Soup on Saturday

It's not always easy to organize meals so that we can all eat together - and there are times - especially during baseball season - when it is just not possible. And Saturdays pose another problem for us. My daughter became involved in an archery league. It meets Saturdays from five to seven. It is forty-five minutes away. My husband takes her there. This means they are gone from about 4:15 until 7:45. Which of course leaves me with the question... um, when should we eat?

I solved this problem with soup on Saturdays.

I use my slow-cooker and whip up a batch of soup. And I try to make some fresh bread too - if I get the chance. My husband and daughter have a bowl before they leave and another when they get back (with the bread the second time). My son and I eat when the bread is done.

This has been working great in the fall and winter. We'll see what happens when the nice weather comes. Soup might not be so appealing then.

And if anyone is interested in my super easy soup recipe here it is (adjust as you see fit.)

1 lb ground beef browned (sometimes I chop up onion and garlic and cook it with the meat - other times I just use my trusty spice bottles).

1 28 oz can of tomato sauce, tomato puree or crushed tomatoes - any one of these work.

1 large potato diced

1 large or 2 medium carrots diced.

But it all in the slow cooker with one can of water (a good way to get the extra tomato out of the can). Add spices to taste. Stir and cook on low until dinner time.

Poetry Friday

For Poetry Friday this week my thirteen-year-old daughter is allowing me to share another one of her poems. Though, let it be noted, this poem is not going to get her out of cleaning her room.

Why Cleaning your Room is Bad
by KRM

Six inches High
Standing on my desk
Chubby hands on hips
Looking Fierce
“What did I tell you?”
He asks
“Why didn’t you listen?”
I sat at my desk,
Staring at him,
Confused, Scared.
“Well, human,” He snaps
“Now this is WAR!”
He jumps down
Onto a bed of s
Stuffed animals
Back to his
Tribe under
A heap of doll clothes,
Binders,
And Bags.
I should’ve known better
Than to clean my room
And disturb
The gnomes.

The Poetry Friday Round-up is being hosted by Anastasia Suen over at Picture Book of the Day.

An Interview

Eleni, over at La Femme Readers, has an interview with me up today. Go and read find out all kind of obscure facts about me, like why I don't go to horror movies.

Tuesday's Proverb

He is in a bad way who becomes surety for another, but he who hates giving pledges is safe. (Proverbs 11:15)

Poetry Friday

Yes, I know I haven't posted in almost a month. I'm going to try to remedy that. In the meantime it's Friday and my daughter wrote a new poem last night, so without further ado here is our contribution to Poetry Friday.

Jack
by KRM

I was no fool
The man paid me
Plenty more for that
Cow than it deserved.
And then he handed me
The beans.

Grinning, decaying teeth
Exposed,
He said, "Keep the change,"
Then he vanished,
With my cow.

I stood in the middle
Of the road for a moment,
Staring at the
Leather pouch
of coins, and the
Five beans in my
Palm.

Then I scampered home,
Tossed my mama the money
and planted those beans.

I never expected it to take one night,
But when the stalk grew
I had every intention
Of being foolish
And seeing what
Was beyond
The clouds it grew
up to.

The rest of course,
Is history.
And yet, I can't help
But wonder
Who would want a
Sickly cow
And part with
Magic beans?

The Poetry Friday round-up is at Liz in Ink.

Poetry Friday - Happy New Year

My daughter has kindly provided me with a New Year's poem just in time for Poetry Friday.

Happy New Year
by KRM

December 31st,
Trying to plan a time
For friends to get together
When
I looked at the calendar
Only to find that after today,
There were no more days!
The calendar had ended,
The Friday and Saturday slot were empty
The year was apparently no more
To my horror, I surmised,
That the world would end
Upon this day
December 31st.

How to plan
For the end of the world?
On facebook
I hollered,
“THE WORLD WILL END TONIGHT!”
The authorities were alerted,
The world sat in terror and fright.
Those lucky enough not to have heard,
Went to Times Square to watch the ball drop,
While the smart ones,
We who knew the world’s
Oncoming plight
Scurried to find
A good hiding spot.

