Once Upon a Family

Crumpets

2012-02-10T15:16:00.000-06:00

Before we left our study of England Dancer wanted to be sure to try crumpets. We looked up and selected a recipe at Allrecipes that is as follows.

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees)

1 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted, divided

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the milk, 1 T. butter and egg; mix well. Add flour and salt; beat until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Brush griddle and 3-in. metal rings or open-topped metal cookie cutter with remaining butter. Place the rings on the griddle; heat over low heat. Pour 3 T. of batter into each ring. Cook for 7 minutes or until bubbles begin to pop and the top appears dry. Remove rings. Turn crumpets; cook 1-2 minutes longer or until the second side is golden brown. Serve warm or let cool on a wire rack and toast before serving.

We couldn't find the cord for the griddle, I am sure it is the cupboard with the griddle but Dancer dug around in there and came up empty handed, so we made them in a pan on the stove. We used canning jar rings for our rings and learned that yes, you really do need to grease the rings too and between each crumpet.

A done crumpet with a dolop of grape jelly. The kids were all over these and snarfed the whole batch while standing at the counter but I think it had to do with the fact that we don't eat bread very often and these are a bread product. I thought they were pretty much a fat pancake. Our crumpets did not have the little holes all over the tops but that could have been because we had to run out to do an errand while they were rising and they rose about three times as long as the recipe called for. Perhaps our yeast was worn out by the time we got around to scooping the batter into the rings and they fell making them denser than they should have been.

Thank You Cheddar, England

2012-02-09T20:20:00.000-06:00

For our study of England we came across the most wonderful information because it involves cheese. We love cheese. I don't mean kinda like it so we say we love cheese, I mean we love cheese. We eat it sliced, individually wrapped, melted (there really isn't much you can't added melted cheese to the top of), cubed, fried, creamed, as a dip, with apples, on every sandwich and burger, baked, microwaved on a plate and heck, when we are milking the goats Dad even makes cheese. The kids go into panic mode when we run out of string cheese and it warrants a trip to town.

So as we were studying and came across Cheddar, England our ears perked up and our stomachs started to growl. People in Cheddar, England have the honor of saying they live in the birthplace of cheddar cheese. How cool would that be? Probably not as cool as I imagine it to be.

Cheddar cheese got it's name from the process used to make cheddar cheese, which appropriately is called, cheddaring. Cheddaring is where cheese makers stack the cheese so that lots of whey is squeezed out and acidity level raises. Once it hits some point that makes the cheese maker happy, they run it through a cheddar mill that is like a wood chipper to cut the cheese into finger sized pieces. Then they squeeze it again, wrap it up and age it for about a year all the while treating it with tender loving care. Cheddar cheese is white unless anatto, which is a natural food coloring so Dancer can eat it, is added to make it orange.

All this cheese talk got us hungry so we whipped up a batch of cheddar cheese soup.

Cheddar Cheese Soup

1 small onion
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 can 10 3/4 ounce chicken broth
1 cup milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (8 oz.)

Saute onion and celery in butter until onion is tender. Stir in flour, pepper, and dry mustard. Add chicken broth and milk. Heat to boiling over medium heat stirring constantly. Boil and stir one minute. Stir in cheese over low heat just until cheese is melted.

The kids plopped a few garlic croutons in their bowls and we had it with chicken Kiev. It was awsome as a dinner side dish.

A Purple Car!!

2012-02-09T15:06:00.000-06:00

I always wanted a purple car and have not had one because the opportunity has never arose with cars that we were looking at. I also love the PT Cruiser but we are a van family so again, not happening for me. On Monday Dad and Spark brought the car in to have a few things fixed and it has turned into four days and lots of money (did they know we got a tax refund?). They came home all excited and eager to announce that we had a purple PT Cruiser for a loaner. Our car is done and I will, sadly, have to bring back the purple car. At least it was fun while it lasted and technically my dream of a purple car came to fruition. Maybe when my days of toting around children, goats and other messy miscellaneous things in the car are done I can get a fancy purple car.

Dad's Vast And Varied Wardrobe

2012-02-08T21:59:00.002-06:00

No one will ever call Dad a clothes horse, well, at least that is what I thought before but I have been set straight.

Dad got new shorts yesterday, it was blue tag day at the Goodwill and since Spark had gotten all his work done for the week we were there. Yes, a Goodwill trip is an incentive for Spark, it is one of the few things he cares about loosing. Odd, but I go with what works.

Anyway, we get home and Dad puts them on and asks how they look. "Great," I told him, "they look like all your other shorts." I was politely told that all his shorts are different colors and his new ones are at least half a tone different. He went into the bedroom and came back with all his shorts, three pairs now, and said see, they are all different colored. Sure enough, they are all different colors of tan.

Clabber Or Clobber

2012-02-08T17:01:00.000-06:00

With all the baking Dancer has been doing she has been reaching for the baking powder a lot. However, it seems every time she tries to get it down from the top of the cabinet where we keep it it falls down on her. Last night she asked Dad to get it down for her and when she told him how it always falls on her he said that is because it is really called Clobber Girl instead of Clabber Girl. We should try switching to the Calumet brand and see if that alleviates her problem.

Chocolate Orange Cookies

2012-02-07T22:57:00.000-06:00

Dancer's second batch of cookies for the night. This one is also from the Taste Of Home Baking Book and is by Ruth Rumple. These may be the best cookie I have ever eaten in my life as orange and chocolate are one of my favorite flavor combinations. I told Dancer to quick get these in the freezer because I could have eaten the whole batch.

Chocolate Orange Cookies

1 cup butter softened
3/4 cup sugar divided
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup finely grated orange peel
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour and salt. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

On floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or glass rim. Combine orange peel and the rest of sugar and sprinkle over cookies.

Bake 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or just until edges brown. Cool cookies. Melt chocolate chips and drizzle over cookies.

Sour Cream Drops

2012-02-07T22:36:00.000-06:00

While these may look like a plain boring cookie they are anything but. Another recipe from the Taste Of Home Baking Book submitted by Tracy Betzler. She knows how to make a gooood cookie!

Sour Cream Drops

1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

BURNT SUGAR FROSTING:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 teaspoons hot water

Cream shortening, sugar and egg. Add sour cream and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; add to the creamed mixture. Chill for at least 1 hour.

Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 425 degrees for 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

For frosting, melt butter in a small saucepan until golden brown; stir, vanilla and enough water to achieve a spreading consistency. Frost cooled cookies.

Dancer Is A Tax Paying Citizen

2012-02-06T19:22:00.000-06:00

We had our taxes prepared today and brought with the kids little bit of income documentation just to make sure they didn't go over the amount they can make. Spark was fine but Dancer made $20 too much last year and has to pay $3 dollars in taxes. She didn't seem too fazed, but I don't think she realizes how many more dollars will follow those three in her life time.

One Ingredient Ice Cream

2012-02-04T12:20:00.000-06:00

All that is needed is a banana.

The banana needs to be frozen rock solid for this to work. Spark is making sure ours is frozen, only a boy would think of this. A word to the wise here is to peel the banana before freezing it or you have to whittle the peel off after it is frozen.

Chop it up and give it a few spins in the food processor. Adding a tablespoon of very cold water after it is mostly chopped makes it turn into ice cream faster.

The consistency is just like ice cream. Spark loved it and Dancer had a little, tiny bite and agreed that it was the same as ice cream. She doesn't like bananas, I think I fed her too many as a baby, so Spark got to enjoy the whole bowl.

In Which Dad Is Cleaning The Windshield

2012-02-03T16:46:00.000-06:00

I took these pictures just because we had the camera with and I liked how the water was running down the window like a small wave. Look how serious he is taking the job.

Almost all done and he saw me with the camera, hence the big smile. The sky is much darker in this picture, not because it took him so long to wash the window, but because I used the flash.

Hoarfrost and Phil Did Not See His Shadow

2012-02-02T23:52:00.000-06:00

Hoar frost occurs when water vapor, such as fog, touches a very cold surface and freezes on it instantly.

This is called sublimation.

Sublimation is the transition of a substance from the solid phase directly to the vapor phase, or vice versa, without passing through an intermediate liquid phase according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

This can happen to any object that's cold enough for the water vapor to freeze on but it is usually something that has a smaller circumference. It wasn't very thick today but it was beautiful.

The word hoar has its origin in German and is taken from the word 'hehr'. 'hehr' means sublime. Later, it was adapted by Old High German as hér and meant old. The Old Norse modified it as 'harr' and meant 'grey with age'. The Old English adapted it as hār and the Middle English as hor.

Hoarfrost could then be translated to Mr. Frost.

The whole day was foggy giving Phil the ground hog, also know as the woodchuck (which is what is called in these parts), whistle pig or marmot, no chance to see his shadow. Spring should be right around the corner. Actually, we are still waiting for a proper winter to arrive, but if it doesn't come we won't be complaining.

New T&T AWANA Book

2012-02-01T20:58:00.000-06:00

Spark moved into his third AWANA book tonight, the Ultimate Challenge. He is doing well, we have only been going to AWANA for a year and a half. He is working hard to get the books done fast so that he can finish them all since we started a year late and the T&T program goes through the end of 6th grade.

An Independent Star Wars Film

2012-01-31T23:32:00.000-06:00

Spark has been busy working on making stop action films where he sets up his Star Wars Lego people, and some other pieces, and slowly plays out a story and takes pictures. Then he puts all the pictures together into a film and has the picture change every half second so they look like they are moving. He also sets the scene to music, otherwise it is a silent film. The movement is the same principal as a cartoon. It takes even a few hundred pictures just to make a couple minute movie. He is pretty much a one man operation unless he can get Dancer or I to help him move the pieces around, which we do when there is a lot of movement in each picture or if someone needs to be airborne.

Set Director

Producer and writer

Happy Cameraman

A few scenes from the movie

If you know the Stars Wars movie this should look familiar.

Jonathan (an extra in the Star Wars film) slaying a bounty hunter.

A bomb squad trooper riding down on the ceiling to defeat Jonathan and Harry (another extra).

Fighting the Sith and Sith Padawan - lots of fighting these movies, guess that is a boy thing.

Homer Simpson

2012-01-30T22:27:00.000-06:00

This picture is to prove that we got this puzzle done. We got this from Dad's brother for Christmas as a family gift. It was tough, it has 1000 pieces but about 3000 little pictures that make up Homer. We had it up for almost two weeks before it was finish Friday night/Saturday morning 2:15 in the morning. The ironic thing about putting all this time into this hard puzzle is that we don't even watch the Simpsons, I'm not even sure if it is on t.v. anymore. I found out as we were doing it that the kids don't even know the character names, Dancer kept calling Bart "that boy." We kept it up over the weekend to admire it and I took it apart this morning and promptly put it in the donate box. Once was enough.

Pecan Crescent Cookies

2012-01-28T21:52:00.001-06:00

Another recipe from our new "Taste of Home Baking Book." This melt in your mouth, delicious, buttery cookie is from Grace Yaskovic. Although this recipe calls for pecans we didn't have any on hand so they are a plain butter cookie yet still worthy of five stars.

Pecan Crescent Cookies

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans
powdered sugar

In mixing bowl cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour. At first this will be like a fine flour that won't stick together. Keep mixing them and it will transform into a nice, soft dough that will be easy to shape into the crescent shapes. Bake at 325 degrees until they become very light brown around 22-25 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes and roll in powdered sugar.

Alton Brown Hot Chocolate

2012-01-28T11:39:00.001-06:00

Perhaps the best homemade hot chocolate recipe in the world.

Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup cocoa

2 1/2 cups powdered milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste

Hot water, or as we like it, milk

We can go months without using cayenne pepper and here we have used twice this week.

Put everything in the mixer, of course except the water or milk, and mix it up good.

Fill you mug half full of the mixture and add water. If you use milk it tastes good with filling your mug 1/3 of the way with the mixture. And whipped cream, top it with whipped cream.

When the whipped cream melts into the hot chocolate it tastes like French silk pie, yummy.

Supposedly this will last indefinitely, but really what will happen is you will wonder where it went so fast.

Quiche Lorraine Recipe

2012-01-27T00:27:00.001-06:00

We have moved on to France in history and tried our hand at some French cuisine. Quiche Lorraine comes from the northeastern part of the country. It started out being from Germany, then France, then Germany and now back to France. If they leave the boarders alone it should stay in France. The word quiche however comes from the German word kuchen which means cake. Some quiches date back as far as the 1500's but Quiche Lorraine is thought to be from about 19th century. True French think that it should only be made with cream, even stiff cream that is not liquid, and certainly not milk. When it was first made it would have had a bread base not a pie crust. The dish would have been very economical considering that the ingredient would have been local, all of them probably even produced at their homes. One thing we read said that if you put onions in it it is no longer Quiche Lorraine but Quiche Alsatian. We put onions in ours but we are still calling it Quiche Lorraine.
I had never made or eaten a quiche before. I grew up in the era when blender pies where all the rage. All the ingredients, along with I think Bisquick, was put in the blender, poured in a pie pan and then baked. Also I think the popular book in the 1980's, "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche," perhaps put a damper on the popularity of the dish for many years. The kids loved this, Dancer even asked for the left overs for dinner instead of what we were having. We have another pie crust so I wouldn't be surprised they want another one for lunch tomorrow.

Quiche Lorraine
9 inch single crust pie
12 slices bacon fried and cut in large pieces
1 cup shredded cheese
1/3 cup minced onion
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups cream - we used one cup cream, one cup milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion into pie shell.
Whisk together eggs, cream, salt, sugar and cayenne pepper.

When the kids put the cayenne pepper in the bowl it exploded over the surface of the liquid, pretty cool so they took a picture.

Pour egg mixture into pie pan over bacon etc.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes for until knife inserted one inch from edge comes out clean. Let sit for 10 minutes before eating. The kids wanted to eat this so bad they set the timer for 10 minutes to make sure we didn't let it sit ten minutes and one second.

Here it is, beautiful and ready to eat.

Nothing But Blue Skies Do I See

2012-01-26T22:58:00.001-06:00

After more than a week of really cold weather we had a beautiful, beautiful day today. The warm temps produced perfect snowball/snowman snow so when Spark wanted to go out and play in the snow I couldn't say no. After I went in Dancer got the camera and took these pictures.

The huge snowballs we rolled. We wanted to get them bigger but by the time we made them I was out of steam, maybe tomorrow we can add to them.

Looks like summer clouds.

I love this willow tree that is out by the road. The power company hates it and always wants to cut it down or give it a major trim. Every time they come by with their chain saws we go out their with the measuring tape and tell them to stay within the 10 feet of the power line or whatever the distance is. They send us a post card with the law on it before they come so we know that they know how much they can cut. A funny thing about them wanting to cut this tree is that the other year when we had bad storms a tree that was probably about 50 feet from the line, which they pay no attention too, toppled and took out a line. This tree trimming is something they started about five years ago and it is very unpopular throughout the county.

The gate that keeps nothing in. When we moved here there was a large part of our property that had electric fence around it. Since electric fence won't keep in goats, they will do the limbo if necessary to get out of a fence, we haven't keep it up or the grass from growing up to it. This part we have taken down for various reasons over the years and now just the gate remains.

Homemade Peanut Butter

2012-01-24T22:08:00.001-06:00

We make a lot of food from scratch, however, peanut butter is not one of them, that's even a little far for me. We bought peanuts the other day and mistakenly we got these heart healthy low salt roasted peanuts instead of the yummy salted ones. They were awful and I give credit to anyone who can eat those and say they enjoy them.

We could have baked with them but it was a 34 ounce container and well, that would be a lot of baking. They would go stale or rancid before we got them all used.

Instead we made them into peanut butter. It is a very simple process, we put them in the food processor and whirled them around until they were ground into fine pieces. I didn't have a recipe so we added a couple pinches of salt and part of a scoop of sugar. We slowly drizzled oil into the mixture until it turned into a peanut butter substance.

We weren't able to get it really smooth but I sort of liked the coarser texture. I thought I would put it in the refrigerator and we would eat it on something but after everyone had a couple spoonfuls it was all gone. From that you can conclude how good it was. Dancer has since made two more batches, and today she actually got some on an apple, and thinks we should always make our own. It is not very economical so these will be our only batches but it was good while it lasted.

It's Never Too Cold To Grill

2012-01-24T21:26:00.000-06:00

It really wasn't all that cold, about 15 degrees. If Dad only grilled when it was nice out some years we would grill all of about five months out of the year. Besides, for those of us who are inside prepping the side dishes it isn't all that cold :o)

A Gold Crown

2012-01-23T22:46:00.000-06:00

I got a gold crown put on a my tooth today. The worst thing about the whole experience was wearing the temporary crown for two weeks, I had nothing but trouble with it. Anyway there are three reasons I got a gold crown instead of a porcelain one.

#3 - Gold is antimicrobial.
#2 - Dad said to get a gold one. Now when my husband wants to buy me something gold I'm smart enough to jump at the chance, even if it is where no one can see it, I know it's there. Who knows when it something gold will come my way again. Truth be told I would rather have new windows or something else more useful than gold jewelry.
#1 - When I was looking at the pamphlet they sent home with me I said that they make crowns out of porcelain so they look like your teeth and Spark says, "You mean like a toilet?" That pretty much sealed the deal right there.

Homemade Pickled Eggs

2012-01-23T16:29:00.000-06:00

Back in September, when we went on a Heritage Day field trip, there was a couple selling pickled eggs. Now when ever I have seen them in the store I have turned my nose up at them assuming they would be gross and rubbery. However, while we were there we got caught up in the moment and bought one to share between us. It was so good we had to go back and get another one, if they hadn't been so expensive for an egg we would have bought a lot more of them.

We asked how they made them and they gladly shared that they are as simple as putting hard boiled eggs in pickle juice in the refrigerator for no less than two weeks.

In September our new chickens weren't laying and the old ones were only giving a few a week so we just got around to making these after Christmas. The brine we chose was one of the few pickles that doesn't have food coloring in them. Not sure why a pickle needs to be colored but to our frustration most are which makes them off limits to Dancer.

A pickled egg ready to be eaten. It is greenish yellow from the juice on the outside but the inside, while it still tasted pickled, was pure white. These turned out as good as we remembered them from Heritage Days and not a bit rubbery. We have another batch going, this time in a horseradish brine.

4-H Jr. Leaders' Dance

2012-01-22T14:39:00.003-06:00

Last night we travel out in the howling winds and cold to go to the 4-H Jr. Leaders' dance. I was a chaperon which was really fun. Someone said to me good luck with chaperoning the dance but I wasn't worried, all the teens in the Jr. Leader program are great kids and, just as I suspected, there wasn't an ounce of trouble.

Dancer and her good friend, they do a lot together in and out of 4-H. There were four kids that went from our club.

Part way through the night they took down some of the decorations and started playing what we call "bop it balloon." This was the only other picture I got of the front of Dancer. I took lots of pictures for the county scrapbook but in every single other one that Dancer was in I got her back.
The dance was for 7th grade and up and since Spark doesn't fit that criteria he and Dad went to the nearest town. They enjoyed supper at Pizza Hut, of which they were able to save one slice and a couple cheese sticks for Dancer and I. I guess the smell was just too strong in the car for Spark to resist the other piece of pizza on the way to pick us up. They also went to Walmart and check out all the things that Spark is interested in that we never, in his opinion, take enough time to peruse (i.e. Legos, Star Wars and the fish).

The next day we talked to grandma and she asked what Dancer wore to the dance. We told her sweatpants, nice ones, and a sweatshirt. She was surprised until we reminded her these are farm kids and none of them wear fancy duds.

John Calvin and John Huss Lap Books

2012-01-21T00:38:00.000-06:00

In the ten years that we have homeschooled we have only done one other lap book. I chose these two, the lay out was the same for both, because we are studying the reformation period and I wanted a way to help the people stick in Spark's head better than us just reading about them. These didn't provide a plethora of information but enough that when he hears their names he will know what they are famous for. I found them with a link from this link. We did the first one together and Spark did the second one on his own. Not having any file folder he glued them onto card stock. These are the only two we will do because all of them for this time period are about the same and I think any more would just turn into busy work.

Swiss Chocolate Fondue

2012-01-20T23:19:00.000-06:00

We have moved into Switzerland in our history study. One can't really study any aspect of Switzerland with out consuming a little chocolate. This is so good only make it if you have control in chocolate situations. We made half a batch and it made enough for three of us and we had left overs. The left overs were only to prove to ourselves that we could control ourselves around chocolate. By the time diner was done we had finished it off.

Swiss Chocolate Fondue

6 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 milk

1/2 peanut butter

Melt all together in double boiler. This is our makeshift double boiler. I just take a pot, boil water in it and put another bowl over the top. You have a double boiler and don't have to give up any cupboard space to store it for the six times every decade that you use it.

Dip in fruit, marshmallows, cake, donuts, cookies, nuts - actually, besides maybe sardines, anything would be good dipped in this delicious decadence.

Not Your Everyday Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

2012-01-18T23:50:00.000-06:00

A couple tablespoons of orange zest give these an unexpected oomph.

Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
2/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons orange zest
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup raisins

Mix as usual. Drop by spoonful on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. To make them chewy take them out closer to the 12 minute mark.

Reason #114 To Homeschool

2012-01-18T19:52:00.001-06:00

Dancer stayed over at a friends house last night. She called at 1:30 a.m. to tell us they had just finished watching a movie and to say good night (see why we love her so much, well we would love her just as much if she didn't call but it does warm my heart that she wants a good night/I love you at her age). Yes, we are usually still up at that time, remember Dad works nights and so we have a shifted schedule.

This morning I was suppose to pick her up at 11:00. At 10:45 the mom, who understands teenagers as she has three of them, calls and says that I may want to wait to come because the girls are still sleeping. The joy for homeschoolers to have this schedule on a week day. When I got there around 12:30 they were sitting at the table in their jammies eating pancakes and drinking orange juice about five and half hours after they would have otherwise been on the bus going to school. Ah, the life of a teen aged homeschooler.

Tomorrow will be reason #115 to homeschool. We are suppose to have wind chill temperatures of -40 below. The kids will not be waiting for or getting on a freezing cold bus before the first light of day. Instead we will be tuck in the house, maybe even eating pancakes and drinking orange juice at 12:30.

Poor Kitties

2012-01-18T00:54:00.000-06:00

Tonight we had our first sub zero temperatures of the winter. Both of our cats are outside cates but Vidallia, our old lady cat, was on the deck just crying and crying to get in. She sounded so pathetic that I let her in for the evening. She will have to go out tonight because she has no indoor manners, meaning scratches the furniture and jumps on the counters to see if we may have left a snack out. Cats on the coutner just gross me out so she can't be in overnight. After she had been in for an hour she started venturing out to see what was going on, must have thought she was safely in the house or we would have thrown her back out already.

Kacheekers, who snuck in when we opened the door, wasn't as trusting of his good fortune, the closest he came to us was to hang out on the basement stairs. Smart kittie because all good things have to come to an end.

