Day 44 -- It's Magic!

Jared got a magic trick book for Christmas and he's been learning new tricks ever since. I picked up a deck of cards for him on Saturday, and he's been practicing his magic on all of us all weekend.

Day 42 -- Toilet Paper

A 36 roll package of toilet paper and a little imagination can create a lot of fun! Towers, bowling, a toilet paper fight, and on and on!

Day 41 -- Spinning in Circles

The kids have really been playing well together all through the Winter Break (Maddie has a week off school). One of the favorite past times has been spinning in circles until they both can't stand up. I recognize it's a little difficult to capture on film. Sorry!

Day 40 -- The Seaport

The Mystic Seaport is a really fun place to visit. They have lots of info about sailing, boats and all kinds of things. They have a great little children's museum for the kids to play and fun exhibits for them to explore.

Day 39 -- Jellies

How could I resist? OK, they're not for me, but I'm honestly tempted to try to recapture my youth with fun plastic shoes. I loved the 80's. When Maddie found these shoes and politely asked if she could have them, little did she know she was asking for one of my most favorite things I ever owned. She's living the dream for me! I don't think I'll give in and get a pair for me, but it sure is tempting!

Day 38 -- Piano

John loves to play the piano -- he'll ask to get up several times a day and will play away. We laugh that it sounds like he's trying to summon 'Trolley' from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Day 37 -- Valentine's Day

I was sick as a dog! Our Valentine's Day may go down as one of the least romantic in history. But, my sweetheart of a husband vacuumed, cleaned and watched the kids all day while I slept in bed. We rallied to drive-thru Wendy's for dinner, but that was as close as it got to an evening out. I will say that I do have the best husband in the world and I love him with all my heart! Thanks for doing all the work!

Day 36 -- Longing

Both babies were longing to break free. There were four more kids running about -- this was the safest place for the little ones for a while, but it didn't help the sad little faces.

Day 34 -- Making Valentines

We took all the suckers ad made them into cute butterfly valentines. I hope Maddie had fun, I did. I cut out dozens of butterfly's and flowers for Maddie and our Daisy scouts to make valentines.

I got my printables from Skip to My Lou -- a great little idea blog.

Day 33 -- Homemade Suckers

When I was little, my mom would make homemade suckers for Valentine's Day almost every year. We've been keeping up the tradition. If you're going to try, remember this one tip -- don't overfill the molds!!!

If you'd like to get started, the a great place to get stuff is LorAnn Oils.

Wild Rice Soup

This recipe is one of the best around. It truly is a soup that eats like a meal. It is a great one to take to other people when you need to lend a helping hand.

Wild Rice Soup

1 large Onion
2 cups Carrots, diced
3 cups Celery, diced
½ cup Butter
2/3 cups Flour
6 cups Water
2 tablespoons McCormick chicken base (or 4 Bullion Cubes)
2 pkgs Rice-A-Roni Long Grain and Wild Rice
5 Chicken breasts (cooked and cubed)
2 cups Half and Half
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Pepper

1. Chop vegetables and place in large soup pot. Melt butter and sauté vegetables until tender.
2. Add flour and stir until vegetables are coated. Let the flour cook for about 2-3 minutes until it has a golden blond color.
3. Slowly add water and stir vigorously until flour dissolves. Prepare Rice-A-Roni as directed on box, then add to the soup.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer on low until well blended, usually about 1 hour.

Day 32 -- NO TRASH!!

Our trash is kept inside a kitchen cupboard. Every time we open it up to throw something away, John will run over and bite the trash can. I don't know why. He's done it since he was mobile. We always tell him "No trash!" in an attempt to stop the problem, but it happens, day after day. It will be fun to see how long it takes to grow out of this habit!

Day 31 -- Shout out and Furnace

Little John loves to talk on the phone. If it is on speaker, he has to give a shout out and have his turn. Here he's talking with grandma & grandpa.

Today our furnace stopped working. I love my house! We think it stopped working on Saturday, but it took almost 24 hours for the house to get cold enough for us to notice -- thanks insulation!

But, the best part of the day was when the repair man told us that we didn't owe any money. None. He came out on Sunday, did about one hours worth of work, replaced two parts and didn't charge us a dime. Why? We bought a service contract when we moved into the house since we didn't know anything about oil and we were worried what might happen. I paid $189 for two years -- it even includes annual cleaning. I'm betting we would have paid about $300 for the service call. I love it when I get a bargain!

Day 30 -- Good Friends

We had a great time on Saturday with some of our friends. They came over for a church meeting, but Maddie was so happy to play with their kids.

French Peasant Bread

This is a very simple bread to make. It is absolutely fantastic to eat! It's very similar to Macaroni Grill's appetizer bread that they bring to the table.

