Garden Bounty - December 2nd

Wednesday, December 2nd, I picked a vegetable from my garden in Missouri! Yes, Missouri in December, pretty incredible. (Sorry the picture is blurry.)

Isn't it pretty?

I also picked some thyme. There is some rosemary and parsley out there too but herbs this time of year isn't that big of a deal.

So, yes my cauliflower is lovely. Here's another shot of it.

My friend Martina called me from her vacation and told me to plant the cauliflower plants otherwise they would burn up. This plant was in the ground since June and by December and our killing frost, this is what it produced!

Twilight

My sister-in-law gave me a copy of Twilight before our two week vacation in October. Me being out of the loop in pop culture, didn't know much about the book series except that it had something to do with vampires.

I read the book. I was somewhat engrossed into it, but not totally obsessed with it like I have with other books. (I didn't finish it on the trip, I could pull myself away from it and do other things. My kids didn't get ignored while I read it, though there were some extra long bathroom breaks.)

It was a pretty easy read. Every couple of chapters there was a word that wasn't in my common vocabulary but nothing like Swiss Family Robinson which I had read to the boys. The words were big and so the pages turned pretty quickly. There were very natural breaking points in the story and easy places to stop.

After reading the first book, Twilight, in the series, I have no plans or intentions of reading the other three. I was actually impressed that the book was clean. There was not foul language, there wasn't really violence and there wasn't any sex. It's a love story with a "twist".

Coming out of reading the book, I can see why some people like it. Someone falls head over heels in love and he's totally bad for her but she still so much wants to be with him. It's a romantic story. He's totally obsessed with her, and it all sounds really great...why wouldn't you want someone to be so into you and want to be around you all of the time? He says that she should run away from him, but there are really no bad reasons given for being a vampire except that maybe he'll want to drink your blook. So, I'm not sure why everyone wouldn't want to be a vampire except it's painful for a few days for the process of getting there?

Why don't I want to read the other books? I felt there was a very much a god metaphor happening in the book. I want a bigger god than someone who has super human physical traits. I want an infinite God and not a god who is finite - vampires can be finite even though it's hard. I want my God to always be good and not some exactly like my god to be bad.

I felt that the main human character in the book was looking to the vampire guy as a god. I put my faith, trust and hope in Jesus and not someone who happens to come into my path impersonating a human. I trust Jesus to be my savior and I don't have to scheme anything on my own to be saved from the bad guys. I can always trust in HIM and not feel like I have to do something on my own. (This may make more sense after reading the book.)

That being said, I wouldn't necessarily discourage anyone from reading the book. I've read much worse in the past year for sure - an Oprah book club book. If anyone would like my copy, let me know and I will happily give it to you. I'd be interested in your thoughts as well.

Another Deal of the Week

So, I'm in a rut about posting about grocery deals. But today was another fun shopping adventure. I even got one child to go along with me just because Kroger was having their holiday open house and there were tons of snack stations.

Anyway, Kroger is doing another buy 10 get $5 promotion. No mac & cheese this time BUT there are a lot of great things on their list especially if you have other coupons.

I used cheese (buy 2 pounds get 1.50 off), Welch's Juice, Steamfresh Meals, and Chex Mix coupons from here: http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/11/hot-another-1502-cheese-coupon-and-more-dairy-coupons.html.

All of those products were on the list for the buy 10 get $5 off. I did manage to just get 10 items to maximize my savings. They were out of a few things so I'll go back later in the week to do this again using my other cheese coupon!

Half Gallon Welch's Grape Juice
Regular Price 4.94 (which would not normally be on my shopping list at this price)

Kroger Sale Price 2.99 (1.95 savings)

Coupon 1.00

Buy 10 get $50 .50

Total Cost 1.49

One Pound Block of Kraft Cheese

Regular Price 5.99

Kroger Sale Price 2.99

Coupon (1.50 off 2lbs) .75

Buy 10 get $50 .50

Total Cost 1.74

Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate Mix was on sale with the same deal. Kroger just sent me a coupon for two boxes .40 cents off...and then they doubled it when I checked out. Each box then cost: .39...great deal for the start of winter!

Balsamic Roasted Onions

3 pounds of onions are .69 at Aldi this week. Here's a great recipe to use them in! Expect to see these at church soon! (I-44 grocery has some great bottles of organic balsamic vinegar really cheap!)

