Goodbye 2009!

We were very blessed in 2009. It was really a great year. We have so many wonderful memories to look back on and remember fondly. We're excited about what 2010 might bring! We can't wait to find out! :c)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

From us to you!

And some yummy, sparkling cranberry juice to celebrate. :cD

We hope you have a wonderful new year!

Christmas 2009

It's a little late, but here's a bit of photographic evidence that we did have Christmas. :cD


We made way too many of these!






Getting Spencer tucked into bed. He *loves* this book. :c)




We had no ornaments this year, because every time we went somewhere that had a tree with ornaments, Elijah spent the whole time dismantling it and breaking the glass ones. O.o


We dug in before I got a picture. Boy, were these good!

We had a *wonderful* Christmas. The kids couldn't have been happier. We loved spending time with family on Christmas Day and the day after. :c)

Christmas Eve Eve

Today the Queen of Procrastination is making the matching PJ pants that she has had the fabric to make for at least a month. :cD



I'm having a quick lunch break and then back to it. The plan is to make the 5 kid pants and then see if I have enough fabric left to make 2 adult pairs. I have 6 yards of the fabric, so one would hope that is enough.

A little distracted

I get distracted easily, as you may have guessed. This time it was a whole bunch of snow! We've been having a great time, though!

Before I show a bunch of snow pictures, Elijah did have his check-up last Tuesday. It was a very long day. He really didn't like the CT, so he had to be sedated. I have some pictures to share, but the short version is that everything looked good and he doesn't have to go back for another year!


The news said we got around 20". Ours was windblown, so this was the deepest spot that wasn't a snow drift.


Our street and driveway are somewhere under all that white stuff!


We found the driveway on Saturday. This was taken on Sunday.




And we went sledding today!


They had a great time!




Elijah didn't sled down the big hill, but Grace and the next door neighbor helped him go down the snow bank by our driveway. (There was a spot on my lens I didn't notice until after, of course.)


The whole time I had the camera out, Elijah kept stepping in front of me and saying, "Cheese!!" so I had to get a picture of him, too. ;c)

Oh, Monday...

why do you treat me this way? At least this Monday is done with. On with the rest of the week.

Tomorrow is Elijah's annual CT and a check-up with the neurosurgeon at Duke. This time of year always brings mixed emotions. I'm excited for the trip, though! It's always great to see Dr. Grant and I just love Duke. It will be a sort of break for me as well, since I will just have Elijah with me. The rest of the kids will be home with Kirk. Hopefully Elijah will be happy in the car and not yell at me the whole 6 hours of driving time. That could make the day not so enjoyable. ;c)

I am so far behind on my recipe advent. Ugh! I've been busy and most of my recipes aren't exactly written-out recipes. I have some good ones to share when I can find the time, though! I won't be getting caught up tomorrow, since I won't be here, but it's my goal this week to catch up.

Advent Day 7 - French Onion Soup

It was chilly here again today, so another good soup is in order. This is another great recipe from my mom and is delicious.

French Onion Soup
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 cans condensed beef broth(look for low sodium)
1 1/2 cups water
1 to 2 tablespoon sherry (or you can sub. apple juice, apple cider, red wine vinegar, or chicken broth)
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
dash of pepper
croutons
6 tablespoons grated cheese(mozzarella or whatever you like)

Melt the butter in a pot and cook the onion on low heat for 20 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients(except the croutons and cheese) and bring to a boil. Put into oven-proof bowls(individual servings), top with croutons and cheese. Broil to melt cheese. Serve with crusty bread.

Advent Days 5 & 6 - Pancakes and Chicken à la King

I was out at a charity knit-in all day yesterday, so I didn't find the time to post the advent. Here are two days in one! :c) These are two of our favorite dinner recipes.

Every Sunday is "Breakfast for Dinner" at our house. This is the recipe for pancakes that I always use.

