Jake's Birthday Celebration: A Few Photos

 My handsome birthday man going through his Paintball Safety Briefing.

 Nick, Jake, and Friends ready to eat some paint.

 Group shot after a hard afternoon of paintball fun.

 Someone had to throw that last smoke bomb. 

The small things that entertain male preteens....red smoke and paintball masks...LOL!

Tasty Tuesday - White Asparagus Soup

While I was in Germany for my graduation I ate at a local restaurant and had some homemade White Asparagus Soup.  It was WONDERFUL!  I came across some white asparagus at our local grocery store and attempted to make some myself.  It wasn't as good as what I had in the restaurant but it was pretty yummy.  So....today I am going to share this awesome recipe.  Hope you enjoy it :)

For copyright purposes, this recipe was found at:  White Asparagus Soup.

White Asparagus Soup

Makes 6 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. chopped onion (1 small)
• 2 T. butter
• 1 1/2 -2 lb. white asparagus, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces, heads reserved
• 6 c. broth, either chicken or vegetable
• 1/2 c. half and half cream
• Salt, to taste
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste
• Dry white wine, to taste
• Parsley for garnish

Preparation:

Make sure you peel white asparagus before you chop it into small pieces.

Sauté the onion in the butter until soft in the bottom of a 4 quart saucepan. Add the pieces of asparagus (minus the heads) and steam for 5 minutes. Add the broth and boil gently for about 30 minutes, or until the asparagus is very soft.

Purée the soup in batches in the blender (place a towel over the lid and hold down the lid so the hot soup does not splatter) or with a hand blender and return to pan.

Bring to a simmer and add the reserved asparagus heads. Cook at least 5 minutes, or until they are fork-tender. Turn down the heat and add the cream. Do not boil further.

Taste and add salt and freshly ground pepper as needed. You may also want to add a few spoonfuls of white wine, if you think the soup needs acidity. Garnish with parsley.

I am such a MEAN mom!

We just made it through the first week of summer and I am already hearing "I don't have ANYTHING to do" a gazillion times.  Let me mention that last week we kept pretty busy.

Jake's week at a glance:

1. Karate Camp

2. Baseball Practice

3. Open Rec at the Youth Center

4. Early Birthday Party at Paintball facility.

5. Family afternoon in Bury Saint Edmonds

Kortney's week at a glance:

1.  YES Volunteering for Scholarship Money

2.  Pilates with Mom

3.  Work at Commissary

4.  Tea Party with Mom

5.  Family afternoon in Bury Saint Edmonds

Since October we have moved to another country, taken a trip back to the states for a funeral, made 2 trips to Germany, and been on several local trips here in England.  Not to mention just normal life stuff thrown in between that mix.  For this summer we have decided to keep things low key, mixed with structure so that we can all feel a sense of normalcy. That means we are not traversing the world on trips and we are staying close to home for a nice quiet summer. 

Kortney's Summer at a Glance:

1.  YES Voluneering for Scholarship Money

2.  Yearly job at Commissary

3.  Summer Hire job at Base Hospital

4.  Youth Camp at Wales

5.  Study German 2 materials so she can test out of German 2 when school starts and jump right into German 3.

6.  Study/Read AP European History summer enrichment materials to prep for August's class start date.

Jake's Summer at a Glance:

1.  Baseball all summer

2.  Water Zorbing field trip

3.  Karate year round

4.  Laser Tag field trip

5.  Youth Camp at Wales

6.  Swimming field trip

7.  Universal Class - Math Review Course

8.  Universal Class - World Religions Course

I love my kids and I love spending time with them during the summer break; however, I don't feel that it is my job to entertain every minute of every day there is not something going on. I'm sure many of you feel the same way. So, I have come up with a solution for my family.  If there is enough time to be bored, then there is enough time for learning.

Here is where I am now a MEAN mom!  I just signed Jake up for two Universal Class Courses.  If he has enough time to be bored, then as I said there is enough time for learning.  It is obvious that there needs to be more structure and routine for Jake.  That said here is our new structure:

Before videos, computer time, and video game time is allowed the following has to be completed:

1.  Daily chores are complete.
2.  Two chapters from the Bible are read.
3.  Personal Prayer time.
3.  One hour of reading from a text list I created for him.
4.  One assignment from Universal Class has to be done everyday.

Kortney is pretty self-motivated so as long as she is keeping up with everything then I let her do things in whatever order she pleases.  If that changes, then I will add structure to her days too.

The big news today in my family is that I am a MEAN kind of mom!

More
Educational
Assignments
Nightly

I think I like my definition of "mean".  Cheers!

Danielle

January's Journey To Health Update

It is said that a habit is hard to break. It is also said that it takes 21 days for a habit to establish itself. I know many people set New Year's Resolutions this time of year. I also know that many of those resolutions don't make it until the end of January. I used to be one of those people. That is why I don't set resolutions for myself anymore. However, this year I did set forth some wellness goals for myself. YAY...I have to say I am pretty excited about my health goals for January, 2012. I met every goal that I had set for myself. YAHOO!!!

Weight Loss: My goal was to lose 5 pounds and I lost 6. Only 6 more to go to my goal weight. Ok...I didn't have a whole lot to lose but that "Holiday 10" had to go. My clothes were getting snug and I can't be having any of that...LOL! I worked too hard 3 years ago to get out of the plus size clothing section. If my weight is something that I can control (not health related)...I am going to be responsible and take care of myself.

I'll be honest....at first I was a bit discouraged about "only" losing 5-6 pounds.  I mean the first two weeks of changing my diet and adding exercise felt like torture....I was always hungry and my body was sore in all different places.  Surely, I should have lost more than 5-6 pounds??  Then I watched What Does 5 Pounds of Fat Look Like?.  After I watched this video I no longer felt like all my work was in vain.

