A Devastating Loss

The day after surgery, I was moving carefully around my kitchen trying to get some things together to throw in the crock-pot for dinner. One of the kids was helping me. I was in a less than pleasant mood trying to get things done so I could go lay back down. I was barking orders left and right so rapidly that my helper was struggling to keep up, not that the helper copped an attitude or anything. (Who would blame her?) The crock was sat on the edge of the island precariously and all of a sudden a loud CRASH! It fell. The crock pot which provided so many lovely meals for our family is gone forever! I was surprised that it did not break the tile when it hit so hard. It was quite a mess of broken glass and ceramic pieces to clean up. I was in the market for a new one anyway - but at $30-40 that will have to wait. Finances are so tight. It is going to be hard to cook without it. Somehow, we'll survive.

What's For Dinner - Italian Wedding Soup

Several people have asked for the recipe of Italian Wedding Soup. I have adapted it some from the Taste of Home cookbook. It is so yummy. It'll be perfect to have for dinner tonight to warm our tummies before an evening by the fireplace watching the Great Pumpkin!
Here is the recipe:

Italian Wedding Soup

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground turkey
2 cups bread crumbs
2 eggs
salt
pepper
oregano
2-3 cans chicken broth
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups frozen or fresh chopped spinach
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 box small pasta - shells, bowties
Mix together the beef, turkey, bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings. Form 1" meatballs and brown in frying pan. In Dutch oven saute onion and minced garlic cloves in olive oil. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, kidney beans and cooked meatballs and bring to a boil. Add spinach and return to boil, then add noodles. Cook until noodles are cooked to desired texture.
Serve with crusty dinner rolls.

Good Friends Meet

I got to meet my buddy Stephanie and her awesome family tonight! It was so great. Her house felt like the home of an old friend. Dinner waiting for us when we got there, and sitting down to eat together seemed as natural as you could imagine. How nice to have a home cooked dinner in the midst of a very long road trip.
At the suggestion of her husband, we got a motel nearby. I was so tired when I got behind the wheel that I knew I wasn't going to be able to drive very far!
I am posting this picture in protest for all of our RCU friends. My four chins and greasy road-trip hair are not flattering at all - but for better or worse - this picture with my dear friend that is now not only an online friend but a friend IRL (in real life)! I just hope that we get to visit again very soon!
Love ya Stephanie - you are even more awesome (and cute!) than I could have expected!

Parade of What?

I had the best time yesterday. We went out in the afternoon to a Parade of Homes in the Raleigh area. My sister-in-law who is working toward her business degree had a real estate project to do, and thought it would be a fun way to do it looking at brand new several million dollar homes. One of them was 3 million to be exact. Yes, they were beautiful. Yes, they had luxuries I could not even imagine, including a built-in cappuccino machine, special wine storage, etc. But all I kept thinking was how hard it would be to clean the whole place,and how difficult it would be to be so spread out for my family. It would be great fun for entertaining - and yet with the whole bubble bursting economy we are learning the dangers of being "house poor". I think I'm with Queen Victoria on this one - things do taste better in small houses. Just as my friends said on my post with the picture of my dad's motor home that we have been staying in, life is so much simpler with less. How to get there is a different story. . .
The fun wasn't the houses -it was my brother passing gas then leaving a room, my sister accidentally turning up a whole house sound system up too loud, and laughing ourselves silly at the littlest things - especially the hoity-toity crowd commenting that the rooms, all of which were suites with their own walk-in closets and full baths, were too small, etc. Wow. We really rednecked it up!
After the tour of homes we went to look at some that were on the list in the downtown area, and ended up in a pretty bad neighborhood. My sister was in the car with me holding her cell phone out the car window to get the GPS to recognize where we were and give us some better directions. My brother, following us from behind and knowing the neighborhood was populated by gang members was saying things like "don't turn right, don't turn right" and of course the GPS would tell us to turn right. We laughed our heads off later. Thankfully, Laurie and I did not realize that we were in any danger at the time.
At the end of the evening we all got together had dinner at CiCi's pizza. The waitress remarked that we were a large family. We are. We tend to cause a lot of chaos and take up a lot of room, but one thing that is for certain, nobody in the whole place is ever having as much fun as we do when we get together!

