When Time Flies

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms (including pet-moms!) out there :)

Noah will be 18 in July, which means I have been a mom for nearly 18 years now. I was working at Curves when I got pregnant with Noah and I chatted with lots of middle-aged women all day. They all told me the same thing: "Time will FLY BY once you have kids. Make sure you cherish every moment!" And of course, I promised I would.

And then I blinked and Noah was 17 years old. And now I'm the middle-aged woman telling new moms that time flies when you have kids, cherish every moment while you can. My friend Jack sent me this quote and I thought it applied to parenting more than anything else:

As a new parent, you have no clue what you're doing. You just kind of go with the flow and then wish you did things differently! Hahaha. Then you share your wisdom/experience with other new parents who wind up doing the same thing and learning the same lesson.

Anyway, I decided to go through some pictures today and I saved a bunch of the kids and me from throughout the years, so I'll post them here. (I won't caption them because there are probably way too many, but it's crazy to see how fast these years have gone by.)

Keep in mind these are the "fun parts" of being a mom. I don't want to try to paint a picture-perfect life as a mom. In between all these pictures were many tears, worry, self-doubt, arguments, the "terrible twos" and "teenage hormones", and many heartbreaks. But these moments make all of that worth it!

Here are a few photos of my mom and me as well. I regret not having lots of photos with her, but like a lot of moms, she was usually the one taking pictures or she didn't like having her photo taken. She has always been extremely supportive and helpful as I navigated being a mom myself. I don't know how I would have done raising the boys if not for her help! 

When I first got pregnant, I imagined having a little girl and I was so excited about it. I don't want to say I was disappointed when the ultrasound showed a boy, because having a little boy would be fun, too. But wow, I had no idea just how much fun! After having Noah, when I got pregnant again, I was REALLY hopeful that it would be another boy. And after Eli, I had no desire to "try for a girl". I've never been a girly-girl, so it's probably best I didn't have a daughter to raise ;) 

My boys are amazing. They have completely opposite personalities, but one thing they have in common is that they are just plain ol' "good kids" in general--the kind of kids that parents hope their own kids will befriend or even date one day. I am so lucky to be their mom and I couldn't be more proud of the young men that they are today!

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VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Sticky Baked BBQ Tempeh Strips

When I started eating vegan in January, I swore I wasn't going to start eating all sorts of "weird" stuff that I had associated with a vegan diet--including tempeh. Tempeh is basically soybeans that have been fermented and compressed. For someone who is not at all used being around it, it was in the "weird" category. However, I love to try new things! So if I liked it, awesome. If not, at least I tried.

I had no idea what to do with it or how to cook it or if it even needed to be cooked, etc. I saw a recipe for BBQ tempeh strips and considering there was sauce all over the tempeh, I figured it would be a good one to start with. The sauce could hide the not-so-appetizing-looking tempeh. Here is where you can find the recipe: Sticky Baked BBQ Tempeh Strips by Feed Your Beauty. (I'll link to it again at the end of the post.) As I like to do, I made it exactly as-written so that I'm reviewing the actual recipe as intended.

First, the tempeh. This is what it looks like in the package.

When I hear the word "fermented" I automatically think that it has an overwhelmingly pungent smell. I was preparing myself for cutting it open. When I opened it, however, there was no smell at all. Even right up to my nose--it didn't smell like anything. I was really surprised!

The recipe said to rinse it well, so that's what I did. Then I got out the ingredients for the tempeh strips as well as the homemade barbecue sauce from the same site (there is a link to it in the actual recipe). The recipe also states that you can use store-bought barbecue sauce, but why not try the homemade one?

The two recipes (tempeh strips and barbecue sauce) used these ingredients: tempeh, tamari or liquid aminos, garlic, onion powder, tomato paste, maple syrup, molasses, apple cider vinegar, ground mustard, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and chili powder. (Not pictured: garlic and maple syrup. My brain was somewhere else while I was gathering ingredients.)

