Thankful

8 things for 2008

1. Matthew and Anna.

2. Dad and Abby and Susan.

3. Lobmeyers.

4. Plymell school.

5. Good friends.

6. Father Wesley.

7. My new sewing machine.

8. 29 good Thanksgivings with Mom.

Thanksgiving Jokes

How did the Mayflower show that it liked America?
--It hugged the shore...

What do you get when you cross an octopus with a turkey?
--Enough drumsticks for Thanksgiving...

How can you make a Turkey float?
--You need two scoops of ice cream, some root beer, and a turkey...

Knock Knock
--Who's there?
Norma Lee
--Norma Lee who?
Norma Lee I don't eat this much.

Knock Knock
--Who's there?
Anita
--Anita who?
Anita 'nother napkin.

And just for Anna...

Why did the chicken cross the road?
The turkey was stuffed!

Help?

I'm cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year.

We're pretty casual, simple people, so I'm not worried about fancy foods or decorations or centerpieces or hors d'oeuvres.

I am worried about getting everything done at approximately the same time.

We're having a turkey roll, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, wax beans, rolls...I think that's it for the cooked things.

Any hints?

Start saving..

boxes!

Cereal boxes, cracker boxes, fruit snack boxes, anything with a sack inside so the box stays clean.

There are lots of fancy ways to cut up your boxes and turn them into cool gift boxes or gift bags.

I'll probably just put the presents inside and wrap them like normal. Because it doesn't sound like fun to me to cut them up and glue them together again.

But if it sounds like fun to you...send me a present in one!

Famous(ish)

Really, very ish.

I was looking at my Google Analytics the other day during my tech inservice (while they were fixing some sort of problem, not when I was supposed to be listening) and I noticed some people arriving from dollarstorecrafts.com, a site I'd never visited. So I looked and...

Here I am!

Neat, eh?

Whew!

I think it took at least 4 hours, spread out over two days.

Anna's room was overflowing with stuff. Tiny toys, dress up clothes, books, papers, pencils, crayon bits, ribbon bits, fabric bits, lots of bits. She had taken to shutting her door before I got home from school and telling me NOT to go in there, it was a MESS!

But we're all cleaned up now. Baby things to the basement, dress up clothes corralled, tiny toys sifted...a place for everything and everything in it's place...

Ahh, books sorted...

And now Anna's snuggled up with the most wonderful thing in the world. Books on tape. This little tape player entertained Abby for hours, and now Anna's using the same one, and the same tapes I made for Abby when she was little. Guilt-free entertainment.

But when I google "Fisher Price Tape Player" Amazon gives me instead this and this. Not the same at all.

Pumpkin Puree

Now for the pumpkin itself.

Quarter the pumpkin. I had Matthew do this because it was difficult. Sarah suggested sprinkling Pumpkin Pie Spice over the top, she said it mostly made the house smell nice. I did that, but I can't smell, so I can't tell you if it worked.

We put it on a baking sheet covered with foil and roasted it at 35o. I don't know how long. We were watching "The Office" on DVD and cutting out another project, and I kind of forgot about it until Matthew reminded me.
Then I carefully scraped all of the inside away from the outside, which was papery thin, and blended it one quarter at a time in the blender. I did this while it was still very hot. It would probably be a good idea to wait. Each quarter was about 2 cups of pumpkin.
It was fun, but seemed like an awful lot of work. Also I'm not sure what to do with the pumpkin now. I can make a pie...but... come to think of it, I'll need a recipe for that. We always used the recipe on the back of the can of pumpkin to make the pie. I guess I used the wrong kind of bags, there's no recipe on there.

Thanks Sarah!

Pumpkin Seeds

Sarah sent me some instructions about how to take apart and use a punkin, so tonight we did it. I'll give you her instructions with my pictures and commentary.

We started with this funny looking pumpkin from the patch. They told me it would be good for pie.

We'll start with the seeds...

Cut the pumpkin in half. Look! It looks like a regular pumpkin inside.

Then scoop out the guts and separate the seeds.

Rinse the seeds in the colander. This was my favorite part, because I could use the sprayer attachment in the sink and make the seeds spin. See?

Then dry the seeds. I spread them out on a towel and left them for a couple of minutes. I'm not very patient.

