Thoughts Along Life's Highway

First Day of School

Thursday was the first day of school for the girls. They were so excited, and I guess I was, too, given that I woke up at 4AM and never went back to sleep! (which is becoming a bad habit, I might add)

After getting dressed and ready with surprising speed (and why is it that it’s always so stinkin’ easy that first week or so of school? And then they turn into sloths and can’t move faster than –23 miles per hour?) the girls came downstairs to enjoy some bacon, eggs and cheese sandwiches.

Then it was picture time:

 

Oh my gosh, they are getting so big!!

And then we were off to school:

(those are from open house the other day)

I was surprised that the girls asked me to walk them in to their classrooms, but I was very happy to do so.  They were so cute trying to look all grown up and yet holding on to my hand so tightly.

I know I won’t have many more years of that first-day-of-school walk-in honor… probably only a couple, actually, so it was really special this morning.

Then, I headed home and got busy with work – in a surprisingly quiet house!!

The pups and I picked the girls up from school (Sydney was a maniac and ended up in the front seat looking (and barking) at all the teachers and kids as she tried to spot her girls)  The kids were thrilled to see the pups and asked me to bring them every day (I”m not so sure about that!) when I pick them up.

After that, it was snacks, homework (yes, even on the first day of school) and some down-time with the TV.  Little Bit crashed early and Big Girl wasn’t far behind (nor was I, having finally “hit the wall” from my early rising)

One day down… and, oh, about two hundred more to go!

What I'm Reading Right Now

I thought I’d share with you another installment of the books I’ve been reading this summer. My reading has slowed down in the past few weeks – mostly because it’s been so busy around here that by the time I finally sit still in the evenings, I’m too sleepy to read for more than a few minutes and then I crash!

I’ve been into some mystery/crime novels this summer. Not sure why, except that I can’t seem to stomach any romance novels right now. The escapism of the mysteries seem to be what I’m looking for – and enjoying – right now.

I have read a few good books and I wanted to share them with you ~

The Black Echo, by Michael Connelly

This was a Barnes & Noble promo book – I can’t remember if it was a Free Friday or 99 cent promo, but I grabbed it because it looked good… and it was. Really good.

The protagonist is Harry Bosch, an LAPD detective who is a bit of an outcast in the Police community and yet has a very strong sense of right and wrong and in getting to the bottom of things.

Harry is called out on a Sunday for a dead body that is found in a culvert pipe at Mulholland Dam.  He recognizes the body as a fellow Vietnam Vet and his determination to get to the bottom of things is set.

As Harry digs into the mysterious murder, he tangles with the FBI, the Internal Affairs division and a number of thugs out to ensure he doesn’t figure out what happened to his friend.

It was very engrossing and kept me awake quite a few nights as I read and read trying to get to the end of a chapter, or at least a stopping point, before going to sleep.  It wasn’t something I probably would’ve picked out in a bookstore, but I really enjoyed it and plan to read more of his books.

The next in the Harry Bosch saga is The Black Ice, so that is on my to-read-soon list.

Trust No One, by Gregg Hurwitz

This was a really, really good book. So engrossing – it grabs you in the first 20 pages and doesn’t let you go until the very end.

The main character is Nick Horrigan, who has worked to build himself a quiet, safe life.  All of that changes when his apartment is invaded in the middle of the night by a SWAT team who snatch him out of his house and take him to a waiting helicopter.

Nick is whisked off to a nuclear reactor which has been overtaken by a terrorist who has asked specifically to speak to Nick.

Thus begins a whirlwind in which Nick is embroiled in a web of lies, deception and half-truths which hearken back to the death of his step-father when Nick was a young teenager.  In order to survive, Nick must determine what is truth, what is real, and who is good and who is evil.

The only thing that Nick knows for sure is his step-father’s dying words - “Trust No One.”

I have to say, this was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Certainly not one, again, that I would’ve sought out, but so, so good.

Definitely one I would recommend to anyone looking for an engrossing mystery/adventure/action story.