Someone's Not Pulling Their Weight

2012-01-17T22:47:00.003-06:00

We got this cute little Barbie egg the other day. Well, I guess it would be about the size of an ostrich egg for Barbie but small none the less. If these were the size of chicken eggs the 15 to 20 egg omelet would become the norm. I am also guessing we aren't going to find a yolk in it.

Once in a while we will get one of these long torpedo shaped eggs. It is just odd that after months of "normal" eggs we got two odd ones. Truth be told, if I was a chicken these are the eggs I would want to be laying day after day, if you know what I mean.

Reupholstering A Footstool

2012-01-16T18:40:00.000-06:00

Over the years, the fabric on our footstool has gotten thinner and thinner. This fall it wore through and the hole is ever expanding. Not a pretty sight but it is expensive to get furniture reupholstered, we have already had this one done once, so we opted for the next best thing and that was to redo the stool ourselves.

The first step was to take the top off, remove the backing and take off the old fabric. There were over 90 well secured staples in here, hence it was the hardest part of the project needing Dad's brute strength to free them.

We got a remnant at the fabric store for $3.53 and used half making the cost of the fabric for this project just $1.77. Our chair was professionally done over 10 years ago so matching the fabric wasn't an option anymore. Spark was the one who found the fabric and I must say, I like it better than the fabric that was on there, although now it doesn't match the chair but, oh well.

Lay the old piece out on top of the new and cut around it leaving plenty of extra fabric. We could see from the old piece that they must cut a piece of fabric, upholster the stool and then cut off the excess as it was uneven. Makes sense in the long run, no chance that you cut the fabric too small.

This is the point where you put on your safety goggles.

Using the staple gun, while I held the fabric tight, Dancer put in a line of staples in the middle of each side.

For the corners we folded the corner straight in, then one side over and the other. Before putting in any staples here we would turn it over to make sure it was creaseless on the sides. Load up the back with staples every few centimeters. Dancer put in about 120 staples which Dad figured was about 48 cents worth. When it comes time to redo the stool again we reconsider if that many staples were necessary or not.

Staple the backing back on. This was a little fuzzy on the side that was the outside before. We refolded it and the now front, former backside, looked brand new meaning the cost was zero.

Screw it back onto the stool and

Voila!!! Recovered for $2.25.

Happy 15th Birthday Dancer

2012-01-15T14:28:00.000-06:00

Our sweet Dancer is 15 years old. Part of me can't really remember our life with her not in it and another parts says "15 already?"

Her birthday celebration turned in to a three day affair. On Thursday we went into town and bought her birthday cake and ice cream while running other errands. None of us had had lunch before leaving home so we stopped and had supper at Five Guys. The conversation turned super silly and we laughed and laughed and laughed while the few other the patrons looked at us wondering what could possibly be so funny. I bet they wished they were sitting at our table.

Her cake was chocolate cake with fudge frosting. She wanted to eat it that night even though her birthday was still two days away. We lit it on fire and dug into it figuring it wasn't going to get any fresher sitting on the counter. It was the riches cake we may have ever eaten. Even the kids said they couldn't finish their's because it was too rich, how often does that happen. Thankfully we got vanilla ice cream to go with it, it toned down the richness.

Friday we had her open her main birthday gift, a Kindle Fire. I took pictures of her excitedly opening it and there was no card in the camera. That happens to us so often. The reason we had her open it early was so that we could go into town to get it registered and then download a few things on it. If we hadn't she would have opened it on her birthday and it wouldn't have done anything, not exactly a fun gift. We met Grandma Pat at Pizza Ranch, Dancer's birthday eating place of choice. After eating we headed to McDonald's to use their WiFi and topped off our meal with pop and chocolate shakes. Again no pictures to capture the moments because Spark brought his little camera with, with no card in it. We will learn to check that before taking pictures at some point but we seem to be slow to catch on. We also swung by Kohl's and got her tennis shoes. The shoes weren't really a birthday gift, she was wearning a pair that should have been replaced months ago. Plus I had a 30% off coupon which is the only time we buy new shoes so she would have gotten them birthday or not.

Finally we are up to her actual birthday and she opened her minor gifts (she needed something to open on the actual birthday).

Spark gave her a Justin Bieber poster and we gave her a warrenty card for her Kindle, gum and her all time favorite, a bottle of Dr. Pepper.

She spent the rest of the day playing Angry Birds and telling her brother no she wasn't done playing yet. We had church in the evening and Dancer was on nursery duty so that was another reason we ate out to celebrate the night before. We made a quick trip by the grocery store to pick up a movie (Rio) from the Red Box and a few snacks. We got home and Dad, Spark and I did the chores (you don't have to do chores on your birthday at our house), we watched the movie and called the birthday complete.

Scent Of A Woman

2012-01-12T19:55:00.000-06:00

Dancer and I were meandering around Macy's this afternoon while waiting for Dad and Spark to do a little birthday shopping at a different store at the mall. We got by the perfume section and Dancer was all excited to check out the Justin Bieber perfume "Someday." She sprayed a couple of hearts with the perfume, tried some of the hand lotion which has glitter in it, and got a little sample vial.

We get back in the car and Dancer said that she could still smell the lotion on her hands. Spark pipes in with, "I think if you want to attract men you should smell more like Fleet Farm."

What Do You Really Pay At The Store?

2012-01-11T16:42:00.000-06:00

Our tuna for lunch made for a spontaneous consumer education project.

After draining two cans of tuna we poured the water back into one of the cans. We found out that the tuna can contained about half of it's volume in water. We saw that the water didn't come all the way to the top but then the can isn't completely full as it does make a sloshing before opening it indicating open can space. Assuming that amount two times would be about the amount we are missing after pour two cans of water into one, we decided it was close enough to say that a can of tuna is half water added the fact that getting all the water out of the tuna isn't possible with our draining method.

Our tuna was the in the 5 ounce can so there would be 2.5 ounces of tuna in each can. That alone made us wonder by itself how that could be two servings. For this we figured that it would take 6.4 can of tuna to make one pound of just the tuna. We can buy tuna for about 63 cents a can. That would make tuna cost about $2.02 a pound. That doesn't sound too expensive, actually quite inexpensive for a protein considering other options.

However, on my counter I also have tuna water that cost $2.02 per pound as well. Not that it goes to waste, the cats love it although normally I wouldn't spend that much to give them a little treat. Actually, I would never spend that much to give them a treat but that is neither here nor there for our purposes.

Would I spend that much for other fluids? For example, a gallon is about 8 pounds, would I buy milk if it was $16.13 a gallon? Umm, that is a capital N-O. How about $8.08 for a 2 liter bottle of soda? Again no. The only thing that maybe comes close, and we do buy, is cream (which does come to about $1.94 per pound depending on where we are shopping) but, I don't feed it to the cat and it is actually a food and not just dirty colored water that if I didn't have a cat would dump down the drain.

On the other hand the tuna juice is a bargain compared to contact lens lubricating and re-wetting drops that come in at a whopping $446.72 per gallon! And you thought gas was expensive.

Homemade Granola Bars

2012-01-11T11:27:00.000-06:00

These are going to be great for those morning when we don't have any milk in the house for cereal, which seems to be about every other day. I swear, someone must break in to our house at night and drink all the milk.

Granola Bars

2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup nuts - I threw in a handful of almonds
1 cup Rice Krispies - used Cocoa Krispies because regular Rice Krispies have color added
1/3 to 1/2 cup dried cranberries (any dried fruit would work) - these are a favorite here so went pretty heavy on them
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt - just realized now as I am typing this that we skipped the salt so probably will next time too since they taste so good without it.

Mix together well all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, they aren't going to mix at all once the honey/peanut butter mixture is on them.

Heat the peanut butter, honey, and vanilla in a sauce pan over medium heat until the mixture is quite runny, the runnier the better, but not boiling.

Pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients and toss and toss and toss until it is all coated. This is where having a big bowl and the mixture runny comes in handy. Press into a 8X8 pan greased pan. Chill until firm. Keep the kids away from them because they aren't going to want to wait until they are hard and they will be digging in the pan.

Goat Treat Launcher

2012-01-09T14:13:00.000-06:00

This is how to be a lazy goat herder and still give your goats treats from the comfort of your deck.

Only two things necessary - a Wrist Rocket sling shot and a bowl of peanuts or other treats such as Valentine Sweethearts which our goats love, love, love. Good thing it is almost Valentine's Day again as we are almost out from last year.

Grab onto a treat

Pull back

And let it fly!

The goats have really good hearing, they listen for them to drop and then run around to find them. We have been doing this for a couple days now and when we come out on the deck they all line up right away now to get ready for the treats to start falling like manna from heaven.

The Birthday Gift

2012-01-08T12:46:00.000-06:00

Ever buy someone a gift and then can hardly wait to give to them? That is what we did yesterday with Dancer's birthday gift. Her birthday isn't until Saturday and I don't know if I can wait that long to give it to her. Knowing that this perfect gift, that she is going to love, is just sitting idle in my bedroom is making me more crazy than her waiting for her birthday. Which by the way, I love how kids can't wait to get older, if they only knew what it was like to turn 40 they wouldn't be so eager to get there.

We did turn the gift buying to a full day of adventure. There wasn't one in the nearest town to us so we headed towards the cities and geocached along the way. We met a fellow geocacher at one cache which is always loads of fun and then told someone else at another cache about geocaching. The store we went to didn't have one in stock, even though on the Internet it said there was one there. Don't these stores know people drive a long way when they say they have one? We checked another store just in case and they had a whole shelf full making our trip a success.

Now I just have to keep the secret until Saturday - maybe.

Obi-Barn Kenobi

2012-01-06T22:19:00.000-06:00

Bavarian Pork Roast

2012-01-05T19:47:00.000-06:00

Another German recipe to go along with our study. This is Bavarian pork roast but we already had pork chops on hand so we used those instead especially since the recipe instructed to cut the roast in six to eight slices. Dad made these while Spark was making the apfelpfannkuchen and they turned out excellent, they may well be the moistest pork chops I have ever eaten.

Bavarian Pork Roast

3 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast - or pork chops

pepper to taste

5 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 cups chopped onions

8 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

1 tablespoon marjoram - the only marjoram to be found, after a thorough search of the cupboards, was in Mrs. Dash so Dad used that instead.

1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the roast into 6-8 slices. Sprinkle both sides with pepper and rub on caraway, marjoram and Dad also put on a little Tastefully Simple Bacon Bacon. Put the meat in a pan with the onion and garlic. Add the water, dot with butter and bake for about one hour. Add more water if necessary.

Ready to go into the oven.

The tender little chops - oh so glad we had leftovers.

Still hope to make stollen and potato dumplings but the days go so fast we will see if we get to them - maybe tomorrow?

Apfelpfannkuchen

2012-01-05T16:37:00.000-06:00

For history we are studying Germany during the Renaissance and Reformation period. This recipe apfelpfannkuchen, or apple pancakes, means that we would probably be in the Black Forest area which was known for producing cherries, mushrooms, apples, plums and hams. Spark, who is quite the chef in his own right, whipped up two pans of these.

Apfelpfannkuchen

4 eggs
3/4 C. flour
3/4 C. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 C. butter
2 medium apples, thinly sliced
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Put two 8X8 pans in the oven.

Beat eggs, flour, milk and salt on medium speed for one minute.

Core and slice the apples thinly.

Remove the pans from the oven and melt two tablespoons butter in each pan. Swirl the butter around or cut into smaller pieces until it is melted and coats the bottoms of the pans.

