Monday

Josh was home from work at noon today because we had some guys coming to tune up our furnace. When I got home a little after 2:00 with S, Josh went back to work. The furnace guys left soon afterwards, saying our furnace was in really good condition. I'd hope so since it's only about 3 yrs old!

Then I baked another batch of valentine cookies. I didn't frost them though. Didn't get a chance to stop and get more powdered sugar yet.

G and F counted out their 100 M&M's to take to school tomorrow to celebrate the 100th day of school.

However, the 100th day of school may get postponed til Wednesday. There is a big snowstorm on the way with 12-16" of snow predicted. It's supposed to start at midnight tonight and last all day Tuesday. The winter storm warning lasts til 6:00 Wednesday morning. So we may have a snow day tomorrow. Atleast we're not getting pummelled with 2 1/2 ft like the east coast did!

Josh is gone to a town about an hour away this evening. He should be back around 9:00.

I Won!

A few days ago, my friend Jenni had all of her readers salivating with a post about some divine chocolate caramels her husband had given her.

(That's Jenni's picture.)

Then she said that if you left a comment on that post about which kind of the chocolate caramels you'd like, you'd be entered into a random drawing to win a box with your choice inside.

So I left a comment and was entered. I don't win these types of things, but you never win if you don't enter, right? Well, guess what?!

Out of 97 entries ... I WON!!!

Whoo hoo!!!

Super Sunday

Today we had a guest preacher at church who is a WLIM chaplain who regularly goes into 7 different prisons in WI and has Bible classes. He led our adult Bible class this morning, too.

After taking the rest of us home from church, Josh went to Menards again to get some more drywall. It's on sale with a good rebate, so he's stocking up for this summer's upcoming remodeling projects.

My sister R stopped by around noon to pick up her laptop on which Josh had installed a new hard drive. She also told us her cell phone fell out of her pocket into the toilet this morning, so she was on her way to get a new one. WTG, R! ;)

I spent pretty much all afternoon baking and frosting these cookies for the kids to take to school for their classmates for their Valentine's parties on Friday.


I need 90 cookies for the kids for school, but I knew that the kids would want some, too, and I only had 3 left over. So, I'm going to make another batch yet this week. I need to run to the store to get some more powdered sugar for the frosting since I ran out.

In the late afternoon, our friends, the P's came over for supper. Although it's Super Bowl Sunday, that's not why they came. Neither of our families are big football fans! They stopped at Costco before coming here and brought some chicken and buns for supper. I made some scalloped potatoes in the crock pot and salad. P's also brought ice cream sandwiches which we had with some of the valentine cookies I made for dessert. We had a good time with them before they left around 9:00 to head home.

New Year, New Look

Josh and I took separate vehicles to church today so that I could stay after and get a few more hours of work in for the week. I worked til about 1:00 and then went and got a haircut.

My hair was getting too long, so I got about 5" cut off. It's now to about the middle of my shoulders in back and is cut in medium and long layers. I also got it thinned, of course, so that it doesn't stick out like a bush.

Here's my new 'do.



J had basketball practice this afternoon.

Josh finished arranging the basement so that the home weatherization people can get where they need to in it, and the kids had fun playing some kind of Batman game they made up down there and going around and around the newly made aisles in the basement.

I spent the latter part of the afternoon transforming 11 overripe bananas into 4 loaves of banana bread and 1 banana cream pie, completely homemade.

Hunkering Down

It's 8:45 pm, and the snow is really coming down now. The high school basketball game was cancelled tonight, so I didn't have to work concessions. Schools all over the area are already cancelled for tomorrow.

Some people stock up on milk, water, canned food, and salt for outside before a snowstorm. My husband went out earlier tonight to stock up on more flour, sugar, butter, and eggs so that I can bake more cookies tomorrow during the snowstorm! :)

This afternoon I baked two more batches of cookies ... cappuccino flats and raspberry almond shortbread thumbprints.

Like Butter Scraped Over Too Much Bread

-Bilbo Baggins

That's about what I feel like after this week.

In addition to E's practices and games, Josh being gone, and dentist appts, I've been churning out announcement and service bulletins for all the special worship services at church. Thursday was the yearly deer hunters' service, a special service our church has every year at the start of gun deer season so that the hunters who are leaving for the weekend can go to church before they take off. Saturday was the monthly contemporary service, and then there were the two regular Sunday services. Only the two services on Sunday were the same, so that was three different service bulletins I worked on, edited, and printed this week. Then, of course, the Thanksgiving service is coming up on Wed night (We have a Thanksgiving Eve service instead of a Thanksgiving Day one.), and regular services next Sunday again. In addition to that, I'm working to get the church's December newsletter done so that it can be mailed this coming Wed. I'm not complaining. I really do like my job, but I'm a bit tired right now. Atleast I haven't started doing bulletins or newsletters in my dreams ... yet!

