The Cartoon Model and Hamburger Rocks

I found that my 1 lb of hamburger meat made about 1 1/3 cups of hamburger rocks.

On the schedule for today:  Plum Amaretto Jam and Mango Plum Jam

YUM!

Funny how circumstances dictate the day's plans...

Last night I ran out to our "outside" freezer to see what I could find for dinner.  (Note:  This freezer was free, so I am not complaining.)  When I opened the door, the frost had formed over the shelf on the inside of the door.  It was really hard to open, but the bad part is that when I went to shut it, the way the frost broke prevented it from closing! 

We've been planning on defrosting this monster for a couple years, so this is a good "forced" activity!  But in the process, several pounds of hamburger meat started to thaw...

Which means--- I get to do another something new today!  We're making hamburger rocks!  Yeah!  (hopefully, and yes, I know I say this every time... but hopefully, it'll turn out great and I'll post pictures!) 

Happy day to you all!

Quotes and Pix

While we were driving...

Melia: "Momma, I want to buy some peanut butter seeds so I can plant them and grow peanuts.  Peanuts grow in the ground you know."

Later... heading to the farmer's market...

Kiera:  "Momma, will you buy me something?"

Melia:  "I have a dollar, I'll buy something for both of us."

Kiera:  "Yea!  Something really super special."

Melia: "Something cheap."

:-)  (I was cracking up in my head!)

Melia normally gets up before anyone else, and she works on random things.  We've been using this spelling book lately, so she started working on a page all by herself!  She was able to do all the words, except this one... So she drew a "I don't know" picture.  I thought it was so cute I had to capture it!

I call this his Top Gun shirt... but he'd have to be a mini IceMan because of his hair instead of a mini Maverick :-)  If anyone sees some mini Aviator sunglasses that are reasonably priced, grab them for me!  :-)

This weeks Bountiful Basket and Pix

I finally figured out how to publish- after a week of it not working!  Grrr! 
Anyway, this weeks basket included 2 nectarines, 3 peaches, 2 mangos, fennel, broccoli, cucumber, sweet potatoes, beets, celery, lettuce, and corn!  Suggestions on sweet potatoes, fennel, and beets would be welcome!!!

 This is the stir fry I made when we had the bok choy... It was tasty, but we needed some rice!  (I made so much I didn't think we needed a side, but it really would have enhanced the flavor.)

We are eagerly awaiting Esther's popping... Her poor belly is just rock hard and points out on both sides! 

We enjoyed having Isabel and Alden over last week, and Isaac showed his big boy helper skills at assisting Alden with his lunch!  Funny thing is, he really doesn't look that much bigger than Alden in the top photo!

This Week's Bountiful Basket

This is actually from last week, but blogger wouldn't let me publish! So, trying to share now... we'll see if it works...

This week's basket of yumminess included 1 eggplant, 1 honeydew melon, 2 mangos, 3 nectarines, 3 lbs onions, 1/2 lb mushrooms, 7 bananas, 2 bunches spinach, 1 head leaf lettuce, 2 heads broccoli... and I think that's it! Whew!

Isaac Awesomeness

Practical jokes at our house

My First Bountiful Basket!

(k, just FYI, I am getting frustrated with Blogger! It's spacing out my stuff, and not letting me center things... and signing me out and in and out and in.... GGRRRRR! so sorry about the annoying formatting, but I can't fix it...)

I was so excited today to go pick up my first bountiful basket! The kids were too- it's all a suprise what you will get! So much fun!

In our basket, we received:

2 cucumbers

1 eggplant

3 heads broccoli

1 bunch kale

10 baby bok choy

7 peaches

3 fuji apples

1 pineapple

5 oranges

5 bananas

2 mangos

Here's how this works: It's a produce co-op, where the money is pooled to get better deals. You sign up, and then each week you choose if you'd like to participate or not. Each week is $15, plus $1.50 handling fee (plus a one-time starter fee of $3), and you are supposed to receive approximately $50 worth of produce.

A friend from church shared this with us. I had read about Bountiful Baskets around the blogosphere, but knew that it wasn't available in our area... until now!!! Check out their website (http://bountifulbaskets.org) for more information. I love that I don't have to do it every week; I can pick and choose when we want more produce. Plus this will be a stretcher for me- I've never eaten eggplant OR bok choy! FUN FUN FUN! :-)

Canned Butter

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but just never got up the motivation. Well! Yesterday, we discovered that the sun tea jar had leaked into one of the drawers in the refrigerator... and that's where I had the butter stored! Hello Motivation!

So Gabe and I worked together last night, boiling and canning our butter, then shaking and shaking to make sure it "looked pretty!" I'd say it turned out beautiful! :-)

It did separate a little more, but it was late and we were tired!

Wisdom Beyond Her Years...

Melia and I were talking about it being the Fourth of July, and what that means, where we came from, etc... She's asking what kind of men they were who signed the Declaration of Independence, and I'm talking about how they were brave men, willing to risk their lives in order to attain a better life for everyone, and she interuppts...

"Mommy, I'm guessing that they were men of God, right?"

choke, tear, choke tear, "Yes, dear. You are right; they were men of God."

:-)