Kids Say the Best Things

We sing Hamotzi, the Jewish blessing over bread, before snacks and lunch. This afternoon before we sang it, I said, "Let's thank God for this food and this wonderful day."

After singing Hamotzi, Colin said, "Miss Sarah, maybe God is at the door today," with an excited smile.

I smiled back saying, "I bet your right."

A few days ago, Kinleigh told me her Mom would be picking her up because her Dad was on call. I asked, "Is your Dad a doctor?"

"Yes."

"What kind?"

"I don't know."

"Oh."

After a few moments of silences, "He does crazy people."

"Oh, so maybe he is a psychiatrist? That's a hard word to remember."

"Yeah."

Cribs - Southern Arizona

Hi everyone! I hope you get an idea of our place with this "MTV Cribs"-esque video. We still haven't quite got all our stuff on the walls, a few are rather bare, but we couldn't put off this video any longer. I hope everyone who used to watch "Cribs" will appreciate the fridge shot. I always thought that my fridge on Cribs would have way more food than those celebrities fridges, hmmm... Not so much.
I've realized a few things from trying to make a few videos so far. One is that I need a camera with better video quality, that and certainly better shooting, editing, and dialogue skills! Anyone out there making a lot of youtube videos with some bits of advice?

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday weekend, Paul joined me at Bikram Yoga, made me a DELICIOUS home-made macaroni and cheese dinner with chocolate lava cake for dessert, watched girly TV with me, and got me a wicked awesome watch. The mac and cheese was sooo good I ate way too much. Paul is totally sick of Sex and the City now. And I can't stop looking at my sparkly new wrist-wear. Happy Birthday to me!

Mo good eats!

A few more samples from the kitchen. Sarah made aioli. A first for us both. It was heavenly on the swordfish below and another meal with roasted root veggies. As always if there's something here that catches your eye, we'd be happy to share the recipe (I use recipe loosely, we concoct much as we go :)Grilled swordfish with aioli. Served on white bean mash, with grilled veggies.
Sesame shrimp & tofu stir-fry with veggies. Served on wild rice & quinoa.
Grilled strip steak with sauteed garlic mushrooms. Also roasted root veggies with aioli, & sauteed pepper-butter cabbage.
Grilled chicken satay & roasted veggies. Citrus salad with pomegranate.
Shrimp & tortellini pesto with peas & bell pepper.
Home-made maki-sushi. Typical (cali roll) & not-so-typical (white hot & mustard: ROC roll?).

First Week of Pre-K

Well, I'm officially exhausted. After only three full days of being responsible for the care and growth of 22 four-year-olds I'm gaining a new appreciation for the word. My voice is especially tender from repetitions of "we use our words when we feel sad," "wow, what wonderful artwork," and "I see John is helping to clean up." Of course, there has also been plenty of "we do not hit in this class room," "boys and girls, please show me that you are listening," and "running through the classroom is not safe. We use walking feet." My repertoire of children's songs and attention getting games is quickly broadening (I study my Wee Sing book every night). While I am indeed drained and overwhelmed at times, I feel confident and satisfied that things are definitely going well. I understand that it will take some time for the both me and the class to get into the swing of things comfortably. It would be quite odd for so many four year olds to be consistently sharing, quiet and still. I really feel like things are going great so far. One thing is for sure, the kids are having fun and I am sleeping like a baby.

Cute quote from today:

After Tyra sang the ABC song, ending with the words, "Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me," Kinleigh looked at me indignantly, saying, "Hey! Those are my ABC's!"

Here are some pictures of my classroom, before the first day of school.

Floatin in Salt

Last Saturday we drove up to Phoenix to visit my cousin Eric and his wife Casey. Our strenuous agenda for the day involved floating on inner-tubes down the Salt River. It's about 4 hours floating through refreshing waters with an occasional swift-water section (just enough splashing to cool you off). Since that's too long time to be in the sun without nourishment everyone brings coolers filled with goodies and jams them into an extra tube! When its 114 degrees anybody and everybody heads out to the river to chill. You can see below what a scene it can be. Sorry, we don't have a water-proof camera, so this is a random video from youtube that sums up the experience. It was a great time. We only got a bit burnt :) Afterward, we drove back to hang out with Eric, Casey & their 3 labradors in the pool. I know, I know, rough day! We had a great dinner out and headed back home to Tucson in the morning. It was a great relaxing weekend with family.