3 large sweet onions (about 1 3/4 pounds)

Cooking Spray

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Estimated Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel onions, leaving roots intact; cut each onion into 6 wedges. Place onion wedges in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in a small bowl; pour vinegar mixture over onion wedges, tossing gently to coat. Cover and bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until tender.

6 servings (serving size: 1 cup) - only 72 calories per serving

This recipe came from Cooking Light in 2003 and is no longer on their site. Whenever I make this recipe it gets great reviews even by people who don't really like onions. The onions do take awhile to bake so there is some planning ahead involved.

My Deal of the Week

If my Rolla friends want to take advantage - you have to do this on Wednesday (9/23).

Kroger is having a buy 10 items get $5 off from Kraft and Nestle.

Country Mart happens to have some coupons - some flyers at the front of the store - that are not Country Mart coupons only. They are for many things but specifically Kraft Cheese and Kraft Deluxe Mac & Cheese.

Cheese (8oz shredded or block) is on sale for 1.99 - buy 10 items, cost goes to 1.49...use coupon from Country Mart (1.00 off 2), final price .99! (We did a comparison and this is cheaper than Aldi cheese - only if you do both deals though.)

Mac & Cheese is on sale for 1.49 - buy 10 items, cost goes to .99...use coupon from Country Mart (1.00 off 2), final price .49. Many of those boxes have a coupon on them for buy two boxes of Mac & Cheese and get a free BBQ sauce. So for .98 you get two boxes of Mac & Cheese and a jar of BBQ sauce! (Yesterday we got four boxes and two bottles of sauce.)

I've done the buy 10 thing twice this week and everything that I bought I had an additional coupon for so it was a pretty sweet deal! I did make an extra trip to Country Mart to pick up these extra coupons!

We did a project!

Many of you know me personally know that I am not a project person when it comes to school. My boys aren't necessarily either which is why I'm not. If it takes a ton of motivation for me to get them to do a project, then I'm not sure what the point of doing it is!

Our first history book for this year was called Peoples of the World. The last couple of pages were lists of people groups, where they live, their language and their religion. We were supposed to spend a couple of days looking at some of them on the page. I decided that we would take it a bit further. So we got out all of the coins from around the world that we have collected over the years.

They picked a few and found the information about the country from the book as well as the capital from the map. (Our encyclopedia from 1960 failed us on some of those.) We adhered the coins and the country information and color coded the countries on a world map. The poster board that we used was given to us and there was much excitement to be able to us it for a worth while project.

A bonafied school project completed! We also are using this towards our Collecting Belt Loop in scouts. Extra credit for mom was a field trip to the rare coin shop in town to look at coins!

Now back to just reading books for awhile!

Yummy Dinner

My friend is working on eating 6-8 cups of vegetables a day, among other diet changes. Though I've not been willing to jump all the way into her current diet when we aren't eating together, I have been challenged and inspired to include more vegetables in our diet, especially those that are not the high carb ones like carrots, peas and corn.

Tonight's dinner menu:

• Hamburgers (and one veggie burger)
• Whole Wheat Buns
• Potatoes *
• Brussel Sprouts *
• Green Beans *
• Slice Tomato * and Onion
• Bread & Butter Pickles *

Five vegetables and one vegetable starch isn't too bad. Not everyone ate all 5, but everyone at least 4, I think.

* These vegetables came from the garden - so the meal was quite economical as well. I made the buns earlier in the week!

Interview with the little guy

We did this for his brother two years ago...so we thought we would see about the second one too!

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite car? Mustang

What is your favorite bedtime activity? Reading Hardy Boys

Who is your favorite bedtime buddy? Ducky

What do you want to be when you grow up? I haven't decided.

What is your favorite food? I haven't decided. (So, what are some things that you like?) Diary and vegetables.

What is your favorite clothing? My dragon motorcycle shirt.

What is your favorite drink? Lemonade

What is your favorite book? The Bible

What is your favorite sport? Baseball

What does your dad do? He works at the USGS.

What does your mom do? She's a stay home mom.

What is your favorite restaurant? El Maguey (Mexican)

What is your favorite game? Monopoly

What is your favorite thing to do with your brother? Play games (and kiss him).

