I love hummus. It is my favorite snack. Give me some carrots and hummus and I’m a happy girl. Husband has struggled with most kinds of hummus flaring up his acid reflux, but this one doesn’t! And Baby Ethan loves it too. I gave him a taste one day of the roasted red pepper version and he proceeded to go crazy for it and eat most of what was on my plate.

Caleb won’t touch it. Which is par for the course with Mister Pickypants.

I got this recipe from my darling friend Maryellen. Who went and moved to Florida on me. And I miss her terribly. But her hummus lives on!

Here ya go:

3 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I prefer the no salt added variety)

4 cloves garlic

1/3 cup tahini (sesame seed paste – you can usually find it near the peanut butter in stores)

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional: A sprinkle of paprika and/or cumin

Olive oil

That’s it!

Place the garbanzo beans in the food processor and pulse a few times to break them up. I know some recipes call for the blender but trust me, the food ‘pro is so much easier. Pulse until they’re broken down a bit. Start blending and slowly add the tahini and lemon juice. And then let ‘er rip. Add the garlic and salt at intervals. I like my hummus pretty creamy so I let it spin for several minutes. Add small amounts of water or reserved juice from the canned beans as needed. Remove to storage container of choice and add a drizzle of olive oil on top.

And voila!

This recipe makes a pretty large amount. It’s perfect for parties alongside a veggie tray or pita chips, and will keep in the refrigerator for…eh…about a week. Though it never lasts that long in our house.

Variation: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (trust me on this, makes cleanup easier!). Lay three red bell peppers on their sides on the baking sheet and place under a hot broiler, close to the heat but not too close. Keep an eye on the peppers, and when the skin on the side facing the boiler is well blackened, turn the peppers with tongs and keep roasting. Keep going until the peppers are thoroughly blackened on all sides. Remove from the oven and place peppers in a glass bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let them sit for a while to cool AND to steam so the skin peels off easily. Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and clean out the core and seeds. Add the peppers to the food processor while making the hummus.

Hummus ‘n Veggie Sandwich

I’m an unapologetic carnivore, but I also enjoy a lot of vegetarian/vegan meals. I made this for lunch with my most recent batch of hummus and some of my homemade bread. Delicious and satisfying!

Spread a good amount of hummus on both slices of bread. Add lettuce, sliced tomatoes, peppers, whatever veggies fit your fancy!

I had to take Ethan to the ER last night for a sudden, violent attack of croup. While he dozed on my chest as I held a cool-mist treatment near his face, I flipped through the channels on the television hanging from the ceiling in our room.

And oh my goodness. I do not miss having cable.

When we made the decision a couple of years ago to discontinue our satellite service, I was anxious. How was I going to live without a hundred some-odd channels to choose from??? Without a DVR??? OMG I was going to waste away from boredome!!!

Obviously I’m still here so there was no wasting away.

We have an antenna that gets the networks in high-def, streaming Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime (which we get at a deep discount because of Husband’s student status). We pay half what we would for the cheapest cable or satellite package available. And we are content.

In the past few years, cable has evolved dramatically. There is so much TRASH. Everyone and their mother has a “reality” show and they’re just awful. First of all, there is no reality in reality television. It is all produced and yes, even scripted to give a certain impression or get a certain outcome. And don’t even get me started on the behavior displayed on these shows. I wanted to throw a party when “Jersey Shore” finally got cancelled.

Last night I happened upon TLC in the channel lineup at the hospital and it made me a little sick. The channel whose name stands for “The Learning Channel” has become “The Trashy Reality Show Channel”. My favorite show in the world, “What Not to Wear”, was the last thing left worth watching on TLC, and its run is ending this summer. Sad. But this is the evolution of so many cable channels. A&E, The History Channel, Discovery…all of them have strayed from their roots and have more reality programming than anything else. I used to love these channels but even when we still had them, I watched them less and less because there was nothing of substance on them. It was just watching has-been celebrities and wannabe celebrities do…what? Eat lunch? Get more plastic surgery? Go to the beach? Guzzle wine and scream profanities and throw tables at each other?

