harmony, minnesota

For our babymoon we spent the day and night in Lanesboro, ate another awesome caramel roll in the morning, and then drove twenty minutes to Harmony, Minnesota. There are tours you can take of Amish farms, as well as tours of Niagara Cave. We just had half a day and chose the self-guided Amish tour, a CD you play in your car that tells you how to get to various Amish farms where they sell their goods to you, the tourist.

In the end, the CD wouldn't have been necessary. It was more like a talking GPS than a super informative self-guided tour. But I don't know how you get a map without having the CD... Also the CD tour brought us to many smaller farms, where we got to talk to one of the parents, whereas the tour buses that go tend to visit the larger scale farms with larger storefronts. I can see pros and cons to each...

I would recommend bringing cash. We didn't have much on us, but purchased something little at each place (jams, cookies, granola bars...) They sell much larger items too: aprons, baskets, bird houses, wooden furniture and my treasure from the day: a basket that holds all the plates, napkins, utensils and condiments for toting out to the picnic table. I love it so, so much.

On the whole it felt like these Amish families were living well below the poverty line. I could be wrong, but based on the appearance of buildings, peeling paint and weathered shingles, it did look a bit exhausting. You don't take any pictures on these tours either. They believe that photos are a graven image. (Unfortunately, the day before while at the cattle auction there were two Amish men sitting across from us. I was taking pictures of the cows and trying to get a shot of the whole arena when one of them caught my eye and shot me a fierce look. The other had his hat tilted down. The bummer was that I hadn't even seen they were there...we had just arrived. But the rest of the time I shot my pictures towards the other end of the arena and also deleted all of those first pictures.)

It was a drizzly morning, and visiting these farms was fascinating. I did get the sense that part of their actual income comes from people like us stopping by, purchasing in their shops. And the landscape along the drive was lovely. It's just such a pretty part of our state. 

In the end, I'm glad we went. And I'm excited to go back and visit the cave.

I believe this is called nesting...

Last Sunday on the way to church Rory asked me if I was okay, wondering what was on my mind. I told him calmly, "I don't want to scare you, but I am ready to get rid of most everything inside our house. Every room I walk into I want to purge. Like the laundry room and all of those shelves of storage. Do we use any of those things? And I can't handle our upstairs. I know we don't need a bigger house, but we do need less stuff. I'm done stepping on toys..."

That afternoon I came home and hit the laundry room like my life depended on it. Nothing was safe. Rory moved his office fully to the cabin, I found new homes for some items and pitched others. I took down the shelves and decided the laundry room would be just that: the laundry room. Rory built me a folding counter and one day I'll paint the walls...

The next weekend I went to town on the kids rooms. No toy was safe. I have not a bone of sentimentality in me at the moment. If something was missing, broken or had no other like toys, it was a goner. I had a box for give away, a bigger box for throw away and then found an awesome deal at Menards: 12 tupperware tubs for $6.99. Rory whipped out a label maker he just purchased and was thrilled to get to use it. The toys are high enough that the kids can't reach a thing. Which means we have full control of what comes out, and only after the other toys have been put away.

Ironically I am supposed to be laying low. And I actually am. The night I sorted toys in the nursery there was a huge thunderstorm. I sat in the glider rocker with all the windows open and then would visualize picking up the next four things I would put away before I sat back down again. It was a very slow process, but I did it! And now there is not a single toy in the nursery (except the train table) and we are on the right track, getting ready for baby!

peanut butter banana smoothie

Two weeks ago I decided to go pretty-much-paleo again. That's what I called my sort of grain-free diet. Interestingly, to get back on the wagon I referenced my very own blog (linked above) and found it tremendously helpful. I was so proud of myself!

Two days after cutting out bread, cereal, bagels, bars, pasta, and anything else that has flour or grain (everything except oatmeal and corn chips) my feet deflated. No kidding. I've had some serious cankles this pregnancy and just like that, I had my normal feet back. A week later I ate a very worthwhile piece of chocolate cake that a friend brought over for Bible Study and just like that, my feet puffed up like balloons again.

