Our Cat May Be Norwegian

Every list of blogging tips says you’ve got to be consistent. Some suggest you need to post at least once a week. Let’s see, when did we last post? FAIL. It’s called buy-a-house, move, and sell-a-house, all in a matter of two months. I know, that’s no excuse in the blogger world, but we’re just glad to have Internet service and some semblance of order in our lives at this point.

Brent and I aren’t the only ones adjusting to the move. All along we were concerned how the cat might react. She’s not big on change, except when she occasionally decides to get finicky about her Turkey Giblet cuisine. But she’s done remarkably well with just a few hiccups along the way.

First off, she decided that jumping upon and dancing around on a narrow ledge with a 12-foot drop was a fun idea in the new house. Argh! She’s not the youngest kitty anymore and a fall would surely lead to her demise. Our solution? Jommi is the proud owner of a luxurious new kitty condo, the first piece of furniture we’ve purchased together! Our hope has been that it would satisfy her need for heights. That’s yet to be seen.

Along with the move, Miss Jommi also decided she no longer was interested in our method of delivering her daily pills. Not cool since her health depends on these pills. But our veterinarian is a genius. We were skeptical, but his suggestion worked like a charm and we’d have never guessed this one.

Twice a day, we roll her little pills up in a small chunk of Gjetost. If you’re not familiar with this (as we were not), it’s Norwegian cheese. Yes, our cat is getting imported cheese on a daily basis. And let me tell you, “She LOVES the stuff.” She knows precisely when it’s Gjetost time and the meowing is non-stop until she gobbles down the scrumptious little cheese balls. Do you suppose she may be Norwegian? Oh, and yes, we tested it out ourselves. It’s a creamy cheese that has a lovely little hint of caramel flavor to it. I’m sure it would go beautifully with a nice Chianti.

If you have a pet, can you relate or do kitty condos and imported cheese put us in that crazy pet owner’s category?

P.S. If you are into cat humor, Brent found this video today that absolutely cracked me up!

Inviting God Into the House Move Process

Well, we did it! We’re moved. And what an exciting ride so far. We apologize for the lack of posts for the last month. There certainly was enough fodder for good laughs and learnings, but for the last 3 1/2 weeks we were in the “packing, moving and staging zone.”

Lisa created a plan to pack and label boxes by room with a color coded sticker. On the back end of moving, that has really helped us organize the unpacking effort. But in the end, there were so many boxes that keeping track of where stuff was became impossible. I don’t know if it’s even possible to ever keep track of everything. But all things are possible with God. The really important stuff was moved last. Meaning, the stuff we rely on and use everyday: computers, TV, modems, wi-fi, prescriptions, keys, etc. And of course the cat was the last to get captured and put in the kitty carrier. Those are an eclectic mix of items, so we had to specially mark those boxes so we could find them easily when we arrived at the new house. The cat has been “freaked out” since the first box of stuff was sealed with tape. I think she was afraid she would be left behind as she witnessed all the items disappear into the garage before the move.

But the one critical element to this process has been God. We’ve been praying for 3 years about where we should live. We’ve been separated from our church by 40 miles since getting married which made it difficult to be actively involved there. Our prayer was that we’d be closer to church and manage a shorter commute to work at the same time. He accomplished both!

One of the reasons we signed the purchase agreement on our anniversary was due to hearing from God through the neighbor. While we were walking through the house for the second time, the neighbor walked past the window a couple times as he was cleaning up some items from the deck in the back. We’d begun that day like all others, by praying in the car as we set off on the commute together. We knew we were going to go back and look at the house for the second time after work, but we asked for confirmation that the house was the right place to be. We asked God to be part of the decision making process and asked for a clear message from him that it was the right decision to put money down.

When I noticed the neighbor, I went outside and began talking to him. Within minutes he was asking where I and Lisa worked. When he found out that Lisa worked for our church he inquired which church. Then he smiled and asked if we knew specific people and the names he mentioned were people we know (there are over 2,500 in the congregation, so it isn’t a given that we know them all.) He mentioned that he and his wife had attended the Christmas service at our church in December!

Then he looked at me and said, “My wife and I have been praying that fellow believers would move in next door.” And he talked about how exciting it would be for them if we were to consider moving next door. I couldn’t believe that he said that. I’d only just met the man. I didn’t tell him about our prayers, he had no idea what we’d been praying for. I asked him to repeat what he said to make sure I heard him correctly. Then he invited us to come over so we could see how he and his wife had decorated their place and give us a tour. No kidding!