(If you are looking to make it taste even more like Macaroni Grill, add a small amount of crushed rosemary and shake kosher salt on the top of the loaves just after they've been brushed with the final butter.)

The first time I tried making it some friends were over, and we gobbled down a loaf in just a minute or two. I like it best fresh out of the oven dipped in balsamic vinegar. I just bought a gigantic bottle of vinegar at Costco this week, and I'm dying for some bread. Maybe on Sunday.

French Peasant Bread

1 package dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons butter

1. Place yeast, water, sugar and salt in a warm bowl and stir until dissolved.
2. Add flour and stir until blended, but DO NOT KNEAD.
3. Cover and let rise one hour or until doubled in size.
4. Flour hands, remove dough from the bowl and place in 2 rounds on an oiled cookie sheet.
5. Let rise an additional hour.
6. Brush the top with melted butter and bake at 425 for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and cool an additional 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and brush again with butter.
9. Serve warm.

This recipe comes from one of the three vital cookbooks every woman should have -- we'll cover the other two another time. The cookbook is..... "Favorites" by the Ivory Family. You can purchase a copy here by calling the Make-A-Wish foundation. They will ship it media mail, so the shipping is really cheap. I highly recommend you call them on Monday!

Remember to Read!

In our ward at church I work in the primary. We are asking everyone in primary to read the Book of Mormon this year. Hopefully, their families will read right along with them. We've got a few incentives planned. I even taught a short lesson on Sunday to all the kids about reading their scriptures.

Even with all the encouragement I'm giving to others, I'm having a hard time remembering to do it myself. Maybe that's why I think it's so important that we work on it as a whole group, I'm not sure. A friend pointed out a scripture reading site that will actually email you the verses you would like to read based on your own goals. You create a login, set the pace, and it will email you the verses.

I love this part -- it won't email you the next group of verses until you click on the 'complete' button. You have to actually acknowledge the email, scroll through the verses -- read -- and click on the completed button. Then it tells you how close you are to finishing your goal.

Now, I recognize this might be just a bit lazy, OK a lot lazy, but if it gets the job done, where's the harm?

Day 29 -- Homemade Pasta

I was inspired by this post to make homemade pasta for the family. I don't have a pasta machine, so it wasn't very even, but it was really tasty! I'll do it again for sure! Maddie gave it a 10 with extra fingers. No higher praise exists in our home! Wohoo!!!

Garlic Lime Chicken

This recipe is unique, but I really like it. I've pulled it together from several different recipes. Give it a try:

1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon thyme
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup Ritz crackers, smashed
2 chicken breasts, sliced into smaller strips
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese grated

1. In a plastic bag, mix everything but the butter, chicken and lime juice.
2. Drop the chicken pieces into melted butter, and then put them in the bag. Coat pieces evenly.
3. Place pieces into a well-greased baking dish. Dribble the lime juice over the chicken. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350.

Progress, definately progress

I'm not one of those women who has a baby and just bounces back. It seems to take forever for me to pull myself together again. I just don't have the strength to do all the things I used to do in a given day. Every muscle is weak. My brain is weak. My will-power is even weaker. All the daily chores seem to require extreme motivation to get any one item finished. It really takes a toll on my whole system.

However, today is the first day where I really feel like I've finally returned -- I'd give it a 75%. It's been 14 months and I'm finally back in the game.

I was able to get my floors cleaned, have a meeting with my fellow girl scout leader, take care of a very poopy baby, clean part of our "dirty room", pick up the house, make a dinner and even clean up the dinner. I washed the dishes, started the dishwasher and took a picture to document my progress. There aren't even stacks of things lurking around the corner! No hot spots! All of this was finished by 6:30 PM.

It helped that Jared and Maddie attempted to go to a cub scout pack meeting so that I could focus and get it all finished. But I still did it. All of it. I'm thrilled that I am to the point that I want to work on it all again. It's not drudgery, it's my job and I like it. Well kinda. You know what I mean.

I've even washed three loads of laundry. They are waiting to be folded on my bed. I guess it's on to that task before my TV addictions start at 9. I can't bear the thought of throwing all of those clean clothes on the floor when I've worked so hard all day. It's almost compelling. Almost.

Day 28 -- The Tub

John loves the tub -- he obviously can't wait for my assistance. Hope you aren't offended by the naked baby bum. Before I know it, it's not going to be a baby bum anymore. I just had to document his little body before he turns into a boy rather than my baby.

He seems to be growing up so fast! It's all about learning and experimenting now. He loves to put his ears under the water and cover them. Then he'll say his "abadee abadee abadee" and lift his head out of the water and say it again. He loves to hear the different noises that it makes. It's really cute.

Day 27 -- Cholesterol

One of the side effects of my ovarian disease is extremely high cholesterol. I decided it was time to start fighting the battle, and so for the past six months I've been working to reduce my cholesterol count. I started in August with a total count of 247. I've dropped down to 170 -- 77 points! Yipee!

