Saturday

Ruth is over and we're making soups and salads - three soups and two salads today. We're planning to have ham, scalloped potatoes and three types of soups for tomorrow. The soups are: French onion, borscht and pizza. The salads are green bean and coleslaw forever. Got the coleslaw made - it's really easy. The green bean salad will have to wait until we go back to the grocery store because we forgot to buy a bag of frozen green beans. Got the French onion soup cooking and will eat some for lunch. Ruth is grating the beets and carrots in the machine but we won't put the other soups on until tomorrow before service.

While I was in Saskatoon this week, I went by Scott's Parables and picked up materials for The Party. Ruth and I have looked through them and they look good.

It's windy with blowing snow outside. A good day to be inside. Glenda and Jeff just stopped by. We all shared French onion soup with freshly baked French bread. Very nice. I don't think we'll have enough soup for tomorrow but that's ok, we'll have two other kinds plus ham and scalloped potatoes.

Today's Thankfulness

It snowed yesterday - but only after we had freezing rain for a time. Travel was not recommended for anywhere around the Regina area. I was wanting to go out, but didn't really need to go out - so I didn't. I'm thankful that I didn't need to go out yesterday. This morning I got up and shoveled out my driveway. I'm thankful that it didn't really take that long - and I'm also very thankful for Bram, who normally does that for me. (Leo's still in bed.) I'm very thankful as well, for whoever drove the little bobcat that did the sidewalk for the whole block, so I didn't have to do my sidewalk. I had a quick visit with my next door neighbour to the west, who offered to shovel my driveway for me, but I had it done before he had finished the errand he had to do first. I'm thankful that it wasn't such a big job to do it; and also for the opportunity to visit with my neighbour. It's a beautiful sunny day today, only -4. Although they still don't recommend much travel today, I'm going out because I'm feeling a little housebound. The streets have been cleaned and I've got a few errands to run. I'm thankful for snowtires (and for Walter who put them on for me).

I was wanting to sew a little jumper today for Gloria but can't find the pattern I traced off for it, so maybe my errand will be to pick up a pattern from Fabricland. (Oh the hardship - I need to go to Fabricland!)

Sewing

I haven't sewn for so long that I wondered whether I even remembered how to do it again. I got home from Saskatoon yesterday afternoon and vowed to stop procrastinating about it. Traced off the pattern (it's Kwiksew and they have to be traced) and cut out the pieces. Couldn't manage to get myself to start sewing though.

So this morning, I hunted out a serger, and a foot pedal, and a power cord - got it up and ready to go and sewed Abby a wetsuit. I'm pleased with myself. It's so tiny! I hope it fits. I'm feeling pleased with myself. If you omit the time taken for procrastination, it was about one hour to trace out the pattern and cut it out, and one hour to sew it. Not bad!

Christmas Morning

It's Sunday morning. I'm in Saskatoon at my parents' house; updating my blog from my Dad's Ipad. Spent last night at my brother Rob's house - but they're in Gravelbourg. It's a standing joke that whenever I come to visit, they're not home.

Things that I'm thankful for today:
1. The warm weather. We're not having a white Christmas but the highway was clear and dry when I drove up here. I'm thankful for the good weather when there are so many traveling. I remember the Christmas when my kids spent 12 hours in an airplane sitting on the tarmac in Vancouver and didn't make it to Regina until a day late. This year, Rose is in Ottawa and Bram is in YK, but I'm still with family for Christmas.
2. Modern communications. I've already texted to Rose back and forth for Christmas; we talked to Robin last night on Skype; I'm posting to my blog this morning. When I was in New Guinea, for the two years I was there, I talked to my family a total of three times; once for each Christmas, and once when I sent off a really blue letter and they phoned to make sure I was ok. To write a letter and receive a reply usually took a month.
3. Family. I had supper with my parents last night (and breakfast this morning). We'll be having family meals for much of this week - we had one yesterday, one this afternoon, etc.
4. Worship. We'll be going to worship shortly. What a blessing to be able to go and freely worship and praise God for our many blessings.
5. Music. I'm listening to Handel's Messiah right now. What amazing music that is. I'm so happy to be able to participate in creating music, listening to music, experiencing music.

The day before

I slept in until 7, then I got up and started making present bags. Thought I was done twice, then remembered other presents that I had tucked away elsewhere. But I think I'm done now. Presents wrapped and under the tree. House tidied (well, almost - I do need to do some more there.) Laundry in the dryer. Ready to go.

I think I'm doing three Christmas dinners this year. One today. One tomorrow, and one on Tuesday. I'm hosting the one today; then just bringing stuff for the next two.

Things I'm thankful for today:
1. For the countless blessings I am given each day. I woke up this morning thankful for a warm bed and clean sheets and a warm house. That was just a start.
2. For being able to give gifts to others.
3. For my children. Although right now they're both thousands of km away; I'm only a second away from them on Skype, and they're always in my heart.
4. For my extended family. That it's only possible to get together in three different family gatherings, because there is so many of us.
5. For the beautiful weather. I don't have to worry about blizzards or anything else as I travel to Saskatoon this afternoon.

Small Miracles

I put Bram on the plane this morning; dropped him off at the airport at 5:15 am. He's had such a bad cold all week, is on antibiotics and is improving, but had to ensure he had his pockets stuffed with tissues and that he had cough candies in his pockets to interrupt the coughing cycle. I feel sorry for the people travelling with him, as they'll all be exposed to his terrible cold, but at least he's been on antibiotics for a few days so he should be less contagious, I hope. Then I came home and gratefully went back to bed - to try to sleep.

When I have difficulty falling back to sleep, I frequently turn on my bedside radio on very low volume. It interrupts my own thoughts and helps me sleep again. When I woke up this morning, on The Current they were talking about the importance of gratitude and how people who keep a gratitude journal (five things they were grateful for daily) were benefited in many ways. I think I'll try that. Here's my five things for today:
1. Bram was well enough to travel; we got to the airport on time and he caught his flight. (That's really just one thing, not three).
2. Bram ran his cell phone through the wash with his laundry on Tuesday (both washer and dryer), but he tried it last night, and aside from needing to be charged, it works! (That's the small miracle in the title.)
3. I was able to get back to sleep after dropping Bram off, and then was able to sleep in.
4. I'm off work on holidays for two weeks starting today!
5. I've got all of my Christmas shopping done (I think); I paid cash for everything and I still have (a little) money left at the end of the month.