Mix them in a bowl with 1-2T of olive oil per 1-2 cups of seeds, and add salt/other seasonings until it smells good. I had a problem with this, as I cannot smell. I probably put in way too much salt, but I figure you can just brush it off.

Spread them on a baking sheet and bake for 10-20-30 minutes at 350, checking every 10 minutes. They should take on some color. After 15 minutes mine started popping like popcorn, so I took them out of the oven. They taste OK. I don't really know what pumpkin seeds are supposed to taste like. Maybe I just don't like them.

For Linda

And for the rest of us who are learning French

And for people who like cuteness.

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Thanks Michele!

Christmas Lists

I was updating my Amazon list for Christmas today, and lamenting that I didn't have an easy way to link to other things, or places, especially Etsy, when Amazon told me that I did! (have an easy way to do that)

You add this little button to your browser, and then you can add anything at all from the internet to your wish list!

I'm having lots and lots of fun.

On Etsy, you can browse by location (Kansas!)

or by color

or you can Pounce (see new stores, or stores that just sold something)

or shop normally, looking at a list.

A new favorite

"I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Every object is beautiful in motion; a ship under sail, trees gently agitated with the wind, and a fine woman dancing, are three instances in point. Man was made for action and for bustle."

--Abigail Adams

(Thanks to Garrison Keillor and The Writers Almanac for 11/11/08)

Christmas Nerdery

Earlier this week I spent a couple of hours in the basement doing one of my favorite things. I got all of the Christmas stuff together and went through the boxes of gifts I've accumulated over the year and wrote them all down. It's one Christmas thing I can legitimately do before Thanksgiving.

I went upstairs to print out my gift pages, and it occurred to me that it was perhaps all a little crazy. But then Organizational Betsy perked up and yelled at me. "It's not crazy! It saves time and money and aggravation and it's fun too!" Then she insisted that I share the documents, because Organizational Betsy is also bossy.

Christmas Gifts

Stockings

I use these to keep track of what I have, need to get, etc. I love looking at my lists, crossing things off, checking to see everyone has the same number of presents, knowing if I need stocking stuffers or if I'm all set. Feel free to use them, if that sounds like fun to you. Google Docs makes them two pages, I'm not sure why, so just print page 1 and that'll work.

I love Christmas.

Not so tasty

I found a partial bag of butter mints in the pantry, and thought surely I could grind them up and make something good out of them. It was especially exciting to use my mortar and pestle. Except that that wasn't a great idea because it took FOREVER and I ended up with a bunch of candy smushed to the bottom of the bowl because of the repeated pounding.

Anna had fun though.

Here are the cookies--They didn't taste very good. I read in one of the reviews that they weren't very minty, so I added 1/4 tsp. of peppermint oil, but it wasn't enough. It's that kind of cookie that's not very sweet, and that's crumbly inside. There must be people who like that kind of cookie, so here's the recipe if that's you.
I wish I were better at reading a recipe and knowing what something would taste like. Is that just experience? Paying attention? Thinking it through? I forget to do those things.

I have more crushed mints--any suggestions?

Homemade Sausage

I was browsing through cookbooks the other day, and noticed a recipe for making sausage out of ground turkey. Matthew's not a fan of the ground turkey as a substitute for ground beef, but since we're still cleaning out, that's what we're eating.

Here's the recipe: Turkey Breakfast Sausage

It was fun to use all of the spices. I did wonder, when a recipe just calls for "thyme" or "sage" are you supposed to use the "ground" bottle or the "rubbed"? Anyone?

I decided to just brown it all, and not make patties, so that we could use it in spaghetti sauce or eggs. It was super tasty!

Anna deviates from the script

Dear God,

I want to go to Margaret's and please tell Santa that I want a Barbie Waterfall and Cinderella thing

and

I had a good day

and please do that please

Amen.

The improbable dream

Sometimes I daydream about having a little craft shop on Main Street. We'd have lots and lots of classes, and book clubs, and crafting sessions, and it would be fun. I even have a name picked out and other such ideas.

I know this is silly. As demonstrated by the Adult Tap Class (I was so excited to see who else would sign up! Answer: No one but me), what I think would be fun does not necessarily extend to the community at large. And I don't know anything about running a business, and I love my current job, and, and, and...

But it's my fun daydream.

What's yours?

