Archive for August, 2008

This little map makes me a bit nervous.  I used to think it INSANE for my parents to watch the weather like they did but I do believe I am beginning to fall under the same spell.  The first thing I do every morning is get my coffee, log on, open my email, and then open the weather.com in a new window.  Then I open wunderground.com in yet another window.  Obsessed??? Maybe. But here is the map of this morning from wunderground.com:

See the lime green and bright orange paths?  Yep, back in the Gulf would be a bad thing.  See that bright orange path headed straight for the boot tip of Louisiana.  What’s left there is precious and even more what has been rebuilt.  I realize living under sea level is dangerous and so do the people that actually live there.  While, I live about 5 hours north and west of the boot tip, I still worry for those who live there and the potential for loss of property.  Not to make light of what is happening in Florida, or has happened all along the Gulf coast for years, but we don’t need another hurricane any time soon.

They are fast approaching!  We will enter our 21st (I think!) year of homeschooling on September 3rd.  I wish I could say I am ready, but that would be a complete untruth!  But I am working on it. I loved the graphic above.  SOOOO 50’s.  The good old school days.  See I LOVED school.  I loved the smell of freshly sharpened pencils and crayons and paste.  I know you might find this hard to believe but I have had deja vu and that smell come to my nose from absolutely no where!  Such a warm fuzzy feeling.  But my, my how things changed from when I went to school to now.  I wont go into all the reasons we decided to homeschool but I will say it has worked for us.  It is what we do, kinda who we are.  Maybe one day I will feel like sharing all the whys and whatfors.

We are making a little trip today because both of the girls are off work and Husband has been wanting a meat pie from Lasyone’s in Natchitohces.

And we will pick Jess up and then we will all do a bit of antiquing if weather permits. If you click on the sign above you can read all about their famous meat pies.  They are amazing!

There is a fairly nice teacher’s store in Natchitoches as well, and I will pop in there and see what I can find.  I like to keep some workbooks around for days when we need a bit of a break and some “schoolwork lite”.  Or as I like to refer to them Mom’s Mental Health Days.  On thing I will be looking for is a pencil sharpener that sharpens fat pencils.  See, I still LOVE to write with and old fashioned real wood pencil.  And fat or primary ones to boot!  My pencil sharpener is worn completely out and hangs up and wont sharpen the pencils correctly so, that is on my list.  One day I will post some pictures of my vintage school books and supplies.

One more thing: I should have the S’more Cupcake recipe later today!  They were delish!

So we had as many of the kids as could be here over on Sunday for my belated birthday family dinner.  Husband made this wild wonderful pomegranate barbeque brisket and I made the cupcakes and burger buns. I will get the recipe from him.  And I have not forgotten the Smore cupcake recipe…just havent had time to get it posted.  At the bottom of the post is the bun recipe…ENJOY!

The cupcakes were lemon with lemon buttercream (with lemoncello – OMG – yummy) – recipe soon!

AND bestest of all Jessica brought me my birthday present!  Arent they beautiful!!!!????

New handknitted socks…oh and the pictures are all Jessica’s handiwork as well.  Thanks again Jess…seriously, the socks are so beautiful!

Now here is the bun recipe:

BIG BEAUTIFUL BUNS

• 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

1) Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—to make a soft, smooth dough.

2) Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until it’s doubled in bulk.

3) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round 1″ thick (more or less); flatten to about 3″ across. Place the buns on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until very puffy.

4) If desired, brush buns with melted butter. Or brush lightly with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water), and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

5) Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, till golden. Cool on a rack.

NOTE: I made three batches and one batch I substituted 1/2 all purpose for 1/2 cup whole wheat.

We lost one of our lovely oak trees that has been home to a well used rope swing for almost 13 years now.  But the big old thing had been struck by lightning several times and was more than half dead.  I will miss the swing and the shade the tree provided but will rest in the thought that at least now we wont be crushed by it in our sleep.  Every time a little wind came up we would lose large very heavy branches.  With memories of Hurrican Rita still fairly fresh in our minds, we decided not to take any chances.  So the men with tractors came first thing this morning and felled the tree.  Now Husband is cutting it up and moving it.

Okay, you have met Julius and Napolean (or LaPolean as Sam calls him).  They are R-O-T-T-E-N.  Spoiled completely. Evidence #1:

I wonder how many hours a day he would sit with Benjamin??? But here is the problem.  Poop.  Specifically kitten poop.  They use the litter box with gusto…unless they find some place else they would like to leave a little gift.  Like the floor of the girls room.  Or a box of tissue paper I had in my shoppe.  So here is my question: How do I break them of this? My first instinct is to ring their adorable little necks. I think that is a bad choice.  I know with a puppy some people rub their noses in it if they pee on things but with a cat – who I know is smarter than me…what do I do??? Husband will NOT ALLOW them to stay if this keeps on.  He let them nap all over us yesterday while we were watching the Olympics but pooping other places than the litter box will sour him very quickly on their cuteness.  I will take any and all suggestions.

This is my birthday present from Husband.

How adorable is this??? I have wanted a cape…red cape for like, oh 20 years!!  It should be here the first of the week.  Now if it will just get cold enough to wear it and not have a heat stroke!!

Had a lovely lovely time.  Details later but here are a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

our cabin by the lake and our silly geese friends!

Number 11 Sharon!!! Congrats! And I thought it was SO cool that on my 49th birthday, I had 49 entries for the drawing!

Sharon, get me your address by email and I will get your book out!

We are having a wonderful time.  The cabin is lovely (pictures soon – forgot my camera cord) and the geese are hilarious!  And LOUD!

This was an amazing tidbit for me today.  Husband is watching the Olympic swimming and I am surfing and this news really caught my attention and I had to share it quickly!

“AP) Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world.

They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.”

Julia Child!!! Seriously…I am terribly impressed!!! Bon Appetit!

We are having a wonderful time.  And I will announce the winner of the giveaway tomorrow sometime.  Not real sure what time I will get to it but stay tuned!

ser·en·dip·i·ty~ good fortune; luck

Somehow, serendipitously, I ended up with two copies of The Creative Family.

This is a lovely LOVELY book written by Amanda Blake Soule of soulemama.com.

When I realized I had two copies I wrote to Amanda and asked her to kindly sign both copies, one for me and one as a giveaway.  She happily abliged. And sent them back very quickly.  Thanks again Amanda!!!

I had enjoyed Amanda’s blog for a while and highly recommend you go take a peak!  You will be hooked!  She is creative beyond words, nurturing…her writing is beautiful and ohh myyy the photos!  An adorable family!!!

In this lovely, creative, encouraging  book, Amanda charges us to connect, embrace, nurture our families and in a nutshell, make valuable use of our time and offers tools and ideas to accomplish these things.  Childhood is a precious and short time – we need to make the VERY most of it. My baby is 12 but I have a little grandson, so the book is giving me tons of new ideas for my time spent with him.  I especially love the chapters ~ Sharing the Tradition of Handmade and  Exploring Through Nature.

I guess you are asking yourself how to add your name giveaway.   Easy, VERY easy.  Just leave me a comment on this post and consider yourself added!  I will be leaving Tuesday for a little birthday trip with my husband but I will have my laptop and will be approving comments and then on my birthday August 14th, I will randomly pick a number using Random.org. I will post the winner’s name and when I return home, I will promptly get your book out to you so you can begin enjoying your copy! Thank you for participating and tell your friends or steal this graphic, link back to me and announce the giveaway on your own blog!

Have a wonderful weekend! I am working on recipes for you and will post them soon!