Happy Birthday....

Friday was my eldest son's birthday. Chris turned 29. This is the link to his birth story. http://cowmomba.blogspot.com/2008/03/firstborn-of-many-bretheren.html I had such a busy weekend, I never got around to making him his very own birthday post.

Today is Becky's birthday. She is 23. For the last several years, Becky has adopted the most annoying endearing tradition of saying "on my birthday" following everything she says on her birthday. "How are you today?...on my birthday". "Stephen and Tommy got a deer yesterday... on my birthday. Well, they didn't get the deer on my birthday, they got the deer the day before my birthday.... on my birthday".

Just try carrying on a conversation with her on her birthday.

Here is the link to Becky's birth story: http://cowmomba.blogspot.com/2008/03/little-grill.html

Happy Birthday Becky!

Happy Monday, Y'all

It is cold! the front hit yesterday evening just moments after I got off work. The roads are frozen with an ice/snow mix... but the yards are mostly just naked.

With the blizzard across most of the western plains pushing its way east, towns everywhere breaking records for cold and snow... it is hard to believe in global warming, isn't it? The twins said that we no longer have global warming, because Barack Obama was elected. He isn't even in office yet... and already global warming is a thing of the past.

Matt's Mom asked me if he could stay until 7 or so tonight, and then she is taking off the rest of the week. She doesn't drive on this stuff. Ben will get his first experience this afternoon... but I am more worried about his drive home tonight.

At work, it is Oreilly's annual inventory count at my store. We have been "pre-counting" and setting things in order. I have been dreaming I was counting things all night long... for two nights now! Nothing like dreaming you are working to make you wake up tired.

We made breakfast burritos this morning... using up the rest of a stick of Blue and Gold sausage, and a dozen eggs. The remaining filling is made into burritos and put into the freezer, ready for a quick breakfast later on. Daniel has made Banana Bread twice this week, using up soft bananas. We will need to bake something today to help keep the house warm. Since I planned to make soup from leftovers of roasted veggies, maybe we will make some of Grandma Ruby's dinner rolls. We halved the recipe last time, and it was the perfect amount.

Guess I ought to get dressed and get things rolling here.
Keep warm!

Food and Frugality

Last night, I roasted a chicken for supper. I used the Pampered Chef stoneware roaster. I rinsed the chicken, and put it into the roaster. I added 1 cup of orange juice, and sprinkled the inside of the bird's cavity with some dried orange zest that Daniel and I have been saving when we eat an orange. I sprinkled some Bell's Salt Free tomato-Basil seasoning over the bird,sprayed it all over lightly with some olive oil spray. The lid went on and into the oven it went. When it came out, it was golden brown, juicy, and very flavorful. We had salad, mashed potatoes, and garlic bread from the leftover hoagie rolls from the day before.

There was a small bit of breast leftover, and a wing. So for lunch today, I took the leftover garlic bread (I know... amazing I had leftover garlic bread!) and put pizza sauce on it. (Pizza sauce made from 1 can of tomato sauce, with 1 tsp each of basil and italian seasoning stirred in). I put mozzarella cheese over the sauce, and tore the leftover chicken into bits, and topped the cheese with these. On a few, I put more of the sliced portabello mushrooms. I spritzed the portabellos with olive oil spray. These warmed up in no time to a hearty lunch, with leftover salad on the side.

Tonight, I am trying something a bit different for us. I mixed up some dried cornbread stuffing/dressing left from Ben and Tommy's Thanksgiving dinner. I added sauteed onions, celery, and a handful of dried cranberry craisins. I put the mixture into an oven pan, and topped it with pork chops. The pork chops are sprinkled with a bit of "soul" seasoning.

We are making roasted veggies in the PC roaster to accompany this. (chunked potatoes, onions, and carrots tossed in olive oil... portabello mushrooms to be added the last 20 minutes of cooking. Sprinkled with garlic granules and sea salt.)

