It's Saturday morning and with the list of "to-do's" looming, just a quick post to say:
1. Happy Birthday to my mom! Love you and hope you have a great day!
2. Please pray for our friend K. She's been a pretty sick little girl the last couple of weeks. K we love you and hope you are better soon!
3. Southern Buttered Pecan coffee creamer is the perfect compliment to a Saturday cup of
coffee.
4. DH makes the best biscuits and gravy this bloggy mama has ever had.
5. I'm really looking forward to dinner tonight with DH. Our favorite sitter and neighbor is
home from college, so you can bet Heather will be over here a lot this summer, hopefully!
6. Hope we don't get rained on during our friend Addy's birthday party this afternoon.
7. Remember this big announcement? Coming to an event center near you! The concert in
Toronto sold out in 4 minutes. Sweet.
Have a great weekend! I'll be back next week with more randomness and mundane details.
6.03.2008
Eat Your Scone, Tina
It's been a while since I shared a recipe for yummy goodness. So, today I give you my friend Ann's recipe for scones. Ann brought a plate of these by the house after Little Man was born and let me tell you--YUM. She was kind enough to share the recipe so without further ado, the quick and easy recipe for Scones a la Ann. Make them for breakfast tomorrow--or put on a pot of coffee and make them now. You won't be sorry. I promise.
Scones a la Ann
2 cups Bisquick (you can use the low-fat version if that's what you have)
1/2 cup quick oats
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup milk (or a little more)
1/3 cup cinnamon chips
Mix and drop in 1-2 teaspoon "globs" on baking stone or cookie sheet. Sprinkle sugar and a few oats on top. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.
A couple of things about this recipe--
1. Yes, "globs" is a highly technical term used by the finest of chefs.
2. I didn't have cinnamon chips on had when I made them the other day, so I used Craisins instead. Also very yummy. I also used a little more cinnamon than the recipe calls for...
3. Princess Pigtails calls them "stones".
Scones a la Ann
2 cups Bisquick (you can use the low-fat version if that's what you have)
1/2 cup quick oats
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup milk (or a little more)
1/3 cup cinnamon chips
Mix and drop in 1-2 teaspoon "globs" on baking stone or cookie sheet. Sprinkle sugar and a few oats on top. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.
A couple of things about this recipe--
1. Yes, "globs" is a highly technical term used by the finest of chefs.
2. I didn't have cinnamon chips on had when I made them the other day, so I used Craisins instead. Also very yummy. I also used a little more cinnamon than the recipe calls for...
3. Princess Pigtails calls them "stones".
6.02.2008
Ten Bucks Says You Can't Do It!
Take a look at this picture of the little guy. Go ahead and try to not smile.
I dare you.
I dare you.
Can't do it, can you? Me neither.No wonder I'm not getting much done around here.
Happy Monday.
It's Not Easy Being Green
This is the year that spring wasn't. At least here in the upper Midwest. But this weekend was finally chock-full of awesome weather. It was a great weekend to work on our "list" and had a very productive weekend.
Saturday morning, I whipped up a batch of oven pancakes (a favorite of mine from childhood) and we discussed the plan for the day. After breakfast, I headed out to our local garden center and got the plants for the pots and baskets around here as well the plants and seeds for the garden.
While I was gone, sans kiddos--BTW!, DH tackled replacing the first of three screen doors at our house that have long surpassed their useful life and just need to go. This is the first time he has replaced screen doors and let me say that I am so proud of him for sticking to it! It definitely took longer than either of us expected and a few "golf words" were used but the completed product looks oh so nice!
Upon my return from the center de gardening, I worked on cleaning out my flower beds and getting things ready to go. To be honest, I always do a very poor job of winterizing my flower beds and consequently have lots of work to do come spring when I am anxious to get the plants in the ground. Anywhoo, got most everything cleaned up and the beds, pots, baskets all planted. Wahoo. And ouch, because Sunday morning my body reminded me of the self-inflicted "manual labor" that had occurred.