Pancakes - This is the single recipe, but we usually triple it or more
1 cup all purpose flour (I have made it with whole wheat before as well)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil(mild to no flavor, I wouldn't use olive oil)

Mix it all together. Pour desired size onto a hot, greased/buttered griddle or pan. We usually use a 1/4 cup scoop, or 1 tablespoon for dollar-size pancakes. Cook until golden brown on both sides, turning to the second side when the pancakes have a bubbly surface and slightly dry edges. Should make around 10 pancakes or 36 dollar-size pancakes, depending on how large you make them.

Here's another great comfort food! This is wonderful on a chilly night.

Chicken à la King
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 3/4 cup milk
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups cubed chicken or turkey

In a saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper. Add the milk and chicken broth all at once. Cook ad stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for one minute more. Stir in the chicken or turkey and heat through. Serve over toast or rice. We also like to serve it with peas that are delicious mixed in. Serves 4.

Advent Day 4 - Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are sooooooo yummy! It's a recipe I got from a friend years ago and we love them. They don't last long around here when we make them. The recipe makes a LOT of cookie dough. You might want to just make half a recipe. I usually bake a bunch of cookies the day I make the dough and then either put the rest in the refrigerator so we can have fresh cookies in a hurry all week or I scoop them out, flash freeze the balls of dough, then put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer for even faster cookies.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups butter, softened(Yes, a whole pound. It makes a LOT of dough)
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix all those together then add:

1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 cups flour (3 3/4 cups if all wheat flour)
5 cups oatmeal - Measure out and then grind in a blender or food processor
chocolate chips - up to 2 bags depending on how many chips you prefer

Mix it all together. Scoop out desired size, I use a cookie scoop. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375*F. Cool on a wire rack. Don't cook them too long, or they will get too hard when cooled. Of course, those are yummy dipped in a glass of milk. :c)

Advent Day 3 - Corn Chowder

I'm cheating a little again. ;c) This is one I already had typed up. I'm using it because after another attempt at that recipe I'm trying to figure out has flopped, I don't have energy to work on something else. I will figure that recipe out!!

I did make the No Bake Cookies today, so I can update the previous day with a picture. :c)

This recipe is one from my mother. She can comment and tell where she got it, if she likes. I'm sure she has told me, but I always forget. It's a definite family comfort food and is perfect on a chilly day like today was.

Corn Chowder
2 cups chicken broth(or vegetable broth for a vegetarian meal)
4 cups cubed potatoes
½ cup chopped celery
2 medium onions, chopped
1 can cream style corn
1 can whole kernel corn
2 cups cubed ham, cooked (can also be made with chicken or turkey, as we learned after Thanksgiving, but you'll definitely want to add salt & pepper in that case, you can leave out the meat entirely for a vegetarian dish)
1 pint half-n-half
salt & pepper to taste(most of the time we don't add any at all)
8 slices bacon(more if you really like bacon, or skip it for a vegetarian meal)
dried parsley

Sauté bacon and set aside on paper towels to drain. Sauté the onions in the grease. (If there is too much grease, pour some off leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pot. If you are skipping the bacon, use oil or butter to sauté the onions.) Add the remaining ingredients (except the half-n-half & parsley) and cook until the potatoes are done. Add the half-n-half and cook until heated through. Sprinkle crumbled bacon and parsley on top of the individual servings.

Serve with some yummy rolls or crusty, buttered bread.

Advent Day 2 - No Bake Cookies

Ok, so my trial recipe didn't work out. I'll post about that tomorrow(probably, ha!), but first I need a recipe for my second advent day! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to go with the post since I wasn't planning to post these tonight. I'm sure the kids won't complain if I make some tomorrow to get a picture. ;c)

Our family *loves* these no bake cookies. They are addicting, so be warned! If you ignore the fact that they have sugar in them, though, you could think of them as slightly healthy. Hahaha!


(I always use dark chocolate cocoa so mine are darker than usual.)

No Bake Cookies
Part 1:
1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
1/4 cup peanut butter

Part 2:
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Combine the ingredients in part 1 until a coarse mixture is obtained. Set aside.
Combine all ingredients in part 2 in a saucepan. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Allow it to boil for one minute(continue to stir).
Remove from heat and pour part 2 over part 1. Stir to combine. Drop by teaspoon or desired size onto waxed paper. Allow to cool. Try not to eat all of them yourself.

Enjoy! :c)

Advent Day 1

Each year I enjoy the online advents done by some blogging/online journaling friends of mine. They post one item each day along a theme of their choice. They are so fun to read and just thoroughly enjoyable. (Unfortunately for you, they are not public, so I can't link you to them.) This year, one of them invited all her e-friends to participate as well. I decided to give it a try! It was hard to narrow my choices down to one theme. The top two contenders were knitting and baking/cooking/bread/etc. LOL I decided on the latter, but since baking/cooking/bread/etc. is too long of a theme, I've decided to go with "Recipes" as my advent theme. I'll post a recipe every day until Christmas. :c)

I missed yesterday, so I'm going to post Day 1 right now and will post Day 2 later today(tonight?). *Hopefully* the recipe I'm tweaking right now will pay off. If not, I'll pick another recipe until I can figure this one out. (Hint: it involves ginger!)

The first recipe isn't a new one and I might have posted it here before, but it's the one I use most often -- my whole wheat bread! I promise to not just post recipes I've posted before. ;c) I figured this one *had* to be a part of my advent, though. It's such a staple in our house. I got the recipe from a friend a few years ago and had added the flax seed to it, but it's essentially the same recipe.


Whole Wheat Bread -- makes 4-5 loaves
5 cups hot water (as hot as your faucet gets, which should be about 115*F)
7 cups whole wheat flour(I use a home-ground mix of red and white wheat berries)
1 cup gluten flour (I use Hodgson Mill Natural White)
2.5 tablespoons yeast
2 tablespoon dough enhancer or gluten(*This is optional, but it does improve the loft and crumb.)
1/3-1/2 cup ground flax seed

Mix above ingredients in order for about 2 minutes, then add...

2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or orange, lime, any citrus)
2/3 cup oil (extra virgin olive oil or whatever you like)
2/3 cup honey

Mix, then add between 5-7 cups of whole wheat flour(not the all-purpose). Add enough flour until it scrapes the bowl clean, but no more! (Usually for me it's around 5.5 cups. This will vary depending on the weather. On more humid days you will use more flour.)

Knead for 15 minutes. (You may have to do this by hand if your mixer doesn't like all the whole wheat. I make this in my Bosch mixer, so I can let it knead away with no work from me.)

Shape into 4-5 loaves and place in greased loaf pans.(The number I make varies depending on the weight of the dough and/or how lazy I am feeling. I weigh out each loaf to make them all the same size. :cP If I don't feel like weighing them, I just chop the dough in 4ths.)

Cover and let rise until double, which is slightly over the edge of the pan. (This takes about 20-30 minutes, if you've used room temperature ingredients, longer if the ingredients were chilled.)

Bake at 350*F for about 30-35 minutes or until internal temperature is 190-200*F.

Cool on wire rack, if you can wait that long!

Now, cross your fingers that I can post each day *and* come up with 25 recipes that aren't copyrighted. ;c) I'll give it my best shot!

Trying out a sentence

Elijah hasn't used sentences yet. In fact, he's not a jabber-box yet even with single words, but he's starting to use more words as he gets closer to two. He might have a dozen words he uses at this point. I'm going to start a list so I can keep track. He's a great parrot and will mimic lots of things, but doesn't use them independently very much. Anyway, last night he gave a shot at a sentence. When I put him to bed and lay him in his crib, I always say "I love you!" a few times and make the sign for "I love you". Katelee was going to put him to bed last night, so he was sitting in the chair with her. He was saying "Bye-bye!" and waving at me, then he said "Iluhoooh!" and held his hand up trying to make the sign, but giving me a strange pointing-high-five-kind-of-thing instead. It was adorable!

Rainy Day

It's chilly and rainy again today and we have nowhere we need to go, so the kids have decided it's a good pajama day.




*If you're wondering what the blue clothing is on the right, those are Elijah's pants. LOL!



Even Pongo says it is a lazy day.