I haven't ever tried baking naked pork chops over stuffing before, so we will see how this turns out. Since I bought salad makings at Sam's- we are having a garden salad as well. (Yeah, the portabello's were a Sam's buy... so we want to eat them up instead of wasting them.)
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I know that Becky and Nola have been making their own laundry soap for awhile now. I have been apalled at the cost of the liquid laundry soaps I have been purchasing lately... and looking everywhere for the washing soda so that I can try my hand at making some laundry soap for myself. Today, I went ahead and purchased a "kit" that has the essential ingredients in it. I will be able to make 2 1/2 gallons of liquid laundry soap for $4.50 (plus shipping... but to make shipping worthwhile, I bought two kits and two extra bars of the laundry soap itself, in anticipation of finding the washing soda.)
While I was at the site, I also ordered some wonderful hand made goats milk soap for ME. I had ordered some of this soap in the past, as part of mother's day gift baskets for my moms and MIL. It smelled so good- I wanted some for ME! I love giving unique gifts to others. Today I treated myself.
Here is the site I ordered the soaps from: http://crystalscountrystore.com/

Since I have purchased from this place before, I will add that I was just the tiniest bit disappointed in the size of the bars of goats milk soap. But that was my only disappointment. They shipped quickly, and the product is GREAT!
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I have been trying to be more frugal... not letting things go to waste. Or making the best use of our finances in small stuff like laundry detergent, and stretching the dishsoap. It seems some days I am a dismal failure at not wasting things. Food gets tossed, my 'saved' items are tossed away by someone who thought it was garbage left out. (Orange zest drying in a dish). I look forward to having our own place, with a garden.
I want to plant lavender, roses, and herbs. Grow blueberries and blackberries and plums. Make my very OWN soap and not just buy the 'kits'. Have chickens and critters everywhere. (mr C isn't too big on critters everywhere, but didn't seem to mind the chickens). Go back to canning and freezing stuff we grow ourselves, and just TRY to buy as little as possible.

God knows my heart!

Less than Divine

Yesterday's attempt at divinity wasn't completely successful. It had a good flavor, but was refusing to lose its gloss and set up, despite over an hour of beating. We eventually poured it into a greased casserole dish and called it spoon divinity. THEN it set up somewhat.

Oh well. Guess I better re-invest in a candy thermometer. I don't know if my old one is packed in a box that hasn't been opened in almost five years, or if it got broken.
In our attempts to rearrange our storage of stock-up items yesterday I did open some of the long packed boxes. Now in 'every day' service as a fruit bowl is the fancy glass bowl I bought shortly after we moved to Oklahoma. I have kept it packed away, using it at Thanksgiving and other special occasions for nearly 20 years. It has been so long since this beautiful bowl has been out of its box, the twins didn't remember ever seeing it before.

We did make some major inroads into re-arranging the foodstuffs. Daniel has beautifully organised the lower cupboard where most of the canned goods reside. Sam was assigned to clean up and re-organise one of the bookcases in the living room, where some of my cookie jars will be moved to. He almost got one shelf done yesterday. I had to keep dragging him back to task from playing video games in Ben's room. Guess who will have double-duty today?

When we get our own place, I will get my grandmother's china that my mom has passed on to me. It has a forestly green pattern of pine or fir branches on it. I'd like to have a dining room that I could 'theme' around the china. Mom has a corner unit china hutch that my grandfather built, which she has been waiting to give to me when we get our own place. I will also inherit my great grandmother's 'pie safe'/ china cupboard someday from my Dad. I try to imagine where these items would be placed whenever we do look at houses.

Notice how positively I said when?

On today's agenda: More cleaning and re-arranging. I intend to tackle my bedroom- refolding my clothes that were once-upon-a-time all neatly arranged on various shelves that served as my dresser. They are currently heaped haphazardly all on the top shelf. Clear out the dust bunny collection, try to stay with making the bed every day.

I hope your day is blessed today, Thanks for reading!

Something to look forward to

On the schedule: the repeat of the endoscopy is scheduled for Tuesday the 30th of December. I am hoping Becky will be able to be here for that... otherwise Mr C is going to have to take the morning off. Or maybe my Mom can come up.

Becky and Stephen already had plans to come up towards the end of the month- which I thought I had mentioned to Mr C. He was really excited to find it out last night. He is hoping Tommy is planning to come as well.
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I was getting ready for my main errand yesterday- going to the post office to mail Chris' birthday card... (and an O'Reilly's calendar!) when Ben volunteered to go do it for me. I also had a package going overseas, to an internet friend in Athens, Greece. Ben did the errand, along with one of his own. (Have I mentioned lately how great it is to have older kids with driver's licenses? Thanks, Benny!)
Once Matthew went home, the boys and I made the trek over to Sam's in Rogers. I seldom seem to make it to Sam's. I think I did pretty well, sticking to basic necessities.

I get Dawn dishwashing liquid there, then pour a small amount into the Dawn Direct Foam bottle. I dilute it down tremendously- and the Sam's size bottle lasts about a year. Tom says that the diluted dish soap is not as effective as the actual Direct Foam refill... but since everyone would still use the same number of squirts, regardless of effect- this works just fine for us. I have been using the same Direct Foam bottle for over a year. The boys all believe that the Electrasol Powerball Dishwasher detergent tablets work the best of all the brands of dishwasher detergents we have tried... so we got a big carton of those.

