finally

Tonight we got to see ML & T's new barn in action, well it was the first time for the kids and I, Mike's been up there the past two evenings. The cows need to be trained to use the robotic milker and as you can imagine some are faster learners than others.




ML gave us a little tour and Abby was fascinated by the entire setup. Abby loved checking out the robot room and having a front row seat for the milking. It's been months and months and months of talking about this barn and many more months of planning and building. I am thrilled for them that it's finally a reality.

what's cooking wednesday - favourites

I am one sleepy Mama tonight. Ready to crawl into bed and maybe read a page and a half of my book before it bonks me in the face.... because I feel asleep reading it. zzzzzzzzz

My kitchen has been a busy place the past few days. I've been cooking up a storm trying to keep some hungry farmers fed while they train a herd of cows how to live in their new barn. And what have I been cooking them?

Pulled pork. This go around was okay, but not as stellar as my first attempt... in my opinion anyway. They ate it up just fine. I blame the onion. I threw an onion in this time around and it messed with the balance of spices. Much better without.

Chili. Hearty, stick to your ribs and chock full of veggies. I fed this to ML for lunch before and she requested it. It's all prepped and ready to go into the crockpot tomorrow morning.

Lasagna. I think this may be my favourite dish that I make. Mmmmm. The house smelled delicious.





What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page.

*All front page links will be deleted!*
*Posts that aren't linked back will be deleted*
*Posts that don't include some sort of a recipe will be deleted*

Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

shaving years off my life

Oh my gosh, it is always something around here. Neither Mike or I were expecting the call we got this afternoon. Maya took a tumble at school and they thought perhaps she may have broken her hand or her wrist.

What?!

Did I mention today was the day I was cooking dinner for our dairy farming friends and that Mike was headed to the farm to help out after work? Yeah. So we made some calls and got Grandma Sandi to pick up Abby and take care of dinner. Luckily I had mostly ready to go. Thank goodness I prepped so much the day before.

We got to the school to find Maya sitting quietly in the office waiting for us. She had an ice pack for her hand and she had a little cry when she saw us, but she was pretty together. Her hand was very swollen and bruised in one localized area, so off to emerg we went.

It took us just over 2 hours to find out that Maya had no broken bones, but rather had a pretty nasty bruise on that fleshy part of your palm underneath the thumb. Nothing a little tylenol, an ice pack and some time won't cure.  Thank goodness. Maya was a trooper through all the waiting and the poking.

And we were still home in time to get dinner to the farmers, Mike got a few hours of work in and Grandma Linda was kind enough to load my dishwasher and! wash my dishes while I had a shower before getting the kids to choir practice....where Maya promptly forgot about her hand and attempted to clap along to the music. She remembered in a darn hurry, I tell ya!!

sunday randoms

So it's Sunday night.... that weekend was a whirlwind! Phew.

Today the power kept going out at the house which was a total pain in the arse because I was trying to bake and prep for all the cooking I need to do this week. The power went out, once again, after the sun went down so it was pitch black in the house. Abby was in the bathroom at the time and in trying to get out of it, walked nose first right into the door jam. She ended up a nice bump on the bridge of her nose and a bit of a headache. Poor thing.

So what's the deal with all this baking and cooking. Well our fabulous dairy farming friends ML & T are finally moving the herd into their new barn! It's a very exciting time for them. It's been so much work to get to this point, I'm glad it's finally here. From the way I understand it, it's going to take 3 days to get everyone settled into the new barn. It's a 24 hour, all hands on deck sort of situation so I volunteered to take care of feeding them so they can concentrate on the cows.

And the power is out again!! Where did those dang kids leave the flashlight? Okay it's back on.

Okay so yeah.... cows. Mike will be headed there after work to lend a hand and taking dinner with him when he goes.

I think I finally nailed down a plan for Christmas. Actually I thought I already had one, but we kind of threw it out the window last night and started from scratch. I like the new plan. It makes me happy.

Got the kids Christmas presents mostly done as well. Not a lot going under the tree this year. Really running with the less is more and it's the thought that counts theme this year. Lots of really great outside the box ideas for gift giving. That makes me happy too.

