Superheroes

A Sunday with nothing much on the agenda while we waited for Kent to get home from his long run. The kids asked to have their faces painted and I thought "Why not?"

Kai chose a mask of fire, and then wanted fire on his hands as well so he could shoot his fire-power as a weapon.
Madison chose to have ice-power.
Caylie has "star power".
This simple activity netted at least an hour of fight-free playing time with all three kids involved in a very active, imaginative, roll-playing game.

Veggie Lasagne

This is what I'm making for dinner tonight. It's a familiar stand-by for this family, we have it at least once or twice a month.

12 whole wheat lasagne noodles, cooked until tender and drained
1 pkg firm tofu
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach (or use fresh)
2 eggs
1 jar tomato based pasta sauce (or make your own)
1 pile vegetables chopped (use up whatever is in the fridge, but today I'm using cabbage, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, and green beans)
1/2 block (or more) part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
sprinkle parmesan cheese

Steam veggies or pre-cook them in the microwave. Pre-cook and drain noodles. Mash tofu with a fork or pulse in the food processor for a few seconds. Add eggs and drained spinach and mix. In a 9x13 lasagne pan layer noodles, sauce, veggies, tofu mixture, and cheese until you run out of ingredients or the pan is full. Top with the remaining mozza and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake at 350 for 1 - 1.5 hours until it's bubbly and the cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

Beautiful, beautiful world

Still running. And it’s often hard. Or boring. Or otherwise unpleasant but I’m still slogging through my training plan. While I’m focused on getting my miles done, it’s easy to keep to the tunnel vision of just watching where I step and paying attention only to what is directly in front of me for the duration of the miles I need to cover that day. But this week I found myself on a different trail and I looked around myself to enjoy the spectacular view of Okanagan Lake and valley. It was so beautiful! When I left the house that morning it was icy. There was a layer of thick ice coating everything. I had to chisel my way into the truck, skate my way downtown, and there was no chance of running on roads, sidewalks, or pathways that day. So I went to the KVR where the gravel isn’t slippery even if it is icy. The gravel path climbs up through orchards and vineyards above the Okanagan Lake and through the hilly valley.

I felt like I’d forgotten until just that moment how beautiful my surroundings are. And then I remembered that I live in Canada, one of the most beautiful countries in the world. And then I remembered that I’ve been to beautiful places all over the world. I felt a new appreciation for the beauty all around us. My family, my friends, and most of the strangers out there are beautiful too and I am so grateful for them.

It was as if I had been sleeping all these winter months and just now awoke and took stock of what wonderful things are in my life. It reminded me of this quote from the 1999 movie American Beauty:

“…there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain. And I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.”

I resolve to open my eyes to the beauty in my world. To enjoy my children and my husband and my parents and my friends. To stop and savour at least once a day how wonderful it is to be alive. Time passes by so quickly, I don’t want to miss the gifts of life because of tunnel vision.

I’m glad it was icy that morning.