Friesencold

I decided a few weeks ago to let’s read through all of the children’s books we own. I had gotten kind of tired of lugging so many books back and forth from the library every week and I thought it would be fun for me and Bauer to read through all of his books together, over a period of time, which was unknown in length.

Today we’ve made it to Book #100. And I would say we’re probably about halfway done. Now lest you think I’ve turned my house into a small library (which I’m not saying I wouldn’t be happy about), I am also counting all the baby board books Bauer had when he was a baby. We haven’t read many of those yet, but we’re just about finished with all the older (as in older-kid) books and will be resorting to the baby books soon. I think Bauer will enjoy seeing some of his old favorites, and I’ll be happy at how quickly we can get through those.

We started this little project back on November 13, and every day since then, I’ve been writing down the books we read each day. There have also been some library books in the mix (especially Thanksgiving-themed ones and some of the Frances books by Russell Hoban, my favorite of which so far, and by far, is Bedtime for Frances), but I haven’t been keeping track of the library books along the way because those are just bonus books for right now. So in reality we’ve read more than a hundred books in the last 2 1/2 weeks. It’s interesting to note that some days we’ve read as many as 25 books (well, one day we did that – leaving 75 books for the other, what?, 15 days), and on other days we’ve read as few as just 1 or 2 books.

I’ve enjoyed keeping the list of books so far, and I’ve mostly enjoyed trying to keep the books separate on the bookshelves. Bauer got on board with the book project from the start, so he’s been quite good at keeping the books in their places once we’ve read them. The unread books are another matter, however. You’ll see in these pictures I just took where our books are today.

These are the top 4 shelves of our smaller IKEA bookshelf in our living room. The 2 shelves on the right side are books we’ve read so far, while the ones on the left are ones still left to read. You’ll see the library books grouped together on the right-hand side of the bottom left shelf. I try.

This is the bookshelf in Bauer’s and Cash’s room, filled mostly with board books. The second shelf from the top is the shelf I’ve started to fill with board books we’ve read.

This is a bin of books that usually holds all of Bauer’s stuffed animals, except Tucker of course. Bauer dumped the animals onto his bed this morning and filled the bin with books from the shelves in his room instead. The bin of books has been sitting by our kitchen table ever since.

Also on and around the kitchen table were 3 random books.

On the couch were 3 more random books, plus a sticker/activity book Bauer was playing with this morning.

Finally, in the boys’ room on the floor were a few more books scattered around.

I’m sure Bauer probably has some more books in the Amazon boxes that came in the mail just before lunch today, or on the floor by the washing machine (where I make him leave the stacks of books he wants to bring along in the van sometimes), or behind the cushions of the flower chair, or underneath the couch. But the ones pictured are the ones I could locate easily and take pictures of quickly.

I’ll let you know when we finish reading all of our books. Until then, happy reading y’all!

Bauer got a book from Gigi recently called Thanks for Thanksgiving, so that’s been our little catch-phrase around here the past week or so. That, and “the feast,” which is how Bauer began referring to our Thanksgiving meal with the Burns family. The Burns are the ones we took the RV trip with last Thanksgiving to Charlottesville, so it was a lot of fun to spend a consecutive Thanksgiving with them this year.

Our Thursday started with the Turkey Day 5K, a race that our friends Amber and Rudy, and their friends Jenny and Bill, made up. It was not an official race, but it was just as much fun, maybe even more because it wasn’t so competitive nor did we even almost get trampled with the double stroller. TJ even won a pumpkin pie, for coming in last place, since he was the one jogging with the stroller. I was only a little bit ahead of him running with Amber and a lady named Dianna. Our time was around 28 minutes, which was a nice relaxing pace for 3 miles.

We used our cover for the BOB for the first time. It definitely won first place!

After the race, we went over to our friends The Meyers’ house for brunch and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. The kids enjoyed the TV-watching, until Bauer remembered that he’d rather play in their fun basement!

