Three Course Meal

So today I thought I would be pro-active and make a nice healthy dinner for the family. I thought I’d include the boys in this project to get them used to being in the kitchen. We started out making strawberry-lemonade.
 
We washed and pureed the strawberries and juiced the lemons. All was going well until I took out the box of sugar. Both boys wanted to pour it in, which of course means, a struggle started out. Only this one ended with one of my Magic Bullet cups crashing to the floor and of course; cracking. Foul One.
Next up I started making dinner. Cut up onions, sautéed it in in olive oil, braised carrots and then the roast. Transferred the roast to the Crockpot, and continued adding the red wine to help pick up all of the drippings. Started the timer and let the Crockpot do the rest. No foul yet.
I thought I’d bake some apple bread to eat as a yummy, somewhat healthy dessert. The lady at Trader Joes told me its even more scrumptious if I added a crumb topping. Googled that. Prepped it and added it to the top of my bread dough. Only I forgot how much bread dough rises. And with butter and brown sugar on top… I was watching it, praying please don’t spill over…

Too late. My oven was a disaster.

Ninety percent of that crap on the bottom of my oven came from the apple bread. I kept trying to wipe it off, hoping it wouldn’t rise and bubble anymore and that darn thing just kept rising, bubbling, and spilling out. Foul two.
After an hour of running to the oven because I could smell more burnt disaster, I decided to check on the roast. It was at this point I discovered that in my haste earlier I had set it to “Warm”, not “High.” Who puts these controls together? Off, Low, High and then Warm?? I just turned the knob all the way to the right without actually reading it. AGH!!!           Foul three.
So my men ended up eating. 
If you look closely in the upper right hand corner it says it can be ready in 5 minutes.
This was about as much as I could handle at this point.
And you thought I was going to show you some gourmet meal, didn’t you?

~mrs. dunbar

So not PB, but an improvement

When Monkey was born we got a glider. I loved it for the most part. It is so comfy and I have spent hours upon hours upon hours with my babies in it. After four years the color has slightly been tinged and has gotten so dirty. So I tried my hand at changing it up a bit.

These are the colors of Bogie’s room.

It’s an improvement and I’m enjoying see the new burst of color.

Upon uploading the photos, I realized I need to add some stitching to the back.  Such is life.

Now, I’ve got to get my pre-schooler dressed. He’s telling me to get off the computer with pictures of his baby chair…

~mrs. dunbar

Friday Moment

It’s tough being two.

Hoping everyone has a fabulous weekend.

We are going to try and turn Bogie’s frown upside down.

~mrs. dunbar

What’s your title?

Last weekend as Mr. Dunbar was ordering our delectable breakfast from the little cafe with freshly squeezed OJ, I was snapping pictures. The family right next to me was pretty enamored with what I was doing.

So  when I was done clicking, I smiled, said “Good Morning.”  This was the gateway to a conversation:

The husband to me “Getting decorating ideas?”

Me to him: “Nope, just snapping some shots of my husband and this cute cafe. We’re only here for the weekend.”

Him to me: “Oh really? Where are you all from?”

Me to him and now his very interested wife: “California.”

At this point Mr. Dunbar walked up and right out introduced himself, he’s friendly like that.

The husband asked us about California and if its really as bad as the media makes it sound, he and Mr. Dunbar talked shop, and then the husband turned to me and asked, “And what do you do?”

HUH?

I thought quickly and then mumbled, “I’m a mom… and a wife.”

No title.

I feel or have felt the need to always answer that question with, “Well I stay home now, but I am a teacher; an educator of young minds.” Or “I was  a teacher, elementary school, with a Master’s Degree!!”  Justification.

This one question has been rearing itself in my brain ever since. What do I “do”? Job title? Profession?  Well let’s see… I do laundry, lots of laundry, I wash dishes, wipe noses and butts, I take care of owies and teach the ABC’s (including Phoneme isolation, Phoneme identity, Oral segmenting, Oral blending and Onset-rime manipulation; ie teacher mumbo jumbo)  I’m a chauffeur, and a cook,  an Outlook calendar, and correspondence representative. I’m raising men; God-honoring future leaders of homes, families, and companies. (Although I am only the co-director of that last segment.) I’m also a help-meet, a lover, sometimes ironer, dry-cleaners picker-upper, errand runner, money spender, and family budgetier. Well, kind of.

Self given titles like Happy Housewife have crossed my mind. Or even Domestic Engineer. That demands respect, right? Or perhaps CEO of Dunbar’s Inc.?  Yes, that’s what I am! Well, okay, not really.

But honestly the only title I want is “Homemaker.” 

