I Just Ruined Emmet's Supper

Have you ever seen a 25 pound (that's 11 kilos and change for metric types) boy drain a 16oz chocolate shake in the space of 10 minutes, less than an hour before supper? It's a sight to behold :)

Wednesday Is Meatloaf Night

Meatloaf is an old American favorite, and ours actually varies from week to week. But every Wednesday is meatloaf night. Sometimes there are more veggies than there were tonight (onion, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.), but every time it is tasty. Tonight was no exception. One of the nice things about meatloaf is that you can get all of the other dishes done while it cooks, so the after-dinner dishes are minimal--very important on prayer meeting night!

Tuesday Is Baked-Chicken-Packets Night

Tuesday used to be stir-fry night, including home-made sweet and sour sauce, but it became so exhausting, that I went the exact opposite direction. It's still yummy, and oriental-flavored, but now takes minimal effort; and, best of all, no dishes!

You don't have to thaw the chicken; just put it on the foil, pile on the vegetables, sprinkle on the soy sauce, and seal it up. You can cook it however hot you want, too. If you've only got 30 minutes, hit it hard at 450. If you have it sealed well, the moisture will keep it from getting too tough. If you have over an hour, 375 should do the trick. One cup of uncooked rice makes 3 cups cooked, which is a ton. This meal costs my family about $3.50 for the 4 of us, but can easily stretch to 6 people for a dollar more.

Beautiful

Beautiful home
Beautiful yard
Beautiful weather
Beautiful evening
Beautiful wife
Beautiful children
Beautiful picnic
Beautiful time
Beautiful creation
Beautiful Creator
Beautiful Savior
Beautiful salvation
Beautiful gospel
Beautiful Spirit making
Beautiful saints into a
Beautiful church who will be a
Beautiful bride on that
Beautiful Day

believe me when I say... my life is...

Beautiful

Routine Disaster

My routine suffered a catastrophic setback today, from which it never recovered. I forgot to start the dough for the hamburger buns in time, so we are falling back on a McPicnic. What this means for the blog is that there will be no photoblog of tonight's (no longer) gourmet meal. It's too bad, because I was planning on trying something different in the burgers this week: chocolate. Yep. You read that right. Tune in next week.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Calories

Steak night?! No, we don't actually have a steak night, but MJ and Betty, our dear, dear friends, gave Heather some beautiful NY Strips and a large bottle of Riuniti Lambrusco for Mother's Day. Do they know my bride, or what? :) The sweet potato fries, home-made rolls crusted with home-made orange marmalade, and brownie-fudge-turtle-fudge ice cream sundaes were my contribution (I know a thing or two about Heather myself) ;)

Friday Is Pizza Night

We only have seven meals at our household. Fridays are pizza. Not Little Caesar's. Homemade. I even make the dough from scratch. Tonight was sauteed chicken breast, mushrooms, green peppers, red onions, and burgundy-pickled black olives. And here's the best part: there's enough for guests. It's served promptly at 5p.m., so be on time, and bring something special to drink if you want it (we usually have ice-cold filtered tapwater). I took a couple shots when it came out of the oven today. See what you think...

Massive Photo Update at Hakimfamily.info

You asked for it
and asked for it
and asked for it;

now it's here.

Large photo update, almost exclusively of the kiddos, at http://hakimfamily.info/famalbum/

Paper Push (Pending Procrastination Per Pedantic Post)

Here's something that I haven't done in four years: the end-of semester paper push. Yes, that's why I haven't posted much lately, and why I probably won't for a couple days. Apologies to the grandparents. Be comforted that as soon as my paper is completed, I'll update the main site with 3 months(!) of photos, and I'll make DVD's with 5 months(!!) worth of videos of the wee bairns for immediate dispatch to the kind of people who actually read this blog (if you read this, and you don't have one by May 17, email me for one).

Cats, Dogs, & Elephants

The wind came first. We didn't even know that we were due for a storm, so when the sustained 60mph gust hit the house without warning, we thought it was a tornado. Each parent grabbed a child and raced for the basement bathroom, the most "tornado safe" location in our house. In reality, there isn't one.

After a couple minutes of reassuring the children, while wondering if the house was going to blow away, the rain came. The heavens opened, and the waters came down. It came down so hard and so fast that it didn't seem like drops, or even sheets, as they sometimes say. It was as if there was an ocean in the sky, free-falling to the ground. My parents used to say that it rained cats and dogs; well, I think this was more akin to elephants.

This was soon followed by the lightning, the absolutely gorgeous lightning. It illuminated the world for 3, 4, 5 seconds at a time, giving everything a gleaming appearance that it never has, even in daylight. There's something about light, when it breaks all of a sudden into darkness with such power like that. I'm sure there's a gospel lesson in there, somewhere.

As quickly as it came on, I assumed that it would leave. But it didn't. In fact, it hasn't. Still, the wind blows with the force that is responsible for the roof shingles all over the lawn. Still the rain comes, even though the ocean is evidently on the ground now, proved by a foot-soaking on the way to the office. Still the lightning sets the earth ablaze, and thunder cracks, rumbles, growls, and sometimes commences with a clap so near and so low that the canon-like sound makes you look out the window to see whether a tree just gave way, crushing whatever was beneath it.

I'm thankful that the One running this storm gave His Son for Me... that I appear before Him clothed in His own righteousness. I can't imagine how unbelievers live through something like that and are not cut to the heart, seeking the way of salvation; for one cannot deny in a storm like this that there is a God, and He is more powerful than we can imagine, and He is very angry.

I wish my Christianity could be like this storm... with such force and energy as makes one expect that it cannot possibly be sustained for very long, but relentless and constant with an endurance that defies all logic.

A Booboo On My Chin

Kessedi looked at me with great sympathy at the breakfast table this morning and said, as if in pain herself, "Daddy has a booboo!"

The corners of her mouth then turned up into a bit of a smile as she asked, "Did daddy get the booboo on his chin in the bathroom?"

Another Monday Morning

Man am I ever having a difficult time getting going this morning. I woke up late, and though I got extra sleep, my body sure didn't feel it. Even my eyes were still red after the shower, as if I had slept 4 hours, not 7.

Here I am 45 minutes into my office time, and it seems like I haven't done anything. That's not true, but it does feel like that, and I should have accomplished this much in about 15.

But that's what blogs are good for: wasting time with narcissistic griping. Hooray.