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.

Pictures from co-op

First off I have to say we are having computer issues. It is totally why this post is 12 hours later than the others. As for why this one is 3 days after I said it would be...well, that's not computer problems! :o)

This picture of Colin and his lion was from Spanish class. The students sang a song in Spanish about animals and the kids each held an animal they were singing about.

In case you can't tell, this picture is of Grace signing. I can't remember the name of the song they signed but they also siged two Bible verses. It was very impressive!

The last two pictures are of the kids with their science class. We are studying Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and their shirts are actually painted with real fish! You go, Ms Kelly! All three science classes are quoting Genesis 1:21.

It was a fun program and it, along with co-op itself, gives the kids that "learning with peers" and teamwork that homeschooling can be lacking if you always stay home. I was once told that the hardest thing for homeschoolers is to stay home and school. I didn't understand that then but I do now. There is so much to do and so much to learn outside of textbooks!

Oldies but Googies

I know. I know. I said I was going to post pictures from the co-op program but they are all still on my camera. And I know I was going to tell you all about our monster project but again, I need the pictures off my camera and I just did not get that done. Maybe later today. :o)

Grace and I worked really, really hard in her room today. Her closet was a mess. So much that things would not fit in there anymore. American Girl doll along with tons of accessories, empty toilet paper rolls, art supplies, sock puppets, markers, crayons, notebooks, perler bead projects...these are all things that began to pile up in the two empty corners of her room without their space available in the closet. And those piles were creeping closer to the center of the room. It was depressing to walk in there! I knew she could not have her Christmas tree this year if we didn't empty those corners! She worked hard with me and we got it done but it took a large part of our day.

After dinner the kids and I piled in bed to watch Annie. We watched the old version from 1982. Interestingly, Whitney found things he needed to take care of in the garage...for the whole movie! LOL! I have fond memories of watching the movie and I remember loving it as a child. I do not, however, remember Carol Burnett's character being a drunk. I also do not remember her being in skimpy undergarments (a lot) nor do I remember her hitting on several men in the movie. We fondly remember those old classics as being so wholesome! Story lines were a bit more wholesome and the language was much cleaner. But come on! We had a sleazy drunk in this old classic. I don't remember that from my childhood and maybe my kids won't either!

Co-op Program

We had a great time last night at our end of the semester co-op program. I'll post some photos later today after I have had time to download them. The kids did a great job and we couldn't be prouder. 

Whitney was so proud that he proposed a Chastain Dinner. What's a Chastain Dinner you might ask. Well, a Chastain Dinner last night was ice cream, Blizzards from Dari-Queen to be exact. Sometimes it is cake or cookies but last night it was ice cream. Actually, most of the time it is a Chastain Breakfast, not Dinner. It's quite a well known event in Whitney's family! Anyway...

Colin's Spanish class sang a song in Spanish about animals. It was really cute!

Grace's sign language class signed a song and 2 Bible verses. I was quite impressed with all they had learned! One hour a week for just 13 or so weeks...they really worked hard and learned so much!

The kids are both taking Zoology 2 which is Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. Their classes quoted a Bible verse. They all wore shirts made in class, necklaces too. The shirts were a fun project. They used real fish (whole fish) and painted the fish and then used it as a stamp to transfer painted fish shapes to the shirts. I say it was a fun project because I just took pictures. I didn't have to touch the fish. Yippee! I'm so thankful for co-op, otherwise I might have had to do that project at home. Yuck! LOL!

I'll post pictures later today, then blog about our monster project and more about India in the coming days. Have a fantastic weekend!

Keeping my commitment

Short and sweet blog just so I can say I blogged. 

We have co-op in Panama City today and our end of the semester program is tonight so we will be in PC all day. I'll update tonight or in the morning with pictures from the program. 

We are also doing a fun little project tomorrow and I can't wait to tell you about it! It involves monsters, the kids and some cute pictures. Have I piqued you interest? LOL! I'll share all about it this weekend!

Have a great Friday!

Yum

I blame it all on the weather. It has cooled off and we have been craving heartier, home-cooked dinners. I enjoy cooking and I do cook most nights. But in the hot weather I'm quick to agree to Chinese take-out or running out to any of our plethora of restaurants. Yeah, we have a lot of restaurant choices here!

Anyway, I told you earlier this week about having fried pork chops (BTW - we rarely fry anything. I make these pork chops every 6 weeks or so). Last night we were debating between a roasted chicken and chicken and dumplings. Guess what we chose? I know you'll never guess.

