The December Photo Project is back for the fourth year!
Come one, come all. Grab your cameras and join me in a photography challenge for the first 25 days of December. Snap a picture each day and show the world what you’re looking at! Drop a comment on the Prairie Box or email me privately, and we’ll list your blog under a December Photo Project heading off to the right once December rolls around.
The excitement begins December 1. Join us! (And stayed tuned for more info about a Flickr Pool… We might use the same one from last year or perhaps I’ll create a new one.)
On Mondays, dance days, I try to keep you down and low-key as long as possible in the afternoon. Today you watch a Sesame Street video while silently sucking your fingers beside me. I try to sleep and feel like I could drift away into hours of rest.
Half an hour before class I rouse you from your dream-watching, enticing you to full awake status with brand new dance tights and a long-sleeved black leotard. You are alert almost immediately and jump eagerly on my bed while I attempt to catch your active toes in the sleeves of white. You pause only momentarily to point your toes—dancers know how to do that after all—then lose all focus with your giddy excitement. The tights are up, the leotard squeezed into and the hunt begins for your ballet slippers. We run to the kitchen for a quick snack of chips and juice, dinner will have to wait until after the oddly meal-timed class is over. You spill the small bowl, I envision cheese powder all over your outfit and give a warning to be careful. Hair pulled up into a bun on the top of your head, bright pink clip in place. You slip on your sneakers, take one last gulp of juice and out the door we go. Without ballet slippers. Once I’ve run back in to get them, we’re on our way across the street and down the block to the old brick building at 8th & D Streets. You bend to the sidewalk and pick up a wrinkled leaf, spotted with caterpillar eggs. It is my treasure to hold and save while you’re at dance. Before we even walk in I know we’ll be greeted by tired moms waiting on the stairs, young toddlers with sticky faces climbing and playing and grabbing legs. We greet our friends, you telling me how much you LOVE Pete and Elsie, and I pull up your tights one final time.
The door opens. You walk in with the others, ready for class to begin. I give one final admonition to be a “good girl” and you nodded with affirmation, as though you never would consider behaving otherwise.
In less than 45 minutes you’ll be at my side again, walking home hand in hand, my adorable ballerina girl. I love you now and forever.
(This is my snapshot of Livia at age 4.)
Me: And you were reading your Bible this morning because why?
Liv: I want Winnie to stop biting me.
Me: How was reading the Bible going to solve that issue?
Livia: God gonna speak to that dog.
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The conversation above came after Jeremy found Liv in bed reading her little pink Bible. She had gotten sick in the night and this morning I told her to stay in bed until I had brought her a drink. While I was downstairs, Liv was reading her Bible to figure out right and wrong. She said that the next time Winnie is sick, Livia will read the Bible to her—apparently to teach the wee dog that biting is wrong. My favorite line, though, is “God gonna speak to that dog.” Love. it.
I realize that I’ve been burning the candle at both ends recently, running back and forth between various responsibilities without much pause for reflection or rejuvenation. I was beginning to treat every activity as an obligation… not a great way to live and definitely not a way to enjoy life! On the heels of the realization comes some small stomach virus that has Liv laid up in bed and me kept at home on a sunny and cold Friday. And you know what? I’m thoroughly enjoying the day. My calendar is cleared, we’ve got groceries in the cupboards, and I have an excuse to go slow.
Most enjoyable of all was thirty minutes of reading Little House in the Big Woods to my daughter. Livia laughed at the story of Pa playing Mad Dog with his daughters, and urged me to keep reading the chapter on Christmas. I love connecting her to a series of books that has brought me so much pleasure over the years.
Livia, with great enthusiasm: Why the moon didn’t eat his lunch?
[grand pause]
Jeremy & Rebecca: I don’t know. Why?
Livia: You supposed to laugh!
Jeremy: You have to finish the joke first!
Liv, still with great enthusiasm: Oh… Why the moon didn’t eat his lunch?
Jeremy & Rebecca: I don’t know. Why?
Liv: Because he a FULL MOON!
[great laughter]
Thanks, Pastor Keith, for teaching our daughter about humor. She learns more than Bible verses when she goes to AWANA.
