St Patricks Day Recipe Review

I enjoy making some kinds of traditional foods.  If they're easy.  And if I think my family will eat them. 

One of my most appreciated comments about our kids was our pastor last year- he complimented them on being "willing to try all the foods" at our Passover Seder.  When I'm often concerned about the little things they did wrong, people do a great job of reminding me how much they do right! 

Anyway, this year I chose this recipe: "Beer Braised Irish Stew and Colcannon," plus Irish Soda Bread. I was pretty sure that the stew would go over well, and mashed potatoes are normally pretty popular with everyone except me!  I'm sad I didn't take pictures, but like normal, getting dinner ready for when Gabe gets home at 7:30 is much harder than trying to have it done earlier- mostly because the kids are pretty worn out and hungry, so I forgot :-)

But Gabe's comment was that "there is nothing about this meal that is light!"  The stew was very thick and meaty, and the colcannon was REALLY thick (I think made a little too much potato!), plus the bread is a heavy bread.  But the flavors were fantastic- everybody ate all of their helpings, and Melia had extra colcannon.

The things I changed:  In the stew we had part venison, part beef.  For the potatoes, I used Yukon Golds instead of Russets.  And I followed one of the comments on allrecipes and stir-fried the cabbage instead of microwaving it. 

Definitely a successful meal!

Close...on St Patrick's Day

I printed out several fun coloring pages and mazes to keep the kids busy for a while today on St Patrick's Day.  One of them was a "color-by-letter" for Kiera.  She loves to guess what the picture is before she colors it to see if she's right.

I printed out a pot of gold...

She guessed it is a basket full of grapes.  :-)  Love her!

On another note, I am very excited to prepare a more traditional Irish meal for dinner tonight.  (Did you know corned beef isn't very traditional? I read it was more of a nobility dish, only made popular by immigrants to America... but I read that on the internet, so who knows...)  The first time I tried, Gabe distinctly told me not to make corned beef again.  I thought it was *ok*, but not a favorite.  Last time, I made green potato soup and beer bread.  Tonight, we're having Beer braised venison stew, Irish soda bread, and colcannon.  Can't wait to see how it turns out, especially the colcannon!  (To be honest, I'm a little nervous, but hey, it's worth trying once, right?!!)

Lumpy and Bumpy

This baby is SO fun :-)  He moves a ton more than any of the others ever did (enough to make me question if there really is twins in there!)

Last night we were watching a show, and I was laying on the couch on my side, feeling him roll around.  I moved over next to Gabe so he could feel.  Baby slowed down quite a bit, but was still bumping around.  Gabe removed his hand, and my whole tummy leaped!  After a few more tries, it was almost like he could tell when Daddy's hand was there because when the hand left, the big bumps happened.

Definitely something to enjoy these last 8 weeks!  Especially when I can't get inside my dryer, I have to have the kids do it... :-)

March 1st

It's hard to believe I will have another birthday this month, as yesterday was so full of blessings it felt like my birthday!  First, I had a massage with my favorite lady at Hurst Chiropractic, and discovered that she, too, is expecting!  Then I had my 30 wk appt... and became SO thankful for the essential oils I've been using to help with the sometimes-excruciating pain that has been plaguing me this pregnancy!  Dr's only recommendation was a pregnancy belt, which I had read doesn't *really* help, it just assists a little, whereas the oils have given me pain-free days!  Lastly, God paved the way for me to not have to work so that I could attend a new local homeschool encouragement group which blessed me in a variety of ways! 

Happy Not-Quite Birthday to Me!  Thank you Lord, for Your abundant blessings!

Love My Melia

This is a pattern for little knitted horsey blankets that Melia wrote up.  As in, made up, on her own.  And then wrote down so she wouldn't forget, and so that Kiera could use it later.  She also laminated it with packing tape :-) 

Love it... Adore her :-)

Another Melia Tidbit

Last night, as we were discussing the Torah and the law,  Melia asked what we do for the Sabbath....

Looong story short, we shared with Melia that we aren't Jewish, and with a VERY confused look on her face, she says...

"But I thought we were Jesus people?"

*Love...* 

What a handsome fella

Even with a little mascara....

Snow Pics

I am so glad we finally got some snow this year!  Unfortunately, it looks like that might be it...  But Kiera got her "winter wish"- we fit in one evening of sledding :-) 

Wierd Cravings? Yep...

But it's not me.. It's Ziva.  She's always been a funny dog, but lately she's been eating more, and stealing a lot of our food!  Today I caught her sniffing around my produce box- and realized she had already snatched TWO green peppers!  Yes, she eats them!  We found the butter dish out in her run, lid and all.  The other day she ate our leftover roasted carrots as well. 

I think she must be pregnant.....

Whew! Still Got It!

We haven't couponed in a while for a variety of reasons including it takes a decent amount of prep work, our printer's been broken, shopping with kids and a plan doesn't go together well, and I've run out of extra "food" room!  But we're down to 6 boxed of cereal (which we actually don't eat that often!) and Gabe was getting nervous ;-)  So, I saw an "ok" deal on cereal at Albies and thought I'd give it a go.  Then I saw in their ad that they were rounding coupons up to $1, and thought "Let's do this!"  (I hate all those little "$.40 off 4" and such coupons, but make it $1?  YES MA'AM!) 

So we went last night after karate- and did fairly well!  Gabe was happy, even though I only added 6 boxes of cereal to the stash.  I found lots of other good deals (though prices have really gone up since my last trip!  $2.19 for a can of cream of chicken soup?  Yikes! But I got it for .75, so I'm breathing again ;-)

I'll try to get back to blogging- life is just amazing lately, but along with the fun stuff comes a lack of down time... and what down time I have I use for Knitting!  Yay!