it's been a while since i posted what we're having for dinner...so here's this week's menu!

monday: BBQ chicken breasts, baked rice, broccoli (baked rice recipe below)
tuesday: Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, petit pois
wednesday: egg salad sandwiches on homemade bread, salad, carrots and hummous
thursday: feta quiche with baby spinach salad
friday: Rockin' Moroccan Pita (recipe below)
saturday: pasta salad with bread
sunday: leftovers

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Rockin' Moroccan Pitas
1 T. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 lb. chicken breast, shredded
4 T. olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cans chick peas, rinsed
3 green onions (from our garden!)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup chopped parsley (from our garden!)
6 pita pockets
plain yogurt
salt and pepper to taste

Combine cumin and chili powder in a plastic bag. Add chicken and shake to coat. Heat 1 T. oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken; cook 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, stirring frequently. Take off heat, cool.
Combine remaining ingredients, mixing well. Stir in chicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cut tops off pitas to pen. Divide chicken mixture among pitas. Top with yogurt (if desired...I recommend it!).

(And yes! Our boys eat this and love it - especially Adam!)

Baked Rice
(this is the only way kenny will eat white rice without a sauce.)
1 T. olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup long-grain white rice
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.
Heat oil and add onions. Cook, stirring, until softened.
Add (raw) rice until well-coated.
Add chicken stock and salt. Bring to a boil.
Transfer to casserole, cover and bake until rice is tender and stock is absorbed, 20-25 minutes.
Let stand, covered, 5 minutes before serving.


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for more weekly menus, check out Org Junkie every Monday!

kenny should really be the one writing this post, but he gave up blogging for Lent a while back and just never got back into it (actually, it was around the time sawyer was born, 2004, when he gave up on blogging).

he's the mastermind behind our next big project, which kicked off officially today: beekeeping.  we spent the morning making sweet and sour meatballs to take with us to the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association's Summer Picnic/Potluck. we were expecting there to be perhaps 10-15 folks there sharing our meatballs, perhaps a few bags of chips, some warm soda, and maybe a cake in the shape of a honeybee complete with "honey" icing while the beekeepers chatted about their hives.

fortunately, it was nothing of the sort. we were one of 50 families (maybe more)...totalling a few hundred people with hot dogs and a TON more food to share. there were activities for the kids (the boys made "kite" honeybees and tree-branch name plates) while kenny listened to a few of the experts talk about the recent bee colony collapses. he also got to "schmooze" or "network" with several beekeepers in our area (one lives just down the street!).

these beekepers know how to throw a family party.

they do get a bit corny with their "Honey Queen" contest where they nominate some floozy woman as the "Honey Queen" for a year. as i was passing her wearing her tiara and sash, i asked her just what she did to received this title (yes, okay, i was taking notes so I COULD BE THE NEXT HONEY QUEEN)...and i made the mistake of referring to her as the "queen bee." she corrected me immediately and told me that she wrote an essay on the health benefits of honey and the judges interviewed her. she said she won based on the combination of her interviewing/speaking skills and the uniqueness of her essay. i was hoping it was a baking contest so i at least had a chance for next year. but speaking skills? writing an essay? PUL-EASE.

our neighbors donated their old beekeeping equipment to us complete with bee suits for kenny and i and a little-itty-bitty child's suit for the boys. rowan and sawyer tried theirs on this morning.

i'm now really excited about this: the benefits of local honey (i mean, a few yards away local!), honeybees for our garden and our neighbors' gardens, and learning the incredibly complex ways of the honeybee are just a few of the things i'm excited about. we order our bees sometime in january and we'll receive them late spring, 2008.

this photo is not staged.

every so often, the three boys eventually migrate towards one another. a few minutes ago, i left adam with his new favorite toys (the little people garage and city-center). the older boys were painting with their new water colors. i went to the kitchen to start on lunch, heard the older two talking to adam and came out to find them showing him how to make the city-center street move. they later started playing peek-a-boo with him because they know that makes him howl with laughter.

even though they don't take up the majority of the day, moments like these make it worth the crazy chaos of having three boys so close in age!

i am a big wimp. yesterday, i tripped coming out our front step and skinned my knee in two places as well as bending my left big toe in such a way that makes it hard for me to put any weight on it at all. kenny was on his way home from work at the time and it was all i could do from crying in front of rowan and sawyer when it happened (they were happily swiming on their swings when they heard their mama yell, "OWWWW!"). so i laughed for 30 minutes untl kenny got home and then i collapsed like a baby in his arms.

okay, not really...but i was relieved when he walked in the door so that i could stop walking around and put my leg up.

