Finally able to settle

Well the big anticipated move happened; what we thought would take place in September has finally happened in January. We moved into our lovely nice new apartment on January 13. My parents drove here to help us move and we couldn't have done it without them! They were a huge help and their motivation to get things done made it so we are way ahead of most people and have settled in quickly. This place makes it easy to settle: the spacious fancy kitchen (pantry, granite countertop, open concept with bar into dining room), two bathrooms, stacked front-load washer and drier located in apartment! I've never been so spoiled! No traveling up or down stairs carrying laundry, also, my clothes have never been so clean. Our windows face south-slightly-east and south-slightly-west which means: we get amazing light. Our bedroom has two huge bright windows and we set our bed up right in between them. All this to say: we're thrilled.

In other big news, we got about 2 inches of snow! We're thrilled and spent some time playing in it.

Christmas Eve!

It's nearly Christmas and there is a lot of excitement in this household! Yes, that's parent and kid excitement. It's just so much more fun creating traditions, carrying on old ones, giving presents, decorating, listening to music, etc, when there's kids who are loving every minute of it and glowing with Christmas spirit! We leave for Ontario on the 22nd (woohoo!) so that means we're doing Christmas morning tomorrow. We bought the Lil Smokies today, I just made Polly's Eggs (egg milk cheese oven bake which will sit overnight in the fridge then it just needs to be popped into the oven in the morning and voila breakfast is ready without anyone having to work on it in the morning = time to open presents), we will soon lay out all the presents under the tree. We ate shepherd's pie for supper tonight and read the part in Luke 2 that talks about the shepherds. All this to say: I love having family traditions that I can be excited about year after year, and having them be something the kids anticipate, too. Sadly, we couldn't make gingerbread cookies this year. Our baking supplies aren't all unpacked yet - they weren't initially unpacked because I thought we'd be in our new place by now! *sigh. We did find out our new apartment number, though. It's the apartment we wanted so we're eager to move. However, we aren't sure yet when we'll get the go-ahead on that.

Merry Christmas to all! To those in Ontario: we hope to see and visit with you soon! And to those in Minnesota: we are so sad to not be there as there so many dear people we are missing.

This past Thursday was American Thanksgiving. We spent the afternoon with Trip and Kira and their kids. We had a lovely time visiting while last minute preparations were made, and the kids really played excellent together. The meal was a genuine feast! It was delicious and in true Thanksgiving fashion, there were plenty of leftovers. We were grateful to be invited into Trip and Kira's home for Thanksgiving. It is a holiday that we usually spend with Ry's family; since that wasn't a possibility this year, it was a blessing to be able to spend it with old friends from Minnesota!

Ry got back from his AAR conference weekend on Wednesday at 1:30am. It was a rough drive to the airport to pick him up, but I am indebted and thankful to our friends who came here at midnight and stayed till 2:45am to listen for the kids so that I could bring Ry home! The kids and I faired alright for the 5 days that Ry was away, but it is really great to have him home again.

I decided this year that I would make myself a stocking. The kids and Ry have their own stockings so I'm the only one without one. Since I've been wanting to get into quilting I decided to use fabric I had sitting around for a while intended for a project which I have abandoned. See it pictured below; one stocking, different fabric pattern on each side.

a winning recipe

Since being a stay-at-home mom, I've been investing more time and energy, and enjoying doing so, into meal planning and cooking. It has been a source of joy to find recipes that the whole family not only likes, but eats. We've noticed and heard that New Jersey is one of the most expensive places in the country to live. Thus, to find great recipes that are also cost effective is a plus.

