Pesto

      I made a large container of pesto this evening with fresh basil from my moms garden~it seems like it turned out well, although I have never eaten it before, it looks similar to the photo included in the recipe. So tomorrow is the big day when I try it for the first time. If I dont like it, I will have a large amount to give away, and quickly! :) As for the kiddos, well its green so I doubt any of them will even try it, much less like it, but you never know with them. If anyone has any favorite ways to eat pesto that I am unaware of, chime in and let me know. I think I am going to start with tossing it with some buttered pasta to start out with and then move on to french bread...Hopefully I have found a new favorite!

Virginia

Culinary Catastrophes!

    It's a wonderful night to grill burgers and just enjoy the beautiful day~That Was The Plan...but somehow we managed to set fire to all the food, but still managed to have a great night and enjoy the beautiful day! The burgers were salvageable, thankfully, and dessert was good too, so all was not lost. One thing you will learn about my blog~You wont find the kind of nauseating perfection that is typical of most women's blogs~No Sir! Here you will get the good, the bad and the downright ugly. I am willing to admit that I suspect some of these "perfect" women's blogs are carefully orchestrated to make them appear perfect. At least I hope so. I so cannot pull that off. Besides, its so much more fun to blog about the imperfect situations that arise in life, instead of the perfect ones, don't you think? :)

Virginia

Back to School Already?

         Walking though Wal Mart yesterday, I saw that all the school supplies were on sale and in the seasonal aisle, but for some reason my brain does not want to come to grips with  the fact that our summer is almost gone. We really got ripped off this year as far as summer goes! It just doesn't seem like summer: The Flood, which was the biggie, and all of the related issues, like no Dairy Queen bike rides, and no park  - All things that kind of make up summer for our family-gone. And now its back to school, and fall -and we all know winter follows fall. :( Hobby Lobby even had Christmas stuff out....I am just not feeling it, you know what I mean? I think I will just linger in my own reality for a little while longer!



Virginia

A Day to Myself...sort of

      Since everyone is away at work today, its just me and the little kids. They play outside and I get to read. And not only am I only occasionally interrupted, I also don't have to fix dinner because my kids think scrambled eggs are gourmet! :) The laundry is done, the house is clean (enough), and I don't have to go anywhere or do anything but get lost in my book. This is the kind of day I love to have every so often. So if you will excuse me, I am going to get back to that book...:)

Virginia

Coffee!

  I am thankful for coffee.The smell alone makes my morning! I couldn't think of posting anything here without having my first cup....it would probably be incoherent, at best, and it would not be pretty. I read an excerpt from a book ( I cant remember the book, but rest assured these are not my own words, even though they could be...) where the main character was describing how she felt when drinking her first cup of coffee for the day: " I could feel lights begin to come on in the different rooms in my brain" Amen. I cant think of a better way to say it than that... :)

Have a Wonderful , Caffeinated Day!
Virginia

This is harder than I thought...

       Chronicling my daily life and/or thoughts, is harder than I had anticipated. After all, shopping for school clothes and cooking are pretty routine (translation:boring), then add a bad case of writers block to the mix and this is what I get: staring at a blank screen wondering how and what to write. Its all up there churning around, its just getting into some kind of coherent order that trips me up. Just like my papers in class... So you will be seeing some gaps in posting, but I will continue to forge ahead! Creativity comes in bursts, not a continual stream. At least not with me. My sister really should be the one to have a blog, she  has the "continual stream" going on! :) I just love her writing!

Virginia

Its That Time Of Year Again!

       Despite the beautiful summer weather and flood cleanup going on these days, time continues to march forward, and I have to start thinking about, and ordering, my home school curriculum. I have already put it off longer than I should have, and now the very thought makes me want to curl up in the fetal position under my bed and suck my thumb. On crazy summer days when everyone is bouncing off the walls, subconsciously I think "school is starting soon and things will go back to normal"...but then it hits me, I AM the school, at least to half of them, and I am the TEACHER and  I AM NOT GETTING A BREAK! Its going to get worse, not better....So going forward, if my posting seems somehow disjointed or incoherent its because I am typing under the bed, with one hand....:)
      Liberty University offers a totally online home schooling curriculum, its complete, accredited and they manage all the grades, transcripts etc. It's totally amazing. It's totally expensive. It would save wear and tear on my nerves. I know at Camp,  Bro. Ballestero said to be specific when you pray, and this is about as specific as it gets! So far no $$$ tree has sprouted out in the yard, but hope springs eternal. And I know it's not exactly spiritual to say this, but isn't it amazing how many of our prayers would be answered with more money???! Just my two cents..(see, money again! LOL ).

