home again! yeah!

We had a fabulous trip, lots of changes in plans but no injuries or major problems. We saw a lot of family. LIZ graduating was the highlight. Seeing the grandbabies another. Seeing our son being such a great, loving Daddy another. (Seems a little backhanded; complimenting my son seems a little like; Wow, We must have been GOOD parents to have a kid turn out so well!) Angela and Ryan are such great additions to our family and now that they have been initiated by playing 'black magic' with us, they are truly part of the family! ;)
(I've tried to download some pictures but have been unable to. Maybe tomorrow.)
Supper tonight was crackers, lunchmeat, and cream cheese. I think I'll have to replenish the refrigerator tomorrow. Hey, I made the kids eat 4 carrots today and they had a whole box of fruit roll-ups, got them an ice-cream cone for breakfast, and I bought them chocolate milk! (Which unfortunately was sour and we were way past the store when we found out.) They ate a bunch of junk too. (We also had granola bars for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.)
I asked them about vacation and one of their highlights was that they were allowed to eat CANDY. (I really am one of those controlling parents and don't allow much candy normally.)

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to all!

Here's the some of the snowflakes we cut for their front window.

We have had a great day and have not even made a dent in the treats put before us. The troops are off sledding while we continue working (yes, blogging is work). Angela is making the pita bread that we need for our simple Bethlehem dinner tonight. (Making your own pita bread takes the simple out of the dinner)
This is what Joseph could have fixed for Mary Christmas Day.
menu;

fish
pita bread
olives
goat cheese
hummus
grape juice

my family date bars

I promised this recipe when I made the Chinese Chews, I like them better than the Chinese Chews, but then I grew up with them. Back in the 1950's Denver had a once a month preschool class for Mothers and their children. The young children, me at 3, went with a teacher to have fun and the Mothers were given information about being a good Mother. They had a cookie exchange in December, 1959, and one of the ladies brought these cookies and the recipe. There is no sense in making a single batch which would only fill an 8 x 8 inch pan, when doubling the batch gives you so many more cookies. In fact my Mother has never made a single batch of these.

Date Bars
2 eggs
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon shortening melted (I substituted butter)
1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Put in an 8 x 8 buttered pan
Bake at 325 for 25 minutes

it's almost Christmas!

We have attended church here for 2 weeks. Today Roger sang in the choir, Jeffrey sang a song, 'Mary's lullaby' with the other young men and women, and Andrew sang 2 songs with the Primary; Picture a Christmas and May I Hold the Baby. The last song I had never heard; it was so nice I would love a recording of it.
After church we made fudge. Andrew chopped up 2 candy canes and we experimented with adding peppermint extract to a plate full of the fudge. We added 1/8 teaspoon peppermint oil and the 2 candy canes. Everyone liked it. Then Andrew made peppermint bark. I'm not a huge fan of the bark but it is something a child can do; therefore we'll make it and eat it. We also made a batch of pumpkin cookies, we ate the WHOLE batch, even though 1/2 of the batch did not have chocolate chips, so sad, we ran out of chips!
Then we played a game of 'Apples to Apples'.
The game was fun, but I'm getting sick so should go to bed..so long.

snowflakes

I saw a window FULL of snowflakes on a blog the beginning of December and hunted all over for it later. Finally someone else blogged a similar picture. Thank-you. So y'all look here and be amazed.

I think we'll cut a few snowflakes tomorrow.

back in idaho

We got to spend several hours in Provo Thursday. We left Fielding at about 6 a.m. and stayed in Provo until about 5. We read about the storms and decided to leave early. It took us 8 hours to do the normal 4 hour trip. We were in rain, sleet, and snow. I slipped and fell on one patch of ice so today My hip is hurting and it's hard to walk. Iit is already easier tonight so I will probably recover.
I helped Liz and Ryan choose fabric for a 'bag' for Liz to make. We cut it out using a pattern this afternoon after I met her grandparents-in-law. Very nice people and I got a great microwave peanut brittle recipe...... I'll try it out and post it here another day.