I've discovered my new go-to soup recipe. It is easy to have all the ingredients always in the house. Another reason this soup is a winner: the kids LOVE it and eat a lot of it. So, it's an easy and pleasing lunch or with a loaf of nice bread, supper.

from The Soup Bible with my own revisions/remarks.
serves 4-6
Lentil and Pasta Soup
3/4 c brown or green lentils (not red! you want the lentils to retain shapes)
3 garlic cloves
4 cups water
3 Tbsp olive oil (I used all butter)
2 Tbsp butter
[1 onion (I omit this)]
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 Tbsp sun-dried tomato puree (I use extra, and I also puree my own so it's a little chunky)
7 1/2 c vegetable broth (I use water and add 1 Tbsp of vegetable Better than Bouillon)
a few fresh marjoram leaves (I use 1/2 tsp dried marjoram)
a few fresh basil leaves (I use 1/2 tsp dried basil)
leaves from 1 spring thyme (I use 1/2 tsp dried thyme)
1/2 c small pasta shape, such as tubetti (I used 1 c alphabet shapes - part of why kids loved it - , or brown rice or barley would work great, too!)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Put lentils in a large suacepan. Smash one of the garlic cloves and add it to the lentils. Pour in the 4 c water and bring to a boil/simmer for 20 mins till lentils are just tender.
2. Tip the lentils into a sieve, remove the cooked garlic clove and set it aside. Rinse the lentils with cold water. Leave them to drain.
3. Heat 2 Tbsp of oil and half butter in a large saucepan. Add the [onion and the] celery and cook over a low heat, stirring frequently, for 5-7 minutes until softened. Crush the remaining garlic and mash the reserved cooked garlic clove. Add to the vegetables with the remaining oil/butter, the tomato puree and lentils. Stir, then add the stock, herbs and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to boil, stirring. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the pasta and bring to boil again, stirring. Simmer, stirring frequently, for amount of time of pasta cook time (approx. 7-8 minutes). [If using rice or barley, add in step 4 so it can cook for 30 minutes.] Add remaining butter and adjust seasoning.

Impromptu visit to NB

When we noticed that Ry's reading week coincided with the visit our friends' band, The Geese, to New Brunswick, we knew we had to make the 11 hour trek to be there at the same time! We hadn't been back to NB in 3 years so it was high time we got back to see everyone and the land. It was an excellent visit with dear friends, not to mention it just felt *good to be back in the Maritimes. We stayed with the Rouleau family and we enjoyed preparing meals together, eating together, relaxing and staying up to late - it was awesome. Our kids got along really well, and Ali and Jeromy took excellent care of Aleida and Owen. Seeing and hearing the band was a treat (thegeese.ca), not to mention visiting and hanging out with them.

On the way home, we had to stop and stay overnight in New Hampshire because there was a major snow storm. We didn't even think that we needed to plan around the weather, but apparently we should have! Owen was absolutely thrilled, though. He's been wishing for snow for a long time.

Halloween was fun! We went trick or treating in the area and it was a lot fun. The kids really enjoyed it as well.

Aleida walked around the house like this the morning of Oct 31. 

I decided she'd go out like this for Halloween as we didn't have a costume idea for her. I just added a couple other things to make her more 'hipster girl'.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of the both of them before they went out. Owen was so excited about it. He wore his spiderman pajamas and his spiderman mask. He looked great and he had so much fun. Aleida enjoyed it as well. I don't think she knew what she was doing, but she did what all the other kids were doing, and didn't want her treats in her bag, but wanted to hold them all. Obviously this didn't work very well. It was only when someone asked her, "Do you want some chocolate?" that she gave me her treat and asked me to open it for her so she could eat it. She was hooked! She wanted all that candy! Silly girl.

Conveniently neither kid has asked about the candy anymore. So, on the fridge it sits.

Okay, so I just got a picture of the kids from someone else. Here they are, with their friends:

Aunt Heidi

So I finally gathered photos from my phone and from our camera so I can document some of the fun we've had with Aunt Heidi. She came and stayed with us for a weekend, and then we met up with her over Thanksgiving weekend in New York City at Central Park.

Heidi worked a long time on this "Abstrakt" project but without luck of finishing.

At Terhune Orchard.

Central Park, NYC

Carousel in Central Park

Turkey Swamp Park

We visited Turkey Swamp Park located about 35 minutes from our house. It was a gorgeous day and quite windy. It was too good of a day to just stay inside! We all had a wonderful time being out in the fresh air with the smell of leaves and pine needles and the occasional whiff of swamp. We hope to get out a lot before the cold gets to be too much.