   Virginia

   Last night was a beautiful night to go to the Summer Theater! The temperature was perfect, (somewhere in the 70's) no wind and not a hint of rain, like I said, a perfect night. The only thing that could have been an improvement, would have been leaving Caitlyn and Logan home with a sitter...We (or rather, Nate) took Logan to the bathroom 3 times, Caitlyn went twice. They squirmed in their seats and made the most awful racket ( they were seats sitting on concrete risers and the scratching/grinding noise they make is distracting) , they begged for drinks.They spilled popcorn. They whined that they were tired. By the time we left we said "Next year, you are staying with a sitter!" I cannot imagine what the row behind us was thinking, but I CAN bet it wasn't anything warm and fuzzy! It was like a repeat of church, except people had paid lots of money to be there...In ten years, we will finally be able to take the entire family without embarrassment! Oh glorious day that will be!!!

     For the last week, our cousin Ashlee from California has been staying with us. She is the sweetest thing, helpful, cheerful and just all around great to be around. She helped my kids clean the kitchen last night after the play...and there was NO FIGHTING!! even Guy was happy to be in there!The kitchen sparkled! So here is the problem, I need to inform Ashlee that she is no longer here of her own free will. That's right. I have kidnapped her! :)

Virginia

    

Bon Appetite

     I am discovering, that if I cook the way I want to, and do it right, I AM IN THE KITCHEN ALL
DAY. Really. Last night I simply made chicken tacos with homemade flour tortillas and hazelnut gelato for dessert, and I was in the kitchen from 2 pm until 6! I must admit, I had help too! How pathetic is that? :) On the bright side, dinner really was good so it was worth it. Tonight I think I will make reservations for dinner! :)
Speaking of reservations,tonight we have reservations for the last Summer Theater production of "My Fair Lady". With everything(vacation, evacuation, flood,etc) going on this summer I have missed the other productions, much to my dismay. I really don't think it would be summer for me without the Summer Theater. There is just something about it, maybe the fact that its an outdoor theater,  that I love so much! It goes without saying that I am looking forward to this evening! Hopefully I can give the kids enough candy and popcorn and root beer floats to keep them quiet the entire time....

Virginia

Flood Aftermath

     Driving into one of Minot's flood ravaged neighborhoods today, I could only stare in disbelief at the carnage around me. Houses shifted off of their foundations, piles of debris that were once someones life, but now were carelessly dumped into stinking, moldy piles along the street. Dishwashers, refrigerators, furniture, flooring and even fireplaces make up the landscape all over Minot. The whole place looks like a war zone. I saw three decks hung up on the guardrail on 16th St. , they just detached and floated off until they hung up on something.
 I only wish there was something I could do to help! Logically, we know its "just stuff", but sadly, stuff translates into money when you have to replace it... Hopefully later in the week, I will have pictures to post here. Meanwhile,please keep the city of Minot in your prayers!

Virginia

I Took the Plunge!

     Well, after months of toying with the idea, I have finally taken the plunge and started my own blog. My initial thoughts about blogging were not positive, after all, what would I blog about? And who would read it?! "I unclogged the toilet for the third time this week"and "Logan is out in the yard in his underwear again" hardly seemed like interesting blog type material! But despite the raw materials I have to work with, Nate said I would do a great job as a blogger, and other well meaning, but possibly misguided family members, also said I should give it a shot. So I thought, why not?When I announced to my husband that I had decided to start my own blog, he looked at me incredulously and said " A blog? that's dumb!" What?! he is the one who said I would be so good at blogging wasn't he? I reminded him of his prior comments about me blogging and he informed me that if we lived in the country a blog would be interesting! Really? I fail to see how my life was any more interesting living in the country than it is now, except we had seven cats and spent our entire lives in our van, which just happened to always be filthy from the gravel road we had to travel.  So just to be the obnoxious I'll-show-him kind of wife that I can sometimes be, I have to prove our lives are equally interesting and comparable to "country folk". So, here goes! Fasten your seat belts, it could be a bumpy ride...
And yes, I really did unclog the toilet three times this week...!

Virginia