This is what we decided on:

And it was good! Yum! It was also worth the clean-up. And let me tell you, there was a lot of clean-up. I have a large gas cooktop and when there is a mess it means removing the grates, knobs, etc and cleaning all the pieces. Anyway, it was worth it! We also had...

Homemade rolls. These are, by far, the best rolls I have ever had. That has nothing to do with the fact that I make these rolls, I simply follow a recipe. They are absolutely, positively the best rolls I have ever had.

*Bonus - they freeze and thaw well. These thawed and reheated rolls are almost just as good as hot from the oven rolls. But best of the night was...

Elephant ears, palmiers, palm leaf pastries...whatever you may call them. Oh my! They were wonderful! I first had these at a bakery in Spain and I have craved them many times since returning to the States 5 1/2 years ago..

I found a recipe in a magazine this week. They are a bit messy to make but oh so simple.

You only need 3 ingredients:

Frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed (I used Pepperidge Farm, 2 sheets per box)

2 cups of sugar

1/8 tsp kosher salt

You'll also need 2 large baking pans, a rolling pin, and parchment paper.

Mix together the sugar and salt. Sprinkle your work surface with 1 cup of the sugar and salt mixture. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the mixture on top of the puff pastry. Use a rolling pin and roll out into a 13 inch square, pressing  the sugar/salt into the pastry as you roll.

At this point fold 2 opposite sides halfway to the center. Then, fold each side again with the 2 sides meeting in the middle. Now fold one side over the other. You should have 6 layers folded up.

Cut dough crosswise into 3/8 inch slices. You'll get about 16 slices. Place these on a baking pan covered with parchment paper. Please use the parchment paper. I didn't have any and, not to get ahead of myself but, the caramelized sugar is near impossible to remove from the baking pan. I had to pour boiling water onto the pan and let it sit for a while in order to scrub it off.

Bake at 400 degrees for 6 minutes or until the pastries have started to brown and caramelize on the bottom. Flip the pastries over (Do it fast! If it cools too much that caramelized sugar hardens and they will stick!)

As the first pan is baking prepare the second puff pastry sheet on the other baking pan. You will not use all the sugar mixture.

These are beautiful and oh so delectable! Enjoy!

India

We started studying India this week and I am so excited because I have some great supplements to this study. My Passport to India is a program between Sonlight Curriculum and Mission India. Sonlight is matching any money raised up to $167,000 to support Children's Bible Clubs in India. Here are some fun facts we have learned so far this week:

• India is about 1/3 the size of the United States
• India population is over 1 billion (almost 4 times that of the U.S.)
• Hindu is the major religion
• Hindu has thousands of gods or goddesses they can worship
• Most people in India do not have cars. They travel by rickshaw. 
• There are auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, and hand-pulled rickshaws, the latter are outlawed in all cities except Kolkata (Calcutta)
• Mumbai, India is the 2nd largest city in the world, population 14 million
• In Mumbai there are only 17 toilets for every million people
• 1/3 of the people in Mumbai do not have access to clean water
• Mumbai is the richest city in India yet at least half of the 14 million people live in slums
• One of those slums in Mumbai, Dharavi, is the largest in Asia. 1 million people are crammed into less than 1 square mile

I encourage you to click on the link. Watch a video a day and check out the additional resources for each day. It's quite eye-opening. There is a story each day about a specific child in India. These are especially touching.

I'm getting ahead of myself but this was amazing to me and my small little world. 

Red on the map represents people groups who have not yet heard the Gospel. There are more unreached people groups in this nation than any other place in the world.

I'll be sharing more India facts later this week!

Blogging about not much...

I really don't have anything in particular I want to blog about today. I've always heard that it takes 21 times to create a habit so I'm really trying. I want to test that theory by blogging for 21 days. Then I'll let you know if it's become a daily habit or still something I have to remind and make myself do.

Let's see if I can come up with 10 random thoughts from today...

1. We had a Thanksgiving feast and hayride with our local homeschool group today. It was fun. The kids really enjoyed it.

2. I've been thinking a lot about change lately. Why do we fight change? We dread it with everything in us sometimes. But usually, change is good. We've been through a lot of changes recently and are about to go through more. I think it's the uncertainty that's hard. For me at least. Why can't we just trust that God has our best interest at heart. You know..."For I know the plans...." Why we dread it has been what's in my thoughts more than the changes themselves lately.

