Where are the cows?

I was awakened from my sleep at 2:30 a.m. to the sound of a cowbell. It really isn't all that unusual (Grandma's bed alarm broke a few weeks ago, so she uses a cow bell to let us know when she needs to get up), but it's still quite alarming.

I stumbled into Grandma's room to find her sitting on the edge of her bed looking around. I asked her what she needed.

"I don't know. I've been sitting here for hours and hours with all these people. They told me all the cows in the world are gone. I thought I would ring this bell to find out."

(Suppressing a laugh, or as much of a laugh as is possible at 2:30 a.m.) "Well, there aren't any cows here. Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

"I guess. Is there any in there?"

"No, there aren't any cows in there."

After we get done in the bathroom, I take her back to her bed. I try my best to explain to her that she was having a dream. She didn't ask much more about the cows and went back to bed pretty easily.

Maybe we should take the cowbell away.

Enjoying Warmer Weather

We've been so thankful that the weather has warmed up recently. It's been so nice to open the windows, get outside, and not have the heat on all the time!

I took Grandma and the dogs outside one day last week to enjoy the sunshine. Wilson had a blast playing fetch with a stick. Wesley isn't into playing fetch. He would rather explore the yard and, unfortunately, the neighborhood.

As you can see, Wesley is too busy checking out the yard to be concerned with fetching the stick.

He always wants to bring sticks in to chew on. He would run to the door like this every time I would throw the stick.

Grandma just sitting and taking it all in.

It's pitiful to have to watch one dog play outside and not be able to go out! Wesley and Wilson love sitting on the bed like this and looking out the window.

Our dogs sure know how to get comfortable!

Mom, I'm eating my veggies

One of my goals for 2011 is to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. I don't have any problem eating fruit. I love almost any kind of fruit. Lately, I've been having a smoothie in the morning with whatever fruit is available at the store. I've had a lot of blackberries and bananas.

Vegetables are a little harder for me to eat. I've been trying to come up with creative ways to get at least 2 servings of vegetables a day. So far this year, I've tried the following ways of eating vegetables:

• fresh spinach in smoothies
• carrots pureed in spaghetti sauce
• roasted squash
• roasted asparagus
• carrots and celery with buffalo chicken dip
• cauliflower in mashed potatoes

And most recently, I have tried kale. I've heard a lot about how healthy kale is and all the vitamins and nutrients it provides. So, last week I tried it 2 different ways. First, I sauteed it in olive oil, salt, and pepper. This was really good!

I read of baking kale and eating it like potato chips. I drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper on the kale and baked it. This was also really good! I used a little too much olive oil and salt, but otherwise they were quite tasty and a bit addictive!

This is a picture of my kale chips as they came out of the oven.

Our Part of the Snowstorm

It's hard to believe that 4 days ago we were enjoying 76 degree temperatures and spending most of the day outside. Just yesterday afternoon, I was driving with my windows down and had the doors open because it was hot in the house. It's a much different story today!

First thing Wesley did this morning was try to dig around in the snow with his nose. The ground is so frozen that he couldn't dig very much. You can see a little bit of snow on his nose and face in this picture.




Wesley and Wilson get so frisky out in the snow. Wilson wasn't a big fan of it at first, but he loves it now. They just run and run!


It's supposed to get down to 7 tonight with a wind chill of -15. That's just a little too cold for Jake (who is usually outside all the time), so we decided to bring him in.

Wesley and Wilson aren't quite sure what to think of this! Poor Jake looks scared to death!

Felt Food

I recently finished a craft project that was a little different, but a lot of fun. I made felt food for a friend's daughter who just turned 2. Felt food has become really popular in the realm of "unique" toys for kids. The idea of having play food made out of felt rather than hard plastic is genius. I think it's much more realistic, inviting, and creative.

Here's how my felt food turned out:

Top to bottom: ruffle chips with bag, chocolate chip cookies, ear of corn, banana, orange slices, fried egg, strawberries, carrots, bread slices, crackers, tomato, lettuce, lunch meat, slice of cheese. I also made bacon strips, but they didn't make it into the picture.

Thankfully, I was able to find wonderful tutorials on how to make most of the food items.

Thanks to:
I used this tutorial to make the strawberries.
This for the fried egg and orange slices.
This for the sandwich and chips.
This for the banana and corn.
This for the crackers.
This for the carrots.
I didn't use a tutorial or pattern for the cookies or bacon strips.

Menu Plan Monday - Jan. 24

Review from last week:

Well, so much for getting back to a planned menu this week! I followed the menu 3 out of the 7 days. I started the week out doing well, but the end of the week didn't go so well.

I did make the biscuits and they were pretty good. I think I rolled my dough out too thin, so they were kind of thin biscuits. I made a batch again Sunday night and put in the freezer for the week.

I didn't get around to making the Dairy Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies this week, but will for next Sunday. I have a little buddy at church who has severe food allergies. I feel bad that there isn't a lot of food he can eat, so I thought I would try making him some kind of dessert.

This week:

Monday: Green Enchilada Casserole, Mexican Beans

Tuesday: Breakfast Ring

Wednesday: Taco Soup

Thursday: Roast

Friday: Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Rice

Saturday: Chicken Fajita Pizza

Sunday: Church - Chick-Be-Quicks, Dairy Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Supper - Frito pie or hamburger pie

Hope you have a great week! See more menu plans here!

Goals

This time of year has a lot of people making resolutions, goals, plans for the new year. I'm a "goal-oriented" kind of person. I like to make goals and challenge myself to achieve those goals. Sometimes I like to get specific with my goals. Other times I like to make more generic goals.