WE ARE STAYING PUT UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

wrapping 'paper'

Over at Rocks in my Dryer there is a Works for Me Wednesday that I participate in occasionally.

Here's my last minute wrapping idea...it's not so last minute since I've been working at it for years. 20 years or so ago I bought my first piece of Christmas fabric for a Christmas quilt. 7? quilts later I have a bit of Christmas fabric in my stash. I usually buy it when it is really cheap and I don't cut it for a fabric bag, but I might fold it in half. I can wrap some really big gifts this way. I use a basting stitch, so it's easy to rip out if I ever decide to put it in a quilt, fold in half right sides together, fold the top down and press (for the 'hem') stitch on 2 sides, turn, insert gift, close with curling ribbon or pipe cleaner. After Christmas fold and put back with other fabric so if you NEED it for a quilt you can find it. (Sorry there is no picture but we are traveling; there is a poor shot of three here, if you enlarge the picture you can see a holly one in the foreground and a blue one in the background and on the floor a patchwork looking one.) Well it works for me!

new snafu

I interrupt this regularly scheduled vacation to tell you about our latest snafu. We decided to head for Fielding, Utah (Where Roger's brother, Kyle lives) about noon today. The scenery was great and we had clear skies. We arrived about 3 o'clock. About 4 o'clock Jeffrey said he didn't feel well and started to throw-up. It is 4 hours later and he still can't keep anything down. We decided to stay in Fielding instead of taking what ever it is down to Roger's folks. I've been knitting and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is on. Andrew is playing Kaylene's new Nintendo D.S.....which is a trifle weird; he rarely plays video games. Kaylene made us cocoa latte, which I had never hear of and we ordered pizza.
Latest bulletin on Jeffrey; he is up and watching the movie AND has kept some soda down!

chinese chews

I blew it. Over at Boomama is a Christmas home tour. I started looking around and found a blog that had posted a cookie called Chinese Chews. I wrote the recipe down with no reference, thinking it would be easy to find the blog again... NOT! 8,000 chances in Google to find it and although I looked at 5 pages of Google research I couldn't find it. So here's the recipe I tried yesterday;
Chinese Chews
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Cream together;
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
add;
2 beaten eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
after the above is combined add;
1 cup flour
mix, then add
1 cup chopped walnuts
8 oz. dates
Grease an eight inch square pan and then add cookies. Bake 40 minutes. When cool cut into 1 inch squares and roll in powdered sugar. Eat.

And eat they did, they are all gone 12 hours later. They are very similar to the date bars that my Mother made when I was little. Liz's husband is not crazy about chocolate, but if actions are anything to go by, he is crazy about dates. Next time I travel at Christmas time I'll take the time to gather my Christmas recipes. Most of them are already typed into the computer so it wouldn't have taken long.

games

Sunday night we went over to Liz's grandparents-in-laws and played games with them. 'The Game' is a homemade game using face cards but played similar to Pente. Their grandparents had made a board with glued down face cards, cut in half and used poker chips for the 'pente' marbles. Then we played a game using Skipbo cards called 'Ripple'. then we played 'Rumicube'. Liz was amazing how she kept track and moved those tiles around to suit her.
Tonight we played 'Ripple' and Skipbo. Andrew needs to play games and learn that it is fun to play not to just win. He has been known to 'loose it' when he doesn't win. He played tonight without any outbursts!

