I love cheese

No really, I love cheese.  That braid us $90 worth of cheese and I want it.  I can't afford it and this new healthier lifestyle says I shouldn't.  None of that keeps me from ogling after the mile and a half walk to the grocery store.  Think I could burn some of those calories off with that walk.

Well the walk was eventful.  I take back all the horrible things I might have said about kindles.  My phone has a kindle app so I got halfway through reading a book about living a "greener" lifestyle.  Good news is I'm already there on some of it, in fact quite a bit of it.  Got some ideas for more stuff I can do...and inspiration to actually do something with some of the stuff i've been holding onto.  :-)  Yeah for recycling.

Have a great night, and an even better tomorrow.

Lunch

I've been trying to eat a little healthier.  I know, but pasta?  Well I LOVE pasta!  Now, this a few months ago would have been just pasta and sprinkle cheese.  You know I do rather quite enjoy asparagus.  So I've been in my effort to eat healthier, eat more unprocessed real food.  So lunch...instead of a big bowl of pasta noodles replace half to three quarters of it with some fresh roasted asparagus...yum.

So eating healthier.  I'm not a health nut, nor am I going to become a health nut.  I figure baby steps will be easiest and most successful in the long run.  So I tried some broccoli because it was on sale for 77 cents a pound which is cheaper than even a can of vegetable and fresh certainly has more nutrient and less sodium.  So I figure out how to cook it, and come to find out both of my kids LOVE broccoli.  Then we try whatever vegetable is on sale the next week.  My son likes asparagus, my daughter not so much.  My daughter loves broccoli so much that if you aren't looking she will steal it off your plate.  So there are things that my kids will eat and there are ways of preparing things that they wouldn't previously eat.  It is trial and error but the trial part is quite enjoyable.  Making a big mess with a head of cauliflower because you didn't know how to cut it is fun.

Well I'm going to enjoy my lunch with my kids, if they eat it all they can share in the blackberries later.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow.

My phone and my dogs

So my phone has really made this whole blogging things much easier for me. Yay for upgrading phones.  The voice recognition in this particular phone work vastly better than my previous.  As in I actually love voice recognition now.  I can talk into my phone to write my entire blog and it's recognizes is the words.  New toys I think that's a pretty awesome feature.  Heck just having the ability to do my blog from my phone is an awesome feature.

So. the house we live in right now has an upstairs and downstairs.  My father and my brother lives upstairs my husband and my kids and myself was downstairs.  The dogs stay upstairs with my father most of the time since my husband not too keen on the dogs.  He does actually like them he just won't admit it.  So everyday this is exactly what I see with my dogs waiting for me.  I make several trips upstairs and the dog still wait every time.  Keeping them upstairs to keep them from eating all of my craft supplies for that is a good thing.

Treats.

My daughter was using my Cricut earlier to make Valentines decorations for the tree.  Yes our tree stays up year round.  Her birthday is the day after Christmas, so when she was two my father got her a tree for her birthday and said "see the rest of the world celebrates your birthday"  I wasn't going to try to have a theological discussion with a two year old.  So she decides when out goes up and when it comes down.  The only rule she has to change decorations.

Anyway, since she had the Cricut out I decided to make some little treat cups.  My son absolutely adores them.  I keep them down where he can get to them and uses them for anything he can.  I use the scraps in my recycled paper and the used cups when I can.  A friend wanted to see so I thought well maybe someone out there in my blog land might too.  :-)

Have a great night and an even better tomorrow.

Ouch that hurt

I pulled something in my back.  I didn't pull it at the gym running on the elliptical, I didn't pull it lifting weights, not plaYing with the kids, not moving piles of fabric around, all those things would be to easy.  I pulled it putting an envelope in the mailbox.  Of all things I was lifting maybe 6 ounces.  It hurts bad enough that it affected my breathing for a few hours.  I'm alright now but still decent amounts of sore.

I got the next month worth of lessons for my son today.  I'm not following any curriculum "really" i'm following to what he does.  I plan about a month out in advance, if he grasps concepts we move forward, if he doesn't we take a little more time.  I found it this works really well for him.  When I introduce new concepts they require very little explanation, because he already fully understood what came before.

