Shabbat Shalom

Some of my favorite spring pictures....

Spring Flowers

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to GA. These are apple trees in bloom.

Locally, this is Jessamine. It's the state flower and grows as a vine. Once it makes its way up

into the trees it forms clusters of flowers like this and sends shoots out to other trees. The result is cascading bouquets of yellow flowers spilling out of the branches of the trees. It's especially pretty in the pine trees. We have some in our back yard, which is where I took these pictures.

Georgia

We're in Fort Benning, Georgia today. Actually it's Columbus, GA but we're here for Danny to go to Fort Benning for some training. We're just here for the day but it was a seven hour drive out here from SC yesterday and we'll be driving back tomorrow. Last night after we checked into the hotel we went downtown to the Cannon Brewpub for dinner. Neat restaurant - looks like a warehouse inside. It's two stories high but there's only one floor so the ceiling is pretty high. At the back of the restaurant you can see the vats where they make the beer (they make 7 or 8 kinds as well as a root beer). Danny got the beer sampler - 6 samples of beer in shot glasses served up on a long wooden paddle with descriptions of each beer. After dinner we went down to the Riverwalk which was just a block from the restaurant. It's very pretty, 15 miles long. I'll try to get some pictures of it tonight. I only had the pocket Nikon with us last night. Here's a picture Kristjan took of one of the (peach?) orchards on the drive out.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Here's one for my baby girl who just loves good soup, my own version of Thai Coconut Chicken Soup.

olive oil

2-3 big garlic cloves chopped

1" square piece of ginger, finely chopped

4 green onions - chop white and green parts    seperately

2 Jalapenos or Serranos sliced in rings

3 or 4 medium sized yellow squash, chopped

8 oz. assorted mushrooms (I used baby bella, white, oyster and enoki) 

juice of one lime

3 cups chicken broth

1 Tbs. Turmeric

3 boneless chicken breasts, sauteed in butter then diced

1 can coconut milk

cilantro

Over medium heat sautee garlic, ginger, white part of green onion, and jalapenos for a couple minutes, add squash and mushroom and cook for a couple more minutes, add more olive oil as necessary. Stir in lime juice, chicken broth and Turmeric, cover and let simmer about 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Remove about 2 cups of soup and puree in blender (try to get plenty of the squash for this to make the soup thicker) add back to soup. Stir in Chicken and coconut milk, bring to a low simmer for about 5-10 minutes so everything is heated through. Serve with cilantro and green onion for garnish.

   

Festivus for the rest of us!

Ah, Festivus. The kids started this tradition. I'm not sure what year we started it but here are a few of the earliest pictures I could find along with some of this year. For some reason the kids wanted to go to the garage for something. Then I guess they just wanted to go outside barefoot. Naturally, I didn't want them to (get some boots on! wear a coat!) but once they made it clear it was a competition...well, that's different. Far be it from me to discourage my children from attaining a goal. Then of course they had to see who could go the farthest. Here Kristjan makes for the basketball hoop. This was in 2003 so I guess he's 9.

And here he is this year completing a walk all the way around the house with Danny and Brandon.

Here I am on my very brief dash. I like to participate but I have no delusions about winning.

I went farther this year but I'm still last.

And here's Nastassja, I guess she's 13 here - definitely beat me.

And once again, Nastassja takes the ladies division by storm - she even went twice...

Here's the toughest part, at least in my book. The AFTERMATH. You think it's over, but no. The snow is stuck to your feet - now we keep towels handy to get it off as fast as possible. It doesn't really help. Oh but the exhilaration of another successful Feats of Strength!

We usually hold Festivus on Dec. 26th (Daddy's birthday) but this year we bumped it up to New Year's Eve since Nastassja, Anthony and Ray wouldn't be there until Dec. 28. We kicked off the festivities with Mexican food - enchiladas, the kid's favorite. Then Nastassja and I went for our walk. It was a little hazardous this year since we had had a couple of warm days in wich the snow melted and then refroze. Then it snowed again - about 6 inches, so there was powder with a layer of ice underneath, nice. Oh, and the temperature was 12. When we finished the boys took their walk around the house. When they got back there was some dispute about the winner. I had declared Brandon the winner since he was last, even pausing for his photo to be taken after Danny and Kristjan went in. Some declared there was too much, um, complaining during the trek ( I believe the accusation was "Brandon screamed like a girl the whole way") So the boys decided to take it to a new level by making snow angels with their shirts off. Then they decided to do it face down! Too much fun....

