Rafe's girls

Black Bean Soup and Cranberry Scones

2 lbs of black beans, soaked 24 hours

1/3 cup bacon fat

6 sm. to med. onions, diced

1 bunch celery, diced

equal amount of carrots, diced

3 bay leaves

2 tsp chile powder

2 tsp annato, ground

2 tsp ground thyme

1-2 tbsp ground cumin

1/2 lb. diced ham

several swirls of molasses

6 cubes chipotle bouillon 

home made chicken stock

canned chicken stock

juice and fat from breakfast sausage

Cook till tender and mash with a blender in the pot.  Served with cornbread muffins and garnish with cilantro, cheese and greek yogurt.  The amounts are approximate on most items...I didn't really measure.  The soup didn't need salt or pepper because of the salt from the other ingredients. The molasses really mellowed the soup; I blended it in the pot with a hand blender when it was finished.  

 Amelia and her little friends making cranberry scone dough with me. 

Olivia's Morning Chores

Olivia is one of my best little helpers.  She loves being useful around the house and doing chores.  She also helps with laundry and cleaning up her toys.  

Amelia's first fried egg

Amelia wanted to make her own breakfast yesterday, so we had a lesson on fried eggs.  I like mine 

without the browned edges, but she knew what she wanted and went for it!  She says she likes the face her eggs made.  So proud of my little 6 year old chef!

Imagine my surprise...

to walk into the living room and see this:  

I never thought when I had a girl that I would have a house full of rocks, leaves, dirt, clay, sticks, bugs and lizards, and jeans with holes in them after only a few months.  She found this outside and brought it in.  Just left it laying around.  Niiiiiiiiice.  I love my nature girl, but this will take some getting used to!

"UH OH! OOOOPSIE!"

I was in another room and heard Olivia say very distinctly, "UH OH!!! OOOOPSIE!"  I laughed to myself, thinking how clear and cute it sounded, so appropriate, as if she had done something wrong..... oh... wait, where is she?!  So I went and had a look at what she was doing. 

Dad was painting the downstairs bathroom for me and Olivia was diligently watching him all day.  She managed to contain herself until almost the end of the night.  She snagged one of Amelia's pencils and decided to climb on top of the ladder and do a little decorating herself.  

Looks like we'll be repainting again.  

Bundle of Energy

I took these videos the night Rafe left for deployment.  We sat around the fire all day escaping from the cold and wet rain outside. Looking at Olivia running around made me think of how much I wished I had seen a video like this when she was born.  I could not have imagined at that time how much she would be able to do.  Not only was she born with Prader-Willi Syndrome, but the additional birth trauma left her so motionless for so long that it was a celebration if she just turned her own head.  Now sometimes I can't catch her if she decides to run around the "loop" of the kitchen/dining room/livingroom/hall of the house!  

Emotionally Exhausted

This is the first thing the girls did when we came home after dropping Daddy off.  

They both stayed there for quite a while.

Scenes from a Leave-Taking: The Final Goodbye