Winter Weather

We live in Oklahoma.  Our weather is bi-polar.

Yep - 70 degrees one day then we will have a 40 degree drop. We may have snow - we may have ice - we may have wind - we may have rain - we may have fog.  Take your pick - they all happen here and you never know when . We may  have all of them in the space of 24-48 hours

Now why am I telling you this?

Because all week long our weather forecasters have been advising of the approaching winter storm.

Yep - we already have this in effect.  I got notification yesterday when it was 70 degrees outside.

Last week we had great weather - then on Friday a front came through we had MAYBE 1/4 inch of snow.  The school closed (yes it was very cold and I understand that this may be why they closed the schools but let's get real here.  The temperature wasn't that cold and I know that there are resources available for students to get coats if the parents want to avail themselves of the resources. I also know of students who have the proper clothing but choose not to wear it).

So school closed last week - it was cold Friday and Saturday then we warmed up.  BUT -- even before the warm up came on Monday our forecasters were telling us to brace ourselves for the next round of cold weather.

I know the storm is bad and there are areas that will receive severe snow and ice from this but I do not understand the hype that we are receiving here. It started Sunday - advising of the upcoming storm - ice - freezing rain.  Now keep in mind - they also advised that it was to early to do an accurate determination of the location this would take - it might go north of us - it might go south - it was to early to tell.

So Monday - I start receiving calls wanting to know how will they be notified when we don't have class on Friday.  Really?  Who told you we wouldn't?

This has continued all week.  The forecasters are still saying it's hard to determine the exact line of the storm and what we will get.  We are in an area that seems to be a dividing line for all storms whether winter, tornado, etc. It goes north or south of us - sometimes right in the middle.

Now I know that in 2007 we were hit hard with an unexpected ice storm and there were people without electricity for 10 days or longer. I know that they want people to be prepared but I'm wondering  - are they over-preparing us?  Now I kinda secretly hope we do have some bad weather and that classes are cancelled - I'd love a snow day.  But at the same time - I am not preparing for it before it happens in my head.

Yes, it's smart to be certain you have food and water and necessary supplies but don't you usually have those on hand anyway?  Do you go to the grocery store before every meal or even every day. Is it necessary to compare a storm that isn't here yet to one from 9 years ago?  We don't know what this one will bring to us.

I also know that it keeps my brothers who live in Michigan and Pennsylvania amused.  We closed for temps at 16 and less than 1/4 inch of snow. In Michigan it was minus 2 and some lake effect snow -everything was normal. Pennsylvania had 2 feet of snow - it had been snowing for 2 straight days but all was normal.

So how about you?  Do you think the forecasters over-prepare us?

Christmas Thoughts

If you know me very well, and even if you don't know me but have been reading my blog, you know that I love Christmas!

I love everything about Christmas.  

I love the anticipation. Countdown to Christmas -- you bet!  Advent calendars to help keep track of the days. Paper chains where you can tear off one chain each day.

This year I found a Gingerbread house with doors to open.

I know these aren't new but they are usually expensive and I tend to pass on buying one. I found this one for half-price when I was Black Friday shopping and knew I had to have it.

I love the lights at Christmas time. Lights on the Christmas tree, lights on houses, lights in the snow. I remember as a kid Mom would make popcorn balls and we would get in the car and Dad would drive us around to look at the lights around town.  Gary and I drive around several times each season looking at lights. That's the difference between a big city and a small town. In the big city, you can go to a different neighborhood each night to see lights. In a small town you see the lights in one night. But either way it's fun.

I love decorating for Christmas. Pulling out all my tubs and tubs and tubs and tubs (do you get the idea I have lots of decorations?) from the attic. Unwrapping each one - remembering where it came from, who gave it to me. Smiling as I pull out the Christmas books and remembering my daughters reading "The Animal's Christmas Eve" every year. The angel at the top of my tree was on my tree growing up. I wrap her up carefully and put her in a special box. Every year, Gary is worried that her lights won't light up.

Kind of a blurry picture but that's our special angel. Her wings are a little bit tattered but she keeps lighting up for us every year.  For some reason, every time I get her out I think of my Mom.

I have a couple of grand kids who live close and they like to help me decorate for Christmas. I love watching them decide where to put items on the trees and around the house.

