Mushroom Delight!

Today we checked our box of mushrooms to water them and WOW! Sarah is holding one of the mushrooms. It was huge and delicious!  I sauteed the mushroom in butter and we ate it for lunch.  Sarah was so excited to eat the mushroom we grew.

Sarah with her prized mushroom

This mushroom is getting big! This is a picture in its intermediate stage.

Besides growing mushrooms, my session off has been really good and gone by really fast. Next session (starting in January) I'll have 2 new classes and 4 classes total. This will be tough for me especially since I'll be gone Tuesday nights which is the night we have Bible study at our house. It's difficult for Erik to lead the study and set up the dinner when I'm not there. I always make the dinner ahead of time, but he still has to set everything out (and keep the kids from destroying the house).

Last night I made tropical fruity chicken. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since it had maraschino cherries, raisins, and madarin oranges in a sweet sauce mixed with chicken. However it was really good. I'll have to remember this one.

Tropical fruity chicken (I served it over rice)

In other news:

1. I finished reading the Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin. It is a good book, very well written showing the problems with both capitalism and communism.  While it is a good book, it wasn't one that I couldn't put down.
2. I also finished reading Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees for our Coo* book club. This book was interesting but I didn't really get into it. In fact, I didn't care about the characters at all. You really need to empathize or at least somewhat care about the characters to get into a story.
3. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with my parents. We left the kids (all 3!) Thursday night and picked them up on Saturday morning. On Friday we slept in until 10:30. Yipee!!  Then we went on a date to Tumbleweed and then to Panera to drink a mocha and sit by the fire. That was so nice.
4. My friend Lynn made me her secret recipe chocolate chip cookies. They even won the Medina County Fair!  They were really delicious and warm right out of the oven. I think I need to do another chocolate chip cookie test.
5. 54 points on Quiddler today. I made the word "tolling" but lost a "j" with 13 points at the end so it wasn't a good Quiddler day for me.

20 Life Skills I wish I had

I wish I had skills. And not just nunchucks skills, real life skills. 

I've compiled a list of 20 skills I wish I had and maybe someday I'll develop these skills.

20. Wear makeup.  Never really learned how to apply it properly but I know I would look prettier if I wore it.
19. Pick a lock.  My friend was locked out of her house and had to kick the door in, then she threw her back out.  All because she didn't know how to pick a lock.
18. Scuba diving.  Would love to see the undersea world close up.
17. Hot wire a car.  This seems like a good thing to know in an emergency or if I wanted to be a car thief on the side.
16. Program an Arduino. There are so many cool things you can do with an Arduino and from what I've read, it doesn't sound like it's that hard to program.
15. Shoot a bow/archery.  I'd love to be able to hit a target with a bow and arrow. Then I could be like Legolas!
14. Fencing and swordplay.  To go along with number 15, it would be awesome to know how to use a sword properly.
13. Sew.  It involves a needle and thread...beyond that I'm lost.  Sewing is a useful skill though.  Someday I'll learn how to sew!  Maybe I'll make some clothes for our family.
12. Have a poker face.  For some reason my emotions are always written on my face so plainly. I wish I could have a poker face so no one would know what I'm thinking. And so I could win at poker!
11. Add an electrical outlet.  Erik has added many electrical outlets in our basement. I watched him but never did one myself. I'd like to learn how to do it without electrocuting myself.
10. Canning.  I'd love to can the vegetables we grow in the garden. This year the extra tomatoes we had ended up going bad and we had to throw them away. I knew we couldn't eat them all in time but I didn't have a way to can them.
9. Whistle.  I was so embarrassed in 5th grade when I was the only kid in class who couldn't whistle. I still can't whistle.
8. Fishing and then clean, gut and filet the fish.  How rewarding it would be to fish for your own food and then cook that food yourself.  I would love to do this.
7. Play guitar. Much to Scruffles dismay, I would love to learn to play the guitar.  Scruffles hates the sound of my playing so much he runs away at the sight of my guitar case.
6. Speak Spanish.  I would love to know another language. Knowing and thinking in only English is limiting.  Of course, I'd need to find someone to speak Spanish with.
5. Write a useful Android App.  I've gotten so far as to install the Android development kit on my computer to use with Eclipse.  The next step is Hello World.
4. Get the kids to go to bed on time. Seriously, tonight it was 10pm. GO TO BED!
3. Know directions.  I'd like to be able to know which direction I'm facing, how to use a compass and map properly and generally know how to get anywhere.  I'm terrible with directions in real life and in MMOs. I always need help getting around.
2. Grow food.  We have 3 gardens and while they did well, they could have produced more.  We have a lot of ideas for next year (tying the vining plants to a stake so they vine up rather than out) that will hopefully help us grow more food.
1. First aid.  I wish I had some first aid skills. Especially since I have three kids, two of which are crazy climbers (Sarah and Matthew).  I'm actually taking the Red Cross First Aid course in a few weeks so hopefully this will give me some knowledge.

That was my list.  What skills would you like to have?