We got out of Sam's at 5:30. That is a VERY BAD time to be in the Bentonville/ Rogers area. Even on a clear evening... which yesterday was NOT... there is literally bumper to bumper traffic. We walked out of Sam's to find a freezing mist falling. The trunk of the car was frozen shut. By the time we had the groceries loaded, we were icicles. Then into the fray. The first two miles took more than fifteen minutes. The next two miles took slightly longer, as the five lane road funneled to two lanes. The closer we got to home, the more the mist was turning to snow... and not a gentle snow, but one borne on 30 mph winds. It blew right on through without sticking, so we have no accumulation at all.

Once we got the groceries situated... we made roast beast 'french dip' sammiches. Just as the onions were almost perfectly caramelized, we added sliced portabello mushrooms and sauteed them until they were tender. MM MMM MM! (Take deli sliced roast beef, put it on to heat in some onion soup broth {We use cheap powdered onion soup mix and water}. In a heavy skillet, caramelize sliced onions in a small amount of olive oil. You can add the portabello mushrooms, or not!. Grill some split hoagie rolls in another skillet {or under your broiler, or toaster them}. Top the toasted bread with the roast beef, onions, and some sliced swiss cheese. Serve with the onion soup for dipping.)

Today's chore will be trying to re-arrange the cupboards and freezer so that we can store all of our groceries more effectively. Mr C is tired of having to rummage through everything to find what he is looking for. I also hope to get my "round tuits" on making some divinity and some pecan pralines.

Time to get on with the day!

Scratch that one off the list...

I mentioned I was sick over the weekend. I called in sick to work, and wouldn't of gone to see the house, had we not been two miles away and the lady was already on her way. I pretty much came home and went to bed. I didn't check emails all weekend.

So when I did check the email yesterday, I saw one from the real estate agent dated Friday. She said the homeowners had received an offer on the doublewide... did we also wish to make an offer?

Except that it should have been made Friday or Saturday. By the time we saw the email, it was a done deal. Unless the deal falls through... and it shouldn't, with making the buyers get pre-qualified, the house we saw Friday is off the list. Yeah, so it was the only one we have actually SEEN lately... if it were meant to be, then things would have fallen into place.
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A storm raged through here last night. Thunder, lightening, wind... the whole house was shaking. I don't think we had any damages, but it isn't light enough to go out and see yet. Looking at the radar, it was huge and fast... and is now pounding St. Louis.
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Duh, me. I have been planning to get Chris' birthday card in the mail, but didn't want to mail it too soon. I was thinking his birthday fell on Sunday. I actually looked at the calendar at work yesterday... and it falls on FRIDAY! Yikes! Better get that card out TODAY!
Next year, Chris will be 30.... I remember when my friends and I thought 30 was so OLD.

I never did run my errands yesterday- some days I just can't seem to make myself get out of the house. So I have to do those today... one of the errands being going to the post office with oversized letters to mail.
I really do like internet shopping, vs. going out to the stores, when I actually have to buy a gift for someone. I sometimes get stressed out in big crowds, and start feeling panicky and closed in. Not often, but sometimes.
Once I get out of the house and on the road, I am fine with running errands. Just something about getting started that is hard for me.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Good Morning

The house we looked at Friday is still on the list- actually, it IS the list. Tom did some more drive-by looking at other places while I was at work Sunday. Some of those, we really want to see. The main drawback of the doublewide we saw Friday is how much the bank wants down in order to finance. We did learn, it has 38 acres available- not just the one acre.

So we have expanded our search, looking at a few 'conventional' homes, before we make any decision. Yeah- pretty much what you figured, right?

I was really sick on Friday- my stomach was stabbing holes in me. I called in sick to work, and spent most of the day in bed. (Didn't even feel like looking at that house, but since it was a bit too late to cancel the appointment, we went). I was somewhat relieved when one of the twinks came down with stomach cramps later in the day.... not that I would wish that on anyone- but at least I could figure it wasn't the ulcers perforating my stomach. It seemed to be a 24-36 hour bug. I felt better Saturday, and back to normal on Sunday.

