Grocery Day

Today was grocery shopping day.  Samuel and I went, and we went without a meal plan and without a list.  Horror of horrors.  And now I'm looking at what we bought for the next week's meals and I am completely unable to process how any of these things are going to become entrees.

Helphelphelp!

I took pictures.  Because I'm nerdy.

So here's the produce we bought.  Counterclockwise from the bottom left:

A bag of brussels sprouts
3 eggplant
2 tomatoes
A bag of green beans
A 'stew pack' (big thing around here - consists of 2 turnip, a green cabbage, parsnips and carrots)
A bag of yellow onions
A large bunch of collard greens
A bag of oranges
Dill
Garlic
Mushrooms
blueberries
ginger
apples
acorn squash
lemons

The only thing I can think of doing right now is our usual treatment of turnip, which is to cook them with apples.



Meat - but not all of it because I can't get my act together in one picture.  So here's what I bought:

Bacon
Chicken Strips
A roast of beef
tilapia
10 sausages.  They were on sale. 
Beef heart

Random *stuff*

Plain yogurt
Sour cream

Cheese (old cheddar)

pickles

olive oil

some canned beets.

Passion Orange Guava juice.

Bagels

Stuff that was still in the fridge that somehow needs to be incorporated into meals.

A head of cauliflower

2 sweet potatoes
a yam

celery

2 eggs
A container of egg

Arugula

There's also frozen pre-soaked beans in my freezer, and an assortment of little ends of frozen veggies.  There's a can of tuna, and one of chickpeas.  A few potatoes.  Rice.  Lentils, but not very many.  Plenty of spices.

I think the juice will become popsicles.  I plan to roast the cauliflower to make a snack for the children, and they'll also eat a lot of blueberries, pickles and oranges as snack food.  I have cheerios, so likely they'll have those for breakfast, or I might make pancakes with the eggs, or hot cereal with oats or maybe hot rice.

What on earth do I feed people this week?

Sky

Linking up with Cari for Theme Thursday - The Sky!  (I'm lazy, and today's sky is boring, so you're going to get lots of previously-taken photos)

1.  A perfectly blue sky always actually makes me a bit uneasy; I like a bit of cloud to ruin the stifling ideal.  This is the CN Tower in Toronto, taken in spring 2009, when David and I lived in the big city.  I vividly remember the vertigo I felt standing and looking up.

2.  Now we're going back to the summer of 2008.  These next two pictures were taken on our honeymoon.  The first one I've shared before, but the second is a favourite of mine.  Do you see the circling bird?

3.  Now we're going to go about four years into the future - to the fall of 2012.  I took this picture of migrating geese while Samuel and I were visiting a cattle farm outside of town.  It's hard for me to think that the bird above was photographed in such a very different time of life than the ones below.

And here's one that Samuel took!  Just a few weeks ago, with my camera.

Worst Baby Name Ever

There you go, right in between Fuchsia and Frythe, in the 'girls' section of the baby name book, is Fructuose.  Are you serious?

Books, steak, church.



Lunch.  Steak and mushroom pie covered in phyllo pastry. 


Yesterday David and I spent some time getting our letter to the district typed up and sent to the superintendent.  This is the internship proposal that will get reviewed by prospective churches, who will then decide whether or not they want our family to come and intern at their church.  It's all very overwhelming and I'm glad the letter is sent, but also nervous now about the next step.

Finished reading Three Cups of Tea, finally.  Now I have to get One Thousand Gifts wrapped up so I can dig into the pile of books lent to me by a friend.  First up:  The Christian Atheist.

And now, to the melodious sound of crying children, I am going to get dressed and bring several large bags of clothing to the Salvation Army drop off and out. of. my. house.

A Few Of My Favourite Things...

:: Packages done up and ready to be sent.  One to L.ubango, Angola via Ottawa and one to S.kopje, Macedonia via Ohio.  I'm taking advantage of furloughs to get stuff to missionary friends.  *wink*

Nicely decorated by just the best artist I know.

Giving Things Away.