It’s just plain not life-giving. And we made a decision to focus on letting life-giving things into our home. I may sound judgmental to some ears but y’know what, I don’t care. There is much more peace in our home since we kicked the satellite. My husband and I spend more time together since we watch less television. I get more done around the house during the day. I *gasp!* have time to read books occasionally! The online services we utilize more than adequately meet our desires when it comes to the handful of shows we do watch, and when it comes to our children, we have more control over what they watch AND we don’t have to deal with the ridiculous onslaught of advertising on the children’s channels.

So I don’t miss cable. I never will. I have no desire to ever have it again. There are so many more good things in life that don’t come with a massive monthly bill.

I like to do a post around Mother’s Day about being…well, being a mom. I spend this time of year reflecting on what motherhood has taught me as my children grow and change.

This year I went from being a mom of one, to a mom of two. And it was HARD. Well, okay, not all of it was hard. Some of it was easier than expected. Ethan was an easy baby in areas Caleb was not. And since we’d done the newborn thing before, we were much more relaxed about the whole thing.

The hard part was Caleb getting adjusted to the world not revolving around him any more. There were times he would just stand in front of me while I was nursing the baby, holding his Blanky, wailing at the top of his lungs, because he suddenly decided he needed to sit on my lap RIGHT NOW. And his two-year-old molars started coming in so he cried all the time. It wore my nerves down to nothing. Add in the sleep deprivation, breasts whose milk production would just not stabilize, and post-partum depression, and I was a mess. Once I got on antidepressants life got considerably better, though. And Ethan did eventually start sleeping through the night. Caleb began to see his little brother as a person, not just this weird creature who had taken over our lives, and interact with him.

So how has motherhood changed me this year?

I have become a lot less judgmental. Come on, girls, you know you do it too. It’s so hard not to. I believe it’s born out of our desire to feel like a good mom. And the easiest way to feel good about yourself is to be critical of others. My two boys are such different little individuals. I really truly realized I cannot take credit for a lot of things my children are. God made them certain ways, and my job is to learn how God programmed them and parent them accordingly. Not everything works with every child. So that mom you see whose child is throwing a fit in the middle of the grocery store and she looks like she’s about to completely lose it? Be careful before looking down your nose at her. You don’t know what kind of day she’s had. You don’t know if she’s tried every method known to man and still can’t get through a public outing without her child having a first-class meltdown. Because there are some kids who are just like that, and the best their mommies can do is just survive the difficult years. And they need sympathy, not dirty haughty looks.

I have learned to roll with the punches. Life rarely goes as planned with little kids. They’re unpredictable little creatures. And life is a lot happier when you roll with it. For example, our Mother’s Day in no way went as planned. Caleb had a horrible allergy attack and could not stop coughing, poor thing. So instead of going to church as a family, Husband stayed home with the boys and I went by myself. Instead of pouting about it I decided to revel in the fact that I got to have a little time to myself. It was wonderful. We were all supposed to go to my grandparents’ house in the afternoon but we didn’t want to risk having Caleb around my niece just in case he did have a virus, so just Ethan and I went. We missed having Daddy and Caleb there, but I enjoyed the long, relatively quiet drive with Ethan. And Ethan enjoyed having all the attention! Caleb was doing much better after his afternoon nap, so we decided to hit up Souper Salad for dinner and my in-laws were down in town so they met us there. So not the day we expected, but y’know what, it turned out way better than if I had spent it sulking over how it was “ruined”. I’ve really been trying to apply that philosophy to life in general. It just eliminates so much stress!

I have learned that a calm, quiet tone often goes a lot further than yelling. Oh, I still yell sometimes. It’s a hard habit to break. Am I right?

I have learned how critical it is to stay connected with my husband. Neither of us can stand feeling disconnected. It is so important to carve out time to connect with your spouse. And it’s good for your kids, too, to see their parents making each other a priority. Kids may act grossed out when you smooch in front of them, but deep down inside it gives them a sense of security. So don’t be afraid to be schmoopy and have date nights. They may pitch a fit when you leave but the universe doesn’t revolve around them and they’re going to have to learn that lesson sooner or later. I love my children but I love their Daddy too and I refuse to put my relationship with the man I married on the back burner.

I have learned to have way more grace for myself. I am not a perfect person, and therefore I am not ever going to be a perfect mother. I am going to make mistakes. I am going to look back when my kids are grown and see things I could have done differently. That’s reality. So when I mess up, instead of spiraling down into the depths of despair and thinking I’m going to screw my kids up for life, I pick myself up, dust myself off, apologize to my kids if I need to, and move on. Mommy messes up sometimes too, and Mommy has to say sorry just the same as they do.

Those are probably the biggest points of the past year. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an adorable three year old who wants some snuggles.

This was my Facebook status this afternoon:

“Okay. I have ground beef, some frozen broccoli and green beans, onions, quinoa, a box of spelt spaghetti, a couple of tomatoes (but no canned tomatoes), some zucchini that may or may not have gone bad (I don’t want to look!) garlic and various seasonings. I need to make dinner from all this. Go.”

My mom and one of my friends threw out some great ideas, and THIS is what I ended up with:

It was pretty tasty! So I thought I’d share the recipe. Here ya go:

1 package spaghetti

1 lb. ground beef

Salt ‘n pepper

Basil

Parsley

Red pepper flakes

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced

Olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 zucchini, cut into small cubes

1/2 a red bell pepper, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

3/4 to 1 cup beef broth

Get a large pot of water heating for the spaghetti.

In a large skillet, heat some olive oil and brown the ground beef, seasoning with salt ‘n pepper, basil, parsley, and red pepper flakes. Add the minced garlic when the beef is almost done. When the beef is cooked through, remove it from the skillet and set it aside. Drain any excess fat from the skillet, add a little olive oil if need be. This depends on how lean your beef is.

Add the onions to the skillet and saute until softened. Add the zucchini, bell pepper, and tomato. Cook for a minute or two. Add about 1/2 a cup of the beef broth to de-glaze the skillet. Let it come to a boil, reduce the heat a tad, and let it simmer. Add more seasonings if desired. Add the beef back in. Add additional splashes of broth as the mixture simmers and thickens.

The water should be boiling by now. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions. Drain spaghetti and place in a large mixing bowl. Dump the beef and veggie mixture over it and mix together immediately.

Serve topped with Parmesan or other Italian cheeses.

You could do this with many combinations – ground turkey or chicken, Italian sausage (which is what my mom does), and all kinds of veggies. I’d love to add mushrooms! Yum!

“Y’know,” I said to Husband last night, “if you’d be willing to swing by the store on your way home from work tomorrow and get some Canadian bacon and some pizza sauce, I could make a pizza with that pineapple I’ve had sitting in the kitchen for two weeks. It’s perfectly ripe.”

Husband’s head snapped around to look at me. There was a goofy grin on his face and his eyes twinkled. “Ooooooo! You know that’s my favorite pizza!”

I blanked. “Uh…it is?”

“Yeah!”

“Huh. I guess I never figured that out because…”

“…because I just kind of love pizza in general, huh?”

And we both laughed.

Six years married and I couldn’t have told you Canadian bacon and pineapple was his favorite pizza. I guess you never stop learning about your spouse!

I know, ya’ll are expecting cute cake-smashing first birthday pictures. I’ll get to that.

We’ve had a bit of a medical saga in our family recently. My niece – we’ll call her Boo-Girl here, since that’s her nickname – has had some health problems. She spent two weeks hospitalized in April while the doctors tried to solve the medical mystery going on in her little body. Turns out she has a genetic blood disorder that predisposes her to developing blood clots. She’s being closely monitored for the next several months to see where this thing goes and what long-term treatment is going to look like.

And now throw this into the mix: My older brother, her daddy, left last week for boot camp. He’s joining the Air Force. After boot camp he’s going to tech school. He’ll be gone for several months so my poor sister-in-law is temporarily a single parent.

Last night close to 11:00, my cell phone started ringing. I recognized my sister-in-law’s number and immediately answered with “What’s wrong?” Boo-Girl hadn’t been able to go to the bathroom all day and had started vomiting blood. My SIL needed to get her to the children’s hospital in the big city, which is about a two-hour drive from their house in the mountains, and needed help. She ended up calling 911 and asking if an ambulance would be able to take them. The answer was yes. Actually, they ended up riding in the Flight for Life helicopter! That was scary. My niece is so, so very precious to all of us. She was the very first grandbaby in our family and is currently the only girl. She’s our little princess.

