My blog that is!

My blog is moving over to Blogger.  Ever since HSB did the last upgrades, I have had a horrible time with getting things to work.  Pages load so slowly or not at all!  I can rarely get comments to post on my friends' blogs, and I am finding myself more and more frustrated.

Isaac:

Doug:

Isaac (Yes, that is string cheese!):

I am not goofey at all.  In fact, my family thinks I am too serious.  So, I have no goofey pictures of me to share LOL.  Oh, OK, I am dancing with Santa (Doug):

I'm still having the cabin fever/winter blues.  But it is nice to see my family being goofey!

Whew, it has been a busy few days!

Saturday Doug didn’t get home from work until about 11pm.  Isaac went to work with him.  What did the rest of us do?  Oh, Allen had bowling in the morning.  Jordan went to watch and ended up staying all day to be a lane monitor for a state women’s tournament.  They are doing that most weekends through June.

I cleaned house, made bread, visited with my step-mom and relaxed while they were gone.  When Allen got home, we ran to the store for stuff to make pizza.  It was SO yummy.  I napped and Allen did this and that.

Sunday Doug lane monitored the tournament.  The boys and I went to church.  After church, Jordan and Isaac were in the Pepsi regional bowling tournament.  Allen went to watch.  I took a nap.  I also went with friends to a family night at a country bar (no alcohol, no smoking, all ages) for country line dancing.  It was SO fun!  Next time, my family isn’t going to be busy, and they are going too.

Monday was super, duper busy.  I did school, got dinner together, did laundry, and prepared food for the Lia Sophia jewelry party I had that evening.  After dinner, the boys had quiet time, I talked to Doug before he went to work, and then I rested for about ½ hour.  The afternoon was spent correcting school and getting things together for the party.  We had a great time!  It was such fun to have fellowship and see my family. 

Yesterday was less busy.  We did school, Isaac went to the produce store with me, I went to Curves while the boys had lunch, took a nap, corrected school, finished laundry, ran Jordan to and from church for his small group and made some phone calls.

Today the first order from the Frankferd Farms co-op I started is to be delivered.  I was expecting it Friday.  I’m glad it will be here today, as we are busy Friday.  Only one other gal ordered with me this month, so we’ll run her things to her before Doug goes to work.

Monday Doug spent quite a bit of time on the phone with a potential employer.  The job is his as long as he passes a drug screen and road test.  That won’t be a problem.  He goes Friday at 7:30 am.  If you think of it, please be in prayer for us.  This will be quite a change for us and I am a little nervous.  I know it is necessary, but that doesn’t make it easy.

The rest of the week is more of the same.  School, Curves, clean, cook, nap lol.  Doug took vacation this weekend and we have quite a few plans.  Prayer group is at our house on Sunday.  So I’ll spend Saturday morning preparing food (sauce and meatballs, bread, a coffee cake) and cleaning.  I’m looking forward to hosting prayer group, but the amount of kids that come, running through my house and eating everywhere, it stresses me LOL.

Isaac has really been struggling with the Apologia general science.  I have to admit, the first part of that book is really dry.  The history of scientists is not really interesting to him.  He’s gone from a very relaxed way of doing science to textbook to get ready for high school.  Reading is a struggle for him.  He has great comprehension, but he is a slower reader and it takes a long time to read the assignment.

But, we are on the DNA Module now and he is really enjoying that.  I had to take pictures of him building a DNA model with beads and pipe cleaners.  It is “lame” to have your picture posted on the blog, however.  But I told him he’s so darn cute I just couldn’t help myself.

Really concentrating:

Still concentrating:

All that hard work paid off.  Jordan had to get into the picture!

Today was a very busy day.  I tried to make it busy because it was also a very hard day.  My brother was in a horrible accident 14 years ago today and lost his life.  He was drinking and went around the bars at a railroad crossing.  He was hit by an Amtrak going very, very fast.  I still remember that day so vividly.

So I made myself very busy today.  What all did I do?

