Taking the Scenic Route

Strange thing that just bugs me:  The word “preheat”.  I have been going through recipe books and online recipe sites just sort of looking around for something to get out of the rut a bit.  The word ‘preheat’ is in almost every recipe.  (I am not a raw foodist, obviously.  lol) 

Let’s dissect the word a bit:  “Pre” means before.  Wouldn’t ‘preheat’ mean that is had no heat…before you add heat?  Wouldn’t my oven be in a constant state of ‘preheating’ unless I was actually ‘heating’ it?  Why the prefix?  I know what it means, I am just saying that it is a silly, meaningless embellishment to the word ‘heat’.  Why can’t it just say “Heat the oven to 350 degrees F”.  Why do we have to plug those three letters at the beginning?

Ok…back to life…I am headed to the kitchen to get the baked potatoes out of the oven.  Sadly, no matter how many recipes I have looked at, I still just put some potatoes in for supper.  lol.

My first phone call today got me all excited.  My neighbor called and was annoyed because it was snowing.  First snowfall of the winter!  So I open up the door to look outside, expecting to see a winter wonderland.  I saw a gray day.  It took me a minute to even see the snow falling, and another bit to determine that it was falling and not just dusting around.  We had ’snow dust’, not actual snow.  Last night she had called to tell us that we were expecting a blizzard and better run to the store before we got snowed in.  I didn’t really watch the weather, but I knew that Western Kansas was getting nailed, so it seemed reasonable.  Nope.  You couldn’t even see any white on anything unless you looked closely.

I understand that not everybody likes snow.  I don’t like driving in it either, but I love the way it makes everything look.  Plus, we live in town, so it is a rare thing that snow actually causes us to be ’snowed in’, so it doesn’t really change our lives much other than slowing down and making sure to have warm coats and some food and water in the car when we do go out.  It will be a little scary to go to the Dr. if there is storm during that time.  That requires us to get out on the interstate…not my favorite place to be in bad weather. 

I don’t understand how somebody who has lived in Kansas most of their life can be so out of sorts over such a non-event.  I asked Zach when he came home tonight if it really interfered with driving.  He said that it only was a bother when the wind picked up because it would cause viability to go down a bit, but not much.  The wind was more of a hassle than the snow.  Our neighbor was acting like it was the “Long Winter” from the Little House series.  Ugh.

Saturday evening we pulled out the Christmas decorations.  I am glad we waited because I felt better than I did on Friday.  We put on some Christmas music and spent the evening putting together the tree I used to decorate as a kid.  (We had real trees we hunted for ourselves in Grandma & Grandpa’s pasture through my young childhood, but when we got Jr. High age, this was the tree Mom & Dad bought.).  I had to spend an inordinate amount of time with scissors cutting off all the extra strings from the ball ornaments.  lol. 

We got out his Little People Nativity Scene last night, but decided to wait until today to pull out the regular one.  It was enough excitement for Zane last night and I want him to be able to enjoy it instead of being overwhelmed by it all.

He remembered how to put it together

Getting the top of the tree

Dragging the box closer…just in case we forgot.

Ready to string the lights

Hanging ornaments

Waiting for me to fix an ornament

Grabbed an ornament I hadn’t fixed yet

How old are you this Christmas?  “I’m 1…2…3  Three Years Old!”

Snoopy Doghouse

The angel puts on the angel

Caught him by surprise when we turned on the lights.

Getting out the Nativity Scene.  He insisted it go exactly where it went last year,  under the tree.

And a look back, Zane and the branches of the tree…

(for those of you who saw this earlier, I changed the photo..the other one you couldn’t see how the tree was leaning, so it wasn’t a good size comparison)

Click here to see more from last year

Some blog entries I found interesting

FeministaMama posts a profound writing on childbirth

Julielenore posts “10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong”

I am not sure how I even found this blog anymore.  It was linked from somebody else and I found I was still thinking about the entry a few days later and had to look through my history to find it.  The entry is about Healing and Time.  Very thought provoking.

I was tagged by Bionic Squirrel recently…

Five Quirky Things about me

1. I like the inside of my cup to be white.  I also like the middle part of a plate, where the food sits, to be white.  Patterns and colors under my food unsettle me.  Around the rim is fine, just not under the food.
2. I have to have a blanket covering at least a part of me, even when it is hot outside, to be able to sleep.  However, no matter how cold it is, I don’t want blanket touching my feet. (if it is really cold, the blanket can be a little ‘tent’ around me feet, as long is it isn’t laying on them)
3. I touch everything.  I am very tactile.  Going through a clothing store I pull my hand over the material and only examine to consider it after it has passed my subconscious touch test.  I didn’t even know I did this until my mom pointed it out to me.
4. If I am enjoying my food, I hum.  Again, I had no idea I did this until Zach’s aunt pointed it out.  I denied it at first, but came to realize she was absolutely right…and I can’t really help it.  I have to concentrate to NOT hum if I am in a situation where I need to be quieter.
5. I have a difficult time sitting like a normal person.  I am almost always sitting on one leg, or with my ankle wedged under the opposite knee, or sitting with my legs propped up in some manner.  I prefer sitting crosslegged on the floor to sitting in a chair in a lot of situations.  This is why I don’t wear dresses very often. lol.