Another mystery, but certainly a non-traditional telling of a mystery, was my next read:

Dog on It, by Spencer Quinn

I picked this up at a local bookstore on my vacation. It was in a bin of B1G1 books, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a try.

It was so cute.

The mystery is written from the perspective of Chet, the happy-go-lucky pup who belongs to Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private investigator.

Bernie is called in on missing persons case and he and Chet work to find the missing teenaged girl, getting into all sorts of scrapes and tight squeezes as they go along and yet their partnership remains strong and they triumph (as you know they will) in the end.

The most charming part of the book is the perspective from which it is written.  Watching events unfold from Chet’s perspective is a little like talking to someone with serious attention deficit issues – one minute he is describing the “perp” and the next he is distracted by the enticing she-bark of some mysterious female pup off in the distance. And while it is sometimes a little distracting, it is mostly entertaining – especially if you are an animal lover. I couldn’t help looking at my own pups in a little different light and wondering what was really going on in their heads when I chat with them during the day.

A cute, light read that was definitely worth the B1G1 price. I will be picking up the next one in this series sometime soon, too.

Any good books you have to share?

 

 

 

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Chocolate Chocolate-chip breakfast bread

One of my girls’ favorite breakfast treats are the chocolate, chocolate-chip muffins that are sold in a Duncan Hines mix.  Now, while the box says that it is a whole-grain recipe, I have been pretty sure I could make them more healthy if I made them on my own. Heck, just using my freshly-ground flour and eliminating the preservatives the box mix has will make a huge difference, I think.

So, I started hunting for a recipe to play around with.  This morning, I experimented and I think I’ve come up with a pretty close replacement to the box mix.  I made it as a bread loaf today, but I think the next time I make it I will make the muffins the girls love so much.

Doesn’t that just scream yumminess to you?

I can tell you that, fresh out of the oven, it was gooey, decadent and delicious. The girls scarfed it down and I didn’t mind indulging them in the sweets, because I knew it had wholesome ingredients.

Now, if I can just figure out how to sneak some more protein and/or a veggie or two into the mix, I’d be really happy.

Just in case you want to try this out with your family, here’s the recipe. I think it would make a great first-day-of-school treat for breakfast.

Oh, and warmed up later in the day with some ice cream? Oh, yum!

Chocolate, Chocolate-Chip Breakfast Bread (or muffins)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup Honey Granules & 1/2 cup Sucanat)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, here are a few tips to make this anyway)
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan or muffin tin.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter & sugar together.
4. Add the eggs & mix well.
5. In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
6. Add those to the sugar mixture, alternating with the buttermilk (half of the dry ingredients, 1/2 cup buttermilk, the other half of the dry ingredients, the rest of the buttermilk) until incorporated well.
7. Mix in the chocolate chips.
8. Pour mixture into loaf pan or muffin tin.
9. Bake for 1 hour (loaf pan) or 20-30 min (muffins) until toothpick comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Project Life Tuesday ~ 9 August

No work lately on my Project Life album, but I’m not too concerned. I’m planning a weekend getaway with some girlfriends soon and I know I will have plenty of time that weekend to get the album caught up. Right now, I’m just trying to keep up with picture taking.  I didn’t take many the beginning of the week, and was a little worried about it until we had a little adventure on Friday which resulted in a ton of pictures. So, it all worked out in the end.

This week school starts, so we’ll have tons of pictures I am sure.

Without further ado – I give you the PL photos for the week:

Hot, hot, and more hot!

 

My beautiful girls at lunch on Wednesday.

Getting through the day with a little prayer and a reminder of who is in control.

Relaxing on Thursday night after showers with some fresh berries and Discovery TV.

    Hazy, but beautiful – our view driving up into the mountains on Friday morning.

Getting ready for our tour – love the hair nets (notice Mama made sure there were no pictures of her with a hair net!)

  

Ice cream after our tour.

Then we headed out for a little antiquing: Like their “car phones?”