~Got up and did my chores, breakfast (juicing really), and got the kids moving

~Read-alouds with Isaac and Allen

~Chatted with Doug a bit

~Ran to Sam’s Club

~Did Curves while I was out that way

~Home, put away groceries and make dinner.  We had a pizza pasta casserole that was awesome!  I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.  I also cut up pineapple and cantaloupe.  I am proud of myself.  I only had a tiny, little bit of the casserole.  Other than that, I’ve been raw all day.  Well, I did just have some raisin bran, but I was 85% raw today!

~Cleaned up the kitchen, helped clean up from the sanding (Doug is stripping woodwork), and chatted with Doug a bit more

~Took a long nap.  I read for a while and then sleep.  I’m reading Karen Kingsbury’s Ever After right now.  Very good book!

~Got up and helped Doug get off to work.  Isaac went with him today.

~Took Doug and Isaac to the truck.  Ran to Wal-Mart and the grocery store

~Came home, put away yet more food, fixed a salad for my dinner, also had fresh pineapple.

~Went to Gramma’s to play Super Scrabble.  She won one and so did I.

~Came home and visited with Jordan and Allen.  Took a bubble bath and now I’m going to watch Monk and head to bed.

Tomorrow I am going to clean, clean, clean and make 4 loaves of bread for the freezer.

I made this new, yummy recipe for dinner today.  It is from the feb/march 07 issues of Light and Tasty magazine.  I’ll type up the recipe as it is in the magazine and put my changes in ( ). 

Creamy Spinach Tuna Casserole

5 c. uncooked egg noodles (whole wheat egg noodles)

1 c. reduced-fat sour cream (regular sour cream)

½ c. fat-free mayo (light miracle whip)

3 tsp. lemon juice

2T butter (oops, used 4T plus 1 large clove garlic squeezed in it)

¼ c. all purpose flour (whole wheat pastry flour)

2 c. fat-free milk

1/3 c. + 2T or more) fresh Parmesan cheese, grated (Romano)

10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

6 oz. package reduced-sodium chicken stuffing mix (left this out)

1/3 c. seasoned bread crumbs (ww bread crumbs)

2 6-oz. cans tuna, drained and flakes

I added a liberal amount of Italian seasonings

Cook noodles according to package directions.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the sour cream, mayo and lemon juice; set aside.

In a large saucepan, melt butter and garlic.  Stir in flour until blended.  Gradually stir in milk.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 min. or until thickened.  Reduce heat; stir in 1/3 c. Parmesan cheese until melted.  Remove from the heat.  Add milk mixture to bowl with sour cream mixture and stir in spinach, stuffing mix, bread crumbs and tuna, and spinach; mix well.  (I added Italian seasonings now).

Drain noodles and stir into spinach mixture.  Transfer to a lightly oiled 9x13 baking dish (I used the PC deep dish baker and it fit perfectly).  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Cover and bake at 350* for 35 min., uncover and bake 5-10 min. longer until lightly browned.  (I baked at 425 for 20 min. and uncovered for 5).

For recipe as printed:

1 servings = 346 calories, 9 g fat, 2 g fiber, 24 g. protein.

Yesterday was Monday, eh?  What did we do?  Oh, Jordan and Isaac didn’t get to bed til 1am from the Newsboys concert.  So they slept until 10 or so.  Isn’t hsing great? 

I got up about 7 and Allen was sleeping on the couch. He had been having nightmares.  So he got up and did his chores and started school.

I started laundry, did my morning computer stuff (very important, ya know), juiced and thought about dinner, talked to Doug for a bit before he went to his parents.

The boys came down and I did the read-alouds with Isaac and Allen.  Continued laundry and made dinner.  We had meatloaf and roasted red potatoes, corn and a fresh, tossed salad.

Doug went to work and I headed to Curves.  I also stopped by my girlfriend’s house so we could work on our Frankferd Farms co-op order.  She wasn’t home.

We watched Miss Rose White in the evening.  What an awesome movie.  It is about a Jewish family in NYC post WWII.  Quite touching.  We all really enjoyed it.

Doug didn’t come home last night, so today was rather quiet.

I was up about 6:30 and everybody else was up before 8.  We did chores and breakfast.  I corrected Isaac’s work from yesterday since I only got to Allen yesterday.  While we were doing that, my FIL stopped by to measure something that he and Doug are working on.  He was here while we read from Stalin.  He left and we almost finished The Trapp Family Singers.  We had 3 pages left before my girlfriend stopped by. 

