Too busy finishing up quilts for the girls’ bedroom. Here’s a few shots of the quilt tops. Zoey’s is finished and she has happily snuggled with it the past two nights. I still have three more rows and the edges of Allison’s to sew, but I think I can make quick work of those tonight.
I’ve been working on these off and on since February (more off than on). I’ll have to think of something else to do in my spare time.
Over the weekend I had to sell one of my children so that we could afford for the remaining two to drink milk.
Last weekend it was 3.04 per gallon. On Tuesday, Greg bought the milk. I thought he was either joking or bought the higher priced milk when he told me he paid over four dollars. Then we went shopping on Sunday. Do you know what we paid? $4.62 per gallon! For the cheap stuff. That’s over a 50% increase in price. Insane.
The price is supposed to go even higher. Now is a great time to be lactose intolerant.
I have been pretty bad about keeping up with a few things.
The Garden
It was huge. A little too huge for me to take care of in the manner it deserved. It deserved a farmer, with an ox and a plow. Slowly the grass crept in among my veggies, slowly the birds, rabbits, deer, and who knows what else ate up some of the plants (they love the peppers and squash). The neighbors escaped cows trampled my peas and ate my corn. Then, not so slowly, all of my tomatoes, all 24 of my tomato plants, ripened while we were on vacation. We came home to rotten tomatoes on the vines and all over the ground. The bright side is that we still may have some cucumbers, lettuce, and spinach. It’s also been very rainy, so if I really wanted, I might be able to start some late tomato plants.
The thornless blackberry cuttings I planted last year are also doing pretty good. I wasn’t really sure that they would produce any fruit this year because it is only the second year they have been planted (according to the pamphlet that came with them, it could have taken three years). There aren’t basket-fulls this year, but Nathan is loving being able to pick the ripe berries and pop them in his mouth.
LT
The dog is huge. He’s only going to get bigger. Like, he is going to double the size he is now before he is done growing. I’ve been trying to snag a picture or two each month, but most of them all turn out blurry, or he is by himself so it’s hard to see just how much he has grown in the 3 1/2 months we have had him. The funniest thing to me is how excited he is every time he sees one of us. It doesn’t matter if it has been 5 minutes or an hour. Not just his tail, but his whole butt wags. It’s a great boost of self-esteem when someone or something is that happy to see you.
Last but not least
My children have entered the blogging world. Greg and I thought it would be a great idea as a creative writing project for the summer. What we didn’t count on was how thrilled Nathan and Zoey would be to have a blog. If you are up for some insight into the minds of a 10 year old boy and in 2 weeks (good grief, I need to figure out birthday stuff) a 9 year old girl, head over for a visit “Nothing On TV”.
Three disclaimers:
1. Except for putting spaces after each period and comma, the writing is all their own. Even the name of the site. I know, clever kids.
2. We are still tweaking with some of the layout/color scheme so if things look wonky, let me know.
3. Commenting is heavily moderated. I thought about disabling it entirely, but they think it is cool to get responses. Since I feel the same way, I’m leaving it on for now.
So, all of the girls at work decided to have a contest. The contest is to see who can lose the most weight in a month. The winner gets a new pair of pants. It’s really too bad we still have two weeks to go, because I have not been able to keep any foods down all day. Would that be cheating?
Greg drove out to get me some Sprite before taking Nathan, Zoey, and Allison to Vacation Bible School. On his way to the store, he ran over a nail that popped our tire. New tire for the family car!
To top off the day, Nathan just got stung by a wasp. This stuff was supposed to happen last Friday.
When I went home for lunch today, Nathan and Zoey were pretty excited it was Friday the 13th. They kept talking about how they needed to do unlucky things to make sure they were really, really lucky.
“Where’s a ladder? I need to walk under it.”
“Do you know where I can find a black cat? I need one to walk in front of me.”
“You would probably get mad at me if I broke one of the mirrors, right?”
Here’s hoping anything unlucky you do today, returns 10 times as good luck tomorrow.
Forget about fireworks and picnics. Each year, for the past few years, on the 4th of July, we have gathered anxiously around the television to watch Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. This year we decided to have our own version. The rules were slightly different, instead of stuffing our faces full as fast as we could (no gagging allowed) we had until 10pm to eat as many as we could. Nathan was the victor, setting the new record of four dogs.
A week ago today, in pictures.
Sorry there haven’t been many new posts, feeling uninspired I guess. Why is it that there are points during the work day when it doesn’t seem like the hands on the clock are moving at all. You just want it to go faster already. Then as soon as you step into the door of your house, it is already time to turn around and walk back out of it again? There are enough minutes in the day, they just need to be arranged better.
I should wrap up our trip to California and back, while it is still semi-fresh in my mind.
The whole purpose of this trip was to celebrate the wedding of one of Greg’s younger brothers. Jon and Leah* got married in Antigua and came back for their reception at home.
