June 12, 2012

Outside Temp: 59 F (Fluffy clouds and beautiful today... in the low 70's!)

What I cooked today:
Lasagna: To be perfectly honest, I didn't assemble the lasagna.  Either I forgot to buy lasagna noodles, or Patrick ate them, but after I started the meat, I realized I didn't have noodles.  But, Grandma had some at her place.  So, I made the meat sauce and the cheese mixture and sent them up there for Grandma to assemble and bake.  They said it was good, and only left me a bite or two.  Oh well, my family got fed, and it wasn't burgers!

Update:
I had to pull over on the road to Geyser today, so take this picture.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  The cloud structure was huge and at the bottom was a beautiful rainbow.  It was so bright!  I really wish I could take pictures that could accurately convey how amazing it is up here.

This morning I woke up with the ambition to mow the lawn.  We got the mower a few weeks ago, but I haven't used it yet.  I haven't actually mowed a lawn since our first house, and even then, I only mowed once or twice.  But, this is a riding mower, so it's a heck of a lot more useful than my old gas push mower.  Of course, since I haven't ever used the mower, I didn't have a really good idea of how wide the cutting blade was, or the turn radius.  Needless to say, there are more than a few places on the lawn that I missed or cut badly.  But, for my first time, it wasn't a bad try.  After all, now I can only get better!

After mowing the lawn, Patrick, Grandma and I went over to the Raynesford Community Center for the blood drive.  I haven't donated blood in years.  Fortunately, I have not problem donating blood.  Patrick and I were competing with each other as we went along.  My hemoglobin was better, but his blood pressure was better.  But, I really got him on the time.  I had my entire pint done in about 5 1/2 minutes, which is really fast.  He took over 7 minutes... lazy veins.  It was a great chance to chat with the neighbors, which is always great.  And do a good deed, which is also good!

After that, I raced over to book club.  We read a book this month on Guernsey (which is an island in the English Channel, between France and England) and the German occupation during WWII.  It was a really great book, that described an event that most of us had never thought of.  My memory of High School history's version of WWII was: Nazi's were bad.  Japan was bad.  We bombed them.  Yea, we are good.  We didn't really discuss the actual history and how people existed during this time.  I love being able to discuss books with other women and get their opinions.  And the food was awesome! 

June 1, 2012

Outside Temp: 58 F (it was beautiful today.  A little overcast, and looked like it might rain a few times)

What I cooked today:
Split Pea Soup: I was in the mood for soup for lunch today (which is not common for me), so around 10am, I threw some of my chicken stock with some celery and carrots and dry split peas.  About 3-4 hours later, it was awesome.  Really creamy and everyone seemed to like it!

Burgers and Tater Tots: After working so hard for lunch, I really, really didn't want to make dinner.  I have some steaks that we picked up yesterday, but I didn't want to make the effort.  So, I informed the kids that we would have burgers and tater tots.  They jumped up and down with joy!  Really?  For burgers?  Hmmm, I must be doing something right.

Update:
So, it's the first of June, which means it's time to change seasons, which means that I have my semi-annual 'change of season' cold.  I refuse to call it 'allergies', like my husband.  Usually, it lasts a day or two, and then I'm fine for the rest of the season.  But for today, I'm down for the count. 

I was up around 9am, after a terrible night of sniffling and sneezing, jumping up for tissue paper before the snot covered my sheets, coughing and whimpering.  I decided it might be easier if I sat up, instead of laying down.  Not really. 

So, then I started on the medicines.  I started with Sudafed, since that usually helps the stuffy nose.  About an hour later, I still felt like crap.  So, then I went with the nasal spray.  That cleared it up a little, but I was still dripping, and I still felt like crap.  About an hour later, I found some DayQuil, and I thought, what the heck, it can't hurt.  I think the acetaminophen helped the aches, but the nose was still annoying me and I was still sneezing. 

Finally, around 2pm, I took some Benadryl.  Which proceeded to knock me out until about 4, when I woke up with a still stuffy nose.  But, hey, I got almost 2 hours of rest.  That's a good thing, right?

Around 8ish, I realized that I had to make dinner, since I would feel guilty if the kids had pasta for a second night in a row.  But there was no way in heck I was going to go to much effort. 

