What's for dinner?

Shepherd's Pie(click for link to Food Network recipe)

Oh my, its Shepherd's Pie.
And it was delicious.
I had a batch of mashed potatoes in the freezer from Thanksgiving and this was the perfect use for them!
I skipped the lamb part and substituted white corn for the carrots and peas, for the kids sake... and mine. :)
Definitely a keeper.

Grandma Katie and DadDad

LIFE

SO blessed by this Lady.

We went to visit the bulldog pups again.

MomMom wants one too!

Look at those faces!

Later ...Mom and Dad took us out to dinner, a delicious dinner, at Rib and Chop. I don't remember enjoying dinner there this much the other times we have dined there.... hmmm, I bet it something to do with the sweet company! :)

THEN in grand DadDad fashion, he proposed we head to the dairy section of the grocery store and EACH pick out our OWN pint of ice cream?!?! FUN! 

Too Sweet and so fun! We are so blessed and thankful, thankful, thankful for the time with them. Thank you Mom and Dad, for making the trip. It is a bear, and we do appreciate it. Wonderful to see you!

We really miss the rest of the fam too. 

Now, about the title to this post.

Gran told us that she had never really 'felt' like a Brenda. She grew up going by her middle name which is Wyn, but not everyone knows her by that name. She said when she grew up she thought she should have had red hair and been called Katie. Yep.

That is what she said. 

So we saw a few glimpses of Gran's alter ago, Gramma Katie, 

and she is as endearing as GranMomMom herself! :) 

Most of us were happy to embrace Gramma Katie, but the new name and wished for red hair was news to DadDad and he had quite the quizzical look on his face when he heard. 

Last night the kids were showing there flexibility skills and exerting themselves trying to put their feet to their head or behind their head, etc. And as you might expect, I know I wasn't surprised, one of them... uh, released some pressure? You know what I mean - passed a bit of gas. Well, there is a whole backstory from Gran's last visit or our visits there about practicing our Gran Manners. So, now we have committed a manner faux pas! But, not to fear, Gramma Katie is here! Chuckle, chuckle and Gran declares, 

"Gran would have been offended but Gramma Katie thinks its funny!" 

Wha? Whew! Hahaha, laughter ensues. Much laughter. Always laughter. 

Thanksgiving 2011

Success... ah, sweet success.
Our Big Dinner turned out great. The turkey was brined last night. This morning Phoebe and I made the pumpkin pie and put the Rhodes rolls out to rise. (Whoa, Rhodes Rolls. It has been too long since I made them and will not be that long again. Yum. These are our new old fav!)
Then we put the Bird in the oven.
Peeled 10 lbs of potatoes. 10lbs. Yep, 10. Potatoes anyone? We will be having potatoes into next week. Ah, well, could be worse! They are butter, garlic, cream cheese potatoes - yum!
Made the stuffing. White corn ready for microwave.
...A couple of hours later, turkey comes out to rest, rolls go in to bake.
Table set all purty.
Sparkling apple cider and wine with frozen cranberries dropped in for loveliness.
Turkey being carved and taste-tested - its gooooood! Yay, I am so happy that the turkey turned out!

We had a lovely dinner.
And the best part was looking around the table and among the precious, sweet faces that I love are MomMom and DadDad.

And Mom shared that she had read on the author of the Truth Project's blog, that we should be practicing thankfulness 364 days a year, and only complain one day a year. Too true.


A couple of hours later, after naps and relaxation...we dish up some perfect pumpkin pie and I bake up a Doo-dadd. Doo' -dadd: a delicious pastry snack/dessert made with pie crust spread with butter and cinnamon sugar and rolled up and baked. Yum. Advice: make two.

And then to 'wrap up' the day...

The game of Life.

8 people. Beginning to end. 

The whole shebang!

Thankful for sweet family. 

Love and hugs to family missed.

Oh, the Glory Days

I never have struggled with wanting to go back in time...
not to childhood. not to the high school days. not to young adulthood.