Later in the afternoon, we had the Burns over for the feast. Billy came early to heat up the oil for deep-frying the turkey.

It takes a lot of oil, evidently.

I don’t know if it was the deep-frying or the organic-ness of the turkey that made it so good, but for a mostly non-meat-eater like myself, I honestly enjoyed eating that meat.

Billy and TJ also fried up some sweet potato chips in the oil after the turkey came out.

Here we all are, just before eating.

And here’s our feast! This is TJ’s plate, to be more specific. There’s white meat turkey, Trader Joe’s cornbread stuffing, Paula Dean’s green-bean casserole, candied sweet potatoes, sweet potato chips, cranberry sauce, and Great Harvest honey wheat rolls. I also made the cranberry-apple pie I had mentioned before for dessert.

Wow. That was just about all we could say. Wow.

We really enjoyed that meal and had the leftovers today. Thanks for Thanksgiving!

You never know what the kids are going to do when they run off to play after dinner. I guess Bauer and Brooke decided to have reading time in Cash’s crib. Believe it or not, they even put most of the books back by themselves.

I’ve been meaning to introduce Cash’s new haircut. Here are a couple before pictures (even the hat doesn’t hide it):

And here’s how cute he looks after:

Notice Cash’s weapon of choice. I let him take this ax with him to the nursery at church last Sunday because it happened to be the toy he was attached to that day. I realized as I’m having to explain why Cash is bringing an ax to church with him that maybe next time I’ll try to have him pick a different toy.

Like his shaker that Nana gave him and which he was loving today, as you can see in these pictures. What I’m loving are the little socks he’s wearing, also courtesy of Nana. They are the Trumpette baby socks. Cash has 6 pairs, all different colors, all organic cotton with different “green” words printed on them. Nana said they were a splurge, but I’m so glad she did. He wears them every day! (You can see them best in the 4th picture down.)

I love the little Christmas trees on the back of Cash’s shirt, which used to be Bauer’s shirt, as did the sweater Cash is wearing in the ax picture.

Speaking of Christmas trees, we put ours up yesterday, on the day after Thanksgiving. I think this is the earliest we’ve done it before, but it could hardly be early enough for Bauer. He is so excited about everything Christmas, especially the lights on houses and stores and trees around downtown Naperville. The little tree we used last year was a 4-ft artificial tree, which we set up on a little table to make it seem bigger. We had planned to use the same tree this year, until TJ and I saw a 6-ft artificial tree at Target last week for $19.99. We decided to get it, and let Bauer put the smaller one in his room. He loves it! He especially loves moving his ornaments around to different spots on his tree.

Totally changing the subject, but let me end with 2 things Bauer has said lately:

First, the other day TJ was asking Bauer what he thought Mom’s job was. TJ said that Bauer thought about it a while, and then he said “Reading.” When TJ told me, I couldn’t have been more happy. He thinks my job is reading! Which reminds me, I will need to share two things on the subject of reading next time….

Next was something that happened this afternoon. When Bauer woke up from his nap, he was really upset because he said he has pooped in his pull-up. You could tell he didn’t want that to be the case, but he was afraid it was. This happened one other time recently when he was sick and to make a long story short, it was quite a mess, although I can honestly say I handled the whole thing superbly. I don’t know if he was having memories of that day and the clean-up process or if he thought I would be upset (which I assured him I wasn’t), but he was really rather distraught about it. I continually reassured him that it was no problem, that it was an accident, that we would get him all cleaned up…..so I carried him to the bathroom to remove his clothes and pull-up, only to realize that he had not, in fact, done a pooper. I think he couldn’t quite believe it, so I showed him the pull-up to prove it. And then he goes, “The poop changed its mind. The pee kept the poop in.”

Dear God, I am thankful for at least a dozen things today, probably more. But here is a good start:

1. Thank you that I got to walk 5 miles yesterday morning (to and from meeting friends at Starbucks) and I was still home by 9:30 am. Walking and thinking is just about my favorite thing in the whole wide world.

