The Search for Miss Direction: Jockeying for Position

Rain, rain go away! It's been a dreary overcast day here in the Hills but that hasn't slowed us down. We've had a jam packed day for sure - I feel like I haven't stopped moving since I got up this morning! It's like a whole other kind of races around here :-p

Amid tackling countless loads of laundry, shuffling kids to and from school and buses in the pouring rain, a morning spent in Noah's class helping learn about measuring (26 five year olds with rulers, fun!), a quick trip to find a Vadalia onion and work I've been occupied all day. Kayla had a good day at school learning about the farm (we're taking a trip there on Thursday, please start praying now for nice weather!) and Noah was in high spirits when he got home because his teacher praised him quite a bit when I was in the classroom this morning and I too told him how proud of him I was of all the good things I was seeing him do when I was there. So full or not, everyone had a productive and fruitful Tuesday.

For dinner tonight I decided we'd try out Central Kentucky Squambo. I've decided I love Kentucky culinary creations if for no other reason than they have really fun names. Who comes up with things like burgoo and sqambo? Anyway... I can't really find much of what *exactly* squambo is other than "Squambo is a regional dish popular in the KY/TN/VA area, and originated in Waco, Kentucky around the 1920's. Traditional versions usually feature meats such as squirrel, opossum, groundhog and coyote." (http://www.etsy.com/people/squambo) Again with all the weird meats, hehehe. I found a recipe that was a bit tamer (and meatless!) for us to try tonight. It was basically a rice and veggie stew, with a little bit of a kick, all topped off with some cheese. Kind of fun! And who doesn't like to say squambo? My crew did and they like dinner as well - Noah even said he doesn't care if I make anything else this week, he is already sure this is going to be his favorite dish from Kentucky. The kid used the word "love' every other word to describe his feelings about dinner tonight.

I was glad that I had a little bit of time on my hands last night to test run our Kentucky craft project, these super cute egg jockeys. As any good craftin' Mama knows, you should ALWAYS give it a go before making an attempt with little helpers and through trial and error last night I was able to come up with some better ideas for how the kiddos could put these together. While we did, we talked about jockeys and how important they were to horse racing. I did my best to convey to the kiddos that they probably shouldn't aim to become jockeys as most average between 108-118 lbs because for a race like the Derby max load with gear is 126 lbs for a colt and 121 lbs for a filly and only stand between 4'10" and 5'6" on average and my kiddos will definitely be too big. I also told them how dangerous being a jockey is - life insurance premiums for jockeys are among the HIGHEST for any professional athletes (including football players) and in Australia, being a jockey is considered to be the 2nd most dangerous job, behind only deep sea fishing! I love my kiddos a little too much to consider letting them 'guide' a 1200lb animal racing around a track at 40 miles an hour without putting up at least a little fuss ;-) But they both are enamored with horses in general now, and have named their dream horses White Lightning (Kayla) and Cinnastreak (Noah). I told them they best keep dreaming. Despite my reservations about them actually becoming jockeys, the egg ones they created turned out super stinkin' cute and will be the perfect decoration for our Derby party on Saturday.

Not exactly sure what tomorrow looks like yet, waiting for a few things to come together and sort themselves out for how the Bean and I plan on spending our day. But getting excited for Hot Browns tomorrow night (everyone who has any knowledge of Kentucky and heard about this week has asked me if I'm making Hot Browns, guess that means I should get on it!) and our research on the horses that are going to run in the Derby this weekend. We're going to give them a good look over and each pick our favorite. I can't wait to attempt to determine what makes a horse special to my twosome :-p So until then...

Kentucky Fun Fact of the Day: Thunder Over Louisville is the opening ceremony for the Kentucky Derby Festival and is the world's largest fireworks display. (Something tells me Noah would rather skip this event...)