Week Off

I'm back.

It's been kind of quiet around here this last week. Mostly because Mike took Wednesday-Sunday off this last week!

It was an unexpected surprise, and we all enjoyed it very much!

What did we do with our time off? Nothing!

It was awesome. Most days we were all in our pajamas until late and only got in clothing to go out and do something fun.

The kids still had school. I had not planned for them to have a break last week, but this week, and I wasn't about to give up my week-off-for-Thanksgiving.

But it was good, dad got to teach a bit, we got our two book dates that we owed completed, Mike and I went on a date, we all played a TON of Shang hi and we even got to go to the Orchard together as a family Saturday night! How fun was that?!

Last night Mike left for the Orchard-year-planning-overnight- trip. Today the kids and I will do the thanksgiving shopping for Mitchell/Jones Thanksgiving feast and take all the stuff to Paula's in preparation for our great day together.

Still waiting on snow. Real snow. We have had cold and flurries, but we need real snow. The kids are going crazy and unless there is snow on the ground there isn't much playing outside when it is this cold.

So, Please let it snow!!!

Kristen

Feed My Starving Children

We ended our school week this last week with a trip to Feed My Starving Children. It was great! The kids loved helping to fill the food bags with the nutritious food mix and they did such a great job!!

Joshi loved his hair net. Well, they all, except Faith, loved their hair nets. They really thought daddy needed one on his chin.

We had 86 people in our group and we packed a total of 90 boxes! The lady said that was enough food to feed 56 kids for one year! Amazing. Such an easy thing to do and it makes such a huge impact. We will definitely be putting it on our family calendar to do once a month, at least.

After we were done packing food, they had some of the food, that we had just packed, prepared for the kids to try. Seth devoured his and said,"Mom this is sooo good!! Can you make it at home?"

At first I thought, maybe he shouldn't like it so much.

I wanted him understand how desperate the situation was.

That these children are starving to DEATH and they will eat whatever, it is a matter of survival.
But then I realized, he had spent time and energy packing this food for these children who desperately needed it. Not only were these kids getting nutritious food that would help them survive and grow, but it actually tastes good too? How cool is that! He was really happy to have helped these kids and know that it wasn't some nasty concoction, but something that was yummy! What a cool kid!

Kristen

Bread bowls and Soup

With cold weather upon us it was time to break out the soup recipes again.

Luckily my kiddos have all developed a love for most of the soups I make. Broccoli cheddar is a favorite of all except one. And she isn't the picky eater, I know this is just personal preference.

Anyways, when I suggest Broccoli cheddar soup yesterday they all cheered, except the one. Then it was suggested that mom should make bread bowls for everyone. Initially, I thought,"you've got to be kidding me!" But then the one who didn't like the soup had a look of hope on her face. So I succumbed.

I found this recipe on my favorite site. The only change I made was I made six bowls instead of 8, I used my kitchen aid for all the kneading, and I used Bakers Bread flour from Sams club instead of all purpose. Really people, not only the type but the brand of flour makes a difference. Trust me I have made a lot of bread and the flour and yeast that you use makes a difference.

They turned out beautiful. The kids were all very excited and ate up the soup and the bowl!

For the soup I modified a recipe I found last year.

Here it goes

2 tbs butter
two chicken breasts
onion
garlic
pinch nutmeg
pepper
dried parsley
3 cups chicken bouillon-or broth
1 cup milk- with 1 cup flour
11 cups of water
three potatoes peeled, cubed and partially boiled
two carrots diced
two heads of broccoli- I used frozen, so I had to cook it less time. I just estimated how much to use.
three cups of cheese

I placed the chicken cut up, in a big stock pot with the butter. If you are going to use onion this would be a great time to put it in. We don't use onion, it hurts us.

After the chicken has browned I add the spices, carrots and one cup of bouillon. Let the chicken cook the rest of the way.

Then add the rest of the chicken bouillon (or broth) and the 11 cups of water.

Bring it back up to boil and while it is heating mix the milk and flour. Mix until it is smooth- no lumps, and slowly add it too the hot soup. If you have some lumps once you add it don't worry, they will cook out, beat them a bit with a whisk and they will disappear.

