New roof!

I'm posting pictures mostly for D who is out of town.

The roofers started bright and early Tuesday morning, a little before 7, scraping off the old shingles. Then they laid down new tar paper, and started laying new shingles. They got most of it done Tuesday during the day. They stayed till it got dark.

Wednesday early morning it rained, and then they showed up at 8, and by the time we got home from errands at 11, they were done and gone, everything cleaned up.

Tangled Thai Salad

Part of my weight loss success is my salads I've been having for lunch. I usually just chop up whatever I have on hand, splash some balsamic vinegar and olive oil, add some protein like chicken or tuna and call it good. However, I saw this recipe via pinterest and was drooling over it for weeks before I decided to get the ingredients and go for it.

I think I've had this salad at least three times this week! And I still have enough cabbage and jicama to make a few more servings.

 

Oh, wait... I forgot the almonds! And the dressing! 

That's better...

Original recipe here.

Tangled Thai Salad  (my edits in italics)
Serves  1 as a meal
1 cup chopped napa cabbage
1/3 cup sliced jicama (cut into small sticks)
2/3 cup shredded or spiralized carrot   Bought a bag of matchstick carrots
2/3 cup shredded or spiralized yellow beet   I left this out
4 tbsp Peanut Lime Dressing  (recipe follows)
3 slices cucumber, halved   I also added some sliced sweet peppers I had that needed used up
2 tsp chopped raw peanuts Only could find dry roasted. A little too salty!
2 tbsp Fresh Salad Topper (recipe follows) I'm sure this is good, but I didn't bother with it. Just topped my salad with sliced almonds
1 lime wedge
2 to 3 tbsp chopped cilantro
1. Put napa cabbage in a large, shallow serving bowl (or plate). Top with jicama.
2. Pile the carrot and beet on top and drizzle with dressing.
3. Garnish with the cucumber, peanuts, Salad Topper, lime, and cilantro.

Peanut Lime Dressing
This dressing will keep for up to a week in the fridge. It is delicious on the Tangled Thai Salad, but would be equally good on any salad or even poured on top of cold noodles.
Makes 1 cup
3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tbsp)
2 tbsp tightly packed cilantro
2 tbsp natural peanut butter
2 tbsp + 2 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp + 1/2 tsp tamari   I substituted soy sauce after looking at two different stores for tamari
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp peeled and chopped ginger
2 tsp coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp organic sugar
3/4 tsp sesame oil
3/4 tsp sambal oelek  I didn't have this either, I subbed siracha sauce
1/2 cup sunflower oil  I used slightly less than this.
1. In a blender, puree all ingredients except the sunflower oil.
2. With blender running, add sunflower oil in a thin stream until dressing is emulsified.

Fresh Salad Topper
This crunchy mix adds great flavour and texture to any salad. If you want to use it as a topper for fruit salad, yogurt, or oatmeal, leave the salt out and replace it with sugar. If you can’t find puffed quinoa at your local health food store, you can substitute puffed millet. This mixture keeps for months in an airtight container.
Makes about 1 3/4 cups
1 cup puffed quinoa
1/4 cup goji berries
1/4 cup currants
2 tbsp sliced almonds
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts
2 tbsp chopped pistachios
1/4 tsp sea salt
1. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Oh my gosh it is so yummy! I'm so glad that the dressing is enough for at least one more serving. And then I might have to make some more. I'm also wondering how it would taste with a little sauted chicken added in. Mmm...

Mother's Day weekend

We decided to go camping again!

Friday we watched the weather carefully, decided that we may get rained on, but it wouldn't be too bad, and went for it. D drove M2 with his truck earlier in the afternoon to set up. I picked up M and the rest of us went to piano lessons before we headed to the campground. We camped at Fort Richardson near Jacksboro. (We camped there last in Nov 2009)

We did run into a good rainstorm about half way there. Lots of rain, but no thunder or hail or anything. The rest of our trip we had gorgeous weather.

The highlight of the trip was the fireflies! I didn't even try to photograph them, but believe me they were awesome. The boys thought it was so neat! D and I haven't seen fireflies since we lived in Michigan. I had no idea they even existed in Texas. But, right about dusk, for an hour or so, they were all around the wooded areas near our campsite. So cool.

