lights

I made a lasagna for dinner tonight since Giselle's new friend was going to eat dinner with us. At the last minute she got cold feet - she's never eaten at anyone else's house other than hers or her grandparents' houses.
Starting from the bottom of the 8x10 pan (needless to say that all ingredients were organic - whatever that label is worth these days):
1 cup of homemade pasta sauce
3 partially cooked whole wheat lasagna noodles
3 cups of uncooked fresh spinach - torn into manageable-sized pieces
salt
3 partially cooked whole wheat lasagna noodles
2 cups of ricotta mixture (1 -16 oz container whole milk ricotta, 1 egg, 8 oz shredded mozz and Parm cheese, Italian seasoning, 1 TBS garlic puree, salt & pepper)
1/2 cup homemade pasta sauce
3 partially cooked whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 cup diced roasted chicken
2 cups of uncooked fresh spinach - torn into manageable-sized pieces
salt
2 partially cooked whole wheat lasagna noodles
remaining cup of ricotta mixture
2 cups of pasta sauce
4 oz shredded mozz and Parm cheese
cooked at 350 in the toaster oven for 70 min, let sit for 20 min.

Dinner was ready at 6 pm which is earlier than usual for us, especially since it was REALLY only 5 pm.
Now the kids are out back racing radio-controlled cars with Joe while the dog is stuck inside staring out the screen door drooling. After all, those are HER rc cars that they're playing with!

Giselle says that it's too light outside for it to be time to get ready for bed in 5 min. Since we've already eaten dinner, I'm taking this opportunity to get them ready for bed early so that we can finally read some more of Peter Pan AND have the lights out by 7:30!

YouTube

I spent WAY too long watching someone play all the levels of Cool Spot on YouTube. In 13 parts. Each part was just shy of 10 min long. BUT I saw levels of this game that I never even knew existed since they really aren't written about very much in the instruction book. Needless to say, I'll never be reaching those levels since I have a life and so do my kids; but it was cool to see those levels none-the-less.

I've got to go to bed NOW if I intend on making Joe breakfast in the morning before he has to leave at 8:15! HA!

Oh Charles, Joe bought a new 3 lb bag of bears at Fry's this evening so we're restocked.

Night all!

In the beginning

Genesis

Sega Genesis

I still have mine and it works great! If you have old game cartridges and the manuals that go with them and you want to get rid of them please send them to me!

Paul and I were playing Cool Spot this evening while Giselle was out with Joe. Paul would play the first level and then hand me the controller to play the next several levels. We stayed up too late playing, I'm a bit of an old gamer so I have a hard time shutting it down. I'm going to have to hit eBay for some more old Sega Genesis games, maybe I'll even upgrade to... what was it called? the Sega Saturn? That's why I got a Sega back then, you could upgrade it with a plug-in instead of buying a whole new system that your old games wouldn't work on.

Joe's cranking Ace Frehley "Back in the New York Groove" from the solo album now. I'm the one that made him add that to his iTunes. That one's over, now it's "Every time I Think of You" by the Babys (or was this a John Waite solo song?).

Back to searching for Furby and Sega Genesis games.
See ya!

it was inevitable

It was bound to happen someday and tonight was the night. I was up late with the kids playing video games - I was playing and they were watching - and they finally noticed my Furby hiding in the back of the entertainment center behind the TV. Paul asked me "Mama, what's that penguin back there for?" I said "That's not a penguin, that's my Furby!" and I got him out to show the kids. Amazingly enough, since he'd been asleep for several years (about 8 years) his batteries were fine and he woke up immediately and started talking. Of course they fell in love with him and we proceeded to play with him for the next 15 minutes. Now I have to search the Internet to see if they still sell them new or if I have to go bidding for 2 of them on eBay; because of course they both want one of their own (since I'm NOT going to share mine with them!) I haven't told the kids that the Furbys can 'talk' to each other. Somewhere I've got the manual for mine but I have no idea where. I guess I'll download a new one. Wish me luck!
Thank you Al Gore for inventing the Internet so that I can find toys for my kids!


Hey Joe, I can hear you playing The Dream Academy "Life in a Northern Town" all the way up here in the main house even though you've got all the doors closed down in the shop. Love you!

almost forgot!

Oh, Saturday afternoon after The Farmers Market we went directly to a UT Women's Basketball game against Baylor with all the other Girl Scouts in Austin. Giselle rode there with the rest of the troop while Paul and I took the scenic route to the arena in our car. UT lost, although it did become a close game at the end. Afterwards I took Paul & Giselle to eat a Stromboli at The Brick Oven on Red River. While we ate, I read the closed-captioning of the speech that Rush Limbaugh gave to the Nation at CPAC. Wow!! If you didn't catch it, here's the transcript of the speech http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/01/transcript-rush-limbaughs-address-cpac/

Yeah, it was a busy day that day!

update

3/2 - Today - school day and grocery shopping - both kids got to play at friends' houses while I did the shopping, lucky for them.

3/1 - Sunday - kite festival - we waited 1 hour for our turn to get on the shuttle to go to the festival, it took the shuttle 50 min to make the normally 10 min drive, the wind was close to non-existent so we only got our kites up 3 times, the wait for the shuttle back to our car was another 45 minutes.

2/28 - Saturday - farmers market - it was sunny, 60 degrees and windy with gusts of 35 mph but we had puppies to play with the entire time! Candy the collie had puppies with a great Pyrenees and there are 7 puppies that need new homes. They're 6 weeks old and are fuzzy and fat and adorable and super mellow. They'll be at the market every week until they're all gone so we'll be at the market from 8 am until 1:30 every week until they're all gone.

2/27 - Friday - park day - 90 degrees and sunny, what a fantastic day! Test day went great so we were at the park by 1:30, stayed until 6. Picked up a pizza and watched Toy Story 2.

2/26 - Thursday - made an awesome spinach and chicken and cheese fritata for dinner.

2/25 - Wednesday - played at our friend's house after school but there was no dinner at church since it was Ash Wednesday. Giselle rode her friend's bike - with pedals and with no training wheels - time for a new bike for her. It'll be Paul's turn this week.

2/24 - Tuesday - finally updated the blog but forgot to post about the Shrove Tuesday celebration at church. All the kids decorated their bikes and had a parade and older kids threw candy AT them. Then there was a pancake supper put on by the youth group while some of us adults manned the craft tables - I was at the mask-making table. I got two miniature bags of Target brand gummy bears - there were 8 bears in each bag, that's how miniature they were!


See, I could have drawn this out and made it 7 individual posts but I condensed it down into just this one. You're welcome.

rediculous

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a decent looking bathroom trashcan for under $20? I'll tell you - pretty close to impossible!!!!
AND they don't make them in pretty colors with matching sink accessories AT ALL!

So, in the sand colored bathroom with the maroon shower curtain I couldn't get a coral colored trash can because there were no matching accessories. I couldn't get the green one that looked like it that DID have matching accessories because green is not in the color scheme. On to the next, next store - Bed, Bath & way-Beyond-overpriced. There we found tons of matched sets except that they all were either really ugly, or made out of wood (Why would I want a toothbrush holder that's made out of wood?), or OMG overpriced (I am NOT going to buy a juice cup for rinsing out my mouth for $9.99!), or made out of stone (a 5-lb soap dispenser is a bit silly).
I found one set that Giselle and I both really liked, then I looked at the prices, coughed, took a deep breath and said "I am NOT going to pay $40 for a trashcan that nobody ever even sees!" Giselle said "$40 for a trashcan? That is a lot of money."
I spent another 10 minutes on another set - clear acrylic with metal bases. As I was about to walk off to make our purchase I said "Why am I going to get a clear trash can when I'm just going to put a plastic grocery bag in the thing? No, this is all wrong!" So I put it all back. Giselle saw some shiny metal ones that she liked, I told her that I wasn't willing to do the work required to keep them shiny. Finally, in my desperation to get a trashcan for that bathroom once and for all I looked through the entire section again and came across some hard plastic ones that were acceptable in appearance and price. After about 5 minutes I already didn't like them. But NEXT to them were some ones that I could be content with and I knew that Joe would love them - Dark Chocolate Brown Melamie. I got the set, well, I didn't get the soap dispenser or the Kleenex dispenser but I did get the trashcan, toothbrush holder, soap dish, and rinse cup. I also got 3 other rinse cups in the other colors - pale blue, white, pale olive green. The cups were only $3.99 each (what a sarcastic bargain, but they match the set!). I really wish that I'd been able to find a matched set in coral or maroon or something a bit brighter. Oh well, maybe someday I'll trip across some; maybe on Overstock.com or someplace.

As of my typing this, Joe still hasn't noticed them in the bathroom.

dog

The dog is doing pretty well for a 14 year old dog. She's back on an all-raw diet like she used to be before I had kids. Every morning I shred 2 small-ish carrots into her bowl, add in some crushed egg shells, cut up a 1/3 lb bone-in chicken thigh, sprinkle on some Super Food powder, add in her Proin and a fish oil capsule, stir it up and watch her inhale it in about 45 seconds. At bedtime she's getting 1/4 lb of raw ground beef and her Proin again. These last 2 days I've given her a raw chicken liver in her breakfast and she's been farty in the late evening. I'm going to continue to give the livers to her for the rest of the week and keep a nose on the gas to see if it goes away. I figure that if her system hasn't gotten used to the liver in a week then I'll take it back out.
She TOTALLY loved the cow foot I gave her the other week and she's been enjoying the beef ribs that I've given her a few times a week. This evening I heard her out there crunching on the bones some more. Tomorrow's supposed to be a nice day; I think I'll thaw her out another foot for a snack.


I hope that Joe'll be around for dinner tomorrow night - I need to cook that pork roast that's sitting in the fridge. Or maybe I'll cook it anyway and turn it into pork sandwiches. Oh yeah, Paul can't bite. Well, I'll figure out something.

gone

With a LOT of help from the kids and Joe, the 5-pound bag of gummy bears was finished off yesterday afternoon. And all that's left of those ones from Target is about 25 bears.

BUT, we were at Target today and I had NO desire to restock the pantry with new bags of the little bears. I am SO tired of there being candy around the house! Thankfully St Patricks day isn't a candy holiday and Easter is 40 days away so we'll have a break for a bit once I throw out the gingerbread houses Thursday morning. And after Easter there're no more candy holidays until Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There'll be a birthday party in there but I'm filling the pinata with just gum and toys, no candy!

