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Mercy's Progress with PropranalolHead over to www.petersonclan.com to see our battles with the plague and other things... but yesterday we had a moment to breathe and noticed that MERCY'S HEMANGIOMA LOOKS GREAT! This is amazing since she only had 9 doses (3 days) then we needed to stop them due to her getting rotovirus at the hospital. BUT THE HEMANGIOMA CONTINUES TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!!! Here are photos from March 3 - the day before we started the propranalol.  And this was last night:     Can you just imagine how excited we are?!?! This morning it even looks flatter than these photos... wow. I'll keep everyone posted. Garden Notes 2/ 27/ 09Don't forget to head over to www.petersonclan.com for daily posting on the PetersonClan's happenings! I will also be creating a garden list where we can all post about our garden's progress! So head on over there!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We finished our seed starting little greenhouse this week. And by WE I am not including myself... I mean my wonderful husband. Here is as best a photo as I can get, since it is a relatively small laundry room. You can see that the lights for the bottom shelf hang from the underside of the top shelf.  You can sort of see that the bottom shelf holds my trays that were started two weeks ago.  On the top shelf I had to put the peas I started two weeks ago because that shelf is taller. And I put the trays I started today. The lights for this row are hanging off the ceiling.  Mental note for next year: You may be able to start peas inside, but if you do it too early it is hard to prop them up.  My seedlings are doing great. Most of the plants are getting their second set of leaves. Here is broccoli:  Cauliflower:  Cabbage:  Lettuce:  Mint:  Basil: (I think these are the most adorable leaves...)  Today I planted tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, oregano, parsley, more lettuce, and a few more peas. I may regret the pea ones, but I figured what the heck, live a little.  Garden Notes: 2/ 19/ 09Don't forget to head over to www.petersonclan.com for daily postings... or at least almost daily postings... I only use this blog when I am putting in photos as it is easier to work with for pictures...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This has been a big week for my plants... Eric finished the two shelves above my washer and dryer. They both measure 5 ' x 3 ' , and are big enough for at least 6 seed starting trays. We put flourescent lights to help add growing light... three fixtures (4 ' each ) hung on the ceiling for the top shelf, and three on the bottom, hung from the shelf above them. We are excited about this because this is sustainable, and helps us to eventually be less dependent on others for our food. I am also excited to claim previously dead space above the washer and dryer. Since a bigger house is out of the question right now, we are looking to wisely use every corner possible. Eventually I may even put a plastic "door" over the front and hooks on the ceiling for holding it out of the way so it can be like a true greenhouse. Last Thursday night I planted broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, mint, basil, lettuce, and a few of the sugar snap peas. I had never heard of peas being started inside, but I read about it in the "New Victory Garden" book I got off Paperback Swap. I figured it would be worth a try.  (This is a picture of the bottom shelf. I am saving milk jugs to punch holes in the bottom and let them slow drip into my outside boxes.) Each tray in the back has 98 spaces, and I probably got a 95% germination rate. We have the lights plugged into a power strip so I can turn them on in the morning and off at night.  This is my lettuce... there is now no longer any reason I cannot grow my own lettuce all year long. I'll need to thin some of it out... those seeds are really small. Mostly I tried to use only one seed in each thing so I don't waste too many.  Basil- it just sprouted yesterday.  Cauliflower...  Broccoli  Peas in the front, and cabbage in the back. There is only one small area of trouble in paradise. Remember when I said that we are bringing the hay (pecked over first by the chickens so we are not planting weed seeds into my garden...) and manure and filling my garden boxes? Well, the compost process produces heat. The dogs have discovered this, and taken to sleeping INSIDE MY BOXES at night... this is eventually going to cause a problem. Just like that, Eric has another job... building a FENCE around the garden spot... hehe. As if the poor guy needed another project to do for me. It is getting warmer (and our heater is FINALLY working right...), so we are looking forward to spring. And after a couple months of eating anemic tomatoes bought at Wal*Mart... I cannot wait until my sink looks like this: 
Some Seriously Good Eating[Don't forget to head over to our primary blog at www.petersonclan.com for daily postings!]Wow- folks.. have we been eating well on the Peterson Front. Those of you on a diet maybe should just keep on blog hopping. (Oh yeah- I'm on a diet. Well, it's on hold, I guess!) Yesterday was Eric's birthday. He loves cheesecake, so I purposed to make him a cheesecake from scratch. It was delicious! Here is a picture of the pie...  And here is what it looked like on our plates, after adding some home made blueberry jam on the top...  Phew was it incredible. Here's the recipe: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Owen's Cheesecake 4 egg whites - whipped 1 c. sugar, added slowly. Whip these two into a merangue. Soften 24 oz. cream cheese to room temperature. 1t. vanilla While wearing a rubber glove (Owen is a graduate of the New York Culinary Institute... he does things like this), mash with hands. Or use a mixer. (I used the mixer.) Add to the merangue and mix for 30 seconds. Bake in 300* oven for at least 30 minutes. Make sure the middle doesn't jiggle. If the middle cracks, it's done. Top with: 1 lb. sour cream 1/4 c. sugar Mix these and spread on top of the cheesecake. Put back in oven for 5 minutes to melt the topping. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I also have been reading a lot about a new book out called "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day". It seemed interesting, and I just love good fancy bread, if I don't have to take too much time to do it. This was so easy, and received rave reviews, so I just had to post about it. In a mixer put: 6 c. warm water (Hint: make the water just warmer than you would have a baby's bath...) 3 T. Yeast 3 T. Salt 13 c. flour. (I used white flour this time, although I will try it with my fresh ground wheat next.) Mix this just until wet. Divide into several containers... I used three ice cream containers... you can figure out what you need. Let rise for 2 hours. Put in fridge until you want to use it. Best if overnight or so. The dough is easier to work with when it is cold. When you want to make the bread, put cornmeal on a pizza peel. Pull off about a pound (cantaloupe size) ball of dough. Roll the edges under, and sprinkle with flour. Let sit for 40 minutes. 20 minutes into the sitting period, put a baking sheet (I use a stone) in the oven, and an empty broiler pan. Turn oven on to 450*. After it is hot, cut slices on the top of the bread (it won't have risen... that's OK). Slide onto hot pan in oven, and add a couple cups of water to the boiler pan. Bake for 30 minutes.  It is wonderful. This would make great rolls too. Try it! It's easy! If you don't have an industrial size mixer, you can half all the ingredients and make a smaller batch. My big batch made 7 loaves. Oh it's so yummy. Try it! January's Highlights[Remember to visit my main blog for more regular posting: www.petersonclan.com ]Matt had a Birthday:  We got snow:     Mercy went Texas:  Who is that Masked Man?  This is NOT a photo of Mercy outside in her jammies, while it was freezing cold. Nope.  Matt and Beth are buddies:  Merchant Mercy:  Sara and Beth:  And Look who's getting so big? She's eating baby food and everything already! 