Clearly I have some serious issues with flour or wheat or carbs of some sort...but let's stop talking about my feet, shall we?

As a result of me going grain-free, we have done away with cold cereal at our house altogether. Mostly because it's temptation island for me, and not good for anyone else either. We've moved on to smoothies, oatmeal, eggs, annika's granola and grain-free granola with yogurt. It's a bit more work and prep, but remember that thing about feet?!!

My new favorite smoothie (and the kids') is peanut butter banana. This will sincerely get me out of bed in the morning, I love it so much.

In the blender I throw (I measure nothing, so I'm going to guess here...)
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. plain old home yogurt (most protein, lowest sugar I've been told)
2 T. natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt listed in the ingredients)
a scoop of Whey vanilla protein powder. I've used Market Pantry. This is Walgreens. Both are great.
1-2 RIPE bananas. The more brown the better. Often I peel mine and freeze them in chunks.
5 ice cubes
a handful of spinach

Blend until smooth. The addition of the peanut butter in this one is crazy good. Sometimes I make it at night as my "icecream" or dessert... Enjoy!

breakfast buddies

When my brother's kids were here, Ivar kept bringing his cousin Claire's school picture over to our breakfast table so we could have breakfast with her. It was funny because then we'd go and actually see Claire in the flesh, but having this sweet picture at the table gave me an idea.

Last Thursday my nephew Jack drove with his parents to college. I was thinking a lot about them and him and decided we could have Jack's graduation announcement picture join us at the breakfast table. I talked to the kids about what a big deal this day was for Jack. And they were very concerned he might miss his mom and dad at nighttime. And wondered if he'd be home for his birthday. We talked about growing up and learning and becoming an oldult (their term) and then we said a prayer for Jack.

The next morning, Ivar brought Jack to the table again and we prayed for him again.

So now this is a thing. I have found school pictures of all of my nieces and nephews and plan on having one of their pictures join us each morning so we can pray for that cousin. I'm so excited about this plan and love how intentional and connected it makes me feel to all of them. Hopefully I'll be able to drop that cousin a line letting them know, or send them a picture of their picture at our table. But no matter what, that cousin will be well loved by their littlest cousins, prayed for and thought of.

fried eggplant

I gave my friend Annie and eggplant last night and decided I should post what we do with our eggplant so she knows what to do with hers. I also want to recognize that the last recipe I posted was fried green tomatoes. Which is basically the exact same everything as this "recipe." This may make it seem like we fry all of our vegetables! We don't, I promise. But I will say that my kids both ate two egg plant rounds for lunch yesterday and LOVED them, which felt like a win. Mostly this is just the only way I have found and loved to eat eggplant.

So here's the step by step:
1. Cut your eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds. Salt both sides to take as much moisture out as possible. Some let this sit for 30 minutes, but I'm hopeful lunch will be over in 30 minutes, so they only have as much "sweat time" as it takes me to set everything else up.

2. Take three wide and shallow bowls (the cereal bowls pictured above were annoying), fill them with the ingredients listed above. Add some shakes of any sort of seasoning salt to the flour and the bread crumbs.

3. Coat the bottom of your fry pan with oil, plus a little more.

4. Using a paper towel wipe down an eggplant round, taking out as much moisture as possible, and then using a fork coat the round on both sides in the 1) flour 2)egg and 3) panko.

5. The oil needs to be hot enough to sizzle the egg plant, but not burn it. I've noticed my oil starts to dance a bit...I've heard if the end of a wooden spoon sends out bubbles it's ready. Usually I just try putting a bit of a prepared egg plant in and can tell if it's going to fry or if the oil needs more time to heat up, or needs to cool down.

6. Repeat step 4 for all eggplant rounds and add to the skillet.

7. Check them and flip them when they look golden.

8. When they're done they'll be a bit softer, mostly the color will tell you when they're done. Place them on a plate with a paper towel to drain.

9. Top with fresh mozzarella and Marinara Sauce. Some eat it over spaghetti (I don't). And then eat your heart out. I love these so much!