Then a picnic along the river -

This was our view: And we dipped our toes in the water – it was 95 degrees in the shade! The water was freezing but it felt really good. My feet were numb quickly, but it was actually very refreshing. We wished we had brought swimsuits. Look at that handsome man!

I've got to remember not to keep my sunglasses on top of my head. I look like I have Mickey ears!And then it was home for the weekend full of fun with friends.

Join the Project Life link-ups over at these sites:

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Menu Plan Monday: 8 August (Back to the Grindstone)

It’s the first week (sort of) of school here. The girls go back on Thursday and Open House is tomorrow afternoon. We’re in the Final Launch Countdown mode here in our house this week. Phone calls from the new teachers, phone calls to friends to see who their teachers are, final purchases and preparations. It’s all very exciting.

I’m looking forward to getting us back on a routine and to having my workdays a little less fragmented… but I know I’m going to miss having the girls around at the same time. Things will be busy, for sure, especially when dance classes start.

Fortunately, those don’t start for another week, so we have a little time to get our routine going.  Both girls will be taking Jazz and Ballet and both of them have classes back-to-back, so one girl dances one night and the other later in the week. It’s going to be an interesting schedule, but I think we will manage. I’d rather get it all over with in one night like that than have classes four or five nights a week! At least this way, they each have a few nights without anything and they can use that time for schoolwork and resting.

We had a great weekend – cramming in the last gasp of fun for the summer.  SuperMan had Friday off of work, so I took the day off as well and we went to tour a dairy that is close by. Well, not the dairy per-se, but the bottling facility.  It was about two hours away and we toodled around in the mountains on our way home, eating lunch by a river in the National Forest and stopping to pick up some fresh summer fruit for canning on the way home.

Now, I have to figure out how I’m going to get a half-bushel of peaches put away in the freezer that is already overflowing! But I am looking forward to having them this winter, so I will figure it out somehow. I need to get a new freezer – we used to have an upright freezer but it won’t work anymore – I miss having that extra space for storage.

This week’s menu planning is a little challenging for me. Today is the “last hurrah” at the neighborhood pool, with friends coming to swim with us right up until suppertime. I’m trying to figure out what I can prepare that would be ready when we get home from the pool (and everyone is starving) and I’m leaning towards the leftover spaghetti/lasagna from last week that I have in the fridge. Quick, filling, and get rid of the leftovers. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Then tomorrow the girls have their open house at school, which is from 4-6 and I know we will probably want to eat right after we get home. I’m thinking about some type of Mexican casserole that I can pop in the oven before we leave and have it ready when we get home. Maybe I’ll invent something. I have a Mexican Potato casserole I used to love, but can’t eat anymore because the potatoes have too much sugar for me. Maybe I’ll improvise and substitute something else (tortillas?) for the potatoes. I’ll let you know how it comes out.

Wednesday, I’m leaning towards something BBQ-ish. Not sure yet. And then Thursday is the first day of school, so I want something hearty and filling to give the girls because I know they will be hungry and tired. I’m thinking about making this cheesy chicken pasta recipe (or maybe this one that Big Girl loves).  Friday will probably be an eat-out night – maybe at our favorite Mexican restaurant. SuperMan had their flank steak last week and it was to-die-for. I’m still thinking about the taste I had. It was so good!!

I’m also in the mood to make something with an Asian flair.  I’ve got a good recipe for an Asian Flank Steak that I may dig up and cook. Or, I’ve found a recipe in a Sandra Lee cookbook for a beef & veggie stir fry I may try. It sounds yummy. So, that may be a weekend choice.

SuperMan made my favorite Chicken Lettuce Wraps (a-la PF Chang’s style) last night. That will be my lunch today and  probably tomorrow, too. They are SOOO good. I’m hoping to get the recipe to share with you but he is worse than I am about “a pinch of this and a dash of that” so I’m not sure I can replicate it reliably enough for you to try… I will see what I can do.

Well, that’s it for our eating plans this week.

Hop over to orgjunkie.com for some more great menu ideas!

