Attack of the Bok Choy

This past weekend we went to a potluck hosted by our 'across the street neighbor'.  By across the street I mean their driveway is sort of diagonal (by about 50 feet) from ours.  However, due to the length of our driveway and their driveway, it's a good 1/2 mile walk.  We walked it anyhow.  It was all uphill.  And 90*.  And we were pushing 3 kids in a stroller.  But we made it.

I brought a new recipe - Bok Choy salad.  I'd never cooked with Bok Choy before, but I tried this recently at a Multiples club meeting and it was delicious (thanks to Shelly for bringing it - and the recipe!).  The reactions were....well....a little unexpected.

Bok Choy is pictured below.  It's kind of a cabbage.  For this recipe, you only use the white part and discard the leaves.

Below is the recipe:

2 heads Bok Choy
bunch of scallions
1 cup almonds, chopped
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2 packages of ramen noodles, crumbled (and seasoning packet discarded)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar

dressing prepared separate:
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce

Chop bok choy (discard leaf part) and slice scallions - set aside

In skillet on medium heat add butter, sugar, sesame seeds, almonds, and ramen noodles. Cook until brown and everything is coated with butter and sugar. Cool.

Once cool add to bok choy, stir in dressing just before serving.
 
Now at the potluck I was sitting right next to the main food table (come on, easy access for refills is important).  I was feeding the twins and amusedly watching the show.  Because suddenly there was a gathering of people around the bok choy salad.
 
"What's this?"
"I don't know.  What IS that?"
Someone bravely gives the dish a little stir with my awesome Paula Deen spoon sent to me by Mary over at The Englar Fam.. 
"Is it?  Is it some sort of .... salad?"
"What's in it?"
 
I almost ran outside to get a stick so that they could poke at it to see if it were dead.  But instead I went to my neighbor J.P. from Home in the Hollow and said, "Hey, you've got to try this Bok Choy salad I made!"
 
Course J.P. tried one bite and was smitten.  And J.P. likes to share the love, so she went around telling everyone to try the Bok Choy salad.  That's right, people, it's BOK CHOY SALAD!! 
 
"What's Bok Choy?"
 
Ah well, by the end of the night I had people giving me little scraps of paper with emails so I could send them the recipe.
 
I don't know why, but whenever I cook something that people really like, it sure does make me feel good.

Remembering Age Five and Soul Pancake

Recently I discovered podcasts as a motivational tool for my running.  It surprises me how much I enjoy them, considering that I don't have the attention span to listen to books on tape or NPR.  But for whatever reason, podcasts are like mental Reese's cups for me.

So the other day I downloaded a few podcasts from Oprah's spiritual channel.  Two of which were an interview with Rainn Wilson.  You know Rainn, right?  He plays the character of Dwight from The Office (love that show!)

Rainn is a member of the Baha'i faith.  Prior to listening to this podcast, I knew nothing of Baha'i.  Wikipedia says that the Baha'i faith emphasizes spiritual unity - there is an emphasis in the unity of God, the unity of religion, and the unity of mankind.  So Rainn Wilson wanted to find a way to bring spirituality to people in their 20s and 30s.  He wanted to create a place to ask life's big questions.  To express spirituality through art and creativity.

This led him to found, with two friends, the website Soul Pancake.

Soul Pancake strives to dig deeper to discover what it means to be human.  And one way it does this is by asking 'big' questions.

During the podcast, Rainn (my fingers just automatically want to type Dwight!) tosses a few of these questions at Oprah, one of which is "What do you miss most about being 5 years old?"

Oprah is caught off-guard.  She doesn't really have an immediate answer to that.

So I thought about it.

What do I miss most about being 5 years old?

You know what I miss?

I miss that carefree excitement and thrill that came in each day.

The simplest things were blissful.

Coloring in a coloring book - okay, how boring is that now?  As a Mom, I do this with Pierce, and I'm happy to do it because it brings him great joy - but seriously, sometimes it feels like maybe a few brain cells are dying a long, painful death in the unstimulating process of coloring in the lines.  But when I was 5?  It was thrilling.  And Playdoh?  Now Playdoh made for a great day!  And furthermore, speaking of pancakes....how titillating was it on the rare occasion you got to eat pancakes!  For dinner!  With strawberries!

