I just spent a half hour with my darling five-year old boy on my lap, listening to every new song he's learning at preschool. It's not often that Spencer will perform like this. He sits close to me, one hand on The Mole on my neck, and sings them in his quirky, semi-raspy voice that makes me want to gobble him up and hold him forever. Then before leaving for preschool he ran to me, gave me a great big hug and a kiss, and answered "you too!" when I said "have a great day."

Ah, the golden moments mothers treasure. Sure do love you, little buddy!

Cooking Habits

I read recently that most families have about eleven dinner meals in regular rotation. Hoping that I do NOT fit in to this statistic, I hereby list our "regular" menu items in no particular order:

1. beef stroganoff (on noodles or potatoes)
2. apricot chicken
3. Wingers chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, wedge salad
4. chicken coconut kurma
5. chinese chicken salad
6. tomato soup and cheese sandwiches
7. spaghetti with marinara and mizithra (thank you Spaghetti Factory)
8. Irish pasta (with cream, ham and peas)
9. steak, bearnaise and asparagus (on special occasions)
10. lettuce wraps (of various kinds)
11. boboli pizzas of various kinds
12. taco soup
13. Pasta parma rosa
14. chicken and rice soup
15. potato soup
16. ranch (hamburger) stew
17. tacos
18. chicken spinach salad wraps
19. blackened mahi mahi with coconut rice and mango salsa
20. chicken and spinach couscous
21. PF changs orange chicken
22. pad thai (does it count that these last two are store-bought? pad thai is totally my comfort food)
23. homemade mac n cheese
24. dinner for breakfast (turkey bacon, hootnanny pancakes or crepes, smoothies)
25. rice crispy chicken
26. Nanny's Swedish meatballs
27. stuffed zucchini
28. "green" (tomatillo) enchiladas
29. Italian crock pot chicken
30. BBQ chicken drumsticks

And there we go, a whole month of "regular" recipes I use all the time, not to mention the hits (and misses) with which I frequently experiment. There's a lot of room for improvement, and it's a lot of chicken, I grant you, but since pork and red meat are slipping slowly out of our eating habits, and I don't know many ways to make fish, that's how it goes.

What It's Truly All About

On Sunday morning, Gary's parents' basement flooded. They went on anyway to church to fulfill callings. When Boyd went to Priesthood meeting, the leader had heard that they needed help. He then and there decided to hold Priesthood at Gram and Grandpa's house, taking all the men with him to help rip up carpet, carry out boxes, and set up fans. They stayed for hours until things were under control.

That, my friends, is what our church is all about.