January's Last Dinner

Lemon Pepper Mahi-Mahi with homemade tarter sauce, seasoned rice, green salad with dressing, and (not in picture) baked sweet potato chips.

A Quiet Sunday Evening

Jack got out the Micro Machine sets tonight. Troubles and Missy are coloring, Trixie and Polly are playing Liv, GirlofGod and EmBlem are using their computer time, Vic, Momma and Daddy are watching the Pro-Bowl. It's surprisingly quiet around here right now!

3/4 Done

We watched three episodes of Jericho tonight and I got this far on another crocheted sock. I will be done with it in less than an hour tomorrow.

Little Golden Books...

...in French! This is the find of the day.

Preschool Time!

Trixie is reading to the preschoolers and Year 0/1 Lambies. Anyone able to tell what book it is from the picture?

Yo!

Here's my husband's collection of Madhouse yo-yos. Wouldn't a nice shiny Epic look perfect alongside them?

Some Antique Books

Here are two of my shelves of antique books. The little pottery pot is from the Navajo Nation. A friend who taught on the reservation school gave it to me. You can see my oldest book on the top of the right pile.

The biggest book on the bottom left in this picture is a Bible from 1845. I the Family Record pages, a marriage is recorded, then the birth of a daughter. Nine months later, there's an inscription recording the baby's death, and there is a lock of blond baby hair tied with a ribbon.

2011 Heritage Skill Part One: Complete

My three-part Heritage Skill is one third of the way finished. I decided that I would like to learn to make socks for my family, if need be. The project is three part: learn to make crochet socks, learn to make knit socks (this will require me to learn to knit!) and learn to spin wool fiber into yarn.

Since I have crocheted since I was a little girl, the crocheted socks weren't too hard. I used this pattern. If you use it, make sure to read the comments section for clarification of two points of difficulty in the pattern. I'll be making this pattern next.

I have learned the knit stitch fairly well and am working at purl. I have a friend that has llamas and spins their wool into beautiful yarn. She has agreed to give me spinning lessons beginning sometime in the spring.

All Together Now...

Awwww.............SWEET!

Rubber Powered

We bought some old-fashioned 'rubber-powered' planes today, along with a not-so-old-fashioned rubber band winder. Fun was had all around. :)

Fooling Around

GirlofGod and I were messing around and caught this picture. I love the sparkle in her eye!

My Dear Trixie

She had a happy birthday! Isn't she lovely?!

It's GiGi!

Gigi is the name of the horse in the picture from the other day. It's a cute little classic story.

MMM....Greens

Here's the salad we are having with dinner. I'm so glad that it is nearly time to begin harvesting the greens growing in the garden. I love fresh green food!

A Pretty Picture...

...from a book I got out to read today. Any guesses on the title?

Downgrading

My Honey changed out the Lambies' light switches tonight. We went from motion detectors to standard switches.

I'm very thankful that my Honey is SO capable!

Homemade Sausage

I made homemade sausage today. It was good, but I misread the recipe and used too much rosemary. I have ten more pounds of pork to grind and season today. I'll freeze the sausage in two pound portions.

Breakfast Sausage

2 pounds freshly ground pork
2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp fresh sage, finely minced
2 tsp fresh thyme, finely minced
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely minced
1 Tbsp light brown sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix spices throughout meat well. Let meat sit, covered in the fridge, for an hour. Form into patties and cook as desired.

Mountain Bikes

I'm eager to get the bikes down and put them to good use!

A is for (Johnny) Appleseed

These are some of the materials I used for the visiting preschoolers today.

He's a Spinner

We found this Sit and Spin at a yard sale a few months ago. It's gotten it's share of use since joining the Crew! The lower picture is Troubles-in-motion, almost spinning himself off!

It Has Begun

Here's a little sample of what I've been working on lately. My 2011 heritage skill is a three-parter. This is part one.

Who's Bored?

