Happiness

this boy serves it up every day!

What's for dinner?

Lately, my answer to this very often asked question usually comes from my gold mine of a recipe go to place: allrecipes.com.

I know there are a bunch of different recipe websites out there, but this one has been the perfect fit for me. For starters, it has a recipe for just about whatever I can think of, so if I want to get a recipe for something specific, it's easy. I also love the reviews. I rarely ever make a dish just as it is written, since I find so many great suggestions from the people who have already forged that new territory before me. I've also been impressed by how many great meal ideas I've found by searching around on the website.

Since I started using allrecipes.com frequently, it has become my goal to try at least one new recipe a week. That doesn't sound impressive at all, and it's not, but it is definitely breaking ground for me. I have had a set of staple recipes that I have run into the ground over the past nine years, and since I'm nothing like my creative, food wizard of a sister-in-law, it was a rarity to try something new. But this makes it easy for me, and since it has been easy, I've done it. And after doing it, I've found that it is really fun to try something new on a weekly basis! For a non culinary expert like myself, it has made meals something exciting and worth the wait. If you have been in the same boat as me, try it out! I don't think you will be disappointed.

odds and ends

Last night I found that Marianna had taped a piece of paper around a cross I have on the kitchen counter. I went for a closer look and found she had written "King of the Jews".

Today I went to went to the movie theatre with all three kids. There were moments when I felt like I had bitten off a little more than I could chew, but really overall, it was fine. I can't tell you the entire plot of Kung Fu Panda 2, but I got enough to think it was a pretty cute sequel.

Tonight I'm running in my first race in almost two years. Yikes! I don't know how much "zoom" there will be in my "zoom through the zoo" but I think it should be fun.

Today this is what Nathan discovered when he got out of his car at work.

I really got a kick out of that.

A day of Celebration

May 24th was a big day in the Luce house for two big reasons. First of all, May 24th is our anniversary, and yesterday we celebrated nine years of sharing life together. Isn't that crazy?! I just turned 29 last week, so it seems wild that we've already been married almost a decade. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I am so grateful for the man I am married to. He is really, truly an amazing person. He is a man who loves God and his family above everything else, and I cannot imagine life without him. Being married to a person like him for nine years is definitely a reason to celebrate!

As if that were not enough, yesterday also brought to completion a LONG awaited home improvement project in our flower beds. Last year I began losing the battle against bermuda that I had been fighting ever since we built our house back in 2003. It was so entrenched in our beds, that it eventually became more effective to use the weed whacker than gardening gloves. It was demoralizing, and eventually, I threw in the towel. By fall, I had given the bed over to the bermuda, hopeless and discouraged. This spring, things got worse than ever. Several plants died; the grass grass continued to thrive. It was a bad scene. Nathan saw my despair and decided the best plan of attack was a total re-haul of the flower beds. We decided to build a stone wall to give a more formidable barrier between the bermuda and the beds, before we took out all the dirt, all the plants, and started with a clean slate.

The wall construction has been going on over the past few weeks, and finally yesterday we activated the final stage, digging out the old dirt, adding the new, and incorporating brand new plants in our landscaping. It was a beautiful thing.

Nathan and I celebrated both events by going out to dinner at a place we had never been and trying out dishes we had never tasted. My moussaka (grilled eggplant layered with meet and something fluffy) was incredible!! Definitely a day of celebration all the way around.

really, really weird

Last night I went out with some other girls for birthday dessert, so Nathan put the kids down for bed. It hit me at about 11:45, right when I was just about to turn out the light, that I hadn't gone up to see the girls or Graham. It felt weird not kissing them and tucking them in, so I went up and tiptoed in their rooms and saw all three sleeping as peacefully as three little gooselings. All was well, so I went back down to my room and fell promptly to sleep.

A little over an hour later, we (and I really mean me, because Nathan hears nothing in his sleep) were awakened by a very loud pounding on our door. Adrienne. The knock is a dead give away, because for some reason she won't just open the door and come in. We have to get up and open it. Nathan almost always handles nighttime incidents because it doesn't really wake him up. As soon as his head hits the pillow, he is back out. So he took her up, and I began the try to sleep process once again.