Goodreads

Trinket invited me to be her friend on Goodreads a couple of months ago, and it's been lots of fun to keep track of what I read, and see what she's reading, and pass books back and forth, though we're far apart.

In the past 3 months-ish, I've read 40 books. Almost all of them were silly. Some are embarrassing. A few worthy. It's fun to see.

Anybody wanna be my friend? I'd love to see what you're reading.

Whatever happened to...

Paint with Water books?

I remember painting and painting at the kitchen table, being with Mom while she made bread, or soup, or dinner, but staying out of her hair. At least, out of her hair until the inevitable spill of the plastic tub that held the water, at which point we'd be *deep breath* banished for a while.

I finally found one at Goodwill a month or so ago, but I can't find them at Wal-Mart, Target, Dillons, or Walgreens. Where'd they go?

If you find them, let me know where!

Compassion

Shauna pointed out The Pioneer Woman one day, and I've enjoyed reading since.

This week her husband and girls are in the DR with Compassion International, and I'm wildly impressed by what they're doing there.

Here's one of the posts, and another, and another. Probably, if you're reading this in a timely fashion, and not a year from now, it'd be best just to go to the site and read. My links are kind of random.

A Christmas Bag!

I found some quilted Christmas fabric at the thrift shop in downtown Goodland on my trip with Anna. I wanted to try to make a bag like my Vera bag for Christmas. This time, I tried to do a good job, and think things through, do all of the steps, etc. I even ironed some as I was sewing.

I'm very pleased with how it came out.

It has a pocket for my phone and sunglasses, though I made these a bit too shallow. That's one of the troubles with using scrap fabric.

One of my favorite things is that I used a Coke box for the bottom stabilizer.

Posted on Craftster!

The Great Migration

The wind is blowing a million miles an hour today, but the tumbleweeds always make me smile.

Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." Albert Einstein

Dad sent me this quote this week.

I wonder, should it change anything about the way we teach?

No more media?

It's come to my attention recently that Anna is ALWAYS paying attention.

Once, after listening to 5 minutes of country music, 4 hours later she sings: "Hey baby I'm a country man"

We switched to NPR when she was born, because that seemed like the responsible thing to do, but I can't handle the news anymore. Maybe it'll be better now that the election's over.

Today she said: "Obama won. John McCain wanted to win, but he didn't."

We'd better be careful. Or switch to all classical/music in other languages.

Anna sews

Who needs toys?

More Sweaters

I wanted to make a sweater pillow out of another cotton sweater that was too short for me, but rushed into the project without too much forethought.

It's OK, but would be much better if I had thought to leave the seam on the bottom open instead of the top. Now the wonky sewing is right on top of the pillow.

Then I made some loose tights for Anna out of the sleeves. They look funny too, but since they go under a dress, it doesn't bother me.

I'm hoping that she'll wear them since they're a little more loose.

A glimmer of me

Anna looked like me for about a day after she was born, and then all of the Lobmeyer came shining through.

But today, after we saw "Beauty and the Beast" at the college, I heard something that made me proud.

Anna didn't love the scary parts of the story, or the conflict. She was talking through it on the way home, and decided that her play would be called...

"Beauty and the Prince".

No need to mess around with beasts and wolves. Just make it happy all the way through.

That's my girl.

Trick or Treat

We had a great time tonight, visiting good friends and getting some candy.

Our little princess loved it all, especially going with her Aunties,

and cousin,

and ended the night like this.

Happy Halloween Jokes!

Why did the vampire go to the orthodontist?
-To improve his bite...

Do zombies eat popcorn with their fingers?
-No, they eat the fingers separately...

Why do mummies have trouble keeping friends?
-They're all wrapped up in themselves...

What is a skeleton's favorite musical instrument?
-A trombone...

What do birds give out on Halloween night?
-Tweets...

Why do vampires need mouthwash?
-They have bat breath...

What's a vampire's favorite fast food?
-A guy with very high blood pressure...

Why did the vampire subscribe to the Wall Street Journal?
-He heard it had great circulation...


Have a happy day! Share your bad (good!) jokes if you've got 'em.

Haystacks!

Since we're still eating out of the pantry, I decided to make haystack cookies today to use up some old chow-mein noodles.

