A new Arm

Food and Family

Well a weeks worth of food and I only have two shots to show for it. On thursday night we had chili dogs. Wicked good chili dogs. The dogs were actually the good breakfast sausages and it was more like a thick bean stew/sauce but whatever the ingredients it was an awesome way to get the weekend started. Then here on Sunday evening I whipped up a vegetarian lasagna. The brown beans in sauce were a little sweet but the overall effect was nice.

We did up a double shepherd's pie last night, one topped with mashed potatoes and the other topped with mashed yam. It was so tasty we had to have some friends over for dinner. I just didn't get around to the camera so your imaginations will have to provide the rest.

Now compared to the spartan visual fare that our dinners provided this week we have a lavish spread of family photos courtesy of the two oldest kids. The batteries on the camera are now low again but that is the cost of doing business. And it ain't that steep. Instant noise makers. Yes they worked very very well.

Possible Christmas Card Candidates

So the Mrs. heads for bed but the boy isn't quite ready. So he is out in the living room with his dad who is enjoying a cold one at the end of the weekend. After crawling here and trying to stand there where does his head come to rest. Right on top of Santa.

Typical Dinner

Afternoon movie equals dinner time nap.

Frustration

Every have those technology troubles. You know, your browser won't connect. You keep getting those "should we send and error report" messages for some program that won't run. Tonight it is Youtube that won't upload my video. It is a minute 14 MB but no can't be having any of that. I keep getting these error messages. It is so freaking frustrating. All I want to do is share my creative work with the world. However, the internet is not cooperating. So I shall now try my blog and see if good old blogger is better than youtube. Fingers crossed.

As blogger doesn't have a status bar I have no idea who is currently winning. Youtube is at 7% after about 7 minutes. Yeah it seems like a long time to me too.

Oh a quick jump to 13% for you tube. At 16% and I am now not going to check Youtube for 3 minutes and see how far we get. So seen any good movies lately. Man there is really nothing worse to watch then a computer processing. Some day people will say, "A watched computer never loads," rather than, "a watched pot never boils." 2 minutes to go. Okay 3 minutes and 26%. That is 3.3 percent a minute. With 75% left that is 25 minutes to go. I have my money on blogger here.

I'm going to get a book to read. 10 minutes later and we are at 43%. Yup we are gonna be here all night.


So it is now 5:30 am and I have woken up from my couch nap to find the video ready to go.
Here is the overdubbed version with the kids voices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEz7sD823F0&feature=channel

Hope you liked it.

Friday Night Pizza

Doesn't she look pleased. It must be the pizza. Once again 2 to 1 for white to whole wheat flour in the crust. Standard amounts. Sauce on first, then in the oven, then topped while sitting on the stone. The kids had crushed pineapple tonight. It was harder to put on but I think it still went well. The adults had olives, red pepper, mushrooms, onions and gypsy salami. I think we are going with gypsy salami as our featured processed topping. It has the heat, doesn't have that greasy oily salami feel which I don't like. Not to dry. It feels just about right.
The littlest kid is definitely a going concern. Getting around, eating anything he can find on the floor. He also likes to pull himself up and see what is going on at the higher elevations.As for me I had a pretty full and very satisfying day. Ate breakfast, marked tests, did yoga, ate lunch, went for run, had a dentist visit and made pizza. We are now going to watch the movie, "Caroline." No idea what it is about but the daughter has seen part of it and wants to see the rest. Lots of pizza leftovers. You'll need to be here before lunch to have a shot at them. Breakfast would probably be safer.

TGIT

Well I made it. I think I am way way over tired because I am currently nursing one of my every other year, non hangover head aches. I even did a little yoga this morning but I just think the lack of sleep and long days has caught up with me. However, I have arrived at the beginning of my three day weekend so I should be all caught up by Sunday. As for dinner it was smokies and yam fries tonight. The Mrs. chipped in with a pasta salad. I am now thoroughly stuffed and other than pining for some beers life is good. I hope to be in bed and asleep by 8:00. Rots of ruck.

Mother and Child

Nope, no family picks. Just some Oyako-don (chicken and egg stew over rice). Both kids started off pre dinner with an unwarranted yuck. Mom was quite disheartened however in the end both bowls were quickly quaffed and all was right with the world. The oyako don was made with some lovely chunks of carrot. I had a lot of broth in mine and it was lovely and warming on this blustery fall day.In other events the daughter had her second filling (first was two weeks ago) and then had to go to dance class. Dancing with a numb face. It still went okay. Tonight was the parents come and watch evening. We had our whole crew there and though the boys were quite restless we made it through. When the daughter wasn't trying to talk with her family and was actually paying attention she looked pretty good. Well it is brush teeth book time here. One more day of work this week... I think I can.

Back to Back to basics

Yes, this is a second meal in two nights. Similar in colour pallette but quite different in taste. This evening we were regaled with haru-maki, stir fried cabbage and rice. I used a little bit of sweet chilli sauce on the haru-maki and it was perfect. Feeling a little beat tonight and the rest of the family is too. Except for the middle boy who had a three hour nap this afternoon and is now running around the house like a mad man. The daughter had a tough time getting through her home reading after a long day at school and a skating practice. However, with some food in her she is slowly coming back to life. Just in time for bed, one might notice.