I want to create the place where my men feel at rest, where my kids know they get to play mud Cake Party in their new $1 pails from Michaels, get to eat a freshly baked brownie, and know that mom is just down the hall when they have a fever and diarrhea. I want my husband to come home to a homemade healthy dinner, clean clothes, wine in the fridge, and a good night kiss. (Even though I’ve blown it BIG TIME this week.)

Being a homemaker means that I am in charge of making this place a home, a haven. There is no boss coming in and out of here, checking to make sure that I am meeting my goals and that my objectives are clearly marked. No reports showing results as ‘Exceeded, Met or Not Met.’ There is little to no feedback and my results won’t show for another 10 or 15 or 20 years.   But my hope above all hopes is that when I see my true boss face to face, or more like my face to His feet, He will say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”  And perhaps some day before that “Her children arise and call her blessed;  her husband also, and he praises her.” Now that is a goal that takes a lifetime.

But as for titles, I think “Homemaker” will work just fine.

That’s what I {strive] to do.

~mrs. dunbar

Another weekend away…

Mr. Dunbar and I flew out for a weekend of work and fun, without the boys.

I could not get a decent picture of the two of us.

Monkey wants to know, “Where’s Daddy’s head?”

We ate lots of good food. I went to this sandwich shop twice, it was so good. I seriously gained 5 pounds in three days, the food was that good. 

We met up with Mr. Dunbar’s cousin, Dr. Jamie for an evening out on the town. She ordered me up a few really tasty glasses of wine and Mr. Dunbar enjoyed some brewskies.

Dr. Jamie, isn’t that such a sweet face?

Wouldn’t you want someone like this taking care of you? She is like brilliant smart.

The next morning we had breakfast at this great spot. Everything was made from scratch.  Do you see those orange juice bottles? Freshly squeezed, like 5 minutes before.

I had waffles dredged in creamy custard, loaded up with bananas in the center and topped off with strawberries. They were yummy.

Took a drive out to the country.

This was what it looked like out my plane window just after take off on the way home.

 

Any ideas where we went?

~mrs. dunbar

The All American Camera Man

Monkey was the class helper this week at school.

He got to hold the flag and lead the class in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was so sweet listening to him and all of his classmates recite it.

But his favorite part of the day was showing off what he brought in the share bag:

his camera.

He told the class how “it used to be his Mom’s, but now its his. He’s had it for 32 years and it can hold 85 pictures. But he doesn’t like taking pictures of his family, he’d rather take pictures of his animals.” And then he proceeded to show everyone a picture of his animals that he had lined up on his bed during nap time.

This kid really does get some great shots. Hmmm, maybe he gets it from me.

Have a great day.

~mrs. dunbar

Vegas Baby, Days 2 & 3

The kids woke up on the second morning and starting running from room to room.

Zoe branded Bogie with her mark. See below.

  Then she decided to be the Concierge.  She holds the phone like a lady already.

Monkey was bored with that game. He wanted to go do something.

  So we packed the family up and took the monorail down to another hotel to check out fish. Who knew Vegas had so many animal exhibits?  This was the coolest fish in the entire exhibit. He was so bright and blue with a fun personality. Is that possible?

    Another fuzzy family picture.

We had lunch at the Buffett in Mandalay Bay. It was fabulous. We had the best server who didn’t even blink when sodas and juice were spilling, food was dropping, and strollers were in the way. He had five kids. That’s going to be our prevailing question from now on, “Do you have any servers with kids? We’d like to be seated in their section please.”

This time when we walked past the lion in our hotel he was sleeping over the tunnel.

All 550 pounds of it.

 

After this we headed to the pool for the afternoon, before my BIL and SIL went to to dinner. Mr. Dunbar and I took the kids down to the Food Court with my In-Laws, just for extra man-power.

Can you find my escape artist in the first picture below?

Then Mr. Dunbar and I headed out for a night on the town. We saw “Ka” a Cirque du Soleil show. It is amazing what those performers can do with their bodies. Afterwards we had Fish and Chips at New York New York.  We were in bed by 11pm.

Day 3

Monkey checking out our souvenir photo from the night before.  

Laying out by the pool.

Since the boys weren’t able to play all of the “fancy games,”upstairs in the casino,  Mr. Dunbar took them down to the arcade to waste some money and win some prizes.

 

And finally, the reason for this whole trip…

Mr. Dunbar’s brother graduated with his Master’s degree in Nursing. He’s now a Nurse Practitioner and can write me prescriptions for Vicodin or something…

And because these two always take their picture together…

We had a nice dinner at the Paris Hotel.  (Is that what it’s called? The one with the Eiffel Tower?) I was exhausted and didn’t take one photo. That’s when you know it was time to head home.

And that my friends, is The Dunbar Family Trip of 2010.