NW Day Three: Vikings and Bison

Despite a late start to our day, we’ve managed to stop and see everything we wanted too….and are still close to on schedule. (Lesson learned, I’m lying to myself if I think uploading a blog post and adding some pictures will only take 10 to 15 minutes or so. I need to not do anything but get ready and get the room packed up in the morning.)

Sweetling, however, was completely ready to conquer Minnesota.

Our first stop was a giant otter statue in Otter Tail County MN. 

There was a picnic table pushed up against the back of the statue, which people had obviously used to climb up onto the statue. I was sorely tempted to do the same, but even Boybot thought this sounded like a bad idea. So we settled for photos in front.

I drove my family crazy trying to get the perfect picture of a pretty little lake in the country side. But they just flew by too quickly. I had to just settle for trying to take a snapshot of any lake. There were MANY to choice from. 

Lunch was Crave’s Burgers in Moorehead MN. They were good burgers with some fun topping options. Boybot has decided we need to make their avocado burger when we get home. Boybot is making quite the list for me.

My favorite quote of the day also happened right after lunch. It’s a little less horrible if you at least know that we were in a restaurant, seated at a table, when this was said. I’ll let you figure out who the speaker was. “What is this? Should I eat it? I’m going to eat it. It’s crunchy. I still don’t know what it was.”

Also in Moorehead, we visited the Hje….. Cultural Center to see the Viking ship and the stave church. 

Before we went in, the Jedi had to be on a short conference call, so the kids and I went on an explore. We found our way down to a river bank, to look for a rock from Minnesota. (In retrospect, I think it’s the river that forms the state line between Minnesota and South Dakota.) Under a street overpass, we found a canoe launch/dock. We explored a little, dug in the mud for two rocks and headed back up to meet the Jedi.

The Viking ship was really cool. You should look up its history and read about the people who built it and the crew of 13 who sailed it from Minnesota to Norway.

Outside, a beautiful stave church had been built and hand carved to be a near exact replica of the ----- church in Norway.

I think one of the things that impressed me most with each of these were that they were the result of some hard work, dedication, and initiative of local residents who decided they wanted to really explore and celebrate their Norwegian ancestry.

We drove across the little river to visit Fargo North Dakota. (That’s when I realized the river the kids and I were exploring was a state line.) We stopped to add another sticker to our van. 

We had planned on visiting the Fargo Air Museum, but when we got there, it was super tiny…especially for the $8 admission price per person.

Instead, we decided to drive on and visit the Pioneer Village in Jamestown.

You know how much I like all things pioneer.

This village was right next door to a Buffalo Museum, which had a small herd of bison grazing the hills nearby.

And, of course, the world’s largest buffalo monument.

Though we had slated a dinner stop at the Frontier Grill in Jamestown, no one was hungry yet. As I type this we are driving on to Bismark for dinner at Happy Joe’s Pizza.

 Addendum to add--

Sadly, Happy Joe's Pizza wasn't quite what we were expecting. We decided not to go in and instead found this nice little German-American Diner. I hope the name shows up in a photo, because I surely don't remember it.

We had some yummy yellow soup. If it weren't past midnight local time, I'd try to find these names. 

And we had some ground beef patties wrapped in a flaky pastry and deep fried. 

AND we stopped at k-mart for batteries for the camera. And visible through the big glass store front were those coin-eating machines that dispenses cheap toys in little plastic bubbles. Both kids want to go in and look for "guys". So I took a roll of laundry quarters and went in with the kids while the Jedi hunted down batteries. No guys were found, but some little animals were.

 

NW Day Two: Ride from Outer Space

We decided that even though the waterpark opened at 9 a.m., we were going to sleep in since we were up so late last night. I woke up around 6. I tried to go back to sleep, but gave up at 6:30, when I got up and started quietly blogging. The Jedi was up not long after, and both kids were up and awake before eight.

We still took our time De getting ready for the day. We used the microwave to heat up the $8 casserole bake I found at Fair Oaks the day before. It was yummy, and beat the $15 per person breakfast buffet the resort was offering.