I love the songs at Christmas. I play Christmas music all year long intermingled with other music; but, at Christmas time - straight Christmas. I love Silent Night, Mary Did You Know, Frosty, You Gotta Get Up, The Grinch, Felix Navidad. Yeah, I love Christmas music!

I love traditions at Christmas time.  We always have cheeseburgers and homemade french fries for Christmas Eve. We have started doing an annual Christmas movie night. We have certain candies we make at Christmas. And what has become one of our favorite traditions is that everyone gets 1-2 cans of Silly String in their Christmas stocking. We then have a silly string fight in the house on Christmas morning.  We always look forward to this.

We have a lot more cans than this and we certainly have fun with it. You would be amazed at how big a ball silly string will make when you start cleaning it up.

I love Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church. Reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas, Christ's birth. Thinking of what Mary and Joseph went through - thinking of where Jesus was born.

In a manager.

As we heard at church yesterday during our Advent series; He came from the lowest of lows to be the Highest of Highs. Born in a manger, His birth was first proclaimed to the shepherds, people who slept with animals. But He came to fulfill a purpose - He came to save us. And that is why we celebrate Christmas Day. The greatest gift of all - which was also awaited with anticipation for YEARS - and some never saw it but the still awaited.

Wishing each of you a joyous Christmas and asking that you take time during this special of seasons to remember the Reason.

Leftovers

Who likes leftovers!  Not me!  There are very few foods I eat left over -- I'm pretty picky.  Potato soup is good leftover. Goulash is good left over. Mashed potatoes are good to use for potato pancakes or potato salad.

But what about those Thanksgiving leftovers you have?  Well I will kind of eat them. But we decided to do something different this year.  We decided to have a Thanksgiving Leftover New Food Night!

Now to be honest - we didn't have to many left overs from Thanksgiving and by the time we had our New Food Night we had to make new 'leftovers'.  LOL  But here you have it - some of our leftovers.

Here you can see that we are set up waiting to sample some goodness!

Let's start with some Turkey Tortillas.  Turkey, Swiss cheese, some cranberry -- this was very very good.  This was made by K.C.. You know you are always looking for new ways to use up that turkey.

K.C. also made some Sweet Potato biscuits.  Very good - but not a lot of sweet potato flavor to them.  I could detect the flavor but it was not a strong sweet potato flavor,

Gary and I made some Turkey Wontons.  Man were these good!  Turkey, dressing, cream cheese, turkey gravy!  May not sound yummy but it sure was.

We added some cranberry salsa to go along with the wontons.  It went well with the tortilla to.

Miss Annette made some dressing with cranberries and walnuts.  Gotta love dressing.

And to be certain we had dessert (didn't want anyone to be disappointed) I made up some snickerdoodles.  Now this classifies as Thanksgiving leftovers because it was some frozen cookie dough I had bought from a school fundraiser before Thanksgiving. It was sitting in the freezer during Thanksgiving so therefore it is Thanksgiving leftovers.  :)

Here's a plate of everything but the cookies.  I did have a few more wontons and tortillas but I wasn't sure if I would like them so strarted with just one of each.

Wanted to show you our full table. Jessica and Steven, Michael's daughter and son-in-law, joined us this week. Also, at the end of the table you will see Katie, a foster that K.C. and Michael are assisting. Now you cannot see the plump little girl in the high chair at the end on the other side of Lily but that would be Amelia, Michael and K.C.'s granddaugher!



Now tell us how you use your leftovers?  We are always open for new suggestions.

FIre PIt Fun

New Food Night ---- Fall Weather -- Fire pit --- Nice patio   Let's put it all together.

We had a Fire Pit Food New Food Night this week!  We all enjoyed it very much.  Let me share with you.

Fire Pit Food was Miss Annette's idea and we are all so glad she came up with it.  So let me try to share some of the food and fun we had last night.

Gary got a fire going.

Bud enjoyed the fire.

We had hot dogs on a stick - but wrapped in a crescent roll.  Now I've checked all my pictures and for some reason I don't seem to have a 'finished' one.  But they were good.  This was Gary's idea. He had two types of hot dogs - regular and cheese dogs. We roasted the hot dogs for a bit to cook them then just rolled crescent dough around them and held this over the fire to bake.  Some of us didn't bake ours as long as others and the roll was a little doughy.  We all agreed though that crescent rolls on a fire are awesome!