It's hard to give away 100 things.  I'm being very broad in my definition of single items because, well, I just am.  It's really more because of how anal retentive I am than anything else - I had a conversation in my head that went something like this:

Amy:  "K.  We're a-gonna give stuff away!"
Amy:  "Um.  Yeah.  About that - HOW precisely are we calculating this?"
Amy:  "Shut up, please and thank you."
Amy:  "So we're counting every item?"
Amy:  "Can we guesstimate?"
Amy:  "No we cannot."
Amy:  "Fine.  Alright.  What if we count every item."
Amy:  "Even a pair of baby socks."
Amy:  "Even a pair of..what?  No.  Those can group."
Amy:  "Group?  Seriously?  Girl..."
Amy:  "Ohmyheavens.  Alright.  We count groups of items."
Amy:  "Like, by recipient?"
Amy:  "JUST GIVE IT AWAY."
Amy:  "Alright, so what we're going to do is group by date of giving."
Amy:  "Fine.  Wait.  What if I have multiple recipients in one day?"

This is probably the point you jumped to when you realized several sentences back that I was actually going to type out a dialogue I had with myself.  In my own head.  For real. 

I'm up to item #10, which if I was counting actual items would be around item 40, I'm guessing, but we're not counting actual items, we're counting times I've given things away.  So if you come to my house, and I force you to take a box of boy's clothes and five commentaries on Mark and my second Swiffer and four cassette tapes - then I've given away one thing.  This means I am one tenth of the way to my goal, and I'm feeling good about it.  I have a bag of clothing to go to the Salvation Army box, two pairs of winter boots for a little boy nearby, a few more baby supplies for a friend who's expecting, and a box of cloth diapers to send to my sister - but at some point I know it's going to get harder.  Right now I'm still just getting rid of stuff that I can completely manage without.  But at some point we're going to have to really start thinning stuff out.

I'm all giddy about it, though.  I love the idea of clean, linear, empty space.  Space not filled with stuff.  Ahhh....linen closets that close.  Bookshelves that are filled neatly with books!  SHOES IN CLOSETS!  I know.  It's just that exciting!  I tried to purge (well, I DID purge, actually) when we moved from the apartment to our house a few months ago, but even so we still have too much stuff.  I remember being on the phone with my mother, discussing towels.  I carefully outlined all of the towel options available to us, folded on my bed, and then asked her which ones to get rid of.  "I think they're all useful" she said.  And this is clearly where I get it from, folks.  I tossed a few towels away, the really bad ones, and then just packed and moved the others, stacking them neatly on the top shelf of the linen closet.  You know - I have never used the towels on the bottom.  Never.  I pull one off the top, use it, hang it up, use it again, wash it, and it gets back into place without me ever having made it down the stack of towels.  I could get rid of a dozen towels and still have enough.

What I Wore Sunday

David is home this Sunday!  We can go to church as a family!  No one is vomiting!

It's the little things that make a day great, ya know?

I'm always late to the game with the FLAP ladies simply because of our Sunday schedule.  We wake up at 7am, get everyone ready (which usually takes about 2 hours, give or take) including packing bags for the day.  Then we walk to church, a trip of around 30-45 minutes depending on the weather.  Church is finished around noonish, at which point we chat with people for a few minutes and then dress and load everyone up again and head back out to walk to our minister's house to attend our small group, again   a walk of around 30 minutes.  Once there we all eat lunch and the children go off and play/nap while we adults converse.

At some point, usually around 3 or so, small group is over and we gather up the kids and walk home again.  By the time we get back Samuel (who doesn't nap on Sundays) has walked for around 2 hours and is grouchy and tired.  Clara has napped only in the stroller, and David and I had sore feet and tired eyes since we've been going since 7am.





 

What we're wearing...

I laid out the children's clothing this morning and, surprise surprise, they are in all second hand duds.

I'm wearing a green pinstriped Ralph Lauren skirt (brand new!) that I found at a thrift store.

My green sweater is second hand.

The orange cropped jacket is thrift store.

(This post is late - but linked up anyway to Fine Linen And Purple)

Beans!

Thank you to those who read or commented on my rambling and rather depressing post about how lonely it can be in the ministry.  I hadn't intended to write a second post yesterday, but then late last night I was just not feeling well, and out it came.

And now for something significantly more cheerful!