Arrange half of the apple slices in each pan.

Divide the batter even between each pan to cover the apples. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake until puffed and golden brown, 20 - 25 minutes.

We had them with butter and syrup. To us they tasted more like French toast than a pancake and they were so good, I wish I had know this recipe when the kids were little. I could have thrown them in the oven quick, had 25 minutes to get them ready and then sat down to a hot breakfast. But now Spark can make them for us and that's even better!

Which One Is Yours?

2012-01-04T22:54:00.000-06:00

Dad and I had dentist appointments this afternoon where each got a new toothbrush. I got an aqua one which I was pretty excited about because I have had a dull gray one. Dad was given the gray one.

I took the toothbrushes out of the bag and brought them into the bathroom. I took my gray one out of the holder and replaced it with the aqua one.

Then I opened Dad's toothbrush and was going to replace his in the holder. Not sure which brush was his I yell to him, thinking we were both on the same page, "What color is your toothbrush?"

"The gray one," he yells in from the bedroom.

"What! Yours is the gray one?"

"Well, Dancer called it charcoal but I think it is gray."

Feeling my stomach do a little flip I yell back, "But I am the gray one, have you really been using the gray toothbrush?"

By now he is in the bathroom grabbing his old toothbrush out of the holder and says, "No, my new one is gray, I'm green, see how worn it is." Whew!

Then he takes my old gray toothbrush and starts scrubbing the edge rim of the sink and faucet with it. He looks at me staring at him in disbelief and says, "Is it okay if I clean the sink with it before it gets thrown away?"

"Well it is now," I tell the man who I don't think has ever cleaned the sink.

Made Some New Friends Today

2012-01-03T21:47:00.000-06:00

We started out the morning with a feeble attempt at getting back into school. Let's just say we will try again tomorrow. Dancer was going to play ultimate Frisbee at 12:30 so it seemed futile to pull out more than grammar and math.

The local university is on break so they let the kids play Frisbee in the palaestra. Spark and I dropped Dancer off and headed into town to run a couple of quick, quick being the pivotal word here, errands. We were quick to stop at the library and pick up a movie that was on hold. Quick to look around the Goodwill where I found two serving bowls to match our dishes, we are down to one unbroken bowl so this was the highlight of the trip.

Next stop the post office to mail one letter that I needed metered for the amount of postage. This is where we run out of quick. Spark waits in the car because I am just going to be a minute. I left the keys with him for some reason I don't know why, normally I would just lock the door and bring the keys with. I get to the front door of the post office and there is the line. After 30 minutes Spark, who was tired of his playing with whatever he had brought with, and the husband of the lady in front of me who thought his wife may have slipped out the back, came in to see what was going on. I was wondering how Spark was doing out there and glad he had the keys so he could lock the car and come in. By the time he joined us everyone standing in the middle of line had become good friends and were thinking about what songs we could sing to pass the time and if we ordered pizza would they deliver it to us at the post office. The problem? Not only was the counter lady slow, there was a customer that came in with bags of stuff, asked for boxes and packed them at the counter. The counter lady seemed to know her and didn't offer the suggestion that maybe she could take her stuff to a side table, pack it and get back in line. No, she waited for her to pack each one and then weight it, etc. That was 20 minutes of our wait. Another lady came back from lunch and said she was still on break but would help to get the lines going. People we yelling out how great she was and how much we all appreciated her, etc. She had that line moving in no time and helped way more people ten minutes than the other woman help in the first 30 I was there. The cheering probably helped. By the time we left the lady packing her boxes was still there. Anyway, we made a few new friends while waiting and yelled good bye to each as they left. I was glad when it was my turn to leave and wave good bye. There were still people lined up as far as the door, I wonder if they were having a good a time as we did in the middle of the line? Give them another 20 minutes of waiting and they probably did.

Spark and I made a quick grocery stop and still got back to pick up Dancer with enough time left over to sit and chat with other moms for a while.

Dancer tried another recipe tonight, chocolate chip cookies. Saddly, they are not blog worthy. Of course we will have no trouble eating them anyway. My advice would be to stick to the recipe on the Toll House bag.

Chinese Almond Cookies

2012-01-02T23:45:00.000-06:00

Another recipe from the cookbook Grandma Pat just gave us. We sort of made these yummy little nuggets. I will post the recipe as it is and then what we did different.

Chinese Almond Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon water

Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg and extract. Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on pan. Flatten with a fork and sprinkle with almonds.

In a small bowl beat egg white and water. Brush over cookies. Bake at 325 degrees for 14-16 minutes. Cool for two minutes before removing from pan.

We skipped the flattening with a fork, the almonds, and the egg wash, instead smashing them with a glass dipped in sugar. These are really good and the closer they are to white instead of brownish the softer and tastier they are. The batch we left in until they were brown were just sort of a crisp cookie like all white cookies and the almond flavor didn't come through as pungently. I want try these again when we have sliced almonds and I think they will be even better.

Dad's Pizza Crust Recipe

2012-01-02T22:38:00.000-06:00

We had a request for Dad's pizza crust so here it is. We found it at Allrecipes.com by Jason Sharp

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Peanut Butter Bars

2012-01-02T22:19:00.001-06:00

Grandma Pat gave us The Taste of Home Baking Book for Christmas. With a just having time to do a quick glace through it, we could see there was going to be lots of recipes we were going to want to try. Dancer made a pan of these Peanut Butter Bars by Patricia Staudt. The oatmeal in these help them not to be a dense, dry peanut butter bar.

Peanut Butter Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

ICING:

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons milk

Cream butter, sugars and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Combine dry ingredients and add gradually into creamed mixture. Spread in 9X13 pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Combine icing ingredients; drizzle over the top.

Hope these freeze well because we popped them in the freezer so we wouldn't be tempted to eat them all.

New Year Christmas

2012-01-02T16:21:00.003-06:00

With Dad working Christmas weekend, Grandma and Grandpa not having their furniture delivered from Arkansas until the 28th, their furnace going out, and Grandma Pat being sick with a cold, we put off Christmas with them until New Year's Day. With the snow that came on New Year's Eve making the roads slick and the high winds blowing it all over, we wondered the night before if we would make it on New Years. By 11:30 when left for their house things had turned around but Dad did have to work at some spots on the freeway to keep the car on the road. There were tons of semis swaying back and forth which made the trek seems even more perilous. But over the river (we actually do go over the Mississippi) and through the woods (there are some trees on the sides of the road so we will count those) to Grandmother's house we went.

Dad brought with his excellent pizza dough and toppings to make pizza. He assembled them when we got there and put the first one in to bake. It was killing Spark to wait for the present opening to begin. He would have been happy to take off his coat and get right to business. We opened gifts when the first pizza was in the oven.

Grandpa Jerry opening the topographical coaster tiles. We took it as a compliment when he asked us where we had them made. He figured out the theme of them right away.

The rest of the pictures show how we manage to take thousand of pictures every year. The goal was for Dancer take a picture of Dad and Spark enjoying the homemade pizza. Spark looks good but Dad still has his mouth full.

Dad is done chewing and has an awesome smile - I love this picture of him - but Spark has tired of waiting and took a drink of root beer and I think Dad might have been laughing at a conversation that started in middle of the picture taking.

Spark looks good, Dad, not sure what that deer in head light look is.

By now Spark has stopped eating twice and is back to enjoying his pizza and really isn't interested in the picture anymore. Dad is now focused and looking at the camera. Almost every shot we put on the blog has at least four or five pictures that get a veto for these very reasons. When we down loaded the pictures we realized that we only had pictures of the guys, none of Dancer, Grandma or me.

Dad and Grandpa watched the end of the Vikings game, Dancer, Grandma and I played couple games of Sequence and Spark played a kazoo ad nausium Grandma had given him.

This marks the end of our Christmas celebrations so -- on to next year!

New Year's Eve

2012-01-01T22:13:00.000-06:00

Our once a year crab. Oh how I love that stuff, why does it have to be so expensive or why don't I live where it is abundant? Dancer doesn't like it, she had one claw this year which was 100% more than she had last year. Some day she is going to come to her senses and kick herself for skipping crab all these years.

We ate and cleaned up quick so we could be off to church. Dancer and I ended up subbing in the nursery and Spark went to children's church so Dad sat through the sermon by himself. He took notes and relayed the highlights to us. In the nursery Dancer and I had glass after glass of hot chocolate served from a yellow tea pot, a pizza sandwich and a slab of pasta. We read lots of books, sang a few songs, and kept everyone busy to keep our littlest charge from crying. It was so fun and before we knew it the parents were at the door. Dancer works in the nursery twice a month but I haven't done it for years.

We got home and made popcorn with M&M's, chips and dip. All things that we almost never have so they were huge treats. The kids made beds in the living room and we hunkered down the begin the movie marathon. The movies that made it on the docket were Robin Hood (this one is must see on New Year's Eve), Stars Wars The Padawan Menace, Fieval Goes West, and Little Mermaid. Spark made it until the beginning of Little Mermaid and he was out on the living room floor. I made it about half way through Little Mermaid and Dancer and Dad stayed up till the end.

We watched the ball drop twice, once at 11:00 and then again at midnight our time. Somehow watching when we know it is a rerun isn't quite the same so that is why we watch it twice. It was a great night.

The kids didn't realize that they both put on the same shirt until late in the afternoon when we were in town running errands. Dad and I didn't notice either, the colors are very different on each, but I told them if we didn't notice no one else probably did either.

Finally A Snowman

2011-12-31T19:52:00.000-06:00

And a snowbat.

Make Yourself Comfortable

2011-12-31T00:28:00.001-06:00

When Spark was playing a game, look how hard he is concentrating, Nikki laid by him on her back the whole time probably hoping for a little tummy scratch. She only turned to look because she heard the camera come out.

See how her eye glows blue? We just learned about that today when we were studying owl eyes and here it showed up on her picture. What makes animals eyes glow is the tapetum lucidum. What that is is a reflecting pigment layer lying behind the visual receptors of the retina of certain mammals (e.g. cats, dogs), birds and fish, which gives a shining appearance to the eyes when illuminated in the dark. That sounds fancy because I lifted the definition from the Dictionary of Optometry and Visual Science. The purpose of the tapetum lucidum is to bounce the light around in their eye and make it seem lighter/brighter out than it is so they can see in the dark.

I always thought it was a bad angle from the camera flash but now I am so much smarter :)

4-H Recognition Banquet

2011-12-30T17:44:00.000-06:00

Dancer and Spark received their five year member certificates.

Dad was recognized for five years of volunteering.

Dancer, a junior leader, presented a few awards and the also handed out other awards.

Really fun night with other club members and good food to boot.

A Hiking We Will Go

2011-12-28T23:03:00.000-06:00

A hiking we will go, heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hiking we will go!

We went up to Birch lake today to find a few geocaches and get out of the house because it so insanely nice for the end of December. It would have almost been a crime if we had stayed home. Even in the winter it is beautiful up there.

It is a State Forest so we were surprised when we got there and the road was closed. This was us after we got back to the car, exhausted and our feet we worn down to little nubs.

Just kidding! Even though we hiked over hill and dale we had a great afternoon tromping through the woods.

On the way home the sun was covered by clouds and we got this beautiful sky. It looks like dusk but it was only 3:30.

Tonight, while we were playing Mario Kart, we decided that it should have been called Shriner's Kart or there should at least be a Shriner character.

