Today we had a couple from church come for lunch afterwards. They are parent-age to us, and the wife of the couple teaches our younger two children in Sunday school. They really like her, and Evangeline commandered (sp?) her for the first 30 minutes or so while I finished everything for the meal.

That was all background for a new recipe I tried that went over quite well. Taboli is a whole wheat product used in a cold salad form. I have eaten it in Greek restaurants, but I never made it. I have seen it in the produce sections countless times over the past year, and I finally decided to try it. The recipe is on the back of the package, but I will share it here anyway.

(For 10 servings)

Rinse and drain wheat. Add all ingredients. Mix well. REfrigerate covered for 4 hours, stirring 3 or 4 times.

8 oz. of taboli bulgur wheat
1/2 – 3/4 C oil (your choice)
1 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 – 3/4 C. lemon juice

Chop fine
1 bunch parsley (I used about 1/4 C dried parsley)
1 1/2 bunches green onions with tops (I used less than this–what I had in my veggie drawer)
2 – 3 tomatoes
1/2 cucumber ( I had no cukes, so I used an avacado)

Any other veggies you like can also be added. The package also suggests mixing in chicken or tuna for a full-meal dish.

I also added about a clove of garlic.

The finished product was yummy. If you like that lemoney/olive oil flavor you get with many Greek dishes, you’ll like this. It also full of fiber, and, for those low-carb dieters out there, it is a fast-burning carb that doesn’t slow down your weight loss like processed white flour carbs do. The next time I make it, I will experiment with my other favorite Greek spice, cumin. One other great thing about this recipe is that it is sooooo easy.

I know it is late for Super Bowl fare for this year, but this would be a good one to put away to use for next year’s SB party.

I finished painting the chair. It did take one more coat of paint and then 3 layers of the protective coating. Fortunately, that was spray on and dried in 30 minutes. It looks much better than my first attempt. Boy, I am glad to be finished with it. Only 3 more to do! Tomorrow the weather changes. The temp is supposed to drop by 20 degrees, so I won’t have to feel guilty for not painting for a while.

I threw out the idea of taking the kids on an outing today because I have several little projects to complete that require nice weather. Today is nicer than yesterday–I suspect the temp is about 65, and the wind is only blowing at about 10 mph. So I headed to the garage to paint one of the dining chairs I didn’t get to a few months back.

When I painted the first time, I made some mistakes. I really need to repaint the chairs and table that I did then. That may happen some day, but not any time real soon. This time, I used a spray-on primer before painting. Last time, I tried a stripping fluid to take off varnish, and it didn’t do a great job, even with some sanding. I have put one coat of paint on. I am hoping to only need one coat with the primer. Then, I plan to put a spray on protecter coat of something that is sort of like polyurethane. The primer and the protecter will hopefully keep problems with cracking and chipping down.

The biggest problem is that when I do a job like this I really need to finish it in one day. We have an old garage with no electricity, so I need the sunshine for light and warmth. The reason this is a problem is that I forgot how tired I can get when I am 5 months pregnant. It took about 2 1/2 hours to the priming and painting. I am pretty tired from the whole experience. If I need to do another coat of paint plus the protecter coat, I don’t think I can face finishing today. I’m sorry for whining, I just wish things didn’t have to take so long.

On the positive side of things, I did get some laundry done while waiting for the various coats to dry, and the kids played outside for about 3 hours while I was out there painting. They will be good and tired tonight, and they will have had a nice day off from school just being kids.

In an attempt to blog at least weekly, I thought I would write something to help get me in the habit. However, I have no real pressing thoughts in my brain right now. I told Mark today that by this point in pregnancy (5 months), I am sharing my brain with the baby. So I am not sure how creative or coherent I will be from this point until May when this little girl arrives.

We’ve had a good weekend. On Friday night, some friends watched the children for us while we went out with other friends from Norman for a birthday dinner of one in the party. It was a nice evening out with all grownups (except for the birthday girl’s 4-month-old, who slept the entire time we were at the restaurant). It was a terribly cold night in OKC, so the walk from where we parked to the restaurant was, shall I say, invigorating.