So we went over and got the tour and met his wife. I must’ve had a strange look on my face when I came back inside after first meeting him. Lisa and our realtor asked me what happened. I was just staring into space and said they wouldn’t believe me. I told them the story and Lisa looked at me knowingly and smiled. They sent us encouraging text messages over the last month, sharing their prayers with us and reminding us how excited they were that we were going to move in.

It was so cool how God is involved in the intimate details of our move. There are more stories about how He showed up. I’ll save them for another post!

 

Great Food for Crazy Times.

It feels like we’ve been going non-stop for about a week straight. Maybe because we have. It’s one of those beyond-busy-seasons of life for us right now. And it’s exactly those times that it’s often easy to rationalize grabbing some fast food and falling off the healthy eating train. Our track record isn’t perfect, but we’re trying to cook more than a couple healthy meals each week.

I find the key is to pick a few relatively easy recipes that don’t call for a lot of ingredients. And if you don’t mind being repetitive, go ahead and make them every week for a while to get you through the crazy times. Repetition means you don’t have to think so much. When there’s so many other details to keep straight, that’s huge.

Over the past three or more weeks, this is one of those recipes for us. It’s easy and we love it. A good friend got the recipe from her doctor and shared it with us. We’re not sick of it yet.

Sausage with Wilted Spinach  & Fennel
Ingredients
1 lbs. ground sausage
2 T almond oil
1 bulb fresh fennel, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 chicken broth
1 bag baby spinach

Directions
1. Put the sausage on a lipped baking sheet (in small chunks).
2. Place the baking sheet into oven, set to broil.
3. In a large frying/sauté pan heat oil on medium high.
4. Add garlic and fennel. Cook for 4 minutes.
5. Turn sausage to finish cooking in the broiler.
6. Add broth and spinach to pan. Stir until spinach wilts.
7. Spoon spinach mixture onto plate and top with spinach.

The recipe didn’t call for it, but we’ve also served it on quinoa.

Buying a House On Your Anniversary

We interrupt this blog for an important announcement: Lisa and I are moving. We’ve been on a whirlwind adventure since our last post in mid January. Several

We signed a purchase agreement on our anniversary!

times I’ve wanted to sit down and just jot a few lines here. I find it difficult to throw a few lines together and post them because I feel like the post should be more than just an online diary. In other words, I like to try to bring you my thoughts after I’ve had a chance to think about it and offer you, dear reader, something more valuable than “what’s happening now.” In the comments let me know if you disagree. Especially valued are the thoughts from fellow bloggers who have thought about this before. I’d love to know how you keep fresh, relevant and new insights going in the midst of limited time to really think about it. If I get enough responses I can try and post shorter, more frequent updates about what’s going on.

Lisa and I have been preparing for a move for over a year. We’ve been praying and waiting on the Lord to let us know where that should be. Recently my employer announced they would be moving a huge number of workers to a second headquarters location that is not in downtown Minneapolis. I am included in that move. The good news is that they are letting us know about this move 2 years in advance. That’s pretty fair in today’s world. Why does it matter?

It matters because it helped us narrow down where within the Twin Cities we wanted to focus on for a move. We were open to moving to either side of the river (which is another topic for a future post.) With the announcement it helped us focus on the north and western suburbs of Minneapolis. We spent a couple

Bike paths with key locations important to us marked in orange

weeks with a map of bike paths in Minneapolis and all associated suburbs. We marked the items we thought were important to us for shopping: SuperTarget, WholeFoods, a Co-op and Costco. We wanted to find a place that supported our enjoyment of cooking (hence all the supermarkets) with easy access to the fabulous system of bike paths. Our current location is great for both. And we felt the new location needed to continue to serve those those requirements.

The bottom line is we had only looked at 2 or 3 locations when we found a spot last Sunday that really spoke to us. Some might say it was an accident, but we think it was divinely directed (more on that story next time.) We were offered incentives to close before the end of February. We went home to think about it and on Tuesday we went back with our realtor to look at it again. That’s when God made it clear we were in the right place at the right time. I’ll leave that as a teaser for the next post. Suffice it to say we found ourselves signing a purchase agreement on Tuesday night – which just happened to be our anniversary. So it made for an exciting evening.

More to come….

