What I'm listening to

Do you listen to music on purpose? Like play it at home- not just when the radio is on in the grocery store? I've always benefitted from listening to music that people around me have collected and curated but have never been great at curating my own collection. Tonight Calvin took a bunch of records to a used record store and brought me home a surprise album with the store credit he accrued! He said it's to listen to when I feel blue because it's one of my all time favourite albums! My sister Lindsay introduced it to me when we lived in Toronto and I always feel warm and fuzzy inside when I hear it now. I owe most of my musical taste to my sisters Lindsay and Nita, my aunt Vicki and my Dad. But our mum gets credit for enriching our lives with Christine Lavin and the album, "Momnipotent!" 

Thanks Calvin! I love it!

Baby's book shelf

We received so many thoughtful gifts while I was pregnant with Gus. One of them was the book, "The read-aloud handbook" by Jim Trelease. Our friend who is a librarian brought it to one of my baby showers and Calvin and I have both read it and loved it. It has so many ideas on how to help your kids to love reading, book suggestions for different ages and explains why reading is so important developmentally. 

Calvin and I are readers and can both credit our parents for turning us on to books. My Dad is a talented story teller (and a top notch Toast Master!) and a big reader. My mum has worked in publishing for 25 plus years and was always bringing home boxes full of books and comics and magazines that my sisters and I and our friends would devour! Our house was lined with book shelves and we took trips to the library often. I didn't always read high brow books ("Chort" anyone? Or that series about a teenage girl country band where the first line was "Whoa baby and yowza!") but I developed a love of reading early on. And according to Trelease, that is what's important! 

Growing up Calvin would occasionally get to break his 8 pm bedtime and stay up as late as he wanted, all night even, as long as he was reading. Isn't his mom so smart?? 

We hope Gus will grow up to love reading as much as we do. 

Salad for breakfast

Do you ever eat salad for breakfast? Can't remember where I got the idea but I think it was from A.J. Jacob's book about becoming the healthiest human alive:). I recently saw a post about breakfast salads on my favourite magazine blog (a cup of Jo) so you can imagine how righteous I felt when I remembered these photos were already on my phone:

All it is is a 6 minute egg served on a bed of arugula dressed in lime infused olive oil. To make a six minute egg, boil a pot of water, use a slotted spoon to dip the cold egg in several times before gently letting it sit at the bottom of the pot and then boil it for 6 minutes. I truly believe that six minutes creates the perfect runny yolk. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Bon appetit! 

Happy Birthday to my boys!

On August 20 we celebrated Calvin's 360 month birthday and Gus' 5 month birthday! Calvin wanted to just have a low key family dinner so I cooked his favourite meal, tortilla soup and baked a homemade German chocolate cake. 

It was Calvin's first week back in dental school after our long summer break so he was able to surprise us and come home early. I had walked to the grocery store with Gus when Calvin met up with us. Gus already acts so happy to see his Dad and loves being with both of us. Pretty cute.

Chocolate cake recipe I used is SO yummy. You can find it at http://cherilitchfield.blogspot.com/2011/07/dark-chocolate-cake.html I used her frosting recipe but added a bunch of unsweetened coconut flakes and pecans. 

Baby James is turning 9!

I am really excited because tonight I am picking up Nita and James from the airport. They are coming to town to meet baby Gus and to attend Elin and Hans' wedding. James was my first nephew and I adore him. I cannot believe he is about to turn 9!! He was born while I was a missionary but because I served on Temple Square, I was able to meet him! I didn't appreciated enough what Nita did by coming to Salt Lake 4 days after he was born until I experienced labour and delivery! She was so selfless and kind to trek out and let me meet him. Both my parents were in town and I remember seeing my mom on the square and getting a big hug and us both crying. And then having to go inside the empty theater in the North Visitor's center before I could hold James, as it was against mission rules for us to hold babies (except in this type of circumstance:). Here are some of my favourite pictures of James from a few years back when he, Finny and I had a little date at A&W.

Tapestry

Listened to a fantastic podcast on CBC's "Tapestry" today while I was folding laundry. It is an interview with Richard Holloway, the former Bishop of Edinburgh. I really liked his insight into how cruel our obsession with revealing the sins of celebrities and politicians is. The entire discussion, however, is based around exploring the idea of what it means to be human.

I really like what he has to say about both extreme ends of theists and atheists as not recognizing how little is actually KNOWN on the subject they debate over. His plea for humility and understanding is inspiring.

Baby Gus Gus joins our family!!

I haven't posted in a very long time but wanted a place to record my memories and experiences as a new mother. On the first day of spring this year, we welcomed our amazing baby boy, Augustus Greene Kenley, into the world. He was so excited to meet us that he came all on his own exactly two weeks ahead of schedule. His first name comes from the character, Gus McCrae, in Lonesome Dove which is one of Calvin's favourite books and mini-series of ALL time! His middle name was my Grandpa Harker's middle name and my grandpa's mum's maiden name. And Kenley is pretty obvious. What is noteworthy though is that Gus is Chuck and Carol's first grandchild to carry on the Kenley name! So he is to be commended on that. Here is a photo that my mom took of him while she was visiting and helping us all get adjusted in the first few weeks of his life.