94/365 Brand New

"Kimchi After Class"

I had a brand new culinary experience this evening, Korean food.  Several of my students, Weber, Brooke and I enjoyed an amazing dinner tonight thanks to one of my students whose family owns a local Korean restaurant.

93/365 Where I Stand

"Present Standing"

I stand firmly grounded in the present, allowing the past to become history and the future to remain a mystery.  I have learned how important it is to fully embrace the beauty and power of now, of today,  and to not worry about what was or what may be.  

Personalized Pot Pies

For some reason, this week has turned out to be the week from hell.  There just doesn't seem to be enough time or energy to get everything done that needs to be done.  It is REALLY nice to have Brooke here to cook for us.  If she had not been here today I suspect that dinner would have consisted of leftover Easter candy.  But, since she was here, we had a very good dinner.

Brooke decided that she was going to use up all of the miscellaneous veggies in the fridge by making pot pies.  The problem is that part of what was left was mushrooms; I despise mushrooms and did not want them in my pie.  Brooke is a vegetarian.  Weber wanted chicken in his.  I would rather chicken than mushrooms.  So the final order was

     Brooke - Veggies with mushrooms

     Weber - Veggies with mushrooms and chicken

     Me - Veggies, no mushrooms, and chicken

To keep it all straight, Brooke put our initials in the crust of our personal pies.

These were really good!! With turnips and parsnips and leeks and carrots and broccoli and onions and celery and potatoes and chicken, who needs mushrooms???

92/365 Strut

"Iris, Struttin' Her Stuff"

Most of the iris in the yard are either purple or white.  (See previous post.)  We noticed this one this afternoon amidst a few of the white ones.  I think the colors are magnificent and pretty unique.

Here is a close-up of the colors.

So far this is the only one we have with these colors.

Easter 2013

Easter is an exhausting time for church musicians!  Last week, I sang for seven services and we had an evening of rehearsal,  Come Sunday afternoon, I was super tired.  We did have a fun but fairly low-key Easter celebration.  Fortunately, I was not responsible for much of the cooking.

Brooke flew home last week to surprise Erin.  Erin went to church with us at noon on Friday and then we went to lunch.  This is when we surprised her, though she says that we betrayed her.  Somewhat, maybe.  But in a good way.  This meant that  I had to reconsider some plans that we had made before we decided that Brooke would come home, but it all worked out!  It was nice to have all the girls together.

This also meant that there was one more person to cook on Easter Sunday.  Brooke made a veggie frittata, potatoes and biscuits.  Erin made fruit salad.  And, I made Scotch eggs.  As is usually the case at our family gatherings, there was no shortage of food.

After lunch we played our home grown "egg game."  It involves cards that have you do things such as take an egg, return an egg, swap an egg with another player, or give an egg to another player.  It is fun and kept us all entertained for quite a while.  Each egg has a prize of some kind.  Once the game is over, the prizes are distributed to their rightful owners and then the bargaining begins.  Plants were traded for lottery tickets.  Pencils were traded for puzzles.  Brooke traded something of hers to get me Cozy Monster, an orange Ugly Doll.  This is what Cozy Monster is all about:

"Why does everybody think it's OK to bother poor old Cozy Monster with their troubles and crazy questions about the meaning of life? That's what Cozy Monster would like to know. Is there an "œI was born to answer all your questions" sign on his forehead? Does he even have a forehead? Cozy Monster would love to have some answers himself! Who invented quizzes?! Who came up with taxes?! Why is it that the better the taste, the worse for you it is?! And vice versa. Perhaps you have the answer? If not, you and Cozy will get along just fine."

He and I have a great deal in common!

Several of the prizes in the eggs were bubbles.  All of the kids had the best time playing with the bubbles.  Brooke specifically wanted the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bubbles.

She took her bubble blowing very seriously!

Erin had a few moments of seriousness as well.

Edgar wasn't going to be left out.

Harley had fun chases the bubbles though there were so many she wasn't sure which way to go.

A few more random shots.

It was fun to see them all playing now as adults and remember them as little girls.

When all was said and done, I turned my camera to the iris in the front yard.

This is one of the last blooming purple ones.

The white ones started blooming a little later and we still have many of them.  I thought that this one was particularly pretty.

And, a fitting final picture of Easter 2013.

91/365 Foolish

"God's Fool"

90/365 Basket

"Egg Game 2103"

I have many pictures from our Easter Day together.  My intent is to write a longer post about our day, but I am too tired to do it tonight.  I will write and post about it tomorrow.  

This picture is from the playing of "the egg game."  From left to right the hands are Brooke, Erin, Edgar, Edgar's mom, and his little brother.  Weber, Jason and I were slow to get our hands in the eggs :-)

 One Easter when the girls were much younger, the Easter bunny brought with him rain.  That meant that the girls could not hunt for eggs outside.  As a substitute activity, I created a game involving game cards, eggs, candy and lots of treats.  It has become Erin's favorite Easter tradition, even now that she helps shop for the treats.