Miss Annette had been telling us about Pudgie Pies.  Now no one but her knew what they were.  She had one Pudgie Pie maker that we all used.  Basically, it's a sandwich with filling - your choice, cooked over the fire in the special device.  Miss Annette had a meat mixture.  So you put buttered bread in the Pudgie Pie Maker and just a couple of spoons of filling then top with second slice of butter bread.

Here she is showing us how to put the sandwich together.

Here's that device just sitting in the coals cooking - a couple of minutes on each side.

And here's the finished product.

We also had some corn niblet ears. We just put these on sticks and roasted on the firepit.

And check out the Fire Pit Pizza Roll that K.C. made!  This was really good!  She took the pizza dough and put the filling/toppings in then rolled it up and wrapped in foil. We put it on the fire pit for 15 minutes each side.

This dish was going to be our dessert.

Cake baked in an orange.  Man was this good!  I just took oranges and scooped out all the orange (again I didn't plan ahead as this was a chore  LOL and now I have lots of oranges left in a mushy, mashy mess.  They will be used in garbage disposal).  Filled the orange 2/3 full of cake batter, wrapped in foil and baked for 20 minutes.  The flavor was unbelievable!

There you have it - our New Food Night.

Here's a few pictures of us just hanging out.

Can you guess who likes on-fire marshmallows?

I forgot that we also had marshmallows to roast and chocolate chip cookies to put the marshmallow between.

We all agreed it was a very enjoyable evening and we very glad that Miss Annette had this idea. It put me in the mood to go camping.  How about you? What is your favorite fire pit food?

German Night

Last week we had New Food Night.

I know many of you are wondering why we haven't eaten in so long.  Well, trust me - we ate!  Just not together or as New Food Night.  It was a busy busy month in October. Several things going on - I had surgery, my mother-in-law was in the hospital - trips. But we got together last week and cooked up a storm.

We had decided that our theme would be German food.  So here you have it.

Gary made Rouladin. How good does this look?

It called for it to be made with round steak but he used cube steak instead. Don't you just love creamy sauces?  I do.

Miss Annette made some spaetzle and gravy.

Spaetlze is like fried noodles - kinda. The gravy was an onion gravy she made. It was really good.  Typically, spaetzle is served with whatever sauce comes with the meat dish. She did not know if Gary's meat dish would have a gravy or not so she made one. Nothing wrong with two types of gravy.

She also made some red cabbage.

I'm not a big cabbage person unless it's in coleslaw that is made the  RIGHT way - none of that vinegar stuff for me.  I want the mayo creamy saucy coleslaw.

K.C. made a Bacon Onion Pie.

This is kind of like a quiche but it doesn't have as many eggs.  I loved it. K.C. was not a big fan.

I made potato pancakes.

Now I make potato pancakes frequently but usually out of left-over mashed potatoes This was made with shredded potatoes not cooked.  They were good but I prefer my mashed tater ones better.  Have to thank Gary for shredding those potatoes for me - I was still recovering from surgery and not sure my shoulder could have handled it.

Here's what my full plate looked like.

Not bad.  I cleaned it up too. It was very filling.

Now as I was getting ready to make my potato pancakes I realized that we didn't have a dessert. I knew this for a fact because I had already checked with everyone to see what they were making.  I remembered one other time we didn't have a dessert at New Food Night and could not let that happen again. So, I Googled easy German dessert.  This is what I came up with.

German Honey Cookies.

These were very good!  You may notice the different color variations on the cookies. That's because I was doing to many things at one time and did not bake each batch the same amount of time. The ones that look really dark aren't burnt nor were they hard. They were still soft. The different baking times gave them each a different flavor - the darker ones the honey flavor was more intense.

There you have it - German food at it's best.  What do you think?  Which dish looks the best or maybe sounds the best to you

What Is A Veteran?

What is a veteran?

The dictionary lists this definition: 

     :a person who has served in a military force, especially one who has fought in a war.

But that doesn't define a veteran.  

