Yep. I'm still here.

So the three of you who actually read my blog may have been wondering where I've been or if I ever planned to return to the blogging world. Well, let it be known--I am still here!!! And Kori--I hope this staves off any withdrawal symptoms you may be experiencing. :-)

Not a whole lot has been happening around here. After a two week break from school we started back up again only to have Thanksgiving come around and interrupt our schedule again. The Monday before Thanksgiving I had an all day training so the kids went out to a friend's house. Tuesday we did school and I worked that night so Wednesday was fairly unproductive concerning school. We packed and I napped. Dan left with the kids Wednesday after work and went to his parents' house for the weekend. Then I worked part of Wednesday night and all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By the time Sunday rolled around I was more than ready for them to come home. One of the things I really missed was having good food. Since it was just me, I didn't do any cooking. I pretty much subsisted on a few leftovers, toast and cereal. I was so desperate to make something that I made some bars and took them to work on Saturday. They were all appreciative, but Dan and the kids weren't too happy when they saw how few I had left at home. But I knew that if I didn't take them to work I would eat way, way too many. I thought about taking a picture of the bars so I could post the recipe later, but, alas, Dan had the camera with him. I may have to make them again just so I can take a picture. :-)

Sunday afternoon after I got up I went to the library. All by myself!!! It was wonderful. Now lest you think I hate taking the kids with me, I don't. It's just that when I take the kids I have to make sure that Darin and Natalie aren't disappearing and Natalie usually picks that time to behave like she hasn't been taught how to act in public. So I usually just pick up books for the kids and make my visit as short as possible. If I want any books I just reserve them online and then send Ellie in to pick them up for me while I wait in the van with the rest of the kids. This time I was actually able to do a little browsing and picked up a few non-fiction books and a few cookbooks.

The drive home for Dan and the kids was uneventful (save for a few tiffs between Darin and Natalie) until somewhere around Cannon Falls. Then the roads turned to ice and he didn't top 20 mph. There were several cars in the ditch and a few accidents too. It took him a lot longer to get home than he had planned so by the time they got home they were all very hungry. And the two younger ones really had to go to the bathroom!!! Thankfully Darin and Natalie managed to hold it and I didn't have to wash any carseat covers.

In other news Ellie has decided that she wants to be in the Scripps Spelling Bee so she has been studying words this week. The spelling bee isn't until January so she'll be studying for quite awhile. The spelling bee is open to 5th-8th graders so she will be one of the younger ones but she's not intimidated by that. This will be a regional spelling bee and those that win will advance to the state spelling bee, etc (I think anyway). A little known fact--I went to the state spelling bee when I was in junior high.

Weekly Update (of sorts)

We only sort of did school this week. Last week Ellie and Kara spent the week at Grandpa and Grandma's (see pics here) and it was our planned week off after finishing Unit 1 of Tapestry of Grace. We had planned to restart school this week, but I was nowhere near prepared come Monday morning. While the girls were gone I was going to get their history notebooks ready (I make them a notebook for each unit that includes all reading assignments, questions, maps, etc). I think I thought I had more time. Problem was I worked the previous weekend so I didn't do much on Monday. Not sure what I did on Tuesday, but on Wednesday I made a bunch of applesauce (thanks Tami for coming and keeping me company). I started on Kara's on Thursday but didn't get it done. And then on Friday I went to meet my mom to pick up the girls and had a conference on Friday night and all day Saturday. Plus Sundays are our day of rest so I wasn't about to spend my whole Sunday afternoon working on the notebooks when I also had to prepare the food for our unit celebration. All this to say I was sorely prepared for Monday morning.

This week was also very busy with the older three having choir dress rehearsal Monday evening, church Wednesday evening, long choir practice Thursday afternoon and choir concerts on Thursday and Friday evenings. So we took it easy this week as well. Ellie did some math lessons and worked on her math facts. Kara did some handwriting and spelling and Darin learned how to read a few words, write a couple of numbers and the letter A, and did some other pages in another workbook he has. He did the most this week-mostly because he is always begging me to "do school." He hates it when I tell him it is time to put it away.

I did work on the notebooks and I've got them all done. I just need to make the labels for the maps but that isn't urgent. I'm working this weekend so that will get done at some point next week.

Hominy with Shredded Chicken and Peppers

This recipe was adapted from Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way. It is the first time I've ever used or even eaten hominy and we all liked it. I'd like to find dried hominy somewhere, but so far I've been unsuccessful in finding it here.

Hominy with Shredded Chicken and Peppers

2 Tbls olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 large green bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 large red bed pepper, seeded and sliced
1/4 t salt, plus more to taste
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 t dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
2 (15-19 oz) cans hominy, drained (I used 1 can yellow hominy and 1 can white hominy)
1-2 cups chicken broth
1 (15 oz) can chopped tomatoes, drained
2 cups (about) shredded or chopped roast chicken
Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
2 limes, cut into wedges

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell peppers and salt. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add in the garlic, jalapeno, oregano and cumin and continue to cook until the peppers begin to soften.