We had the van reloaded, had checked out, and were back in the waterpark by 10:20 or so. It was 64 degrees and raining, but the outdoor park was open. I offered to go out and do the outside slides with Boybot. But Boybot looked at me like I was crazy and pointed out that there were lots of great slides *inside*. (Boybot has also repeatedly mentioned that Wisconsin Dells isn’t TOO far away from Cincinnati.)

 I made a second trip down the toilet bowl. It was just as pleasant as it sounds. This was a deal struck with Boybot in exchange for him standing in line for Master Blaster with me. That was a two person raft ride, no single riders. Boybot at least taught me how to ensure I went feet first through the drop hole.

 I considered trying the FlowWave or Flow Rider, whichever it was. The Jedi went out the van to get a camera to film this memorable experience. But the line was pretty long, it was past lunch time, and I didn’t want to delay us overly long. We had showered, changed, bought a postcard, smashed pennies, eaten some ice cream, and were ready to head out by 2:40.

We drove 10 minutes to “downtown” Wisconsin Dells. The town has set itself up as a family vacation mecca. In addition to the numerous waterparks, there are mini-golf courses, small theme parks, river excursions, arcades, family entertainment shows, and a stretch of shops, cafes, and such along the main street that really gave it a ‘boardwalk’ feel.

We ate lunch at Mac’s (Mac and Cheese.) It was universally decided that I needed to learn how to make mac and cheese this good. Then we could have a mac and cheese buffet style dinner. I could set out a bunch of toppings, and everyone could load a dish of mac and cheese up with what they wanted. Then we’d pop the dishes in the oven for a final bake. Given that my recent attempts to make homemade mac and cheese has included something that the kids said tasted “horrifyingly” like “birthday cake”, I think this is a pretty lofty goal.

 If it weren’t still chilly and rainy, we would have spent another 15 to 20 minutes wandering the main street. But instead, we got back in the van, the kids snuggled under blankets, and we started a movie. The Jedi has resolutely driven through nasty constant rain for three hours now, and we are still an hour and forty-three minutes from dinner.

Ta-da! Dinner at Space Aliens Bar and Grill! Because that’s where all the coolest aliens go to eat.

To be honest, the Jedi and I were expecting a catchy theme, some video games, and mediocre food. But the food was OUTSTANDING! The Jedi ordered ribs. I didn’t because I didn’t want half-@ss bbq. The Jedi’s ribs were COMPETITION QUALITY. I was jealous. The Jedi had a chance to talk to the chef and complement him.

 Desserts came with 20 tokens each, which the kids had a great time spending.

Our projected hotel arrival time of 9pm turned out to be 11pm.

NW Day One: Spilsh Splash!

General Facts about the first day of our road trip--

Time I thought we we supposed to leave the house: 8 a.m.
Time the Jedi actually wanted to leave the house: 7 a.m.
Time we actually pulled out of the driveway: 8:15 a.m.
Amount of frustration the Jedi showed about this: None.

Number of times I failed as a navigator: 3
Number of times the Jedi got upset about missing our turns in the middle of construction when we were already behind: 0

Money we had budgeted for souvenirs: $1 for a postcard
Money we spent on an unscheduled stop where we found The Best Chocolate Milk in the World (and lactose free!): $38 plus ice cream and no postcard

Hours of sleep I got before we left: 6
Hours of sleep I got last night: 6 1/2
Why I am up right now writing: too excited to sleep

Number of awesome water slides we went down: ALL THE SLIDES (except the stand up and have the floor drop out from under you while you get shot into a watery death drop. Screw that noise.)

Amount of fun we are having SO MUCH FREAKING FUN.

After we had rolled out of Cincy an hour and fifteen past when the Jedi wanted to leave, we discovered as we were driving into Indianapolis that the entire freeway was shut down some place north of Indianapolis (at the intersection of I-90 and Rt 52 if you are really curious.) We got detoured off the interstate into corn fields. It was scenic. Boybot asked, "What do these people do when they need to go to the grocery store?"

And we did drive through this massive wind farm. That *was* really cool.

But best of all, somewhere in the middle of I-don't-where-we-are-Indiana, we made a stop for gas, and just happened to find ourselves next to Fair Oaks Farm. Our first clue that the farm next door might be awesome was the cow in front of the BP...