Now, I'm going to snuggle up with my blanket and a cup of tea and relax before I try to get a better nights sleep tonight.

On the good side, Patrick and Allen managed to mow the lawn today.  It's working fine now that Patrick fixed it.  Allen did most of the back lawn, and Patrick took the front and the edge next to the road.  Of course, that edge is a little angled.  And those riding lawn mowers are not designed to go at any angle other than flat.  So, as you can imagine, he went down the edge, and the angle was a little too high.  He went up, and up, and over.  So, here he is, flat on his back, with the lawn mower on top of him, blade still running.  Fortunately, the mower has a 'dead man' setting on the seat, where it turns the thing off if someone is not sitting in the seat.  I guess that being upside down is considered 'no in the seat', since it stopped running.  He was able to push it off him and get back up, with no damage.  It's not very heavy (at least as far as riding lawn mowers go), thank goodness.

I was fortunate to have not seen this occur.  He said he got up and looked around, a little embarrassed, got back on and kept mowing.  I only knew about it because I saw the rips and grass stains on his shirt.  Oh lovely, do you know how hard it is to get grass stains out??    

May 30, 2012

Outside Temp: 50 F (a little overcast and, at times, a little chilly.  But beautiful just the same. )

What I cooked today:
Chinese Chicken: I can't honestly call it Walnut Chicken anymore, since there are no walnuts and it's different.  I don't have any walnuts, or snow peas, or mushrooms.  I make the chicken similar, and toss in some frozen veggies with the sauce.  It works out well.  This time I made 3 cups of rice (instead of my normal 2 cups), and it was still all eaten up!

Update:
The neighborhood kids showed up around 10am, asking for Allen (who was still fast asleep, after finally going to bed around 3:30am... I know, I know, but it's summer vacation, and I really don't care.).  So, once he got up and had breakfast, he was out the door.  Around 11am, Connor and Kathryn headed over to the neighbor's as well.

Patrick and I had some things to do in Geyser, so the kids were on their own for a while (except Ryan, who came with us).  Not that they minded (my only rule was no kids in the house while we weren't there.)  We were gone for hours, and for some reason, I wasn't even slightly concerned.

At Geyser, Patrick was able to download a ton of things, and acted like a kid in a candy store at how fast the Internet connection was.  He also hung out with our Superintendent, and they chatted about stuff.  While he dealt with some website bugs, and chatted, I helped our Special Ed teacher pack up her U-Haul.  She's moving today, which makes me sad (she worked wonders with Ryan this year).  But, I hope she will be happy in her new job and new home, so that makes me happy.

Once we got home, we looked over the chickens and decided that they weren't fat enough.  I know, they are huge, but the 'book' says that their breast needs to be creamy and yellow, not blue.  And their chests are kind of blue, so it claims they need more fat.  We switched out their food for a few days, but one way or another, we will have to kill them soon and put them out of their misery.  They are soooooo fat. 

Patrick and I spent some time out in the backyard, fixing the lawn mower. Apparently, when Allen was using it last week, he 'pushed' it, when he wasn't supposed to (the engine was still engaged, or something). And, it pushed one of the chains off of the gear. So, we ended up taking apart the bottom of the lawn mower and fixing the chain. And while we were out there, we took a picture of Ryan. Oh my goodness, he doesn't look evil! :)

The other chickens are doing fine outside.  We are kind of surprised how well they are doing.  It was in the 30's with snow and hail and rain, and they seem to have survived just fine.  They are starting to 'roost', which means they are sitting on the branches in their pen.  We went out there, and about 9 chickens were all sitting, next to each other, on the same branch.  Of course, us showing up startled them and a few jumped off.  But they are getting so old!

May 20, 2012

Outside Temp: 58 F (the high today was 73, with a low of 35... I couldn't ask for a more beautiful day!)

What I cooked today:
Lemon Chicken: I normally bake my Lemon chicken, but I didn't want to spend the time.  So, I just made up a lemon sauce, tossed the chicken with some cornstarch, olive oil and green onions, cooked it in a frying pan, added the sauce and let it simmer.  I think I'll spend the time baking it next time.. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better!

Update:

Patrick asked Katie to collect some dandelions.  He is envisioning planting the seeds and feeding dandelions to the chickens instead of chicken feed or some other plant.  I'm just going to sit back and keep my mouth shut.