Far Away but not forgotten

Bram is packing tonight to go to Yellowknife for the holidays. I've got his present bags made and the presents put in them - and he's decided that he doesn't have room for all of them in his suitcase. That's fair; he can either open them before he leaves or wait until he's back in two weeks.

Rose won't be home for Christmas either. She's decided it costs too much to fly to either home for the break. Since she was denied her student financial assistance from the territorial government, and since she hasn't been able to find a job in Ottawa yet, she's been pretty short of funds.

I talked to her this morning at 5:45. She was awake because she had a toothache. It's hard to have my kids so far away - especially when they have needs that I can't do anything about. It makes me realize two things: one is that when I went to New Guinea, I was only 19 - Rose is 20, and instead of being half-way around the world, she's only halfway across Canada. And, we can talk daily by phone or email or texting. It makes me appreciate my parents so much more. Now that I'm a parent, I realize the tremendous faith they had to allow me to go so far alone. Secondly, I realize that I have to leave my children in the Lord's hands. It helps me to realize that they've been there all along - but I have to trust his love and care over them. They're really in no different place than they've been all along.

Projects and Plans

I haven't sewn (really sewn) for several years now. I miss it. What makes the difference for me is having my sewing space set up so that I can sew and leave it and come back without having to clean up and put everything away. So I've set up my sewing machine (that's a start) and I've found my serger, although it's not set up yet, and I want to do some sewing over the break.

My sister-in-law would like me to sew a wetsuit for her daughter, who gets hives when she gets cold. I sewed wetsuits for my kids when they were young, so I have done it before. I pulled out my rubbermaid tubs and found the leftover wetsuit fabric. Melissa has ordered the pattern (it's out of print and she had to order it from EBay) and when it arrives I guess I'll get started. I'd also like to get back into quilting. I quilted for years, and have really enjoyed it, but haven't done it at all since I moved down her to Regina.

Rose is also wanting to create. She went shopping this afternoon at Fabricland in Ottawa and found what she wants to start hand sewing a quilt (a traditional Japanese pattern). She was texting me about what to get and how much to pay for about an hour this afternoon. However she now has all that she needs and I'm anxious to see what her project will look like.

Bram is also planning a project. His is more art than fabric based - he's designed a picture that involves number theory, prime numbers, different colours and sizes of beads, etc. He now needs fishing line to string the beads (and probably a canvas for the project) and he'll be ready to go.

It's interesting how we're all wanting to be creative at the same time; but we're all going to be doing quite different projects. I'm looking forward to seeing the works in progress.

Sisters

Ruth and I have spent most of the day together. We jointly prepared lunch, sat beside each other in service, ate lunch together, and cleaned up together. Then we went together to pick up a very special Christmas present, came back to my house to do some Christmas baking together, and we're just going to run out to the grocery store for some more ingredients. It's been such a blessing to have a sister here in town. We do lots of things together, and both of us have really enjoyed it. We usually do salads together on Saturdays (we skipped yesterday)as well as a fair bit of Sundays. I lived for 20 years in YK with no sisters near, and this is one of the things I really enjoy about living down here. There are some things that a sister really understands best.

It might have been awhile

I got so frustrated last time I tried posting an entry to my blog because it wouldn't let me save and I had to email it to myself and post from a different computer. However, I really miss blogging and I'm going to try again.

Bram and I drove to Moose Jaw this afternoon to visit his Grandmother Thiessen. We hadn't been since Rose was here for her Reading Week, which was in early November, I think. Last time when we visited, she didn't really know me, and it was rather sad trying to visit with her. However this time she was with it. We visited for awhile and than we sang together until it was time for her to go down for supper. It was very nice to have a visit with her.

I was pondering this week on traditions. When I moved from Yellowknife, I had to establish new traditions for myself. One of the first ones I started was about decorating the tree. Lloyd would never have a Christmas tree, although I had grown up with one. So I put my pennies together and bought an artificial tree (Rose is allergic to evergreens) and decorations and decorated my first tree in about 20 years. I invited people to come over to help me decorate. We set it up and decorated it on November 25 because that's my anniversary and I knew that it would be a hard day for me. I did that again for the next two years, however this year, it wasn't as essential for me to have people over and be busy that night. Western had decorated some beautiful Christmas trees that they were selling by sealed bid auction at the musical and I put a bid in on three of them and won the bid for two of them. This means that I now have three Christmas trees. I set up the biggest one (and it's really huge) in the corner of the living room. I also have a really big living room, so there was lots of space for it. I set up the prettiest one (my personal opinion, I know) in the family room. I've left the third one in its box in weird closet #2.

I haven't done any baking for Christmas. I'd like to do that - but I just am not motivated. One of the things I left behind by accident when I left Yellowknife was my recipe box with all of my personal and family recipes. So I really need to get them from other sources in order to make the cookies, etc. that we have always eaten for Christmas.

OK, this entry is long enough - let's see if I can post it or if I'll have difficulties again.

Back home

I can't over emphasize how good it feels to be home tonight. Normally I'd be out for The Party, but it was cancelled due to Hallowe'en. I was away all weekend up to Saskatoon. It was good to be there, but it's so nice to be back home again.

It was a little more eventful getting to Saskatoon than I had intended. We had planned to go by way of Moose Jaw and to visit with Mom Thiessen there. Part of the reason to travel was so that Rose could visit with family while she was here for Reading Week. Going by way of Moose Jaw isn't that much further out of the way. However this time it was. First of all, we had a flat tire about 3 km short of Moose Jaw, so I phoned and got a tow truck to come and put my spare on for me. By the time that was done, it was nearly 6 o'clock, so I dropped Rose, Bram and Leo off at the nursing home while I went to see about my tire.

However, it's impossible to get anything done at 6 pm on a Friday. I was concerned that my spare wouldn't be good enough to drive to S'toon on. We finally ended up driving to Eyebrow and Doug kindly looked at it and gave me a new spare. By the time all of that was done, it was pretty late and pretty dark. I didn't want to drive to S'toon through Elbow as the last time I'd gone that way the highway was pretty bad so I went on the grid at Tugaske and drove to Craik, rejoining highway 11. That is a trifle further, but the grid was excellent. It also meant that by the time we got to Warman, it was 11:30.

