Bad food, updates, and good food, in that order.

Something I will never ever ever ever ever ever ever try to do again: homemade pesto. Sigh... I had such high hopes for my fresh basil and linguini. Dave gallantly took bite after drink after bite after drink, just so, eyeing me and waiting for my usual, "It's healthy but delicious, right?" that I do when I make something weird, but my optimism was insufficient for the occasion. We will never speak of this again.

So its been a while...we have been sickish and tired but are on the mend so...lets see...Riley has a new catch phrase! It is, "Stop talking!" and she uses it whenever we are telling her something she doesn't want to hear.

D: Riley, you need to sit down in your stroller.
R: Stop talking!

H: Riley, your snow boots cannot come to church with us.
R: No, no, stop TALKING!

H: Riley, you can have a cookie after you finish your veget-
R: STOP TALKING!!!

Sassy much? Not sure where she got that phrase from. I am not worried though - she is a sweetheart most of the time. And even as I am teaching her better manners and nicer words, I'm glad she has some spice - it makes the playground bullies think again.

Saturday morning cartoons, enjoyed from the comfort of Dad's face.

Joe started nursery on Sunday. He is not 18 months till February but they let him come early because Dave and I are now over the Sunbeam class. Yes! For the last two hours we are with the three-year-olds - singing songs and teaching and bribing with fruit snacks and fending off hugs (oh yeah, they are big huggers. And I like hugs but MAN) and it's pretty awesome we get to work together, me and Dave.

It IS work, because those boundless balls of energy are off the wall excited ALL the time, and we aren't allowed to use sedatives or duct tape, you know - just our non-existent mob-control skills and whatever divine intervention is sent our way. Like when Joe got kicked out of nursery because he could not stay off the table and had a melt-down whenever anyone removed him from the table. Well he had to come to our class then and wouldn't you know it, the roughest little three-year old in our class ADORES babies and he spent the rest of the class trying to hold Joe's hand and cuddle him, rather than rough-house with the other boys. Hopefully Joe won't have to join us again next week - he does make it harder to focus on the class when he is trying to scale mom and dad - but this past Sunday, he was actually a good distraction.

Dave has had his first midterms. He is on a block schedule and his classes are 2-3 hours and accelerated such that he will have a whole new batch of classes at the end of next month. He is busy doing well in school but still makes time to be silly with the babies and help me with bedtimes.

Me, I'm busy but with no grade to show for it. But I'm keeping little people alive, and they seem to be thriving. A+.
Today I took them to the science museum with the church playgroup and we had a great time wondering through the dinosaur skeleton exhibits and interactive light shows and human circulatory system models. The museum is right on the river and Joe especially liked watching the river boats pass by. It was a rather gorgeous view on this gorgeous day.

Well, time to put this to bed. With a recipe! One that REALLY is rather healthy and delicious! I loved this - ate it all last week and craving more. It is adapted from here.

The Best Red Beans and Rice You Ever Ate

1-2 slices bacon (and/or olive oil - but I love the smoky flavor of bacon)
2 large cloves garlic, lightly crushed with the side of a knife blade and minced
1 large red onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 cans red kidney beans
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup brown rice
1 tablespoon butter

Cook rice according to rice directions, substituting the water for chicken stock or broth. Remove from heat, fluff with fork, and let stand for 5 minutes. (But while it is cooking, get your bacon, vegetables, and beans going.

Fry bacon or heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Add in and saute garlic, onion, celery, and bell pepper until tender. Stir in kidney beans, salt, pepper, and  1/2 cup chicken stock. Reduce heat to low and let mixture simmer slowly till rice is done.

Fold rice and beans gently together.

Optional: add hot sauce for more kick and garnish with cilantro. Also delicious with chicken - I threw in chopped rotisserie and oh my gosh - perfectisimmo.

PS: This is one of those that is even better on day 2 so go ahead and make it the day before to take it in your lunch.

PSS: I'm all second-guessing myself because of the title I gave this recipe. Um, if you don't like beans you might not like this one. Or rice. But you knew that, right?