You can see who is diligently doing her school work and who will need some prodding. ;c)

In the kitchen

I've still been doing the BYOB(bake your own bread) 2009 and have done really well for the most part. I didn't buy a single loaf of bread all year until late August just before we went to the beach. I wasn't able to figure out how to bake the bread and get us ready to go. Then we bought bread the week we were at the beach, of course. I had actually intended to bake bread to take with us, but that didn't happen. ;c) We realized we are so spoiled! We just love the homemade bread so much better than what we get from the store. Before I started baking all our bread, we would buy the store brand whole wheat bread for $1.00 a loaf when it was on sale. We liked it pretty well... until I started BYOB 2009. Now it just doesn't taste very good to us. When we have had to buy bread, we've had to buy the more expensive breads or else no one wants to eat them. The answer is I just need to keep baking our bread. :c)

The year of baking our own bread will end in just under 2 months, but we're going to continue on. I'm going to be starting a new challenge mid-January. Perhaps you are familiar with the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book that came out in November 2007. The "sequel" to that book just came out at the end of October, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's the same ideas as the first book, but uses whole grains. I joined a group that will be baking our way through the book beginning January 15th. It can't wait! It's going to be so yummy! I've already made the master recipe, which was delicious and have the Pumpkin Pie Brioche dough rising right now. I'm going to make some croissants and a loaf or two of bread, maybe muffins. There is an entire chapter with gluten-free recipes for those that would love to have delicious breads(even cinnamon buns!) but can't have the gluten.

A little fun

Some photo processing fun! I love how it looks like a photo from the 70s. :c)

October

It sure went by quickly. Here are some pictures of some fun we had in October at the pumpkin patch and corn maze.

Getting a picture of all 5 kids wasn't very easy, as you can see. :c)

Turns on a dime

This evening I was relaxing in bed with a cup of hot chocolate(with cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne, of course), catching up on emails and blogs, general surfing around, enjoying a rare moment of being completely lazy. I was relaxed and peaceful.

Then I realized tomorrow is October 1st.

And I realized we haven't begun to think about Halloween costumes.

And I have 5 kids.

And we were planning on a homemade Christmas this year.

And tomorrow is October 1st.

And suddenly I'm not so relaxed.

O.o

At least I am ready for Katelee's 11th birthday a week from tomorrow. Yeah. ELEVEN! Sheesh.

Good Eats!

While looking through my posts, I found a few I had never published for whatever reason. One of them was this one that appears finished, but was never published. Maybe I was waiting for pictures? Whatever the reason, here it is now from December 2008.

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I made a couple things last week that were so good that I'm still thinking about how yummy they were! If they were that good, then I think I need to share them. That and make them again as soon as possible. I'll put the recipes at the end of this post.

The first was made thanks to a lunchtime date to Olive Garden with my main squeeze and two littlest squeezes. Kirk took the whole Thanksgiving week off from work, so we went out to lunch one day. I had the most delicious Chicken and Gnocchi Soup. Mmmmmmm... I salivate a little just remembering. 'Scuse me. I wanted to recreate it, so I found a recipe that seemed kind of close and then tweaked it. What I ended up with was very, very close to the Olive Garden soup. It was a bit too thick, but that can easily be remedied with a little bit of chicken broth or milk. I also wasn't a huge fan of the gnocchi I bought. I think I might make my own next time or try a different brand.

The second thing I made was Spinach Artichoke Dip like the kind that is popular in restaurants. I think this also turned out very close to the "real" thing. I think I might have gone a little heavy on the artichoke with the first batch, but I can change that easily in the future. I thought it was delicious, but others thought it was a bit strong. That's ok, I ate most of that batch all by myself over the following few days. Ha!

