Morning Musings

I am not a morning person.  Anyone who knows me well would say that there should be numerous exclamation points behind that statement as I really don't like mornings.  I have a hard time waking up and usually lie in bed until the last possible moment and then wake up kind of mad.  For years, as soon as I have managed to drag myself out of bed, I have headed immediately to the gym or outside to bike or run.  It took getting my exercise fix for me to wake up and be a reasonable person.
Enter Luke...We have been so lucky that he sleeps well.  He almost always sleeps through the night then wakes up between 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. to eat and then go back to sleep.  On the days I work, these early morning feedings are mine and for once in my life, I couldn't be happier about getting up early. When I leave for the day, I go to the gym and to work and am gone for a long time, so these morning feed are our special time together.  Luke is so cute, he usually wakes up just enough to eat and keeps his eyes closed, trying to stay asleep while he eats.  I snuggle him and tell him stories and we enjoy the morning silence.  Once he's been fed, changed and burped, it's time to wrap him back up and put him to bed.  He opens his eyes and gives me a smile before I leave which totally makes my day.
Last week after I left the house I just kept thinking about him, what a sweet baby he is, and how lucky I am to start my mornings with him.  I knew that having Luke would bring us a lot of joy but I think I underestimated how completely he would change my life.  I'm grateful for our mornings together and all of the other time that I get to spend hanging out with my boy.

Thanks Real Mom Kitchen

For quite some time I have followed Real Mom Kitchen, a food blog.  Her recipes tend to be the type of food I cook, but usually with a little more flair and flavor.  I made her stuffed pork chops today for dinner and they were amazing.  She has a great index where I have found several specific ideas and recipes.  Enjoy.

Stuffed Pork Chops

 Ingredients

• 4 -5 bone in pork chops (about 1½ lbs total weight)
• salt and pepper
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 4 cups sandwich bread, cut into ½ inch cubes
• ¼ tsp dried sage
• 2 Tbsp chopped onion
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1 (10 3.4 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
• ⅓ cup water
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Season pork chops with salt and pepper and place in a hot skillet coated with the 1 Tbsp canola oil. Cook pork chops just until both sides are brown on the outside.
3. Place pork chops in a 9 x 13 baking dish lined with foil.
4. In a bowl, toss the bread cubes with the sage. Then fold in the onion, butter, and ¼ cup water. Place a mound of the bread mixture on top of each pork chop.
5. In another bowl, combine the mushroom soup, ⅓ cup water, and soy sauce together. Pour mixture over stuffing/chops.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 1½ hours or until pork chops are tender.

Notes

This can be prepared ahead of time and baked later. Just prepare and place in the fridge. Remove from fridge 2 hours before baking and prepare as above.  

I added some broth to the bread crumb mixture to make it a little more moist. 

Zion National Park

For President's Day weekend, Tim and I decided to run away from the cold and smog of Utah County and wound up in St. George.  We came with no plans and a lot of free time.  One I took care of the required TJ Maxx shopping trip, the real fun could begin.  Tim has never been to Zion National Park and it has been a long time since I have.  The weather was perfect so off we went.  We had Luke's jogging stroller which worked great for the trail we decided to "hike", but next time we will bring a pack so that we can do some of the more challenging trails.  I am a Utah girl, spent my life in the state, and am still amazed by the beauty and grandeur that surrounds me.

Ten Months

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide to have your heart go walking around outside your body."  Elizabeth Stone

The ten month photo shoot was a little rough, we left out of town and are out of our element.  We finally made time today - when he was hungry and ready for a nap so I am happy we got the shots we did.  This boy continues to amaze me and has me completely obsessed, it's hard to imagine our life without him.  So here are the highlights of the month:

*He finally got his first tooth.  No fever, no fussing, just appeared one morning.  Sorry, no pics, he barely even lets us look.
*He's up to 23 pounds and has almost grown out of his infant car seat.  It will be sad to have him transition into a big kid seat.
*Started giving his mama kisses - talk about melt your heart - they are the perfect, baby, slobbery kind.
*Had his first ear infection - definitely a low light but the sweet boy still slept through the night and was even a little snuggly.
*Has turned into a total flirt - when we are in public he spends most of his time trying to catch the eye of whoever is near so that he can smile and laugh and generally entertain anyone in sight.  We get so many comments on how cute and funny he is.  Definitely a ham!
*The perfect boy does have a flaw, he has started to throw fits - he definitely has a mind of his own and when he doesn't get what he wants, he is quick to let us know.
*He is totally obsessed with my phone, see above, some of his best fits are when I take the phone away.
*Not too interested in crawling, he will get up on all fours and rock, and does a lot of downward dog, but mostly he can roll wherever he wants.
*This boy loves his daddy - when I get him up in the morning the first thing he does is look for Tim and needs a hello from him before we can go on with his day.  They are total partners and there couldn't be anything more sweet to watch than my two best boys together.

