Meat and Legos

We get donuts every Sunday. It's my way of letting these little people have a "fun meal," since we spend most of the rest of the time avoiding too many sweets. Milo has always been thrilled with it, but yesterday he didn't even finish his blueberry donut.

Milo: "Mommy, I'm just not very interested in sweets these days."

Me:   "Well, Milo, what are you interested in?"

Milo:  "Meat. You know, like chicken, and meatballs, and steak." (long pause) "Meat, and Legos."

Happy Monday!

Where babies come from, according to Lucy Jane

Lucy, oh Lucy. I blog about her so much because I really have to work things out in my mind. And I figured something out about this tiny sprout of mine. She doesn't care about how things work, like Milo always has. I can't use logic or reason when she's passionately upset. And if it doesn't involve babies, she doesn't want anything to do with it (so, someday she may learn her abc's, but it's looking sketchy right now).

But what she does care about is how people work, and, more specifically, how relationships work. I can't tell you how many times a day we talk about who is allowed to kiss on the lips (mommies and daddies only, and only with each other). And I can't tell you how many times a day we talk about God, and what His relationship is to us, and where He is and what He does and why we can't see Him.

For example, the other day, Lucy and I were talking about our family as I got her ready for nap.
Lucy: "Mommy, you're funny."
Me:    "Thanks, Lucy, so are you!"
Lucy: "Daddy is funny. And ooooh, Milo is so funny! We are all funny! But Yahweh isn't funny..."
Me:     "Well, I don't know about that, Lulu. He made us funny. It seems like he might be funny, too.                Have you ever asked Him?"
Lucy:  (eyes closed) "Yahweh, are you funny?" pause... pause... pause... (eyes fly open) "YES!"

Imagine how thrilled Lucy was when I told her that God makes babies, and that He loves them even more than she does. She literally thinks about it all the time, as evidenced by her comments the other day to Tree when she stopped over.

Lucy: "We can't see Yahweh..." (leans in and whispers) "...but we know He makes the babies!"

Quick Red Cauliflower Curry

Want to know what I ate for lunch? First of all, thank goodness Delaney was coming over, because Nate is completely horrified by anything that involves curry, so I don't ever cook with it for the family. In fact, Milo asked me, "Mommy, what are you cooking? Because it smells awful."

Anyway, every now and then I find a recipe that sounds amazing, and I know I have to share it with someone else who is interested (and not just force my little people to eat it). This really good, really simple recipe came from Real Simple magazine (go figure). I thought I'd pass it along so you can try it yourself.

Quick Red Cauliflower Curry

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion (they recommend yellow, I used purple because it's my favorite)
1 tbsp veg. oil (for sauteeing the onion)
1/4 c thai red curry paste
4 c cauliflower florets
2 peeled and chopped sweet potatoes (oops - all I had were red potatoes and those were pretty good)
1 1/2 c unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 c vegetable broth (or chicken)
1 c frozen peas (I did not use these because peas offend me, but just in case you wanted the full recipe)

Cook the onion in vegetable oil until tender. Add the red curry paste, season with salt and pepper, and cook until fragrant (whatever that means - I just cooked it for a few minutes).

Stir in cauliflower and potatoes, add coconut milk and broth, and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes (they didn't specify covered or uncovered, so I did covered). Stir in peas (if you like that sort of thing) and serve over cooked jasmine rice.

There you go! Enjoy!

Dallas!!!

We're all recovered from the yuck.
We're all back from a few-day getaway to Dallas.
And it's Sabbath again, which is so wonderful because we all need another rest!
Happy Friday to you. Here are a few pictures from the US Women's National Soccer team qualifying match against Puerto Rico. In case you were wondering, yes, we did beat Puerto Rico 10-0, and we had amazing seats to watch.

A tiny little soccer fan.

GIRLS!

Oh my, those are some handsome men.

BLECH

Last Friday, Milo woke up with a cough. I felt congested and exhausted, but it was my cleaning and prep day, so I just sucked it up and moved on.