Hard Tack

You would not believe how hard the gingerbread houses are! Paul's got some loose teeth and so I've been getting him to eat it to help loosen them more - THAT's how hard it is!! So today after they had some blackberry yogurt for lunch, I was wiggling Paul's bottom tooth that has the new tooth growing in behind it and we got it to break loose. The gum is still holding on to it but it's no longer attached down below. This being Paul's first tooth he was a little freaked out - he remembers how reluctant Giselle was to wiggle her own teeth out.
He eventually calmed down but he can't eat much of anything. Dinner tonight was at church for Shrove Tuesday and fortunately for Paul it was pancakes with tiny disks of sausage. When we got home he tried to eat a hard boiled egg but it hurt so much to bite into that I had to cut the rest of it up into pieces with a spoon for him to eat.
At Target the other day we bought a small blue silk covered jewelry box that we're going to use as a temporary tooth box - as soon as tomorrow night!
Goodness, the top 2 teeth are awfully wobbly too! Good thing the tooth toy box is fully stocked!!
I'll keep you posted!

motorcycles

I know that this would be better with pictures but I don't feel like downloading then editing then uploading right now.
Giselle went for her first motorcycle ride last week and on Sunday Paul went for his first ride and Giselle went again.
To say that they loved it would be an understatement - they both cried when Joe said that his hands were too cold to take them on another ride.
Now maybe they'll get motivated to become better bicycle riders so that they can ride the electric kid-motorcycle that's been sitting in the shed for 8 years, waiting for them to REALLY want to ride it.
BTW, all of Paul's tennis shoes have become too small since the fall so he borrowed a pair of Giselle's. My barefoot, Croc-wearing kids have feet that are too wide for 'normal' width shoes.

buying American

As I was eating directly from the bag of frozen shelled soybeans this evening I got to reading the label. Did you realize that fresh soybeans are about 20% fat? I found it especially irritating that the Born-and-still based-in-Texas HEB Grocery store organic edamame comes from China. Why can't they grow it here and if they do then why doesn't HEB Central Market buy AMERICAN?! Don't give me the crap line that the demand is too high for the American farmers to keep up with; the stuff is stockpiled and either sold overseas or given to the 'organic' cows and pig for feed. The pollutants used to get that organic product from China to Austin TOTALLY negates the 'purity' of the product. Not to mention the fact that you pretty much can't trust ANYTHING that comes from China these days.
I feel a letter writing campaign coming on. If you feel like joining me in my efforts to let HEB know that I prefer my organic products to be grown in AMERICA, here's the information:
Mailing Address
H-E-B
Attention: Customer Relations Department
P.O. Box 839999
San Antonio, TX 78283-3999

Telephone Numbers
San Antonio, Texas 210-938-8357
Toll-free number 1-800 432-3113
Customer Relations office hours: Mon. - Fri., 8am - 5pm

Just passing this on, I signed and so should you.

Help Send a Message to the USDA – 100,000 Americans for a Sustainable America
Next week we’re delivering your signatures and comments to Secretary Vilsack at his offices in Washington DC.
Please forward this message to 5 of your friends to help us reach our goal of over 100,000 Americans for a sustainable USDA.We want to thank you for helping us make this petition a success. To date over 84,659 Americans have signed the letter calling for sustainable change at the USDA.
Original signers to the letter include Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, Marion Nestle, Francis Moore Lappé, Bill McKibben, Alice Waters, Dan Barber and Rick Bayless among many others.
So far we know that we’ve had success in changing the debate in how agriculture is being discussed in the 21st century. Since his confirmation, Secretary Vilsack has made a number of forward-thinking statements that prove he understands the urgent need for change in our nation’s food policies.
Let's make sure the administration understands how much support the idea of sustainable practices in U.S. food and farm policy we’re asking that you forward this message to 5 friends to have them sign the petition and help put us over the top.
Thanks again for all your help, we look forward to creating a sustainable food system for the 21st century.
Best,David MurphyPaul WillisLisa StokkeAaron Woolf
Food Democracy Now!

Come Fly With Me!

Not this Sunday but next Sunday it's the 81st annual Zilker Kite Festival!!!!!

Fun, Family and Free

Sunday March 1, 2009 from 10 am to 5 pm is Kite Day at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas
Presented by H-E-B, The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department and The Exchange Club of Austin.
Free Shuttle Rides & Parking at two locations: Downtown at 1604 Colorado Street, State garage E and South at the Tony Burger Center at 3200 Jones Road Shuttles begin at 10am (last one leaves park at 5:30 pm)

done

Made pizza quesadillas for the kids' dinner, washed dishes in the dish washer, washed dishes by hand, portioned out and froze 5 lbs of ground beef for the dog's food, separated and froze turkey cutlets for Joe's food, deboned Saturday's roasted chicken for the kid's food, cleaned up the icing mess on the counter to get rid of any potential ant food, made room in the fridge for 6 pounds of apples and put them in, made room in the fridge for the chard so I could put the big cooler away, washed and dried the cover to the dog's bed, will possibly put away all of the clean dishes AND posted about it on the blog.
A well-spent evening.

teeth

In addition to Paul already having 2 of his 4 6-yr old molars, his first primary tooth has popped through today. It's on the bottom, coming in right behind his front tooth; just like Giselle's did. We REALLY need to get that tooth box!

warm-ish rainy day

How do we spend a 70 degree rainy day in February after we've finished school and gone to ballet? We decorate gingerbread houses, that's how! What kids would rather eat sugar than play with friends? Joe's kids.

Natalie is...

not posting regularly anymore. No reason other than I've gotten lazy about updating. My brain hasn't been focused enough in the evenings to post and I've been busy in the mornings and afternoons. I'll get back in the swing soon enough.
See ya!

Dinner tonight

So this recipe came in the email today and the kids were open to me making it for dinner tonight so I put it together for them while Joe's 1.5 lb pork loin was cooking (seared on the stove first then baked in the toaster oven at 425 for 25 min). It came out looking exactly like the picture and they enjoyed it. I didn't use any nutmeg and I used fresh broccoli instead of frozen.

Cheesy Baked Shells and Broccoli

http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1840523

3/4 pound medium pasta shells (about 5 cups)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
2 cups coarsely grated Cheddar or Gruyýre (8 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 16-ounce bag frozen broccoli florets, thawed

Heat broiler. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the cheese and stir until melted. Stir in the nutmeg, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper.

Add the pasta and broccoli and toss to combine. Transfer to a broilerproof 8-inch square or another 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining 1⁄2 cup of cheese. Broil until golden, 3 to 4 minutes.

Yield: Makes 4 servings
NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 697; FAT 26g (sat 15g); CHOLESTEROL 82mg; CARBOHYDRATE 78g; CALORIES FROM FAT 34%; SODIUM 650mg; PROTEIN 34g; FIBER 6g; SUGAR 9g

Sara Quessenberry
Real Simple, OCTOBER 2008

blood

I'm finally going to go give blood again this month. It's been since April of last year since I last gave and I'm feeling a bit bad about that. Since I got declined by the blood drive bus in June for having low iron I've felt a bit leery of making an appointment to go in and donate but I'm feeling OK about my levels so I think I'm good to go this time.
And by giving around Valentine's Day I'll get double points to be used for buying treats from the donation store. We got a cool GIANT backpack last year (although there's a small problem with one of the small zippers) and I'm not sure what we'll go for next; maybe a hoodie sweatshirt or another backpack.
You should consider giving blood this month too! The pint you give could mean the difference between life and death for someone in need.



EDITED TO ADD:
I just finished ordering my 1-gallon of donations commemorative mug. In another 2 years I'll be able to get the next one!

dinner

Even after all those gummy bears (no, we didn't eat them all...yet) we still needed to eat dinner so I made the kids some excellent chicken quesadillas using the roasted chicken from The Market, some salsa, shredded Mexican cheese, slices of mozzarella cheese and fresh uncooked tortillas. I had the leftover caldo de pollo from last night, the dog had some raw turkey and after the kids went to bed I cooked up some turkey cutlets for Joe. Paul's been asking for hard boiled eggs again lately so I boiled up a dozen of them while I cooked Joe's meat. This week I'm not putting them in the back of the meat & cheese drawer. That's where I put them last week and they got frozen. It was a bit odd to eat a hard boiled egg that had slivers of ice it. It changed the texture some but they still tasted ok and that's all that mattered to the kids. But still, I'm going to be more careful this time.

thanks friends!

In response to my plea for more gummy bears, a wonderful friend sent me a 5 lb bag of Haribo gummy bears!
Thank you!

Although after seeing this picture http://io9.com/photogallery/gummi/1001966280 I'm not as enthused about them as I used to be. I guess that's a good thing; maybe the bag will last longer than a week this way.

Pssst!

We still have 10 boxes of Thin Mints available for sale! And 1 case of Carmel Delites and 2 cases of Peanut Butter Patties.

spelling words

Here's our new batch of spelling words for the next 6 months; courtesy of www.time4learning.com. And yes, that means that we'll be schooling through the summer months; albeit on a lightened work load.


FORTH GRADE SPELLING WORDS
1 - above fifth praise across flock ranch account finger race addition flour range
2 - advice flower ready ahead foggy regular against flute recover alert follow remain
3 - among forget remark anger fraction remind amount forth remember angry frame remove
4 - annoy freeze repair another fried return annual freight report answer frown riddle
5 - apiece froze rifle argue furniture rough apple funeral roast arguing gallery royal
6 - arithmetic garbage scale author geese scowl arose gather scarce avenue general scrap
7 - avoid genius scrape aware ghost scream award gentle scratch badge giraffe seashore
8 - basic glacier season basketball governor shallow basket glory serve battle gravy shave
9 - beast grill shear beggar grove shrimp beetle grind sheet blame growl sidewalk
10 - blank guess sideways boast hatch skate board happensimple borrow height skill
11 - bottle helpless slain branch hollow slave brain hoist slate brave honey sleet
12 - breath hope sleeve bubble hopeless smoke bridge hoping slept bucket hydrant sorry
13 - burst icicle stage calm image statue cactus ignore station canal inches steam
14 - cannon include stockings cattle insist strange careless income stole caution invent stretch
15 - celery invite strong center issue stung cellar island stump central ivory sweat
16 - century jeans swim chase judge tenth charge journal target chimney juggle terrible
17 - chose juice themselves circus kitchen thrill chute kept thirsty close lace throat
18 - cloth lack throne coach lame time clothing laid ticket coast lamp timing
19 - collar laugh title coming lecture tomorrow come least toils continue ledge toothbrush
20 - cough lettuce torch court local trace couple little tough cousin loyal tried
21 - crane manage trouble crate market turtle crash marble turkey crawl match twist
22 - craze measles unable creation middle understood cream mention understand cried midnight underwear
23 - crowd monkey unhappy dainty narrate unkind crush month unfair daily narrow unknown
24 - daughter nation unlikely death newspaper unlock deaf naughty unload decorator nineteen unlucky
25 - destroy noise untie direction north unusual device noisy until doctor notion unwilling
26 - dollar ocean use double often usual donkey offer using drank order vacation
27 - drug palm value enough pebble visitor earthquake patch vegetable equal people vocal
28 - evening pillow voyage everyone playground weave everybody plane wander everything plight whenever
29 - excuse poise which explode porch width exercise poison whole fearless portion wonder

good day / bad day

It was a good day for the Steelers but not a good day to be selling Girl Scout Cookies out front of Blockbuster Video. I need to remember that for next year.

