Tonight

Randomness...

For Family Night tonight, we celebrated Seuss Week by reading a bunch of Dr. Seuss books and then making our own Seuss-inspired characters.

Then Henry got sick and I had to stop drawing and sit on the couch and watch Cake Boss for two hours while holding him. Davis put the girls to bed. I love him. Poor Sophia, she was so tired today - she napped at school (she never naps, and she told me after school, "I didn't know what happened, I thought I was awake, but Miss Teresa had to explain to me that I had fallen asleep" ha ha!), she had bags under her eyes, and then at bedtime she suddenly started sobbing. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me "I'm so sad, because I don't want to grow up! I want to stay just like this forever!" It made me want to cry too!!

Dinner was so yummy. I don't think I've shared these recipes, and they are staples at our house, so here you go.

Brown Rice That Actually Tastes Good
from Alton Brown
(this is like magic - I really am not a fan of brown rice, but I actually like it this way as much as white!)

1.5 cups brown rice
2.5 cups water
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the rice in a casserole dish. Boil the water, then add the butter and pour over the rice. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Fluff with fork when it's done.

Maple Soy Salmon
from Gourmet

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 (2-lb) piece center-cut salmon fillet with skin

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line bottom of a broiler pan with foil, then oil rack of pan. Boil soy sauce and maple syrup in a small saucepan over moderate heat until glaze is reduced to 1/3 cup, about 5 minutes. Arrange salmon, skin side down, on rack of broiler pan and pat dry. Reserve 1 1/2 tablespoons glaze in a small bowl for brushing after broiling. Brush salmon generously with some of remaining glaze. Let stand 5 minutes, then brush with more glaze. Roast salmon in middle of oven 10 minutes. Turn on broiler and brush salmon with glaze again, then broil 4 to 5 inches from heat until just cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes.

I usually make this dinner with sesame asparagus (I think the recipe was originally from Gourmet too - I have a whole box of recipe cards with recipes I copied out of Gourmet magazine when I had a subscription), but the asparagus at Kroger looked really gross yesterday. So I just stir-fried some snow peas and added sesame seeds tonight. Yummy!

I've totally given up on simplifying my life, or whatever, and just embraced that my brain is a mass of chaos and I have more things to do than I will ever, ever get done. Part of that is that every night after the girls are asleep, I am going to my office away from home

and working. On work, on "work" I've somehow decided to take on "on the side," on church and school stuff, on email and other correspondence that never gets done, on taxes, and most of all - staring at my redundant to do lists and calendars, willing the organization into my brain. So far it's not working, so if I owe you something - a phone call, if I'm supposed to get back to you about something, or we have a lunch date coming up - please remind me, again.