Maybe, just maybe

I kind of want to live here.

The Hillcrest


Actually, I've wanted to live here ever since I was little girl. I would see the top floors from Kellogg as I would ride in the family car to the east side of town. I thought it was a very special looking place and firmly believed I would live there someday.

Well, we're close. We live just down the street from it and I run right by it in the mornings.

It was built in 1927 and has survived its own periods of boom and bust. I believe right now it's surviving just fine.

I want to live there and then use a cleaning service. Then we wouldn't have to worry about inside or outside maintenance, and I really have no use for either.

The lobby


The Sky Room, which I believe is public.


It's no longer a ridiculous dream. Some of our kids are gone now and in another 18 months we'll most likely be down to just one. And some of the condos in this building are selling for less than what we paid for our house.

And then you can all come over for the lively cocktail hours, dinner parties and witty conversations that will surely fill our lives.

We'll see.

(And with that, I made it to 141 posts for three consecutive years. Kaboom)

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More mind bending

This is a photo of the kids from just a few days ago, 12/24/10 to be exact.

I mentioned the other day that Brent is now older than I was when he was born. That alone gives me pause.

And now I've realized that Charley is the same age as I was when I met their dad.

What the what?? She's just a kid! A smart, beautiful, mature kid, but still a kid.

I can't believe how grown up I thought I was or some of the very grown up decisions I was making. I could go on about why I think all of that happened, but that's not real productive.

I'm just so thankful and happy that for whatever reason it looks like nobody has decided to follow in those footsteps.

These kids have plans, goals and dreams they are clearly working hard to accomplish.

You kids are awesome.

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Because that's what happens

Just three more posts to go before I reach my magic number of 141. If you know what I'm talking about, you know how happy and at ease this is going to make me. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry because you're not missing anything that makes a great deal of sense.

On Tuesday, I blogged about (and patted myself on the back for) keeping up my running habit for the past six months. And now I haven't ran since then. Because that's what happens when you announce to the universe that you have something figured out or under control. It sees that as a challenge and immediately accepts.

Wednesday: It was raining. Actually, I found out it was raining after I had already decided not to go. I had decided not to go because I woke up at 5:35 instead of 5:00, which meant I would be out running at a completely different time with different people headed to work, with different other people out running, with a different city bus passing by. I don't like different.

Thursday: I woke up at 4am to the sound of the windows next to our bed rattling and to the alarm clock blinking. I couldn't go back to sleep because of both, and I'm not going to run in wind like that. It makes me feel angry and I'm just not going to do it. Like Kevin has said, I'm a badass, but I'm not a maniac.

Tomorrow is supposed to be windy, too, so we'll see.

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How to Cook: Canned broth

I think I can safely say, for the most part, that I've found my own way to cooking.

I grew up around people who cooked all the time, so it's always felt like a very familiar thing to be doing even when I didn't really know what I was doing.

My mom cooked seven days a week. She took Sunday nights "off" but that was only after having made a big noon meal after church.

My grandma on my mom's side also cooked often and for a large crowd. Theirs was a farm family with several children, plus extra people during the harvest and what have you. Pots and pans hanging on the kitchen wall, tall stacks of plates, an extra freezer downstairs.

My grandma on my dad's side made really great fried chicken. I'm sure there were many other things, but by the time I really knew her, she was off the farm and living alone. She didn't have a reason to prepare many feasts. However, she did keep chocolate (with chocolate cream in the middle) sandwich cookies in her freezer. And that was AWESOME.

And then there's me.

I didn't learn a whole lot about cooking meals from my mom. I was usually only involved with baking cakes and sprinkling oregano on top of the homemade pizzas. My skills were clearly limited.

So through the past 18 years, I've learned a lot. And my cooking style has changed dramatically. I used to stock up on Hamburger Helper and think tator tot casserole was something special. (I did melt slices of processed cheese on top of those tots after all. That's cooking with love.)

And then there's me today.

I know I've experienced only a fraction of the cooking world, but as long as I keep trying new recipes and new ideas, I'm content.

And all of this brings me to Monday night's supper.

Ultimate Chickpea Noodle Soup

There are two things I want to talk about with the recipe.

The first is frying the pasta at the end. I had never done it and almost skipped this step because it seemed frivolous. SO glad I didn't. Have you ever eaten a piece of freshly fried pasta? Holy moly. Warm and brown and crispy. That is a treat, my friends.

The second is vegetable broth. I don't buy it. I'm cheap and I really don't like the overpowering carrot-ness of it. A couple of months ago, I was making this recipe and needed some. I did not have broth or even a cube of bouillon. But I did have a shelf of very underused spices. So I smelled them all and chose the ones that seemed like they belonged in a soup of lentils and rice. Then I guessed on an amount. Then I fell head over heels in love with this soup and have made it several, several times since then.

