Let's Dish

Today is a yucky weather day here at my house. It is going between rain/sleet/snow.  And later today I have to take dinner to a neighbor who had surgery earlier in the week.

When the weather gets cold and dreary, I get inspired to cook a big meal.  So night I'm making the same dish for us and for my neighbor. I decided I'm going to roast a whole chicken.  I don't hear many people doing this these days, but I love roasting a chicken in the oven because to me it is the smaller version of making Thanksgiving and instead of roasting a turkey I'm doing the chicken. 

I love using the Reynolds Roasting bags that I use for cooking a turkey to roast my chicken.  It makes it so easy to have the chicken turn out tender. If you've never cooked a whole chicken before, I recommend doing it that way.

I'm going to be making sweat potato casserole and green bean casserole, as well as Rhodes yeast rolls. I have to admit the Rhodes are my favorite.  You have to plan ahead and give them a good 3-5 hours to rise, but they are worth it.  When I was growing up I had a sweet neighbor named Mabel who used to live beside my family.  My dad used to go over and help her out if she needed something fixed, a light bulb changed, etc.   Whenever you went to Mabel's house it smelled like heaven.  She was a wonderful cook.  When my dad would help her out, she would almost always make us a batch of yeast rolls.  They are hands down the best yeast rolls I've ever tasted.  I wish I'd been old enough to ask Mable for her recipe.  I've often thought of those rolls and Rhodes are the closest I can get to them.

So, that is what is going on here today.  What are you favorite things to eat/cook when the weather gets yucky?

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Reader Challenge

Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I might finally be gaining some ground in this battle with the sinus infection. This is the first morning I've felt like I might be getting better.  Which is great because who has time to be sick?

It has been hard for me to blog lately with being sick and I've just had a heavy heart.  I like to blog about light hearted things, but today I'm blogging a challenge to my readers and I wanted to share about something that has become near and dear to my heart.

We all hear on the news how this economy has really taken a toll on folks.  And unless you are directly impacted, or have a family member impacted, it doesn't always hit you how people really need assistance.  Over the last few months, I have become more involved with assisting the food pantry at my church.  The thought of another person being hungry is just heart wrenching.  Especially when I've heard statistics saying children are especially being affected.  I've been buying extra items and also organizing food drives with our Mother's of Preschoolers Group (MOPS).  I personally know of individuals who have been blessed with the donations to the food pantry.

So my challenge to my readers today is to donate some food to your local food pantry.  Or even take it a step further and organize a food drive for your local food pantry.  There are so many folks in need and this is such an easy way to help, even if you don't have a lot of time.

One of the mom's in my MOPS group told us about a wonderful way she and her family helped the food pantry.  She and her children drafted a letter and they put them in their neighbor's mailboxes.  They let the neighbors know if they would like to participate in the food drive, they could leave the bags of food on their porch and they let them know the date and time they would do the collection.  She said was very successful and it gave her children an opportunity to learn about volunteer work. 

I've learned from the folks at our food pantry that accept only canned or plastic items, no glass.  So it might be good to check on that.  Also, things like canned ham, chicken, and tuna fish are meats that the pantry can use.  And of course peanut butter is always a staple that can be used. 

I hope this post inspires folks to get involved in your own community.  There are times in our lives when planting seeds like this mean that we don't get to see the fruit of our labors.  But I know in my heart that the yield will be so worth the work.

So what are you doing to help out your community?

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Things I've Learned Over the Weekend...

So, I'm still fighting the sinus battle. If this doesn't get any better by tomorrow, I think I'll be at the doctor's before the end of the week.

And I woke up yesterday morning to find our pipes had frozen.  So dh went to Wal Mart and got a space heater and put it under the house.  We turned on all our faucets in the house and finally the water came back on.  We were very blessed that so far things seem ok and no leaks.

As if frozen pipes weren't enough, I've got a guy here replacing our hot water heater.  They are trying to get everything straight.  Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

So the things I've learned over the weekend is that having no water stinks.  And thank goodness for Bath & Body Works Waterless Hand Foam.  It gets your hands wet and clean when you have no water.  So if you have any kind of emergency kit in your house, I recommend that kind of hand sanitizer.

That is all I'm posting today. I'm going to try to get my little guy down for a nap before something else blows up. LOL

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Blogging later

I'll be blogging later today. Hope you are having a great Monday!

Recipe for a Crummy Week

I'm having a crummy week here.  And I don't like blogging when I'm not in a positive frame of mind.  I'm fighting a sinus infection.  Then add in a few other stresses and this is ending up to be a real banner week. 

Last night I decided we needed to do something fun.  So I grabbed a box of brownie mix and told Sawyer he could help me cook.  He loves helping put things in the mixer.  The kid is a chocoholic just like his dad.  As you can see, he enjoyed helping clean the bowl. LOL  Seeing him like this was the smile I needed to put on my face this week.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Sick Day

Feeling sick.
Hope to blog tomorrow.

