Table for Eight

I am SOOOOOOOO-looking forward to February-- the season of LOVE ! I mean, January has had some super great moments, but, WOW, is January one LONG MONTH. What are there, 60 days between Christmas and January 31st? Well, enough complaining about dumb things. I mean, there are literally revolutions happening in Egypt and I'm mitching about the Roman calendar system? For the love, Dawn. Keep some perspective here. Well, I don't know enough about the uprising in Egypt to make a more meaningful post about freedom today--something about liberty, opportunity, oppression, responsibility . . . but I'm learning. So in the meantime, I thought the least I could do with today's post is be grateful. And I am. So, here are some of the things I am grateful for in January: My Favorite Things: January 31 Edition (in random order) 1. My camera and the whole digital format. (Could it be any easier to record life? Or share it? Crazy-awesome technology. Papaya and her fri

1. BREATH. 2. SMILE. 3. Tackle laundry. (I think I may not be "cleaning" our laundry. Time to brush up on laundry tips. Everything seems dull after I wash and fold it. Ugh.) 4. Have hot chocolate with fam. (Haven't had it in a long time, but I love it. Yes, I just said I love food. I love my fam, too, so it's a win-win for me: two things I love.) 5. Eat baked potatoes. A lot. (I bought this King of Spuds 50lb bag from a farm(er) for $20.00--and I'm telling you, it is the best 20 I've ever spent. The potatoes are HUGE and so dang good. When you pull them from the bag to cook, they look like they just came out of the ground. Dirt everywhere. I love it! PS: I've eaten a baked potato everyday for the last 8. I'm all about balance.) From Real Simple--trying this today. Recipe HERE 6. Tidy the house. (I don't like to do a lot of cleaning on the weekend. It makes me dislike the weekend. So, I try to do it during the week instead.) 7.

Going to read, cook, spend time with the family and friends. Ahhh.

I cannot begin to tell you what the last 7 hours have been like. In fact, if I had each of your phone numbers, I would have called you. That's how exciting it was. After days--dare I say, weeks--of waiting to meet Fievel Mousekewitz . . . it happened! We MET! Thank goodness for cameras--because he/she wasn't looking too excited about our chance encounter. (I am sure he wasn't penning any autographs. Well, assuming his little mouse fingers could hold a tiny-tiny pen.) Anyway, what an incredible night! Here are the details. 11pm: Jay comes upstairs and declares, "I'm going to catch the mouse tonight, mom. I'm adding quarters as extra weight to the humane trap. I think he's too light for it to set off the door trap, so this will do the trick." 11:03: Jay heads back to his room. 11:05: I hear the trap door shut. I "think" it is just Jay joking around . . . until I yell his name 3 times and realize, "Hay, I"m

This is our third humane mousetrap. It has 5 stars on Amazon.com for heaven sakes! And still . . .  no mouse. Ugh! Somewhere out there in Mouseville, there's an itty-bitty mouse laughing his garbanzo beans off . . . because we are on our THIRD week of trying to humanely trap Fievel-the-Mouse and we have had ZERO SUCCESS. I'm not kidding when I say that pretty soon we are going to have an entire mouse colony living in our cereal cupboard. (For those keeping score at home: We've been feeding Fievel-the-Mouse for over 10 days now.) Without fail, he/she comes to the cereal cupboard each night. And without fail, he walks right into our various "humane mousetraps," eats everything in the trap . . . and then returns to his crib where he is interviewed on Mousestyles of the Rich and Famous . HELP! I fear this isn't going to end well for one of us.

I just finished reading a book where one of the main characters (a Buddhist monk) asks another main character (a westerner) this one simple question: "Why so angry?" And the westerner's reply? Ironically, he's kind of angry about being asked such a question.  You see, he doesn't think he's angry at all. *********** (And so here's my big epiphany for the week.) I have thought about that question a lot lately. I wonder whether a lot of us (ME?) are walking around Planet E rather angry. Well, maybe not angry in the literal sense of the word, but angry as in frustrated, sad, short-fused, impatient, intolerant, overwhelmed, etc. Why? Well, for me and my house, I think when we are angry it's because we have filled our lives with too much noise. It's chaotic. And chaos makes us cranky. I love metaphors, so here goes: If life is a radio, then I'm trying to listen to 1.1 million stations-- all at once! And yet, I only have 2 ears. So,

