The funny things they say and do...

My kids crack me up. While Susanna is usually a much more serious child (and loves anything involving art...which is bad news for me since I usually don't love anything involving art...but put her at the table with water colors, a paint brush, and something to paint, and she's happy -- and distracted -- for up to an hour!), Luke comes up with the most hilarious things.

Yesterday's prayer at lunch "Thank You, God, for everything and for being with us and for not getting us dead because then I'd be really sad."

Today at the dentist "What are you trying to do, kill me?" Thankfully, the hygeinist is our pastor's wife....(and his teeth were all fine, unlike another child who will go nameless).

Monday, "I'm going to give myself wet willies whenever I say "whatever." Oops, WET WILLIE!" and proceeded to do just that (and continually has since Monday which really cracks me up even more.

Susanna, I have just found out, will do just about ANYTHING for chocolate! I've been struggling to find her "monetary language" and it isn't money. It isn't stickers. It isn't pretty much any kind of reward. I can threaten to take toys away (and do), have thrown away play dough when she won't clean it up, put away doll houses and Barbies and princess things, to no avail. But mention chocolate....

Supper Time! (also known as The Disaster In My Kitchen Tonight)

Okay, this isn't the disaster, but don't they look YUMMY???

Tony and Clinton are playing "special music" in church Sunday...Tony on his banjo, Clinton on his guitar and Indian flute. Well, they thought it wise to practice, so we had Clinton over for supper tonight. Sus and Luke were so excited that Clinton and Steven were coming over to play...but wait a minute! I didn't invite Steven! Oops...no problems, why not? So we called back, invited Steven, and had great anticipation all day.

Steven (sorry about the red-eyes)

(Clinton...yes, his hair really does look like that!)

Tony also wanted to try some of the steaks from the latest butchering, so I thawed out two T-bones and four rib-eyes. I also decided to try some new recipes from another GREAT site I found (actually, it's part of another site which has a bunch of different subsites on it and I'm loving them all! I've been trying to read some of the archives whenever I get a chance, and find myself laughing hysterically at just about everything written) -- check it out at http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ -- a full list of her recipes can be found at http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/category/all-pw-recipes/ and since I'm not typing or linking any specific recipes tonight (for the simple reason that DIAL UP TAKES TO LONG TO DO THAT!!!), do check it out. I love that she does step by step instructions with pictures of everything...and then some.

my banjo player.....

Anyway! Two hungry guys plus my hungry bunch...perfect targets, I mean, victims, I mean what a great opportunity to try new recipes! So I marinated the steaks in a couple dashes of basalmic vinegar, a couple tablespoons of Watkins original grapeseed oil, and a couple tablespoons of Watkins Meat Magic while the kids and I got to work. I wish I'd taken pictures of them "helping" out! But I got pics of the food!

(ummm...don't they look great! And hormone-free!)

Perfection!

I made up a batch of my sister-in-law Julia's french bread recipe so it could raise and I could use it for the Buttery Thyme Bread.

And while that was raising, the kids and I went to work on Dump Cake, a Potlucker's Paradise. Well, the kids made that one. I just opened things for them (no WAY am I showing them how to use a can opener!). And they did a great job!

(we used a strawberry cake mix instead of white or yellow...it was delicious!)

Then it was on to baking that and the bread while making Watkins Mushroom Soup to use in my green bean casserole (not on her website, but it's just the Mushroom soup sauce recipe with green beans...preferably Carter's own...topped with French's Fried onions. Lots of them!).

Meanwhile, I scrubbed ALOT of "b" potatoes (baby reds) and the kids very carefully put them in the almost-boiling water so we could make Crashed Hot Potatoes. I wish I'd videotaped Sus helping with this. She didn't like the "smoke" from the water and kept trying to push it away!)

(foggy pic from boiling water!)

(crashed potatoes before seasoning)
(crashed potatoes after seasoning)

finished product!

The bread was done; I took it out of the oven and put in the green bean casserole. Let the bread cool then cut it in half to put on the butter and put it back in the oven for the butter to melt (after the cake was done).