Last on the list Saturday afternoon was to get the garden going. For the record, I very much enjoy garden fresh produce. I like the idea of a garden. Having spent so much time at my grandparents' in the summer, I am not unaware of the amount of work that it is to keep a garden up. And yet, somehow in the spring, a garden always sounds like fun. However, in actuality, I do not find gardening to be "fun". There is very little about gardening that I enjoy. It's really not so much the picking of the produce that I dislike. Okay, it is the picking. And the weeding of the plants-which I guess is basically the whole concept of gardening, huh? Possible reasons to explain my lack of fondness for gardening:
At some point, DH usually steps in, goes to battle and cleans up the garden. So, this year he shared with me that he had read that you can lay newspaper down around your plants and between the rows in your garden to prevent the growth and spread of weeds. Similar to the black landscaping tarp, only this will degrade and eventually just dissolve into the ground. I guess it would be a "green" weed control option. I'm not much of any expert on any of it, but the thought that it would help cut down the amount of weeding to be done--you can imagine my enthusiasm! DH sent me to one of our barns to grab some old newspapers out of the "burn" pile. Never mind, that as I was spreading the papers on the garden I noticed that the first stack was dated September 18, 2005. Ahh, the weekend that Princess Pigtails was born. Sweet memories... Please no criticism about the fact that we had 2 1/2 year old newspapers laying around. In a barn. That's not the point. So, we laid newspapers out and watered them down. We lost a couple on Saturday night when the wind came up. DH ran out and retrieved them. Sunday--not so much wind, so I guess that's why it wasn't a problem yesterday. But this morning? Another issue.
This was the view out my dining room window:
Here let me zoom in. Does this help?
This was after Princess Pigtails and I had already been out once and collected a ton of papers. Let me just say, where the papers are blown up against the prairie grass? Not right next to our garden. In fact, the grass and the lilac bushes are the only things keeping the newspapers from continuing to blow to Fargo! But Princess seemed to thoroughly enjoy the game of running after the papers and "catching" them. I think perhaps we will play another round when she gets up from her nap!
In retrospect, perhaps we should have placed some straw on top of the papers after they were watered down. Because we totally have some straw around here. In a barn. Thank you very much.
Saturday morning, I whipped up a batch of oven pancakes (a favorite of mine from childhood) and we discussed the plan for the day. After breakfast, I headed out to our local garden center and got the plants for the pots and baskets around here as well the plants and seeds for the garden.
While I was gone, sans kiddos--BTW!, DH tackled replacing the first of three screen doors at our house that have long surpassed their useful life and just need to go. This is the first time he has replaced screen doors and let me say that I am so proud of him for sticking to it! It definitely took longer than either of us expected and a few "golf words" were used but the completed product looks oh so nice!
Upon my return from the center de gardening, I worked on cleaning out my flower beds and getting things ready to go. To be honest, I always do a very poor job of winterizing my flower beds and consequently have lots of work to do come spring when I am anxious to get the plants in the ground. Anywhoo, got most everything cleaned up and the beds, pots, baskets all planted. Wahoo. And ouch, because Sunday morning my body reminded me of the self-inflicted "manual labor" that had occurred.
Last on the list Saturday afternoon was to get the garden going. For the record, I very much enjoy garden fresh produce. I like the idea of a garden. Having spent so much time at my grandparents' in the summer, I am not unaware of the amount of work that it is to keep a garden up. And yet, somehow in the spring, a garden always sounds like fun. However, in actuality, I do not find gardening to be "fun". There is very little about gardening that I enjoy. It's really not so much the picking of the produce that I dislike. Okay, it is the picking. And the weeding of the plants-which I guess is basically the whole concept of gardening, huh? Possible reasons to explain my lack of fondness for gardening:
- Tending a garden demands working OUTSIDE regardless of weather conditions--simply not a fan of extreme heat and humidity. Give me 75, sunny and zero humidity and I'd be happy...
- There are bugs, lots and lots of bugs. The thought that the mosquito should be classified as the Minnesota state bird isn't too far fetched.
- Did I mention, working outside in the heat and humidity? And the bugs? Enough said.
