fall flavors

Although I've had little time to blog this fall, I just finished our family's October menu and thought I'd pass it on if it helps you organize or inspires your family's meal planning this month.
Most every dinner recipe comes from the Whole Foods website.
Enjoy!
Until next time, I leave you with these photos, taken today on our family's hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

summer with my children

send them outside 

these last summer days

into the sunlight, warmth, freedom

of forts and crickets and skinned knees and wading pool and ice pops dripping with summer heat.

summer days when

Catherine goes from four wheels to two 

training wheels come off

Jude goes from four limbs to two

walking

Jack goes from needing diapers to finding trees and rocks for those things

Camille rides, pedals to the metal and skids out, 

her personality in a bike ride.

summer days long and bright grow faintly shorter

morning air faintly crisper

aspen leaves changing, lightening not yet yellow

the boxes - white and large, brown and small - arrive
new books, yet unread
new texts, yet unanswered
new days, unknown
excited, jittery
Catherine's school days about to begin.

frustration wanting to reach forward,
ache wanting to stay behind
here in this sweet nostalgia of summer with my children.

golden summer days

Our family hiked a favorite route around Lily Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park

Sunday afternoon. 

We can't get enough of these golden summer days and these golden days in our children's lives. 

Our hearts are full of thankfulness everywhere we look.

NPS Ranger Jude 

after-hike picnic fun

summer's peak

Summer's at its peak in the High Country!

We're making the most of these last summer evenings by firing up the grill and enjoying the season's best produce.

Click here if you'd like to visit our our printable August menu!

Want to find the recipes? Many of our August suppers are from Whole Foods.

Others you can find through google. 

If you're just in, you are welcomed to visit our posts on menu rationale and method.

post

summer activities for preschoolers #6

(the sixth in a weekly series of ideas for families with preschoolers...

please feel free to share your own by clicking "comments" below!)

6. keep the postman busy.

Address some envelopes to friends and family you don't often see. Do you hang on to your child's artwork? I keep each week's art (summer activity #4) in a file and bring it out when we post.

We talk about each person the envelopes are addressed to, by

understanding how we know them

or

remembering visits with them

or 

discussing memories of them.

Then I ask each child to choose some of his or her artwork to send along to that friend or family.

We don't have any expectation for our children's art to be framed by the ones we post to... the idea is just to say hello, we miss you, and we're thinking of you!

skips in the record

Records. Record players. Remember those?
Did your record player ever skip?
Earlier this summer, our blog was running pretty smoothly, but somewhere along the way there have been a few skips in our record (modern readers, read: scratches in our CD?).
Just to make you aware, if our blog skips from time to time, and I'm not here as regularly, I have been needed more by my family. They are my divine priority, so that's where I am!
We will post as able.

siesta

summer activities for preschoolers #6

(the sixth in a weekly series of ideas for families with preschoolers...please feel free to share your own by clicking "comments" below!)

When I was growing up, my mom always added a pinch of salt to oatmeal to "bring out the flavor" of that otherwise good and hearty breakfast. 

Adding to the goodness and heartiness of summer, our family adds a "pinch of salt" to our day to bring out the flavor of that already delicious season. 

Imagine a summer morning of play in sun, sand, and a refreshing mountain-fed lake. Kids and Mama are both invigorated by the cool water and relaxed by the warm sun. A satisfying lunch is followed by a (here's the pinch of salt) SIESTA, to quietly rest before the afternoon festivities resume. 

We ALL take a daily siesta after lunch. This mid-day rest truly enhances our experience of the day. The days - as full and fun as they are - can be long... filled with activity and interaction. Having a little siesta is a great solution for us. Socializing, interacting, exploring, and adventuring surrounding the siesta seem enhanced by the break.

How does it work out practically for us right now? 

Because the effects of our siesta are so significant and vital at this season in our family's life, I make no apology for protecting it from interruption. With few exceptions, from 12-2 I turn off the phone's ringer and post this sign on our door. 

Jude (almost a year) and Jack (coming on 3) continue their daily naps at this time, but the girls (nearly 4 and 5) aren't taking regular naps. 

For the girls, ideally, their siesta involves choosing some books, coloring book/markers, blocks and toy cars, or other activity they choose to enjoy QUIETLY and ALONE in separate rooms for an hour or so. It is an expected time of uninterrupted solace. Their minds and bodies rest. 

