Savoring the little moments

Our sweet little middle child turns three this week.  Unbelievable.  Greg and I joke a lot that we can’t wait for our kids to grow up and go to college so that we can have our lives back again.  Ha!  I think any parent that has experienced time with multiple small children can empathize with this feeling.  But the truth is, where has the time gone?  Maggie is my Peru timeline.  I got pregnant with her shortly after we arrived and she has played a major role in this “Peru book” of my life.  I don’t know Peru without this girl.  I will blog more specifically about her later this week, but I wanted to record a moment that happened tonight that I know I will cherish.

One of the interns this summer brought my girls some Disney movies they had never seen.  Classics like Lion King and The Little Mermaid.  I absolutely love how well our girls play together right now.  In getting ready for bed, Ana stopped and said, “Maggie, you want to show Momma what we did?  When you were the witch and I am Ariel?”  I thought to myself, “This should be good.”

All of a sudden, Ana started singing the Ariel “Ahhh-Ahh-Ahhhh…” tune.  Maggie, my little almost-three-year-old, says in a deep voice, “Sing for me!”  It was hilarious.  They were lovin’ it.  Maggie even had her hand up close to Ana’s mouth so that it looked like she was stealing her voice out of her.  I love that they play so well.

Little moments like these happen all of the time.  I take them for granted.  I guess with Maggie’s birthday approaching, it has really hit me how fast the time really does fly.  I look at Ana, the baby I brought to Peru, and she is tall, eager to soak in whatever is around her, and the big sister to two younger siblings.  Maggie is training to star as the next Ursula, she speaks Spanish, and she has become the family clown.  Cohen is walking around, going over toward his sisters to cuddle and give them hugs, and is able to call us by name.  Oh my.  Slow down.  I don’t want to lose the little moments, but I know I eventually will…

Beautiful for daughters

I read this blog post this morning. Though I would have some of my own “100 things” to add, I thought the things this mother shared with her daughter are beautiful. My girls are Five and Three. Sometimes it is scary to think about the world they are entering into. They are so innocent right now. I wanted to share this link with the mothers out there that might think this way too.

Raising a Girl: 100 Things I Want To Teach My Daughter

Making Empanadas

left to right: Ann, Katie, Ibon, Emily, Rebecca, Jordan, Taylor, Sean

Today the interns came to the house in order to learn how to make empanadas.  Every Tuesday I go to Paty’s house and study the Book of Mark with her and her sister-in-law, Ibon.  I love Ibon.  She is such a sweet woman who loves to giggle and tell stories.  What I really love about Ibon is her love for cooking and trying new recipes.  She bakes for Cafe Connection, and we decided to take a Tuesday while the interns are here to learn her recipe.  So she arrived to my house this morning around 10:30 and by 12:45 we were eating fresh hot empanadas from my oven.  It was so much fun, and I thought I would share the experience with you all…

Ibon’s Empanadas

Ingredients (for the pastry):

• 250 g crisco (soften if really hard about 30 seconds in microwave)
• 225 g margarine
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 K flour (about 6 cups)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbs powdered sugar
• water to wet dough

 

1. First, place all the crisco into a bowl and microwave until it is softened. (about 30 seconds; our crisco can be rock hard here in Peru)
2. Add all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Add crisco and margarine to the dry mixture, and knead the dough with pastry blender until all of the dough resembles tiny pebbles.
4. Add the water and egg yolk and mix with hand.
5. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes (or if you are using later, place in a ziplock bag to keep in fridge until next day)

Ingredients for filling:

anything you want!  I can’t wait to try my own combinations.  We used what I had on hand which ended up being ham, cheese, and mayo.  But also, you will need:

• one egg separated
• 1 Tbs of powdered sugar

We started off with a dough ball that Ibon had already prepared.

Taylor is admiring my gigantoid rolling pin to roll out the dough.

Ibon cutting the dough into quarters.

 

and those quarters into quarters, and those quarters into quarters. Until we had about 20 little dough balls.

 

roll out the dough ball until it is this sizef

Place the filling in the middle of the dough.

brushing egg white around the edges of the inside of the pastry before folding up

 

fold over and cut off any major excess for smooth looking edges

 

flute the edges with a fork

 

Sean getting in on the action. Look at that face. 🙂

sift about a Tbs of powdered sugar into an egg yolk

brush the mixture onto all of the empanadas (oh, and the oven has preheated to 350 degrees)

aren't they beautiful?! We put 2 pans in and they took around 45 minutes to bake.

and Nadia, Ibon, and me finished them up...

 

and Jordan finished the last one for us. Single ladies, this man can make fresh, hot empanadas! 😉

We had fun learning.  Can I just say that I love this group of interns.