A veteran is a young boy who leaves home and is on his own for the first time. He comes back with an air of maturity about him. You can see it in the way he carries himself. You see it in the respect he shows.

A veteran is some one's brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, friend. 

A veteran is someone who was not able to be there for a holiday, a birthday, their daughter/son's birth, first step, first word. 

A veteran is someone who may be in a foreign country missing family as he spends his first Christmas away from home. 

A veteran is someone who trained to give his all if it was needed. He may never have set foot on foreign soil but he was prepared if asked. 

A veteran will tell stories of places he has been and things he has seen. He and his buddies had the time of their lives when he recounts stories of their glory days. 

A veteran will not tell of the horrors he has seen. The wars he fought. He keeps these to himself. 

A veteran is someone who thought enough of their country to voluntarily give their time to defend it.

A veteran is someone who will stand when the national anthem is played - and he will stand proudly. 

A veteran is often forgotten, ignored, mistreated. 

A veteran is someone who deserves our thanks but seldom receives it. 

To all the veterans I know and those I don't THANK YOU  

These Things Will Happen

This if for all the parents out there wondering if you are doing it right or wrong.

THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG IN PARENTING.  

Every parent is different - every child is different. 

I can tell you this, though.  If you are a parent these things will happen to you

YOU WILL BE NERVOUS

     If you are lucky enough to have a parent or some close friend come and stay with you for the first few days you are home with the baby enjoy it. Because when they leave and you are alone with that child you will be nervous. You will question yourself - what if he/she cries and I don't know why they're crying?

     What if I forget what time I fed the baby last? Will she starve because I couldn't keep my eyes open enough to see how much she ate?  

     The first time the baby sleeps for more than 3 hours straight you will worry that she died because you forgot to get up and feed her.  

     Relax -- all mothers and fathers go through the same fears. Trust your instincts - it's your child and you will know if something isn't right.

YOU WILL CRY

     

     Oh my yes - you will cry!  It's ok. Sometimes you won't know why you are crying. Maybe you just felt like the baby needed some company crying - after all she has been crying non-stop for the last 24 hours.  

     Maybe you are crying just because it was either that or loose your mind.  It's all right. 

YOU WILL LAUGH

     

     Oh the things that will make you laugh. Your baby's laugh (once you can get her to stop crying) will make you laugh. The faces your baby makes will make you laugh. The cute little way they mispronounce words will make you laugh. Their silly jokes will make you laugh

 YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES

     Hey it happens - don't beat yourself up over it. All parents make mistakes. They can be little ones some may be bigger but it's all right. Ask yourself - are we all still alive?  Are there any broken bones?  

AT SOME POINT YOUR CHILD WILL NOT LIKE YOU

     I know this might seem hard to believe but there will be at least one time your child will not like you. It might be at a young age when you tell them no dessert because you didn't finish your dinner. It might be as a teenager when you have to do the unthinkable and ground that perfect child for something you thought they would never ever do. But at some point your child will not like you.  

Remember, this doesn't mean they don't love you.

YOU WILL LOSE SLEEP

  

     Oh you can be sure of this one.  You start when they are babies and you lose sleep because they are up every 2-3 hours for a feeding. Then you lose sleep when you are up all night with a sick child who just keeps throwing up. Or they have a fever that just won't go down. Or they have a nightmare that keeps them awake. 

     There may be a few years when you think - oh I've got this the rest is easy.  Don't fool yourself. They turn into teenagers who go out. That's right - they have the nerve to want to go out at night with their friends. And you will wait up for them. You won't be able to sleep until you know they are back home where they are supposed to be. Or there will be away games that your child participates in.Or they will be the child who gets a job and works the late shift. 

Yep you will lose sleep.

YOU WILL HAVE FUN

     This I can guarantee - you will have fun. Every hour of sleep lost, every tear cried, every doubt you have will be forgotten in the fun. The fun of watching them learn to crawl, to walk, to run. The fun of watching your child become an individual with their own personality. 

   You will have fun playing with them. and I encourage you to play with them.  Have a tea party, play catch, color in books, turn a nature walk into a scavenger hunt, camp out in the living room.

Most importantly-  LOVE YOUR CHILD - ACCEPT THEIR UNIQUENESS - ENJOY EVERY MINUTE