I miss my oven

Well that didn't work, so up from the basement comes the spare stove. Yes, I have an extra stove. When you are given a free stove just because two of your top elements have gone out on your old stove you don't ask questions. You just say thank you and put the old one away for emergencies. Like now.

We've already gone 3 days without the use of an oven/stove and it will be another 6 days before the replacement part arrives. If I have to live off of ham sandwiches and microwaved hot dogs until then I will kill someone. Hence the moving of the old stove back in place. The first thing I will bake is cookies. Mmm cookies.

From last December

This is what happens when you get in the way of my daughter's mad decorating skills.




Decorated by my two youngest and the wife of my oldest.

The Price of Children

While I don't normally pay much attention to forwards that just end up being junk filling my mailbox, I thought this one was worth reading. It's also a good reminder of why I decided to have three of the little things in my life.
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The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from
birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family.. Talk
about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition ..

$160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.

* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children
if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?

Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or
how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:
*fingerpaint
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.

* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator
magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand
prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for
Father's Day.

So for $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be
a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that
never wins but always gets treated to ice cream or pizza regardless.

You get a front row seat to history, to witness the:
* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family
tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called
grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in
psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human
sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all
the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed,
patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and
love them without limits. So, one day they will, like you, love without
counting the cost.

That is quite a deal for the price!

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With a 13, 14, (and 23 year old still living at home), I seem to be perpetually stuck in the 'grounded for life' line of this letter. It's nice to be reminded of all the benefits. Enjoy your kids everyone. They grow up way too fast.

niet

looming just around the corner

Last week we received an unexpected envelope. In it was a check for our corrected tax return. Yaho boy!

I:
1- Paid down credit cards.
2- Restocked the pantry/fridge/both freezers. Oh Sams club how I love you!
3- Bought myself this little baby for only $200.00 (glee)
4- Got taken to dinner and a movie (Mongolian BBQ is excellent. Ninja Assassins could have been better if they had relied on the story line and special affects instead of blood and gore.)
5- And bought a few more Christmas presents.

Today is my birthday. I am *cough hack weeze* years old. My aunt just sent me an email letting me know that, if I can find a way to pick it up, I have been gifted with a treasured family air loom. My grandmother's LeClerc floor loom.

My grandmother was an artist. She painted, carved wood, and wove. I was 9 years old when my favorite person in the world died, but if I close my eyes I can still remember the sounds of her weaving as I daydreamed out the window of that big old farm house. I am honored and humbled to be given such a gift.

Split pea soup

Last night I made the best pea soup.

1 ham hock with lots of ham left on the bone.
4 cloves garlic - minced
1-2 carrots - diced
2 boxes good chicken broth
2 cups dry split peas
3 bay leaves
dry, ground rosemary to taste

You'll need a pot the sized of a Dutch oven for this one.

Add the chicken broth, garlic, diced carrot(s), bay leaves, ground rosemary, and ham hock to boiling. When you've got a rolling boil going, add the split peas and simmer for about an hour.

Remove the ham hock from pot and cut what ham is left on the bone into chunks. Add the ham back into the pot and simmer until the split peas have dissolved, about 1/2 an hour more. Remove the bay leaves and enjoy.

I think this soup would taste great with an onion added, but my husband is allergic to onions, so I usually just add a lot of garlic to make up the lost flavor. This soup wasn't garlicky at all, so you could still use that much garlic with an onion and it would be fine. I never measure my spices, but I used probably 2 TBS of rosemary at least. It added a wonderful flavor. I wouldn't use dried rosemary unless you grind it up first, otherwise you'd be choking on some pretty sharp sticks. Fresh rosemary would be wonderful. The ham added enough salt that I didn't need to add any. Crisp bacon pieces might be tasty in this if you don't have ham.

I made homemade bread to go with it, and since the soup was done a little before the bread, I filled my bowl with soup to let it cool while the bread finished. It smelled so good that I had it half eaten before I got the bread out of the oven.



This made enough for 6 large servings with one small serving for lunch the next day.