I have errands to run this morning, then have to work this evening from 3 to close (7pm). We got the van back on Friday. I took it to work yesterday. I swear, it is a deer magnet. Last time I drove it- on the way to have it estimated for repair from the deer accident- a herd of deer jumped the fence ahead of me. I stopped and waited until they moved on. So yesterday, I topped one of the hills on the way to work... and a deer scurried out of the road ahead of me. When I see ONE deer- I look closely. They almost never travel alone. Sure enough, a second deer is bunched to leap the fence. I stopped. The deer didn't jump. She ran back the way she had come.... looked confused, and headed to the fence again. She bunched again... turned again, and ran far into the woods the way she came. So no deer accidents for me.

Oh, I got a phone call from Bill Joe. The eye specialist diagnosed him with "Keratoconus", a progressive disease of the eyes. It is in its earliest stages. There are treatments to slow the progress, but no cure. (I may not have spelled it correctly.)

We are expecting "weather" by tomorrow. Not sure how bad.

Guess that is all for now!

First hoop jumped through

We are now prequalified for the house we are supposed to go see tomorrow. There were some surprises along the way, including the amount the bank requires for a downpayment. So this may end up being a hinderance to us. Or it may direct us to buying a "real" house... less than half the amount on down payment, plus we would qualify for VA as well as "First Time Homebuyers".

We shall see what we shall see!

New Word of the Day

"Dramastically"... Daniel used this word to refer to the tax rate drop in his Sim City town. "I dropped the tax rate dramastically!"
It seems to combine drastically with dramatically and/or fantastically.

I love the new words these guys come up with.

And Becky's birthday gift has already arrived at the Site to Store pick-up! Whoo hoo. That is FAST!

Since she now already knows what it is, I can tell you... I still got her a sewing machine, just not the el-cheapest one.

Jade also called to report the arrival of her birthday gift- drawing materials; including pads, pencils and a 'how to' book. She was pleased.

Guess I better get my other items mailed off to Chris and to Uncle Buck. I found UB (and myself) some salt free lemon pepper seasoning, as well as some tomato basil SF seasoning. Last night, I made some veggie dip with fat free sour cream, a dab of miracle whip, and some of the tomato basil seasoning (Bell's). It was great! Tonight, I have lemon pepper chicken in the crock-pot. Owing to a slow start, I am cooking the rice on the stove top, and will add it to the chicken once it is done.

Have a great evening!

Get Ready for another ride on the rollercoaster...

We have an actual appointment to see a house on Friday morning. At the moment, Mr C seems ready to take the place, even though we have not seen the innards. Unless the inside is totally trashed- we may be homeowners again within the next couple of months.

We did look very seriously for a house back about 18 months ago. I had a notebook full of places we had seen, with the plus and minuses of each noted. The last place we looked at was a few days before Tyrel was born. He is 16 months now.

I would like to be in a place where we can garden this spring.

The place we will be seeing is close enough to where we now live, I will be able to keep watching Matthew. So nothing much would change for us except the address- and probably the phone company. (Hey Becky and/or Seneca... there is another place on the same road, another 4/2 on an acre- if you want to consider moving back up here!)

Stay tuned for further developments....

Baking

One thing I like about colder weather is getting to bake. We try not to turn the oven on in the warm weather to avoid heating the house. In cold weather, I'm not sure which is better... the warm from the oven or the goodies that come out of it.

Yesterday, I made a stew. It was in the cast iron dutch oven, and boiled so furiously on the stove top on the lowest heat, I thought it was cooking too fast. I put it into the oven at 200*. It had beef from a small steak I found on markdown. I cubed that up, rolled the cubes in seasoned flour, and browned them in olive oil. Then added beef broth, celery, onions, carrots, potatoes, and barley. I had to add some water and beef soup base, as I didn't have much broth.

Dan asked to make banana bread. It was excellent! (Used Chris's recipe from my Food For Fellowship cookbook). Then I had Sam do the math and divide the recipe for Grandma Ruby's Hot Rolls in half. He did great making those, and we baked them in the new Pampered Chef stoneware muffin pan. During the baking of the breads, I took the stew from the oven and let it just sit on the stovetop... cast iron is great at retaining heat! I put it back in between times, and for the last 20 minutes before supper when the rolls baked.

It was soooo good! Hard to quit after just one bowl of soup and one roll.

Maybe Becky should think of doing some baking Wednesday... the high where she lives is supposed to drop from the upper 70*'s into the mid 30*'s. Mr C frets and worries about whether she has the heat hooked up for the winter yet. (I think Dad's may fret more than Mom's do about some things).

I need to go to the library... but I don't know if I can muster up the energy to do it this morning. With three of us working and two cars, we have small windows of opportunity to get errands done. The van is SUPPOSED to be done today. I don't have a lot of confidence in it actually being ready. Mr C will have to inspect it. The same repair shop did the car last year, and after it was 'ready', took another week to fix the things Tom pointed out they missed. Maybe I will make the library, and maybe I will procrastinate!

