Catching Up

I know, it's been awhile.

That's because my life has been a little crazy the past couple weeks. My beloved husband had to spend a week in Ontario training for his new job, so spending a week as a single parent occupied most of my waking hours! He returned on Sunday, when I greeted him enthusiastically and... promptly threw up. Flu.

I've spend the week recovering, but today both boys came down with it pretty bad. So this is sort of how my day went:

• Wake up. Do some laundry. Make smoothies for breakfast.
• Scrub diarrhea off the couch. 
• Make biscuits for poor sick tummies. 
• Scrub diarrhea off the carpet. 
• Play soft music. Do laundry.
• Make lunch. 
• Laundry. Work on supper prep. 
• Make snacks for Awana (even though we most definitely weren't going!)
• Go to get Theo up from his nap - find him rolling in vomit. 
• Baths. 
• Laundry.
• Theo pukes again: clean vomit off the rug.
• Try to work on supper. Call Cory to come home in desperation. 
• Just as Cory walks in the door - Theo vomits on the floor.
• Clean vomit off floor and baby. 
• Alternate making supper and cleaning vomit as Theo proceeds to puke numerous times. 
• Laundry.
• Put Theo back to bed, sit down for supper. 
• Eli pukes all over the table. 
• Baths. Clean vomit off floor/table/chairs. 
• Cry because Cory has to leave for youth group. 
• Get kids into bed. Don't brush their teeth because I am a terrible mother. 
• Laundry.
• Collapse. 

SOMEDAY... I will blog again. 

Asian [Inspired] Noodle Soup

I insert the "inspired" into the recipe title to acknowledge that there is probably nothing whatsoever authentic about this soup recipe - I completely made it up out of Asian-type ingredients in my cupboard.

However, it was one of those meals that turns out so well you just have to write it down so you can remember what you did and repeat it!

We've all got colds in the Vail house, even Theo finally succumbed. I was hoping he would avoid it but nope, the symptoms showed up yesterday almost a full week after Eli started. When we're sick I try to watch our diet even more carefully. We don't want to be feeding those bugs! Lots of bone broth, garlic, mushrooms, spices and veggies. This soup is all that and more, plus it was delicious!

Normally Eli won't touch mushrooms. He's not really a picky eater, but if he notices mushrooms in something he says "Yuck!" and picks them all out. Tonight though, in the different context of the soup - plus I had diced them smaller than usual - he didn't recognize them. He fished one out of his bowl and held it up to me. "Wass diss Mom?"

I stuttered for a second for an answer - "It's... uh... fungus. It's yummy! Try some."

It worked! He popped it in his mouth, said "Mmmm, fuggus!" and ate all of them. This probably won't work forever but for tonight I was thrilled that my ever-so-slight deception was so effective.

Asian [Inspired] Noodle Soup


5-6 green onions, sliced thinly
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1-inch knob fresh ginger, minced
8 oz. mushrooms, diced
2 carrots, grated
1/2 pkg. noodles [I used whole wheat spaghettini, rice noodles would be divine!]
2 eggs, beaten
5 oz. baby spinach
2 cups bean sprouts
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Asian chili sauce [I used Sriracha]
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp honey
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Prep all the veggies. Heat the sesame oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the green onion, garlic and ginger for 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking for another minute. Add the stock and bring the soup to a boil. While it's coming to a boil, season with the fish sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce, vinegar, honey and pepper. When it's boiling rapidly, add the grated carrots and the noodles. Make sure it's back up to a good rapid boil and then drizzle the beaten eggs over the soup. The eggs cook when they hit the boiling stock so drizzle them around so you don't end up with one big lump of egg! Add the baby spinach and the bean sprouts. Stir until the spinach is wilted. Taste for seasoning - if it needs more salt add more soy sauce, or if you like things spicy more Sriracha - and then serve it up! You'll need a spoon and a fork for this soup, to get the long noodles out.

Not only was this DELICIOUS, it also came together incredibly fast. My mouth is watering thinking of the leftovers in the fridge. I'm not sure they'll still be there come morning...

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Bedtime Blessings

It was a "pulling my hair out" kind of day today.

What can I say. Eli's two. I don't really believe in the "terrible twos," and he's not obnoxious or anything, he's just a very active little boy. He runs. He jumps. He shoots things. He's impetuous, and acts without thinking - like any two year old.

Ready for church

We got off to a rough start when I discovered that he'd finished off the bottle of children's vitamins while he was supposed to be putting silverware in the drawer. Thankfully there were only a few left in the bottle so nothing to worry about, but still exasperating.

