beet you didn't know that

We're right smack in the middle of winter, with no fresh summer produce to be found.   I'm missing summer tomatoes (I could live on caprese salad and peaches from July - September) and corn-on-the-cob terribly.   But there are lots of good winter veggie options if you're willing to try something new.    A few weeks ago, I tried rutabaga (yum) and parsnips (bleh) roasted with sweet potatoes for the first time; here is my recipe for that tasty experiment. 

I don't think I ever ate a beet until a couple of years ago, and I was surprised how much I liked them.  They're readily available, nutritious and inexpensive.  Today, I found the above beauties at my supermarket for only $1.99.  A nice change from potatoes or rice.  Roasting them brings out such a sweetness, and the underlying earthy flavor is really unique.  Probably one of those foods you either will love or hate. You can sometimes also find golden beets (usually a shade of orange), which are just as yummy and delicious when cut and served over a green salad and cheese of your choice (goat? feta?). They usually seem to be a smaller size though, so you'd need more per person.

 

All you need is:

• a bundle of beets (I usually see them sold in bundles of three), one beet per person is plenty
• foil
• olive oil
• sea salt

Cut off the beet stems and bottom roots, if there are any.  Wash well.   Do not peel. Wrap each beet in foil tightly.  Place on baking sheet, and roast in oven at 375 for 1 hour, to 1 1/2 hours until fork tender.   Remove from oven, let them cool slightly and remove foil.   Remove peel (it will be nice and soft, and come off easily).  Slice beets, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt to taste.

Here's a little video I found that shows how simple it is to make them. Best of all, there's barely any clean up.  Some people use the beet greens in salad or saute those up as well. Beware, beets do stain and they do make for an interesting bathroom experience hours later.  Don't be alarmed!

the surprise

Yesterday morning, we put the boys in the car and told them we were heading downtown for a tile and bath expo.  A kids worst nightmare, right?  We do have a bathroom remodel project coming up in the near future, and they've been hearing us talk about it and we've had contractors to our house lately.  I'm sure it all seemed plausible.

They didn't see me quietly slip the bag of ear plugs and snacks into my purse.

We headed towards DC, and they were perfectly fine to be going to look at tile.  That's what made it even better when we unveiled the surprise walking into the packed Verizon Center.

"Hey guys," I said. "Guess where we are?  Guess what we're going to do today?"  "Shop for tile?", Dylan answered.  "Nope.  We're at MONSTER JAM!  We're at the Monster truck Jam, and its going to be ALL day, monster trucks, mud, noise and did I mention monster trucks?" 

My boys love them some monster trucks.  We own every Monster Jam video game and every Hot Wheels Monster Jam truck. Their eyes took on a glittery look, and the grins spread from ear to ear.  "Really? We're going to see Gravedigger too?".   Instant group hug and kisses all around.  "Like right now, the monster trucks are right here, right now?"

My friend Suzanne works for Feld Entertainment and buying the tickets through her, she was able to get us really great seats to see all that action up close. And, prior to the show we were also able to go down into the pits and see the trucks.   I wasn't expecting the floor to be muddy.  Good thing I didn't wear my 4 inch heels.

It was LOUD LOUD LOUD. And the emcee of the show sounded exactly as you'd imagine he would.  Remember those commericials, "SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY!"  They threw merchanise into the crowd a few times, and Andrew caught a Gravedigger whirly bird, to the boys delight.  My favorite part, and I think the part the boys were most impressed with, were the motorcross bikes, flying up ramps and doing flips in midair.  Pretty darn cool.  Even for non-motorsports experts like myself.

After the show ended, we were planning to drive right home. But while driving by the Smithsonian row, we scored a rock star parking spot in front of the National Museum of American History. We had an hour to run through and see some cool stuff, including a replica of the "L" in downtown Chicago circa 1950's, some of the original puppets from The Muppets, Dorothy's ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz, and a replica of the presidential podium.  I loved that the kids were as interested in this stuff as we were.  We shut down the museum with the promise to the kids we'll go back soon.  I love they're at the ages we can do these kinds of adventures and all enjoy ourselves.

I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd attend a monster truck show, let alone enjoy myself. But to watch my boys mesmerized, in awe and completely captivated made it all worth it.

Logan declared it the best day of his life. Dylan said he can't wait to tell all his friends at school, and that he'll never forget it.  What a great day.

Suzanne told me the show is returning to an outdoor venue this summer in Baltimore. So I think we'll be planning to check it out again, as soon as I can grow my mullet and purchase a deer hunting jacket!

snow day!

We finally got enough snow to go sledding for the first time this winter!  So off we trekked, to our sledding hill....

a big milestone for D

We're having a snow day.  Except it hasn't really snowed yet.  Well, just a tiny bit, but not enough for the kids to go sledding.   Regardless, the kids are off school and we've already made muffins, played with Model Magic, did some tracing, folded laundry and had a Wii-athon.  They say that big snow is coming later this evening into tonight and if they're right, we might just be snowed in thru the weekend.  This may equate to many blog posts, as we'll be house bound.

In the past three days, Dylan, completely on his own, has laid on the couch and read both of his library books from school.  Each of them are about 64 pages; chapter books.  He never asked for help.  I never asked him to read them.  He just did it, all on his own, because  he wanted to.   This is a first... a huge milestone for him.  Reading has not come quickly or easily for him.  He's worked really hard.  We've tried to support him without turning it into a battle, or totally turning him off from books.

It was hard not to do cartwheels across the house.  Because I LOVE reading and always have, and want my kids to have that same love. But its not something you can force.  You can supply the books that interest them, you can praise them when they read, but you can't force them to pick up a book and actually enjoy it. That has to come from within. And with all the choices kids have these days with TV, assorted video games, high tech toys, its easy for books to fall to the bottom of the interest list.