that's not what makes me a big wimp. i'm a wimp because i am blogging about it! i need your attention! it's much better this morning. it's not bright red anymore, and the toe isn't throbbing. an advil before bed last night helped relieve the throbbing in the knee. rowan keeps asking "why can't we touch your scrape?" sawyer gasps each time he sees it (i have a hard time looking at wounds. my boys saw it before i got a good look at it yesterday and sawyer's gasp made me worry. now i know that he's inherited my fear of looking at wounds because it really wasn't THAT bad to look at).

please, pity me.
 

i find this news article amusing but mostly offensive.

i can't believe this was even an issue in political circles! do people want it to be illegal to breastfeed a child on a park bench, a mall bench, or even...a restaurant?

get over it people. if you're uncomfortable with it, it's your problem, not the breastfeeding mother/child's problem. you can leave...don't ban them to the restroom.

this is one of rowan's favorite phrases. sometimes he asks me the same question over and over throughout a day or a week, and after i've answered it a few times already and he asks again, i answer him with, "you tell me, rowan." to which he responds, "no, you tell ME!"

smart kiddo.

but i digress. this morning, the boys and i went out to let the chickens out of their coop, and as we walked closer to the coop, my heart sank. the flower boxes under the front windows were torn off and thrown about, the dirt inside dumped and flowers GONE. fortunately, i heard clucking sounds from inside the coop and none of the doors were open. i got their food and threw it about for them to feed. they seemed normal, but i know they experienced some terrifying moments last night....

my question is this (you tell ME!)...was it a raccoon or a bear? i've heard of the strength of a raccoon, but can they tear off nailed-in wooden boxes with one hand (they'd have to hold onto something else to reach the boxes wince they're not on ground level)? or could it be the famous bear we keep hearing about in our woods?

what do YOU think??

happy birthday rowan tucker!

four years ago today at 9:41 pm, you were born! you instantly brought a whole new meaning to the words "amazing and awesome," to your daddy and me. and you continue to makes us incredibly proud.

we love you to the moon and back!


love,
mommy and daddy

we seem to have been swallowed up in this deck project. it's a huge project and kenny is a one-man worker. he had help the first day for two hours setting up the thingy-ma-jig that holds the deck to the house. (i know the actual word, but it's 8:29, i've been up since 5:00 this morning, and it's escaping me at the moment.) i actually helped him one day by laying the decking and putting in all the screws.* i have to finish that up eventually and will once the railing is in place.

our yard is suffering. the garden needs to be weeded, the grass needs to be cut. but we're keeping our head above water until it's finished. and it will be very soon. hopefully this weekend. hopefully.

this is the first big project where i was able to actually help out. since having kids, i do a lot of cheerleading on the sidelines of these projects. it feels good to get back at it and actually help out when adam naps and the job doesn't require a whole lot of muscle.

sorry, no pictures (mom!). i have taken a few, but the pictures don't do justice to the deck. i'll take some real pictures once it's completely finished.

so besides the deck work we've been busy entertaining the boys to keep them out of the construction area. last night, kenny found them a frog. rowan loved it. sawyer wasn't so sure. he didn't want to touch the thing, but he was very excited about trying to feed it a worm. after noticing me take a few pictures of the frog in rowan's hands, sawyer demanded i take a picture of his little "wormy." the picture below makes it look more like a cut on his finger, but really, that's the worm. and the camera actually focused on sawyer's sweet face rather than the worm. smart camera.

and what is a week or so without a picture of one of the girls? look! they're beginning to grow their crowns!!! they'll be 10 weeks old on monday.









*i worded that purposefully to make it sound as though i layed all the decking myself. i wanted you all to think i was some strong, do-it-yourself-er. but really, kenny brought each piece up to the deck and helped me with a crowbar to get the wood to lay flat. all i did was screw each piece into place. so it wasn't really a lie. and most of you won't even be reading this...so most of you will think i did do something really important in the building of this deck. besides keeping the boys from falling off of it. which really is the most important in the grand scheme of things. that and building it to make it sturdy and safe. and believe me, it's sturdy.

i am amazed daily at how smart our kids are. at such a young age! i'm convinced it's because their "filters" aren't set up yet. they hear and pay attention to everything.

two days ago, sawyer woke up with a runny nose. we have no tissues in the house. when i noticed his runny nose, i muttered something about "being out of tissues, so i'll just use toilet paper." i thought rowan was busy eating his raisin bran (yeah, we have kids that pick out raisin bran for their breakfast cereal. but that's only because i tell them to pick their favorites from the shelf on MY eye-level and to ignore the shelf at THEIR eye-level. even i can outsmart the grocery store!).

fast forward to our trip to the grocery store. i picked up what we needed and as always, i ask rowan if there is anything else we need. his answer: "tissues, mommy!"

flabberghasted by his memory, i applaud him outloud for remembering that small detail (well, small to me any way)...and forget to pick up the tissues. this is a very common occurance anymore. i am extremely forgetful since having kids. please don't mention "pregnancy brain" - i've heard it a million times.

fast forward to yesterday morning. rowan awakes with sawyer's runny nose and a low-grade fever. so does adam. three runny noses and two low-grade fevers. rowan is the only one that is bothered by this. for the first time in months, rowan takes a nap - he falls asleep of his own accord during their quiet time and wakes up inconsolable. kenny tries to help:

rowan: my nose is running! again!
kenny: that's okay...we'll just go get a tissue.
rowan (in that the-world-is-going-to-end voice): but mommy forgot to get them at the store! (more dramatic crying)

poor little guy. i think maybe he's over it today. although we DID go buy some tissues. and a natural vitamin C booster smoothie drink for all of us (i woke up with it this morning. kenny's bound to tomorrow).

today is the first day of summer! which means the end of the Spring Reading Thing. here is my original post on the books i planned to read. i got through a few of them completely and some of them part-way. i think that's pretty good for a slow-reader who has a million other things to do in her spare time (like every other participant, i'm sure).

i'm already knee-deep in my two other challenges (posted here and here). the boys and i picked up five books from the library the other day and we've read 4 of them a few times through already. rowan's favorite is a book called Farmer Will. we've read it about 54 times already. :)

here is my "Spring Reading Thing" wrap-up:

• What was the best book you read this spring?

The Mommy Manual, hands down.

• What book could you have done without? 

unfortunately, i think i'm the only one who didn't enjoy The Thirteenth Tale. all the reviews i've read of it so far have been extremely positive and i just wasn't impressed.

i also wasn't as impressed as i thought i would be with The Liturgy of Motherhood. i think i wanted more on the "motherhood" part and less on the "liturgy" lessons. i was hoping for a clever weaving of the seasonal liturgies into the busy and somewhat chaotic life of mothering (especially mothering young children). i thought it did too much liturgical teaching and not much life application.

• Did you try out a new author this spring? If so, which one, and will you be reading that author again?

yes. i'd read Flannery O'Connor already, but every other book was written by an author i hadn't previously read. i'd love to read Marilynne Robinson's Gilead after reading Housekeeping for the Spring Reading Thing.

• If there were books you didn't finish, tell us why. Did you run out of time? Realize those books weren't worth it?

i'm still reading Five Quarters of the Orange, The Contented Life, and Sacred Rythms. i just haven't had the time to finish them! but I'm enjoying them a lot. the latter two are non-fiction works and i want to savor them. i could rush through them to "finish" them but i'm enjoying them too much to rush them.

• Did you come across a book or two on other participants' lists that you're planning to add to your own to-be-read pile? Which ones?

katrina mentioned sacred parenting and i'm hoping to pick up a copy of that. and everyone seems to really love lisa samson. so i might pick up one of her books to read eventually.

• What did you learn -- about anything -- through this challenge? Maybe you learned something about yourself or your reading style, maybe you learned not to pick so many nonfiction books for a challenge, maybe you learned something from a book you read. Whatever it is, share!

from the mommy manual: "by the time a child is ready to enter school (kindergarten) it is already determined what kind of adult they're going to be." wow. that's why they call these years the "heavy investment" years.

• What was the best part of the Spring Reading Thing?

 i really liked reading all the reviews and lists of other participants.

• Would you be interested in participating in another reading challenge this fall?

absolutely! and i hope some of my blog readers will join in on the fun!

yesterday started out innocently enough. and then kenny decided it was demo-day. but this is a good thing as it means our deck will be up and ready to offer hospitality on by way of mojitos or coffees (or sippy cups with milk) in no time at all.

for today, i'll post a few "before" pictures. tomorrow perhaps some "during" pictures...and hopefully within the next few weeks, some "after" pictures.

the current "stoop/deck" that doesn't work so well for more than one person to sit on:

but it includes the boys!

it's monday morning. the boys and i are waiting for adam to wake up from his morning nap (his longest nap of the day!) and then we're headed to the library to sign up with the library summer reading club.

and then i found this (left) fun little book challenge (complete with an amazon gift certificate prize!) at a great blog. i'm looking forward to a few lazy afternoons on a blanket in the back yard with the boys...a few rainy days on a blanket in the living room...and many new adventures and stories shared. won't you join in?