Something I’m loving eating this week:
Ivan’s pico de gallo!
He made nachos on Sunday night, and he always makes a big bowl of pico de gallo to top the nachos with. We had leftovers, so I have repurposed the pico de gallo multiple times now.
1st: As a salad topper! Chicken, apple, black pepper, pico, parmesan cheese! DELICIOUSNESS.
2nd: In an egg scramble! Egg, pico, some deli turkey (randomly threw that in for some added protein). Scooped it into a tortilla and topped with a little cheese.
Something I’m enjoying looking at:
This tree in my front yard.
The trees in our yard are crazy. Most other trees in the neighborhood have dropped most leaves by now. But not ours!! Our two main, big trees still have tons of leaves and finally started shedding some. We were joking yesterday on the way to school that “we won!!!!” Our trees’ leaves stayed on the longest. Hahaha!
Something else I’m enjoying looking at:
Garland! And lights.
There’s nothing better to me than glowing twinkle lights. And candles. And soft warm lamps. Etc. Give me all the hygge things. I should have been born in Denmark.
Some quotes I’ve been loving lately:
“When you see a good move, look for a better one.” – Emanuel Lasker, Chess Master
“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”- General Colin Powell.
**I LOVE THIS QUOTE! I had to think about what it really meant for a minute. In the armed forces, they are always looking for ways to “maximize” their force/power/ strength- to be better than the opposition somehow. He believed that optimism (confidence, trust, positivity) is inspirational and ultimately would strengthen/ “multiply the force”. By believing in his men, they would believe in themselves, and produce better, and stronger results. This lesson can be applied to many situations! Love it.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for school being in person. I’ve mentioned this one before, but after the last couple years, this bears frequent repeating. So happy the kids are back in school! GRATEFUL.
GRATEFUL KAE 
I DEFINITELY have started taking in-person learning for granted again. Some of it is I just can’t bear to let me mind go to the fact we *might* have remote learning start back up again. But having the sense of normalcy with the school routine is just so critical for the mental wellbeing of everyone involved! Thanks for calling this out again and bringing it back to front-of-mind.
I love the twinkle lights, too. And, spoiler alert: WE PUT THE LITTLE TREE UP LAST NIGHT. I’m so glad we did and I’m looking at it right now. Every time I walk down the stairs and see the glow of the lights it just makes me so happy. Denmark is awesome. If I didn’t live in Canada (and love it here), I think Denmark would be my next choice. I’m itching to get our whole family back there again, but my brother and his wife are coming to Canada next summer for 2 months. On second thought, maybe we should just house swap; they can come here and we can go crash at their place in Copenhagen?!
Congrats on having the “winning” tree – those inside jokes and thoughts are such a fun aspect of being part of a family, eh?
Also, those meals look delicious. I love huge, hearty salads (topped with roasted veggies is my fav) and also egg/protein hashes. Yum!
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That tree is so pretty! We have oaks in our yard and they drop leaves fairly early, which we are glad about last this past Monday was the last day for the city to pick up yard waste bags! But I have noticed some trees still have a lot of leaves, like Maples. I imagine they’ll drop soon w/ the colder weather we are getting!
I’m afraid to say this but I am grateful we haven’t had a covid case at daycare since last November. MN has the highest case rates soon so things feel precarious. But something like 95%+ of parents are vaccinated so I think that helps? And I imagine those parents will get their 5+ yo kids vaccinated. So hopefully we won’t have too many more covid quarantines? None would be awesome!!
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can you please share pico de Gallo recipe? I love them but always put off making it because sounds complicated!!! 🙂
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It’s so easy!! I don’t have an official recipe, but basically (depending on how much you want to make), it’s: 5-6 Roma tomatoes chopped (or other tomato should be ok! We always use Roma). Approximate 1/2 white raw onion chopped. (Depends on how much you want- should be less than the tomato but a good amount of onion.). 3-4 jalapeño peppers, chopped pretty small- more if you like spicy, less if not. We leave the seeds in. Then add A chunk of fresh cilantro chopped up- about the size of your palm. Then you squeeze 1-2 fresh limes in (again, depending on how much you have! It should not be totally liquid or anything but put enough lime that you can see some of the lime juice in there). SALT to taste- usually a decent amount of salt. That’s it! Delicious! Eat with tortilla chips!
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Oh, and to clarify- you just mix it all in a bowl. No need to use blender or anything like that. Just chop it and add to bowl, mix, and that’s it!
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