A reader wants to know "what about the airing of grievances?" No dear reader, we don't do the airing of grievances....unless one counts "screaming like a girl" while walking around the house. Oh, and I must point out that the girls didn't "scream like girls!"

Important note! Font has been changed at the request of a faithful reader...

Dec 25, 26

The 24th  put a dent in our snow. It was about 45 degrees and we got some rain. We were glad to see the temperature drop and snow falling on the 25th but we didn’t get much accumulation from it. Just enough to make things look nice. We went over to Aunt Joie and Uncle Charlie’s to visit on Christmas Day. We had a wonderful spaghetti dinner with them and then had a rousing game of scrabble. Kristjan emerged the winner.

The next day we went to Buffalo to pick up Kristjan’s friend Brandon who was flying in from Virginia Beach (he didn‘t know Brandon was coming). I have to back track here and tell you  how we pulled this off.  Last year we(that’s Danny and I and Brandon’s parents) wanted to surprise the boys by flying Brandon up here during Chanukah but because Chanukah was in early December Brandon would have had to miss too much school so we couldn’t do it. We wanted to try again this year but we knew if we told them about last year’s attempt we wouldn’t be able to pull off the surprise. So we kept it secret (ALL YEAR - aren’t we good?) and this year  on Christmas Eve when Brandon was opening his presents the last one he got  was a suitcase with a ticket in it. In order to surprise Kristjan we had to come up with a pretty good story (and Brandon had to refrain from texting him until the 26th when he arrived). We told Kristjan that his cousin Eric was flying in to surprise his grandparents (our Aunt Joie and Uncle Charlie) and we were to pick him up. He had no idea…. It was great. I’m putting two pictures of it here. Normally I wouldn’t post  an out of focus picture but it was funny to see their identical reaction. After picking up Brandon we went to The Anchor  Bar, home of the original Buffalo wings. They had quite a line so we got take out, stopped at Walmart to do some grocery shopping and then came back up here. After dinner the boys played Madden and consumed an entire pack or Oreos and 4 cokes each - blah! Naturally they also stayed up pretty late, or I guess I should say early. They seemed unaffected the next day and had fun sledding and shooting the BB gun and throwing the football. 

Dec. 27, 28

Brandon woke up sick and spent most of the morning throwing up. Danny and I went in to town to get him some Pepto Bismol, Gatorade, chicken noodle soup and crackers. We left Kristjan in charge of looking after Brandon and we gave Brandon a cowbell to ring for attention. Not hat he needed it since they were both in the same room playing video games but it made it fun for Brandon. He was feeling well enough to have soup at dinner time and was much better after a good night’s sleep.  The next day I finished cleaning upstairs and getting the bedrooms ready for Nastassja, Anthony and Ray. They got in around midnight. Ray  had a bit of a stiff neck from being in the car seat - he looked so cute walking around with his head cocked to one side. He’s been enjoying the house and playing with the toys and books he got for Chanukah from the Grandparents and Great Grandparents. Technology is his favorite thing though. He loves anything with buttons. Typing this has been a real challenge as he continually dives for the keys! I’ll probably get one more blog entry out before I leave but most of my posting will have to wait until I get back to SC. More pictures then too and I’ll update the Chanukah website. 

Dec. 31

After a couple of warm days ( in the 50’s - yuck!) we got some cooler weather. Gave the snow a nice crunchy top layer.  We decided to hike up the hill across the road from the house. It doesn’t look very high but of course once you get to the first rise you see that it goes higher. The toughest part was that when you first took a step you only  sunk in a little because of the ice crust but once you put your  full weight on your foot you sunk through the ice into deep snow.  Danny and I gave it up about halfway up the hill - we were sinking in deeper than the kids were - go figure. Nastassja, Kristjan and Brandon made it to the top. Last night it started snowing again and we’ve gor 4 or 5 inches now and it’s still snowing. Hard to tell the exact accumulation because  we’ve had some drifting. Kristjan and Brandon went out in it for a little while and now everyone is sitting around playing video games or having soup. Zaydie is showing Ray how the old record player works. 

