Sugar Bunny Boulevard

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  We had a nice time at Jeff's mom's house with the girls, their uncles and a few cousins.  Emeline took almost all of the photos in this slide show and of course I helped a little.  :)

Emeline made the turkey hat at preschool and Lila Pearl has her moment in the spotlight as always.

We hope your holiday season is full of hope and happiness!

PS  I really am working on a post but my husband keeps butting in and going on about Ravelry.  Hmph.  Doesn't he know it's really Facebook and WordTwist?

Eye Candy Friday

Happy Eye Candy Friday Everybody!  :)

My lunch today:  Slab of pan seared ham left over from Easter (it's been in the freezer y'all) with fried spinach.

Oh yum oh yum oh yum.  Lots of people love ham but no so many are crazy about spinach.  I've loved spinach since I was a small child and my son Benny has inherited the same adoration for it.  My mom always had it in the garden and put away plenty in the deep freeze to enjoy the rest of the year.  It was always served with a cruet of vinegar.  YUM!

When I got older I didn't have spinach in my garden so I had it less often, though it's very affordable as a canned vegetable.  When Benny and Katie were really little, one year I made creamed spinach to take as a side dish at the family Christmas dinner.  I think Benny and I were the only ones that had any but it became a holiday favorite for the two of us from then on.  He loves it when I make creamed spinach for no special reason now.

The first time I had fried spinach was six years ago at the Rosewood Grille in Las Vegas, NV.

Quoted from this restaurant review:

The Rosewood Grille predates most of the megaresorts that line the Las Vegas Strip, and for a smallish steak and lobster place to withstand growing competition from 100 higher profile restaurants on the same street, it must be doing something right. There's a nostalgic appeal to dining where the Rat Pack once ordered martinis, especially since the spot apparently hasn't redecorated since those swinging days of old. The Grille's dark wood panels, leather booths, red carpet and white tablecloths are as much a Las Vegas staple as the neon sign.

Jeff is a fairly experienced Vegas visitor and it was my first time there.  He did a wonderful job as tour guide, showing me the big hotels and casinos on the strip, going to a Cirque de Soliel show at Treasure Island, and eating at his favorite Las Vegas restaurant, the Rosewood Grille.  He's a big Frank Sinatra fan and likes to reminisce about places that Frank and Dean-O and the rest of the Rat Pack liked to hang out in the old days of Las Vegas.

When we ate at the Rosewood Grille Jeff had his usual, Prime Rib.  I'm sure it was fabulous. I had sea bass encrusted with crushed hazelnuts (if I remember correctly) and fried spinach.  This bass, this spinach.  I don't know if it was the night, the trip, the true getaway feeling of Las Vegas, but this was one of the most memorable dinners we have ever had.  I believe the restaurant has actually relocated since we were there but at the time it was hidden in a dark corner at the foot of the Venetian under a street overpass or something.  Very out-of-the-way and off the beaten path for Las Vegas.  Our waiter had a foreign accent and the restaurant was small and darkish and not at all crowded (I think it was a Sunday night).  The food, the wine, the atmosphere, everything.  It was fabulous and very memorable.  Earlier this month Jeff and I were reminiscing about that fun trip to Vegas - it was six years ago and was the one year anniversary of when we first started exchanging emails.  Yes, we basically met on the internet.  Not a lot of people know about that but it's a nice little story.  :)

Last week I had a bunch of fresh spinach that I needed to use up so I decided to try fried spinach.  It's the easiest thing you've ever tried and I promise, if you like spinach - you'll LOVE this.

I put about 1-2 tablespoons of butter in a very hot pan and let it sear until it's brown.  Dump 6oz of cleaned spinach leaves with stems removed into the pan, grind some sea salt and fresh pepper over the top and let it reduce.  Turn a few times with a spatula until it's fully reduced and wilted.  This will yield about 1 cup of cooked spinach.  Two servings if you can bear to share it.  I'm a spinach hog.  If someone really wanted to share I'd have to make two batches!

Something really great about this dish is that it's low carb.  The spinach has 3g carbs and 2g of dietary fiber, which if I remember correctly, nets to just 1 carb that you need to count if you're counting for a diet.

I'm doing well on the scale this week but I'll keep all of that to myself until my "official" weigh-in on Monday for the Weight Loss Challenge.  I'm looking for a good free web site that offers tracking for weight loss as well as menus to follow.  I checked out a few but the one I really like is at www.diabetescontrolforlife.com.  I got signed up but then I think they started doing some upgrades to their site (it actually appears to be very new).  It's sponsored by Glucerna which is/are meal replacement shakes and bars for people who have diabetes.  You do NOT have to be diabetic to use the site or menus.  I'm continuing to check their site and hoping to start on their menu plan and 24 week weight loss plan starting Monday.  I'll report more on Monday if the site is back up before then.  Unfortunately I don't think a slab of ham and spinach fried in butter is on their menu.  hehe

Everybody have a wonderful knitterly weekend and good weather to go with it!  :)

Other reviews of the Rosewood Grille & Lobster House here, here, here, and here. 

Happiness

When I was a little kid my brother and I had Charlie Brown bed sheets that had pictures of Peanuts characters all over them with "Happiness Is..." phrases with each picture.  One was "Happiness is waking up to find you have another hour to sleep."  I loved those sheets.

Today.... Happiness Is...

Happiness is... a pretty girl wearing a red scarf.

Happiness is... a sweet baby wearing an adorable hat.

Happiness is... the view of a beautiful winter day from my kitchen window.

Happiness is... pink?

Pink shoes.

Pink fingernails on a little girl.

Cupcakes with pink frosting.  And sprinkles.

At the grocery store... (or, "A lesson in why small children should ride in the grocery cart")

Emeline:  (holding up box of cake mix) Mommy, need this.
Mommy:  We do?
Emeline:  Yes, need this.
Mommy:  What is it, Emeline?
Emeline:  (looks at box) Honey Cakes!

Who could resist that?

There are several projects I "should" be working on but at the moment the mindless work of unraveling a cashmere sweater is the best I can muster.  It's a good time to ponder and prioritize future projects.  :)

Saturday Sky

If you were a morning glory flower on my fence today, this is how the Saturday Sky would look to you!

I am always amazed... just AMAZED at how something so stunningly beautiful and breathtaking as a morning glory flower can come from such a scrawny pathetic near-dead looking vine like they do.  And the twisting and climbing and sneaking that those vines do just to find a place to hang on.  I created a little lattice of sisal twine on the outside of our fence but some of these vines with flowers are draped and hung over the top and between the boards and have flowers on the inside of the fence as well.  It's cool.  And I'm so happy that they grew for me this year.  It's very good timing with the cooler weather because they aren't dead by 9:00am - these flowers are beautiful all day long and then finally wither and turn into something that resembles a deflated purple balloon.

AND..... ::drum roll::.....  If you were a jar of pear ginger jam on my fence, this is how the sky would look to you today!

THANKS for the link to that recipe Norma!!  I cut back on the amount of ginger (unlike Norma) and it's got the perfect amount of gingery flavor to add something different yet it's not overpowering.  It's FANTASTIC!  And guess what y'all.  I've got a TON of pears.  We got 8 half pint jars of this out of the first recipe last night.  I'm going to wait a few days to see how it tastes but there's a very good chance I'll be making this available.  Cause I can't let the pears go to waste and this jam is YUM.  I'll also be trying out a recipe for Pear Vanilla Jam.  NUMMY!  :)

So have a great rest of your weekend and as Sandy says, Look up at the sky!  :)

Eye Candy Friday

It's Eye Candy Friday!  Yay!  Leave a comment for Purly today so that we can click over there and check out YOUR Eye Candy Friday photos!  :)

Hmm.  What do we have for today's photo?  Let's see.  ::digging through photo files::  A picture of my brother...  no.  I wish I had a picture of the kids' first day of school like I had last year.  Umm... anything here?...  Oh here we are.

