Hairdos, Belly Dancing, and Other Pictures

Since we no longer have a house helper, (yes, I hear you all crying your hearts out for me) the little girls have been having to entertain themselves more and more while I do school. I came in the other day to see the girls, for once, not in trouble. Ellie was combing Lydia's hair, and for once, they let me take a picture of them.

Before you all run screaming for the hills, it's NOT me belly dancing...it's Ellie's Belly Dancing. She really likes to try to take her clothes off to get ready for bed. She hasn't figured out how to get her arms out, though.

I took all the kids to the store with me the other night, as a treat for...well, for surviving, we went out for noodles at their favorite noodle shop. They love to eat it at the restaurant. I call it a restaurant, but the more accurate description would be carless garage.

And here, FINALLY, is a picture of Elijah's missing tooth. If you notice, the other tooth has already grown in...that's not because I waited so long to take the picture, the tooth was there before the old tooth fell out.

Lastly, I've not updated on my projects in a while. I have slowly...very slowly, been working on a quilt for Ellie. I have high hopes of finishing it before we need to take the big comforters off the beds...if that ever happens. It's a scrap quilt and is a little wild! Sorry it's so hard to see on the white background. Maybe when it's finished it will be easier to see.

Menu Monday, a New Favorite and Pictures

So my New Year's Resolution to post more on my blog has really been hit and miss. So here I am cramming a week's worth of blogging into one post. Sorry, I suppose it's a bit long...

This week we have decided to eat out a couple of times. One night we are headed to a local minority street for some "pulled noodles." It's really neat to watch the men make the noodles by stretching them out. And then we decided it was time to have some Mexican food at Peter's (whoo-hoo!). Other than that we'll be having split pea and barley soup, shrimp salads, and bbq chicken sandwiches. I figure that telling you all what we eat for breakfast and lunch is getting a little redundant. We'll also be celebrating a birthday at a friend's house.

And lastly, I'm going to try my hand at corned beef and cabbage on Wednesday. I figure that I might as well celebrate St. Patrick's Day. If it's worth eating, I'll post more details on it next week!

I have to admit that I love Rachael Ray recipes. I'm not a huge fan of her talk show, but I love her recipes. This week I stumbled upon a new(er) recipe of hers for Chicken Divan. I'm posting it below with a few changes.

• about a 1/3 sliced almonds, toasted and then set aside until serving
• 1 qt chicken stock or broth
• 1 zested lemon or 3-4 tblsp lemon juice
• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme, or about a tblsp thyme (I'm guessing, I didn't measure)
• 4tblsp butter, divided
• 11/2 cups white rice
• 1 1/2-1 3/4 lbs chicken breasts or tenders
• a little more than 1/2 cup all purpose flour...again, I didn't measure
• 1 tblsp poutry seasoning
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• a large bunch of aspargus (alas, I couldn't find it, we had peas with it instead)
• 6-7 button mushrooms
• 1/3 cup white wine (you can substitute chicken broth if you don't have it)
• 1/3 cup whole milk, half and half, or cream (I had whole, the other is expensive here)
• generous tblsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tblsp fresh tarragon or 1 tblsp dried
• 2 scallions chopped

Bring 2 3/4 cups of chicken broth, zest of lemon, and 1 tblsp of butter to a boil. Add rice. Cover and simmer on very low heat for 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, season chicken with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Dredge in flour. Heat in a large skillet 2 tblsp olive oil and 1 tblsp butter. Over medium to medium-high heat, cook the chicken until the juices run clear. Remove from the pan and set aside, covering to keep warm.

While cooking the chicken (if you have more than two burners, unlike me) bring about 1-2 inches of salted water to a boil in a shallow pan. Add the asparagus and cook for about 4 minutes until just tender but still bright green.

In the skillet used to cook the chicken, melt 2 tblsp of butter. Add the mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes. Whisk in about 2 heaping tblsp of flour and cook for about a minute. Whisk in the white wine and burn off the alcohol by cooking for about a minute. Then add the remaining chicken stock and the milk (half and half or cream). When the sauce bubbles and starts to thicken stir in the mustard and tarragon.

This really is one of the best recipes I've had in a long time. The only complaint I have is that I had enough meat for another adult, but no where near enough rice! Next time I will double the rice recipe. It sounds a little complicate, but it's really not. She said the recipe could be done in 35 minutes, and I think it took me about 45. I will admit that I re-wrote her directions because hers were not very clear. I hope that mine are clearer and that if you try this you will enjoy it as much as we did!