A group of my friends gets together every week to eat a meal together. One household cooks the meal and everyone else is left to enjoy a night without food prep or cleanup. One of the unofficial rules of community dinner is that you come as you are. Had a rough day? Just come. Feeling tired or more than little introverted? Come anyhow. And stay for as long or as little as you’d like. Sometimes one of us will show up with tupperware, eat a quick meal, then carry some take-out home to an ill roommate, husband or wife. The dinners have pulled us together in a unique way and have created a family where one didn’t exist before. Because of this family attachment, the deep friendship formed over shared meals, we still greatly miss Brook and the O’Donnells.
A year ago we started Needs More Butter as a way to keep track of community dinner recipes. Stop by the site for new meal idea—and to enjoy Renae’s abundance of posts for NaBloPoMo. I’ll post the following recipes on Needs More Butter eventually.
Chicken Lasagna Florentine
Zion Cookbook, Carrie Moseman
- 6 lasagna noodles, prepared according to pkg directions
- 10oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drained well
- 2 C chicken, cooked and chopped
- 2 C shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/3 C onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 – 1/2 t nutmeg
- 1 T cornstarch
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/4 t pepper
- 1 T soy sauce
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
- 8oz carton sour cream
- 4oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1/3 C mayonnaise or salad dressing
- 1 C parmesan cheese
- butter pecan topping (recipe below)
In a bowl, combine spinach, chicken and all remaining ingredients expect parmesan cheese and butter pecan topping. In a lightly greased 11×7 dish, arrange 3 noodles. Spread half of chicken mixture over the noodles. Repeat procedure with remaining noodles and chicken mixture. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and butter pecan topping. Bake lasagna at 350 for an hour, or until heated through.
Butter Pecan Topping: Melt 2 T butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add 1 C pecans and cook 3 minutes. Cool completely.
French Bread (with an Italian flair)
Zion Cookbook, Kristie Strahm
- 3 1/2 C flour
- 1 T sugar
- 1 t salt
- 1 T Italian seasoning
- 1 T rosemary
- 1 1/4 C water, lukewarm
- 2 1/4 t yeast
Place ingredients in a breadmaker on dough cycle. Remove, punch down and roll into a rectangle shape. Roll dough in a jelly roll shape, cut slits in the top, and place on a baking sheet to rise for an hour. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce oven to 375 for 4-8 minutes. Brush melted butter on top and sprinkle lightly with garlic salt.
Charity has her word of the year. Livia has her word of the year, too:
Lightricity.
As in, “Wow, look at that ceiling fan with six bulbs. It must use a lot of lightricity!”
Very smart, my girl.
Watching The Secret of NIMH with Livia.
Unscrewing one burned out light bulb and
Replacing it with another.
Baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and
Thinking they’re a bit underdone.
Pondering twice-baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.
Cooking meatloaf and
Deciding that uncooked meatloaf looks really disgusting.
Believing the title meatloaf is gross, but oh my goodness, all the
Smelling I’m doing right now is making me hungry.
Looking forward to
Worshipping with Redeemer tonight,
Renewing my soul with praise to the Creator.
I’ve noticed that mothers like photos of their children that others may not understand. I am no exception. There are other shots in this series that are easier to like, but I absolutely love this one. Livia has an air about her, a tousled-hair-tired-kid expression that makes me look at her in a new way. I snapped this shot 18 months ago on Father’s Day (note the tattoos) when Livia was, apparently, all tuckered out.
A quick run around the blogosphere this morning reveals lots of plans to vote, a small amount of fear regarding America’s future, and a whole lot of campaign exhaustion.
I’m not exhausted by the campaigns of 2008. Why? We’ve had no access to any television channels… until last night. I picked up a $9.99 antenna from Target and, yippee!, now I can watch the election returns from my own living room. While I’m thrilled to access the world of Oprah, Good Morning America and Jeopardy without paying cable fees, I also realize what a blessing it’s been to have avoided all the paid campaign commercials over the past year. CNN Online and conservative talk radio have made me groan enough—CNN hearts Obama, clearly conservative talk radio hearts McCain, blah blah blah. I can’t imagine how worn out I’d feel after all the negative ads on tv.
After googling “candidates on the issues,” I feel comfortable casting my vote for John McCain.
And you know what I’ll feel comfortable doing after that? Drinking a free Starbucks in the coziness of my own living room. Thank you, cheap antenna.