SURPRISE!!! Merry Christmas

2011-12-27T18:29:00.000-06:00

Grandpa Bob and Grandma Shirley were coming today to celebrate Christmas around noon or 1:00, or so I thought. At 10:30 we were still sitting around in our jammies eating breakfast and the phone ran. Spark answered it and it was Grandpa Bob calling to say that they were leaving town and we might want to start the oven for the ham. We live a little over 4 miles from town and it's 55 mph all the way. Eeeeks! In six minutes we managed to get dressed, finish breakfast, pick up the house and look like we were all ready and expecting them. He thought, or perhaps I misunderstood, that they were coming at 11:00 and he decided they would just be a little early. Thankfully I set the alarm last night so we were up and Dad had already cleaned the kitchen and started the scalloped corn.

The earlier time worked out wonderfully as Dancer got an email after we already picked the day for them to come that all her friends were playing ultimate Frisbee indoors at a local university. Grandma and Grandpa had barely left the driveway before she was in the car ready to go.

Day After Shopping

2011-12-26T21:51:00.000-06:00

The plan was to get up early and go to the after Christmas sales. That was until Dad was able to get a cut at work and we knew he would be coming home early. Great, except that "early" turned into 2:00 a.m. before he actually got home. If all had gone well at work he could have been home by midnight. Since we hadn't hardly seen him all weekend the kids wanted to stay up to see him. He kept calling every once in a while and giving us the up date on how he thought he would be able to leave in half an hour. By the time finally he did leave and got out to his truck he saw that he had left the dome light on which had drained his battery. He had to call hospital security to come and give him a jump and then wait for the battery to recharge. Finally at 1:39 I told the kids to get to bed. Dad got home around 2:00 and by the time he relaxed and we talked a little bit it was almost 3:00 a.m. When I got this morning around 10:00, both the kids were still slumbering. So much for early morning shopping.

Since we missed the early morning shopping we decided that we would go geocaching first. The temperature hit 50 degrees, and we still don't have any snow, so we decided it was best to take advantage of the beautiful weather and be outside while it was light out and we would shop after 5:00 when it got dark.

Spark takes advantage of every play ground we find a cache at. He says that he is the decoy so no one suspects we are geocaching and he needs to "take one for the team." Isn't that giving of him?

We did find a few good deals still at the stores. We hadn't bought wrapping paper for probably over eight years and now we won't need to buy any for another eight years. Also found some door prizes for a 4-H banquet and some trinkets for next years Christmas boxes that we send to missionaries in Mexico that they hand out to local people as a way to bring up Jesus and witness to them. Spark also got the advent pack of Lego mini figures. It was $40 before Christmas and today it was just under $20. Dancer also scored a pair of fuzzy pajama pants. Even if we had been there at the crack of dawn we probably won't have found any better deals and tonight there was no crowds which I heard from other people were crazy in the morning.

Our Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T23:07:00.000-06:00

Before it all started.

Dad is working the weekend so we got up early and had all the chores done before he got home so we could open gifts right away and he could get to bed.

Breakfast was krumkake filled with whipped cream.

From Spark's heart to Dancer's stomach, a large barrel of white cheddar Snow Balls. He saw these and knew that he had to get them for Dancer so she could enjoy a snack food. She loves Cheese Balls but because of the food coloring can never have them. Now if they would just make Doritos without coloring.

Zelda, Zelda, Zelda

The big gift from Amazon that cause all the excitement when it arrived. It was a boom box. We don't have a stereo and Dancer was listening to CD's on a little portable CD player with a pair of tiny, crappy speakers. She never once complained about the set up so we rewarded her with the real deal.

The present opening was going way too slow for Nikki's liking. She is waiting with her toy Snoopy to be thrown down the stairs.

Dancer putting the last piece in my new puzzle.

Spark the Lego mini figure.

Evening sunset, beautiful end to the day.

I Got My Eye On You Christmas Ornament

2011-12-23T17:08:00.000-06:00

We each took a turn burning our fingers with the hot glue gun in the making of this one. If we made another one we would glue the buttons on the oranment and then glue the eyes on. Live and learn.

Snowman Fingerprint Ornaments

2011-12-23T16:14:00.000-06:00

Saw these on Pinterest and thought they were the cutest things. Just paint three fingers with white paint and touch them to a blue ornament. Dab around the bottom of the snowmen to make a snow drift. Used a Sharpie for the eyes, buttons etc. and paint for the hats and noses.

Quilted Pillowcases

2011-12-23T15:51:00.000-06:00

I usually make our pillowcases just because it is fun to have something seasonal or festive on our beds since we spend so much time with our pillows. I made these quilted embellished cases for Christmas gifts. I bought plain cream colored cases, although matching the case to the edge would be cute.

The reason I bought cases is because I used scraps from other projects and took a few pieces out of my fabric stash for the edges. I think I am using some of that fabric up but who am I kidding, there isn' t enough craft projects in the world to use up that stash. I can't help it everything is so tempting in the store. I use three fat quarters for the blue, yellow, bird house one and there is probably enough fabric left to make another set. I made these with three complementry colors but if I did them again I would choose four or five fabrics just so that the squares got more mixed up and didn't create a pattern.

I cut the strips in 2 1/2 inch lengths and then cut the strips into uneven lengths of squares, the larges being about 3 inches and the smallest about 1 1/2 inches. Any smaller than 1 1/2 inches you really only get a little sliver after the seam allowance. Then just start sewing the squares together to make two long strips the length of the circumfence of the pillowcase including seam allowances. Sew the two strips together in two rows and iron flat.

Cut the end off the pillowcase and rip the end seam open so you now have a flat piece of fabric.

Iron flat and sew the quilted piece on to it right sides together.

Iron so that the wrong sides are together, this makes the seam for the end of the pillowcase. Trim off the extra fabric from the orginal pillowcase edge so that there an even strip to sew onto the pillowcase.

Open back up and sew ends together to make a loop. Fold fabric so that it looks like the end of the pillowcase.

With the right side of the pillowcase and the right side of the edge, sew pillowcase edge to the pillowcase.

Iron flat and run a stitch right next to the edging so that enforces the seam and helps the edge to lie flat.

To make a complete sheet set the top of the flat sheet could be quilted. I just figured everyone has cream or some other solid colored sheets. It would make a nice wedding or shower gift.

Old Fashioned Christmas Caroling

2011-12-22T12:26:00.000-06:00

That is what our church did last night. We bundled up and headed out to the neighborhood around the church. We knocked on doors and sang them two songs, asked if they needed any prayer, prayed for them if they did and moved on to the next house.

A light dusting of snow fell yesterday which made the roads a little slippery, but otherwise the temps were perfect for a long night caroling, something that doesn't happen very often here in the north. Our last stop was an assisted living home and no one was complaining when they invited us into their toasty community room to belt out a few songs for them. I know my toes and fingers appreciated it.

The best place we stopped was at a home where the wife came to the door. When she opened it she got all excited saying that no one had ever sung for her and for us to wait while she went to get her husband. She sang along with us and it was truly a joy to sing for her. At the end when our pastor asked if she would like us to pray for anything, she said yes, her brother had just died and she started to cry. I think we all got a little choked up when we prayed. I hope we were a blessing to her this Christmas season.

If someone no came to the door, yes some people did hide from us, although we did come as a surprise and there are times that I wouldn't be properly prepared (insert wearing my jammies) to open my door to a dozen strangers, we just sang extra loud and then prayed a quick blessing over their house.

After singing we headed back to the church, enjoyed piping hot chocolate and a little fellowship. As usual we were the last to leave, it seems we are always the last to leave because we talk so much. It was fun night and we are already looking forward to next year.

Topographical Coaster Tiles

2011-12-21T17:13:00.000-06:00

For the hard to shop for we made these topographical coaster tiles. These are for Grandpa Jerry and they are all the places that he has lived. Conveniently, he has lived in eight places not counting residences between his parents house and getting married. I love how these turned out.

While it took a long time to make these they were relatively inexpensive. The maps we got off the Internet. Zeroing in on places on the maps and making them a size that would be a good size and show detail on the tile was the biggest challenge. That took the most time. Then we just cut them out and put them on white tiles that we got at the hardware store. We decoupaged them to the tile and added about ten coats to each one so they hold up to wear and tear. On the backs we put little felt circles so they won't scratch whatever they are sitting on. For the record, those little felt circles are called the obvious - Surface Guards. Good to know so that you won't have to go to the store and explain to the salesman that you want these little circles and try to explain them to have him say they have the very descriptive name of Surface Guards.

The Big Date

2011-12-20T15:28:00.000-06:00

Dad and I went to town yesterday for our big day out.

We enjoyed lunch at Mongo's, this place where you go through a salad bar like set up to pick veggies, meats, sauces and oils to have fried on an ultra huge grill. It is expensive but we go about once a year and never with the kids. We took them once but they don't put together things that they end up liking very much. Since you pay by the plate it's not like they can not eat what they made the first time and make something different. Besides, going so infrequently makes it a big deal when we do go.

We made a stop at the bank to finish up getting the money finalized for our roof. They make such a big to-do about cashing those insurance checks like we are trying to pull something over on them. Really, just take the money and run, it's for a house that you mortgaged so you probably want a good roof that is paid for on it.

Then it was on to shopping for the kids. We had a list but didn't want to only get them things they asked for or they can just go through the presents and know what they all are. It took some time to go through the stores and decide. The kids are at hard ages, it use to be so easy to just run down the toy aisles. I miss shopping in the little kids toy aisles. Now it is all video games, Legos and Justin Bieber paraphernalia.

On the way home I told Dad I had a really good time and hope that he will call me to go out again sometime. He said he would so I am going to wait by the phone :)

Friends, Music, Fun

2011-12-20T10:17:00.000-06:00

Way back in, I think, September our good geocaching friends asked if we would like to go to an live music Christmas show. Sure we thought, not something we would ever think to do on our own and it would add to the festivities of Christmas. It was performed by local artists who took southern rock songs and set them to Christmas tunes or they wrote funny lyrics (think Weird Al). Lots of fun and glad we went.

One On One

2011-12-18T20:26:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Dad took Spark into town to Christmas shop for Dancer and to look at other "guy" stuff, a.k.a. video games. It was the highlight of Spark's weekend and he came home all smiles.

Today I went to town with Dancer to Christmas shop for Spark. It is a pretty big deal when we go into town just to shop as we live far enough away that it isn't something we just do on the spur of the moment. We usually combine it with our homeschool activities but then both kids are always with which makes it hard for them to shop for each other. Dancer knew exactly what she was going to get for Spark so that part took about three minutes. The rest of the time we wandered around stores looking for gifts for Grandparents, Dad, Dad's secret Santa gift for work and we made a stop at the grocery store. The week before Dad and Spark dined at Five Guys so Dancer and I followed suit. On the way home Dancer commented on how much she likes when just her and I go shopping. I will have to try and do more of that in the future.

Tomorrow is Dad's and my turn to go to town alone. We need to make a stop at the bank, Christmas shop and, of course, go out to lunch.

Christmas Card Picture

2011-12-17T21:45:00.000-06:00

This is the one that will make the card. We have been waiting for snow to take the picture but there hasn't been any, we aren't complaining, and there isn't any in the forecast. The light wasn't the best today so to make up for harsh shadows and the like we chose to make it black and white.

This was an inside one that we liked but what is Nikki doing? She must have been yawning or something else doggish. Outside there was so much going on that caught her attention that her not looking added to the difficulty of getting a good picture. Not having her in the picture isn't an option so we just do the best we can :) Also when I looked at this one there are piles of stuff on the end of the couch. I guess that would have made us real, we homeschool and we have piles, the two seem to go hand in hand.