I look forward to a siesta, too, but resting doesn't come easily for mothers when the list of things to do keeps growing. This hour is prime time to get stuff done! But because my children are deeply affected by me at this stage in their lives, I have to purposefully disengage from thousands of other things that I can do to simply rest and recharge. It helps keeping in mind that I'm a better mama for my children when I'm rested. 

So for me lately, I do a quick tidy of the house in preparation for the afternoon before I relax. Then, I may be found lying on the couch, resting my eyes while listening to instrumental hymns by Fernando Ortega and the like on the internet's Pandora. Or I may be refreshed by catching up on emails or blogging. 

You could really call #6 in this series a "summer UN-activity". The idea of our siesta is to disengage in such a way that mother and child are relaxed and recharged in the middle of a lovely summer's day.

nana time

We all had a wonderful visit with Erik's mom, Anne (aka Nana). We stole a few great shots, including this one...

but it looks like we've run out of room on our blog's photo memory space... I knew this day would come! I'll post the others once I get our memory space stuff sorted out.
Until then... Nana, we miss you and have great memories with you. We missed Papa this visit, but look forward to our next visit hopefully with him, too.

sewing with nana

So glad Catherine made this memory with her grandmother during Nana's visit last week. 

Sharing a skill like this truly "stitches" one generation to the next. 

wrong

Lately, there have been a lot of 

"I was wrong.

I dishonored you. I spoke harshly to you.

Will you forgive me?" 

spoken at our house.

No, it's not the kids apologizing to each other. Or to their parents. 

Sometimes it's Mama... sometimes it's daddy... asking our kids' forgiveness. 

Why would a 30+ year old mother and father ask a 4, 3, and 2 year old to forgive us? Isn't that kind of... humbling?

What's humbling is from the beginning God made us. Erik, Sarah, Catherine, Camille, Jack, and Jude.

The only distinction between us and our children is that they happen to be little. So little, in fact, that God entrusted them to us - to care for, love, teach, train, to walk with. He gave Erik and me a role to play in these little people's lives. But that role is temporary.

We are eternal. If the average human lifespan is 80 years, and Erik and I had children in our thirties, 

that's 50 years that we'll relate to Catherine, Camille, Jack and Jude as parent/child. 50 years is a drop in the bucket compared to eternity, where we hope to relate to them as brothers and sisters in Christ.

God made Catherine, Camille, Jack and Jude. We want to honor them.

This doesn't mean that we give them everything they want. Part of honoring God and honoring our children in our job as "parents" is having the responsibility and the courage to correct,  discipline, and protect. To say no. To teach them to live under authority.

Even though we are parents, Erik and I relate with our children. We too are under authority. Parenting isn't a position of pride or superiority. It's not an ego trip; I'm not right just because I'm bigger and older! With God, there are no double standards. We are only in authority because God has given us the role to lovingly care for and guide these little ones until they are able to hear His voice and be under His authority.

When we see our children as people who are eternal and our role as parent is temporal, this changes how we relate to my children. How we communicate with them. How we treat them. How we value them. How we respond when we wrong them.

I don't always honor my children. I speak harshly. My judgment isn't fair. I will disappoint them. Dishonor them. Sometimes I treat guests in our home with more dignity than my children. I will fail my children.

This is where we both need Jesus.

God will never fail our children. His love won't change. His judgment isn't skewed. He is the one we can point our kids to. The sooner our children are able to transfer their trust and dependence on Jesus - the good Shepherd - the better!

As for us, flawed humans and parents, we need Jesus, too. Jesus has shed His own blood on the cross to forgive me for dishonoring God and my children. I need His forgiveness. He not only died for my sin, but He also shares His life with me, that I might choose Him when I'm frustrated or annoyed. That my children might experience His life and love in me, and not my own human responses.

When we fail, we need to ask forgiveness. Especially of our children. Additionally, it's a great opportunity for us to model to our children how to be reconciled with God and others.

Children are so forgiving - often I've had their little arms wrap around my neck in kind forgiveness. Being welcomed into the arms of your child or spouse or the Lord is joyful, sweet, humbling restoration.

juicy july

Strawberries, peaches, and corn on the cob... oh, my!

Summer salads, suppers from the grill, and even a birthday party await us this July.

Incorporating flavors and colors fresh from the farm, bursting with summer sun and juicy goodness,

I had a feast just preparing this height-of-the-summer menu! Enjoy.

Click here if you'd like to view our printable July menu.

Want to find the recipes? Many of our July suppers are from Whole Foods. 

Others you can find though google.

