S - P - O - I - L - E - D ! ! !

I've been spoiled! The number one thing we want with our income tax return is a new oven. Now that the door is falling off, it is time. So here it is!!! The Kenmore Elite 30" dual oven. Love it!

Monday night dinner: Rustic veg. soup and Chicken nuggets homemade

The sickness bug has hit my family. The main symptoms are low grade fever, soar throat, and some are coughing. Talon, Jaren, Beauchene and Elody have had it. I started with the soar throat last night. Not Fun! On top of that, Matt woke up with a rib causing him pain. Late this morning, I was briefly watching Martha Stewart's cooking segment and watched her make Rustic vegetable soup starting with a marinara sauce. I decided that we were having that for dinner. So I set some chicken bones on to boil in one crock pot and a marinara sauce in another. I also cut up some chicken breast and set them to marinate in some buttermilk. After I took Matt to the chiropractor, we came home and made dinner. We made the bread crumbs from my homemade wheat bread and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders and parsley. Everything turned out so yummy! That soup is a definite keeper. Matt suggested next time we add a pound of the smoked sausage roll cut up in slices.

Marinara sauce

Makes 5 cups
• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving (optional)
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Cooked pasta, for serving (optional)
• Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)
Directions
1. Place the tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan along with olive oil, garlic, and oregano; season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 20 minutes. Serve with cooked pasta, garnished with cheese and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.

Rustic Vegetable Soup
Serves 4
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 small yellow onion, diced small (1/2 cup)
• 2 medium carrots, diced medium (1 cup)
• 1/2 small green cabbage, core removed, diced large (2 1/2 cups)
• 2 1/4 cups Marinara Sauce (1/2 recipe)
• 3 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 medium zucchini, diced large (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 can (15.5 ounces) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)
Directions
1. In a 4-quart heavy pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high. Add onion, carrot, and cabbage and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add marinara sauce and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add zucchini, reduce heat to a rapid simmer, and cook until vegetables are tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Add cannellini beans and simmer until beans are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide soup among four bowls and top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

I didn’t add the beans and I doubled the soup using all the marinara sauce.

Elody on the counter

Elody has this obsession with being up on the counter. I pull that child off at least a dozen times a day. Last night she was sitting up there when Talon was unloading the dishwasher. They like to unload everything up on the counter, shut the dishwasher, and then put everything away. So Talon unloaded everything and put it all around her. He thought it was funny and wanted me to take a picture of it. So here it is!

WARNING - This is gross

Over the weeks my shower drain got worse and worse to the point that it just was not draining hardly at all anymore. So Matt brought home from work a plumbing snake and put it down the drain. This is what he pulled out. A large rat-sized hair ball. Yuck! And it smelled disgusting. There you go. Sorry for sharing!

Wednesday, Jan 19th, morning before sunrise

Wednesday morning I walked Jileigh to the door as she was leaving to school. We bother were in awe at the moon so we took a picture of it from both of our cameras! My camera took the up/down picture.

refurbishing my rocking chair

Monday, being MLK day observed, Matt took the day off. One of the projects he did was refurbish our poor rocking chair. It is a "leather where you touch" (NOT!!!) chair that turned out to have lots of vinyl where you touch. We'll never go for that again. Other than that I love my rocking chair, but a bolt broke loose in the back making it lean back sideways and the vinyl on the arms had holes in it and kids would pull out the stuffing. So Matt fixed the bolt and re-sewed some new vinyl on the arms of the chair. Yes, it did take most of his "day off". Yea! I have a working, decent-looking rocking chair again!

Weekend visit from my brother

Every year my oldest Brother DeLane goes to a convention for his work at a nearby major city. So he books his flight for the weekend before so he can come spend a day or so with us. He arrived Saturday early afternoon. First thing my kids took him out back to see the chickens and collect eggs. We fed him some breakfast for lunch and then sat and watched Despicable Me. Then we went on a little hike in the canyon behind our neighborhood. My kids love to go back there to hike around. We had fun and took some pictures. Now that Jileigh has a camera, she never leaves on an adventure without it! Then we came home, made a fabulous beef stew with Matt's amazing whole-grain biscuits and then played some games. Sunday morning we made pumpkin muffins for breakfast. As I opened the cupboard door to get out some glasses, the cupboard door fell off. Again Jileigh had her camera in hand and took a picture. Funny Girl! Matt quickly put the cupboard door back on and we went to church. DeLane left after sacrament meeting to head back to get ready for the convention. We loved having him here for a visit. My kids love adult family member attention whether it be a grandparent or and aunt or uncle.

Update on me

I am feeling great! It has been 3 months since my surgery. I have been able to get back to my house cleaning routine and my exercise routine. I try to run/walk 3 days a week, bike 3 days a week, do my abs/thighs videos 2 days a week, and go to my friends house for her classes 1-2 nights a week. I eat a pretty strict diet of lots of veggies, proteins including eggs, low carb, low starch, and low sugars. I do drink my raw dairy including my kefir every morning and enjoy my healthy fats like butter and olive oil. My scale has the pounds and the fat percentage so I can watch both. Even though the pounds are going down slowly, I can see the fat % going down too. I still have 10 more pounds to go!

Angelique's history fair entry

For three weeks Angelique, her dad, and I worked on Angelique's hisory fair entry. About half way through her friend Emily and her mom joined in with us. Here's the link: http://68480846.nhd.weebly.com

As a result, she and her friend won 1st place in the website catagory. I wanted her to do well and cover all the requirements, but we weren't aiming for first place. Now we get to go to the district history fair. We don't know when it is yet, but we should find out soon.

Sewing project for Christmas 2010

During our Thanksgiving trip home to my mom's, we stayed at my sister's house. I saw the cutest hand towel hanging from her oven. So, I took pictures of it. I am not a seamstress at all, but I wanted to try to make one or several of these. I went home, downloaded the pictures and then made a pattern off the computer screen. I bought the fabric a Wal-Mart and got to work. I have to say that I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. I made two of the yellow ones for me to go in my kitchen, two for my mother-in-law and two for my sister-in-law Candy. Those two each got one of the blue ones and one of the green ones. The first picture is the hand towel at my sister's house that I used for my pattern.

The closet mirror . . . grrrrr

The kids seem to like to play in our room even though I have told them a million times not to. Well, Safia and Jaren were wresting by my closet doors and Jaren accidentally kicked my closet door. Even though that door has probably been hit hundreds of times, this was the one time that did it in. I heard the shattering and saw the broken mirror. The best thing I could think of was to just cover each crack with packing tape so no one would get cut on the glass. This way we can buy some time until we decide what to do with it.

Teeth cleaning at the dentist

Back in September I made an appt for all of my kids to go in and get their teeth cleaned in one trip. They got us in Dec 29th. Jileigh brought her camera along and happily took pictures. Yea for us, no one had any cavities!

Jan 2, 2011 Snow day!

We finally had ourselves a decent snow fall that the kids could play in. They made snow angels and made a large snowwoman. They played in that snow to their hearts content and until they were soaked and cold.