3. We've canceled our cable...and we like it. I think with Netflix we are still watching too much tv but we've greatly reduced the monthly expense. The only time we've missed it was during the elections last week and occasionally a football game. But do you have any idea how much you can watch online these days? Most of the time whatever game we want to watch will be on the internet. I know the kids are actually playing more and getting along better.

4. We've been trying to get housework and other chores done around here during the day Monday - Thursday. It so nice not to have to do housework on the weekend or at night. And I cannot tell you how incredibly blessed I feel to be able to get it done during the day. And to get groceries on a weekday morning. I went to Wal-mart Saturday and it is not a place I recommend for the sane on a weekend.

5. Something else about chores. I'm trying to let the kids be independent and do more. It's so hard not to go behind them and refold the clothes. I feel like I have to physically restrain myself from re-doing it. Why is that? Don't tell me it's perfectionism because I don't really want to hear that! ;o)

6. Grace has been sick the last 2 Friday nights. I'm not sure what's up with that or what could be the cause. The first Friday night was a middle-of-the-night, did-not-make-it-to-the-bathroom-in-time, change-bedding, and clean-carpet kind of night. This last Friday she got sick twice in the evening. Both Saturday mornings she was fine. Hmmm...

7. Colin pulled his second tooth on Saturday. As in he was in the kitchen by himself and thought he'd give it a tug and it just came out. He came running to me incredulous. He was so excited. He wants another loose tooth because that one was so fun to pull.

8. Another benefit to no cable...my kids aren't seeing all the commercials for toys and such that we are usually bombarded with this time of year. If I had a dollar for every time I heard "Mom! Come see this commercial!" last year, I'd have Christmas gifts paid for already.

9. My hubby wanted fried pork chops for dinner. They are so messy to make. Flour and oil splatters everywhere. Or is it just me being messy?

10. I can't ever complain about a messy kitchen Whitney always helps clean it after dinner. And I mean immediately after dinner. He can't stand to let it sit even for a little bit. How lucky am I? He's awesome!

Until tomorrow...maybe then I'll even post some pictures!

Date night!

Had a fun night last night...a fun day actually. We went to our regular 12:15 service at church. Great message there, by the way. Had lunch with some great friends. Then we dropped the kids at Wilders World for Kidventures and had 3 1/2 hours for a date!!!

After a late and leisure lunch following church we weren't really hungry so we shopped at Pier Park for an hour or so then hit Margaritaville for appetizers followed by Starbucks for coffee. It was a fun night for us and the kids had a blast too.

Thanks for the date night Northstar!!

We take homeschooling very seriously!

Most weeks we homeschool at home Monday-Thursday and at co-op in Panama City on Friday. Generally school takes about 4 hours, longer if we have an art project or science experiment. Several of our subjects are taught to both kids at once such as Bible, Geography, Science, and Art/Music. Grace just delves further into those subjects. They have their own lessons in grammar, spelling, reading,and math. Colin also takes Spanish and Grace takes sign language. These are their co-op classes, along with zoology. Co-op classes are taught in a classroom setting with other homeschoolers their age.

We certainly do not completely recreate a classroom setting at home but they both have desks and we decorate the walls with a map, their work, and some cutouts from the school supply store.The desks are practical and the decorations are fun. We have lots of friends who homeschool around the kitchen table and that works too. We're blessed that we have a dedicated space for school.

As Whitney nears retirement his work schedule has gotten much lighter, generally just 3 days a week. He's usually home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our school schedule can be more lax on those days.It all depends on what Whitney needs to get done. If he is in the garage or working in the yard, we have a normal schedule. If he participates in school...well, it's not always academic. He teaches them things like...

 preparing for battle. Proper equipment and planning is a must. Fully loaded nerf guns, a wolverine claw and head gear. Don't forget that a stealth fighter will conceal his identity, hence the bandana. This is Home Defense 101.

 As important as proper equipment and planning are, equally so are the instinct and ability to execute a battle plan.

All is fair in love and war. It's all fun and games until...


 

someone catches a nerf bullet to the throat. Especially when that someone is Daddy's Little Girl.

It's important that we have a schedule and we take very seriously the responsibility of educating our children. But we think it's also important to take advantage of the flexibility that homeschooling gives us and throw the schedule out for a day of "Daddy School" every once in a while. You never know what you'll learn on those days. He's trying to convince me to go along with teaching them terminal velocity...something about sky diving being involved???