When Jennie came the boys did their independent work while we worked on the co-op.  I called and set up my account and we placed orders.  Her phone isn’t working, so she made some phone calls and used the computer for some things.  The boys finished up and school ate lunch while we visited.  It was a nice visit!

The boys had quiet time and I ate lunch and took a nap after Jennie left.  Got up and corrected people’s schoolwork and finished reading about the Trapp Family.

Jordan and Isaac took Tucker for a walk and told me it “wasn’t that bad” out.  So being the believing and trusting person I am, I decided to go for a walk.  My legs were FREEZING and my nose was running.  I walked for 25 min.  But since only half the people have shoveled their walks, I didn’t get my 2 miles in.  I tromped through snow over my boots.  COLD is all you can say to describe that.  So it was quite a workout and it felt SO good to be out in the fresh air.  Too bad the sunshine didn’t join me.

We are going to relax tonight and veg in front of the TV.  I am getting sick of winter!  I am trying to finish a poncho I am crocheting.  I hope I can get that done tonight.  I’ll post pictures when I finish it.

My goal today was to eat totally raw and so far so good.  Although I am contemplating a black bean burrito leftover from a few days ago.  So far today I’ve juiced grapefruit and tangelos for breakfast and ate a banana and some dates.  Lunch was a huge salad and then some raw almonds and craisins.  I had a banana after my nap.  I’m having another grapefruit, tangelo, pineapple juice right now.  I am feeling like I want to eat food.  I wish I weren’t out of dates.  I did find an awesome source for raw dates at www.datepeople.net  The prices look good.  And I read on Raw Food Talk website that you can get seconds.  One of the gals posted that she got 15 lbs. of seconds for $23 plus shipping.  What an awesome deal and I plan to get in on that next week after payday!

We’ve had such a nice weekend.  Doug was off Friday and Saturday, a very rare treat.

Friday he did some work around the house.  Allen had a friend spend the night.  We pretty much just did school, chores, I ran to Curves and relaxed.

Saturday Doug took Jordan and Isaac bowling while Allen and his friend hung out at home.  Jordan and Isaac also had a sleepover birthday party an hour north of here, so Doug took them and 3 of the other kids to the party.  He got home in time to take Allen and his friend to church for their small group.

We got ready to go dancing while they were at church.  After Doug picked up Allen, he swung by and got me.  We dropped Allen at my Gramma’s house and headed to the place the band was playing to have a late dinner and save some seats.  Friends of our from church were coming to hear the band.

Doug is such a sweetie.  I thought he forgot my birthday last weekend when we were out.  Nobody said anything and he didn’t have the band sing or anything, very unusual because we celebrate everybody’s birthday in the band and their spouses/girlfriends.

Well, he had planned to do it yesterday instead.  That way I wouldn’t be expecting anything he said and our friends from prayer group were there.  After the first set, the band sang to me and they had a cake!  I had NO idea.  It was very nice.  Some of the people we know from dancing gave me cards.  It was a really nice evening.

We had an ice storm early this morning.  I did not chance driving to church and Doug had to be there for both services since he was running sound for video.  So I stayed home and took a nap.

The boys came to church from the birthday party and afterwards, Doug went to get Allen.  He stopped by and picked me up for prayer group.

There are so many needs in our group right now.  We spent quite a while sharing and praying.  We always have dinner together, too.  Pam made lasagna.  It smelled SO good.  I didn’t have any though.  I’m not eating white flour, and as good as it smelled and looked, I know I’d not be happy if I ate it (I didn’t have any cake last night either).  I did take a huge salad and had 2 plateful of that and also some raw almonds and craisins.

After dinner we watched Facing the Giants!  Everybody was bawling by the end.  It was SUCH a great movie!

Jordan and Isaac left prayer during the movie.  Our friends that own the radio station had 4 free tickets to the Newsboys concert, so they went with them.  Doug will need to pick them up later on.

Allen is exhausted and watching a movie on the couch.  Doug is finishing paperwork and then we’re going to play Super Scrabble.  He hates that game but is such a sweetie and will play with me.