And then the cow display on top of the refrigerators inside the BP...

And while they sold Fair Oaks cheese and ice cream in the BP, it was a bit pricey, so I thought we should just head next door and see if it was cheaper and fresher from the source. So we drove over for ice cream at the COWfee

But before we went in, I just wanted to snap a few photos...

And since we were already walking around, we might as well go in the bakery shop, since it was RIGHT THERE. Inside the bakery, we discovered cookies as big as my face, the Best Chocolate Milk in the World, raspberry cream fudge, and other delicious baked goods...including a blueberry loaf and a breakfast casserole. (Later we would discover that breakfast at our hotel was $15 a person, so my $8 casserole purchase to feed the whole family was a real win.)

Then we headed in for ice cream (and white chocolates and pork rub from yet another gift store area)

We didn't hit lunch in Chicago until what would have been 3:30 EDT, so the stop for ice cream and snacks was well worth it.

Lunch was Chicago deep dish pizza. The Jedi had emailed the restaurant several days before our trip to make sure they had a smooth sauce option for Boybot. The pizza was good, but I have to confess, it wasn’t as good as the wood fired pizza we make in the smoker at home.

 Because of the late start, the road construction detour, and the stop at Fair Oaks Farm, we didn’t get to Wisconsin Dells till late evening….just as they were closing the outdoor waterpark. Still, the indoor water park was enormous, and we had a great time there. (Of course, we knew it would be great as soon as we pulled up and were greeted by elephants. How can you go wrong with elephants? There were elephants everywhere, including on the wall of our room. Sweetling was beside herself with joy.)

We stayed inside the water park all evening, skipping dinner. We rode nearly all the slides, many of them more than once. It being a Thursday, there weren’t that many visitors and so there were hardly any lines at all. The park also had a small wave pool and the Jedi joined us in that.

We all liked all the slides….save one. They had one body slide that was a pretty straight shoot into a “toilet bowl”. For some reason, I decided that I might want to try this slide. The four of us stood at the bottom of the slide and discussed this notion. (Though in fairness, it was mostly Toa and I discussing this notion. Sweetling and the Jedi wanted nothing to do with this insanity. Boybot wanted to know just how bad the slide was, and was willing to let his mother go be the Guinea pig.)

So, I found myself eagerly heading up the stairs. Partway up the stairs, it occurred to me that essentially flushing oneself down a giant toile might not be the best of times. This could be like a full body swirly. This could be like a spider's last few terrifying seconds of life. But I intentionally failed my sill save and continued up the stairs.

The good thing about the slide was that the whole experience was over in a few horrifying moments. Yet those moments still gave plenty of time for reflection on one’s current circumstances. Here, approximately, is my train of thoughts. “Not so bad. Not so bumpy for a water slide. Completely dark though. Why do they do that. Ouch. Not a comfortable ejection into the toilet bowl. Hey, sliding around the bowl is pretty fun. I like this part. I wonder when I’ll hit the….” And then I was falling, head and shoulder first, out of the hole in the center of the toilet bowl. This was not the most comfortable angle to hit the water four feet below.

At that point, my thoughts switched to a panic stricken “Can’t-tell-which-was-is-up-nose-is-full-of-water-lungs-are-empty-drowning!” Sheer thoughtless panic took over. Somehow my flailing limbs thrashed me to the surface, though that was difficult to discern at first because of the gallons of water still falling on my head from the toilet bowl above. More instinct got me moving towards the edge of the pool. Out from under the deluge, I treaded water and wiped my eyes clear, gasped for breath, and tried to get my bearings. I become aware that my family was standing at the edge of the pool. I think they might have been laughing at me, but I’m pretty sure that was my imagination. They surely wouldn’t have been laughing at me.

As I worked my way over to the ladder and was climbing out of the pool, I realized there were words coming out of my mouth. They went something along the lines of “horrible, this was horrible idea, whose idea was this, this was horrible.” The Jedi came over and helped me out of the pool and put his hand comfortingly on my shoulder. Boybot looked at me and asked, “So, how was it, Mom?” I then launched into a play by play tirade about my experience. Boybot listened intently and then decided he needed to TRY THIS FOR HIMSELF. (Boybot loved this slide. He spent a good part of the rest of the night on this slide.)