Shorten Your Morning Routine

When I first tell people where I live, the reaction is the same. Eyebrows raise and then furrow, “Isn’t that a long way from work?” Yep, it’s quite a commute, particularly when winter weather shows up. So, the goal is to leave the house in time to miss as much traffic as possible. That means the alarm goes off before 5:00 a.m. And that means anything that can reduce the morning routine is a good idea.

My latest idea is to cut down breakfast time. I came across this recipe on Pinterest. (Now, there’s a whole other blog post!). I whipped up a batch tonight and we tested one out. These will make a quick and tasty breakfast tomorrow morning. I’ll freeze the rest to be ready to go whenever we’re in a hurry. I imagine these egg muffins would be great for kids getting ready for school too.

What do you do to help your morning routine? Someday we’ll shorten the commute time, but in the meantime, it’s egg muffins!

Broccoli and Italian Sausage Egg Muffins
Ingredients
1 pound Italian sausage (sweet, mild, hot variety depending on your preference)
( I added several about 1 tsp. of dried fennel to the sausage mixture.)
1 cup broccoli florets
8 large eggs
1/4 cup milk (or half and half depending on how you’re feeling that day)
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp baking powder
Salt & pepper to taste
Freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional as needed)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Italian sausage for about 5 minutes or until the sausage is no longer pink. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly spray a 12-cupcake pan with oil. Spoon out the sausage and broccoli mixture evenly into each cupcake.
5. Ladle the egg mixture over sausage and broccoli.
6. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. (I didn’t add this.)
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Originally posted on “Snacking in the Kitchen.”

Facebook’s new Timeline

Have you designed your personal Timeline in Facebook yet?

Facebook's Timeline heading. The timeiine runs underneath the new profile.

If not, you will soon, the feature goes live on January 21st. In short, it transforms your personal homepage profile into a running timeline of events that tells your life story. Facebook already knows when you’ve added content from the time you created a Facebook account, so that content is easily prearranged for you. Plus, if you’ve provided enough personal information, they know when you were born, where you went to school and where you worked and when, etc. They leave you space to fill out significant events beginning with your first birthday. There’s a yearly slider on the right side of the screen and you can slide the handle up or down to jump from one set of events to the next. You can add as much as you’d like to your personal timeline that fills in the gaps. Once you begin, Facebook gives you 7 days to publish it so you have time to customize your profile page and only you can see it until then. Only the people who you originally allowed to see a post will be able to view it.

This concept isn’t new, online genealogical software sites like Geni.com have been presenting personal homepages and profiles like this for awhile now. What’s new is integrating it with the rest of the widgets and app’s available within Facebook’s social network. Your wall becomes a living timeline of events that will (presumably) make it easier to influence your friends’ choices and decisions (or the general public depending on your security settings.) This is done by creating a new class of social Apps. For example, if your friends use the same social apps as you do, and you use those app’s to share what you’re watching, listening to and reading, then your friends will be able to more easily get a sneak preview into those same things, e.g. listening to the same song or watching the same video.

I haven’t decided what I think of this change yet as I literally began messing with the options while typing this post. If you’ve been designing your new Facebook Timeline or have already published it, please comment as we’d like to hear what you have to say!

Bouillabaisse Me!

This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is–
A sort of soup, or broth, or brew,
Or hotchpotch of all sorts of fishes,
That Greenwich never could outdo;

(Lines from: The Ballad of Bouillabaisse by William Makepeace Thackery)

Adding the Claw!

Our 2nd annual New Year’s bouillabaisse party was a success. Last year we introduced you to our recipe and posted it here. This year we prepped ahead and ordered most of the seafood a week ago and picked it up fresh from Byerly’s on New Year’s morning at 8am. I didn’t have walleye this year (too bad), so instead we substituted a white fish that I’ve recently noticed at the market called swai. I was curious about this fish so I did a little investigating.

What is swai? It’s a very mild, flaky, inexpensive white fish eaten throughout Southeast Asia. The texture of the meat and the skin of the fish is like a catfish, and

Setting the table!

thus it’s often called an Asian catfish, but it’s not. It’s usually sold in long fillets that can be broiled, baked or breaded. Ask your butcher or read the label on the package to confirm the origin. It should say “Vietnam or Mekong Delta” vs “Mississippi Delta.” If you Google “What is swai,” you’ll see plenty of posts that describe this white fish.

