Did You Hear That??

Did you hear that?? Me, neither. Silence. Seriously, silence. For the first time in 12 years, in the middle of a school day, I am alone in the house. (Okay, Buddy the Wonder Dog was still here, and Kim was here for awhile, but you get the picture...) I had pictured myself soaking in the big jetted tub, bubbles everywhere. Maybe reading the paper, painting my toenails. It's what I should have been doing yesterday.

It was a big day for 2 of us, here in the Brooksby house. Nat went to her first day of pre-school and I had an entire 2 1/2 hours to myself!! But, instead of the bubble bath, I took a 5 minute shower and spent the rest of the time picking up after my slovenly children. Not at all what I pictured myself doing to celebrate, but it had to be done. I thought the day would never come - all the kids in school for a few hours in the day. What will I ever do with myself to pass the time?? Kim asked me if I wanted to get a job...I hope he was kidding....

How I Spent My Saturday Night....

Yep. Old Lady. After a busy, busy, Saturday my hubby and son were off to a very dissapointing BYU game. Me? Stayed home and bottled grape juice. No date night, dinner out, movie or even a rental. Bottled juice. And when I was done, I stood back to admire it. Isn't it beautiful? Yep. Old Lady.

Life is Rough

It's been a blustery week....cold and rainy for two days. Just enough to make us want to stay inside and keep busy at home. Today, Nat decided to break out the foam stickers and make Kim's b-day present (it's still a month and a half away). I left her here with Abby to run and get the kids from school and this is what I came home to. Those darn foamy stickers just plum wore her out. I love photos like this....

Comfort Food

It is officially fall. It didn't get above 60 degrees here today. Brrrrrr! We have not yet turned on the furnace, but it won't be long. There is officially snow in the mountains - beautiful to look at, but kind of ruining that reddish-orange tint that I've been enjoying. With the rain and the cold comes one of my favorite things: soup! And, you can't have soup without homemade bread. We had broccoli cheese soup on Monday with homemade honey-wheat bread. Tonight it was chicken and dumplings...simply delicious! It's been requested to share the recipe, so here goes:

Chicken and Dumplings
6 cups chicken broth (3 cans) OR 6 c. water + 6 chicken bouillon cubes
1 whole chicken, boiled and shredded ** (see below)
1 c. sliced carrots (2-3 carrots)
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 onion, minced
2-3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 handful of chopped fresh parsley (or 1 Tbsp. dried parsley)
1/2 tsp. basil
1 14-oz. can evaporated milk
1 recipe of Bisquick dumplings **The horror, I know! Dumplings from a box! (2 c. Bisquick + 2/3 cup of milk)

In a large pot, heat some olive oil over medium heat and add onions and garlic. Saute for a few minutes and then add chicken broth, chicken, bay leaf, and basil. Bring to a boil. Add carrots and celery and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until carrots and celery are tender. When carrots and celery are almost done, add chopped parsley. *I never have fresh herbs, so I used dried and it was fine. Add evaporated milk. Increase heat to boiling and add prepared Bisquick by large spoonfuls (they'll really puff up while they're cooking). Cook uncovered for about 10 minutes and then cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes. I also used a little flour to thicken before I added the dumplings.

**For the chicken I used 1 whole cut-up chicken. Added enough water to cover it and threw in some carrots, onion, celery and salt/pepper. Brought to a boil and then turned down to a simmer for about 45 min. I then strained the stock (Save it and use as the chicken stock in recipe!) and shredded the chicken. Do not re-use the vegetables. Just toss out. When I added the stock to the recipe above, I added a few chicken bouillon cubes to increase the chicken flavor.

It was truly a yummy dinner (or as they say in NoDak, "supper") and everyone gobbled it up. I was hoping for some leftovers for tomorrow, but sadly we ate almost the entire pot! Sometime in the near future, I will post my other favorite soup: Grandma Lueck's Knoefla Soup (pronounced neff-la)....my mouth is watering just thinking about it. And, if you're not from NoDak, or Norwegian, you will just have to wait and see exactly what a knoefla is!!