Allison decided that since it was a party she needed to wear her new princess outfit with it’s full set of jewelry (tiara, necklace, bracelet, and ring). She may have been a little over dressed in her full regalia.
We all had fun, Leah danced while Jon visited. The dance floor was hardly ever empty. At one point, Leah had a whole line of boys waiting to dance with her. Allison cracked us all up with her version of Nathan’s worm. Instead of lifting her mid section off of the floor, she looked like she would bang her head on the ground, then drag the rest of her body slightly forward. It looked more like she was head-banging than doing the worm. No pictures though.
It was great to see the friends and family that we hadn’t been able to spend time with yet on the trip. I always look forward to seeing Greg’s Aunt Susan and her family. Sometimes Greg teases me about this. They are a pretty amazing family. There is constantly something going on in their lives. The last time we saw them it was on their drive across country before they went to South Africa. This time, the non-college attending members are on their way to Peru. It’s given them some pretty interesting life experiences. I hope that we turn out as well-adjusted as they seem to be.
Something strange happened off and on all night. I kept picturing Jon when he was Nathan’s age. I guess because that’s how old he was when I met him. Fun-loving and frustrated at the same time. Frustrated because you aren’t quite old enough that your opinion really gets heard, but still young enough that you can act like a kid and get away with it. Seems like a pretty normal state for a 10/11 year old. He’s a little older in this picture, but it cracks me up every time I see it.
After breakfast the next morning at Jon, Leah, and Jen’s house, it was time to hit the road. I’m glad we didn’t hit it like these people.
We were going to try and stop along the way and do cheesy tourist photos. Us beside a mountain, next to a cactus, at the official Center of the World, near the giant roadrunner. It sounded like fun, until the outside temperature reading would not go under 100. Since our delicate bodies couldn’t take such heat, we skipped the cheesy pictures.
*for some reason I have no pictures of Leah’s face. She is mysterious.
With five of us, I usually either double standard (4 person) recipes and have left overs. If I am not sure how well it will be received, I stick to the standard measurements and have a backup side ready to go. This was one I wasn’t too sure about. It had mushrooms, which Nathan wrinkles his nose at, and a new sauce (hoisin). I shouldn’t have been worried. The kids devoured it. They had so many extra helpings I stopped counting and there was only enough for the grown-ups to have one serving*.
CHINESE CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS:
2 cups fresh shitake mushrooms
1 1/2 lbs thin cut chicken breasts (or tenders)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 dash of course salt and course black pepper
3 garlic cloves chopped
1 inch piece of ginger (finely chopped)
zest of one orange
1/2 red bell pepper (diced small)
1 can of water chestnuts chopped
3 scallions chopped
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce (quarter into wedges)
1 head of Boston bibb lettuce (separate leaves)
PREPARE AND COOK:
Slice the mushroom and chop the chicken into small pieces. Preheat a large skillet to high and add oil to the pan. Add the chicken to the pan and sear the meat by stir frying for one to two minutes. Season with dashes of salt and pepper. Next add the garlic and the ginger. Cook for 1 minute.
Grate the orange zest into the pan (keep the orange). Add the chopped bell pepper, water chestnuts and scallions. Cook for one minute. Add the hoisin sauce and toss to coat the mixture evenly. Transfer the hot chopped chicken to a platter and pile the wedges of iceberg lettuce along side. After you zest the orange, cut it and add it to the platter as garnish.
TO EAT:
Pile the chicken mixture into the Boston bibb lettuce leaves, fold and eat.
I cut back on the oil and used a little extra juice from the orange. We also used some of the extra hoisin sauce for dipping.
*so not a bad thing. We need a reason to not eat more than necessary.
Because I am slightly crazy, I decided on Thursday night before we left on our vacation, that the girls needed bags for their car stuff. Not only would we need these bags, but I would make them before it was time to leave. I also needed to sew these bags before I packed. We were leaving Friday right after work. I had never made a bag before. I don’t really know what I was thinking.
Using this tutorial, I whipped up a bag for Allison in no time. Seriously, the cutting and ironing (blah, I despise ironing) are what took the longest. It is simple and cute.
Instead of just making Zoey the same type of bag (because it was so easy to make, that would be too sensible), I decided to make her a much larger tote bag. We would need a big tote for our trips to the beach, right? I sewed for hours on Thursday, made a quick run for more supplies in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, and still spent 2 hours sewing after work (keep in mind that I hadn’t packed yet). Everyone was sitting around waiting on me to finish making this bag that for some insane reason I thought we had to have. It looks like a horribly home-made piece of work, because that’s what it is. The thread doesn’t match, you can see the bottom of the straps, and you can see the color coded edge on the very bottom of the bag.
Even with all of those imperfections, it came in extremely handy. I may make another one that doesn’t look so shabby.
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