A Blog About Nothing Much

We have had one busy house in the last month or so. My brother is here and we are having a terrific time. He is so funny - and the laughter he brings is really good medicine. That has kept my mind off of my doctor's appointment on the 18th. I will be getting the results of all of my tests hopefully on that next appointment.
Tonight the kids had friends over to play some games. We played Psychiatrist, Silent Football and Apples to Apples. In Silent Football Kendra's cruel and unusual punishment when she lost the game was to go to our neighbor's house at 10 pm without explanation and sing "I'm a Little Teapot"! It was hilarious! We wore Uncle Rob out! He retired just a bit ago and I am on my way. Tomorrow my mother-in-law and her sister Julia are coming to have dinner with us. I am going to try and make these delicious looking coconut pastries for dessert. Yum.
Oh and don't forget to click on the link in the right sidebar to be a "follower". I really hate that term, but for the sake of the blog we'll just remember that you have a mind of your own and so do I and that this "following" just means we want to share keep up with one another!
I have a lot of thoughts right now but none that are terribly coherent. More later dear blogophiles!

It's Only a Pot

Tonight, when I was making dinner I realized that one of my saucepans has completely disappeared. It meant that I had to wash and reuse the larger of the two that I have twice in order to cook dinner. I don't know why little things like this are such an irritant. It is a very nice pot - from a set that a friend gave me a few years ago. I just hate losing something like that. The whole family swears that they have NO IDEA what happened to it. I can just picture my husband using it outside to put water in his truck, and he knows that would freak me out. I keep reminding myself that it is only a little pot - but it is driving me batty. Where did that thing go???

It's All a Crock

I am absolutely loving this blog. I can't believe someone would be brave enough to try and cook int their crockpot every day for a year. It is amazing. As I've said here before, the crockpot is favorite way of cooking. I used to only think of it for those hot meals ready when you get home from a long day out. I realized last year that it was a great way to cook a meal without heating up the kitchen. What I really like about her recipes is that they are healthy, and she has a lot of healthy suggestions to go along with all the food she prepares. Many recipes that I find for the crock pot are made with canned soup, etc. which are alright once in a while, but too high in sodium and other things to use regularly. She is also hysterically funny. I was enjoying reading her "verdict" to each recipe that she tried. Another thing I love about crock pot cooking is that I can put dinner together in the morning when my energy level is highest instead of at 4 pm when I am zapped. I planned my whole menu for the week around my crock pot. I can't wait to see what the family thinks about all the new things we're going to try! I am even going to try a dessert for the first time.

Decadent Dinner Date with Daughter

How is that for the most times anyone has used the letter D in a title? It was a most fabulous evening, and I don't regret one second that I have no clue what happened on LOST. My date with my daughter at the new restaurant where she works was fantabulous - and did I mention FREE? For such a small town this restaurant is really going to make an impression. All the teenagers want to work there, so they had their pick of the cream of the crop. Tonight they had a "mock opening" where the day-shift served the night-shift and then vice-versa. Each person could bring one guest and so my lovely daughter asked me. The best part was that it was all totally free. Nada dinero! We had appetizers, drinks, dinner (thank GOD I got a salad) and dessert - this sinfully delicious thing above is called a Texas Brownie - yep - much bigger than your average brownie, and beautiful too. The restaurant is brand-spanking new and it had the Texas atmosphere going on. I think about that line from the Titanic movie about eating off of dishes that have never been eaten on. You could still smell a slight hint of freshly cut wood. The atmosphere was all Texas too - using wood, stone, and galvanized metal even as the table top. A very fun night. I ate too much - but it was worth it. Here is my date to the left in her uniform. Ain't she cute? If you happen to have her as a waitress, make sure to tip her good - she's saving for college!

A Favorite Dinner

Sometimes on Thursdays I post crock pot recipes, but instead today I decided to post about what I'm making for dinner TONIGHT. It is one of our family's favorites. Meatloaf, homemade mashed potatoes and veggies.
I know - what's so special about that? Nothing - but it's good. It's your basic ground beef, bread crumb, egg and seasonings meatloaf. When I was younger I didn't like gravy, so I found a recipe for a meatloaf glaze that was 2 parts ketchup and one part brown sugar - and we love that stuff. We also like our mashed potatoes with butter and sour cream. Gravy is not necessary.
I like veggies anyway they come - as long as they aren't from a can. Fresh or frozen please.
What's on your plate tonight?