Stir in the hominy. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Then stir in the chicken and cook till heated through. Taste to see if it needs more salt. Ladle into bowls and top with cilantro and a squirt of lime juice.

Medieval Unit Celebration

We recently finished Unit 1 of Year 2 for Tapestry of Grace--our history curriculum. To mark the end of studying the Middle Ages, we had a celebration. I made some costumes for the kids--none for us however. I bought the material to make them for Dan and I, but it never got done. I should have known.

Anyway, we had a good time. Some history for those of you who haven't recently studied the Middle Ages:

• Food was served on stale bread called trenchers--they didn't have plates back then. Plus then you could just eat the bread when your main course was done if you wanted.
• They only had spoons and the knives they used for hunting--no forks. Spoons were used for soup but not really for anything else.
  
• When eating with your fingers, you were only supposed to use your thumb and first two fingers. And absolutely no licking of the fingers!! There were bowls of rose water at the table to clean your hands in (I forgot to buy the roses so we just had water).
• Often there was only one bowl of soup for every two people so they just shared.

Here is what we had for our menu:
Butternut squash soup
Roast chicken with orange sauce
Everyday tart (a tart with farmer's cheese, cream cheese, raisin and eggs)
Fruit patties (basically pie crust with a filling of walnuts, figs, apples and raisins which was then fried and rolled in sugar)

Here are some pics of our celebration:

This is one of my favorites. I'm not sure the look they were going for here--I think mean (except for Darin). It made me laugh out loud.
I think Darin was trying to look mean here.
Kara demonstrating which fingers to use to eat.
Kara caught licking her fingers.

Darin eating his trencher.
Ellie and Kara treated us to a dance after supper.

Widower

Here is Ellie's definition of a widower--someone who kills someone so the other person can be a widow. :-)

Review of Dan's Menu Planning

If you've been reading my blog for the last few months you know that I challenged Dan to menu plan and grocery shop for the month of October to see if he could do a better job than me. He was convinced that he could do it cheaper; I wasn't so sure. Well, October is over and how did he do? He did better than I thought, but I'm not planning on letting him do it again anytime soon. When I asked him what he thought of his menu-planning month, he said, "I didn't like it." Yep. That's it. I had thought he would have more to say on the subject but I was sorely mistaken.

As for my assessment? I didn't like it either. At the beginning of the month I was pretty hard core about not going to the grocery store and not adding anything to the menu. But Dan didn't really think ahead and so many nights we wouldn't eat supper until late because he had to go to the grocery store to get the ingredients that were needed for supper. The kids and I quickly grew tired of this. Another thing is that he would plan a main dish but no sides. That didn't go over too well either.

As the month went on, the kids and I got pretty sick of waiting on him so I went to the grocery store a few times (otherwise we'd still be out of milk) and I rounded out a few meals. He did do it slightly cheaper than I do but I missed the fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains that we are used to. He didn't completely eliminate fruits and vegetables, but we did have them quite a bit less. He also wasn't as concerned with healthy snacks for the kids, mostly I think because he isn't around during snack time. So out of sight, out of mind.

One thing that was reiterated during the month is that Dan is more concerned with the monetary aspect of eating while I am more concerned with how healthy things are. So I guess we balance each other out.

Now it is November and I'm back to menu planning. Hallelujah!

Wisconsin Dells Trip

Last week we took the kids to WI Dells for Ellie and Kara's birthdays. We've taken them to a waterpark hotel for the past 5-6 years in lieu of birthday parties and presents. In years past we have taken them to the Holiday Inn in Owatonna, but last year when we were there we noticed that the hotel was getting run down (they are supposed to be remodeling it this fall) and the older girls are outgrowing their waterpark. So this year we decided to take them to a hotel at the Dells. One of the benefits of going to Owatonna was that it was only 45 minutes away, but the Dells are only just over two hours from our house--not bad.

We booked a 2 bedroom condo at Glacier Canyon Lodge and got a great deal on the room since we went during the week. The whole complex has three indoor waterparks and they are going to be building another one starting next spring. The room that we booked also had a full kitchen so we brought food along so we wouldn't have to eat out every meal. The whole complex was wonderful. The room was nice and the waterparks were great. Our favorite was the Wild Waterdome where the roof of the waterpark is solar panels and actually lets you tan year round. It was almost like being outside in the summer--the sun felt so good!!! And at that waterpark they have a wave pool which Ellie and Kara just loved. When the elephant sounded to let everyone know that the waves were about to start, Darin and Natalie would run out of the water and sit on the edge. They'd eventually move back in a little bit but not very far.

Here are some pics I took while we were there:

Here Natalie is watching a large bucket tip over and dump water on the people below.

Here is the beauty of having a telephoto lens. I caught Darin and Natalie fighting and they didn't even know I was watching.

Here are Ellie and Dan riding the waves:

Here is Natalie rolling her eyes and being goofy: