7 Quick Takes (vol. 32)

--- 1 ---

These may be the quickest quick takes ever, because I am exhausted.  Seriously, completely, worn out exhausted.  And while I have been thoroughly enjoying Jen's seven day blogging challenge, it generally means that after tucking Michael in I force myself over to the computer to write that post I've been thinking about all day but never got around to, when usually I would just put it off till tomorrow and be that much closer to going to bed.

--- 2 ---

I don't know why I'm so very tired.  Somehow the obvious reasons of two busy little boys (one of whom is still waking multiple times per night), a part time job heading into the busiest/most stressful week of the semester, and the emotional drain of disappointment and continued house hunting just don't seem sufficient to explain it all.  I don't know... I guess I want a reason I can fix to make at least some of the tiredness go away.

--- 3 ---

But, speaking of houses... drum roll please...

We are under contract for another house.  I know, it should be an exclamation point.  It is, sometimes.  I go back and forth between thinking something will obviously go wrong with this one as well and being so excited that in less than a month we'll finally be moving into our house.  We have our inspection on Wednesday and are praying praying praying that there is nothing expensive wrong with it (and that if there is the sellers will be willing to take it into consideration and renegotiate the price).

--- 4 ---

I suppose something else I could fix would be my own bedtime (but that's way too obvious).  The last few nights I've stayed up far later than I intended to playing Doors & Rooms with Alex on his iPad.  It's a ridiculously addicting puzzle game where you have to find and solve all the clues in a room to move on to the next level.  Hello, time sink.

--- 5 ---

I mentioned last week that Liam has been loving to feed himself.  New favorites within the past week include: cheese, scrambled egg, blueberries, and peas.  He has also been devouring yogurt mixed with applesauce, cinnamon, and chia seeds.  It is so much fun to watch him enjoy food so much!

--- 6 ---

M mowing the "yawn" with Daddy this morning

--- 7 ---

When I posted about all the hilarious things Michael has been saying recently I forgot to include my favorite: "Mama, need nunnles!" (snuggles)  I love Mitenal nunnles, and I love when he comes up and asks for them.

And now it's time for some nunnles with my pillow (ignoring the siren call of the puzzle games...)

Go see Jen and the rest for more Quick Takes!  
Happy Friday :)

Mystery Ingredient Monday on a Thursday with a Theme... aka Deliciousness

Okay... are you ready for this?

So today's Theme Thursday is askew.  And I was wondering... how do I take a picture of my entire life right now?  'Cause I kind of feel like it's all askew.  But figuring out a single picture which would cleverly portray the ways in which I feel my like is a bit askew was taking too much time and effort, due in large part to aforementioned askewedness.  Askewity?  Whatevs.

So, I chucked that idea.  Moving along to dinner preparations, Alex and I made calzones, and Alex asked his dad for his super secret super amazing pizza sauce recipe.  Okay, so it's not necessarily super secret, but it's the type of recipe that never gets written down with any measurements or proportions, so that essentially amounts to secret in my book.

And guess what?  The pizza sauce has mustard in it.  (We're coming back to "askew," I promise).  Now, I didn't make any attempt at this week's Mystery Ingredient Monday mustard challenge because I don't like mustard.  And, askewity.  So when I saw that the pizza sauce had mustard in it I was soooo excited.  Yes, I know it's not Monday.  But the link-up is still open, and as far as I'm concerned that is essentially an invitation for late submissions.

So, I present to you mustard, askew, and deliciousness, all in one evening.

Look how he's holding the mustard bottle all askew--I didn't even tell him to do that!

Mmm...mustard (not).  So, the ingredients for the amazing pizza sauce (posted with permission, I promise) are:

• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 medium can of Italian stewed tomatoes
• 1 small can of Italian tomato paste
• basil
• oregano
• Italian seasoning
• Worcestershire sauce
• yellow mustard
• fennel seed
• chopped garlic
• onion flakes

You'll have to figure out proportions on your own, I'm afraid.  I was in the garden picking basil while Alex got his instructions.  Sorry!  All I know is if you skimp on the oregano it will be too sweet.  And don't be stingy with the Worcestershire sauce either.

Also askew: Crane men and their sipping of Worcestershire sauce.  He is seriously taking a swig, not just posing.  A skewed taste if ever I've seen one.  Gross.

The end product (with sauce ever so precariously askew):  calzone recipe from last year's birthday present of The Best-Ever Good of Bread , with personalized fillings (mine had pepperoni, Italian sausage, green and red peppers, onion, mushrooms, Italian cheese blend, and fresh basil, topped with a rosemary garlic spice mix... are you hungry yet?).  I was so proud of myself--the calzone recipe was in the bread machine section of my book, and it turned out great made by hand.  The conversion wasn't actually all that much of an accomplishment--you just need to come up with the order of ingredients and steps yourself, which is pretty standard across bread recipes.  I was thrilled with how it turned out.  The crust was very light and slightly crisp and had a delicious olive oil taste.  The pizza sauce was the perfect accompaniment (not gonna lie--I can't taste the mustard which is probably why I like it).

So there you have it, folks: link-up-mash-up-deliciousness.  Check out the other (timelier) uses of mustard at Jessica's and the rest of the Theme Thursday gang at Cari's!

Night Prayer

Parenting WIN: Michael starting out Night Prayer on his own with "Father, Son, Holy... Assistance" (close enough to "God, come to my assistance") and then whispering every fifth or sixth word of the Salve along with us as we sing.