Still having some issues with my daughter.  Some days she is not very motivated, other days she's incredibly motivated.  I guess thats a typical teenager.  She does really well watching videos.  For instance right now she is watching a series on the American Revolution, she has a good understanding and  can explain to me what's going on.  She is also doing very well on her test for it.

Okay onto the yarn.  I've been working on here and there a granny square blanket using all the leftover bits from other projects.  I think when this is done it will have every color under the sun.  I gather up the bits in my tub here until I feel like crocheting a bit.  This blanket is so ugly it's cute.  So far it's only about two feet square.  Anyone care to see it?  I'll show ya in a few days because as we can see I'm almost ready to start crocheting again.  :-)

Until next time, have a great night and an even better tomorrow.

It's new year

It's been a long time.  I've had a super busy end of 2011.  We had a computer crash beyond my expertise and financial spot to repair.  It's not a good thing when you turn the power on and it doesn't recognize the hard drive.  My phone reached a point where the only way I could use it was to have it plugged in.  what's the point of cell of you have to keep it plugged in?

We have another computer in the house but my husband uses it, the kids use it, and now I have to use it for Etsy and for Ebay, I also use it for homeschool.  The computer is seeing a ton of use now and its on its last leg too.  The plan is to replace the computer here in about a month.

We finally replaced my phone this past weekend.  That's GREAT since its been pretty useless since October.  We ended up with the hubby and I getting the same phone again.  We both got the Samsung Stratosphere.  Its a huge upgrade for me to have a smart phone.  There is a definite learning curve to using it.  The Droid system is a fun new toy to play with.  It frightens me that using apps is faster and easier than doing things on the computer if that tells you how slow the computer is.  :-)  

Aside from electronics in the house other things are still in motion and happening.  Both of the kids are still home doing homeschool.  Its been almost a year since we began that journey.  My daughter has some motivation issues so I am constantly on the search for new things.  I found a good historical documentary mini series on the American Revolution that she seems to be getting in to.  My son I think might be ADD.  I haven't taken him in but he requires a lot of extra patience and direction.  He is also VERY particular about the way things have to be done, anything outside of that is a meltdown.  My husband has a hard time with it sometimes but I am rapidly learning patience.

One great outlet for both my son and myself is the gym.  I've had a membership for years now.  I got in on a really good deal.  As long as on time my membership is $20 a year.  Its good for all clubs nationwide (24 hour fitness) and I get the kids care in all of the ones that have it.  The gym about 2 miles from my house has one and my son LOVES it.  He makes a good personal trainer.  How can I say no when he tells me he finished all his work and wants to go to the gym.  :-)   I am going to try to get my daughter a membership in a couple months so she can swim laps and train since put goal this year is to do a coupled 5K's.

There's so much more to talk about but I don't want to take to much time.  I'll leave the talk about sewing and paper for tomorrow.  There's A Lot to say. :-)  so ill leave you with a small preview and until then have a GREAT day and a better tomorrow.

Hamburger Soup

 We have been getting together at a friends house for Football Sundays.  Last week so really more than a week ago (the first week) it was requested that I make my hamburger soup.  I figure enough people enjoy it and request it that maybe someone might like to try it.  So I made it during the week and tried to remember to take pictures for you. :)  I'm really bad at following recipes, I will be the first to admit it.  I fully encourage you to cook this however "feels right" trust me I've altered enough times and I cook it differently depending on who will be eating it every time but some things are fairly consistent.  Remember I ramble a bit, but I will try to stay on track for you. ;)

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs. hamburger, 1 medium onion, 2-3 cloves of garlic (I LOVE garlic and actually use more like 5-6 cloves), 2-3 celery sticks, 3-4 carrots, 3-4 potatoes, can of tomatoes, can of corn (if you have fresh corn USE IT or leftover corn on the cob maybe 1-2 whatever you have), can of green beans (fresh beans are wonderful if you have them), 1/2 tsp salt (I said I like garlic and I actually like using garlic salt), 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp basil, 5-6 beef boulion cubes and 5-6 cups of water. 

