This was the shirt I should have bought to begin with.
Abolish the CIA?
For those who are interested, it isn’t simply Ron Paul asking such questions. Add Instapundit and Christopher Hitchens
to that list as well. Though in truth Ron Paul does not seem to favor the abolishment of the intelligence gathering function of the federal government.
The Jo-Brella
Yesterday afternoon it was warm enough for me to finally turn my attentions to our neglected shrubbery, and I trimmed ’em all up till they were looking pretty again. Jay got home from work early enough to take advantage of daylight and attack several larger plants in our yard which also needed some serious taming. The kids played nearby while we worked, but Josiah must have been watching us more closely than I’d thought. Because as I pulled stray leaves off of the large Elephant Ear in our front bed, he ran over to me, and started yelling something unintelligible all the while jumping up and down and waving a very large stalk from the plant.
“umbLella, umbLella!!” was what he was saying, and he insisted that I watch while he very carefully stood under the huge leaf looking as if he was ready for any rainstorm that might suddenly appear out of the sky. He reminded me of little Nicholas under the toadstool in one of his favorite board books: I am a Bunny:
What do you think?
My Tiniest Knight in Shining Armor
Look how cute I am with this sword….
Watch out!! I am ready to do some serious damage with this thing!!
ATTACK!!!
A Family Outing
Abigail hung up her ballet shoes this year in favor of studying piano, and we were blessed to find a wonderful, and highly recommended music teacher not far from our home. This past Friday night Abigail had her first opportunity to perform publicly, and the whole family, including Grammy and Grandy, came along for the fun. We were treated to an hour of wonderful music played by students from ages six on up to 16. Abigail, though very nervous about playing in front of others, did a lovely job, and I hope having gotten through her first little recital will help her gain confidence about future performances.
After the recital we had supper together at the Food Court
and then the kids were treated to rides on the carousel by their grands. I have to post this picture as proof that our Grammy really is feeling much better since her surgery – since Josiah needed a riding buddy, she volunteered to climb onto the swiftly whirling merry-go-round, and try out her new equilibrium. Wow!!
I think everyone…
had a…
great time.
Happy News!!
It is my joy to announce that as of last night, “Mr.” Keith and Aunt Sandra are engaged!! We had a visit from both of them this afternoon, and all had fun congratulating them in person (and admiring the beautiful ring!). We look forward to having Keith as a member of the family, and the children are all very excited about “another fun uncle”! Congratulations, you two!!
Continuing Confessions…
He also REALLY
REALLY
REALLY
likes yogurt!
A Confession…
Yesterday, when I told you that Josiah won’t each much of anything, I mis-spoke. Because there is one thing he really does love to eat: butter. So what I should have said is, “won’t eat much of anything except butter”.
Preferably in stick form, and preferably slightly soft, like after Mommy has left it on the counter for a couple of hours to make it easier to use in the baking of cookies. Or even better, with wrapper off, and beautifully presented on a plate on the table, because it was supposed to be used as a spread for the dinner bread.
I have caught that sweet child of mine twice in the last three days hungrily gobbling up the better part of a whole stick of butter. So strange…
A Soup All My Family Will Deign to Eat
Jay and I love to eat homemade soup, and I enjoy making it very much (in fact I can hardly stomach the stuff in a can anymore, soup snob that I have become!). But our children usually eat it only because they know they are supposed so, not because they like it. Nevertheless, I press on, trying out new recipes on them. For years I have made soup after soup for them, insisted they eat at least one meal of each recipe, and hoped perhaps they’d develop a taste for it.
Tonight, at long last, I felt greatly rewarded for my efforts by the fact that all of them (well, all except Josiah, who let’s face it, won’t eat much of anything) really, really liked it!!! Hooray!
And so, I must write down the recipe, since all I did was make it up as I went along. I was inspired by Rachel, who posted a recipe for a chowder last week. Here’s my version (I just used what I had on hand, and amounts are somewhat approximate!):
1 onion, chopped
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 lb carrots, sliced
4 Tbs flour
2 cups homemade turkey broth
3/4 cup white wine
2 cans cream style corn, DO NOT DRAIN
1 lb frozen package corn, steamed in the microwave
1 can original Rotel, DO NOT DRAIN
chopped meat and cooking juices from oven-baking three chicken breasts with skin/bones
thyme, sage, salt, pepper, garlic, basil, all to taste
2 cups skim milk
3/4 sour cream
Dump onion, bacon, and carrot into a large Dutch oven and stir till onion and carrot are soft, and bacon is cooked. Add flour, stirring to make a roux of sorts. Add the rest of the ingredients up to and including spices. Bring to a soft boil, cooking till soup is thickened, just a few minutes. Add milk and sour cream, stir till heated, and serve.
A Visit From Old Friends
We greatly enjoyed our long break from school and work over the Thanksgiving holiday. The week-long vacation was only slightly impacted by half of the family succumbing to pink eye, and Josiah coming down with a whopper of a virus and a cough which has sadly kept him (and us) up for three nights in a row now.
Thankfully these ailments held off until our three day visit with the Pecks was almost complete. While they were here we enjoyed something we have missed dearly since their move a couple years ago: time together just being friends. While we never made the effort to sit the kids down and get all eight in one picture, here are a quite a few fun shots we did manage to capture. We are so glad they could come to visit!!