We spent much of Saturday looking for a Hallowe'en costume for Leo. We didn't find anything he'd like, but we did get him a winter coat for a very good price at Mark's Work Warehouse. Friday night we had supper at Dad and Mom's and were able to visit with David and Shirley as well, which was a bonus. Then we went over to Rob and Melissa's to get our first glimpse of the new nephew. He's very cute.

Sunday we went to worship (how I enjoyed the singing - the acoustics are wonderful!) then left immediately to drive back to Regina as Rose's plane left at 4:30. We arrived in Regina at 2:30 so had time to stop at the house before I took her to the airport. Sunday night Bram and I watched The King's Speech. I hadn't seen it before and really enjoyed it, even though it kept me up past my bedtime a bit.

We only had 6 kids come to the door for Hallowe'en tonight. Bram and Leo went out to the Hallowe'en party at school. Bram was the scariest - he dressed as a telemarketer. Leo finally ended up going as a vampire. We went after school today and picked him up what he needed. He was so excited about dressing up for Hallowe'en. He'd been talking about it for weeks!

Family

I'm supposed to turn in a family photo for something at work. However, I don't seem to be able to find a family photo with me, Rose and Bram. However, Rose is here this week - and Bram lives with me - so I'm going to try to get a family photo taken. It might be nice to have a photo of our family. This is high on my to do list for this week.

Packing

I should be packing right now - I'm leaving tomorrow right after school with most of the rest of our staff to go to Calgary for teacher's convention. We'll be back, Lord willing, late Friday night. However, I need to do some deep breathing and unwinding after school before I can start another task.

I also need to remind Bram to pack, as he flies up to Yellowknife for the long weekend tomorrow. I've had a little bit of arranging to do, to ensure that he can make his flight, as he leaves after I do - but Ruth has said she'll take him to the airport.

We're leaving Leo home alone for a couple of days; but he's 18 and should be fine. I need to make sure that there's lots of choices in the fridge for him.

Rose is likely packing in the next couple of days too, as she has reading week next week and is flying here to see us. She should arrive Friday evening (likely before I get back from Calgary). This means that I also had to make arrangements for her to get picked up from the airport.

Bram arrives back from YK Sunday night, and then we're done travelling for a little bit. I want to drive everyone up to S'toon next weekend. There's a new baby up there that we haven't seen yet.

It's strange in a way; when I lived in the north, travelling "out" was such a big deal and only happened once or twice a year. However, now I'm living in Regina, where so many places are so much closer - I rarely go anywhere. I don't think I've been to Saskatoon since dad's birthday at the end of April. Aside from the cruise this summer, and going to Clearview Camp for a week, the only other place that I can remember travelling is to Gravelbourg - once in May and once in September. I guess I'm really a home body.

I've figured it out

I've been unable to post to my blog from home lately - it allows me to write it and save it, but not post it for some reason. So I'm posting it from work, during lunch hour. The whole thing is rather frustrating, but it is a work around.

I've really missed updating my blog. I have so many things that I contemplate on, or just to keep track of what's going on in my life, and I've used the blog for years to do that.

Right now it's the end of the six-week marking period at school. Marks have to be in before 9 am tomorrow. I've got all my marking done, I just need to put them into the program. That shouldn't take me very long. It feels good to be (almost) finished.

Thankfulness

I got frustrated last time I tried to post here because it would only save my title, and it wouldn't save what I had written. We'll see if it'll work this time.

It's Thanksgiving today and I have so much to be thankful for. It was Lectureship this weekend and I got to see and visit with a number of people that I hadn't seen for some time, as well as with my parents, etc. It was also good just to sing for an extended time.

Sunday afternoon I had a small crowd over for Thanksgiving dinner. I was thankful that so many people came and brought food as well, because it really wasn't much work that way. Mind you, it wasn't that big a crowd; I think there were just under 40 people. I'm so thankful that I have a large house and it's easy to accommodate a crowd. Then I had an evening nap, got up and visited with Rose on the phone for a bit. I'm so thankful that she's enjoying school and is getting settled. She's going to two Thanksgiving potlucks today; one at her boarding house and one at the Preacher's house. She phoned me to ask what she should bring since she has no bowls besides a small soup bowl. I suggested that she bake sweet potatoes in the microwave and bring them, because you don't really need a bowl for that.

This morning I did the final clean up from yesterday. I washed dishes and did laundry (which took about an hour) and was so thankful that I had the time to do that. I always find it amazing that what takes so much effort the night before is really not that much work the next day. I was also thankful that it was so easy to clean up; and that I had the dishes to wash and a place to put them when they're clean (I put them in the empty dishwasher to dry).

This afternoon Bram, Leo (my boarder) and I drove to Moose Jaw to visit my mother-in-law. She was happy to see us; called me Marilyn Orr (which I guess has always been my name - just not one I've used for over 20 years). We sang with her for a bit and visited for a bit. She asked me how I knew her, which was a little sad. then we had to leave. I'm thankful that I live close enough that I am able to visit and sorry that I don't visit as often as I'd like to. I don't think I've been there since July.

Done?

New Beginnings

I've always felt like the new year starts in the fall, not in January. Probably that's because I'm a teacher and in North America at least, that's when school starts. This year there are lots of new beginnings in my life.

The first new thing was flying out to Ottawa and getting Rose set up to go to university there. It was hard to leave her there, but I can trust in God that he's in control, as always, and will watch over her and keep her safe. I skype or IM with her nearly everyday, which helps.

The second new beginning was when my boarder arrived. Last year I had a 15 year old girl; this year I have a 17 year old boy. These are students from Queen City Collegiate (which is on the same campus as Western); and are from China. I think this year will work out better, as he's the same age as Bram and they get along very well. In addition, he's pretty outgoing. He came to church with Bram and I on Sunday, and is consciously making an effort to practice learning English. Leo arrived Saturday morning.

Bram arrived back for school Saturday night. I'm wanting to get him moved into Rose's old room, as it's larger and has a built-in desk, but I've been so busy working on one of my suites, trying to get it ready to be rented for the first of September, that I haven't had much of a chance to help him get settled into a different room.