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
1/3 cup olive oil or butter
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 lb. chicken(breasts, thighs, whatever you like) cut into cubes
1/3 cup flour
some onion, diced(amount depends on how much you like onion)
1/2 cup fresh chopped spinach(I like a little more spinach, so I used more than this.)
2 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream(I may reduce this amount in the future.)
3 chicken bullion cubes
pepper to taste
gnocchi

Melt the butter(or heat the oil) in a soup pot(I used my cast iron pot) over medium heat. Add in the garlic and sautee. Add your chicken and cook until done.
Stir in the flour and mix well until the flour is cooked into the chicken.
Add your milk and heavy cream. Mix it up well.
Add the veggies.(You could also add some carrot and/or celery if you wanted.)
Add three bullion cubes.(Next time I think I will add some chicken broth instead of or along with these, since mine came out too thick.)
Cook until soup thickens, stirring occasionally. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add your gnocchi during the simmer time. It takes 3-4 minutes to cook them throughout.


Spinach Artichoke Dip
For this one I don't really have a "recipe" per se, but rather a list of ingredients. You add them in amounts that suit your fancy. I'll try to give estimates for how much to use, but please do follow your gut when making it. ;c)
Spinach, fresh or frozen - I used fresh and chopped it up, but you could also thaw a small(10 ounce) package of frozen cut spinach.
Artichoke hearts, diced - I used a small jar(I think 14 ounces or so), but that was a bit too much.
Light Mayo - about half a cup
Parmesan cheese
Mozarella cheese
garlic to taste, either from pressed cloves or garlic powder

Mix it all together and put it into a dish. You want it to heat through easily, so put it in a dish that will allow it to be only about an inch or so thick. Sprinkle a little extra mozarella on the top. ;c) Bake it in a 350 degree oven until it is bubbly and heated throughout - about 15-20 minutes, but you might want to check it after 10 to make sure it isn't browning on top.

One of the best ideas ever!

In August, the stake Relief Society(church women's organization) took a trip to Washington D.C. to the LDS temple. It's a common fact that if you go near a temple, you also have to seek out the LDS bookstore near-by. While we were browsing the bookstore, a girlfriend and I found a book that contains what is one of the best ideas ever. We immediately knew we had to do it.



The book is all bout starting a meal exchange group for freezer meals. The way it works is pretty simple. If there are 5 members in your group, you would each make 5 copies of a meal(each person making a meal different from the other group members). You then meet on a regular basis(we're meeting once a week) and trade meals. When you go home, you then have 5 different meals and you only had to cook once! The book has different tips on freezing things, running the group and it has some recipes to try. We also exchange the recipes of what we make so that if something is a big hit we can make it again. You assume that your family isn't going to love every single meal, but the variety is wonderful and not having to worry about what to make every night is FANTASTIC! It just so happens that we have loved every meal we've had.

Our group met this morning and I have 6 more meals in my freezer. Even the kids are excited about it and are tasting more things. I love that I don't have to worry about what to have for dinner each night. I know that I have delicious meals waiting in my freezer. A few of them require a little thinking ahead, but none of them take very much effort. I don't ever want to go back to the old way of doing dinner. ;c)

Back to reality

I have pictures to add to my beach folder, so eventually they will show up on the slideshow in the previous post. It was a wonderful vacation.

Now it's time to get back to life. After a week away, my "To Do" list tomorrow is going to be a long one. Oy. I don't envy Kirk who gets to go back to work that was busy enough without being absent for a week.

Speaking of my darling and fantabulous husband, today is a special anniversary. Thirteen years ago, on the thirteenth of September(which was a Friday) we had our first "official" date. It doesn't seem like it has been that long. I love him more every day. We complete each other. I don't think two people can possibly love each other more than we do.

Happy anniversary, hon! Thank you for the 13 wonderful years! <3

Having lots of fun at the beach!

We're having so much fun on our beach vacation. It's hard to believe we still have until Friday! Here are some shots of our fun.

National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month!

Today is the beginning of the first ever National Hydrocephalus Awareness month! So little is known about hydrocephalus. I hope this helps raise awareness.

H. Res. 373 was passed at the end of July with the hopes that not only would awareness about this condition be raised, but that more action would be taken to find a cure, not just a treatment.

