruit tree when we were driving home from picking up Mexican for dinner (Yum!) last night. I made a mental note of the street and since we get Mexican food from the same restaurant every single time, I am somewhat familiar with that side of town; I figured I would be fine driving there by myself. Well… I can tell you that without my little GPS, I’d still be looking for that stinkin’ street. And it’s 8:37 p.m.

I’m totally rolling my eyes right now.

I am directionally challenged. In an extreme way.

I should back up a bit because before we went to the park to pick what I thought was apples, we walked to the other end of housing and picked from a couple of small apple trees. It was terribly hot. I was getting snippy by the time we were done picking apples but we pressed on to the park. And I sure am glad we did!

When we got to the park I realized, much to my delight, that instead of an apple tree it was a pear tree.

Love.

The fruit trees around here grow fairly wild and without any care which translates into very organic and bug infested fruit, but it’s free and I’ll take a few bugs over pesticides any day. This particular pear tree was shown a lot of love by the bugs but we did find about a half a bag of good fruit. Eve wandered off at one point but came running back to tell me that the rest of the orchard area was full of pear trees without as many bug spots. We hit the jackpot!

The kids weren’t really able to help me pick, though Judah was a big help climbing and pulling branches down a few times. Eventually I shoo-ed them off to play under the nearby shady trees because I was shaking branches and pears were dropping like crazy. I was afraid for their little heads! While the kids were playing “Indians” which translated into Eve sewing big leaves together, Eliza and Judah collecting pine cones for winter, and pretending that I was their mother who was picking pears (I love my kid’s imaginations!), I was busily filling up my bag.

At one point a gentleman started mowing the grounds and I thought he was going to come over and tell me that I had to leave. Instead he brought me a long tool with a handle that you squeeze which opened and closed the end that had a sort of pincher type thingy with rubber tips. He offered that to help me! His tool sure beat me jumping up over and over again, hitting the fruit off with a long stick! And then he even asked if he could help me carry my bags of fruit home. I was so thankful for his good heart.

After the fruit picking we headed to Goodwill to see if they had any canning jars in stock. We were thrilled when Eve spied a box of about 15 beautiful jars for $2.99. I also saw a small collection of gorgeous china… Oh, it’s beauty made my heart sing a happy little song.

So from now on, today shall be called: The day of pears and china. And Eve is our heroine.

From Sunday to Saturday.

August 21, 2010 | Filed Under It's What's For Dinner, New Mexico, Photos | 3 Comments

The “Dessert and Drinks” crowd changed our Sunday get-togethers to Saturday get-togethers because of school being back in session.

While still as much fun as ever, the night felt a little off to me. I guess we really are creatures of habit and I just need to adjust my habit.

I don’t know if it was just a New Mexico thing but here in housing, Saturday was “pie day”… Mostly apple, as two of my neighbors also made apple pies like me. But, being the crazy one, I threw in a peach pie just for kicks.

Earlier in the day we drove by a couple of sweet old men selling peaches on the side of the road, and I could not resist. I badly wanted to buy the BIG box but for thirty dollars… it felt a bit like highway robbery. Especially since they weren’t fresh off of someone’s tree. The peaches had been trucked in from California. Nonetheless, they were luscious. And a great peach pie they made.

I got razzed for “labeling” my pie “A” for Andrea. Really, it was “A” for apple… and I always do that. Pinky swear!

Happiness is having good friends to share pie with on a hot August night.

An Apple Pie in August?

August 13, 2010 | Filed Under It's What's For Dinner, New Mexico, Photos | 15 Comments

I’m from New York, as you know. We do apples in late September, early October. Apples are a Fall thing. There’s a nice snap in the air, the trees are beautiful, warm apple cider after tromping through an orchard sounds like a little slice of heaven.

I live in New Mexico now. Apparently New Mexico does apples in August.

There’s no snap in the air, it’s in the high 90’s. My kids are in swimming suits instead of sweaters and jeans. Honestly, I’ve been kind of weirded out by the whole thing.

But! We have apples. And truly, I never thought I’d be apple picking in New Mexico. I am thankful!

