Friesencold

First, check out the new quote I posted on the Books page. I just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls this afternoon. I really want my sister to read it so I think I will mail it to her to read next. It was one of the most interesting and unbelievable stories I have ever read.

After we returned from being out of town, I had no choice but to take the kids grocery-shopping with me the following day. I usually go to Meijer by myself on Mondays when TJ has the day off, but we got back from vacation on a Tuesday night and I knew I couldn’t wait until the following Monday, or even the weekend, to go. So off we went.

I let Bauer and Cash ride the free horse ride inside Meijer after we bought our groceries. Can you tell it was Saint Patrick’s Day?

I participated in Miss Amy KR’s most recent mission on the WBEZ Vocalo blog. It was posted on the Monday when we were out of town, but we got back home in plenty of time for me to participate. We went nowhere fast together.

In other words, my friend Jaime and I took the Metra from the downtown Naperville train station to Union Station in downtown Chicago. Then we walked to the “L” and got on the Brown Line to Belmont. We then used my iPhone to find the nearest Starbucks so we could bring our own coffee, as the mission stated to do.

Doughnuts were provided by Amy and crew. This is Amy’s producer Justin holding the doughnuts. I put in my request for a cake doughnut, and that’s what I got!

After getting our coffee, Jaime and I walked back to the Belmont “L” stop to meet up with everyone who was participating in the mission. There were probably 50-60 people there and we all climbed aboard the front car of the train. We literally went nowhere, just rode the train from Belmont, down to the Loop, and around back up to Belmont. Probably a 45 minute train ride with a bunch of strangers who were all the nicest people, just excited to be together and be with Amy.

On the train ride, Amy asked us to think about one question: Where will we go from here?

Do you want to go to the park? she said. Do you want to go home? Do you want to go visit a friend? Do you want to go on to be a rock star? Are you gonna go with your gut?

I knew my answer immediately. The whole process of me getting there, to participate in the mission that morning, had been such a struggle. The weather forecast was predicting a rain/snow mix and wind for Saturday, so that was my first big deterrent to going. Also I was just unsure I wanted to go. I mean, my heart was wanting to go, but when have I ever lived out of my heart? I had gotten so excited upon first learning about the mission when were out of town on the previous Monday, that I said to TJ right away that I wanted to do it. But after having a week to think about all the reasons why not to go, I had convinced myself I didn’t want to. I didn’t completely know what to expect, for one thing. I knew we were supposed to meet Amy at the Belmont stop at 9:45, but I didn’t know where we’d go (to which TJ responded, But that’s the whole point!), how long it would last, how many people would be there, or whether Jaime and I would actually find our way around on our own as neither she nor I had ever taken the “L” before. I was in tears on the night before the big day. I felt a lot of anxiety about going and kept telling TJ I didn’t know why he was trying to convince/encourage/push me to go when I didn’t even really want to go. He reminded me of how I’d felt when I’d first read this week’s mission, and also encouraged me to think about if I’d read the mission while living in Orlando, how I’d have said to him that I wanted to buy a plane ticket for a quick weekend trip to Chicago so I could participate. I knew he was right, but I still didn’t know how to not feel like I was out of control if I decided to go. I slept fitfully that night, but woke up ready to go on Saturday morning. I knew I had pushed through the hardest part of the experience, just getting myself mentally psyched that I would go and not have to be in control of what would happen.

What a wonderful experience it turned out to be! Of course, TJ knew this would happen, which is why he pushed me to go. Jaime and I enjoyed talking all morning and we found our way everywhere just fine. The CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) App for my iPhone was so helpful, as was the lady working at the “L” station. She gave us tips and advice on how to get where we needed to go and back, and save money in the process. I had noticed she had an open Bible on her desk and we later found out she works as a pastor in addition to her job with the CTA.

It was great meeting Amy (even though my picture turned out blurry) and being a part of something that she likes to call a “shared experience.” It truly was cool to see all the people along for the ride, people of all different ages, with all different aspirations and all kinds of reasons for being there that day.

Our final assignment from Amy before departing the train was to take a piece of chalk from the boxes she passed around and as we continued our day, to take the time to write a message somewhere for someone to see. Our message could be anything we wanted to share with the world, but it only seemed appropriate to me to write what I had learned that day.

On one of the last warmish days, we went on our first family bike ride since Cash was born. It was fun!

Cash wore Bauer's old helmet.

Hmmm, I wonder where we'll go?

Bauer's in position.

But of course, we went to the train station!

Cool enough for me to pull out my hoodie

Bauer figured this out on his own!

This boy still loves trains!

Cash is in training to love trains, too.

Today I went to Once Upon A Child, a local consignment store, to look for some shorts for Bauer to sleep in. He is such a hot boy. His pillow is always soaked after his nap, and with the warmer weather, and the fact that he still wants to be all cozy under the big covers, he definitely needs to be sleeping in shorts.

Just before we left the store, I decided to take a quick glance around the used toy section, and lo and behold, there was a big bag of Thomas wooden trains marked at only $10. I really thought it was either a mistake or these weren’t the real wooden trains, you know the ones that are $12.99 for the shorter ones and $19.99 for the longer ones with the tender behind them. And those are the Target prices, so anywhere else is probably even a bit more. Well, anywhere except Walmart, but theirs are probably $12.97 and $19.97.

Bauer has a small collection of the real wooden Thomas engines. He has Thomas, Percy, Billy, Gordon (with tender), and Henry (with tender). Billy was a birthday gift, but I believe we purchased the other ones for him over several different occasions. I don’t know for sure, but I’d say we have probably spent at least $50 in the past on Thomas stuff. All of his other wooden train stuff is from IKEA (cheap, but great!) or from a small Imaginarium train set he received for his birthday last year.