Fast forward a few hours. Instead of going to the big city they went to a closer hospital. And it wasn’t anything serious – just a urinary tract infection – but it’s good they went in. With the medication she’s on Boo-Girl can’t receive certain treatments. She’ll be okay though. They just have to be extra-cautious with her.

So if you guys could be in prayer for my brother’s family, we’d sure appreciate it. For strength and perseverance for my brother in boot camp, for strength and encouragement for my SIL as she cares for their three kiddos on her own, and for Boo-Girl’s continued healing and safety.

My one-year-old Ethan!

He wasn’t quite in the mood to mug for the camera yet, but still cute.

So what happened after Costco, you ask?

We headed to the hospital around 11 that night. Contractions were not exactly the same amount of time apart but they were pretty intense so I KNEW I was in labor! I ended up asking for an epidural after an hour stuck at 7 1/2 centimeters. I felt no pain after the epi, but I felt everything else – when it was time to push, as the baby progressed down the birth canal, and finally as he was born. It was amazing! And there he was, my perfect little Ethan Gabriel.

And now he’s one.

And tomorrow…we party!

Well, I had grand party-prep plans for today and tomorrow, but yeah, life said no to that. All my men are sick. Ethan is still getting over the tummy bug – not quite himself yet. And Caleb came down with it yesterday afternoon. And Husband came down with it last night.

Yeah. I’m PRAYING I don’t get it. Someone in this house needs to be well. Plus I hate throwing up. With a deep passion. So far I’m doing okay, just tired from being up half the night with a sick three year old.

It’s not all bad, though. I was thinking this morning about what I was doing a year ago today. It was a Wednesday. Husband was off work, and I went to an OB appointment. I was three centimeters dilated and my doctor said he was predicting a baby by Friday! Eek! I was still a week from my due date but this baby wanted OUT.

We went to Costco to do a little grocery shopping and have an ice cream with Caleb. I’d been having some Braxton-Hicks contractions for a couple of weeks by then but nothing of note. But pushing the cart through Costco, I had to keep stopping. I wasn’t sure if I was having contractions, or if my body was just protesting at being upright. Baby had dropped so incredibly low, it was putting a lot of pressure on my pelvis and lower back. So I was relieved when we sat down to enjoy our treat.

Until I got hit with the strangest feeling. I was going to go into labor THAT DAY. I knew it. Deep in my bones, I knew it. I told Husband. He panicked. Well, not panicked, but it sure threw him into a flurry of activity! We had done hardly anything in preparation for the baby. While I sat on the couch waiting for contractions, Husband washed a couple loads of baby clothes and packed a hospital bag for us.

And…we waited.

I’ll tell you more tomorrow.

My precious Ethan Gabriel is turning one this Friday. And I am so not ready for it!!! In any way! I am not ready for him to not be a baby yet. He has been SUCH an amazing baby. So happy, so funny, so bursting with personality and energy. He crawls at lightening speed, pulls himself up to stand on anything stable, and you can see his little mind contemplating if he should try to take a step sometimes. Once he discovers that walking thing, oh boy, he’ll be sprinting before we know it!

He loves to eat. LOVES to eat. I’m trying to teach him some baby signs but he has his own sign language. When he’s hungry, he points at his mouth and licks his chops. When he’s thirsty, he smacks his lips and goes “Ahhhh!” as if he’s just taken a long drink. His favorite food in the world is bananas and when he sees one he’ll holler “Na-nana!” at the top of his lungs until we give it to him. He’s got the sippy cup thing down pat and I think is beginning to like it more than nursing. During the second half of the day he gets mad when we nurse and only does it for a few moments usually, and then goes *smack*”Ahhhhh!” to ask for his sippy cup. Maybe he’ll be a self-weaner. Which I have no problem with. Less work for Mommy!