If you're just in, you are welcomed to visit our posts on menu rationale and method.

bbq

Ever since I've known Erik, he's enjoyed hosting a good party. 

Having little kids hasn't kept Erik away either from entertaining or from the grill

 when summer comes a-callin'. 

In fact, now he has four junior entertainers to help him kick off the good times.

We hosted a BBQ for about 30 single staff and interns at our home earlier this June, and 

our friends Chris and Carly Mainland captured some of the moments on film.

Erik, grill master 

Jack,  cookie inspector

Mimi, cookie taster

Catherine, running c - i - r - c - l - e - s around the porch crew  

Jack, with his cars, letting the good times roll

the girls, settling down with Mrs. Ginger, before they have to say
So long, farewell
Auf wiedersehen, good night!
and head for bed.

verbatim: lunch date

Each week, Erik takes a few guys from Ravencrest or the community out for lunch. When he's not eating out, he's at home with us. Friday Erik was home for lunch. As our family sat around the kitchen table, Catherine asked a question:

Catherine: Dad?
Erik: Yeah?
Catherine: Why do some days you eat with somebody else and some days you eat with our family? Because I like to have you. It's very fun.
Erik: Catherine, if I had to choose between going out to lunch with someone or coming home to my family, I would always want to come home and be with my family.
Catherine: Everyday?
Erik: Everyday.
Catherine: Oh!!

Erik: But... God has given me other relationships with people.... like Dylan or with other guys who Dad feels it's important to go out and spend some time with these guys. And so Daddy does that, but by no means does it mean that I'd rather do that than be with my family. I would rather be with my family. So on the days I don't go out with those guys, I like to be with you guys."
(Catherine hugs Erik.)
Erik: I don't want to miss anything.

breathtaking-photo credit: Chris Mainland 

marathon

In my "intelligent" years as student at university, I decided it would be fun- yes, fun- to run a marathon together with some of my pals.

We had a professor who also found it "fun" to run marathons, too, and offered to train us.

What do I remember about training for a marathon? I remember finally liking coffee, irresistibly presented to me by my friend Natalie before an early morning distance training run. I remember sweating with my uni friends. I remember a nasty blister on the bottom of my right foot. But significantly, I remember Dr. Higgins, our professor. Our trainer.

His training technique has never left me. For Dr. Higgins, training wasn't simply observing us from a distance, and yelling out instructions to us. For him, training was putting on his running shoes, and with a eager smile and infectious enthusiam, observing us along the way, and showing us ways of improving.

I'll never forget that Dr. Higgins didn't train us from a distance; Dr. Higgins ran every step of the way with us. 

Eventually, we ran the whole thing. 26.2 miles.
And then we college girls intelligently ran another one... for fun.

Now that I'm a mom, I'm not running marathons anymore. My knees have declared civil war on any ambitions like that.

But I still think about Dr. Higgins. Regularly. Because now, as a mom, I'm a trainer, too.

Everyday, I'm training Catherine, Camille, Jack, and Jude for the steps that they are going to take in the days ahead.

Honesty.
Integrity.
Responsibility.
Respect.
Communication.
Perseverance.
Dependence on Jesus.

I can train them from a distance, or I can get right into their lives and run every step of the way with them.

I remember when Catherine, our eldest, was 18 months old. She loved to toddle over to our front door where the basket of winter hats, mitts, and scarves were kept. These things she put on. And took off. And put on. And took off. Until the basket was empty and these things were all over the floor.

I said, "Catherine, I don't mind if you play with those, but you need to put them back in the basket when you're done."

Time passed. Hats, mitts, and gloves still lay like colorful snow on our floor. Catherine was elsewhere.

I found her, walked her back to the empty basket, and rephrased my words. Then I showed her exactly what I meant. Then we did it together. Then I left a few at the end for her to do on her own.

We looked at the clean floor and celebrated.

Catherine wasn't the only one with a lesson to learn that day. Through this situation, I remembered Dr. Higgins. He subjected himself to our training. He entered in to our discipline.

I thought about how parenting can be distant: from-the-comfy-couch-remote-control-parenting. In the story I shared, I could speak out orders which Catherine may or may not understand how to implement. Both parties are likely to get upset with lack of understanding.

Or it can be it can be involved, integrated, let-me-run-with-you parenting. I could get in there and train with Catherine until she was conditioned to know the standard and uphold it on her own. (She's great at this now.)