I had an interesting chat with my mom last night. I was talking about my kid getting a lead role in the school's christmas pageant and how that feels like it kind of flies right in the face of my whole socialist tendancy. It was a pretty good conversation and really forced me to look deeper into my own beliefs. Is there room for excellence and striving to reach the top in a system which is trying to create greater equality for all? I think possibly my competitive tendancies been beaten down by the system I work in where everyone has to be special and no one should be the best. Just to clarify, I am not throwing over all of my values here but I am definitely having a bit of a rethink. If I find any answers you may hear about it.

Recommitment

So its sunday night. Below is a picture of Sunday dinner. Yes I am going to try and get back on the bus.
The daughter was the inspiration behind this evenings main course. With the son and I off for an afternoon jaunt to work she and the Mrs. put together the fabulous meal. The pasta dish was done in a light cream sauce notably adding her favourite feta cheese to the mix. This sauce was added to some nicely sauteed chicken, onions and carrots. The final product was then mixed with spaghetti noodles. It was very lightly seasoned and the kids both gobbled it up.

The salad was green and a veritable flavour explosion. The soup was also quite nice. Squash and turkey if I do not miss my guess. The Mrs. has already retired for the evening so I cannot verify this.

Post dinner we had a lighting fast bath time so that the kids could watch the Empire Strikes Back. Oh Luke just lost his hand. I then went for a run. With the craziness of late I just have not been able to get the exercise in. But tonight I went for a modest run and I am going to get back to it. It may snow and get crappy but I am determined to make it happen through this winter.

Winter Arrives

So we got our first taste of winter today. So of course we came home from school and started making a snow man.
Rumour has it that the man got crashed down and we now have a snow dog. I have yet to investigate but judging by how wet these kids were when they came back in there was definitely some serious snow play afoot.


Here is the littlest practicing standing. Walking can't be far away now. Then nothing will be safe.They say that when kids start crawling it has a big impact on brain development. Something about the right arm left leg coordination that brings things along. Well we have definitely noted a huge change in the littlest. When ever you change activity he totally reacts. For example if I am holding him and put him down he freaks out. However, if I sit with him and play for a bit then he gets into playing and everything is okay.
And finally we have dinner. Remember, this is a blog about dinner. The Mrs. went with finger food this evening and it worked. I shaked and baked some chicken. We got some home fries with yams. The Mrs. got brie cheese and crackers. Some kids salsa and nacho chips. A little green salad.

A lovely end to the week.

A little light Youtubing.

Well I spent the early part of the evening with the kids surfing through a bunch of related youtube videos. The jumping off point was this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR3-CKTZetM&feature=related

Then later on I was surfing around on my own and came to this video. I thought it was very well done. I hope you do too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ&feature=related

Up to no good.

Well we just finished watching up and though I felt it was a pretty good ending the kids were sad that the old man lost his house. I can see that, but it sort of misses the point. So here is the question. Is it for me to spell out the point. Being someone who loves to fill people in, help them get the point, show them the way, it is really hard for me not to. Yet sometimes the best things you learn in life your learn by yourself. Definitely one of my tougher challenges.

It was kind of interesting watching a movie about a flying ship when we created this underwater explorer before dinner. I am telling you Magnablox are easily the coolest upgrade on lego you can imagine. As a teacher of math it is also nice to see all the solids I deal with in class being represented and created by my four year old. The challenges of putting the pieces together is dynamic problem solving hidden in play. Or is that just a definition for play.

Seeing as I am blogging I thought I might was well share our dinner with you all. We had leftover spaghetti and meatballs. The spaghetti was the really thin stuff. I prefer the thicker stuff but it was still. The potato salad was a pumpkin and yam salad. It was good but sweet. The kids were not having any of it. The green salad was nice with a vinegar onion dressing. Finally a shot of the youngest looking ready for dinner.

The After Math.

This is what is meant by counting all the different types of Candies you received on Halloween. I remember doing this religiously as a kid. Four Kit Kats, 3 Wunderbars, 2 Bags of Chips, 7 Lollipops. My kids are not there yet. They are just buried under these massive piles of candy.Currently, they are trying to decide which two candies they are going to have today. This is the rule in our house. I may have commented on it before. A child is allowed two candies a day until the end of time. Or till their dad surreptitiously eats half of it over the course of three late nights and one Sunday when the kids go to the park for an hour. Seriously though we will be regifting some at christmas. I am coming around to this new Halloween rule. The "Gorge yourself for four days and then throw any leftovers out" rule (I don't think we ever actually followed this rule to be clear) somehow seems very Scottish to me. If you are going to do something bad do it to the max so that you feel horrible for having done it and repent. Seriously a crazy haul. I can't imagine what their friends who had pillow cases, a driver and a mission hauled in. When we saw them the cases were half full and the kids weren't flagging. We on the other hand were already done.

Turns out he will crawl for candy.