Force Field

What is a force field you might ask? Well, we have decided that irrational fears our children have sometimes need an irrational solution when nothing else seems to work.

In my post about our soccer season I told you about the kid on Colin's soccer team who told him vampires were real. Irrational fears did not start there with Colin. About vampires, yes, but other fears have popped up over the last couple of years. Robbers, bad men, etc.

No amount of rationalizing has worked. It will make him fell better for a time but he takes that reasoning and he will dwell on it for a couple of days...pick it apart...and then decide he needs more. Something else to convince him.

We have a force field. It was purchased at Wal-mart for about $1,000. It turns on by a light switch in the living room. It is basically an electronic force that creates a dome of protection around our home.  Irrational and ridiculous to you and me maybe, but comforting to our kids.

It has taken some convincing a few times. Colin's job each night is to turn on the force field. He is very diligent about this job. Several times he and Grace have wanted to go out and throw rocks at it to "test it out" but so far there have been reasons we weren't able to. "Oh, look it's bedtime" or "It's too dark."

Whitney and the kids have gone out to hit golf balls in the yard several times. When a golf ball will undoubtedly hit a tree in the near woods Whitney's response to the kids is always "Wow! Did you hear that golf ball bounce off the force field?"

You may or may not agree with our approach but hey...it works. They are comforted and we all get a goon night's sleep. Well, most of us do! ;o)

Coupons

Do you use coupons? We sometimes do...if I remember to take them to the store...if I remember to clip them. I hear and read stories of women saving 50-80% on their family's grocery bills. If I really plan and shop fairly smart, we'll save a good 25%. I read that it takes several months to stock up on coupons and create a thorough price book. I follow several ladies on Facebook and occasionally read their sites:

http://www.couponmom.com/

http://www.livefabuless.com/

We were at Barnes and Noble today and I found Coupon Moms book on the discount table for $3.99. I guess if I'm gonna buy a book on cutting our grocery bill it ought to be from the discount table!

I'm reading the book this weekend and going to give it a try. I'll update my progress here and we'll see if we can start saving half! I'll share any great tips I learn along the way. Join me!

Etsy

As gift-giving season approaches I've been looking through Etsy. If you've never browsed this great site you should, especially if you'd like to give personalized, hand-made gifts. Here are a few things that caught my eye browsing tonight.

 I've heard these cloths are GREAT in the kitchen! Someone made some similar cloths at a Lottie Moon auction I attended for a ladies ministry. Everyone raved over them!

Isn't this fabric great? A few of these jelly rolls and you could make an awesome quilt. You, not me. I'd like to make one but I lose interest before I'm finished. It's quite a slow process!

How fun is this purse??? Tacky for a grown-up maybe but I love it! So fun and colorful! Let everyone else have their Coach bags! This is a lot more unique. Who wants to be just like everyone else anyway??

Love this little girl's skirt! I love "adult" colors and fabrics for kid's clothes! This also comes with a cute top.

You can find almost anything on Etsy. Check it out. It's a happy place!

Our studies

We are in our second week of studying Asia, Saudi Arabia to be exact. The kids have really learned a lot about the country and Islam as have I. We've learned about the five pillars and about the significance of the Middle East throughout history. The last lesson of a particular country assigns a recipe(s) for a traditional meal or snack. We will end Saudi Arabia by making hummus. Now, I love hummus but Saudi Arabia?? I thought it was Mediterranean! I did a bit of digging and, sure enough, the word hummus has Arabic roots.

What I am super excited about is India for the next two weeks beginning Monday. We signed up at My Passport to India to follow along on a trip hosted by Pastor Chris for - "an educational and exciting program designed to help your children discover more about the nation of India and engage them in reaching India's boys and girls by supporting Children's Bible Clubs."

The program started a few weeks ago but everything is online so we can do it when we are ready. This will be an incredible supplement to our study! Read about it and go through it with your children!

I love studying geography with them. It really gives them an appreciation for being an American. Just this week I was able to show them a small article in the paper. It was about the Yanomami. They are an indigenous tribe that lives in the Amazon Rainforest of Venezuela. The article was about a disease, probably malaria, that had killed over 50 and many more were sick. A health worker trekked for 3 days to reach the tribes. Grace and Colin were very touched by this. I think it hit home that these things we study about...they are happening NOW, not in the past. (You know, that dark ages when mom and dad were little and there were no ipods or Dsi games.) I was able to reinforce what we studied weeks ago with today's news. The fact that it took a health worker 3 days to reach them...that was a startling realization. I think it's a great thing to venture out of our cocoon and learn about others. It makes us all the more grateful for God's blessing in our lives.