I'm taking lipitor (only 10 mg), but we've also been switching to olive oil, whole grains and less whole eggs in our diet. The results are fantastic! I'm so excited!

Banana Bread

We had some wonderfully dark brown bananas begging to be baked into something tasty today. I thought I'd try out a new recipe from King Arthur that I haven't tasted yet. So, here goes banana bread!

This is something that many bakers make, but I've had a hard time finding a recipe that I just love. Well, I tweaked the one from King Arthur. Give it a whirl and see what you think -- I was pretty happy with the results. Here's my version:

Banana Bread
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1 tablespoon orange juice (optional)
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, beating till smooth.
3. Add the mashed bananas, jam, honey, and eggs, again beating until smooth.
4. Add the flour, then the walnuts, stirring just until smooth.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top. Let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
6. Bake the bread for 45 minutes, then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the top, to prevent over-browning.
7. Bake for an additional 25 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven; a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean, with at most a few wet crumbs clinging to it. The tester shouldn't show any sign of uncooked batter. If it does, bake the bread an additional 5 minutes, or until it tests done.
8. Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Remove it from the pan, and cool it completely on a rack.

Day 26 -- Early Release

Maddie was released from school three hours early today because of another snow storm. Usually, she'll get a little bored at home all day. But today, she and John really started playing together. Really playing. Sharing toys, laughing at each other, just enjoying being together. It was so sweet. I put John in the Octagon so that I could do the dishes, and Maddie jumped right in with him. They were playing with the letters for this picture.

Day 25 -- Bread Bowls

Today I set out to learn how to make bread bowls and copy Panera's wonderful Broccoli Cheddar soup. I used a baguette recipe, but instead of shaping it into three baguettes as directed in the recipe, I shaped it into four balls and cut an 'X' in the top of each one. I couldn't believe how big they got! It was actually astonishing to pull them out of the oven. I wish I would have taken a 'before' picture, they were just tiny 3" round balls of dough. They rose before they went into the oven, and then almost another 25% when they were baking. The recipe has a great crumbly, crunchie crust. Maddie was quick to tell me that I got the bread right. We gobbled up a loaf in about 2 minutes flat. The bread was a huge success -- now on to the soup.

It's not very often that I completely fail at cooking -- even my mistakes are usually tolerable. The soup was awful. Disgusting. Terrible. I was so angry about the soup I was snapping at everyone and I refused to eat it. I wouldn't even let them make the bread into bowls.

Maddie and I ate bread and cheese. Jared ate some of the soup. We threw the rest away. I can't believe how awful it was. I don't even know if I'm going to try to copy the soup again. It was expensive to try -- one pound of cheese, one pound of broccoli, julienned carrots, half and half, chicken stock, etc. It probably cost around $11. If I would have had 3 dinners out of it, I would have been OK. Now, nada. UGH!

My only consolation is that I now know I can make some kickin' artisan loaves, bread bowls or baguettes.

Day 24 -- SuperBowl

I really love the SuperBowl. I'm not a gigantic football fan, but I do enjoy a good game. And, the game snacks are also a bonus. We had a fun night together as a family hanging out in the basement, watching the game. Pictured here are obviously our 3-D glasses(generously donated by a friend). Also, in case you haven't seen it, this was one of our Christmas presents this year -- my wonderful new couch!

Day 23 -- Pancake Breakfast

We had a great church acivity -- a pancake breakfast. It was such a fun event. Everyone pitched in and did a great job pulling it together. The hardest worke was Carlin -- she flipped pancakes for over an hour. Way to go! Jared and John were on hand to help out too.

Day 22 -- Homework

Kindergarten is so great! Maddie doesn't often have homework, but when she does it is usually an art project. She was asked to decorate a heart to hang in the halls at school for "LUVVV Month" as she keeps calling it. She used paint and glitter glue to make her creation.

Day 21 -- Cheese Bread

Today, a friend called to say she's had the stomach flu, and the only thing that sounded good to eat was my cheese bread. How flattering! So, of course I whipped up a batch and ran it right over. For those of you curious about the recipe, it can be found here. The only thing I change is the cheese -- I use a Mexican blend rather than the expensive stuff.

Day 20 -- Whole Wheat Bread

I've been trying to master the art of whole wheat bread. Little John loves the Bosch! He likes to watch every second that the bread is kneading. He even likes to keep his hand, nose or tongue on the top of the lid to see what it feels like -- don't worry, I keep this completely sanitary! It's quite funny to watch him try to figure all this out though.

Day 19 -- Financial Freedom

Today was John's last taste of formula. At $34 per week, this will be a gigantic savings! Pictured here is the very last can of formula.