Yesterday, I took Evangeline with me and a friend to look at baby stuff and get ideas for the baby’s room. Even though we have 3 other children, I got rid of a lot of my baby stuff to lighten the load for our last move. I have also given away or sold clothes, etc., since we moved here because we just don’t have the storage space, and we weren’t really sure if we would have any more children. Well, since we are having one more, I need to start preparing. We didn’t buy anything yesterday, but we had fun looking. We also got some more ideas.

Today after church and Mark’s brief session meeting, we headed to OKC for lunch and to take the kids to the park. Souper Salad feeds children under 5 for free and 6-12 year olds for 99 cents, so it is a good deal for us to eat there. Although it was terribly cold on Friday night, today the temperature reached 61 degrees. The sun was shining, too. So we had to take advantage of the great weather. The Oklahoma wind was blowing strongly enough that jackets were still required, but it was a great day to be outside.

Now it is time to settle in for a quiet evening at home. Tomorrow is MLK, Jr., Day, so there’s no school for the boys. I am hoping to do something fun with them since the weather is supposed to stay nice until Tuesday evening.

Have a good week.

Several things are on my mind . . .

Broad Brush Strokes
If you are from Mississippi, you’re a racist . . . or at least if you’re from Mississippi and you’re a republican you are friends with a racist, Trent Lott. This seems to be the sentiment of the democrats who want to keep President Bush’s latest nominee for the federal appelate court from being nominated. See more at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75292,00.html Pickering, the nominee, is called “racially insensitive” because he reduced the sentence of a man who was prosecuted for burning a cross in a racially mixed couple’s yard in the late 90s. The problem was that the justice department, then run by Janet Reno of the Clinton administration, had made a deal with 2 of the 3 defendents in the case. They pled guilty, and, in exchange, they were released for time served. The third guy opted to go to trial. He lost. When the sentencing hearing came around, Judge Pickering heard testimony indicating that this guy was not the ring leader of the party who burned the cross, and that the shortest sentence the jury was permitted to give him was 7 years. Judge Pickering felt that if the other 2 parties got off with “time served,” seven years was extreme for the remaining defendent. So Judge Pickering reduced his sentence to 18 months. The democrats have conveniently forgotten that Judge Pickering sent his own children to desegregated schools in Mississippi in the mid-sixties, and in 1967, he testified against the imperial wizard of the KKK, which cost him the election for the DA’s office the following year. I heard most of this on Glen Beck’s radio program, and it just aggrivated me so much I had to blog about it.

Small Town Life
On another note, I am reading A Year in Provence. I bought it used about 6 months ago, and I started it then. I liked it from the first, but I got busy and put it away. This is a great book because while it talks about the specific idiosyncracies of small town living in the French countryside, it also shows the universal characteristics of small towns everywhere. I’ve considered writing my own A Year in Minco, since, much like Peter Mayle in Provence, I am an outsider living among natives who see their way of life as the only way. If you have read A Year in Provence, you will appreciate what I’m talking about.

Pregnant at 37
Being pregnant at 37 is not the same as being pregnant at 30. Nuff said.

Kids do say funny things. A couple of random things from Evangeline today include:

What present did Jesus get for his birthday? (While gettting dressed this morning)

People love chocolate (grinning big and holding onto my arm to get my attention after waking up from her nap).

Your room is beautiful (while sitting on the stool near our computer in our room an looking around. It seemed like she was trying to an adult and make pleasant conversation.)

The things she (and the boys) say often remind me of how complicated I make things. Having children improves one’s perspective on life.

I am procrastinating. I have so much housework to do, but blogging is a lot less tiring. So I am going to answer the questions on Laurel’s quiz:

1. What celebrities would you like to host at your home for dinner?
Laurel picked Emma Thompson, but at the risk of being unoriginal, I think I would pick her, too. I think it would be interesting to have George and Laura Bush to dinner, too. I’d like to find out where they really are coming from.

