Sam's opened last week.
We went there for lunch last weekend, but the line just to get the kids' ice cream took forever; I didn't want to wait in line to order a milkshake too.
But peanut butter milkshakes- oh how I love thee.
I've always loved P.B. milkshakes. They're one of my favorite comfort foods. In high school I ordered them every chance I got at Zips. Anytime I find a place that makes peanut butter milkshakes, I get one. But it wasn't until just recently that I remembered why.
Oma. That's why I love them.
I don't know why I never put it together.
When I'd go stay with Oma in the summer, we'd have popcorn almost every night. Popcorn made in that old oil popper of hers, with added butter and oil on top.
No wonder I weigh more than a SmartCar.
And most nights, she'd make me a peanut butter milkshake.
I've tried- I cannot make them like she did. I don't know what I do wrong, but they don't taste nearly as good as Oma's did.
Last fall when we got here, David would go visit Amy at her work, which is across the street from Sams. He'd usually come home with a shake for me.
It was a long winter while they were closed:)
And tonight's milkshake was awfully yummy.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Random thoughts for the day
How is it that three children can eat two pounds of strawberries and a pint of blueberries in under four hours? I think Hope ate one pound of the strawberries by herself.
It's a nice experience when I know where my loupes are, so that when a small child has a splinter, I can put 'em on and actually see what I'm doing.
Diarrhea. When I got Daniel up, it was up to his armpits. Shower time for one little boy.
And again two hours later; only got a bit on the clothes this time.
And again after nap- by now there wasn't much left expect liquid.
Poor guy- he must not feel good.
Joel has told me he loves me today more times that I can count. And he even gave me a kiss because "you sat there and didn't hit me and were nice to me". I'm not sure if I want to understand what goes on in his brain or not.
It's a nice experience when I know where my loupes are, so that when a small child has a splinter, I can put 'em on and actually see what I'm doing.
Diarrhea. When I got Daniel up, it was up to his armpits. Shower time for one little boy.
And again two hours later; only got a bit on the clothes this time.
And again after nap- by now there wasn't much left expect liquid.
Poor guy- he must not feel good.
Joel has told me he loves me today more times that I can count. And he even gave me a kiss because "you sat there and didn't hit me and were nice to me". I'm not sure if I want to understand what goes on in his brain or not.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
More Joel
That kid is really funny. And it's- hmm- rewarding, encouraging, heartening, I don't know quite the word I want- but I know he actually listens to what I say. Not that he always obeys or does what I want or seems to pay attention, but he hears.
After the other day when he told me he didn't appreciate my attitude when I sent him to his room.....
Yesterday he wanted me to take a nap with him. I was making him draw on my back and couldn't guess any of the things he was drawing. He told me, "mom, it's ok if you're a bad guesser because I still love you and I think you are a smart girl."
He hears me. He absorbs what I say. Eventually my words will make it from just hearing to doing. Maybe that's enough for now.
After the other day when he told me he didn't appreciate my attitude when I sent him to his room.....
Yesterday he wanted me to take a nap with him. I was making him draw on my back and couldn't guess any of the things he was drawing. He told me, "mom, it's ok if you're a bad guesser because I still love you and I think you are a smart girl."
He hears me. He absorbs what I say. Eventually my words will make it from just hearing to doing. Maybe that's enough for now.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Church Hunting attempt #2
After David's play ended, we could go back to trying churches. I will be honest and admit that I do have two ulterior motives:
#1- if we find a church in Rockford rather than Byron or Stillman, then I can do my CVS and Walgreens shopping after church, since we'll already be in town. Otherwise, I get the eyeroll and a comment about if I saved enough money to pay for the gallon of gas I used to drive into town and back.
