Life is in the Details

Concussion update

Since I haven't mentioned the concussion incident here at my blog yet I'll give the background. If you only want the update jump down to the next section (aptly titled, UPDATE).

Ryan was doing a jump-roll (a jump into a handstand into a tuck roll and up to standing) before and during his Tae Kwon Do class Monday night and bumped his head. This isn't unusual so I didn't think much of it. I didn't even know he hurt his head until he told me after his class. He mentioned he had a headache but given that he's had a headache for the better part of 2-3 years (that we've been seeing all sorts of doctors for) that didn't seem unusual either. It wasn't until he came into our room to wake us in the middle of the night to tell us he threw up that I began piecing it together. It was then I realized he didn't eat as much dinner as usual.

The next morning I took him to see our pediatrician who did baseline neurological testing and everything tested out fairly in line with a mild concussion so she told us to make sure Ryan get lots of rest. No screens at all. He can listen to a story or podcast for 10 minutes but then he needs to rest. He can do some school work but, again, in 10 minute increments and then he needs to try and close his eyes and take it easy. This was no problem on Tuesday as he was sleepy and took a nap as he was tired from not getting as much sleep since it took a while to change his sheets and clean up the 3-foot radius of vomit he spewed all over his room. We did some reading, resting, snacking, resting, listening to a favorite story podcast of his from when he was younger (The Radio Adventure's of Dr. Floyd), more resting.

Yesterday he was much more alert and energetic. His appetite returned and he was so very bored for most of the day. I was thinking he'd return to school after going to our Thursday doctor's appointment.

UPDATE: We went to see our pediatrician this morning for a re-check and Ryan's going to be staying home from school the rest of the week. He was doing better yesterday but he's more tired today, wanting to lay down and rest, and has a decreased appetite. I think it's because he tried reading on his own this morning and it was too much too soon. So it's back to reading to him out loud like I've been doing the past two days. We have finished The Lightening Thief and now we're starting Sea of Monsters. He's really enjoying the Percy Jackson series!

The next few days will be filled with more cuddling and rest.

Coincidentally, we have a neurologist appointment at Children's on Monday that we've been waiting for for 4 months due to his headaches. I'm hoping he's feeling better by then with regards to the concussion and that we can get some answers on causes of his headaches and some options. If not, our team of doctors have said that our next step is to visit an allergist at Duke University in Raleigh, NC and then if that doesn't give us any answers, then to go to a place out in Denver, CO for a week-long battery of multi-disciplinary tests as our subsequent plan of action.

The kids finish their tote bags

Ryan completed his tote bag and has used it a bunch of times already.

He was very excited about it as you can see!

His favorite part, as he will tell you if he can remember the name, was sewing the gusset (the bottom corners of the tote bag that give it some depth. You can see it above... It appears as a straight-ish line across the bottom of the bag in the side view).

Jessica completed her tote bag (in her favorite colors) as well. Here she is hard at work.

 

I couldn't help post these two photos below too... from our visit to see the *incredible* ballet of Alice'sAdventures in Wonderland by the National Ballet of Canada. Thank you Kennedy Center for the great ticket special for the matinee! We had a great girls afternoon out!

Happy Tuesday! Tomorrow I'll have a photo of me in my finished Funked Out Peasant Top! Off to my kitchen to heat up a bowl of green soup ammended with some brown rice and chickpeas. On this cold winter day, this is just the kind of soul-soothing nourishment that I need!

 

Ryan's first napkin

Here are photos from Ryan's first few sewing lessons and the culmination of his first project: a cloth napkin to use at mealtimes. We started the lessons on Jessica's Janome sewing machine (her 5th birthday present) but it was acting wonky and after trying to fix it 2-3 times it was still acting up and I can't figure out why. We switched to my machine and he liked it MUCH better. The boy has great taste, what can I say?! Sewing on a Bernina is a dream.

He was so excited with his first sewing accomplishment that he brought it in to school to show his friends and teachers and to use at lunch. He even brought it to dinner when we went out to eat (!!). He started planning a tote bag last night!