Add potatoes and broccoli. I turn the heat up and let it get to a rolling boil then turn down a bit but not too much because I like the broccoli to get pretty soft, so I can break it up with the spoon, before I serve. I usually cook this part for about 20-30 minutes. If using fresh broccoli, you will have to cook it a bit longer. Once we are about 5-10 minutes away from eating I add the cheese and stir. I didn't add any additional salt, but it did need a bit, I just added to my own, that way we aren't over salting. But it was a bit bland without it.

That's it. Easy and really yummy. I changed the original recipe, because it had a lot more butter and heavy cream. Also they mix the flour and butter and add it too the soup. Every time I did it the original recipes way, I had lots and lots of lumps that I couldn't get out, this way we had no lumps.

Kristen

November! Yikes!

Lots on my mind so hold on to your seats.

Having a hard time adjusting to the winter temps. Partly because we were having lovely fall weather and then all of a sudden had a weird warm front come in and then went from 70's to 40's in just a day. Yuck.

Busy week this week ending with Feed My Starving Children on Friday. I am excited about it, even though the set up of it was not that easy. I am finding that, unfortunately, setting up field trips for home schoolers isn't always easy. But the people at the actual center have been fabulous and very kind. The kids are really looking forward to it. We have really been wanting to get more active in the community and volunteer more, but it is hard to find a place that will let little guys volunteer.

Thanksgiving is just a couple weeks away!!! Weird. Paula will be out with the boys before Thanksgiving so I will be doing the thanksgiving dinner shopping alone. Sad, but so glad she is getting away. We will be cooking and eating together. It is going to be a sad day for us all. But I am so glad we will be together.

Still hoping our annual Black Friday shopping extravaganza works out. Paula and i love to plan and stratagize, and have such a good time dodging and weaving through the crowds! Very fun. We never go into it thinking we have to get anything, just some fun ideas of stuff we would like to get our hands on and if we get them, cool. Whatever. And how fun is it to price match every item you have at Walmart? The cashiers love us :) Oh and another fun thing is calling across the country and to other states to our friends and family who are doing the same thing as us at that very moment! It is a true bond.

Mike and I are planning relational gifts again this year for our family. The Orchard started this last year and it is such a great idea. Instead of spending so much on toys that break and garbage that no one really wants we were encouraged to put thought into our gifts and buy relational gifts. Things you can do together as a family. It means so much more! Then with the money you save do something meaningful for the community or the world.

So last year on Christmas morning, our kids opened up gifts from relatives and Santa. Then Mike and I had booked a stay at a water park in the Dells and spent Christmas and a couple of day after, there with the kids. We swam and played, ate and played and swam. It was very fun, and none of us had any regrets. It was the best, and the kids want to do it again this year.

And what happened to the money we saved in not buying a bunch of garbage toys? We donated to help drill wells in places that needed clean water. Very cool.

Okay, that is it for now.

Kristen

Mytatstory.com

I am being blown away by the stories on mytatstory! If you haven't checked it out, do it. You will be amazed.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Orchard recently?

Kristen

Halloween 2008

What a beautiful Halloween day we had!!! Mike has been super busy lately so we took the day to catch up on some stuff that had to get done! We almost ran out of time for carving pumpkins, but scaled down our design at the last minute and got these out on the porch.












Punk rock girl, was sad it was too warm to wear the black leather coat that Ms. Karen lent her from her rocker days:(

Yeah, I said too warm. Do you think we have lived her too long when high 50's- 60's is too warm for a coat?








Kylee went with the old blow up polar bear costume. Always funny.











Seth is always the challenge. He wanted a scuba diver, so I made his costume. Not too hard. It turned out pretty cute.










Joshi also went with one of our old blow up costumes. He was pretty excited to be wearing the shark this year. Also, loved the fact that he was a shark and Seth was a scuba diver :)








Hope you all had a great night!!

Kristen

Book Date One

Tonight was the first of our "book reading dates". We started this last year, for every 24 hours of reading the kids earn a date with mom or dad. Seth was the first to reach his goal a couple of weeks ago, so tonight I utilized my live in babysitter and we went out on the town.