Let me just insert right here that Ree SHOULD have suggested using a tray with side while putting the bread with butter back in the oven. See, a tray with sides would prevent melting butter from dripping into the oven possibly preventing what might be a FIRE in the oven when the heat is increased to bake the crashed hot potatoes! Of course, that is ONLY a suggestion, but one I highly recommend if you don't want your house filling with smoke and having two smoke alarms screaming continuously (which actually was a good thing since we never remember to test them and I have no idea if we've ever changed the batteries since Tony installed them almost six years ago...of course, my man always double checks things like that so he probably has been maintaining them while I've been oblivious).

Anyway, supper was great. And 30-some potatoes, no matter how small they are, are really way too many for even a very hungry 20-year-old and an almost teen boy along with my hungry bunch. But everything was a hit!

You can't even tell where she chopped her hair!

Did you know a nickel is worth five pennies? Guess who learned that today!

Doesn't he look scary? Although all thru supper Sus kept leaning on him saying "Clinton, I love you SO MUCH!"

A Good Weekend...

Yesterday morning was spent rushing around, trying to get things wrapped up at home before I headed to a women's retreat (held a whopping 6 miles from our house). One of the things I was rushing to do was get a lunch meal ready for the builders who were working on our new church addition for the day. Yeah, once again I over committed myself without thinking things through! But! I am thankful for my home-canned spaghetti sauce because that's what I made (along with homemade bread). My MIL prepared a salad and made a yummy chocolate cake to go along with it.

We needed to get the meal to church by noon. I finally got a chance to take a shower at 11:15. While the bread was baking. And the noodles were cooking. And the kids were fighting. I didn't get a chance to get packed before leaving with the lunch, but I figured I'd have plenty of time after coming home to pack, get a few things taken care of to make things easier for Tony, and spend some snuggle time with the kids ("no, don't leave us again! We will miss you! You are our FAVORITE Mama!" Okay, who is there SECOND favorite Mama then???).

I didn't plan on the guys delaying lunch to finish some things first. Not a problem. I passed some things out to church mailboxes that I'd brought with. Tried to keep the kids from running around like little banshees (I was unsuccessful with one, successful with the other. I won't clarify further). Then the men came in and Susanna looked at the first one, whom she had never before seen in her life, and informed him "You will sit by me. Right here." I was shocked. I was surpirsed. I was surprised he obeyed her. Kinda. He left a couple empty spaces in between them. She was happy.

I also didn't plan on taking so long to do some "quick" grocery shopping afterwards. Or staying as long as we did to see a new baby (Diana, who worked at our Market this past year, had a little baby boy a week earlier....Manassah Wallace Bohach). He's adorable. Not just "new baby adorable," but really, really cute! Susanna couldn't stop kissing him.

We got home (finally) five minutes after I had hoped to leave originally. I rushed to get packed, wrap up loose ends, and was about to walk out the door (still had to stop at the post office) when I had a call to deliver some Watkins. Not too big of a problem...it was on the way.

All in all, the weekend was great. It was a wonderful time of catching up with friends I never have time to catch up with. Of getting to know others better than I ever expected I would (in a good way). Of seeing our pastor in a whole new light through his wife (will any of us be able to look at him Sunday without giggling?). Of indulging in a chocolate fountain with Pringles, pretzels, pineapple, pound cake, bananas, and caramels. Of having a new, wonderful drink consisting of hot spiced cider with a big blast of whipped cream and drizzled with caramel (we decided that calories wouldn't count at a church-sponsored event such as this....it wouldn't be fair, ya know?). Of playing all kinds of different games (Apples to Apples and Taboo were the favs). Of getting pressure points on our ears massaged. Facials. Hair cuts and dos. An AWESOME devotional Friday night, great worship music and Bible studies on Saturday. Great prayer times and heart-wrenching prayer requests. A fantastic salad and baked potato bar for lunch (with REAL bacon pieces, hehehehe! that's another whole story). And not much sleep at all in between.

I'm ready to drop. I'm exhausted. But I'm refreshed. And invigorated. And so glad for the wonderful sisters in the Lord that are here at my church in Minnesota.

Fun Food and Fellowship

Sunday night was our first get together in our new Fun Food and Fellowship group. For those of you not familiar, FFF is a great program our church has to get to know other people. Sign up and get put in a group with three other families; meet once a month for a meal, rotating homes, and get to know each other!

Our group actually has five families. We started with four, but since we were hosting first, I invited our friends who rocked away New Year's Eve with us. Since we had three families with small children, we got together at 5:00. It was a blast!

In our group we have Jane Wolff (yeah, my blogger friend/organist at Faith), Jamie Caughey (the 3-year-old Sunday School teacher...who is also known as Mrs. Hockey and Mrs. Coffee, depending on what each child says) and her teens, a new family - the Bervigs (their oldest daughter Lael, 7, was one of the stars of our Christmas program; she's followed by Nathaniel, Elias, Ephraim, and Asher...how are those for good strong names?), and the Van Batavia's joined us and will continue on with our group. They have Peter, Zach, and Owen.

Okay, I didn't really think this through ahead of time, but we had ten children -- TEN CHILDREN -- under then age of ten. And actually, they played very well together and we all had a great time!

We had soups and salad and bread. I opened some of my yummy herbed chicken noodle, some of my venison chili, and whipped up some yummy Watkins baked potato soup. Jenny Bervig brought three kinds of great home made bread, Jamie brought the most delicious tossed salad, and Jane finished things off with a great cheesecake.

And while the kids played with Rescue Heroes and sword fights (Lael ruled 'em all!), we talked and chatted (is that the same thing?), and tickled little Asher's toes. Now Susanna wants a little baby around the house so she can tickle his toes all the time. Keep dreamin'!

I can't wait until next month! Although Luke and Sus keep asking me already "WHEN CAN WE PLAY WITH LAEL AND ALL THE BOYS AGAIN????"

And before I sign off, we have the biggest, fluffiest, prettiest (did I really say that?) snow coming down right now!

Wet Willies

Luke has been introduced to "wet willies," the "fun" past time of putting a wet finger in someone's ear and wiggling it around. For some reason, he has lately been saying "whatever" almost constantly...and yes, it's ANNOYING! We finally told him every time he says "whatever" he'll get a wet willie. Susanna reminds us constantly throughout the day that Luke "needs" a wet willie.

Susanna helped by making most of supper tonight. Of course, that mainly consisted of pouring rice into a casserole pan, stirring water and Watkins soup base, pouring it over the rice/chicken/ham, and sprinkling cheese on top, but she loved it and had so much pride in it. She also "made" dessert -- Watkins butterscotch and chocolate pudding, layered (butterscotch, walnuts, chocolate, walnuts, butterscotch, whipped cream) into fancy dessert bowls. Daddy made it all the more special by eating ALL his dessert (big surprise there!). We all waited until Susanna took her first bite...and I sure wish I'd gotten a picture of that! I didn't realize her little mouth could get so much into it!

Luke has been invited to his second birthday party....brothers Peter and Zach that came to his birthday party (and helped celebrate New Year's Eve with us) have a birthday party coming up this Saturday. Daddy will drop him off and spend a few special hours with Susi since I will be at a Women of Faith retreat (translated: I'll be spending the night at a local hotel with several other ladies from church, getting my nails and hair done, swimming -- probably before the hair and nails thing -- having pizza, playing games, gabbing until all hours, but also having a great time of Bible studies).

Oh, I don't know that I mentioned Susanna also made breakfast for us last Wednesday before I left for St. Cloud. She made a Watkins coffee cake....I told her how many scoops of flour and sugar, spoons of baking powder and cinnamon, she mixed the egg and milk, then stirred it all together and poured it in a pan. You should've seen the look of surprise and delight on her face when she saw the finished piece! And Daddy once again wiped out a good portion of it.....

Right now, they're finishing up a bath. I'm taking a break. Daddy is probably getting pretty wet.

Whatever.

I Skid-ooed, how about you?

Okay, some of you may be wondering "whaaaa?" Others are cracking up, singing along with Joe and Blue (and that first group is still probably wondering "whaaaa?!?).

I'm home from St. Cloud now, got home last night shortly after 7:00 to many hugs and kisses and smiles, totally exhausted. It's good to be home, and it's great that the kids have been so good today (well, so far!).