Saturday morning I woke up SICK. Just plain yucky sick. And Milo was no better. Now, a full week later, I am finally feeling a little better (although I am still congested and coughing). Milo is coughing, but on the mend. Nate and Lucy are sick (although Lucy is still like sunshine - just super naughty, peeing in the pants sunshine). I'm just opening the windows every chance I get and hoping the wind will blow some of the sick out the back door.

What in the world? We usually stay really healthy, even when there are flu epidemics going around, so this one has me baffled. I wish there were an easy solution. For now, you'll find the Jacksons laying around the house exhausted. Oh wait, and I'll be bustling about with the giant list of things I've neglected all week. But you know me...

It's either the two or the Lucy

Lucy Jane. I don't know if it's the two in her, or the Lucy in her, but we just can't reason with this one. She always has something on her mind, and if what you're telling her is opposite, it's like you never said it. For example, this happened tonight at my house:

Lucy: "Daddy, so-and-so is a baby, and she screams all the time."

Nate: "Lucy, you're one to talk. You used to scream all the time, like a little cat."

Lucy: "Mommy said Milo was the one who screamed like a little cat."

Me: "Lucy, Mommy never said that."

Nate: "Lucy Jane. You can't tell something that's not true. That's called a lie. That's a lie that you said about Milo because Mommy never said that."

Blank stare from Lucy.

Nate: "Now, Lucy, what did I just say?"

Lucy: "You said, 'I'm the only one who's going to be screaming around here.'"

See what I mean?

Or how about this one.

Lucy: "Daddy, I like what the Torah said about Yahweh sending the hornets."

Nate: "You're right, Lucy. That's good to know that Yahweh will send the hornets to drive out the enemy."

Lucy: "Yeah, because hornets are like elephants."

Homemade Play Dough

For science this week, we made our own play dough. My mom used to make us homemade play dough when we were kids, and the scent still takes me back to those days. I found just the right recipe here, and it was like breathing in childhood the entire time we played with it. I let these little people do all the measuring, pouring, stirring (until I put it on the stove), sniffing, tasting (because their very first question was, "Now, can we eat this?"), etc., and when I handed them their own little blobs of warm dough that they handmade, it was quite the hit.

Risen by Angela Hunt

Back on the book review train...

I received a complimentary copy of Risen by Angela Hunt to review from Bethany House Publishers. This one intrigued me because it is literally "the novelization of the major motion picture," as quoted on the front of the book. I am that annoying person who always asks, "Oh, did you read the book?" when people tell me about movies they liked that were based on books. I have literally never seen the opposite - hey, here's a great movie, we should make it a book!

I haven't seen the movie (because it releases this month), and to be honest, I'm not sure that I will after read this. The concept is fantastic - an eyewitness account of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus by a Roman soldier (who is then charged with conducting the investigation into where the body went). I liked huge chunks of this book, but the ending was so over-the-top "Buddy-J" who just smiles at people and hugs them that I found it to be a huge let-down.

In true Angela Hunt fashion, the story is told from two different perspectives, that of Clavius the Roman soldier, and that of Rachel, a Jewish woman having an affair with him. A little risque for Christian literature, I guess, and it seems like the author didn't know what to do with the relationship at the end. So she did what any author does when tired of a character... I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed I was that she just threw away this opportunity to make sense of the relationship and how Yeshua would have actually responded to it. If you read the book, let me know so I can discuss this less cryptically. And, actually, the author's note at the end of the book mentions that Rachel's character was written out of the screenplay for the sake of time, so perhaps that's why she didn't develop a more meaty conclusion.

I will tell you, though, that Hunt wrote the most phenomenal description of the resurrection from the guard at the tomb's viewpoint. It literally brought tears to my eyes, so if nothing else, read the book for that. Just an excerpt, but there's more.

 "The night was gone, and the air smelled burnt, the ropes... they just... exploded... and the stone flew like a leaf, and all at once the earth trembled and then..."

"What?" 

The wide eyes swiveled and focused on me. "The sun rose in the tomb."

I wouldn't say don't read this book, but just don't expect as much from it as other Angela Hunt novels like Esther and Bathsheba.