I cannot believe it is Spy Wednesday already. Or Holy Thursday, depending on what time zone you are in.

My Lent has been closely tied with the difficulty of Zach's classes. This was a particularly hard trimester, simply based on his workload, which was over 30 credits, I do believe. He did make a more concerted effort to spend time with us in the evenings for most of the tri, but midterms and finals are always hairy. On top of that, the issue with his class schedule for next tri became an added burden here at the end. As it turns out, the decision regarding whether or not he starts clinic next tri and does the herbs has been made for him - regardless of the herbs, he has to modify his DC schedule, so he's going to keep up with the herbs. It's been very frustrating, and means that he won't graduate with his DC class, but it's out of our hands. He just came down and told me that he passed the herbs exam today, so there are zero issues continuing with that.

Through all of that, and for the first time in a long while, I have felt the grace of prayers - my own and those of people kind enough to pray for us. I have handled daily frustrations with more gentleness and patience, and been able to relax a little more and enjoy my sweet babies. That has been a huge blessing. I have also been waking up earlier, and trying to get my day started before my needy offspring are demanding things from me. (That has not been very successful, since they have also been waking up early, but oh well...at least I am up.)

The antics of these two are simply too precious to miss.

There is so much more I wanted to say, but it will have to wait for another day when I am not so tired.

A blessed Triduum to you all!

Love,

Jess

It has finally started warming up! Slowly, very slowly, but I will take whatever I can get. Tony has been enjoying being able to go outside and play, which makes me happy, too. I have even managed to get laundry out on the line a few times! I put Evie's diapers out there twice and actually noticed a difference in the stains (the bad ones are from the few weeks that Tony used them). I was so pleased. 

Finals officially started yesterday, but last week felt like finals because of that physics test Zach had to take. Praise the Lord, he passed it, which eliminates one extra aggravation, though another one has since cropped up. 

I hate ranting again, but part of my ranting is educational for anyone who isn't familiar with acupuncture degrees...

There are two degrees offered in acupuncture - the MSA (Master of Science in Acupuncture) and the MSAOM (Master of Science in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine). The Oriental Medicine part is the use of Chinese herbs.

There is only one person who has graduated with the DC and the full MSAOM from here. (Ironically, his name was also Zac.) It is a ton of work, and can be really difficult to coordinate class schedules from both programs, so most DC students just do the acupuncture. Zach started the MSA in September, and began the herbs part in January. Last week he was informed that he can't continue the herbs portion unless he modifies his DC schedule, pushing his transition to clinic back another trimester. 

What?!

Last trimester it was supposed to all be worked out for him to take a couple of classes the tri after his DC class is taking them. They aren't necessary to him entering clinic, and the dean said they would accommodate him - as they should, given that he is one of their best students, and one of the only people who actually has enough drive to do it all. So he has spent a whole trimester working hard in this herbs class, only to find out two weeks before the tri ends that it has either been completely in vain, or he has to essentially take a tri off of the DC to continue (which he isn't going to do, because it isn't that important, but it's unbelievably maddening). He has a meeting on Thursday with the DC dean, which will hopefully be a little more enlightening. In the mean time, please say some prayers.

Do you know what this is?

If you guessed a sheepskin you would be right! After successfully tanning the deerskins, Zach put an ad online asking if anyone had sheepskins they would be willing to give to him. One lady emailed and said that she would have two, and if he would come get them, they were his. They are currently sitting in the chest freezer waiting until the break is over, but hopefully they will turn out well! (Don't ask me what we're going to do with them, because beyond simply using them as blankets, I'm not sure.)

Love,

Jess

Happy First Day of Spring!

Or, if you are living somewhere like us, happy...? We still have snow on the ground, and it flurried for a bit this afternoon. I know that warmer weather is coming, but I am beyond ready for it. We have had a couple of  beautiful days. We were able to walk to the library and post office the other day, which was amazing.

The other day I had all kinds of things I wanted to write about:
The mozzarella I made a couple of weeks ago, and my attempt at cream cheese (which I haven't given up on, I think our house is just too cold and it's taking longer than the recipe said it should). We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the shepherd's pie recipe from Feast! (which they have for the feast of St. George, just FYI), and last night we enjoyed spaghetti (using spaghetti squash) and brownies with ice cream for the feast of St. Joseph. We managed to complete all seven of the Seven Sundays of St. Joseph this year, which was a great blessing. I dragged the chickies to a noon Mass, since it was also my in-laws anniversary and I wanted to offer Mass for them. Our friend Ryan joined us for dinner, and Rosary after, and it was wonderful.

