Blog much??

Clearly not in my case...one day, will get back to it...maybe...probably not.

Anyway, a couple of good recipes from this weekend:

1) Pork Tenderloin in the slow cooker. I didn't modify this one at all, other than I only had ground sage so I used that (and probably too much), and no garlic paste so I just used bottled chopped garlic. I thought the recipe was really good - Greg was a little meh about it, but he ate it so that means it must have been at least a 60-75% mark. Micaela really liked it, Avery not so much. But she isn't the biggest fan of meat in general. What is rubbed sage anyway??

2) Homemade granola bars. I've made this one twice now and modified it a bit because the first time I found the bars to be a bit sticky and bendy. This time I used two cups of oats, and Wow butter instead of peanut butter so that the kids can take them to school. I used cranberries, mini white chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and broken up banana chips. That is a fair bit of sugar but maybe I will start removing some of the sweeter items. Because of all of the stuff I put it, I was able to use a 9x12 pan and got about 16 bars from it.

And finally, my KitchenAid immersion blender quit on me just as I was about to blitz a pot of butternut squash, cauliflower and leek soup. I went out to get a new one and ended up with this instead: the Cuisinart SmartStick Hand Blender. Used the immersion blender part for the soup, and the mini-food processor for chopping up the dates for the granola bars. Thumbs up so far, just have to make sure I don't lose all the pieces in the cupboard.

Have a good week world!

I'm going grey...

Not that I care that much, but I feel like it is a bit symbolic. Of the crazy way time is passing in a blur, how quickly the kids are growing up, and how the old body is starting to break down. Again, I'm not that freaked out about the latter but it does make me think about getting back into shape (better than ever of course)...and doing so many other things. And importantly, I really want to do a better job of capturing the moments, like with this blog post and all of the other ones I think of doing on a regular basis. The key ones that I would have done over the last year (two years really), are the annual key check-ins on the kids, such as for Micaela's 3rd birthday, Avery's 5th birthday, a "Year in the life of the Herages - 2012 version", when we had to put Trus down in early 2013, and so many other smaller, but no less interesting moments...

One of the biggest challenges I have in doing blog posts is that I always want to include pictures...which seems like effort. Combine that with the fact that I almost exclusively take pics on my phone now, and not the camera, means that it would just be easier to blog from my phone - which I rarely do. But I am going to make more effort again...and actually download the pics from the camera that we do take!

I know this post is basically nonsensical, but I was struck by a few thoughts and wanted to get them down before the moment passed. And as for the grey hair...my hairdresser won't let me colour it (thank goodness, because that seems like a lot of work and money), and she has convinced me that my highlights will camouflage it. Or maybe I will just let it go as grey as it wants to, and then pretend like my mom that I have grey highlights on purpose. Denial is a great thing... :)

Our first bounty!!!

The first crop was harvested from the vegetable garden today...a solitary cherry tomato. Sure to be followed by approximately 4000 more, but there's just the one for now. Micaela, the hand model in the making, was very excited but wanted nothing to do with actually eating the tomato. Avery was pretty excited about trying it, even though she doesn't like tomatoes, because Grampa Kelly told her they will taste "sweet like candy". She popped it in her mouth, juice squirted everywhere of course, and she made a grimace all the while saying, "Ummm. It's yummy." When I asked her if she meant it, she smiled and shook her head no :)

A Micaela funny...

A short Micaela story from tonight: we were eating dinner at our little kitchen table where we have four chairs. One of the chairs still has Micaela's booster seat on it because she still uses it sometimes. Lately however, she has been insisting on sitting on "Mommy's chair". I said to Greg that we should just take her booster seat off the other chair because she is obviously ready to sit on the chair itself. I didn't think she was paying attention but all of a sudden she burst out saying, clear as a bell, "Daddy, don't take my booster seat off the chair!!!!" This was accompanied by a very strong finger pointing in Daddy's direction. I just about choked on my dinner and Greg couldn't stop laughing. Me thinks this kid is going to be a challenge! :)