Homeschooling, homemaking, happily-domesticated Mama to four boisterous and precocious boys; wife to one amazingly patient man. Only by the grace of God, and for his glory, do we carry on. Carpe Diem!
November 5, 2010
The best way to use avocados!!
Avocado Cream
2 RIPE avocados
1/2 - 1 cup sour cream
fresh cilantro (amount to taste...I like alot!)
juice plus zest of one lime
salt and pepper to taste
EVOO
Put all ingredients into blender (or food processor) and add just enough EVOO to make it blendable. Pulse until smooth. Refridgerate and serve!
Could also use some chopped garlic or other fresh herbs to your taste in this! The lime zest and FRESH cilantro really make this "pop" so don't leave those out!!
Enjoy!!
September 24, 2010
Pumpkin Chip Muffins
INGREDEINTS
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 can (15 oz) solid-pack pumpkin
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional: nutmeg,cloves)
1 tsp.salt
2 cups semisweet chocolatec chips
DIRECTIONS
IN a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil until smooth (I use a hand mixer). Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon (and other spices if using) and salt; add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffins cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 for 16-20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing. Makes about 24 muffins! These also freeze well!
Note: I also add a dash of vanilla with the wet ingredients. And you don't have to mix the flour mixture seperate. I just add all the dry ingredients in after I have beaten together the wet ingredients.
August 13, 2010
My favorite Chicken Salad!!
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August 3, 2010
A tribute to the Goldies in my life
Here she is, with our trusty and feisty cat Flo-jo (who I think lives on in our cat, Tilly!) We love you Sandy!
Fast forward a couple years, and a move to Warner Robins, GA (HELLO, MAJOR culture shock coming from Europe!!) and Mom decided to finally get a new puppy. A pure bred Golden Retriever who we (oh-so-cleverly) named Sadie. S for Susie, A for Aneesa, and D for Deke, the three siblings. I know, I know, we are SO original! Mom knew she was the "right one" from the start! She was the CUTEST puppy ever (see pictures!) and we fell in love with her instantly. But....Sadie had, and still has, some major quirks!! She would not walk farther than our driveway when she was a puppy because she was scared of, yes...the MOON. It was a desperate effort of our whole family to get her to just walk around the block. To this day, she is still scared of laundry baskets, brooms, large pool toys, and many other random household objects. Mind you, Sadie is now close to 100 pounds. Again, quirks. But, anyways....I remember the days of coming home from my VERY fulfilling career at...none other than...Cheddars, and Sadie running onto my lap and licking me all over, because I smelled like.....food. (see picture). I also remember the day she got her poor little puppy head stuck in the baby gate. This was about the time we realized Sadie would be a very special little dog :) I also remember the horrid feeling I had in my stomach when I saw her jump out of the back of my brother's truck onto a highway (while we were going at least 50mph) on the way to get a Christmas tree. I didnt' have kids at the time, but I think it was the closest I would come at that time to feeling what a parent would feel if their kid fell out of a moving vehicle. Thank goodness, she was fine besides a torn-up paw. Sadie quickly became our second Sadie, and she IS my parent's fourth kid!! She may be just a little spoiled, but we love her anyways. She loves my kids, too! Whenever she is here, she goes into a panic when they start crying. And we usually always find her sleeping beside the crib of whatever baby happened to be in there at the time. Sadie has survived life with us for about 6 months (was it Mom?) and international travel, including a Nazi-concentration-camp-like quarentine in England for 6 months! She is a trooper and she loves her family like crazy! I can surely look past her incessant shoe-picking-up, ear-piercing yelps from outside when she can't come in, kitty-litter eating, food stealing from innocent babies, and licking of my dad's legs until they are dripping wet....for the pure sweetness of her little doggie heart and her companionship for nearly eleven years now! Sadie, I will never forget the time you ate my child's dropped corn dog, STICK and all....or the time you dug a hole under our fence, because we left you in the backyard to go to dinner for an hour, or the time you jumped out of the window at Eagle Springs to chase the ducks, or the time my husband made me bathe you while I was eight months pregnant :) We love you, sweet girl.
Most of you would probably assume that I am decidedly NOT a dog person, but actually I am. I just am not ready for one in my house yet....maybe the four boys have something to do with it! I would love for my parents to start the journey all over again with a new Goldie, that my boys can grow up with. Sandy and Sadie...thank you for all the memories you gave/give to our family.
After reading this, I encourage you to go read or watch Marley and Me, and get a sense of what our family feels if you've never had a Goldie of your own. It's an adventure, but a fun one that your children will always remember!
Sadie, as a puppy, and as a grown dog, with our chunkster Gabe.
Isn't she adorable?
August 2, 2010
Mrs. Wren's Buffalo Chicken Dip
July 15, 2010
Caleb
Baby Caleb was born on July 16, 2009. He was 8 lbs. 4.3 oz...again a week early. I was induced yet again with him, at 39 weeks....really just beacause I had done it that way three times and it had worked out fine, and I was ready to get him out!
Joseph
Michael
Baby number 2....our little firecracker Michael! Born on November 21, 2005. Only 16 months after Gabe was born! Weighing in at 7lbs even, making him the runt of the pack. But what he lacks in size that boy makes up for in SPUNK!
My babies!
My precious first born, Gabriel Daniel, born on July 22, 2004. He was 7 lbs. 2 oz.
Just to clarify, the picture of me pregnant with Gabe shows quite a bit of liquor, but don't worry, none was consumed at the baby shower..... :)
I went in for a checkup three days after my due date had passed. I was feeling fine, just very swollen and fat...but who doesn't at nine-plus months pregnant?! The doc. said my blood pressure was high, and bordering on pre-eclampsia so he sent me to the hospital to be induced. We quickly ran home to grab our stuff and headed to the hospital! I got evaluated and monitored that night and was scheduled to be induced early the next morning. I had my mom and dad bring me my favorite pregnant meal, which was a sonic breakfast burrito and tater tots. Even though they gave me something to help me sleep that night, I still couldn't. My sweet husband slept in the hospital bed with me (which looking back must have been pretty difficult for him since I was very, very huge....) He slept, I didn't. (watch for this theme in all of my labors...) I was just too darn excited about what was to come!! Around 6 am, the doctor came in and started the pitocin and later broke my water. I had my whole family here for this labor. Everyone except my brother Deke. Mom coached me through this one, with lamaze-type breathing. My sister rubbed my back and took care of my hair (thanks Sus!) dad pretty much just narrated the video tape he was recording. I honestly don't think I said much at all through my very first labor. Until somewhere around 9 cm I sat straight up and declared, "oh my, the baby is coming!" and indeed he was. A couple minutes of pushing and there he was! I had some complications with Gabe though. My blood pressure continued to rise through labor and they had to put me on some sort of medicine for that....I forget the name. His heartrate dropped dramatically once and they talked c-section for a while, but thankfully they turned me the other way and gave me some oxygen and he was fine. I had a couple doses of stadol (which really did nothing for the pain, but just made me feel very very drunk and loopy) but that was it! He was the most precious, handsome newborn I have ever seen! I loved that boy from the minute I saw him! And here he is today, at almost six years of age