Indoor Obstacle Course

In addition to our indoor exercises, Nigel's added obstacle courses to his beat-the-heat fun. Earlier this week he ran down the hall, did 5 jumping jacks, ran back, and jumped over a yoga block and a yoga mat. Good times.

Friday Cooking: Blueberry Muffins

Friday cooking time here. We're due a trip to the grocery store tomorrow, so we had to choose a recipe based on our existing ingredients. After consulting our recipe box and three kid cookbooks, Nigel chose Blueberry Muffins (recipe below) from the The Kid's Cookbook by Williams-Sonoma; I actually purchased the book back in the late 1990s when I worked at Time Life.

Nigel helped measure and dump the flour, baking powder and milk; stir the ingredients; line the cupcake tin with paper liners; and add the blueberries. There was also a good teachable cooking moment — and an example of why baking and I don't mix: We reread the ingredients before we scooped out the muffins and realized we'd forgotten to add the sugar!

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups flour (we used 1 cup of whole wheat and 1 cup of all-purpose)
1/2 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
3/4 t vanilla
1 cup blueberries (we were a little shy of a cup, so we defrosted some frozen strawberries and tossed those in, too)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, combine milk, beaten egg and vanilla. Add the milk mixture and the melted butter to the dry ingredients; combine and add blueberries. Spoon mixture into 12 muffin liners. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Bento Boxes

Over the last two years I've become obsessed with Bento boxes and planning Nigel's lunches for school. The moment is almost here, so I finally bought some supplies. These two boxes (sorry for the crappy cell phone picture) are from Minoya in Plano; the lemon is there for scale. They were $3.99 each, compared to $10+ online. The most important thing, though, is that Nigel is able to open them on his own. I also bought a mini rice mold. Stay tuned for some photos of lunches. Want to learn more about Bentos? Here's my favorite blog!

Friday Cooking: Sweet Dream Pie

As much as we're all ready for Nigel to start preschool in a few weeks, I am kind of sad that we won't have as much time together. So, I thought it'd be fun to do something special together on the days that he's home. Enter: Friday Cooking. I LOVE to cook, but I hate to bake. Even if I'm following a recipe I usually mess something up and end up disappointed. So, this project will also hopefully get my over my fear of the exact, measured kind of cooking baking requires. Nigel loves to help in the kitchen and eat the results, so it's a win-win.

Last week we enjoyed the book Sweet Dream Pie from the library. In the story, an older couple mixes up an amazing sugary pie with gumdrops, cookies, candy canes, etc. The pie's supposed to make you have sweet dreams, but everyone who ate it ate too much and ended up having wild dreams and a restless sleep.

There's no way I was going to let Nigel eat a pie with all of those things inside, so we dug through my recipe box and he chose a Chocolate-Nut Tart with Dried Fruit recipe that I'd clipped from Gourmet (the recipe's below). It was pretty easy, although next time I'll steer him toward a recipe that he can do more with (read: one that doesn't having scalding hot cream and involve lots of knife work). Nigel pricked the pie crust, measured out the dried fruit and nuts, spread the jelly, dumped the cold cream into the pan before I heated it up, etc. What does it taste like? The pie is VERY rich, and it reminds me of my beloved Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut Bar. If you're fortunate to live in a not so hot place, you might be able to leave the pie out on the counter. We're not that fortunate, so I had to store it in the fridge and then let it soften slightly on the counter.

Chocolate-Nut Tart with Dried Fruit
1 refrigerated pie crust (1/2 of a 15-oz package)
1/4 cup raspberry preserves
1/2 cup whipping cream
12 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 cup assorted nuts (we used pecans because they're soft and hazelnuts because they're relatively easy to chop)
1 cup assorted dry fruit (we used pineapple, golden raisins and razzcherries)
pinch of salt
1/3 cup toffee bits for garnish (we didn't do this)

Preheat oven to 450. Press pie crust into bottom and up sides of 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom (we don't have this kind of pan because, again, I don't bake, so I used a normal pie pan); trim edges and prick crust with a fork. Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool. Spread preserves over the bottom of the crust.
Bring cream to a simmer in a heavy saucepan. Reduce to low and add chocolate until melted and smooth. Remove from heat; stir in nuts, fruit and salt. Spread chocolate mixture in crust. Sprinkle toffee bits on top. Chill until set. (I let it cool on the counter for a bit and then some in the fridge before I covered it with plastic wrap). Serve cold or at room temperature.

Our Newest Jam

We've got preschool on our minds, and this song in our heads! One of Nigel's preschool teachers called this week to introduce herself and to schedule a little "get to know you" session in 2 weeks. (He goes half days the following week.) She sounds really sweet and very excited. I guess we're really doing this, huh?!

Hot Enough For You?

I never really read forwarded chain emails, but this one from my pal Bridget caught my attention and made me laugh so much I had to pass it along. The record heat wave here in Texas is hard to ignore, and this little fictional exchange below is so close to my journey with Texas it's scary!

Just Moved to Texas

The truth can be funny

June 1st:
Just moved to Texas !
Now this is a state that knows how to live!!
Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings.
What a place!
It is beautiful.
I've finally found my home.
I love it here.