#2- if church gets out by a certain time, we can still make the breakfast buffet at Golden Corral. They have really yummy biscuits and gravy, and the hashbrowns aren't bad. Not great, but with gravy on 'em, they're ok. But breakfast ends at 11, so church starting at 10 wouldn't be my ideal:)
Ok, next church. I'd watched one sermon online and I was pretty concerned that it was a baby church. Actually, I don't think I made it through the whole sermon because it was too baby to even listen to all the way through. But maybe I just picked a bad week, so we'll try it. Big- check. It's sorta like Calvary in Spokane- they renovated an old shopping mall. Good music- check. A bit more concert-y than I'd prefer, but good. The kids absolutely LOVED the kids program! Hope's class was awesome- there's a cafe part where they can sit in half-round booths and order hot chocolate or pop and little snacks. She told me more times than I can count how much she hoped we liked that church because she really wanted to go there. However, when I asked if there was anyone there she knew, she said yes. One of them is a boy who rides her bus. One of the boys she complains about because he swears all the time, and the bus driver has talked to him and he still does it. The swearing bothers Hope enough that she asked me if I could drive her to school every day. We talked about being in the world but not of the world- there's always going to be stuff like that to deal with. But he goes to church and still has a mouth that even the bus driver doesn't approve of? I don't know how much that makes me want her involved in the youth group.
While we were dropping off the kids, we saw one of David's old coworkers. Said coworker was a good friend of another coworker that I was friends with. Make sense? Said coworker's morals never impressed me. Three kids by at least two people; got pregnant with #4 right about the time we left by someone else. Maybe it was only three kids total. My memory may not be right about that one. Dated, never married, lived together. Maybe I'm judgemental. Not impressive morals. Maybe she's changed a bunch in the past five years. I don't know how much you can judge a church by the people who go there. So far, this one isn't faring well.
So, sermon was a pre-taped series from another church. Had I known that, we wouldn't have chosen that week to attend. Good enough sermon, although I did have issues with a few comments the pastor made. But again, he's not in any way related to this church. The sermon was part of a series on dating and marriage; this week was a biblical view of women. The main verse was Eph 5:25- the verse after 'wives submit to your husband'. Now I had figured out in high school that verse 25 was the great qualifier to verse 24. That shouldn't be revolutionary. I will admit that he focused more on that God sees all women through this verse, so men should treat all women as Christ treated the church. That, I guess, was somewhat new for me to think about. But when someone says "that wasn't at all baby christian; that was sound, good teaching"- if I had it figured out by the time I was 17, I don't think it's all that deep.
We'll definitely go back; I want to hear the actual pastor and see if they have other worship teams. But I still think if I want any sort of real teaching, I may need to look elsewhere.
#1- if we find a church in Rockford rather than Byron or Stillman, then I can do my CVS and Walgreens shopping after church, since we'll already be in town. Otherwise, I get the eyeroll and a comment about if I saved enough money to pay for the gallon of gas I used to drive into town and back.
#2- if church gets out by a certain time, we can still make the breakfast buffet at Golden Corral. They have really yummy biscuits and gravy, and the hashbrowns aren't bad. Not great, but with gravy on 'em, they're ok. But breakfast ends at 11, so church starting at 10 wouldn't be my ideal:)
Ok, next church. I'd watched one sermon online and I was pretty concerned that it was a baby church. Actually, I don't think I made it through the whole sermon because it was too baby to even listen to all the way through. But maybe I just picked a bad week, so we'll try it. Big- check. It's sorta like Calvary in Spokane- they renovated an old shopping mall. Good music- check. A bit more concert-y than I'd prefer, but good. The kids absolutely LOVED the kids program! Hope's class was awesome- there's a cafe part where they can sit in half-round booths and order hot chocolate or pop and little snacks. She told me more times than I can count how much she hoped we liked that church because she really wanted to go there. However, when I asked if there was anyone there she knew, she said yes. One of them is a boy who rides her bus. One of the boys she complains about because he swears all the time, and the bus driver has talked to him and he still does it. The swearing bothers Hope enough that she asked me if I could drive her to school every day. We talked about being in the world but not of the world- there's always going to be stuff like that to deal with. But he goes to church and still has a mouth that even the bus driver doesn't approve of? I don't know how much that makes me want her involved in the youth group.
While we were dropping off the kids, we saw one of David's old coworkers. Said coworker was a good friend of another coworker that I was friends with. Make sense? Said coworker's morals never impressed me. Three kids by at least two people; got pregnant with #4 right about the time we left by someone else. Maybe it was only three kids total. My memory may not be right about that one. Dated, never married, lived together. Maybe I'm judgemental. Not impressive morals. Maybe she's changed a bunch in the past five years. I don't know how much you can judge a church by the people who go there. So far, this one isn't faring well.