Christmas PhotosThought I would post some photos from the last few weeks... don't forget to bookmark (or subscribe to the feed... it's easier to keep track of updates.) my other site: www.petersonclan.com . I am only using this one when I need to do entries with photos... it's easier here than blogger. But all other entries are done there.For those of you reading who are not family or friends in real life, and don't care about photos of the kids... feel free to come back tomorrow. I'll return to the regularly scheduled blogging at that time. All 9 -  Bethany:  Mercy:   Nate:   The three littlest: (Mercy's telling Bethie to smile.)  Sara:  Youngest 4:  Emma: (With an ornery Nate looking in...)  Anna:  Josiah:  See the "Dangerous Book for Boys under the pillow?)  Matthew:  Angela (and Eric):  And just to prove I really exist...
The Real Way to Eat an Oreo CookieDon't forget to head over and bookmark my new blog address: www.petersonclan.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Recently we had friends over who taught us the "Civilized" way to eat an Oreo Cookie. It was so absolutely sublime that I just HAD to share it with all my bloggity friends. 1)It must be a REAL Oreo Cookie. Anything else is inferior.  2) Using a thinner fork, or a knife, insert the prongs into the icing of the cookie.  (We had 19 kids in the house... we ran out of forks!) 3) Dunk Oreo into a mug of milk. THIS IS IMPORTANT!! You Must obtain enough milk to reach Depth of Dunkability... the oreo must be thoroughly submerged.  You cannot see them, but there will be bubbles coming up from the cookie. When the bubbles stop, there is the perfect amount of milk saturation. The cookie will be soft on the outside, but crunchy on the inside. Absolute perfection. 4) When pulling the oreo out of the milk, one must turn it on it's side. This allows the surface tension of the milk combined with the grooves in the cookie to keep the milk from dripping off. If you put it vertical, the milk just runs out and ruins the whole thing. See?  5) Eat. And enjoy. ;)  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may be wondering exactly WHY I have wasted good time writing this? Well, I do have a point. The point is to SAVOR simple things. Enjoy them. Make the moments last. As I have said before, the days are long and the years are short. The children will all grow up, and someday it will just be me and my wonderful husband puttering around our house. And I want to remember how wonderful it was to eat an Oreo cookie. Or read around the Christmas Tree. Or play a loud silly game. Any of the fun things which sometimes get pushed aside for the mundane in life... laundry, diapers, and piles and piles of dishes. So go eat an Oreo Cookie, and ENJOY!!! New Curtains Warming Our HouseI wanted to share one more thing before going off and getting ready for our company tomorrow. Remember the other night when it got down to 58* in our house?! Well, I decided to stop putting off one of my projects and get it done. I have been planning on making coverings for my windows in our living / dining room. We have 5 windows, and this room is by far the coldest in the house. So I decided to do something about it.
I had an old quilt from my mom which I cut up. I used the middle to make into two rectangles... I hung them up by putting safety pins on the back, and hanging them on small nails. See how cute they turned out? Two windows look like this:
 On the third window, I put a crib quilt my mom, grandma, and I quilted when I was pregnant with my first baby. All the quilts are up by safety pins. (See the gifts someone put on the window sill? The kids are so excited to give their gifts...)
 Over the door I put a quilt my mom had made for me a few years ago. I need to find the third "branch"... I have no idea how it came off.
 For the last window I had a quilt I had worked on, but never finished. It was not big enough, so I took the red sashing I had taken off the quilt from the first two windows, and added it as a border. I still have to cover the rough edges, but it works for right now. (Seeing the photo I realize I need to hang it straighter... that will get fixed!)
 When I proudly showed it to Eric he said, "It's great. Except that it has Snowmen on it!"
At my chagrined look he followed with, "Wait. That didn't come out right. It's just that it's a WINTER scene and won't be good all year round." (Well, we won't put it up in the summer!!!) He finally gave up trying to dig out of the hole he put himself into. There was no recovery.
So how about you? What do you think?!?! I love the snowmen.
Check it out!Go check out my new digs and tell me what you think! The PetersonclanPhoto of BethanyJust because we haven't posted one recently... here's Bethie!
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