graduation

Our 4th child graduated! We arrived in Idaho the night before graduation. The day of, Liz still had finals so we didn't see her till right before the luncheon served to graduates and family. She gave us a tour of the 'box' that they lived in last semester (It was a one room apartment-very small..they went to Idaho Falls every weekend to get away from the itty bitty living space) Her younger brothers had taken to calling it a box and were eager to see it. I would totally post a picture here if I was at home but... I'm not, so go to her blog and see her smiling face.
I got high altitude headaches again and am guzzling smart water and Propel. I am not sure about retiring to a cold climate! It is really freezing here and my clothing is not really designed for COLD. (I think it is cold in my house when it is 68 degrees.) I think I'll appreciate Houston winters more after visiting here.
Saturday morning our plan was to drive south and visit my sister and my in-laws. Thirty mile out side of town we heard a strange sound and pulled into the rest stop and ended up being towed back to Idaho Falls. It is lovely having such a nice place to stay (my son's family) and the car should be fixed today and we'll at least get to see the kid's grandparents this week.
None of the gifts I ordered for delivery here has arrived yet. Should I worry? Guess not, I can't do a thing about it.
Yesterday I fixed chicken pot pie, peppermint bark, and peppermint bark chocolate cookies, and fudge. Next time I make peppermint bark I will have enough candy canes (we used 4) and make it thicker. (It was a new recipe for me and we chopped the candy canes too fine.) The cookies were fine but I think I'll try this recipe next time.
My fudge recipe I got from a friend, Pam, 25 years ago. I've changed it slightly.
Pam's Fudge
4 cups-1 Tablespoon sugar
1 T. corn syrup
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
Put in a heavy saucepan and boil 4 minutes, take off heat.
Add;
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 -7 oz. jar marshmallow cream
2 large (1/2 lbs @) Hershey's bar (I do one dark chocolate and one milk chocolate)
2 teaspoons vanilla
stir until combined and melted.
Pour into a buttered LARGE cookie sheet (mine is 17 X 12)
Then since one child doesn't like nuts I pour 1 cup nuts onto 3/4 of the pan and push them in. I used to put them in with the chocolate chips which is easier. Cool; at home I have to get it in the fridge, here we put it in the garage! I like to cut the squares and set them apart onto a plate and let the edges dry slightly before serving. ;) that rarely happens. We usually eat it out of the pan; every time we pass the pan we have to straighten the edge, or neaten a jagged cut.

trip

We packed and left Wednesday morning at 5 am, not the 2 am we had hoped for. We were practically wedged into the car we had so much stuff.
We drove through Oklahoma and saw the damage done by the ice storm the day before. We had no trouble and the boy's found the ice interesting since they had never seen ice on trees or houses before.
In Denver we were able to get rid of 2 small boxes of Christmas gifts and my toothbrush...We still were barely able to move our legs and were constantly putting on coats and taking them off and trying to find room for them in the car.
Although a snow storm was predicted for Wyoming we only got a bit of snow in Idaho. The first thing Andrew did was try to make a snow angel. (Wearing a jacket, unzipped, no hat and no gloves, blue jeans and no boots.) His comment was; ' I can't believe anyone would make a snow angel!'

traditions

I have just a bit more time before I start packing again. Here's a few more photos. The first collection of brass is resting in a bed of rock salt. NOT a good idea for someone with small children or someone that wishes the 'snow' to remain untouched. I constantly found small Lego men perched on the candle stick edges needing rescue from other Lego men. I thought it fun but haven't used the salt since.

The wood nativity is our favorite. My sister cut it out and gave it to me for Christmas years ago. She copied it from a magazine cover; The Friend.' I painted most of it although the sheep and cattle were painted with my children in Family Home Evening. (Don't you love the red and white quilt hanging behind it? It was an exchange I did many years ago.)

The last photo is of our traditional Christmas day supper. I try to fix a meal that Joseph may have fixed Mary that first Christmas night; pita bread, hummus, olives, grapes, goat cheese, white fish (Tilapia usually) fried with garlic and olive oil, grape juice to drink. We eat by candle light. It has the added bonus of being easy to prepare and easy to clean up. I started this tradition after my older 4 left home (and I think my older kids think it is a little weird) but I like it. I hope it reminds us of why we celebrate Christmas.

front door

The first picture was taken in 2005 and show the stockings that we don't use any more but I had fun making. If you look carefully you can see some of the 'wrapping paper' that is actually Christmas fabric that stays in the sewing room the rest of the year, so I COULD use it if I wanted since the seams are basted and the top is either the selvage or a rolled hem. The JOY canvases we painted for Family Home Evening one night.

