The Rest Of My Birthday Weekend

Birthday celebrations are never limited to just one event. That Camping Trip was only half the action. If you've read this blog for a while or you know me in person, then you know this to be true.  If I was one of those bumper stickers all over my car people, then there surely would be something on there about celebrating birthdays.  "Birthdays? No, Try BirthWeekends or BirthWeeks, or my favorite BirthMonths!"

After our camping trip, John and I went out for my free birthday meal at a local restaurant then to a party (not for me, for someone else).  Since we were on the mountain, we stopped for a view and a quick couple picture overlooking the Chattanooga Valley.

Sunday (my actual birthday) was great.  Before church, we went to a little cafe with so-so coffee and this amazing outdoor veranda.  The only reason that place does so well is that veranda, making the south feel like a humid spot in Europe.  Oolala.

The kids wanted to run around, so we let them, but John pointed out and laughed that all they wanted to do was climb on Mama.  Being in happy birthday spirit, I thought this was the cutest thing ever!

Sunday night we got a sitter for the kids, so I could enjoy dinner with my family. John and I went to dinner with my brothers and parents.  Who are divorced.  Who might be touching in this picture.  And who are definitely smiling.  It's fun to get together without the kids, so we can focus on laughing so hard that we make a scene.  When we're together, there is always a lot of laughter.  After all the things this family has gone through, it's amazing that we can have nights like these.  It is by far my favorite birthday tradition.

This 32nd birthday was fun and I really enjoyed the weekend of celebrating.  

Birthday Camping Trip

A tent and a camping trip were the things that I wanted most this 32nd birthday of mine.  Friday night we gave another attempt at camping with our kids.  (Remember our first one? I had to drive home at midnight with Fern.)  We were encouraged by several comments on the blog and our neighbors across the street to keep going, keep exposing them, keep trying.  We did and it worked on the second time.  

I'm in this little mental phase of life where I think the best things in life are not the easiest.  I have a million examples for this, but let's go with the most obvious: exercise.  Sure, it's easy to stay at home, watch TV, eat processed food, but that is not the best life.  The best life is to exercise, which is never easy, and to take time and effort to prepare foods ourselves.  I could stand on my soap box and go on and on about this, but I'll stick to camping.  Camping is not easy.  We went for one night only, but took enough stuff to make us look like we're moving.  I packed the necessities: food, shelter, clothes.  Also, I included the not-necessary-birthday-jazz things: candles, our favorite mugs, air mattress, and the list could go on...Mama likes her ambiance, even if she's camping.

We definitely had our hiccups of the trip, which I told to everyone.  Everyone's reply was the same: things like that are going to happen every time.  It was not if things were going to go awry, it was how we handled them.  How did we handle them?  We forged on.

Dinner at the campsite:

 Eustace Conway would die to know that we think this is roughing it.

The kids (sortof) went to bed, I chased away a raccoon, and we went to bed.  While Burl was excited about his sleeping bag, Fern would have no part in her blanket bed that we made her.  She slept on the air mattress between John and me the whole night.  She wanted our faces looking at each other, touching if possible.  The.whole.night.  Which made for the best, cutest, sweetest night of sleep and made for the roughest night of sleep as well.  Fair trade.

Waking up in a tent is by far the best way to start a day.  Morning hike for the boys.  Coffee and snacks for the girls.  It was magical.  Since his farm is somewhat close, my dad came and met us at the campsite then took us to the breakfast buffet at the hotel at the park.

His shirt reads, "if it's got a name, it's a pet, if not, it's dinner. -Duck Dynasty"  

We went down by the lake for a family picture, but the kids were eager to get going.  Fern had no idea what was next, but Burl knew a big hike was coming his way.

Fern road in the backpack the whole time, except for looking at the falls.  (Tallest waterfall east of the Rockies, yes sirree.)  Burl hiked the entire time without complaining once.  It was over 2 miles, and I think John was the most excited about this.  Our little man did us proud that hike.