I know, I know, everyone is talking about whole foods this and paleo that and blah blah blah.  I'm not going to talk about that sort of thing because I have very little idea of what I'm talking about compared to many others.  In fact, if you're curious about it, there is an amazing Christian blog, Keeper of the Home, and it handles just about every issue you could imagine and answers any question you could think of asking.

But what I know how to do is feed a family of four a healthy, high protein diet with lots of vitamin and mineral rich foods on a small budget.

Today I'm preparing my beans on the counter.  Actually, it's day two of bean prep!  Beans, lentils and the like are an important part of our meals and I have a four-day system to prepare them.  Now, some people can get away with using canned beans without any gastric side-effects, and that's great, but even if that's you I would suggest finding a good way to prepare dried beans simply to save on money.  If a can of beans has two cups worth in it, but costs $1, whereas you can get close to twenty cups of rehydrated beans from a 2kg bag of dried beans, and that will only cost you $6.  Well, then that's a savings of $4!

Alright, now for a recipe!  I never liked beans, or really legumes at all, and this recipe is one I made up myself and was one of the first ways I ever enjoyed eating them.

Amy's Bacon Baked Beans

2 cups of dried beans
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 Tbsp ketchup
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (or another flavoured vinegar)
2 bay leaves
1 clove garlic, pierced and peeled
1 onion, quartered
1/2 lb. chopped bacon
1.5 cups water

Now let me explain this recipe - it's approximate.  And it's mostly made up of flavourings.  So what you're going to have to do is use it as a guideline of sorts.  Saute your bacon and your onion.  Your beans will already be rehydrated, so add them in now.  Make a mixture of the various condiments and add those, and then pour over the water.  Simmer away until your beans are cooked.

You may need more water.  You may need more time than you think.  Try not to overcook them since your beans will get all mushy, and likewise if you are using canned beans you'll need much less time.


This post was linked to Your Green Resource.

On The Lonely Road Of Being A Pastor's Wife

I think that it's natural for us to not understand each other all that well.  As humans we tend to gravitate towards those stories which mirror our own; take, for example, your choice in reading material.  Chances are that your favourite stories/blogs/etc. are all ones that speak to an area of your own life.  Even the books that are as unlikely a mirror as any for you to look into, take a young adult fantasy novel, have characters in them that you are drawn to because of how their decisions are similar to yours, or their emotions are just like your emotions.  Our favourite songs - they're our favourites because they speak to us, aren't they?  The lyrics remind you of an old flame, or a tough decision, or a time in your life.  We see ourselves in others, and those in whom we see the most of ourselves we grow closest to.

Which is likely one of the reasons why it's so lonely to be in the ministry.  Because others can't imagine seeing themselves in you.  Especially people who aren't Christians.  Non Christians have very definate opinions on what a ministry couple should look and act like.

Loneliness, that inability to connect with others, is so prevalent in the ministry that we who are in that field tend to clump together.  Despite my secular upbringing, the majority of my online friends are Christians.  In fact a high percentage of them are in the ministry.  I'm even a member of three facebook groups specifically targeted towards people in ministry!  Flying in the face of Jesus' command to go out into the world (a world with many, many faiths) Christians want to huddle together.  It's warmer that way, and it's easier to turn to the person next to you, a person who knows exactly what you're talking about, and have a conversation.

I am a lonely pastor's wife.  I have secular friends very dear to me with whom I cannot share the most important piece of who I am, the reason I live every day.  And I have Christian friends with whom I cannot share the fact that I feel as though Christianity is living in a big, shiny, well-decorated bubble.  And when my husband is given a church, I will have a congregation that I would be advised not to befriend, because I'm the pastor's spouse.  That's hard.  It's hard to be so lonely in the midst of so many.  It's hard to know that not too many people are going to 'get it'.  Get why I bother dragging the children to church.  Get why we want a church so badly even though we've got a good life here and friends and everything and that imaginary someday church would rip us away from this.

And I would dearly love to toss a platitude in here.  I don't really have one.  I lean on my God, and I trust that He is there to listen to me.

Wednesday

You know, I really wish that I could have had two children before I'd had only one, except that that would have been impossible.  But if I had managed it, I would have saved myself a lot of worry over my first child.  All the thoughts I had of S being crazy since he wouldn't stop hitting the cat after I had specifically told him to stop hitting the cat...well, those worries would be gone.