If anyone can recommend any other beginner projects that would be good for boys please let me know. I've signed the kids up for beginner seeing classes that start in February but it's always good to have a few projects in my stash for days off and free time when the motivation strikes.

L'Shana Tova

Cooking up goodness in the kitchen today with my two sous chefs. Both kids helped make the cake and Jessi loves helping with anything in the kitchen so I had her chopping mushrooms, cutting herbs in the garden, and adding veggies to our veggie broth for our soup. I'm trying two new recipes this year: a honey mustard broccoli salad with toasted sunflowers seeds and apples (from Sprouted Kitchen) and I'm swapping out my usual Moist and Majestic Honey Cake for a Chocolate Honey Cake (both by Marcy Goldman) because, let's get real, my family is all about desserts with *chocolate*!

We took a small family break to watch last week's Great Food Truck Race. Love that show.

Mike then sliced the brisket, I made the broccoli salad while the kids finished up lunch and then folded their laundry, and now the Porcini and Fresh Mushroom Tart is in the oven. I'm taking another break before I need to get the kugel and brisket going and start heating up the matzoh ball soup.

This glorious boy

Eleven days ago this amazing little boy of mine turned 8! I thought I posted photos already but it seems that sometimes this posting-from-mobile-device blogging doesn't work as anticipated (Blogsy that is always crashing, I'm talkin' to you!)

The day was spent making him breakfast in bed, a trip to Target so he could use some of his birthday money to buy new Pokemon cards, playing Pokemon (and pretty much beating every family member at said game), enjoying some screen time, and dining at his favorite places (Indian buffet for lunch... It was Monday after all; Fuddrucker's for dinner). He was so grateful and said to me more than once that it was the BEST DAY EVER!

Life is Good - Part 3

Life is Good - Part 2

Back to School

The kids are off to their first day of school! A second grader and a sixth grader! Wow! How did that happen?!

Mike and I are doing our first day ritual too: enjoying a few minutes together on the front porch after getting them off to their respective places.

First Annual DC Funky Fresh Foodie Fest

I had two favorites at at the first Annual DC Funky Fresh Foodie Fest. The vegetarian offering from Takorean was #1 (Caramelized Tofu Tako with Napa & Romaine Slaw, Cilantro, Sriracha, & Lime Crema). It was the first thing I had when I arrived and it was the last thing I had before we left the festival. I wanted this "tako" to be my event bookends. I would gladly eat these every day for the next month (or two, who am I kidding?). It won't be long before I make something like this in my own kitchen!

There was live music too. We got there two hours before the real event opened to the general public so we had the chance to walk around before it got crowded, which is the perfect way to go for us since our kids came with us.

 

Upon entry we received one each of the Izze sparkling fruit juice flavors. The kids really liked these and asked if I could buy some for special occasions (since I don't stock soda in the house), to which I obliged. They are fruit juice after all.

 

We each received these really cool mini-pilsners. I think I just may drink my morning smoothie out of it for the next week or so because I *love* it!

The sandwich duos at Rolling Ficelle: "The Davis" Chicken Salad Sandwich with House made Lemon Aioli, Almonds, Avocado & Romaine Lettuce for Mike and a ratatouille sandwich (for me). I was hoping for a mashed chickpea sandwich, since that's what they listed on the event website but this is what they ended up having as their veggie offering.

Mike's BBQ Sammie at the BBQ Bus: Smoky Pulled Pork Slider topped with house-pickles red onions & smoky sweet BBQ Sauce #5. I skipped the BBQ bus because I'm not a huge food bean chili and there were so many others I wanted to try that I was going to save this for towards the end if I was still hungry (spoiler alert: I wasn't). Mike thought his sandwich was just okay.

The boys loved their Red Velvet cupcakes from Curbside Cupcakes and I adored the Dulche de Leche. Wow! Seriously good. The cupcake was light, fluffy, moist, and flavorful. The icing was just right. Such a nice caramel-y toastiness that wasn't too sweet. So many cupcake icing are cloyingly sweet and, thankfully this was just right. We took two more cupcakes home with us: a strawberry delight and a chocolate delight. We're saving these for tomorrow as there's just so much food goodness you can handle in one afternoon. I can't even imagine eating dinner tonight as all the little bites add up to more than enough. We made many new friends and spread much goodwill upon leaving as we handed out extra food and drink cards after we had reached our maximum. It pained me to hand over the Tapas Truck one as the corn fritters were ethereal and that cilantro sauce divine... But we had all eaten enough and didn't want to overstuff.