Went for a run on Saturday. It was a tough go for both of us. I think we took too long of a break in between. Abby has riding lessons on Thursday night. An hour long lessons equals two hours at the stable so we didn't run, nor did we on Friday. We hadn't run since Tuesday. We facebooked a picture of our pathetic faces and begged for some words of encouragement. They must have worked because Abby had me downloading Bootcamp today. My body is sore just thinking about it.

Strained a muscle running on Saturday then went and stood in the cold to watch the Santa Claus parade. I was sore walking in, but no pain walking back to the van. Did Santa cure my muscle strain? I think he did. The first Festivus miracle of the season.

Only three more days until Movember is over. Get your razors ready fellas. I am ready to be done with the creepy staches. Love the cause, but..... ick.

halloween

It occurred to me that whiel I told you all about the awfulness that was Halloween I neglected to tell you about the fun.... and it was fun, minus those 45 minutes we were all frantically searching.

Maya dressed up as her beloved Jessie. I thought her little head was going to explode from the excitement of being Jessie. Abby wanted to be a cowgirl, which was easy since we already had the boots so we just picked up a shirt from value village and a new cowgirl hat.





I'm adding this picture even though it's blurry because it was her favourite part of the costume.... a bit of red yarn, braided and tied with a yellow ribbon. Just like Jessie. She still has it.





I wasn't overwhelmed by the pumpkins I did this year. I really liked this one, but the others were duds.





I'll finish up with a rare family portrait.

friday high five - foods i shouldn't buy

So my personal trainer, Abby, has me running and doing yoga and has directed me to download a bootcamp app from itunes this weekend. She's serious about this, yo! I guess that means I have to get serious about this too. That means being smarter at the grocery store and that means no more buying those foods that I just can't leave alone, like........

1. Fresh bread. Like super duper fresh bakery bread. I may have bought some very fresh, very delicious multi-seed rolls while grocery shopping this afternoon.
2. Cream cheese... well really all cheese makes me weak in the knees, but cream cheese is the worst.
3. Cracked black pepper cashews. Oh my. I could eat the whole can in one sitting. Yes, I could.
4. Salt and vinegar chips. While I love s&v I am always vaguely disappointed. They are never salty or vinegary enough.
5. Honey maple ham. I am not a real fan of lunch meat. I think it's kind of gross, but the stuff we get at the deli counter is the best lunch meat ever invented. I'm not even sure who makes it, but it has a very distinct maple flavour that I love. I almost wept this afternoon when I attempted to purchase some only to be told they were sold out. They also sold out of my favourite pretzel buns so this week's shopping trip was clearly and epic fail!

What foods are you powerless against?

what's cooking wednesday - pulled pork

I love love love the pioneer woman, but don't we all. I finally got around to making her cinnamon buns which were to die for, just as promised. I've had her cookbook for a while now (thanks Mama!!), but I haven't made too many recipes out of it. I have decided that this winter I need to change that. I got a great deal on some pork tenderloin, so I thought I would tweak her spicy pulled pork recipe a bit.

Funny story before we get to the recipe, when I first got this book Abby spent quite a long time looking through it. If you haven't seen it the book is full of gorgeous pictures or their ranch life on top of all the amazing looking food. So there's lots of pictures of horses and cows in amongst the cinnamon buns, pulled pork and sheey cake. Abby finished with the book and set it aside with a scowl. I don't like that book, she tells me. Really? I'm a little surprised pictures of horses is right up her alley. "Why not?" I can't believe you have a horse cook book.

Ahhh my sweet girl thought all those pictures of horses in the book meant the recipes were for horse meat. Poor girl.  Now on to the recipe...




Spicy Pulled Pork

I tossed two pork tenderloins in my crock pot.

In a bowl I mixed together:

1tbsp chili powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
 a large-ish pinch of salt
freshly ground black pepper

Then I sprinkled that all over the tenderloins in the crockpot. I added a splash of water to the bottom and cooked in on low for 8 hours.

I moved the tenderloins to a casserole dish and shredded the meat with two forks. The drippings I put in a pot and brought to a boil on the stove. I whisked in some flour and water to thicken it up and poured it over the shredded pork. I served this on buns with coleslaw and baked potatoes. I'm pretty sure Mike wanted to marry me all over again.

Most definitely will make these again.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page.