 

 

 

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I don't like spiders and snakes (and other random thoughts at 4AM)

It’s 4:06 AM and I’m wide awake.  WIDE-stinkin’-AWAKE.

It’s been one of those nights.

Little Bit came stumbling into our bedroom around 1:00 because her alarm clock had gone off in her room and woken her up. SuperMan put her back to sleep but then I was waking up every fifteen minutes because I was afraid he wouldn’t come back to bed and he’d miss his alarm clock going off. Finally, I went and got him so we could all sleep properly (read: I could sleep properly!) and all was well.

Storms were blowing in and there was a lot of thunder and lightning, but I drifted back to sleep in spite of the light and sound show outside.

And then it happened.

The thing that is GUARANTEED to ruin my night’s sleep if it happens.

That sick, gross, scare-the-PJs-off-of-you feeling.

You know the one.

The one when you feel something CRAWLING ON YOUR ARM while you sleep!

oh.my.gosh!

I was out of the covers in no time – cowering at the foot of the bed like a scared little thing. I had slapped the heck out of my arm, and I think I killed whatever it was, but there was no way to know for sure.

Poor SuperMan was awakened by my gymnastics (and shivering, quivering and whimpering, probably) and came around to turn on the lights and check to see if he could find a carcass or something. (and this is why we call him SuperMan – I mean, waking up at 3AM to rescue your wife from random bug attacks! totally awesome!)

The creature was no where to be found.

Which, really, didn’t make me feel any better. The rational part of my brain said he was probably long gone (or dead) but the emotional wreck part of me (that was clearly in charge at the time) said that he could be anywhere, lurking and waiting to crawl on me again.

Sleep just wasn’t going to happen.

So, here I sit at my computer with a cup of chamomile tea and watching the storms out my office window.

Good thing I don’t have any early-morning meetings today. I may need a nap later.

But, you know, I shouldn’t be surprised.

It’s been one of those weeks.

Tuesday, you will notice, had no blog post.

That was because I was suffering from PTSD (not really) from a dentist’s appointment.

Last week I broke a crown while munching on some peanuts as my afternoon snack.

So, Tuesday morning I went to get the crown replaced. It’s a long story, but it was a temporary crown that had gone way past it’s “Best if Used By” date.  They were going to give me a new temporary and order me a new permanent crown.

Now, you have to bear in mind one thing: I DON’T DO DENTISTS.

I have a serious, major fear of dentists. There aren’t many things that get me as anxious as dentists – except maybe bugs crawling on me in the middle of the night…

But I had no choice. I had to go and get this raggedy piece of tooth fixed.

And there I sat, Tuesday morning, with my little green “bib” on my shirt trying to read (and reading the same paragraph forty-seven times without knowing what it said) and waiting for the dentist to come in.

I won’t bore you with all the details – but it was a Murphy’s Law kind of visit. They broke two temporary crowns on two of my teeth while trying to fix the one that was broken. I think we went through five or six temporaries before they got two to work on the two teeth they were working on.

It was fun, let me tell you.

I had so much adrenaline running through my system I was a quivering, shaking mess.  I could barely walk out of there because my legs were like jelly.

And I had two of my girlfriends giving me moral support as I gave them blow-by-blow accounts from my cell phone.

And I get to do it all over again in a couple weeks when the permanent crowns come in.

Oh joy.

Oh, I see SuperMan is up – getting ready for work. I guess I’ll go chat with him while I finish my tea.

Thanks for keeping me company this morning.

I hope your week has been a little less eventful than mine. Or, if it has been eventful, it’s been more fun!

Did you know? Easy access to recipes!

If you have been a reader for a while, you’ve probably figured out that most Wednesdays mean a new recipe post on the blog. But what you may not know is that I’ve created a quick and easy reference for you to use to go back and find a recipe.

So, when you decide you want to try out my crock pot lasagna or maybe bake a Sunshine cake, you can quickly and easily access the recipes without a lot of searching and scrolling.