It’s back to the grind tomorrow.  I could use a week off.  We’ve only been back to our regular school routine for 2 weeks now and it is exhausting me.  I am seriously considering not doing science any more this year with Isaac.  He is 8^th grade and struggling, and I mean struggling, through Apologia general science.  It is a source of frustration every day and he feel like such a failure.  What would you do?

Oops, I missed yesterday.  I am going to try to blog daily.  Oh well, what can ya do? 

Yesterday was a really good day.  I can’t remember quite what happened, but it was nice.  Oh, yes.  We did school and weekly chores.  I went and had my hair done.  Allen took a before and after picture and said it didn’t look different at all.  I’m going to post pictures and you can decide lol.  I am trying to let it grow long.  Doug would love for me to have long hair.  My hair is thin and it is so much work long, so I keep it shorter.  I made him a deal though.  If he gets healthy and loses weight, I’ll let my hair grow.  So by the time he is healthy I’ll have long hair LOL.  Allen is not the best photographer, but you'll get the idea.

I took Jordan and Isaac to the bowling alley and spent the evening with Allen.  Doug was home from work early for a change.

Doug doesn’t have to work today.  So, he got up and got straight to work sanding and stripping woodwork.  I hope he gets it done in the next 2 weeks when we have prayer group here. 

The boys did school and chores.  I ran to Curves while they worked.  When I got home, I made cornbread and the filling for the black bean tortilla pie I posted a week or so ago.  Instead of layering it in a pie, I wrapped the filling into tortillas and put the little burritos in a rectangle baker and sprinkled them with pepper jack cheese before baking.  They were SO good!

I took a looonnnggg nap.  I was shocked to wake up at 5!  I’ll be good to go tonight anyway LOL.

Allen is having a friend spend the night.  We’re just being lazy here at home.  I’m hoping to convince Doug to play Super Scrabble with me.  I thought about going to Gramma’s to play, but since Doug is rarely home on Friday evening, figured that wouldn’t be a good idea.  We’re also going to practice a new dance move we learned a couple weeks ago.

It’s nice to have my family all home together this Friday evening.  Those are rare occurrences lately! 

It’s been a great day!  Even though it started way too early.  Doug woke me at 4:40, by accident, and I just couldn’t get back to sleep.  About 5:15 I got up and woke up by reading email and surfing the net. 

I set out for Curves at 7 while everybody was still sleeping.  It felt good to be up and at it early in the morning.  By the time I got home, the boys were all up and doing chores.  We had an early start to school and the day went smoothly.

I made chicken cacciatore and pasta for dinner today.  It was awesome!  If anybody is interested, I’ll post the recipe in the morning.

About 12:30 I could hardly keep my eyes open, so while Doug did errands, I took a nap.  I got up at 3 and got myself ready to head out the door.  My girlfriend and her husband own a Christian radio station on the web called KNET180.  They had a table at the Chris Tomlin concert tonight.  So I went over and picked up her boys.  They spent the afternoon with us, I fed them all sandwiches and then we headed to church.  I took them home after church so they could head to bed.  Gramma was there.

I brought the boys home, they headed to bed, I took a bath and am heading to bed myself.  Doug is sleeping already.

Tomorrow is another busy day.  My goals for tomorrow are:

~Get up at a later time than today LOL

~Boys up, chores, breakfast

~Couch school

~Independent school and correct all their schoolwork

~Make quite a few pizza crusts, prebake, and freeze.  I ended up not doing that at all yesterday.  I went to coffee with the girls instead.

~Weekly chore day, so I’ll dust the downstairs and my bedroom while the rest of the crew mops, scrubs, moves furniture and vacuums.

~Hair appt.

~Take the boys bowling

~Relax and spend time with my honey

I guess that's what happens when you have a 4 day weekend.  It is hard to get into the groove.

Head on over to the Petersonclan and check out my friend’s great idea of scheduling.  She calls it her brain and gives great instructions for how to put together an organizational binder.

Also, I’m sure ya’ll have noticed I’ve gone blinkie happy lol.  Feel free to use any blinkies I have.  But please right click them and save them as a picture to your computer.  If you just copy them, that’ll mess with my bandwith at Photobucket.

Our day is going pretty well.  We got up and did our chores and had breakfast.  I read aloud to the boys and then I had a doctor appt. for a blood pressure check.  I did really good at 130/60.  So much better, but I wish I didn’t have to take meds for that.  I am hoping with my new dietary changes and hopefully weight loss that will continue, that I won’t need bp meds.