Ben 10

Ben 10: Alien Force is cool!

wasted

Giselle wasn't feeling well for a second day in a row so we stayed at home instead of spending the day at The Park on this upper-60's degree day. I guess we're allowed to miss one due to sickness every now and then but it's a bummer when it happens on a nice day. Wait a minute I live in Central Texas, almost every day is a nice day so it's not that big of a deal to have to stay inside/close to home on a nice day because it's sure to be a nice day again tomorrow. Which, in fact, it's supposed to be even nicer than today was - highs in the low 70's!

Cool House

So we spent most of the afternoon in one of those typical bland, cookie-cutter, modern suburban neighborhoods...inside of one of the coolest houses I've EVER been in!

The kids loved it and wish that it was our house. They've taken one of those soulless high-ceilings, white-walls houses and transformed it into a multi-cultural oasis. The dining room was like being in Morocco, the master bedroom was like being in Italy, another bedroom was like being in an early 20th-century doll shop, the living room, kitchen and breakfast room were just super comfortable with a kind of Moorish-feeling, the schoolroom was bright and inspiring and covered with horses. Next time I'll take pictures and show y'all.

One of the things I liked about it was that even with the high ceilings and hardwood floors there was no echo in the house; which is SO typical of those style houses. You know what I mean, that harsh clangy noise that hurts your ears and makes you yell at the kids to be quieter. The trick was that they had wall hangings. Not framed pictures but actual hanging tapestries. You know, that's what they used in those castles in days of yore to keep out the cold and keep down the noise. And it wasn't 'Keep Austin Weird'-type tapestries (beach towels or Mexican blankets) they were REAL tapestries with a picture woven into the fabric and shiny metallic disks sewn onto them and fringe on the bottom and hanging by a real tapestry rod (not held up with thumbtacks).

My friend has done a HUGE mural in the master bedroom of the view from the patio of an Italian villa. She did it herself and it looks GOOD; pay-money-to-someone-to-paint-it good! She's actually still working on it; I'm sure that from lying there in bed looking at it every day she notices all the errors but to the normal eye it looks done. The rest of the walls of the bedroom are painted to look like the rest of a villa patio - stucco walls that are missing stucco in some places. Oooo, maybe she'll eventually do the back wall as the view of the outside of the house, or not.

Probably the coolest thing about it is that even though it had a total exotic feel, it didn't have that museum feel, it felt like a real house that real people live in. It had warmth, not at all sterile or 'oh, don't touch that!'. I tell you the house was AWESOME!

The only downside is that it's on the polar opposite side of town from us, maybe about 30 miles (I forgot to check the odometer). I guess that'll only make it more special every time we go over. BTW, the kids wanted to go back tomorrow; I told them that maybe we'd do it every 2 weeks.

weather whine

Freezing rain tonight!
But 50's tomorrow so we can still make our scheduled trip to Pflugerville where we'll have lots of pfun with our pfriends!

why not to Do-It-Yourself

In looking up how to properly maintain a septic tank I came across this web page that has YouTube clips (5 of them) showing the five reasons that it's not always a good idea to try to do home repairs/construction yourself. Be prepared to wince and maybe giggle a little.
http://austin.kudzu.com/article.do?articleID=4062

Poor Paul

My sweet, poor, little man, his top teeth are now loose and for the first time in his memory it hurts to eat. Tonight while eating spaghetti he started crying about it hurting to eat. Giselle and I had to explain to him that while his old teeth are coming out and the new teeth are coming in that it can often times be painful to eat. He insisted at first that it wasn't because his teeth were loose so I asked him to show me which one hurt. He pointed to one of his middle top teeth and I grabbed ahold of it and tried to wiggle it and it wiggled, A LOT. I swear that tooth was not at all loose earlier in the week when I posted about his molars! After that he didn't argue about it the cause of the pain.

After dinner they got ready for bed. Once Paul was all ready I had him stand in front of the mirror and wiggle his teeth with his own hand - he was pleased to feel them wiggle. I don't think those teeth are going to be attached for much longer :)

We better hurry up on that tooth box! I know that the tooth toy box is stocked and ready for him, and I guess that's the most important part for him.

Our latest favorite song

This song is so good that even Joe watched the video with us and was singing along! I dare you to not be singing it all day after watching the video!




I LOVE it!

Attention Renters

Attention all people that currently rent the place that they are living in:
When you move out, please be sure to thoroughly clean out the refrigerator and freezer. That doesn't mean just take all your food out of it. That means to take a sponge and some 409 spray cleaner and clean all of your food funk from off of the surfaces - vertical and horizontal! See after you move out, most landlords have the electricity turned off unless another tenant is moving in right away. Dirty closed refrigerator + no electricity = gross nasty stuff growing inside of the fridge and freezer that your soon-to-be-ex landlord's wife has to clean up.
Remember those times you paid the rent at the absolute LAST SECOND and we didn't say anything, well how about some payback? 5 extra minutes of your time on move-out day, that's all I'm asking for.

Girl Scout peanut butter cookies are safe!

For everyone that is concerned about the safety of the peanut butter in the Girl Scout Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies and the Peanut Butter Patties: they are perfectly fine and are salmonella-free. http://www.abcsmartcookies.com/cookies_faq.asp

For everyone that was using their concern as an excuse to not buy Girl Scout Cookies from your local scout: they are perfectly fine so you now have no excuse for not buying any! http://www.abcsmartcookies.com/cookies_faq.asp

word of warning

Don't eat a lot of cheesecake if you're doing a great job of losing weight on a low-fat diet. That's all I'm saying.

My plumber is also an electrician

Joe's now finished rewiring all the light switches in the house so that there's a separate switch for each ceiling fan in the house. Instead of there being one wall switch that turns on the power for the fan AND the light, there's now 2 switches on the wall - one for the fan and one for the light. This task involved much crawling around in the attic that has over a foot of blown insulation and about 2 feet of clearance in most places. And the use of the walkie-talkies that we got for the kids for Christmas. Thanks Honey, this'll come in super handy in the summer when I want a convenient way to turn off the light but leave the fan on.

The leak is all fixed and the carpet is pretty much all dried out. I would think so: we've had less than 20% humidity for the last 3 days and there've been 2 Vornadoes, 2 tall floor fans, and 1 space fan blowing on the pulled-up carpet and foam for the last 3 days.

I'm going to watch some Sabrina, The Teenage Witch on TiVo and then go to bed.
See ya!

flashback

I used to have a shirt that looked like the one in the picture for today's woot.com deal. If you're reading this after today the link is this http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=7163. I'm positive that it looked better on me than it looks on this guy!

teeth

In honor of Paul's 5th birthday last week his 2nd bottom 6-yr old molar has made it's appearance. The first one broke through around the beginning of December. I know, you're saying "6-yr old molars? But he just turned 5! That's so soon!" But see you have to keep in mind that while Giselle was a bit early with cutting her first tooth at 4.5 months and loosing her first tooth at 5 yrs 4 months (although the permanent tooth had come in a month earlier), Paul cut his first tooth when he was a mere 3 months and 10 days old. And to totally blow the myth out of the water that you can't nurse a kid once they get teeth - I continued to nurse him for an additional 3 and 1/2 years.

He's been grinding his teeth at night a lot lately, which I know from Giselle is a sign that teeth are coming in, but I expected that it was because he was going to be loosing his baby teeth soon. I didn't really expect those molars yet. I do help him to brush his teeth but I brush his whole gums, whether he has teeth there or not and his mouth is full of toothpaste foam so I hadn't noticed that first molar until it was all the way cut through last month. This other one cut through the gum a few days ago.

I guess we better get a tooth box made for him quickly since I expect teeth to be coming out soon, not just coming in. Giselle's bottom canine teeth are wobbly, she's glad about that.

Back to school.

weekend plumber

Fortunately my plumber is cheap - I just have to feed him and have marital relations with him regularly.

Giselle noticed a wet spot on her bedroom carpet this afternoon and mentioned it to me as I was putting her to bed at 8. Thinking that the dog had relieved herself there earlier in the day I investigated. Fortunately the dog had not peed there; unfortunately the carpet in half of her room was soaking wet and it was coming from beneath the wall that adjoins the 2nd bathroom. We pulled up the carpet and underlying foam to start drying it out while we searched for the cause of the water.
First Joe pulled up the toilet, thinking that might be leaking but that was bone dry underneath - good thing since we had just had tile put down and had replaced all the seals. Then he checked behind the sink since there's a big hole in the wall above it for the medicine cabinet that Joe's in the process of installing (a process that involved rerouting the pvc sewer vent pipe in the wall); no leaks there. That left the tub/shower. In the process of diagnosing a small leak behind the shower, the pipe outright broke; spraying water all over the backside of the wall in Giselle's room and leaking out onto the concrete floor in her bedroom. Joe goes running out the back door to grab his "turn off the water at the main valve" tool and then ran through the house to the water meter/main shut-off valve out front. See, here in the South where it doesn't freeze, the water shut-off is outside at the water meter out by the street - about 1 foot below the surface of the ground.
So, he gets the water shut off and then he had to cut a hole in Giselle's wall to get to the pipes. Of course this all happens AFTER Home Depot has closed for the night because it's Sunday and they close early on Sundays so no repair parts would be available. But he cut away the bad sections of pipe (using the pipe cutter that his Dad had bought for him earlier that day, ironically enough), Dawn came up the street with some Shark caps to cap off the pipes and Joe turned the water back on so that we'll have running water in the AM. At least until he has to turn the water off again to make the repair.