June 14th:
Really heating up.
Got to 100 degrees today. Not a problem.
Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air- conditioned car.
What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this.
I'm turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th:
Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today.
Lots of cactus and rocks.
What a breeze to maintain.
No more mowing the lawn for me.
Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:
The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week.
How do people get used to this kind of heat?
At least it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th:
Fell asleep by the community pool.
Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.
Missed 3 days of work.
What a dumb thing to do.
I learned my lesson though.
Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:
I missed my cat, Lomita , sneaking into the car when I left this morning.
By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then popped like a water balloon.
The car now smells like Kibbles and Shits.
I learned my lesson though.
No more pets in this heat.
Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again..

July 25th:
The wind sucks.
It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!!
And it's hot as hell.
The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:
Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now.
$225,000 house and I can't even go inside.
Lomita is the lucky one.
Why did I ever come here?

August 1st:
It's 105 degrees.
Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today.
It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85.
I hate this stupid state.

August 3rd:
If another wise guy cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?'
I'm going to strangle him...Damn heat.
By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

August 5th:
Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts,
When I sat on the seats in the car, I thought my butt was on fire.
My skin melted to the seat.
I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and butt.
Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried butt and baked cat.

Aug 6th:
The weather report might as well be a damn recording.
Hot and sunny...Hot and sunny...Hot and sunny...
And the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.
Doesn't it ever rain in this damn state?
Water rationing has been on the last six weeks.
My $1,700 worth of cactus might just dry up and blow over.
Even the cactus can't live in this damn heat.

August 8th:
Welcome to HELL!
Temperature got to 110 today. Cactus are dead.
Forgot to crack the window and blew the damn windshield out of the car.
The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me???
"Hot enough for you today?"

August 10th
My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail.
Freaking Texas ...
What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??
Will write later to let you know how the trial goes...

Author Unknown ~

Happy Family Anniversary to US!

Three years ago, on July 26, 2008, we landed in Ethiopia and held Nigel for the very first time. If you're not super familiar with our adoption journey, here's some background and info on our referral. (Long story short, although we began talking about adoption when we first met in 2000, the process started in November 2006 with our first batch of paperwork. We were added to the official waiting list on March 14, 2007. It was estimated at that time that we'd be "matched" with a child 10-12 months from that date. 14 months later, we were referred for an almost 2-month-old baby boy on May 14, 2008. On July 14, 2008, we received notice that we'd be traveling to Ethiopia on May 25, 2008. We were in country for just a bit over a week.*)

Most adoptive families celebrate this special day, and we're no different. Throughout the year we read adoption-related books (Mother for Choco and Happy Adoption Day are two of our favorites) and talk to Nigel about adoption, but we step it up around this time. We show Nigel pictures of our trip, share stories, etc. Nigel's recently noticed differences in skin color, so we've been talking about that a lot and getting relevant books from the library, including The Colors of Us.

We also do something special to mark the day. The past two years, we've traveled to Washington, D.C. (home to the highest concentration of Ethiopians outside of the country) to tour the zoo, eat Ethiopian food and stock up on Ethiopian ingredients. Since that once 2-hour trek has now turned into an expensive plane ride, we changed things up this year. On Saturday, we met Uncle Dan and Aunt Nancy at the Dallas Arboretum early in the day to beat the heat. The gardens here are so beautiful. They currently have a super cute exhibit for kids with castles and Peter Rabbit-themed cottages. We printed off a scavenger hunt sheet from their website so Nigel count find things like a hidden toad, Peter's jacket and a fox. He had a really good time. Next, we headed to Desta, an Ethiopian restaurant that Tim and I had once been to. Nigel, who always eats Ethiopian food at home, wasn't too into it (I think he got restless waiting for the food to come out), but it was super yummy. Afterward we went to Dan and Nancy's for swimming and dinner. We also opened Family Anniversary presents. Tim and I gave Nigel a blanket, T-shirt and traditional outfit we bought in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, the outfit, which seemed way too big to give Nigel last year, now looks so small it could fit a doll. Dan and Nancy gave Nigel a really sweet DVD and CD. It was so nice to share this special day with them!

Tim and I cannot imagine our lives without Nigel. Traveling to Ethiopia and becoming parents was a life-changing experience. People often comment that Nigel is "lucky." While I understand the sentiment, I don't think this is the correct word to describe a child who is unable to be raised by their biological parents. Therefore, we honor Nigel and Ethiopia with our Family Anniversary Project, which is simply a donation to a special organization each year. Our first year, we donated to Charity: Water; last year was Nothing But Nets. This year's charity is ... drum roll, please ... Hope's Chest. As you've probably read, there's a dire need for food in the Horn of Africa due to a severe drought. Money donated to the Hearts 4 Hope project will put food into the mouths of those in Eastern Africa, including Ethiopia.

*What you won't find here, is a play-by-play of our trip or details about Nigel's birth family; we strongly believe that his story is his and his alone to share when and if he chooses. We get that people are curious, and we're often asked about it, but it's not our place to tell you. Don't take it personally; even our family and closest friends don't know every detail. And unless you're a doctor who wants to gather some medical info, what greater purpose does the inquiry serve other than curiosity?