Today, though, his collection tripled in size. I could not pass up getting the bag of trains, even though it wasn’t his birthday or Christmas. TJ and I had recently been talking about wanting to buy Bauer a new wooden engine just as a way to reward him for his generosity recently (he even gave away one of his GeoTrax trains to his friend Brooke). So part of me wanted to just buy them for him for no reason except to reward him for being generous.

Another part of me, and this is what we ended up doing, wanted to have him trade in his money from his piggy bank to buy the trains. On our way home from the store, I actually gave Bauer the choice that he could buy them (pay me back) using his money from his piggy bank or that he could wait until his birthday and receive them as a gift. I know he probably doesn’t really understand about the money from his piggy bank being a sacrifice of any sort since all that money is just change we have given him anyway, but I had already been thinking recently about letting him buy something with his own money just to expose him to the idea. And this seemed like a good chance for that. Of course, Bauer wanted the trains now and was happy to dump his piggy bank first thing upon arriving home. We counted out $10 in change – I was actually surprised there was that much in there since two times lately he has taken a bunch of change out to take to church to put in the Goat and Chicken jars (Kids City was collecting money to buy a goat and a chicken for families in need in other countries).

I know it might sound a little silly, but I truly felt like finding those trains was a big blessing from God in my life today. Like he wanted to just reward me by letting them be out at just the right time when I was going to be in the store. I am convinced the store had just put them out before we walked in because I know they wouldn’t have stayed even for an hour on the shelf. In fact, as we were walking out of the store, a lady who was walking in with her son commented on the bag of trains Bauer was carrying and it was clear from our brief conversation that she would have grabbed them up in no time had we not. It’s like God knew that TJ and I were thinking of buying a new train for Bauer to reward him for his generosity, but then God beat us to that blessing by providing all those trains at such a low cost as a way to reward us for being generous in different areas. Now as I write this, I’m thinking maybe I should not have made Bauer use his piggy bank money….but then again, I think that’s fine too. I am just grateful that I could see this as a gift from God in my life today, and in turn, a gift in Bauer’s life. Bauer was in train heaven this evening at home.

I went online tonight to see if I could calculate about how much money’s worth of trains we got for a mere $10. I don’t have the time or motivation to be thorough at this task, but from what I can tell, several of the ones we got are considered Rare or Retired and are VERY hard to find, supposedly. Two of them are selling for $49.99 and one for $54.99. A couple of the other hard to find ones were $24.99 and $29.99. I think I could safely say that we got over $350 worth of trains in that bag. And what’s even harder to believe is that the consignment store would have paid only a bit over $3 to the people who sold them to the store (I know from personal experience of selling stuff to this same store that they pay the seller 1/3 of what they intend to sell the item for….in this case, that would be just over $3 paid to the seller for them to turn around and sell the trains for $10).

Below is a list of all the ones we got in the mystery bag of assorted trains. All of them are the real Thomas wooden engines/characters, except the final one is a Brio train. We also got the square Brio track piece that you see in the center of the above picture. Bauer is so excited about the little gates that open and close.

1. Wilbert
2. James and Tender
3. Duncan
4. Stepney
5. Thomas
6. Duke
7. Thumper
8. Big City Engine
9. Murdoch and Tender
10. Daisy
11. Diesel 10
12. Boco
13. Handcar
14. Aquarium Car
15. Blue Brio Train and Tender

It’s official: I’m going to start posting some recipes on here to share with my friends who keep asking me for recipes. And for those of you who wonder what eating a plant-based diet would look like.

Just for fun, I’ve been keeping a calendar of all the meals we’ve eaten since the last week of January. I was looking back at the calendar tonight to see how many times I’ve cooked meat in the past 6 weeks. Two times.

One of those was earlier this week when I made a baked penne pasta chicken dish for my friend Carrie who just had a baby. We ate the same thing for dinner that evening so I wouldn’t have to cook two different meals. I used organic chicken but wasn’t all that impressed with the flavor of the dish….sort of bland, but maybe that was not a bad thing for Carrie since she is nursing the baby.

The other time was one night last week when we had breakfast for dinner. I had been craving sausage for a while, so I bought some organic pork sausage links at Whole Foods. TJ liked the sausage and Bauer thought it was a hotdog, but I didn’t think it was anything too special. I was glad to know I was eating organic meat, but it just didn’t really match the sausage taste I had been craving. I’ll get that when I go home in May for my class reunion and to visit MaryMa. I always request her grits and sausage when I’m home.

Besides cooking meat those two times, I believe I only had meat one other time during those 6 weeks. It was on Valentine’s Day, when TJ and I got dinner from Ted’s Montana Grill, which I already wrote about a while back. I had the bison meatloaf and TJ had the bison burger, and that was some good meat.

So three meat meals in six weeks, and it is actually unusual that I cooked meat twice that close together. What I’m trying to say is that it really is feasible to eat meat only occasionally and still prepare yummy filling dinners.

Now back to the posting of my recipes. I will be posting them just how I prepare them, meaning I am going to list the exact brands of ingredients I use if I think that matters, any modifications I have made to the original recipe, and possibly what I serve with the main dish to round out the meal. I am also going to note where I found the recipe if I can remember and I’ll be sure to include a picture or two of each dish as well. Tonight’s meal will be in the next post.

Before I go on to post the first recipe, I wanted to show off the amazing train track that Bauer built all by himself yesterday. I wasn’t even in the same room. He is really getting good at this.

Cash is good at chewing on his keys and doing backbends to try and get out of his bouncy seat.

And TJ is good at reading stories and being a dad, not to mention about 147 other things he’s good at. Like going to Target and taking Bauer and then buying all kinds of stuff we needed this morning before he went to work so I could stay home and work out first thing while Cash had his early morning nap. Yeah, that was pretty great.