I looked over and he was asleep where he sat - leaning back against our headboard.

See, we Vanderpol males have this innate ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat, in any setting. It can be at a party, in the middle of a movie or even (if we’re really, really tired) at the table. If I lay in bed and it takes me more than ten minutes to fall asleep, it feels like it’s taking forever. (This used to annoy my wonderful wife, but she’s grown resigned accustomed to it.)

I’m glad you’re a part of our family, Gregory, and you’re keeping the torch alive (even if just in your dreams).

Amber: You skipped chapter 1?
Emma (slightly exasperated): Chapter 1’s are always the same!
Amber: What is chapter 1 like?
Emma: Being at home then going into the tree house.

“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” I don’t remember who said that (and hopefully I’m not taking it out of context) but it seems like a good thing to keep in mind (balanced of course with “The un-aimed arrow never misses”…).

I feel like I’m having more and more trouble remembering little things lately. I’ll think about them and focus on them - and then my mind moves on to something else and I totally forget. With that in mind, I’ve ordered a planner/journal for the year. It’s organized by weeks with the week on the left page and journal lines on the right. I plan to use the journal side for notes and lists of things I need to do while tracking obligations on the left side. I’ll also jot down ideas for first lines or other story bits in the journal areas.

I’m also focusing on growing in the web development/programming sphere. It feels like there’s a lot going on right now - but then I guess there’s always a lot going on, it’s like the cusp that we’re riding never actually peaks. In the last couple years I’ve been interested in Ruby (initially for Rails, but lately for its own sake). I’ve never really taken the time to learn and understand the language and I’m going to focus on that this year. With that in mind, I’ve already purchased the PDF version of Everyday Scripting with Ruby.

In addition to Ruby, I’m interested in learning Python (both for Django and for its own sake) and possibly Smalltalk (for Seaside). I don’t know if that’s too much to bite off or not. I guess that I’ll start with Ruby and keep Python on the backburner for when I need a change.

There’s also the house to work on so I feel like I’ll have my plate pretty well full. I’m already planning on reducing the amount of time I spend reading fiction (because not sleeping really isn’t much of an option). I still think about Latin and want to get back to it but I think I’ll hold off until the house is done. Once we’re moved into the house I’ll start back up on Latin and begin reading the Great Books.

I’d been used to flicking a switch for light, opening a tap for water, walking a few barefoot feet to use the bathroom - but now I’m getting used to something else.

I notice the periods of this earth more. When it gets light. When it gets dark. What the stars look like. When the moon comes and goes.

When I wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, I hope it’s not raining; because these things matter now.

When I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, I take a moment to look at the stars. When there’s no other large lights nearby, they’re really beautiful. Bright jewels scattered across the carpet of the night.

I see shooting stars when I dump the water we’ve used to wash our dishes.

This life that we’re currently living is very different from how we’ve lived before.

Since we started out camping, moving into a trailer is a big step. You realize how nice it is to have a 4 burner stove, rather than a 2 burner one. To be able to cook food without going outside. How warm it is with more insulation than a thin piece of canvas around you. How nice it is to not worry about whether the tent will leak if it rains.

It really puts a different perspective on life. It makes us appreciate things more for how they are. It makes us stop and look more, be more a part of the world, rather than just living on it.

This week I’m starting back to getting up at 5 and doing my Latin first thing when I get up. I don’t even crack my computer (it’s a laptop) until it’s done.

Two days in and it’s working well.

Non periculum videt.

Wishful thinking? (Yes, I only know third person and I don’t think that that’s a correct usage of ‘non’ but hopefully those of you who know Latin can understand my broken form.)

Yesterday afternoon, I asked Amber if she’d rather do more of a finger-food, casual kind of dinner. She agreed and here’s the result with an ecstatic Emma overseeing the documentation.

The bread (lower right) is a Garlic Parmesan with some basil and sun-dried tomato bruschetta thrown in. We bake it in a cast-iron pot wit lid to get the shape and a really nice crust.

The triangles (above and right of bread) are phyllo dough triangles with a spinach and feta filling. We made a bunch of them for dinner on Christmas Eve and froze half. This is half of the half.

To the left of the triangles is some pear, and beyond that is cheese that Emma cut up on the cheese board. Just above the pears is some carrots and broccoli for dipping in the hummus.

The hummus (above the carrots and broccoli, with the 2 spoons in it) is the basic recipe from “Feeding the Whole Family” but I’ve added some of the sun-dried tomato bruschetta to give it some color and additional flavor.

The crackers (to the right of the carrots and broccoli) are Chickpea Crackers which we made in the afternoon. They were really good with hummus or cheese and had a very nice kick to them. We also mixed up the dough for Wine Biscuits and we’ll bake those today.

The wine in the back is our next-to-last bottle of wine that we started in October of 2005.

The purple/blue/pinkish flowers floating in the bowl next to the wine were picked and arranged by Emma to decorate our table.

So, there you have it - homemade bread, homemade crackers (we ground the chickpea flour in our mill), homemade hummus (with chickpeas that Amber cooked before and we had frozen and juice from lemons from our lemon tree), homemade wine, homemade phyllo dough triangles and homegrown flowers for decoration. The only thing that came out of a box was the phyllo dough.

We’re going to work on having homegrown fruits and veggies next time.

Last night I was flipping through our cookbooks trying to figure out what to make. I knew that I wanted to make something that had to be started that night for breakfast the next day because I like to take advantage of that level of preparation when I think of it. I considered yeasted pancakes or cinnamon rolls, but I wasn’t really in the mood for them. Then my eye lit upon the crepes recipe.

I first had crepes in college. There was this great crepe restaurant in town that served both savory and sweet crepes. I remember being amazed at how good they were. Amber and I have made them at home before but it’s been a number of years. The recipe we have for them says that they need to rest for 2 hours or overnight for the batter to be perfect - exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.

I mixed up the batter last night and cooked them up this morning. They were a hit with everyone! Emma really liked being able to spread jam on them, roll them up and eat them with her fingers.

All-in-all a great meal.