Food, Birthdays, More Food...

Corned beef and cabbage! This year for St. Patrick's Day I decided to make corned beef and cabbage. I have never made it before but I had a recipe to make it in the crock pot. Bought the corned beef, cabbage, red skin potatoes, onion and carrots at the store. Thankfully corned beef was on sale that week. I started in the morning peeling carrots and cleaning off the potatoes. In the crock pot I put in 2 or 3 cups of water and 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of cider vinegar. The recipe called for 3 tablespoons of each but I was worried about the taste. I put the corned beef on the bottom and added the spice packet to it, then added the potatoes, carrots and onion. Put the crock pot on high and let it cook from around 9:30am until noon.

At noon I added the cabbage. I sliced it into quarters then cooked it until around 5pm. It all turned out so yummy! I was really proud of that fact! The kids really enjoyed the meat and carrots. The vinegar and sugar really made the flavor in this recipe. The carrots were devoured at dinner so we had none for leftovers the next day. We had a lot of meat which made for a yummy lunch and dinner the next day.

The next day was my birthday. Mark was still on the road so I made my mom's recipe for sour cream coffee cake. We were planning to go to knitting group and taking it with us but just as it was coming out of the oven I got an email that one of the children at the house we were heading to was sick. Soon after I got another email inviting all the healthy knitters to another friend's house. We headed over there but we were the only ones that showed up. My kids had a great time playing there and we all had some coffee cake but I basically ended up taking all of it home.

The next week we were back to our regular knitting spot. Another email was sent out this time asking for someone to bring something yummy to eat. I said I would so I set off to make another coffee cake. This one was easier and was almost like a banana bread. Ingredients included crushed pineapple, smooshed bananas, pecans, vanilla and the usual flour, baking powder, etc.

We had two more knitters that time but only one of them actually tried a full piece. One didn't try any, one had a very small slice. I took home 98% of it even though the lady that actually tried it said it was delicious. I don't mind baking things for knitting group, in fact I kinda like it, but if you're going to request a baked good and then not eat it then I get a little upset. It was, for the most part, a waste of food and money. I was not going to eat all this and neither were the kids. Needless to say, I am not making anything else for knitting group any time soon.

On a funny note, Mark's birthday is ten days before mine. Gifts usually depend on our financial situation. This year Mark and I each got a watch. Granted they were not expensive but we both needed one and we found nice ones that were on sale. At first Mark was looking at Citizen watches. He had one before but it finally died and no one has been able to revive it. When the sales lady starting giving prices for them I started to laugh! Yeah, not this year! Mark did find a nice and less expensive watch. Mine was even less then his and I think it is a good looking one. Of course, no pictures because I can't get my act together. Now on to the actual funny bit...I talked to Mark several times on my birthday. I kept waiting for the "happy birthday, honey." Never got it. I really wasn't upset because I knew he was distracted on the road. The next day when he called I asked him if he knew what the day before had been. "Shit, honey. I'll buy you something!" I swear that is exactly what he said! Made me laugh :-)

A Quiet Time

Two of my three guys. This was totally not posed. I looked over and that is how they were sitting. My last post I was feeling very down. I still do not want to leave my beautiful lakeshore. I don't want to leave behind my life here, but I may not have the choice. I am trying to accept this gracefully but I do buck against it at times.

And, as always, check out what I've been knitting.

Our beautiful lighthouse is cover in snow and ice and looking pretty cold. I cannot wait for Spring to get here. We had a little tease on Tuesday. Temperatures in the 40's and sun shining. Wednesday we woke to snow and freezing rain. Yuck.

Mark is working again. This is good because it means he is healthy enough to work and we need the money. Of course, this means I am alone with the kids for two weeks at a time. I have been having a very difficult time. Having my mom pass away makes me feel like I have lost 50 people out of my life instead of just one. My younger brother has been very distant lately. I have a theory as to who and why I am not hearing from him as much. Losing that closeness has been a major blow.

We are now getting pressure from Mark's family to move to their town. I am totally against it. Mark will still be on the road but I will be completely removed from all that I know and all my friends and support. I know my knitting group only meets once a week but I can bring my kids and it is truly a life support. Plus, I LOVE the school my children go to and do not want to take them from that. I also have the Mothers of Preschoolers group that I am a member of and I am also on the Steering Committee. These things are important to me and I feel that up and leaving these things and not gaining anything in return will take my depression to an even lower low. I struggle now but at least I have things that force me to leave the house and actually look forward to. Yes, Mark's family would be there..................

I am praying for a miracle because I don't think Mark is really listening to me about this. He wants to know that if I need something while he is on the road the help would be in the same town not two hours away. Still, he needs to actually listen to what I have to say about this. I am the one at home all the time. He is here twice a month, therefore I think my needs need to be met first.