Brown the ground beef in your soup pot (less clean up later is always a good thing)  while the ground beef is browning chop your onion in "soup size pieces" and I recommend mincing the garlic pretty small but really it's up to you.  Drain the ground beef because well that's just what you do unless you want your soup super greasy or if you used 93/7 ground beef you probably don't need to drain it. Return the ground beef back to your soup pot.

  Toss the onion and garlic into the soup pot and cook it with the ground beef on mediumish (I cook almost everything on mediumish because that's pretty much how I was taught)  I usually use 4 on my stove that goes to 9 I think.  While that's cooking chop your celery and carrots into bite size pieces.  Cut on the diagonal or for those sewers out there on the bias ;) you create more surface area and will get a more consistent cooking.  

 When the onion is about done dump the celery into your pot and give it a few good stirs.  Let it kinda cook for maybe a minute or two while you are getting your can of tomatoes open, your boulion cubes opened and your water ready.  Add your can of tomatoes just a regular can of diced tomatoes (that way they are in bite size pieces) I adore the heck out of using Western Family Petite Diced tomatoes with Sweet Onions but use whatever you have on hand or whatever you like best.  Stir it around a bit and then add your water stir it around and add your boulion cubes.  I say 5-6 cups of water and 5-6 boulion cubes depending on thick you want your soup, how brothy, really to taste experiment with it a little.  Start with 5:5 1 boulion cup to cup of water.

 

  Add about 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp basil.  I LOVE basil and originally didn't use the basil in my soup and it was okay but one day decided to play with it a little and added some basil, it was like adding the missing link.  Spices are a fine art and something that is going to be different for everyone.

 

Add your carrots.  Stir everything around and taste your soup.  If you think it needs something give it a little shake of seasoning.  At this point I usually turn my temp to a 5 maybe a 6 beause I want to bring everything a boil

 While this is cooking cut your potatoes into bite size pieces.  When soup just barely comes to a boil taste it.  Season a little if needed and add your potatoes.  I think the carrots take longer to cook than the potatoes but play around with things depending on the textures you like in your soups.

 

 You want your soup to boil but not a rolling boil more like a simmer boil.  You still want to cook those potaoes and carrots but you don't want it so hot that you are reducing your liquid off by a lot if that makes sense.  I don't often share recipes so pardon me if I'm a bit confusing here.  Please ask questions.

Check your potatoes and carrots for doneness.  Taste your brothy part and season as needed.  If your potatoes and carrots are done or "almost done" you can add your corn and green beans (drain if your using cans obviously) and cook for another about 3 minutes.

 

 Check everything again for doneness and flavor.  Season if needed again.  I find I often give a few sprinkles of basil during the cooking process and maybe a little salt depending on if I can taste my veggies or not.  Turn your temp to low and give it a few more minutes then you should be ready to serve.  We don't have a dining room and our kitchen is TINY so it's kind of a fend for your self in our house right now.  Leaving it on low means it stays warm and the flavors keep blending while everyone files in to dish up a bowl.

I like my soup with LOTS of veggies and especially carrots.  This one didn't end up with nearly enough carrots for my liking but I really LOVE carrots especially when they are cooked.  They get all sweet and wonderful like.  :)  Seriously play around with this and find what you like.  I said I've used corn on the cob, just cut the corn off the cob for the soup.  I've used fresh from my garden green beans though I added them just before the potatoes were done and they turned out well that way.  I wouldn't wait until the very end if you use fresh geen beans.  If you use frozen veggies give yourself  a little extra time for them to cook through.  If you don't like oregano don't use it.  Use some beef stock instead of water and boulion.  Try a sweet onion, no onion, TONS of garlic (it's still yummy trust me I've tried like 8-9 before without complaint though someone complained when the garlic was first cooking).  It's super easy to cook and super easy to alter to you and your family taste.  Please do.  It goes great with some fresh out of the oven biscuits or cornbread too.  Enjoy.

Have a great day!