I am SO glad that Joe knows how to do this stuff and I am SO glad that Giselle told me about the wet spot on her floor!

better than coffee

What can be better than coffee? I'll tell you what.
A big scoop of Blue Bell Vanilla Bean ice cream with about a tablespoon or so of instant espresso powder poured on top and then mixed in.
Espresso Ice Cream. Oh Yeah!
I was up until 3 last night after having some for dessert at 8 pm.

Baby, it's cold outside!

THE COMBINATION OF COLD VERY DRY AIR...CLEAR SKIES...AND SUBSIDING WINDS WILL CAUSE TEMPERATURES TO FALL RAPIDLY OVERNIGHT. TEMPERATURES BY SUNRISE WEDNESDAY MORNING ARE EXPECTED TO BE IN THE 20S OVER ALL OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS...AND NEAR 20 DEGREES OVER THE HILL COUNTRY. TEMPERATURES WILL RISE ABOVE FREEZING BY MID TO LATE MORNING ON WEDNESDAY.
(I'm not shouting, that's the way it copied over from the National Weather Service)

Don't worry about me, it'll be back to highs in the upper 60's by Monday. Besides, I'm in my winter-denial mode - all I need is a turtle neck and a sweater, forget about a jacket or socks. The only reason I'm wearing pants instead of Capris is that I'm too lazy to shave my legs.

absent

Too pre-occupied to bother with posting.
Thanks for dropping by though!

flowers

Joe stopped traffic today to recover a flat of white pansies that had fallen off the back of a truck. He came to a stop in the middle of the road, got out of his car and then carefully scooped the plants off of the street and put them back into their 4-inch pots; saving all but 3 of the 24 plants. He brought them home and presented them to me with a look on his face that should have been captured on film. (Did I just say 'film'? Gosh I'm showing my age!)
Thank you Joe, they're the best flowers that I've ever gotten!
I promise to plant them tomorrow morning before school.

fun in the cold

Paul had 2 friends over today and the 3 of them discovered the joy of riding the Big Wheels down the big hill in the back yard. Actually they didn't discover it, I told them it'd be a blast and that they should try it. They were really glad that they listened to me! The John Deere tractor did the hill once but I made sure that wasn't done again - can't have that getting broken. I didn't take any pictures this time but I'll be sure to next time, and I'm SURE that there'll be a next time! But next time I hope that it won't be only 37 degrees, or whatever the temp was at that time - we could see our breath it was that cold.
That's all I've got.
I'm going to either read or watch TV, I'm not sure which.
The first day back at schooling went REALLY well today, for all of us!

cold

windy and cold - we left the house for church this morning and I doubt that we'll leave it again for the rest of the day!

another fan!

No not THAT kind; I still only have 4 official followers.
I'm talking about the ceiling fan in our kitchen. The 25 yr old tolerable fan/light combo is gone and we now have a very nice, modern, 3-bladed fan/light combo in its place. With some work, Joe converted the new lamp part from using 3 candelabra bulbs to using 2 100 wt bulbs (incandescent or cfl) so that we'll be able to actually read at the table. And after 45 min of tweaking, it's vibration free even at mach speed.

Although as I typed this I was struck by an ocular headache. I realized that with the fan at medium speed, the flickering of the shadows on the wall in front of me (behind the computer screen) was at the exact WRONG speed for my eyes and was totally messing with them. I've switched the fan to low and while the pulsing is still very noticeable in my peripheral vision, hopefully it'll be something that I won't notice when the lights aren't on. It may actually be a problem with the bulbs being cfl's or that there are 2 100 wt bulbs, not the fan speed at all. No, it's the flickering of the shadows. Sounds like a personal problem to me.

The Anti-Whine

And now starts the beginning of my 6 week long weather loving/weather hating season, since as my unofficial title of meteorologist I always state that winter in Central Texas starts on New Years Day and ends about Valentine's Day. I'll whine for 2 days about the temperature and then I'll gloat for 3. Today and tomorrow and Sunday I'm gloating; sunny and 78 today, partly sunny and 81 tomorrow, and still warmish on Sunday with a low of 41 at night. Monday our high is only going to be 5 degrees warmer than the night before so I'll be whining then; oh, and it's supposed to maybe be rainy too.
In the meantime, I'll be at the park this afternoon with the kids loving the fact that I'm in short sleeves and Capri's on January 2nd.


Why is Capri capitalized? My inquiring mind wants to know.

Another Year Begins

Paul fell asleep on the sofa, curled up behind my curled up legs, around 11. Joe went to bed about 11:30. I fell asleep on the sofa around 11:45. Giselle fell asleep in her bean bag around 12:45 and the 3 of us went to bed at 1:30 ish. We slept in until almost 9 and it's been a fairly mellow day. Joe put the soundproofing fascia on the dish washer, I covered the 19 yr old picnic table with vinyl, and the kids had some Pokemon battles with the kids from next door.

I need to run and cook up some black-eyed peas and rice to go with the fish and pork loin for dinner.

We're watching 'Horton Hears A Who' right now, Paul is wanting to leave the room since the mean Vlad is about to show up and we don't care much for mean people.

See ya!

We're Baaack!

Did you miss me? Did you notice that I was gone? I'm guessing no since no one came over and cleaned the house while I was gone. Some friends y'all are!

Tonight is the night that the kids get to stay up as late as they want to / can make it to. I'm sure that once again I'll have to tell Giselle that her time is up around 2. Paul's REALLY wanting to make it past midnight but with the day that we've had I'm not sure if he'll make it past 10. I'm sure that if I let them drink more Champagne that they'd go to sleep sooner but I'm not willing to do that.

It'll be nice to sleep in our own beds tonight.

See you next year!

Dinner Calendar - September 2008

Only 3 months after this and the whole year will be done! Well, I can't post the December one until January. So here's what we had every night for dinner in September of 2008.

1 - Ate Out - Lunch - Chuy's Tex Mex, Dinner - Vietnamese chicken salad
2 - Tortellini w/ sauce
3 - Black beans & rice
4 - Black beans & rice
5 - Tortellini & ravioli w/ pesto, chicken fajita salad for Joe
6 - Ate Out - party - Pok-E-Joe's BBQ
7 - Fresh black-eyed peas and rice
8 - Big Dinner - Tamales, salmon, mixed veggies, stuffed crab
9 - Tortellini w/ pesto
10 - Ate Out - Church - baked ziti, salad, garlic bread, cookies
11 - Hot dogs & chili
12 - Veggie Lo Mien
13 - Ate Out - Claudia's house
14 - Spaghetti w/ meatballs & sauce
15 - Macaroni & cheese w/ mixed veggies & hot dogs
16 - Ate Out - Sonic
17 - Ate Out - Church - taco nachos
18 - Hot dogs w/ buns, mixed veggies (pickiest child in the world over for dinner - ate 3 bites)
19 - Ate Out - Asian buffet
20 - Ate Out - Claudia's house
21 - Tortellini & ravioli w/ sauce, sauteed okra w/ tomatoes
22 - Roasted chicken salad, banana/peanut butter/chocolate milk
23 - I forgot to write it down
24 - Ate Out - Church - fried chicken
25 - Hot dogs w/ chili
26 - Ravioli w/ sauce
27 - Spaghetti w/ meatballs, sauce & mozzarella sauce
28 - Macaroni & cheese w/ black beans and sausage (This was a REGULAR meal when I was single and poor)
29 - Butter-fried corn cakes (polenta) w/ cheese, sour cream & salsa on top (BIG hit)
30 - Ate Out - Nutty Brown Cafe - grilled cheese, Frito pie

Dinner Calendar - August 2008

We're coming down the home stretch - August 2008.

Dinner Menu for August 2008 - what the kids ate since Joe usually eats out and I usually scrounge the leftovers from the previous meals.
1 - Paul - cold tortellini w/ sauce, Giselle - quesadilla
2 - Tamales, melon
3 - Ravioli w/ sauce, tuna fish salad
4 - Spaghetti w/ sauce, strawberry tapioca pudding
5 - Italian seasoned roasted chicken from HEB, tortellini, mixed veggies
6 - Ate Out - Sonic - jr cheeseburgers
7 - Chili
8 - Ate Out - Asian buffet
9 - Ate Out - Claudia's house - tuna fish salad, guacamole, melon
10 - Didn't eat dinner
11 - Ate Out - Sam's Wholesale - pizza & pretzel
12 - Ate Out - McDonald's - I know, it killed me but it was on the way to the lake and the kids were starving and it would have been too late if we had waited until after the lake.
13 - Tortellini w/meatballs and sauce
14 - Tortellini w/ sauce
15 - Baloney & cheese sandwiches
16 - Ate Out - Claudia's house - lamb burgers, green beans, rice, fruit on almond-flour waffles
17 - Macaroni & cheese w/ mixed veggies
18 - Ravioli w/ sauce, chicken fajita salad for Joe
19 - Black Bean & cheese tostadas
20 - Big Dinner (Claudia & the boys) - Shrimp scampi, salad w/ veggies, rice pasta w/ sauce & meatballs, fruit salad
21 - Tortellini & ravioli w/ sauce and meatballs, mixed veggies
22 - Leftover cold tortellini w/ sauce, hot chocolate
23 - Ate Out - Claudia's house - chicken fajitas
24 - Nachos
25 - Ham & cheese sandwiches
26 - Ate Out - Claudia's house - beef stir fry, yogurt w/ fruit
27 - Big Dinner - Tamales, pork loin, mixed veggies, sliced bell peppers
28 - Fusilli pasta w/ pesto, ravioli w/ sauce & meatballs, chicken fajita salad, mixed veggies
29 - Ate Out - Karma's house - hot dogs
30 - Big Dinner - Tamales, mixed veggies, sliced bell peppers
31 - Ate Out - HUGE Lunch - Salt Lick BBQ, Dinner - snacked

Dinner Calendar - July 2008

I'm all tied up in post-Christmas craziness. But I do have all the wrapping paper all cleaned up - did that by noon yesterday. To keep you amused here's the dinner calendar for July 2008.