And, the sole reason I had children... to have Allen do the lawn mowing so neither Patrick nor I have to mow lawns.  Of course, he did a terrible job, missed spots and completely forgot an entire section of the yard.  But, hey, I didn't have to do it!  And I figure he'll learn as time goes on.  (I hope)
So, sometime around 1pm, I got up the bright idea of going into town for shopping.  I really didn't want to, since I'm going into town tomorrow anyway, but I got talked into it.

Once there, I just had to buy things.  I mean, if I'm going to waste the gas going into town, I might as well get this and that and, oh, I really needed those as well! 

I decided to get the split chicken breasts (with rib attached) that were on sale for $1.29/lb, instead of the boneless, skinless chicken breasts that were $2.99/lb.  Once I got home, I proceeded to de-bone them and pack them in FoodSaver bags, and into the freezer.  I turned 10lbs of boned breasts into 6.5 lbs of boneless breasts.  Not too bad!  By the 10th breast, I had gotten pretty good at knowing where to cut and how to save as much meat as possible.  The bones and excess meat and fat ended up in a Ziploc bag, ready for my next stock day!  If I had been really clever, I would have cut up some onion, celery and carrots and thrown them into the bag with the bones.  Then, I would just have to take the entire frozen mass, and plop it into the pot to make my stock... next time...

May 10, 2012

Outside Temp: 33 F (It actually rained this morning, which was beautiful!  Connor said it reminded him of Ireland... like he's actually been there... )

What I cooked today:
Vegetable Beef Soup: Soup is a great dinner on a cold evening, which this was.  I added some red wine vinegar, and the kids all loved it!  They actually asked for more vinegar to be drizzled on the top... only my kids would ask for a vinaigrette drizzle on the top of their soup!

Update:
So, I was supposed to substitute today, but the Track meet in Lewistown was cancelled because of the rain, so I got all dressed and didn't have to actually do anything!  There were no complaints, though, since it meant that I got to go back home and go back to bed.

I woke up with a stuffy nose, and I figured it was allergies or change in weather or something.  So (silly me), I asked my husband (who is brilliant, by the way) what I should do about my stuffy nose.  He immediately gave me 2 Sudafed and 1 Benadryl.  I asked if the Benadryl would make me drowsy, since I was supposed to be working and I couldn't fall asleep.  He said, no problem.  I'd be fine.

Oh yea.. sure.  By the time I got back home, I fell into bed and slept for about 3 hours.  No more Benadryl in the morning...  The good side is that my stuffy nose was gone!

Patrick decided that it was time to mow the lawn, again.  After last week's 8 hour mowing marathon, I figured it would be weeks before I got him to do it again.  But, he got up on his riding lawn mower around 6pm this evening and started mowing.  I felt really bad at 7:30, when I told him dinner was on the table.  He said he would try to finish tomorrow... he finished a little over 1/2 of the yard.  I think he likes spending time, outside, with no children or wife to bug him.  The ear plugs don't hurt, either.

May 2, 2012

Outside Temp: 36 F (another beautiful day... a little windy and a few drops of rain at times)

What I cooked today:
Frozen Pizza: Actually, Patrick made it.  Since I knew I wouldn't be here, I picked up a few frozen pizzas when I was in town yesterday.  I asked him to save me a slice or two, but I got home to no pizza... Really, what did I expect?

Update:
I had book club with a few of the awesome ladies from around here.  It was really nice to spend an evening with women, and no kids, and no husband.  As much as I adore my kids and my husband, sometimes it's nice to have a night with just 'the girls'.  I think it makes me appreciate them all the more!

My wonderful husband spent about 4-5 hours today, outside (yes, outside, and for those who know Patrick, you know how amazing that is in itself), mowing our yard.  He did the entire back and front yard.  It looks so amazing!  Of course, by the time he was done, his ears were ringing and his hands were buzzing.  But it was totally worth it!  Allen asked if he could do it next time, so we might have to let him.  How much trouble could he get into, really?  Oh, that much, eh?

May 1, 2012

Outside Temp: 41 F (In the 50's most of the day, but really windy.  As long as you stayed out of the wind, it was beautiful!)

