Papusas a la Megan

Hot Dang, she made papusas! 

I'll never forget the spanish speaking mamas laughing and shaking their heads at me when I asked for the recipe back in Rialto. They said even if they gave it to me, I'd never make it. 

They were right. It's ALOT.

But they hadn't met Megan. 

She found a recipe, shopped for all the ingredients and spent the entire morning making the filling from pork belly, mixing up the masa flour and making a batch of curtido. 

And she served me hot papusas in my corner of the couch. (Bonus: The Cracker Barrel apron)

Delicioso!

Self Reliance

 Don't look know, but I think Bug can officially start the lawn mower. 

To a tee

I can't count how many times I have said these words. It's substantial.

 

Homeschool Worries

 I sometimes worry about the kind of education that AJ is getting at home. She's independent and stubborn. 

And really smart. 

She can be totally engaged and completely aloof, all in one morning. 

But then I see this and I feel like everything is going to be okay. 

Different...but okay.

The birthday skeleton

When your wife is on crutches, your kids are all at work and at school, you are doing all the work for everyone and it's a Monday, for crying out loud....

You might have low expectations for a birthday celebration.

Because you are 47 now and so very wise. 

When she asks you what you want for your special dinner (as she lays strapped into the that leg machine for hours and hours), you say, "I've really been craving pizza from Minsky's, let's order in!"

When she worries about not being able to decorate, you say, "I don't care about streamers." 

And then you go to work and take care of business and you got to the gym and also take care of business. 

And then you come home for lunch and take your bored wife out to grab a burger and pick up your 12 ft skeleton that is kinda your birthday present because you really never could think of anything else to ask for. And you aren't mad about it, you don't silently pout or punish. Your 47 and there's no time for that. Not to mention, that skeleton is gonna be super cool.

 Megan picks up the Minsky's and Everly sets the table with the special red plate and one of the fancy glasses from the dollar store and there are all your girls. They love you and you are the man in their life and you get the best hand drawn cards in the world. 

We call up Mathew and Ethan and Kassie so we can all sing happy birthday, but despite your wife's repeated attempts to take a screenshot of everyone together, she absolutely cannot stop cutting someone's face out, turning down the volume or clicking the power button. Too many buttons!

Mathew comes to the rescue and offers to take the picture from his phone. 

Its a birthday singing, harmony finding event and then there is a clamor of "I love you!!"  "Happy Birthday Dad!' before the grown kids resume their activites.

It's cake time.  The best cake ever....made by the lady that loves you most of all. 

On crutches. Using her gardening roo pouch to fetch the eggs out of the garage fridge. 

Holy smack, we love you.  You make our world go around. 

Thank you for being our IT guy. You keep everything humming along, setting things right, fixing, automating, improving and loading the dishwasher. 

And not for nothing, that skeleton is very cool. 

We'll worry about where to store him in later. 

MNU Oly Meet

Have you ever cried for joy at a weightlifting meet? I have..and I'll do it again!

Everly has been doing Olympic weightlifting for a couple years now. She was lifting with Lion Chaser most of that time, but the drive out to Gardner and the cost was really starting to wear us out. 

So when we decided to start our own Oly Club at On Track, she decided to switch over. Coach Sahn has transformed her and her confidence has grown exponentially!

This was her first meet and she did awesome!

One of the very best things about On Track Oly is that Mark and Everly are doing it together. So they are able to spend lots of time working, talking and building their relationship. I couldn't love it more.

This was Mark's second meet. He set a goal to lift at least 200 kg combined on his lifts and he got 210!

 Their final numbers: 

Everly Snatch: 12 kg, 14 kg, 15 kg

Everly Clean and Jerk:14kg, 16kg, 18kg

She got 6 out of the 6 lifts and really loved the experience!

Mark Snatch: 85kg, 88kg, 90kg

Mark Clean and Jerk: 110kg, 115kg, 120kg

He also got 6 out of 6 and was so happy with all his numbers!

And she's still our girl. 

Weed therapy

 I saw the surgeon 3 days ago and he told me that I no longer have restrictions on the direction my hip joint goes.

My first thought: "I can reach into the garden and pull out weeds!"

And, oh mama, does it ever need my attention.

So I will scootch along on my plastic kitchen stool, dragging my crutches and weed bucket and tools and phone and anything else I need to drag if it means I can be out there. And I'm gonna gather all those gooseberries and make something yummy out of them!

A little snack

oh...how sweet. She's smelling the flowers.

Or is she?

 

All the colors

 I am loving Laney's latest series of sketches. 

The colors are so expressive!

To the Garden!

 If left unsupervised for enough time, I will find a way.