Ethnic dining

I am the queen of cool ideas. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I have been known to come up with some good ones, with lots of excitment and passion to go along with them. One of my biggest problems, though, is failure to follow through. I have studied enough about personalities to know this is a textbook problem of the otter, sanguine, ENFJ, Type seven on the enneagram...or any other test I've taken over the years to try to figure myself out. Sometimes, my "firstbornness" wins and my great idea is carried out to completion. However, unfortunately, much of the time it fails to materialize or, more accurately, it materializes as a mist--here for a minute, and then gone. Well, I am proud to say, one of my latest good ideas has been going somewhat strong for over a month now :)

In my personal journey towards....Jesus? Health? Whole living? ALL OF THE ABOVE....I came up with the idea to have either an ethnic or "simple" meal once a week. I have a great cookbook put out by Mennonite Central Committee called Extending the Table that has tons of great meals from all over the world. I thought I could take recipes from this cookbook as well as make more soup and homemade bread and with this regular mealplan, we as a family could learn to appreciate our food more and different cultures around the world as well. So far, I would say the idea has gone really well. When you're weekly introducing ethnic food and/or soup to three young boys, I wasn't sure what kind of mutiny would ensue. Luckily, I have been mostly pleasantly surprised. Thus far, our menues have consisted of:

Vegetable soup

Locros (from Paraguay)

Everyday Rice and Lentils with Chapatis (from India)-pictured

17 bean soup (from Trader Joes :) )

and coming this week...

Peanut soup (recommended by our friend, an MK from Bolivia)

Kind of cool, huh? If you like unique cooking or are trying to teach your kids (or yourself!) about other cultures, this is a GREAT book. Actually, MCC has now put out three cookbooks, all with a different theme, and I love them all! More-With-Less was their first, then came Extending the Table, and in '05 they came out with Simply in Season. Because I've been working so hard, and at my hubbies prompting, I'm treating myself to More-With-Less to complete the triad so I can stop checking it out at the library. I can't wait. Anyway, you have permission to ask me if the new tradition is still going on in another month or two, but right now, I'm really pleased with the progress we've made thus far! I encourage anyone interested to try it for themselves...and pass on to me any great recipes they find.

Maria Chapman

This past week I have been grieving deeply for a little girl and her family that I don't even know personally. Who knew only a few short months ago when I met Stephen Curtis Chapman and became even more endeared to him, that last week his family would have to experience such an indescribable tragedy. There are so many questions and so much sadness for the loss of little five year old Maria that I only know through pictures and video. I have prayed often for the Chapman family and for what they must be going through. I found hope this morning, though, in these words of Maria's dad. What I just found out, though, hours after I posted this blog after copying the song from my friend, Jeny, was that Stephen Curtis Chapman wrote this song nearly ten years ago! May the Chapman family find comfort in this song that was penned almost a decade ago with this new, incredibly raw tragedy. May we all, even in the midst of all the pain, recognize God's love and faithfulness and, by His grace alone, experience His peace.

This is not at all

How we thought it was supposed to be

We had so many plans for you

We had so many dreams

But now you've gone away

And left us with the memories of your smile

And nothing we can say

And nothing we can do

Can take away the pain

The pain of losing you

And we can cry with hope

We can say good-bye with hope

'Cause we know our good-bye is not the end

And we can grieve with hope

'Cause we believe with hope

There's a place where we'll see your face again

We'll see your face again

And never have I known

Anything so hard to understand

And never have I questioned more

The wisdom of God's plan

But through the cloud of tears

I see the Father smile and say 'well done.'

And I imagine you

Where you wanted most to be

Seeing all your dreams come true

'Cause now your home

And now your free

We have this hope as an anchor

'Cause we believe that everything

God promised us is true

We wait with hope

And we ache with hope

We hold on with hope

We let go with hope

~ Steven Curtis Chapman

Weddings, weddings, weddings!

By the time the month is done, we will have been to four weddings already this spring. That means with the exception of this coming weekend, we've had one every weekend--and Karl has officiated three. Now, these all have been wonderful and we've been so blessed to be a part of such an incredible day, however, the boys don't always share our sentiment. Luckily, two of those weddings we've not had all three boys for the whole time (like this one, for instance: our wonderful neighbor Amy kept the boys for the 2:30 wedding (so Owen could get a much needed nap, for one!) and then we took the boys to the reception at Elcona Country Club that evening. Before we left for the reception, though, we had a little incident. As we were walking out to the van, Braden, thinking he was unlocking the doors, locked the keys in the car. So, for the next 30 minutes, Karl tried to break into the van as I tried to keep the boys light khaki and white pants clean as they rode bikes and scooters to pass the time (a completely impossible task--luckily, Shaklee's all-purpose cleaner works on black marks on pants too :) ). After this episode (I don't want to think about the paint chip bill we're going to have), as you can tell from the pictures, it was quite a fun night. The boys enjoyed hanging out with Nikki and Seth (the incredibly talented DJ) and dancing a little, not smiling for pictures, and walking around as a family. I LOVE the pictures of Karl and the boys! I have such handsome men in my life, don't I?!? Anyway, thanks, Eric and Kelly, Bryanne and Jordan, Brian and Amy, and (soon!) Kyle and Elizabeth for letting us share in your special days...and making some of our own family memories in the process.

A brief recap

April and May feel full and wonderful at the same time! By the time the month ends, we will have attended four weddings (three of which Karl officiates), gone to quite a few t-ball games (Braden and Kole are Cardinals!), planted a garden, become a distributer for Shaklee, a "green" company (more of this in a different post), and enjoyed the beautiful spring/summerish weather. I love this time of year! I'm excited for Braden and Kole to be out of school to free up our schedule and spend more uninterrupted times at the park and pool with friends. We are blessed with a lot of amazing people in our lives. Last night, for instance, we enjoyed a great dinner with the Walatkas which means, between us, eight children six and under! Can you imagine?! Needless to say, we adults waited to eat and have meaningful conversation until the little people (SEVEN boys and one girl....sorry, Anna!) had finished. Then, we came home to three more visitors and a rousing game of "Settlers of Catan." I did not play as I had plates to do (my part-time job working for my dad's company), but it was fun to just be at the table with the competitive males and listen to all the group dynamics! Hilarious! Such a night reflects what happens when you have two extreme extroverts married to each other.

Anyway, I was feeling like I had to come write a bit while my Kole and Owen were being "babysat" by the media (doesn't Owen look SO OLD in the above picture, by the way!)....now, enough of that! We have a garden to plant!