Sack Lunches II

After writing the post yesterday, I decided to try to find some nice containers. I started with the dollar store because I needed something from there anyway. And guess what? I actually found almost exactly what I was looking for! At the dollar store! I was very pleasantly surprised. I bought a little 4 inch round two compartment stacked box with a folding spoon. I also bought a square sandwich box and a little snack container set which were two containers with animal lids and a dipping spoon. I hit the jackpot!

So, today, as suggested by a good friend of mine, I cut up numerous veggies so Tiffany could make faces with them. Tiffany was quite excited about it. Plus I included a handful of clover sprouts Tiffany had been working on sprouting herself (to use as mustache or beard). We put some hummus and chili in the little piggy containers, included toast and a little ranch dip. It looked like it would be fun for her. Katie wants to have it for lunch today, too.

Sack Lunches

Almost every day I pack a sack lunch for Tiffany to take to school. That way I know she is eating healthy, and we're saving some money besides. I try to include a variety- fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, and she usually likes what I send. The problem, I think is presentation. There have been several times she has told me that other kids stare at her meal, poke fun at it, or even tell her it looks disgusting. I usually tell her not to worry about what they say, at least she knows she's eating healthy. I'm concerned though that she does worry about it (she is only 8 after all and she wouldn't say anything if it didn't bother her). So, how do I go about making her meal prettier and more appealing looking?

Today I sent a macaroni salad for her (whole wheat macaroni boiled with frozen vegetables with ranch salad dressing to add later). now I'm thinking I could have made it a whole lot prettier by putting the macaroni on a lettuce leaf, with the cooked veggies on that, then the dressing on the side. I also sent a cut up pear, left over chili and 2 pieces of toast to eat with the chili. I have no idea how to make pears or chili look good. Ideas anybody? I'm also thinking I should have dedicated shallow bowls with lids for her lunchbox. Right now I just send her meal in small kitchen storage containers (4oz or 8oz). Maybe that's contributing to the problem as well. I wish growing up wasn't such an involved complicated affair.

Sunny Days Are Here Again!

It's still pretty cold outside, but yesterday afternoon the temperatures rose above 40 degrees! The sun was shining and it felt quite warm. As a result, I walked to the school so my children could walk home instead of riding the bus. It was wonderful! And I finally got a couple miles of walking in!

Christmas Happenings

I was able to help in Katie's kindergarten class Friday. It was a partial day, and they had lots of fun activities to do. They had a rotation of 4 activities. They cut out antler hats and had red put on their noses, so they could look like Rudolph. I got to help them with their snack, frosting sugar cookies and applying sprinkles, and lots of other things. I read stories to them as they ate. One of the stories was quite memorable. It was about a little pine tree who wanted to be a Christmas tree, but he was crooked so nobody chose him as their Christmas tree. Instead, a family chose him to plant in their backyard where their little boy would play around him, but he still wanted to be a Christmas tree. He was sad that the family chose a different tree to put in their house and decorate for Christmas. The story ended with nature adorning the little tree as a Christmas tree. As I read, I wanted to say that it was dumb that he wanted to be a Christmas tree. If he had been chosen, he would have been dead! It would have been much more fitting for him to have seen the chosen Christmas tree being dragged from the home after Christmas with the needles gone. Bare. Brown. And dead. Then realize how blessed he was for having a family who loved him and cared for him, and chose him to live in their yard to bless their lives a lot longer than the few days around Christmas.

So maybe that isn't such a cheery Christmasy thought, but I just watched the recorded episode of Dr. Who from last night, which was a pretty nightmarey Christmas Day.

Anywho, yesterday was our ward's Christmas Dinner where Santa Clause came, and my children got to sit on Santa's lap.

Cooking Club

I joined with a few other ladies in our ward to spend a day together about every other week to cook. I hosted this week, meaning we used my kitchen. It was a pumpkin theme (because I have a shelf of winter squashes I wanted to use in the girls' closet). We made cranberry pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, and no bake cream cheese pumpkin pie. All the recipes tasted really good. I was particularly surprised about the pumpkin soup, because my imagination did not prepare me for what I tasted. It was really, really good.

I don't have anybody else's email addresses but I do have a couple blog addresses, so I'm posting the recipes here where they can copy them off freely.