Training, or discipline, cost our prof as much as it did us. Higgins had to put on his running shoes and run - every step we ran.  As we train/discipline our children, it costs us as parents. We have to get off the couch. We have to stop what we're doing. To talk to our kids. To explain. To demonstrate. To work together. To give opportunity for our kids to practice.

There's a verse in the Bible about training, or discipline (the Greek word is sophronismos, which is a blend of sos "safe" and phren "the mind" = "a calling to soundness of mind"):

All discipline (training) for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 

Hebrews 13:11

I initially read this verse with my children in mind, but if I consider that discipline equally involves me, then this verse takes on a new light. It is encouraging not only for them, but also for us as parents. Training my kids may be tough. Hard. Sorrowful. Sometimes there are blisters. But as I am trained by it, and my kids are trained by it, discipline will yield peaceful fruit in our home.

Lord, thank you for the privilege of training 

alongside our children as we run through life together. 

As we train our children, 
may we humbly and faithfully embrace Your training in our own lives.

daily bread

Let's talk about food, shall we?

So many colors, textures, flavors, combinations, and opportunities!
It's aesthetic.
It's aromatic.
It's flavorful.
And it's functional.
Food nourishes the grown up bodies and the tiny bodies in our homes. It helps them go (and grow!).

God could have packaged up our fuel in freeze-dried, flavorless form, but He made it so full of variety and gave us the pleasure of creating with it, sharing it, enjoying it, and being nourished by it! (Thank you, Lord!)

How many meaningful conversations have been had over a meal? Mealtime is an ingenious conduit of togetherness and fellowship.

Food... what a literal treat!

In our family, one of my responsibilities and privileges as a mother is to ensure my family is getting properly nourished by providing healthful meals each day.

After all, our children are growing mentally, but equally physically. In the same way I want to feed their minds with good books, thoughts, and opportunities, I also want to ensure that their calorie craving bodies and lengthening limbs are getting the proper building blocks of nutrition that they need.

As for my wonderful husband Erik, he has no expectations for me to cook amazing food, but he does appreciate a good meal at the end of his day. A good meal is a great way to encourage him!

However, I was finding that I was repeating many of the same meals, which ultimately lacked variety both nutritionally and flavorfully... Or worse, I was finding myself at five pm staring into an improperly stocked refrigerator wondering what I could make from odds and ends while hungry children waited patiently.

I felt like my days as a Mom with four little children were tremendously demanding - sometimes just going from one part of the day to the next - which left me no time to properly plan, shop, and nourish my family with a good meal at the end of the day. I was struggling with the apparent conflict of my responsibilities as a mother.

I was discouraged that such a significant, regular, and presumably delicious part of our lives was, well, BLAND.

I wished that I could not only be productive in the kitchen for the sake of our own family, but also that we could capitalize on the multiple benefits of sharing a meal with friends from our community and town.

Can you relate?

Do you feel a desire to love your family by providing a variety of nutritious meals for them, but find that your meals are "repeats" from week to week? Do you desire to make good food, but when it comes down to it, the ingredients aren't there when you need them? Do your minutes matter and you find yourself at the end of the day without enough time to think through a menu and decide on ingredients and then go shopping? I think this may be true for a few mamas reading this.

May the Lord guide you and help you with the desire to care for your family in this way.

For me, I expressed my heart to Erik, who is not only such a wonderful husband, but also friend who knows me well and cares about my concerns and wants to support me in any way he can. I feel that God often shows me things about myself through the eyes of my man, and I am so glad for this. Erik reminded me that I frequently do well - both in preparing a project and feeling satisfied at the end of it - if I've made a list.

From this concept, the month long menu was born and has been developing over the past five months.

I spend about an hour each month "refreshing" each month's menu, but the pay off is that I have a variety of meal ideas, the ingredients I need, and the joy of knowing my family is being well-fed.

One of the highlights of feeling more confident about mealtime due to our menu is that we are able to have more people into our home, especially for dinner. I am not only able to care for my family, but also welcome students, staff, and neighbors from our community into our home regularly. What a blessing this is!

Even Jesus nourished the hungry tummies with loaves and fish while teaching them of the Bread of Life. It is a privilege to serve my family in this way, and I am grateful for this tool to help me with my responsibilities at this stage in our family's life.

Lord, thank You for making us body, soul, and spirit 

and for abundantly providing everything they need to be sustained.

Sustain our families as we share Your food, 

both bread for the body and the Bread of Life for the soul. 

one year later

This past Friday, our family joined the summer interns and staff from Ravencrest for a picnic in Boulder. 

