The New Coop

We got a new chicken coop a couple of weeks ago. It looks a lot nicer than what Peter created out of an old dogloo and pvc pipe; it's more functional too. The chickens must like it because it only took a day or two in the new coop before we got our first egg.

We now have four chickens. I've delayed writing about our newest addition because we didn't know if we would keep her or not. She is younger than the others and is in her own make-shift house until she gets big enough to defend herself. Now we understand the meaning behind the phrase "pecking order." We've also named all four birds and I've added them to our sidebar.

Big Girl

Taylor just had her pre-kindergarten dentist and doctor visits. To celebrate her bravery and cooperation we took a hike to a place I discovered while getting lost on one of my runs. It's an easy mile-or-so hike to a nice view of the city, the bay, and the temple. It took us over an hour to get there because we had to stop for each lady bug and slug along the way.

Here is Laruyn pouting. When she realized I was going to take her picture she turned her back on me.

I haven't quite figured out how to take a self portrait with our camera.

The view of the LDS temple.

More "No Nap" Footage

"No Nap"

Lauryn has been refusing to take a nap in the afternoon and the result is that she crashes around dinner time. Taylor and I thought this was so funny.

I did move Lauryn to the couch. I'm not that mean.

Breaking News...Literally

It's almost 5 AM and I've been up since 3:45 when I heard a crashing sound. "Did you hear that?" I asked Peter, "No, what?" My mind searched for what it could have been; a toy falling off Taylor's bed? Poorly stacked dishes in the drying rack? Well, unfortunately it was neither of those things. This is what I found. A rock thrown through our huge front window.

That's the rock under the curtain. The police have come and gone but didn't do much. We've cleaned up the mess and put down some old vinyl table cloths to catch the shards of glass when they finally fall. The window sounds like the crackle of a dying fire and could fall at any moment. We hope we have a good insurance policy. This is not the way we wanted to start our Sunday morning, and this lack of sleep will not help us recover from the nasty colds that we're fighting. I'm going to try and go back to bed. I miss living in the mountains where vandalism like this is not so common.

Surprise!

When I got home last night from Youth Conference, Peter said, "There's a surprise for you in the fridge." What could it be? A yummy chocolate treat from his work? Flowers? (I'm not sure why these things would be in the fridge). Instead it was a small brown egg. The first egg from one of our chickens! Taylor was so excited to eat it this morning.

Taylor likes "eggs that yoke" or fried eggs.

The Secret to Grocery Shopping with Kids

Does anybody know what it is? Because I haven't figured it out yet. A trip to the store with Taylor and Lauryn is usually an embarrassing experience and yesterday was no exception, and unfortunately we had to stop by Costco and Safeway. Apparently I wasn't the only one exhausted after our trip. Here's Lauryn falling asleep while finishing her lunch.

Seven

That's the number of tantrums Lauryn had yesterday and three of them were before 8AM. But who's counting?

Now You See It...Now You Don't

We got rid of our metal tool shed last weekend. We found a guy on craigslist who wanted it and he came and hauled it away.

I Created a Hazard

Yesterday I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of stairs. To have carpet or not to have carpet? That is the question. Our stairs have a very dirty runner and even dirtier carpet on the landing between the two staircases. Heidi encouraged us to simply get rid of all the carpet because it's such a high-traffic area and it's difficult to keep clean. We have a dumpster here right now for our office remodel and so I finally decided to take advantage of that and rip out the carpet on the landing and the lower three stairs (to see what it would look like). The landing is beautiful hardwood like the rest of the house. The lower three stairs are not so nice since they go into the "basement". Peter cleaned the landing last night with furniture polish which made is super slippery. This morning Taylor woke up early and came downstairs. Before she got to the landing I explained to her that it would be slippery and warned her to be careful. Her solution: to jump over the landing. Which of course she couldn't do and she ended up on her butt, fortunately unhurt. I was in the half bath, just off of the landing, when Peter came down stairs. I heard him say, "Be careful not to slip-" which was followed by a loud crash, like a 6'5" man just fell down the stairs. I opened the door to find him on his back. Again, fortunately not hurt. I'm glad I didn't take the carpet off the real staircase. With no hand rail it would be like a bumpy toboggan run. My conclusion: I'm glad I took the carpet off the landing because the floor is nice, but I would like to get a stay-in-place, padded area rug. Our stairs however are too steep and narrow to be safe without carpet.