My surprise lilies have arrived.  Finally.  :)

It was also quite a surprise that a few moments later, with Emeline's assistance, the flower looked like this...

There are more.  Thank goodness.  She pulled the pieces off and then said "Oh Noooooo!"  Gaaahhhhh!

Further ECF:  Food.  I sure do love food.  Here is a shot of my currant scone this morning - the same recipe that I sent to Margene (Currant Scone Mix) in a prize package (do you really think Margene needs linkage?  should I... shouldn't I... ohhhh, okay I will just in case someone out there doesn't know who she is).  Someone else has asked for the recipe so I thought maybe I need to try these out before sending them all over the place.  Yep.  They pass.  They're very very good and Emeline approves.  She calls them Cookies.  heh  I made these a few days ago - they warm up SO yummy for breakfast.  :)

The mug - the mug is SO OLD.  From my parents kitchen.  Swiped when I was young - probably Junior High - because I liked the picture.  It's truly a miracle that I even have this mug.  I could be wrong about this, but I think my parents bought this set of mugs with various airplane pictures on them at the annual Antique Airplane Association fly-in in Blakesburg, Iowa some time in the late 1970's.  The fly-in is now (I think!) held during Labor Day weekend each year but it used to be a one-week deal where people would fly there in their airplanes and camp all week.  I met my ex husband at that fly-in when it was a one-week deal back in August 1984.  We married the next year in July and quickly moved our belongings (all personal stuff plus wedding and shower gifts but not furniture at that point) into a cute house we rented in Lubbock, Texas - didn't take the time to unpack at all, just spent a day unloading our trailer of my stuff into the house.  We then went for our first trip to the fly-in at Blakesburg together.  When we were gone to Iowa, someone broke into the house we rented and stole everything we had.  Every. Thing.  Every box.  DISHES from the sink and refrigerator - every. last. thing.  It had to have taken HOURS to carry everything out of that house.  When we returned there were only a few stray boxes of my personal items - random, probably left behind because the thieves were exhausted from moving their HAUL.  This mug was somehow among the few scattered remains.  I had the clothes from our trip but nothing else.  Everything that I owned and everything that I had identified with as a person was gone (married at 17 and left my family in Michigan to move to Texas and this happens!).  Book collections.  Piano music.  My flute and band music.  Bicycle.  Doilies and embroidered pillow cases and various things from my great grandmothers.  Every wedding and shower gift.  All gone.  That was 21 years ago this month.  After that the mug was used as a catch-all for various things, sat on a shelf in each house I lived in over the years.  A few days ago I was searching through some boxes and came across the mug.  I ran it through the dish washer and now it has joined my mug collection - it's the oldest one I have.  And I've been drinking my coffee from it quite a bit this week even though it only holds about half what my Starbucks mug does.  I'm glad to have it.

Yesterday was a really tough day.  It was the one year anniversary of last year's court date.  I tried so hard not to think about court and how nervous I am about the upcoming stuff that I didn't eat well, was shakey (so I guess I must fill the mug twice as often) and felt nervous, and couldn't really concentrate on anything very well.  I played with the girls, read books, etc, and finally realized "gee, maybe I could eat something."  It helped a lot.  I talked with the kids last night and Suzannah said "what did you do today?"  I was a little surprised by this and stuttered a little.  She said "today is the 17th Mom... one year... what did you do about it?"  I basically told her our attorney has been at a conference all this week and I'm not sure of the status of our motion.  He was working on it last weekend but I haven't spoken with him to know how far he got.  If he didn't have many interruptions the motion could be filed today.  If it's not quite ready then it'll be filed Monday or Tuesday.

