Education? Fun?

These have got to be the cutest little wind up toys around!  This site has a bunch of other fun things to look at - have fun!

http://kikkerland.com/

Everybody likes to win something, right?  Well, my friend Gayle, who operates the grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com listed on my favs, has a great prize to hand out to some lucky winner.  I have learned so much from her blog, and it is always fun!  Be sure to check it out!

Out with the old

Remember how you are supposed to remember not to wash and dry your wool sweaters?  Well, I forgot.  My sweater is now about size 4T!

So, I cut off the bottom of it, turned under the top to make a casing, sewed the front closed, and Inara has a new felted wool skirt!  I was thinking of using the sleeves to make a few coin purses or something.  Any ideas?

Pantry

We had a very good food storage/pantry before the fire.  We are slowly beginning to rebuild it now.  Notice all the 50% discount stickers on packages/cans????  We normally don't buy pre-packaged food stuff, but when it is unbearable cheap . . . . .  I was going to take a picture right after I canned and got it all on the shelves, but didn't remember to until just now.  So, there are a few bare spots already!

More Snow!

But first, here is a picture of the last pup left for sale - wouldn't YOU like to take him home????

4 girls playing in the snow!

Two pretty girls in the snow!

Ok - it is supposed to be a swimming suit on the snowlady, but we got cold and wanted to go in.

These are the two lonely Chinese New Year decorations that we have up so far.  It begins tomorrow, January 26.  It is the year of the Ox.

Photo Op

Chicka kept insisting that I take her picture today.  She had the setting all ready - she wanted to show off her "chicken".  This has got to be her favorite toy ever.  It is a Pete/Repeat parrot that repeats whatever sound it hears.  She loves the thing!  She takes it with her EVERYWHERE, she gave it a bath, from which we thought it wouldn't recover (darn!).  She takes it with her into her tent and her play closet and teaches it Chinese words!

Trip to the East Coast

This is my daughter in law.  She is trying to rearrange her sewing room to accomodate the new embroidery machine that she just purchased!

We went out to dinner to The Melting Pot.  You can see that MPops really enjoyed the chocolate portion!  Eldest Son was only too happy to share (ha!).

We were able to go to a park to play for a bit, too!

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

OK - any of you who really know me, know my grilled cheese sandwiches.  They don't resemble the traditional sandwich - they are more like black hockey pucks.  That is NOT an exaggeration.  For some reason my time management skills go on hiatus and I can NEVER remember that I need to watch them.  I would say 99.9% of them are near inedible.

Well, guess what?  I actually made a good grilled cheese sandwich today!  When I asked IBoy if he wanted me to make him one, he had no hesitation in saying "no thanks, I'll make my own".  Surprise, surprise, surprise - this is what I made - he decided to accept it.

I was SO excited that I had to take a picture of it just to prove that I CAN make a grilled cheese sandwich!  Notice that BOTH sides are edible.

The only teensy-weensy problem was that my sandwich was happily grilling while I was doing a photo op.  Here is my sandwich - not as bad as most, but still a touch on the dark side!  Ah, well - at least I am used to it!

A Spa Party!

MissE hosted a get together with some of her friends tonight.  It was supposed to be a birthday party, but she didn't want to have it until we were back in the house.  School, weather and schedules put a few delays and kinks in the plans, but it finally happened!  I have to say, they are a great group of girls that I am enjoying having here!

The girls had fun making popcorn balls.

Here they are busy making a hot cocoa body soak to use.  Interested in the recipe?  Thought you'd never ask!

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup powdered milk

1/2 cup Epsom salts

2 Tablespoons baking soda

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stirring until well mixed.  Divide into two "treatments".

Draw a warm bath, gradually pouring the mixture (one half of what you made!) under the faucet so the water gets frothy.

Step in and soak for 20 minutes as the milk and Epsom salts gently soften and exfoliate your skin.  Let the delicious scent of chocolate was over you from head to toe.

Rinse off thoroughly under the shower afterward, using a brush or loofah to stimulate your skin and sweep away any cocoa residue.

They had a white elephant gift exchange.

Pedicures were in order.

A creative way to hold the nail polish!

Photography and reading are always popular.

Showing off their purple nails.

All the water

Be sure to check out our friend's blog, listed on the friends and family to the right.  They put together a GREAT movie of what it looks like around here.  Be sure to check it out!