I came home and made reruns for lunch from yesterdays dinner.  I corrected Allen’s schoolwork with him and we had quiet time.  Oh I did go out and shovel some snow and chip some ice off the driveway.  It was in the 40s today and I wanted the slushy stuff off the driveway before it freezes tonight.  It felt good to shovel. 

We’ve had such a relaxing day.  We planned no school today since it is my birthday.  I’m 21 for the 17^th time LOL.  I tried to sleep in, but it just didn’t work.  I slept horribly.  Doug and I had a horrible argument Sunday evening, and I went to bed without speaking to him.  I hate when I do that.  I was still upset this morning, but he is just too wonderful to stay mad at long.

Doug had a few errands this morning, and then he ran me to Save A Lot.  I’ve been putting that off all weekend.  While we were driving down the road, he told me to close my eyes and put out my hand.  He gave me my ring.  When Isaac was born 14 years ago, he bought me a gorgeous sapphire ring.  About 7or 8 years ago, the back of it split and I was unable to wear it because it kept pinching me.  I’ve asked him to have it repaired for every gift giving occasion since then.  I about gave up and was going to take it myself.  But this sweet man gave it to me today.  I am so happy to have it back on my pinkie.

I made the sausage broccoli stuff bread and tomato soup today for dinner.  It is one of my favorite winter comfort foods.  It is the first time I made it with whole wheat bread dough.  Usually my family devours both loaves.  Today we didn’t even finish 1 loaf.  It is so much more filling with ww bread.  It was awesome and now we have lunch for tomorrow.

I went to  Sam’s Club, browsed the mall and did a Curves workout.  It feels SO good to be exercising again.  I am feeling so much better with my mostly raw/whole foods diet.  I just wish my weight would go down.  I did lose 10 lbs. on the juice fast, but now that I am juicing, eating raw foods and 1 small cooked meal a day, I am no longer losing.  I am so frustrated.  I wish I could just accept my body and like it, but I do not like being a plus sized woman.  I want to be a size 12!

I bought Flags of our Fathers today and we watched it.  I tried to get through it and made it about half way.  I’ll try to watch it again later.  The boys really enjoyed it.  And it goes along with our WWII studies.

We are back to the books tomorrow.  It was crazy last week with all the snow, and the boys rushing to get outside and the long weekend.  I am looking forward to some routine!  I am getting cabin fever really bad.  But it is almost spring, right?

Here’s our meal plan for the next few weeks.  Sometimes I plan 1 week at a time, this time I planned 3 weeks for some reason.  It’s only our dinners and I don’t assign certain days for the meal.  I look at the menu in the evening and decide what to have the next day.  I will be making the sausage broccoli bread and chicken cacciatore this week since I have the fresh veggies and don’t want them to go bad.  All meals include a fresh, tossed salad, and usually homemade bread.

I've linked the recipes I know I've posted in the past.  If you want any others, just leave me a comment and I'll be happy to post them.

WW pasta

Homemade sauce and meatballs

Homemade WW bread (2x)

H/M tomato soup

Sausage broccoli stuffed bread

Baked black bean burritos

Breaded Baked Chicken

Baked potatoes

Veggies

Baked fish

Pierogies/brown rice

Veggies

Roasted garlic chicken

Mashed potatoes

Corn

Swiss steaks

Mashed potatoes

Veggie

Baked chicken & rice

Veggies

Tuna noodle casserole

Biscuits

Chicken potpie

Chicken cacciatore

WW pasta

Bread

Homemade pizza

Homemade macaroni & cheese

Chicken tacos

Mexican rice

Chicken & rice soup

Southwest veggie bake

Meatloaf

Roasted potatoes

Peppy pizza pasta bake

Venezuelan black beans

Rice

Cornbread

Honey glazed chicken curry

Rice or Noodles

Veggie

Chili

We’re having such a nice weekend.  I had a great visit with my mom.  We went to a local Italian restaurant.  I made really good food choices, which is an accomplishment.  I love eggplant parm.  But I got grilled salmon with lemon butter sauce and grilled fresh veggies and a salad.  I was waffling when my mom ordered wedding soup.  I LOVE that.  I guess I’ll need to be making it in the next few weeks.