July 2008
1 - Hot dogs and chili
2 - Ravioli w/ the newly canned sauce, fresh blueberries & strawberries w/ fresh whipped cream
3 - Ate Out - Sonic - popcorn chicken and banana splits
4 - Mini lasagna noodle pasta w/ sauce & meatballs, blueberry grunt (cobbler, kind of)
5 - Potato salad from County Line, roasted chicken from The Farmers Market
6 - Oatmeal, fried eggs
7 - Homemade chicken noodle caldo (soup)
8 - Tortellini w/ sauce
9 - Big Dinner - Scallop scampi pasta, tamales, pork loin, Sonic shakes (Joe drove)
10 - Hot dogs and chili
11 - Macaroni & cheese w/ pasta sauce
12 - Ate Out - Taco Bell
13 - Pork shoulder steak, sauteed pipian squash, caramelized onions
14 - Ate Out - Burger King - to get the Pokemon toys
15 - Leftover macaroni & cheese, peas
16 - Tortellini w/ no sauce, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, mixed veggies
17 - Ate Out - Maudie's - Tex Mex
18 - Pork shoulder steak, sauteed pipian squash, caramelized onions
19 - Ravioli w/ meat sauce
20 - Order Out/Eat In - Asian food
21 - forgot to write it down
22 - Eat Out - El Arroyo - Tex Mex
23 - Hot dogs & chili
24 - Eggs in a nest (courtesy of Ree at Pioneer Woman)
25 - Tortellini w/ sauce
26 - forgot to write it down
27 - Ate Out - Vietnamese buffet in Houston
28 - Houston
29 - Houston
30 - Houston
31 - Tortellini w/ sauce

Merry Christmas

I hope that your day is as wonderful as mine is!

Dinner Calendar - June 2008

I hope that I remember to put everything out tonight that I need to take care of. To clear my mind of clutter I give you the dinner menu from June. Summer was in full swing, so this is what we had every night for dinner in June of 2008.

1 - Ate Out - Angel's Icehouse (I first typed "Outhouse"!)
2 - Big Dinner - roasted pork loin, fresh green beans, skinny lasagna noodles with basil pesto, tomato wedges, chicken breasts.
3 - Skinny lasagna noodles w/ basil pesto
4 - Green beans, chicken breasts
5 - Hot Off Of The Grill - tamales, pork loin, marshmallows, from the stove - mixed veggies, from The Farm - sliced tomatoes
6 - Chili & hot dogs
7 - Ate Out - Claudia's house - beef vegetable soup made 100% with ingredients from Finca Pura Vida
8 - Butter beans & rice
9 - Tortellini w/ red sauce
10 - Chili w/ hot dogs
11 - Ate Out - Claudia's house - buffalo burgers and fresh veggies
12 - Tortellini w/ red sauce
13 - Tortellini w/ red sauce
14 - Tortellini w/ red sauce, ayote squash, gazpacho
15 - Sauteed - onions, tomatoes, squash & okra served over rice, w/ sour cream
16 - Tortellini w/ red sauce
17 - Fusilli pasta (remember the Fusilli Jerry that Kramer made on Seinfeld) w/ red sauce and mini mozzarella balls
18 - Vegetable patties (I got these at Costco months ago while shopping there with Marie and the kids), sliced tomatoes & cucumbers
19 - Chili & hot dogs, fresh berry shakes, tamales
20 - Ordered Out/Ate In - Subway - veggie patty (veggie max) sub on whole wheat
21 - Roasted chicken from The Farmer's Market, slices tomatoes & cucumbers
22 - Macaroni & cheese w/ ground beef & mixed veggies
23 - Cold soba noodle salad w/ cucumbers, peppers & chicken (recipe from Everyday Food)
24 - Big Dinner - scallop & shrimp scampi pasta (using those cool skinny lasagna noodles), tomato wedges, roasted pork loin, sliced fresh peppers w/ dip, homemade jello, some really good Incan Beer
25 - Hot dogs w/ buns, sliced tomatoes, homemade jello
26 - Ate Out - Chick-Fil-A
27 - ?
28 - Pizza
29 - ?
30 - Ate Out - Asian buffet

OK, back to the madness.

Dinner Calendar - May 2008

I can't believe that I'm actually bothering to post in the middle of this chaos but I'm now feeling the need to finish this series of posts before the end of the year. So yes, now this is what we ate every night in the month of May 2008.

1 - Ate Out - Asian buffet
2 - Cheese tortellini w/ red sauce, mixed veggies
3 - Pot Chuck Roast w/ carrots and cauliflower and potatoes and onions
4 - Chicken Breasts, mixed veggies
5 - Ate Out - Chick-Fil-A
6 - Hot dogs w/ chili
7 - Tortellini w/ red sauce, mixed veggies
8 - Spaghetti & meatballs w/ red sauce
9 - Ate Out - Nacholicious (which was not so delicious!)
10 - Breakfast sausage & fried turkey eggs
11 - Big Dinner - tamales, mixed veggies, shrimp scampi
12 - Black beans & rice
13 - Tortellini w/ red sauce, cauliflower
14 - Vegetable patties, broccoli
15 - Ordered Out/Ate In - Domino's Pizza - black olives & mushrooms
16 - Tortellini w/ no sauce
17 - Ate Out - birthday party - hot dogs
18 - Mushroom ravioli w/ sauce, homemade coleslaw
19 - Italian herb roasted chicken (from HEB)
20 - Big Dinner - tamales, talapia, mixed veggies, coleslaw, scallops, tapioca pudding
21 - Asian noodle soup
22 - Tortellini & ravioli mixed w/ no sauce, cheese, oatmeal
23 - Ordered Out/Ate In - Asian food
24 - Homemade tabbouleh
25 - Ate Out - condo
26 - Ate Out - Satellite Cafe (which is now closed!)
27 - Ravioli w/ sauce
28 - Spaghetti & meatballs w/ red sauce
29 - ? tortellini w/ red sauce?
30 - Ate Out - Asian buffet
31 - Ate Out - condo

That must have been the end of the spring crop of broccoli & cauliflower from The Market because we're eating the middle of the fall/winter crop now in December.

Dinner Calendar - April 2008

And yes, the insanity continues around here so here's what we had every night in April of 2008. When the spinach is in season out at The Farm my kids can't seem to get enough of it; and it just came back in season 2 weeks ago!

April 2008
1 - Leftover pigeon peas & rice (Puerto Rican style - arroz con gandules), no joke!
2 - Big Dinner - Tamales, roasted pork loin, spinach, carrot cake, sherbet.
3 - Cheese tortellini (w/ sauce & meatballs for Giselle, w/out for Paul), spinach.
4 - Mushroom ravioli w/ sauce and meatballs, spinach.
5 - Hot dogs in buns, spinach.
6 - Fried eggs & bacon.
7 - Macaroni & cheese w/ mixed veggies & ground beef mixed in.
8 - Cheeseburgers, spinach, okra w/ tomatoes.
9 - Chili w/ hot dogs, okra w/ tomatoes.
10 - Cheese tortellini w/ sauce & meatballs, spinach, okra w/ tomatoes.
11 - Order Out/Eat In - pork lo mien, chicken fried rice.
12 - Ate Out - dinner party at a friend's house.
13 - Mushroom ravioli w/ sauce, edamame, beets.
14 - Homemade chicken noodle veggie soup.
15 - Big Dinner - Tamales, snow peas.
16 - Order Out/Eat In - Domino's Pizza - double black olives, double mushrooms. Holly and I went to the Juanes concert and lived off of music for the night.
17 - Spaghetti w/ meatballs & sauce, arroz con gandules.
18 - Turkey noodle soup all day long.
19 - Spaghetti w/ sauce, apple/prune tart.
20 - Cheese tortellini & mushroom ravioli w/ sauce, snow peas, broccoli, apple/prune tart.
21 - Black bean tamales, scallops, broccoli, snow peas, tapioca pudding, apple/prune tart.
22 - Order Out/Eat In - Sonic - grilled cheese, popcorn chicken. Tapioca pudding.
23 - Fried goose eggs.
24 - Ate Out - Marie's - bowtie pasta w/ parm cheese, broccoli, cauliflower, turkey.
25 - Paul - hot dog w/ bun, hot dog w/out bun, salad. Giselle - mushroom ravioli, salad.
26 - Cheese tortellini w/ no sauce, just butter, salt, pepper and parm cheese.
27 - Macaroni & cheese w/ pasta sauce.
28 - Mushroom ravioli w/ sauce, tapioca pudding.
29 - Big Dinner - Roasted pork loin, raw carrots, spinach, pizza bites, tamales.
30 - Tortellini & ravioli w/ sauce, mixed veggies.

Dinner Calendar - March 2008

Today's going to be another busy day so here's what we had every night for dinner in March of 2008.
March 2008
1 - Big Dinner - Meat Fest - Grilled pork shoulder, grilled steak, grilled shrimp, mixed veggies (not grilled).
2 - Cheese tortellini w/ meatballs & sauce, spinach. Roasted pork loin for Joe.
3 - Cheese tortellini w/ sauce, spinach, corn, buffalo/pork smoked sausage. Roasted pork loin for Joe.
4 - Ate out - At The Farm (Finca Pura Vida) - blackened salmon, shrimp scampi, sauteed Brussels sprouts, rice, sturgeon caviar, arroz con leche.
5 - Bacon & cheese omelets
6 - Big Dinner - Tamales, pizza bites, snow peas.
7 - Ate out - At Marie's - cheese tortellini w/ no sauce, salad.
8 - Spaghetti w/ meatballs & sauce.
9 - Ordered out/Ate in - Domino's pizza (double mushroom, double black olive).
10 - Mixed veggies, stuffed crabs, caviar w/ cream cheese.
11 - Didn't write it down!
12 - King Ranch casserole, green salad & fruit salad (both made by Giselle & Grace).
13 - leftover King Ranch casserole.
14 - Hot dogs in buns, snow peas.
15 - Tamales, snow peas.
16 - Pasta shaped like flowers w/ meatballs & sauce, snow peas.
17 - Shrimp, scallops, snow peas.
18 - Cheese tortellini w/ meatballs & sauce, snow peas.
19 - Spaghetti w/ meatballs & sauce.
20 - Ate Out - Paul & I at Jimmy John's Subs, Joe & Giselle at Buffet Palace.
21 - Chili w/ hot dogs & ayote squash. I had refried beans w/ cactus, salsa & sour cream.
22 - Black-eyed peas & rice (w/ sour cream). Joe had roasted chicken from The Farmers Market.
23 - Giselle had Asian noodle soup, Paul had cheese tortellini w/ meatballs (no sauce), both had snow peas. Joe had roasted pork loin.
24 - Leftover black-eyed peas & rice.
25 - Big Dinner - tamales.
26 - Shrimp, scallops, snow peas.
27 - Chili & hot dogs.
28 - Homemade pizza - pepperoni & black olive.
29 - Tamales.
30 - Pigeon peas & rice.
31 - Caviar & cream cheese, shrimp, scallops, crawfish, spinach.

