Hey y'all!  It's Wednesday and there are, what feels like, a billion thoughts running through my head.  I'll be going about my day, and then I start thinking off on some tangent, and away my brain goes.  Half the time, I think that I should write half this stuff down, so I actually remember to share and blog about it.  Like, how we now own a van!  Yep, a van!  Can you believe it?!  Good thing too, cause in a few months, this little family won't be fitting so well in my little Honda Civic!  We are now a 2-car family, and it's a bit strange, but I am totally liking it!  I keep trying to convince Max to drive it to work, but he just laughs at me, ha!  I might sort of miss driving my Civic...

Today, we ventured out to see "The Commandant's Own" The US Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Silent Drill Platoon.  

Although my two, dear children were squiggly and squirmy, I am glad we went.  They weren't terribly interested in the performances, probably because we were at a distance, and it was a little slow for their toddler interests.  Ezzy was dancing to the music at one point, which was cute.  And L kept pointing at the drummers and shouting "drum, mama!".  

I hadn't seen either in person before, so it was neat to watch.  If you haven't seen the Silent Drill platoon before, you should google a video of them - they do some pretty cool routines and I was definitely impressed!  

After the performance, we met up with Max, who happened to have an hour-lunch break.  There is a park right down the street from his work, so we drove there and got to enjoy seeing Daddy in the middle of the day, which is a definite rarity.  It was especially exciting because he had to work until midnight last night and left again today at 0500.  I think the kids were missing him - and needless to say, they were thrilled to play with him for a few minutes!

I know it's been a few weeks since the Lent season started, and I don't remember if I have shared at all about our family's decision to give up meat for Lent.  For us, we wanted the days leading up to Easter to be a time that we reflected on Jesus and what He did on the Cross for us.  {I like what Ann Voskamp says about Lent - she also wrote the book 1000 Gifts that I have been reading.}  So, we decided to give up meat.  In the form of land-roaming animals, basically.  We eat fish/seafood on Fridays and we still eat lots of eggs - mostly because I knew we needed to make sure we were getting enough protein.  

It's actually been kind of fun, and an adventure, to plan and make creative meals.  To step outside my bubble, and find other staples, besides chicken or beef.  To be honest, we didn't eat that much meat to begin with, but sometimes it was just easier to grab a chicken breast out of the freezer, as that was so usual.  We've been eating a lot of beans and nuts and eggs.  We've had different quiches (which we LOVE and the Spinach-Feta Quiche I made is my new favorite!), homemade refried bean enchiladas, Melanzane al Forno (I like to call this twice-baked eggplant - it's SO good!), Vegetarian Chili, Lentil Stew with grilled cheese sandwiches, Chickpea Potato Curry, Veggie Stir-fry, Baked Lemon-Garlic Salmon with potato pancakes, Spinach & Ricotta Stuffed Shells, Southwestern-style rice-stuffed Peppers, amongst other fun things.  Last night, I made homemade falafel, which turned out really good.  I served it with an Israeli couscous mix, strawberries, and of course, a caesar salad :)

Any other good meatless meals y'all recommend?!  

How in the world did it get to be 4:00 already?!  Holy smokes - nap time goes WAY too fast for this mama!  I hear little feet and quiet chatter coming from upstairs.  Plus, it's about time to get dinner started, so we can eat when Max gets home from work (I am hoping he actually gets to come home for dinner tonight!).  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous today, and I am definitely looking forward to our after-dinner walk to the dog park.  Ok, ok, enough of this random rambling... I am off and away to whip up a Southwest Egg Bake and fried potatoes for dinner.