On Friday G came to the office during morning snack time and told me he forgot his lunchbag on the bus. The school secretary called the bus company, but they said they hadn't found it on the bus, so I made a quick run home to make G a lunch, thinking that maybe he'd left it on the kitchen counter. No such luck, so I whipped a quick lunch up, paper bagged it, and left it for him on the shelf above his coat outside of his classroom. Later that evening when Josh came home, he found G's full lunchbag sitting on the table in the family room behind the side of the couch so that you couldn't see the lunchbag from the family room doorway.

Saturday morning I cleaned a bunch of the house, did some laundry, and made some cookie turkeys (for the kids) and gingerbread with lemon sauce and whipped cream (for the adults) for the parenting Bible class that night which was being held at our house. I made enough of the turkeys so that we can have them on Thanksgiving, too.

In the afternoon I went and got some Christmas shopping done. I now feel like I've got a good start on it.

We went to early church, Bible class, and Sunday school this morning. When we got home, I changed clothes and then went to a local cake/cookie decorating store that was having an open house to pick up 16 dozen frozen cut-out Christmas cookies for our church's annual "Christmas for Kids" event which is coming up in two weeks.

After eating a quick lunch, I went and worked at church all afternoon since I won't be going in at the end of the week because of Thanksgiving.

A Gaggle of Gobblers

I made these turkeys today as special treats for the kids that come along with their parents to the parenting Bible study which is at our house tonight.

(Day 323 of 365)

One of the Tastes of Fall ...

... great pumpkin dessert. Yum!

(Day 319 of 365)

Day 109 of 365

Banana basket

There is no snow on the ground even though it looks white out through the window in this picture. In fact, the grass has really greened up the past couple of days. Oh, well!

Yum! ***UPDATED with recipe!***

This afternoon I made homemade cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. Yum!

(Day 106 of 365)

***UPDATE***
Gretchen asked if the recipe for these cinnamon rolls was on my recipe blog because she wanted to make them. No, it's not, but they are a very good basic cinnamon roll.

And so, without further ado, here is the recipe ...

Cinnamon Rolls
from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

Combine 2 c all-purpose flour and 1 pkg active dry yeast. Heat and stir 1 c milk, 1/3 c sugar, 1/3 c margarine or butter, and 1/2 tsp salt til warm (120 - 130 degrees) and margarine almost melts. Add to flour mixture along with 2 eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a spoon, stir in as much of 2 - 2 1/3 c all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour here.) as you can.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place til double (about 1 hour).

Punch dough down. Divide in half. Cover; let rest 10 minutes.

Roll half of the dough into a 12x8" rectangle. Melt 3 Tbsp margarine or butter; brush half of margarine over dough. Combine 1/2 c sugar and 2 tsp ground cinnamon; sprinkle half of mixture over dough. If desired, measure 3/4 c raisins (I didn't add the raisins.); sprinkle half of raisins over dough. Roll up from one of the long sides. Seal seams. Slice dough into 12 pieces. Repeat with remaining dough, margarine, sugar mixture, and raisins. Place rolls in 2 greased 9" round baking pans. Cover; let rise til nearly double (about 30 minutes). Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Cool slightly. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing.

Powdered Sugar Icing
1 c powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
milk

Mix sugar, vanilla, and 1 Tbsp milk together. Stir in additional milk 1 tsp at a time til you reach desired consistency.

Day 66 of 365

Tonight's supper: broccoli fettuccini alfredo and chicken parmigiana - Yum!

Day 44 of 365

Yummy monster cookies with Valentine colored M&M's

Sunny Sunday

Today's sunset

(Day 25 of 365)

E had basketball practice this afternoon. G attended a classmate's birthday party at McD's. The rest of us ran a few errands.

After picking up G from the party, we stopped at Papa Murphy's to use some gift certificates we had to get a pizza for supper. We bought the garlic chicken pizza, one we'd never had before. Oh! My! Goodness! It was SO absolutely scrumptious! You can bet we'll be getting that one again, but my diet needs to recover first!

Something we won't be doing again is seeing the movie Catch and Release which Josh and I watched on DVD the other night. Ugh! I like Jennifer Garner as an actress, but this movie stunk. It was probably one of the worst I've seen, but Love in the Time of Cholera definitely still holds that dubious award IMHO.