School was the last new beginning. We started on Monday with registration and orientation. I'll be teaching the remedial math again, as well as helping with the French Immersion classes on Mondays and Fridays. I'm teaching Information Processing again (a fancy name for computer class). I was supposed to be teaching accounting as well, but I don't think anyone signed up for it. Oh well, I'm doing a lot more of the planning for one of the French Immersion classes, so I'll keep busy regardless.

Today was the first day of classes, which, as a librarian is a really busy day, getting textbooks signed out to students. However, the library software wasn't working, which made my life pretty challenging. The tecchie guy arrived at the end of classes and worked for over an hour on it, which meant that he was finally able to get a work-around for me so I can do my job. It's still not working entirely right, but at least I can access the program. The air conditioning isn't working in the library and it was 27 in there at the start of the day; then it started heating up. I'm glad I've at least got a fan to sit in front of.

This morning I got up before 5, as I was at the apartment by 5 am, painting walls. We finished up tonight. Bram and Leo came over and helped put the metal thinggies back in the registers. I'd taken them out to paint them. They also put the cover plates back on the switches and plug-ins, and helped clean up and take out the garbage. Loopie and Bayley also came over. Loopie scraped windows for me so I could paint them. She also loaned me her shop vac and vacuumed up things for me. I'm now done over there, except I need to have the new blinds I purchased hung (where's my brother-in-law?); and I need to steam clean the carpets tomorrow. I've been working on this apartment for two full weeks (it was incredibly filthy) and I'm ready to be finished. I've got renters for it already without advertising - they're related to the renters I have downstairs. It's 10 pm now and I think I need to go to bed.

More Travel

I drove Dad and Mom to Gravelbourg yesterday and we visited the Bells after service. They were saying that they'd never been there before, but mom especially was feeling right at home because most of the older people there were people she had grown up with. After all, it was right in the area she was from.

We also had a very nice visit with the Bells - and they have a lovely farm. Robert, Melissa and kids were also there. It was however, just over 400 km there and back. I was ready for bed when we got home. On the plus side, I didn't do any more painting.

Speaking of painting, I'm done all of the trim (not window trim), but the master bedroom trim needs a second coat. It'll have to wait until I'm back from Ottawa though. I'm off to Ottawa this morning to meet Rose there. I've been paying bills on the computer this morning, and Dad's on the computer in the other room renting a car for us for the two days I'm there. I'll arrive close to midnight this evening, and I fly out again at 7 pm on Wednesday. I start work again on Thursday (which, coincidentally, is pay day - that's also a good thing.) So I've got two days with Rose in Ottawa to find and rent her a place for her to live while she goes to university there. She's been doing some of the prep work for that, I believe she delegated getting us a place to stay (a hostel) for the two nights I'm there to Bram.

I've got Rose's suitcases packed, a carry-on for myself, and I'm ready to go. A bit of running around to do this morning and I fly out at noon.

More Painting

I've got the trim done - two coats in all the rooms except the master bedroom. Well, actually the other bedroom just has the first coat and I'll need to do a second coat there. Got the holes in the walls patched (thanks, Dad), several coats of mudding done, and first coat of primer on. (Forgot to put primer on the spot behind the door, but the other holes are all mudded, sanded and primed.) Got the feature wall painted the same colour as the trim through out the house. Got the front and back doors painted, two coats. Linen closet door is painted one coat. The bad news is all the trim needs two coats to look good. The good news is, I think I can get away with one coat on the walls.

Still to do:

• second coat on trim in second bedroom
• second coat on linen closet door
• first and second coats on trim in master bedroom
• all the walls in all the rooms - I've just done the trim
• the window trim - I've just done baseboards and door trim (and doors)

Painting update

I've got the baseboards and trim painted in the living room and the door frames for both bedrooms. That leaves... the baseboards in both bedrooms and the kitchen. Then, the real painting starts - the walls. I'm painting the walls the same colour as my walls, and the trim the same colour as the feature wall and pillars in my living room. That way, anytime I need to do some more painting, I should have more on hand - either for any of my suites or for my house. Works for me.

Margaret came and cleaned for me. She worked pretty much nonstop from 8:30 to 4 pm, with an hour off for lunch. I'm picking her up tomorrow to do more of the same. She's made great progress - but there's lots of cleaning still to be done. (Sort of like the painting.)

I painted pretty much all the time that Margaret was cleaning - except for the two hours when I took Rachel to the hospital. No, no baby yet - but it wasn't moving at all and she was worried. I got to babysit Emmet while she got checked out. I was wearing my really grubby painting clothes, and sitting in the waiting room with Emmet on my lap when I realized that the knee that Emmet was on was damper than it should be. So I changed Emmet - but I didn't want to get any other jeans all painty - so I wore them back to the apartment this afternoon. But I think I want to wash them before I wear them again tomorrow.

The next step

OK, I've been busy filling out forms for the Office of Residential Tenancies - trying to reclaim the damage deposit and back rent, and to dispose of abandoned property. Lots of forms. Not much fun. Then I have to drop them off. Nearly done.

Cleaning and Painting

I evicted a tenant this month. It's hard to do that, but she'd been getting more and more in arrears on her rent, and it was time to cut my losses. She's left the place pretty dirty, and the whole thing needs repainting. I'm hoping to hire someone to do the cleaning for me while I tackle the painting. I got started this morning and got the kitchen, living room and hall ceilings painted. Just two more ceilings to go. Then I'll start on the walls and baseboards. I'm hoping that if I leave it long enough, I'll be able to get hold of the woman I want to clean for me, so that the baseboards will be washed, and I can just start painting. It's noon right now and I'm feeling pretty wiped. Time for a break.

The other recipe

I mentioned that we invented two new recipes Tuesday. The other one is:

Asparagus Couscous Salad

1 cup whole wheat couscous

2 cups boiling water

1 ½ cup asparagus – chopped and steamed

½ cup diced dried apricots

½ cup chopped red pepper

3 TLB chopped chives

2 TLB chopped parsley

We used one of our standard vinaigrettes, with lemon juice and we would have used garlic, except I was out of it. This makes a very mild flavoured salad, that would be best eaten early on in the week because I don't think the gentle flavour of the asparagus would keep well.

