Every year we go to my grandparents' farm for Thanksgiving. It snowed on us on Friday! We had about two inches that stuck through the night and into Saturday. We've done Thanksgiving there my whole life, and I don't remember it EVER showing.
Being a born-and-bred Texas girl, this was me.
My favorite part of the weekend, besides the snow, was the FOOD. Oh, heavens. You see, the farm is 8 miles from the nearest town and forty miles from the nearest fast-food joint. SO, that means that literally every meal is home-cooked, and nary a salad in sight. I'm terrified of weighing in at Weight Watchers this Thursday. I might have been okay, but my grandmother made the best chocolate cake in the world. Actually, she made TWO of them. *sigh* It's like heaven on a fork.
Jet's favorite part was playing with my aunt and uncle's labrador retriever, Zach. Being a good retriever, Zach LOVES to chase after things that have been thrown specifically for that purpose. Being a good three-year-old boy, Jet loves to throw things. They're a match made in heaven!
All in all, it was a great weekend. However, my (22-year-old) baby brother gave me his head cold. Since he's bigger than I am now, I can't exactly beat him up for doing it. I can't even hold him down and tickle him anymore. I was telling one of my students about this, and she told me that this is his way of getting back at me.
She's probably right. :)
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Thanksgiving
Friday, August 10, 2007
Can you tell that school started?
I started going back to work a little on August 1st, and we officially started inservice this past Wednesday. It's par for the course for the rest of my life to suffer for this period of about three weeks... family, blog, house... you name it. Several years ago, I finally realized that this is just how it is and I stopped feeling guilty about it.
However, I do have some great news to share. First, I joined Weight Watchers last week. My second meeting was last night and I'd lost three pounds! Yay! This all came about because my Granny usually likes to take me shopping for clothes when we're together. Now, usually, I don't mind one tiny little bit. This time, though, I wasn't ready to buy more clothes in my current size.
I'd been looking at joining WW for a couple of months. (I don't make fast decisions in areas like this. I want to be sure it's what I'm really ready to do before I make the financial and time commitment.) So, I told Granny about it and she offered to pay for my first three-month package. It's been really easy for the first week, even with the new chef at school providing lunch. Of course, I'm a data-driven, form-filling person, so the points system really works for me. Knight has been riding my coat tails a little... we figured out how many points he needs, and he's been paying more attention to how he eats. So, thank you, Granny!
Also, I have a cute Jet story (of course). He went back to his playschool on August 1st. I had not slept well the night before, which is rare for me. I had woken up a few times, and, well... everything is so much scarier and more emotional in the dark when you're exhausted, you know? I kept asking God for peace about our decision for me to go back to teaching this year. I was actually worried more about me missing Jet than about his health and safety and well-being at his playschool.
When we walked in the door, all of his friends were jumping up and down and ecstatic!! to see him after the summer. The whole class lined up to hug him. I had tears in my eyes as I watched him embrace each of his friends. There is nothing sweeter than the joyful emotions of three-year-olds, because they don't hold anything back.
After the hugs were done, he and three of his little boy friends stood in a circle and started talking. The conversation immediately turned to who was wearing big-boy-underwears and who wasn't, and, more importantly, what was on those big-boy-underwears. I caught Jet just before he pulled down his shorts to show off his baseball underwears.
I got back in my car and thanked the Lord for showing me what my Mommy-Heart so desprately needed -- that my son his happy and well-loved at school!
One more story before I head to work!! Jet was doing very well with potty-training, but he's had a tough time at school. It seems like he forgets until it's too late and then has an accident on the way to the potty. Last Friday, Mrs. P (the playschool director, who is good friends with my mom and who we know from church) was cleaning him up and had this conversation...
J, pointing: That's my pee-nit.
Mrs. P., seriously: Yes, it is. I heard you had an operation this summer?
J: Yes. The dop-ter fixed it.
Mrs. P: Oh, yes, that's good.
J: How's it look!?!?
Mrs. P, sputtering a little: Oh, um, it looks just fine.
J: Thank you.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Hooray for Eggplants!
I just have to brag on myself in this post. I've discovered the local Farmers' Market, and it makes me happy. Meantime, I sprayed an 8" square baking dish with Pam and opened a couple of cans of Italian-seasoned tomato sauce. I also opened a package of Fiesta Blend Shredded Cheese (this is where the "sort of" comes in -- I didn't actually have any parmesan!) and another package of sliced provolone. After the eggplant was brown on both sides, I spread a bit of tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, and arranged a layer of eggplant. I poured some tomato sauce on top, and sprinkled with the shredded cheese. Then I placed a few pieces of provolone on top of that. I lathered, rinsed, and repeated, and put the dish in the oven at 350. Then I had to figure out what to put with the eggplant. So, I did my standby asparagus (fresh asparagus drizzled with EVOO, sprinkled with garlic and ginger powders and a tiny bit of sugar, also baked at 350, handily enough). Watermelon leftover from the night before would complete the gourmet feast. I mentioned to Knight as the eggplant was baking that I would be supremely disappointed if it wasn't as tasty as my tongue expected it to be. Let's just say that I wasn't disappointed. In fact, let's say that it was heaven on a plate. Not even the President eats like this. :)
Last week, on Thursday (the Farmers' Market Day), I picked up blueberries, cherry tomatoes, corn on the cob, cantaloupe, and eggplants. The corn was fabulous last night as part of Jet's birthday dinner, the blueberries have been fantabulous with yogurt and wheat germ for breakfast, and the cherry tomatoes are perfect to just pop in my mouth for a snack.
The best by far, though, were the glorious eggplants. I'm rather new to the world of eggplants. Heretofore, I've simply had Knight grill them as he's grilled sausage for dinner.
Tonight, though, we moved to the next level: Eggplant Parmesan, sort of.
First, I arranged my three pie tins right next to the skillet on the stove, a la Rachael Ray. In the first tin, I had flour, salt and pepper. The second tin lovingly contained two beaten eggs, and the third had Panko bread crumbs (my other new favorite food). I had my EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) hot and ready in the skillet.
I tenderly sliced eggplant into 3/4" rounds, then pressed it in the flour, egg, and Panko. Into the EVOO it went, sizzling happily.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Gotta love bureaucracy
Wanna see something silly? Click here and scroll down to "Nutritional Information for Ice Cream Lovers in New York City".
Go ahead and read it. I'll wait.
.
.
.
Basically, because Coldstone publicly provided nutrition information at the time the law was passed in NYC, they were required to put all caloric information on their menu boards. As the site says, since most of their menu items are custom made, it's virtually impossible to do that.
So, instead, they took down the information from their website. Now they aren't required to put it on the menu, and the rest of us get to pay the price along with the lovely, lovely people who put that law in place. Nice.
Monday, January 22, 2007
... and those Lemonades? They're awful. I promise.
It's Girl Scout Cookie Time again. They're smart to start selling them right around the time that people's resolve about their resolutions starts to falter.
My sister brought over some of the Lemonades. They're shortbread with lemon frosting on the bottom. As a favor, we finished them for her. Saved her from the temptation. That's what big sisters do, you know... Sacrifice LEFT and RIGHT for those little sisters.
The next day, a very cute little girl (about five or six years old) rang our doorbell. Who says no to a Girl Scout? Not me, I tell ya. I'm supportive. Bought three more boxes of cookies. Thin Mints for Knight (he freezes them), more Lemonades, and those Caramel Delights (my favorites).
The plan was to only eat part of the box of Lemonades, then give the rest to my sister to replace what we ate. At least we had a plan, right? I mean, that's good for partial credit or something, right?
A few hours after the cute little girl scout with the big, brown, pleading eyes conned me out of $10.50 and into about eleventy thousand extra calories, I received an email from my sister-in-law. Yep, you guessed it. Our niece is selling them, too. Not that I didn't see it coming. Again, I can't turn down a Girl Scout. Especially my niece. So I ordered one each of the Lemonades, Peanut Butter Patties, Thin Mints, Caramel Delights... and maybe one other one, but I can't remember just now. Kinda overloaded on sugar from the rest of the Lemonades that were supposed to go back to my sister.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Calorie-Free Cuppycakes
This one is too cute!
For what it's worth, I did find a low-cal sweet treat that is amazing. Jello makes Dulce de Leche pudding cups that are vanilla pudding with caramel sauce. They're sugar-free and only 60 calories per cup... the trick is not sitting around and eating three of them in one sitting because you're cooped up due to inclement weather and going a tad bit crazy. I'm just sayin'.