I'm just drifting off when I get that weird sense that there are a few extra bodies in the room. I open my eyes, and standing just a foot from my head are both girls. Marianna says, in a voice way too alert for the hour, "We aren't tired, Mom. And we're thirsty." I get up, get the drink, deposit them back in bed, and stumble back downstairs, not feeling very good at all about the scenario that is brewing. First, I've never seen them both up at the same time at night. Second, if either of them ever happens to wake up, they usually look as sleepy and disoriented as I do. Third, if a child ever gets up, they never get up twice. So things just weren't looking good.

I go back to bed, unable to sleep because I'm listening for the telltale creak on the stairs that would signal a return to our bedroom. After 15 minutes of silence, I let out a big breath, pray a little thank you, and begin trying to relax and sleep once again. This time after I've been asleep 15 minutes or so, I heart a series of far away sounding thuds. That was enough to startle me into instant alert because nothing about those sounds was typical of two little girls coming downstairs again. This time I'm up for awhile, listening intently, trying to decide whether to wake Nathan up, until finally, I decide I must have dreamed it, and I try to sleep again.

45 minutes later, I hear giggles next to my head. I open my eyes, and two big eyed girls are smiling down at me. "What are y'all doing!?" I asked, stunned.

"We just finished our movie!"

"WHAT?!" I look at the clock, and sure enough, it's now nearly 4:00 am.

I can't remember the rest of that conversation, but I do remember the distinct impression that Marianna felt like she was describing the most natural thing in the world. Almost like, "Well of course we were watching a movie. We weren't sleepy. What did you expect?"

Nathan was still sleeping, oblivious that anyone had ever woken up again after the initial Adrienne incident, and I felt unequal to handling it any other way than to put them on the floor, one on each side of the room, and tuck them in. Both tried to carry on conversations, and both were swiftly cut off. They are still sleeping now, but I look forward to asking some more probing questions after they get up.

Maybe I should stop being surprised by weird, but I kind of doubt I ever will ;)

Let the Homeschooling Adventure Begin!

Marianna and I are just about to come to the end of our first "school year." Back in August I decided we would start a very loose, very flexible school schedule. She was four when we started, too young to officially be in Kindergarten, but she is a fantastic student and loves to learn so I didn't see any reason to wait. I ordered the Kindergarten curriculum from A Beka Books, and we began working through that at our own pace.

By Christmas, we had pretty much wrapped up all of the K-5 books, so I went ahead and ordered some of the first grade materials, and Marianna has been working her way through those this second semester, completing about 1/3 or her books. She has a passion for reading, a girl after my own heart, and a great love for science, a girl after her daddy's heart as well. We are just about to bring our psuedo school year to a close, but I am already beginning to gear up in earnest for our first real homeschooling year.

Now that is getting close to being official, I'm feeling the pressure of making sure I get her started on the right foot. I love to teach, but I know very little about what is out there and available as far as home school curriculums are concerned. I need to decide fairly soon, but before I order strictly A Beka again, I thought I would see if anyone had any insight into a good program for reading, history, science, math or Bible. I am all ears!

non-verbal communication

Who needs it? Not Graham. He and his sisters tired of that about one week after he was born, so I graciously stepped in to help them out. Graham needed a voice, and I provided it.

It might surprise you to know that Graham is quite the talker indeed. He talks to the girls all day long, and it's getting him to stop that is sometimes the trouble. He tells them what he wants and what he doesn't want. He isn't afraid to ask them for their help with getting him diapers and burp cloths and new clothes. He tells them story and sings silly songs, and he entertains with his antics and jokes. There's pretty much not anything he won't say.

Every once in awhile Graham will wake up and forget to greet the girls, or heaven forbid, sometimes I answer a question directed solely at him. The girls are quick to correct me. After all, it's not me they are wanting to hear from. They want to speak to their brother. And who can blame them? Graham is a charmer, no doubt about it.

The only place Graham seems to be shy is in public, where he typically either whispers or defers conversation to me. Just one of his little quirks I suppose. Marianna and Adrienne are usually understanding of this one shy tendency. Usually.

No, we really can't imagine Graham using strictly non-verbal communication skills around here. He simply has too much to say to wait til he's one!