"Elements" of Surprise

I made homemade pizza for dinner tonight. Thankfully it was already done, and we were sitting at the table eating when we heard a 'zzzzzzt' noise. My son and I who were sitting on the side of the table facing the oven both saw a flash. Hubby went outside to turn the breaker off (yep our house is so old the breaker box is outside) and checked it out and determined that we need a new element. So here I sit $67.75 poorer for the love of cooking. Not having an oven element when you bake all your own bread is bad news. It is also heading very rapidly towards the holidays, so we had to bite the bullet. Thankfully it happened after dinner. Now to the dishes.

This made me remember the last time we had an element burn up - Travis was laid off and our dear friends James and Kate bought us a new one. You really never do forget the kindnesses that people show you.

Being Tired is a Good Thing

Yesterday we had Kendra's friend-that-is-a-boy's mom and step-dad over for dinner. I got up and did some much overdo housework, and then ran to the grocery store. I made two huge pans of lasagna, homemade garlic bread and a huge salad full of all kinds of stuff! Dinner was nice, but it was very late as they had commitments until 7:30.
Today I had a bunch of work to catch up with after a busy week. I finally reached the end of my inbox and then I had to run and make a deposit at the bank. I am also working on a yearbook project for our local co-op and had a bunch to do on that.
This evening the teenagers gathered together at our house again. We all live so spread out that most of the moms stay. I like that. We have a good time together too! I enjoy it so much. I realized tonight that most of us in our little group of friends are new to the area. I like to think that God designed it that way. We need each other.
When he got off of work, Michael came over and he sat with Kendra for a long time on the porch swing. I just listened to the creak as it went back and forth, and their quiet conversation through the window. I could hear the kittens romping around as they played at their feet. I am wearily tired from the busy-ness of the week - but it is a good kind of tired. The exhaustion is a reminder that I have a full life, for which I am exceedingly thankful.

Lonestar Girls Night

I have a neighbor that I have been getting to know better more recently. She is a nice lady, a bit older than me, but she has a daughter between my girls ages. She has come over for coffee a few times, and I have gone to her house. Her daughter invited my girls to go to a youth rally at her church tonight, and she and I decided to drop them off and go out for a bit. She had to buy a wedding gift, so we went to the World Market store - and I loved it! (It did make me miss my friend Tina, but at the same time made me happy to be doing something that made me feel connected to her!) I got some dark chocolate covered espresso beans! Woo hoo! I also got some breakfast blend coffee beans and added about 100 new items on my wish list. After that we went out and ate mediocre chinese food. It wasn't horrible - but not great either; thankfully the company was good! When we picked the girls up - we went to see if Becoming Jane was playing at the two local theaters yet. It wasn't playing at the first one so we headed out across town. As we were leaving the mall parking lot where the first theater was, we were followed by two motorcycles that revved the engines, causing the three teenage girls hopped up on chocolate covered esperesso beans (bad idea!) to turn around and wave. The first chance they got, they passed us up - and did wheelies and other stunts to show off! We were laughing so hard. Our movie wasn't playing at the second theater either, so we decided to see No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones. It was pretty good. Another food movie like Ratatouille - but without the rats! It was just an all around fun night. I needed it so much - and I had such a nice time. I hope we get to do it again soon. The girls had a great time too!

Dinner after Dark - A Story About Daylight Savings Time

Kullen and I had an "ah ha" unschooling moment this afternoon. I called him inside because we were about to eat dinner. Several things were amiss - for one, Travis called to say he is going to start working 10 hour days beginning today. He wasn't here for dinner time, and it seemed so early. Kullen went to the sink to wash his hands and said, "Mom, how come we used to eat when it was pitch black outside, and now we don't?" No lengthy explanations - I just told him that it gets dark later than it used to, and that was called Daylight Savings Time. No need for a textbook, a diagram, or a clock. He made a keen observation, asked a question, and learned - without "school". Kids really are learning all the time.