a blog about life, family and kicking ass.

This is our 7th move in 8 years. Yuck. We may be good at moving (although after this trip I seriously doubt it), but it is exhausting. On top of all this, we have the worst car luck. Seriously, the worst. I have now added Ritzville right beside Chehalis (and some random city in Utah) t0 my Cities-I-Hate-Because-I-Broke-Down-There List.  We headed down to Portland this past week because I had a job interview, and somehow we decided it would be a good idea to bring down the bulk of our belongings. No big deal, right? Except that one hour into the trip (at 715am) Andy wakes me up (I only slept 5 hours that night) to asks me, is the car smoking?  Hmmm, I don’t see it, I say. Then suddenly the car stops shifting gears.  Any acceleration just revs the engine.  Quickly, and thankfully, we are able to pull off at a close exit and stop the car. Immediately it begins billowing out smoke, pouring around the radiator cap, till it puffs no more.

Shit. Double shit.

We both silently panic, and instantly are in denial. “It’ll be fine, we say. It just needed to cool down.”  But it was not fine. Not fine at all.

So we call AAA. Can you tow our broken truck and our large rented trailer?  Obviously No.  But, they will gladly tow it to the nearest rest stop though. Gee thanks, it just has all our earthly possessions in it. Or they could tow it for full fee, but I didn’t hang around to hear that figure.  So we sit and panic, and do what any normal person would do — call our parents. Duh. Why are we always the screw up kids?

By now it’s 745am and the clock is ticking while we wait for the opening hours of Budget and Uhaul, hoping for a miracle, while we all frantically brainstorm a solution. Do we go back home and unload everything, but miss my interview? Or try to get a replacement truck to meet us where we are stranded? How long will that take?  This trip was a quick trip as it is, we only planned to stay one night in Portland.

After 18 phone calls to 5 different places and people, and many crunched numbers — we finally came up with a plan.  Andy’s dad will pick up a rented pickup truck and drive it the hour out to us, while his mom watches our kids at her work (I know, they are saints!).  Through some strategically times phone calls we will have the tow truck meet us around the time his dad wil arrive with the pickup.  The thing is though,  the pickup truck isn’t available for 4 HOURS.  

So instead we go eat at a diner across the street. Thank you Templins, I really, really needed that.

This is how Andy feels about breaking down.  And about me spilling coffee on him. And me taking this photo.

 Nearly 5 hours later we were back on the road, Starbucks in hand and AC cranked.  Nevermind that it took us 13 hours to get to Portland, 37 phone calls and one rescheduled job interview.  We made it.

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We were waiting to cut Adalyn’s hair for a long time.  Not for any practical reason, though.   Her hair was truly a disaster.  She hates pony tails, and her hair slightly resembled Cousin It, it stuck to her face in an odd and disheveled way. And caked with food. And it had like 12 different layers.  And some of it she cut herself.  So, why didn’t I cut her hair??  I guess I’m weird, I wanted her to want a hair cut. Sorta like wanting your spouse to want to do the laundry without being asked, but that’s a whole different story (mine actually does the laundry without being asked!).  Then one day, she said she Really wanted a hair cut.  So, when in Seattle we had Keila cut her a fabulous little bob. She really liked it, except for the fact that she wanted it to look  just like mine.  So sweet.  Here’s the before and after.

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I realize for most of the country, except maybe Spokane, the strawberry season is long gone.  But no matter, tuck this recipe away for next year (although I’m sure it would be fine with store bought strawberries).  THIS is the jam.  The Jam, if I may say it again.  I love strawberries, I love picking strawberries and I love canning strawberries.  Well, except when it gets towards hour 12 of processing, jamming and canning 20lbs of strawberries  – even I will admit I was waaaayyyy to optimistic.  But in retrospect, it was so worth it.  To look at all my gleaming jars of strawberry jam and strawberry preserves, it makes my heart happy.