I do agonize over a deep desire to re-live my children's baby-hood and 'do it better' and live in the moment. But my condition is going back with the hard-gained wisdom of now. Here's the kicker: if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't be where I am now. So. God is precious faithful and blessed persistent to pursue our hearts. He has brought me through what we needed to go through to be where we are now and I love it here. Precious closer to Him than ever and more to go and let it come! No fear...well, significantly less fear and its grip is a fair sight lighter than it was.

I have a friend that just had her third baby. I have another friend just pregnant with her third. I have a couple of friends trying to get pregnant, one with her second and one with her first. I have another friend (or two)who may announce pregnancy any day, well, these could be grouped with the last couple quite snugly I suppose!
I am past these days. The glory days.  Whew! How wondrous and delicious is news of a baby. And yet, oy, t.i.r.e.d. As in physical weariness that does not end for ...oh, say, 5-6 years until the precious little blessing goes off to school. And then you realize, you haven't been alone in years. But then a whole other kind of crazy busy-ness takes over.(And what if you home-school?!?!)  And then the teen years of emotional havoc wreaked on your mother's heart! And you find yourself seeing the simplicity of the toddler days which were at least only physically draining, when your problems could be greatly diminished by blessed nap-time, for you and baby!  But its ok(its MORE than 'ok', I have dear friends who haven't been able to get pregnant so easily and it has opened my eyes to the magnitude of blessings I have received), its wonderful, its precious, its sweet, its messy, its very, very difficult and challenging. Tearful. Laughter. Stains. Breaks. Drags unselfishness out of ya.
It changes you like nothing else in life. I am... beyond thankful, I am broken thankful. Enough emotion to split my heart open and pour out, like the woman, Mary, who poured out perfume on Jesus' feet, mixed with her tears, which were even more precious to Him I expect. This woman I identify with, for grace is the sweetest gift.

My babes are 9, 11, 13, 15. My glory days? Are right now. As much as I loved the baby days and even wish I could relive them, on a level that knows its not possible, still, I don't want to be anywhere but right here right now.
These are my glory days.

Thank You, Lord.

Happy Birthday to John! 

We had some dear friends over and celebrated the 40th! It was much fun and there was much laughter... as you can imagine if you have spent any time at all with my husband! Steve and Jaimie Goff, Justin and Jackie Dighans, Cody and Jana Cass, Jeff and Brenda Johnstone! Sweet friends who have become like family to us here in MT. In fact, that was the only downer, no family here. Love you, miss you!
Thanking God for good friends, people you can be at ease with, who love ya, and that you can call for back-up when you need it!

And so thankful for my husband! Love him!

Puppy Love

I have to admit it...

I am basically a city girl. However, I do daydream about having a bit of a farm, some chickens, even in a daring moment, a cow? But on some level I worry about what all that would entail...could I handle it? My husband lets me off the hook though, b/c he is in no way up for any type of farm, except a garden, and children, and pups. So. Good.
I have a fairly weak constitution, so the thought of dogs in heat and puppies and puppy-poopy, etc., etc., makes me leery. Add to that my being less than the typical animal lover, its not that I don't love them its just that I don't LOVE them. So its all not as easy for me, it doesn't come naturally, I have to not think about being grossed out, or whatever, by what needs to be done. At least motherhood has given me some progress, self-sacrifice, unpleasant but necessary duties, acts of love.

All that to say,
in spite of my tendencies, I enjoyed puppy-sitting! It was sweet to sit on the floor, on/near the dog bed, helping mama dog lie down and get situated and helping puppies latch on and have their fill. And loving it. Admiring Mama Mya and watching, listening to, helping the pups suckle. Listening to Mya snore while her pups nursed and then watching in wonder as she bathed each of them thoroughly.
Maybe I could do this someday....
:)

Stuff of late.

Posters, posters, posters! 

We are having too much fun with poster-board in school. 