All in all it was fine to include swai, but next time I think I might try some fresh flounder instead. Experimenting is part of the fun. The other changes I brought to this year’s recipe were fresh shrimp, fresh snow crab and fresh cod. Instead of using frozen, I wanted to see how this might change the character of the bouillabaisse. I was pleased with the results.

I was pleased because the fresh fish cooked better and looked terrific. We invited 2 friends over to enjoy the meal with us. We began prepping the base 3 hours before the guests arrived and then as they came through the door, we were ready to begin the process of adding the fish. Part of the process is to add the shrimp, white fish and shell fish in separate groups bringing the broth up to a slow boil and back to a simmer each time. So the guests can hang out with you in the kitchen and watch the magic happen. Once the seafood starts going in, it takes less than 30 minutes to complete the process. The bread can bake and the bouillabaisse can simmer until everyone is ready to sit down. Did you try a new recipe over the long New Year’s weekend or have a suggestion we could try for the next batch of this delicious fish soup? Please comment as we’d love to hear!

Reminders of Childhood

I’ve taken quite a few weeks off from writing as Lisa and I celebrated Advent and Christmas. Both Lisa and I also took this week off from our jobs to relax and do a  few house projects and catch up on sleep. Especially important as I fend off a nasty cold, but I digress. As the New Year holiday looms on the horizon of the last weekend in 2011, I find myself sitting at the breakfast table enjoying a hot cup of Earl Grey and skimming through news articles that have nothing to do with politics, finances, or business – those stories are there, but they raise my blood pressure, so I’m ignoring them. I found myself reading the entertainment section as I’m also ignoring the local sports scene. I’m on “stay-cation”, so I opted for an innocuous journey into the land of “what’s happening now” in Hollywood.

One story leaped from the screen because it awakened old memories of my childhood. As a child, on Saturday mornings my sister and I would often sit together on the couch and watch Saturday morning cartoons and often we’d watch an old black and white movie. The movies were usually the 3 Stooges, Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy and Tarzan.

I recall my mom and dad telling us about the actors including Johnny Weismuller who appeared as Tarzan a dozen times. I wonder if there’s a biography on him? Check out the link to his Wiki page, he led a fascinating life. And Maureen O’Sullivan who played Jane – she’s the mother of Mia Farrow if that helps you – the only reason I know that is because Mia was married to Frank Sinatra at one point. Anyway, it was a reference to Tarzan that caused me to click on this People article on the death of Cheetah, Tarzan’s chimpanzee sidekick.

You can donate to the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Cheetah's memory for the benefit of other primates

Of course there were several chimpanzees that were used to make the films, but Cheeta-Mike was one that lived on Johnny Weismuller’s estate in the early-sixties before finding a home at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Florida. They’ve set up a FaceBook photo album for him as they collect donations for the sanctuary. I assume they won’t mind if I use their photo of him as long as I provide proper acknowledgement and a link to their page. If they contact me to take it down, I will.

I can still recall the scenes where Tarzan is in trouble and somehow Cheetah is able to rally dozens of animals to come charging through the brush to rescue Tarzan so that Tarzan could rescue Jane. When he wasn’t doing that, he was providing some comic relief.

I’m still entertained by those old black and white movies with simple story lines, do you have a favorite that takes you back to your childhood? Comment and tell us which old movies are your fav’s as we’d love to hear!

Inspired by Van Gogh and Botticelli

Last Friday, Brent and I spent the evening with paintbrushes in hand. No, not another home project. This time it was Van Gogh and Botticelli!

One of my birthday gifts to Brent was a trip to the “Simply Jane” studio in Minneapolis. I discovered the offer through “Trubates” which meant 50% off the usual $40 fee for Jane’s “Paint the Greats” event. This gave us three hours of painting masterpiece-inspired work, including all materials and instruction. It was inspiring, relaxing and lots of fun.

“Painting the Greats” might sound a little intimidating, but Jane does a great job of making art accessible to every level of student. When you arrive, the canvases are already prepared with a sketch of a well-known work of art. That means you get to bypass one of the most challenging parts of painting: drawing! From there, she provides all the supplies needed as you fill in the sketch and she teaches tips on highlighting and texturizing.

We may not have come away with masterpieces, but after many years of not picking up a paintbrush, this was the perfect way to step back up to a canvas.

One of the many things that Brent and I share is a love for the arts. Years ago, he picked up a pencil and started sketching and then he signed up for painting classes. His work shows that a formal arts education isn’t necessary to produce beauty on a canvas. He captured wonderful scenes from his years in the Peace Corp that are hanging in our home today.