Snow Day Kid Crafty Activity

Tuesday I planned for a kid snow day activity.  Because the weather forecasters made it sound like we were going to get between 1-4 inches of snow.  Guess how much we got?  Just a light dusting and some ice.  So much for the snow.

I decided that instead of being annoyed that my husband has taken our live Christmas tree and instead of disposing of it like normal people, he yet again continues his annual tradition of putting the tree out back until at least probably the end of February.  God love my hobo husband. LOL  So the tree is sitting on my deck where I can see it through our family room windows.

My thought was if the tree is going to be out there where we can see it then why not decorate it.  Thus the idea of making bird seed ornaments came to pass.

I got peanut butter, bird seed, cups and a bit of yarn.  I helped the boys smear the peanut butter onto the cups.  I used plastic spoons to let them smear it on since they are little and we don't use knives yet.  I had to do most of the smearing because my oldest son, Sawyer kept wanting to eat the peanut butter.  That kid is king of the peanut butter.

The boys had fun exploring the texture of the bird seed and they liked pouring it on top of the peanut butter.  My youngest, Logan was very upset when mommy said it was time to clean up. He loved running his fingers through the bird seed. 

 So this is one of the things we've been doing during these long days of winter.  How about you, do you have any fun activities or suggestions for passing the days with little ones?

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

If you can't beat 'em, feed 'em

So yesterday when I was at the grocery store I decided to buy some bird seed.  For days I've heard about this big snow storm that was going to hit our area and I thought if my oldest didn't go to preschool, we'd make peanut butter bird seed ornaments to feed the birds.  As I was grabbing the bag of bird seed, I noticed they sold squirrel feeders.  They are a wire contraption that you open and put in a dried corn cob. 

I've had my share of frustration with the squirrels in my yard.  Mostly I don't mind squirrels.  Except the little critters will dig up some of my potted plants when I get them in the spring and summer. So that annoys me.  But I decided to put all of that aside and buy one of the squirrel feeders.

When I got it home and decided to put it up before the snow got here, I had to laugh at the tag I took off the feeder. It says, "If you cant beat 'em, feed 'em".  And that folks pretty much sums it up for me. LOL

It looks like the squirrels haven't discovered the feeder. So I'm sure I'll be peeking out the window a lot to see if I can catch a glimpse of one of my fur flower foes having a snack. 

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Verizon is on the naught list right now...

Folks, I'm throwing in the towel and declaring my blogging for this week over. I've had home phone and DSL problems with Verizon since late Tuesday and they still haven't been resolved.  Needless to say Verizon will be losing yet another customer.

Hope you are having a better week in your neck of the woods!

Santa was good to me...

I feel that I really haven't had a chance to post any updates about our holiday because I feel like my holiday still hasn't ended. Usually by this time I'm sad and get the after holiday blues, but not this time. I think part of it is dh has taken extra vacation time and having him around makes it still seem like the holidays/vacation.

I was very blessed and completely surprised to receive an Ipod touch from him for Christmas. I didn't know anything about them, but I'm in love. I love the freedom it gives and being able to check the Internet and email while I'm out and about. I'm still learning how to use it. If you have any good apps you can recommend, please leave me a comment and let me know.

So I posted before Christmas that I was hoping Santa would bring a pair of Corky's boots. Well, I'm glad he didn't because the Ipod touch was a cool surprise. And I ended up finding another pair of boots that I bought between Christmas and New Year's at a local shop. You can order this brand online which is a plus. They are called Rain Bops by Beehive.  And they come in not only cowboy boots, but in other styles as well.

And here is the pair I purchased. The pattern is called art fusion.  And they really are beautiful in person.  The Beehive website says that they are original hand painted designs which I think is really unique.  I know, they are a bit wild looking. And I normally wouldn't buy some that had this much going on even though I do love color, but I think they are going to be really cool to wear and that I'll use them a lot.  With the various colors in them, they will go with a number of different outfits.  They have other patterns available as well if you aren't this daring.  When I checked the price, these were cheaper than the Corky's.  I'd recommend checking out the Beehive website. If you go to this link and click the "Buy Now" tab it will take you to their website where you can not only see their boots, but they sell other cute items as well.  Rainbops by Beehive

With all the crummy weather we've had in our area, I'm excited to have some outstanding rain boots to wear.

So, that is my chic recommendation for the day.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!   

Laughing my way into 2011

Happy New Year!  I found this commercial that made me laugh. I never saw it in my area, but I thought it was so cute.  Who new Roberty Downey Jr. could work as Mr. Peanut?  Hope this gives you a good chuckle to start off 2011.