Cranberry Pumpkin Bread
this is my original recipe

1 Cup whole Wheat Flour
3/4 Cup white flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 Cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup orange juice
1 egg
1/2 cup honey
1 cup Chopped cranberries
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9 x 2.75-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Mix together flour, baking soda, and spices in a medium mixing bowl. Mix in the pumpkin. Separately mix orange juice, egg, and honey. Mix both combinations of ingredients together until there are no dry spots left. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread evenly in loaf pan.

Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (keep in mind the cranberries add moisture, so the toothpick may never really come out totally "clean"). Cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely. Wrap and store overnight. Makes 1 loaf (16 slices).

Suggestions for substitutes:
Flour: Of course you can use all white flour, or use up to 3/4 cup other kinds of flours.
Pumpkin: Any winter squash will do.
Orange juice: Any other juice or even water. Whatever you use will subtly change the flavor.
Honey: You can use any sweetener in place of the honey- maple syrup, agave syrup, sugar, or brown sugar. For a darker flavor, you could even use molasses.


Pumpkin Soup

1 large onion, diced
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
2 cans chicken broth (about 14 oz)
1 small can pumpkin (we used 2 cups puree)
4oz evaporated milk

Cook onion in butter until clear. Add flour. Cook one minute. Add broth and pumpkin. Simmer 30 minutes. Add milk and serve warm.

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie
originally from kraftffoods.com

1 graham cracker crumb crust or baked pie crust
4 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

1 Tbsp. cold milk

1 Tbsp. sugar

1-1/2 cups thawed whipped topping

1 cup cold milk

1 can (16 oz.) pumpkin

2 pkg. (4-serving size each)vanilla instant pudding mix (can use sugar-free)

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground ginger

Beat cream cheese, 1 Tbsp. milk and sugar in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Stir in whipped topping. Spread onto bottom of crust.

Pour 1 cup milk into medium bowl. Add pumpkin, pudding mix and spices. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. (Mixture will be thick.) Spread over cream cheese layer.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Garnish with additional whipped topping, if desired. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

Halloween, one holiday late

I don't know what it is about getting pictures off my camera, but it seems a colossal chore. So, here it is Thanksgiving Day in a few hours and I'm finally showing you my kids costumed up for Halloween.

First off, there's Katie and Tiffany by their respective carved pumpkins. Katie's was a witch. Tiffany's was a haunted house. Emily was napping when we took this picture, so we had to get one of her later. We made a circle trick or treating around our block, and the girls came home with heavy bags. They ate candy for a few days, then I asked Corwin to take the rest to work to share, so it wasn't laying about the house tempting us (especially me) any more.

Just a few things

Emily is pretty much potty trained now. She's been wearing panties all week and has very few accidents. She tells me when she needs to go, and makes me come along. Well, that is until today. She's actually gone to the toilet a couple times by herself. It is sooo nice not to deal with diapers anymore.

We spent some time a few days ago going to a corn maze. Even though Emily got tired almost off the bat and had to be carried, it really was a fun time. Wonder of wonders, we got through the evening with no whining! That was the best treat of all, family time without the whine. We also enjoyed hot chocolate and mini donuts from the shop at the corn maze. I figured (with the diet), that once in a while it's ok to splurge. The next day, I had sugar withdrawals again (a headache), so maybe it wasn't such a good idea for me after all. I need to be a lot more careful with sugar.

Speaking of dieting, I have lost a little over 20 pounds now, putting me back within my normal range on the BMI. So, I'm not looking so much at weightloss now, but more at focusing on eating healthy (in case anybody is curious). The focus for me is whole foods, without a lot of added fat and sugar. I'm still not going to eat meat, and very little dairy. Though, for the sake of peace in my household, my baked goods will mostly have to be half white and half whole wheat flour. Corwin just doesn't like heavy breads, so he compromises with me.

