While my early morning hours consisted of dozing off, only to find a cat around (and ON) my head every 20 minutes, it did allow me to finally get annoyed enough at 5:45 this morning to get up out of my warm, cozy bed and take the offending cat into the bathroom and shut her in. (Her brother was already in there, as they stay in our master bathroom during the night, but Charlotte must have snuck out when one of us went in there.)

Then to the kitchen to get a jump-start on my day.  I got the Roman Lentil Stew (Nourishing Traditions, pg. 215) started, which we will be having for supper, and into the crockpot.  I also drained and started cooking the garbanzo beans I had soaking, as I will be cooking them for a meal later this week.  I also made a quick batch of muffins -- I created the recipe yesterday before church using up left-over yogurt and it tasted so yummy, I decided to make it again for today's breakfast (along with oatmeal).

Yogurt-Coconut Muffins

1/3 c. oil or melted butter

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

1/4 t. sea salt

1/2 c. raw sugar

1 c. plain yogurt

1/4 c. coconut (I used organic raw coconut)

Mix the above well and then mix in until moistened:

1 3/4 c. flour (I used mostly wheat with a little unbleached white)

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

Put in 12 buttered muffin tins and bake for 18-20 minutes in a 400 degree F. oven. 

Then kids to get up, lunch to get ready for DH's lunch box, and a quick vacuuming of the house (it was a mess last night, so for 45 minutes before I went to bed, I worked on cleaning up the family room, kitchen, and bathroom).  It's nice to start the week with a house that doesn't look like it's been in the middle of a whirlwind.

School was a little harder to get started.  The kids do presentations every week for Classical Conversations, and DD dawdled last Friday afternoon when she was supposed to be putting it together.  She completed her notes (although not always joyously) this morning and finished her editing worksheet before sitting down to a lunch of left-over chicken stew over freshly made biscuits.

Our Favorite Biscuits (I make this in my "new" Cuisinart food processor that I got at a thrift store for $6.  It was my super-find of last month.)

2 c. flour (I do 1/2 wheat/ 1/2 white)

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. cream of tarter

2 t. raw sugar

1/4 t. salt

Mix together and then add 1/2 cup butter until coarse crumbs.  Add in 2/3 cup milk.  Roll out to 1/2" thickness.  I cut them out using different kinds of cookie cutters (stars, hearts, etc., which was very fun and very pretty).  Cook in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Here is this week's menus:

	Bfast	Snack	Lunch	PM Snack	Supper	Prep 4 Tomorrow
M	Oatmeal	Fruit	Left-overs	Veggies & Dip	Salad & Roman Lentil Soup	Cook Garbanzo Beans
T	Muffins	Fruit	Pizza @ CC	Chia Spice Kashi Cereal	Salad, w/ veg, HB eggs, etc	Defrost Turkey breast for curry & soup; soak rice; start bread
W	Omelets	Fruit	PB&J Sandwiches	Veggies & Dip	Salad and Indian Curry & Rice
Th	Muesli	Fruit	Grilled Cheese	Crackers & Cheese	Salad, w/ veg, HB eggs, etc	Prep Soup
F	Toast	Fruit	Veggie & Rice Soup	Kashi Sunshine Cereal	1st Day of Hanukkah: Potato Pancakes w/ applesauce; Challah; Cheery Cheese Blintzes	Cook Pumpkins
S	Blueberry Pancakes	Fruit	Leftovers	Crackers & Cheese	Murder Mystery Dinner: "Accomplice Appetizers," "Sleuth Salad," "Put a Steak a) on my plate,or  b) in my heart," Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Death By Chocolate (brownies, hot fudge, ice cream)	Make "Applesauce with Pumpkin" muffins

I'm very excited for the end of our week, as we will be having two nights of opening our home up to friends.  We are studying Hanukkah this year and invited over our good family friends (who is also our pastor's family) to have the first night with us.  For our gifts to the kids, we are doing this in leu of Christmas morning for 2009.  I'll post more on this later, with pics I hope to take of our celebration, and will explain why we are doing it this way for this holiday season.

Then on Saturday, we are hosting a Murder Mystery Dinner with the other two couples in our small group.  We just finished doing "Financial Peace University" in November, so this is a fun way to celebrate the completion of that as a group.   We've been trying to get together to do this for the last few weeks, so after a couple of times rescheduling, it looks like Sat. will be the night!  It's called "The Murder Mystery Party Kit"   -- it is all there in a tiny little box, but it is packed with fun. 

We ran errands and went to the chiropractor this afternoon.  When we got home, I cooked 4 pounds of ground beef I'd purchased and later put it in the freezer to use later this month and to have handy for something quick, if needed. 

The kids enjoy listening to Cinnamon Bear every year, so we listened to a few episodes before dinner to catch up (you listen to 1/day, starting at Thanksgiving, going until Christmas).  After dinner, we watched "Night at the Museum" which the kids LOVED and when we tucked them in, they pleadingly asked if we could get the sequel from Netflix, too.  (Hummm.... a pretty good carrot to get them motivated in a few areas.) 

We ended our day with reading about Samson from the Bedtime Bible Storybook.  This is a favorite book of mine, and I thought it was out of print, until I saw a young girl with it at our church.  I had purchased it 15 years ago at a Dollar Store when I was a First Aide-r at a Christian Camp, back during my summers of college when I was in nursing school.  I had bought it to have something to read to sick and hurt campers, and the first summer, I read all the way through it.  By seeing the bible laid out chronologically (I had never read all the way through the bible), it brought it alive to me and I came away with a rich sense of God's story and was hungry for more.  It warms my heart to read this to my kids and have them learn as we read and have good discussions.

Tomorrow  is our final day of Classical Conversations until January.  I was able to plan for my class and load the car this afternoon, so we are set to hop in the car early and make the almost hour ride to the city tomorrow.  We made cinnamon rolls this evening for DD's presentation, as she is presenting on St. Lucia.  Part of the tradition is that the oldest or youngest daughter in each family gives her family rolls or other pastries dressed as St. Lucia, so DD is going to give all of her classmates and her tutor some as part of her presentation. 

The house smells so good, I think we are all going to have great dreams.  Getting to enjoy a cinnamon roll for breakfast tomorrow morning will wrap up a great 24 hours that began our week.  Now if only the nocturnal cat will just leave me alone tonight and let me sleep without her rubbing against my head...