I have a challenge for you. Check out this link. It is a website called Operation World. Click on Pray Today. It will give you a country to pray for each day including their prayer needs. Locate it on a map and learn some geography! Enjoy!

Oh, and by the way. If you read my blog or Facebook page and I talk of going places like India or China, I'm talking about studying those places! While I am so flattered that many of you think I would go to such extremes to teach my children, our budget does not allow for such travel. ;o) We have our little "passport" that we stamp with flag stickers every time we "enter a new country" but we are using our imaginations!

I have a confession

I've grown up and lived in the South all 37 years of my life except for 3 years in Spain. I've never eaten grits....ever. We always had sausage gravy, not grits. What could be better than gravy? Well, I found a recipe that intrigued me on Pioneer Woman's blog a couple of weeks ago. She served creamy cheese grits with chilies to accompany ribeye steaks and they looked so good. I had to make them.

I've been waiting to try these things called "grits" until we had steaks. We didn't have steaks last night. We had oriental chicken thighs but I couldn't wait any longer. I was so desperate to try this recipe that I made mexican style grits with oriental chicken. That's right. Desperate? Or confused?

Either way, they were wonderful! Even with oriental chicken! I called Mom, super excited about my new discovery! Wanna know what she said? She's never had grits either! Not in all her *ahem* a few more than 37 years.

You should try them. Hubby says they aren't like "regular" grits so I can't compare them to others but we'll be having these again...with ribeyes this time!

Creamy Cheese Grits with Chilies

Weekends at the Chastains

What do we do on a Friday night in the country? Well, for starters, most Friday nights are pizza nights. We have co-op in Panama City from 8:45 - 11:45. We usually have lunch, hit the library, and then Publix for groceries. Sometimes we'll run to Target or some other errands, taking advantage of being in Panama City and taking care of as much on that day as we can. So, we're usually pooped when we get home.

This Friday was no exception. As we ordered pizza the kids and Whitney decided a fire would be nice as it was cool out. Logic might tell you we had a fire in the fireplace but you would be wrong.

 We built this fire in the backyard. So, pizza and soda sitting in the backyard on Friday night it was. 

Ahhh..."good country living!" as Whitney has taught the kids to say! Can't do this in the 'burbs!

Happy Halloween!

We hit Panama City last night for trick-or-treating. It was a blast! The kids had fun but I think we had as much fun as they did. We've started a tradition...for the second year in a row we've trick-or-treated and then hit Coram's or Waffle House for breakfast. The kids have been planning all week.....trick-or-treating, then breakfast!

 Grace was a giraffe. She was warm and comfy!

 Colin was Ben 10.

 Eager and ready to get started!

The kids and dad.

Tired but full buckets. Ready for waffles, preferably without the orange vampire teeth! ;o)

Wonderworks on Panama City Beach

This was a great field trip! We had a blast! If you've never been to Wonderworks you really should go! It's a bit pricey to get in, especially if you want to do everything but they have great discounts for school fieldtrips which was how we went. If you've ever wanted to make education fun and interactive...this is it!

This is from their website:

"WonderWorks™ is an amazing Panama City Beach attraction where scientific principles and fun come together to provide an unrivaled educational experience. The laws of nature and probability interact with human skills and perceptions to create some of the most mind boggling, head scratching virtual challenges, mental challenges and physical challenges. Compete with yourself or friends in this unusual WonderWorks™ Florida attraction which has the largest interactive game facility and scientific displays anywhere. Over 100 exhibits and challenges await the eager participant. WonderWorks™ Panama City Beach is a four-story interactive fun lab housed in an eye-catching upside down building cradled at the “PCB Pointe,” where Middle Beach, Front Beach Roads and North Thomas Drive intersect – across from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!® Museum."


It's such a COOL building!


Here is Grace laying on a bed of nails. She's not too sure about the decision she made to try this!


Colin guiding a robot arm.



Grace and Colin using their powers of concentration to control the ball (HILARIOUS!)



Grace landing an aircraft.



And the whole family as astronauts. I think Dad looks COOL!



Check it out and visit if you can! www.wonderworkspcb.com Oh, and they also have Lazer Tag!