And yes, both kids actually eat this stuff. They're usually the ones that specify what we're having each night so it's their pick, not mine. I can't wait until it's snow pea season again; it's green bean season right now but if the hard freezes keep up it won't last for much longer.

Dinner Calendar - February 2008

I've got too many things going on right now to think about something to post so for the next few days here are the rest of the dinner calendars for 2008.

February 2008 - the month in dinners
1 - Homemade pizza with mushrooms, black olives and pepperoni.
2 - Cheese tortellini & mushroom ravioli with meatballs and red sauce.
3 - Macaroni & cheese with ground beef and mixed veggies mixed in.
4 - Giselle had the mac & cheese leftovers and Paul had cheese tortellini w/ sauce.
5 - Ate out - Pancake dinner at church for Fat Tuesday.
6 - Hot dogs in buns, spinach.
7 - Homemade hamburgers.
8 - Cheese tortellini w/ sauce.
9 - Ate out - Satellite Cafe (American food).
10 - Tamales.
11 - Ate out - Flores (TexMex food).
12 - Hot dogs w/ chili
13 - Long pasta w/ garbanzo beans.
14 - Ate out - Meat fondue at a friend's house.
15 - Hot dogs w/ chili
16 - Leftover pasta w/ garbanzo beans
17 - Cheese tortellini w/ sauce, broccoli.
18 - Bagel pizzas, edamame in pods.
19 - Hot dogs w/ chili.
20 - Cheese tortellini & mushroom ravioli w/ sauce.
21 - Ate out - Taco Bell (7-layer burritos all around and a side of cheesy fiesta potatoes for the kids).
22 - Ate out - Sonic (grilled cheese).
23 - Bagel pizzas, pizza bites, pickles.
24 - Mushroom ravioli w/ no sauce, spinach ,broccoli, snow peas.
25 - Tamales and asparagus, pork loin for Joe.
26 - Hot dogs w/ buns, mixed veggies.
27 - Frozen hot dogs for lunch. Spaghetti & spaghetti tubes w/ meatballs & sauce & sliced mozzarella. I had a ham/cheese/collard roll-up and stewed okra.
28 - Bacon and eggs (scrambled for Giselle and fried for Paul).
29 - Ate out - Dynasty Buffet (Asian food).

We're simply having a wonderful Christmas time

not for the squeemish

Here's some of our snails that we caught the other day, out for some exercise.

forgot?

Did I actually miss posting yesterday? How did that happen?



I need to go to Radio Shack, TODAY! I think I'm going to drop the kids off at a friend's house, go to Radio Shack, pick up the dog from the vet, drop the dog off at home, then go back to the friend's house to play for a bit and then come home for dinner. Well, maybe we'll eat out; I don't know.



Oh, I gotta go take some pictures of the steps since I haven't taken any since the most recent ones were installed.

Here's a shot of them as a teaser for the post that I'll do when they are all the way done.

Oh My Darlin'

Oh my Darlin' Clementine!
Yes, it's that season again and we are so happy. Remember, the ones from California are NOT real Clementines they are Cuties and they reliably have seeds in them. Real Clementines ONLY come from Spain and they almost never have any seeds in them. Morocco exports supposed Clementines but they have about one seed per fruit so I don't believe that they are true Clementines. Although Morocco IS really close to Spain so I'm able to cut them a little slack.

I totally forgot to pick up a new bag of organic dried cranberries. Yes, I'm still buying them even though they cost a small fortune; I can't help it because they taste so good!

I didn't vacuum.

cold

It was a miserable cold day. That's all I'm saying.

And I'm getting the laundry all done today - one day late since I was too busy napping yesterday to get it done then. Still haven't vacuumed, I'll take care of that tomorrow.

a nap

Today went smoothly - woke up on time, baths, oatmeal, at church by 9, home at 12:20, Giselle went to some Brownie thing, I napped on the sofa while Paul watched TV shows that Giselle never likes to watch, after we picked up Giselle we picked up dinner from Taco Bell, ate dinner, kids went to bed, worked on getting more Christmas gifts for the kids, and soon I'll be going to bed. I will be asleep before 12:30 tonight.

case closed

I cooked up the last of the case of tomatoes Saturday evening/tonight. This part of the case became 6 pints of seasoned stewed tomatoes. I didn't cook them down long enough to make it become a thicker sauce and I didn't puree it smooth either; that's what makes it stewed tomatoes instead of pasta sauce. I didn't feel like going through the 20 min hot water bath necessary for canning these up and I really liked the stewed flavor which would have changed if I had cooked them longer in the canning process. So I froze the pints up in 1-quart freezer bags; 1 pint per bag. Now I'll have fresh stewed tomatoes to add to my pasta sauce or for throwing on top of my seafood scampi pasta.
Truth be told, I had 8 tomatoes left that wouldn't fit into the 8-qt pot I was using to cook the tomatoes in so I quartered them up and put them in the fridge for snacking on over the next few days. I see some BLT's in our future!

Grumpy Mom

So the kids will be performing in our church's Christmas musical tomorrow morning. This year's play is The Grumpy Shepherd. This is a pleasant play but is it REALLY necessary to use the word "stupid" in a church play, especially one being put on by kids aged four to 11? At one point in the play, the grumpy shepherd refers to his sheep saying "But what about these stupid sheep?". I think that it's not right! It bothers me that this line is in the play. Had I known earlier in the process that this word was in the play I would have said something, but it wasn't until today's final dress rehearsal that I heard the full play with the line that I object to. I'm disappointed that I now I'll have to say something to the choir director about it. I would think that I shouldn't HAVE to say something because the choir director would have changed the word BEFORE it was given to the children. The word could have VERY easily been dropped or changed to something a LOT less cruel than the 'S' word.

Sorry if I you think I'm being prude about this but I feel that the way we talk to other people is a reflection of how we treat other people. If you are prone to CALLING people stupid then you're more likely to TREAT people as if they are stupid.
I really disagree with calling people (or things) disrespectful or degrading names to make yourself feel superior to them (or make them feel inferior to you). When those words are used without discretion it leads to a general lack of respect for yourself and those you come in contact with you.

full moon

No picture to go with this post but, wow that was an awesome rising full moon that we had this evening. We stared at it for as long as we could on our way home from The Park.

That's it, that's all I've got.

dinner out

Joe and I had dinner out at a tiny fancy restaurant tonight. It was the Holiday Dinner of one of his clients and we were invited. Really delightful food - wine, mini crab cakes, mixed greens and other stuff salad, prime rib or mahi mahi or penne pasta (I had the fish, Joe had the beef), roasted root vegetables, chocolate torte (Joe) or creme brulee (me), and coffee. The conversations were delightful too - a wide range of philanthropic people. It was a wonderful night out. Thomas watched the kids and when we got home they were watching our favorite Christmas special - The Year Without a Santa Claus. You know, it's the one with the Heat Miser and the Cold Miser. Gosh we just love that one!

I'm off to watch ER on TiVo and then MAYBE go to bed before 2 am.

Home schooling, is it for you?

A friend of mine from BC days (Before Children) is considering homeschooling her daughter and she asked me two of the most common questions about homeschooling: How do you know what to teach and at what pace? Can I be too much of a bitch to homeschool?

While I didn't EXACTLY answer her questions, I did give her my usual 'homeschooling pep talk' which is as follows:

Oh is it EVER an exercise in patience!!!!! Like Steve taught us on Blues Clues "When you get frustrated, just count to ten and take a deep breath"

In the early years there's lots of repetition, you have to try to remember that they really don't know anything so they have to hear it over and over and over and over and over again. But since it's just one student instead of 25, it's a bit easier. And you can teach in 5 minute increments - letters at breakfast, letters at lunch, letters at dinner - so if either one of you gets too frustrated you can go outside for recess.

The biggest problem that I have with homeschooling is that I don't have any free time to take care of the shopping and errands and laundry and house cleaning and working out without including the kids. I don't have those 'free' 6 hours a day when the kids would be off in public school to do all that stuff. So a lot of times they get dragged along with me instead of being able to play with friends. Although if Giselle finishes school on time then she CAN go play at a friend's house while I'm running errands. And we do PE together so I do get some exercise in. Yesterday morning before school we walked the dog together, collected land snails on the way and then did a science lesson on them later in the day for school.

Your kid doesn't necessarily learn things in the same manner that you do - maybe she's a kinetic learner (has to be on the move, aka ADD) and you're a sit-on-your-bottom-and-concentrate learner. You have to be able to change your style of teaching to meet HER needs, not yours.

A good friend of mine just pulled her kids out of PS this summer - just before 3rd and 1st grade. She realized that she was spending about 2 hours every night 'homeschooling' her daughter to teach her what the teacher didn't/couldn't teach her during the school day. My friend is the one that taught her kid to read and to do math while they were at public school, not the 'real' teacher.

There's a group called Smoothing The Way which is a homeschooling group that helps you through that tough first year of homeschooling. They meet up weekly, send emails, and play together at the park. They can be a sanity saver for sure!

School takes 6 hours at public school because the teacher is having to teach something to 25 kids before she can move on to the next thing. At home, school takes barely 2 hours by 3rd grade. If your one student gets it then you can move on to the next level or lesson or subject; you don't have to wait around doing busy-work while waiting for the other 24 kids to 'get it'. If your one student DOESN'T get it then you can spend as many hours or days or weeks on that one thing until they do get it; no one is holding a TAKS test to your throat saying "You're behind schedule and your students aren't going to do well on the test." The days that your kid 'gets it' and does extra work/works ahead because they're proud of themselves buys you all the time that you need/want when they need to take some time to really 'get' a concept. People using the Classical Education model, Charlotte Mason, Well-Trained Mind teaching philosophy believe that preschoolers should only spend 15 min a day on school, kindergartners should only spend 30 minutes a day on school, 1st graders should spend 45 minutes, second graders should spend 1 hour, and so on, adding 15 minutes for each new subject. Not until Jr High should they need to spend more than 30 min per subject. Sometimes that's a reality at our house; other times our school day can stretch out to 5 hours long.