2. If you could have your own TV or radio program, what would the content be?
A reality show where unpublished authors pitch their books to real editors from New York publishing houses. It would probably be more scarey than any of the reality shows currently on TV.

3. If you could have any sci-fi technology at your disposal, what would you choose?
I am not a real sci-fi buff, so I can think of nothing.

4. If you had sufficient resources to start up a business, what would you do?
Literary agency

5. If you could be an animal for a day, what would you choose and why?
A cat in a house with a nice big front window facing the sun.

6. When you were a kid, what careers did you aspire to?
A newspaper reporter

7. What things terrified you as a child?
The flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.

8. What scenarios occur regularly in your dreams?
A pretend battle that included my siblings and the neighbor kids over the huge gulley behind my childhood home. A live bear enters the scene to scare us all.

Christmas is over. We are home from the post-Christmas trip to visit my family in PA. (That trip, by the way, was the longest and most arduous journey we have taken as a family. Considering we have moved cross-country twice, and halfway across the country once, that is saying something.) The children are back in school. Life is back to routine.

One routine we all hate is paying bills. But this month, I am looking forward to paying one that I received in the mail today. After 15 long years, I am making my final student loan payment for college. I feel as if some celebration is in order. But, since that isn’t likely to take place, at least it is worth noting this achievement on my blog.

Yesterday, Mark and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary. It’s not as monumental as 15, 20, 25, 40 or 50, but each year we spend together our marriage gets a little better and our lives a little richer (in the non-materialistic sense, of course.) So to me, it is worth noting.

Getting married 5 days before Christmas was a great idea back in 1991. We went to Coral Ridge Pres to church, and they decorate the place to the hilt. So, the only flowers I paid for were the bouquets and bouteneers (sp?). Since I had worked for an arm of the church (tv/radio ministry) for four years, I had a few connections, and all the flowers that I needed for the reception were moved to the fellowship hall from other parts of the church. Again, no money needed for the reception decor. So, while I did drop by my office on December 20, 1991 to make sure the ministry’s magazine was “put to bed,” I was not really that busy. Since I was getting married, no one was expecting great Christmas preparations from me. It was relatively smooth sailing then.

Eleven years and 3 kids later, my December 20 looks quite a bit different. I got up, took the boys to school, and set off to El Reno with Evangeline to pick up my paycheck, go to the bank, drop off the broken vacuum cleaner at the repair place, and pick up last minute treats for Nevin’s pre-K Christmas party. Back home by 9:50, I dropped off Evangeline with Mark and headed to Nevin’s party. I also had to take drinks, and I was 5 minutes late. They thought I was a no-show. Phew! I just made it. Nevin and I headed home at 10:50. From that point on, I was on a mission to clean the back bathroom and Evangeline’s room for Mark’s parents to use when they arrive later in the day. I finish just in time to head off to Calvin’s first grade Christmas party at 2:15. I was in charge of the party in his class, and I was also 5 minutes late. The other moms gave me the evil eye, but I tried to ignore it. All in all, the party came off pretty well, including a rousing game of “pin the beard on Santa.”

Calvin and I got home at about 3:10, and within 20 minutes, Mark’s parents arrived for their holiday visit. We are glad to have them with us, and the kids are thrilled to have them, too. I got dinner on the table for the kids and the in-laws, and then, thanks to Mom and Dad, Mark and I went out to celebrate our anniversary at a really nice restaurant in OKC called Boca Boca. We enjoyed the evening together in a quiet place where no high chairs or boosters seats could be seen.

When I think about next year’s anniversary and realize that it will likely be busier since there will be another little one to care for, I could get overwhelmed. But instead, I want to focus on the wonderful husband God has given me and the beautiful children we have together. I really do get richer with each passing year.

Baby #4 is expected to arrive sometime in May. Today, we had our ultrasound. We are the type who like to know the sex of the baby ahead of the delivery. Unlike #3, this baby cooperated . . . IT’s A GIRL! I should also mention that all of the other measurements and indicators the technician was looking for were normal. So as far as medical technology can tell, it seems like our youngest daughter is healthy and growing well. Praise God!