December 31st,
The day the calendar ended,
The day that would not be followed by a new day
The day that people hid in terror and fright
The day that ended with KABANGS!
And POPS!
Of champagne bottles and fireworks,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Those who hadn’t heard rejoiced.
I crawled out of my hiding spot,
Confused.
What?!
The world was not over?
We were not dead?
Heck, I’d watched 2012,
I knew how this was supposed to work.
But…
I watched my mom hang up a
New Calendar.
“Happy New Year, hon,”
She smiled.
I flipped through the new pages.
And realized that,
Hey! There was a New Year ahead of us!
I felt fairly ridiculous,
Until,
I saw the end of this calendar-
December 31st!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

The Poetry Friday round-up is at A Year of Reading.

Things that Made me Happy on a Monday

1) Gingerbread houses and villages made by my own little decorators.

2) Finding When Mike Kissed Emma on this list of last minute gift ideas. I probably should have suggested it myself as a gift idea. And if it's too late to order it in time for Christmas, than it would make a great Valentine's Day present!

3) This review of When Mike Kissed Emma totally made my day. My favorite part:

the writing has clarity and sparkle and I can't wait to read other books by this author.

Go read the whole review!

Now back to baking and cleaning and wrapping and whatever else has to get done this week!

Disappointment

From this weekend:

Can you tell someone wasn't too happy this past weekend's performances of "Annie" had to be postponed due to the weather?

Thanksgiving - Day Two

The pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving with a multi-day feast, so why shouldn't we? Day two was at my cousin's house and featured pigs in the blankets, a roaring fire, sing-alongs around the player piano, old home movies, and lots of great company.

Fun at the Rochester Museum & Science Center

Instead of shopping on the day after Thanksgiving we headed to the Rochester Museum & Science Center with friends and cousins (okay, one of the friends did hit some early sales first).

We were at the museum for seven hours, mainly enjoying hands on exhibits. We also got to see a visiting Titanic Exhibition which was very interesting. They give you a boarding pass with information about a particular passenger - at the end you find out if your person survived or not. I think the only one in our group who had the card of a survivor was my daughter. It's a very sobering experience.

Most of the time at the museum, though, was spent 'doing' things, including digging for dinosaur bones, scaling a rock wall and learning how things like combination locks work.

Thanksgiving - The Aftermath

Ah, a good time was apparently had by all, and now the kids have collapsed on their cousin. The sure sign of a successful day!

Ordinary Time and Advent

About a year ago I had an idea of making table runners that would correspond to the liturgical year. I finally got around to making the first one about a week ago.

One side is green - to correspond with Ordinary Time.

Today I got to turn it over to the purple side, because Advent starts today!

That Holiday Time of the Year

It's getting to be that time of year. It's The Holidays. Actually, if you look at sales fliers the entire year is some sort of Holiday season - there always seems to be some reason to have a sale. But the big Holidays, the one that get an entire season named after them are the winter holidays.

Honestly it seems as if it starts with Halloween - anything after that is part of the Holiday Season. And there are a lot of different holidays: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali and of course Christmas and New Years.

Because of the variety of holidays and the various cultural traditions I don't have a big problem when people say "Happy Holidays" to kind of incorporate the whole season. Especially in an area like ours where you can never be too certain which holiday people are celebrating - if any at all.

I do have one complaint though. And that is when the generic use of Holiday is used not in a way that incorporates all of the seasonal holidays, but to replace the word Christmas.

Holiday cookies? I don't know, I guess the other holidays can all benefit from some cookies, but I don't know how many of them traditionally have lots of baked goods as part of their celebrations.

Holiday lights? That one actually works for a bunch of holidays - especially Diwali and Hanukkah.

But a Holiday Tree? Come on. It's a Christmas Tree. Really. Just say it. Don't be afraid.

And on December 25tth. When the newspapers put a banner headline up above the title that says "Happy Holidays" I always feel a little cheated. Especially on a year when it does not over lap with another holiday, we all know what "Holiday" is being celebrated. Just go ahead and say it already.