We stayed until close to waterpark closing at ten. Then headed back up to our room, got changed, and headed back down to find dinner. Everyone was dangerously hungry at this point, but most of the little restaurants and food places had closed for the night. One walk-up grill was open, selling off the last of the chicken fingers and mini corndogs sitting in paper trays in their warming racks. Yum. But beggars can’t be choosers, so we cued up for what I was sure would be overpriced and disgusting food. Sweelting got a slice of cheese pizza and Boybot and I had a couple of burritos assembled from the options still sitting in their steam table. We took these with some bottles of juice from their fridge back up to our room and found them to be surprisingly good. We wound up getting to be around midnight local time…which was 1 in the morning for us.




 

The Face of Betrayal

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the face of a dog who can sense in his heart he is about to be BETRAYED. All evening, and through most of the afternoon packing process, Jupiter just laid at the top of the stairs watching me carry things up and down the stairs to assemble them in the living room.

I have a picture of the stuff that was assembled, but my phone is choosing not to share that with my blog for some reason. I strongly suspect the reason is that computers love to mock me.

Emailed it to myself, saved it on my computer, uploaded it. And then after all that, it shows up on my blog like it wasn't AWOL before.

ANYWAY, this is what 22 days on the road looks like....plus some backpacks, laptop bags, snack boxes, and a stack of games. Yoda and Mokina will not be joining us on the trip. They are just there photobombing.

The Map

I haven't blogged in a year or so. There's a list of reasons why....and they aren't ones that I feel like going into right now. They're the types of deep seated insecurities best save for the therapist's office. (
I'm mostly joking. Don't call or email me all concerned. Really I haven't blogged because I just was in a different season of life than I was doing my bloggng hay days.)

Be that as it may, here I am, blogging again.

We're about to set out on another cross country road trip. By popular demand, I'll try to write about our adventures for friends and family near and far.

Check it out---

Thirteen states (eleven that are new for us). Twenty-two days. Eleven national parks and monuments. Six thousand miles.

(The top loop is the upcoming trip.. The bottom loop is from our trip four years ago.)

NW Planning: to Chicago

I'm trying to be good. And organized. And practical. You know, all those qualities that are at the opposite end of the personality spectrum from me.

So, I'm trying to plan the trip one day at a time, starting with day one and progressing in a logical, sane, chronological order. Not skipping around like a squirrel to the days I'm most looking forward to. (Because then I won't get to the other days, and I'll have to rework the days i got done if something has to change, etc, etc. Efficiency. I'm all about efficiency. It's like my middle name. Not.)

Days One and Two:

We are leaving Cincy (on a Wednesday) and driving up to Chicago. It's only a 4.5 hour drive, so we'll probably do it all in one go. If we leave at like 7 we can be in Chicago just before lunch. That worked well on our trip to California (we were in St. Louis and WEST of the Mississippi River by 10:30 or 11. It was CRAZY.)

Deep dish Chicago pizza for lunch, obviously! Maybe Lou Malnati's.
or
Brunch at m.henry (open from 7 to 2:30)

Side note: We've already done a lot of research and have a word document full of ideas and links for the various regions we'll be traveling through. For some strange region, Chicago is empty save for one thing. Yet we scheduled a day and a half there.


The Museum of Science and Industry was the one thing we have on the list. Open 9:30-4.

Facebook friends have given us a list of some other great places to see and to eat!

Fermilab guided tours. Oh yeah, baby! (Oh no, baby! Tours are at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. We'd have to leave Cincy by oh-six-hundred hours and HOPE that we don't hit any traffic or other snags. Any time that begins with OH....can only end in OH NO! when I'm involved.)

Field Museum of Natural History museum passport member. open every day (except Christmas) from 9-5.
Shedd Aquarium (largest indoor aquarium in the world) Cool but at $40 a person, a bit out of our price range.

Yoy Lee's Noodle Kitchen

 M. Henry's Breakfast and Brunch

Improv Olympic This one is very possible. They have shows every evening of the week, some of them are free and others are just $5 or $10 a ticket. One show had a 'not suitable for children' caution, but others didn't, so I'm hoping they will stay PG-13. Might be a fun and entertaining way to spend Wednesday evening, since the museums and such will be closed.

