The Church Family: May 2010

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Lifestyle Change

In light of recent weight-gain (despite the fact that our kitchen in functional again and we are no longer eating fast food every night), I have decided that our everyday meals needed a revamp. No more heavy cream based pastas, cheese filled potatoes, or Salisbury steaks. ....Well, okay, maybe sometimes.... But I've become more concerned with what kind of food we are using for energy and the example we are setting for the kids. So I scoured online recipes and make a new kind of shopping trip. A lot vegetables and fruits and a lot of bulk food items like raw nuts, dried fruits, and whole grains for making bread. I skipped the inner aisles almost entirely. And completely by-passed the meat aisle (well, at least at Win-Co; the non-organic meat kind of creeps me out anymore). And last night we had our first revolutionary dinner: Greek-Style Quinoa Burgers. And do you know what?

They. Were. AWESOME!!

Truly I was skeptical of a bean and grain burger being palatable, at best, but I never dreamed of my tongue doing the happy dance because of it! I think it was a promising start in the right direction.

A Couple of Basket Cases and a Graduate

Looking at Doug and I you would never believe that our offspring could be capable of getting a tan, but little Miss Brownberry, as my mom calls her, has confounded us all and claimed the recessive Native American gene from my side of the family. Not that she's that dark obviously, but look at that tan! Why did I have to get the freckles...? *sigh*

I digress.

Anyway, my cute little basket babies ~~hindering~~ helping Dad to fold laundry.

MaCheezmo!

Sterling is probably almost as glad as I am to be done with preschool. Not that he didn't like it once he was there, but he'd fight it everytime I told him to get ready for preschool. I think he just prefers to be cozy at home (probably playing the Wii). I am doubly glad since I had two groups I was co-teaching this year (Sterling's and Evie's) and that is a HUGE deal for me. I am one who likes to keep my days as simple and uncluttered as possible, and social scenes to a minimum (not that I don't adore my friends). So this year was a bit of a burn-out for me and I am thankful for the 3-month reprieve before I have to start up Evie's group again in the fall.

Devan, Sterling, Marie, Mylie, Jazlyn, Lydia, Clark

I must mention here, that he is nearly inseparable from that Nike bottle which (for Sterling) doubles as a portable sprinkler/weapon of damp annoyance.

Miss Kari handing out the certificate of completion

Sunday, May 23, 2010

"Watchin' My Corn Pop Up in Rows"

Albeit, slightly crooked rows....

I wasn't prepared for how gratifying it feels to plant something and watch it grow. I put on my dirty shoes every evening and trudge over to the garden to check on the progress. The birds hum in the trees, the breeze rustles leaves, the sun casts a warm glow over all and I wonder why I don't slow down more often. What's all the harry and worry about? It's a timeless feeling of somehow being connected to what the earth is fundamentally all about. It's a simple joy.

While I might deplore the rain that has put our other projects on hold for three weeks, I can't deny that the bipolar rain/sun/rain/sun pattern has been really, really good for the baby vegetables.

Tea Parties and Roughin' It

For our Book Society meeting this month, we diverged from our usual haunt and had a private tea party instead (somewhat to honor the the fact we had been reading about the Georgian time period in tea-drinking England, but mostly because it was fun).

Then my little dumplings came home from their excursion to the park with Daddy and had some fancy tea and muffins of their own. Here it must be noted that Sterling ate the entire sugar container of remaining sugar cubes. ....Um. Yeah.

This was followed by a weekend of the boys roughing it at the Father/Son campout

In case you wonder what "roughing it" looks like for Church boys, have a look:

Inner-city Doug has a firm mantra of "No camping in the rain or before June"
I think if we had a family crest, it would surely be emblazoned on there somewhere.

You see that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn have found a likely suspect to roast their hot-dogs for them while they play.

Little dare-devil. The older boys were doing it and so must he. This bodes ill for my peace of mind during his teenage years....

Hylton was enthralled with depriving the shoreline of rocks.

Doug was a trooper to take both boys.

Sterling getting some much-needed roughing-up

Rollin' with the big boys

All three boys came home cranky and tired, so I promptly put them all to bed!

Seaside

We skipped out of town a couple of Saturdays ago to take the kids to the beach. It had been a really long time and Sterling had started asking us everyday if we could go. Seaside is perhaps one of my least favorite coastal retreats, but it is probably the most fun for kids, so there we went.

It was cloudy when we arrived, so we took them into the little mall and let them ride the carousel.

This is about the time I think I'm going to toss my cookies. Curse motion sickness!

Evie chose a Bun-Bun for her ride, of course.

Then ~~Doug~~ Sterling wanted to ride the bumper cars and I was not quite clever enough with the camera, so they are resigned to the orange blur in the corner while the girl in yellow claims the glory.

When we were done with these amusements (and lunch, which I found surprisingly good, considering the exterior of the pub. Yes, pub. With flatscreens for every table.), the sun came out and we traipsed down to the sand.

This little guy reminded me so much....

of this little guy! Can't tell they're brothers, can you? The same jacket and jeans help add to the illusion, of course.

(Sterling, March 2006, Seaside)

Rescuing fearless baby (and one princess flip-flop) from impending dampness.

By the time the kids were done and thoroughly wet, the sun had retreated behind the clouds again and we went home. Truly; never had a better day at the beach.