What I cooked today:
Burgers: I just had to use our new meat from Cascade.  It was delicious!  Although they packed it in 1 lb packets, instead of 1 1/2 lb. packs, which is going to be a problem.  I should have repacked them in 1 1/2 lb packs before putting them in the freezer, but oh well.  I'll make it work.  It actually worked out great today, since Allen had dinner with his track team, so it was only the 4 of us... 1/4 burgers, anyone?

Update:
It was a bittersweet day. 

The good news: Allen made his best times for both the 100m and the 200m.  The last few meets, he's been coming in 7th out of 8, consistently.  Today, he came in 4th and 5th out of 8... Awesome!  I am so proud of how hard he is trying and how much he has improved!

Also, Patrick was able to go out and mow our lawn.  Our lawn fills up most of our 1/2 ac. yard.  So, even with our new riding lawn mower, he was out there for about 2 hours, and only managed to mow about 1/3 of the lawn.  Granted, it hasn't been mowed since before we moved in, so he had to go back over the same spot a few times, each time lowering the blades.  But still, 6 hours to mow a lawn?  That's crazy. 

That being said, I am totally grateful that 1/3 of the lawn is mowed.  That section looks so much better!  I can't wait for it all to be done.

And the bad news: Ryan went out and played with the chicks this morning, and he forgot to close the gate.  We're not sure exactly what happened next, but one of the Cornish Roasters was taken (probably by a cat) and munched behind the shed.  Patrick went out there when we left for school, and found that the gate was open.  Then, he counted chicks and came up with one missing.  He didn't immediately see the carcass, so he thought it might have been a hawk.  But when Ryan and I got home from school (about 3 hours later), I found it. 

Patrick then added more chicken wire around the cage, and wired closed the gates, so Ryan won't be able to open them easily.

We also decided that the rest of the chickens were ready to head outside.  They were flying around the area inside, so he figured it was time.  The weather has been nice, and it's only supposed to get into the high 30's tonight.  Since the other chicks have been doing so well, we figured they'd probably be fine.  It's been 4 weeks.

When we went back out to check on the chicks later this evening, there was an orange cat sitting next to the cage, just watching.  We figure he was going back for seconds.  Patrick scared him off, but I'm seriously considering getting a dog. 

All the kids were upset, but mostly Katie.  She said it was her favorite, although I couldn't really tell the difference between them.  She has spent more time with them than anyone, so I'm not surprised that she's upset.  She probably would have handled us slaughtering them better, since she could have been prepared.  And we've told her that when we do it, it will be quick, with as little pain as possible.  I think she was envisioning it, and it scared her.  She made us check the cage again tonight, just in case. 

I know this is just part of having animals.  I'm more upset about the loss of the meat, but I can understand why the kids are taking it hard.  They have heard friends of theirs talk about losing livestock (just yesterday, there was a mare, who didn't survive birthing her foal, and a pig).  But, I think losing your first animal is hard for anyone. 

April 26, 2012

Outside Temp: 50 F (awesome weather today... clear and beautiful, then the clouds rolled in, thunderstorms and lightening, rain... I love the smell of rain!)

What I cooked today:
Tacos: I hate those days where it's suddenly 6:30pm and you have no idea what to make for dinner.  I would love to just say 'Hey, I'm hungry, what's for dinner?', but I realize that I'm the only one who will answer me.  So, I settled for tacos.  It would have helped if I had known that one of my kids (I'm blaming 'not me', but it might have been 'ida know') ate all the tortillas.  Fortunately, the Grandparents sent some down when they cleared out their fridge, so we had 6.  We made really big tacos and then just ate the insides on a plate with a fork.  It worked, my tummy is full and that's all that matters.

Update:
I substituted today for the Special Ed class.  That means that I got to help some kids one-on-one, which is really awesome.  Tomorrow, I get to sub for Katie's class, so hopefully, we'll both survive.

Patrick picked up his new 'toy' today.  He got a riding lawn mower.  He had them leave it in the box, so that it would fit in the van.  Amazingly, it fit in the van, although it was a little challenging to get it out.  They used a forklift, and I guess we didn't really think about the fact that we had somehow get the 500lb box out of the back of my van. 