If she's having a bad day you CAN take a break. You CAN explore the local park for 4 hours and go home and Google all kinds of information about the things you found and consider it a school day well spent. You can turn a trip to the grocery store into a school event - you use reading, math and science in every grocery trip you just have to talk aloud about it and let her share in the experience. Teach her that you really DO use this knowledge every day.

It helps if you have access to other homeschooling moms, I can't say that enough! Just knowing that other moms are having a stressful day on the same day that you are REALLY helps. And watching a group of your kids working together (all ages from 4 to teen, boys and girls) to build forts out of branches, sticks and ball moss, without the assistance (physical or mental) of anyone over the age of 13, without a single piece of electronic equipment around is such a wonderful sight to see. Pure imagination at it's best.

canning follow-up

I'm about to boiling-water bath the last 2 pints of the fall pasta sauce and then I'll be done. I didn't use up all of the tomatoes - I still have about 7 to 10 lbs left but I filled my crab pot to the top with the sauce so I couldn't use anymore. I did let it simmer down about 2 inches so I could have added more for a variance in texture but I did that last fall. This batch is a total of 18 1-pint jars, let's see that's 9 quarts, so 2.25 gallons of pasta sauce. I just tasted the last bit that remained in the big pot after I filled the last jar and OH BOY is that ever some good sauce; I outdid myself this time. Maybe I'll make a small batch with the remaining tomatoes and freeze that instead of canning it.

Another 3 am night but it was productive: I made and canned up a LOT of pasta sauce, I took care of Joe, and I played in the snow with the kids; although I didn't get any reading done of any kind. Maybe tomorrow. Nope, too many errands to tend to.

Snow!

Yeah, it's snowing at my house right now! The first time in 5 years and they are HUGE flakes! I even woke up the kids so that they could see it and throw some snowballs - hey, there's a good chance that it'll all be gone by the time that they get up in the morning.

Good thing that I was up late canning these tomatoes, otherwise we would have missed it!

tomatoes

Edgar gave me a case of tomatoes on Saturday - about 60 to 75 pounds - that I'm now in the process of processing. I've been staying up WAY too late recently so it's not really a big deal that I didn't start cooking the tomatoes down into sauce until 6:30. I bought a new case of pint-sized jars instead of the quart-sized that I used last fall. I canned the spring crop in the pint-sized and I was really happy with the portioning of them so that's why I'm continuing the trend with the fall crop.
So far, all I've put into the sauce has been tomatoes, garlic and oregano. I'll add salt for sure but I'm not sure that I'll add anything else to them. I'm picking out the skins as they cook off of the flesh but I'm not going to be too uptight about it since I'll be using my immersion blender at the end to smooth it all out. By using the blender I don't have to de-seed the tomatoes before cooking them. I wouldn't want to de-seed them after I've cooked them because straining the sauce then would strain out all the seasonings also. In listening to other cooks, I've heard that it leads to a more flavorful sauce to leave in the seeds - something about those little bags of juice that surround the seeds kind of like the pericardium around your heart.
I need to go stir and add some more tomatoes since they've cooked down some. Hopefully I'll be done before dawn, and I don't mean Dawn who's painting our bathroom.

Laundry

I'm doing it AGAIN! And it's a day late, AGAIN! I guess that unless I stay up WAY too late tonight that it's going to be 2 days late. No, I have to finish the laundry tonight because Giselle's got ballet in the afternoon and I've got grocery shopping and errands to do before that but after we finish school.
Post Office
Vet for Rx
Thomlinson's for dog food
HEB
Bed, Bath & Beyond
Michael's
Ballet

Hmm, HEB may have to wait until after ballet.

shopping - ugh!

I don't like shopping, I think that I've been pretty clear over the years about that. Today I had to go to Target or WalMart and I wasn't happy about it but the kids have been growing, as kids are prone to doing, and they both needed new underpants. Actually, this is pretty convenient since it's a tradition in my family (as it is in most big families) to get underwear and socks for Christmas. So now, not only have I met an actual need in my children's lives but I've also purchased 3 items from the Christmas shopping list - tights count as socks. It's also tradition to get a new toothbrush in your stocking so I'll need to just find some freebie ones under the sink from the dentist appointments.

I gotta go put Mr Bad Decision to bed, maybe he'll get coal in his stocking this year if he doesn't shape up.

micro-climates

Well, even though we've been getting 'freezing' temperatures my basil in the front yard is still alive. This is odd since basil burns and dies in temps below 40 degrees. I guess that my front yard is a warm oasis? Tomorrow night's low is supposed to be back to normal low temps - 52 degrees.
Gotta go turn the light out on the kids - Giselle was out late at a Brownie event until 8 and I had to take Paul with me to go get her. They're finally ready.

stop laughing!

It is SO COLD! OK, so last night at our house it didn't even frost but it got really close - the thermometer attached to the back of our house showed a low of 34 degrees and the high for today was only in the 50's and it was breezy too. I wore my full-bore winter jacket to dinner with the kids and our friends, although I didn't wear a hat. Tonight it's supposed to be just as cold and tomorrow the same as today which will make for a miserable farmer's market; I'm thinking that the kids will sit this one out. I'm in my flannel pajamas already for the night. Although the 5 blankets and quilts that I had on the bed last night really did help a lot so we were quite comfortable until I opened the curtains in the morning. Wow, those windows sure do let a lot of cold in!

Now all you people that live north of here: stop laughing at me NOW! This IS cold for this part of the country! And just wait until I really start whining about the cold come the time that winter REALLY comes in January, for six weeks.
My sister in Maine has had 12 degree nights and days in the 30's for a while now. My nephew in Canada has got 21 degrees and 40 mph winds and snow flurries; isn't that called a blizzard? But see, I DON'T live there for THAT reason!

Gotta get back to watching the recent episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
See ya.
Stop laughing!

just in time

I got the greenhouse put up early this afternoon, just in time for the 29 degree temperature predicted for tonight's low. All the plants that need to go in the greenhouse or come inside have been moved and I'm ready for the winter, although that isn't really happening for another month.
I just remembered one plant that needs to go into the corner outside, so I gotta go take care of that and get dinner going.

I can't get this out of my head

We listen to the most recent Biscuit Brothers CD pretty regularly and currently I can't get this song out of my head http://cdbaby.com/mp3lofi/bicuitbros7-03.m3u. I was singing it acapella this morning while making breakfast for Joe and he gave me a very strange look. Hey, I'm sorry but it's a fun song anyway and the way that the Biscuit Brothers arranged it is SO singable (very Beatle-esk).
Gosh I love this song! Go ahead and buy it here http://mp3.rhapsody.com/the-biscuit-brothers/musical-farm You'll be glad you did!

not good news about wine consumption

Europe accounts for two-thirds of global wine production and consumption.

Over 19 pounds of pesticides are applied to the average acre of grapes grown in Europe.

Source: "Message in a Bottle: European wines systematically contaminated with pesticides," Pesticide Action Network-Europe, March 26, 2008.

yes you can!

Did anyone ever tell you that all twins and triplets HAVE to be born by Cesarean section? Well they were wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E-wULAaD50

Don't worry, this is NOT graphic in any way, shape or form! It's the names of moms and their twins & triplets that were born naturally, with before and after pictures.

Sharing

I must say that the 4 of us sharing one VERY SMALL bathroom has gone pretty well so far these last 3 days while the bigger bathroom is being re-done. The 25-yr-old wallpaper and the ceiling popcorn is down and the toilet is up. The money-maker is still deciding on if there'll be a new toilet going in and if the vinyl will be upgraded to tile at this time. Anyone have any input on the newest dual-flush HET's?

new books

I got my six new books today from Amazon. The most important one is the new Vicki Courtney book, 5 Conversations you MUST have with your daughter. I'm probably going to stay up late tonight to start reading it.
The other 5 books that I got are:

• Your Girl: raising a godly daughter in an ungodly world By Vicki Courtney
• Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets every father should know By Meg Meeker, MD
• Your Boy: raising a godly son in an ungodly world By Vicki Courtney
• Raising Cain: protecting the emotional life of boys By Dan Kindlon, PHD and Michael Thompson, PHD
• Boys should be boys: 7 secrets to raising healthy sons By Meg Meeker, MD

Because, it's not just our daughters that are being fed all the trash in the world today, it's our sons too. Who do you think is buying those "Girls Gone Wild" videos and thinking that they are an example of how a girl is 'supposed to be'? As much as I want my daughter to respect herself and others, I want my son to do the same. I expect that the parents of my future son-in-law and daughter-in-law are doing the same thing since that's what my kids will be looking for in a life-partner. Love, honor and respect.

You still have plenty of time to get your copy of 5 Conversations You MUST Have With Your Daughter and sign up to join in the online book club; do it now.

no blood

I didn't reach my 'required' amount of donated blood this year. I guess I could try to get in before the year-end to give one more time but December just seems like a crazy month. Maybe after I restock my personal iron levels I'll go in next week, since low iron is what kept me from donating back in June. I know that the blood bank usually runs pretty low this time of year so I really should make the extra effort to donate before the holiday season. For that matter, you too should make the extra effort to donate blood before the holiday season. You donation could mean the difference between life and death for someone hurt in an accident.
It truly is the gift of life!

Donate blood before the month is through, it's a gift that everyone can afford!

Watch out for the 'gators!

I finally picked up some treegators today, two, one for the front Burr Oak and one for the back Chinese Pistache. I know, you totally don't know what a treegator is; well I'll tell you. A treegator is a big plastic donut that goes around the base of your tree. You open a plug on it and fill it with water from your hose then you close the plug and the water slowly leaks out around the base of the tree over the next 5 to 8 hours. This particular one, treegator jr Pro, holds up to 15 gallons. No more remembering at 2 am that you forgot to turn off the soaker hose around your newly planted tree.
I've purchased ours for a 12 yr old tree that recently had some trenching done near the base of the tree and a 10 yr old tree that also has had some trenching and is overall a slow grower. We've had a drought for about 10 years now and these trees could use some extra water this winter since Mother Nature probably won't come through for them again. Hopefully, come springtime, these trees will be on the road to excellence. Of course I won't be fertilizing them this time of year - I don't want to promote topical growth during the winter.

saved

The sweet Jewish girl down the street saved me - she's selling chocolate-filled advent calendars to raise money for her high school German Club.
We start them tomorrow.
I decided that I was NOT going to do the Playmobil advent calendars 2 years in a row!