Now I use this same combination of spices whenever I need some broth. Clearly, it could be changed here and there depending on the soup. Cooking is cool that way.

To six cups of water add a quarter teaspoon of each:

Dried Thyme
Ground Celery
Rubbed Sage
Ground Coriander
Fennel

The great thing about not knowing more about cooking is that I have no idea if these spices are good companions or if they look ridiculous together. Either way, it works for me.

One important note is that canned broth contains salt and I didn't list it up there. I add salt at the very end, sometimes quite a bit as with the lentil soup, but always at the end.

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Family Photo Time!

Some notes (excuses):

We did not take photos very seriously this year. It was an afterthought at best.
We completely forgot about taking pictures during many of our holiday scenes.
Allie was often in charge of the camera.
Charley does NOT like getting her picture taken.
If I omitted all the blurry ones, there wouldn't be enough left to talk about.
I have clearly decided putting anything with a scarf is always an appropriate outfit.
We've used that same Hello Kitty birthday banner for every kid for probably the past 10 years. It's a bit of a joke now.
Brent got a voter's registration card and lottery tickets for his birthday.

We went to Tulsa the weekend before Christmas to spend some time with my three siblings and their families. The ski jump game on the Wii was obviously a popular option.



Brent turned 18 on Christmas Day. 18! It's so hard to believe and so fantastic all at the same time. The real mind bender? He's now older than I was when he was born. OMG on that little fact.



We went to Kevin's mom's house on Christmas Day. It was full of food and laughs as always, and we remembered to take photos for about 3.5 minutes.



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Six months of running

Well, when I first got back into running on June 29, I'm sure I expected to have slightly more dramatic results by now.

By the numbers, I really haven't accomplished all that much. My weight has bumped up or down by a couple of pounds but overall it's really the same.

HOWEVER

By everything else, I have kicked ass.

First of all, I'M STILL DOING IT. That alone is worth tooting the ol' horn.

My jeans fit every single time I put them on.

I haven't been upset about my body even once.

I'm in a good mood every morning when I go to work.

I didn't GAIN weight through our vacation, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.

There hasn't been any food that I wanted to eat but didn't.

I like all of the above things very, very much.

I'm consistently at two miles each morning, but I can realistically see that becoming three when the weather starts to thaw a bit. I've done it a few times and felt good about it, plus it still doesn't require that much morning time.

So at this halfway point of my year of exercising, I'm very pleased.

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How was your Christmas?

Ours was actually quite lovely.

At one point, we had all six kids in the same room. That hasn't happened in so long that some of you may not even know there ARE six.

Here's what I got for Kevin:
(not the globe, glasses or books)



It might be one of the single best gifts I've ever given. I'm quite pleased with myself, and it almost made him cry. That's a win-win.

You can find more work by Roll & Tumble Press here [link]

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I don't like math

My original figures on how many blog posts I needed to write by the end of the year were a little off.

Even after THIS post, I still need seven more.

Criminey Christmas.

Is that even a saying? Kevin and I say it, but I don't know if I've ever heard anyone else say it. Now that I'm thinking about it, I might remember him telling me that his dad used to say it.

Let's use the google.

Well, first of all it turns out I'm spelling it wrong. It's criminy.
Second of all, it's used as faux way to say Christ.

So we're saying Christ Christmas. That makes zero sense, which I think makes me like it even more.

What else.

It feels like I've been "busy" lately, but that's probably just because we (me) decided on December 12 to give the kids mostly presents this year instead of mostly money. That's some good plannin' there.

And I have a cough. But I refuse to take cough syrup.

God bless my dad, but he could not stand to listen to us cough. In fact, we would get in trouble for coughing. True story. When we couldn't hold it in anymore, we would go to our rooms and cough into a pillow to muffle the sound. Again, true story. This meant he was also a big fan of serving us cough syrup. To this day, nothing has tasted more foul. Give me 10 plates of sugar coated tomatoes (another delicacy I was forced to consume) before you give me one shot of cherry-flavored cough syrup.

So I'm coughing and doing nothing about it. I heard hot chocolate with butterscotch schnapps is a good syrup substitute, and I'm seriously contemplating it.

And for your next dose of DMB goodness, I give you Cornbread from the second night in Charlottesville. Of course, I think you should watch it all, but if you're short on time you can skip to the 3:38 mark because that's where it really starts to come unhinged.



Taking this trip has got to be one of the best things I've done so far.
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New song obsession

(Note the date and location of this clip. Yup, we were there.)



The chorus is my super favorite part.