Because C is now acting in precisely the same way that S did, and now I can recognize it to be normal one-year old behaviour and not the result of my below-average parenting abilities.

Terribly awkward park moment today when S accidentally kicked another child in the jaw when they were climbing up the slide ladder too close together.  The other mom and I just tried not to look at each other, both yelling encouragement at our offspring.  I just know we were having the same thought "Sheesh, SAY something to your kid, won't you?"

They were fine, by the way.  And were soon happily building a giant pile of sand at the bottom of the slide.

Lentils for supper.  I saute them with onion, basil and chicken stock.  And then I add tomato paste and some tumeric.  If you're smart, you'll top the whole mess with sour cream or yogurt, but the children will eat it either way.

S: (after having eaten 3/4 of his plate) "Mama, I no LIKE this."
C just shrieked her disapproval at seeing any area of blank high chair tray.  All areas must be covered by food at all times.  She's like the cats - they don't agree that sometimes it's okay if the bottom of the bowl is showing a bit, either.

I am so behind on every chore in this house it's almost funny.  Except for the dishes, they're done.  But several plants need repotting, the laundry needs to be caught up, the bathroom (ohmyheavens) needs to be cleaned, everything.  Just, everything.

I recently lost some friends to a move, and it's hard for me.  They didn't move terribly far away, and I will probably see them once or twice a month for at least the next few months, but they were wonderful people to have around, and I'm feeling the loss.  One of their daughters, especially, really connected with me - she is exactly as I was at her age:  precocious, bossy, brilliant, a leader and terribly emotional.  I can't help laughing at her; she's just so...me!  But who I really miss is my friend - we knew each other for much too short a time, and their family will be heading off to Bolivia as long-term missionaries soon.  Two parents and six (!) children.  They'll be living in the remote mountain areas of the country amongst very untouched people.  It's so exciting for them, but I'm a little sad.

The flower beds are turned.

Cold, chilly, crazy barefoot lady weather?  Why yes, yes it is.

Grass was raked, gardens cleaned out, multiple piles stacked and ready to be dumped into the trailer and hauled off into the bush.

I'm determined to get the garden up and running this year.  For years I've pined for a garden that reminded me of the one my parents created.  They took the backyard of a rental townhouse and designed a raised bed square foot garden that produced an admirable amount of produce every year, and a great deal of joy and beauty.   The mental pictures I have of my childhood backyard are some of the most treasured images I can recall.

I'm sure my parents appreciated the help with the grocery budget, too!  And frankly, that's one of my main reasons for working so hard at a garden this year.  I have lofty goals of a bushy, full, beautiful and productive cacophany of plant life, just bursting with vegetables, and being able to eat lavishly all summer and go crazy with canning and freezing the excess.  I dream of opening a jar of my very own summer tomatoes next January.

I don't have a lot of gardening experience, but I have a lot of seeds, and a lot of memories of what the finished product should look like.  And really, everyone needs a first garden.

Mondays Are For Blog Hoppin'

Clara is wandering around the livingroom, just about ready to take a few steps without holding on to something any. day. now.

Samuel and Daddy are napping.  The bread is out of the oven.  I have a whole buncha stuff I'm pretending I don't know is in the 'to do' pile.  We ate pancakes for breakfast and soup is already made for lunch.  Dinner will involve the defrosted chicken and zucchini, and also probably some sort of yogurt/tumeric/garlic sauce type thing.  And maybe rice.

I could be knitting.  I could be watering the garden.  But instead, since I'm trying to be good and post on the blog every day, I'm determined to write.  And I have lots to say, in fact I have a binder where I jot down posts.

There's one on the blessings of a two-child family.
A post talking about the loneliness of being a pastor's wife.
A funny little thing on baby items I cannot jump on board with.
I'd like to talk a bit more about something Sergiy from World Hope mentioned in church yesterday, about God choosing to work through people.
I want to tell you all about something I've been doing that has drastically improved my prayer life.

But...I don't have the brain power right now.  I write best when awake, caffeinated, fed and not clung to by small children.  Who doesn't?  And that's just not the reality today.  So instead, I thought I'd take a cue from a seven quick takes post that Cari from Clan Donaldson did a few weeks back, and let you all do the writing for me.  What are YOU up to?  Let's look at the blogs I follow.