What is your favorite cereal? Kid's Crunch (Aldi brand of Cap'n Crunch)

What is your favorite song? I don't have one.

What is your favorite activity to do with your mom? Hug her!

What is your favorite activity to do with your dad? Play games (ohhh..that's a hard one)

What do you like to do when you wake up in the morning? Get dressed, clean up my room and have breakfast.

Where is your favorite place to sleep? On my bed.

What is a food that you won't eat? Onions

What is your favorite animal? Duck

What is your favorite sports team? Miners

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza and burritos (flour tortilla with cheese and sour cream)

What do you like best about your brother? That he reads too much.

What is your favorite place that you have ever visited? Six Flags

What is your favorite Bible verse? John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

Who is your favorite professional athlete? Tiger Woods

What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball

What is your favorite TV channel? Playhouse Disney (we don't have TV right now)

What is your favorite movie? Star Wars the Clone Wars

What is your favorite fruit? Plums

What is your favorite computer game to play? Nick Jr.

How tall are you? 3 foot 8

How much do you weigh? 45 lbs

How far can you run? a mile

What's your favorite subject in school? Math

How crazy are you? Really crazy!!!

Mr. PopTart Boy

My mission as a mother is complete...well not really, but I declare a personal victory.

The little one eyes the Pop Tarts at the store frequently (that and Lunchables)...so for his birthday he got some Pop Tarts. (The only reason that I bought them was because they were half price one day when I went to the store.)

Now, you are probably thinking, what does this have to do with a personal victory.

He was so very excited to open them as you can see from the picture. He actually received two boxes of them.

He's now attempted to eat them on quite a few occasions. I don't believe that he's even eaten a full one in all of the attempts...he doesn't even want to bring them out of the cabinet any longer!

The New School Room

We are about a month into our third year of home schooling. We decided that we needed a school area for many different reasons. Last Monday, we moved stuff around. Today is week number two using it. It seems to be going pretty well! All of us were excited that there weren't any school books to be cleaned up before dinner last week. We don't have to travel as far to get our things out and put them away now. We even have maps on the wall to refer to instead of being stashed under the guest bed! If you come and visit you'll get to see more of our projects displayed downstairs!

We definitely wouldn't have done this without the windows that we installed two years ago!

the current project

So I had this great idea to make banners to put my kiddos various "awards", pins, patches, etc. that they earn. Then I had this great idea that they would actually make them...they bought into the idea they are really loving it.

Step one was creating their own design: (This was going out on a limb for me to not be in control of the design, but I only suggested a few modifications to their original design...like making some detail larger and using straight lines!)

Next was to cut out our patterns using Mommy's fabric only scissors for the very first time:

Then cut the interfacing which cost more than the fabric, but who's counting. They were OK with going to the fabric and knitting shop though that I have been wanting to go to...I was dragging THEM out of the place.

The interfacing has been cut out...Next, we actually get to the sewing. I'm sure that you'll be kept a breast of our progress!

(I'm still working on all of the Cub Scout credit that we can fit into this and there's a county fair entry for non-clothing sewing project next summer we can enter. Of course, this can count towards school hours for home ec. We're going to milk everything out of this that we can.) The biggest plus is that they are loving it and begging me to get to the next step. Neither one of them have sewed with the pedal on the sewing machine so we have a learning curve there to get to!

September 2nd

Just the happenings of the day!

Another beautiful day around here...seems more like October 2nd, instead of September 2nd. Happy Birthday to my Dad today!

School this morning, we were up too late last night to get up to exercise this morning. We are on week 2 of Sonlight Core 1. Week 5 of Language Arts and Week 1 of Science...we are definitely getting in the groove. The little guy has decided that we should read a Psalm between each subject today...we've heard through Psalm 7 today...the big guy read us Charlotte's Web to and from piano lessons! I love cooperation - does that count as school time at our "home" location?

First day of piano lessons for my little guy! He's doing great and his teacher is so very very sweet. A nice treat is that I got to see a friend for awhile before lessons, her daughter is before us!

