Describe someone in your life who is an everyday hero:
“The person in my life who is an everyday hero is Mrs. B is my hero because
she helps us learn more things. And she tries to help us with our language.
She even helps us with our emotions too. She is a best teacher that anyone can’t
have. That’s why my language and reading is improved.”
(I’m going to have to think about how I’ve helped them with their emotions!)
We had a wonderful time with Rachel when she was here last week. We did some wedding planning, some wedding registering and she came to school with me. My kids are still asking about Rachel and wanting her to come visit again. The first night she was here, we went to Nik’s mom’s house for dinner (yummy Greek food – even lamb!) and the second night we made grilled pizza.
I especially like Nik’s expression, which can be interpreted to mean, “Oh no, my pizza just slipped off my plate!”
I took Rachel to the airport Wednesday morning and I cried more tears than she did! I think I sort of felt the weight of being the last Judge to see and touch Rachel before she left for her trip. As if I then was responsible for what happened to her. I loved having her here with us. She was also the first person to use our guest room upstairs! I LOVE YOU RACHEL!! WE MISS YOU A LOT!
On Friday, we went to visit baby Alexander and Andrea and Nikki! He is so cute and sweet! I loved getting to see and hold him but it made me even more feel the lack of not being able to be with Alexandra and Ezra. It is a precious thing to be near family like that. I’m grateful we’re close to Nik’s family but I do definitely long to be near my family too!
Warning: frivolous picture ahead: On the way home, I was bored and the camera happened to be in the car. (I was driving our car and Nik was driving him mom home in her car.)
And finally, on Sunday, Kristen gave me a HUGE bunch of basil – I wish that I had taken a picture of it before I used it!. It was only one plant’s worth but that plant had been growing all summer. After I took it off the stems, it was about 6 cups (packed) of basil leaves. That’s A LOT of basil. And that basil ground down to this:
It may not look very appetizing now but those pesto “cookies” (as I like to call them) will bring us summer’s goodness in the middle of winter! Yummy!
Here’s my pesto recipe in case you’re interested:
2 C packed basil leaves
1/4 C toasted pine nuts
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/4 olive oil
salt to taste
Grind all of this in a blender/food processor until smooth. It takes awhile. If freezing, put into serving portions on a cookie sheet and freeze. If using immediately, added grated Parmesan or Romano cheese and serve on pasta with sauteed vegetables and extra toasted pine nuts and cheese. I also like to stir in chopped fresh tomatoes right at the end – and leave them in the pot just long enough to warm them. You can add bacon or prosciutto too for you meat lovers out there. YUM!!
The technology that we have in this world is really just phenomenal – hard to comprehend actually. Rachel sent me about 7 text messages today. Including about 5 in the last 15 minutes (she didn’t think they were going through!). Basically, she asked me to call her. So I texted her back, saying that I didn’t have a calling card number. In less than 2 minutes, she had replied to me, giving me her card number. Two minutes! That’s for my message to get to Mozambique, Rachel to type in a bunch of numbers, and come back to me. Maputo is 8325 miles away (10,006 miles for you Anchorage people)! We only talked for about 4 minutes but she sounded good. Tired but good. She was holding a baby while we were talking!
A niece and a nephew in less than 24 hours. We are blessed!
(Andreas and Nikki’s baby was born 3 weeks early! At 3:00 this morning!)
Here is a compliment that I received the other day. This student has many challenges, to say the least. I don’t teach him (I did last year) – I just have him in homeroom. Anyway, to keep him calm, I let him type on my computer during homeroom and he wrote me this message the other day. (I could only understand this because he read it to me. I’m not that good!)
mrsazbaltazesyduburflawredy [Mrs. B why are you beautiful every day?]
My reply:
Because I brush my hair every day.
(What else was I supposed to say?!) 🙂
Here’s my birthday present from Nik! Anyone have any tips for raising a jasmine plant inside? I’m really excited to have one but the reading that I’ve done makes them sound pretty finicky – especially to get them to bloom. Should be a fun experiment! I’m also excited to have the jade because my last beautiful jade was sadly a casualty of the wedding craziness – even desert plants die if you never remember to water them! Hooray for more house plants! I’m not quite up to my all time high of around 11-12 from pre-grad school but I’m getting there!