I actually had molasses in my pantry from when I was doing the heritage series, and I just never ended up using it. So I was interested to use it--I'd never used or even tasted molasses on its own before. It tasted like burned honey to me; Jerry agreed that was a good description.

First, you add the tempeh to the pan and barely cover with water. Add a little liquid aminos, garlic, and onion powder. Then I let it simmer for 10 minutes, per the instructions. 

I set that aside with 1/4 cup of the cooking water to "marinate" (the recipe said for about 15-20 minutes). I really was skeptical at this point. It didn't look even a little bit appetizing. But... I have a very open mind!

While it was marinating, I made the barbecue sauce. I love using mason jars to make sauces. It's so easy to throw the ingredients in there and shake it up. 

I tasted the sauce after mixing it and unfortunately, I wasn't a fan. The tomato paste and molasses were the dominant flavors. So, I decided to put that sauce on a few of the strips and use my trusty Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce on the rest. I didn't want to dislike the recipe just because of the sauce.

Once I had the sauce done, I removed the tempeh to a cutting board and cut it into 10-11 slices. Then I set it on a baking dish lined with foil. Bake for 10 minutes. Brush with the sauce. Bake for another 12-15 minutes. Done.

I don't know what I expected, but the tempeh looked exactly the same from package to plate. I was kind of hoping the sauce would hide the tempeh better (if not for me, then for the family when they tasted it!).

I don't know why, then, I was surprised when I cut into a slice and it still looked exactly the same (just covered in sauce). I'm always open-minded about trying new things, so I hoped it would taste better than it looked.

The verdict: I actually really liked the tempeh itself! Again, not a big fan of the barbecue sauce; however, I could get on board with the tempeh and try it with other recipes. The texture reminded me of chickpeas (something that I eat a lot of). I didn't used to like the texture of chickpeas--being firmer than other beans--but I got used to them and I really like them now. I felt like the taste of the tempeh was kind of nutty and not super strong (a good thing, at least in my opinion). It definitely tasted better than I was expecting!

Time to ask the family:

Jerry: "The flavor isn't too bad, but it doesn't taste how you expect it to when you look at it." I thought this was very accurate!

Noah: "No. No. No. The texture!" I thought he may actually spit out that bite--it looked like he was having a hard time swallowing, haha.

Eli: "No, I don't like it. The texture is gross."

I had a feeling the kids weren't going to like it, and I don't think that should reflect poorly on the recipe itself. It's the opinion of two meat-eating teenagers. They said the sauce was "fine"--that it tasted like barbecue sauce, but not as good as Sweet Baby Ray's. The sauce did taste better to me after baking it, but I still wasn't crazy about it enough to save the leftovers.

I tasted the tempeh strips that I'd put the Sweet Baby Ray's sauce on and there wasn't a big difference. I think it's because the tempeh itself didn't have any barbecue flavor. It tasted separate, if that makes any sense at all. If I rinsed off the barbecue sauce, you would probably never know it was on there because it didn't get absorbed into the tempeh. It's like with chickpeas again--they don't absorb flavor, but if you eat them in a sauce, you get the texture of a chickpea and flavor of the sauce. (This may be characteristic of tempeh and not just this particular recipe. A quick google search didn't really give me a definitive answer.)

So, while I didn't love this particular recipe, it definitely opened up my eyes to tempeh and I would like to experiment with it again.

Again, you can find the recipe here: Sticky Baked BBQ Tempeh Strips by Feed Your Beauty.

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Friday Night Photos

Rain and baseball. That's what the past three days have been. I can't get over this "spring" weather--it hasn't been this cold in May for as long as I can remember. When in the car, we go from heat to air conditioning and back to heat in a single day; at home, we go from heat to windows open to closing the windows for rain, and heat again when it's too cold in the late afternoon. At Eli's baseball games this year, I've been wearing long underwear under my clothes as well as a hat and gloves. In May! It's crazy.

Anyway, this weekend has started out very poorly...