When we moved to this house it had an ugly dark brown beat up door. I talked my husband into paining it white but didn't like that so 2 years ago we painted it this soft green that I love. Notice the PINK walls and trim (officially called 'moose antler'). I really do live in a PINK house -but don't call it that around my boys.)

The last photo is of my light in the dining room with my kugels and silver bows.


Boomama is hosting a tour of homes but I posted my decorations over many posts. So if you want to see all I've posted look here , here . Better yet just clink on my subjects of Christmas then I don't have to figure out how to stop this underlining!

I have been trying for about 2 weeks to touch my son's face. specifically his upper lip. His voice changed completely in the last 4 months and now I see there is a bit of soft fuzz on his lip. I think it will be soft for a little while yet and so I keep trying to touch it; he keeps grinning and ducking away. I threaten to touch it while he sleeps. He grins and says, 'no way.' so I thought of one advantage to being in the itty bitty car for 6 DAYS; there will be less room to duck and I may be successful.
During the summer he wore size 10 pants, now he's into 14's. Luckily he doesn't mind shopping at the thrift store and bought himself 3 pairs of pants, a jacket, and 3 shirts for $22 a week ago. There are advantages to living here; the kids around us have too much and we benefit since the clothes at the thrift store usually look brand new.
I feel in love with the feel of a bright red cashmere sweater ($2) last week and although it is riddled with holes I bought it anyway. After washing it once it is even softer and more beautiful, but the holes are still there. I thought I might make a hat out of it; maybe I should make an old-fashioned muff so I can feel the stuff. Actually a pillow might be the best touchable item to make, maybe with silk embroidery on the holes. However nothing will be done before the holidays.

packing

packing is a bit overwhelming

categories
Sunday clothes, scriptures
winter clothes; boots, long underwear, coats, hats, mittens
sleeping clothes
activities for the car; knitting, trees, dvds, ipod, homework, books, headphones
food/ cooler, water
gifts/ornaments
medicines/first aid
safety; flashlight, tools, sunglasses
electronic; chargers, phones, camera, disk, card reader, slide adapter for camera
daily clothes 3-4 outfits @
blankets for inside car/ pillows/ ear plugs
personal hygiene, make-up, lotion, curling iron
misc; burn scout dvd, load ipod, mail package,

what do the boy's want?

My oldest, at home now, was so excited when he got his new schedule for school. It included Algebra-2 years ahead of the 'normal' kids, advanced Science (and that means more fun (time-consuming) projects), Language Arts-advanced, Social Studies-advanced, computer technology, and Band (which requires practising every day). He also takes piano and is active in scouts. He still thinks his classes are great, I think they are too much. He has had a couple migraines since Thanksgiving which may be due to stress, although I doubt it. The Dr. said to spend some time de-stressing, relax, watch tv, listen to music. So when do we schedule that? He WAS a big reader but has had no time to read since school started. He loves his algebra class and understands the material but has a difficult time turning in every assignment on time. His new strategy is to do what he can until 8:30 go to bed by 9 and get up at 4:30 to finish! His brain is rested and he works better. There is plenty of time in the day to do what he needs to but he has a HARD time focusing on 1 thing. He keeps interrupting himself to talk about unrelated things. He finally finished his Science fair project this morning and got to school on time! I kept picking up my knitting and keeping my mouth shut, I was determined to do the bare minimum to help. I did open a bag of m&m's that he could have 2 of every time he glued a piece of paper down then let him pace himself.

We talked about Christmas a bit with the younger one but tried to do it where Jeffrey wouldn't be distracted and since the computer was needed for 'THESCIENCEFAIRPROJECT' no one else had keyboard time until close to midnight.

So there's my 'short' ;-P version as to why the boy's haven't posted their Christmas list yet. Tonight there will be time!

knitted blanket

How much time have I spent trying to find the PERFECT knitting pattern? Today at church I saw the perfect one. Around a baby. the mother said it was a gift from a lady in her church, a woman I know, that knits one for every baby in her congregation. May Corillow is a wonder. I sat next to her at the Christmas concert tonight and she is giving me a copy of it tomorrow. Now I get to knit another swatch!

lay my 817 to rest

After a day full of activities it should be easy to write a blog....
I finished my contribution to Becky's quilt. My old reliable Bernina 817 is not working well and I don't have the money to fork out $135 for a walking foot on my newer 1630 model. I've used my 817 for 31 years. The paint is worn off the center front. I took it to the shop and spent quit a bit of money on it and they said it worked but still made a noise. They were right it works but the thread keeps breaking, jamming and that makes it an altogether frustrating experience sewing on it :( I went and looked around the Internet and was surprised to find that my 1630 is considered the older form of Bernina, I still consider it my new machine. (I've had it 10 years, and I bought it gently used.) It has never been used much because I didn't know where it's 1/4 inch mark was. I had to figure it out and it wasn't hard at all.
My Webelos walked in the annual Christmas parade today but I forgot the camera.
I made Running withTweezers' cranberry upside down cake. Yummy, and my boys liked it.
Andrew and I wrapped about 8 presents today.
Jeffrey worked on the write up for his science fair project...have I told you how much I LOVE science fair? NOT
DH got a new leaf blower! My front porch got cleaned off! The yard got mowed and trimmed! The pool got ready for our trip. Nothing else is ready but the pool is ready!
I bought a present for ds 10 this evening and my dh later tole me that he had one for him already. This is a shock. This has NEVER happened before. Then he sat down and ordered ds12 presents. I considered getting a thermometer. Wow!

knitted blanket

The saga of the baby blanket returns. There was only 1 more skein of yarn. I studied the pattern in the $20 book (knit with cashmere!) and I think I can make it, it is similar to the one in the library book, but smaller. The one I figured out last week was an alternating squares pattern, this new one is a basket weave. I'm knitting another swatch and I'm liking it, but I do have to stay on my toes to keep track of it. Then back to weighing and figuring again.

I promised pictures of my sister's icicles I've taken them 2 days in a row and if these aren't great they will have to do. I love looking at them, I made some from a kit I purchased years ago but they don't have the charm of these. I have 31 homemade icicles and 2 dozen purchased plain ones.


This next photo is of the baby quilt I made my second child; in 1979! that was soo long ago. I had fun doing this and the turtle was one of those cut out and stuff things that I machine appliqued, then quilted with yarn. Polyester gingham and polyester batting. Even if I did this now I would put more rows of 'quilting'. He used this alot but I noticed the the edge is still basted. His older sister has a similar one with a teddy bear on pink gingham. The gingham made it so you didn't have to do any marking. This got a picture taken because I am taking it to give to my son who has 2 boy's of his own now.

I still like this turtle :)

baby blanket

I'm trying knit a baby blanket. I thought it would be simple; chose a pattern, buy the yarn, knit. It's more like; chose a pattern, hunt the yarn, decide that yarn is too expensive ($70.+ for a tiny baby blanket is too rich for me.) Look for a different pattern, find a book that costs $20 that only has 1 pattern that will ever get used, find yarn you think will work. Go to the library find another pattern. Stitch 2 swatches on 2 different sizes needles. Choose one, knit another bigger swatch. Since the yarn is not what the pattern calls for the big question is, 'Will I have enough yarn?' I'm not sure this is the right way to do it but I hope it works. I measured the chosen larger swatch and weighed it; 16 grams, 39 square inches. The finished blanket is 38 x 38 which ends up being 1,444 square inches. Which will need 592 grams of yarn; I have 400. So I have to go back to the yarn store tomorrow and hope that they have 2 more skeins of yarn in the right dye lot. This has taken 2 WEEKS! I thought it was a simple matter, figured out in minutes instead of weeks. I found this book Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas, (check out that cute stripped sweater) at the library, it has 7 projects I want to do AND I DON'T KNIT! I'm a QUILTER. I just decided to knit 1 pair of mittens for my grandson in Idaho... I found out it works really well for that time in the morning and afternoon when I have to be there, you know right in the middle of the kids to direct traffic, kind of, and keep them doing what they need to be doing and knitting beats reading magazines. The blanket is happening because we are going on a loooong road trip for Christmas and I think I'll be able to knit a simple repetitive project in the car. Have you ever tried to quilt in a car? It doesn't work very well so the quilting will stay at home.