The Lambies have begun raiding Poppa's board game closet. They are finding all sorts of fun games that they haven't played before. So far, this is the most popular. BTW, it was Col. Mustard in the Billiards Room with the Rope.

Yo, Joe!

There was a grand battle on the dining room table. I hope Joe won.

Shar-Pei Baby

I just got this picture onto my computer. It's one of my favorites!! Troubles didn't quite fit into his skin when he was born. hehehe

Bountiful Oranges

Oranges are 10 cents a pound at the grocery store. Time to make juice!

I'll be canning this evening.

ETA: We got 1 1/2 gallons fresh juice, 7 quarts canned and the Lambies ate all they could. We may go get a couple more boxes tomorrow.

*ETA: The canned juice didn't taste very good when we used it. I won't bother canning OJ again.

Take THAT, Flab!

These are getting used more and more often lately. Good news for me, bad news for floppy arms.

Too, Too Bad

This is a pound of garbanzo beans, all soaked and ready to get cooked up for hummus. They did not survive the process. No hummus for me. Note to self...don't leave the kitchen when cooking!

Wednesday's Muffins

These are the muffins we had for breakfast, along with fresh eggs. They are Banana-Zucchini-Carrot-Chocolate Chip. I made three dozen and had this plateful left. Most of these were gone by lunchtime. Definitely not low-carb, but not all bad, either. They were certainly tasty. I used this recipe as a base, without the topping.

Rain, Rain, Stay Away!

Vik is finally getting a few days in a row to enjoy his Christmas present. It's not supposed to rain again until next week.

STRIKE!

Keeping to the entertainment theme....
There's been a lot of this happening lately.
Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma!
They are lovin' it!

Then and Now

Warning, there is a graphic photo below.
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This is August 2008. I had finally had enough of my clothes 'shrinking'. My baby was three and a half years old, so I had to stop blaming pregnancy. I had my daughter take some 'before' shots. It's not pretty, I know.

This is this morning. I wore the same shirt and similar pants. I had to donate those old shorts long ago. Better, huh?

2010 Canning Inventory

With the year wrapped up, I can post all that I canned this year. Keeping track helps me know what I need to make more of and what I can skip in 2011.

11 quarts strawberry-lemonade concentrate
28 pints strawberry jam
9 pints strawberry-blueberry jam
10 pints pizza sauce
5 pints banana-strawberry jam
9 pints spiced peach jam
6 pints vanilla peach jam
10 pints peach plum jam
5 pints peach strawberry jam
14 pints zucchini salsa
6 pints hot El-Pato sauce
12 pints apricot-strawberry jam
9 quarts picante sauce
12 pints picante sauce
18 quarts mexican tomato sauce
5 quarts apple pear sauce
27 quarts applesauce
37 quarts pickles
8 pints lemon juice
10 half-pints lemon juice
21 quarts apple pie filling
5 quarts pinto beans
9 quarts turkey meat and broth

I canned many more beans in 2009. I found that I was using them almost as fast as I was canning them, though, so I forced myself to stop and get in the habit of cooking beans on a regular basis. In 2011, I plan to get about 20 quarts on the shelf and leave them there for needful meals, not for convenience. I also need to make more meals-in-a-jar. We depleted them when Polly was hospitalized last year. I have chili canning as I type this, for my first entry on the 2011 canning inventory. Several soups are on my to-do list for the coming weeks.

I *miss* having canned green beans. I was not able to make a bulk purchase at the farmer's market at all last year. Spring can't come fast enough! We do have a small number of strawberry based jams left, but they are almost gone. I used our last bag of frozen berries in smoothies last month. I should increase the strawberry jams by a batch or two.

Aargh, Matey!

Playmobil is one of our favorite toys to collect. This is the set that Troubles received for Christmas.

The War

My Honey and most of the Lambies began 2011 by having a Nerf Gun War. I played a daredevil a while later by letting my husband attempt to shoot a Nerf dart I held in my mouth. That ended with an apologetic kiss and lots of laughs.