I want to write a song that'll get you high
I want to find the words that'll make everything feel alright now
So in another world and another time, that'll come along
I'll be the kind of man that'll do you right, Right by you
When you turn it on it's gonna blow your mind
Head over heels you go, look at you, look at you, fly

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Good things I've read (a very special edition)

For a recent class project, Allie had to make a PowerPoint presentation about different facets of her life, which she e-mailed to me.

She had a slide covering the very important things such as her name, age and grade.



One outlining some key character traits.



Another one about her hopes for the future. (Allison, you're not SUPPOSED to ride the kangaroos.)



And then there was slide number nine.



O.M.G. Did I cry? You know I cried.

And THEN last night she was playing some strange Facebook game where you give her a number and then she anonymously, but yet very publicly tells you what she thinks about you. She asked me if I wanted to pick a number. I chose 12.



I mean SERIOUSLY. How does it get any better than that?

This has got to be THE BEST thing that has come out of social networking for me. These are sentiments that I know Allie would not feel comfortable saying in an in-person conversation.

But she says them here.

And that makes my heart very happy.

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Sameness

The amount of sameness I require in my life cannot be overestimated.

For the past four months, I have listened to the same song on the way to work.

This morning, I listened to it twice.



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Why I love the lentil

I'm sure what I'm about to say about the lentil can be said about other seeds, legumes or grains.

But I don't care. It's the lentil I love.

The first thing I love about the lentil is its variety. I can easily find them in red, green or black. Each color has its own personality.

The second thing I love is how quickly they cook. Lentils can go from the cute canister on my shelf to my belly in about 45 minutes TOPS. Beans need to soak overnight. No spontaneity for those guys.

The third thing I love about lentils is their ability to adapt and how well they age.

Example:

I made this soup early last week.

The gist of it is this:

2 cups black beluga lentils (or green French lentils), picked over and rinsed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
3 cups of a big leafy green (chard, kale, etc), rinsed well, deveined, finely chopped

It also talked about a saffron yogurt, but I wasn't feeling that so I skipped it.

When the soup was done, it was boring. Maybe because I skipped the yogurt or maybe because I just didn't love this recipe. So I added smoked paprika and chipotle spice.

It tasted all right, but I still didn't love it. I decided this recipe didn't have any legs.

But I really don't like to waste, so we had it again in the same way the next night. It tasted a bit better. The flavors had all become friends and it showed.

Then a couple of days later I added one cut-up potato, some more kale and some more liquid. This was a very tasty soup.

Then on Sunday night I added one quarter cup (uncooked measurement) of brown rice to try to stretch it out to just two more bowls full. It had changed slightly, but it was still a nice yummy bowl of homemade soup.

I'm not sure what I spent on the original ingredients, and I'm not sure of the cost of the additional ingredients, but I know it wasn't much.

And with each version of the soup, I was happy.
Supper got completed for another day.
It didn't take a lot of work.
It didn't take a lot of money.
And we ate food that was good for our bodies.

The lentil.

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Watch this movie

I did, with my jaw dropped and tears in my eyes.

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Good things I've read

Returning by popular demand!

"A. I am done with people tweeting about how hot* it is.

 B. It is too freaking hot."

 *It was indeed hot at the time of this comment. Replace the word hot with cold and you'll have current annoyance.

"I have a facebook friend who is really really really weird. Makes my insides feel funny."

"On the bright side, I just added the word "bastards" to my phone's dictionary."

"You look really skinny." (Obviously)

"Even though my belly clearly marks me as someone else's property, I think the Starbucks guy is ogling me."

"I SAID I'm ready to kill myself. This is where you swoop in and offer me a real diversion, like a hot soy latte"

"I want Hollywood to make a Gilligan’s Island/Lost crossover movie. That would be awesome."

 (Previous installments)

Fifteen

is the number of blog posts I need to write by the end of the year to reach the magic number of 141.

One hundred forty one is the number of blog posts I wrote in 2008 and 2009. It wasn't a plan, only a coincidence. But I like it, so I want to do it again.

But that means I really need to ramp up my productivity level.

So I thought this post could serve as a little brainstorming activity on future blog post topics.

Things I could write about this month:

Why I will never use a pattern to crochet.
How I feel about Brent turning 18 this month.
How I twisted my ankle on the first day of my vacation.
Why I love the lentil.
How I miss writing.
How I never write.
How I felt running in a 15-degree windchill.
My discovery of streaming television.
Why I think I love the Dave Matthews Band as much as I do.
A retrospective on my past six months of running.
Something funny I've found on the interwebs.
A good recipe.
Another good recipe.

And that would get me to 141.

Can you just hardly wait??

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