My friend Brandy told me about the apple trees that were ready to be picked, so off we went. Nontraditional? Yes, but a happy occasion nonetheless.

The apples went from this:

To this:

And finally, to this:

There was much rejoicing in our house!

What is your favorite pie?

For the love of all that’s sacred, please don’t mix cake and beer.

August 2, 2010 | Filed Under It's What's For Dinner | 18 Comments

And that’s a real news flash about the food, eh.

Yeah, not so much.

On Sunday evenings we get together with a group of friends for “dessert and drinks.” We meet under the pavilion at one of the central playgrounds after dinner. We eat dessert and have some drinks and watch the kids play. There is plenty of laughing and story swapping. You guys, it’s so much fun! The best part is this is the first summer that everyone’s husband has been home. No one’s deployed right now and we can all be happy and whole.

The silly part is that we pretend to need a reason to get together… someone’s anniversary, or someone’s birthday. But really, we don’t need an excuse. We enjoy food and each other’s company. That’s reason enough. Oh, and the obvious cherry on top of tiring out all the (16) children.

Excuses aside, we did celebrate a birthday last night. I made a Boston Cream Pie from the cookbook “Sky High.” My friend Jessie made Sangria and there was the usual beer. I did at one point look over and see Daniel eating cake and washing it down with beer … eww. It was a sacrilege, really.

Boys.

I’m enjoying this summer for all it’s worth. I know we’ll be in San Antonio next summer trying to make friends and adjusting to our new reality. But right now… Life is good.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

March 19, 2010 | Filed Under Daniel, Eliza Dove, It's What's For Dinner, Photos, Recipe | 20 Comments

I literally have 2 minutes to write this. Quality. (But apparently not quantity, as has been evidenced by lack of blog posts.) That’s what I’m all about here on the blog.

Ahem.

Speaking of quality, Eliza was Daniel’s quality assurance tonight. She was making sure Daniel was doing a good job making ice cream with a “missing crucial parts that I didn’t notice when I bought it at a garage sale for 2 dollars” ice cream maker.

She is all about the quality and the quantity when it comes to vanilla ice cream. She gets that quality from her father. The ice cream MAN. He would eat a pint of Ben and Jerry’s a night back when we lived in Alaska and North Dakota. The man was an ice cream machine and never gained a pound.

This is me hatin’.

But whatever.

Nope. Didn’t work. Still hatin’.

Moving on.

All she wanted was a bite. Daniel kept telling her no. No. No. No. But she’s persistent. And way too cute for her own good.

Daniel, her Daddy, could not resist her. I am the opposite of a push-over, and even I can not. Except when I can. And boy, do those times make her mad.

Apparently, it was good to the last drop.

We ate our vanilla ice cream with cherry pie. Happy tummies tonight!

The Weekend.

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Andrea, Daniel, Eve, It's What's For Dinner, Judah, New Mexico, Photos, Texas | 16 Comments

It was fun.

It was busy.

It was supremely tasty.

Friday night we ran lots of errands and then Daniel took our family to a local Mexican restaurant. So fun! We ate our dinner while listening to live music. Loved that.

The food was mouth-watering delicious and authentically New Mexican.

We had a wonderful time until Judah melted down in the parking lot. Such is life.

Saturday we headed out to the Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo. Amazing. Seriously breathtaking. It’s a wild sensation to be driving across the plains, surrounded by enormous fields and stinky cows, and then BOOM. A huge canyon. Red walls, massive rocks… a refreshing change of scenery.

The kids had a fantastic time “trailing.” Daniel and I realized that I don’t do so well with “off-trailing.” I’m not so adventurous, apparently. Along the trail we saw some interesting animal tracks; some that struck large amounts of fear into my heart. Like, the fresh ones that looked like them belonged to a large cat. I got the chills looking at those! Yikes! Good thing Judah brought his “trusty ‘ol gun,” as he fondly calls it.

