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!