Neo-Fauturium "  They do thirty plays in 60 minutes. A roll of a six-sided die (plus $5) is what you pay to get in. The show begins at midnight on Friday and Saturday nights." I double checked the times of shows. Not going to be available while we're in Chicago.

Trip Planning

Our next big family vacation is being planned. We are in the process of making a tentative schedule and itinerary.

Here is the Beta version of the vacation. Numbers in parenthesis are driving hours between destinations.

1. Wednesday: to Chicago (4.5)
2. Thursday: in Chicago
3. Friday: to Minneapolis (6.5)
4. Saturday: to Dickinson, ND (7.5)
5. Sunday: to Bozeman, MT (6.5)
6. Monday: to Glacier (5)
7. Tuesday: in Glacier
8. Wed: to Spokane (6)
9. Thurs: to Seattle (4)
10. Fri: in Olympic National PK
11. Sat: in Seattle
12. Sun: to/in Portland (3)
13. Mon: to Boise (6.5)
14. Tues: to Yellowstone
15. Wed: in Yellowstone
16. Thurs: in Yellowstone
17. Fri: in Grand Teton
18. Sat: to Cody, via Red Lodge (4.5)
19. Sun: to Rapid City, SD (6)
20. Mon: in Rushmore
21. Tues: to Sioux City, IA (6)
22. Wed: to Peoria, IL (7)
23. Fri: to home (5)

January Goals

I swear, promising myself that THIS time I'm going to declutter and organize my home FOR REAL is like a chronic overeater promising themselves that THIS time they will STICK to their new diet....

Screw that noise.

I made up a list of goals for January that are real and meaningful and relevant and that I think I can do.

First, THIS WEEK:

1.  Game and time with family.
2.  Watch and practice the tutorial videos for the Windows 8 operating system on my new two in one.

 Second, to keep doing (get back to doing) in January:

1. Walk the dog once a day.
2.  Morning devotions.
3. One history lesson a day.
4. Exercise at the Y twice a week.
5. Four school subjects/ learning activities with Toa.

Third, to add to January:

1. Buy a winter coat with pockets for carrying.
2. Spend 30 to 60 minutes a day on the sewing project with Sweetling.
3.  30 to 45 minutes literature/composition with Sweetling.
4.  Make at least ONE trip to the range for practice.

No cute pictures. Just a bare bones, but doable, list.

I can get these things done if..
* I get up at 7, get dressed, reboot the dishes, fix my breakfast, and do devotions all by 8.
*Walk the dog from 8 to 8:30.
*Do literature with Sweetling till 9:15.
*History with both kids till 9:45/10.
*Two to three school subjects with Toa.
*Lunch at 12.
*Rest of Toa's school.
*Sewing with Sweetling by two.
*Start dinner and afternoon home rescue at 3:30.
*Leave for Y at 5.

The things I know are going to derail this plan:

--groceries. I can't ever contain the grocery shopping into a couple hours. Somehow this always consumes an entire day. I lose one day a week to grocery shopping. That's ridiculous. That needs to stop. So, grocery goals get their own sub category:
>menu and grocery list finished before bed Wednesday nights.
>leave for grocery store by 8:30. No excuses. 
>Kids can do history timeline and review lesson on Thursday on their own. We can roll into Toa's school when I get back, and pick up Sweetling's literature after Y.

--one morning spent at the range. This pushes everything after history back by a couple hours, and I don't have time to recover before swimming and Y activities. For one day though, we can skip a couple other things to make up for it.

--Wednesday child care at church. This is two Wednesdays a month. I gain an hour on Wednesday, because we don't have to leave for evening church activities till 6...but that still doesn't make up for the three hours I've given up in the morning. Hmmm....

Growing Pains

This conversation happened in our house around midnight last night. I was on my way down the hall to the bathroom. Toa of Boy was coming out of the bathroom, and Sweetling just happened to be coming out of her bedroom.

Toa: Do I have to go to bed?

Me: Yes. Goodnight. (I proceeded into the bathroom.)

Toa: Why does Sweetling not have to go to bed.

