Savory Surprises

I had a great birthday surprise recently.  I went out to get the mail, and this box was sitting at my front door!  When I was visiting Joanna a couple months ago, she and I had a conversation about onions in which I shared my *love* of onions.  I put onions in everything I can, and I tried my best to introduce Joanna to my favorite way to eat them: roasted!  Anyway, I guess I made an impression on Joanna with this conversation, because she ordered these lovely Vidalia onions from Georgia for me!  I have really enjoyed them.  They are perfectly sweet without losing their bite. Mmmmmm.  I only have four left, and I am rationing them!

Thanks, Joanna!  You're the best.

Things That Really Chap My Hide

This won't be the most positive post I've ever written, as you  might have guessed from the title; but I have noticed that there are some things that regularly bother the living daylights out of me.  Whatever that means.  Anyway, I thought I might just turn it into a Top Ten Thursday post!  So here goes...

10. When my boys put stickers on random objects that they know they are not supposed to add stickers to.  Of course, they never really come off well, either.

9. When bananas go bad long before they can be eaten.  This didn't bother me when I could just whip up some banana bread with them, but the no wheat/rotate egg/rotate banana thing kicked in, that just wasn't much of an option anymore.

8. The airline's new(ish), rediculous weight restrictions on suitcases that make it impossible to actually fill a suitcase all the way without it going over the weight limit.

7.  Stainless steel.  If anyone had told me just how hard it is to keep stainless steel polished and free from water marks and finger prints, I never would have filled my kitchen with it!

6.  The way boys keep their dresser drawers.  No matter how many times I show these kids how to keep the clothes neatly folded in piles, their drawers look like this in a matter of hours.

5.  Getting beat in Scrabble, especially by someone who looks this happy about it after the fact!

4.  Ants.  Enough said.  (And yes, that ant is on my kitchen counter.  He was there with about 18 of his buddies the other morning.  I killed all his friends before taking his picture.  Then it was off with his head as well.  Bwaahaaahaaahhaaa!)

3.  When dishes pile up immediately after I wash them.  Why does no one else in this house wash dishes???

2.  Saying goodbye to people I love.  Joanna doesn't look any happier about this one than me...

1.  Kids who continue to grow up no matter how many times you tell them to stop!

Mini Post Monday

• Have you heard of or seen the show, "Jamie's Food Revolution"?  If you haven't, you really ought to check it out.  British chef Jamie Oliver is trying to wake up America to how our food choices are literally killing us and spark change in the way we eat, especially in the way we feed our children in the public schools. I know I do not eat perfectly and I could stand to lose some weight, but as a family we have decided to permenantly change our eating habits one at a time and have been doing that for almost a year.  We feel so much healthier and look forward to continuing to make new changes.  This is what he is all about. You can watch full episodes or clips from the shows here.
• I know St. Patrick's day was a while ago, but I haven't really posted much here since then.  Even with our allergy restrictions, we managed to have a green breakfast, which the kids loved! 

Green apple pear oatmeal with green water.  Kinda bland, but the boys thought it was the best!
• I had so much fun with Joanna last week.  I hope that someday we are able to live closer.  Until then, I dream about that cruise we are going to take when neither of us has children too young to leave behind.  Hey Jo!  I told Jerry that we should drive there with our four kids and that he and Del could stay at your house with your six while we cruise away.  I thought they could do home improvement projects together.  He wondered if there would be any projects done with ten kids underfoot, but I don't know - it sounds like a perfect plan to me!  Don't you think so?  I mean the older kids will be old enough to help with the younger ones, right?

Me and Jo fixing Sunday lunch together.  We spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen, and I must say it is much more fun to spend that much time in the kitchen when you have a friend along for the ride!
• At this point the bathroom remodel is basically done, with only small finishing touches to take care of.  We got a mirror up!  Isn't it great?  The rest is really up to me.  I need to find something to hang on the wall above the toilet, a way to add a towel bar to the big tile wall, and a soap dispenser/tissue cover set that matches.  Then it's done!!  Jerry has already moved on to the next project.  He's ripped up the only remaining linoleum in our house and put down tile.  He still has to grout that tile, but then we are up to the other bathroom remodel.  It never ends, I tell you!

• T-Ball is in full swing!  We are absolutely loving having the boys in T-ball.  We go to the practices as a family and while one boy is in practice, the rest of us are running around playing or working with the other older boy on ball skills.  They had their first games Saturday.  Aaron's team did really well.  He played third base, throwing the ball to assist in 2 outs and scored 2 runs plus had 2 RBI's.  Ethan's team has only practiced twice, and that showed.  Ethan was in the outfield, so he didn't see any balls other than the ones he hit off the T.  But his hits were great and he ran like a pro!  I do think that with some more practice, his team will get a win eventually.  Until then, it is like a comedy show for the parents!  We've never laughed so hard, and the neat thing is that the kids are having a blast, too!

Aaron's team just before their first game.  Aaron is the fifth from the right on the back row.

A great hit from Ethan!
• I've lamented before how much time I spend making pancakes for breakfast for my allergic family.  But I found a pancake recipe that I am super excited about.  Up to this point, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, we have had no options for breakfast other than oatmeal.  We like oatmeal just fine and it is economical, quick, and easy, but sometimes I get tired of eating it over and over and over.  I saw this recipe on a blog and gave it a go this past Saturday.  It is SO good!  It will become a permenant part of our menu!  Even if you can eat "real" pancakes, it is a great way to add whole grains and fruit to an otherwise nutrient deficient meal once in a while.  If you do try the recipe, I guess you should know that I used watered down coconut milk instead of the juice that was called for, and also added more of it than is called for.  I like a thinnner batter.