Reflections of a Non-Cook

Many of you know that my mother-in-law, Heidi, is an awesome cook. A professional, in fact, since she serves meals during the spring, summer, and fall to guests of the Marble Mountain Ranch. And I must say, having worked there many summers, I think it's her meals that keep the guests coming back. She understands food. She can taste a fancy dessert and then go home and recreate it. Anyway, I'm nothing like that. As you can see from my previous post, I don't understand how food works. Peter jokes that I've never followed a recipe; I'm always substituting ingredients because I want to make the dish healthier or because I simply don't have something in the kitchen. It's pretty funny that on the same day I posted my cooking mishap, which I thought was funny, Heidi posted a new series in her blog called, "What's in the Fridge Tonight" where she basically creates five-star meals out of nothing. If you don't believe me you can check it out yourself. I think her cookbook is also for sale on their web page, which brings me to the whole reason for this entry. I would like to share two recipes. Both of these are from Heidi's cookbook. I've cooked them her way and then I've changed them just a bit, but successfully, to make them work for our family.

Minestrone Soup
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery (I've used fennel bulb from our garden)
5 T fresh parsley, minced
1- 6oz can tomato paste
2-14.5oz cans chicken broth
1-14.5oz can beef broth
9 cups water
3 cups cabbage, finely chopped
5 carrots, thinly sliced
3 zucchini squash, quartered and thinly sliced
2 t season salt
1/2 t pepper
1 t Italian seasoning
1-15oz can red chili beans
1-15 oz can black beans
2 cups small elbow macaroni

To prepare: Heat oil in large pot, add ingredients 2-5 (garlic-parsley) . Saute slowly until soft and transparent. Stir in ingredients 6-15 (tomato paste-Italian seasonings). Mix well and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 1 hour. Add zucchini, beans, and macaroni. Cook until the macaroni is tender, stirring occasionally. Serve with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese.

Karen's alterations: I just made this for the third time but without the macaroni. The first night we ate it with French bread. I froze the rest in two portions. The next week, I thawed out one container and added cooked bulgur. The following week we had some leftover quinoa so I added that to the soup. We had soup three weeks in a row but each week was a little different and it tasted yummy ever time. My girls even ate it without complaint. They like it with grated cheddar cheese on top.

Fresh Apple Cake
2 cups apple, diced
1 large egg
Mix together and add:
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
Sift the following together and add to apple mixture:
1 cup flour, 1 t cinnamon, 1 t baking soda, 1/2 t salt.
Add 1 t vanilla and 1 cup chopped nuts (optional). Spoon into well greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Karen's alterations: reduce oil to 1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup apple sauce, reduce sugar to 2/3 cup (or less??). I also use half whole wheat flour. I've never added nuts and I've always cooked this in an 8 X 8 pan. It cooks quicker that way so check it after 25 minutes. The only problem with this cake is that we always finish it the day I make it so there aren't any leftovers.

What Happens...

when you make a brownie mix without the egg and try to use cider vinegar and baking soda instead.

The Race

I've been struggling with how to blog about my race experience. It was physically and mentally one of the most difficult things I've ever done, or at least a close second to giving birth to Taylor. The morning was cool and windy but no rain. I was feeling ready and positive; I had energy and the normal butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling. There were only a handful of people for whom this was their first trail race. In previous road races I've done, there are usually a good number of people who don't look like runners. Not here. These people were hard core runners and many were decked out in trail running gear. There were 125 people in my race and 150 people running the 50K. We started together. I had hoped not to walk too many hills so I was surprised when many of the runners walked the first hill. I jogged and passed a lot of people on the first few hills. I felt good. The course was basically a loop with a spur (out and back) on the far side. I had never run the spur before and was disappointed to find that it was basically 3 miles down and out and therefore all up hill on the way back. The spur gave me a chance to see who was ahead and behind me. I was surprised to count myself in 4th place for the women. I was definitely tired and not running up any more hills, but I figured if I just kept going I might be able to finish fourth. I had to talk my body into making it to the last aid table where I planned to get more to eat because I was spent and hungry. I knew once I reached that point, there were no more tough hills and I was relatively close the the finish. Perhaps it was all the food choices on the table, or maybe I didn't have enough sugar in my brain to think straight, but from the table I made a wrong turn and started on the path that looped back out. I realized my mistake about .25 miles later and stopped to confirm my mistake with the next runner. Yes, I had messed up and now had to run about .25 miles back up the hill to the fork. I was mad! I messed up my time and my place in the race. (I'm rediscovering my competitiveness). When I got back to the food table there were two girls who were just leaving down the path. I wasn't going to let them get ahead. I mustered up any strength I had left and passed them, only to have them pass me right at the finish. I hate it when that happens :). I had nothing left. All I wanted was food, a bed, and a shoulder to cry on. I even forgot to go pick up my T-shirt.

Putting things in perspective: I ended up finishing 5th for the women, with girls numbers 3 and 4 passing me at the finish and beating my time in only tenths of a second. So without the wrong turn I would have been 3rd! I was 29th overall with a time of 3:16. I didn't get injured and feel relatively good. It's all about the ice bath. Peter dumped the whole bucket of ice from our freezer into my already-cold-water bath saying, "You'll thank me later." Oddly, I do.



The girls at the finish line waiting and waiting for Mom. Peter got there early and ended up waiting for an hour and a half.

I think it's time for some new running shoes :)