Some of my goals for 2011 are:

• read the Bible through (using The One-Year Bible published by Tyndale)
• eat more fresh fruits and vegetables
• send one handwritten note a week (not starting out so well on this one!)
• call my grandparents more often
• run 3 miles in under 30 minutes
• learn to knit
• read 50 books
• stick to a grocery budget
• intentionally save money

I have a few others that are a little more personal, but those are the main ones.

I'll be posting my progress on the books I've read and am currently reading on the sidebar of the blog. I'm on book 4 of 50 right now. Several of my books are by my favorite author, Karen Kingsbury. I've read most of her books, but I hope to read all of them this year. Also on my list are a few classics that I've never read, some current popular reads, and a few educational books. I have 3 purposes for this goal:

1). Do something I enjoy
2). Spend more time reading and less time watching TV or on the computer
3). Broaden my scope of literacy

We'll see how the year turns out and if I am successful with my goals.

Menu Plan Monday - Jan. 17

No worries, we have eaten since November 8th! I've even managed to plan meals. I just haven't managed to post about my meal plan. Hopefully, I'll be back to my normal routine soon!

I don't have anything too exciting planned for this week. I am going to try a new recipe for biscuits for breakfast. This recipe says you can make a big batch and freeze them. That's my plan. I will pull a few out for breakfast every morning.

Monday: Taco skillet, guacamole

Tuesday: Fried chicken, potatoes, peas

Wednesday: Pork chops, cheesy potatoes

Thursday: Sweet and sour meatballs, rice

Friday: Burritos, corn casserole

Saturday: Soup and sandwiches

Sunday: Church - Green bean casserole, Dairy Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas!

Well, hello there!

Remember me? Sorry I've left my few faithful readers for so long. My computer was a little under the weather, we've been traveling during the holidays, and sometimes I'm just lazy.

I hope to be back on the blogging bandwagon soon! I have plans for a few posts this week and we'll see how it goes from there!

Merry Christmas to us!

Wilson is our new 10 1/2 week old Golden Retriever. So far he's a pretty good puppy. The poor thing is a little awkward right now because his legs are so long. He kind of just flops them around, but it's cute to watch!






Wesley and Wilson are getting along pretty well so far. They play together some, but Wesley's still trying to figure him out. I think they'll end up being pretty good buddies.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We love the Christmas season at our house! We usually put up our tree and decorations Thanksgiving day or the day after. However, since I was visiting my family in Illinois, it had to wait an extra week.

Here's a Christmas tour....

We usually do red, green, and gold on our tree. This year we decided to just do red and gold. I love how it looks!

The next two are shelves that are over the couch.

Our Dickens village on top of the TV.

This is the opening between the living room and kitchen/dining area.

Since the kitchen and dining area are decorated in blue and white, we decided to stray from the red and gold theme in here.

I made this wreath from cheap ornaments I found at Dollar Tree and Target. I really like how it turned out!

A closer look at the top of the hutch. The white blob on the left is my attempt at making a coffee filter tree. I think it's kind of cute in its own unique way.

I made another ornament wreath to hang in the laundry room. I used red glass ornaments that I bought at Wal-mart after Christmas last year for $0.25 a box! I added the aqua ribbon to fit in the with laundry room colors.

I made this swag to put over our bed out of trimmings off the tree.

The door into the house.

This is the ornament wreath in the dining area from the outside. It's hard to see in this picture, but it really sparkles when the lights from the outside hit it. I love it!

Or house from the street.

Peeking in the window at the Christmas tree.

Like this Mom....

P.S. For those of you wondering, my computer is not working right now, so no Menu Planning Monday this week.

Lazy Mornings

Can you tell it's been a bit of a lazy morning around here?

Menu Plan Monday - Nov. 8

Reviews from last week:

I finally went grocery shopping on Tuesday, so we didn't have to scrounge as much as I thought. It's always nice to have restocked shelves!

I made the herbed quinoa on Friday night. This was my first experience having quinoa. It was OK. I'm not sure if it was this recipe that I wasn't a big fan of or the texture. The dish turned out a little too lemony for my liking. I'll make quinoa again, but try a different recipe some time.

I made the Cheesy Chicken Lasagna for church on Sunday and also froze a pan of it. I liked it OK, but didn't love it. I think it needed a little more richness or spice. It was also a little dry. I think next time I make it I'll try adding spinach and a creamier sauce (maybe some cream cheese, more milk, half and half).

I also made a spice cake with my new mixer! This was my first time making a spice cake and it turned out OK. It really needs some kind of caramel sauce or icing. I decided not to do any icing, because my husband doesn't like cream cheese or sour cream icing. It definitely needed something!

This week:

Breakfast: Peanut butter baked oatmeal

Monday: Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake

Tuesday: Hamburgers on the grill (stuffed with onion, jalapeno, bacon, cheese, ranch dressing), Homemade buns, fries

Wednesday: Crock-pot Philly Cheesesteak Soup, rolls

Thursday: Leftovers or soup/sandwiches

Friday: Skillet Tacos

Saturday: Grilled Chicken, squash and onions

Sunday: Homemade pizza

Find more meal plans and recipes here.

Hello, Beautiful!

Meet the newest addition to my kitchen. My brand new, $18, long-sought-after, beautiful KitchenAid mixer. Thanks to a wonderful deal between Lowe's and Facebook, Chris was able to score this lovely lady for just $18.10 last night! That's pretty much stealing it as far as I'm concerned. I've wanted a KitchenAid mixer for a REALLY long time, but couldn't ever justify spending the ridiculous price. I am so thankful for this great deal and the opportunity to do some baking!


P.S. I'm thinking about naming this lovely lady. Any suggestions?

Gathering Pecans

This is what has been taking up a lot of our time. We've picked up about 25 gallons of pecans so far. Chris says we're about 25% done! We're going to be doing this for a while.