Life After Baseball

Yes, we've discovered that there is life after baseball season ends....it's FOOTBALL! Jake decided to forgo playing fall baseball and try football. I had never heard of such a thing as FULL TACKLE football in 5th grade. Apparently, it's a Utah thing. You can play tackle football in full pads starting in 3rd grade!! Jake is having a blast with it - he's loved even going to practices everyday of the week. He plays games every Tuesday night - they've played 4 games now and have won 3 of them. Jake has even scored a touchdown and gotten to do the kickoff.
What position does he play?? I have no idea. He seems to be running all over the place, so I really can't tell where he's supposed to be (and really, I wonder if HE knows where he should be!). They only have 15 kids on the team, so he gets to play both offense and defense. He's in almost every play of the game and completely exhausted by the time it's over. (Especially with the 90 degree weather that we still have) He doesn't care that he's tired and hot and stinky and thirsty. He just cares that he gets to tackle other kids and carry the ball up the field.
I love that he's athletic (even though it makes my life completely hairy and hectic) and will try anything. He takes it all very seriously and has even cut out drinking pop (because the coach said so!) and doing drills in the back yard. He's having fun and someday I will look back, I'm sure, and miss the days when we didn't eat dinner at home for a month because we were at games or practices!!

Another Moment

There are several times a week that Natalie and I have a "moment". One of those moments where I realize that we're doing something that we may never do again.  She's the last one to learn lots of new things.  It makes me a little sad to see her get so big - don't get me wrong, we LOVE being out of the baby stage, but if I could keep her 4 years old for another few years, I just may do it.  She is at such a fun age and I love how excited everything makes her.

Her latest "moment" came just yesterday as she took off all by herself on her bike.  No training wheels!!  On Sunday, we asked her if she wanted to try taking them off; she's actually alot older than our 3 other kids have been when they took them off and learned to ride.  Since she's the baby, we've been a little slower (or lazier) in letting her try things out.  We took them off and she wasn't too keen on the whole idea at first.  Then, we practiced for a day or two.  Yesterday, she just took off!!  I was chasing her down the street and she even got to the point where she could get started all by herself.  And, she was so proud of herself!  She went to several neighbors houses and knocked on the doors calling out whoever would watch her - she wanted everyone to see what she could do.

The little pink bike was actually Abby's first bike - it's seen some better days!!  But, it's the perfect height for learning. Just big enough to not fall too hard or too far.  It's faded and gross looking, but all the kids have used it (even Jake learned to ride on it!).  Soon, it will be sent off to the dump or good will.  Mute the music, enjoy the video and please ignore the panting, screaming mother who was trying to capture it on camera AND run up the street!!

Sewing with Erin

I am not a seamstress. I have a mother who can sew beautifully. I left home not knowing a stitch (pardon the pun) about sewing anything. It's a big regret that I have. When Abby was little, I thought I had the time and energy to learn how to sew something basic. I took a community sewing class and learned a few things, bought a used machine, and made a few sundresses for Abby. I've sewn a few baby blankets, a few burp cloths, hemmed some items. Nothing big and nothing with a real amount of difficulty.

Not too long ago, I saw some beautiful quilting projects that my friend Vickie had made. I became utterly jealous. I begged her for some lessons. She agreed. We've been meeting up on a monthly basis and she gives me some lessons, pointers, and a break from my kids. We usually go to dinner, take a field trip to the quilt store, and then start on our projects. We sew into the night and a few times into the early morning. My first project was a table runner. It was blocks sewn together with a boarder and then I attempted to "stitch in the ditch" to give it that quilted look. I got thinking that I knew what I was doing and wasn't so careful with my seam allowance and my ironing. Needless to say, it didn't turn out looking so pretty. It's in a drawer now. Maybe someday, when I've quilted something beautiful, I can pull it out and have a good laugh over my first mistakes. For now, it will stay buried in the drawer.

Since I've dusted off the sewing machine, I've attempted a few other projects. The first (which I have no picture of) was an apron. I saw the pattern, loved it, found some adorable fabric and decided that it was do-able. Simple stitching, a little elbow grease and wha-la, I would have a cute apron. My first apron took me about 4 hours. I, again thought I knew what I was doing, and ended up having to take it apart. Several times. In the end, even though it had a ton of mistakes, I sent it to my friend Janelle for her b-day. She is a REAL seamstress and she probably had a good laugh over the sight of it. But, I knew that she would appreciate my attempt and would wear it proudly anyway. (She probably should make herself a button to attach to it: "I didn't make this")

My second attempt was another of the same apron, in the same material, for my sister in law's b-day. She is NOT a seamstress, so she has no idea where all the mistakes are. Nice! I may have looked like I knew what I was doing! I even attempted to add a little bling to it and made a cute flower to pin to the top. The apron turned out pretty cute and I cut my sewing time (including cutting) down to about 2 hours.

My cute sis-in-law, Allison, modeling her new apron.

Flower I constructed for the "wow" effect...

These are the first of many projects on my list and I'm sure that there are many more mistakes to come. But, I do get a little sense of satisfaction knowing that if there is ANY need for a dang cute apron in the world, I am certainly capable of lending my services. Of course, it would have to be this same pattern....or I'd be in trouble.....