Yesterday I made my very first Craigslist purchase. A week ago I found this awesome futon (the nice kind with wooden arms), and the girl said it was available, so I set it up to drive down the next day. Just before leaving, I texted her to get her address, and she responded. Then she emailed me saying that her roommate might want it for her new apartment. I have turned off the email notification on my phone for Lent, so it was after rearranging and removing seats in the van, and driving 45 minutes, that my knock was greeted with, "Oh, you didn't get my email?" Seriously? You couldn't text that to me. I told you I had nearly an hour drive. I was really upset, because aside from the trouble I went through going down there, I really wanted the futon. I ended up making a fun day of it with the kids - we (window) shopped, and then went to the park and ate yogurt and crackers and it was great. Anyways. To yesterday's purchase. It isn't as pretty as the other one, but it was only $30 (!!) for a solid wood frame and mattress. It needs a cover to make it more attractive, but that is easy enough for me to whip up one of these days.

We are nearing the end of this trimester and it can't come soon enough. Zach could use some extra prayers - he has to take a test to be able to skip the required physics class for the AOM program, and he already has a ton of stuff going on with finals. If he doesn't pass the test, he has to decide if he wants to modify the DC so he can take the physics class and keep the AOM, or drop the AOM, which would make me really, really sad because he has worked so hard to do both programs. It would be a no brainer if the pricetag on modifying wasn't another $15k.

Skip forward if you have no interest in my anger towards this education system...
Most people don't know that it takes 3 years and 4 months to become a chiropractor. They go by trimesters, and there are 10. The Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine program is 9 or 10 trimesters, too. I can never remember.
Most people also don't know that it costs as much to become a chiropractor as it does to become a medical doctor ($150k). Yet the average salary for a chiropractor is probably half of what a family practice doctor makes.
 A lot of students are here because they couldn't make it into medical school, and they have no business being here, either. This education would not have to be so heinously expensive if they were more selective about who they accept.

Zach works incredibly hard. Last trimester he took 34 credits and managed to finish the tri with a 4.0 in both programs. But it took a lot out of all of us. When I hear about some of the idiots that spend all of their time drinking and barely passing classes it makes me positively livid, for a multitude of reasons. Plenty of people think chiropractors are quacks, and some of them are. And then some of them are just morons who have no place being any kind of healthcare. But there are also people like Zach who truly care about helping people and who have interests far beyond just cracking backs. He will have to fight against the stigma that follows chiropractors, though, and that really irks me.

Why didn't he just apply to medical school, you wonder? Sometimes we wonder that, too. However, at the end of the day, Zach would rather be trying to help people stay healthy than writing them prescriptions. If he were a medical doctor, his dream would be to be a surgeon, and that isn't really family-friendly.

Enough of that. It's on my mind because we were talking about it today. Sometimes you hear these horror stories of people who have graduated and are making zero dollars and you get on your knees and pray that that isn't you in two years. I mean, we know the first couple of years will be rough. There really isn't any getting around that. But once you get established somewhere, you can do pretty well.

On a happy note, Evie is on the verge of cutting her second little tooth. I am eternally grateful to the good Lord for not letting teething interfere with our night sleep. I can deal with the fact that she won't nap for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time during the day, but I couldn't make it if she were up at night. We had one night this week where she woke up a few times and cried for a minute and then started nursing, and that was my worst night of sleep since I can't remember. (Of course, I have also been extra tired since the time change.)

Right now this sweet thing is asleep on my lap, so I should get myself upstairs and snug under the covers while all is quiet.

Love,
Jess

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty}

 Flowers for Valentine's Day! Zach came home with flowers in hand for both of his girls. I thought they looked pretty mixed together.

{happy}

 Daddy with his little girl. Evie was tearing petals off and trying to eat them. It took approximately 586 shots to get one of them both looking at the camera. And Evie still has a funny look on her face.

{funny}

In an attempt to be a little healthier, I followed my Mom's advice and made the LMLD brownies sans flour. My sister had accidentally forgotten the flour when baking them one night and they turned out fine. So I did, and they were delicious (I was wishing I had some whipped cream to balance out the sweetness). Next time I think I'll cut the sugar in half and bake them in a smaller pan so they are a little thicker and not so overwhelmingly sweet. The two that I had set aside for a friend didn't end up making it through the next day. They were even better the next day because they were a little chewy. Time to move on...this is making me hungry.

{real}

Sitting with Daddy during Rosary. He isn't perfect every night, but overall his behavior is good. His church behavior has greatly improved, too, to my great joy. Other than his new found interest in digging for gold in his nasal cavities... how do you handle that mortification as a parent? The woman behind us last week sweetly complimented his behavior, which was reassuring, but still.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

From the bouquet Zach got me at the Farmer's Market.

 Zach and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary last week. Three years doesn't sound like very long, but sometimes it's hard to believe it has only been three years! Our wedding day was such a beautiful day, and we were so blessed to share it with many of the people closest to us.