In other news... Really it has just been a sea of days that consist of running the kids to school and trying to survive. We've been sick for the last month and have been combating a cough that just doesn't want to go away. I recommend you check out my knitting blog for other news and some great patterns I recently finished. Click HERE!

Making Butter

I was reading through my favorite blogs and Fiber Fool had a great post about making her own butter. I really wanted to try it for myself. A lot of people told me that they made butter in Girl Scouts and shaking cream in a baby food jar. Yes, that works but this would let me make around a pound of my own butter that I could use and share.

I live in a small town but we have an organic store. It is small but they carry milk and cream from a dairy in an even smaller town. I should have taken pictures before pouring the cream out!

I put the cream in the bowl for the KitchenAid and covered it to keep the dog hair out. I wanted to let it warm up a bit.

Then I added the whisk attachment and turned it on the 6-7 level. It took a full 30 minutes for the cream to separate and become butter and buttermilk. I was worried for a bit because I thought that somehow I had messed up the process. Once the butter formed I was so thrilled!

Here is my butter after the milk had been pressed out of it. I didn't have butter paddles to press out the milk but my mom-in-law, who just happened to be here that day, used wooden spoons and that worked perfectly. You can use the buttermilk for any recipe that calls for it.

It was a fun project and the kids got a kick out of it. We also made bread in the bread machine and used the butter on it. I recommend you check out Fiber Fool's Blog to get a much better description on how to make it.

I also think you should check out my knitting blog to see the hats I've been making.

Just Watch Out For The Yellow Snow!

We've been getting a lot of snow lately. Last week we did have a sunny day and I took Henry and Roo outside to play around in it. We filled up some spray bottles with colored water and went around spraying the snow.

Only one bottle worked well so once it ran out we filled it with the green water from the other bottle. I think we may need to get some different bottles for next time.

Henry decided he had to dig his car out of the snow. Then he saw a corner of his gas tank sticking out and he had to dig that out too.

Lots of snow on the swings and slide. They had fun clearing the snow off the slide by sliding down it repeatedly.

And a Happy New Year...

A picture of Roo on her Christmas party day at school. Yes, she is wearing sparkly red shoes.

On Henry's Christmas party, his class sang songs and dressed as characters from the nativity scene. He was a king. Unfortunately, Gavin and I were really sick that day so Mark took Henry to school and took a lot of pictures for me.

Henry is the cutie in red. Red is his favorite color.

Why does he always give me funny faces in pictures?!

Finally! A smile!

After the performance the class had a birthday party for Jesus. I think they even sang "Happy Birthday" for him. That's Henry in the moose sweater.

This year for Christmas we were all alone. Last year my dad came up Christmas Eve and was here for present openings and breakfast. This year he decided to come up on Christmas Day with my brother Peter and his wife. I was under the impression they were all going to stay the night here in order to have some time with us. Peter and Ashley drove up the 23rd and stayed at my brother Matt's house. They came here and brought my dad on Christmas day, but they did not stay the night. I was upset because I felt like we were just an after thought and when I voiced my opinion I got a not very nice text message about being uncaring. After they left our house they went back to my brother's and stayed the night again. Hmmm...yeah.

I was trying to make the best of our holiday with my family. I went to my mom's house and got the Christmas dishes that we used to use. I set my little table with them and I was very pleased and a bit emotional when I was done. Henry made a cute center piece at school and that was in the center of our table.

I set a small table for Henry and Irene to eat at next to the big table. I made sure they had a special table cloth and they had a candle (not lit!) and salt and pepper shakers in the shape of ornaments.

The picture above is of our small tree and the gifts. At first I wasn't going to put a tree. With all the heartache and stress of the last four months I wasn't in the mood. It finally dawned on me that I needed to make this holiday special for my kids so we got a small tree at Wal-mart for a ridiculously low price. We put special ornaments on it and beneath it were holiday items that I got from my mom's.

Christmas morning the kids were so sweet. They were thrilled that Santa had come and were amazed at the amount of gifts. I was amazed too since we were only going to be able to get the each two gifts and one small stocking stuffer. However, right before Thanksgiving, Mrs.Wagner, the children's teacher at school told Mark that her church had decided we were going to be one of their families. Her husband is a pastor at a church in a small town about 20 minutes from our town. Each year the "adopt" several families in the area and try to give them their Christmas wishes. I was speechless. Talk about a loving, kind, generous gesture! I felt bad too though. I felt like there had to be a family that needed it more than we did. I did fill out the sheet though. I filled out two gifts per child plus a pair of pajamas and one gift for them to share. I did not put anything down for Mark or me.

The Monday before Christmas we were given the gifts. Holy cow! There were so many! I was overwhelmed my the generousness of the people of this church. There were even gift cards for us to local grocery stores, gas stations, Kmart. Extremely useful and needed!

Irene holding a prettily wrapped gift. I believe it was jammies :)

Henry getting ready to open a gift.

Gavin checking out his gift. It was a vacuum. He is vacuum obsessed!

Henry and Irene opening one of their joint gifts. They got a Crayola color dome and the glow in the dark color sheet thingy. Those have been fun gifts and we've been having a blast using them!

Daddy helping Gavin open his Little People farm.

More gifts!

Gavin with the vacuum. He loves it! He loves the real vacuum too and tries to use it :-)

It was a beautiful and fun morning. Mark went out and got us donuts for breakfast. Since my dad and brother and sis-in-law were coming up and we were planning a meal with them we didn't want a large breakfast.

Peter, Ashley, and my dad got here around 11am. They brought gifts and brought gifts from my brother Matt too. More opening of gifts and I put Pete to work putting all the toys together. Usually my mom put together the toys but Peter did an excellent job!

In the above picture the gingerbread house is actually made from plastic canvas. My mom made it many moons ago and I brought it over to use as part of our decorations.

Roo playing with the dollhouse she got from Uncle Matt and Aunt Kaye. After putting together toys and playing we had our meal. My dad brought up a spiral cut ham which was delicious. We also had potatoes delight, cranberries, turkey polish sausage (Henry loved it!), corn, and crescent rolls. It was a great meal and a very good visit.

Mark's parents were going to come up the next day but then they asked us to come down. They sent us money for gas and they got us a hotel room to stay in. They wanted Henry and Irene to stay the week at their house so I packed up clothes for them. We drove down and all three kids stayed the night with grandma and grandpa while Mark and I stayed at the hotel alone! We had a nice night and the next day Mark had another appointment at a Lenscrafters in Grand Rapids. The glasses he got in October needed to be adjusted. His eyesight has come back almost 100% since being on diabetes medication. He just needs them for reading. Luckily, the glasses were adjusted for free!

Henry with his cousin Shelby in the basement family room at grandma's and grandpa's.

Opening the mountain of gifts that grandma and grandpa got them.

Pillow Pets! Irene is in love with Pillow Pets!

Grandma Pat holding Gavin while Roo opens another gift. Henry and Irene stayed the week with their grandparents and Mark, Gavin and I came home.

It was a beautiful holiday. I missed my mom but we had some good laughs talking about Christmases past. The kids had a wonderful time which was the most important thing. Through some generous, kind people we were able to have an abundant Christmas. We received a lot of cards and gifts from some super friends. We were, and are, truly blessed!

Santa Train 2010

Santa Train 2010! In the above picture, Mark is standing with Henry and Irene. You can hardly see them! Right now we are getting a ton of snow. It started about 45 minutes before the train made it into town. The weather channel was calling for a blizzard warning from 7pm tonight until 7 Monday. The crowd this year was smaller but I'm sure the snow is what kept a lot of people away. We went with the kids bundled in snow pants and coats. Poor Gavin could not move in all his gear!

The snow was very wet and kept covering the lens of the camera, hence the crazy marks on the pictures. You can barely make out the Marquette name on the train. This company is one of the last train companies that is still majority held by the workers. Each year they do the Santa train. It starts off around 9am and makes it way up from the Grand Rapids area and arrives in our town around 7:45pm. They stop at quite a few towns along the way.

In the car after the engine is a Christmas tree. This picture didn't come out very well because of the snow.

Santa makes sure to talk to each child. Henry asked for a remote controlled monster truck. Irene asked for a flashlight. Santa said he'd try. Mommy would like to get the remote controlled monster truck but doesn't have the money to spend that much on one gift. It is one item he asks for frequently. Santa and I are trying to find an alternative.

Mrs. Claus posed for a picture too. Unfortunately, only Henry's head is in the picture. I didn't take these...Mark did ;-)

In this picture the shiny thing is the flash of the camera shining off a reflector on the caboose. The conductor was reading off names of three families that were being given free Christmas trees. Unfortunately, none of the families were there. They offered them up to anyone that was in need of a tree in the crowd.

The caboose and its shiny reflectors. The train is decorated beautifully.

Poor Gavin! He is wearing several layers and cannot move. Kinda like the kid in The Christmas Story. By the time we left the top of the stroller was covered in snow.

Henry and Irene got free hot chocolate and a chocolate chip cookie. An insurance agency is right by the tracks and they provide free beverages and cookies.

Elves handed out candy canes. We ended up with six. I think they had planned on having a larger crowd. Even Mark and I got one.

The caboose, an elf, snow, and cold people! As for me, I am going to cover up and try to warm up. I keep getting text messages from the weather channel to inform me of the blizzard warning.

I have lots of knitting to catch up on tomorrow. You can check out my latest finished projects at my knitting blog. Hardly anyone ever takes a look, so I think you should!! Click HERE!!!