Parenting FAIL: Me snorting as I try to hold back a laugh in the middle of Night Prayer whilst watching Michael go cross-eyed and puff out his cheeks like a blowfish in an attempt to blow his nose all by himself.  Man I wish I had a picture of that...

I fell in love with the Liturgy of the Hours the summer after my freshman year of college while on mission trip with FOCUS in Peru.  Okay, to be precise I fell in love with Night Prayer, because it was short and we prayed it in English.  We prayed Morning Prayer in Spanish and it felt about 12 times longer than it actually was.

Madrigal, in the Colca Canyon somewhere high above Arequipa, Peru

It wasn't until much more recently that I fell in love with Morning Prayer (in English).  But I prayed Night Prayer pretty faithfully all through college and beyond.  Alex loved it too, and somehow it was just a natural transition--I don't even really remember it as a conscious choice--to start praying it with Michael as part of his bedtime routine.  (It was probably a matter of us generally being too tired or forgetting if we waited until we were about to go to bed, and Michael's bedtime was a convenient compromise.)

It has been such a wonderful thing for our family.  There are certainly nights of "No pray! No pray!" and Michael singing and doing gymnastics or just whining through most of the prayer.  But there are also nights (like tonight) where he does his best to say the psalms and prayers along with us.  And I know that he's absorbing even more than we can see as he hears the same psalms and prayers night after night and week after week.

Praying Night Prayer together has been such a blessing to our family, along with our nightly rituals of storytime (we're finishing up The Hobbit... not sure where we're going to head next... suggestions?) and songs.  I can't wait until Liam's bedtime lines up with Michael's a little better.  Right now Liam goes to bed right about when we're all eating supper, so we haven't figured out a joint bedtime routine yet.  Soon!

What are your favorite bedtime rituals--from your parents, or with your own children?  I'd love to hear!

Storybook Island

We didn't do a whole lot of touristy stuff during our lovely ten days in the Black Hills.  Having spent the first 12 years of my life there I'll never really consider myself a tourist.  It may not be exactly home any more, but I'm still at least partly a native.  That being said, there are some really great touristy things to do (even for the natives).  One of our newly discovered old favorites is Storybook Island in Rapid City.

I've been waiting and waiting (okay, only for 2 1/2 years) for Michael to be old enough to enjoy Storybook Island.  It's a free park themed around--you guessed it--stories.  Nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and a little bit of Disney thrown in for good (or not so good) measure, etc.

Most of the pictures from the day (all photo credits to my dad) look like this... 

...and this...

...and this...

not as angry as I look, promise

...as I tried to get a very busy and energetic M to stop and pose for a picture so I could relive my childhood (and get a great blog post out of it).  He was too busy running everywhere and enjoying the park in his own way, imagine that.  But despite the lack of total cooperation Dad did get some great shots.

okay, he didn't take this one--obviously someone else did... but it was his camera so he still gets credit

my handsome pirate men

Michael's second cousins, Katie and Emily, came with us.  We all enjoyed their company, and my goodness was it nice to have someone a little smaller to chase after Michael through the child-sized spaces!

Here is Emily going down the slide in the house that Jack built...

And here I am going down the same slide about a quarter of a century earlier.  The house has had a couple coats of paint since then, and obviously safety standards have changed a bit.

When Michael saw this picture he was convinced it was a picture of him, and we had quite the conversation before he acknowledged it wasn't Mitenal, it was Yittle Mama (we'll go with it).

I tried desperately to get Michael to give Pooh a kiss so I could post these pictures together.  I guess he wanted to be more like Aunt Dene'...

I finally decided to take whatever I could get, and it wasn't worth ruining Michael's fun at the park just to get my perfect little blog pictures.

He did end up cooperating for the picture I wanted most of all...

Two and a half year old Michael...

Three year old Mama...

It doesn't get much sweeter than this :)

The park was definitely smaller than I remembered... Alex took great pleasure in reminding me that I was the one who had gotten bigger.  Yes, thank you dear.  Michael was just the right size to enjoy a lot of it, although I think he may have ended up feeling rather like Gimli at Helm's Deep:

By the by... does any else think it extremely cruel to name a bear who lost his home and family in a fire "Smokey"?  That never occurred to me as a child... but seriously folks.

The highlight of the morning for Michael was undoubtedly the train ride.

we even wore our Thomas shirt... how appropriate

That was our Storybook Island adventure.  Liam cooperated by sleeping pretty much the entire time while Grandma graciously did laps around the park with the stroller.  Coming next summer: pictures of both of them playing :)

Michael's many words...

"a go a catch a bunny"

at lunch, drinking his orange juice
M: Mitenal drinking glass a wine.
Grandpa: Did you say 'mine'? Is that your your glass?
M: No, wine.  Drinking wine.
later that day, referring to my glass of water
M: Mama glass a water? A wine?
Me: No, it's just water.
M: Mama have glass a wine.
I have no idea where he ever even heard that word... no idea at all...

eating dinner together:
M: What happen Mama?
Me: Nothing Michael, we're just eating dinner.
M: What happen there? pointing at my face
Me: What happened to my face?
M: No, chin.  Whackamooolee on chin!
Me: I have guacamole on my chin?
M: Yeah.
I didn't, but I wiped my face anyway... if he's going to be concerned about anyone's face in this family I don't think it should be mine...

an older kid at the playground: What's your name?
M: two
Me: No, that's your age.  What's your name?  Who are you?
M: two a half

checker at Costco: How old are you?
M: Mitenal.
we're working on it