Whereas 1 out of every 500 children in the United States are born with hydrocephalus, and the condition is the leading cause of brain surgery in children;

Whereas the standard treatment for hydrocephalus, insertion of a shunt to drain excess cerebral fluid, is a 50-year-old technology that carries multiple risks, including shunt failure, infection, and overdrainage;

Whereas more than 40,000 operations for hydrocephalus occur annually in the United States, yet there are fewer than 10 centers in the Nation specializing in the treatment of adults with hydrocephalus;

Whereas although there is no single known cause of hydrocephalus or ways to prevent and cure the condition, with the appropriate diagnosis and proper treatment, individuals with hydrocephalus are able to lead full and productive lives;

Whereas further research into the epidemiology, pathophysiology, disease burden, and improved treatment of hydrocephalus should be conducted and supported, including the collection and analysis of statistics and data concerning the seriousness of hydrocephalus and its impact on families in the United States;

Whereas public awareness, professional education, and scientific research regarding hydrocephalus should increase through partnerships between the Federal Government, health care professionals, and patient advocacy groups, such as the Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation;

Whereas these public-private partnerships would ensure that individuals suffering with hydrocephalus and their families are empowered with educational materials, informed about the latest research, have access to quality health care, and are able to advocate for increased research and funding in order advance the public’s understanding of the condition, improve the diagnosis and treatment of hydrocephalus, and one day, find a cure; and

Whereas September would be an appropriate month to designate as ‘National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month’: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports the designation of ‘National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month’.

The lemons are growing!

Do you remember the baby lemons on the lemon tree in May?



They are growing up! There are about a dozen lemons now. Did you know it takes Meyers lemons about 9 months to ripen? We're looking at a pretty nice haul of fresh lemons around January or February.



The tips of the leaves were yellow when my tree arrived in May, but in the last few weeks it has been growing some fresh, new leaves that seem very happy and green. I can breathe a sigh of relief. :c) I was worried for a bit that something might be wrong since they never greened back up.

It has flowered twice this summer. Lemon blossoms smell amazing!

Back in the saddle

I've been very blog absent this summer. It's been a busy one and lots of fun, but I'm ready to settle back into some kind of a routine. I let the blog fall by the wayside this summer, a sacrifice to keeping my sanity. It was nice to just go with the flow, but I missed blogging. Time to get going again! We're gearing up for the school year. The local schools started back on August 19th, but we've been enjoying a few more weeks of vacation. We're headed to the beach this Saturday for a very fun and relaxing week. We're going to start our homeschool year while we're there. I hope it turns out as nicely as I'm envisioning. I can see how it has the potential for disaster. LOL!


Also, if you recently called me and left a message(concerning hydrocephalus), I did get your message and I do have plans to call you back just as soon as I can. I didn't want you to think I hadn't gotten the message or that I didn't want to call. If you want to email me, that would be fine as well. I'm typically on the computer later in the evening and would be able to respond that way as well. My email is on my profile. I am happy to call, though. It just may be a little while, because we have a very busy week and then are leaving early Saturday morning.

Ok, that's it for tonight! I just wanted to let everyone know I am (hopefully) back in blogging business! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer!

Pizza revisited

I promise that I can make more than just pizza. We just enjoy a good homemade pizza and this time there's a twist! I hated heating up the kitchen by baking in the oven. One hot afternoon, I remembered reading a blog post about grilling flat bread and pizza, so I gave it a try and LOVED it! It was delicious and easy. I expected the dough to fall through the grill, but it didn't. You should give it a try!





The next day I grilled some plain flat bread using the same dough, brushed it with butter, sprinkled on some garlic and ate it with spaghetti. Very delicious! And extra bonus points for keeping the kitchen cool.

Wow! Busy, busy!

The kids had their last day of school on Thursday. We've been going ever since! Friday we had a birthday party at the pool for Grace(whose birthday was actually in January). She had a great time and... I forgot my camera! Can you believe that? I also forgot my cell phone, so I didn't even get pictures with that. I was not with it mentally that day. LOL

This morning we went to the library and signed up for the summer reading program. Katelee got 7 books on Greek mythology. She's read the Percy Jackson series through almost twice and now wants to learn more about the mythology behind the books. We came home, ate lunch and she's disappeared into her room, buried in her books. The reading program gives a free book at 20 hours of reading, with other prizes at 5, 10 and 15 hours. That's not much for Katelee. Really. She'll have the 20 hours in 10 days or less, I bet. Such a little bookworm.