After two and a half years of managing to avoid it, COVID has reached our household.

Jerry is the only one who has it (or who is symptomatic, anyway), so hopefully it stays that way. He took tests Wednesday and Thursday--both were negative. This morning, his symptoms were worse and I told him to try another test. It showed up as positive almost instantly.

All four of us are vaccinated and boostered, so I hope that his symptoms don't get any worse. He has a cough, very stuffy nose, body aches, mild fever. He won't have to go to work until next Friday, so right now he's just sleeping a lot. It's crazy how he managed to avoid it for so long, even when it was at its peak and he was still working all through the pandemic.

Anyway... Eli asked me to take some pictures of him at his game earlier this week and when I was looking through them, I couldn't believe it was my kid. He's SO grown-up! It was funny--a couple of kids from the other team asked him if he plays football and he said no. They said he looks like he lifts weights, haha. He is taking time off of lifting until baseball is over because he has practice or a game every single day. But I can't believe how much the lifting changed his body in such a short time frame.

Check this out... a 10 year difference:

That year, in his gray shirt, he chose number 11 because it was my favorite number. The sweetest kid ever!

We have baby squirrels!! I'm so excited and they are SO stinkin' cute. It's hard to see their size without something to compare it to (and it's hard to get pictures of them because they move so fast and all over the place). They look like adult squirrels, just in miniature form. There are four of them and they chase each other all over the tree, wrestling and going out on limbs that just look way too small for them. 

They all stop and stare, still and wide-eyed, as their mom comes to get food to bring to them. This morning, mom was coming down the tree with all four babies following in a single file line behind her. My heart melted.

In this picture below, you can kind of see their size in comparison to mom. She's on the far right.

I thought it was interesting that Duck sleeps with his eyes open sometimes. In this picture, you can clearly see his eye, but he was sound asleep. I thought he was watching me as I was moving around the living room, but his eyes weren't moving. You can see a shift in his eyes when he wakes up--from vacant to "Oh, hello there". It's kind of creepy!

I gave myself a haircut and it feels a millions times better. (It looks bad in these pictures because I'd had it pulled up while it dried, so there are lumps from the hair ties, but you get the idea.) The top of it was looking so weighed down, and I just spontaneously cut it when I got out of the shower. It doesn't look like a big difference, but it feels SO short now. I'm glad I can still pull it into a messy bun (just barely, though!).

Joey on our walk Wednesday morning. I kind of miss doing this route with him. I'm going to make it a point to do it more often.

The cats have been getting so much attention ever since Duck's surgery in December. I laid on the couch a few nights ago and instead of letting all the cats sleep on me, I let Joey crawl up on my lap (he's there, he's just hard to see!). He loved the extra attention--I think he felt special that he got priority over the cats.

Eli asked me to buy him Lunchables when I went grocery shopping. They're like $2.50 each and you barely get any food in them--certainly not enough for an active teenage boy. I put together these ones for him and it made me so nostalgic for when the kids were little and I packed their lunches. When they went back to school during the pandemic, lunch was free for everyone. Eli started eating school lunch ever since (by choice, not because I made him). Now he says he's sick of school food; I'm happy that I can pack lunches again! (I never thought I'd say that)

When we went to my parents' house on Sunday, Noah played with Luke and Riley. He's SO GOOD with them! I always thought it would be Eli who was great with kids, but Noah chased them all over the house and the kids had a blast with him. I love seeing all of them play together.

Noah got a haircut yesterday, thankfully. I feel like I have to explain because of the way his hair looks in pictures, haha. He's been growing it out so he just had the sides cut and the top trimmed. I'm not a fan of the long hair, but I'm just an old-fashioned mom I guess ;)

Finally, a picture of Phoebe enjoying the one random nice day we've had. She rolled around on the concrete and lay in the sun. She loved it! I take her outside a couple of times a day for about 10-15 minutes because it's the only thing that she seems to really look forward to. She perks up so much after being out there. 

And that's all I've got. Have a great weekend!

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