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We had a birthday

I've been delinquent on posting as you well know. Lots happened at the end of 2010 so I'll be tying up those loose ends over the next few days.

Grace had a birthday in November...a BIG BIRTHDAY...DOUBLE DIGITS! She turned 10 on the 29th of November. She was so excited. She had her outfit planned DAYS in advance. We were home, having a regular school day but still...it was a special day!

She chose what to have for dinner...her favorite meal which is steak, corn, grilled asparagus and homemade rolls. Yum! And yes, she likes her steak this rare!

And of course, we had to have a beautiful, girly birthday cake! Chocolate with cream cheese icing...mmm!

Every birthday girl deserves flowers from her Daddy!



And no birthday celebration is complete without horns!

In lieu of birthday parties for the kids we took a little trip in early December. I'll tell you all more about that tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Feast

So, how was yours? Ours? It was fantastic! The meal was better than I think it's ever been! Mom and Dad came down for a couple of days. I t was nice to spend the holiday with some extended family as we don't always get to do that.

I had the turkey breast thawing and the dressing made early on Wednesday. On Thursday morning mom, Grace, and I started preparing the meal. I didn't feel very organized this year but a couple of hours into the prep I finally got my groove.

Grace was a terrific helper. She learned a lot from her Mimi...from stirring to chopping to tasting, she helped with it all.

I figure if we keep working with her and teaching her culinary skills, maybe next holiday season I can nap while she prepares the meal. I'm even considering leasing her out next year. Let me now if you're interested! ;o)

Let's see...our menu consisted of the following:

• Ham -  we do like ham but we have it every Thanksgiving and Christmas for 2 reasons. 1) I LOVE to have fried ham and eggs for breakfast the next day and 2) Whitney wants sandwiches with the leftover ham the following day for lunch.
• Turkey breast - this is hit or miss for me. Some years it is dry but this year it was superb!
• Dressing - Nanny's recipe for cornbread dressing
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Creamed Corn
• Green Bean Casserole - now I LOVE green bean casserole. And I am perfectly content with the old version of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, milk and french fried onions. But mom wanted to try Pioneer Woman's recipe for green bean casserole. She wanted it so much so that she braved Wal-mart on THANKSGIVING DAY! If she wanted it that much, who and I to argue? Especially when I stay home to keep the pie from overcooking. And I may or may not have let the pie crust get too dark. Well, let me be the first to admit, this green bean casserole was so worth the Thanksgiving Day trip to Wal-mart. Never again the old stand-by! We have a new favorite!!!
• Gravy
• Rolls and Cornbread Muffins
• Macaroni and Cheese - 2 kinds to keep the short ones happy.
• Chocolate Pie
• Apple Cobbler

Here's a few pics.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Now on to Christmas decorations!

Not much to say

It's been a busy week but a great week for school.

The mini quiched were really good reheated today. Wrap in foil and heat at 300 degrees.

Colin's nightly prayers have begun to include "Dear Lord, I ask you to please let the force field be real. Thank you for letting it be real" We're in for it at some point!

I will have a 10 year old in a little over a week. Please excuse me while I go cry.

We're having the last of mom's spaghetti sauce from the freezer tonight. Homemade rolls are rising now.

No more jogging but I have been walking!

Quiche

I make a really great quiche. Even though who think they don't like quiche have liked my quiche! :o) It's nothing special I do, I just have a couple of really great recipes.

That being said, I really don't like how the bottom crust is a bit soggy, especialy with the leftover quiche. So I'm always looking for a variation, hoping I'll love it even more.

I am a fan of The Incredible Edible Egg on Facebook. I think a got a couple of dozen free eggs for "liking" their page once. Anyway, I've seen some pretty great-looking recipes pop up from them. Breakfast is one meal I really get bored with. I don't particularly like sweet breakfasts and I get bored with scrambled eggs or omelets.

A couple of weeks ago a recipe for Breakfast Biscuit Quiches popped up. We tried these for dinner last night and they were GREAT! So great that I made them again this morning.

Their photograph of quiche is prettier than my quiches so I thought I use it! I tweaked the recipe according to what I had on-hand.

Here's what I used and I really didn't measure anything:
dices ham
cheddar cheese
diced onion
diced bell pepper
3 or 4 eggs
half and half
salt
pepper

Here is a direct link to the recipe for complete instructions. I think next time I'll use bacon, green chilies, and monterey jack cheese! Yum! The possibilities are endless!

Breakfast Biscuit Quiches

21 day challenge

So my goal when I started blogging again in late October was to blog for 21 straight days to test the theory that doing something for 21 days creates a habit. This is day 21 in a row! I know some of my post have fell a bit short of enlightening but hey, I blogged for 21 days!

Now that I have completed that challenge, I wanted something else to attempt for 21 days. Whitney and I talked about it yesterday and we decided I'd walk or jog daily. Walk for now and hopefully make it up to a jog.

I hear stories of people who start running to get in shape and fall in love with running. I hope I am one of those people...but I don't see how that is possible. You see, I would almost say I hate jogging. I won't go so far as to say hate. We teach the kids not to say that. So I fall just below hate in how I feel about jogging. I tell you that so you will know how far I have to go to love it. I admit, I am just hoping for "I don't mind it."

That's how I feel today and we'll take another look in 21 days!

Yesterday was day 1. I was told about a program called Couch to 5K from a friend. I thought I'd try. It was hard! For week 1 you were supposed to 1) walk briskly for 5 minutes, 2) jog for 60 seconds, 3) walk for 90 seconds. It said to continue the jog/walk pattern for a total of 20 minutes, including the beginning walk. I made it 4 rotations. I jogged 4 times not jog/walk for a total of 4. So I did it right for 14 minutes, 6 minutes short. But, I did walk for another 22 minutes so I felt OK for my first attempt. It calls for 3xs per week but I will be working on every day for 3 weeks. Then we'll reevaluate.

So has blogging for 21 days created a habit in me to blog daily? I'm not sure. I guess the test begins now. I think more about blogging. I don't forget as easily. I'm not sure I will hold myself to every day but we shall see!

Anyone else want a 21 day challenge? Come on and join me!

Monster Project

So I told you we were doing a "monster project" on Friday afternoon. It was fun and got the kids energized about Geography.

I read a blog called Oh My Stinkin Heck. It's by a homeschooling mom of 3. They are so quirky and they embrace their individuality so much and I love that!

Anyway, they are studying geography as well this year. They have a monster mascot for their homeschool. So in this post there was a monster to download and decorate. The assignment was to take a photo with your monster somewhere in your city and e-mail it in. They'll be mapping everyone's locations.

It sounded like a lot of fun and we took...oh, about 80 photos! We were in Panama City with a few extra hours between co-op and the evening end of semester program so we decided to take our pictures in PCB since there were so many great choices for locations! Here are a few of my faves. Most of them are silly but we were out to have a good time.

Colin and Grace with their monsters, Zene and Polly, with a Mark V helmet at the Naval Experimantal Diving Unit or NEDU.

Grace and Whitney wearing MK20 hats at NEDU.

 Polly in the EX14 helmet again at NEDU.

Zene in the EX14 helmet with crazy Colin. 

The kids were not too thrilled with the recompression treatment chamber at NEDU. But, maybe it was because this was about the 50th photo so far and they were hungry... 

The kids with a life-sized (JAKE) Mark V at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center or NDSTC.

With a replica of a ARS50 class salvage ship. I know this because we were corrected when Colin saw the "battle ship!"

And a couple of pics in front of the PCB welcome center.