Valentine's Day

There is no meaning in this holiday, I know. But, why not take a day to give gifts, eat candy, and have parties if you can, right? Once kids are in the picture, it takes on an entirely different tone anyway...making/passing out cards to the class, making mailboxes, class parties, etc. Tyler and I had a date Saturday night - dinner and a movie. It never needs to be more than that because those two things in one night are my fav way to spend a date with my lover. But, on actual vday, we just hung out with our little loves. I woke them up in the morning and said that Cupid might have left something downstairs. Porter said, "Really? Is he real?" Oh, my believing son. I said no he wasn't real, but it must not have caught on because downstairs when they saw their candy and a gift he said, "Wow, crazy how he knew we wanted this!" speaking of Cupid. I then made sure that he understood there is no Cupid and sometimes Mommy and Daddy get credit for the gifts we buy instead of made up characters:) Anyway, the day went on as usual except for the class party that me and Payson joined. The 1st graders were giving some of their Valentine's to the baby - so cute. Later, Tyler brought home a heart shaped box of assorted chocolates - a double decker this year! It's all I ever ask for and I will enjoy every piece! Then, I made heart shaped burgers for dinner and that was that. I LOVE our family and celebrating anything with them is special. So, made up holiday or not, it was a good one.

And thank you, Pinterest for the following ideas we executed for teacher and classmates:

Black Bean Burgers

As I've mentioned, we got rid of our cable. This means we are now addicted to documentaries instead of HGTV and Food Network and reality TV. My two most recent favs are Forks over Knives (a must see!) and Dive (about Dumpster Diving/Food Waste and Tyler refused to watch this one, but I loved it!). Anyway, at the Forks over Knives website, I found a few yummy sounding vegetarian recipes. Last night I tried one and I was so skeptical in the process because it seemed like it wasn't going to turn out too well, but Tyler and I really liked them and the kids ate about half without too much complaining (but they really prefer beef!) So, I'll share the black bean burger recipe with a few little adjustments by me:

1 can black beans rinsed

2 Tbs ketchup

1 Tbs mustard

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/3 cup quick oats

*I added mushrooms and a little extra oatmeal

I put everything in the food processor to mix it all up, then spooned it out into patties on an oiled cookie sheet. It's kind of mushy and you think it's not going to work, but trust me, it will. Cook at 400 for 7 minutes on each side. Some variations would be to add worcestershire instead of ketchup, and fresh onion and garlic instead of the powder. I'm trying that next time. We ate them on sprouted wheat buns with avocado, tomato, and spinach leaves. Yum! The kids had theirs with cheese and drowned in ketchup:) Oh well.

Cutest Couple

My internet home page is Austin360 and I saw they were having a Cutest Couple in Austin contest for Valentine's Day. I jokingly told Tyler we should enter. One day when he was in the kitchen making a big ole glass of green juice, I said we should take our pic drinking from the same glass and send it in to the contest. So, we set up the tripod and took several snapshots while trying not to laugh too much pretending to drink, smile, and look at each other lovingly:) It was on a whim, but turned out pretty cute. Cutest in Austin? Doubtful (but look at Tyler's sweet face - seriously, he's CUTE!). Plus, we have to get lots of votes and I don't really care about it enough to recruit everyone to vote, but we'll see. If nothing else, we have a nice picture of us drinking spinach and sweet potato juice:)

Aloha!

Tyler has been with Alcon for 9.5 yrs. For many of those he has come SO close to winning a spot in their "Presidents Club" which means he is at the very top for what he does. It ALSO means he and I get to go on a crazy amazing trip in April. Well, guess what? THIS year - he WON! We are going to HAWAII in April this year! I can't even believe it, but I can. He is so good at what he does and he will confess that the more the Lord has changed his heart over the years to work for God and not for man, he has gotten even better at what he does. He is a great salesman because people love him, and people always want to buy from people they like and trust. Ok, the products are good, too:)! Plus, he is a super coach to his team. If he can teach me, of all people, how to properly throw a spiral with a football, he can surely coach his team to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and beyond. I'm so proud of him and so excited for me:) Ha. Does all the traveling he does suck? Yep. Would I trade this one trip for him to be home every night during the year? Yep. But - I can't change the facts right now and so I'm going to totally enjoy Hawaii with my love.

He's Closer to 40 Than I am, Now!