There are a few things I love about this jam.  I love that is has balsamic.  Did you know, I was adding an extra “L” to balsamic for as long as I can remember.  I also love the deep ruby hue and the fact that it sets every time! (ohymygoodness! if you can jam you will appreciate this fact, and it sets with no pectin!!).  The intermingling of the strawberry, the pepper and the balsamic, well it did me in.  So much that I used my prized last few cups of strawberries to whip up another batch of this jam.  Here’s my recommendations, add the balsamic and pepper in batches and taste to your preference. I found a whole teaspoon of pepper to be slightly to much, but still tasty.  Don’t skip on the step 3, this is the magic step to making it set.

Need Canning Resources?  These are my go to’s:
National Center for Home Food Preservation
Ball Canning

There are a ton of blogs/sites that I visit, but the two above are good starting points.

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I am now in THAT category. You know, the almost thirty club. The funny thing is, I’ve never felt better. I feel strong, healthy, like I’m finally getting somewhere in life.  Where that is, I’m still figuring out.  Is everything perfect? Hardly, but the older I get the more I realize the complicated nature of life. I used to feel uncomfortable with my birthday, afraid to draw attention. Or maybe afraid of celebrating myself, I am a fairly private person (with a blog, a little cliche I know). Now though, I want to celebrate. So here’s to me. I ate a wonderful breakfast on a patio in gorgeous weather sans kids, made a visit to the farmers market, bought new running shoes. Then I made my own dessert. Now that’s what I am talking about.

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Our Second Annual Fire Tower Lookout has been completed. Another amazing trip. The weather was idyllic.  The sun shone through thick clouds, positioned above fields of freshly cut hay. The green was pervasive, a consequence of a long spring, and a slow summer. The weather was perfect, warm with cool breezes.

We found treasures buried in second hand stores as we hopped from store to store looking for stuff to fill our new house and snacked on freshly baked cookies.  We did try to eat healthier, filling our bellies with  Buttermilk Squash Soup, totally recommend it.

I learned how to shoot a BB gun.  Oh my goodness, it is fun.

For us, our marriage is everything. It’s not solely about our kids, or jobs or anything - its about being together. So, if our marriage isn’t well, nothing makes sense to me. I lose sight of why the hell I am doing anything. So these trips (amongs other things) become our lifeblood. Reminding us of all the things we love about each other, we relax, we eat, we laugh.  I love that these locations are isolated and peaceful, able to star gaze and watch the sunset.  As my friend says, I am often very much in my head.  I find it hard to stop thinking, stop making lists and stop worrying.  I need these moments where I pause and allow myself to have zero responsibility.

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I need easy meals in my life.  Hypothetically, when it’s 530pm and you FB about what you should make for dinner, that’s when you know you are in trouble. I know, half of you are shaking your head at me.   But really, this was easy!   I swear!  Let me define my easy, I don’t mind making my family wait for dinner for an hour as they successfully melt down and engage in hand to hand combat due to hypoglycemia. I’m a great mom!  I like exclamation points!  Soooo, this definitely only took less than 45 min –which in my book, is great.  I had some chicken stock that I had, coincidentally, made that day with a leftover chicken (at least I cooked something before 5pm!), and I really loved that this recipe was light on the oil and fat.  I also like using fennel since I am still exploring this herb, that looks like a vegetable (can it really be made into ice cream? I’m still a skeptic).  I also liked that it looked like a cream sauce, hold the cream (do follow the directions about heating on low at the end).  AND it called for a 12 cloves of garlic, yipee! I used what I had, which looks like about 11 — don’t skimp on the garlic, it was still somehow understated. Enjoy!

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Today was one of THOSE days.  The perfect days that are sunny and warm, and involve no work and no to do lists.  The past few months have felt insane, stressful, busy and overwhelming. So instead, We pancaked!  We sat in our pajamas till noon!  We watercolored!  Oh, such a glorious day.  I felt content, at peace and rested.  That is until I went running at 2pm in nearly 80 degree weather. Yikes.  My face was red for hours.  But really, it was beautiful out, 75ish degrees, breezy and warm.  Everything in Spokane is overgrown here from the delayed summer, so I stopped and took some pictures with my phone.  I’m going to miss running on 5 mile.

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