The Maxwell Family is making an announcement about their latest ITOnRamp course.  If you homeschool, and you're looking for a computer studies option, take a look.  And in the previous post they mention making their from-scratch burritos, which I have the recipe for around here somewhere, although I can't imagine making it for a family as large as theirs.

Oooo, the Soule Family got chickens!  I haven't checked to see what they've been up to in a long while.  Let's take a quick peek back through the last few posts...oh they've got several new giveaways that you simply must check out!

Kyra's got her hands full now that one of the twins is walking.  That makes...1 crawling baby, 2 walking toddlers, 1 rambunctious preschooler, and a partridge in a pear tree.  And she bought perfume!  Hmmm...I'm curious about this Frozen Pond scent.

Abigail is writing up a storm these days, and she's got posts galore!  I like her idea about pets being a good conversation starter for a large Christian family.  Sadly, my cats are not conversation starters at all, unless you take "um, why is your cat licking my foot" as a worthwhile conversation.  She's also mentioned what will no doubt become a controversial topic - is there such a thing as too much spiritual reading?  Oh man, Abby, way to tackle it!

And in case you think I'm completely and totally dropping the ball firmly in other people's laps (which I so am, let's be frank) let me assure you I'll be back, with my own thoughts next time.

What I Wore Sunday

Oh man, what a day.  I'm getting this post up a little late, but better late than never.

I look exhausted in this picture.  I'm sorry. 

We're all wearing thrift store or second hand clothing in some way, shape or form, so I'll save you the time it would take to scroll through a list.  Except for my orange tank top, which I bought years ago at Reitmans.

I've seen some posters who rank their children's behaviour during service, which I think is brilliant.  So here goes.

Samuel:  C+

Getting out of the house was a challenge.  But he did behave in nursery and except for a hiccup on the way home was pretty generally good.

Clara:  B+

Distracted with dried apricots, she managed very well.  Pleasant and happy baby.

***

Today, instead of a sermon, we had Sergiy Svystun from World Hope Ukraine in to speak with us.  He works with a ministry called Hope House, which, if you click on the link, you can read a bit about.  Our church has sent several teams to the Ukraine over the past few years to help with building projects that will benefit Hope House, and it was really neat to hear about how things are going so well over there.

Check them out.

And take a look at the ladies at Fine Linen And Purple.

Have a blessed Sunday

Distracted by a movie

I'm trying to pump myself up to take a picture of us tomorrow for What I Wore Sunday...except that I watched The Help tonight.

Do you know that movie?  Based on the book?  This amazing story of stickin' it to the racist bigots in Mississippi, telling things that need to be told, of beauty, of awfulness...

Well, it's kind of hindering my ability to think about clothes.  All I can think of is the movie, and how much it touched me.

Plus, David works at 7am, so I'm doing it by myself tomorrow with both children.  My goal is to not stop moving.  Because then at least theoretically things will get done.

The stew is in the slow cooker, the diaper bag is about to get packed, and I'm going to go have a shower now, not tomorrow morning, so wish me luck in getting us out the door on time.

Seven Quick Takes

1.  I'm making a statement.  It's more like an ant stamping its feet than anything else, but it's my statement and I'm already growing fond of it.  I'm taking a break of undefined length from posting my blog updates on Facebook.  Why?  Good question.  It's probably a fairly dumb idea because according to Blogger a lot of my traffic comes from click-overs, but occasionally I will write a post that I really enjoyed putting together, (like the one previous to this) and then I don't post it on Facebook, just to see.  And the 'ratings' are always abysmal.  Which makes me sad, because it's pretty clear that people don't habitually check my blog, or necessarily enjoy reading it, unless it's shoved in their faces by the 'book.

So.  If you like, you may read me over here, where I will happily keep writing away.  If the feeling of needing a reminder is there for you (and I've got a Google reader too, my friends, I know its cosmic allure) then I will do my utmost to figure out how to get a 'follow' button up on the old blog so you can keep in touch.  Otherwise, it will be up to you.  And I understand if that's a lot of effort and I don't see you around much anymore.  That's okay, too.  I'll still smile at you in the grocery store and everything.

2.  Early spring sunset.  I wish they made deoderant that smelled like that.  The other day in the bathroom David commented that someone smelled like a glacier.