My head is tired. I'm going to take my bottle of water, lay down on the sofa and watch some TiVo, after I delete off a week's worth of shows that we won't ever watch.

WHAT!?!?!?

What the mmph am I doing up at 2:35 in the morning? Listening to Joe in the other room working on a customer's network server for the second night in a row, that's what. He was up till 4 am Saturday morning and started working on it with a contractor Saturday evening before we went to our friends' house for a dinner thing.

I've got more to say but I'm going to go to bed. Market, Christmas Parade, Driskill Hotel, Manchaca, fish fry, stairs (oops, I forgot to take pictures this afternoon. I'll run outside now and take some).
Must go to bed!

just a memory

With the exception of a few pots and lids sitting out from air drying last night, all signs of Thanksgiving are gone.
It's very odd, but for the first time EVER I feel like decorating for Christmas TODAY. It's not that I'm just bubbling over with Christmas spirit, I mean really, the air conditioner just kicked on again. Today just seems like such a letdown day after all of the commotion of yesterday that I feel the need to fill it with something. I'm CERTAINLY NOT going shopping. There's a 40% chance of rain today so The Park may be out. Maybe after Test Day is over around lunchtime I'll feel more 'full' again.
Time to go put away those pans and lids and get on with the day.

Third time will be the charm

Today was my second attempt at cooking a heritage/wild turkey and while it went better than last year, I was still disappointed with the results. I think that next time it will be perfect now that I've accounted for all variables.
Thomas was carving the turkey for me while I was thickening the gravy when I decided to cook up the backup turkey which I had so wisely purchased at HEB this last shopping day. The 9 turkey cutlets turned out fabulous but in the process I allowed the bean, broccoli and carrots to sit on the stove for too long and they were all overcooked. Don't get me wrong, they were perfectly edible just not as good as my usual. The stuffing and dressing were a bit underdone for my liking and the potatoes needed more salt.
Oh man, in retrospect, the food was sub-par with the exception of the appetizers and dessert. None of the pies were finished off, which is actually good since this way we'll have something to bring to our friends' house for our group dinner on Saturday.
On a more positive note, EVERYBODY loved the Shiner Black that I served and this year's Beaujolais Nouveau is quite enjoyable.
Everyone food coma-ed in the living room for a while afterwards.
It was so warm today that the A/C kicked on - we had upper 70's and with the humidity being high and the oven on for 10 hours it raised the temps inside. Gotta love fall in Texas. But this A/C is making me cold so I might call it a night and go take a hot bath.
See ya!

almost forgot

I almost forgot the cranberry pumpkin muffins that I was going to make for breakfast this morning! They'll be ready around 10 so I guess I could call them brunch muffins.
I'm using a recipe that I got out of the Co-Op sales flier - it's from Farmers Market brand Organic Pumpkin Puree.

to do & schedule for tomorrow

Thanksgiving 2008
Appetizers ready at 3 pm, Dinner ready at 4 pm
DRINKS
Shiner Black
Chill
Beaujolais Neavoux
Chill

APPETIZERS
Shrimp
Make more cocktail sauce
Cheese & Crackers & Roasted Peppers
Set out
Zucchini pickles
Set out
Tomatoes
Slice and put out
Cucumbers
Put out
Peanuts
Put out

MAIN MEAL
Dressing/Stuffing
Finish making – add broth and combine
Stuff into turkey inside of cheese cloth
Put dressing in the oven at 3 pm
Turkey (poultry seasoning, salt & pepper)
Clean and prep and put in bag
Stuff and put in oven by noon
Mashed Potatoes (sour cream, butter)
Heat water at 3 pm
Mashed and ready by 3:45
Gravy
Heat broth and add flour starting at 3:40
Green Beans (lemon juice, Spike)
Heat water at 3:45
Boiled Carrots
Heat water at 3:45
Broccoli
Heat water at 3:45
Rolls
Wrap in foil and put in oven at 3:45
Cranberry Sauce
Put out at 3:45

DESSERT
Sweet Potato Pie
Take out of fridge at 2 pm
Put in oven at 4 pm
Other Pie

preppy

I washed and cut the broccoli, it's in a paper towel lined bag in the fridge.
The turkey broth for the stuffing is cooking right now.
I'm thawing the shrimp, peeling it, and cooking it shortly so that it's chilled and ready for 3 tomorrow.
I've diced the celery and mushrooms and torn the bread for the stuffing. I'll take care of dicing the onions after lunch.
The turkey is thawed and waiting in the fridge.
The extra turkey cutlets are thawing in the fridge.
The sweet potato pie is thawing in the fridge.
The dog's turkey necks are thawing in the fridge.
I need to make my awesome sour cream dip.
I need to make more cocktail sauce.
I made the marinated cucumbers.
I think that's about it for today.

Chain of Events

It all started with Paul wanting blueberries in his oatmeal this morning.
I knew that I didn't have any blueberries in the refrigerator freezer so I turned to the big chest freezer. According to the freezer inventory that's written on the dry-erase board that hangs on the peg-board over the freezer, I had 3 1-gallon bags of blueberries in the freezer. So I opened her up and started looking.

• I found some diced celery from a few years ago so I put that aside to be used in upcoming soups this winter.
• I found some LARGE chunks of ham steak that were originally frozen up for using in beans. Unfortunately since the ham was just a ham cut not cured or smoked ham, it did not put the flavor into the beans that I was looking for so they've just sat there in the freezer. These have been moved to the kitchen freezer to be thawed and fed to the dog.
• I found a 1-gallon bag stuffed FULL of fresh green beans from last December. I already bought a bag of frozen organic long beans so I'm going to save the farm beans for another time.
• There's a gallon of pureed strawberries and 2 more gallons of whole strawberries available for use when I want it. That would be great for fruit/milk; too bad that the cows have stopped giving milk since there's no more pasture for them to graze on due to the drought.
• I found that instead of having just 1 1-gallon bag of Costa Rican melon, we have 4! This is very good since the melon season this year was a bit of a bust. Again, too bad there's no milk to use these with.
• I still have two bags of Spud Puppies, this is good to know for the next time that Giselle begs for tater tot casserole.
• I've still got 1.5 gallons of diced okra for stewing this winter.
• Very useful - I found roasted turkey parts from last Christmas - 2 wings, 2 legs and 1 thigh - so I took those out and put them in a pot of water. Now I'll have fresh turkey broth for making the stuffing instead of using fresh or boxed chicken broth.
• I found 2 and a half 1-gallon bags FULL of cucumbers! SCORE! Now we can eat all of those fresh ones for Thanksgiving, YEA!

After all of that, there weren't any blueberries to be found in the freezer; and I went through pretty much the whole thing. Paul had bananas in his oatmeal instead.

I think I'll need to concentrate on using up a lot of the backstock in that freezer this winter.

School

Paul's getting into the swing of school these days.
We start the school day with letters; he does his printing exercises while Giselle does her cursive exercises and they race to see who can finish first (with me regularly saying "slow down and pay attention to your own work"). Next, Giselle moves on to her spelling/language arts and Paul works on a Preschool workbook during that time. Then, Paul is released for a half hour of recess while Giselle works on her math. Paul is welcome to sit-in on school during geography but he's not required to, although he IS required to participate in all of our science and craft work that we do. Since we're using the activity book with Story Of The World this time, there's work for both Giselle and Paul to do while I'm reading aloud. I've taken to reading the chapter once through first while Giselle just listens and Paul colors, then I read it again while Giselle does her activities. Afterward I quiz her on the review questions and then we're pretty much done for the day. Sometimes there's additional reading or longer science projects but not always.
Depending on how long everything is taking, lunch is either in the middle of school or at the end. That's another great advantage of homeschooling - if they get the work done quickly then school is done quickly, but if they need more time on a subject we are at liberty to take however long is needed to learn it completely. There's nothing keeping us from working ahead if something is easy and there's nothing keeping us from going slow if something is hard. We've taken a long time on basic, 0-10 multiplication so that Giselle really knows what she's doing before we start doing double-digit multiplication. And I'm now slowly bringing in division too since she's gotten pretty solid on the basic multiplication.

This morning, Paul learned how to change the toner in the copier/printer while Giselle did recreational reading. This was after they went on a camping trip in the backyard. I think that Paul's going back to the campsite when he's done with school for the day! With cold weather coming along in another month we'll be doing PE daily inside - jumping jacks for 5 minutes between every subject - instead of just running wild outside for 5 min between each subject.

Time for math so I gotta go.

The button on the sidebar

I'm not sure if you've noticed the new button on the sidebar - it's for an online book club for Vicki Courtney's newest book "5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter". It starts on January 5 and, according to Vicki's introductory video regarding the book club, it promises to be super easy! Vicki is a wife, mother, and author that lives here in my wonderful city of Austin. It's not like I know her IRL or anything but Austin does still have that small town thing going on every so often (just ask my nephew Thomas) so maybe someday I'll run into her.
I think that I first learned of Vicki Courtney and her blog, www.virtuealert.blogspot.com, over a year ago about when the Moms For Modesty and Everyday Mommy blog started shifting gears and I started looking for something else to help guide me through the years to come with Giselle. Vicki was a voice of reason in the ever-growing tide of ambivalence towards the sexing-up of our children. My words can't do her proper justice but I really like her opinions.

Well, go to her blog and form your own opinion. If you like what you read on the blog then buy her book and join in the book club with me. It's that simple.

And if you think that your first grader is too young for you to need to worry about any of this stuff, ask her if she has a boyfriend in her class, not a friend that's a boy but a boyfriend. Once she can read she'll be noticing all the supermarket tabloids as much as you do and she'll have questions. Are you prepared to answer them? What do you hope her future is? Are you willing to be her guide or just her BFF? Because what she needs is for you to be her guide, she'll make plenty of BFF's at school, don't let her down.

Oh my, was I just up on a soapbox? I do believe so!

So close

OK, I'm not going to obsess about it but I'm sooooo close to having a one-post-per-day average that it's making me nuts. Next year I'll not care about it at all but like I said, I'm so close on this one this year that it's silly to NOT try to make it happen!

BUT, in my quest, I promise to not post just for the sake of making the post count go higher. Well, other than THIS post that I'm writing right now.

Wish me luck!