After lunch we went to JoAnne Fabrics and Hobby Lobby.  I popped out and we came home. 

My in-laws are coming for dinner today to celebrate my birthday, so I needed to get the food cooking.  I made sauce and meatballs.  We’ll have that with whole wheat pasta, a tossed salad and homemade whole wheat bread I made Friday evening.  I also made the Sue Gregg almond crunch coffee cake.  It smelled so good.

I did end up taking a nap.  I was so exhausted and I knew it would be a very late night.  So after my nap I chatted with the boys and did some kitchen work.

I picked Doug up from the truck about 9:00.  We hurried home so he could shower, then we headed out to go dancing.  We were late, but it was OK.  They were happy to see Doug walk in.  The first thing they said to him was to fix the feedback and squealing LOL.

We had an awesome time.  It is SO nice that smoking in public is now prohibited in Ohio.  This place is small and very crowded, and it was SO nice to not have the oppressive smoke!  This law is new the past 6 weeks or so.  We didn’t get home until going on 3, and I am SO tired.  I hope to nap again later on today.

So I’m waiting for the family to finish getting ready for church.  We plan a nice visit with my in-laws and Doug’s cousin this afternoon.  The boys have a birthday party this evening.  The adults were invited to hang out and play games, too.  We’ll see how late my in-laws stay.  I need a nap.  I’m thinking Doug can drop the boys and then we can go a couple hours later. 

Tomorrow we’re not having school.  We do not have school on anybody’s birthday!  Doug will be heading to work about 2.  My plan is to make more bread for the freezer and pre-bake half dozen or so pizza crusts to put in the freezer, and perhaps watch a movie with the boys.

We keep getting snow, snow, and more snow.  We have almost 2 feet out there now.  This is the first winter I’m not sick of winter LOL.  Probably because it didn’t get cold until January and it didn’t really snow until February.  But by the end of March, I’ll be ready for sunshine and warmth!  We are itching to open the lake house and do some fishing and relaxing!  The boys count down til Christmas, and as soon as that is over, the countdown for opening the lake house begins!  Who can blame us with a view like this?

Whole Wheat Bread

(2 loaves)

1/3 c. honey

1/3 c. oil

2-½ c. warm water

1 ½ Tbs yeast

2-½ tsp. sea salt

6-7 c. fresh whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur flour, ½ soft white and ½ hard red)

3T vital wheat gluten

Combine the warm water, yeast, vital wheat gluten and 2 c. flour in a large mixing bowl.  Whisk vigorously until well combined.  Allow to sponge for 15 min.  Add the honey, oil, salt and 4-5 c. additional flour until the bowl begins to clean the sides of the mixing bowl.  (Actually I do this by hand.  I mix it by hand, knead it about 8 min. by hand and then put it into the kitchen aid with the dough hook for 2 or 3 more min.)  Dough should be smooth and elastic.  Do not add too much flour.

Put into a greased bowl, cover and let rise 1 hour.  Punch down.  I do an additional rise.  I think it makes the bread lighter and tenderer and my kids are more apt. to eat it.  So after punching down, I let rise 1 more hour.

Remove from bowl and divide in half.  Form into loaves.  At this point, I rolled the dough into a rectangle and spread raw sugar, cinnamon and raisins all over it, then rolled up and put into a greased loaf pan to rise.  Let rise until double, 45-60*.

Bake loaves for 25-30 min. at 350*.  Bread is cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom and the top/sides are golden brown.

You can put an egg wash on the bread.  Depending on the color you’d like, here is what you can use.

Egg yolk and cream wash will give a VERY dark brown color

Egg yolk will give dark brown color

Whole egg with give a dark golden brown color

Egg white will give light golden brown color

I didn’t remember to brush with egg wash, so when the loaves came out of the oven, I brushed with melted butter. 

The raisin bread is SO yummy, light and lightly sweet.  I made 2 loaves of that and 2 loaves regular bread.  I’m going to serve it with dinner tomorrow when my in-laws come.  I am planning to make many loaves of bread and fill the freezer.  I am anxious for when I can get a Bosch!