Thus ended the constant fighting over whose turn it was to play with the balloon

image diary 2.17.09

Blessings

To be living my chapter I recently completed a survey for the department from which I earned my degree. Part of the survey asked a bunch of questions in order to quantify the amount of time I spend maintaining and furthering the education I received in college. I felt a little discouraged after answering those questions. It was made categorically clear to me how much time I do not spend on myself as opposed to in my college years. In that moment, something came to mind. In a Relief Society lesson a couple of years ago the topic was family history. I felt so overwhelmed. There is so much that we are to be doing. A very inspired sister made a comment about how our lives have chapters, and that with each chapter we get new opportunities to serve in different ways. I acknowledge how short my chapter of being a mom with young kids will be. I am so grateful to be in a position to live that chapter in the fullest way and I am truly thankful to be able to spend so much of my time and energy mothering. I'm grateful to have lived past pre-mom chapters in my life so fully. I know that new chapters will come where I will have more time for other kinds of service and self development. 

A lovely Saturday with all my Valentines We did not end up going sledding due to the fact the conditions were pretty slushy in the afternoon. Fine by me. We had fun hanging out at home. Grace and I gave each other manicures. Grant gave me extra kisses (because I asked for them). Cori took the kids for a bit and came home with lunch and flowers. The holiday was topped with an evening out sans kiddos.  Cori took me to golf the back nine at Pebble Beach (via a virtual golf simulator- we got to use our own clubs and soak up the Southern sun) and then to a fancy restaurant for a steak dinner (which we shared). It has been a while since we have had such a large chunk of time to spend in uninterrupted conversation. Man, I love that guy.

happy st. valentine's day

Our house as it looked yesterday morning; our house as it looked this morning

Just in case we were thinking of forgetting about it still being February, it snowed last night. Fortunately, our holiday breakfast menu included pink, heart-shaped, apple pancakes and cheesy eggs, sunny side up.  And lots of valentines. No one had much chance of being grumpy about the snow outside. In fact, we are going to take the kids sledding after Grant's nap. And then tonight there is a babysitter coming and Cori and I are going out. By ourselves. For the first time in a while. I'm so very happy.

From Gracie to her Dad:

And a happy St. Valentine's Day to you!

kiddie tracks

Butternut Mulligatawny

Studying in London with BYU had innumerable perks. One being staying at the BYU center, a stately flat down the street from Hyde Park and around the corner from Anthony Hopkin's London home. Nice neighborhood. One of the things that made staying at the BYU flat so perky was the South African couple who reside in the bottom floor apartment of the center. Tony and Tina are the caretakers of the center and of the students and staff. They laid out breakfast every morning, cooked dinner for us nearly every night, and filled the larder with leftovers that we could raid for lunch. It was from their kitchen that I first had Mulligatawny soup. I loved it instantly and have had it only a few times since my time in London.

I took a crack at making it myself the other night, and really liked how it turned out. This recipe isn't for the rustic chunky kind of mulligatawny that Tony and Tina made us. But it is smooth, savory and delish. I started with this recipe from the Food Network. Then due to Cori's allergy to lentils and the availability of certain ingredients I changed it up a bit. The great thing about mulligatawny is that you can add any vegetable you want to it; Potatoes, carrots, green beans, squashes, legumes of any kind, and even chicken or tofu would all be very much at home in this pot. This recipe has you puree the soup, but it is just as delicious left with hearty chunks. You can make it completely your own!

Butternut Mulligatawny Soup

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large Spanish onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 9 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
• fresh cilantro
• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk, with 1/2 cup reserved
• salt and pepper to season

Directions

• Heat the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook, stirring, until browned, about 12 minutes. Lower the heat to medium, stir in the coriander, cumin, and turmeric, cook until fragrant, stirring, for about 45 seconds. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute more.
• Pour in the broth and about 1 1/2 cups of the coconut milk and bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Add the cubed squash to the thickened broth, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, until very tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a bit. 
• Working in batches, transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until smooth, or puree with and immersion blender. 
• Serve immediately garnished with chopped cilantro and a spoonful of coconut milk. Makes 6-8 servings. (I dumped half the pot into a gallon sized ziplock and laid it flat to freeze in the freezer. Once it is hard it will slide like a thin book to fit anywhere in the freezer.)

From the library

Grace and I took a little outing to the library Saturday afternoon. I had a couple things I was looking for and Grace had a list of her own. She wanted a book about a bear and a book about a mouse. We settled on a bear book, and then she saw this on the shelf: Mouse Cookies and More, A Treasury by Laura Numeroff. I picked it up and we headed for home. 

It has been a most entertaining find. It includes 4 books: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, and If You Take a Mouse to School. It also includes pages of activities (Like making your own sock puppets, or how to explode a messy volcano), recipes, sheet music, and puzzles that coordinate with each book. AND it also comes with a CD that has readings of each story - one performed by David Hyde Pierce which made me so happy, and recordings of the sheet music songs. We have really had fun reading, listening and doing the puzzles. No messy volcanoes yet.

I have childhood memories of reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you haven't read any of the books, the basic premise is that the animal asks for one thing, which reminds the animal that they need another thing, and then another, and then another. At the end of each story, the child who has been helping the animal is completely pooped. Reading the story through adult eyes I see where Numeroff was going. My little girl might as well be any one of those critters and I the child constantly attending to and cleaning up after her. Gracie seems to appreciate the irony as well. We had this conversation at the end of our last reading:

Grace: Mom, that boy is really tired.

Me: Yes, you are right. That's how Mommy feels sometimes.

Grace: Sigh. Yeah, I know.