Last night's dinner...today's even better lunch

Last night's dinner was chicken in the slow cooker, because we were going to have an out and about kind of day.  And further to the out and about-edness of the day, I thought a marinated vegetable salad with quinoa would go well, and did that at lunch--nice and fast because our guests are great at pitching in!

When I got back later in the afternoon, there was time to make the lentils I mentioned, and that's the dish that's even better today.  Recipe refresher:  vegetable stock, lentil, green and black olives.  Four things-and it tasted great.  This is one I'll keep in mind for making ahead.  The kids didn't love it, but it was ok.  I added the lentil dish because I've not yet progressed to chicken since I experienced post turkey and cranberry pains...

The rice I made came from the asian market in an area I don't often get to, and I had added in some white rice to get the right quantity.  That sweet wild rice coloured all the rice a deep, really attractive purple-so that was a great and crazy dish (cooked in veggie stock with some olive oil).  The kids were skeptical--purple-factor...but since it was rice, it tasted like rice, and they're fans now.

I toured Cheryl, Rodney and Mom around the school today-they were glad to see it.  There's a curved wall in the plaza of the school that was just getting the start of a mural on it when school let out.  It's complete now, and beautiful to look at--with the international school theme at work of course, a globe, and a gaggle of happy kids upon it!  Our neighbour's kids are there for summer school, which is more fun that 'regular' school of course, and we saw them as we walked around.

We're going to head to the pool for the afternoon, and then I'll take Cheryl and Rodney to the airport this evening, and they'll be back in Canada by morning.  They're quite happy with their souvenir picks, and they have all their photos--so I'm glad they had a good time.

Mom and Dad are staying longer, which is good-because these last two weeks have flown along.  I'm sure that they're not looking forward to returning to Grandpa's funeral, but they seem relieved for him.  I know it was really hard for them to watch him dealing with Alzheimer's for so long; and only being able to guess how his days were for him.  They really took care of him, along with the rest of his kids!  Grandpa had a really loyal and caring family.  I remembered joking at my brother's wedding that our family didn't say "I LOVE YOU!" all the time, they just lived in it, and showed it, all the time.

I need to decide what our family will do, because we have a wedding, and his funeral, just when the kids are going back to school...so I think I'm leaning toward staying and taking care of the kids instead of traveling again.  "What to do?"...the question that keeps wheeling through my mind.   At least my head is clear enough to make a choice now that it's not dedicated to pain.

Chao!