Simply click on one of these links:

1. You can click on the “Recipes” link on the top menu bar. It will link you to the Recipes page where all the recipes are directly linked and sorted by type.

2. You can also click on the “Looking For Recipes?” button on the sidebar. It will take you to the same page.
3. And, a third option is to search for a particular recipe – you can use the search box and type in any phrase - “bread,” for example – and find the posts that contain that phrase. (You can use this search to look for any type of post or phrase in a post – not just recipe-related posts!)

Another thing I’ve done on most posts is add the easy print option so that you can print the recipe if you decide you want to keep it on hand in your own personal recipe collection.

Once you click on the button, it will bring up a window where you can delete anything from the post that you want (like photos or my extraneous chatter before a recipe) and then print your recipe.

You can also save it as a PDF file and/or email the post to someone.

I hope this helps you to utilize the recipes I’ve posted on the blog. They are there for you, after all, and to share my family’s favorites with you so that they can become your family’s favorites!

 

 

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Menu Plan Monday ~ 1 August

What a whirlwind weekend.  Friday we spent a good part of the day buying school shoes and finalizing our back-to-school shopping. We’re all done (thank goodness) and I’m now broke (ha!) so I guess that is a good thing that we’re done.

I also spent some time Friday evening organizing my recipe books. If you recall, I bought these adorable cookbooks that I had planned to use for storing my recipes. I finally sat down and sorted and organized and purged and organized and… well, you get the idea.

Now I have three adorable cookbooks on my shelf - 

One for the “regular foods,” one for baked goods and another one that has all my cookie recipes, Christmas/Holiday recipes and candy recipes. I have quite a few cookie recipes because I hosted cookie swaps for about six years at Christmastime and everyone shared their recipes – six years times ten or twelve people per year and you end up with a lot of cookie recipes! (maybe I’ll do a virtual cookie swap this year?!?)

Anyway, back to the weekend -

Saturday we went to a sweet wedding shower for a girl who used to babysit the girls and attends our church. We’re friends with her parents, too, and it was so nice to be able to celebrate her upcoming marriage with them. The girls loved being a part of the festivities – Big Girl took pictures and Little Bit helped to hand out the gifts.

Then we came home because I had a serious migraine headache and needed a little down time. SuperMan was gone all day and Big Girl had a friend over that evening for a sleepover. Between all of that and the huge storm we had that knocked out power for about 3 hours, it was a heck of an afternoon.

Sunday we were at church and had plans to veg at home for the afternoon, but some friends gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse – to spend the afternoon at the lake with them. So, in spite of my lingering migraine, we headed to the mountains for some swim time.

Today has been all about homemaking – and work, of course – I’ve made my weekly loaf of homemade bread, gave the girls homemade chocolate, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and baked the family’s favorite banana bread for a breakfast treat later this week.  I’ve also whipped up some spaghetti sauce and got my lasagna going in the crock pot for tonight’s supper. (and now I am tired!)

Tomorrow is a dentist appointment for me (I broke a crown last week :-( That will be fun – not!) so I picked something easy for dinner (and soft) because I have no idea how I’ll feel after my dentist visit. I also have a meeting Tuesday night, so I wanted something I could make quickly that SuperMan and the girls can eat while I’m out.

Here’s what else I have planned for meals for the week:

• Monday: Crock Pot Lasagna with garlic bread & salad (never made it last week)
• Tuesday: Creamy chicken with pasta & veggies
• Wednesday: Mexican casserole (or meat loaf, depending on my mood)
• Thursday: Stir fry chicken
• Friday: Homemade pizzas
• Saturday: Chicken lettuce wraps (SuperMan helps me with this dish)
• Sunday: Grilled chicken & veggies

Join us over at orgjunkie.com and share your menu plans – or pick up some great ideas for your own family dinners!