I snapped the bottom photograph and remembered I had taken another one similar to it the year before. Jack had just been in his accident earlier that week. 

thank you, Jesus.

when everything's not funny

The Rocky Mountain National Park is in our backyard. Through it runs Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest continuous motorway in the US. It is our quick and beautiful access into western Colorado, unless we travel east to the valley, and then north or south for an hour until other highways link us back up into and over the mountains.

We were excited about possibly taking Trail Ridge Road to our friend's wedding in Craig, CO this past weekend, but it was rainy at our home at 8500 ft... and snowy at Trail Ridge's top elevation of 11k+ ft. Erik called the Park to confirm, and sure enough, the road was closed due to snow.

So we went the long way around, reading, singing, talking, listening to books on CD, eating some road-trip food. It was fun.

By Saturday night, our friend was happily wedded to his bride, and our kids were happily "wetted" in our hotel's swimming pool.

Sunday morning, Erik and I decided to leave earlier than planned because the kids had a late night, Jude was still unwell, and we were pretty bagged ourselves. It would be good for everyone to get home.

We looked outside our hotel curtains to discover that Sunday was beautiful. Warm. Skies brilliantly blue. The trip home already seemed shorter.

We wondered if Trail Ridge Road was open. It would cut down our driving time significantly. And when you travel with four little kids, even an hour can make a big difference.

Not one to be irresponsible, Erik wanted to confirm that TR Road was open. He always does his due diligence to care for his family in any situation, and this was no different. Because we don't have a cell phone, Erik called the front desk of our hotel to get information on Trail Ridge Road. They checked for us and confirmed it was clear. But Erik wasn't sure of their source. He asked them to check more specifically, and again they confirmed.

So we took the more direct way. The weather and the idea of taking Trail Ridge Road home made the journey seem so much quicker. A good thing, because after three nights of bad sleep with Jude, nothing was funny any more and I needed all the help I could get.

Hours in to our trip home, we saw the peaks we had to cross. Our home was just on the other side!! And then we noticed raindrops on our windshield... and clouds above the peaks. Rain in the valley can mean snow on the pass, even in May. We stopped in Kremmling, a tiny mountain town, and asked a police man what report he had. He said even if it's open, it could close at anytime.

At this point in the trip, our options were to either get to the park and be home in under an hour, or we would have to go a super-long way around from that point. Like three more hours long around. It's like being in an alley at the back-gate to your house, finding out the gate's locked, and you have to go all the way down the alley and back up again to get into your front door. 

I wanted to get home. But my personal desire was only 1%, compared to the 99% of me as a Mom wanting to get my tired children home.

We scurried to the south entrance of the Park, only to discover that sure enough... it was closed.

My heart sunk. How to break the news to the kids, who had already been so patient and resourceful during the car ride?

We have always wanted to be honest with our kids - not to misguide them or mislead them with our words just to give them false assurance. We feel that it is crucial to be trust-worthy and honest with our children, even when the news is tough. We acknowledged the situation, encouraged them in how they had been doing, and told them the game plan for getting home.

I don't know about you, but it's hard to encourage someone when I'm discouraged. As a mom, that's what I find myself up against sometimes. How do we continue to encourage our children even when we're tired, discouraged, and have already used up all the travel tricks we had packed away? Again, I was honest with them. I asked them if they could relate. That almost seemed to band us together. Then we looked forward.

After telling stories, reading books, games, coloring, books on CD, kid's music on CD for a few hours already, we felt a lolly pop and a DVD were next up on the menu. We would stop in Denver for dinner, and then carry on home.

Erik and I talked about the trip after we got home and the kids were passed out in their beds. What do you do when things don't go as planned or as hoped for as parents? What about accidents? Mistakes? What about things beyond our control?

We feel that our responsibility is to do our due diligence to care for our family, make the best decision we can with the information we have, and leave the results to God. It's not always easy, I sure as heck wasn't laughing like I was on Friday. I don't know why we took the long road home. Maybe God was keeping us from something or giving us to someone. As believers, we can trust that God's heart is not ever to steal, kill, or destroy. He might take away, but He won't waste. He might remove, but He doesn't tease or trick us. His heart is for us. He is the gentle catcher of all that seems lost in our lives. He is the known of our unknowns. Maybe eternity will tell these secrets. In the meantime, as parents, may we all hold on to His promise -

  He works all things together for good to those who love Him 

and are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28