I used this recipe from cooks.com I think you could easily use more noodles, they were pretty sticky and sweet. Yummy though, for a quick cookie.

(This time it is my photo. I tried and tried to get one as good as Michele's, but no luck yet.) I need macro practice.

When they were done and I put them in the fridge to chill, Anna came running back in and said "Mama! You forgot to put them in the red spinner!"

Can you guess what she meant?

Hectic

I'm curious.

In my little world, I'm only at my house for dinner two nights a week. Not counting the weekend, because who knows what'll happen on the weekend. But almost never a quiet evening at home.

Is everyone else's life like this?

Pandora

My niece Joanna sent me a link to Pandora Radio last year, and I've been really loving it. You can create your own station based on a single artist that you like, or mix it all up.

I have a couple of stations that I listen to all the time, one based on Over the Rhine and one for Fernando Ortega. When I'm playing with Anna in the computer room we listen to one based on Elizabeth Mitchell, and when I want Spanish music I listen to one like Ricardo Arjona.

To make a new station, you just have to tell them who you like, and they'll analyze the music and find lots of things that are similar. You can thumbs up or down the individual songs to give further direction. I used to listen to Yahoo radio, but I like Pandora better. No commercials and no log in.

You can share stations too, so let me know if you want one of mine. Bear in mind, I'm kind of an old lady.

Shopping

We just got home from Manhattan, where we spent a little time on Saturday shopping at the Mall.

We took Anna to Gap Kids and found a nice dress on clearance.

Abby found a few things at AeroPostale.

Abby and Susan both found Sale fun at American Eagle.

I found a Senior Center Craft show and got a quilt! With a kitty on it!

To Summarize:

Anna: Cool Kid.

Abby: Cool Kid.

Susan: Cool Kid.

Betsy: Old Lady.

New Coats

I've been buying my coats at Thrift Stores since High School. I'm always frustrated by the linings, since that's usually the reason they end up at the thrift store in the first place. Mom sewed several for me, and last year I had her teach me how to sew it myself, but it was a lot of trouble, and then the coat I had fixed up so nicely in the lining started to come apart at all of the seams. So I decided to buy regular coats.

Then I saw how much regular coats cost. I can't do that!

So I decided to just buy a new thrift store coat every year and not try to fix them. I'll just wear them out completely and get a new one.

This year I couldn't possibly choose, so I got two. One is green, with Sparkly Buttons! (and with a torn lining)

The other is a beautiful pink and the lining looks good! Could it be a two-season coat??

We'll see. Mom always said I was "awfully hard on things".

Patience IS a virtue

We made our last batch of crayons today. We did everything right, and they turned out so well!

First, we used all crayola crayons. Anna and I spent FOREVER peeling crayons. Matthew came home and somehow we were able to convince him to help too. I asked him what normal people did with their time, since I don't think they spend two hours peeling crayons. He guessed TV.

We made some more heart crayons and they look great.

Then I spread the rest of them onto our cookie sheet. We had a little more than one layer.

Here they are when we turned off the heat, all melted.

We left them in the oven to cool, with the door ajar and the vent running. I also opened the door a bit for a minute to bring in some new air. The colors continue to mix on the top as it cools.

When it was partially cooled, but still warm, I took it out of the oven and carefully cut it with the cookie cutters. I used a straw to put holes in a couple of them, I was wondering if they'd be cute Christmas ornaments. Then, and this is a very important part--I left them alone!

I came back when they were all cool and was able to flip the pan over and tumble everything out in nice clean pieces. Here you are! They're a pretty sunsetty orange on the front and multicolored on the back.

Then my problem was that I didn't want to throw away the excess of that.

But that's too crazy, so I just enjoyed breaking it all up and then PUT IT IN THE TRASH.

What shall we do next?

Apple Tart

This is another yummy dessert I made from the Kraft Food & Family Fall edition.

Freestyle Apple Tart

I made two, one for school and one for Dad and Abby. It was simple and well received.

Identity Theft!

This is serious. Not credit cards or social security numbers, much more serious.

When the new Volkswagon Bug was introduced in 1998, I wanted one. (I called it a "Hug Bug" I can't remember if everyone did or not. I tried to make a new game, where you gave the person next to you a squeeze whenever you saw one, but it didn't take off. Not as successful as the Carl's Jr./Hardees boycott, but that's another story.) I set about deciding on colors and styling. The only proof I have of this is this post, but those close to me can verify that I've wanted a Barbie Pink Hug Bug with silver glitter lightning stripes for some time.

