Gearing Up....Ready to Go!

We leave this week for Washington! We plan to get in the car in the wee hours of the morning and "set sail". I started to have some panic attacks a few days ago about the trip. Mostly just because of the dependability of the car and the drive of 16 hours with three kids in the back seat of a Jetta. It will be good for them, but can we survive? I certainly hope so. We are taking snacks and movies mostly. We girls all get too car sick for much more. I started to feel better when I just put my adventure hat on so to speak and realized something that I've been telling myself ever since having kids started to fee heavy... there is no mess too big it cannot be cleaned up. What ever happens, we will work through it and we will come out the other side of it. All the good planning can flip on you at any moment anyway, so why try to plan it all perfect.
I'm not good at the planning thing. I'm not the mom who stays up late thinking of the creative things my kids can do or take or play on an outing. If it hits me, I do it, take it, prepare it. If not, the chips will fall where they may. I just get too overwhelmed planning it all out (that random brain thing) and too cranky if what I've planned out does not happen. See why I need that adventure hat on!?
I'm letting my house get real dirty on purpose (ever do that, it's kinda fun). This helped ease my stress too. Instead of cleaning it a week before and fussing for every little thing that messed it up again, I wait and clean it the day before we leave. Then leave, quick! There is no sense in doing it thoroughly twice. You should see my kitchen floor!!! Eeeeek!
I am however a little picky about coming home to a clean house and clean bedding. There is no greater feeling than a clean home and fresh sheets welcoming you back.
We took Ebony over to Tricia's to meet their dog Lucy yesterday. It went really well. I was impressed. They seem to like each other. I'm actually looking forward to a break from the pets for a few weeks. The kittens will be looked in on by our neighbor but cats are so much easier! I'm glad they have each other to romp around with and keep entertained.
I'm delving into the whole mystery of "Lost" while on vacation. I'm starting some of the books from the "Lost" book club. These are books that are mentioned in the show somewhere. The producers say that reading some of these may help you develop more of the mystery of the story, and I thought what they hey? I'll have some down time which does not happen around here, so I've sent off for them through the library. The five I chose are:

"Island" by Aldous Huxley (this should be interesting after having had to read "Brave New World" in a world view class in college)
"Bad Twin" by Gary Troup (no idea what I'm getting into on this one, but Sawyer was reading it as a script which intrigued me, why not a book? Is that a clue that it had a lot to do with the writing of the script of the show? hmmmmm)
"Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (use to have it in my literary days, always wanted to read it anyway, but this one must be significant to the whole "Lost" mystery because it is said many times to be where the Dharma orientation video is kept behind on the book shelf...interesting)
"Watership Down" by Richard Adams (always wanted to read this one too)
"Evil Under the Sun" by Agatha Christy (on the list, and hey, who can go wrong with an Agatha Christy novel?)

So, though highly nonspiritual, there is my reading list for the next few weeks. This whole rewatching of Lost has been intriguing to me. I've noticed things I've never seen before....those numbers are everywhere! We were watching an episode where Anna Lucia pulls her cop car into the police department and low and behold, the aerial shot showed all the cars around her had the numbers 04, 08, 15, 16, 23, 42.....I never saw that before. Thought I was real clever for noticing it and then plugged it into the search bar of this lost theories site and found it was old news. If you are a big fan of the show, the site has some fun theories!

Pictures of the Kitten Adventure

Pictures of the Kitten Adventure

I told you a while back about the kittens we took on. They were a mess the day we brought them home. I was pretty stressed out the first few weeks but they are doing great now, healthy and cute. Rick was cracking up behind the camera taking pics while we washed them. Now, I can see why and you can too. Princess has a dream of being a vet, so I get sucked into a lot of animal rescue scenarios!:)

Slide show above, I could not get them to work with this text.

Okay, I Really Feel Like An Idoit

I thought about naming this "me and tahini; how we found each other" but it did not hit on the stupidity I feel.

Ladies, my brain does this and I wish someone would tell it to stop. For some VERY ODD reason, I have been reading "sesame seed paste" as "sunflower seed paste" for a very long time now. Tahini is made from SESAME SEED PASTE. I was wondering why when I got the sunflower butter from TJ's, it did not look white like the tahini the TJ worker handed me. Then, on the last post Judy asked me about using peanut butter and sesame oil. I read that too as "sunflower oil". What is up with me?! When I finally realized that she wrote "sesame oil" I thought, "oh, no, wait a minute, she has got the wrong seed." Then the second guessing began. I was in town doing errands, driving my kids around to the grocery and walmart and little did all of humanity know that in the silent caverns of my brain I was trying to think if it was sunflower or sesame. "That would make sense," I told myself, "because it's more of a white seed". Oh, dear.

I came home and googled the same wikipedia definition I had read before, only this time I slowed down and saw guess which word? Sesame.