Recycled Sweater Mittens

2011-12-15T23:33:00.000-06:00

I made several pairs of these mittens for us and for Christmas gifts. These sell by crafters around here for about $20 per pair. With hand-me-down sweaters and one that I bought at the Goodwill, plus the fleece linings, six pair cost me about six dollars and I still have lots of materials left over but my Christmas list is complete for mittens.

The pattern I used was from Five Green Acres. The largest pattern was the perfect size for Dancer but a bit too short for the rest of us. I made the mitten about an inch and a half longer splitting the increase between the finger portion and the bottom wrist part. I also made the thumbs a wee bit longer and found they fit the best of I trimmed them as close to the seam as possible.

These are really simple and would make a great first sewing project. Super soft and warm!

Dancer showing off her pair.

Dancer's New Stuff Animal Is A Predator

2011-12-15T19:54:00.000-06:00

Ring-A-Ling

2011-12-13T23:33:00.000-06:00

Salvation bell ringing fun with our 4-h friends. Made even more enjoyable this year by having temps above freezing. There are years we have bell rung when it was below zero and there was a brisk wind.

Why You Gotta Be So Mean?

2011-12-13T22:25:00.000-06:00

Calliope that is. Now that we think breeding season is over we let Nico out with Lola and Calliope in the corral. While Calliope will let her daughter Lola eat with her without knocking her around, she won't let Nico. Nico isn't her son and she isn't about to let him eat any of her food. She is on end of the right arrow and Nico is on the end of the left arrow. We can feed them separtely but Calliope wants both of their hay rations so she run back and forth butting Nico away from the food and then runs back to her food, back to his to give him a head butt and so on. What you can't see in the picture on top is that Nico has a body guard.

Spark sits out there with Nico so that he has a chance to eat. Calliope knows that she can't butt us around so she stays over by her own food minding her own business. When they aren't eating they get along fine. By next year, when Nico is full grown, it will be a different story.

Making Some Changes Around The Barn

2011-12-13T01:25:00.000-06:00

We finally sold our buck Klaus. We had a hard time selling him because he had horns and people don't seem to want a buck with horns. We sold Charlie, another buck that was dehorned, and could have sold several more just like him a couple of months back. Klaus was a good gentle buck, the only problem was that he was related as either a dad or a brother to all but one of our girls. He had already been with Calliope, the one goat that we know isn't related to him, and possibly our other doe so we will get one more year of off spring from him. I was really sad to see him go, we had had him for four years and I like to give him snacks and rub his freckled nose. The buck above, Nico, is named after Nico de Angelo from the Percy Jackson books, which I didn't know Dancer named him after a book character until tonight. He is the one we are going to use next year and hope he does a good job. Klaus is his dad but he doesn't share a mom with any of our does. He has a scur from being dehorned so I think he looks like a unicorn.

Now that Klaus is gone there are going to be some new "house" assignments in the barn. When he was in rut he would try and get out of his house to either let the other bucks know that he would be taking care of business or to try to get close to a doe. Every time he would break through we would just do a quick patch job to keep him in his house to deter him from getting into any trouble he thought might be of interest. He had the deluxe suite house, it was about 10 X 18 feet, pretty nice for one goat. Dad did a little sawing

and hammering and now it looks good as new.

These two, Calliope and her daughter Lola, are the new residents. They had made such a mockery of their house that we didn't even bother to shut their door anymore and they have been having free reign of the barn the last few months. Lola is very, very smart and smart goats can make huge messes and are danger to themselves as they try things they shouldn't.

While Dad was fixing their new house they just couldn't wait to get in there, we had to keep shooing them out. Once it was done, they ran in and we shut the door, it was a much different story. They were thinking more along the lines of an open house not signing a lease. They will adjust and they are never that happy anyway. If they are outside they want in, if they are inside they want out, outside a pen they want in, and so on.

The next goal is to fix the chicken pen that is in the barn. There have been goats in it for the last couple of years and so they just roost along this wall.

Only problem is we never know where we will find their eggs and they poo all over.

Some roost in the rafters so it is always a good idea to look up before you walk right in so that they don't drop a little bomb. It has happened before and it isn't pleasant. You can't just rinse that stuff out of your hair, it takes a whole shower and even then you feel a little um, shitty.

Another Speckly wondering what I am doing with the camera. Looks like she is giving me the stink eye.

Two other beautiful ladies. I just love chickens, they are so soft.

Vidalia was also out there snoopervising the goings on. Looks like she is really scrutinizing Dad's work.

She ended up with this big smile on her face so she must have approved. I never did get her whole head in a picture because, as I was trying to take her picture, she kept trying to get closer for some pets and ear scratches. She is a funny cat, she reminds me of a dog in how she acts.

So Cute Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

2011-12-11T20:12:00.000-06:00

Dancer turned 16 dozen of these.....

into 16 dozen of these.

She baked about two dozen almost every night for about the last week and half. We took two dozen to our homeschool co-op Christmas party and then I need 14 dozen for a homeschool mom's cookie exchange. I really appreciate that she did all this work. We didn't use Grandma Shirley's cookie recipe (our tried and true peanut butter cookie recipe) because that one is too dry for shaping their heads so we found this one which is just perfect for these cookies. She can make these without looking at the recipe now she made so many batches.

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

3/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3 T. milk
1 T. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
chocolate covered pretzels (we could only find these at our local fleet supply store, aren't these suppose to be a Christmas staple?)
chocolate chips
red M&Ms

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine sugar, peanut butter, shortening, milk and vanilla. Blend well. Add egg and beat until just blended.

Combine dry ingredients and add to cream mixture just until blended.

Form the dough into one inch balls. Pinch the bottom of the ball slightly and gently flatten in your hand. Space about two inches apart on the cookie sheet and leave enough room to get the antlers on without touching each other.

Bake about 7 to 8 minutes or until just when they begin to get brown.

Immediately after removing from the oven add antlers, eyes and nose so that they melt onto the cookie. Let them cool for a few minutes and transfer to cooling rack.

Out Of This World Salmon Recipe

2011-12-11T19:34:00.000-06:00

Let me start out by saying that I don't like salmon. When my aunt and uncle would come to visit, my mom and her brother would sit with two spoons and a can of salmon between them and lick the can clean. No, they didn't lick the can but they sure enjoyed their treat. Repulsive, or so I thought. That all changed when Dad brought some salmon home from work that a co-worker gave him from her trip to Alaska. Now I don't think that Alaska salmon and canned salmon come from the same family tree. While I thought canned salmon was akin to cat food, Alaska salmon is made for the gods. Dad made this recipe and it was good hot, cold and straight from the fridge the next day.

1 clove garlic, chopped
2 T. olive oil
4 salmon fillets
1/2 C. butter
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. lemon juice
1 t. pepper
1 t. garlic salt
1 1/2 t. herbs
1/4 C. chopped dill

Saute garlic until soft in olive oil. Melt in butter. Remove from heat and add Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, pepper garlic salt and herbs.

Place the salmon, skin down, on broiler pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Spoon 1/3 of the butter over the fillets and sprinkle with dill.

Broil in preheated oven for three minutes. Turn salmon so that the fillet is up and baste with 1/3 of butter sauce. Broil for three minutes. Turn the fillets and baste with remaining 1/3 butter sauce. Broil until salmon flakes easily with a fork, about three more minutes.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

2011-12-10T11:38:00.000-06:00

This is the first paper Spark has written where he had to take notes on important facts and then write about a person. I wasn't sure how this was going to go but he did a good job right out of the gate with almost no help from me except to point out a couple capitalization changes. He took notes this week and last night spent a couple hours at the computer very seriously typing away. The best part was I didn't even tell him to do it last night, he just got his notebook out and jumped right in (I thought I would have remind him over and over next week to work on it so I was thrilled when I saw him doing it on his own). I think he has hidden abilities that he isn't letting on that he can do. Time to raise the bar :)

ANTONI VAN LEEUWENHOEK - by Spark

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is important in history because he saw microscopic life using microscopes he made himself.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Holland on October 24 1632. His father made baskets. He had four sisters and his dad died wen he was five. His mom remarried in two years. At 16 he learned cloth making. He worked in his masters shop for six weeks and then became a master himself.

Leeuwenhoek married twice, his first wife died and so did his second. He had five kids and four died. His daughter Maria was the only one that lived, she never married and took care of him and their house in the years when he was doing all of his research.

In 1667, he went to London to learn about microscopes. He liked to look at mold, bees and lice. He also found small animals in water and he was the first one to see bacteria. He found bacteria in tooth plaque, he also discovered red blood cells. He inspected the lens on the end of the eye and he studied body parts like: bones, skin, eyes and hair. He found life begins with a sperm and an egg cell for all animals, it didn't just appear in rotting materials which is was people thought before.

He sent 26 microscopes to the Royal Society after his death. Before that he really didn't let people look at his microscopes and had only give a couple away prior to his death.

English Christmas Crackers

2011-12-08T22:17:00.000-06:00

We made these for a 4-H project to learn how to say Merry Christmas in different languages. At the meeting everyone stood in a circle and every other person had a cracker. Spark, who is the president, and the Vice President learned how to say Merry Christmas in eight languages. They would teach one and every one with a cracker would pass it to the person on their right and say Merry Christmas to practice saying it in the language. We passed it about five or six times for every language. When we were done we passed out crackers to everyone who didn't have one. There was a lot of laughing and everyone enjoyed opening their crackers which contained candy and a rubber duck key chain.

To make these we save toilet paper rolls for a long time. I wrapped paper around them, twisted one end and tied with a ribbon. Spark stuffed them with the prizes and then I twisted the other end and tied. To fancy them up a bit I cut the ends with a scrapbook scissor.

Secrets

2011-12-07T21:51:00.000-06:00

This box has been causing such a stir at our house since it arrived last Saturday, so long ago to Spark that he took it upon himself to draw a face on it using the Amazon logo as a smile. Spark was sure it was for Dancer and well, Dancer couldn't decide who it was for. Today Dad let it slip that it was for Dancer.

To entice them even more about the box I made up a song for it.

O Amazon, O Amazon
Your secrets within delight us
You are exciting when Christmas days are bright
You make it hard to sleep at night
O Amazon, O Amazon
Your secrets within delight us.

Even though Spark knows it's not for him it is still driving him crazy that it is just sitting there so he made up a song to the 80's Devo tune of Whip It

Wrap it, wrap it good, you must wrap it.

Dad and I gave in and wrapped it, twice so there could be no peeking. I think we are going to have a lot more fun with this present before it is opened than after.

Homeschool Co-op Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-07T21:14:00.000-06:00

We had our co-op Christmas party on Tuesday. Each family brought a snack and an ornament or project to do. The kids split up in groups of two or three and went around to each table to make the ornament. As soon as they were done eating and crafting they ran into the gym to play some games. Every chance they get they are running to the gym, it is definitely the highlight of going to co-op. One boy brought a remote control car they played with and the they played a couple of tag games. It is nice that they get themselves on teams and start playing all on their own.

Here are all the crafts.

Clear bulb stuffed with cotton balls and face drawn on with Sharpie markers. By Spark.

Clear bulb with a squirt of glue and glitter. Roll around until the inside is covered. By Dancer.

One family just got back from Florida and brought back these beautiful shells. They were nice enough to share them with us. Cardboard circle, glue on shells, sprinkle with glitter, attach bow and hanger. This one is really pretty it just didn't show up on the picture like it is real life. By Dancer.

Clothes pin painted brown with a strip of little garland woven back and forth in the pin. Glue on star, buttons, etc. and hanger. By Dancer.

Fire started for the outdoor enthusiast that has every thing. Fill an egg carton with small animal bedding and pour wax over the top. This wax made the room smell soooo good. Cut the egg cups apart for six starters. By Spark.