He was very excited about our date. This afternoon, as I was planning for our school week next week, Seth ran upstairs and changed into a dress shirt, dress pants and did his hair.

When we were about to leave I ran upstairs to run a brush through my hair, when there was a knock on the door.

"Mom it's your date" giggled Kylee.

I ran downstairs and opened the door and there was my little guy standing there with a rose. I am sure he snagged it from the neighbors, since my roses quit producing....last year. He also handed me the buy one get one free coupon we were planning on using. I laughed and told him he probably shouldn't hand his date the coupon his is planning on using!

We posed while my my babysitter took a couple of pictures, and we were about ready to leave when he asked me in such a proper voice ,"may I please use your toilet before we go?"

I about cracked up. I told him of course and then he just looked at me, waiting for me to tell him where it was. Yeah, he was taking this date stuff serious! I showed him to the restroom and then we were ready to go.

We went to dinner and had a great night. Great conversation and delicious food. Very fun.

And last but not least, we stopped at Starbucks for some salted caramel hot chocolate. Let me just say there aren't words to describe this hot chocolate and if you haven't tried it, you really need to. Yum!

Kristen

Shanghi Tournament- Halloween '08

Ok, so until I can figure out how to post pictures on facebook, I will just have to post them on here. But I will figure it out. Here are some pictures of our Shanghi tournament/costume party.

Mike was a joker (as in cards joker not scary joker) and I was the queen of hearts.





Here is the joker on his own. You can also catch a glimpse of a shark, but you will have to wait another week to see the kids in their costumes :)












The blues brothers were at the tournament, and Elwood even took the much coveted shanghi trophy home.






Here is a whole family of cards. This queen thought she was more important than the queen of hearts, but we know that isn't true!




Oh yes, and don't forget our metrosexual vampires. And if you don't know what metrosexual is, google it.

There were a few friends that missed my camera shots, like Smarty pants (Paula), Doug and Joni, and Terri's Dad, sister and brother in law.



And there was lots and lots and lots of card playing. Four tables, 4- 5 people at each table! It was very fun!







Here is the punk rocker. Again you will have to wait till Friday to see the whole costume. Very cute! Also a very good Shanghi player.










Mike had to wash off the make up and take off the hat, he was scaring little kids! But he did find one of the vampire's wigs and make use of it. He was reliving the old days :)










For those of you who didn't know him back in the day.


Kristen

Pictures Seth's Birthday Party Weekend

Here is the much anticipated Coral snake birthday cake (sorry mom and dad, it took so long for me to post these).






Yeah, I couldn't decide which pose I liked better, so I posted both.






Seth and Philip had a great time with Mike playing laser tag and bowling, then came home to play video games and eat cake.






What? Our dogs aren't allowed on the couch!








Mom and Seth cheesing it up.






All the candles blown out!






Then the next day we had a treat after our free movie, Jackson got to come over and hang out with us for a while. They spent a good part of the day building card houses and were very proud of this one.


Kristen

Happy Birthday Todd

Kind of a strange day.

I have had lots of emotions today, and have been unsure of what I want to share.

Tonight I celebrated my friends 43rd birthday with his boys and his wife. He should have been with us.

Paula and I took the kids to Chuckie Cheese, where they had spent Todd's last few birthdays.

While there, Kylee and Jackson, such good friends, were paired off. They found a game that they had found a way to get A LOT of tickets out of. I didn't feel bad that they were bending the rules of the game a bit to get a lot of tickets, because let's face it Chuckie got his money tonight.

But here is the thing. After Kylee and Jackson got all of these tickets, and there were a lot of tickets, Jackson asked Kylee if they could take these tickets and go around to some of the little kids who don't have that many and give them away. Kylee said sure!

That is what they did. They gave every last one of them away!

You know who that is?

Todd Mitchell.

Oh my gosh, I just wanted to cry. That is Todd's legacy, he imparted to his children how to be generous, by living a generous life.

I am so proud of them and I know he is too.

Kristen