Week of Birthdays

September 16th, and we have just closed the door on the "week of Birthdays" (which is really 11 days of birthdays) for the year. Griffin turned 7, and then a week later Steve turned 47, and yesterday I hit the big 38. And what a fun 11 days it has been!

We celebrated with Griffin's friends last weekend, a delight of a time that included a lego theme, dancing, "Pin the tail on the Griffin", cake, presents, and all the other fun birthday stuffs.

We celebrated Steve's birthday mid-week, with a new pair of jeans, some yummy dinner, and some apple crumble - perfection!

Friday night we invited our neighbours for a little bonfire action. It was the coldest evening so far this fall, with the temperatures dipping down to near freezing for the first time (the first official frost warning for the season.) I was a bit worried about getting the fire lit, since it had rained all day, but the boys managed just fine.  We had a GREAT evening, it was one of those nights where suddenly it's 1:30 in the morning and you realize that maybe you should go to bed...but everyone was just having too much fun to notice.

We also received an excellent birthday treat from our friend Jim - a special hollowed out log that he threw on the fire, that burned bright and hot and quite beautifully for a good chunk of the evening. So much fun!

The second best part about the fire were the potatoes that we decided to throw on it as we went to bed at 1:30am...the next morning they got turned into homefries.  Best campfire homefries ever. 

Yesterday it was my turn - my day began with a Corben-imposed sleep in (he came to snuggle with me in the morning, and promptly fell back asleep on top of me, forcing me to stay in bed!) A lazy morning ensued, followed by a deliciously long hot shower, and some puttering in the yard and the house.  We moved a few things around in the living room, and got a few things checked off the "before the snow flies" list.  I got a flower delivery from my neighbours mid afternoon, I managed to get a few things picked out of the garden myself to put up for the winter. 

I got the most delicious dinner last night, with cake and ice cream too. 

It was a delight of a day, a perfectly excellent weekend, and altogether, a wonderful week! 

Seven

Almost a year ago to this day, I left my very steady, very well paying (with very nice benefits package) j-o-b, to spend more time at home, and be the primary caregiver for my children.  Griffin still goes to school, Corben still goes to daycare a few days a week, but primary it's me that they get to hang with, for better or for worse.

Aside from the obvious things that I miss (the money, and the benefits, in case it's not that obvious, and the people that I worked with) it has been nothing but a positive decision.  I often find that I need reminding of that when I'm digging out rolls of quarters to pay for gas when things are tight - that everything we have done this past year (year and a half if you include picking up and moving here,) has been the absolute right thing to do.  We made some good decisions this past year, that were for the sake of our family, and for our children.  And we stand by every last one of them.

Griffin has been on the receiving end of a lot of our time this year. There have been hours in doctor's offices, hours in therapy, hours spent in the park, riding bikes, drying dishes.  More than we've ever had or made time for him before.  Less days of working means more days of hanging out, just being. Less money to spend makes for more days at home, working together to make our world a better place.  It also means less crap in our lives, more room to breathe, more room to just live.  It seems to be in this state that we are happiest. 

Griffin turned seven yesterday.  Seven years old, seven years he's been a part of our lives. There have been hard days, and there have been brilliantly wonderful days.  And just about every variation in between.  We're no different from any other family that way.  Griffin still has daily struggles, but who among us can't say that either?  He has come SO. FAR. in the past year though.  We can see all the time invested paying off, big time. There are less meltdowns, less explosions. And he is such a tender, loving kid.  He has a huge love for all things lego, all things nature, and his family...especially his Mama. (Maybe a little less love for his little brother, who can be so terribly loud and disgusting, but this too shall pass!)

Tomorrow, for just one day, we will throw away the "less crap in our lives" rule, and bust out the candy, cake, food dye for days, and have a little fun.  Griffin and 5 of his little peeps will party like only 7 year olds can (and 6 year olds, and 9 year olds.)  This is the first real party with friends that Griffin has ever had.  The party is 2 hours long, and I'm sure it will take the rest of the weekend to recover from it, but we're going to have a blast doing it!

I'm so glad that we are where we are, with the people that we are with.  I am so proud of my kids, especially Griffin who has had so many challenges and has come so far.  And, pat on the back for Steve and I too, who have grown so much as people because of these wonderful, smart, drive-you-round-the-bend little creatures. We've made it seven years so far, I can't wait to see what the next seven bring.

I love you, G.  Every last ounce of you.  You have made me a better person.  You have made our world a better place. You have made the whole WIDE world a better place too.  I can't wait to see what you will accomplish in this life!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

Things may happen and often do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

Kid, you'll move mountains.
  
                     -Dr Seuss, Oh the Places You'll Go.

Sunset on Summer

A pond. 40 of our closest friends. A zip line over the pond. Good eats. Good drinks. A beautiful day. So long, summer proper. You rocked it. And we like to think we were right there with you. So thanks. Namaste. See ya round. P.S. How did it happen that I can write that sentence after living here for just over a year. FOURTY of my closest friends?? I had 3 closest friends after living in Shelburne for 7 years!) Photos from the best day ever. I know, I keep saying that, but they just keep getting better. xoxox

Read you loud and clear.

I spent a good part of Thursday night/ Friday morning in the hospital, and the better part of Friday during the day as well. Turns out I have a Kidney infection. This week hasn't been all that awesome. Flat tires, feeling terrible, and not getting stuff done. However, it's an important reminder to find the time to take care of myself, in all the other caringiving that I do, otherwise stuff like this happens. Right. 

Lesson learned, Universe, lesson learned. 