Insomnia

There are many reasons why I wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I'm too hot or too cold - sometimes I'm both at the same time (I believe that's called menopause). Sometimes I have a strange dream or a troubling dream. Sometimes I have restless legs. Sometimes a hand or a foot has gone to sleep and I need to reposition myself. Sometimes I have something on my mind that I can't get out of my head. Sometimes I need to go to the bathroom (which usually means that I'm camping and I have to walk across the campground in the cold, in the dark).

So, what to do about it? If I'm lucky, I'll just roll over and go back to sleep. Otherwise, I'll try counting my blessings - seeing how long a list I can make. I'll practice taking deep relaxing breaths. Many times I'll turn on the radio and listen to the BBC (CBC in the middle of the night has the BBC on). I hate opening my eyes, because it's an admission that I actually am awake, but sometimes I read.

Last night was one of those nights. I woke up several times for several reasons. I had a really strange dream, a hand went to sleep (a couple of times), I was too hot - no, too cold - no, just uncomfortable, a hand asleep again....I drifted back to sleep several times but was awake pretty steadily from about 4 am on. I counted my blessings, practiced breathing and turned on the BBC. However, it's time to be up now. Maybe I'll take an afternoon nap later.

Routine?

I have a flat tire, so can't drive my van right now. I'm hopeful it'll be fixed today some time - but right now I'm dependent on others for transportation. So yesterday I phoned Ruth and suggested we go grocery shopping together. That went well (we usually grocery shop together), and so we had supper together before we made salads together. We tried two new salads (made up the recipes ourselves) - they're both pretty good, however we were out of garlic and short on onions and I personally feel that any salad can be improved with the addition of those two ingredients. Here's one recipe:

Green Bean Salad

1 bundle Chinese green beans (just less than 2 lbs)

Chop green beans and steam until just tender

¼ cup bacon bits

1 diced onion

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 cup chopped celery

Vinaigrette

¼ cup oil

2 TLB soya sauce

1 tsp sesame sauce

2 TLB lime juice

Goodbyes

While we were in Vancouver, we stopped by to see Aunt Trudy. She's 93 now, and living in a nursing home. It was very good to be able to stop by and visit. She's so with it - knows what's going on, and keeps up with everyone. However, it was also very difficult to say goodbye, knowing that we may never see her again in this life.

I've been talking on the phone to Rose, as she's getting ready to go off to university in Ottawa. Supposedly first year students are guaranteed a place in residence. In actuality - not always. So, she's phoning different places for rent off campus. Rose, like me, hates phoning people. Especially strangers. She's finding this very difficult, and I really feel for her. We'll meet in Ottawa next week and I'll have two days to help her get settled into a place before I have to fly back to Regina and start school. It will be a new kind of goodbye there. It's always hard saying goodbye.

In both cases, I have to trust in the Lord; that he will keep loved ones in his care; that he will watch over them and keep them safe. That everything will work out.

Back Home

It felt so good to sleep in my own bed last night. The cruise ended Sunday morning - it took until nearly 1 am Tuesday to get back home. But it's good to be home. My tomatoes are ripe and I picked a double handful this morning. I've put the contents of my suitcase in the laundry and started it, but am feeling pretty brain dead right now. Will write more later.

Saturday

OK, I fly out this afternoon with my parents. Going cruising. Walter and Ruth fly out at noon. Different flights. I've helped run errands for the last two days getting ready. Got everything packed and checked. Am ready now, I think, I hope. Discovered I had a flat tire this morning. I'm going to impose on my niece - see if they can arrange to get it fixed while I'm gone.

Time to go.

Friday - the day before departure

I stained the wall in the living room again this morning. It looks really good and the fumes are making me feel a little ill. My parents arrived last night as we'll all be flying out of Regina. They've already figured out at least two things they forgot to bring. I guess I need to get packing - I need to do some laundry first.

I did get the washer and dryer - a front loader set for $400. It's currently sitting in my living room; have to get the old ones detached and moved out before I can put the new ones in place.

I had to give one of my long-term tenants notice. She's not happy about it; actually I'm not happy about it either, but she's over 3 months behind and I just don't think there's any possibility of her catching up; need to cut my losses.

I went by Chapters yesterday and picked up Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's latest book, Ghost Ship. It was very disappointing. It continues on in the series, but is very obviously the next book in the series. It doesn't introduce any new concepts or ideas or really any new characters. It's obviously a bridging book to the next one in the series. I wouldn't recommend purchasing it, rather would wait until it comes out in the library.

Thursday - what to do?

I'm definitely not planning on doing a daily thing all the time, but it has been interesting to try it for a short time period. I've been busy IMing with Rose this morning; have got her flight to Ottawa in late August booked, as well as mine. We'll meet there and I'll help get her set up for school.

I ended up buying a fridge from Sears. I've found out that you can't purchase a smaller fridge without wire shelves; all smaller fridges come with wire shelving - that's the only option. Oh well, I had wanted something a little nicer, but I don't want to rip out the really nice cupboards in the apartment, just so she can have a larger fridge.

I'm giving notice to one of my tenants today - she's mega behind on her rent, and has been for months. I'm giving her until the 15th to get caught up or move out. It's a really difficult decision to make, but it has to be done. (Actually, Walter P is doing it for me. God bless my brother-in-law.)

I went into Ruth's office this morning and did a quick cleaning for her. I usually save the cleaning jobs for the Taylor side of the family, but Rachel has been doing it up until now, and she's just too pregnant lately to consider doing that. I was going to go in really early and have it done before anyone got in; however I got there and realized I forgot to bring in a vacuum cleaner and had to go home and get mine - so by the time I got there, everyone was there anyway. So I have to go back this evening to vacuum Marcy's office, but did the rest of it. (I didn't wash the tile, but it's summer, and it doesn't really need it. I'll apologize to the picky, picky people I know, but I'm doing this more as a favour than as a job.) If it looks like I will do this on a more regular basis (or that Bram will), then I'm going to insist on some real tools - like a toilet brush for each bathroom (we don't have to share some things), and a real broom, not one of those silly kitchen-sized things. Also some garbage bags the right size for the garbage cans.

My reward for doing all of that is that I get to go to the public library and waste time there. I've earned it! (My to do list is gratifyingly small.)

Wednesday - countdown

OK, I fly out on Saturday with my parents to go on a cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver. This is very exciting. Trying to get things done before I go.