I checked the cell phone minutes yesterday to be sure we weren't running over time. I have 35 minutes left for the 'month', with the 3rd being the last day of the month. So we cut it pretty close. (feel free to call on Thursday or after, LOL).

I'm thinking I ought to do a "family newsletter"... as I missed doing one last year. I don't have a way to add pictures this year. The last two color ink cartridges I have bought... from totally different sources, have printed three color pages each before running 'empty'. So I think it is the printer. I can't afford to print pictures at that cost! (And I need new grandkid pictures anyway... *hint hint*). Perhaps writing a short family newsletter 'article' would be a good assignment for school today!

Speaking of writing... I know it has been awhile since Daniel has written on his blog. He did write a blog yesterday... and my exciting news from that is: He asked me, "Do you spell (a word) like _______?" and he spelled the word to me correctly! He did that several times!
This is big news because Dan has had so much trouble catching on to spelling. (dyslexia). I did see he had some 'spaces' in words (in stead and to day)... but that is rather minor when I consider the big leap he has made.

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Have a great day!

Updates

and things I forgot to mention....

Tommy made it all the way home to Snanjlo this morning.

It has been snowing since yesterday... with less accumulation than it takes to cover the ground. I ran my errands... in the snow... and it began to sleet on me on the way home. Then it went back to snow, but added enough moisture that the 'dry' snow is now good for making miniature snowmen. (Which Dan and Sam are out trying to do during their lunch break.)

We DID stop at the Runestone State Park in Heavener, Oklahoma on our way to Dad's last week. It was pretty cool. The runes have been translated... discovered to be a property marker. (Glom's Valley.... or something like that.) The paths down to the rune stone are beautiful... native stone. They even used the stone to make walls with "railings" of stone along the paths. We didn't go inside the gift shop... but hey, I finally got to stop along the way for a scenic detour!

Once back from errands, I did order Becky a birthday presnt... but not the one I mentioned to her yesterday. I had my eye on a cute little sewing machine. Like the doggy nail trimmer, I decided to read some customer reviews about it on Amazon. Of 40 reviews, there were only two positive reviews, and four mediocre reviews. The rest were all bad reviews... and I suspect that if the reviewers could have given it less than a 1/2 star rating, it would have been in negative stars. So I chose something else. (Guess one should not expect much from a $35 machine). (Sorry Becky!)

In the Swing

December already. I was talking to my MIL a couple of days ago, and she was saying how time just seems to pass so quickly these days. I agreed... it is reeling by like the toilet paper at the end of the roll.

I am "at 'em" a bit earlier than usual this morning, as I wanted to visit with Tommy a few minutes before Mr C took him to the airport. (Though the flight filled up to the 'red zone' since we checked last night. Mr C is freaking out that Tommy may not get out of here today... like that would be a BAD thing!) (I just checked- he has a seat assigned, so he is on his way!)

December is a "Birthday Month" for us. I have a card ready to mail for Tom's youngest sister . I have ordered a present for Jade, my granddaughter. I took care of Christopher's gift a week or so ago. I have two birthday cards ready for folks having birthday's on the 8th... oops- missed my Uncle on the 7th. The next birthday I have to actually "do something" about is Becky's, on the 16th. And even though I have all month to decide what to do, I best be thinking about Mr C's birthday, instead of letting it sneak up on me.

We have school work to do today. And errands, which I have to be back from before noon, since Ben needs the car to go to work. Matt is back from his 'time off'. I DON'T have to go in to OReilly's after all, at least not the extra days this week.

Mr C has been busy looking at houses again. More seriously than he has looked in awhile... with all of the estimated budgeting and calculating that goes with it. He seems to enjoy 'number crunching'. He showed me one place online yesterday- I loved it! Then he dashed my hopes and said it was too far to even consider. (So why show it to me? Just to see me get excited enough to yank out the rug?)
Right now, the place at the top of the consideration list is local- probably 2 miles as the crow flies, from this house. It is about 5 miles by gravel road... and since Mr C doesn't do dirt/gravel roads, the distance expands in order to stay on pavement. If we moved there, I would still be able to keep Matt. It would be closer, or about the same for Mr C getting to work, but slightly longer for me to get to Oreilly's- travelling on paved roads. It is a double wide. We'll see. You know how things can change on a dime around here.

I suppose I ought to get to checking on the Cyber-Monday deals. Maybe I will find something cool for Becky, instead of the item I mentioned to her yesterday.