I just phoned and he's out to lunch so hopefully this afternoon I'll have a little update.

Changing the subject now.  In the knitting and spinning department, here's the progress on my spindle bag. 

I keep saying "I'm going to dye some yarn and roving today" but every day this week it hasn't happened (think "she can't concentrate on anything more than knitting stockinette in the round right now") so maybe it'll be today.  You can see that I started the bag with Spindle #2 of plied yarn - much thinner and more even than the yarn I'm using right now, which is from Spindle #1.  The difference is amazing when you see them side by side and knit up like this.  I'm glad I used the yarn in this order on the bag because I think I like how the thicker yarn makes the bag stretch out just a little on the body.  Spindle #3 will have a smaller amount of fiber so it'll take probably through Spindle #4 to finish up the bag.

Call me a bad mama - there are no ECF photos of the babies today.  Though they're as sweet as ever.   :)

Everybody have a wonderful weekend!

Birthday Girl!!

Yep - it was Suzannah's birthday on Saturday!  My little sweetie turned ten years old.  OHHHH I am so old.  She used to be my baby - now she's the middle child of five.  She's growing into a beautiful young lady and we had a wonderful birthday weekend with her.

Saturday she enjoyed a visit to the "Sprinkler Park" with Emeline and a break from her daily chores.  We had tacos for dinner and a rich yummy chocolate cake that I made.  And presents, of course.  She had fun.  And it's amazing how many pictures you have to take to get one really decent shot - thank heaven for digital cameras!

 

Then came Sunday.  A rainy morning.  Nice day for knitting on the porch with a cup of coffee.  The kids buzz in and out of the house and around me on the porch most of the time I'm out there.  This usually only goes on when Emeline is napping though sometimes the kids will take her for a walk around the block in the stroller or play with a ball in the yard.  Obviously here the stroller was being used as a table.

Most of the time when I'm out on the porch knitting, Benny is by my side reading.  This is not really by his choice.  He is in "GT" classes at school (aka honors, advanced, whatever you want to call it) and the 9th grade English teacher is making all of her GT students read two novels (selected from a specific list) and do a 2-page written summary on each chapter discussing items she has specified - due the first day of school and worth four test scores.  Even though we hope Benny will be going to school here in the fall, he has to do this assignment *just in case*.  His dictionary is always present because he keeps having to look up the definition of certain items that must be included in each summary.  I told him to make up a vocabulary page for it but does he listen to his mother?  Anyway, this is the first of two novels.  There's a long story of how he and I eliminated his actual first choice The Invisible Man  by Ralph Ellison due to complexity and objectionable content for my 14yo son (should have been an "R" rated book).  He's reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe aloud to me, which he believes helps him to remember it better and we also discuss parts of it as he goes along which maybe he doesn't understand or he can use in his summary for that chapter.  We're both enjoying it - me: very much; Benny: as much as a kid doing homework during the summer for a class he hopes not to attend possibly can.

Calliope is now approximately 70% finished.  I love keeping up with the progress of my project like this (telling y'all the percentage I've finished).  It makes it feel like it's gone along so fast.  Really I've been working very diligently on Calliope so it's no wonder it seems to be going faster than any project I've knit before.  We've all been very preoccupied and distracted by waiting for my attorney to phone and anticipating court.  We practice conversations in our minds - the kids ask me millions of what if? questions.  Thankfully they've been helping with chores since they got here - baby play, dishes, laundry, floor sweeping, lawn mowing - and it frees me up to be able to knit more.  I feel like if I'm in the proper mindset to be knitting, things are okay.  When I'm too stressed I can't do it.  If I don't hear from my attorney this morning I'll be phoning his office this afternoon.

SOOOOoooo... Sunday night came an event I've been planning and waiting for quite some time.  Ever since this new restaurant opened I have wanted to take the children there for dinner at Suzannah's birthday time.  We took the babies to Jeff's parents house where they had a blast and we slipped out while Emeline was leading her grandmother to the toy closet.