2. Thank you that I actually followed through with my wish and went to bed early last night and got 8 1/2 hours of sleep.

3. Thank you for this delicious Fuji apple I’m eating right now with the skin on.

4. Thank you that it’s been such a mild November so far – 40s and 50s really aren’t so bad.

5. Thank you for how much Bauer is enjoying coloring lately, especially in his Magicolor book. It seems they magically help him stay in the lines, which he loves!

6. Thank you that I found out about the Frances books by Russell Hoban, and that we have a great library here, and for how easy it is to put books on hold and find a parking space near the children’s entrance.

7. Thank you so much that Bauer’s airplane sold for $34.00 on eBay, and for eBay in general. Bauer has big plans for his money: wooden blocks like the ones he plays with at church, an ABC activity book, and new stickers.

8. Thank you that both boys are napping and I get some time to read, write, think, and pray.

9. Thank you for providing money for us so we can buy what we need for Thanksgiving, including the Apple Cinnamon Swirl Bread from Great Harvest.

10. Thank you for my Bible, for the verses in Isaiah I am finding again:

In repentance and rest is your salvation,
In quietness and trust is your strength.

The LORD longs to be gracious to you;
He rises to show you compassion.

How gracious He will be when you cry for help!
As soon as He hears, He will answer you.

(Isaiah 30:15, 18, 19)

11. Thank you for the friends and family who’ve reached out to me after Saturday’s blog post, for their prayers and kindness. I have had a couple better days since then. Thanks for those, too, God.

12. Thank you for that corn chowder recipe listed below (just didn’t want you to miss it!).

My friend Hannah gave me this recipe recently. Well, first she made it for us when we were having lunch at her house one day, and then she shared the recipe because I really liked how it tasted. If I’m not mistaken, it’s a recipe Hannah came up with through a little trial and error. I love that she can do that! And that she doesn’t mind sharing.

Recipe 23: Corn Chowder

2 1/2 cups whole kernel corn (I used frozen corn)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped sweet pepper, any color
1 tablespoon cooking oil (I used coconut oil)
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups cubed, peeled potato
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

In a large pot, cook onion and sweet pepper in hot oil until the onion is tender but not brown. Stir in the broth and potato. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Stir in corn. Cook, covered, about 10 minutes more or until potato and corn are tender, stirring occasionally.

In a small bowl, combine flour, salt and pepper. Stir milk into flour mixture; add to corn mixture in saucepan. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more.

Serves 4.

Somebody needs a haircut.

I have been feeling quite low lately….that depressed feeling I used to have a lot. I don’t know exactly why but it gets kind of discouraging to feel like I can’t change. I want to be a different person so badly, but I keep being the same old me. I want TJ to believe I can change, I want Bauer and Cash to believe it, I want to believe it. I want God to believe it too.

Here is a quote I found in an Amazon book review while ago that is helping me tremendously at this very moment:

“The small calculating mind wants either/or, win/lose, good or bad….We do not think ourselves into new ways of living. We live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” (Richard Rohr, in Everything Belongs)

My friend Miska had this second quote on her blog recently and it helped me the day I read it, and still helps me now as I remember:

“God doesn’t look at our faults, but at the places in us that are trying to say yes.” (Richard Rohr, probably in Everything Belongs too since I know Miska recently read that book).

I want to read it!

I want to change!

I want to relax!

I want to chillax!

I want to be free!

I want to be Ginger!

But not the Ginger we all know. The Ginger I’m supposed to be. The Ginger God thought up. The Ginger that is somewhere down there. The Ginger that can smile and laugh at the future because the future is bright and beautiful and painful and wonderful. The future that is so precious that if I realized how precious it is I could barely stand to live it, like Frederick Buechner describes it.

These are my thank yous from earlier today. These are addressed to God in particular.