I spent a fair bit of yesterday going from place to place looking for fridges. One of my tenants has a fridge that isn't defrosting properly and is leaking water all over her floor. She's a good tenant - has lived there 25 years, and when I looked at the fridge I realized that it's more than just unclogging the little pipe thing inside. Her fridge is a harvest gold colour! So I've promised her a new fridge. The space she has for a fridge is 30" x 60" (maybe as much as 62 or 63 inches). She has beautiful oak cupboards surrounding the space that we don't want to cut into. The Brick has a very nice fridge on sale; only $400 - 29" x 65". Sorry, just a bit too tall. Most fridges are much larger now than they used to be. I still need to check out a few more places.

I checked out the Sears Warehouse store yesterday - their appliances are a terrible price - but I did get two dressy outfits for Ruth, who has out shrunk all of her clothing. She and Walter are also coming on the cruise. I also went by the Re Store - found a whirlpool tub for $375 that I'm also musing about. They also had a really nice fridge that's just a bit too big.

Someone on Kijiji or Used Regina - I don't remember which is selling a front load washer/dryer combination for 500. I'm to see it today at 3:30 with Walter P. That's a really good price for the two of them together. I hadn't really planned on replacing mine - but I would be really happy to if I can get them for that price.

Tuesday - the last recipe?

I went into work for a bit this morning and finished ordering all the books needed for this fall. Feels good to have that done and it's always more fun spending someone else's money. Then I went home and paid bills on-line. One of those chores I never like doing, but has serious consequences if I don't. Feels good to have that done too. Did laundry this morning too - I've been holding off doing that because Regina's been asking us to restrict water use because the storm last weekend damaged the transformer at the pumping station at Buffalo Pound. However, you can't wait forever and I needed to do laundry. I've now got clean sheets spread all over my family room, because why should I heat up my housing drying them? They'll be dry by nightfall, I'm sure. I've purchased a clothesline and hopefully at some time I'll get someone to put it up for me. Until then, it's very nice to have a family room to spread laundry out over.

Last night I stained the cedar wall in my living room. Looks much better now. I need to do it a second time I think, but will have to wait because it's still tacky.

OK, I haven't even tried my last recipe yet - it's a wheat berry one, but it looks like it'll be good. This is salad number 21; we have 20 in our 4 week rotation - 5 per week, plus the fake-um potato salad, which isn't in the rotation. I've tried to vary my rotation so that we've got at least two vegetable-based salads each week, and at least one of a pulse-based (beans, peas or lentils) and at least one grain-based (quinoa, millet, rice, barley, bulgar, wheat berries). In addition, I have one marinated-type salad each week, and one supremely easy salad (doesn't require a lot of chopping or prep time). Now I'm working on having the weekly grocery lists made up; then I'm done!

Wheatberry Salad
1 lb wheat
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup minced red onion
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh herbs

Vinaigrette
¼ cup raspberry vinegar
2 LTB oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook wheat in 3 L water with 1 TLB salt for 1 hour, or until soft but chewy. Drain well. Add remaining ingredients. Pour vinaigrette over.

Monday, August 1

I just got back from collecting rent. Got something from everyone - and everyone's caught up, except for one person. Doing well.

Had a good visit with Rose this afternoon. Trying to ensure that she has a place to live when she goes to U of Ottawa this fall. This is her last week in Quebec, then she flies back to Yellowknife - then Lloyd, Rose and Bram are planning on driving to the Yukon on holidays. I hope they have a wonderful time.

This next recipe is one of my all-time favourites; I think because it has lots of parsley in it - parsley improves just about anything, as far as I'm concerned.


Tabbouleh
2 cups bulgar
2 cups fresh parsley, chopped fine
2 TLB chopped fresh mint
1 chopped yellow pepper
4 green onions, chopped
3 large tomatoes, chopped and seeded
½ cup oil
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tsp chopped garlic

Place bulgar in bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand for 10 min. Drain. Combine remaining ingredients and stir into bulgar. Mix.


When Ruth and I first started making salads together - about 6 months ago or so, this was the first salad that we made up the recipe for ourselves on. It's really best if you have the broccoli cut quite small, so even if you buy a bag of broccoli florets, you'll likely need to cut them smaller anyway.

Broccoli Salad

1 head broccoli cut into small florets OR 1 bag broccoli florets (cut smaller)
2-3 TLB fake-um bacon bits
¼ cup sunflower seeds
2 cups small red seedless grapes
(if you can’t get small grapes, cut larger ones in half or quarters)
½ red onion, chopped

Toss together. You can either use a mayonnaise dressing or a vinaigrette for this; the salad with the mayonnaise dressing doesn’t keep as well and you’ll have to use it within 2 days; with a vinaigrette it will keep all week.

Mayonnaise Dressing
½ cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
2 TLB cider vinegar

Vinaigrette Dressing
½ cup oil
3/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp chopped garlic
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Sunday potluck

There weren't very many people at church this morning - around 45. Probably because it was a long weekend and a lot of people were at camp. However I invited the entire congregation home for lunch. We had around 30 who came. It was an easy lunch though - we barbequed, and had the salads we made yesterday as well as a green salad. It's nice to be hospitable, especially when it's simple to do.

I now have 21 different salad recipes, which means that we can do five different ones a week and have a four-week rotation. I've done up a spreadsheet with the rotation on it; trying to have a nice variety of salads that are mainly vegetables, pulse-based salads (ones with beans, peas or lentils in them), grain-based salads; ones that are super easy along with ones that take a fair bit more chopping and preparation.

The Current Quinoa is one of my particular favourites.

Currant and Quinoa Salad Yield: 12 cups
1 1/3 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
3 cups water
¼ tsp salt
Boil water and salt. Stir in quinoa. Reduce heat & simmer, covered for about 20 minutes, without stirring, until quinoa is tender and liquid is absorbed. Transfer to large bowl. Cool. Add:
2 cups lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup diced red pepper
1 cup currants
½ cup parmesan cheese
½ cup slivered almonds
¼ cup thinly sliced green onion
Dressing
6 Tbsp canola oil
5 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp raspberry jam
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 ½ tsp sugar (or substitute)
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

Lentil and Brown Rice Salad
1 c. dry lentils
1 c. dry brown rice
2 c. peas
1 c. chopped onions
1/2 c.chopped celery
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. soya sauce
3 tbsp. vinegar
1/2 c. oil
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 to 2 handfuls chow mein noodles

Cook lentils, rice and peas. Let cool.
Combine lentils, rice, peas, onions and celery in a large bowl.

