May was a busy month and it appears that will be stretching into June. The blog has been feeling deserted. Whenever I come to post, I have so many things swimming around in my head that I want to post about that I can't seem to get anything down. So in an effort to clear my head, today I bring you Random Thoughts, Volume 1 (I'm sure there will be more since I am often a random person).
*Joplin, MO has been on my mind a lot in the past ten days. It feels near to me as we are about a 45 minute drive from Missouri. Granted it would probably take us 5 hours to get to Joplin. Regardless, it still feels like something like that could happen here. Thankfully, I am able to do something. Another mom in our small town is from Joplin and her family is still there (all are fine). She and several other community members (many of us part of a mom's group) have organized a drive for supplies. We will be packing up a semi Sunday through Wednesday of next week and shipping supplies to Joplin. We have concentrated on toiletries, cleaning supplies, and survival supplies and hope that we make a difference in the lives of families down there.
*My cousin went into premature labor on Sunday and it looked really bad for awhile for both mom and baby. Thankfully, things turned around in 24 hours and the baby was born safely, about 6 weeks early. Both mom and baby are doing well. In fact, he is doing so well that the doctors took him off oxygen yesterday.
*My sister is having a garage sale this Saturday. This is a great excuse for me to de-clutter and get rid of some stuff. I have done some de-cluttering, but I just hate it. I need to do more. Who needs two dozen shirts? I mean, my boys would have to dirty several shirts a day and I'd have to be more than a week behind in laundry to really wear that many clothes. Both of those instances have occurred, but not simultaneously. Right now the boys are tackling their toys. Hopefully we can get rid of some stuff so that there is less to take care of. None of it is coming home. I will drop whatever is left off at the thrift store on the way home.
*Cub scouts are also having a day at Adventureland this Saturday. We're excited about that. I haven't decided if I will be brave enough to don a swimsuit. Normally I do there, but since there will be so many people I know there I haven't decided yet. It's supposed to be warm, but the rain chances keep creeping up. Maybe the chance of rain will keep some of the crowd away.
*I've gotten myself re-involved in two local groups this week. Clarke County Moms is a group of moms that come together for playdates and to build supports for each other and other moms. We did some of their activities last summer, but things got too busy for me with some college classes I was taking and then with work and I haven't been to any of their activities for some time. I took all three boys to the park and picnic day yesterday and we are planning to attend more in the coming weeks. Also I have been a member of Fiction Addiction (a book club) since its development this winter, but have never actually attended a meeting due to work conflicts. I like to say I play along at home, as I read the books, but miss out on the discussion. I went to the meeting last night even though I hadn't read the book (The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb). I had fun and am excited to attend in July. Our book for July is Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. I'm a few chapters in and will actually be able to discuss this book. Woo hoo!
*I cleaned my van out this morning. I threw away a garbage bag full of junk. It's embarrassing to have trash fall out of the van when we get out, but for now we are trash free. It really needs a good vacuuming, maybe I'll get that done tomorrow.
*We've started our Summer Bucket List and I'll blog about that in a separate post. I'm trying to decided if I will blog a certain day of the week about this or just randomly. It will probably be random, because that's just how we roll.
*It's past time for me to make lunch, so I guess I'd better get to it. The boys have managed to empty out their toys into a carpet of stuff in both rooms so I might just have to play the mean mom and just start shoving it into garage sale boxes... <sigh>
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Easter Weekend
What a busy Easter weekend! We hunted lots of goodies, ate lots of food, and spent a lot of time with family.
We started Saturday morning at the local Easter egg hunt. Pastor Chuck from the Assembly of God church leads the kids in some upbeat music on the bandstand. They tell the Easter story. Then the hunt begins. Each age group gets a small area that is taped off and eggs/candy are just thrown into the area. It is a crazy madhouse of a hunt that only lasts 2-3 minutes. They really need to double the size of the under 5 hunt area.
From there we headed home for a short nap for the youngest two before heading to Grandma and Grandpa Onn's (my parents). Mom always goes a bit overboard, but the kids love it! They get a couple full baskets of goodies that the bunny has hidden around the yard. This year the loot included candy, bubbles (normal, colored, and scented), candy, balls, candy, hats, and candy. We hung out together and spent time with Kayleigh, her parents (yep, you get second billing), my brother, and my parents. We had supper together too.
