Random News of the Week

Today in school we learned about the water cycle. Before school even started the kids and I set up a model of the water cycle with a glass jar, some water and a piece of plastic wrap. Our model is out in the sun right now, evaporating away and just waiting for us to come and finish the cycle with an ice cube, which will lead to condensation and precipitation!

Over the weekend, I made ranch carrots. They were so good that after gobbling up the first batch, I cooked up more carrots to use up the leftover glaze. Tyson wanted to eat the glaze up with a spoon, but the promise of more carroty goodness held him off

Ranch Carrots

1 packet ranch seasoning

¼ cup butter

¼ cup brown sugar

16 oz baby carrots, cooked

Heat butter and brown sugar on stove. Add carrots and seasoning. Heat until carrots are well glazed.

I halved the recipe and used regular carrots, cut up and cooked. I didn't measure out 16 ounces, or in my case 8 ounces, which is why there was an excess of glaze left over in the pan. This recipe sounded a bit odd and even kind of sick, but the carrots were just so good.

Our friend, Alex, downloaded a season of Amazing Race. It's the one with the snowboarders and the football player from the Colts. DON'T TELL US WHAT HAPPENS, please!! We have been watching an episode at a time, or sometimes 2 at a time with the kids and they love it. LOVE it. Jori is just like me; talking to the tv, asking the contestants "WHY?" when they do dumb stuff and getting all excited and a little agitated. Tyson is more like Darin, just taking it all in. In Michigan, Amazing Race was our time, and we always hurried to put the kids to bed so that we could relax and watch our show. Now we know we have 2 more little race addicts on our hands and will probably have to include Tyson and Jori in all future viewings of the Amazing Race. (If you don't already watch this show, you totally should. It's the best.)

We watched the movie Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman, and decided that it was appropriate for our kids. We do not know what it is rated, but figured most of the PG/PG13 stuff would just go right over their heads, and it did. They have been acting out their own version of Real Steel ever since, which I love. They'll come traipsing into the living room and say "Check out our cool bot" and I always give an appreciative "Wow, that's so cool" while Darin is always like "What am I supposed to be looking at?" He has not mastered the whole imaginary play thing yet. Today they traded in playing Real Steel and have instead been playing church. Bless their little hearts.

I am re-reading the Little House series and I love it just as much now as I did when I was a child. I also read the book Laura, which tells the "real" story about the Ingalls family and what happened back in the day. That Laura Ingalls was one wise woman and I hope to share some of her wise words in the future, if I can get my brain to focus on one thought and not bounce around so much from idea to idea. If you haven't ever read the Little House series, get your buns to the library and check them out. Try not to be such a grown up when you read them, but just enjoy looking back at the wonders of childhood and soak it all in.

I have been reading a lot of Tim Keller books over the past couple months, including Prodigal God, Counterfeit gods, The Reason for God and the one about the Good Samaritan, although I can't remember what that one is called at the moment. Our cell group just started the study "gospel in life", which pulls together bits and pieces from these various studies. We are three weeks in and have really been learning a lot. Again, if I can get my thoughts to come together and not be in such a jumble, I just might share some things I've been discovering about myself and about God.

We have not seen giraffe in over a month. Well, we did finally go see the dead giraffe and calf that had been eaten by jackals, and we did spot a pair of giraffe sometime in January, but we haven't had any real sightings for a long time. I miss the giraffe. The zebra, however, have been out in full force. We see small herds of them around our place several times a week and the last 3 game drives we've probably seen at least 40 zebra each time, if not more. Not sure if it's a seasonal thing, a food thing or what.

It's Valentine's Day today. Happy Valentine's to you all! The kids made up some little cards this morning during school. They each gave one to Amos, then they made one for me and Darin, one for each other and Jori made several more to give to Charity, Niesi, Beary and various other guys that live in her room. That was the extent of our Valentine's celebration. No stress, little mess.

Til next time!