Life on our corner

1 lb chicken breasts cut into small pieces juice of 2 lemons about 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil or lard 1 cup peanuts 1 bunch green onion, sliced 2 large carrots, julienne 1 red bell pepper, julienne 1 C broccoli flowerets 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 tsp grated ginger 1 Tbs Rapadura or sugar 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 2 Tbs soy sauce 1/8 C vinegar 2-3 C chicken stock 2 Tbs flour mixed with 2 Tbs water Marinate chicken pieces several hours in lemon juice. Remove and pat dry. Mix chicken stock with vinegar, soy sauce, pepper flakes, ginger, sugar and garlic and set aside. In a heavy skillet or wok, saute chicken over olive oil until cooked through. Using a slotted spoon transfer chicken to a bowl and reserve. Saute peanuts a minute or two (add more oil if necessary.) Add peanuts to chicken. Saute onions, carrots and pepper for two minutes (add more oil if necessary). Add sauce mixture to veggies and bring to a boil. Return chicken and peanuts to the pan and mix well.

I have heard it said of motherhood that they days are so long, but the years are so short. As I stopped this week and said aloud that I would soon have a 5, 3 and 1 year old I most certainly believe it! Reuben climbed up the stairs (with me behind him!) this week. The older two were so excited as the lay at the top cheering him on! He also started taking a paci which sounds backwards I know, but he was becoming very fond of his thumb, and we all know what a battle it is to get rid of those things! I am working really hard to switch his little internal clock so that he sleeps through MY night (getting up at 4:00 is getting very old but when he goes down at 6:30 I feel I had to go get him!) Last night I managed to keep him up until 8:00 and he slept until 6:30. I slept EIGHT hours in a row. I felt like a million bucks! We have thought that Audrey might have a future career in law enforcement because of her strong desire to make sure that everyone follows the rules and maintains order

Spinach, as wanted (I used bagged spinach the first time and I would use two bags!) 2 hard-boiled eggs 1/4 cup red onion, diced 2 Tbs bacon pieces Dressing: 1/2 C sugar (play with this, because I think that I would use a little less!) 1/4 vinegar 1 C olive oil 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce pinch of sea salt

3/4 C dates (chopped-mine came chopped) 1/2 C peeled apple (finely chopped) 1/2 C raisins 1/2 C water 1 C + 1 Tbs all-purpose flour 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp baking soda 2 eggs In a 2-qt saucepan, combine dates, aples, raisins and water.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat; cool.  (At this point I blened the mixture because my kids are texture people and I knew that any chunks would be spit back on the the plates!) Combine flour, cinnamon and baking soda.  Stir into apple mixure and mix well.  Add eggs and beat them in well by hand.  Drop by tablespoonfulls baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 min. Audrey really liked these because I let her have cookies for breakfast.  I may try them in bar form because bars are so much faster than cookies!

Hi! My name is Tara and I...am addicted to reading health books. I blame Jonah actually. You see this all started in October when Jonah had his second bowel obstruction. His pediatrician recommended reading "The Maker's Diet" since that I have been reading books and online. Then we have had all this allergy business between the boys and it has spun out of control! I have finished a book today, and I am NOT allowed to read another book until I read a book on another subject! Hold me to this! On the allergy note we are going to continue the gluten free diet for another couple weeks. The diet is ok when we are home, but it is so hard when others are providing food! I feel so bad for Jonah! We did find a gluten free carry out pizza here in Des Moines! I think that Jordan and I were more excited than Jonah! I sat down on Saturday and looked at my daily routine and how my days were actually going and I realized that I am trying to pack WAY to much in to my afterno

We had a great week this week. Looking back it would seem obvious that we should have had a great week. Jordan's mom and my mom came each came a day to play. We had a big play day on Thursday with our great friends from Ames (We mommies didn't get to get caught up as much as we would have liked, but we thought that surviving 6 kids between the two of us without any real issues or squabbles amongst the kids was a GREAT day!) I got a late Christmas massage on Thursday night and tonight I am looking forward to girls night! Why wouldn't this be a great week? But this week was great for other reasons too. The sunshine, warmer temps, good naps, good attitudes, I stayed caught up on the laundry (even getting it all put away!) and Jordan and I are spending a little time each evening getting caught up on "24"! Reuben has really responded well to his chiro treatments for his acid reflux. We don't have him on any meds now (NASTY diapers that were disrupting sleep-no, no!

The last two mornings Jonah has asked me "Is Jesus coming back for us today? Tomorrow?" I do my best to explain that we don't know when He is coming back while not squelching his excitement and anticipation. I am in awe (and a bit humbled) at how real it is to him. I wish I could bottle up that simple faith for him for when he gets older. Amazing...

We survived the cold snap this week! Jonah on Thursday told me "You never let me go outside anymore!" So I bundled him up and sent him out. I don't think that it lasted anymore than 10 minutes before he needed some hot chocolate! He did get to go out with Jordan and Audrey today. That trip lasted a little long! What a good daddy! Jordan played catch up at KJ a lot this week. I had a PC Show on Friday. Our midweek Bible study resumed on Wednesday so it felt like we started the New Year running! Jonah lost his voice randomly this week. We got a lot of cute quotes out of him. "Mom, my voice is in my tummy" "My voice disappeared!" "I want my old Jonah voice back!" It is coming back slowly. We will all be glad because we are all tired of asking "What?" Obviously I could work on anything speech related with Jonah because I couldn't hear him! Reuben's personality is really starting to show and two more teeth popped through! We went

Well, so much for blogging every week. I was at first waiting for Reuben's test results and then I got busy with Christmas and now our computer is so painfully slow that I have not had the patience to write! Reuben has acid reflux. We have been taking him to the chiro and seen some positive results. They have given him a prescription, but we haven't been able to see any more results with the meds verse the chiro and believe it or not the chiro is cheaper. The chiro's comment about Reuben is constantly how strong he is! She is also working on his cranials to see if she can make any progress with his right eye, but she is also reiterating that we see an eye doctor if we don't get any where in two weeks. (Her daughter has had a similar problem so for some reason that is reassuring to me.) Jonah's speech appointment went so well. I felt like she got a very accurate picture of his abilities. She is going to check back in the spring because she really thinks it is a devel