Daniel explored a cave and took the kids up the side of a cliff. Fun times in the beautiful weather. Unfortunately, because the trail was so low, we lost the sun and warmth fast. Brrr! I couldn’t get back to the truck fast enough. Eliza and I were popsicles! Daniel and I took a second before leaving to take a couple of photos, proof that we were actually at the canyon with our kids. I live with a goof-ball. A mean goof-ball. These photos were right before he stuck his ice-cold hands onto my back!

Since we were so close to Amarillo, and Target (!), we headed into town. Hiking made us very hungry so we stopped at Blue Sky for some burgers. Daniel had heard it was great and indeed, it was! I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of grease.

And the Anaheim chili sticks… awesome!! Wowza. I wanted to lick the bottom of the basket. I refrained. It was touch and go, though.

Sunday, we recuperated.

An awesome weekend! I am so thankful that Daniel is home. Life is so much happier, goofier, tastier, and more adventurous.

P.S. Not so sure about the big photos. I’ve never really cared about them. But, with the (blasted, horrid, I am horrible at making them) blog boards, bigger was better. We’ll see about the bigger photos… I find it annoying to have to scroll down to look at the whole thing.

Summer Nights… (also: in which I abuse parenthesis)

August 21, 2009 | Filed Under Eliza Dove, It's What's For Dinner, Life in New York (the apple trees and dairy cow part... not the city!), Photos | 17 Comments

I had to get out of the house tonight. Do you know that feeling?

It was 7 o’clock in the evening… there had been late naps ( I fell asleep! I never do that!) I was hot and I was grumpy.

We tidied up the house, combed hair, loaded ourselves into the truck, blasted some music, and off we went.

Since we hadn’t eaten dinner yet I drove to Wegmans for some food. I also needed to pick up a few things for Daniel’s care package (yes, we got the V8 juice honey!) and to pick up a replacement laundry softener for the one I left in my cart on a previous visit (the cashier put it on the bottom. Out of sight, out of mind!). I am all about killing more than one bird, you know!

My children were angels I tell you, angels, in Wegmans. We did groceries first (yay for finding espresso powder!) and then got our dinner. We rode the elevator (favorite part of the night for the kids!) up to the cafe portion of the store and got ourselves situated. I always feel like we are the entertainment for the evening when we eat at Wegmans. Everyone watches us! I had one guy come up to me as he was leaving and say… “I had my doubts when I saw what you were planning on doing but here they are, all sitting and eating! It was like watching an orchestra…”

Hmmm… what a nice compliment! Can’t say as we have ever been called an orchestra before!

We ate our (amazing) salads (topped with chicken fingers, mind you), drank our Bolthouse “Purple Carrot” juice (Yum!!) and had giant raspberries for dessert. It was really, really nice.

On the way out to the truck afterward Eve went on and on about how nice summer nights in New York are. “They aren’t cold like in New Mexico,” she said. And she’s right. Because New Mexico is the desert, the nights do get chilly. There is usually about a 40 degree difference between the day and the night. It can be in the 100’s during the day and dip down into the 60’s at night! It sure makes for good summer time sleeping.

I drove home (slowly because there are massive amounts of suicidal deer here) with the windows down, music blasting; the kids chattered in the backseat, I stuck my arm out the open window… let the wind blow through my fingers and I smiled.

Yes, I surely do miss summertime in New Mexico… it’s stunningly beautiful. I miss spending evenings grilling on the back porch, taking quiet walks, gazing at the gorgeous sunsets, and drinking ice cold fruity drinks with my spectacular husband.

I will be very glad to have next summer all to ourselves, no deployment hanging over our heads, just being able to be a family… together.

But, I tell you what, tonight was just lovely. And I enjoyed it for all it was worth.

I’ll let Eliza show you how happy I felt inside…

Cold hose water on a hot, hot, hot day… happiness!

Yes, Eliza. It is legal to be this happy. No worries, baby!

Our Last “D”ay

August 2, 2009 | Filed Under 26 week deployment and alphabet adventure!, Andrea, Eliza Dove, Eve, It's What's For Dinner, Judah, Photos | 19 Comments

We wrapped up “D” week, today. We didn’t do a whole lot, but for not doing a whole lot I sure am tired!