1. I am very thankful I had energy this morning to go for a run, that I wasn’t coughing while running, and that the weather wasn’t too cold for it, nor was I overdressed.

2. I am thankful for these few minutes of relative quiet (I only hear Cash in his crib and the Friday lawnmower man across the street) to sit in my favorite chair by the window and write and read and think and pray.

3. Thank you for the conversation TJ and I had last night before bed, and even though I don’t understand why I feel the way I do about some things right now, it was still good to share how I am feeling.

4. Thank you for my old friend Shannon and for our recent emails to one another. I feel very blessed to have Shannon a part of my life and I only wish we could live closer.

5. Thank you that the sun is shining today and that it hasn’t snowed yet, and hasn’t even really gotten that cold yet.

6. Thank you for mine and TJ’s stories, that we get to be in them, that they aren’t finished yet, that there is always hope.

7. Thank you for the encouragement of Isaiah 26:12-13 “LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. O LORD, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor.”

8. Thank you that I have my tattoo.

9. Thank you that we have friends to spend Thanksgiving with, and that I’m gonna make that cranberry-apple pie my sister told me about.

10. Thank you so much that Bauer’s eye is improving with more patching and more wearing of his glasses.

TJ asked me the other day how many PINK shirts I have now? He wasn’t referring to the color pink, but to my PINK by Victoria’s Secret line.

“Not enough,” I said.

The real answer is 6.

I just got a new one for $6.50 with a coupon. It is one of my favorites. I am wearing it today.

Here are my other 5.

On Saturday I found it in me to do a little project with Bauer. I had been wanting to attempt to make playdough again. The first time we tried a few months back, it didn’t work so well. For one thing, I didn’t have the right kind of salt. I ended up using my nice Real Salt, and I think that is one reason it didn’t work because the granules are so big. I bought the “when it rains, it pours” kind, plus I used a different recipe, and this time it worked much better. Bauer could hardly wait for the chance to put in the food colorings.

Also on Saturday, we walked (and Bauer rode his bike) downtown for lunch. I really love Pot Belly Sandwich Works again. I used to crave it all the time when I was pregnant with Cash. I am not pregnant now, but the reason I like Pot Belly now is because they have cole slaw to go on the sandwiches. That is what I like so much about Which Wich, too. Cole slaw really completes a veggie sandwich. TJ is in full agreement.

We got our lunch from Pot Belly and found a nice grassy sunny spot to sit and eat on our picnic blanket. After lunch was Bauer’s usual time to play rough. I was glad we had his bike along because he really enjoyed riding it up and down the pavement by the big fountain. Cash was walking all around and was almost run over by Bauer only once. We got a few good family pictures before we had to walk back home.

The only blue I don’t like is Blue Lake 2 (and Blue Lake 1, and Blue 1, etc). I even like melancholy sometimes.

I also like wearing my hoodie’s hood indoors sometimes. It blocks the lamplight from being too bright and makes me feel like people I see walking around outside.

Outside has been nice again this week. Fifties. The main point is the sunshine! Still taking Vitamin D though.

That and Emergen-C mixed with coconut oil. I’m about to try putting the oil in my ear tonight. What I did have a few days ago was a viral infection (probably an upper respiratory infection) and mild bronchitis. Now it may have become an ear infection. I’ll take it any day over the kids having one.

Why the h-e-double Bauer hockey sticks have I been so sick for so long?

It started the day after I ran that race back in October. That will have been a month ago this Saturday. I know because it’s also the day I got the bad haircut. I was trying to be cheap and I cheated on my now-can-do-nothing-wrong usual stylist. I won’t do that again. I’ve been letting these choppy funky layers grow out for nearly a month, so maybe sickness has been an okay companion to the bad haircut…I have hardly been anywhere anyway, and sickness has its way of helping you realize as Anne Lamott said one time, “You really don’t have time for this.”