Stopped at I-44 Grocery on the way home from piano lessons. Found some vegan, gluten free, no sugar added instant soup mixes that I thought would be great for my friend who is going on a trip this weekend. Her diet is inspiring me though I haven't completely conformed...we did serve, cauliflower, carrots, celery, tomatoes and purple pepper for lunch! At I-44 they didn't have the bakers chocolate that I was looking for...but they had some other chocolate that I will try for my next chocolate pie. Got a great deal on organic balsamic vinegar too and some organic spaghetti sauce.

When we got home, I picked enough green beans from my few plants in the garden for dinner tonight. Picked quite a few grape tomatoes and a few volunteer roma's from the garden. I definitely need to plant more roma's next year. Romas have tons less water content in them and are more appropriate for canning. Oh, I forgot to spray the cheddar cauliflower with NEEM oil because it's getting eaten a little - it's finally making a head from being planted in early June.

Afternoon is trying to get Math and Language Arts done. I thought the big guy would do LA while piano lessons were happening, but he wanted to listen in. I'm really glad that I bought the MCP Phonics program for him to add to the Sonlight LA. He's S-L-O-W in getting it done, but the exercises are good for him to do. (I'm such a horrible speller...I'm learning lots about hard and soft c's and g's and when to use them and how to appropriately pronounce words.) We have done so much better when we do LA in the morning...note to self about next week!

I've promised some cartoons this afternoon when school work is done. I'm going to play with the admin of the CHESS website and see what some of our options are there. (I'm going to pray for CHESS, our home school group which is taking a lot of mental time right now.)

AWANA starts tonight and my boys are very very excited about it! I hope the little guy doesn't bug his teacher to say half of the book! He's so ready for more of a challenge and he's a great memorizer. I may need to get a bigger vest for the big guy...once we get past t-shirt season, I doubt that it will fit!

For dinner we are having a frozen meal for two from Tyson - had a $1 off coupon AND a rebate form so it will be free (the boys will split that)...and actually making about .50 off of the deal - and a veggie bean chili mix from Fantastic that I picked up for a buck today. We'll see how it tastes. I haven't decided how many of the suggestions that I'm going to add to the basic recipe...I think that I'll use some of my tomato juice that I have been canning/freezing instead of water to give it some more flavor and maybe some corn.

I have lots of tomato juice...when I've been making salsa, I have been getting about 5 pints of juice for the 5 pints of salsa that I make and it's still pretty thin. That's why I will plant roma's next year!

I just had some Shaklee Energizing Tea to energize me for the afternoon and we are off!

Cleaning out the frig

The other day we had quite a bit of "stuff" in the frig so to use up those containers out came this:

Fried Rice from the frig:

Sauteed Onions

Stir-fry left overs

half a block of tofu

roasted cabbage

two different days of rice

some green peppers that were sitting on the counter

Pretty yummy and colorful - and not too weird!

Mr. Phelps County 2009 Pageant

Well, we did it...he entered the pageant and finished with 2nd runner-up. He's ready to do it again next year. We'll see if Mom is willing to do it. I spent $0 beyond entrance to the fair on this. It would have been a lot more fun if we wouldn't have had to wait three hours for his part of the competition but that's how it goes. He sang "Open the Eyes My Heart" as his talent.

Waiting patiently with my number and Julie.

The Queen is reading about me and then I'll sing.

Now we are enjoying the rest of the fair!

Whee!

Some cute pictures

With Scooby at Six Flags!

Trying on the tux for a wedding in September.

The frequent family game of Monolpoly.

Some questions...

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I have no idea. A scientist, maybe...there are so many jobs, I just don't know.

If you could go on a trip, where would you like to go?

To Grandma and Grandpa's house. To the St. Louis City Museum, I just love that place!

If you could choose how you would travel for a trip, what would it be?

On an airplane, since I get car sick!

He'll be six at the end of the month...and just so sweet!

Yummy Colorful Lunch

Today's Lunch

Grilled Cheese Sandwich on homemade bread

Corn on the Cob

Green Beans

Beets

(the veggies were all picked this morning)

We added some Bread and Butter pickles that we made on Tuesday.

Isn't summer beautiful!

Joe's New Balance Outlet

If you are ever in the market for New Balance shoes or clothing, I highly suggest Joe's New Balance Outlet. They are located in Earth City, Missouri which means that shipping via UPS is awesome. I placed an order yesterday afternoon and it is "out for delivery" as of 4am this morning...can't beat next day delivery, especially when I got free shipping.