Also, don't forget to go to the grocery cart challenge blog.  Gayle has some SUPER ideas to save money on day to day family living.

Have a blessed Friday!

More Washington Winter Weather!

Goodness, does it ever end??????  We finally thawed out, now heavy rains on top of the snow melt have created a mess!  AuntyC has been staying with us for over a week due to inclement weather and was just packing up to leave when she got the word that the road was flooded - no getting out!  Then we got a call saying that Grandma (living on her own, soon to turn 99 years old!) had received an evacuation order!  AuntyC and I packed the truck with rubber boots, parkas and flashlights and forded the water over our roads to get Grandma out.

Here is what the street on the way to Grandma's looked like this morning.

Grandma's house doesn't have water at it, but the report is that there is a 50/50 chance that the dike next to her house will spill over the top sometime today!

So, Grandma will be staying with us for awhile.  Her main source of entertainment is drinking tea and watching TV.  As many of you know, we haven't had TV reception for going on 15 years.  What to do??????  Well, there is always Guitar Hero!  Yes, she is actually playing the drums!  Right now we have an Audrey Hepburn movie on for her and I really think that she is enjoying that a little more than playing the wii!

This is from a road leading to our house last night - you can't see it here, but there was about 2 feet of standing water on the road.

Not a very clear photo, but you can see that we had a couple of visitors to our yard yesterday - just outside the dining room!  There were 3 or 4 more of her friends in the trees just behind her that you can get a peek of.  There were probably more, but that is all we could see!

Dinners.  OK - some of you have been asking what we eat for dinner.  I don't know why, but here goes.

Fri.

leftover ham, scrambled eggs, onion, mushroom in fried rice

steamed broccoli

Sat.

baked chicken breasts in Thai Peanut/Coconut Milk sauce

cheaters saffron rice (I used turmeric)

green salad

popcorn for dessert

Sun.

broiled buffalo steaks

baked potatoes

mixed sauteed vegetables

bottom crust blackberry pie (from summer harvest) with crumb topping

Challenge

I was hoping the text would show up for you before the photos, but that didn't happen.  Sorry!  Just scroll down a bit and you will see why I have posted photos of food sitting on the table!

Here is what I unloaded - we spent $97.15 total.

What did we get?

turkey breast

turkey drumsticks

chicken breast - 3.43 lbs

crimini mushrooms - .37 lbs

bok choy - 1.51 lbs

cereal - 13 boxes (that should last awhile!)

popcorn

lettuce - 1 head, 1 leaf 

sweet potato - 6.26 lbs

brown mushrooms - .28 lbs

avocados - 4

celery

tomatoes - 4

milk - 1/2 gallon lactose free (for Naya)

thyme - fresh

rosemary - fresh

tuffy kitchen scrubbers - 2

steel cut oats - bulk - 1.75 lbs

frozen juice - 3

eggs - 18

yellow onions - 1.84 lbs

bananas - 3.22 lbs

clementine oranges - 5 lbs

The BEST BUY??????  The turkey drumstick mark-down package!

$6.57 for at least 8 dinners to serve 6 people each!  (I always cook for at least 6 diners, even though there are only 5 of us.  If we don't have company - which around here is almost always - it is sure to get eaten the next day for lunch or a snack by someone!)   Turkey soup, turkey pot pie, turkey tettrazini, etc.

OK, fellow frugal moms.  A member of our homeschool co op has a great blog set up where she shows just how much she spends and what she gets for her money each week for groceries.  She feeds her family of 6 on $60 a week!  Please check it out - it is listed in my lists to the side under grocery cart challenge.  Although that is a figure that I would like, I just don't have the time to shop the bargain stores regularly.  But, I thought it would be fun to compare just how much we do spend each week and what we get for our money!  Anyone up for sharing?????

Here is what we came home with today - not knowing that we were going to share this in advance!  Granted, our refrigerator does have enough milk to last a week, bread is in the freezer from past sales, or home made, but for the most part this is a fairly typical shopping spree for a week.  I am really looking forward to seeing some of yours!

Happy New Year 2009!!!!

January 2, 2009 - we woke up to - you guessed it - more snow!!!!!!!

No light face, but we are all wishing you a 2009 full of good health, happiness and the joy of Jesus in your life!