Frijoles Negros

This recipe is for Eryn. It's my version of Cuban black beans and rice.

Ingredients:
2 16 oz. cans of Goya black beans
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 finely chopped onion
1/3 finely chopped green pepper (optional)
1 garlic clove finely chopped
3 tbs red wine vinegar (necessary)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin (also necessary)
1/4 tsp pepper

Method:
Heat olive oil in a medium size sauce pan. Cook onions, green peppers and garlic over medium heat for a few minutes until onions are soft and clear. Add black beans and the remaining ingredients. Lower heat. Mix black beans well and let them simmer for about ten minutes or until the rice is finished cooking in your other pot :D

Serve it over white rice. Sometimes we eat this as a complete meal. Other times I will also make some sort of Cuban style meat to go with it. As you will find out from this recipe, Cuban food is not spicy at all. It is salty. Cumin is the main spice that you use in many of their dishes. Bon apetit or shall I say "buen provecho".

Google Reader

Enoch introduced me to the wonderful world of Google reader. It's great. All you do is plug in everyone's RSS feed and you're set to go! There's nothing too fancy looking about it, but it allows you to keep up with as many blogs as you can handle, without having to click through links one by one and without cluttering your own blog space. On the left they have all of your subscriptions. The newly updated ones are bold and have the number of new posts in parentheses. When you click on the blog you want to read, it pops up on the right. So if you want to, you can read all the updates without leaving the one website. Of course you can play around with things, change them up if you want. You can put a star on posts that you want to keep handy or share others that are cool. Check it out today, it's as easy as reader.google.com!

Travels

Last Thursday we drove to Philadelphia for that boy's funeral. We went up and back in one day. The kids are still kind of recovering. The funeral was not nearly as upsetting as I thought it would be, given the circumstances. Yes, there were tears shed and yes, there was sorrow, but among everyone there was an underlying sense of peace. Even among the parents. I think it was a relief to know that Lucas had made a profession of faith in Christ and his life proved it. It's sad to realize that we won't get to enjoy him on earth, but right now he's with the Lord and that is wonderful.

This coming Tuesday we'll be driving 9 hours to Michigan. Enoch's cousin is graduating from Medical School. We're both a little apprehensive about it. This will be our first big car trip with the three kiddos. I'm taking Tabitha to the doctor's tomorrow to see if she has an ear infection. She's had a fever two nights in a row and was complaining about her ear today. So, it is quite possible that we won't even make it up there. So much for the hand washing habit!

Newberry Challenge

I'm planning on participating in this Newberry book challenge. The idea is to read six Newberry books between May 15 until the end of the year. I always plan on starting things, so I'll let you know if I actually finish this one or not! Anyway, go here to read about the challenge and sign yourself up.

Here's my list of books:

1. 1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
2. 1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
3. 1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
4. 1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
5. 1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
6. 1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)

I also want to read Rules by Cynthia Lord. It wasn't a Newberry medal winner, but an honor book.

The Writing on the Wall

The other day Seth wrote on the wall for the first time. That is a serious offense in our house. I don't think he'll be doing that any time soon again! Another serious offense is lying. Tabitha is not learning her lesson as easily!

Anyway, he wrote with chalk, so it was pretty easy to clean up. The two times that Tabitha colored on our colorless wall it was with crayon. After trying every cleaner in the house and failing I did some research. It came off almost effortlessly with this little trick. Take a damp rag and dip it in baking soda. Rub away and it's gone! (I believe that's the secret ingredient in the Magic Eraser that they sell).

Sad News

About an hour ago I received a phone call from a friend of mine. Her first words were, "Michelle, I have some sad news for you." I was sure I knew what that news was. Something I'm kind of expecting to here at any time. You see, the woman who called me is from the church I went to in Philadelphia. Her husband is in his late 80's. They've been married for over 60 years. Over the past few years his health has been slowly, but steadily deteriorating. She recently told me that he was in the hospital with heart trouble and his memory was fading. So, when I heard those words out of her mouth, I was prepared to hear that Harry passed on. My heart broke when she said, "Lucas Santos died". WHAT!!?? Lucas? He's so young. Here's his story:

Lucas is the youngest of three children. He was going to have his 13th birthday shortly. I remember him as a rascally 2 year old running around church. I don't remember how old he was, but at a fairly young age he accepted Christ as his Savior. Shortly afterwards he wanted to be baptised and so he was. There was even a family at the meeting who left the assembly, because they thought he was too young to be baptised. In retrospect, I can see the Lord's hand in it. Fast forward to this week, he got in trouble a couple of times at his Christian school. His father told him to go to his bedroom and spend the weekend there. He told him that he loves him and that's why he had to punish him. Later his sister peeked in to see what he was doing and found him hanging from his top bunk with a belt around his neck. His father took him down and he was still breathing. He tried to revive him for 10 minutes. The doctors tried again later. He didn't make it. The woman who called me is very gracious, she's convinced that Lucas just wanted to see or wanted to scare his family, but that he didn't mean to take his own life. Please keep this family in your prayers, as you other parents may have a glimpse of how dreadful this must be.

A Confession

Just this past weekend I made a conscience decision to have the kids wash their hands before every meal. I didn't realize how infrequently the kids were doing so. They have had A LOT of sicknesses over the past two winters. I want to see if I can make a difference with this act. There's a short article from the MayoClinic about hand washing. To read it click here. The concept is simple and it's being displayed in public bathrooms everywhere: Wash your hands to prevent germs from infecting you!

I hate admitting this for two reasons. I don't want people to think I'm gross for not having implementing this habit sooner. Also, I don't really want to think that it's been my fault that my kids have gotten so many colds. I guess that's what makes this a confession. :D