Misc Ramblings – Page 42 – a hippie with a minivan

mmmm….cranberries and lemon…

I made some cranberry-lemon cake/bars yesterday…

and… they were so good that there is not enough left to get a good pic…

Of course, It did help that I got a call at the last minute yesterday reminding me that there was a homeschooling meeting last night so I packed them up and brought them to share…

I will make them again though and share the pic but for now I will share the recipe…

2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups cranberries (or less if you don’t like them as tart as I do)

1. Beat together eggs, butter, sugar and vanilla.
2. Mix in Lemon zest and juice
3. Add flour and baking powder and mix well.
4. Fold in cranberries.
5. Pour into 9 x 9 cake pan.
6. Bake@ 350 degrees 40-45 minutes .

So what is new…

Well… first… I have signed up for NanBloPoMo so I have the challenge of writing a blog post per day for the whole month… So expect a lot of posts in the next 30 days…

what I realized though is that I haven’t given an update in a while…

The boys are on a video game kick at the moment… Lego Batman, Lego Starwars and Lego Indiana Jones are big hits along with Spore… Colin is more into the Lego games while Xavier is having SO much fun creating creatures and spaceships in spore and having his creatures live and evolve.. and I have to admit that I am enjoying that game also…

Colin has also been having fun on Starfall… not long ago he did not catch how to use a mouse nor did he have much interest in the computer… not like Xavier who was great with the mouse at 2… but when he caught on, he caught on quickly and frequently asks to play the “letter game”… and well he is good at it also… I have a feeling that he will be reading sooner than later…and the funny thing I find is that as much as Xavier wants to hide that he knows more than we think… he corrects Colin and reads things for him when he thinks we are not listening…

As I have said before though… he doesn’t like to show off what he knows if he doesn’t think that he can do it according to his own standards… So I have a feeling that he will not admit that he can read, or sit down with a book until he is certain that he can… yes… I am admitting that Xavier rarely, or almost never looks at books… but as I have been learning myself… books are not the only places where words exist and they have plenty of time to fall in love with books…

Another thing is that Xavier and Colin are fighting a lot less… they play together a lot more often, and make up scenarios, plan things and talk about things… they are not just brothers but they are also friends…

And Khéna… well he is growing and changing and becoming such a little man… I am realizing everyday that we no longer have a “baby” in the house… he follows his brothers everywhere, wants to have everything like them…but he also plays by himself a lot and has been doing a lot of pretend play… he loves to take care of his “bibi” (baby) and walks her around the house in a stroller and brings her to me to nurse… it is so cute! he is starting to talk a lot more and using more words to communicate everyday… he is such a little sponge…

Another decluttering phase…

The decluttering bug has hit me again…it happened at the same time last year so maybe it is just the time of the year?

Whatever it is, I have been decluttering around the house the last few days…

the first thing I wanted/needed to do was the sewing room… All the fabric that I use was piled on a chair next to my desk which not only made the room look cluttered and messy but the fabric was wrinkled and hard to find also…

So.. on Friday I went out in search of a bookcase… and I found one… I didn’t pay much because it was the floor model which was a bonus because then I didn’t have to assemble it either…

So on Saturday I placed all my fabric in it, got rid of some stuff that I won’t use and cleaned up my sewing table… I also fixed the little office chair that I was no longer using because it was not too comfortable and was burried under all of the fabric… and at the same time Simon decluttered his clothes which are in the sewing room also…

Yesterday when making the beets I also decided to declutter my pantry… Now that feels good also…

I still have a lot to do in the house but I hope to tackle at least one thing a day and get the house to a level that I feel comfortable with…

Annie will be proud 😉

Pickled beets…

I love pickled beets… especially the ones that my great grandma used to make… and my grandmother… and my mom… and well.. now me…

I asked my grandma for her mom’s recipe when she was here last and this week beets were cheap at .99 for 5lbs… so today I decided to make them…

10 lbs of beets In the pot…

boil for about 2 hours…

all cooked and ready to be peeled and sliced…

all peeled…

sliced… (aren’t they beautiful)

6 cups Vinegar, 3 cups Beet Juice and 4 cups sugar…

jars ready

All filled up…

processed for 30min in boiling water…

a dozen jars of pickled beets…

a little halloween rant…

I really love Halloween… there is just a certain atmosphere about it that I love… and when the weather cooperates and kids don’t have to wear coats over their costumes and it is not raining or snowing it is even greater…

What I hate though… those people who ToT in cars…

The kids hop in and out of the car or minivan (with the side door wide open for easy in and outs) and don’t walk the gaps between houses… the goal is to get more candy without having to walk too much and the parents oblige.. or maybe it is the parents that don’t want to walk either…

in any case I hate seeing it…

As Simon and I were thinking we could probably accept it on rainy and cold Halloween nights… but with a night like last… there was no excuse…