This Moment

A sunny Sunday morning on my porch. Last night's campfire is still smoldering, and it smells amazing out here. Crickets and the rushing of the river is all I can hear. Peaceful and still, with peace in my heart too, knowing that this is where I am meant to be. 

Black Bean Burritos

This is an old recipe,  from our old blog.  When I searched it tonight (on my own blog) to cook it up, I knew I had to share it again.  Damn, this is one of the easiest, yummiest, most leftover-est meals in the book! 

I'm not a recipe posting kind of gal, but since I got "promoted" to head chef, I've recently been looking for new things to add to our repertoire. I've also been on the hunt for more vegetarian recipes to add to our meat-tastic household, in an effort to eat more healthy and get some veggies in our lives. This one I had to share.

Seriously easy. So easy that even I can't screw it up. Seriously good. Leftovers included.

So, get yourself:

A can of black beans
A can of diced tomatoes (I'll likely use fresh ones when the garden explodes)
A pack of 10 flour tortillas (the big ones)
A bundle of fresh cilantro
Package of cream cheese (Ed: I actually skipped this tonight because I forgot about it, and it turned out just fine!)
Rice
One Red pepper - you could do one green one too, but since Steve thinks green peppers are from the devil, we skip them
One onion
Garlic

You want about 4 cups of cooked rice when it's done, so get that party started first. (We like the PC Jasmine rice, because it cooks up about twice as fast as regular rice.)

Chop up your onion and pepper(s) and a clove of garlic or two and saute them in a bit of oil, and about a 1/2 tsp of salt. Add the tomatoes, and bring the whole mess to a boil, and then let it simmer for a bit to cook off some of the tomato liquid. (Juice. I think they call that tomato JUICE.)

(Special thanks to my brain for kicking in just in time there.)

Add the black beans, stirry stirry.

Add 1/2 a block of cream cheese, about 125 grams (don't ask me what the hell that is in ounces, it's 1/2 a block, ok?) More stirry stirry. You have to keep with the stirring once the cheese is in, to make sure that whole sucker melts.

Add your 4 cups of cooked rice. Again with the stir.

Now, cilantro - there are 2 camps when it comes to cilantro, and we live in the WE LOVE CILANTRO! camp. If you happen to live in the WE HATE CILANTRO! camp, you're gonna want to skip this step. Chop up a bunch - I think I did about a 1/4 cup, and toss it in there. Maybe if you're a hater, you could try parsley instead?

If you like life a bit hot and spicy, here's where you could add something hot and spicy. Sauce? Red pepper flakes? Go wild, pick whatever you like.

Me, not so much with the hot and spicy.

You could also add a squeeze of lime juice here. The one lime I had in the fridge kind of looked like it had been there since 1987, so I skipped this step.

You end up with a big (note: BIG - you need a BIG frying pan for this) pan of yummy, that looks a little something like this:
Now, grab your tortillas, and fill 'em up! This recipe makes enough for AT LEAST 10 tortillas, usually with a bit of the mix leftover, which from now on I will feed to the kid since last night he kept FREAKING out about his tortilla falling apart. (Ed: Three years later and the kid has finally figured out how to eat a burrito full on.  Three cheers for progress!)

You can chuck them in the oven if hubby is late for dinner - they stay nice and warm in there and the tortillas get all nice and cooked-like too. Or you can just eat 'em right away, just like that.

Bonus - these make fab leftovers, and taste just as good cold as they do warm.

Dinner - prepped in 20 minutes start to finish. Rock on.

Providing.

When we decided to raise meat rabbits, rather suddenly, about a month ago, I was feeling all butch about it.

"Who is going to butcher them?" was a common question I got from curious folk.

"Oh, I will." I said with (false) confidence.

I commented earlier (on Facebook, of course) that tonight was time to "put my money (or my bunny, as the case may be) where my mouth is," and see if I was really made of the country girl fibres that I thought I was.

We got a few "practice rabbits" tonight.  We were just going to buy processed ones, and cook them up so that the kids could have a taste (we realized they've never actually eaten rabbit) but they were cheaper to buy UN-processed, and there was no time to learn like the present.

As I was getting ready to leave the house tonight (I was staring at my closet, and wondering "what the hell does one wear to butcher a rabbit?" I wasn't sure how messy the job was going to be. I settled on camo pants, a black t-shirt, and my Bludstones, in case you're wondering. I brought an apron...and my coveralls along...just in case.  Truly, I had no idea.) Steve pointed out to me as I was getting dressed that I had never intentionally killed anything larger than an earwig.  (Which is not true, I've had my fair share of mice battles in my life...but I've never done anything like this before.)  I had no idea if I could truly pull this off.

But I did.

I watched and learned the first time around, and did it on my own the second time.  From start to finish, I processed the rabbit.  Slowly, and not so gracefully, but I did it.

There are improvements to be made for the next time around - I look forward to getting a proper butcher block of some sort, and a good knife of my own, but all in all, I think I did pretty good.

It didn't hurt that I had two excellent teachers.

Two of my neighbours (one a chef, and one a wood carver) have some serious butchering time on their resume. They answered my questions, let me try stuff that I had read about.  And just having someone there that's done it made it so much easier!  I don't think either one of them thought I was going to do as well as I did, and I'm always glad to exceed expectations.

I'm proud of me too.

I'm happy and excited that this can be a viable food source for us, and now I know that I can raise my own meat from start to finish.  I feel grateful for the opportunity. I feel a little chuffed.  I feel a little butch. And I feel like I can provide.

Provide for my family, that's all that I've ever wanted to do.  In a healthy, sustainable, loving way.