Working Out: My goal was to work out on average 4 times a week and I met this goal. I was so excited about this. My strategy was to workout 6 days a week. I followed this schedule:

Mon-Weds-Fri: Walk/Jog on the treadmill for 45 minutes.
Tues: Pilates for 60 minutes
Thurs-Sat: Strength Training

I haven't ever worked out 6 times in a week...but as long as I have certain activities scheduled for certain days I have no excuse. The motivation is there when I already know what I am going to do for a workout. I have found this method to be very successful. YAY!

Program: Last time around I used Weight Watchers. This time I am using www.sparkpeople.com. SparkPeople is a program that counts calories, encourages exercise, and emphasizes an overall healthy lifestyle. It's not just about changing one aspect of your health...but as many as you can for complete wellness.

One aspect of the program that I really like is that you can run reports to keep up with your progress.  The  picture below is a screen shot of my "Calories Burned from Workouts."

There is also an iPhone and iPad app for Sparkpeople. I use my iPad all the time to log my food and exercise. Very handy! I don't think I would have been this successful had I not used the iPad app.

Overall Stats for January:

Minutes Exercised: 759 (averages out to about 25 minutes a day).
Calories Burned by Exercising: 2750
Workouts: 4 times a week.

**I didn't keep track of my mileage for January**

I am really excited to see what I can accomplish in February!!!

The Living Room

Quite a few people have been asking for pictures of our house.  I can never seem to get pictures when everything is clean all at the same time so I though I would just share a room at a time.  The first room I will share is the Living Room.  Keep in mind when looking at these pictures that my living room is about double the size of most living rooms here in the local area.  We were very lucky when we got this house.  It was the first and only house we had to look at.  We actually had to make a decision right on the spot as there was another family taking a second look at the house after our viewing.  I kinda felt bad about swiping this house out from someone...but only for a few seconds.  You snooze you loose....LOL!

 I don't like how my curtains are tied together right now.  But...I've not got the hooks for the tie backs anchored to the wall.  So, I tie the tie back around the curtain.  We don't get much sunlight here so I let it in when I can.  One day I will get the anchors up...LOL!

The black recliner was Nick's Christmas present this past year.  

We did have an ugly cream colored one that was an eye-sore.  

I totally love the red pillows.  They have raised flowers on them with a diamond looking center.  I found them at a local store here in England.

This is an ALL wool...totally handmade rug that Nick bought on one of his trips to Turkey.  We've been afraid to use it since we have the kids and the dog.  This rug was not cheap!  But...we decided to try and use it here.  No food or drinks allowed in the living room and shoes off at the front door.  So far...so good!!!   

Also, since we decided to use this rug we changed the colors of the living to room to include red.  We've never had red and black before.  I kinda like it though!!!  Black is my very favorite color!!

Dumb Dog

Many of you know that I refer to our dog Hazelnut as "Dumb Dog."  Not so much because she is actually dumb, but rather she is SO smart.  Hazel is one of the best dogs I have ever owned.  Although her puppy years were filled with frustration she has permanently become a member of our family.  So much so that she thinks she is human.  

Check out the pictures below.

I was working on laundry and I walked by Jake's room and this is what I saw.  Mind you both Jake and Kortney were in school.  I don't mind Hazel being in the kids' bed...but...she has her own blanket she is supposed to lay on so it's easier to keep everything clean.  

1).  She's not on her own blanket...but lying directly on the sheets.  

2).  Her head is on his pillow...LOL!  

I find her like this quite often....silly girl!!

This picture was taken 5 minutes later.  When I walked in and caught her in the first picture...she decided to move to her own blanket.  She thought she was going to get into trouble.  Notice though how she is only half way on her blanket and still lying on Jake's pillows.  If bedroom doors are left open I will find her rotating between Kortney's bed and Jake's bed.  A long time ago for one of my Creative Writing classes I actually wrote a sonnet about Hazel. 

I am sharing it below. 

 Not the best...but...I thought it was quite funny!!

Dumb Dog

A chocolate brown lab, tall with skinny legs

A loud mouth to boot, always making noise.

Annoyingly close, at dinner-time begs

Chewing on everything but her own toys.

Up early every morning to go pee,

As soon as she’s out all she does is bark.

A great pain in the rear, my dog is she.

White scratches on the door, she leaves her mark;

Restless all day she paces and she roams.

Anxious, excited, never stops to rest,

Eager she waits for the kids to come home.

They walk through the door, and I am quite stressed.

       The house becomes wild, my mind’s in a fog,

       All because of the stupid, brown, dumb dog.

The Winning Shot

Last night Jake had a basketball game.  His team did a great job.  It was their 5th game and thus far they had not had a win.  Let me just point out that technically in this basketball league there are no winners and losers.  However, at 11 years old...they know who wins and who loses.

Last night the game ended in a tie so they went into a 3 minute overtime and my little man made the winning shot for the team.  The score ended 18 to 16.  Now...I'm not trying to brag on Jake...but...taking that shot was huge for him.  Until this winning shot he had not even attempted to shoot the ball out of fear of letting his team down by missing a shot.  He overcame that fear this game and went for the shot.  It was a beautiful shot and really helped him with his self-esteem with his basketball abilities.

Jake mostly plays defense.  Tonight he did a really good job within defensive role.  I got a couple of shots on my camera.  I don't take the best pics but I wanted to share a few.

I love this shot!!  Check out Jake stealing the ball from the opposing team.

Jake passing the ball to his teammate.

I think there are about 11 games left in the season.  It is exciting to see the changes and the growth in all the kids as the season progresses.  GO NUMBER 22!!!  GO LAKERS!!!!