3.  Okay, I didn't see it at first, but now that Clara is almost a year old (next month!  eek!) I think she and Samuel do sort of look a bit like each other.  See?



Samuel on his first birthday.

Clara in December.  Granted, terribly unflattering photo, but cute all the same.



Do you see it?  Is it just me?

4.  Our phone(s) have been dying slowly over the past several months.  First the one upstairs started to have battery issues.  It wouldn't stay charged for more than a few hours, tops, which made my hours-long conversations to my friend Amanda, in which I would complain about life, next to impossible.  And I need to complain about life.  Then there were hiccups with the downstairs cordless phone, which I ignored because I didn't want to deal with it.  At which point our answering machine bit the dust.  Hey, who cares, my phone comes with call display; whatever you had to say to my answering machine you can say to me.  Except that NOW the downstairs phone is really dying.  And I have had to break out the old fashioned corded phone, which used to have a call display screen but it died and I can't get it to work.  So essentially answering the phone in this house consists of running into the hallway to see who is calling on the cordless, which you can't answer because it will die, and then running back into the livingroom to pick up the corded phone.

I could buy a new phone, but I'm cheap.

5.  Are you reading what I'm reading?

6.  I'm spring cleaning with a vengeance over here.  You should see my basement.  On the other hand, why don't you just wait until I'm done down there and then come on over?  I found a box I had packed when we moved from Toronto, for heaven's sake, which was almost four years ago.  It was filled with china and weird knick knacky things and fossilized candles.  And of course any trip to the basement isn't complete without the internal monologue..."what if I need this someday and I have to buy another one?"  To which I reply "Self.  Seriously?"

7.  We made sugar cookies yesterday with a friend and I learned something amazing that I'm sure everyone but me knows, but here you go.  If you mix granulated sugar with a bit of food colouring it makes coloured sugar.  I would have thought it would dissolve or something.

Now, go check out Jen for more Seven Quick Takes

Blessings



Questions no one ever asks me.

Query:  Nice rake, Amy!  You must spend a lot on child sized gardening implements, right?

Answer:  Not surprisingly, I do not spend a whole lot on anything!  This rake, and its buddy the spade, are from our dollar store and are metal and wood.  We have two such stores in town, one of which specializes in candy, splintery wooden stuff and loud cashiers (the other one has the monopoly on mugs with sayings on them and strangely expensive housewares.)

 

Query:  Did you do anything new and exciting this year for Easter?

Answer:  Well, not as exciting as Shannon.  But I did try something different this year; I decorated a Ukrainian Easter egg!  It. took. hours.  But I love it.  And I would love it even more if I didn't have to hide it on top of the fridge so the toddler didn't touch it.

Query:  You've been harping on about this garden of yours; how's that all going?

Answer:  Great, thanks!  As of this morning I can say with certainty that we have sprouttage!  We're doing *something* every day as we work towards the garden, but I'm not stressing about it too much because it's only the beginning of April after all - there are close to two months before plants can be in the ground here.

Query:  Best new recipe you've tried this week?

Answer:  By far, last night's supper.  Boil a package of egg noodles, add sauteed chicken and finely chopped cooked spinach, a Tbsp of paprika and half a large container of sour cream and salt and pepper.  It was to die for.  Everyone had seconds.  Sadly, I do not have a picture of it, so look at this instead.

I'm calling it End of the Week Stew.  All the leftovers in one big pot.  Sweet potato, carrot, pork, some pureed pumpkin, garlic, rosemary, thyme, chicken stock...um, some cranberries.  What else?  I have no idea.  Oh!  Onions.

Query:  *ahem* there was talk of homeschooling....

Answer:  I don't know what you're talking about.  Ok, ok.  Yes.  We started out not well and have continued in pretty much the same vein.  But I did learn something out of all of it, and that is that I am not the sort of personality that can design and implement my own curriculum.  I'm a 'buy a box of school' sort of person.  I'm okay with this.

Right now, we're trying to get a few things in our day as intentional learning.  Today we tried some Bible memorization, for example. 

Super impressive looking, eh?  His understanding of the Old Testament is a little weak, though.

Query:  Don't you have the most adorable little girl ever?

Answer:  Absolutely.