rachel's continued ramblings

such a profound day, and i forgot! yesterday was my 2 year blogiversary…

my friend, stephanie , has inspired me with her most recent post. apparently this was a topic on oprah today, i don’t watch her show, but it’s a good topic. my comment on her post (which is great – read it. the post, not my comment.), was quickly turning into a post of it’s own, so i decided to continue my vent here. it probably won’t be as eloquent as hers, but i’m climbing up on the soapbox she just got off of. we eat CRAP! LOTS and LOTS of CRAP!!! as a nation, it astounds me how much non-food we consume. i’ve wondered about this for a long time, but it used to be inspired from an environmental standpoint rather than a nutritional standpoint. i wondered about all the garbage we throw out. it bothered me that you couldn’t go to the store and buy granola bars without also buying a box and 6 wrappers, that would then be thrown away. i wondered why, every time you buy salad dressing or ketchup, you have to buy a new bottle, which would then be thrown away. i wondered why, every tim...

so after reading one of mary’s latest posts, i realized that i haven’t done a ‘kid update’ in goodness knows how long. probably not since we abandoned the old ‘family site’, and since we didn’t sent out christmas cards this year, it’s been at least a year since i did a ‘comprehensive’ update. shane (10 1/2) is… hmmm… complicated. we’ll say that. in general he’s a happy kid and likes to stay active. he still hates school and pretty much anything involved in it, but we’re muddling through. he really enjoys his science class, however and is slightly less enthusiastic about drama, but doesn’t complain too much about going. this year, instead of having a major role in the play, he’s opted for a bit part along with being one of the stage managers. he loves hauling and moving and organizing grunt work stuff like that, so it should be a good fit. his reading is definitely improving, and he recently started the first harry potter book, which he’s slowly making steady progress through. he play...

this is why human children survive when their parents are ready to sell them into slavery: this was last night, after micah had a VERY difficult time NOT screaming at the top of his lungs and climbing out of bed a million times, thus causing layla to have a very difficult time going to sleep and i was ready to leave the country forever lose it. and then today, i went to check on micah during his nap and found this: i love it. they’re so worth it! (and i’m totally going to come look at this around 8:30 tonight when they’re screaming their heads off and not sleeping tucked peacefully into bed.)

i’ll leave it at that for now. maybe i’ll work on the ‘early to bed’ part after i master this one. ;) i never thought it would happen, but i am about to sing the praises of getting up early . yes, me. things change when you have 3 kids and you homeschool and you have a house you have to take care of and sanity to keep track of. one of the things i’ve discovered lately is that, although sleeping in is wonderful, life REALLY sucks when i do. i’ve also learned that it sucks significantly less if i get up early. who knew? i used to be really good about it, but somewhere along the line, i got discouraged and quit. i quit trying to make it out of bed before my kids, and somehow or other quit accomplishing the things i need to accomplish during the day. i then quit feeling good about myself, my responsibilities, my choices… let’s compare yesterday and today, for an example. yesterday, micah, layla and i (miraculously) woke up at 9am. wow! so much sleep! upon waking, i’m groggy and gru...

yeah, it’s still monday, right? so sunday and monday are checked off already. we were out all day on sunday, visiting my aunt in poulsbo and having a late christmas w/ her. we had an enormous lunch at a fabulous restaurant called taprock, plus goodies like smiley face cookies :) so by the time we got home, we kind of scrounged, eating cereal or sandwiches for dinner. last night, i pulled off something very uncharacteristic for me, i ‘threw something together’ and it was actually pretty yummy! at any rate, i’m out of decent ingredients w/ which to throw something together, so i have to actually go shopping today. :( tuesday: tater tot casserole wednesday: white chicken chili; sourdough thursday: pork chops; rice; broccoli friday: pizza; green beans saturday: leftovers (dave and i will be out – i think) sunday: pancakes; bacon

a month or so ago, i posted the beginnings of my ‘to-do’ list for 2010. i’m totally stealing this from kate and debbie, but it’s a good idea.  i had a good start of 6 items… but i know there’s way more i want to add to it. spin my own yarn spend more time in nature. read all of jane austen’s books. can my own veggies/fruits acquire a sewing machine re-learn to play the piano exercise regularly (more days of the week than not – really!) finish reading the entire bible make an effort to spend time individually with each of my children mellow out philosophically (if you don’t know what that means, just read a few of my posts and you’ll likely find some crazed post where i’m ranting about my strong disagreement about something generally accepted by the status quo) beat myself up less (again, just read a few posts) take better care of the dog. she’s 13 now and i need to make the most of the years i have left with her. (okay, this one i...

didn’t do this earlier, although i did make a pseudo plan this week. i also did a pseudo shopping trip on tuesday. i pseudo-blew my budget last week and am trying to piece stuff together this week w/ minimal buying. =/ at this point, most of it is review… sunday: leftover tacos monday: BLTs tuesday: meatloaf; oven fries; green beans wednesday: chicken quesadillas; carrot sticks thursday: ??? (this is where the pseudo part of the plan comes in – guess i better figure something out quick!) friday: pizza; green beans saturday: ??? (yeah, i know it’s bad!) maybe eggs and bacon or something. but hey, i posted it! that counts for something, right? probably not. you can’t eat blog posts!

i had a few projects i managed to get finished (sort of) in time to give as gifts this year. dave’s parents were the ‘lucky’ ones this year… his mom got the scrunchie hand warmers (that i finished the night before they left), and his dad was the recipient of the famous beer cozies! sadly, i don’t have good close-up pics of those. the red one is a rib pattern and the blue is cabled. he got to keep the beer too. and then, at his request, i made this hat for dave’s birthday. my original attempt to knit in a USC logo was quickly abandoned after a couple of attempts proved that this was not the right yarn (or possibly, the right knitter) to be making that happen. he found this look on a USC website and asked if i could copy it. i also made a hat for my aunt (to match the scarf i gave her last year), but i didn’t take a picture of it. oh well. it’s black, a basket weave pattern. i was bored to death making it, but it turned out nice. that’s it so far… i’m still working on hannah’s present a...

(no, not the singer.) holly asked if i’d post it, so figured i’d do it here. so as to not be accused of plagiarism, i’ll say that the skeleton of this recipe comes from the better homes and gardens ‘new cookbook – 14th edition’, but i always doctor it up a little bit. 2 eggs, beaten 3/4 cup milk 2/3 cup dry bread crumbs (or as many as you need to stretch the meat) 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (i generally use dried minced onion for convenience, but not as much) 2 T snipped fresh parsley (yeah right, i just shake in a bunch of dried.) 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp dried leaf sage, basil, or oregano ( i usually use a little of both basil and oregano, as well as a good shake of garlic powder) 1/8 tsp black pepper 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef, lamb, or pork (i’ve only ever used beef) combine everything but the meat. add the meat and mix well. lightly pat mixture into a loaf pan. bake at 350* for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until internal temp reaches 160*. spoon off ...