Good gosh, remember when every little part of the day was so new and exciting?

Before you were jaded by those 'seen it all before' glasses?

Before all the 'been there done that'?

I miss being 5 because that was a time when life was viewed through a kaleidoscope of constantly changing, colorful lenses where everyday was an adventure of excitement.

How about you?  What do you miss about being five?

Prom 2010

The Mommyologist is hosting a bloggy prom.  When I first read about it HERE I realized that it was true.  I did have a closet with several fancy dresses that never get worn.  But did any of them fit? 

Just 10 months post-partum from the twins, my body still hasn't recovered.

The first 2 dresses, sadly, didn't work.

But then I found one that was a little more stretchy.

Now that I had a dress, I had to do this my own way.

See, I'm a self-professed tomboy.  Sometimes I might wear a dress or skirt to teach my classes.  And I wore a lot of dresses when I was preggo with the twins (because face it - nothing else would fit over The Belly).  But that's kind of the exception.  So if I'm going to do something like put on formal wear, I need to balance that out a little bit.  Guess what else is gathering dust besides my dresses because I'm so wrapped up in this whole raising-3-boys thing?

My dear, dear horse Phoenix.

Who better to take with me to prom?

Of course, the minute I walk out the door in my black formal dress and tall black riding boots, who do I see?

My neighbor, Joe.  Embarassing.

"Where are you going in that get up?"

To catch my horse, of course.

Scooter, our border collie, acted as chaperone.

Phoenix didn't even try to eat my corsage.  I trained him well.

Pierce watched us leave.  No kids allowed at this prom.

Phoenix wore his black tie - a dressage saddle and bridle in formal black, with a black velvet saddle pad.  I think we complimented each other well, don't you?

Course he desperately needs a hair cut.  What can you do though?  He was totally raised in a barn.

I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what others did for Blog Prom 2010.  Go check out the Mommyologist to find out!

Josh the Mountain Junkie Fish and Poor Charlie

Friday was a special craft day at the library.  They were making the coolest things with the kids - fish wind socks, jellyfish mobiles, and more.  I was all kinds of excited to go, but Pierce said he'd rather go to the mall.  The mall?  I don't even typically like to go to the mall.  But I'd been promising Pierce for 2 weeks that I would get him a fish, and he was eager to go pick one out.

So I loaded up all the kids in the car (which, incidentally, takes 11 minutes what with all the carseat buckles and stroller business) and we headed out to the mall.

I had asked Pierce, "What do you want to name your fish?"

"How 'bout Josh?"

This was completely out of left field.  Josh?  The only Josh I know is the Josh I went to senior prom with...some 18 or so years ago.  Is there a Josh on Diego?

"Josh?" I asked, perplexed.

"Yeah, my fish is a Mountain Junkie!"

Oh THAT explains it.  Josh is the race director of the trail race series I have been running this spring.  But as far as I know, Pierce has never even talked to him.  Isn't it funny, though, the things kids pick up?

So we got to the mall to pick out Josh, and I wandered into J.C. Penney's to pick up a new purse very quickly, because the one I've been using for the past few years (seriously) was busted.  As we're walking the aisles this little boy comes up to us.  Short but muscled, with spikey brown hair, Pierce takes to him like cupcakes.  He says, "Hi!  I like your motorcycle shirt.  That's just like the motorcycle on Diego.  Do you watch Diego?"

And that was enough.  Charlie was latched on to us.

Meanwhile, I'm walking slowly through the store, peeking over clothes racks, looking for what must certainly be a frantic mother desperately seeking her son.  Where could she be?  Surely, any second now, there would be a page over the system for this charming little boy.

Charlie, who informed us he was four, seemed to evade Pierce's frequent and distressed question, "Charlie, where's your mommy?!?"  Charlie was too busy skipping up and down while making excellent motorcycle noises.

Finally, at least 15 minutes later, Charlie pointed out his mother.

Was she in tears as I would've been?

Was she frantic?

Was she angry?

No.  She was too busy gabbing to the lady at the cosmetics counter. 

She offhandedly looked at me, laughed, and said, "Looks like you picked up a fourth boy."

WHAT?!?

I don't think she'd even noticed Charlie had been gone for so long.

What kind of mother is she?

How do you not care where your child has been in a store?

YOUR FOUR YEAR OLD!