At some point, DH usually steps in, goes to battle and cleans up the garden. So, this year he shared with me that he had read that you can lay newspaper down around your plants and between the rows in your garden to prevent the growth and spread of weeds. Similar to the black landscaping tarp, only this will degrade and eventually just dissolve into the ground. I guess it would be a "green" weed control option. I'm not much of any expert on any of it, but the thought that it would help cut down the amount of weeding to be done--you can imagine my enthusiasm! DH sent me to one of our barns to grab some old newspapers out of the "burn" pile. Never mind, that as I was spreading the papers on the garden I noticed that the first stack was dated September 18, 2005. Ahh, the weekend that Princess Pigtails was born. Sweet memories... Please no criticism about the fact that we had 2 1/2 year old newspapers laying around. In a barn. That's not the point. So, we laid newspapers out and watered them down. We lost a couple on Saturday night when the wind came up. DH ran out and retrieved them. Sunday--not so much wind, so I guess that's why it wasn't a problem yesterday. But this morning? Another issue.
This was the view out my dining room window:
Here let me zoom in. Does this help?
This was after Princess Pigtails and I had already been out once and collected a ton of papers. Let me just say, where the papers are blown up against the prairie grass? Not right next to our garden. In fact, the grass and the lilac bushes are the only things keeping the newspapers from continuing to blow to Fargo! But Princess seemed to thoroughly enjoy the game of running after the papers and "catching" them. I think perhaps we will play another round when she gets up from her nap!In retrospect, perhaps we should have placed some straw on top of the papers after they were watered down. Because we totally have some straw around here. In a barn. Thank you very much.
6.01.2008
Then What Are We Going to Do?
Princess Pigtails is obsessed about our schedule. It's incredible. Most days when I get her up in the morning, she starts in with her questions. It's constant and usually goes something like this:
PP: Mama, after we find some breakfast and I get dressed then what are we going to do?
Me: Well, Toby will probably be ready to get up and eat his breakfast.
PP: After he eats and we change his pants, then what are we going to do? Are we going some where today?
Me: We'll have to see what how the day goes. (I've stopped even mentioning possibilities, because she locks onto it as being set in concrete and then it results in a melt down if those possibilities do not come to pass.)
I'm not joking when I say that she will run through the entire normal daily routine and then still ask "then what are we going to do?". It is cute and maddening all at the same time. The other day at breakfast, she started in with her questions.
PP: "Where are we going?"
Me: Crazy.
PP: Mama, where are going today?
Me: Crazy.
PP: Huh, Mama? Where are we going?
Me: Crazy.
PP: Can I come too?
DH: Um, yeah. I think you are driving.
Yes, my dear, you are driving! And we love you so very much.
PP: Mama, after we find some breakfast and I get dressed then what are we going to do?
Me: Well, Toby will probably be ready to get up and eat his breakfast.
PP: After he eats and we change his pants, then what are we going to do? Are we going some where today?
Me: We'll have to see what how the day goes. (I've stopped even mentioning possibilities, because she locks onto it as being set in concrete and then it results in a melt down if those possibilities do not come to pass.)
I'm not joking when I say that she will run through the entire normal daily routine and then still ask "then what are we going to do?". It is cute and maddening all at the same time. The other day at breakfast, she started in with her questions.
PP: "Where are we going?"
Me: Crazy.
PP: Mama, where are going today?
Me: Crazy.
PP: Huh, Mama? Where are we going?
Me: Crazy.
PP: Can I come too?
DH: Um, yeah. I think you are driving.
Yes, my dear, you are driving! And we love you so very much.
5.30.2008
A New Plan
Seriously. Another month has gone by and I'm not doing very well with keeping this blog going. But I'm going to try to do a better a job. It's my new month resolution. Don't laugh. I can have a June resolution if I want. It's my blog.