Combine salt, soya sauce, vinegar, oil, curry powder and sugar in a pot. Bring just to a boil then pour over lentil mixture. Let sit overnight. Just before serving, add chow mein noodles.

Saturday - new salads

We experimented with two new salads today; and tried some variations on some of our tried and true ones. One of our favourites is the Sweet Potato Black Bean - however, I wanted to try it today with a change in the vinaigrette. So we tried it, and it's definitely a keeper. We changed the 1/4 cup lime juice to 1/4 cup concentrated orange juice, and omited the sugar. Mmm good!

The two new salads we tried were a parsnip salad and a buckwheat salad. Company's Coming has a parsnip salad in their salads book, and we tried it before and didn't really like it, so we made up our own. Because we had already opened a can of frozen orange juice we used it in the vinaigrette, but we wanted it to be a lighter colour to complement the parsnips, so we used rice wine vinegar.

Parsnip Salad – makes 8 cups

6 parsnips, grated

½ turnip grated

½ cup grated carrot

3-4 chopped green onions

½ cup chopped celery

¼ cup chopped parsley

½ chopped red pepper

½ cup raisins

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup lemon juice

½ cup concentrated orange juice

2 tsp chopped garlic

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp salt

We also tried a buckwheat salad, that had possibilities but we decided that the buckwheat is too strong for a salad. If we make it again we're going to try it with millet instead. So here it is:

Millet Rice Salad – makes 4 cups

1 cup brown rice

¼ cup wild rice

1 cup millet

Cook grains. Cool. Add

¼ cup dried cranberries

¼ cup raw pecans

1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped

3 radishes, thinly sliced

2 green onions, chopped

Vinaigrette

2 TLB oil

1 TLB lemon juice

1 TLB soya sauce

2 TLB concentrated orange juice

They had a lot of tomatoes half price at the store today, so we ended up making a Greek Salad with chopped tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes. Cleaning out the fridge I discovered several cucumbers and a big bag of sugar snap peas so we also made a Marinated Asian Vegetable. We added the cucumbers to it even though the recipe didn't call for it, and used sugar snap peas instead of edamame. They look so pretty that even though I never put pictures on my blog, I have to today.

Friday

I went into work for a little bit this morning. Had a mouse greet me there - twice. I don't really care for that type of greeting; however would rather meet a mouse at work than at home. Frankly, I'd much prefer anyone else greet it than me though.

This next salad is really huge - because it's a layered salad, it's best made in an attractive bowl; it's a good one for potlucks. However it also tastes really good in a pita.

Layered Moroccan Salad Yield: 16 cups

1 ½ cups prepared chicken broth

1 ½ cups couscous (roasted garlic & olive oil)

Boil broth, add couscous and stir. Remove from heat. Let stand, covered, for about 5 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with fork. Transfer to extra-large glass bowl. Chill, uncovered, for about 30 minutes until cold. Combine the next 9 ingredients in medium bowl:

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup plain yogurt

¼ cup each chopped fresh mint & parsley

2 Tbsp liquid honey

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Add ½ mayonnaise mixture plus 540 ml can of lentils (rinsed and drained) to couscous. Stir and layer the next 5 ingredients in the order given and top with the remaining mayo mixture.

2 cups thinly sliced carrots

2 cups sliced English cucumber (with peel)

2 cups cherry tomatoes

Scatter with ½ cup each of dried apricot, dried cranberries & seeds or nuts. Serve with lettuce if desired.

This next one is a variation on your basic marinated vegetable salad, because it uses Asian vegetables and an Asian-type marinade as well. The original recipe called for edamame however it's not recommended for people with thyroid problems, as Ruth has, so we've substituted chickpeas, which we get for free anyway.

Marinated Asian Vegetable Salad

Yield: 9 cups

2 - 3 cups chick peas or edamame, cooked

398 ml can cut baby corn, drained

350 g package of firm tofu, cut into ½ inch cubes

1 cup baby carrots, halved lengthwise

1 cup celery, sliced diagonally

1 cup diced red pepper

1 cup grape tomatoes

1 cup snow peas, trimmed & halved

Dressing

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup canola oil

4 tsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp finely grated ginger root

1 Tbsp sugar (or substitute)

2 tsp chili paste

Marin

Thursday

Rachel had a good day yesterday; mostly sitting around - as there's a lot of that involved in being an extra for a TV show. Emmet and I enjoyed the morning together; we went to the farmer's market and the library and then his Friesen grandparents had him for the afternoon. It feels strange to have nothing in particular on my plate for today -but I'm sure I can handle it.

Here's the next two salads:

Marinated Vegetable Salad

1 bag mixed vegetables OR

1 small cauliflower cut

3 cups chopped broccoli

2 cups cherry tomatoes

2 cups celery cut in sticks

3 carrots cut in sticks OR 2 cups mini carrots

1 can mushrooms (the canned mushrooms work better because they don't blacken over time)

1 green pepper cut in strips or rings

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp chopped garlic

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 tbsp lime juice

The Greek salad is one of Ruth's favourites - mind you, I don't think you can ever go wrong with feta cheese and garlic. Feel free to add more feta; it kind of depends on how much cucumber you put in.

Greek Salad

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 or 2 diced English cucumbers

½ red onion cut in rings

½ cup diced feta cheese

1 can pitted black olives

1 diced red onion

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp chopped garlic

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 tbsp lime juice

Recipes for Wednesday

Bean Salad

1 can mixed beans

1 can green beans

1 can yellow beans

1 can baby corn (cut)

½ red onion chopped OR 1 jar marinated onions

1 chopped green pepper or red pepper

Drain all the cans, rinse the mixed beans.

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 tsp chopped garlic

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

¼ cup sugar or sugar replacement

We used to purchase a large (commercial size) container of low cal Italian dressing and used it on all of our salads for the vinaigrette, but we've found that we prefer to make our own salad dressings; they taste better and give each salad its own distinctive taste. We do purchase the 10 lb sack of red onions though, because we go through a lot of red onion.

