I didn’t have my camera so my phone had to suffice…

But we loved it, Caleb loved it, and we went home excited and in love with each other.

…. Then Caleb threw up. Not a lot, in fact the little pile is still behind me as I write this post but we calmed him down, stripped him naked to the bare buns and daddy and Caleb got in the tub together and took a bath. Now, if you ask me, that is what love is all about. Sure, its wonderful to have rose petals on a bed and candle-light dinners, a walk together holding hands and moments spent cuddling on the couch by a roaring fire. But those are the icing on the cake. Love means taking care of each other. Sticking by each other through life’s ups and downs, and most importantly picking partially digested beans out of your 14 month old’s hair

This is love. I love it. Every moment.

Fast forward to today. I can cook. Not the best in the world but I know my way around a kitchen very well. I can bake, stir fry, and follow any recipe (most of the time lol). Anyway, tonight I had to share the story of what I made tonight. If anyone doesn’t know, Quinoa is an amazing grain. Although it’s not truly a grain, read about it at Wikipedia here. It is a complete protein with high fiber content. It is gluten free, has tons of vitamins and minerals, basically it’s a guilt free way to get carbs!

Quinoa naturally has a slight earthy flavor that some do not care for but personally I enjoy the taste. It can be ground into flour and made into amazing pizza crust (see Melissa’s recipe here). Tonight I decided to experiment. I took a small serving of quinoa and cooked it in water but added vanilla and a small portion of cinnamon stick. Once it was cooked I sprinkled with sugar and mixed in some butter and almond milk…. it was simply AMAZING! There was no usual quinoa flavor and it was like eating rice pudding but so much healthier!

I failed to take pictures not thinking it would be worthy of a blog post but the next time I will and will post them! The essential recipe is as follows:

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cinnamon stick
Dash of salt

Bring the water to a boil and add the quinoa. Add the vanilla, cinnamon stick and salt (if desired). Reduce heat to low and simmer covered until the water is gone. (Quinoa cooks about as quickly as white rice – probably 20-25 minutes)

Serve hot with butter, sugar, and milk (or even better, vanilla almond milk!)

It’s amazing, so yummy and pretty close to guilt-free! And at least it’s not blue!

One thing I have difficulty with at times is the ability to multi-task. (I’ll try to explain this with as little “geek speak” as I can – I promise!) In the course of a single hour, I can literally take 2 or 3 dozen calls (we call them tickets) all about something completely different than the previous calls. It means that I have to continually switch gears in my mind often mid-stream on solving another problem. Imagine having 3 different problems all in various stages of solving and as you get about half-way through each one, another few come in and you have to leave those first couple and fix the new ones as quickly as possible and then remember where you left off on the previous problems. Then you get a few more minutes into those before another half-dozen calls come in and you start the process all over again. Yeah, that was my week. Then I volunteered to work the weekend to help with an upgrade of hardware at one of our centers and although it went very smoothly, my brain decided it was done – in fact at one point earlier in the week I believe I saw it get up and run screaming out of my office, down the hallway and out the back door to who knows where. It finally returned later that day… I think…

Anyway, back to my day off. I decided that Melissa and I were in need of some quality time together today and use some vacation time to take the day off. It was amazing. It’s proof like I spoke about in my previous post “Connected or Disconnected” that reconnecting does not require anything elaborate or expensive. We asked my mom if she’d come over and watch Caleb for a few hours while we got out of the house together and just hung out. It wasn’t anything spectacular (other than Melissa looked AMAZING because she got all fixed up and was stunning! Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my beard ) We got a cheap lunch at Whole Foods, went on to look for a new purse for her at Ross, went to Sunflower market to get a couple things, went to Starbucks to get a couple drinks, picked up a laptop from another blogger who was having trouble with it to help her out, and finally to Wal-Mart to return a duplicate gift and get Melissa some makeup.

You wouldn’t think it was a date, but for us it kinda was. It was special to just be together doing something that for us is relaxing and enjoyable. I loved every moment  and cherished the time together without Caleb although we both missed him and loved coming back home to his grins and giggles.

There is nothing like being a parent. You can never get enough of your children and yet you need time away too just to reconnect and remember what being married is all about. It’s not always sunshine and roses and candle lit dinners but even a trip to Wal-Mart can be fun when you’re together. So I urge fellow parents out there – get out of the house together this week, just the two of you. If you can find a babysitter do it and even if you just go to your favorite coffee shop and get hot tea (the cheapest date you can get at a coffee shop!) just sit and chat or play one of the many board games they have there… or bring your own…. or go to Wal-Mart and buy your wife a tube of lipstick… I promise she’ll love it!