To the Farm

Danny decided to take Friday off so we could get an earlier start. Naturally it tok us the beter part of the day to get packed. It’s always more of a project than we think it will be. We finally got on the road around 3 pm. It was 76 degrees out . I told Danny I felt like today was the first day of summer vacation and tomorrow would be the first day of winter vacation. Really strange to be in flip flops and t-shirts and packing up boots and coats. We stayed overnight in DC at Daddy and Fran’s house - they’re in NH enjoying wintery weather at the beach.
We had some excitement getting the house going. Ron had come up and turned the house on for us and plowed the drive (NICE). For some reason the heat just wasn’t working when we got here. Danny and Kristjan fiddled with the furnace a bit and then started a fire in the woodstove. Meanwhile I ran the washing machine empty to clean it out and when it got to the rinse cycle we suddenly found water pouring over the floor. Couldn’t find a leak so we figured it was just an overly enthusiastic burst of water into the deep sink. It’s been ok since. It was a bit chilly the first night (about 50 with only the woodstove heating the house). Danny got up in the night to add wood to the fire and tweak the furnace some more. By Sunday night he had coaxed it into proper operation.
The snow has been outstanding! Nice lake effect, big fluffy flakes. I have way too many cool pictures to post here. Kristjan has been out with his BB gun shooting soda cans. He and I made snow angels - falling back into the snow produced a nice puff of flakes but I didn’t realize the snow would stick to my glasses and came up looking like I was wearing snow goggles! Kristjan has also tried snowboarding/sledding down the hill (it’s a bit deep and requires more packing) and yesterday he made a snowman while we went to Walmart. That’s right - we went to Walmart on Christmas Eve. I don’t know what we were thinking - we didn’t stay long. The snowman is pretty impressive, seven foot 5 inches! And it was wet and rainy yesterday when he made it so that was pretty heavy snow. The snowman will probably be here until March! Fortunately, it cooled off again last night and it’s snowing again. Enjoy the snow pictures……

TOUCHDOWN!

Yes, my boy scored his first touchdown and unfortunately I have no picture because it was a night game and worse - are you ready for this? - although I was recording with my sony handycam, I missed it with that too! Arrgggh! Not sure how I did that, I was following the ball but ended up on the wrong side of the field. When I pulled back, there was Yeshi, ball in hand, in the end zone! Ah well, I did get nice footage of him recovering a fumble and catching a pass that was too low, he had to dive for it. Today we are driving up to Rock Hill for the state championship. The game is at 5pm so I probably won't get any photos of this game either but if I do I will certainly post some tomorrow! Since I can't stand to post without a picture to go with it....here's Yeshi making cookies for Thanksgiving and a couple of nature pictures.....

Happy Thanksgiving

Can you believe it? I didn't get a picture of our Thanksgiving dinner. Wow, I'm slacking. You'll have to imagine it. Just 4 of us this year. Me, Danny, Yeshi and Gloria, Danny's mom. This year I got smart and made just about everything ahead of time. On Monday I made all the potatoes and put them in foil pans in the freezer. Tuesday I made Cranberry dressing, Chocolate chip pumpkin bread and green beans. Cranberry dressing was really yummy - we usually don't have it but the recipe I used called for cloves, nutmeg and pineapple tidbits. Sounded good and it was. For the green beans I put fresh green beans in one of those ziploc steamer bags along with garlic, oregano and butter. Wednesday Kristjan baked The Cookies and I iced them. Gloria made cornbread stuffing so the only thing we had to do yesterday was cook the turkey, make gravy and warm everything else in the oven or microwave. Even the dishes weren't bad since I had used some of the foil pans and since we didn't have all the prep dishes to wash. Nice. We got to spend most of our time doing what's really important....watch football! Since I don't have a family picture for you here are some nature pictures from one of my recent walks around the neighborhood.

 

Fall Colors

As you may have guessed, South Carolina is not known for a spectacular display of fall foliage. At least not the New England variety. Here we do have a unique fall color - PINK. This is sweetgrass. Our area is famous for sweetgrass basketry. All along route 17 (which is called Sweetgrass basket makers highway) you can see stands where baskets are sold. Usually with the proprietor sitting there working on another one. The grass is ideal for basket-making. The blades are smooth and round rather than flat like most grasses. And in the fall the grass blooms a lovely bright pink. 

Here is a woman weaving sweetgrass baskets at the open air market in Charleston. This art has been passed down for centuries in families of African descent. Baskets like these were made by West Africans who continued their art after being brought to the lowcountry as slaves.  

Sweetgrass Basket History