Road trip: Shire Style

 My brain is full of helping verbs and egg tempura, as I get ready to launch myself into another school week.   I feel like the Holidays though, are lingering around my ankles, refusing to let go no matter how many times I look at the big fat "2013" on the calendar.  Jamie for sure, is still in denial.  He keeps managing to find rogue wise men, and accidentally forgotten ornaments which he pulls out with a triumphant  "Look mom!  Does this mean it's still Christmas?".   Ahhh....sorry son,  now eat your green smoothie and finish your spelling test.  

Charlie is channeling his inner Mohandis Gandhi this week, and staging a food strike.  I thought Jamie was going to be my hardest challenge on this no-sugar thing.  But Jamie knows no guile.   He's as stubborn as hell, but once you've got him won, he rarely looks back.  I wish somebody had told me this about him as a baby.  You know, like in the owners manual that was supposed to come with him out of the hospital, instead it took us years to figure it out.   Charlie on the other hand is more reasonable on the surface, but plays the long game.   He didn't pitch a huge fit like Jamie did, but quietly started stashing treats around the house like a squirrel.  When that didn't work out for him, he still didn't argue, he just refused to eat.  And he continues to refuse to eat anywhere close to his normal food consumption.   A little piece of fruit here, a little handful of lettuce there.  Thankfully, a fair amount of meat has been casually consumed when he thinks no one is paying attention, relieving some of my worry about him starving himself, but on the front he remains in an iron gridlock against me.   His too little and scrawny for me to hold out on him much longer, so I hope he gives in soon.

I love having all boys, I really do, but I look at Robbie and just know he's not going to be easy either.  Oh sure, he looks perfectly innocent now, with his chubby cheeks and bright blue eyes.   He sleeps well, eats well and poops well, which I'm pretty sure is the Holy Grail of babydom.   But he gets that Ramsey glint in his eye, and sets his mouth in a little stubborn straight line that tells me I'm in for it in the future.

We were up in LA this weekend for a board meeting for Guatemala Deaf Ministries.   Not typically how I'd choose to spend my weekend, but lots of good stuff happened.    I cooked most of our food ahead of time, and packed it up in a cooler with us, so we wouldn't be a pain in the butt to host.  I made up a recipe of Paleo chili that I thought my chili-hating-husband would eat, and lo and behold... it was a huge hit!   I'm posting it here in case anyone needs and easy low-carb dinner idea, and to remind myself what I did.

Paleo Vegetable Chili

• 1 lbs ground beef
• 2 large onions, chopped finely
• 1 poblano pepper,chopped finely
• 2-3 zuchinni finely chopped
• 2-3 carrots finely chopped
• 1 tbl ground cumin
• 1 tbl garlic powder
• 1/4 C. chile powder
• 2 cans  tomato sauce
• 3 C beef stock
• 2 tsp 100% cocoa powder (the bitter unprocessed kind) 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Saute meat and onions together until meat is cooked through, add the rest of ingredients and cook on low for several hours until the beef stock cooks down and everything gets thick and blends together like chili.   We served it over baked sweet potatoes. 


It rains so little in Southern California, I sometimes forget what the color green looks like. Real green... Not the manufactured sprinkler kind, but the luscious rolling hills kind that you see in Lord Of The Rings.    Too bad our kids live in the age of electronics, and left their old fashioned parents to enjoy the view outside the window.