It's supposed to be like an instant panic button the second they are out of sight, isn't it?

Even Pierce picked up on the utter WRONGNESS of the situation and said sadly to Charlie, "Do you want to come home with us?"

Should I have said something to Charlie's mom?

I didn't, but now I kind of regret not making an offhand comment that maybe she should keep a closer eye on her son. 

What would you have done?

Independence Day Whirligig Craft

Pierce and I decided to do some crafts to celebrate July 4th, which is quickly approaching. 

This one was really simple - perfect for a toddler.

Have your toddler color a paper plate in red and blue marker (in retrospect, we should've colored both sides)

After coloring, we added some gold glitter glue for sparkle.

You could also add in sequins or pom

 poms or anything else you had handy.

Then take a fairly large button.  Thread yarn through it.

Take a pencil and poke a hole in the center of your paper plate.

Then thread the yarn/button through.

Finally, starting on the outside, cut your paper plate in a large spiral towards the center.

Now it's ready to hang and swing in the wind!

Memory Lane Friday - My Dad

Memory Lane Friday is a weekly blog carnival to preserve your memories for your family.  Everyone is welcome to participate.  This week's topic, in honor of Father's Day, is 'My Dad'.

This is my favorite picture of my Dad and I.  The photo album it was in had gone missing, so I spent a great deal of time and frustration yesterday trying to track it down.  I just had to have THIS picture.  So then I asked myself why?  Why this particular photo?

Because it captures us candidly.  Unassuming.  And I love that in a photo.

Because it shows how fun my Dad is.  He always had adventures for us.

And because it shows my Dad as the leader he is.  Someone for his family to follow.  He taught us so much, in his quiet, unassuming manner, and I'm pretty sure he never even realizes this.

Case in point.  In high school, we were driving to pick up our pies from a bakery in Middleburg called The Upper Crust (read - Best.Pies.Ever).

It was sleeting and frigid as we passed a homeless man on the side of the road.

My Dad stopped the car abruptly and gave the man a $20.  As we were driving away he offhandedly said, "I don't usually give homeless people cash (i.e. prefering to give actual food), but it's Christmas and it's cold. This man isn't with his family today.  Everyone deserves to be with their family on Christmas."

My Dad always illustrated kindness to others through his actions.

Below is a picture of my Dad and I in his North Face down sleeping bag, circa 1977.

As far as I know, he still has this sleeping bag - which he used for some section hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  When I was 13, following in his footsteps, I joined a hiking club at school.  The year end hurrah of the hiking club was an overnight hike up McAfee's Knob (on the AT).  It's a steep climb up.

My Dad....well, he was right there in the action.  He volunteered to be one of the parent chaperones.

I was so proud to have a parent that wasn't just behind the scenes doing drop off.  My Dad was tough!  He was right there hiking with us the whole time, nursing acheing muscles the next day with the best of us.

I would be amiss if I didn't mention education.  My Dad set the example, working a job while putting himself through his undergrad at Virginia Tech, and later a master's degree (even while working full time and having 2 kids at home).  We all knew growing up the value of education.  Having been through the struggle of working and studying himself, my father didn't want us to have to do that.  So he made it possible (by working even harder himself) for us kids to attend college without having to hold jobs while doing so.

 I think this picture shows that as proud as I am of my Dad, he's proud of me too - just look at that beaming face!  This was the day of my graduation from Baylor.  I couldn't have done it without my Dad, I know that.  Thanks, Dad, and Happy Father's Day! 

Want to join in on Memory Lane Friday?  It's easy!

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Next week's topic is "A Birthday".  Got a good birthday story?  Yours or someone else's?  Be sure to come back then!

Lakelicious

Last weekend we spent Saturday at the lake house with family.  The water temperature was just perfect for some floating.

I tied two floats together and Pierce and I drifted in the lake for at least an hour while my parents listened for the twins during naptime.

About as relaxing as life can be with a toddler by your side.

Later Paul (who had been cutting hay) jumped in to join us.

Daddy is much more exciting in the water than me.  No more quiet floating about.

As you can see, Pierce didn't like all that rowdy splashing one bit.

Nope, certainly not fun.

Nope, certainly no laughing going on.

Or shrieking.

Or "SPLASH ME AGAIN!"

Ahhhh, summer!