So, sermon was a pre-taped series from another church. Had I known that, we wouldn't have chosen that week to attend. Good enough sermon, although I did have issues with a few comments the pastor made. But again, he's not in any way related to this church. The sermon was part of a series on dating and marriage; this week was a biblical view of women. The main verse was Eph 5:25- the verse after 'wives submit to your husband'. Now I had figured out in high school that verse 25 was the great qualifier to verse 24. That shouldn't be revolutionary. I will admit that he focused more on that God sees all women through this verse, so men should treat all women as Christ treated the church. That, I guess, was somewhat new for me to think about. But when someone says "that wasn't at all baby christian; that was sound, good teaching"- if I had it figured out by the time I was 17, I don't think it's all that deep.
We'll definitely go back; I want to hear the actual pastor and see if they have other worship teams. But I still think if I want any sort of real teaching, I may need to look elsewhere.
Friday, February 08, 2013
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
There is always some small body in my bed when I decide to turn in for the night. Usually Naomi, sometimes Joel, hardly ever Hope anymore.
Before I go to sleep, I turn off whatever light they left on and kiss their cheek.
Sometimes they don't even notice. But sometimes they do: they squirm, they open their bleary, sleepy eyes, and they look at me to see who has disturbed their slumber.
And they smile.
Those mostly-asleep, hardly-conscious half-smiles are a few of my favorite things.
Before I go to sleep, I turn off whatever light they left on and kiss their cheek.
Sometimes they don't even notice. But sometimes they do: they squirm, they open their bleary, sleepy eyes, and they look at me to see who has disturbed their slumber.
And they smile.
Those mostly-asleep, hardly-conscious half-smiles are a few of my favorite things.
Thursday, February 07, 2013
I Have a Secret
A secret stash, that is.
In the back of one of my cupboards are two cases of Nalley's chili.
Shhh, don't tell anyone.
See, one of the drawbacks of moving to Timbuktu is that you give up certain foods. Sold-in-the-northwest-only type foods.
And one of those is Nalley's. Anything Nalley's. Their wonderful hamburger chip pickles. Even just a basic Nalley's dill pickle. And, of course, their chili. That yummy con carne concoction of beans, meat, and special spices.
But this time, I came prepared! After checking out Amazon to see if I could just buy some yummy Nalley's chili from them, I decided I didn't want to pay two dollars a can. So before we moved, I hurried off to Costco and bought some.
When we moved in, I put my chili in the farthest reaches of my pantry, where no one would see it and decide it looked like a good snack. Or worse yet, dinner. To feed our whole family chili, you'd have to use three or four of my preciously hoarded cans!
So I kept it out of sight and out of mind.
Until today. Today is a gray, rainy, Seattle kind of day. A day that needs a good hot bowl of soup.
Or chili.
And so I caved and had one can.
It took three months before I just had to have some. That's not bad- that's only four cans a year. At that rate, my stash should certainly last until someone comes to visit and can bring more Nalley's. (And Tillamook. That's one thing I couldn't figure out how to bring a stash of. So whoever visits needs to save room for a cooler full of medium cheddar scrumptiousness too.)
In the back of one of my cupboards are two cases of Nalley's chili.
Shhh, don't tell anyone.
See, one of the drawbacks of moving to Timbuktu is that you give up certain foods. Sold-in-the-northwest-only type foods.
And one of those is Nalley's. Anything Nalley's. Their wonderful hamburger chip pickles. Even just a basic Nalley's dill pickle. And, of course, their chili. That yummy con carne concoction of beans, meat, and special spices.
But this time, I came prepared! After checking out Amazon to see if I could just buy some yummy Nalley's chili from them, I decided I didn't want to pay two dollars a can. So before we moved, I hurried off to Costco and bought some.
When we moved in, I put my chili in the farthest reaches of my pantry, where no one would see it and decide it looked like a good snack. Or worse yet, dinner. To feed our whole family chili, you'd have to use three or four of my preciously hoarded cans!
So I kept it out of sight and out of mind.
Until today. Today is a gray, rainy, Seattle kind of day. A day that needs a good hot bowl of soup.
Or chili.
And so I caved and had one can.
It took three months before I just had to have some. That's not bad- that's only four cans a year. At that rate, my stash should certainly last until someone comes to visit and can bring more Nalley's. (And Tillamook. That's one thing I couldn't figure out how to bring a stash of. So whoever visits needs to save room for a cooler full of medium cheddar scrumptiousness too.)
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