Mini Post Monday

This picture sums up why I am not going to write much today.  I have only a few more hours to be part of the "Jos," plural, together in the same zip code.  After 4 1/2 days of watching movies, shopping, having tea, playing Scrabble, and talking, talking, talking, it is going to be hard to get back on the airplane to go home.  I do miss my husband and other two kids, and it will be nice to see them, but the time I've had here has been sweet.  Thank you Joanna for being such a wonderful friend and hostess!  You are the best.

It's Good To Be Younger

Today is a good day for me because today, for 88 days anyway, Joanna is older than me!

Happy Birthday, Joanna! I love you!

My prayer for you this year:

"The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26

Mini Post Monday

I figured I better be prompt with this week's Mini-Post Monday so that I don't get chastised again! :) (Sorry, Jo! I had to put that in there!)

• I am eating one of my left-over salted chocolate truffles I gave to my friends for Christmas while I type this.  Man, are they good.
• My family takes "hide-and-go-seek" very seriously.  No, really.  Check it out.

Jerry climbed in an empty cabinet and the first one to find him was actually Andrew.  The funny thing was that Andrew thought it was so great that Daddy was in the cabinet, Daddy had to stay there for quite a while while Andrew closed the doors, opened them up, and laughed!

This hiding spot of Ethan's doesn't look too impressive until you see the large picture...

Ethan climbed up in this cubby hole intended for a TV in this exercise/game room!
• We had a white Christmas this year!!!  Now, for those of you who live in places that get snow often, you might not think this worthy of posting.  However, for the DFW area, it was the first white Christmas in 83 years.  It is amazing to me that very few people living in our area were alive to remember the last time it happened. Our kids were thrilled, to say the least.

Our yard, covered in snow.  For Texas, this is a full blanket of snow!

Isn't it impressive??  Too bad we didn't have enough snow in TX for this one.  Jerry and the boys made it in Ohio the week before our white Christmas!
• Not every part of a white Christmas is good.  A dear family in my church had a car accident on Christmas Eve when their car hit a patch of black ice and went into oncoming traffic.  The husband and the wife's mother were killed on impact, and the dear wife, Pat, died later in surgery.  Pat made my wedding cake.  Pat has also been my Bible Study leader since June.  Every Sunday, I have gone to her house for a few hours and studied God's Word with her and a few others.  God used Pat to show me some great freedom that he had waiting for me, but I hadn't yet found.  I will miss Pat greatly. 
• Have you ever heard of the Manhattan Declaration?  My pastor brought this to our attention in church yesterday.  He said that in the last conversation he had with Pat's husband, he was told of this declaration, and thought it was important enough to share with the entire congregation.  I have been thinking for a while that I am not involved enough in politics.  I know that I don't agree with much of what is going on in Washington, and I vote every time I have an opportunity, but I need to be more informed and involved.  I think that I am going to start by signing this document after Jerry reads it and we have a chance to talk about it.
• Ever wonder what the boys thought of their dad getting his Master's degree last week?  Just look at how excited they were for him.

Aaron was practically bursting at the seams!

Ethan could hardly contain his enthusiasm!
• Andrew, on the other hand was happy as a lark as long as he could put water on his rubber ducky.  Needless to say, we left a bit of a wet spot on the table when we left!

In addition to the large water spot, I'm pretty sure there was an entire meal's worth of crumbs...
• Look, Mom!  I'm a Texas Longhorn!  (Should someone tell him that when you are wearing an Ohio State jumpsuit, you shouldn't pretend to be a Texas Longhorn?)

Who needs Christmas presents when you have a plastic hanger?
• Finally, for those of you who watch commercials regularly, perhaps you've seen this commercial from the last Superbowl.  I don't watch live TV, preferring to record the shows I like on my DVR and forward through the commercials instead, so I just saw this commercial yesterday.  I laughed so hard I had to look it up on YouTube right away to see it again.  Enjoy!
  

Random

I actually feel quite bad that I don't post here more often. Not because I think all 4 of my adoring fans really want to hear more from me, but because I have a deep desire to stay connected to good friends, and usually feel disconnected from them. Specifically my dear friend Joanna, whom I love and miss. A lot. Anyway, there is a really good reason I don't post daily, though. Namely, my life is way too boring for that. Just to prove my point, the following is a collection of could-have-been posts from the last week. Note the amazing excitement of my life as you read them. *Ahem*

"Today for science we collected a pile of leaf litter from our flower bed, brought it inside, and examined it under a magnifying glass. It was teeming with tiny life! I am extra excited that we saw a baby earthworm. It was only as long as my thumbnail and as small around as a thick piece of hair. If it hadn't been moving, we never would have seen it. If I actually knew how to take good photos and had a decent camera, I would have taken a picture. Ya gotta love homeschooling!"

"Today I gave myself a shot for the first time, and you know, it's really not hard or scary at all! I am thankful that I can get some relief from my allergy shots and not have to drive the 25 minutes to the allergists office multiple times a week to have them shoot me up! I've only done it once now, but I am really impressed by myself!"

"You know those nifty heat-resistant, black handles on most cookware? If you apply direct flame to one of those handles for a while...oh, say, 15 minutes or so...they turn to ash. They also make your smoke alarm beep with fury. They also fill your house with a horrible, terrible, armpit-of-a-trash-heap smell. Don't ask how I know."

"Went to a wedding today...bickered with my husband the whole way there. Isn't a celebration of marriage beautiful?"

"Did you know that one frozen rabbit costs $30! I don't even know if I like rabbit, so I am not about to pay that kind of money for a rodent. Where's the neighbor I used to have who kept rabbits for the express purpose of making rabbit stew out of them when I need him??"