We’re excited to see Rachel in just a few days! And when she’s here, I just might make her some chai tea. I just made some for myself and it’s good! It’s actually sitting in the freezer, cooling down some before I put it on ice. I’d attempting an iced chai because it’s 80 outside. Who says global warming isn’t real? (The heat is supposed to break tomorrow and be down in the 60s, thankfully.)
Chai Tea (with thanks to Leah who gave me the original recipe, with some tea too!)
2 C milk
2 C water
1-2 T of chopped fresh ginger (or however much you want)
a few whole cardamom pods, crushed to break them open
1/4 C sugar (Leah’s recipe calls for 1/2 C – you must really have a sweet tooth!
)
2 T Assam tea (or some other kind of strong black tea)
Heat the milk, water, and spices gently until just simmering. Add tea and sugar and let it brew until it’s dark enough – a minute is more than enough. Pour the tea through a strainer and serve!
Here’s the alternate ingredient instructions: Put in equal amounts of milk and water. Add a bunch of ginger and cardamom pods. After it boils, add sugar to taste and tea. Drink!
Next time, I’m going to try adding whole cloves too.
I remember having a snowball fight on my birthday when we lived in the Fanchers’ house in Glennallen.
Today, it was at least 90 degrees.
The forecast for my birthday is 89 degrees.
I’m not in Alaska anymore!
Tonight I spent a very enjoyable 1 1/2 hours with Natalie, an adorable 18-month old little girl, at our covenant group. It was my week to do childcare and so we hung out in the dining room. She was really calm so I was chatting with Chris and Katie. Towards the end of our time together, Natalie, being tired, laid down on the floor beside me and started stroking my hair. We had a good 20 minutes of resting together, and mutual hair/head stroking. I needed to be calm and rest and evidently so did she. The Lord is good to provide us with those moments when we need them! The same thing happened to me last spring. I had nursery at the early service. In the midst of finishing up school and wedding craziness, I did not have it in me to be entertaining a bunch of toddlers. So instead, I took the one infant, Zoe, into the other room and she gave me 15 blessed minutes of rest in which I lay on my back and she sat on my stomach. She sat there calmly, with one little toy, while I simply rested (and made faces at her every once in a while). I think the Lord knew I needed her to force me to sit quietly for that bit of time. I know babies/children are an immense amount of work, but right now, I am remembering the blessed moments that they give us too.
Today, my students and I read a story, which included a section on Picasso. He said that all children are artists because they see the world with new eyes. And that our challenge in remaining artists is that when we grow old, we start to see the world like everyone else. I think that’s why we need kids in our lives – to keep us seeing anew.
And speaking of babies, we had Nikki’s baby shower on Sunday. (Nikki is Nik’s brother’s wife.) At the end, one of Tina’s Greek friends says to me, “Tell Andreas hello for me!” I didn’t bother to remind her that Andreas was my brother-in-law, not my husband. I just say, “OK!”, smiled big, and let it go. Well, later, we discovered that she had written, “To Nik and Nikki” on her card. So she evidently has her couples mixed up. She was one of the people who we weren’t able to invite to the wedding (which was a bit of a problem). So she clearly knows that it was Nik who got married in June. Which would have made Nikki 4 1/2 months pregnant at the wedding! So I guess she thinks it was a shotgun wedding!
Enough baby talk for now. No, I’m not pregnant. I was just talking to Chris and Katie tonight about “tiny one’s” arrival and thinking about babies. Love to you all!
To Zona and all other interested parties –
We have thousands, literally thousands, of pictures. And it’s taking us forever to get them sorted. But we have gotten quite a few picked out and I promise that soon we’ll put them on Flikr for all to see. Just maybe not for the next couple weeks. We’re have a couple parties coming up and we’re going out of town the first two weekends in October. But they’re coming. Promise.
Salmon and Souvlaki 