I focused on Graphic Design as an art major before graduating in Journalism. I loved being able to experiment and learn about everything from drawing, three-dimensional design, lettering, photography, art metals to print production and more. Today I’m thankful my job provides opportunities for creativity almost on a daily basis.

But, for both of us, it’s been years since we’ve actively pursued something like painting. “Paint the Greats” reminded us how much we love it. As we ended the evening, Brent commented that he couldn’t remember the last time he felt that relaxed. We realized we really needed to prioritize opportunities for creativity for that reason if none other. So we walked away a little more relaxed and dreaming about possibly having an art studio in our home one day.

Whether you have some latent artsi-ness you want to re-visit or you just want to have fun with friends, we highly recommend Jane’s studio.

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What do you do to inspire creativity? Let us know in the comments below.
I haven’t read it yet, but this looks like a great resource for artists. I’ll give you an update when I get to read it!

• “You Need to Read the War of Art” by Jeff Goins

Lessons from the Laundromat

Commercial-grade washer

Before this week, I can’t remember the last time I stepped into a Laundromat. I have a vague recollection of waiting in one for what seemed like an eternity with my mom when I was young. If memory serves me at all, I think we were on vacation. Can there be a worse spot for a kid on vacation, let alone on my day off this week?

I was dragging my feet that morning, wavering on the question, “Should I go to the Laundromat or not?” Our new wash machine wasn’t due for another 10 days and we had a pile (a VERY large pile) of wet towels. My mother-in-law is kind enough to let us use her appliances in the meantime, but those towels were getting rather nasty. When the flood of water came rushing across my feet while doing laundry earlier in the  week, every towel within grasp went on the floor to mop it up.

I had many other things I preferred doing that morning than sitting in a dirty, crowded Laundromat for hours. Besides, I had no idea where one was located or exactly how they worked these days. (Brent reminded me later that I should have asked Siri!) And so I dragged my feet and went about doing other things on my list. When I ran an errand, I drove past a Laundromat just a few blocks from home. I’d never noticed it before. Never needed to. Hmmmm. Seemed just too convenient not to seriously consider now. Drat.

It would be a new adventure, right? So, I piled up the mountain of wet towels, grabbed some soap and gathered enough activities to keep me occupied for hours.

When I arrived, I first noticed how clean the place was. There were about a half dozen other women there

Your basic washer

and once the mom with four energetic sons left, the place actually became quite peaceful. I was pleasantly surprised to see how HUGE these washers were. Could I do the entire, overflowing pile in one load? I started buying into the whole Laundromat thing at this point.

New to the scene, I read and re-read the instructions to the commercial-size wash machine, filled it with towels (all of the towels!) and soap in the dispenser, and then inserted $5.75 in quarters. (I’ll bet my mom didn’t need that many quarters!). I shut the door and sat down. The best news was that it took just 27 minutes! This one load would have required about three loads in my home wash machine. I was almost disappointed because I didn’t get to finish one project in my bag.

What had I been dragging my feet over? Yeah, it’s a bummer to be without a wash machine right now and sitting in a Laundromat for even a short time still doesn’t rank high on my list. But here’s the good news:

• I’ve wondered where to take some of my larger loads, including things like comforters and blankets. Now I know a nearby spot that’s clean and easy to use.

• The towels were done in one load vs. three at my mother-in-law’s place.

• I pretty much have the system down when I revisit. It’s really not difficult. Just remember to bring:

– LOTS of quarters. I used the commercial-grade washer which seemed to indicate it could handle 4X the normal load. There were also small units that may be less expensive. And then there were a few mongo-size washers. I wonder if I’d need to stop at the bank before loading up one of those.

– Something to pass the time. Have a grocery list to finish? A good book? If you have a smart phone or iPad, you’re taken care of. Maybe some headphones in case the four energetic boys arrive.

– Need I say it? Your laundry, soap and whatever else you use in the whole laundry process.

– A friend? Next week a friend of mine has agreed to join the adventure. We’re going to pick up some lunch on the way. This could actually be fun!  

Most importantly, this all seemed to be yet another reminder on a larger lesson in life. What else am I dragging my feet on that probably isn’t that big of deal and, in the end, would provide huge benefits that I’m missing out on? What are you dragging your feet on that may actually not be as big a deal as you think? Is it time to jump in and give it a try?