ps. I just found this blog of Kristin's (author of above book) with a picture of the stripped sweater that I think is so sweet.

trivets

A couple of weeks ago I was blog hopping and found directions for a trivet. I decided that my Webelos would make them as gifts for their Mother's. I hunted for the beads and finally found a string of wood Christmas garland with about 88 beads for $1.54! I had considered getting some at Hobby Lobby, my next to the last stop, but the 'beads' I had seen there (for like $3. for 8) weren't really beads... they were HEADS! I was afraid we would have to come up with something else for our meeting and order the beads and make the trivets for Mother's Day. :( I decided that Garden Ridge would be my last stop and there they were.

I have been looking for these beads for 3 years. My oldest had one string I had given her for her college tree but now she wanted more and we hadn't been able to find them. Incidentally I had found 3 strands at the Thrift store 3 weeks ago but wasn't willing to donate them since I knew how much she wanted them. I bought 10 strands for her tree just in case they were a different color than the thrift store ones and they were; so now I have plenty for trivets! We stained the sticks with cherry stain because their wood craft had to be finished with paint or stain. They used our drill after my husband rigged up a jig to make it easier to drill them all in the same spot. We used a wire to fasten them together.

I really struggle to find things for them to make that are not rinky dink (is that a word?) but are still possible for them to do and fulfill the requirements and don't make me stand in a HOT garage for hours. Now my son wants to make some more for his Grandmothers. Hey, at least we have enough beads!

angel penguin

Have you ever heard of an Angel Penguin (also called Little Blues)? I hadn't until.. oh, about 2 minutes ago. My 10 year old wondered if a visitor to my blog, from New Zealand, had ever seen one. Stumped me again, but they probably have seen one, if they ever visited a zoo there or even went to see them in person. I don't think the zoos I have visited in the U.S. have them. I learned when I googled it that they are not angel but Fairy Penguins. 'The Penguins' is a band from the 50's whose greatest hit was 'Earth Angel.' I actually remember that song, don't remember the band though..Back to Fairy Penguins; I am amazed at the information that keeps coming out of A's brain. He learned about these Penguins while in first grade, 4 years ago. I can't remember where I layed down my cool snowflake bracelet 4 days ago; let alone the IMPORTANT papers from last years taxes, that haven't been seen since April. If I could just harness his brain to help me remember the things I need to I would never loose anything again. ;)

inexpensive fun

My daughter is writing a paper in college. It is a photographic essay. I am the keeper of photographs in our family; therefore my assignment is to find and send the appropriate photos. Needless to say these are all pre-digital so I thought I'd have to send them slow-mail. I had tried scanning other photographs but then blogger didn't recognize them. I discovered (dancing with delight here) that Picassa could import them in a recognizable format.