She wasn’t talking about sickness, which I know we all feel like how would we fit that in? But it happens, and it happened, and somehow continues to happen to me. Annie was talking about vanity, and worrying about things that don’t matter, like hair. Actually she was writing the whole chapter about her own hair.

We’ve started our first whole chapter books with Bauer, The Magic Tree House series, and there’s an Annie there too. We are on Book 2, and I’ve already seen the change in Bauer in his ability to listen to the story and not concern himself too much that there are not pictures on every page. Thank you to Gretchen for a great recommend.

Now back to the race. I am not sure the race did it, but I feel like ever since the energy expenditure of that day, I just have not been well. Laryngitis came first, followed a week of what I am now calling pseudo-wellness, followed by more than a week of coughing, with some bouts of chills, aches, sneezes, fever, tired eyes, sore throat, etc.

Tonight I will put some warmed coconut oil in my ear and stuff it with a cotton ball. And then I hope to lay this sickness to rest.

I am happy to be alive, though. Being sick has its way of working wonders inside. I like what it has done to me. I hope that I am warmer, softer, and more alive in the days to come.

My heart rejoices in my God. He never gets sick. He knows we get sick. He doesn’t blame us but just keeps us and keeps us and picks us up and smells our hair and gives us kisses just like I do sweet baby Cash.

I haven’t posted a recipe on here in almost 3 months! But we’ve been eating!

You probably know by now that we eat a lot, and I mean A LOT, of quinoa. This recipe is one I found inside the little recipe booklet that comes inside the boxes of Ancient Harvest Quinoa. I was excited to try it because both TJ and I really enjoy stuffing (well, who doesn’t right?) and I’m really in winter squash mode at the moment anyway. Plus I bought a huge bag of Craisins a while back before our Costco membership expired, so I’m always happy to find ways to use them in dishes. Bauer loves Craisins so that was good draw for him to this dish. I served the stuffing with whole wheat pita bread, homemade hummus, and the usual veggie tray.

Recipe 22: Quinoa Stuffing

1 cup pre-rinsed quinoa
2 cups water or vegetable broth
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 zucchini, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 cup unsulphered dried apricots, diced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 T dried parsley (or 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped)
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Bring the water and quinoa to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer about 10-15 minutes, until quinoa absorbs liquid. Remove from heat and let cool.

Saute zucchini and squash in a skillet with olive oil until slightly browned. Add quinoa to the vegetables. Stir in onions, apricots, cranberries, and parsley. Add lemon juice to taste.

Makes 3-4 large servings.

Oh no, it’s true
Bauer has the flu.
What to do?
Let him rest.
I feel blessed
That Cashie doesn’t have it too.

Yesterday was the worst, today was still bad, but I think tomorrow won’t be as bad. By dinnertime tonight, Bauer was asking for a smoothie (now that’s his usual self) and was talking about Spencer on the Thomas DVD. He laid on the couch the entire day today and even took a 3 1/2 hour nap there today. Cash slept a good 2 hours this afternoon himself – I think he is fighting to stay well. He had a slight fever earlier today but was pretty much his usual playful self.

Cash makes us laugh a lot. We moved our big flower chair recently and now that it’s in the corner of our dining room by the window, Cash loves to climb up in the chair and look out the window. Here are some of his chair antics:

I guess he was still tired after resting on the chair because then he got down on the floor and rested there!

I thought Cash was so cute squatting the other day too.

And here are a few more pictures of Bauer playing in the leaves on Sunday.

My plan is to post a recipe next time. I haven’t put any new ones up in so long.

Also I wanted to share that I went to ALDI for the first time this past weekend. I know several people who like to shop there so I wanted to go see what all the hoopla is about. It wasn’t love at first sight for me, but I could see how people would like it because of the low prices. I did get some big canisters of oatmeal for $1.79 and I thought Meijer was cheap having theirs at $2.29. I’ve been making those banana-oatmeal bars a lot lately and we can go through the oatmeal doing that. Glad to report Cash enjoys the oatmeal bars almost as much as Bauer.