In the Kitchen

Last night I made this for supper:

Carrots and Lentils in Olive Oil

The recipe it not only healthy (it uses 4 cups of sliced carrots and has 12 grams of fiber in one serving), it is really delicious too.

I also made a red velvet cake too last night, so I could make this:

Red Velvet Trifle with layers of cool whip,  chocolate fudge pudding, raspberries, and skor bits.

 My favorite part about making a trifle is you can bake a cake and eat bits of it too, and no one will ever know.

~b~

A Glimpse into My World

Last year my son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS which stands for Pervasive Development Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified.  It's really just a long fancy sounding name that means he has symptoms that fall under the autism spectrum.  This means that, among other difficulties, it is harder for him to connect socially with others, so most of you probably don't know him like I do.  Which is unfortunate, because he is really quite funny.

So this post is some of the ways he has made me laughed this past month.

My son saw this when we made a late night trip to Walmart:

He pointed it out to me and thought I should buy it.  So that when I got married I wouldn't have to "ascribe to traditional gender roles".  I don't know where he even gets this kind of language from, but I'm glad he's looking out for me!


I came home from work on Monday and my son asked me if I had any dreams lately.  Then he proceeded to tell me that he had a dream that he was "that wrestler, Macho Man Sandy Ravage".

OHHH YEEAHH!!!

  

Sandy Ravage???  SANDY RAVAGE!!!  I couldn't stop laughing and kept on repeating Sandy Ravage, and asking him where he had even heard of Randy Savage.

And then the funniest part of the whole situation was when I calmed down from laughing and he said:

"Actually, I didn't have a dream of  Randy Savage . . . I made the whole thing up."  And then with a bit of reflection, he said . . . "I don't know why I just made that up."

I don't know why he made it up either, but it was pretty funny.  Funny and weird.

My son had to write some poems for his English class.  One commented on the current economic situation.  Another one was about Smelly Pete, who takes bathes in expired milk.

Here are two of my favorite poems he has written:

A Haiku

Loopy Lorenzo
lost his marbles and his hair
oh what a dispair!

A Tanka

Dreary and drunk Dan
slurs, stutters, and stumbles around
the streets of Boston
he searches his bag for booze
Why is the rum always gone?

I'm not too sure what inspired him to create characters like Smelly Pete, Loopy Lorenzo, and dreary and drunk Dan, but I like it!

~b~

2012-01-04

It's been so long that I've published that I actually had to spend some time looking for the "new post" button.

Last month was such a whirl wind of activity that for the first time in this blogs history I didn't publish at least one post.  Besides going to parties and getting ready for Christmas I ended up signing a lease on an apartment that has some amazing view of the river and downtown Saskatoon.  I will have to post a picture of the view soon.

It seems like this time of year should be spent reflecting on the important/major events from last year but with the move and settling into a new place most of the time my mind is preoccupied with envisioning my future here.  I have a lot of good memories spent with friends from this past year and a lot of times and events that were hard to endure.  Maybe the move has made me look at the past with rose colored glasses, but I think because of those hard times I have left last year with a deeper faith, better clarity of who I am meant to be, and what I love to do.

A friend of mine asked me the other day if I had any resolutions, and I hadn't really thought about it too much.  But after listening to a leadership podcast about Mission Statements which is essentially writing out exactly what you want out of life, I realized that if I want to live the life that I envision, I need to be more intentional in how I live on a daily basis.  The other two things that resonated with me was the point that people who accomplish things decide in advance how they spend their time, and that success is direction.  So hopefully this weekend I can get the mountain of boxes out of the house and carve out a little time to make a "time" budget and make sure I spend time in my week getting to that place that I envision myself to be in.

For those of you who make resolutions or goals I wish you the courage to define and pursue your dreams and the tenacity to continue on until you arrive.

Happy 2012!

~b~