We aren’t going to get the tree up tonight like we planned.  We did get a lot of cleaning done though.  This morning I was all determined to get the house together before putting the tree up.  It took me the entire day to clean our little bitty bathroom.  How sad.  Yes, it was dirty, but the main problem was trying to clean the bathroom with my back.  I kept thinking that if I just took it slow, it would be fine.  Zane came and ‘helped’ for a while.  He enthusiastically dunked the rags into the cleaning water, but only remembered to squeeze it out about 30% of the time, resulting in a LOT of water everywhere.  It is good for him to learn to help, and it meant he was staying out of Zach’s way (he was doing the really heavy cleaning and doesn’t have the patience with interruptions that I do)  It did, however, mean the floor was slicker, which meant I was working harder to keep my balance and keep both of us safe while trying to clean.  I ended up having to give him a bath in my ‘just cleaned’ tub to get all the goop off of him.  Zach had to help get him out of the bath (he would stay in there forever if we let him) because I couldn’t do anything other than say ‘please get out of the bath’ and he knew it and was, naturally, taking advantage of the situation.   

My back hurts so bad this evening I am almost totally unable to move.  It hurts to the point that Zach took Zane with him to run to the store for milk, sour cream & oil because I couldn’t trust myself to deal with an emergency alone with Zane. 

I do have to say though that I am so thankful for Zach.  When I emerged from the bathroom, the entire kitchen (including the floors and cabinets) were clean, the main living area was clean, and he was sorting the boxes of ‘papers we need to go through’ that were in the way)  I sat with him and finished going through the papers, then he took out bag after bag of trash and started the towel/rag load in the washer to help clean up the massive amount of laundry created by the dishes and bathroom cleaning.  Then he scrubbed up a bunch of potatoes for supper (the roast will wait until tomorrow), vacuumed, and took Zane with him to the store.  It is such a blessing to have a true partner. 

He also is the one that suggested we wait until tomorrow to do the tree so that I might be able to enjoy it without being in so much pain.  I know he was excited to get the tree up, so it was really sweet.  I am glad we didn’t tell Zane that was the plan so it was easier to just change the decorating to tomorrow.

It is nice to have the place clean though.  Zane destroyed his clean room while we were working in the rest of the house, but that usually only takes a half hour at the most to get decluttered again.  It will wait until tomorrow though.  I am DONE tonight. 

I guess we are having roast for dinner.  Three little roasts (I cut up ‘normal’ size roasts into much smaller portions so that I can make a ton of veggies with them in my pot and stretch the roast more). 

“Somebody” discovered the dial in the refrigerator with the numbers on it to adjust the temp and turned it to “off”  

 Luckily, we used most of the hamburger already, so we only lost about 1/4-1/2 a pound of that, but about the only thing in our freezer that wasn’t totally dethawed were the roasts.  The majority of stuff in our fridge will be ok too I think.  There wasn’t a ton there in the first place, but cheese, butter, and sauces (mustard, soy sauce, ect) can take a day of not being totally cold and still survive.  I will be doing a lot of sniffing for freshness in the coming weeks before I use anything though.  Nothing was up to room temperature yet, just not as cold as normal. 

So, do stir-fry veggies go with roast?  lol.  All my broth is gone, as are the few frozen entrees, but it could have been worse.  If it would have been two weeks ago after Mom took us to Sams it would have been much worse, but we have gone through most of the stuff other than the roast, and they are still salvageable.  Ugh.  It might not have been a lot, but with our food stamps so low, it really sucks still. 

edited to add…man, this post makes me sound like a major carnivore. lol.  We actually use meat fairly sparingly and as an accent to the meal, but that is why it is almost all in the freezer.  We get things in bulk and split it into a lot of small packages to use.  My freezer is mostly meat, frozen veggies (although there weren’t a lot left this time) and broths (I make stock pots of chicken & vegetable broths and freeze them because I am allergic to onions and can’t buy most canned broths for quick meals without onions).  I think the broths & the ’scraps to use in broths’ bags are the most frustrating for me because it takes a lot of time to build up a supply to make broth I can eat.

This year, my brother and SIL hosted Thanksgiving dinner in McPherson.  It was their first time to host a Thanksgiving meal and they did a great job.  We had smoked turkey, real mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed peas, creamed corn, marshmallow jello salad, banana strawberry jello salad, homemade wheat & white bread, crescent rolls, 7 layer salad, yams, potato salad, spinach salad, and for dessert there was almost a pie for every person…cherry, cherry cheesecake, pumpkin cobbler, and I think an apple and pumpkin.  They also had a chocolate fountain and cheeseball to snack on.  Nobody went away hungry. 

At the gathering were my parents, Joy’s parents, Joy’s grandma, and our family.  Her brother and family couldn’t make it, which contributed to the abundance of leftovers. 

Before dinner, my Dad, Zach & Zane went outside and kicked a ball around for a while.  After dinner, my mom took Zane outside for a walk.  They ended up running into another group of kids who were tossing a football around and joined them for a while, then went walking around, finding a bridge.  The lake was low, so there was no water under the bridge, but Zane had fun walking across the bridge and through the steep sides of the ditch.

Now, the pictures.  The little pictures were taken by my mom’s camera, the bigger ones by ours.

Joy cooking, with her Mom & Dad in the background

Tossing the football (he is the shortest one)  The lake looks a lot closer than it actually is.

The Bridge

Belly Shot.  So, do I look pregnant?  lol. (32 weeks, 3 days)

I made a blinkie thing that you are welcome to use on any sites.  Once you put the picture up, you can make the image a link that links directly to the thread on MDC.

The link to send the sign too is:  http://69.20.14.30/discussions/showthread.php?t=373747

I put it in my left side module as a link.

edited to add:

I have a second one made for signatures.  (Has to be under 2K to work as a smilie at MDC, so I had to start over again to make it work)

Dawn sent me the first two diapers she made for me.  The aqua one is from some fabric she found on clearance, and the denim one is 100% recycled materials.  I think the green one is a medium, and the denim is a small.  They are made from the Very Baby pattern. 

Just wanted to show you that you will see his eyes this Thanksgiving.