When my friend Rebecca told me she made yogurt this past summer, I was honestly in shock. I had never heard of such a thing. Make your own yogurt? What's next? Get a cow and make my own cheese? It sounded so 1800s to me. BUT, 6 months later, as I was checking out my new favorite blog (the slow cooker recipe one), I came across a recipe for making yogurt using the CrockPot, and it looked pretty simple, so I decided to try it. And you know what? It was so easy! I'm seriously in disbelief. The process takes overnight (or a good block of time), but it is so worth it. I'm not sure I will ever buy yogurt at the store again. Here are the reasons why I like the homemade yogurt: 1. It's easy to make with the CrockPot. Like, so easy a kid could do it. 2. It's inexpensive. You can make about 6 cups of yogurt for less than the price of a gallon of milk. 3. You can make any kind of yogurt you like--fat-free, 1%, 2%, whole milk, Greek-style, flavored, plain,

First, happy belated birthday JUANITA! I'm so sorry I didn't call you on the 19th!! We love you so much. You are the best sister and aunt in the world! ****************** And now, my new favorite thing: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com I'm probably the LAST person to come across this blog, but I have to share because I am in HEAVEN! It's Stephanie O'Dea's " A Year of Slow Cooking " blog (she's also the author of "Make it Fast, Cook It Slow"). And it is AWESOME! O'Dea began the blog in 2008--as part of a New Year's Resolution to cook one slow-cooker meal everyday for year. That means there are over 400 slow-cooker recipes on her blog. (And she's still cooking/posting slow-cooker recipes regularly. She was just on The Today Show this month. She's everywhere!) At any rate, here are some of the recipes I'm going to try: Brownie in a Mug Breakfast Risotto Carmel Apple Cider Coconut Red Beans an

Funny how much happens in just one week! Some good, some bad; some funny, some sad (Yes, I'm going to start writing Hallmark Cards.). Anyway, my point! Here's the stuff I was lucky enough to photograph: "Friday Night" by Cam "First Day at Activity Days Youth Group" ZuZu "The US Dept. of Agriculture's Food Pyramid: At Home Edition" Cam and Papaya (*We had a contest during our health studies--to see which team could fill their pyramid with the right foods for each category. They had to use foods from our cupboards. Minus the cereal one, because Fievel ate that.) LuLu and ZuZu Jr and Jay And . . . Dave! (This cracks me up because the kids had Dave do his own test once he got home from work. And yes, that's a lot in the "FAT/OIL" category.) Week 3: Man (Preservatives) vs. Nature Cosmic Brownie vs. the California Cutie/Clementine My new favorite quinoa recipe *quinoa (rinsed a lot befor

Well, it's been a little over a week since we learned about Fievel the Mouse raiding our cereal cupboard. And while the kids have created some AWESOME humane traps to try and bring the little fella out of hiding, Dave's decided to give us an ultimatum: trap the mouse by Saturday OR else! Or else . . . he's going to use a traditional trap to bring Fievel to the proper authorities. Eeek! So, the kids and I have decided to take our trapping to the next level: we ordered a professional-grade humane trap online. (Jay did the research today and found that should be THE ONE.) I hope Fievel reads this blog because if he doesn't hop in this trap in the next 48 hours, his/her future's not looking too bright.

Thought it would be fun to see what life was like FOUR years ago--this week (Jan of 2007): The same . . . and yet so different.

I've mentioned this before on the blog, but last year I made a New Year's Resolution to wear bigg(er) earrings. I made the resolution in half-jest. I think at the time, I was trying to balance my "OVER-the-TOP" goals with more realistic (and fun) goals. And for some reason, at my core, I've just always loved big earrings. But, I never really wore them. I mean, as a mother of 6, I couldn't think of too many occasions for big jewelry. I mean, big earrings are for big occasions , right? Not for working in a classroom, stapling papers. Or driving kids to school. Or doing laundry. Right? Wrong! I'm here to tell you, after 12 months of  working to "achieve" (LOL) my goal of wearing big(ger) earrings, I've learned a pretty major life lesson: Life is a big occasion! Every. Dang. Day. Is. A. Big. Deal. So . . . make it a big deal! And wear some big earrings to prove it. (But please, make sure your big earrings aren

First, congrats to #33Shannon  for winning the Bakerella Cake Pops book! And now, a quick update on the homeschooling projects: Week 2 of our "Preservatives Experiment." Just how long will the cosmic brownie last? (My hypothesis--Forever. The kids' hypotheses--a month.) We're into Week 2 of "Healthy Bingo"--where the kids practice healthy habits for two weeks  (and earn a new shoe each time they blackout the Bingo card). They are doing great: doing extra jumping jacks, going to bed before 9pm, meditating for 10 minutes, trying a new fruit or veggie, drinking beverages without sugar. We still have lots of room for improvement, but I love the Bingo idea (yay Papaya!). As part of the Healthy Bingo, we ordered a big bag of potatoes (as part of our goal to cut back on meat--these potatoes are the size of a steak). We have also been trying new veggies: Fiesta Cauliflower (yellow and purple).  And making our pancakes from scratch w