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Monday, February 8, 2016

February 8, 2016








What a great Monday.  Seriously.

One step starts a journey, right?  Well, I did half an hour of yoga in my room before breakfast...with the door locked.  Because I hate exercising alone and being seen.  Eeeep!  I liked it though, and it got my heart rate up, and I had a great day.  So hopefully tomorrow is day #2!

I'm out of chocolate (vegan) protein powder, so I used the vanilla (dairy whey) kind....which I don't like the taste, and it gives me a stomach ache.  Not actually too sad when two kids asked for cups of my protein-filled, half-spinach, smoothie.  Better nutrition that cinnamon toast crunch, right?

Kids all did well in school.  I saw a bug downstairs, so lunch break came half an hour early as I demanded EVERYTHING be off the carpet so I could vacuum.  Ew ew ew.  Pretty sure it's brand new carpet, so that's nice at least.  I don't know what kind of bug it was (just like I don't recognize any plants or birds here) and that's always a little disconcerting.  Ernie has moved from studying the southeast and southwest and northeast states to the midwest.  It's rather dry going, so I look for a few new materials to help her remember things a bit easier.  We're trying a "doodle journal" for her notes about the regions- a piece of paper in her notebook that will just have all the info she needs.  I posted my example on Facebook, because E thought it was funny.  My friends wanted to know why there was a bunny (it was a bison), why there was a snake licking a picture of Kansas (it was a picture of the East Wind), and why there was a fish ball kabob (it was the prayer beads of a rosary.)  Obviously, I am not a good drawer.  BUT, as my fourth-grade-teacher pointed out on the same post: I KNOW WHAT IT ALL MEANS.  So I guess that's my goal for E- her own version of things to help her remember what's important.  And someday I will be able to doodle.  I just need another three decades of practice.  Practice makes perfect, I'm sure.

I locked myself in my room after school to finish J's Valentine's Day present- it's absolutely goofy and wonderful and I love it to pieces.  I don't know if he will feel the same way though.  I need to find time to make the kids' gifts- I'm pretty excited about them, but I think they need to be done after the kids go to bed because they involve paint and drying time.  And paint brushes.  I haven't found my paintbrushes yet.

Yesterday we celebrated Chinese New Years.  But, I fell asleep till 5 after church and our potsticker wrappers were in the freezer, not the refrigerator.  Oh well!  I made steamed greens beans with pickled mustard greens, rice with dried chinese sweet sausage (a kid favorite here), and a kind of hot pot seasoned with peppercorns, green onions, star anise and a couple other things I can't remember.  I cooked fish balls, napa cabbage, vermicelli, and shiitake mushrooms.  We had moon cake and tong yuen (boiled mochi served with brown sugar) for the dessert.

SO, the potsticker wrappers were perfectly thawed tonight and we had a fun family night mixing up the filling, and pleating and cooking (and eating!) the potstickers.  J fried the rest of the filling with leftover rice for a nice fried rice too, and we had mooncake and apple slices for dessert.  

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