Beauty

Luke - Valentines

I really can't say enough about how amazing Jami is.  We had the most fun at this shoot and I absolutely love how the photos turned out.  He is becoming a total ham and I love that she caught so much of his personality.

Caleb's Crossing

One of the very best parts about our little vacation was the chance to read, uninterrupted.  I started this book on the plane ride there and finished it about 1/2 hour before we landed at home.  I ordered this book a month or two ago and have been so anxious for a chance to read it.  One of my top 10 favorite books of all time is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks and when I read the synopsis of this book I knew I had to have it.  Brooks generally weaves fiction with history and has very strong characters.  I was captivated by this book from the very beginning, it lived up to all my expectations.

Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2011: When Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks came to live on Martha's Vineyard in 2006, she ran across a map by the island's native Wampanoag people that marked the birthplace of Caleb, first Native American to graduate of Harvard College--in 1665. Her curiosity piqued, she unearthed and fleshed out his thin history, immersing herself in the records of his tribe, of the white families that settled the island in the 1640s, and 17th-century Harvard. In Caleb's Crossing, Brooks offers a compelling answer to the riddle of how--in an era that considered him an intellectually impaired savage--he left the island to compete with the sons of the Puritanical elite. She relates his story through the impassioned voice of the daughter of the island's Calvinist minister, a brilliant young woman who aches for the education her father wastes on her dull brother. Bethia Mayfield meets Caleb at twelve, and their mutual affinity for nature and knowledge evolves into a clandestine, lifelong bond. Bethia's father soon realizes Caleb's genius for letters and prepares him for study at Harvard, while Bethia travels to Cambridge under much less auspicious circumstances. This window on early academia fascinates, but the book breathes most thrillingly in the island's salt-stung air, and in the end, its questions of the power and cost of knowledge resound most profoundly not in Harvard's halls, but in the fire of a Wampanoag medicine man. --Mari Malcolm --

I really liked everything about this book.  The historical part of it was fascinating...although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have survived as a puritan in early New England.  The characters were based on actual historical figures as well as composites, but they felt completely real.  I felt like the paths Bethia and Caleb both took were believable and I found myself really rooting for both of them.  I usually care more about the story than the language, but there were some lines that were so beautiful, even I was impressed.  A few of my favorites:

"This I do know, for the surfeit of loss in my life has convinced me it will be easier to be grieved for than to grieve"

"I burned to know what he would know when he entered that spirit world.  I recalled too well, the alien power I had felt that long ago day and night on the cliffs.  I have said that I would write only the truth here, and the truth is this: I, Bethia Mayfield, envied this salvage his idolatrous adventure."

"They seemed to run entirely wild, with no check or correction.....I remarked on this to father.  he nodded.  They are, as you say, remarkably indulgent.  I have remonstrated with them on the matter, asking them why they do not correct their children.  But they say that since adult life is full of hardship, childhood should e free of it.  It is a kindly view, even if misguided."

"Caleb was a hero, there is no doubt of it.  He ventured forth from one world to another with an explorer's courage, armored by the hope that he could serve his people.  He stood shoulder to shoulder with the most learned of his day, ready to take his place with them as a man of affairs.  he won the respect of those who had been swiftest to dismiss him."

While I was reading this book I was listening to another book, Her Mother's Hope, which I will review later.  They both had the common thread of girls who desperately wanted to learn and progress but were denied formal education.  As much I understand the historical context, and know that it even goes on today in some cultures, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of being denied an education because of my gender.  I have been blessed with the opportunities to really learn and explore anything I wanted, as well as encouragement to do so.  I am far removed from my college days and formal education but I am really feeling a responsibility to take advantage of the other learning opportunities that are around me. It's seems wasteful not too when so many girls didn't ever have the chance.  I'm not sure what I will do to fulfill my need to learn, but it is definitely something I want to explore. 

Since I finished reading it, I haven't been able to get Caleb's Crossing out of my mind, the mark of a really great book.  Definitely deserves an A