One of the books she read this semester claimed that children in a large family were deprived of many things. Basically it claimed that to be successful in later life you MUST be from a small family. Herphotographic essay/paper is something about having fun and not being deprived because you have more than 2 siblings. She already has more current photos. I hope these work for her.

fast meals

I haven't been keeping up with rocks in my dryer so when I went over there today I was surprised with her theme for Works for me Wednesday, but I'm so Talented ;) I have a few fast meals up my sleeve!
My Mother and Dad were here in November and we discussed 'fast meals'. She reminded me (actually I still don't remember) that my friend, Becky and I had a long standing argument about what was fastest for Sunday dinner. Her vote was for a roast that was put in before church and was done when you got home. My vote was for fish that you could put in the oven when getting home and by the time the table and a salad was fixed the fish was done. I know that my Mother fixed fish on Sunday a lot and I assume her Mother fixed a roast.
My vote for the fastest supper is;
1. Fish, I keep 4 different kinds in the freezer; Tilapia, Flounder, Cod, and Salmon. Defrosting is very easy just put the frozen fish in water, still in their bags, while you chop a couple cloves of garlic and heat a little oil in a fry pan. Add the fish and the garlic and open a can of green beans or blast some broccoli. (Put broccoli florets on a cookie sheet and put it under the broiler for about 8 minutes) Get the bag of salad out of the fridge order ask a child to set the table, turn over the fish. 2 minutes later dinner is ready. This week I took 2 minutes longer and put the fish on a plate in a warm oven while I made a lemon garlic sauce; 1 1/2 T flour stirred into and cooked a bit with the pan oil and juices, some lemon juice and a bit of chicken broth a dash of Tabasco, pepper and 1/2 teaspoon sugar. I loved it; the boys not so much,but it was easy to give them fish with no sauce. (The same thing works with chicken but a chicken breast takes longer to cook. 8-)
2. Black beans with green chilies and bulgar. Really, my boys will eat this and think it's good. (I open a can of black beans, drain and rinse them; put them in a sauce pan and pour in a can of chicken broth.) The bulgar (quick cooking cracked wheat) gives the black beans it's missing ??? to make the dish a complete protein. The can of chopped green chilies gives it a dose of vitamin C. If I have frozen corn bread it's even better. (When I make cornbread I make a double batch and freeze the leftovers.) If you need a vegetable there are always baby carrots in the fridge.
3. I use Brown rice almost exclusively now but when I cook it I cook a lot! I put it in a bag in the freezer so it is handy to pour out just enough for my 2 kids since they love rice (cooked in chicken broth) and Dad is not eating much these days. So adding rice to the above fish dinner, or any dinner, is EASY.
4. Sausage. I love kielbasa sliced in the bottom of the fry pan, 1/2 cup water with wedges of cabbage sprinkled with pepper, covered and steamed. Then a can of green beans-can you tell the boys love green beans and broccoli. Those are the main vegetables around here.

Since I had 6 kids I still tend to cook for 8, even though there are only 4 of us now. The freezer is my friend. When I roast a chicken I line up 3 chickens in my turkey roasting pan, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and bake them at 400 for about 1.5-2 hours. Then I have dinner basically cooked for 3-4 days with leftovers for my husband's lunches and chicken for the freezer and carcasses to boil for chicken broth. I used to cook a brisket (lay brisket in roaster pour tomato sauce, dried onions, salt and pepper; cover with foil roast at 250 for about 8 hours-all day or over night) about every 2 weeks but since we are cutting out cholesterol that is out. But a cooked brisket with leftovers in the freezer makes fabulous enchiladas, beef soup, burritos, bean dip; you name it every thing is better with brisket in it (if it calls for ground meat try brisket instead..yummy).
Well that's what works for me.

Just remembered another! A can of pop open biscuits, cut in quarters, tossed with about a cup+ of salsa and a bag of brisket from the freezer (actually the original recipe had no meat) sprinkle with cheese, bake at 350...how long? probably 30 minutes...until the biscuits are done.
I've learned that salsa is a fast source for onions/tomatoes and often will throw in salsa when I'm to lazy to chop onions.

blue and white quilts

Last year at this time I was frantically working towards a wedding. My daughter wanted blue and white wedding; not a blue and white Christmas. With her wedding on December 27th it was a fine balancing act since the reception was at our home. I had one blue and white quilt, my first quilt, an Irish Chain. Then I borrowed 2 of my Mother's; one is an antique that her Mother, Polly made as a young woman. The other is 'Stars as Sea' that she made for one of her other grandchildren. (Incidentally it is what the bride wants me to make for her 'wedding quilt.' I have 4 more years to make it.)