Previously when I ordered from them, one of the pairs of shoes did not fit perfectly. I was not planning to send them back, but they had sent a follow-up e-mail so I told them that they weren't so great. They promptly sent a mailing label to me and gave me a complete refund without any questions.

Our 50 wonderful states

The distribution of states...I was wrong about only 1 from California, we have three.

We checked our map by sorting all of the cards by state. These are our 51 piles.

I guess that we should have tried to get Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as well to include our territories!

We have all 50!

The shout rang from the boy getting the mail today, "We got number 50!"

Vermont arrived in the mail today. Michigan came in the mail late last week to round out our 50 states and the District of Columbia. We even had people excited enough about our project to even send from a few other countries!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our project. We definitely have learned more about our country than we did before. There's even a Rolla, North Dakota! I realized how many wonderful friends and family I have that are willing to hunt for a post card to send to us and how stretched across the country that you are all! For those who I was so bold as to ask for a specific state, thank you for obliging!

Somewhere around the beginning of June, the boys stopped being interested in the record keeping of how many we received in a day and if we knew the person or now so we just marked our map. This afternoon I think that we'll check it to see if we have all our hash marks on there. As of right now, the most that we received from any one state is 4. Those states that we received four from were Montana, Hawaii (which was a late showing), Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C. For being a very populous state, we only received one card from California! We did get quite a few from people we don't know which I think is fun!

Thanks again for helping us with our project. The boys loved getting mail. Next year we will be doing the first year of a two year study of world history who knows what I'll ask of you for that...pictures of people in togas?

Enjoying the summer!

June is almost behind us! Summer has arrived and we are enjoying life! I was realizing the other day that there has been a flower blooming in our yard since the middle of March! What a blessing from the previous home owners!

Baseball games on Monday and Friday nights with practice thrown in on Wednesday. Cub Scouts, swim lessons, gardening, summer school, library reading programs...the days disappear before we know what happened! We just had our family reunion with some cousins for some pre-reunion fun.

My youngest was challenged to read his Bible and took it to heart! It's so amazing to see him wanting to read his Bible! He's made it over half way through Genesis. Pretty impressive for a guy who has only been reading for about 6 months. The library program now is even more encouraging to get prizes for every four hours of reading.

I've taken a break from baking for the farm, but did sell lots of bread at home this week! (I made bread three times.) I'll take some orders for 4th of July though for pies and cinnamon rolls.

We've given of our time at Camp David of the Ozarks as well which has been great fun to bless the kids who have a parent in prison and the numerous volunteers with yummy food. I am thankful for the great new kitchen too! We'll be there again in July for a whole week.

I hope that you are enjoying your summer and being thankful to our God for His Creation!

An extra $200?

We are over a month into permanent employment, yipee! It's been great to finally feel those roots bury in a little deeper. As for the job, the salary wasn't exactly what we were expecting but it's sufficient. Yes, federal gov't benefits are much cheaper than anything else with some unexpected added extras. (Quality has not been proven yet.)

We haven't worked up the budget with the current salary and cost of benefits but we have gone through the exercise with theorecital numbers so I have a good idea of what we can spend on groceries, clothing, entertainment and the like - items that can be varied somewhat. All of these items have some money in them and sufficient money - we are no way in need. The numbers aren't so big though that we can not be in a state of mind to just go blow $100 on a nice dinner and a babysitter just because we want to. The question that has been running around in my head has been, if I had an extra $200/month, where would I put it in the budget?

As I think through this, I am challenged by what seems to be such superficial desires of where the money should go. Do we need to eat out? Do we need to buy more food or more costly food? Do we need dates where we do fancy things? Do we really need that many more clothes?

At this point, I'm happy that we don't have that question to answer and I am learning to be content and learning from this verse.

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, [not in great need]  and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through HIM who gives me strength." The Bible, Philippians 4:11-13

Now it's a Twinkie

"Mom will you warm up a hot dog in the microwave so it would be more like a Twinke. It will make it floppier from all the grease!"

Yes, those words did come from one of my children! Yes, I was feeding them hot dogs (well at least one of them) because they were left over from another event where I did NOT buy them.  I inquired as to where he learned about Twinkies...from WALL-E! "They are those things that the cock roaches crawl into." Of course, Twinkies last forever and that's why they could still be found on the planet even when there is no other life! 