So, if anyone was humoring me, please forgive me and just let me know how stupid I am next time!:)

For the record: tahini is a sesame paste

Tricia you asked if I've tried dried garbanzos yet. No, I'm looking for them and may order them in co-op since we are loving this stuff. My grain mill also mills beans so I'm going to start searching for how I can make a dry all ready seasoned and ready to go mix recipe. I'll get back to you.

In the mean time, I think I'm getting old. Help.

Be A Fly On My Wall

I have so not felt like blogging lately. I have had a lot going on the past month but some of it is unbloggable for different reasons. I also just have not had the energy to catch up on much of it. Besides this, we really have just been doing a lot of hiding from the heat and smoke. It is much better today and a joy to be able to keep the windows open for a while.

So, stop by and be a fly on my wall for a min so we can catch up.

Humus Love

I just finished a bowl of cucumber and tomatoes covered with some yummy scoops of home made humus. We are loving this recipe:

1 can drained garbanzo beans

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp cumin

2 med cloves garlic

3 Tbs. Tahinni (TJ's)

EVOO to liking (about 1/4 cup)

Throw in food processor and push button!

I made a commitment to myself to do my Arbonne shake or fruits and veggies (including legumes) for the next two weeks so I can feel better on our trip once many of my bad food choice toxins are eliminated. I walked an hour this morning and although part of me screamed "NO!" through most of it, I was so happy to have done it in the end.

Planet Earth

We have been loving those so far! Wow! I watched the one on caves while walking this morning and the kids are watching it now while I chill for a few minutes. The video footage is dumbfounding. I think I was most impressed with the thought that man has just recently been able to burrow down into these caves and how amazed he has been at what he has found. Yet, the mind of God has not only known about their every corner and crook, he knows every little bizarre creature living there in the dark, taking care of it's need. The beauty of the deepest parts of the earth or sea are no mystery to him! Yet, he also knows the hairs on my head in their number. Wow.

Rent it, netflix it, library it.....what ever you do.. watch it.

Genesis

I've finally got my hands on chronological bible in a year book. I've always wanted to do this, read chronologically that is. I have a neighbor who just came back to the Lord (praise him for that and the amazing answer to prayer it has been) and I was overcome with her excitement to learn the scripture. We have been reading together since she has the same bible. Lately I got her distracted with something though.....

Lost

I've been trying to spread mine and Rick's craziness about Lost with some of my friends. I got my neighbor friend to watch the pilot with me on a day last week when it was 115* outside. She got VERY, VERY, VERY hooked. All episodes from all four seasons are on abc.com so she has been hibernating to catch up. Actaully, it was good timing since her hubby is gone for over a week and it's been so very hot. Still, I feel a little bad.....but not really:). It is the best show I think I've ever seen really because of it's unpredictability. I seem to always be able to tell who done it, what's going to happen etc.... but not with Lost. I'm Lost. :*

Kitties

Getting bigger and very cute to watch. We will be needing a climber something or other soon as my arm chairs are becoming a constant attraction. I still don't have batteries for my camera to share pics....ah! We have had "bad luck" with cats in the past. We always get ones that are spooked and/or unfriendly. Sterling and Shasta are cuddlers and that is so fun! They let the kids love on them, cuddle them and even carry them around too long for the liking (especially Superkid).

Washington Here We Come!

I'm nervous but excited. We are going to be cramming the five of us in the Jetta! Gas prices do that to you. We are also going to attempt the 16 hour stretch as long as we can make it. If the moral of all goes down hill, we will stop for a hotel. We are just beginning to beef up on Washington state info and the kids are very excited to get to wear their Washington t-shirts from the Cowans (thanks again Lisa:). Pretty soon I'll be starting a checklist. Any suggestions? Oh, and my kids all get car sick so we can't do reading or games.

Back to Genesis

Thoughts that have been intriguing to me:

Adam and Eve hid when they had sinned and heard the sound of the Lord taking his walk in the garden in the cool of the evening. Wow. That thought blew me away. Can you imagine hearing God walking by and being able to have the freedom to join him and walk and talk with him!? That is what is ahead! You would think that if we had that, we would not trade it for fruit.

Totally caught up with the table of nations. How we all came from Ham, Shem, and Japeth and how they started the races of today. Amazing.

Also, the fact occurred to me that there are no guarantees with our kids. Noah was a man of God and you would think that this would have been a new start for the world to all come from a man who feared God. Yet, it is obvious that is not what happened. How faithfully I need to pray for them but how much more I have to trust God for his perfect will.

Sarah is always revered in christian women circles as being such a great image of submission without fear. When she went along with some of Abraham's antics and lies about being his sister (which is half true really since she was his half sister) she is pointed out later in scripture as being Godly for that. Yet, I was frustrated with how she talked Abraham into having children with her servant, and then blamed him for what a bad idea that was when it went wrong. Genesis should give us hope, it's so full of people with family issues and personality faults.

Gunna get to soon....

Lynn asked about a good bread machine recipe for sandwich bread. My friend Charlotte gave me one that works real good. I'll come back to share it soon. I also will be putting those summer suggestions up in the cupboard soon. Thanks to those of you who shared.