Me: (shut the bathroom door. I hear the rest of the conversation continue on without me.)

Toa (to Sweetling): Why do you not have to go to bed?

Sweelting: Because I'm practically an adult.

Toa: I can't wait till I'm practically an adult.

Sweetling: Well, it's a little be scary to think about being completely an adult.

Toa: You can do it Sweetling. Mommy's an adult. And she manages every day.

Sweetling: I'm not sure that counts.....her being *her* and all.

Toa: All teenagers say that about their parents.

Sweetling: No, some teenagers say stuff about their parents because they don't like their parents. I'm just saying, Mommy is more like a fairy princess or something.

Me: With unicorn slippers!!!

Sweetling: Yes. Just like that.

Week in Review: Beginnings and Endings

Despite the fact that I haven't published a post since May, I'm going to push past that and get back to blogging!

Here are my blogging goals:

1. Publish a week in review each week.
2. Publish at least two Two for Tuesday recipe posts each month. So, every other week.
3. Publish one Making Memories or Cincinnati Dayscape each month.

I think that's doable!

And, without further ado, our week in review!

(That's even cooler, cause it rhymes!)

First of our "beginnings".

We started back to school this week (note "this week was actually July 21st).

We do this because

• A--we are all want to finish by early May. 
• B--we take every Friday in November and December off in addition to a two to three week Christmas vacation.
• C--it is too unbearably hot and humid outside to go anywhere or do anything
• D--when it does get nice in September, no one wants to be inside doing school, we all want to be outside doing something...so we have lots of field trips in September and October. 

Our first day of school started with me making personal omelets in one of my new cast iron skillets. They stuck a little and fell apart as I was getting them out of the pan, but no one minded. Schoolwork consisted of devotions with Sweetling, literature with Sweetling, and history with Sweetling and Toa of Boy. (Here's the curriculum and resources we are using this year if someone is interested.)

Then we made a list of the basic school supplies we would need for the year and went on a scavenger hunt through the house to round up what we already had. After a quick trip to the store to get the rest of the items, Mama treated us all to lunch at Sebastian's. (Neither she nor Sweetling had eaten a gyro before).

It was a great, easy, fun, first day!

Here's our tentative daily schedule, for now at least. We don't follow it to the letter, but it helps to have everything blocked out to make sure it's possible. Sweetling's day is on the left; Toa of Boy on the right.

Sweetling looks like she has a lot of open time in her schedule. That isn't actually the case.

It actually brings us to our second "beginning" of the week.

I'm not sure how much info I'm allowed to post on my blog, but Sweetling is participating in a large fandom writing project. (I'll omit the specifics, in case this supposed to not be public info yet.) She submitted a story summary to the organizers of the event. All the summaries were then posted anonymously, and certain artists were invited to select a summary they would like to work with and represent. Sweetling's summary was the fourth summary selected, and it was chosen by an artist Sweetling really admires. Sweetling has been in touch with the artist, and is working hard on the writing. By Wednesday she had already topped seven thousand words.  Thursday night she did a lot of revising. She still has a long way to go. This will be a novella by the time she is finished!

(no photo of the Sweetling hard at work. boo hoo, boo hoo).

When I first put the schedule up on the fridge, the Jedi looked it over and asked why Toa of Boy had Pokemon as part of his school schedule.

Behold, our third beginning...

Last April, Toa of Boy decided he wanted to embark on a two year project to draw all 718 Pokemon. He did some research on-line, and decided he wanted to use copic markers in this project. Then we priced copic markers, and he despaired. I told him that if it was that important to him, he could ask for marker sets for his upcoming birthday. He did that. (How many other boys want art supplies for their eleventh birthday?) The Jedi and I got him one set and Mama and Tia went together to get him a second set. We got my old drawing/drafting table out of the garage and cleaned it up. We got rid of the large computer desk in his bedroom and replaced it with the large drawing table and a small computer cart. 

He has decided, that for now, he wants to work at the kitchen table, in a more guided drawing lesson. I sit beside him with my sketchbook and he sits with his bristol board. Then I draw, pausing to discuss how I'm looking for the shapes, the negative spaces, etc. He draws as I draw. Bit by bit we get a Pokemon drawn. Then he inks over the lines he wants to keep, erases all the rest of the sketch lines, and uses copic markers to complete the Pokemon.

