Happy Birthday!

Posted on July 3, 2010 by Laura

Happy Birthday Leah!  We hope you have [had] a great one!

[I suppose the celebrations are almost over, England time! :)]

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Happy Birthday!

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Laura

I did talk to Eric on his actual birthday (6/29) but didn’t get around to posting anything on here.  Actually, before I called Eric, I was thinking, “Hmm – I wonder if he’s turning 30?” but then realized that I’m almost 34, which means Eric just turned 32, which means Jon is 30, which means it’s Chris’s turn next to be 30!!  Yikes!!  Our family now has 3 kids in their 30s.  We are getting old!  (I guess that makes sense because there are now 8 grand kids, with one more on the way.)

So Happy Birthday to my ancient younger brother!

This is Eric with very newborn baby Jonas and little Selah, circa 2004.  (I think – am I right Eric and Meggan?)

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Baby News

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Laura

[yes, I realize that what you all want is really pictures of the baby, that is, my belly but who knows when that will happen.  So to tide you over…]

Here’s some fun baby news!

1. My new favorite pastime: lying on the couch watching my belly move of its own accord.  No one told me this would happen!  I’ve been totally loving feeling our baby move for several weeks now but this whole “watching the baby move” thing is cracking me up!  I totally get distracted from whatever else I’m doing!

2.  Baby’s new favorite pastime: Waiting to hear me say, “Nik, quick, get in here to see this!” and then completely stopping all movement until Nik says, “Nothing is going to happen,”  and leaves the room.  Of course, then Baby decides to start moving again.  (Actually, thankfully, Nik finally did get to see some movement tonight!)

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A couple fun links

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Laura

Thanks to Angry Chicken, here’s a couple fun links:

1. To what seems to be a very cool children’s literature blog, Book Scout – she reviews lots of books, including this one, City Dog, Country Frog, which I would love to own!  (I’ve added her to my Google Reader.)

2.  And to a list of summer games – I was happy to see that dominoes made the list and she even recommends getting a set with double twelves!  Most of the other games I hadn’t heard of and I’m looking forward to getting some of them!

Posted in just for fun | 1 Comment

The Last Full Day

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Laura

Today, I worked my last full day of school for who knows how long.  It was rather anti-climatic because I didn’t actually teach any students.  I was at my elementary school and all my students were in their classrooms doing fun things.  So I just packed, did paperwork, etc. in my little classroom and got ready to leave.  But in my sorting of files, I found this letter that one of my middle school students wrote this year as part of our letter writing unit.  So I thought I’d give you all some tangible evidence that I’ve made a difference in a kid’s life.

[This was meant to be a business letter to the principal asking her to change something in our school.  These are J’s unedited words.  He’s from Mexico.]

Dear Dr. R__________:

I am writing to you to ask you to change the rule against kissing. Just let boyfriend and girlfriend because it will be better to kiss instead of scape from school because some teacher doesn’t let you outside kissing with your boyfriend and girlfriend that’s why the students act that because you cant kiss your girlfriend and boyfriend in the school that that’s not a good way to control students to not kiss with somebody that is going out with you and it will be better to kiss in the school.

See?  He obviously has the skills to succeed in society now!  He identifies a problem, a solution, and reasons to change it! (Punctuation is obviously optional.)

Only two half days left to go!

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Our baby isn’t the only baby living at Windsor Castle

Posted on June 8, 2010 by Laura

Isn’t he adorable?

(He lives in the crazy, out-of-control azalea bushes at the front of our house.  I’ve been wanting to tear them all out but I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t do it yet!)

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You’d be addicted too if we fed you this

Posted on June 8, 2010 by Laura

(Come to visit next spring and we will!)

Posted in cooking | 1 Comment

Lessons learned this spring

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Nik

1.  Arugula grows really fast, and before you know it, it has gone to seed.

2.  Garlic scapes apparently don’t always get long.

I was waiting for them to get long and a lot of them just didn’t. Then the garlic plants started falling over trying to plant the seeds at the end of the scape.  I had to peel apart some of the tops of the plants to get below the seeds to cut the scape.  Weird.  The plants whose scapes I cut in time are still standing but all the others that laid down look sort of sad.  I’m hoping the heads are still fattening up though.

3.  Sugar snap peas get really tall.

I built a rather large bamboo tower for them to grow up and they have outgrown it.  The pea production basically peaked a couple days ago so I think in the end, the tower was just about the right height.

This is from almost two weeks ago.  Garlic in the front, peas in the back.

The pea harvest on Saturday.

You can eat the whole thing, but we shelled a couple just for fun.

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Our New Addiction (too bad spring is over)

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Laura

A week ago Saturday, this recipe for Shaved Asparagus pizza fortuitously found its way to my Google Reader.  We made it right away that night and made it again during the week.  And we’re making it again this week.  It’s that addictive.  (We basically followed the  recipe exactly except that we made slightly smaller pizzas.)

**For Baltimore people, we buy our fresh mozzarella at Mastellone’s on Harford Road.  Delicious and totally reasonable prices compared to other Italian delis in the city.  They make the mozzarella fresh there daily.  We’re lucky enough to be able to walk there!

Sadly, asparagus season is basically over.  So now we’ll have to wait until next spring to eat it again!  I wait [impatiently] every spring for Farmer Ed to bring me asparagus at the farmer’s market.  We only eat it when he has it and he said last Saturday was the last day.  (Oh the joys and sorrows of seasonal eating.)  At least our food budget will calm down a little now!

And, if you don’t have a good pizza dough recipe or don’t have a local pizza shop to buy some from, here’s the one that we love, slightly adapted frm the grilled bread recipe in Simply in Season.  It’s not perfect but does make delicious bread and is all whole wheat.  One of these days, I’ll find the perfect all whole wheat pizza dough recipe and share it with you.

1 1/4 C warm water

1 tsp active dry yeast

Combine in a mixing bowl and stir until yeast is dissolved.

3 C whole wheat flour

2 T olive oil

1 tsp salt

Add and mix in the bowl until barely combined.  Then dump out onto a well floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes or until smooth, adding flour as needed so that it isn’t sticky (but still quite soft).

Let rise for about 1 hour or more until doubled.  Use as directed.  We also like this just as grilled bread.  The cooked bread doesn’t do well as leftovers the next day but the dough stays good in the fridge for days and even rolls out fairly easily when cold.  A useful recipe to have in the repertoire!

Posted in cooking | 5 Comments

Hooray!

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Laura

Happy Birthday Katie!

We hope you have a great day!

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