And I'm all about trying new things. Whatever. I have, however, begun doing meal planning, which seems to be working out fairly well for us. I tried to do meal planning while I was doing the 9-5 thing and it never worked. Not sure why other than I guess I wasn't terribly committed to it and there were too many opportunities for dining or carry out on our commute home. In retrospect, a key issue is that I wasn't very organized about my grocery shopping (so I'd plan on something for dinner only to find that I was out of a key ingredient and Schwan's would have to rescue me again). Not so much the case for me now. Don't kid yourself, though. Now I just schedule a Schwan's meal occasionally!
With a new baby and a busy Princess Pigtails the days seem to go by so quickly and I love the fact that I don't have to waste time determining the evening meal. As much I enjoyed the daily IM with my husband that went something like this:
Me: Hey. How are you?
DH: Good. You?
Me: Any thoughts on dinner?
DH: I like food. Dinner is generally the evening meal. Some people refer to it as supper...
Me: Yeah. I mean what sounds good?
DH: Not sure. Had ___________ for lunch. (Fill in the blank with whatever I was thinking sounded remotely tasty for dinner...)
So now I try to sit down and plan the evening meals for the next 3-4 weeks. I usually will just come up with a list of main courses that sound good and then schedule them so I can balance them across the weeks. I flip through my cookbooks, old Taste of Home magazines that I saved from when I was a subscriber or I stop by here or here to grab a few new recipes. It's been fun to try some new recipes and break out some good old standbys. I'm also finding it helpful to be able and look back at what we've recently as to avoid having say tacos three out of four Wednesdays in a month! Once I've scheduled the three or four weeks that I am planning, I look through my cupboards for what ingredients I need to add to my list.
Before I go shopping, I print my list from The Grocery Game and go through my coupons. It works pretty well. I definitely still need to work on the system, but preparing dinner has become less stressful. And I'm all about finding ways to reduce stress in my life.
So how about you? It's been awhile. Any June resolutions? What are you doing that's new or reducing the stress in your life?
And I'm all about trying new things. Whatever. I have, however, begun doing meal planning, which seems to be working out fairly well for us. I tried to do meal planning while I was doing the 9-5 thing and it never worked. Not sure why other than I guess I wasn't terribly committed to it and there were too many opportunities for dining or carry out on our commute home. In retrospect, a key issue is that I wasn't very organized about my grocery shopping (so I'd plan on something for dinner only to find that I was out of a key ingredient and Schwan's would have to rescue me again). Not so much the case for me now. Don't kid yourself, though. Now I just schedule a Schwan's meal occasionally!
With a new baby and a busy Princess Pigtails the days seem to go by so quickly and I love the fact that I don't have to waste time determining the evening meal. As much I enjoyed the daily IM with my husband that went something like this:
Me: Hey. How are you?
DH: Good. You?
Me: Any thoughts on dinner?
DH: I like food. Dinner is generally the evening meal. Some people refer to it as supper...
Me: Yeah. I mean what sounds good?
DH: Not sure. Had ___________ for lunch. (Fill in the blank with whatever I was thinking sounded remotely tasty for dinner...)
So now I try to sit down and plan the evening meals for the next 3-4 weeks. I usually will just come up with a list of main courses that sound good and then schedule them so I can balance them across the weeks. I flip through my cookbooks, old Taste of Home magazines that I saved from when I was a subscriber or I stop by here or here to grab a few new recipes. It's been fun to try some new recipes and break out some good old standbys. I'm also finding it helpful to be able and look back at what we've recently as to avoid having say tacos three out of four Wednesdays in a month! Once I've scheduled the three or four weeks that I am planning, I look through my cupboards for what ingredients I need to add to my list.
Before I go shopping, I print my list from The Grocery Game and go through my coupons. It works pretty well. I definitely still need to work on the system, but preparing dinner has become less stressful. And I'm all about finding ways to reduce stress in my life.
So how about you? It's been awhile. Any June resolutions? What are you doing that's new or reducing the stress in your life?
4.16.2008
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Okay, so I'm back. Please know that I have about three dozen unfinished posts floating around my brain. My excuse for not posting? This adorable little man distracting me and sidelining my bloggity aspirations.