I have pictures of Toa of Boy working, but I don't have pictures of his finished pieces. Even though I think they are quite good, Toa of Boy is dissatisfied with them and doesn't want them photographed. I can respect that, even if I disagree.

And, our fourth beginning...

We started work on our doodle devotions this week. Each week, we are going to focus on memorizing and reflecting on a Scripture verse. 

 The daily doodles help us focus on the meaning of select portions of the verse. I proposed this idea as a family devotional time each day, and it was well received by Toa and Sweetling. Eventually, I plan to put together and sell pdf ebooks, each containing 9 to 10 weeks of devotions. I just about have a sample week's worth of pages to distribute....which are the pages Sweetling, Toa, and I worked on this week.

Now for our endings...

We ended our summer with a week of VBS. Sweetling did a great job in the drama as a special agent on the Truth Force.

She also wrote a follow up drama skit that was presented during our Sunday morning worship time. Several adults expressed to me how impressed they were when they learned she had written it.

And, finally, we need to begin a new timeline for this year's history study. Which means, last year's timeline must come down. Before that happened, Sweetling and I worked at making a short video of the timeline. We played Peer Gynt's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" for background music. (Sweetling offered to edit in the music after the filming, but I just wanted the project finished. So I took the amateur route rather than the more polished after-filming editing option.) Sweetling used my phone flashlight as our camera lighting, while I rolled the video camera over our timeline from start to finish.

Menu: the cheddar cheese addition

Every recipe I find that I really want to make has cheddar cheese in it somewhere, somehow.

This menu is the revised, slightly less cheddar edition.

Thursday: banana pancakes, scrambled eggs (with cheddar cheese of course)

Friday: Chicken Parmesan. no cheddar. OR orange chicken, also no cheddar. haven't decided which recipe I want to make on our vacation day. OR Cincinnati chili, which does have cheddar.

Saturday: Seder dinner with Beth Messiah. No cheddar here either.

Sunday: Easter: smoked ham; butter beavers (sweetling's request); hot pineapple casserole; dinner rolls. The pineapple has cheddar (of course), and the dinner roll recipe needs cut in fourth.


 Monday: leftovers

Tuesday: sloppy joe squares. again with the cheddar. The picture is from Pillsbury's official version. Not sure which recipe I want to follow.




Wednesday: One of the three Friday options I didn't feel like making on Friday.

Other recipes that looked good but that I'm not making is Pioneer Woman's ranch style chicken (cheddar) and crispy cheddar chicken (cheddar) and pecan chicken casserole (cheddar.)

Weekly Menu

Christopher Robin's menu board looks nicer, but my post has links. (Really, this is all about the links, having found my recipes, I don't want to lose them again.)

The clever reader will note that I haven't quite figured out some days. Very good, clever reader. 

Thursday: Taco night. It's like Taco Tuesday, but on Thursday.

Friday: Big Fat Nothing. Going to the symphony earlier that day (birthday treat from the Jedi), and then out to eat a SmoQ for lunch. By dinner, neither the Jedi or I will be hungry, but the rest of the family will still want food. Silly them. Maybe I can talk Sweetling into making baked salmon.

Saturday: Omelets

Saturday gaming snacks:

Chocolate Lasagna

Apple Pie Tacos

Sunday: Beefy Biscuit Cups, butter beavers, corn....wanted onion rings but Aldi's didn't have any.

 Monday (St. Patrick's Day): maybe corned beef hoagies, fries. What is a maybe corned beef hoagie? It was my menu option, until I learned that the Jedi doesn't like corned beef. I might pick up corned beef from the deli for some of us, and roast beef for the Jedi.




Tuesday: Grilled Chicken & Pineapple Quesadillas. Of course, I don't have a grill, but that won't stop me from trying this.









Wednesday: yeah, I don't know. I was going with Crescent Chicken Bake, but Toa of Boy has been asking for Chicken Curry, so I might have to suck it up and make a curry. Which of course requires the making of naan bread.