Lentil and Black Bean Salad

1 can black beans

1 ½ cups cooked lentils

¾ cup corn

½ cup chopped red onions

½ cup green pepper

¼ cup parsley

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 ½ tsp Dijon mustard

1 ½ tsp cumin

1 garlic clove

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Babysitting

Rachel is going to be an extra in a movie today - they need pregnant women for a scene. So I'm babysitting Emmet for the day. We'll see how this goes. It may be a long day; on the other hand, it may go perfectly fine.

The next two recipes

Vegetable Pecan Salad

2 cups broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower florets

½ cup snow peas, trimmed

1 large red pepper, thinly sliced

3 green onions, sliced

Vinaigrette

½ cup canola oil

2 TLB red wine vinegar

2 TLB balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp ground coriander (optional)

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 cup pecan halves

This next salad is one of my personal favourites; we always make really big salads because we're splitting them at least three ways, plus serving them for potluck Sunday dinner, however this one can be easily halved:

Sweet Potato Black Bean Salad

Yield 12 cups

6 – 8 cups sweet potato, cooked and cubed

2 cups red pepper, chopped

2 x 540 ml can black beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup thinly sliced red onion

¼ cup parsley, chopped

Dressing

½ cup canola oil

¼ cup lime juice

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp sugar (or substitute)

1 tsp salt

2 small garlic cloves, minced or ¼ tsp powder

A good memory, but short

OK, we had a wind-up meeting for Mission 6:10 last night. I remembered it this morning. Oops! Oh well, I wasn't in town anyway; Bram and I had gone to Moose Jaw to visit my mother-in-law. She's doing ok; wasn't as with it as the last time we had visited. We had caught a ride with Ruth, who had to go on to Caronport to do some business with some friends there - so it was after 8:30 by the time we got back to Regina, and the meeting was at 7 pm, so I'm sorry I missed it.

Monday - already late July

Where has the time gone! Bram flies up to Yellowknife tomorrow, I think. I still don't have flight particulars.

Here's another salad recipe though - an old family favourite. Unfortunately, neither of my kids like coleslaw, but I can confidently state that it's one of Walter P's favourites.

Coleslaw Forever

1 bag coleslaw mix OR

½ bag coleslaw mix and

½ bag broccoslaw mix

Dressing

¾ cup vinegar (I like to use apple cider vinegar)

½ cup canola oil

3/8 cup sugar (or Splenda)

1 TLB salt

1 TLB celery seed

Mix dressing together; heat in microwave until sugar dissolves; pour over salad.

This salad mixes up well in an empty ice cream pail; it makes 1 gallon. It will keep for several weeks.

Actually, since neither of my kids like salads very much at all - I don't have much competition for the salads in the fridge. Here's another one that Ruth and I tweaked to make it our own:

Cauliflower Salad

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

3 apples, cored and diced

½ cup lemon juice

3 grated carrots

½ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup parsley, diced

3 green onions, chopped

Cut up cauliflower quite small; dice apples and turn in lemon juice to prevent browning. Add remaining ingredients. You can use whatever lemon juice is left over as part of the vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette

2 TLB lime juice

2 TLB red wine vinegar

½ cup canola oil

1 tsp garlic, minced

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 tsp Splenda

Fixed it!

I've got Skype working properly now - got the microphone to work (just changed the settings). This makes Rose happy. It's also much easier to visit that way.

Recipes 2 and 3

I think we had around 50 for lunch today - it's really hard to count when there's that many. However we did have the group that came up with the Steiners from Arkansas plus the Williams and the Kings, Friesens and the Pradzynskis; the Vance boys, etc. The salads went over very well. It was interesting though - different people liked different ones. I'm now up to 16 salad recipes - and Ruth and I realized that we didn't have our broccoli salad recipe typed up yet - so that will make it 17.

I'm busy IMing with Rose on Skype. Her microphone works but I can't seem to get mine to work, so she talks and I IM back. It's a good thing I type quickly.

OK, here's a salad we tried for the first time yesterday - and were very impressed. You can't tell it's not potato salad (and as I'm allergic to potato salad, I think it's a great recipe because I can eat it).

Fake-um Potato Salad (Cauliflower)

1 large head cauliflower or 2 small heads chopped small and steamed

4 hard boiled eggs, sliced

½ cup parsley chopped

3 green onions chopped

2 large dill pickles or 4 small dill pickles, chopped

2 stalks celery, sliced

4 radishes, chopped

Dressing

½ cup mayonnaise or salad dressing

¼ cup dill pickle juice

Because potato salad is obviously a summer salad, I'll do another salad as well:

Nutty Wild Rice Salad

3 cups cooked wild rice (I use a mixture of wild and brown rice – about 1:4)

1 cup cherry tomatoes

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

½ cup diced yellow pepper

1/3 cup chopped green onion

1/3 cup craisins

¼ cup coarsely chopped pecans

Raspberry Dressing

1/3 cup canola oil

3 TLB vinegar (I use rice vinegar)

2 TLB raspberry jam

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 minced garlic clove

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Saturday Salad Making

We made five salads again this morning - actually six, if you count the jello salad. However, in our effort to make all salads that we hadn't done in the last two weeks, we ended up making all marinated-type salads. In any case, we now have in individual cookbooks (little photo albums), fifteen different salad recipes. Today we made: Marinated Vegetable salad, Lentil Black Bean Salad, Fake-um Potato Salad made with Cauliflower, Bean Salad, and Greek Salad. We also made up a huge batch of Swedish Meatballs for potluck tomorrow, and Ruth made up some low carb chocolate banana cakes (also for potluck) and some lentil casserole. I will still make some lazy man's cabbage rolls (meatless ones because I'm not going out to purchase more meat when I still have lots of lentils on hand, and they're free!).

So, I figure I need to post at least one recipe at day for the next few weeks. For today:

Moroccan Chickpea Barley Salad

Cook Barley:

1.5 cups barley

1.5 cups chicken or veggie broth or water

1.5 cups water

1 tsp salt and canola oil

Combine cooked barley with:

1 - 15 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and strained

1 cup nuts or seeds (we usually use either slivered almonds or sunflower seeds)

1 cup diced dried apricots

2-3 chopped green onions

1 cup chopped parsley

zest and juice of one lemon

1 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 to 1.5 tsp curry powder

salt to taste

You'll notice this salad doesn't actually have a dressing or vinaigrette. It doesn't need one - keeps fine without it, and is very nice.

Combine