To celebrate this year, Zach went to Ithaca with me where we picked apples and got ice cream at a local ice cream place. It was tons of fun. I have never seen so many varieties of apples as they had at this orchard! For anyone back home, I saw Rome Beauty and Northern Spy apples! I felt a little silly when I saw that they are a type of apple...I always wondered why they were street names on Apple Mountain. 

Since we didn't have anyone to babysit Tony for us (and dinner at a fancy restaurant with a 2 month old who was in the middle of a dinner-time crying routine didn't sound terribly appealing!), on Sunday, I made rabbit with roasted delicata squash for dinner and cheesecake for dessert. It was yummy and relaxing - exactly what I hoped for.

On our anniversary, which was Tuesday, I made venison tenderloin marinated in red wine, apple cider vinegar and rosemary, then wrapped in bacon and grilled. It was declared my best dinner ever. There was not a scrap of meat to be found the next day. I made the LMLD apple crisp for dessert that night, which was the perfect ending to a lovely night. 

{happy}

Throwback: at our reception.

Eating apple cider donuts at the orchard. They are the Best. Donuts. Ever. They had just come out of the fryer when the man put them in the bag for us - oh my gosh. (Confession: I usually get one for Tony and I when we get to the Farmer's Market. If I get there around noon they aren't usually warm anymore. They're always delicious, but fresh is definitely best!)  He even gave us two extras just to be nice!

{funny}

 Tony's testament to the amazingness of the donuts. If you ask him what we do on Saturday, he will tell you that we go to the Farmer's Market and get donuts. 

He was being a total stinker at the orchard. This picture made me think of a fairy tale, though I can't put my finger on which one.

{real}

 Daddy's mini-me. Tony loves to be with Daddy. Seeing the two of them together makes me so happy.

 Look at all of those apples! Most of them were just as good as the ones on the tree, but drops were half-price!

 On our way home we stopped at a marina so Zach could show me what kind of sailboat he would like (I know absolutely nothing about boats, whereas he knows a lot. Even how to fix them up.). I managed to get dizzy just standing on the dock. How is that even possible? I can't say that gave me much confidence in my future boating adventures.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

Autumn in the Finger Lakes is a beautiful experience. I just want to capture it and hold onto it forever.

 We went down to the state park last week and it was refreshing. The water was peaceful, and the sky so blue. That special fall sky blue.

{happy}

 A few weekends ago we went to an open house at a model train club. They had model steam and diesel engines that you could ride on. Tony was in heaven, despite the impression the picture gives.

 All of the old men running the trains had on the overalls and hats. It was so fun.

 They also had small model trains. I particularly loved this blue passenger train. It was so pretty.

{funny}

17 pounds, 30 pounds, 18 pounds

That middle one was caught by my husband! The reason this one is {funny} is because of how he caught it. On Sunday, Zach and a friend went up to Lake Ontario to salmon fish. Unfortunately, the salmon weren't running in the stream they were in, so they didn't catch anything all day. As they were going back up the stream, that big one was swimming around, but it wouldn't bit any of their hooks. So Matt's cousin tried grabbing it but it got away. It swam through Zach's legs and he caught it with his thighs, but it managed to swim through. He wasn't about to leave empty handed after that, so he turned around and dove in the water after it, catching it with his bare hands. He always does things with panache - I love it! The other two were given to them by Matt's cousin, which was very kind. We have 18 pounds of chinook salmon in our freezer, which is amazing!

{real}

 Any guesses as to what this is? If you guessed caviar you would be right. Two of the salmon were female and full of eggs. We weren't able to save all of them, but I made probably a half-gallon of caviar (maybe more) with what we were able to get into a bowl. Making caviar is super easy, though certainly not something I thought I would be doing. Ever. The eggs are quite hardy - I was squeezing the membrane to get the eggs out and very few popped during the process. But anyways. I don't really care for it. It isn't bad, just not really my thing. Zach likes it. He gave a jar to one of his professors, so I'm hoping it really was good.

Aren't they beautiful?!

I don't know what happened to September, but October seems headed in the same direction. How is it the 13th? Evie is almost 2 months old, our 3rd anniversary is in 9 days.

At the head of one of the lakes. It took my breath away.

 I love everything about autumn. The weather, the colors, the food - especially butternut and delicata squash. Which brings me to a delicious dinner I made the other night. 

You will need:

• Ground beef, pork, venison - I did a pound of beef and half pound of pork
• Butternut squash - I used a medium-sized one
• Bell peppers - I think I used 2. Any color or combination of colors
• Quinoa - I made 3/4 cup UNcooked
• Fresh cilantro
• Cumin
• Salt and pepper

First, bake your squash. I cut mine in half, scoop out the seeds, put them face down in a pan with a little water. 350° until the skin is kind of brown and the meat is soft (usually 45min).