We had our trunk or treat at the church last Friday. I dug out our Halloween box to see what costumes had been put away. There was the winged unicorn that Emily wore last year (that really, she was already too big for at the time because it was for an infant, but we let her feet hang out the end instead of snapping it under her feet). I don't really know why I saved it, except it was so cute. Sigh. Of course it fits none of my girls this year. There were two costumes that fit Emily this year. There was a jack-o-lantern shirt thing, and there was a baby Simba (Lion King) costume. She chose to wear the lion. Next we had a firefighter costume that fit Katie quite well. Lastly, I had placed my cap and gown from my highschool graduation in the box. Tiffany was so excited that she could wear it this year, as it didn't drag on the ground like it did when shetried it on last year. Yep, I admit it, I save things. I'm working on that habit, and I am getting better about letting go. The Simba costume is going to the thrift store soon after Halloween (I'll let them store it for a year) since it won't fit any of my girls after this. But the other two will go back in the box, even if it takes Emily two or three years to grow into the firefighter outfit. And I'll save the cap and gown, after all I had to pay for them. I have to get my money's worth. Ok, maybe I'm a little crazy. I mean isn't it easier to buy new costumes every year than to store the ones you got? But then again, I've seen what the stores want for a costume that will only be worn for a few hours. Even the thrift stores want quite a bit for one. So, I guess I'll save the two that have a chance of being worn in my family at least one more time.

I'll let the girls dress up and go out one more time on Halloween. Then I'll get a few pictures.

Update

It's been a while since the last post, so I thought I should give an update as to what we've been up to. Let's see. My dad gave me a bunch of grapes, and I made raisins. His neighbor gave me a bunch of peaches, and I made fruit leather and smoothie popsicles. I've had a birthday. Tiffany and I have been getting a workout everyday riding our bikes to and from school. She averages 2 1/2 miles a day, and I get about 7 1/2 with my three times a day trip.

In other news. Well, I don't know how to put this, but I've changed to a mostly vegan diet. I'm eating much better, and I feel great. I say "mostly" because, I'm still adjusting to how I can eat when away from home. When I'm home, I have no problems sticking to the diet. Unfortunately for me, I've got to find new "family favorite" recipes. Besides animal products, I've also cut out sugar, processed grains and added fat.

You're probably wondering what Corwin thinks of all this. Well, perhaps he'll write and tell you. From my view, he's been very tolerant and supportive of me thus far. He insists on cheese and milk for him, so sometimes I make part of a dish a little different, and he takes care of his own breakfast. So, there's only friction when I run out of dinner ideas.

I've also created a separate food blog for experimenting with new foods and sharing my experiences. It is located here.

Other than that, things have been plodding along. Things get done slowly, and we haven't really started anything new. We're just working on the same old projects.

Air Show

We went to the Mountain Home Air Force Base Air Show today. It was quite windy, but we had fun together looking at airplanes, watching the show, and touring airplanes close up.

The first pictures are from the search and rescue plane.

The girls sitting on the fold down bench seats along the wall:

Emily sitting on the floor of the cargo area:

Tiffany in a seat at the front of the cargo area:

Corwin in a seat behind the copilot:

Tiffany as copilot:

Katie flipping switches and pushing buttons:

The Blue Angels flying in formation:

Katie standing on the wing of a Diamond Star:

Tiffany's baptism

Our oldest daughter was baptized last Saturday. Here are a few pictures from that day:

Corwin and Tiffany:

My three girls:

This is what the children did after the baptism:

Heart transplant begins

Well, I did it: I removed the gas engine from the Jetta. I foolishly forgot to unhook a few things before renting the engine hoist; a 2-hour rental turned out to be a 4-hour rental and I ended up just cutting an exhaust clamp off because I got sick of fighting with it with the clock ticking. But, out she came, so now I can continue disassembly of the brakes, steering, subframe and suspension. I'm not going to just replace everything with new parts, but I am going to disassemble and inspect everything and replace as necessary and upgrade where I feel like it. I've already got a list of electrical improvements to make; stock Jettas of this year won't warn you if you leave the lights on, but this one will by the time I'm done with it. :)

Here's the engine on the hoist, the transmission is on the floor. Transmissions always seem small to me once they're out of the car, for some reason. They're pretty light, too, easily liftable by one person. Uh, don't try that with a pickup truck trans though.

Lawn mower update

A while ago I blogged about a lawn mower left out for the garbage men. It had a bit of rust so I decided to paint the deck. I didn't really do it to increase the selling price of the mower, though I'm sure that helped -- mainly I wanted to practice a technique used to paint cars for about $50.

