project life 2014: week 30

monday: saying goodbye to godfather nolan.also monday: happy birthday to me!

tuesday: layla and micah got to go blueberry picking with a friend from down the street. I’m pretty sure they should have weighed micah, not his bucket. blueberries may just be is favorite food, ever.

wednesday: look mom! I’m mopping!

thursday: don’t you love it when a baked potato explodes all over the inside of your oven less than 1 hour before you are expecting guests, thus causing your whole house to smell like scorched potato? I sure do.

friday: she asked if she could build a fort. I said no. this, apparently, is not a fort… it’s a “reading room”…

saturday: can you see him? that’s toby, crouched on the second to bottom stair, having a stare-off with the dog.

and a couple of extras: the cork-collector is my birthday gift from micah.

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for my not-so-american friends

i didn't have an actual roll w/ the green plaid on it, but i found a refill and an empty roll in my junk drawer (yeah, i know, that should tell me something). but even the empty one says 'scotch' on it. there you go! SCOTCH TAPE!

adjusting my attitude

this is something i tell shane to do all the time and i really needed to tell it to myself this morning. although i go through phases where i'm diligent and consistent about getting up early and taking care of pertinent chores, getting dressed, etc. i've been REALLY bad lately. and it's not just the christmas break thing because i've been throwing myself and the little kids into the car in our jammies to take shane to school for a while now. it's something that's really been bugging me, but it's just so easy to sleep as long as possible and then turn on the tv for the kids while i drink coffee and surf the internet wake up for 3 hours a little while. i am aware that i really need to have some sort of a schedule and i need to adhere to it. so after staying up past midnight reading a book about scheduling getting motivated, i vowed to get up early - before the kids - this morning and be all dressed and have some time to myself to take care of mornin

i have "done something"

about shane's room. if you notice over there on my BIG FAT TO DO LIST, for ages now, i've had "do something about shane's room" on the list. and it has sat there on the list, doing nothing. well yesterday, we "did something". i couldn't put "clean shane's room". that wouldn't really cover it. i wasn't sure exactly how to phrase what is was that needed to be done in there, mainly because i don't really know the proper grammatical term for "set off 4 sticks of dynamite followed by much jackhammering and industrial vacuuming". needless to say, it was a pit! every saturday, one of his chores is to clean his room. but at this point, that was just putting clothes in the basket, books on the shelf, toys in bins, etc. anything else was WAY too big of an undertaking for a 9 year old boy on his way out the door. sadly, i didn't think to take a 'before' picture, so i didn't bother with an '

bacon-potato chowder recipe

dave found this recipe at some point when we were living in ohio. he apparently had a hankering for some chowder of some kind. so I have no idea where the credit goes in this case. but we’ve been making it ever since, so it was definitely a winner! 1 lb. bacon cut in small pieces 1 cup chopped onions 4 cups diced potatoes 2 cups water 1 tsp salt (and some pepper) 2 cans cream of something soup (chicken or celery) 2 cups sour cream 3 cups milk **edited to add: apparently, dave says he adds a clove or two of garlic as well. chop them up with them up and add them with the onions.** in a big pot, cook bacon over medium heat. add onion and cook until tender. drain off grease. add water, potatoes, salt and pepper. cook 15 minutes. stir in soup, sour cream, and milk. cook until heated through. easy, but best to do all you’re chopping, dicing, and measuring ahead of time. if you like it thick, simmer a little longer… don’t make this if you are dairy intolerant or on a diet! lol. a

white wine marinated pork chops recipe

this recipe comes from the weber’s REAL GRILLING cookbook and is my family’s recent favorite way to have pork chops. shane thinks these are the best food he’s ever eaten, and will generally eat 2! i think layla asked for seconds as well, and micah pretended they weren’t on his plate… which is typical. we’ve made them on the grill, or broiling in the oven, and both are equally good. 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh thyme (I have used dried as well, and it works fine) 1 tbsp minced garlic (think I used a clove, maybe two) 2 tsp kosher salt (this was a little much. I think the second time I made them I reduced it to 1.5 tsp.) 1 tsp freshly ground pepper pork chops (4 or 5) whisk ingredients together in a bowl. place pork chops in a large ziplock and pour in marinade. seal and turn several times. refrigerate for 2 hours, turning once or twice. allow chops to stand at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before grilling. remove f

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