hilarity, insomnia, and vegetarian recipes

i love penguins !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Savie

"Do you think my writing is small?"

"Did you say, do I think your writing smells, or do I think it is small?"

"Small."

"Why would your writing smell?"

"SMALL! Is my writing SMALL!"

"I don't think it smells."

"MOM!!! I am going to kick you!" She marches over and literally kicks me in the shin as I am cracking up and grab her to stop her.

"You can not kick! Seriously." I gave her a joking swat on the bottom, laughing, and then fell over.

Maybe you had to be there... but it was hilarious!!! (She typed the penguin message up top.) We had a fun dinner at Panera Bread and talked about things like school, boys, etc. Sam is doing so much better in basketball even though he's the shortest on the team. They played a game yesterday against all these extremely tall players - it could have been the NBA! Needless to say, they lost like 74 to 1. Oh well... Savannah will be 13 soon and is starting to like boys, it's so cute. I ask her questions and give her a hard time and she hits me ;) But she hugs me more than she hits me so I'm in good shape. So far. Usually.

I've been struggling with insomnia since I got back from Nepal but last night I took melatonin and it worked. I think I'll take half a pill tonight. Then nothing tomorrow. I want to make sure I don't toss and turn all night, which just utterly sucks... but I hate taking medication of any kind. You're talking to a woman who had two babies without any medication!! Melatonin is a natural substance produced in our bodies, but taking excess amounts is probably not a good thing and definitely not something I want to rely on for sleep!

On another note, I'm finishing reading Henri Nouwen's The Return of the Prodigal Son, which is a stunningly beautiful, powerful and amazing book that recounts his encounter with the Rembrandt painting and how he relates the stages of his life to the characters in it, which are the characters from the Biblical parable of the same name from Luke 15:11-32.

In the chapter on the Father, which represents God, Nouwen says,

"Here is the God I want to believe in: a Father who, from the beginning of creation, has stretched out his arms in merciful blessing, never forcing himself on anyone, but always waiting; never letting his arms drop down in despair, but always hoping that his children will return so he can speak words of love to them and let his tired arms rest on their shoulders. His only desire is to bless.

In Latin, to bless is benedicere, which means literally: saying good things. The Father wants to say, more with his touch than with his voice, good things of his children. He has no desire to punish them. They have already been punished excessively by their own inner and outer waywardness."

I especially love the Latin description of "to bless,"because it's a lesson I've been working on with my daughter, to teach her to say positive things to others rather than to criticize. I tell her that there is really never a need to say anything negative unless there is either a need to set a boundary, or to teach someone something and it needs to be done in love (Speak the truth in love). I never realized until now that the word to bless meant saying good things. I like that.

I'm looking for good vegetarian recipes so if anyone knows any send them my way!! I'm recently reverted back to vegetarianism, and just don't have a lot of good wholesome recipes. Send 'em on over! Let me tell you, the kids, carnivores that they are, are just thrilled by this!

"You're not a very good vegetarian," Savannah said to me tonight.
"Why?" I asked.
"You eat meat all the time!" she replied.
"I just started!"I said.
"You are NOT going to become a vegetarian, I'm not going to let you!"

This is going well... ;)