Update on Dad

Dad's surgery was a success! They ended up replacing his mitral valve and doing two bypasses. The second valve repair apparently wasn't necessary.

It was an extremely long day (my apologies for not updating sooner-we were exhausted) but the news has all been good. He is doing as well as can be expected. We are so thankful and blessed.

Thank you for the prayers. We appreciate them more than we can say.

Prayer request

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) Clarence's dad is set to undergo open heart surgery to fix/replace two valves and have two bypasses.



When we visited them in Florida this winter, we cut our trip short to save some of Clarence's vacation days, fully expecting to return to Florida within a couple of weeks for Dad's surgery. He opted not to have the surgery in Florida and came home earlier than usual, planning to have it done here. It's been 3 months since they came home but the day is finally here. I think we're all more than a little anxious-at least I know I am.

We would so appreciate your prayers for Carl-for a successful surgery and a good recovery.
Thanks!

Color coordination is everything

The girls' adopted grandparents attended their recital a couple weeks ago, even though Grandma S. hasn't been feeling well. They are so kind to the girls (and Clarence and I) and I am as thankful for them as we are for our own parents.

The young girls in attendance were passing out little sprigs of lilac blooms to all of us and I couldn't resist teasing Gordon just a bit. The lilacs did, after all , match his shirt so very well.



Isn't he a good sport?

The new pie plate

My mom was recently very excited to find a 12-inch pie plate.

It's like the one my grandma used when I was growing up, Mom says, though I guess I never paid attention to the size of Grandma's pies. I was always just happy to see pie (unless it was the dreaded mincemeat pie, complete with venison and who knows what else). Shudder. I realize I was a picky eater as a child but even now, with my much broader palate, you still won't find me trying mincemeat pie. Scarred for life, I'm tellin' ya.

Now that I've got that all off my chest...

Mom ended up finding a couple more of the extra large pie pans and gifted me with one. Allison's eyes lit up when she saw it. She loves making pie and Clarence and I, of course, like to encourage our childrens' passions. That's what parents are supposed to do, right?



We're trying to empty one of our freezers and it contains all our frozen fruit and veggies (among many other things-sigh). I was making pumpkin cranberry bread as part of the freezer purge and had half a bag of cranberries left. So, I asked Allison to use some of our frozen apples and the leftover cranberries to make a pie. Ahh, the perfect opportunity to try out the giant pie pan.

I think this is the prettiest pie she's made yet. And it is certainly delicious!

The things you find at garage sales...

I'll apologize in advance-this is a long story-but it's one of those "coincidence" things that you just know in your heart God has orchestrated for you.

Two summers ago, the girls and I cruised through a subdivision garage sale near our home. As we left one house empty-handed, we saw the next house was also having a sale and walked over to check it out.

We found quite a bit of music, and picked some of it up for the girls to use for piano lessons. We started chatting about the music this young mom was selling and she mentioned that she went to college for voice and used to give lessons but had stopped. Somehow, we then started discussing homeschooling. They were thinking about homeschooling their young daughter and I had to mention how much we had loved Five in a Row for those early school years.

We left with her phone number on a sticky note, stuck to some of the music, so I could check back with her to see if she would be doing voice lessons in the future. The note immediately disappeared. I was disappointed, because Clarence and I had discussed finding someone to give the girls voice lessons in the past and now I didn't know how to reach her. I didn't even remember which street was hers-let alone which house she lived in.

Months passed. One evening last spring, as I was greeting a friend at the library, this family walked past who looked very familiar. She saw me and spoke, reminding me that I'd been to her garage sale. I apologized for losing her phone number and she kindly gave it to me again. But life was busy and I never got around to calling her.

Then, last fall, returning from a little vacation, we stopped to eat at a local diner. I went to wash my hands and passed their family sitting in a booth. I was embarrassed that I hadn't called her; she was, as always, sweet and gracious.

This time, I called and we made arrangements for lessons.

The girls love their voice lessons. Tiffany is incredibly encouraging while pushing them to be better.

Tonight was their year end recital. Since they aren't having a piano recital, Tiffany suggested they play as well as sing.



They each played the piano, then sang individually and together.

Tiffany also asked the girls to bring some things they've done this year to display. Julianne brought a frame she mosaic-ed, that gorgeous doily she crocheted for our anniversary, and her quiz trophy. Allison shared the DNA earrings she made, an origami box with rick rack roses inside, a kanzashi bouquet, and her quiz trophy.

We've been so blessed to get to know this family this year. Tiffany shared the story of how we met tonight and said that our conversation helped them make the decision to homeschool their daughter. They've tried Five in a Row, too, and love it as much as we do.

Believe it or not, once the girls started lessons, I haven't run into Tiffany anywhere again. Don't you love those little coincidences that aren't really coincidence at all?

Trust me...

I know, I know...it looks bad.

But, believe me, it tastes way better than it looks.

It's grilled romaine. And it is delicious! It has a touch of smokiness when you eat it, which makes for a wonderfully different salad.



I rinse my heads of romaine, pulling them apart a bit at the top so the water can get all through. I let them drain and try to shake off any excess water. Next, I cut them the long way and brush some olive oil on the cut side.

They don't take very long at all on the grill-you don't want to actually cook them. Some of the leaves get wilted but most of it retains some crispiness. And, the smoky flavor? Mmmm.

Since organic romaine tends to be small heads, we usually get two servings out of each head as a main dish salad. Oh, and you can thank me for sparing you the blurry picture of my salad once it was made. You're welcome.

Try this, now that grilling season is here. You won't be sorry. Trust me. Trust me.

The Breadwinner

Our FIAR group read The Breadwinner in April.One of the moms of our group has a friend who spent several years living in Afghanistan. Her friend came to speak to us about life in Afghanistan-and brought along some props!

Can you tell who is wearing the burqua?

In the book, one of Parvana's jobs is to carry buckets of water up several flights of stairs for her family. The kids filled buckets outside, then carried them up the steps to dump into a washtub. It was a nice day and they managed to have a lot of fun doing it, unlike poor Parvana who saw it only as a dreaded, tedious, back-breaking chore.

I tried my hand at making naan bread for our snack. I made the dough, but the kids each rolled out their own for baking. Almost everyone liked it.

I somehow neglected to post about our book from March. We read Running Out of Time, which was a very interesting read. I didn't take any pictures that day, which must be why I never blogged about it.

For this book, we discussed dominant and recessive genes, human experimentation, and the ethics involved. The kids played a game similar to Taboo, where they tried to describe various modern items without using modern words like "plastic". We shared apple pie as our snack because in the book the family had apple pie for breakfast!

This book was different than most we've read, but we all really enjoyed it. I found it thought provoking while still being a quick, easy read.