When we got to the restaurant there was about a 30 minute wait so we went next door to an "Indoor Entertainment" venue.  With limited time we skipped the very fun looking go-carts and went to the arcade.

Then it was time to head back to the restaurant.  We had a BLAST!!!  It was the kids' first time to eat at a Japanese steak house and they really enjoyed it.  Jeff and I were slightly disappointed in the atmosphere and agreed that we probably won't be going back to this one.  There are about a million Japanese steak houses in Wichita and we've enjoyed others much more.  The food and menus are all about the same but you might be able to tell from the photos that the lighting was a little strange and made you feel like you're in a warehouse a long lunch tables rather than the more intimate atmosphere we've enjoyed at other restaurants of this type.  All of that, however, made no difference to the children - they had SO much fun and everybody caught a shrimp in their mouth.  :)

So my *baby* is ten years old.  She said it was a good birthday.  Here she is from a few birthdays past. 

Five years old - Eight years old - Nine years old

Ten Years Old

Mother's Day 2006

Don't look for the pictures.  I don't want to look at them yet.  It's been a melancholy day for me.  I'm feeling a little sorry for myself but feel like I need to blog - which is a combination I attempt to avoid on my own blog.  It works fine for other people but I really try not to do it.

So this will be void of photos or links (I'm tired and lazy) and a little random and a little melancholy.

The kids were here - the kids are gone.  We had a wonderful time together and the school year is nearly over.  It passed in bits and pieces and now we're anticipating the swell of nervousness associated with upcoming court proceedings.  We all feel very confident about our prospect of "winning" this time for a variety of reasons which I cannot discuss on the blog at all.

Thursday night they got here around 11:30 and the kids and I talked and laughed and talked and giggled and told stories in the kitchen until nearly 2:00am.  Jeff was so so so tired - and was like the angry parents when kids are having a sleep-over and being too loud way into the night and keeping them from sleeping.  Sorry sweetheart - we didn't mean to be too loud.  *smooch*

Friday before lunch Benny and I mowed the "outside" grass.  That would be all of the grass that is visible to the outside world.  Our back yard is a complete jungle because we had to get a new mower this year and then it rained and rained and rained.  We did a little work on it Saturday but it's still got a long long way to go.

Then the kids and I (yes, me and five children) ate out for lunch.  It was fun, as always.  I've mentioned that one of my favorite local fast food chains is called Spangles - the big kids love Spangles too and it was their preference for eating lunch Friday.  We then shopped for shoes for Benny - the girls both got new shoes at Easter time.  Apparently I have become the primary shoe provider because their step-mother will only buy them shoes from Target or Wal-Mart.  Shoes from T or WM are fine for me - I don't wear them out very fast.  For the kids T and WM shoes last about week before they look like they're ready throw away.  We get shoes at the mall or Shoe Carnival, set a budget, shop at the athletic shoe stores, and always come out with something good.  Benny negotiated an extra $20 to my budget by trading me a $20 gift card to Target plus he had $20 more of his own in cash that he had saved so he got some shoes that will put him at the top of the list of kids wearing the coolest newest shoe models at school.  It's not really that important to him (wearing the newest coolest shoe model) but certainly doesn't hurt his ego plus he paid the difference himself - he can get what he wants.

We had tacos for dinner on Friday night - one of our all-time favorite family meals.  We all help to cut up the toppings and fill the shells with meat.  We use white corn tortilla shells and lightly fry them in oil so they're soft.  Oh our tacos are heavenly - I'm not shy about saying that.  My husband is usually a pretty modest eater but he eats a lot of these tacos.  They're really good.