Grandma Feehan had come over earlier in the week to hide eggs in our house while we were at work and school. That was new this year and a surprise! What a treat for the boys to come home to a big sign on the front door telling them there were treats hidden throughout the house. Although, the boys have decided Grandma can't add since she mis-counted the eggs and they ended up finding more than what she said there were. :)
Sunday morning... We really should have our own Easter egg hunt here, but we haven't for a few years because we are always overloaded with hunts and candy. No one here has missed it. We got up and dressed up for church. This year the kids put on an Easter program in conjunction with the puppets. It was cute. Both of my older boys had their first speaking parts and pulled them off. My youngest did not even stay with the group, but came to sit with me and Mom. That was not a surprise. Maybe next year. The youth served a tasty breakfast. Reverend Stone had a very nice sermon and some great music for the service.
Then it was off to finish my cooking, change into jeans, and head in for the Lewis family celebration. Way too much good food, lots of quality time with family, and another Easter egg hunt. Megan got to let everyone know that Kayleigh will be a sister by the end of 2011--yay! We also found out that my cousin is beginning the process of adopting a teenage girl who needs a good family. Another cousin is also pregnant and still another is engaged. So the family is growing by leaps and bounds. The Lewis extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins is closer than most families. We get together for every major holiday, and some minor ones. I have always felt as close to my cousins as I have to my siblings. Hopefully the next generation will feel the same.
Hope you all had an equally wonderful weekend and made some wonderful memories!
We started Saturday morning at the local Easter egg hunt. Pastor Chuck from the Assembly of God church leads the kids in some upbeat music on the bandstand. They tell the Easter story. Then the hunt begins. Each age group gets a small area that is taped off and eggs/candy are just thrown into the area. It is a crazy madhouse of a hunt that only lasts 2-3 minutes. They really need to double the size of the under 5 hunt area.
From there we headed home for a short nap for the youngest two before heading to Grandma and Grandpa Onn's (my parents). Mom always goes a bit overboard, but the kids love it! They get a couple full baskets of goodies that the bunny has hidden around the yard. This year the loot included candy, bubbles (normal, colored, and scented), candy, balls, candy, hats, and candy. We hung out together and spent time with Kayleigh, her parents (yep, you get second billing), my brother, and my parents. We had supper together too.
Grandma Feehan had come over earlier in the week to hide eggs in our house while we were at work and school. That was new this year and a surprise! What a treat for the boys to come home to a big sign on the front door telling them there were treats hidden throughout the house. Although, the boys have decided Grandma can't add since she mis-counted the eggs and they ended up finding more than what she said there were. :)
Sunday morning... We really should have our own Easter egg hunt here, but we haven't for a few years because we are always overloaded with hunts and candy. No one here has missed it. We got up and dressed up for church. This year the kids put on an Easter program in conjunction with the puppets. It was cute. Both of my older boys had their first speaking parts and pulled them off. My youngest did not even stay with the group, but came to sit with me and Mom. That was not a surprise. Maybe next year. The youth served a tasty breakfast. Reverend Stone had a very nice sermon and some great music for the service.
Then it was off to finish my cooking, change into jeans, and head in for the Lewis family celebration. Way too much good food, lots of quality time with family, and another Easter egg hunt. Megan got to let everyone know that Kayleigh will be a sister by the end of 2011--yay! We also found out that my cousin is beginning the process of adopting a teenage girl who needs a good family. Another cousin is also pregnant and still another is engaged. So the family is growing by leaps and bounds. The Lewis extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins is closer than most families. We get together for every major holiday, and some minor ones. I have always felt as close to my cousins as I have to my siblings. Hopefully the next generation will feel the same.
Hope you all had an equally wonderful weekend and made some wonderful memories!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday Family Traditions
Every Sunday after church we head over to my mom's house for lunch. This is a tradition that was born six years ago when I started teaching Sunday school and Colby, who was then one, needed someplace to go while Braedon and I went to Sunday school.
Lunch varies depending on the time of year, Mom's amount of free time and energy, and if we have somewhere else to go after lunch. When it is warm enough we usually have weiner roasts. Sometimes we have brunch (egg casseroles, monkey bread). Sometimes we order pizza or KFC. Sometimes it's comfort food (ham balls and cheesy potatoes). Sometimes Mom tests out new recipes on us. But it doesn't really matter what we eat, I love that my kids look forward to this time every week and will look back on these Sunday dinners with fond memories as they grow up.
We have a movie playing in the background and this goes in phases. We oftentimes watch some sort of Disney or Nick Jr. cartoon. A few years back Colby wanted to watch Annie every Sunday. (Kind of reminded me of my youth when my sister had to watch The Sound of Music every week--I can still sing through that movie and I don't think I've seen it in a decade or more.) Currently Brody has been choosing one or the other of the Indiana Jones movies each week. But today Steve, my brother in law, brought down some other movies we hadn't seen before.
Many times we play a game after dinner. We love Blokus and Apples to Apples. Today my sister was down with her hubby and my niece, Kayleigh (one year). So out came the play dough! At one time we had eight people ranging in age of one year to 50 years old playing with the play dough. We had play dough pizza and pigs in blankets, a play dough person, worms, and spaghetti. Kayleigh tasted a few samples and offered some to Grandma, who politely declined.
I'm so excited that my children are building strong relationships with family. I come from an extended family that is very close and hope that my kids will feel the same way someday.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
A bit of my personal baking history and a recipe to share...
I come from a family with lots of good cooks. I am also fortunate that many of those good cooks are also good bakers (those two talents do not always go hand in hand). I think I am an okay cook. But I thoroughly enjoy baking.
My specialty has always been cookies. I remember Grandma Lewis baking cookies with me. I especially remember her allowing me to dirty many more dishes than my mom allowed me to dirty as I baked cookies. The dirty dishes weren't a big deal because Grandma, first of all was my grandma, and secondly had a dishwasher. I also remember baking cookies at home and getting compliments from many people, but Dad always had good comments (he is still one of my biggest fans). I also remember Steve, our hired hand, commenting on my cookies. This stuck with me, because he mainly treated me as a little sister, teasing or not really acknowledging me much. Those compliments of my cookies meant a lot.
I remember having treat days in high school and getting good comments on my brownies (which were from a box). I also did a speech about making monster cookies. I think that is the only time I have ever made them--that is just a lot of ingredients! In college I missed baking so much that I rented the little kitchen in our dorm building and bought the ingredients to bake chocolate chip cookies. I had to buy all the ingredients as I didn't have any of that stuff on hand in the dorm room. But they were so good and so worth it.
I think cookies are still my favorite thing to bake, but I mainly rotate through the same recipes. My favorite is chocolate chip, but I have a few others I also make regularly. For our local farmers' market I usually bake snickerdoodles.
I really never remember having snickerdoodles as a child. I remember having them occasionally in college, care of Pfeifer Dining Hall. The first year we did farmers' market I stumbled upon a snickerdoodle recipe. This was a cookie that was not anyone else's specialty at the market and it seemed to be an easy recipe with ingredients I already have on hand. I made them enough to build a following, and now they are one of my specialties.
My specialty has always been cookies. I remember Grandma Lewis baking cookies with me. I especially remember her allowing me to dirty many more dishes than my mom allowed me to dirty as I baked cookies. The dirty dishes weren't a big deal because Grandma, first of all was my grandma, and secondly had a dishwasher. I also remember baking cookies at home and getting compliments from many people, but Dad always had good comments (he is still one of my biggest fans). I also remember Steve, our hired hand, commenting on my cookies. This stuck with me, because he mainly treated me as a little sister, teasing or not really acknowledging me much. Those compliments of my cookies meant a lot.
I remember having treat days in high school and getting good comments on my brownies (which were from a box). I also did a speech about making monster cookies. I think that is the only time I have ever made them--that is just a lot of ingredients! In college I missed baking so much that I rented the little kitchen in our dorm building and bought the ingredients to bake chocolate chip cookies. I had to buy all the ingredients as I didn't have any of that stuff on hand in the dorm room. But they were so good and so worth it.
I think cookies are still my favorite thing to bake, but I mainly rotate through the same recipes. My favorite is chocolate chip, but I have a few others I also make regularly. For our local farmers' market I usually bake snickerdoodles.
I really never remember having snickerdoodles as a child. I remember having them occasionally in college, care of Pfeifer Dining Hall. The first year we did farmers' market I stumbled upon a snickerdoodle recipe. This was a cookie that was not anyone else's specialty at the market and it seemed to be an easy recipe with ingredients I already have on hand. I made them enough to build a following, and now they are one of my specialties.
Snickerdoodles
1 cup margarine or butter
(in most of my recipes I lean toward using butter, but in this one sometimes using only butter makes the batter too runny--I usually do a stick of each)
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
a couple shakes of salt
2 Tb sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon (approximately) to roll cookies in prior to baking
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream together wet ingredients. Blend in dry ingredients. Shape dough by rounded teaspoons into balls. Combine the 2 Tb sugar and cinnamon. Roll balls in mixture and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Remove from baking sheet immediately. Enjoy with a glass of milk.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)