Anywhoo, I had a series of flashbacks this morning. It started when Princess Pigtails asked me over breakfast if she could watch Strawberry Shortcake or The Care Bears. Then later this morning, she asked if she could have some marshmallows in a cup for a snack. The combination of the television requests and the snack sent me over the top. I was whisked away to some random point in the mid 80's.
I spent a lot of time at my grandparent's farm in the summers when I was a child (in the days of Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake--the first time around). My own favorite snack to have at my grandparents' was a little cup full of marshmallows--especially while watching The Floppy Show. The Floppy Show was a special treat for me, because my grandparents' lived close enough to Des Moines to get the feed from WHO. At the time, my family lived in the very northern part of the homeland. Since the 80's were smack in the middle of the "dark ages" (as my children will remind me later) and consequently prior to all "this new fangled" technology, we were not able to get WHO on our TV at home. So, The Floppy Show? A sweet reward for the time spent with my grandparents.
Another favorite thing about summers with my grandparents? Taking a picnic dinner to my grandpa when he was in the field--usually raking or baling hay. The picnic generally consisted of grilled hamburgers, Country Time Lemonade in a Tupperware pitcher, homemade potato salad and possibly some my grandma's awesome fruit pies or homemade cookies. The funny thing about the hamburgers is that my grandma would grill them, then put them on the buns and put the sandwiches back in the bread wrapper. This resulted in keeping the sandwiches warm and steaming the buns to a odd level of sogginess all at the same time. In retrospect, soggy hamburger buns do not sound very appetizing, but at the time--believe me, it was deliciously magic. My grandma and I would load everything in her very hip green Chevy Caprice Classic and drive to whatever field Grandpa was working. We would spread a blanket out in the field, enjoy our royal feast and then I would get to ride in the tractor on my grandpa's knee while Grandma loaded everything back up in the car. It was absolutely delightful.
I could go on and on about my time with them and perhaps I will in another post. But for now, I will just say that I am thrilled to be heading to see them this weekend. And also that I hope and pray my children will have a million warm memories of their grandparents to cherish into their adulthood.
Anywhoo, I had a series of flashbacks this morning. It started when Princess Pigtails asked me over breakfast if she could watch Strawberry Shortcake or The Care Bears. Then later this morning, she asked if she could have some marshmallows in a cup for a snack. The combination of the television requests and the snack sent me over the top. I was whisked away to some random point in the mid 80's.
I spent a lot of time at my grandparent's farm in the summers when I was a child (in the days of Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake--the first time around). My own favorite snack to have at my grandparents' was a little cup full of marshmallows--especially while watching The Floppy Show. The Floppy Show was a special treat for me, because my grandparents' lived close enough to Des Moines to get the feed from WHO. At the time, my family lived in the very northern part of the homeland. Since the 80's were smack in the middle of the "dark ages" (as my children will remind me later) and consequently prior to all "this new fangled" technology, we were not able to get WHO on our TV at home. So, The Floppy Show? A sweet reward for the time spent with my grandparents.
Another favorite thing about summers with my grandparents? Taking a picnic dinner to my grandpa when he was in the field--usually raking or baling hay. The picnic generally consisted of grilled hamburgers, Country Time Lemonade in a Tupperware pitcher, homemade potato salad and possibly some my grandma's awesome fruit pies or homemade cookies. The funny thing about the hamburgers is that my grandma would grill them, then put them on the buns and put the sandwiches back in the bread wrapper. This resulted in keeping the sandwiches warm and steaming the buns to a odd level of sogginess all at the same time. In retrospect, soggy hamburger buns do not sound very appetizing, but at the time--believe me, it was deliciously magic. My grandma and I would load everything in her very hip green Chevy Caprice Classic and drive to whatever field Grandpa was working. We would spread a blanket out in the field, enjoy our royal feast and then I would get to ride in the tractor on my grandpa's knee while Grandma loaded everything back up in the car. It was absolutely delightful.
I could go on and on about my time with them and perhaps I will in another post. But for now, I will just say that I am thrilled to be heading to see them this weekend. And also that I hope and pray my children will have a million warm memories of their grandparents to cherish into their adulthood.
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