Mom and Dad: 40 years



Surprise Mom and Dad!



For months my sisters and I have been planning a surprise 40th Wedding Anniversary party for my parents.  I was sure they knew about it - turns out they didn't! It really was a surprise.

We planned it for the same weekend as Missy's birthday so they wouldn't suspect. Then we sent invitations to their friends and planned the party all on the sly.  I'm so glad they didn't suspect :).

Friends at the party (wearing red was the theme since 40 years is ruby)

The wedding party (Dad, Aunt Elaine - Maid of Honor, Mom, and Denny - Best Man)

Mom and Dad 40 years ago!

 It was a fantastic weekend; however now we have to top this for their 50th anniversary!  The pressure is on.

Why does this stool have shoes?  Oh... we have 3 kids.

Matthew after eating a cupcake with red frosting

93 points on Quiddler today

36 hours of cookies

I have found it!  The best chocolate chip cookies in the world.  I've seen many blogs referring to the 36 hour chocolate chip cookies printed in the New York Times. I've never made these cookies (because really, who wants to wait 36 hours for cookies?) but decided to finally try them. The dough must chill for 36 hours before you can bake them (this just meant Erik ate dough out of the refrigerator for 36 hours).

These cookies were fantastic!  Really fantastic!  My friends Tricia and Andria tried them and thought they looked like cookies you'd buy at Starbucks or some other coffee shop (although mine were yummier!). 

Wait!  One is missing!  Where could it be?

Aha! Here is the missing cookie :).  Erik ate the cookies as well as the dough.

This summer we went swimming at the Lifetime pool every Wednesday.  Due to the fact that Sarah would indiscriminately jump in the water whether she could touch or not, I thought she should have swimming lessons for safety reasons.  The girl has no fear!

So both girls are in swimming lessons and are loving it.

Jenna is wiping her face with her hands

Sarah practicing kicking (she is in the blue)

Erik was gone last weekend to a church conference in Minnesota.  He learned a lot and loved the conference but was exhausted when he came back.  To celebrate his return I made a nice dinner served on our china and made salted caramel espresso brownies for dessert. Below is a picture. They tasted so delicious, but my salted caramel sauce was too runny. It had only half a cup of heavy cream and half a cup of water in it so it didn't have too much liquid.  I think I'll have to keep experimenting with this recipe though.

Bummer.

Salted caramel dark chocolate espresso brownies:: Taste Perfection

Matthew trying to steal candy from the candy bowl.

The little rascal!

59 points on Quiddler today

Matthew and Scruff: Prison Escapees!

Erik took the girls trick-or-treating and we left Matthew at home. We thought "he is too little and won't enjoy it anyway."

That was a mistake.

Every time the doorbell rang he escaped. He cried for 2 hours straight because he couldn't go with the other kids.  If Matthew wasn't escaping then Scruffles was escaping.  My night was spent chasing kids and cats back in the house.

Jenna and Lauren at her school Harvest party

The kids after Trick-Or-Treat (Jenna is a Spanish girl, Sarah is Giselle, and Matthew wants to leave)

Matthew eating a hershey kiss. He loves 3 musketeers and m&ms too

Matthew dressed as a dog chewing on Daddy's shirt

The girls and I made little witches out of Marshmallows.  I snapped the picture before they made a huge mess.

In other news:

• Our Coo* book club just finished Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. This book was so much fun to read.  I laughed so much - it was such a fun read.  I'm looking forward to the next book in this series.
• Now our Coo* book club is reading Lud-in-the-Mist. This book is funny too but I don't think it was meant to be funny. Erik and I laugh sometimes at the odd language the author uses.
• I also finished A Fortress of Grey Ice by J.V. Jones. I love this series! I can't wait to read the next one.
• Speaking of reading, Jenna is reading so well. I'm amazed at how far she has come. She is reading her children's Bible all by herself - she even knew the word Bethlehem!
• Jenna is also doing well with Math. Yipee!! They are studying money and her teacher said she was at a second grade level with knowing and writing the different denominations of coins.  Maybe she will be a banker or an accountant (we are still hoping for engineer!)
• Sarah is also flourishing with school. Sarah can write her name now (although she gets the S backwards a lot) and is doing well with her letters and numbers.
• Matthew is still not walking.
• Now that Sarah has preschool at 12:30 I can not go to my hip hop class anymore since it starts at 11am. There is not enough time to get Sarah lunch and to school after the class is over. Bummer! I have been doing spinning classes though and that is fun!
• I got on the scale and am 3 pounds away from my preferred weight of 123. (for no health reason - I just like the numbers 123). It has taken a long time to lose this weight after Matthew. While I weighed in the 110s in my 20s I would have to eat no chocolate to see that again. And that is NOT going to happen.  In fact...
• Leftover Halloween candy is good but really not peanut buttery enough. Erik thinks I have a problem. I get a spoonful of peanut butter and dip the candy in it.  Reeces cups, snickers, twix (I ate all those by the way), any chocolate covered goodness!  Yum!
• 89 points on Quiddler today