For the birds. Pine cone smeared with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed. This one is really pretty I wish it wasn't gooey and we could hang it on the tree. By Spark.

Fun Frugal Manicure

2011-12-07T15:05:00.000-06:00

All you need for those fancy tipped nails is two colors of nail polish, a scrapbook scissor and a roll of masking tape. Dancer picked green and silver, she has every crazy color under the sun. Her motto when it comes to nail polish is that a girl can never have too many colors. Brush a couple coats of polish on and let dry for several hours so they are good and dry.

Cut a little piece of masking tape in half using the scrapbook scissor. Stick the tape on the nail. Put the second color on and take the tape off before the nail polish drys so that it doesn't stick to the tape and tear the polish.

Voila! Those fancy nails without the fancy cost.

Brrrrr!!!!! Baby It's cold outside.

2011-12-05T23:58:00.000-06:00

The indoor/outdoor thermometer says it is .6°, it's our coldest night of the new winter season. We have had a warm fall so it seems especially super cold. Even with winter gear on our fingers were numb and/or aching by the end of chores.

At times like these I go on enviously about the pictures on other blogs, like swimtaxi234, were there are still leaves on the trees and they are doing fun things outside. Then Mom reminds me that down south they have nasty bugs, snakes and temps in the 100°'s for days on end.

Since our biggest snake is smaller than my forearm, we have fewer bugs (though still a few trillion mosquitoes) and we only had a few days over 90° this year I guess she has a point. Maybe the the point is we always complain about the weather where ever we are.

Mario Kart Marathon

2011-12-05T12:27:00.000-06:00

Spark rotates from Wii game to Wii game, sometimes hourly and sometimes after several days. Lately, for the last week or so, the game has been Mario Kart. When he needs a break from school or just wants a little breather he will play a quick game, often Dancer and I will play with him. The common denominator is though that it is always quick. Until last night that is.

We sat down the play a game after dropping Dad off at work and Spark says, "Do you want to play all 32 levels?" Sure, why not, I didn't think it would take that much time and we really hadn't done much together all day as I was busy with other things.

Wrong! It took four hours to play those 32 games, we were up until after midnight. I did do a few other things in between so it wasn't solid playing time. We had gotten a turkey off our turkey card (when you buy a bazillion dollars worth of groceries in the months of October and November at a local grocery store they give you a turkey), which I discovered had thawed in the back of the car. Needing to roast it up a.s.a.p. I had this bird that needed to be deboned and packaged for later us. I did this in between rounds of play. Dancer was also making cookies and so I helped her take the cookies in and out of the oven and decorate them when they came out. There was also a couple of phone calls, bathroom breaks and the like.

Whew, the next time I agree to a Mario Kart marathon I will make sure I have time aplenty on my hands. Maybe Christmas vacation?

Paper Sphere Ornaments

2011-12-03T12:23:00.000-06:00

When I wasn't able to find enough hoops for the woven Scandinavian ornaments for our co-op Christmas party I had to quickly shift gears and find something else. I saw an instruction sheet for these hanging by the scrap booking paper and decided we would make these instead.

Supplies needed for these are scrap booking paper that is printed on both sides. I picked some up at the store but realized that we needed more. When I went to another store to quick grab some they didn't have any paper printed on both sides. Lesson learned the check before you buy them, I did thankfully, but now have to make another trip to get the right paper.

Cut out nine circles from the paper.

Fold each circle in half and place them in a stack.

Staple them together at the top, middle and bottom of the fold.

Using glue dots or double stick tape, glue the outer edges of each piece together alternating top and bottom. When they are all glued they should make a sphere but it may take some bend of the paper to get them symmetrical.

Spark Is Sort Of Famous

2011-12-02T11:10:00.000-06:00

Back in November of 2008, seems like a life time ago now, we made pomander balls. Months and months ago a library out in Massachusetts asked if they could use one of the pictures from that post for a program they were doing. "Sure," our egos said. Who doesn't want one of their pictures used in a semi professional manner? We kept looking on their web site but it was never on there so we just assumed they weren't going to use it. Today, on a whim, I thought I will check again because maybe it will be a Christmas something or another program. Sure enough his smiling little face is on their page. You can see it at the Springfield Library site.

Here is that pomander ball today, it is in really good shape. Actually I think they last forever once they dry.

We made it a fancy holder and it hangs along side our living room curtains with a string of gold beads that we never took down from a Christmas many years ago.

Candy Cane Christmas Wreath

2011-12-01T22:29:00.001-06:00

We made this and brought it Grandma and Grandpa tonight as a house warming gift for their new town house. They are moving from Arkansas but only have a few of their Christmas things here.

This project was a little labor intensive just because there is a wait time for the glue to dry. Glue together ten sets of candy canes back to back. Since the canes are wrapped in plastic, we let them sit over night so they were completely dry before moving on to the next step so that they wouldn't get uneven when handling them. Tie red ribbons on the tops, just before the curve, in square knots and cut off the ribbon tails. For the next part we used a glue gun. Lay all the cane pairs out and keep adjusting them until they are in a circle with their "hooks" and bottoms touching as close as possible. Be liberal with the glue on the back of the wreath or it tends to bend where the joints are. To finish tie a ribbon on top for hanging. Cut off any extra long pieces of plastic candy wrappings. I did this after I took the picture because it was with the flash that I saw how much they stood out.

Cute for Christmas but I also think you could leave it up through Valentine's Day.

Woven Scandinavian Christmas Ornaments

2011-11-30T22:30:00.000-06:00

The plan was that we would make these next week for our co-op Christmas party. I ran into a little snag when the craft store only had five hoops and I need 15. Good thing I didn't wait until the last minute to get the supplies because I needed to come up with another craft.

Since we had already picked out all the ribbon, and I love how these look, I got two hoops so that Spark and Dancer could each make one for our tree. Spark's is on the left, Dancer's on the right.

To make these, take the hoop apart. On the outside of the inside hoop put double stick tape, this makes it easier to weave the ribbon and keep it in place. Weave different colored ribbons, as loose or full as you like, over the inside hoop catching the ribbons on the tape. When done with the weaving put the hoop back together and tighten. Dancer had a label that didn't want to come off neatly on the side of hers so she put the double stick tape around the outside and decorated with a piece of ribbon.

Watering Wednesday

2011-11-30T21:10:00.000-06:00

It became apparent today that we have all become a little obsessed with the little African Violet that sits on our counter. It is a violet that Dancer started from just one leaf last spring, more about it here.

Every week, either Spark or myself, will ask Dancer if she has watered her violet on Wednesday. Some weeks I will sing a little song to ask her and one week we even made up a "It's time to water the violet?" dance.

This morning even Dad asked Dancer if she had watered her violet, he has gotten violet fever too.

We not only wonder about if she watered it or not, we also spend a lot (well a lot for a plant) time talking about the violet and counting how many leaves it has. When it gets a new leaf it is time for celebration! Yes, we live a simple life.

The Cleaning Crew

2011-11-30T15:50:00.000-06:00

Our homeschool co-op meets at a church that doesn't charge us for meeting there. One of the ways they decided to not charge us was by us taking a turn cleaning the church one time. Here is our crazy group posing after our cleaning session. This photo goes to show that our group has good time together no matter what we are doing, playing or working.

In reality there really wasn't much to do. For one thing there were 14 of us to do an job that usually one or two people can handle easily and we cleaned on a Tuesday so it had only been used one day since the last cleaning.

Beaded Glass Christmas Ornament

2011-11-29T22:56:00.001-06:00

First new ornament on the tree, actually the only ornament on the tree because the tree is up but we haven't pulled out the ornaments out of storage yet.

Super simple, rub glue all over a glass ornament and sprinkle on seed beads for spectacular results.

Giving Thanks For Friends

2011-11-27T22:13:00.000-06:00

Especially ones who invite us over for a big Thanksgiving dinner, play games all night and send us home with cookie dough.

Hand Print Turkey Year Six

2011-11-26T22:33:00.000-06:00

It was done a day late but done none the less, the annual hand print turkey.

Now it will go up on the wall in the hallway and join the other turkeys from the last five years. The kids were kindergarten and third grade when we started this and I cherish them all, only wish we would have done it from when they were babies.

A New Fridge, or The Ice World Hoth

2011-11-25T20:39:00.000-06:00

Today we went to get a new refrigerator as ours inconveniently quit working

Wednesday afternoon. Especially unfortunate as we just bought new tires on Monday.

After the new appliance arrived I started putting in food, which had been stored in coolers on the front porch. There wasn't much to go into the freezer, most of that stuff was transferred to the big freezer, eaten or thrown out. When I opened the freezer door to toss in a bag of corn I was surprised by the following sight:

An odd Star Wars diorama had already claimed the space. As told by Spark--The evil Emperor Lorg stole the robotic data pig and is holding him in a cage in this ice cave. Jonathon came to fight the evil emperor and rescue the data pig.

The cook. Suspicious that a chef would come along to a pig rescue. Is that a treasure chest or a portable oven?

Jonathon fighting Emperor Lorg.

The poor imprisoned data pig.

How Late Can You Drink Coffee?

2011-11-25T16:25:00.000-06:00

It's 4:15 and Dad made a pot of coffee. "What are you doing?" a shocked Dancer asks.

"Making coffee" a confused at her reaction dad responds.

"But I can't have any!"

"Why not, are you not having caffeine any more?"

"It will keep me awake and I won't be able to go to bed," the still shocked Dancer replies.

"What, you will be up until 4:00 a.m. instead of 2:00 a.m." Dad states the obvious.

He had her there, she is an extreme night owl. Point taken, she is going to enjoy a cup of coffee. Well, sort of, coffee to the kids means more of a cup of cream and coffee flavoring or Da Vinci syrup with a little coffee thrown in for good measure. A lot closer to the Starbucks definition of coffee than 'I just take mine black, thanks.'

We Feasted

2011-11-24T17:56:00.000-06:00

On prime rib, Dad makes the best ever.

All the side dishes - broccoli salad, seven layer salad, carrot casserole, brussel sprouts (Grandma Pat brought these because they are her favorite but we all found out Grandpa Bob loves them too), olives and buns.

We finished off the meal with pumpkin pie made by Dancer. Her first ever and it was so yummy I think that will be her job from now on.

Then we sent lots of left overs home with everyone because our refrigerator decided that yesterday, after we had shopped, would be a good time to die. The repair man said it would be about $700 to maybe, a big maybe, fix it so tomorrow we are going shopping. I had so hoped to avoid town on Black Friday but that out of the question now. It was better than losing the stove and there was plenty of snow to pack coolers with. However, we are having way above average temps (it got in to the high 50's today and is suppose to be that way until the weekend) and the snow is all melting. It looks more like spring outside than fall. We are keeping the coolers outside because at least it is colder than the house, especially in the shade, and taking advantage of the garage being a little colder for the things we can't get in the coolers. Such is life.

Giving Thanks For Our Roof

2011-11-23T23:13:00.000-06:00

Our roofs are finally done after a week. Yahoo!!! It was really stressful having them here for some reason, the dog is still barking at every little noise. I think it was having people right outside our windows and on the deck, it felt a bit intrusive and we also felt locked in with their trailer and the dumpster in the driveway blocking the garage. We put 50 year shingles on so I hope they last 50 years.

Can We Get This?

2011-11-22T22:36:00.000-06:00

Going up and down the grocery store aisles Dancer spies this on the shelf, a tube of polenta. "Can we get this" she asks. I look it over and say sure why not.