Two for Tuesday: Slow Cooker Ham and Potatoes; Pioneer Woman Dinner Rolls

I have two delicious recipes to share. I didn't come up with either of them, but I did modify both of them.

The first is from Rachel Ray, but the original involved mushrooms (which Sweetling and the Jedi hate) and fresh thyme (which I never have). I don't even have any dried thyme. So, I have no more thyme. Yeah, I kept myself amused with thyme puns while I was tearing through my spice drawer. You should all count yourselves lucky I only included one of them here.

Here's the recipe, with my thyme-less modifications. *Grin*

Slow Cooker Ham and Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 sliced yellow onion 
• 1 bag sweet chili peppers (someone at co-op said, oh, those genetically modified things? I guess so...I like sci fi. I don't mind mutant peppers when they taste this good.)
• 4-6 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and submerged in a bowl of water
• Mrs. Dash (yeah, I didn't measure)
• several slices leftover ham (I had a bunch of ham leftover and needed a way to use it up)
• 1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth (or homemade chicken stock)
• 1 cup heavy cream (next time, I'm going to try a cream substitute, but this time I just used real cream and took a lactaide pill when I ate dinner)

Directions: (don't be intimidated by how long it looks. I promise it's super-easy or I wouldn't have made it!)

1. Wash, peel, and slice the potatoes. Submerge the slices in a bowl of cold water as you make them. Let them sit there. The water keeps them from discoloring and also does something magical to the starch in the potatoes, or so I'm told.
2.  Wash and slice the onion and peppers. Melt butter in a large skillet and toss the vegetable slices in. Cook for a few minutes (3-5), till the onion turns just slightly translucent. You don't want to cook them down, just 'sweat' them a bit. (By the way, I leave the onion and pepper slices large so that certain people can pick them out of their food. I warned Sweetling and the Jedi that vegetables were involved, but that the vegetables were large and easy to remove. The Jedi said to Sweetling, "Mommy used to love us." And the two veggie-phobes leaned their heads together in sorrow.)
3. Slice the ham. This could have been done as step 2, but I forgot. 
4. Thoroughly spray a crock-pot with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Grab a few potato slices, shake the water off them, and layer them in the bottom of the crockpot. When you have covered the bottom with a single layer of potatoes, season them with Mrs. Dash. I didn't use salt, so I was very generous with the Mrs. Dash. Sprinkle in some shredded cheese Repeat with a second layer of potatoes and Mrs. Dash. These two layers should use up about half of your potatoes. If your crock pot is deep but not wide, you might have to do three layers of potato slices before you go to step 6.
6. Spread half of the onion pepper mixture on top of the potatoes. 
7. Add a layer of sliced yummy ham.
8. Add a big, big handful of shredded cheese. (When I made this on Sunday, I didn't put enough cheese in and wound up have to try to insert handfuls of cheese after the cream was hot and bubbly. Much easier to just increase the amount of initial cheese.)
9. Go back to adding seasoned potato layers (with some shredded cheese between the potato layers). 
10. When you've used up all your potatoes, spread the rest of the onion/pepper mixture on top.
11.  Add a final layer of ham.
12. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.
13. After 4 hours, pour a cup of heavy cream over the top of everything. Cover and continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
14. Now, the original recipe said to turn the crock pot off and let the meal sit for an hour before eating. You know that didn't happen in my house. We were hungry. I did let it sit for 15-20 minutes, but that's all the rest time it got before we dug in.

And once again, let me stress how easy this recipe was. The part that took the longest was peeling and slicing the potatoes. It was so easy, I threw it together on Sunday afternoon in between church and driving 45 minutes to an afternoon swim meet.  I had Mamma at home to add the cream if we weren't back in time for that, but as it was, we were. I had Mamma add the cream anyway, and I took Jupiter for a walk before dinner.

And it was super rich and delicious.

The second recipe I want to share is No-Knead Dinner Rolls from the Pioneer Woman. Another super easy, super delicious find.

 I made these almost exactly as directed. I did halve the recipe, and it still made 24 rolls. I also used almond milk instead of milk, because we had a dinner guest that couldn't tolerate any dairy whatsoever. And I topped them with margarine instead of butter for the same reason.

Photo is from the Pioneer Woman herself, because you know she takes way better photos than I do: