Today Ruby brought a baggie full of M&M's home from school. In her class, they get to count as many M&M's as they can, up to 100, and all the M&M's they count they get to keep and take home. I think they do it about once a month. They asked the parents to donate a bag of M&M's for it, and I bought a big bag from Costco, hoping that my investment would yield a good return.
Ruby counted to 100, and brought home 100 M&M's. I asked her if that means she is now in the "100 Club". She said she is, but that she's the only one. They have a poster in the class with the names of the kids in the 100 Club.
Yay for my smart little Ruby-dee!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Pumpkin Cupcakes
I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I just felt like some, so I made some. From scratch. They were really good. I used Martha Stewart's recipe for both the cake and the frosting, but I should tell you that her cream cheese frosting is basically the same as my mother-in-law's cream cheese frosting (which their family calls sour cream frosting).
In any case, everything turned out very nicely. The recipe said it made 18 cupcakes, but I got 31 out of it. Some of them were a little low, but I still got a lot more than it said I would. I don't really need 31 cupcakes. I gave some to my neighbor.
Here's a link to the cupcake recipe. And a link to the frosting.
In any case, everything turned out very nicely. The recipe said it made 18 cupcakes, but I got 31 out of it. Some of them were a little low, but I still got a lot more than it said I would. I don't really need 31 cupcakes. I gave some to my neighbor.
Here's a link to the cupcake recipe. And a link to the frosting.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Trees
So, we have three trees in our yard that are in various states of dying. One is completely dead (bark peeling off and all), one has one branch left that still produces leaves, and the other one is starting to go. Mistletoe killed/is killing them. We need to have them removed. Unfortunately those are all the three big shade trees in the back yard. After they're gone, we'll just have the redwoods in the back, and they don't shade the house. Thankfully, mistletoe doesn't grow on redwoods. We have one maple tree in the front yard that is growing very nicely, but we just planted it a year or two ago, so it's only about 8 feet tall.
We had a guy come out and give an estimate yesterday. Having trees removed is expensive. We're looking at around $3400 for all three including stump removal. The one that is completely dead is fortunately the cheapest one to remove, though the guy offered a discount to do all of them. Two of them are tall enough and in places where they could possibly hit three different houses, one being ours. The other one could land on our house, but if it went toward the neighbor's house on that side, only the lighter top branches would hit.
Ah well. Once they're gone we won't have a 30-40 foot alder tree dumping leaves, cones AND catkins into the pool every fall and winter. And the tree that's shading one of my garden boxes will be gone, too. We'll also have more space for more garden boxes. And fruit trees. So, while I'm sad to lose the shade in the backyard (right now, our patio is so nice and shady in the hot afternoons, it's a nice place to sit and feel the breeze and our swingset is in shade most of the day), I'll be glad to not have so much clean up to deal with and to have more garden space. We're going to replace one of the shade trees with a broadleaf evergreen so the patio will eventually get some shade but it won't drop leaves into the pool. The tree by the garden won't get replaced, but we might put some dwarf fruit trees over near there to make sort of a border between the yard and the garden. I might move my potted cold-sensitive trees over there so they'll be near the watering lines.
John's trying to figure out where all the watering lines connect so we can get the garden on the automatic watering schedule. There are pipes that end by the garden, but there's no water going to them.
So much to do, so little time to actually work on it.
We had a guy come out and give an estimate yesterday. Having trees removed is expensive. We're looking at around $3400 for all three including stump removal. The one that is completely dead is fortunately the cheapest one to remove, though the guy offered a discount to do all of them. Two of them are tall enough and in places where they could possibly hit three different houses, one being ours. The other one could land on our house, but if it went toward the neighbor's house on that side, only the lighter top branches would hit.
Ah well. Once they're gone we won't have a 30-40 foot alder tree dumping leaves, cones AND catkins into the pool every fall and winter. And the tree that's shading one of my garden boxes will be gone, too. We'll also have more space for more garden boxes. And fruit trees. So, while I'm sad to lose the shade in the backyard (right now, our patio is so nice and shady in the hot afternoons, it's a nice place to sit and feel the breeze and our swingset is in shade most of the day), I'll be glad to not have so much clean up to deal with and to have more garden space. We're going to replace one of the shade trees with a broadleaf evergreen so the patio will eventually get some shade but it won't drop leaves into the pool. The tree by the garden won't get replaced, but we might put some dwarf fruit trees over near there to make sort of a border between the yard and the garden. I might move my potted cold-sensitive trees over there so they'll be near the watering lines.
John's trying to figure out where all the watering lines connect so we can get the garden on the automatic watering schedule. There are pipes that end by the garden, but there's no water going to them.
So much to do, so little time to actually work on it.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
The End
And thus ends my experimental August Blog-a-Day. I don't think I'll be writing something every day in the future. Some days there just isn't anything worth writing about.
This week is a busy week, as we have piano lessons starting up. The time of the year when we have soccer overlapping with piano is always a busy, busy time. This week, after school we have Tues: scouts for Sam, soccer practice for Ruby, Wed: piano for me, piano for Sam, soccer practice for Sam, young women's for Squig, Thur: piano for Squig, tutoring for me (actually, by me, I'm doing the tutoring), soccer game for Ruby, soccer game for Sam, parent's club for me (which I have to miss due to the soccer games) and on top of it, I have to try to get food into the kids in a timely manner, and get them all washed and in bed at a reasonable hour.
It's only Monday and I'm already behind!
Maybe I'll write if I have a chance to breathe. We shall see, we shall see.
And now I need to go and unpack and put away all the groceries I bought today, but to do that I need to clean out the fridge and re-arrange the shelves in the pantry. It was stock-up day and I have a lot of stuff to find a home for. I think I need to build some shelves in the pantry, but I might just head down to Lowe's and see what they have for shelf expanders. The shelves in there now are too tall, and I can't stack stuff that high and still get to it easily. If I had shelves about half as high, that would be just right for arranging cans so you can see what you have, and be able to get things out easily. There's a lot of wasted space in there.
Thank you very much for joining me on my Blog-a-Day journey.
Good-night.
This week is a busy week, as we have piano lessons starting up. The time of the year when we have soccer overlapping with piano is always a busy, busy time. This week, after school we have Tues: scouts for Sam, soccer practice for Ruby, Wed: piano for me, piano for Sam, soccer practice for Sam, young women's for Squig, Thur: piano for Squig, tutoring for me (actually, by me, I'm doing the tutoring), soccer game for Ruby, soccer game for Sam, parent's club for me (which I have to miss due to the soccer games) and on top of it, I have to try to get food into the kids in a timely manner, and get them all washed and in bed at a reasonable hour.
It's only Monday and I'm already behind!
Maybe I'll write if I have a chance to breathe. We shall see, we shall see.
And now I need to go and unpack and put away all the groceries I bought today, but to do that I need to clean out the fridge and re-arrange the shelves in the pantry. It was stock-up day and I have a lot of stuff to find a home for. I think I need to build some shelves in the pantry, but I might just head down to Lowe's and see what they have for shelf expanders. The shelves in there now are too tall, and I can't stack stuff that high and still get to it easily. If I had shelves about half as high, that would be just right for arranging cans so you can see what you have, and be able to get things out easily. There's a lot of wasted space in there.
Thank you very much for joining me on my Blog-a-Day journey.
Good-night.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Food Storage Muffins
So, this afternoon I decided to make some muffins to go with dinner. Don't ask what else was for dinner, today's a throw-something-together-when-you-forgot-to-go-shopping type of Sunday.
I started to assemble my ingredients, and discovered that I had about a half cup of flour. Not sure how that happened, since I try to keep bags of the stuff around. Anyway, not enough flour. So I went out to the garage for a can of the old standby: food storage flour.
Now, this food storage flour is of unknown age. A lady in our ward lived down the street when we moved in here and she moved out soon after we moved in (we didn't chase her out, we promise) and she gave us all her food storage. In my mind it was about five years old when we got it, but I can't remember if she told me that or if I made it up. Hard to say.
I opened the can and checked the flour and it smelled very metallic. Very Metallic. I couldn't tell over the metallic smell whether or not the flour was still good. It looked fine, nice and floury and I tasted a bit, and it didn't really taste at all (which is how white flour is anyway). So I called up the ward food storage specialist and asked her about it. She looked up flour in her stuff and said it's good for 10 years. Well, I've had it for three and a half years and if she had it for the five in my head, it's about 8 1/2 years old. Should be fine, I guess. I decided to go ahead and use it.
I made the muffins and changed them to spice muffins to try to hide any taste with the spices. They just came out of the oven, and I'm going to go taste one. Please hold on.
-------------------------------------
I'm back.
Well, they taste funny. Not rotten funny, just sort of blah funny. They have sort of a weird taste in them that seems like it's hiding the spices. The kids, however, like them. I should confess here, that I've never made this muffin recipe before, so it could be that I made them wrong, or that I wouldn't like them even if I made them right. I'll have to buy some flour tomorrow and make them again and see how they come out.
As far as the rest of the flour goes, I'm inclined to toss it along with the other two cans I have in the garage and get new cans. I suspect the hot garage (they're in a cabinet, but it's warm in there, too, but not hot) is not the best place for canned flour. I expect that things like beans and rice would fare better because they don't take up tastes and smells like something powdery like flour would.
I should probably open up a can of each of the things from this lady and test them all. Back when we were first married, we used cannery flour, rice and sugar all the time and never had this kind of a problem. I need to find a cooler place for our food storage stuff. Maybe the back of a high up cabinet or something.
Oh well.
I figured out how to insert a poll on the page. I posted a poll about the flour.
I started to assemble my ingredients, and discovered that I had about a half cup of flour. Not sure how that happened, since I try to keep bags of the stuff around. Anyway, not enough flour. So I went out to the garage for a can of the old standby: food storage flour.
Now, this food storage flour is of unknown age. A lady in our ward lived down the street when we moved in here and she moved out soon after we moved in (we didn't chase her out, we promise) and she gave us all her food storage. In my mind it was about five years old when we got it, but I can't remember if she told me that or if I made it up. Hard to say.
I opened the can and checked the flour and it smelled very metallic. Very Metallic. I couldn't tell over the metallic smell whether or not the flour was still good. It looked fine, nice and floury and I tasted a bit, and it didn't really taste at all (which is how white flour is anyway). So I called up the ward food storage specialist and asked her about it. She looked up flour in her stuff and said it's good for 10 years. Well, I've had it for three and a half years and if she had it for the five in my head, it's about 8 1/2 years old. Should be fine, I guess. I decided to go ahead and use it.
I made the muffins and changed them to spice muffins to try to hide any taste with the spices. They just came out of the oven, and I'm going to go taste one. Please hold on.
-------------------------------------
I'm back.
Well, they taste funny. Not rotten funny, just sort of blah funny. They have sort of a weird taste in them that seems like it's hiding the spices. The kids, however, like them. I should confess here, that I've never made this muffin recipe before, so it could be that I made them wrong, or that I wouldn't like them even if I made them right. I'll have to buy some flour tomorrow and make them again and see how they come out.
As far as the rest of the flour goes, I'm inclined to toss it along with the other two cans I have in the garage and get new cans. I suspect the hot garage (they're in a cabinet, but it's warm in there, too, but not hot) is not the best place for canned flour. I expect that things like beans and rice would fare better because they don't take up tastes and smells like something powdery like flour would.
I should probably open up a can of each of the things from this lady and test them all. Back when we were first married, we used cannery flour, rice and sugar all the time and never had this kind of a problem. I need to find a cooler place for our food storage stuff. Maybe the back of a high up cabinet or something.
Oh well.
I figured out how to insert a poll on the page. I posted a poll about the flour.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Saturday Morning on the Football Pitch
As today is Saturday, we spent the morning at soccer. Ruby had pictures at 9:00, and we got out of the house late and got there just as the team was lining up to go in for their picture. I scribbled an order form together and am pretty sure it was matched up with the correct kid. We'll see whose picture I get back in a few weeks.
Her game started right after pictures, so we all headed over to her field and set up our chairs. Ruby played well, but she gets worn out, and I'm thinking she needs to run around more. Build up her stamina. She's doing better at getting right in the thick of things and fighting for the ball. She was really cute in her little pigtails.
Sam's game started while Ruby's was still going on and I walked him halfway and went back to Ruby's game. After it ended, we went to watch Sam's game. Sam was playing defense when we got there, which was just after halftime, and apparently we missed him playing goalie in the first half. Just before the end of the game, he got hit in the face with the ball, and since he was wearing sunglasses, it was doubly painful. He sat out the last minute of the game. It hit him just on the side of the sunglasses where they hit his eyebrow. Ow. He cried.
The kids had fun, but it was a hot and sweaty morning. It was 80 in the shade when we left the house at 8:45 a.m. I remembered sunscreen, and no one seems to have gotten any sunburns. Soccer's funny. When it starts, it's boiling hot and everyone's dying, but by the end of the season you might find yourself playing in the cold and rain, which is an adventure all its own.
Squig went up to the lake with her young women's group today. I think I'll take the other two to the movies, since they don't get to go to the lake. And then we'll go swimming, because it's already over 90 degrees and it's just barely 1:00 p.m.
Her game started right after pictures, so we all headed over to her field and set up our chairs. Ruby played well, but she gets worn out, and I'm thinking she needs to run around more. Build up her stamina. She's doing better at getting right in the thick of things and fighting for the ball. She was really cute in her little pigtails.
Sam's game started while Ruby's was still going on and I walked him halfway and went back to Ruby's game. After it ended, we went to watch Sam's game. Sam was playing defense when we got there, which was just after halftime, and apparently we missed him playing goalie in the first half. Just before the end of the game, he got hit in the face with the ball, and since he was wearing sunglasses, it was doubly painful. He sat out the last minute of the game. It hit him just on the side of the sunglasses where they hit his eyebrow. Ow. He cried.
The kids had fun, but it was a hot and sweaty morning. It was 80 in the shade when we left the house at 8:45 a.m. I remembered sunscreen, and no one seems to have gotten any sunburns. Soccer's funny. When it starts, it's boiling hot and everyone's dying, but by the end of the season you might find yourself playing in the cold and rain, which is an adventure all its own.
Squig went up to the lake with her young women's group today. I think I'll take the other two to the movies, since they don't get to go to the lake. And then we'll go swimming, because it's already over 90 degrees and it's just barely 1:00 p.m.
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