Then a couple hours later he had an accident and wet his undies. He very rarely has accidents anymore, but they do still happen when he forgets to take the time to go. It wouldn't have been such a big deal except that he just so happened to be standing over his little brother at the time.

A happier moment

I came running to find Theo's hair soaked in urine. It was dripping down his face. One eye was bloodshot, and it was in his mouth. He wasn't upset about it, just a bit confused - I was fuming.

The day continued as it often does, with multiple "time outs" and other disciplining. We headed off to Awana after supper and the small break from my sweet little boy gave me a little perspective. The past few weeks he's been praised for his good behaviour in his class and this week was the same. I brought him home and got him ready for bed thankful that he's as relatively well behaved as he is.

As I tucked him in we prayed together. We thanked God for the day and for Awana, and prayed that Eli would be better able to listen to Mommy and Daddy so he wouldn't have so many time outs. When I finished, he spoke up. "Eli pway, Mommy?"

Of course I told him to go right ahead!

"Deah Gott. Fank you [another little boy at Awana]. Pwease him lisen, no have time outs. Jesus, Amen."

One of his friends at Awana had apparently had to have a time out this evening and Eli was concerned for him.

Cue my heart melting.

It was a rough day, but bedtime blessings make it all worthwhile. Remind me I said that when I'm pulling my hair out again tomorrow!

Two sweetest boys in the world.

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Linking up to: Titus 2-sDay, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies

I Bring My Husband Breakfast in Bed

And I'm not going to apologize for it! 

As I was mentally crafting this post in my head I found myself coming up with excuses and explanations as to why I bring my husband his breakfast in bed five days a week so that he wouldn't come across as controlling or egotistical and I wouldn't come across as weak or a pushover.

It looks like this, every morning! [not]

But then I realized that feminism was infecting my mind again.

There's no need to apologize or make excuses for serving our husbands. If my husband brought me breakfast in bed five days a week everyone would think he was the most wonderful man ever born.

But when a woman does it, people assume that her husband forces her too. They would say things like "Make him get his own breakfast!" or "You're not his servant, stand up to him!"

Well no, I'm not his servant. But I am his helper, and breakfast in bed is something that works for our family.

I'm the morning person around here. My alarm goes off at six, and after the initial staggering across the room to turn it off and shaking the fuzz out of my brain, I get excited. From six to seven the dark quiet house is all mine. I snuggle into my housecoat, put on a pot of coffee, curl up in the cozy recliner and it's just me and God for a little while. Then I check my e-mails and/or Facebook, and Eli gets up around seven. He gets to watch Sesame Street when he first gets up, so while he's occupied with Elmo and Big Bird I can unload the dishwasher and make our breakfast smoothies.

Then I can go into our room, turn on the lamp, wake my husband with a kiss and a snuggle and we sit in bed and drink our smoothies together, chatting about the day. Theo usually wakes up around this time and then Eli's show ends and he joins us too. The four of us snuggled in bed together is one of my favourite times of the day. It usually disintegrates into a wrestling match because Eli is incapable of sitting still for very long, but that's fun too!

This works for our family. Cory's not a morning person and struggles to get out of bed in the morning. Bringing him his smoothie in bed has ironed out the huge wrinkle in our lives that was wake-up time. Instead of sitting around the table seething because I told him 20 minutes ago that it was breakfast time!! we have peace and enjoyment.

Obviously this wouldn't work for everybody. But for us, for this season - I bring my husband breakfast in bed. And it's great.

Recipe time!

Cory and I have slightly different tastes, and I'm trying to keep my smoothie dairy free, so here's what we each have every morning. Eli and Theo have Cory's recipe too.

Cory's Banana-Berry Smoothie


1 cup raw cows or goats milk
1/3 cup plain homemade yogurt
2 big handfuls organic baby spinach
1/2 organic banana
1 tbsp ground flax seed
2 tbsp unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup organic frozen raspberries
1/2 cup organic frozen blueberries

Emily's Nut-Berry Smoothies


1 cup organic almond milk
2 big handfuls organic baby spinach
1 tbsp ground flax seed
2 tbsp unsweetened coconut
2 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup organic frozen raspberries
1/2 cup organic frozen blueberries

You might notice some flaked almonds and half an avacado in the pictures above. I add the almonds if I don't have pumpkin seeds because I love the crunch. I'll throw in half an avacado into my smoothie if I have one, but not all the time. Cory hates avacado, but I hate banana!

What about you? How does breakfast work in your family? Do YOU have a favourite smoothie recipe? Please share!

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Linking up to: Growing Home, Far Above Rubies, Raising Homemakers, Homemakers Challenge, Raising Mighty Arrows, Time-Warp Wife, An Original Belle