We ended up not having a problem.  We dragged it out, tilted it on to the ground, then had Allen slowly move the van forward, while we held on to the end.  It didn't fall to the ground (thank goodness) and we were able to slowly lower it to the ground without breaking anything.

It took about an hour to get it put together, and Patrick was finally able to start it up.  It started smoking immediately, which he put down to the high altitude.  He made some adjustments, and then it worked fine.

Of course, by this time, it was raining and there was thunder and lightening.  But that wouldn't stop him from playing with his new 'toy'.  He ran it over to the shed and cut the grass in this silly line, across the yard.  Then he ran it around in a 10 foot oval, just to make sure it worked.   I think it would have worked better if the grass hadn't been wet.  We stored it in the shed for the night, and if the rain stops, I'll try to get him to actually mow the entire lawn next time!

The storm was fast and strong.  The wind was amazing and the kids were outside singing 'It's raining, it's pouring'.  The thunder made them fall to the ground, laughing. 

We covered the outside chicks with a tarp, so their 'cage' (which is about 12' x 12' x 8') will stay dry.  There is a cardboard box, with some stuff on top to help insulate them, in their cage, so they can escape the openness into a nice, warm, cozy room.  Patrick picked up some 1" chicken wire, which he is going to place around the edges, so that when we move the other chicks out there, they won't be able to escape through the holes (the current cage has about 2" holes, and the littlest ones might be able to make it through).  It will also help protect them from other rodents (hopefully) although I realize that if something wants in, I probably won't be able to stop it. 

In our desire to keep the chicks dry, we neglected to think of what would happen to the cage with a tarp over the top, when the winds came up strong.  We went back over to check on them after about 30 minutes, and couldn't figure out where the hole came from at the bottom of one corner.  Oh wow, the entire cage was lifted up and moved about 2 feet.  Hmmm.  Not really expecting that one.  We were able to move it back to it's original position, and then we put some boards over the top, so the tarp wouldn't balloon up.  I'm half expecting to see the cage on the other side of the yard by the morning...

The chicks are healing fine from their 'fight' the other day, and their wounds have scabbed over.  And nothing is stopping them from eating... and eating... and eating some more!  Some of the other teachers at school today were relaying their best 'chicken slaughter' horror stories during lunch.  Oh my goodness, I am totally not prepared for this. 

April 9, 2012

Outside Temp:  38 F (a little breezy, but beautiful today!)

What I cooked today:
nothing... now, I'm just being lazy!

Update:
Today was the recovery day from Holy Week and Easter.  We all slept in (the kids had today off school) and spent most of the day just wandering around from room to room, trying not to notice that laundry and dishes really needed to be done.

Spring has sprung, which means that my backyard that used to be filled with snow (okay, it was only filled with snow a few times), is now filled with grass... grass that needs to be mowed.  Our old house in CA didn't have a yard (very intentional), and any landscaping was maintained by the HOA (for which we paid about $200 a month, soooo not worth it).  So, we don't have a lawn mower.  And that grass isn't getting any shorter.

We have been discussing getting a mower, which involves all the usual questions; gas vs electric, riding vs. push, etc.  Of course, our intention is to make our oldest do all the work (why else did we have him?), but I'm expecting a few weekends where whining will occur and we'll relent and do it ourselves (which means Patrick does it, right?).  I guess this is what I asked for when we moved out here... manual labor.

I discussed with Allen the option of offering his services to the community for mowing grass.  He was intrigued, especially when I suggested that people might actually pay him to mow their lawns.  Money?  Woo Hoo!  Sure, sign me up!  I figure we have to get a lawn mower first, and then see if anyone actually needs the services, but it would be something good for him to do, teaching responsibility and work ethics and silly stuff like that.  We'll see how he does the first few times he mows our lawn.  He might stink at it!

We headed up to the Grandparent's house today, to help move some stone.  It was pretty fast and easy when you utilize the hauling power of all four kids, and we were done in no time.  There was one of the parent's contractors working, and she had brought her dog.  Oh my goodness, you'd think the kids had died and gone to heaven.  This dog is so extremely cute and lovable.  He's small but doesn't bark or anything.  The kids ended up laying down on the ground and the dog was hopping over them.  Then he would settle in the spaces between the kids, like he was hunkering down in a trench.  If I could guarantee a dog that great, I might convince my husband to get one... someday.