Project

I'm finally getting around to organizing 28 plus years of photos. I guess I wasn't the mom who got the baby books done. Probably was the mom who always forgot to bring her camera. But, I was a mom who got to see just about everything there was to see, and enjoyed every moment of it. Thankfully my own sweet mom brought her camera with, and snapped those pictures for me.

Photo storage boxes were on sale today at Michael's for $1.60 a box, so of course I bought several. I'll have to see if I even have enough as there are still more boxes of photos at Mom's house for me to go through. As I was sorting through pictures, I felt a surge of excitement as I remembered things I had forgotten.  I can't wait to get them in albums!

Cats and Food

Cats and food, that's what it's all about.

Today I made some tasty vegetable soup in my slow cooker. I had so many fresh veggies I wanted to use up before they went bad … cabbage, green beans, carrots, celery, and green onions plus broth made from the last of the roast chicken from Costco. I added a can of stewed tomatoes and a can of tomato soup which provided extra flavor and color, and then I didn't need to add much salt, which is great because I'm trying to cut back on my salt intake.

And then it was fun to pour some in my jam jars with handles. They even have lids!

The cats are spending more time together in the later afternoons. I keep them together for as long as possible, but when Pumpkin won't let up on going after Tristin, it's time to split them up again. Sigh.

Tomorrow is Friday, and for that I am glad. I think Jake is coming home soon for Spring Break, too.

All good things!

Goodness

It feels like we're going through empty nest again. In fact, if it weren't for all the drama of the fur babies, I think I might go nuts. I'm sure this will pass, but in the meantime I think we need a plan to keep ourselves busy and entertained.

Today we went to Costco. I told Bruce that we were mostly going to just look at what they had. We ended up buying a roasted chicken and a yummy Apple Bleu Pecan salad for supper. They also had some organic brown eggs that were pretty reasonably priced compared to Cub or Target. Oh, and a pineapple. They even had whole lamb carcasses hanging in the refrigerated section, but we passed on those. We spent almost an hour and a half there, and I said maybe we need to do this every month or so, just because.

Cats and food, that's what it's all about these days. At least until we figure out what's next. Maybe a trip to South Korea to see Katie.

Yikes

Today we noticed something that looked like an icicle, but we're thinking it's actually frozen sap from the maple trees out front. We've never noticed this before and we've lived here going on 26 years. I think I need to research this a bit more.

I guess it's kind of pretty, but we're all tired of snow. We've already moved all the patio furniture out and cleaned up the porch, ready for supper and conversation in the evenings.

What can you do about it? 

I guess we could use the moisture, but a better idea would be to get rain at night while we're sleeping and then bright, sunny mornings ...

What happened to Spring?

Eating At Home

Some days I cherish being able to eat at home. I know that probably sounds a little strange, but these days I find myself struggling to think of what to make for us to eat. Maybe that's because I've been cooking for the family for so long, or maybe I'm just tired from not sleeping, I guess it doesn't really matter why except it gets expensive to eat out and the quality of restaurant food doesn't always match the amount of money spent.

When I was growing up, we never ate out. We didn't know any better, that's just the way it was. And you know what? We were healthier and we had money to spend on more important things. These days if people lack inspiration in the cooking department, they have so many restaurant options and they just go out to eat, or pick up something fast to bring home. It's no longer a treat to eat out. And if you take the time to tally things up, it's crazy to see how much money is spent on food that is just so-so.

Yesterday was one of those days. I thought, why are we not eating a sandwich? A simple, humble sandwich like salami and cheese. We even had some leftover African Peanut Soup to go with! So we did, and then we talked about what a great lunch it was.

I need to remember to think about this. Eating a sandwich at home is almost always a good idea.

African Peanut Soup

I've been making new recipes this week, trying to jazz up our evenings. First was the leg of lamb, then our St. Paddy's dinner of corned beef and roasted cabbage, and finally a delicious African Peanut Soup.

African Peanut Soup

1-2 boxes chicken broth
1 jar salsa
2 cans jalapeño diced tomatoes
2 cans black beans, drained
chicken, cooked and chopped
2-3 peeled and diced sweet potatoes
a little red onion
some minced garlic cloves
crushed red peppers, optional
1 cup creamy peanut butter

Heat salsa, broth, tomatoes, and beans. Saute sweet potatoes, then onion and garlic in olive oil. Add cooked chicken and rest of mixture to the broth. When heated through, add peanut butter.

I garnished it with some sprigs of fresh cilantro. 

The flavors melded together as the week went on, and it just got better and better! Thanks to my friend, Linda, from Curves for the recipe. 

Progress, I Think

I may not be sleeping so well these nights, but my days have been productive!

This morning I decided to follow through on my plan to make a leg of lamb in my crock pot, something I've been thinking about for some time since reading about it in Stephanie O'Dea's, A Year of Slow Cooking. I had purchased a frozen, seasoned boneless leg of lamb from Trader Joe's some time ago, so I pulled it out of the freezer and plopped it in the crock pot, adding only a half cup of water. The house smelled heavenly as the day went on, and the final result was wonderful. We didn't have any mint jelly to go with, but I did find some cranberry chutney in the pantry, which was quite yummy.

We made a trip to Bruce's office so he could repot some root bound plants, but pretty much the rest of the day was spent trying to get all the cats to be friends. Pumpkin finally stopped trying to attack Tristin when he decided to show her some attitude. Good job! We're probably not done with the drama yet, but it's progress. And then we went for a walk in the park after supper.

I'm hoping to sleep tonight.

A Burst of Spring

It's sunny and warm here today, and I'm feeling so much better than yesterday. I don't know why some days are harder than others, or why I'm more critical of myself some days over others, but I do know that sometimes I need to just go to sleep, and that I will wake up to a new day that is much, much better.

Today is that day! 64 degrees, birds singing, sun shining, and lots of spring time energy. Tristin is loving that he can run in and out of the porch, and I'm loving having a window open in our bedroom, with all that sweet, fresh air blowing in.

I made a grocery run today, and stocked up on fruit and veggies.  I experimented with lunch, ramen noodles and eggs, yum! The homemade yogurt I made last night turned out well, too.  I used some vanilla yogurt (which happened to be sweetened with Aspartame) as the culture, and then added skim milk. I was surprised that it thickened, but I like the final result … not sweet, not sour, and with just a hint of vanilla flavor.

Tonight is craft night at Terry's, and we're having Cobb salad. I have a bottle of sweet rose champagne to bring and probably my loom to work on.

Nice, nice day.

Family Updates

We were able to see Jake for a short while in between his trip to Missouri this past week and his dance competition this morning in Saint Paul. We went to dinner at Hurricane, and the boys got a little silly, talking about wrasseling and who knows what else. It's fun to see them enjoy each other's company even if I didn't understand the entire conversation they were having!

I've been able to Skype with Katie a couple of times this week, too. I admire her for what she's doing. I'm not sure if I would have been brave enough to travel across the world alone, and for a year, away from friends and family. I'm sure it takes a lot of energy to acclimate to such a change. I'm proud of her!

Bruce and I? All the animals? We're getting by, too. And spring is just around the corner, which is a very good thing.

Wordless Wednesday

And She's Off

There were some challenges getting Katie off to Seoul, but she made it! And, we haven't been able to have a good conversation with her yet either, as the quality of the Kakao talk and Skype have been less than to be desired.

I've been feeling sort of anxious to hear that things are going okay. I guess my momma heart is in overdrive this week, too. But, Katie always seems to accomplish what she needs to, and so this adventure will be fine. We'll all be fine.