 While I was optimistic that this was going to be a good trip, I still had concerns and wonders.  It would have been easy to stay at home and do cake and ice cream with the kids or something else that was easy, but it felt good to take the effort and do something better, something more adventurous.  While I'm not knocking a small party at home, and I think those are valuable and perfect as well, I'm just hoping to pass on some encouragement.  I was encouraged to keep trying, not to make excuses, keep figuring out the routine, and I'm so glad that we did.  We made some great memories, and it was all worth the effort.

My Favorite Kale Salad

Kale has received the reputation of a super-food, and in my head it's basically crowned King Of The Leafy Greens.  I'm not sure what the science is behind it's superiority-it's just a little something that I picked up on the street.  I'm currently in love with a kale salad recipe that I've had multiple times at the women's potluck lunches at church.

I'll share two things about it before sharing the recipe:

1. Kale is hearty and sturdy, so it holds up well as a salad leftover.  I like to make a big batch of this salad and eat on it for days.  The leaves are so thick that they don't get slimy like other lettuces, but instead they hold their tenderness and soften just a bit.

2. I was given a great tip on buying kale that was a game-changer for me that I should share: don't buy the stuff in the bags.  I tried it and it's hard to eat and stem-y and just not good on a salad.  That is because the bagged kale is bigger and older, so it's more tough.  For kale salads, buy the loose stuff, which is hard to find.  It hides behind the cilantro in my store.

Here it is:

Kale, chopped

Rotini, cooked and cooled

Northern beans, cooked, cooled and rinsed

Parmesan

Dressing:

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Garlic

Salt

Happy salad season!

Burl's Night Out

As the children get older and, as my friend said, "the world opens up to them," the world opens up to us a family as well.  There are more and more things that we get to do with them.  Last Friday, my mom took Fern on her personal baby adventure while John and I took Burl on his big toddler adventure.  

Burl has been begging to "climb with a rope all the way to the top" ever since we took him in November.  Sometimes we will take him in there and let him play around, but we haven't done the full thing. Joseph, of course, came along with us, because two of his passions collided: Burl and climbing.  We let Burl decide how it would go: John held the rope (ie, belayed), Joseph climbed with him, and I was not involved (ie, I took pictures and videos).  

John and I have belayed hundreds of kids (experienced and newbies) and have noticed one common thing: when the parents are involved, it doesn't go as well.  There is exactly one time that a mom had better luck than I did with helping her kid get up the wall.  It's not really anything special that happens during the climbing, but more what happens before the parent and child even step in the gym.  I knew that I had to be pretty careful when encouraging Burl to climb all the way to the top.  He wanted to so badly, and we all wanted it for him as well.  

The only patterns that I know that help are to let the kid down if they genuinely look scared and give them smaller goals.  ("Next time, climb one move further to that hold above where you are.")  And when all else fails, just let them relax and have fun.  Once we did that, we had fun.  If you're really crazy, climb up a couple moves behind the kid (actually don't ever do this) and have the uncle take the lead (definitely do this).

Joseph told him there was treasure at the top and that sealed the deal for Burl.  Up he went.

Once Burl got to the top, he got to play a little bit.  Joseph and Burl acted like they owned the placed and stacked some mats on top of each other for a grand ole time.  

As we were leaving a preteen monster climbing girl came in.  I let Burl watch her climb and he was entranced.  To be honest, I was too, because that girl is so strong!   

Next up, we took Burl to a minor league baseball game, which happened to be Star Wars night as well.  The game was postponed an hour due to rain, so we crammed into the glorified open-aired basement by the concessions and entertained ourselves with food and people watching.

The game finally started and we got to move to the stadium so we could enjoy food and people watching.  I think there was a game going on as well.  

Burl ate two hot dogs, nachos, and ice cream.  He wanted more. We had to cut him off because everything was so expensive (and I think he had enough).  It was fun, but I think he should be a little older to go again.

To get to do some more fun activities and to hang out with John and my brother was a good time.  Burl was excited, happy, and very sleepy by the end of the night.  We all left very happy.