We’re having his party this Saturday and yeah, I’m not ready for that either! Normally I have party battle-plans drawn up weeks before an event but this one has snuck up on me. I don’t particularly care that it’s perfect. As long as there are candles and cake and a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” – and no vomit like there was at his brother’s first birthday! – I will consider the party a success.

I love being a mom. Have I mentioned that recentlly? I love it. There are days I don’t like it very much – just like there are days anyone doesn’t like their job, even if it’s their dream job – but I will always always love it. I love my kids so much I just about explode out of my skin when I think about it. When Caleb was born three and a half years ago, there was such a swelling of love in my heart, I didn’t think it was possible for even more love to exist in my body. Then Ethan was born, and it happened again! Oh, we will never run out of room in our hearts for more love! It’s miraculous! My two little boys bring me so much joy every single day. Even on the most difficult days there are shining moments of pure joy. Because there ARE difficult days! I will never pretend motherhood is all skipping barefoot through fields of daisies under a double rainbow with a pet unicorn. It’s a demanding job. It doesn’t just demand 40 hours a week – it demands the rest of your life, your entire heart and soul. Every year that goes by, you realize more and more the weight of the responsibility of shepherding these little people until they grow up and go out into the world. And then….waaaaaaaaaaah! I don’t want to think about that! Because for now, my babies are still babies. Delightfully three-and-a-half and about-to-be-one. They’re not men yet. For right now, they’re still mine and I’m going to make the most of it. Yes, even on the difficult days.

Like this morning. When they both greeted me with extremely dirty diapers upon waking up. Not wonderful. Had to get through that to get to the cute stuff. Because they ARE cute.

My heart is full.

Yesterday I took a huge step of faith and attended inRL (via incourage). Leading up to it, I surprisingly wasn’t nervous or anxious. I was excited! I made some beautiful flower-shaped cookies to share, because I love blessing people with delicious things and I like making my cookies. It was a wonderful time of fellowship – getting to know all the ladies, sipping tea, talking about our families and lives and God, laughing, getting all teary-eyed, laughing some more, chatting until “Oh! I’d better get home, my husband is probably about to send out a search party!” I had SO MUCH FUN. I have felt welcome in so many places I’ve been, but I don’t know if I’ve ever felt SO welcome as I did yesterday. I came away so refreshed and so blessed. Kristen was such a gracious and fun host. If I let myself think too hard about meeting one of the incourage bloggers in person I’d get all nervous and fan-girly, but seriously, the moment you’re in Kristen’s presence all of that kind of fades away and you’re just with this super sweet, funny gal and enjoying being in her home and doing a little happy dance because she has Double Bergamot Earl Grey tea.

Oh, my day didn’t end there! My in-laws had come over for the morning to help Husband with the boys, since Husband isn’t supposed to lift more than like five pounds and our kids weigh 40 and 20, and when I got home they had already taken the boys with them, leaving Husband and I to enjoy the entire afternoon leading up to our anniversary date. It was such a treat! Due to illnesses and injuries, we haven’t been on a date in far too long and we have been desperately craving some time together. We changed clothes, climbed into my in-laws beautiful luxury car that they graciously lent us for the evening, got some Starbucks, and started a leisurely drive to Denver. We talked and talked and talked and talked the whole time. It was glorious. We stopped at the new Ikea and wandered around in sheer awe for a while. We’ve got some plans for our house in the next couple of months and will be utilizing that place!

After Ikea, we made our way to downtown Denver for a romantic dinner at La Fondue. We adore fondue – we try to go to a fondue restaurant at least once a year. The food was, of course, divine. The cheese fondue we chose had cheddar, bacon, and Fat Tire beer and was quite possibly our favorite cheese fondue we’ve ever had. Then there were salads, the main course, and dessert – S’mores Fondue that gets set on fire at your table so you can roast marshmallows over it! We were so stuffed we were practically waddling by the time we left. But it was worth it. Oh, so worth it.

Today my husband and I have been married for six years. Some days I still can’t quite believe I get to be married to this wonderful man. He is so thoughtful, so loving, so sweet, and so gosh darn good looking. I cannot imagine doing life with anybody but him, and I am beyond grateful God saved us for each other. I love you, baby, and I am looking forward to all the anniversaries to come.

So yeah. My heart? Full. Full to bursting.