On January 22, 1976 the love of my life was born. Today, he turned 36! We are getting old, man. However, he's the healthiest he's been in his life, gets funnier and wiser every day and is just an all around great guy. If you know him, you know this. He is loved by all he meets. I even think my own mother prefers Tyler over me. But, he loves the Lord with all his heart and despite my many flaws and faults, he loves me next and never fails to tell me so. How I ended up with him, I'll never know, but I am forever grateful, as are our three beauties who love their daddy so much. Happy Birthday, Tyler. May we see 36 more together.

The only cake he ever wants is my mom's hershey chocolate cake made from scratch and so, of course, that's what he gets...

Presents for Daddy...

*He and I celebrated Saturday with a date night and saw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - go ahead and go if you want to cry your eyes out! A little sad for a bday celebration night, but afterwards we had a yummy dinner at Vivo! We love eating out together:) No pictures to be had, tho.

This Week was a Doozy!

Tyler could not have picked a worse week to be gone. Of course, he didn't pick it. He would happily un-pick it, but duty calls. Monday the kids were out of school, so we took a day trip to Katy to see our sweet friends and their newly adopted son. It was a precious time, but it made for tired kiddos and mama. Not to mention, I can't seem to get in bed before midnight when Tyler is gone! Tuesday night we took out our monthly Mobile Loaves and Fishes truck. Again - precious time serving and seeing my kids make hot chocolate for homeless people - would NOT trade it. But still...having Tyler around during those times is so much better (and easier!). And Wednesday and Thursday, I had a house full of family here to see my cousin become a state trooper. I love my family, but there is just a lot of them and it helps to have my partner during those times. Plus, I always put pressure on myself to be a perfect hostess with a super clean house and yummy food. All it really does in the end is wear me out - I doubt my guests care all that much if my baseboards are gleaming and the eggs are perfectly scrambled. I'm learning, folks. So, today is Friday and I'm counting down the minutes and miles until Tyler is home (that's right, I'm tracking him with a gps on my phone!). The baby woke up with a cold (boo!) and is napping and the big kids are happily playing with the neighbors. I'm truly wiped out this week. There were many moments when I wanted to curl into a ball and cry, but #1 I didn't have time and #2 I was reminded by the Lord that it's all going to be ok! He's got the world in his hand - and my hard week is included in that. I failed at times this week, and the dog didn't get daily walks and was extra needy, but I did have some good times in the Word, made some lasting memories with my 3 babies, and took some great pics of family. However, I don't want to do it again anytime soon. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to. It's a fact of our life right now. Grace, grace, God's grace!

Natalie

Laney and Daddy, Michael

Natalie and Mommy, Kristi

Danielle feeding Payson cake and he LOVED it

State Trooper Walts and proud wifey

Payson fascinated with balloons

Juice?

We got rid of our cable. Since we've been married, we've always had cable. Was it a hard decision to make? Yes. Is it now very freeing? Yes, yes, yes. Are we saving $100/month? YES! We still get Hulu and Netflix thru a Roku box connected to our tv, so we can still watch TV, but it's more intentional and less mindless - usually. I think we're on our 10th documentary so far! One of the most recent was "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". It's so interesting and inspiring. We are not looking to lose weight, but who doesn't need more fruits and veggies in their system? So, with all that money we're saving on cable, we bought a juicer. Ha. Tyler has gone a little nuts with it and juices crazy things together about twice a day. I think the one he made this morning with beets and radishes made him a little nauseous, so maybe he's learned his lesson. My fav so far is 2 apples, handful of baby carrots, bunch of kale, tad bit of lemon. YUM. The kids like plain apple or orange and if they're not looking, I can sneak in some carrots. Apples are super sweet and give off lots of juice, so you can mix lots of bland things like kale or spinach without it tasting nasty, but boosting up your daily green intake. One question has been "What about the fiber?". Well, I'm not saying drink freshly made juice forever and cut out your fiber completely. But, I think that the huge benefit you're getting from all the vitamins of raw fruits and vegetable outweighs the fiber you would get/need...say, for just one meal or an addition to a meal? I also found this answer online:

"Taking the fiber out makes sense because you are simply saving your digestive tract some work and you some energy. What our digestive tract does to whole foods is change them to a liquid; if we start with a liquid, we are helping it out."

Moreover, there are recipes that call for all that leftover pulp you collect, like THIS. Sounds good, huh??!!