Normally, a cheap paint job for a car costs $200 and looks terrible. A good paint job costs $2,000 and up, but some clever (or frugal) chap realized that enamel or polyurethane boat paint can actually be rolled onto a car if properly thinned so it becomes self-leveling. Of course, it can take upwards of 10 coats to get full color density, but if you have cheap labor (yourself) you can get results that rival more expensive professional spray jobs. Since I like cheap, and I have three cars that need painted, I decided to experiment on the mower before tackling a bigger project.

It turned out ok. At first I was a perfectionist and it went well but was going to take a really long time; I won't say it's necessarily difficult to get good results painting metal, but your prep work and technique (and patience) are critical. My final result did have a few imperfections as a result of my haste, but I wanted to get this mower out of here so I could work on the Jetta (see previous blogs) so I didn't go back and start over so it could be done perfectly. Still, I ended up with a good four-foot paint job: looks fantastic from four feet away, but you can see a couple of high and low spots if you look more closely.

I ended up accomplishing two things: a better looking mower, and valuable experience for when I take on a car paint job.

I sold the mower today. I was afraid it wouldn't sell at the end of the mowing season, but I got three bites on the Craigslist ad and the first person to show up started it with one pull and they took it.

I still keep an eye out for mowers pushed to the curb before garbage day... there are worse hobbies, I suppose.

What's up with the specs?

Thanks to Spectacular Six for pointing out that I haven't said anything about the girls getting glasses. Here's the story.

Tiffany and Katie had been asking me if they could get glasses. They don't need glasses, but Corwin & I both wear them (or contacts), and recently Tiffany's best cousin had to get them, so they wanted them, too. We've tried explaining what a pain it is to have to wear glasses and to take care of glasses, but they were not to be dissuaded (yes, of course we could just say no, but there's really no harm in it). So I thought I could just ask at the optometrist's office if I could buy the old demo frames when they were done with them. Well, when Katie's birthday came, we were at walmart picking up supplies, and the girls saw the optometrist's office there was open, so I went in and asked. Of course, they just send the demo frames back to the company. But the lady there told me I could just buy the frames right off the rack. The name brand letters come right off with a little fingernail polish remover. And they sell kids frames for as little as $10! So, I bought the two girls demo frames with demo lenses, and they were so happy. Surprising for me, Katie has taken really good care of hers, and she loves to wear them.

10 tips to beat clutter in less than five minutes

I just saw this on unclutterer.com. It is too good not to share:

10 tips to beat clutter in less than five minutes

1. Make your bed each morning.
2. Throw away the newspaper each night, even if you haven’t read it yet.
3. Follow the “one-minute rule” – push yourself to do any chore that takes less than one minute. Throw away the junk mail, close the cabinet door, put your dirty socks in the hamper, hang up your wet towel.
4. Identify an organization or person to whom you can give things you no longer need – it’s much easier to get rid of unneeded stuff if you can envision someone else getting good use from them. Also, figure out a place to store those things until you hand them over. We have a special shelf for books that we’re taking to the Housing Works thrift store. When the shelf is full, we drop off the books.
5. Pause for a moment before you “store” something. Storing something means you don’t intend to use it much. Other than holiday decorations and seasonal clothes, you should strive to “store” as little as possible.
6. Beware of freebies. Never accept anything free, unless you’re thrilled with it. A mug, a tote bag, a hand-me-down toy, the lamp from your mother-in-law—if you don’t need it, don’t take it.
7. Get rid of things if they break. When I went through our apartment, I was astonished by how many things I’d kept even though they didn’t work.
8. Don’t keep any piece of paper unless you know that you actually need it. I have a friend who, for years, carefully filed away the stubs when she paid her gas bill. “Why?” I asked, mystified. “I have no idea,” she said. Along the same lines, don’t keep anything that would quickly become dated—like travel information. Remember the internet! If you can easily find information online, you don’t need to keep a hard copy.
9. Hang up your coat.
10. Before you go to bed, take five minutes to do an “evening tidy-up.” Don’t tackle anything ambitious, but just stack up the magazines, put your shoes away, shove the chairs into place, etc. Just a few minutes of tidying can make your house look a lot better, and it’s a calming thing to do before going to sleep. Plus it makes the morning nicer.