Without going completely bonkers, I made a big deal out of him reading these two books on his own.   He has no idea how proud I am.  And, he already has his next book picked out when he feels like reading again, ready on the coffee table.

Dads Night

Last night after dinner, Logan and Andrew set off for the annual Dads Night at Logan's preschool.  Presumably, this is Logan's last year of preschool (with his summer birthday, we could opt to wait for him to start kindergarten until he's 6... but I think we've decided he's ready to go this fall). So these last few months of his preschool experience will be a little bittersweet.  When I think back to him starting preschool as a young 3 year old... he was still so tiny, so inexperienced.  And now he's Mr. Social, so constructive at school and ready to take on new experiences.

Anyway.  Dads Night.  Its very, very cute.  Since Father's Day is in June, after preschool is over, they invite all the Dads in to spend an evening at preschool.  The kids get to show off their classroom to their Dad, and they get to work on a project together.  Logan's teacher asked all the kids and their Dads to bring in a hammer.  I was wondering what the project would be, and this is what they came home with. They've been studying the rain forest, and they made rain sticks.  They hammered nails into the tube so the popcorn kernels inside make a nice rain song as you turn the stick over and over.

The teachers interviewed the kids last week about their Dads.  Here is Logan's perception of Andrew.  The dots around the mouth are his moustache and goatee.

A Lucky Duck, he is.

at the skatepark

Today was a rarity in that public schools were closed for a teacher day, but Logan still had preschool.  I had Dylan to myself all morning.  After breakfast, I asked him what he wanted to do for our 2 hours and 45 minutes together.  After crossing a few things off his list that we just wouldn't possibly have time for (going to a museum, swimming at the indoor pool that still didn't even open for an hour, to my disappointment he didn't mention shoe shopping...), we decided a trip to the skatepark would be the ticket since it actually got above 40 degrees today.  He was excited to blow the dust off his skateboard and work on his moves. 

I can't wait until the weather warms up this spring and he can get out there everyday.  

tube-tastic!

We took our first road trip of 2011 this past weekend, joining 7 other families 2 1/2 hours southwest of us at Wintergreen Resort for some good ole' winter snow tubing.  We drove down Saturday and took over the hotel for the evening, letting the kids swim and play while the adults got in some good socializing.  Nothing like a good hotel party...  no one has to clean up!  We only broke one lamp (Shhhhhhh!).

snacks!

The boys with our friends A and C

We stayed up pretty late, which is why the boys were still sleeping at 8:15 am..

We breakfasted and layered up...

...and then headed up the mountain for the main event. Two hours of tubing in some seriously cold weather.  We were dressed for the day though, and I never felt cold.  Dylan said he was hot, even, and unzipped his coat.  Two years ago when we took this same trip, it was unseasonably warm and the tubes didn't exactly fly down the hill since it was pretty slushy.  However, yesterday it was nice and icy.  We flew down hill at top speed (I heard tubing speed was a little over 30 MPH) and had to hold onto our hats (Andrew temporarily even lost his!).  Logan wasn't thrilled at the top speed, but he toughed it out.  I admit to even closing my eyes the first few times I flew down, so for a four year old little guy to put on a brave face is pretty impressive.  Dylan, of course, could have spent another 10 hours out there.

A great weekend with fun friends!

The Plunge, the name of their tubing hill.

At the bottom, looking up.

Mom, I can't breathe!

Our group

And, the ride home.  I love the belly hanging out.

his dream

This week, of course, Dylan's class learned about Martin Luther King Jr.  They spent the entire week working on a whole packet of information about MLK's life, what he stood for, and his legacy.  On the last page, the kids were to write about what their own dream is for the world.   Here is Dylan's. 

Translation:  "My dream is that people will recycle every day because it is cool and good."

Translation:  "Recycling is fun on a skateboard."

Who knew my child was so ecologically aware, and good at multi-tasking?!

why do bad things happen to good people?

A friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer today. She is my age, she has three kids, and she such a smart, caring, giving, compassionate, beautiful person.


I’m mad as hell. I don’t understand.

Two days ago, I met another woman. My age, three kids. Active, healthy. A do-er. Was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer 2 years ago. Another friend, age 25, learned two weeks ago he had a tennis-ball sized tumor growing in his brain. What in the world is going on? Why is this happening to so many people?

As challenging as life can be sometimes, and as hard as things can feel, my old go-to is to say "Well, at least we have our health!".  But, what if you don't?

The prognosis for my friend is very good. But I’m still angry she will have to interrupt her life, her family, and undergo treatment and possibly surgery. She will never be the same. She will always be looking over her shoulder.

movie day!

Schools were closed for MLK Day today.  We met Grandma Lynn for lunch, and went to the movies to see this, finally.  A fun way to spend the hours on a cold, dreary winter day.  Now our bellies are full of popcorn and candy.  Thanks for playing with us Grandma!

orange belt!

This morning, Logan tested for and received his orange belt in taekwondo. I think going to taekwondo is just about his most favorite activity these days, other than playing with his friends. I often wonder why it resonates so much with him. He definitely loves being so physical and active. He loves being able to yell, and I think he loves the power he feels.  He takes it very seriously, and he loves his instructor.  We've never missed a single class.

We love what it teaches...discipline, focus, self respect and respect for others, and staying active.  He'll be starting t-ball this coming spring, and that will be his first time on a team.  Taekwondo is definitely more about self focus, and its been really great for him.

I asked him why he loves it so much, and he said, “I don’t know Mommy… I just love doing Kung Fu.”. So there you have it.

Way to go, Logan!

Don't mess with me!