Tonight, at Dillons, in my own small town, we spotted a custom pink Hug Bug with silvery blue paint splashes. We were too far away, and it was too dark, to verify the actual color of the car or the stripes, but it was too close for comfort.

I have a long history of predicting trends, we've joked about the satellite following my style choices, but this is too far.

That's MY car.

Cookie Cutter Crayons

Abby and I tried to make some of the cookie cutter crayons on Sunday afternoon. We didn't have a tremendous amount of luck, but we did have fun, and we learned several things for next time.

It's important to use all one kind of crayons because they melt at different times otherwise. We kept waiting for this one little guy to melt and ended up kind of boiling the wax. Oops.

Once it's all melted, you just need to turn off the oven because if you try to pick up the pan, you'll swirl all of your colors together and end up with brown. Eeew.

Use the cookie cutter to cut them when it's solid but still warm, but then WAIT until it's totally cooled before you try to take them out. I think that's why so many of ours broke. When I was cleaning up, hours later, it was much easier to take them out.

To prep, we sprayed the old baking sheet with Pam, and then we melted the crayons at 350. They melted pretty quickly. We're going to try again, using what we've learned. Hopefully it'll go better next time.

Oh! and you probably want ventilation. Abby's head was hurting and my eyes were burning. That may have been from the boiling though. Or the other plastic we accidentally melted earlier. Oops again.

Here's what we managed to get out in one piece. The Kansas shows you what they looked like on top, and the others are flipped over to show the pretty bottom. It think it's really neat how they're different on each side and in the middle.

Boston Cream Pie

I saw this in the Fall issue of Kraft Food and Family, (click "sign up" in the top right corner to get the magazine) and thought it looked awfully pretty and fairly simple. I've made it three times now, and it's always a huge hit. Click the picture for the recipe. (or the words)


Boston Cream Pie Recipe



Since it only uses one layer, you can freeze the other and have it ready to make another one super-de-duper quick.


For the chocolate on top, I've done some fiddling. Today I cut the milk to one T, heated it before I added it to the chocolate, and used a bit more sugar. That made a nice consistency. I thought it was too runny when I followed the recipe.

I like this especially because I get to use my domed cake plate, and cut the cake in half, so I feel like a real cook. Enjoy!

I Stuff

I am- still trying to enroll in my first Master's class.
I want- to start getting more rest.
I have- too many things in the to-do pile
I wish- my Mama was still here.
I hate- this election
I fear- regret
I hear- nothing. It's nice and quiet at the moment.
I search- for fun and easy and quick projects, for bargains, for gifts.
I wonder- what heaven's like.
I always- stay up too late.
I usually- buy too many presents.
I am not- meeting my goal of being in bed by 11:00 tonight.
I dance- at school, in the car, in the kitchen, with Anna, circles around Matthew.
I sing- a lot, but not when Matthew's around, apparently.
I never- vacuum the dust coils on my refrigerator, even though that's one of the things magazine people are always reminding you to do. Who does that?
I rarely- eat red meat anymore.
I cry- easily.
I am not always- patient with the kids at school.
I lose- my earplugs in the night sometimes.
I’m confused- about the balance between feeling and doing.
I need-a swimming pool.
I should- do so many things.
I dream- in English, though I'd rather be practicing my Spanish in my sleep.
I TAG- Katrina, Jenny, Sarah, Sara

Liberal

The curtains were awfully good in our hotel room, Anna and I slept and slept this morning, and didn't roll out until lunchtime.

We checked our trusty Kansas Guidebook for Explorers and went to Bob's Diner, which was every bit as much fun as you'd think. Here's Anna with her strawberry milkshake. (Because we're girls, Mom, and it should be a pink milkshake)Then we went to Dorothy's house and took the tour, and that was fun. Anna, of course, is pretending to be Dorothy now, and doesn't like to be addressed by any other name. There was a picnic table in the just the right spot to set the camera, so we could get a picture of these munchkins.Then we went to see the Samson of the Cimarron, the giant railroad bridge. It was cool.

Then we came home, because I thought we had something to do tonight, but it was cancelled. But regardless...