Cooking with Nana

My mom, also known as Nana, is a preschool teacher. She is wonderful with kids and I am constantly asking her for advice on things to do with Seth and Silas. Currently, she is going back to school to become a certified Child Development Associate. For one of her classes, she had to plan and complete a cooking lesson. Here's a look at all the fun we had helping her with her assignment!

Bryan, the boys, and Nana headed to the Farmers' Market to pick out some vegetables, because they were going to make vegetable soup.

  Seth and Nana identified different vegetables

 and did some matching.

 They read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Elhert. It's a story that walks you through the planting, gardening, and growing of seeds into vegetables.

 It was such an appropriate book to read, because they got to harvest some of the first kale, swiss chard, and spinach leaves from the fall garden for the soup.

 They washed all the vegetables.

 Then they started dicing. Seth used a butter knife and Silas used a small kiddie knife.

 

Seth insisted on cutting into the onion. Then the tears started flowing. Nana was using his hat to fan his face to help dry up the tears.  It was hilarious!

  

Then they did some counting of all the vegetable pieces.

 We stepped in and cut the rest of the vegetables, 

 but the boys helped put everything in the pot.

 After they added some water and seasonings...

 

 they stirred and stirred.

 

 A little while later, the vegetable soup was ready to eat!

Good food, lots of learning, and a fun time...

 I think it was an excellent lesson!

The Last Few Days in Lexington

I traveled to Lexington, Kentucky a few days ago to attend a Kentucky Reading Project meeting and the Kentucky Reading Association annual conference. While Bryan and Nana, who came up Thursday night, held down the fort at home, I attended sessions/meetings, but I also got to enjoy some alone time.

 One of my favorite stops in Lexington is Old Kentucky Chocolates. It is located in the convention center so I always stop by when I'm there. I wasn't sure there would be anything that I could eat, but then I spotted these Dark Chocolate Cashews. They are yummy!

  Friday afternoon, I ventured out on my own to do some shopping. It felt so strange to go from place to place without getting kids out of the car. It was also a little too quiet when I was stuck in rush hour traffic. 

 Speaking of traffic, on my way to Chipotle where I ate dinner, I accidentally went down a one way street. Luckily I turned into a parking lot and avoided the three lanes of traffic that were heading straight toward me.

 After dinner, I spent an evening leisurely browsing books at Joseph-Beth Booksellers and  

 reading lots and lots of labels at Whole Foods, 

which usually doesn't happen when we have the boys with us. 

I found several new things that we can eat!

 

 Before we left on Saturday, a friend and I went back to Whole Foods to fill our cooler, that we brought with us, with all the tasty foods that I discovered that we could eat the night before along with the staples we can't get locally.
We also went to eat at P.F. Chang's. Did you know they have an entire section of their menu that is gluten-free? While we try to avoid all grains, sometimes there are ingredients (especially sauces) that still contain gluten. So I was especially happy to see a menu dedicated to gluten-free.

After a lovely meal and my delightful little trip of business mixed with pleasure,

 I headed home to the boys.

Statuses Never Posted

Apparently the statuses were a big hit. Here's a few more...

• I noticed Express was going to be a new store in our mall. My first thought...oooh there will be a lot more Express stuff at the consignment stores!
• I love having chickens!
• Tonight, the little girl that I tutor brought me an early Christmas present. It was a Yankee candle called “Farmers’ Market.” She knows me well.
• Sometimes it’s so hard to just pick one “frame a day.”
• Next year we are going to have to buy/grow way more blueberries than we did this year. We thought we bought a ton, but we have already depleted our frozen stash. :-(
• Lately, on my long runs, I’ve been running past my eye clinic and the hospital where I sat for hours getting IV steroid treatments for my optic neuritis. I never dreamed I would be doing what I’m doing today when I was going through all of that. I am proud to say I have not been defeated!  
• I love MOPs night!
• So thankful for all those years watching the Food Network. When my Paleo apple pancakes wouldn’t flip, I just poured all the batter in the skillet and baked it in the oven. It was delicious!

Pelly's: Old Fashioned Farm Day

After our morning at the race, we headed to Pelly's Farm Fresh Market. They were having an Old Fashioned Farm Day. Here's a look at our afternoon:

 horse drawn sorghum making

 and tasting

 old fashioned pumpkins

  

corn shelling

playing in lots of corn

 playing in boxes full of hay

 hand cranked apple cider making

 making apple butter

 

going through the corn maze

   

saying hello to all the animals

 

and lots of beautiful pumpkins and cute kids

 

 

Seth's just pretending to sleep, but we were all worn out from such an exciting day! 

Old Fashioned Farm Day was so much fun!

The Medical Center 10K 2012

Today Bryan ran in the Medical Center 10K Classic. Since this is pretty much a yearly thing, we knew we needed to arrive early and secure a parking spot before all the streets were closed for the race.

  

We also made sure to bundle up for a very cool morning routing for daddy.

  

Bryan did all of his pre-race stuff...putting on the race number, stretching, and jogging around to get warmed up.

 

Seth thought he needed to stretch, too.

 

Then they were off!

  

(Bryan's right in the middle wearing red.)

 As soon as they were out of sight, the boys and I headed across campus to the finish line inside WKU's football stadium. We weren't in the stadium long before the first two runners crossed the finish line. They were so fast and it was a close race.

 

 A few minutes later Bryan crossed the finish line with a time of 48:05.

 

 It just happened to be his fastest 10K! Yay!