This morning it was rainy and dark and chilly. Nobody was moving with much vigor so we skipped out on church and hunkered down at home.

I don’t know if I have told you this, but by choice, all four of us sleep in one bedroom. The kids really love that I am right there in the same room with them and they also love having each other close. Sometimes the closeness creates frustration on my part but it’s worth it for me to have the kids feel comforted.
This morning Miss Eliza woke up first so in an effort to prolong Eve and Judah’s waking up, we went out to the livingroom and snuggled. Once the older two woke up we had a veritable snuggle fest.

It was really nice.

Breakfast was eaten in layers; first off, we had strawberry smoothies made with coconut milk. Yum! Next we had cherries. And lastly we had, scrambled eggs with lots of veggies and topped with cheese, bacon, and our traditional Sunday morning bagel.

We all love our Sunday morning bagel tradition. It comes from our Saturday afternoon tradition of grocery shopping and bagel flavor choosing; afterward we eat pizza and drink decaf coffee in the cafe. All at Wegmans. Tiring, yes. But a highly anticipated activity for the kids and I.

After breakfast the kids played and I cleaned up. Then we geared up for our walk.

4 miles, 1 short nap for Eliza, 2 honey sticks and 3 bags of smart food consumed, 2 clever passerby comments, and lots of sweat later, we made it home.

After showers, lunch, and yet another round of apartment clean-up, we headed to the dairy farm. We ended up being the only visitors so we had the place to ourselves!

We visited…

… the humongous hog! Dude was massive.

Visited the hay loft…

Played in the hay…

Climbed fences…

And played with Mama’s camera (needing only a little help with the controls)…

Afterward, we hit up the health food store (where we played hide and go seek) for some nuts and fig cookies. Then it was… home. Dinner, jammies, BED.

Tomorrow we kick off “E” week! We surely will enjoy our enormously exciting engagement with “E”!

Sweetest Hair Bokeh…

July 31, 2009 | Filed Under Daniel, Deployment, Eliza Dove, Eve, It's What's For Dinner, Military Life, Photos | 13 Comments

Maybe it’s because I know just how sweet she smelled. Or that I could feel her silky baby skin under my fingers. Or seeing how lovely the little curls looked at the nape of her neck…

Maybe that’s why I love this photo of my fresh from the bath, in her birthday suit, baby girl.

Or maybe it’s simply the hair bokeh.

Either way, any way, she’s my sunshine.

We have a little game we play; I say: “Lizey, who loves you?” and she answers: “Mama” in the softest sweetest voice you’ve ever heard. My heart bursts with love every time I hear her say that one little word:

Mama

We held our first complete conversation yesterday evening. I’ll never forget it. Thank you Lord for little girls named Eliza.

Tonight we had a simple, delicious dinner. Brown rice, farmer’s market green beans, and salmon burgers. I am perfectly satisfied with the simplest of dinners. Especially when I have three shining faces looking at me from across the table.

Lest you think I lived some sort of charmed life, I will let you know that dinner wasn’t perfect. Eliza baptized some of her dinner in her water cup, she squished half of her rice onto her diaper, Judah was s-l-o-w, and I was totally hot and sweating because my seat is in the sun and we have no a/c. But, perfect or not, it was a wonderful meal that I was able to eat with my children. Daniel would give just about anything to have been at that table with us.

The sadness in his voice today while we talked about how much the kids are changing, was heart-wrenching. I knew that it would be hard for him to miss so much of the kids changing and growing but to hear the sadness in his voice, to hear the pregnant silence of his disappointment, was really tough. I stopped for a moment to really allow myself feel what it would feel like to be separated from my kids for such a long period of time; the pain of it took my breath away. It was unimaginable. To leave three children in one state of being and to come home six months later to what may seem, entirely new children… my poor husband’s daddy heart is broken.

But, we’ll keep the torch lit and the pictures sent and the skype on. It’s the best we can do. What he’s doing in Iraq is important, he’s making a difference. He needs to be there. And we are desperately proud of him.

Sometimes reality just hurts.