Three Things

Number One: Candlelight Ski and Snowshoe

Let's just say it was . . . "memorable." Ha! I had imagined that the tiki torches would be placed closer together. When I skied in high school and we did this sort of thing, I remember more torches. It was dark. Tough to get four kids dressed and secured in the gear in the dark. The boys snowshoed and Nutmeg and I skied. It was Nutmeg's first time ever on cross country skies. She did awesome for about 3 minutes. So I decided to do the whole one mile loop with her. Um yes, imagine wailing, crying, and throwing oneself on the ground. Fun times. You know its bad when you get lots of offers of assistance. Anyhow, at one point I saw tiki torches through the woods and made a gamble that perhaps the end of the trail was on the other the woods. I had the two of us cut through the woods in hopes that our car would be on the other side. We got the other side and I had to decide which way to go, left or right? I chose correctly! Wahoo! Two lives saved! :)  Anyhow, I think I was able to save her from permanent bad cross country ski memories with hot chocolate and chocolate chip banana bread. 

    Super fun detail of the evening. We planned to meet our neighbors there but forget to exchange cell numbers. There were three parking lots (in the dark) and a mile long line of cars. They pulled right up next to ours, completely on accident! Serendipitous! 

These pictures where taken blindly. I just pointed and shot without being able to see exactly what I was aiming at. Nice. 

Ever so grateful for those Stonz booties! Best buy of the year!

Number Two: Preparing for Lent

We are making prayer chains. 40 loops long. The kids are thinking of 40 things or people to pray for each day of Lent. Each day they pull off one loop and pray for that item throughout the day. We started the chains today. It was such a meaningful time. I had no idea that this would be such a perfect exercise for us. The kids were so much more reflective than I anticipated they would be. 

(and we made some Valentines. Now IF I can just get these off in the mail!! That's always the hard part for me!)

Number Three: Tonight's Dinner.

We made Kale and Wild Rice Bowls with Balsamic Honey Vinaigrette by "Iowa Girl Eats" tonight. Great! I coached the kids that no one was allowed to look at the salad and say "Yuck!" No one did (although one was greatly tempted to). Said kid afterwards went back for servings four more times. We really liked it. Super healthy too. Changes we'll make next time: make rice less sticky, lightly steam kale (instead of raw). Actually, the kids did pretty darn well eating it. Happy overall.