Pleasant Pops' Strawberry Ginger Lemonade popsicle was the BEST (and I wouldn't have expected that since I was worried that the ginger flavor wouldn't work well or would overpower the strawberry but iwas pleasantly surprised)! Their Peach Hibscus was pretty dynamite too and a flavor that I would certainly crave on a hot day. We didn't care for the pineapple basil, which is the one I though I might like the most. That's why I love events like this... You can taste a little of everything and really be surprised!

Really delicious sandwiches from Pepe (mobile sandwiches from José Andrés) are pictured belowe. We traded some of our extra tickets to get more Spanish Grilled Cheeses from Pepe and are going to try to recreate these at home. 8 thumbs up... We ALL loved these! I only wish I had tried the gazpacho. Oh well, there's always next time!

The Spanish Grilled Cheese (2 of the ones in the photo below are these) had the following listed as their ingredients: Membrillo Paste, Manchego Cheese, Valdeon Cheese (Bleu), Murcia Cheese, Goat Cheese.

So. Very. Satisfying.

The bread was the perfect amount of toastiness with a good bread to cheese ratio. The portion size was cute and petite. Loved it.

These were some seriously amazing corn fritters from Tapas Truck with a cilantro mojo sauce.

DC Empanadas was supposed to have an El Greco veg empanada but instead had aIndian-spiced one. It was tasty and had a good amount of filling so that tou didnt feel like you were only eating fried dough and the Indian spices packed a nice kick but I really was looking forward to the Greek one with spinach and feta. With this truck it was another case of unmatched expectations.

I forgot to photograph the empanadas? How could that be?! Sorry about that!

The chickpea and eggplant from Fojol Bros was fragrant and complex, and the chickpeas were cooked perfectly. There were no big chunks of eggplants, but instead the eggplants Became a creamy backdrop for the spices and chickpeas. Here's where I wish I could have borrowed a stomach from someone because I would have wanted to have another one of these and some of their Palak Paneer but I am only so big. If I was 5' 7" instead of 5' 2" I think I could've fit it in. <sigh>

The kids had a great time playing the games like oversized Jenga and huge connect 4.

I never made it to DC Slice, though Ryan happily munched on a familiar slice of cheese pizza from them. I was very proud of Ryan for being open-minded and trying some new foods in this forum.

What a fun event for us all and one we hope becomes a yearly food fest that we can enjoy for many years to come.

 

 

Unconventional breakfast and granola bars

Sometimes you have to give in to the "I want a savory crepe with ratatouille and goat cheese for breakfast" craving. Yeah, I was as surprised by this as you! But I had all the ingredients so was able to put it together in under 5 minutes (I defrosted the ratatouille the night before and the crepe took less than a minute to heat up from the freezer from that time when I made a batch of Crepes and made some sweet and some savory) and it did not disappoint! I'm back on the "normal" breakfast track with a waffle this morning, ,but who knows for how long. What's "normal" anyway? Sounds rather boring if you ask me.

After chowing down on this, we went for a family bike ride. The weather was perfect too! I had to dismount when I saw all the amazing flowers in this garden. So apparently I need a bumper sticker that says "I brake for cutting gardens." I could have sat and gazed at this patch of flowers for at least an hour.

 

Today I made some of my favorite granola bars because this weekend I'll be attending a 3-day fitness conference and participating in lots of classes (yoga, indoor cycling, personal training, Zumba, etc.) so I'll need plenty of on-the-go snacks in between my sessions.

 

In the mix are: rolled oats, golden flax meal, slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, quinoa flakes, kamut puffs, dried currants, dried cranberries, golden raisins, almond butter, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.

I also finished up a much-needed organization project. More on that to come.

Posted with Blogsy