The girls needed some reminders for school mornings.

Here is our school schedule for most days.

Here is Phoebe the Cowgirl, for Halloween.

Here are a few pics from Phoebe getting ahold of the camera...

Here is the Daddy... btw, its his 40th bd this Friday!

And, 

here are the bulldog pups that we got to pup-sit today. 

So cute!

We are hoping to get one! 

Proud, sweet mama, Mya.

The Pheebs doing school-work.

And Ell! :)

Its Dinner Time...again!

Chicken with Pampered Chef Southwestern Seasoning(shameless plug!) in the oven to bake.
Red onion in the pan to caramelize.(my eyes are still burning!)
Ground beef on top of the onion. Taco seasoning and some salsa.
Fry up some corn tortillas./Nacho ships./And flour shells.
Chopped tomato.
Chopped olive.
...Chopped pickle... yah, I said pickle!  Its good, ok?! People who try it - like it!
Sour cream.
Lettuce.


In the past I have bucked the Stand-bys. You know, the Stand-bys, those meals you make often and that go over well. And that you don't have to follow a recipe card! I love trying new things and following the recipe! I totally love it! And when it works and the thing is good! Yes!
But you know, we have our Stand-bys... spaghetti, stroganoff, hamburgers (in season), french dip sandwiches,
haystacks, chicken casserole, baked chicken, buttered noodles and Parmesan, and, of course, tacos! So, for a while, I was just tired of making the same stuff. But lately, I think - Why fight it if it works?!?!
So let's hear it for the Stand-bys!
Love it!  
Besides its always nice when the kids walk in the kitchen and their eyebrows go up and they say, "Are we having_____?! YES! (vs. WHAT is that? Do WE have to eat that?) ha-ha... ya.

My kids crack me up

Jacob went door-to-door selling magazines for a school fundraiser and went to gal's house that I work with at the coffee shop. She told me this morning about his salesmanship... we may have found his calling, although she didn't buy so maybe not. She said she started out by telling him no thank you. Then he started making suggestions of mags that might suit her, Martha Stewart, Good Housekeeping, etc. She looked through the list of choices and said, still, no thanks, she doesn't read them and was sorry but she just shouldn't. He then resorted to guilt trip: "Ok, but someday I am going to not have a very good job because I didn't get a good education since you wouldn't buy a magazine and then you are probably going to feel bad." Ha! She thought that was great. He has such a quick sense of humor. 

Then during school this morning, Daisy was sitting with Ellie and all of the sudden sat up and gave her the bug-eyed stare. Ellie was asking Daisy what she wanted and I said she wants you to read her mind, Ellie said, "Sorry, Daisy, all I hear is elevator music coming from your head!" 

Cracked me up! My kids got their Daddy's sense of humor, too funny! I love it.

Hope you take a smile with you as well! 

Today's Schedule

4:30 a.m. Rise and Shine!
6:00 a.m. Leave for work.
9:00 a.m. Return home from work to home-school girls.
1:40 p.m. Girls and I go to 3-in-1 (after school kids program at Grace Bible Church every other week)
4:00 p.m. Girls, Jacob, and I head home from 3-in-1.
5:00 p.m. Cheat on dinner and take us out to Gallaghers
5:45 p.m. Take girls to Awana
6:00 p.m. Drop Jacob off at WCW (Wild & Crazy Wednesdays - middle school youth group at Grace Bible)
7:00 p.m. Drop Nate and high school youth group, meets at leader's home
7:30 p.m. pick up girls from Awana
8:30 p.m. pick up Jacob from WCW(see above)
9:00 p.m. pick up Nate from high school youth group
ASAP put sweet, precious children to bed so I can go to bed!

What's For Dinner?

Ever the question....

Tonight:

Fresh bakery rolls.
Au Jus Dip.
Sliced Roast Beef from the deli.
And Vegetable side choice: Sweet white corn or Asparagus

Delicious.

Dessert?
Halloween candy of course.