Date Night(s) with the Willies

We've had a couple of really fantastic dates lately.  Over the weekend we tried out a new-to-us restaurant in downtown Bentonville called Tusk and Trotter.

The atmosphere was cozy and the food was incredible.

We love a good story and there is a great one on the back of them menu has a great story about the originator of the recipes Jaques Nelson (a descendant of the current restaurant chef) who left his "tyrannical wife" in 1787 and sailed to America with nothing but his leather-bound collection of recipes. The ship was pillaged by pirates, and the cookbook was lost until a couple decades ago, when it was purchased at a garage sale in Canada, and eventually returned to the family of Jaques Nelson.  The recipes are original and totally awesome.

Speaking of awesome. Behold, my date:

The food:
We started with caprese and pork belly on toasted foccacia. Yum. The salads were good, too. Our entrees were "When Pigs Fly" (pork shanks that fell off the bone..you could've cut them with a spoon) drizzled with a fig sauce, roasted root vegetables and peppers, and garlic mashed potatoes for Aaron, and "Chicken and Waffles" for me. The fried chicken was drizzles in a walnut praline sauce and the waffles were actually carrot cake waffles topped with bacon and a butter praline creamy syrup.

Heavenly. 

Then came dessert. Oh my. We ordered two:

Browned butter bread pudding with the same walnut praline sauce that was on the chicken. 

Bacon and praline ice cream. SO GOOD! It was like butter pecan, but instead of little chunks of nuts, they were crunchy bits of bacon. Indescribably decadent.  

It was pretty extravagant and by the time we finished our 2 hour meal, we knew we were cutting it close for the movie, but didn't care because our dining experience was so wonderful.  We made our way home with a plan to catch the movie another time. 

We went to the movies last night (thanks for putting my kids to bed, Bestie!!!) and saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. loved it. Good soundtrack, funny script, pretty scenery.  

Before the movie we shared a quick dinner at Qdoba and there were a few experiences there (witnessed  while people watching, and experienced) that reminded me how great Aaron is. I'd like to say he gets even better with age, but now I'm starting to think that he's always been this wonderful and it was I who wasn't able to fully recognize his greatness.  He is selfless, funny, compassionate, and reliably calm.  He ordered a bag of hot, fresh, tiny donuts at the show before I even had a chance to say I wanted some.  

Date nights sometimes remind us of how "old" we're getting. Like when we decide to head home at 8:30 with a red box and take the sitter home early. Other times are a barrel of spontaneous fun, or courses of gourmet food. It doesn't matter. Dates are always a fun time together and a time to put affection into practice. 

On Tuesday, affection spoke to me in the form of tiny movie donuts. 

Re:

I woke up today feeling happy and relieved. Today is a reserve day. 

After this last week/weekend, today I am thankful for rest.  I know that, for most people, It's probably natural to take some quiet time to reflect and recover from bad things. For me, good things and bad things are better processed when followed by rest. I think the good things also deserve a turn to be remembered and relived in the peace of a calm day. So, I have day of recovering, reflecting, regathering, recognizing, reading, resolving, and resting, with a few other Re's in there. 

Is it just me, or does anyone else become absolutely giddy when the opportunity to crawl back into bed for a whole hour presents itself? I'm taking it. 

Bonus, the sheets have somehow stayed warm in the hour and a half I was awake helping the family ready for the day. It's like it was meant to be. I am feeling blessed this morning to have this reserved time for replenishment and relaxation with my little boys. 

Presents in the backyard

The hens are laying again! 5 eggs a day means I'm about to get serious in the kitchen with these bad boys. Have an egg recipe you love? Do share! 

Good Busy

I have a lot of catching up to do. Right now I'm just enjoying the good kind of busy that is happening in my home.
Reese, Quincy, and Corbin are on winter break from school, Soren is learning to walk, Aaron had the day off yesterday, it was almost 60 degrees yesterday, and our time is filled with everything together.  It seems like there are messes, fighting, playing, crying and laughter all happening in just about every minute around here.  It's loud and chaotic and there is a recognizable peace to all of it that fills me with happiness and purpose.  

I will catch up on the blog during the long cold days in January, when I'm sure I'll be more than eager to lay up sorry on the sofa (that's for you, Laura) with my laptop and some cider and blog while the kids are at school.

But for now, everyone's home and it is warm and I'm going to go enjoy the peaceful chaos and be the good kind of busy.

Besties

The girls just showed me a dance they made up. It was cute. When they finished, I told them how lucky they are to have each other and always have a best friend to play with.  They asked about my sisters and I told them that I was born a lot later than my sissies so even though we are good friends and love each other a lot, I don't have many memories of playing together with them when I was little, because when I was little, they weren't very little anymore.

Reese said, "That's sad. I would be lonely without Quincy."

Quincy said, "Well good thing you got married so you have a husband to play with!"

Elfed

Chippy has been into all sorts of trouble, this Christmas season. This year, Reese noticed that our elf looks different than all the other Elf on the Shelf branded elves that she's seeing everywhere. They're turning out to be quite the fad. Luckily, I already had a response prepared. "You can buy an Elf on the Shelf on Amazon for $30. Where do you think our elf came from?" The children decided that Chippy obviously came from the North Pole. 

...where he was well trained in snowball fighting. Those wise men don't stand a chance.

Caroling Caroling Now We Go

Tonight I took the girls caroling with me and a few other families at Concordia (a local assisted living facility). After the singing, I encouaged the girls to engage in conversations with the sweet elderly men and women who had come to listen to us sing.  Really, all they wanted were hugs and affection. Reese was very apprehensive, and Quincy was eager...she had a lot of questions to ask these folks.  She grabbed Reese by the arm and paraded her around to talk to all of them. She asked every one of them how old they are. When she finally found a woman who is 100, she froze, satisfied, then exclaimed, "This one. Mom come take our picture! Smile, Francis, you're the oldest lady in the room." 

These girls have big hearts.  Reese told me later, "I didn't feel comfortable hugging those people at first, because they were strangers and they still acted like they knew me. Then I saw how happy they felt to talk to us little kids and one of them was 94 just like Grandma Tenney. I hope some girls will go sing to her in California and make her happy too."

She gets it. Both girls get it. 

Our service was not our imperfect singing, or our imperfect crowd of people. Our service was simply that we were there. 

I am thankful for the reminder to live intentionally and give more of the gifts of my time and attentiveness.  One woman had to work so hard to lift her head up at us.  When I got down with the girls to speak to her at eye level, she was relived and so happy. I wonder what it must feel like to be older than most of the people in a room, yet have all of them look down to you as if you're a child. I am thankful for the humbling experience my daughters and I had tonight.