Once Elijah wakes up from his nap, we'll head to the pool. He didn't like the pool very much last summer. Of course, he was only 6-7 months old at the time. The cool water made him angry, so he spent the time at the pool in his stroller. He wasn't crawling last summer, either. This summer is completely different. He absolutely loves the pool. He was playing and splashing and having a great time. It is a bit more work for me, since I have to watch him very closely and he doesn't stand still the whole time we are there, but I'm happy that he loves the water. I'll just get my exercise following him around the pool. :c)

Sorry for the rambling and then no picture to soften the blow. I'll do better next time!

One of our favorite things

We love homemade pizza. This batch was made with whole wheat flour that I ground using my grinder.



The kids prefer plain cheese pizza and a couple of them will also eat pepperoni. I didn't get a picture of the pepperoni pizza, but it was similar to the cheese pizza. ;c)





Kirk and I like all different kinds. Tonight we had veggie pizza with olive oil drizzled on top instead of sauce, fresh mozzarella and some oregano sprinkled on top. It was so good! I think it could only have been better if I had fresh oregano and maybe some fresh basil, too.



Elijah approves. :c)

Where does the time go?

I turn around and weeks pass! It's been a busy couple of weeks. I keep meaning to come update the blog with some actual content, but then time gets away from me again. Maybe my summer goal will be to blog once a week.

I'm enjoying the sunny days in the midst of all the rain we've been getting. What a wet spring we've had. I'm trying to plan something fun for our summer. I'll let you in on it once I have figured out the details. :c)

I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know we're surviving! LOL

Adventures in lighting

I'm trying to find the best lighting solution for when we have poor light inside the house, mainly for during the winter. :cP I found a couple halogen work lamps at Lowe's for $24 for the set, so I grabbed them up. I definitely need to diffuse the light, but Spencer and I played around a little with different lighting and camera settings today.

One thing I figured out quickly as I was editing them is I need to write down the settings I use as I take the picture. Even 30 minutes later I had a hard time remembering exactly what I had done for each picture.

Another thing I learned, I really love shooting in RAW. The problem is the file sizes are just too huge for me to be able to do that on a regular basis. Maybe I can do that just for when I'm shooting portraits.


This one had the lights and the flash on the camera. Too much light! Too harsh! Diffusing/softening the light would have helped. I think this was full auto portrait on the camera.


Very cute picture, but I can't get the color cast out of it. Dang. Not enough light. This was using the portrait style setting with the camera set to Av. The halogens were surprisingly yellow sometimes. I thought halogens had more of a white light.


Camera on Av, style on standard. Still not quite right.


Camera set to Av, style standard, RAW, no lights, no flash. It's a shame RAW has such HUGE file sizes. I didn't play with the lights and RAW. I need to do that.

Those lights get *hot* in a hurry! I'm going to have fun playing with them and seeing if I can get good portraits at home.

A new roof!

Before(the worst section of the roof, although shingles were missing elsewhere):


After:

(They're going to come later to replace the gutter.)

Isn't it beautiful? :c)

Babies

I've shown the picture of the baby lemons. We also have baby strawberries and baby tomatoes.





When we drive in toward Kirk's work, we get to see the baby horses in the field. We need to go drive by the sheep at VA Tech. I bet there are lambs!

Spring

Isn't springtime great?



We had a lot of fun on Saturday at a church party. We went to a pond at one of the member's homes. The kids always have a great time there. In fact, they woke up on Saturday morning asking if it was time to go to the pond.



We had lots of fun fishing, boating, playing, eating. The kids found a baby turtle and were excited about that.



In other news, Kirk bought a dwarf Meyer lemon tree for me for my birthday. It has lots of tiny green lemons on it! So cute!