Now, I'm not going to boycott stores who say "Happy Holidays". After all - Holiday does come from "Holy Days" but I do feel that if you're going to make a lot of money when people buy stuff for Christmas, you could at least call the giant candy canes and decorated trees Christmas decorations.

Two thoughts in passing to end this mini-rant.

1) One time the Jehovah Witnesses stopped by our house shortly before Christmas. As they were leaving I wished them a Merry Christmas. The cold look they gave me reminded me that not everyone celebrates Christmas - and some are rather strict about that non-celebration. (oops - any insult was totally unintentional.)

2) Once during the "Holiday season" I was in a store and heard a woman complain - and I quote: "I hate when they shove all this religion into Christmas."

I didn't say anything to her, because my brain didn't work fast enough to come up with something, and I doubt it would have made a difference anyway. But I do try to remember that while the people I know might decry the commercialization and secularization of Christmas, there are always people who hold quite different views. I hope they all have a very Happy Holiday.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 11

I'm thankful for our veterans: people who are willing to put their lives on the line to help preserve our way of life. Even if they never saw combat, they were still willing and that makes them special.

Ninety-one years ago, at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month the armistice was signed that ended the "War to end all Wars." Would that it had really ended all wars, but I'm not sure anything will actually do that. And because war continues, we continue to have veterans.

And I will continue to be grateful to them and their service to this country.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 6

I'm thankful that it's Friday.

Is that corny and trite? Who cares. I'm still thankful that tomorrow is the weekend and my husband won't be at work and everyone will be healthy and things can get back to normal.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 5

It's not that I wasn't thankful for things on the 3rd and 4th of this month, but I find myself much more open to being thankful now that my fever is gone (and I'm able to stay awake past 8 pm), and my son's fever seems to be on the way out.

So, what am I thankful for? Recuperation. I'm thankful for returned health. And I'm also thankful for the fact that the biggest worries we tend to have health-wise are the occasional bad cold and other run of the mill sicknesses - even if that does sometimes knock me for a loop.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 2

I am thankful that my kids still enjoy playing with toys we've owned for going on seven years. On their day off today, after doing the computer thing and x-box thing they opted to get out the trains and play with that. I love to see their imaginations at work when they play with this.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 1

A couple of years ago I did a post a day for the month of November, highlighting something I was thankful for.

I'll see if I can do it again.

I have lots to be thankful for - but sometimes it just gets a little lost in the day to day craziness of life.

So, today - November 1, I'm thankful for kids who love to read.

When they're caught up in a book, nothing else matters. And they quote from books, and like to share parts of books with each other, and share book recommendations with each other. It's a great thing!

Halloween Parade

Today was the Halloween parade and party at my son's school.

There seems to be growing controversy about Halloween every year.

It's satanic, it's pagan, it glorifies death. Young girls wear costumes that are too sexy. The coersion involved in saying "trick or treat". Sugar is bad for you.

Yeah, okay, I'm sure that depending on how people celebrate Halloween you can find all of those aspects. In fact, depending on people live their lives, you can find all of those aspects. You don't have to wait for a specfic day.

You know what I see in Halloween around here? I see kids who have fun getting dressed up in costumes (and yeah, some of them are kind of ghoulish - but not most, and some may be skimpy- most aren't - and let's face it, it's October in NJ, how much skin is a kid going to show?)

They get to dress up for part of the school day and act silly with their friends. They get to go door-to-door (and let me just say, I very seldom see groups of kids without one or more parents with them) and get candy. And lets face it, for most of these kids - the candy is the thing.

Today in one of our local papers there was an opinion piece about how adults are contributing to the ill health of children by distributing candy on Halloween. Give me a break. It's one day a year. I'm sure that some kids gorge themselves to the point of making themselves sick. But kids aren't going to become obese based on one day a year. That has to do with a whole life-style that involves not enough activity and too many empty calories.

For the kids, Halloween isn't about pagans or the occult or spirits rising from the grave.

It's about the candy.

And I'm okay with that.

Tuesday's Proverb

For lack of guidance a people falls; security lies in many counselors. (Proverbs 11:14)