Proposed Summer Schedule

Summer

Sun Lunch: (Church Pot luck) Vegetable on sale, starch

Mon: (Softball/T-ball) Tortilla Stack or Quesdillas 

Tue: (Cub Scouts) Tilapia, Lima Beans & Rice

Wed: (Bible Study) Hamburgers, Corn Casserole, Vegetable

Thu: Seasme Shrimp & Pasta

Fri: (Baseball) Pizza

Sat: Stir-fry with tofu or shrimp

Sun Lunch 2: Vegetable on sale, starch

Mon2: Lentil Tacos

Tue2: Shrimp Vera Cruz

Wed2: Brats, Baked Beans, Vegetable

Thu2: Salmon or Salmon Patties & vegetable

Fri2: Black Beans & Rice

Sat2: Indian Dish

The Winter Experiment

We came up with the idea of a two week revolving meal schedule for the winter to try and streamline meal preparation. I like meal preparation, but it seemed I was taking too much time to do it and knew that we could eat cheaper if we thought through it some more.

Now that we are in May, it's time to revise the schedule and put us on a summer schedule which I haven't come up with yet.

Here's the winter schedule:

Week1

Sun Lunch (church pot luck) - on sale vegetable & starch (or what someone had given us which happened an amazing number of times)

Mon Lunch (we were feeding another family): Ham or Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, vegetable

Mon: Tilapia, Lima Beans, rice

Tue: Tortilla Stack & Salad

Wed: Ravioli & Vegetable & garlic bread

Thu: Roasted veggies w/ chicken

Fri: Refried Bean Burritos & veggies

Sat: Cheddar Chowder

Week 2

Sun Lunch2: (see above)

Mon Lunch 2: Refried Bean Burritos & veggies

Mon2: Veggie Pot Pie

Tue2: Ham or Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, vegetable

Thu2: Chickpea & Cauliflower Curry & Naan

Fri2: Pizza & Raw Veggies & pickles

Sat2: Chili (sometime with macaroni)

Alternate menu items:

Stir fry

Spinach Pie

Pancakes

Immagination at work

I looked out my front window to observe this this afternoon...I love seeing minds at work.

Putting up some string on the front porch. Then running a Kinex creation along the string.

A good home school day

These are the words that a home school mom loves to hear:

Five year old doing math, "This is so easy."

A samplings of his math page (now he's on the third one today...just for fun):

70= 40 + ___ 

50 - ___ = 30

100 = 20 x ___

(3 x 10) - 5 = ___

This guy was asked to write a story for his writing assignment today. Instead of writing in normal English, he was given the assignment to write a story using 12 American Indian symbols using his Cub Scout book. 

Here's the story in English words:

One stormy evening a man and a woman and a boy say hungry around a campfire. The heard a live bear. The man was the top man of the village. One morning a man on a horse rode up with beaver brothers.  The woman called a council. Then they heard a big voice, it was the wise man. He told them to make peace with the man on the horse. The end.

This is what a pound of bay leaves looks like

As I had posted earlier, I have been buying spices in bulk and today I picked up my order for a pound of bay leaves...I had no idea how many bay leaves make up a pound, but here's a picture compared to my Joy of Cooking book. 

If anyone would like any, you may buy some off of me for $1.00/ounce let me know. An ounce of leaves would be too big to fit into snack bag. I think most things that simmer in my house will be getting some bay leaf flavor! (I bought some ground cloves too if you need to fill your spice cabinet with that. I did price that out at the grocery store and buying a pound of them is 1/4 the price of buying the small jar at the store. I use it for pumpkin bread which is selling quite well for me.)

Next adventure in full force...

It's 10am this morning. On my counter is a baked cherry pie, two large loaves of white bread (yes, I'm still cringing) and an empty baked pie shell waiting for "Pineapple Chiffon Pie". (No, All Recipes does not have this recipe.)

In the oven is 5 loaves of pumpkin bread and one Gooey Butter Cake!

Still sitting in it's bowl is a blob of dough ready to become french bread.

Now to dig out and do some dishes and oh, some school too!