This is my first 'decorator' tree. My Mother loaned me 72 crocheted snowflakes (I have about 30) and icicles that my sister beaded...I'll get a closeup photo of some of them soon. They are eclectic; she uses buttons, collected beads from old necklaces and other found items. We LOVED this tree; it made me want to do it every year. That would mean I'd have to do 2 trees because I have so many beautiful, memory filled other ornaments.

reading level

I have learned that to understand my blog you need a college degree.
I learned about it in a new blog I was reading. I'll have to work on my vocabulary. At least it didn't say you needed a third grade 'degree' to read it.

stockings

It's already December 3rd! We are leaving town for Christmas so I am not decorating much. The quilts and pillows are out and a couple of Nativity scenes. I'll need to pack the stockings. I have 3 complete sets that I have made over the years. One time we were out of town for Christmas I had to go shopping for socks to do stockings with since I had forgotten to pack ours. These are the one's we actually use now. The other sets are huge. This pattern was from my stocking that I had as a child. But the plaid and hearts are my own touch. I have left over plaid that as children marry I can make their spouses a stocking...but I'll probably have to use plain red for the grandchildren if I continue this...

cuboree

I am the mother of 4 boys and yesterday and Friday was my first experience with cuboree. Sorry, Reed and Brian whenever papers came about cuboree I automatically said, sorry, we're too busy. We were but we may have been able to fit it in. The program is really great for the boys and camping with them and their parents was a fun experience. Someone else was in charge of Friday night dinner. I did NOTHING. The MAN brought me dinner, it wasn't on a silver charger but I felt like a queen being waited on. I didn't even do any clean-up. I did help put the tent up; but not much, the same man came over and helped my son, 10, put the tent up. I had unloaded the car and put a lot of the stuff on a cart but then one of the men pulled the cart to the campsite for me. (I should mentions here that all 4 of us were camping this weekend but unfortunately in 3 different parts of Texas. Roger had a rock-climbing training for certification camp-out. Jeffrey had a boy scout campout and Andrew and I had cuboree.) Another positive; the weather was perfect for camping. Cool and Comfortable. We even appreciated a fire first thing in the morning.
Enough positives! I was miserable! So what did I learn?

1. Don't commit to taking any walk over 20 yards at any time. My arthritis kicked in and every step was painful.
2. When you are used to sleeping with 3 pillows take 3 pillows. I slept--- well not at all. I was not cold; we ended up with 3 sleeping bags, so I had one under me and one on top of me.
3. When you know you should take an air mattress but decide it is too much trouble, take it anyway. You really do need to sleep before coping with a bunch of kids.
4. When you consider putting a lawn chair near the restroom and sleeping there all night realize that that was inspiration; not just a silly notion.
5. Never arrive to a campsite after dark. The restroom was a looong ways away but in the morning I found one much closer, the other direction.
6. I could really use a GPS. (Would a GPS keep you from getting lost going from your campsite to the bathroom in the dark?)
7. You don't have to stand in line to take a shower at 4 a.m.
8. Check out the nozzle situation before getting undressed. In fact check out the nozzle situation as soon as arriving in camp then your dreams of a long hot shower will not be made. The shower I chose had NO shower head and the water only came out in 15-30 second streams. It was warm but not very.
9. 5 paper towels is enough to dry an adult body, unless you shampoo your hair.
10. Palmolive dish soap lathers up very well and is very difficult to wash off your body.
11. If there is a stick a boy will pretend it is a sword. If there is a stick a boy will poke the fire with it. If there is a stick 2 boys will fight over it. (I actually saw 2 young children in a wagon fight over a small rock and didn't give up until Mom promised to pick up the next rock for the poor deprived child being pulled up a grassy hill by said Mother).
12. I'm thankful that this was my last cuboree!

Hey, not a bad bit of knowledge to gain during one weekend!