Lovely Lunch

We had my dad, sister, and her boyfriend over for lunch today. It is always nice eating, chatting, and playing with them. The boys usually talk Karen into going upstairs and playing while the rest of us sit around talking about everything from politics to physics to chemistry to history...you get the picture. Stuart and my dad are both intelligent, fascinating people so it makes me happy to have adult conversation which makes me think. Rob and I have these conversations just the two of us, but it is nice to have different perspectives. I wish Karen would stay with the adults longer, but the kids don't make that easy. They love to have her all to themselves.

I lounged around with the fam so long this morning, I had to make something simple and quick so lunch was Thick and Hearty Split Pea Soup from Fatfree Vegan. I made it in the pressure cooker and it turned out great. I've been eying the Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf in Veganomicon for a while and finally made it. The recipe says if you make quinoa once a week you are a "level seven vegan". I've been making it at least once a week lately so I guess I should be receiving my level upgrade any time now. Seriously, it makes a great side dish. We also had mixed greens salad and raspberry smoothies (Parker's recipe...1/2 cup ice, 1 bag frozen raspberries, 3 tablespoons soy yogurt, 2 cups soy milk, 1 banana). The raspberry smoothie was pretty, but gone before I could take a picture.

I was listening to PRI's To the Best of Our Knowledge this evening and heard a short interview with Matt Hern regarding "De-schooling". Very interesting! Reminds me of John Holt and A. S. Neill. I guess if Illinois goes the way of California in the area of home schooling then we'll just move to B. C. Canada.