Here are some pics of our outing:

On the drive up:

Dinner! Foil dinners with chicken teriyaki meatballs, veggies

Cool pictures of the campfire later in the evening:

Saturday morning: eating breakfast and cleaning up camp

Fun mushrooms

A little 'splorin'

A spring we found

Exploring at the remains of the Fort. Here's K at the morgue:

Boys climbing on the jail

Spring flowers in Texas... ha ha ha... 

Fort Richardson: 

More flowers

Some old graffiti:

Playing on the bridge

Then we came home and found the remains of a nice hailstorm that pounded our neighborhood. Apparently when we drove through the rainstorm, by the time it came to our house it was 5 minutes of quarter-to-nickel-sized hail. When we came home Saturday afternoon, there was still a nice pile of it, where the rooflines met, nearly 24 hours later. Several plants were pummeled. The tomatoes I had just planted were thrashed. (Four out of the five have actually survived! Yay!). And, we've had our roof inspected by roofing companies and by our insurance and it's totaled and we're getting a new one. Not a lot of noticeable damage, but if you go up on it, you can see lots of places where the hail has dinged it up.

Leaves on the ground everywhere. It looked like fall. Only the leaves were green. And it's not fall!

Poor, poor lilypads. Beat to death by hail. :o(

Holes punched in the sedum:

Pile-O-Hail

What was left Saturday afternoon

Poor poor plants!

Tomato plants!

Well, we don't have to worry about thinning out the peaches anymore...

Craziness!

Sunday was okay. D came down with something, and stayed home with C, who was sounding wheezy and coughing a lot. I got some cute handmade gifts and cards from the kiddos, and D got me a kindle fire, which I had been wanting. :o)

I got to spend my day with my favorite people!

what a day

I'm tired and sleepy and my thoughts are a bit muddled. It's been a busy day. Stayed up too late last night reading. (The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards. Two thumbs up.)

I got five kids up and fed. I got three kids off to school.

Took two littles with me to the gym. Then to library storytime.

Next was a quick shower, lunch. Then it was off to pick up two kids at school and take four kids to dental appointments. Take two back to school.

Read 30 zillion stories to two littles, quiet time for an hour, then took four kids to swim at a friends house.

Then it was watch eight kids play, serve eight kids dinner (watching a friend's three so she could go grocery shopping!)

Take two boys to Scouts. Bring the other three home. Get them jammied up and ready for bed, with a little living room pick up on the side. Go get two boys.

Bring all five home. All five in bed. Hallelujiah!

(Took the picture on Monday in the big field behind our house.)

Eclipse!

We saw the solar eclipse tonight!

Mason asked a few days ago if we could drive out to Lubbock to see the eclipse. Apparently that was as far east as it was supposed to be visible. Or at least the whole ring was supposed to be visible. I briefly thought about driving the five hours out there, because that would be really fun and I was feeling somewhat spontaneous.

But, in the end I told him it was a no-go and we'd see what we could see at home.  So, we drove out to Eagle Mountain Park and walked out the trail to our favorite sunset-watching spot...

And we hung out there for a while. It was really clouded over near the horizon and I assumed we wouldn't see much.

 
(This one won't let me take his picture anymore! So sad.)

Looking at the deer:

Sweet profile...

Wildflower season is drawing to a close...

The kids were okay with that. I think they realized it was a long shot for us to even see it here before the sun went down. But, we did see some deer, which the boys were thrilled about. And, we got out of the house, so that's always good, too. We went back to the car, buckled in, talked to a friend who happened to be in the parking lot, etc.

Then we started driving home and got about a mile from the park and realized people were on the shoulder. Oh my! They were looking at the eclipse! The sun had peeked down out of the clouds and it was awesome! I pulled over and turned on the hazards and quick quick quick got all the boys out and pulled out the camera. I just started snapping away -- didn't even check the settings. About a minute and a half after we got out of the car it was already done. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing! Now, of course, I'm kicking myself for not just hanging out at the overlook for another 15 minutes. We would have had some amazing views!

But, the kids were BEYOND thrilled, so it's all good. C kept talking about how he saw "the red moon!"