Next, bring the water for your quinoa to boil. Quinoa is like rice - twice the amount of water. Once the water is boiling, add the quinoa, turn it to low and cover. It's done when the little curly strings are curly. 

While that is cooking, brown your meat (with a little diced onion if you have an onion). Throw in the peppers. Cook until peppers are soft. 

Once the squash and quinoa are done, scoop the squash out of the skin and add it with the quinoa to the meat and peppers. Throw in a handful of chopped fresh cilantro and cumin, salt and pepper to taste. You can serve it now, or put it in a dish and bake for 20 minutes. 

I made it again last night, sans quinoa and cilantro, with 4 peppers and a large squash using chili powder as my spice. I wanted to add some chopped kale, but Evie needed to nurse so I skipped it. Next time. This kind of meal is very forgiving - you can adjust the amounts to suit your family - more veggies/less meat, no problem. Since we don't eat wheat products, I probably cook more meat than most people. I also try to make enough so that we have leftovers for lunch.

Evie is growing so quickly. She's very alert and follows you around the room. She knows if I leave and promptly cries. But she is a very good girl. We get lots and lots of big smiles and coos.

Cross-eyed.

Jack returned with us from my parents. He has been incredibly well-behaved, with the exception of escaping the other day and being gone for a few hours before we got a call that he was found two streets over. Tony loves having him here. Jack is very patient with Tony, and hasn't bothered Evie at all. He's sniffed at her in her bouncy chair a couple of times, but for the most part is completely uninterested.

Tony is growing like a weed. He talks all the time, and wants to know what we are talking about. At dinner, if Zach and I have a pause in our conversation, Tony will say, "Whatcha talking about?" (Complete with hand motions, which kills me. When I get off of the phone, I get interrogated, "Talking to Grandma? Talking about squash?" It's adorable and crazy. The other day I was telling Zach something, and part of a conversation I repeated included "Shut up." In the car on the way home, Evie started crying and Tony said, "Shut up, Evie. Shut up." I felt awful - he was playing in the grass while I was talking to Zach, so I didn't think he heard, and I certainly didn't think he would understand the context. Thankfully, that was a one time thing. He's back to his sweet big brother self - "It's okay, Evie. Mommy is coming. We are almost there."

Life is such a blessing. Bringing children into the world is a blessing. Some days are hard, no doubt about it, but most days are good.

The statue inside of the Capelhina.

 In case anyone else's pastor didn't find it worth mentioning, today is the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. A few years ago I had the great fortune to visit Fatima. It was amazing. I would love to go back to Portugal some day and spend more time at the Basilica.

Love,

Jess

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~  

Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Our last hurrah before Zach started classes again: a trip to Watkins Glen State Park. We hiked the Gorge Trail, and it was beautiful! The weather was perfect, and all of us had a wonderful time.

 Tony hiked the whole trail on his own legs! We've never done anything like that with him, and I was rather surprised that he made it a mile and a half, climbing hundreds of steps on the way up.

 

 In the van we listened to the new Keith Urban CD, which was lots of fun (I was already in love with Little Bit of Everything, but Raise 'Em Up has become a favorite, too...I love the line about having children.). The last album came out the day after we found out I was pregnant with Tony, and Zach gave it to me. I wasn't much of a KU fan before I met Zach. I liked what I heard on the radio, but that was where it ended. Right before we got engaged, Zach emailed me the lyrics to Making Memories of Us. He said that it was a very special song to him, and he had been waiting to share it with the right girl. It ended up being our first dance song. Now, Keith Urban's music is special to me because of my husband. Twice we have tried to go to a KU concert....the first time was the day after my 30 hour trial run labor with Tony, and I was afraid that I would go into labor 3 hours from home, so I stayed home and he took his Mom. This year he was playing just 45 minutes from our house, but the concert was August 9th, and I was afraid I would have a new baby or would be in labor. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy lawn tickets that afternoon and gone. My Mom told me I should, but I weakly protested saying it might rain. Always listen to your Mother.

 3 weeks post-partum. It felt so good to get outside and exercise! I'm not much of an exerciser (I tried to be one of those cool loves-the-gym-wears-awesome-workout-clothes kind of people, and failed), but I do like a good walk. A good baby carrier is absolutely indispensable for any kind of excursion outdoors! Evie slept the whole time, and I was really comfortable. The only drawback to such a small baby in the Ergobaby is that you can't nurse. I made a ring sling last week to use when I'm shopping so that I can feed her on the go. I've even been using it around the house to get things done when she wants to sleep, but doesn't want to be put down.

 

 

This reminded me of a scene from The Last of the Mohicans (which I love, even though it completely deviated from the book...if the book was good enough to base a film off of, why change the story?). Totally made me wish I lived back in the day with my Cherokee ancestors.

Have a lovely weekend and don't forget to celebrate Hobbit Day on Sunday!