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Back to school (almost)

We’re in the countdown to the first day of school here…

And, believe it or not, I’m actually looking forward to it.   While I was so terribly excited for the girls to get out of school back in May, I am equally excited about them starting school again in a few weeks…

Here are a few reasons why:

• While I love (initially) not having a schedule, the lack of routine causes us to slip into some not-so-good habits – staying up too late, sleeping in later than we should, eating junk, etc.  I’m looking forward to getting back into a structure/routine and getting us all back into some healthier sleep patterns.
• And the eating thing is a big one, too. I have been so good about menu planning, but in the past few weeks, that has slipped as well, and I found us eating out a lot more in the past two weeks than my body or my budget really prefer. When we are in school, I am much more disciplined (I have to be!) about meals and meal planning.
• I’ve enjoyed having the girls around me this summer, but to be honest, I think we are all starting to get on each others’ nerves a little bit.  It will be nice for them to have the stimulation (and distractions) of school and their after-school activities and I am looking forward to being able to work for several hours uninterrupted each day.
  Sad, I know, that I’m looking forward to work – but it is always a challenge in the summertime to balance working from home with two little monkeys running around asking to go swimming, to eat (constantly!) etc.  The ability to segment my day into “mommy” and “professional” times will be a very welcome change.
• Back to school also means that summer is drawing to a close – which, while I have loved summertime, is wearing out its welcome here and we’re all ready for some change in the air and cooler temperatures. Honestly, I’m getting tired of my summer clothes! I’m ready to pull out some fall colors and long sleeves.

So, bring it on… bring on the new school clothes, book bags and lunch boxes.  Bring on the fall leaves and tumbling temperatures! I’m ready for you!

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Summertime Fruit Cobbler

One of the things I love about summertime is the abundance of fresh fruit. I eat tons and tons of fruit and try to relish every bite, saving the sensations for those cold winter days when fruit is less plentiful and is shipped in from South America or other exotic locales – and is therefore picked early to maintain freshness in shipping. It just doesn’t have the same juicy flavors then… the flavors of summer.

When I was a girl, my mom would make this fruit cobbler. I remember it being a special treat we’d enjoy with ice cream and the combination of the sweetness of the fruit along with the crispy topping was just heaven.

I’ve made other fruit cobblers in the past – I have a recipe that has been my “go-to” cobbler recipe and I just love it – not for the recipe but because it is written by my grandmother’s hand. I don’t have too many things like that anymore and I really cherish it. It is one of the few recipes I’ve not transferred to a typewritten format.

Love her shorthand… and her handwriting.

sigh.

Anyway.

While I was at Mom’s last week, she had an abundance of peaches that were ripening on the counter. We decided to make peach cobbler one night.  I wanted to do one that was different from this one and Mom thought she had some other recipes.  Lo and behold she uncovered the one that she used to make when I was a girl.

yay!

Angelina helped us to make it. She was the official “mixer” of the ingredients…well, of everything except the part with the boiling water. I did that one for safety reasons. :-)

It was just like I remembered. Crispy on the top, fluffy cobbler breading and sweet fruit filling.  Total bliss.

Last night I made the cobbler with some blueberries that had been languishing in the refrigerator.  SuperMan hates it when I leave blueberries in the fridge for too long because they invariably fall out and spill all over the floor at some point. So, I decided in the interest of household peace, we’d eat the little suckers.

It was just as yummy as the peach version.

Here’s the recipe in case you want to try it…

It’s totally flexible – use strawberries, blueberries, any kind of berries or stone fruits.  You can’t go wrong. You could even go crazy and use apples and add some cinnamon for a fall treat. (hmmm….)

Mom’s Fruit Cobbler

Fresh or canned fruit (I used a combination of both for the blueberry one, we used about six fresh peaches for the peach one)
1 3/4 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup plus 3/8 cup Splenda Blend)
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2/3 cup boiling water

1. Cover bottom of 8x8 inch square pan with fruit.
2. Mix 3/4 cup sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, milk & flour together. (use the 3/8 cup Splenda blend here)
3. Spoon over fruit.
4. Mix remaining sugar & cornstarch. Sprinkle over dish.
5. Pour boiling water over top.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

 

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