In February

I caught up with a dear friend over lunch about her continuing transition from college life to the working world. We brainstormed what adventures could be had in this season. I like her challenge of doing one new thing or going one new place each month. Maybe I'll adopt this challenge too.

My friend played the elf and delivered many goodies beautifully wrapped in handmade paper from another dear friend who is working abroad. Many thanks for our treasures, M. You know who you are. We love you.

The Davis girls display their personalities and life stages. One is all, "Please take my picture...and put me on stage, and tell me that my outfit is awesome." The other would rather swim the frigid English Channel than be photographed.

Terra incognita

My first forays into the low glycemic world

All my attempts at healthy eating for our family seems to be thwarted, so my man has called for a new plan of action. Not known for acquiescence, my first response was to sullenly throw the covers over my head and shut down. Sullen tense silence. "Don't talk to me any more about this, Davis. I can't process anything else right now."

Day 2: Spend the day stalking friends' Pinterest boards for mealtime inspiration. Feel rather accomplished to have a Pinboard of healthy foods even though I haven't actually cooked anything. It's like feeling sporty wearing running shoes all day without actually ever going on a run, just walking around Target proclaiming through fashion your good intentions. Sadly, sometimes good intentions are not enough.

Choose a skinny version of chicken broccoli alfredo. After an afternoon of zesting lemon and making sauce my man asks if this meal came frozen in a bag. Grrrr. I seethe, but show admirable amounts of restraint by not spearing him with my fork and watch wordlessly as he scrapes 75% of meal one into the trash. Does not care for Mediterranean quinoa. Add it to the long list. Sigh.

Day 3: My man downloads a 600 page book on healthy living onto my iPad . I skim the recipes on the treadmill and make mental notes of how many of these items my family will not eat, not to mention our chief health advisor. I note that these two sisters have debatable opinions, even with each other. Decide to learn what I can but not take anyone's advice as the only answer. Roll my eyes when my man reads about the health benefits of "ken-oh-ah". I correct his pronunciation and remind him that the protein-rich grain is exactly what I served for dinner last night and that he scraped in the trash. We decide to give it another try in a future meal. The family asks if vegetable-infused meatloaf is what the dad on Johnny Test makes every night because he doesn't know how to make anything else. They poke fun, but they do eat it and actually fight over the bacon-drenched green beans. Mental note: we are now a four-can family on veggies they actually like.

 

Day 4: Price comparisons and learning where to shop to find healthy ingredients. Coconut oil is higher at Kroger. Joseph's low-carb pitas are found in the deli section of Walmart, not with the other breads. Stroll the aisles of Trader Joe's like the walking dead. Gone are my delicious lemon walnut heart cookies (discontinued, sniff...who could do such a thing so close to Valentine's?). I observe the other people in the store and wonder about their stories. I see artiste-guy wearing a beret. Patagonia-guy looking like he was fueling up for his next trek into the wilderness. Homestead mommy with her organic cart of earth foods and several homeschooled children in tow. I wonder, "Which one of things is not like the other? Oh, right. Me!" I resist the chocolate-filled croissants and dutifully check out. I can do the right thing, but not yet with the right attitude.

Make pork tenderloin sans delicious apricot sauce and survive. Not that awful. My long-cooked broccoli was definately not a hit with the fam, must watch my cooking time more carefully next meal. I pretended the broccoli purée was a casserole when I sprinkled some cheese on top. They didn't buy it.

Back to the drawing board for next week's menu explorations.

 

 

 

My sassy friend, mother of four boys, calls the afternoon "homework hell". We attacked the English language with all we knew how. A bazillion spelling pretests. Color-coded words to differentiate the different patterns for the same sound. (Think about it: knew, glue, canoe, fruit, food- maddening to the homework helper and frustrating to the English learner who would much rather be playing Minecraft). I sent up prayers of desperation and Jesus reminded me of a scene from Akeelah and the Bee. We went outside and wrote the words in color coded chalk and had him stand on the letters that made the u sound. Then we took out a jump rope and had him shout the letters with each skip of the rope. He liked this much better and came home with a 93 (a minor miracle).

 

Hosted our Sunday School class for a Super Bowl Party. Saw half a commercial and one play. Happy to see more introverted quiet families interact with other more boisterous ones. Kids ran wild in the yard shooting each other with Nerf bullets. A good time had by all.

Pot luck sometimes means you have the night of the meatball: four crocks of meatballs arrived at our house, but no one complained. These Super Bowl beauties also arrived:

Take your kid to work day: safety glasses, child labor, and lunch with the Fischerfolk.

Finished season 4 of Downton Abbey on DVD and realized I had walked 29 miles in all - a true "movie marathon". Now for the next period film/ exercise inspiration.