Overheard:

Need-to-know: Dallas is 5 years old, the older of the two boys I used to babysit.

Nathan:
"Dallas likes to pick up chicks."

After a moment of, "What?" and "Where the heck did he learn that phrase?" I realized Nathan was literally talking about picking up chicks. As in, baby birds. We had ran into Dallas, Andrew, and their dad at Orscheln yesterday. They had come to see the baby birds, and all 4 boys enjoyed picking them up and petting them.

Taco Pasta

A few days ago, for some reason, Paul and I were talking about him cooking. I mentioned a dish he made and brought to me at work when we still lived in the apartment. He apparently thought a lot about it over the next few days, because when I came home from band practice to find him scouring my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for that recipe. He finally found the one he had made - Chili Pasta Skillet - and decided to go to experimenting.
So really, this "food win" is all Paul's.
Basically, brown a pound of hamburger. Add a jar of undrained tomatoes (which would be about equal to 2 cans), a can of drained/rinsed beans, and a packet of taco seasoning. (I later added another half packet, because I like things with some zest.) Bring that all to a boil, then add 3 cups of pasta (we used cavatappi). Reduce the heat, and simmer until pasta is tender (10-15 minutes). Top with cheese, and - yummo!
Paul can add this one to his "Daddy's night to cook" list. It's also going to be really good for those times when we decide to have tacos, really start to crave them, then realize we have no tortillas.

Note to Self:

While considering the obvious places to apply sunscreen (face, shoulders, back of neck), remember your not-so-obvious places as well. Like under your shirt, just above your waistline. Because when you are bending over pulling weeks for 3 hours on a windy day, your shirt will not stay over your pants and your back will be exposed to sunshine.
And sunshine is not kind on your lily-white behind.



(And yes, siblings, I know I do this every year. Because I seriously do forget. Do you think I enjoy being in pain??)

Priviledge?

Nathan's "lovey" - his stuffed animal that he has to take to bed with him is a Beenie Baby white tiger, seriously sun-faded from spending the first 5(+) years of his life on the dash of my husband's truck.
Well, last week, Cat sprung a leak. I started finding the little plastic "beans" around the house. It took me three times of inspecting to finally find the hole on his paw. So earlier this week, we did "surgery" on Cat and sewed up that seam - with blue thread, on the request of Nathan.
While I had my needle out (a rare occurance), I decided to sew up the shirt that Cat wears, too. It's a red shirt that says Tractor Supply Co. that actually was originally on a stuffed Donkey they gave away as a promotion (Aunt Sissy brought some home for the kids at Christmas). The donkey never made it home, but the shirt did.
As I was sewing, I got to thinking - what a privileged country we live in! Not only can we afford to have stuffed animals for our children to play with, but we can afford to have clothes for the stuffed animals. And a step beyond that - there is enough money in this country that businesses can afford to give away stuffed animals wearing clothes!
I'm not saying that our country is evil for us being able to afford these things. It just makes me grateful that we have all these priviledges, when in some countries their children don't even have clothes or enough food.

Overheard:

Mommy, I spilled the potty!

Our toilet is not the greatest. It works, but it's flushing capabilities really could be better. Things flow alot better if you practice what I call the "courtesy flush" - I won't elaborate, but you get the idea. Someone didn't practice the courtesy flush. Then Nathan went potty. And when he saw his potty didn't go down, he flushed again, overflowing the toilet all over the bathroom floor. That's when I realized the concept of the need for plunging toilets is probably a little beyond a 3-year-old's comprehension.

Overheard:

Back story: We went to Home Depot on Friday to get a filter for our water faucet. The store in Olathe had a large display of all of their fountains at the front of the store, which Nathan loved. I had to practically drag him away. He wants to take Paul back to see the "waterfalls."
Well, I got the wrong filters, so today went to the Lawrence store to exchange them. I told Nathan we were going to "the waterfall store" and we finally found the display in their outdoor garden store, but they hadn't filled them with water yet, so they weren't working.



Me: Well, they're not working today. Maybe we can come back another time and they'll be working.
Nathan: Yeah, we'll bring Daddy back and he'll fix them.





(It cracked me up because we were at Home Depot, a place chock-full of tools and installation experts, and in my son's eyes, Daddy is the only one that can possibly fix things right.) (Which he is in Mommy's eyes, too. :) )

Walking Kansas

I'm participating in a challenge called Walk Kansas this spring. It consists of teams of 6 collectively walking the distance across the state of Kansas (423 miles), over 8 weeks (it breaks down to 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week, for each team member). I did this challenge 4 years ago when I was pregnant with Nathan (has it really been that long?!), and the 8 weeks of participating created a habit of exercise that continued all 9 months of my pregnancy, which was the last time I exercised regularly (except for a brief spate last fall).
We're at the beginning of week 4 for Walk Kansas. Our team consists of me, my mom, my sisters, my best friend Brooke, and my good friend/other sister Christina. We are definitely not in the lead. But really I don't care about that. What I care about is that we're all being challenged to eat better and exercise consistently. We all have been trying before this, and now we're all kind of accountable to each other.
However, the weather is not cooperating. We've probably averaged only 4 days a week where it wasn't raining or below 40 - and at least for me, it seems like those days are the days your schedule makes it so you can't exercise.. And every "nice" day is accompanied by wind. And every route I walk has at least one spot where the wind blows across an open field and will about blow you over.
I'm enjoying it. A lot. I crave the time I get to exercise, and be alone to think, to pray, to have imaginary conversations...... When I walk, I walk for an hour - usually somewhere around 3.5 miles. (I should be able to do it faster, but the gravel, the wind, and the hills slow me down - this ain't like walking on a treadmill, folks!)

I have noticed a few things while walking:

1. There are only 2 routes I can go that are dog-free, meaning either no one owns dogs, or they keep them penned up. I don't want to break up a dog fight, but my dog won't stay home. If I step outside in my tennis shoes, he just knows, and refuses to let me catch him. I've even tried tricking him and going out barefoot or in sandals, and he still somehow knows.


2. Our dog will always poop exactly 1/2 mile into the walk. And usually again at about 2 miles later.


3. 86% of the cars that pass me come up from behind. And of those cars, I'm pretty sure 63% of them throw up a little at the sight of my backside jiggling as I hoof it down the road.


4. You find interesting stuff along side of the road. Last time I did this, I found a magazine all about marijuana - Weed Weekly or something like that. Today, I found a Winchester folding knife with a belt clip. That's going to become part of the regular walking gear.


5. Walking will do wonders for toning up your ankles. Okay, normally we think about our calves getting toned, but honestly, the fat was creeping down the calf and getting dangerously close to becoming a cankle. I'm happy to announce that it's no longer cankle-izing.


6. Walking takes care of back problems. My theory is that in walking and swinging your arms, holding your shoulders back and not slumping, you get everything lined up in your back and strengthen the muscles that hold them in place. Paul refuses to believe me on this and still goes to the chiropractor, even though every time my back has started bothering me, a few days of fitness walking (not meandering, walking with kids, or walking at work), and it has fixed itself.


7. I fully endorse lolly-gagging the last 1/4 mile. It will eliminate sore muscles. My neighbors probably think I'm [even more] insane, because when I get to their house, I start doing kick-steps, knee lifts, and wide-to-each-side steps to stretch everything as I cool down.

There are other interesting things, but I've got 4 weeks left to do this, so I'm sure I'll be talking about it again.