When I called home Wednesday night to say good-night to Luke and Sus, Luke and I talked for quite awhile before Susanna got on and said with amazement, "Mama, how did you skidoo into the telephone?" I was cracking up while Luke was trying (unsuccessfully) to convince her that Mama did NOT skidoo into the telephone.

Skidoo, for all of you in the dark, is when Blue the puppy from Blue's Clues jumps into a story book or a picture or something similar and becomes part of the story/picture/etc.

Each time we talked on the telephone, Susi was convinced I'd skidoo'd into the phone.

I think overall the trade show was a success for me. We'll see how many new customers order as a result, but there were at least a dozen or more who were very excited about Greenstar and our products. Many of them have been looking for something just like what we have to offer -- lots of quality things under one roof so they don't have to go all over to order things. Many others are very excited about our private-label program with McCutcheon's. So...we'll see. I did get an order over $3700 from a current customer at the show, which is exciting, too!

Gotta go...get supper ready then hit the sack. We have Fun, Food, and Fellowship here at our house tomorrow night......

Gone...

Well, I'm not home right now...meant to blog about it earlier this week but I was busy getting ready for this trip. I'm in St. Cloud right now (Minnesota, not Florida...which is MUCH warmer than here!), ready for the Minnesota Fruit & Vegetable Growers Conference as a trade-show presenter.

I've been working with Greenstar Co-Op for over a year now. It's a funny story...when Tony and I married, I started taking over the ordering and things for our farm market. One of the main companies he ordered from was a company called Farm Markets of Ohio (name since changed to Greenstar). They have thousands of products from dozens of different companies all under one roof, so you can order from just one place instead of having to go to all different companies. Tony had been ordering from them for about ten years or so before I came along. Well, a year or so later, we got the current catalog and they had the CEO's name listed along with the sales reps, etc. There was a VERY familiar name that wasn't too common....John Webel. I got on the telephone and called the sales gal in the office and started grilling her out of the blue: Does John Webel live in Austintown? "um, I can't really say." Well, does he have two daughters named Erin and Allison? "um, I can't really say. Shall I leave a message for him?" I then realized I probably sounded like some psycho...this chick from Minnesota asking all these personal questions. So I clarified: I used to live in Ohio very close to your office. A John Webel went to my church and still attends my parents' church. I used to babysit his daughters. Small world! Same John! He asked us to stop in and tour the place next time we visited my parents, so the kids and I did when we took a quick trip to Ohio to visit my grandparents one last time. Shortly after, John asked me to represent them in Minnesota and the surrounding areas so they could expand their sales base.

So, long story short (okay, it wasn't really short!), I'm here on behalf of Greenstar for the second year in a row. I enjoy talking about Greenstar and how well their products sell for us at our farm market. While I wasn't able to dedicate much time last season to expanding our Greenstar market in Minnesota, I still did get a few large customers and expect many more to come on board this year.

The next couple days will be busy for me, 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with no breaks, but if it's like last year, it'll be a blast.

And meanwhile, Tony is home with the kids all day today thru Friday, hehe! I miss 'em all, I really do, but I think it's great, too, that Daddy gets a chance to experience the things I go through all day long while he's busy at the farm. Of course, I think Grandma and Aunt Beth will be seeing a lot of the kids, too.... I wonder what they're going to be up to while I'm away. I wonder if Sus will think Daddy is Satan, too. Will she find the scissors again? Will Luke talk Daddy into giving his cross bow back (it was taken away after he deliberately shot his sister in the head twice...with rubber darts, but STILL!).

Okay, maybe you'd better say some extra prayers for Daddy and the kids...

On a different note; we now have a new president. I'll miss President Bush, who by no means is very popular right now and hasn't been for awhile. I wasn't happy with the election results and don't understand why so many people voted for a man who actively and vocally stands for so many terrible things. But at the same time, President Obama was allowed to take this office only by God's allowance and ordnance. It's hard to understand, but at the same time I am reminded that because of his new position, I need to honor the position he holds, even if I don't agree with all, much or any of his views and things that will probably be put into law (or laws repealed). And even more, especially more now than ever, President Obama needs my...our...prayers. May God continue to bless...and have mercy on...America.