And last, but not least, here are some pictures from this last week.

Ellie's new make-up application technique. This is lipstick on the cheek.

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but Lydia's hair is very, very curly. One night after bath, I styled Lydia's hair VERY big. The 80's are back, baby!

This week I washed the girls' sheets. While they were off, Lydia grabbed the mattress saver and played with it. She was doing her "workout" on it. And when she was all done, she rolled it up neatly and put it on my yoga mat.

New Year's Resolution

Yep, I know, it's already the 14th...but I had some really good ones! One was to read the Bible through chronologically. One to be more organized, including tieing a pen around my neck. One was to lose five pounds by vacation...well, anyway. One was to start doing some more regular "work" on my blog. I've seen several blogs where people keep up regular posts. I really feel inspired to do just a little more. So my good intentions have been slow in being realized.

Hopefully, starting Monday I will be posting a Menu Monday. I'm also planning to pick up some other topics, but it might taking me a little while to realize fully!

While I try to get some things together, here are some long overdue pictures. P. S. Those are some mighty fine Godiva chocolates which I got from my sweet friend for my birthday!

Christmas

New Year's Day Feast!

Sleepy Saturday!

Today has been a sleepy Saturday morning. We've been doing our best to keep warm. Last night, we pulled out the extra blankets (thank you , IKEA, they are warm!). In fact, Isabella slept until after 7:30. She told me that she thinks its because she was warmer under the blankets. Before I am accused of not keeping my kids warm enough, I had to threaten her last night to actually sleep UNDER the blanket as she likes to sleep ON TOP of hers. This morning, though, all it took for Ellie to go straight to sleep was a few layers of clothes, a movie, and big, snuggly blanket! Of course, sleeping babies are just too cute, and as she will not be a baby much longer, I feel the need to take pictures! Enjoy! I sure did!
Lydia feels the need to "make" herself smile! Eventually, she grew tired of Ellie laying on her, she moved forward just a little and Ellie layed all the way down on the couch.

Caramel Apples and DIY Donuts

As part of the glories of Fall, we made caramel apples. A friend of mine gave me a recipe that used honey instead of corn syrup...one of those many things that nutritionist say to avoid at all costs but is nearly impossible to completely cut out of your diet! We tried the recipe and it was ok...but smacked strongly of honey-flavor (shouldn't have been surprising) and so was not nearly as appetizing as I had hoped. Maybe I'll try a new recipe one of these cold days! Yep, those are chopsticks. I only had enough sticks for five.
Kids very excited about the camarel apples!

The end result!

And since we're wrecking diets, I decided it would be a good time to try a new donut recipe. (Thank you, Alton Brown!) So we made some DIY donuts. I made the donuts, and then we powdered them and dipped them in chocolate as desired. Some of the donuts I did myself, make a mock Bavarian creme and filling the donuts...there was no way I was going to let the kids get involved in that! They were enjoyed by all, except Lydia who isn't much of a breakfast eater and simply licked the chocolate off hers. A couple of hours later, she came back and finished it.

Elijah enjoying the DIY part.

Bella taking a dip!

Yummy!

These are the creme filled!

Like I said, Lydia was only interested in the chocolate. Ellie here is about to take advantage of Lydia's disinterest. Just so you know, I saved the donut. As the cold weather has really set in, I've got to find a new, low-calorie habit!

The Fort!

So as all kids at some time, our kids have gotten into building forts. We've had to curtail this behavior some due to some swing-jumping, Tarzan-like incidents that ended in much crying and finger-pointing. But I got some cute pictures one night (before all the crying). So, enjoy...(Mom, I really am trying to be better about posting!) Some of the pictures are cut a little funny because apparently Lydia couldn't wear pants in the fort...who knows!

Here is Calvin, not so sure that he's into the whole fort thing. Interior decorating at it's finest. Bella is definitely Tim's child. She has lined up all the stuffed animals in a neat line. In other news, over breakfast a couple of weekends ago, the kids discussed and decided on who they would marry when they got older. We have some Canadian neighbors that they have settled on. Elijah has decided that either one of the younger girls will do for him. And Isabella has decided that the boy, who is 10 now, will be just the right age. She says that he will 23 when she is 20, so that will be good. Life is so simple at 7 and 6!