Tuesday, April 20, 2010

What's in the oven?

A friend and neighbor of ours recently got a juicer and she's been juicing up LOTS of carrots. She has more pulp than she knows what to do with ... so we are helping her out. We make a trade of cucumbers because we have so many. At any rate, we had two large bags of carrot pulp in the refrigerator. We've made several different kinds of muffins, but this afternoon I've decided to make carrot bread and used this recipe. Here's hoping it turns out as yummy as carrot cake ... I do love carrot cake!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1654,142184-246198,00.html

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Another day ... another dollar

Well, not for me, as I do not get paid for my job, at least not now. I think payment comes in the end, when you reap what you put into it. It's been a tough day. The biggest thing has been the bickering and the arguing as of late. I finally told the kids they were no longer allowed to argue and fight. If they wanted to do it, they had to do it on paper! I thought for sure that would end it.

Oh no!

Out came the paper and pencils/pens! I couldn't believe it! BUT ... it all ended in smiles. Which, I was sort of hoping would happen.

Love how things finally worked out in the end, but getting to that point was something else. I think this is just the age ... they are all just becoming little human beings. I wish they were little still. I miss them being little.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Latest Needle Mess

Trying to do a Super Secret KAL ... and I am having trouble. Wonder why?


Tuesday, April 13, 2010

When the cat's away ...

So, Daryn's off again for another week. Yuck! He left Friday night for Everett to go and "play" sailor for the weekend and returned home Sunday evening, only to have to turn around and repack for his departure the next day. He left here about 5:30 Monday morning and narrowly made his flight to Las Vegas with two and a half minutes to spare! Guess there was some traffic! He arrived in Vegas before noon, but it took him nearly two hours to get out of the airport ... have to love vehicle rentals! (Not!) Then he drove to China Lake, the first of several stops in the next couple weeks.

In the meantime, trying to keep the home fires burning, well, not literally, we have resumed our "normal" every day schedule. Amber went to sewing class Monday morning. Later in the afternoon she was caught in a lie. She said she had finished her spelling homework, when in fact, she just said she had. So, I told her she had to do say-spell-say and write the spelling and vocabulary THREE times instead of twice, AND there would be no dance class. That part killed me. However, punishing any other way has not had an impact on her as of late. I caught her several weeks ago lying about washing her hands after using the bathroom. We've had to resort to inspections after she goes now. At any rate, taking dance away was the worse thing I could think of and once I said it, I couldn't go back. URGH! She sure carried on. You would have thought the dog had been run over by a car. Poor Evyn had to endure her temper tantrum because he stayed home to make dinner. She was STILL doing her school work when we returned just over an hour later. I had to apologize to the dance teacher, too, but I am really praying this does the trick this time.

This afternoon Ian has decided to make some banana bread. We had three VERY ripe bananas. I also thought we could do breakfast night tonight as it's a late-ish dance night and with Daryn gone, no one to put dinner in the oven, etc. So, Ian is making a double batch, as we do have an abundance of bananas and they are all quickly ripening, and we shall have French Toast made with banana bread. Could prove interesting!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Ethan wins Weblos Pinewood Derby

Two weeks ago the Cub Scout pack held their Pinewood Derby. Ethan initially wanted to make his car into Anakin Skywalker's pod racer from Star Wars, but neither he nor Daryn could figure out how to achieve that.
Ethan's car is on the right of the orange car, black and red. The front and back, at one point in time, looked the same. But, he left it on the floor under his chair in the classroom and Joule got to it and gnawed away at it. So, Daryn performed some surgical cutting out in the garage. Ethan sanded down the whole thing. It was smooth as glass. Then they when and purchased spray paint in Ethan's color choices. After a few coats they varnished it. It was sleek.

Ethan stands at the ready near the start of the track, awaiting his turn to race.

Here Ethan places his car in Track 2.
On your marks ... get set ... GO!

Now Ethan places his car in Track 1. This is his second race. On your mark ... get set ...

GO! He had the fastest run of the night against the Webelos.
The announcement is made. Ethan placed first and moves on to the next level some time in April to race other area Webelos. However, he'll need to fix his car. He hit it on the table after the race and bent an axle.
Daryn was the announcer for the evening. Here he awards Ethan his first place ribbon!

Miniature Socks

Okay, so I wanted to see how small I could go when making socks. I used regular sock yarn, leftovers from the Harry Potter socks I made the boys for Christmas. I used the pattern from the keychain sock blocker kit I got last fall, and I went down to size 000 double point needles (from a size 1) to make these. Cute, huh? TINY! (yes!)


Incidentally, these photos were taken at about the same time. Notice the sun in one and the yucky weather in the other?

Saturday, March 20, 2010