*All front page links will be deleted!*
*Posts that aren't linked back will be deleted*
*Posts that don't include some sort of a recipe will be deleted*

Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

7.7/145

It's been 145 days since I took an unplanned break from Weight Watchers. At first it was just a fun little holiday and then everything went a bit pear shaped around here and it was just easier to not think about it. And that decision right there was good for seven point seven pounds. Ugh! To be honest I was expecting it to be 10 or more, so I won't complain too much.

Lately there has been some general rumblings of... oh I need to get back on track..... I need to get my head back in the game..... and so on. Seemed like a good idea in on paper, but it was really hard to put into practice.

Then along came something to give me a huge kick in the ass.

Her name is Abby.

She wants to run a 5k next summer.

She wants to start training now and she's nine so she can't train alone.

So this Mama bought and downloaded Couch to 5k to her ipod this weekend and then I hit the trail with her Sunday afternoon to complete day one of week one. We had to take Maya with us because Michael has been farming up a storm the past couple of weeks and they both totally out paced me. In fact by the end of the session I was holding them up. Enough that Maya turned to me and said... Mommy you need to go faster and without missing a beat my Abby girl shot back.... she's can't, she's old.

Oh yes, I am old. And I don't run, not ever, but I'm giving it a go. I'm kind of impressed I finished day one and am kind of looking forward to going out with her again tomorrow Maya will have to come with, which is cramping Abby's style, but there's still farming to be done.

Today was a day off from running, so Abby had us doing some yoga and some stretching instead. We both agreed we felt better for it. I'm interested to see where this is going to go and am very much in awe of my baby girl and the goal she's set for herself.

sunday randoms

Saw Crazy Stupid Love this weekend and loved it. Why aren't there more movies where Ryan Gosling is shirtless? For serious! We should be pumping them out at a rate of 2 per year. Get on that Hollywood.

I really want to watch The Notebook now.

So the question of the night was.... who let the cows out? Well as it turns out they let themselves out when they knocked over the gate, but guess who got to help herd the ten of them back in the barn...... yep, that's right.... this gal. This is usually Mike's deal, but since he was out at a function I got to take his place. I was a poor replacement, that's for sure, having no idea what I was even doing, but we got them all back in so it wasn't a total failure.

When you're herding escaped cattle in the dark of night, you hear just as much cussing as one would expect, from the youngest to the oldest herder. That was worth the price of admission right there.

ML told me the "calves" were out. Those were not calves. I don't care what she tries to tell you. I could barely see over the backs of some of those "calves".

Cows make me nervous. True story.

Was I herding cows in my jammies? Why yes, yes I was.

While I was busy chasing cows all over the barnyard, the girls were at Medieval Times with Grandma Sandi, an experience that blew their little minds. They were team Blue Knight all the way. They were still excited at church on Sunday morning, so much so that I had to tell them twice that waving their blue knight flag was not appropriate during the service.

I'm really unwilling to admit this weekend is over. I'm going to regret this in the morning.

progress

So progress reports came home this week, they aren't quite a report card, but rather just something to give you an idea how they are progressing so far. In a nutshell, Abby's said she's progressing nicely in grade four. It was pretty much what I was expecting. To be honest I was more interested in the parent teacher interview, than I was with the report which is full of a lot of "canned educator speak". I mean no disrespect to the teachers out there. I've got mad respect for them, yo! Teachers are a huge part of why I am so active on our Parent's Council, outside of my own kids of course. We have exceptional teachers at our school. I know how hard they work and if I can help in any way to make that easier, then I am happy to do that.

No question, last year was a struggle for Abby on a personal level. I do not regret, for a second, having her in Empower which is a intense reading recovery program, but it was hard on her. She hated how it separated her from her class and that she missed out on gym and library.... missing math didn't bother her so much, not surprisingly. Of course now we are in a situation where she needs some extra math work, but it's a really small price to pay to now have a kid who takes chapter books to bed with her to read by herself!!

I can tell this year, that Abby is excited about school. More excited than she has been in a year or more, but as her teacher pointed out to me, we do a lot of reading here and if I was having reading issues then I would hate coming here too. Good point, Mr. Teacher, very good point. And that right there told me all I needed to know about him, he gets her. In fact you can quickly tell by talking to him that he is a very engaged teacher.

He feels she's settled in quite well socially. She's a great group member and she's really improved on staying on task without needing prompts and reminders to do so. As I am typing this out I'm realizing that her lack of focus probably had more to do with her struggle with reading rather than just a general lack of focus. This is the first report we've had in a while where she received "goods" in responsibility, organization, independent work, initiative and self-regulation.

The best point of the interview was when we discussed the results of the reading assessment. Last September Abby's reading level was 18. This September her reading level is a 40! A 40 people!! I almost jumped on the table. I almost cried! I definitely walked around the rest of the evening randomly shouting out 40, with a fist pump! The part she needs the most work on is reading out loud, so he's suggested for homework she read her sister a bedtime story. That had Maya walking around all night randomly shouting out Yes! with a fist pump!

She's not 100% there yet, but she's close, so close. Thank you Empower. I will sing this program's praises forever to whoever will listen.

friday high five - pie

Tonight we were at a fundraising dinner that I was asked to donate a couple of pies to. So dessert ends up being a buffet of different pies. Mmmmm pies. I love pie....... so for this week's Friday High Five.... Pie!

1. Apple Pie. I feel about apple pie the same way Mike feels about pizza, even a bad one is pretty good.
2. Butter Tart Pie. Oh my. So delicious. That's what I made tonight.
3. Chocolate. Oh yum! Pastry crust, graham crust... they're all good.
4. Strawberry Rhubarb. Would you believe I was 30 before I realized how good strawberry rhubarb pie is?
5. Blueberry... it was a toss up between this and lemon, blueberry is just a smidge better.

What's your favourite kind of pie?

now what

No question I am pretty stinkin' proud of the Abster for winning that ipod, but it kind of threw everything out of whack. You see the plan was for the big guy in red to bring her an ipod and MyPie a leap pad. So, now what?

Exactly... now what.

For starters I think we're going to push the leap pad back to Maya's birthday.

And then I don't know. I picked up some art canvases for them and a webkinz for each of them. I know I don't want a lot more "stuff". It's kind of weird not to have a plan. I always have a plan for Christmas. I figure it'll all come together at some point.

Hopefully before the 25th.

what's cooking wendesday - chex mix

So I made chex mix on the weekend. It was way easier than I thought it was going to be.

I didn't take a picture because it's chex mix. I think we all know what it looks like.

Buffalo Chex Mix

4 cups rice chex
4 cups wheat chex
2 cups parmesan flavoured crackers
2 cups pretzels
6 tbsp butter
2 1/2 tbsp hot sauce
1 packet ranch dressing mix
2 tsp celery seed

In a large microwaveable bowl mix cereals, crackers and pretzels. In a small bowl microwave butter until melted, stir in the hot sauce, ranc sesoning mix and celery seed. Pour over the cereal mixture and stir until evenly coated.

Microwave uncovered on high for 4 minutes, stirring after every 2 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool. Store in an air tight container.

Recipe: Well I felt kind of meh about this, but Mike and Maya both really liked it. I used Frank's Buffalo Sauce instead of straight up hot sauce. I thought this needed more of that buffalo wing flavour, but Mike thought it had just enough. Next time I would leave out the celery, maybe throw in some cheese nips. Oh and cut back on the chex. We both thought the chex to everything else ratio was way off.



What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page.

*All front page links will be deleted!*
*Posts that aren't linked back will be deleted*
*Posts that don't include some sort of a recipe will be deleted*

Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

never a dull moment

Tonight the girls were tidying up the toy room. We recently got Granny's hand me down futon and we need to make some room for it in there. Yep, Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel are moving up in the world... no more air mattress on the floor in amongst the Polly Pockets, Little Pets and Barbies for them. So I sent them in their to tidy, but they were mostly arguing because they're sisters and that's what you do with your sibling when you are five and nine respectively. Also Abby is the one that actually cleans while Maya always has tired and/or sore legs.

So they are in there arguing and Abby is insisting that Maya get off her duff and help when Maya shoots back...

Well your name is Blah for the rest of my life now. Okay, Blah?

And then every time Abby said something to her I heard any one of the following...

What Blah?

Blah, I'm not listening to you.

Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Don't forget your name is Blah now.

She's just too much that one.

sunday randoms

This was kind of a quiet weekend. Just the girls and I for the most part. Now that Mike's back to his regular hours he was able to spend the large part of the weekend driving a tractor for our dairy farming friends. I know he was missing helping out there.

We did manage to squeeze in three movies this weekend though. How to Train Your Dragon with the kids Friday night. Saturday night the girls and I went to movie night at the church and watched Blizzard, a movie I'd never even heard of before. It was cute, but seeing it once in my life is probably enough. Then Michael (the closet Twihard) and I watched Eclipse because Breaking Dawn Part 1 comes out soon and he needed to get caught up. I am under strict instructions not to go to the movies without him. Hope Robin & ML don't mind him tagging along.

Christmas shopping is officially underway. I'm feeling pretty excited about the whole thing!

Are webkinz totally freaking adorable or is it just me?

You know, Uncle Dave doesn't post on the internet all that much, but when it does it's usually pure awesomeness like birds and light test.

So started watching Big Bang Theory. Why on earth was I not watching this from the beginning? Bazinga!

Made chex mix today. Not totally in love with it, but Mike says it's good. Meh.

bootles for our dream team

It many ways I am in the best place of my life. Right here, right now. Sure the past couple of months have been a bit of a test, but the people in my life made it bearable. All of them. So what's making my life so great right now, the people I have in it. No question, from my family to my funny girls at work who make me laugh like crazy every day, to my Jersey Girls who also make me laugh while they sit around my house in their pajamas.

Those same Jersey Girls are the ones that raised over $3000 for cancer research, who stayed up and walked all night with me just because I asked them if they would. And guess what when I asked them if they wanted to do it all again this year and raise even more money they all said yes. Well the majority of them said yes right away, I'll work on the others... I'm looking at you ML, Sherry, JJ & Jen. It will be an easy sell I'm thinking.... I mean who wants to miss out on this much fun?




The relay doesn't happen until June, so why am I bugging these people in November. Well this year I thought we'd try some group fundraising and I want to get our first one going for the holiday season. Don't worry I'm not going to ask you to empty your pockets when there a lot of other very deserving organizations that may need your support. Nope. I'm just interested in your bottles.

Bottles you say.... or bootles as my very funny friend calls them..... yes bootles. We want your bootles. When you're finished sharing Christmas cheer with your kith and kin consider donating your empty wine, liquor and beer bottles to support the Jersey Girls Relay for Life team. Get in touch with me or one of my fab Jersey Girls if you have bottles you'd like us to pick up.

Help us be a dream team two years in a row!

friday high five - comfort food

So it's that time of the year again. Time to switch from summer cooking to winter cooking. And winter cooking = comfort food!

1. Shepherds pie. Oh my gosh I love shepherd's pie. It's just perfection.
2. Soup. Y'all know how much I love soup. I've got mushroom soup on the meal plan for this week.
3. Spaghetti and meatballs. Pasta is my kryptonite. I am powerless against it.
4. Macaroni and cheese. Mmmmm pasta.
5. Sausage rolls. I can't get enough of their flaky deliciousness.

What is your favourite comfort food?

android

So if you've been hanging around here for even a little bit then you know that I covet an iphone very much. I didn't have much hope of getting one since the cell phone company we are with didn't offer them, but I love everything about the company and even an iphone wasn't enough to lure me away. Mike has a blackberry and has been suggesting I get one as well, but I'm fairly happy with the phone I do have.

So imagine my excitement when our cellphone provider started offering the iphone. That was months ago and I still don't have one yet. I know. Believe me, no one is more surprised than I. As I have mentioned things have been a bit rocky around here and it was something I was willing to put it off for a while because, truly, I am not displeased with the phone I currently have.

Then Abby won that ipod and Mike developed an addiction to Angry Birds and he began coveting an iphone as well. Before I knew it we were at the store checking out phones.We expressed interest in the iphone and the lady behind the counter  said.... have you considered an android?

And now we are... considering an android, that is. She brought up a lot of good points and in the end we left with no new phones and a lot of information to digest. Having had a week or so to consider we're leaning towards the android, but I'm not above asking the internet what it thinks...., so what say you internet? Any android fans out there?

she's not funny

I was putting Maya to bed the other night while singing... out loud... that ear worm song, I'm sexy and I know it.

Me: I'm sexy and I know it.
Maya: You're sixty?!

what's cooking wednesday - italian tortellini soup

If you've been reading here for a while then y'all know how I feel about soup. I love it so much! Soup is one of my favourite things about fall.




Italian Tortellini Soup

1/2 lb sliced fresh mushrooms
2 tsp olive oil
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 tbsp prepared pesto
1 jar roasted sweet red peppers, drained
1 pkg (9 oz) refrigerated cheese tortellini

In a large pot saute mushrooms in oil until tender. Add the brother, tomatoes, and pesto. Put the peppers in a food processor and process until blended, add to the soup and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add the tortellini and bring to a boil. Cook for 7 - 9 minutes or until pasta is tender. Serve topped with shredded cheese.

Recipe Notes: You know what I love about soup? That it's pretty forgiving. So I added some diced onion to the mushrooms. I also pureed the peppers in their liquid with my immersion blender. Oh and my can of tomatoes was twice the size the recipe called for. Also I used a whole tetra box of chicken broth... whatever that works out to. I topped this with shredded mozzarella and for lunch the next day with cheddar. Both were delicious. Parmesan would also work here.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page.

*All front page links will be deleted!*
*Posts that aren't linked back will be deleted*
*Posts that don't include some sort of a recipe will be deleted*

Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

ho ho ho

Christmas has been on my mind lots the past couple of weeks. Usually by this point I'm well into my Christmas shopping, but I'm not there this year. I'm not sure why, but I can take an educated guess. Things have been a whirlwind since the summer and we've had a bit of a rough patch. We tried something new and it didn't work out, it's unfortunate and the whole thing has been really difficult on the four of us. On top of that Mike and I both had pretty heavy workloads with our various volunteer endeavours over the past two months. It's been all we can do to keep our heads above water. All of that of course, doesn't matter because at the end of the day Christmas is coming whether I'm ready or not.


Mike and I have been running things up the flagpole for a couple of weeks now. We've decided that our theme for Christmas this year is going to be less is more and it's the thought that counts. It's been kind of fun coming up with outside of the box gift ideas. I'd love to tell you more about them, but I've got real life peeps that read this thing. I will say this though, I'm very excited about the plan we've come up with. I'm hoping that everyone else has as much fun with this as I'm going to have.

Have you planned out your holiday gift giving yet?

sunday randoms

So the Christmas commercials are off the hook already!! I've lost count of how many I've seen already.

My apologies to all my Words With Friends opponents. Sometimes fb lets me play and sometimes it does not.

This was a really nice weekend. Our first one with life back to normal... meaning Mike was home, more or less. He had a meeting he had to attend on Saturday, but he wasn't working so it's all good!

Last night the kids slept over with Grandma Linda while Mike and I were having dinner with some friends. We were trying to make a monthly date with a couple of other couples for dinner and cards once a month. We had the first one in April..... the second was last night. Apparently we all hit a busy patch.

It may have taken a while to get ourselves together, but it was well worth the wait. It's such fun when we all get together even if we all get our asses handed to us during the cards portion of the evening. Apparently one of the six of us is the Rainman of Mexican Rummy..... and it ain't me folks. I got caught with a 120 point hand. Ouch. Hopefully it won't take as long to organize the next one.

We are officially booked for every Saturday in December. What?! We have one Saturday still open in November. Eek!

I put my kids to bed tonight at 7:30. Oh yes I did. Maya was in her room crying her eyes out because she couldn't "get the song about the bears" out of her head. I figured that was a sure sign she had not yet adjusted to the time change and if she didn't get to sleep soon we were going to be in a world of hurt in the morning. I was going to let Abby stay up a bit, but she saw Maya was in bed so she hopped in her bed to read for a while and was out like a light in no time.

Today I beat the laundry back to a reasonable level.

And how was your weekend?

friday high five - christmas wishes

So any long time readers know that every year Grandma Linda bugs me for my Christmas list and every year I drag my feet on getting one to her. I'm not sure why I find it so difficult to make a list of things I'd like to have, but I do. I figured one way to get it done was to make it this week's Friday High Five....

1. Bamboo knitting needles, size 13 & 8.

2. This is not as easy as you would think. All the things I'd like aren't necessarily for me... like cotton "wool" to knit more chemo caps, regular wool for more scarves and hats. Does that count?

3. The pioneer woman's new cookbook... will that be out before Christmas? Prolly not. Oh wait it appears it will be out in time for my birthday!  How about her other book... Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.Or Mindy Kaling's book. Gosh I love her!

4. Gift cards are always good... to the movies or Old Navy or Chapters or The Thirsty Cactus.

5. Really have no idea. I mean I'd like a kobo, but I don't really need one.

What's on your list?

knowing me, knowing you - November 2011

It's time once again for that monthly interview project, Knowing Me, Knowing You!!

1. What keeps you up late at night?

The internet, west coast feeds of TV shows, books and blogging.... not necessarily in that order.

2. Do you collect anything?

Ummmm not really. I used to collect all things Princess Diana and Gone With The Wind related, but I've gotten rid of most of that stuff over the years and just kept a few of my favourite pieces. I guess, maybe books. Although being able to store 8000 books on the new Kobo sounds pretty sweet.

3. Are you addicted to Angry Birds?

No, but The Abster and Michael definitely are! It's only a matter of time before Mike has an iphone of his very own..... which is awesome news, because that means I'll be getting one too. My poison is Plants vs Zombies!

4. What's your idea of a perfect evening?

My jammies, a cup of green tea and a movie with my family..... Tangled or Despicable Me... those are my favourites these days.

5. Are you looking forward to winter?

I am. Well I say that until the first snow flies, but really I love the slower pace, the early nights and the comfort food. Time to start cooking up some soup!


 

what's cooking wednesday - leftovers

So it's well documented that my Mom is a go big or go home kind of lady. She's from Polish stock, one of five kids so large family dinners are just that..... large.

While we worked and froze our behinds off at Touch a Truck my sweet Mama was here preparing a feast... roast beef, mashed potatoes, veggies and salad. In the end we had 6 extra people join us for dinner and there was still enough left overs to sink a sizable ship.

So what to do with all those leftovers?

In a flash of genius, Mike shredded what was left of the roast beef and heated it up in a pan with a nice big squirt of our favourite bbq sauce. We served it on buns, with some diced onion and cheddar. They were beyond delicious. I think they would have been amazing with some coleslaw, but alas we had none.

Usually roast beef leftovers are a tough sell around here. The kids don't like them and I'm not a huge fan either once it's sat in the fridge over night. This was a definite home run though. Can't wait to have it again.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page.

*All front page links will be deleted!*
*Posts that aren't linked back will be deleted*
*Posts that don't include some sort of a recipe will be deleted*

Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

that was one scary halloween

Halloween is over. The candles in the pumpkins are out. The front door is locked. The lights turned off. I am on my couch mentally and physically exhausted. I feel cold  and weary down to my bones. I feel like I need to sleep for a week.

I lost Abby tonight.

The plan was to head out with two other couples and their kids. We got started together, but the bigger kids were less than patient with Maya's slower pace and her nervousness about the actual act of trick or treating. After a couple of houses they raced on ahead while we lagged along behind allowing Maya to pick and choose the houses she felt comfortable going to. Grandma Linda and Maya carried on trick or treating while ML and I waited for the kids to trick or treat their way back to us on the other side of the street.

And we waited.

And we waited.

And we waited.

We headed back the way they had gone. They weren't there. We called their names. No answer. I texted Mike, she wasn't with him.

The panic was beginning to creep up.

We hopped in vehicles and went out looking for them. Three vehicles and friends out on foot. The panic was rising.

I've mentioned before that we live in a rural area. Street lights are not something we have a lot of out here.

In all Abby and her two friends were "missing" for 45 minutes. That's what Mike told me afterwards. I had no idea. You know how they say time stands still. It did. It could have been three hours, it could have been 5 minutes for all I could tell you. While we were all frantically looking for them, they were happily trick or treating. Oblivious to the fact that they were missing. Confident that we were still lagging along behind with Maya. Having a great time, taking care of each other, staying with their group.

We crossed paths with them countless times as we were driving around, we just kept missing them, see two paragraphs above.

In the end Papa and Grandma Linda found them. Another thing we have out here in the sticks is long driveways, so back in the beginning of the story while we were waiting for them, they were cutting across lawns rather than walking back up the driveways to us. ML and I were chatting and didn't notice them and they assumed we did.

I probably don't have to tell you there some angry scared adults, some suitably scared kids.... once they realized they were lost...... and a tear or two was shed.

The rest of the night occurred without further incident, but not before it had shaved several years off my life.