After tacos Benny went to the park and played basketball.  Jeff and Emeline and Suzannah walked to the park together and played for a while then came back.  While they were gone Katie and I went in the back yard and planted some flowers - sunflowers and hollyhocks.  From seed.  The hollyhocks won't bloom until next year - they're one of those "grow for a year before you get flowers" kind of plants.  A broad description of my back yard flower bed areas is better for another post but I'm excited about continuing to slowly and thoughtfully develop my flowers and herbs.  I have planted oregano seeds in a pot which will be transplanted when the incredibly tiny plants get a little bigger - the seeds are seriously the size of a grain of sand.  I've also planted some new rosemary in a pot since the rosemary I transplanted from Texas did not survive the move.  My sage did survive and for that I am thankful.  It's a strange and exciting feeling to realize that I'm living in a place that I will be staying - maybe for the rest of my life.  I haven't lived somewhere "permanent" basically since I left home 21 years ago.  Like I said.... it's strange and exciting to realize the permanence about where I live and what I do with plants in my yard and things like that.

Saturday we spent our entire day at the Wichita River Festival.  We walked around.  I got a major sunburn.  There was a mini-midway with a few rides including a rock climbing deal.  All three kids went at the same time on the rock climbing - if you slip and fall down your turn is over.  None of them made it to the top but Katie got the farthest.  I have a picture of this for another day.  We ate River Festival food for lunch - roasted corn and chicken tenders on a stick and ice cream and funnel cake and big piles of curly fries - so yummy.  And listened to the live music at the food court.  There was a hole-in-one contest that Benny sucked at.  And there were paddle boats on the river - oh my gosh bad bad bad idea.  Jeff and all three big kids on a paddle boat is a very very bad idea and they should have been warned by the people that they were going to wish they were dead before getting back to the place they were supposed to come back to.  A river on a windy day with a very overloaded paddle boat with the paddles nearly out of the water because of the four nearly adult people on the paddle boat.... oh I thought Benny and Jeff would both have heart attacks trying to get back from the middle of the river.  Lila and Emeline were little angels but got incredibly tired.  We got home about 6:30 and Emeline went to bed for the night and didn't get up again until this morning.  Lila took little naps throughout the day so she wasn't as exhausted as Emeline.  Late Saturday evening we had a little celebration - I discovered Lila Pearl's first tooth.  At six months she has her first tooth - at least four months earlier than any of my other children.  She certainly marches to the beat of her own drum.  Lila has a tooth.  Next week she'll be in college.  ::sigh::

And now they're gone.  They told me Happy Mother's Day, ate their cereal, got dressed and picked up their backpacks and ham sandwiches I made for the trip, got back in the car with Jeff, and now they're gone.  I miss them a lot.  So does Emeline.  The weather was cool and windy and partly cloudy today.  I'm still wearing my beautiful and cozy pomotamus (sp?) socks from Kelly in Texas.  I can't thank her enough.  The socks I mailed to my pal have been gone over a week now - they should be getting there (Canada) any time if they didn't arrive yesterday.

We've been thinking a lot about the family of our dear friend T.C. who died last November just before Thanksgiving.  We really miss him a lot.  So so much.  Today is his birthday.  Mother's Day.  Several of his friends had flowers delivered to TC's mother yesterday.  We decided to make a donation to the SIDS organization (TC's favorite charity which was founded by his mother) in honor of TC for his birthday.  TC was the person that brought everyone together - the hub of our friend group.  We've hardly seen any of our friend group since he has passed.  I told Jeff we need to invite everyone we can think of to come over to our house this summer some time and bring all of their kids.  Okay, maybe not all at once - that would be a lot of people.  TC threw a wedding reception/baby shower for us when we were expecting Emeline - yes - on Mother's Day weekend two years ago.  There were people there who I had never met and Jeff hadn't seen in many years - for us - brought together by TC.  We miss him more than anyone imagined was possible - mostly because we never imagined life without him - or any of our friends.  We're too young to be losing friends yet.  None of us are ready for life to be over. 

So.  It's been a day.  Sort of a sad day.  But life is good.  We have healthy children.  We have a beautiful home.  And I have planted flowers.