My next adventure has begun

Wednesday was a momentous day! We made a purchase that really has no personal use, it was a purchase for the only purpose was to sell bread and other baked goods to others! This event officially puts me into the bakery business. I have an outlet to sell at and took a load out on Wednesday afternoon. I'm anxiously awaiting the results and planning my next baking day.

I think they get it...

We are currently in low budget mode. We have been blessed greatly that we don't need to be in debt right now with our limited income, but we are trying hard to live within our means. Entertainment is one of those things that we spend very little money on! (We haven't been bored yet though.)

Today the boys where playing with their monster trucks and with some cars and doing stunts. They were discussing the cost of tickets to see the show. The response was given to the price, "We don't have that much in the entertainment budget." How funny and proud I was!

Yesterday after some fun in the park, we went to McDonalds to use four free coupons that we had - two free small fries and two free cones. We praised our kids for doing so well with living in our current situation. Chicken nuggets were requested, but the denial was handled very graciously. While we were there, Travis Pastrana from Nitro Circus and one of the other characters were there too. Never heard of them before, but we did check them out online when we got home. One of the teen workers was in such awe because he got to use the bathroom next to Travis!

Spice of Life

Need a spice? I have been buying spices in bulk from Frontier Natural Products Co-op. I think that they are good spices. Generally you have to purchase them in 1 pound bags. I put them in small containers and freeze the rest. When I finish my small container, I re-fill from my freezer. If are interested in some, let me know and I will happily weigh some out for you. These are the spices that I have an cost per ounce.

Chili Powder (without salt)	$0.50
Cinnamon Ground (3%)	$0.40
Garlic Powder	$0.40
Yellow Mustard Seed Ground	$0.30
Cumin Seed Ground	$0.60
Muchi Curry Powder	$0.50
Oregano Leaf (organic)	$1.00
White Onion Powder	$0.40

An ounce would be about 1/4 cup except for the oregano which would be more because it's bulkier. (I included the cost of a snack bag and rounded to the nearest .10 to come up with the cost.)

I also have Vital Wheat Gluten for 3.25/pound. I just bought 25 pounds of it :)

If there's ever a spice you want and want to split it with me, let me know! These are yummy and very economical.  (Bay leaves are on my list to get soon.)

Because of Winn-Dixie

by Kate DiCammillo

We finished this book this morning and all three of us really really liked it! 

It's a story of a ten year-old girl who has moved to Naomi, Florida, with her preacher father and claims a dog in the Winn-Dixie after he has knocked over a bunch of produce. She then names the dog after the grocery store. We get the story of the rest of her summer and the people that she meets "because of Winn-Dixie".

It's targeted to 9-12 year olds but we did well as a read-aloud with a 5 & 7 year old! The older one could have read it by himself but I'm so happy that I got to read it with them and not just heard about it from them.

There are great analogies in the book and good use of language...("Cars were rushing past us and their taillights glowed red like mean eyes starting at us.") I'm even making today's language arts lesson from the book. If I would have thought about it, we could have done some more with that, but we did more of just enjoying the book. 

Check it out and enjoy!

Best Ever Stash

We just returned from the "Best Ever 2009" Parade which is the St. Patrick's Day Parade for those of you outside of Rolla! (St. Patrick is the patron saint of Engineering and St. Pat's is a huge deal around here.)

The stash from the parade was the best:

- lots of assorted candy

- tons of green beads (maybe some other colors too)

- Many different cans of pop (Cherry Dr Pepper, Sierra Mist, Vault)

- two stocking caps

- two hot dogs in buns, with ketchup packets

- coupons for free drinks at Sonic

- hacky sacs

- stickers

We didn't score any plastic visors but the hotdogs were the best...it was towards the end of the parade that some group was throwing out hotdogs in a bun that were wrapped in a little sleeve and had the ketchup packet included. We scored two of those for the youngest and oldest boys to enjoy!

 Our friend, Little Mr. Holiday

Our favorite babysitter

10 Lovely Years

Not an unlucky Friday the 13th for us...a lovely evening of enjoying each other's company and reminiscing about our last ten years.

1 You, God, Marriage

2 Children, Become One

3 Vacuums

4 Computer, Family Members

5 Vehicles

6 Churches

7 Addresses

8 Years of Republican Rule, Missionaries Supported

9 Countries

10 Wonderful years with YOU!

Here we are today...(this is the same dress that I wore when he proposed.)