Now we live in the middle of Scandinavian country here, all Norwegians and Swedes with a few Germans thrown in for good measure. If you want to talk lutefisk, herring, lefsa, or krumkake I am your girl, but I am sorely lacking in Italian food knowledge.

Not knowing to do with this stuff, we took it home and googled what to do with it. We found out it is an extremely versital food. Dad chose to fry some in a pan with garlic.

It turned out beautifully and everyone wanted a second piece.

The next night I made creamy polenta. We all tried some and then Dancer absconded the bowl and dibbed the leftovers. This might be the best kept Italian secret ever.

Giving Thanks For New Tires For The Van

2011-11-21T16:49:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, when we were out driving in our sudden snow storm, it seemed as though we were slipping and having a harder time getting going at the stop lights than other people were. Even people who were driving little bitty cars. In the paper it said that there were 200 accidents reported in three hours so I am also thankful that we were not one of them. When I asked Dad why he thought we were spinning so much he said, so matter a fact like I should have known, that we have bad tires who's tread had almost all worn off. Imagine walking on ice in leather soled shoes and that is what we were driving on.

Today, my knight of a husband, promptly took the van in and got new tires put on so the kids and I would be much safer driving. The plan was to only get two but when the guy looked at them he suggested we get a back tire as well. Last year we had an unfixable flat and so there was one new tire in the back already and he said it wasn't very safe to drive around with three good tires and one bad. There was a $50 rebate if you bought four tires and the man was nice enough, since he remembered we had bought the other tire there (one of the benefits of doing business in a small town), he gave us a slip for the rebate.

Alice In Wonderland Halloween Costume

2011-11-21T10:27:00.000-06:00

Yes, Halloween costume in November. Dancer didn't get hers done in time for Halloween, but she is really early for next year. She made it from Simplicity pattern 2325. She didn't get to wear it this year but will put it in the fair for her 4-H sewing project. This dress has an insane amount of fabric in it which makes it quite heavy and the gathering was intense. It took well over an hour just to pin the ruffle on the bottom of the skirt.

Last year the 4-H judge said she should try something harder and this was something harder. I told Dancer this is a more complex pattern than my wedding dress was. She did a great job and the pattern went together really nicely, she can be proud of herself!

No One Wants To Be A Viking

2011-11-20T14:45:00.000-06:00

Spark is watching Dad's fantasy football board to see how he is doing, the points change all day every time one team gets a point. He is looking it over all serious and says "Dad it is like you are the other team and the person you are playing is the Vikings."

Curse You Carbs

2011-11-20T13:00:00.000-06:00

Your stomach shouldn't be a waste basket. - my new mantra

The last couple of months Dad and I have been having "carb slide." Not a lot of carbs, just a bite here and a nibble there. We have good excuses every time - it's Spark's birthday, he only has one a year - there wasn't hardly any low carb foods at the pot luck - I was super hungry and there were only carb options available - I exercised a lot today so I can have a few more carbs - it's sprouted grains so that shouldn't count because they are so called healthy - Dad ate some so I should be able to have some - yadda, yadda, yadda.

We still "sorta" felt good. The weight we had lost was creeping back on ever so slowly so we wouldn't really notice until we hit the spot of "oh, I have to tug on my pants just a little tiny bit to get them to button."   Yeah, I don't have as much energy but it gets dark out so early, that must be why. My skin doesn't feel very nice but it must be weather changes and so on.

Friday though was the tipping point. After dropping Dancer off at the birthday party we heard that they were having pizza. Yum, pizza. Well Spark, Dad and I felt we deserved a treat too and we headed to Pizza Ranch. Dad and I dove into the carbs that flow like water there - waffle fries, pizza crust, desert pizza and ice cream. Ugh, I probably ate more carbs in one sitting that I do in two weeks when I eat right. And the worse part, it didn't taste very good. We had to stop for gas and while Dad was pumping the gas I pulled out the bag of Snickers we had left over from Halloween. I thought, well I already blew it today why not enjoy a Snickers, it has been almost a year since I had gone down the really slippery slope of candy. The Snickers really didn't taste good. It tasted chemically, not even like food. I asked Spark if his tasted good (he still eats carbs) and he said "yep, best Snickers I ever had!" Probably because he was so shocked that he got a candy out of the blue on a Friday night.

I got up Saturday morning and had gained four pounds. All those carbs had me retaining water and yuck I could feel it. Bloat, bloat, bloat. "I feel fat." I told Dad. "You look fine."  He says.  One, because that is what husbands are suppose to say and two, I don't think he wants the carb train to pull into the station. So for dinner I make chicken and rice and eat the rice. And then have seconds of rice.

Fast forward to this morning and I feel like puke. I was as tired when I got up as when I went to bed, my face is puffy, every joint is protesting that they don't want to move and I am ultra thirsty. Dad admits that he feels crappy too.

We make a pact that we need to get back on the low carb bandwagon again. Even Dancer, who follows a low carb diet pretty well, said she didn't really enjoy her pizza Friday night and wasn't feeling her usual chipper self. Thanksgiving is this week, we aren't having turkey so there will be no stuffing, cranberries etc., so we need to pull it together so as not to make it easy to slide right through Christmas and New Years and end up gaining back all we had lost and not feeling well. There are parties and a cookie exchange coming up, add to that what the kids eat around here. Plus my morning blood sugars are creeping up so I am sure it won't be long before they all do. So, I rebuke you demon carbs!!!

Nine Inches

2011-11-19T18:42:00.000-06:00

This morning the guys were back working on our shed roof. They said they wouldn't be here if it snowed so I was glad when I woke up and could hear them pounding out there. Dancer was at a sleep over birthday party last night and we left to get her a little before ten o'clock. One of the guys came over to us as we were getting in the car and said that they were going to quit because a few flakes were falling and they wanted to get everything put away if snowed any harder and didn't want anyone to slip on the roof. The roads were fine to get Dancer, we drove the regular speed. It took us about 15 minutes to pick her up because they were playing Just Dance II on the Wii and were just finishing up. After we left we headed into town to go to the big library downtown, not the branch one that is closer. When we came out of the library it had snowed a wee bit more but nothing much. Spark wanted to go to the Goodwill, Spark always wants to go to the Goodwill, which is on our way out of town. By the time we got over there we decided that we were going to abort that plan and just head for home. By the time we made it out of town we could only drive 35 miles an hour, could hardly see and the snow was flying behind us like were in a motor boat. When we pulled in the driveway I breathed a huge sigh of relief thinking the worst was over but Dad slid back down the driveway while trying to get the car in the garage. The dumpster for the old shingles is sitting kinda crooked in the drive and we all thought we were going to hit it but we didn't thankfully. We piled out and shoveled to get the car in and by the time we got done we had to shovel again. The second time we shoveled as quick as we possibly could and then Dad zoomed the car in still slipping and sliding while we were cheering him on and he made it in the garage. The snow kept coming down and by 3:00 this afternoon we had nine inches of perfect snowman making snow. It is going to be a long winter if this sticks around until spring.

A Roof Over Our Heads

2011-11-17T22:43:00.001-06:00

In July we had a horrible storm that damaged all our shingles. The problem is it damaged everybody else's roof too. Almost every driveway we pass by has a sign from a roofing company at the end of it. We got a contract with a company back in August and they said just tell us when you want it done and we will be there. October we said, before the snow flys and we have to file for an extension on our insurance. No problem we were assured. Well there must have been a problem because October came and went with no new roof. November started and we called them. For sure they would be here the next Friday. Nope. Finally, finally they called this week and said they would be here on Thursday. While we were hopeful I wasn't convinced that they would really show. But I was awoken this morning by the sound of someone walking on the roof.

I got up and this was in our driveway.

Pretty soon this was laying all over in front of the house.

By time they left for lunch the back of the house looked like this. Dancer is out here taking Nikki for a potty break while they were gone because they had her in a tizzy all day.

The front of the house was completely bare of shingles.

They are supposed to be done tomorrow but by noon they had only taken the shingles off half of the house roof and they still have this garage to do.

And this garage and another shed.

And piles of shingles like this are all around our house. By the time they left they had taken all the shingles off the house and had the tar paper down and a few shingles. Once they are off the house I don't care how long it takes them but it is stressful to have them working above us all day. The dog barked most of the day with the hair standing up on her back, Bert coward in back of his cage with his feathers fluffed, the cats hid out in the hay under the tarp, the goats stayed close to the barn cautiously watching and every time we need to go outside someone would yell "homeowner coming out" and everyone would stop working and watch us walk away from the house. The oddest part was, even though they were scrapping, pounding, making the house shake, banging, talking loudly and had a radio blaring, Dad was able to sleep through it. I guess that show how tired he is after his first night of work, they actually got some of the shingles on over the bedroom.

Candy Birthday Card

2011-11-17T13:59:00.000-06:00

Dancer was invited to birthday party this weekend and, wanting to do something a little different, we made her a candy card. We originally saw it as a Father's Day card but changed it around a bit to make it for a birthday.

The hardest part about this was finding the candy. Some of these, like the Now and Later, I hadn't heard of or they were hard to find. The PayDay and the Whatchamacallit were looking like they weren't even going to be on the card. We went to four different store to find it all and the Now and Later we found in a bulk candy bin. I wished we known we would be making a card and had saved some of the Halloween candy as it would have made the card a lot more affordable. Since we never buy candy at the check out I don't pay any attention to its price. Just let me say that candy is expensive, very expensive, although now we have another reason to never be tempted by it when we are waiting to check out. One of the bars we did end up buying a bag of fun sized because the cost was about half of what a single bar was per ounce (ha, we got a little consumer education lesson in there). When I was a little girl, every Sunday after church my brother and I would each get a dime to go into the grocery store and buy a candy bar. Candy bars were a lot bigger then too. I would always pick the Marathon bar, carmel covered with chocolate, which they must not make any more, because it was the longest candy bar.

Hope Dancer's friend likes it, I know I would!

White Chili Recipe

2011-11-14T22:50:00.000-06:00

This is chili Dad entered in the 4-H chili contest. I wasn't able to go to the meeting but they came home with an empty 6 quart crock pot so it was a favorite. Spark said one boy had three bowls. The recipe is as follows, it is part a recipe Dad found and part his own adaptation.

White Chili

3 cans 15 1/2 oz. white kidney beans (Cannellini beans) rinsed and drained
3 cups grilled chicken cubed
1 jar 15 oz. Alfredo sauce
2 cups chicken broth
1 can 4 oz. chopped green chilies
1 1/2 cup gold and white corn - canned
1 cup sour cream
1 small sweet pepper, chopped
1 small onion chopped and sauteed until translucent
3 garlic cloves minced
1 T. ground cumin
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Combine all together and simmer about 2 1/2 hours stirring frequently.

Giving Thanks For A Husband Who Shops

2011-11-14T16:07:00.000-06:00

Dad will always stop on his way home from work to pick items up from a store. Even though he has worked a 12+ hour shift all night he will stop on his way home to get what we need so that I don't have to. He even says to call him in the morning if I need him to get anything. And the best part, he has never once complained about doing it.

Recycled Blue Jean Storage Pots

2011-11-13T21:37:00.000-06:00

Easy peasy and if you have an old pair of jeans and some scrap material they are free! The instructions called for quilt batting (expensive) but I used polar fleece for the lining so that was free too. It didn't take more that 45 minutes to make and that included rounding up all the materials and figuring out the size of the bottom circle using pi.

I found the directions at this web site. Funny thing about that was it was by the same person, Betz White, who wrote the "Sewing Green" book that I made the sweater puppy and the placemat tote bag out of. I should google her and see what other projects she has.