Just another week

Not much happening here, just your average middle of the winter (wait, last quarter of the winter) week. No exciting ups, no devastating downs. Even the passing of Mark's grandpa feels oddly peaceful. Maybe because we've been praying for him the night before to finally make that transition so he could be relieved of pain and sickness his body had been afflicted with for quite some time. Maybe it's the visit that we paid to Mark's now widowed grandmother, who chatted with us in a reassuring kind of way, trying to think of all the people her husband was shaking hands with on that beautiful Sunday morning.

I wish I could write a lengthy post about Mark's grandfather and what a good man he was. But I'm afraid my knowledge of him, or rather that fraction of what I know about him, won't do him justice. So without attempting to write something I don't feel I'm qualified to write about, I'll do what (I think) I do best, share a photo. It was taken this past June, when Ivy was just a mere week or two old. Grandpa Keith was feeling very sick at that time, with cancer spread throughout his body. We didn't think he would make it through June, so Mark and I decided to visit him to make sure he would get a chance to see his new great-granddaughter at least once.



and here's Ivy on Sunday morning, stopping at grandma's house after visiting her great-grandma.


edited: just as I hoped, Lisa (my sister-in-law, or just 'sister') wrote a beautiful post about grandpa Keith here. She did it. Told the story the way I couldn't...

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As I already said, we had a good week. Not 'perfect' good, but more of a 'normal life' good. Perfection is just so out of reach these days, if I keep waiting for a perfect week to happen, I might set myself for a year full of disappointment. So instead, 'good' is my new 'perfect'.



I experimented yet again with red lentil soup which turned out GOOD (ok, nearly perfect). Such a quick and flexible recipe. I won't even write it in traditional recipe style, just share quick directions. You'll just have to mix and match :)

For the 4 people in our family that will eat this soup (Ivy included!), I use 3 cups of red lentils. Wash and rinse them well, several times, until water runs clear. Start with sauteing 1/2 an onion with some minced garlic and/or ginger in EV olive oil. Then add some turmeric (1-2 t) and any of the following spices - coriander, cumin or cinnamon. Peel 3-4 small yams, sweet potatoes or carrots, cube and add to onion and spice mixture. Add the washed lentils, 1 can of coconut milk and 5-7 cups of water and let it all cook together until lentils and vegetables are tender. Some sauteed onions added to individual bowls of soup are a fantastic touch for this dish :)



It doesn't happen very often that all 3 older kids can play together without fighting for more than 10 minutes (which is why I started this post in the morning, and I'm still working on it at 4 p.m.). But when it does happen, you can be sure they came up with something different. Yesterday they all came upstairs dressed in... well, dresses. I was secretly thrilled to see that Elijah hasn't succumbed to gender stereotypes yet.



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I know my post wouldn't be complete without a knitting-related blurb.

:: the skeins are being wound ::

:: future projects are waiting to be cast on ::

:: new projects are being started ::

:: and old projects are moving along nicely ::

life is good.