This what looking for a job looks like...

He really really really is working hard at finding a job...just one afternoon while he was doing applications he happen to fall asleep. (He's also been fighting off a cold and really the bigger need for a nap.) There have been many bites in the last few weeks so this is just an aberration!

It was quite a lovely day this day and we were attempting to do some school outside. Does the Lego magazine count as school? I think it does when a 5 year old wants to read it for his free reading time. (The other one does have a real math book in front of him.)

Page Protectors

Something that I thought that we could always live without...

but this week it has hit crisis mode in home school that we don't have page proectors!

This school year we have gone through an entire package of page protectors and it's only the beginning of March! We do have great history notebooks and non-history notebooks to show for it and well preserved to boot! We are half-way through the 50 states and both of the boys wanted to show off their home state for the picture.

Random thoughts

For this Lenton season in preparation for Easter, I am giving up facebook. "Giving up" something for Lent is fasting from something - food, activity or some other pleasurable activity - to help remind us of the sacrifice that Christ gave on Easter of dying on the cross for our sins.

When you would normally do said activity, it's a time to pray. Giving up facebook has made me realize that I have really liked the random thoughts that people have put in their status and I liked being able to share some random thought as well with my status.

So, I've blogged a little more during Lent because I haven't had facebook as an outlet for random thoughts. Now, what did I do with all of these before all of this communication? The nice thing about putting these thoughts out there is that I can throw them out there and no one is required to respond...it's a personal choice to make a comment or not. If we were in a conversation then you would feel obligated to make some type of response. 

So, is facebook and other statuses (I still set an gmail status and don't use twitter or whatever else may be out there) a means that I don't have to justify my thoughts and diminishing my interpersonal communication? Because I don't have to have face to face conversation about what's on my mind am I allowing myself to have thoughts that go unchecked and could be going down a wrong path. I am trying to be witty or mysterious to win some type of popularity contest to see if I can get people to respond?

Enough random thoughts...I think I'll have a real conversation with my children now.

What to do with veggies

A few weeks ago someone came to church with this HUGE pan full of steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, not sure if there was anything else in there or not) that was given to them the night before at a dinner they cleaned up from.

We ate some of the veggies that week and froze the rest in bags to use later. Well, later has arrived and I need some suggestions on what to do with them. I don't think that they would be good just thawed and heated because I'm afraid that they would be mush.

Here are my thoughts...if anyone has any suggestions or opinions, let me know:

- make a cheese sauce like I would for cheesy potatoes and bake with a crispy topping (possibly do half potatoes and half veggies)

- make a corn casserole type thing with chopped up veggies - corn bread mix with egg, sour cream, and add some corn and bake.

- puree the vegetables and make some type of cream soup

I will be serving this for church next week since the vegetables were donated to the church. I have at least three gallon bags of these vegetables so we may get to try all of these options!

Life is emerging

Yesterday was a fabulous February day. We hadn't had precipitation in quite awhile so I started attacking the garden area. I was so excited to find new life already! I think that one is some cilantro growing - it's where the cilantro was last year that didn't really do much. The pumpkin leaves took over and shaded it and then pretty much squelched it.

This is the ever faithful chives. The garlic chives are coming up too and I need to figure out how to use these more this year.

Today with the help of my friend, we planted peas in pretty much the entire garden plot and some salad stuff in another little area.

Yesterday I had some help thinning out and re-arranging the phlox in front. The labor fee was some starts of the phlox which was a great trade for me. I was excited to pull 5 gallons of pretty good looking compost out of the compost pile to help the transplanted guys flourish. The automatic composter is up and running again so hopefully we'll have lots of great compost to use the entire year.

I love the emergence of new life in the spring! I still remember as a kid hating the garden though. I am not sure all of the factors that contributed to my change of heart but it's an exciting time of hear to like dirt!

No More Training Wheels!

Yesterday the training wheels come off and away he went! The only thing that makes this story slightly more interesting is that the training wheels and riding happened after 9pm! The same person who taught one of his friends to ride two-wheeled did the honors as well last night. There's no turning back now - no assistance required today and already wanting to race down the hill.