This Week At Home, 2012, Week 17

Little notes I write, as reminders of these precious days!

How can this be comfy?  She thinks it is! 

Sunday...

Another lovely day together.  Jeff finished mowing, after having to go get more gasoline.  Grace's ear infection seems to be getting better, but it's still best that we did not go camping last night as we desired.  We grilled out again.  Ah, I love that smell!  We had chicken tenders (grilled), salad, and strawberries mixed with blueberries with home made whipped cream on top.  

Monday...

A rare day, indeed!  We were home all day, no running.  Gym is over.  Dance was cancelled due to the instructor being ill with the flu.  We fought our natural tendency to loaf on slower paced days.  We got everything done, except French and adequate AWANA drill.  They will have to make those up on their own time.

I'm off to fold laundry and watch a "no-think" show that Grace and I like, "My Fair Wedding."   Oh those poor brides with no taste!  Well, they get their dream wedding in the end. I do hope they get their dream marriage, too.  I remember well how Jeff was so wise to keep reminding me when we were planning our wedding, that it was just a day and marriage was forever, wise man, indeed! 

Dinner is home made pizza, broccoli slaw, and grapes.  

(By the way, the cat is the only one around here who will let me take her picture and not complain when I put it on the blog.) 

Tuesday...

Another slower paced day around here.  (Yay!)  Most of us got through our lessons in a timely manner.  One of us rushed through his thinking he could then play a new game on the computer for the rest of the day.  Ahem.  Nope.  Sorry.  He obviously needed more work to do, so I gave him another book to read.

In the afternoon, our little friend came.  Her mom asked me to consider watching her one day a week this summer.  It would be a good way to bank up some money for art next year.  I'm thinking we will do it. 

For dinner, we are having a Shepherd's Pie concoction and salad.  Fruit is getting low, so we will probably not have any for dinner.  We'll have big salads to fill up on.

I can't stop taking pictures of this sweet creature!

Wednesday...

Another quieter day.  The kids got their work done, watched a movie in the afternoon, and then we dashed off to AWANA, only two more left! Jeff talked to our AWANA commander tonight and so I can tell it here that we are not going to do AWANA next year.  After going over our commitments, we decided that something must go.  I am going to miss the children.  It was a hard decision. Jeff is going to use his Wednesday nights to do fun boy things with Trevor, who seems to get the least of Jeff's attention.  They've written a long list of things to do.  I may publish it one of these days. 

Dinner was crust-less quiche, grapes, and roasted potatoes.

She takes an afternoon nap on the sofa each day. 

Thursday...

Need to get some bread before school and babysitting today.  Trevor hasn't been feeling his best this week.  He's probably got what Grace had for the last two weeks.  Ryan is all better, though.  My ear started hurting last night for some strange reason.  I don't have any other symptoms.  Weird.  Could be my old swimmer's ear flaring up.  I did wash my hair yesterday. (Grrr!) 

Today we finished a really quick paced, interesting book about Queen Mary, entitled, Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer.  I am going to try to find some more books at the library by this author.  She writes in a style that I enjoy.  She wrote other books from similar historical time periods. 

Dinner is chicken with whole wheat biscuts and home made slaw.  BUT, the oven broke during its baking, so I had to transfer it to the crock pot. Thankfully, it finished in time.  The oven will have to be serviced, I guess.  It seems as if it is as old as this house, so I wonder if there are parts for it?  Until then, I will have to be a creative cook using my grill and crock pot. 

Karate is tonight.  It's their last chance to qualify for the tournament coming up.  Ryan also hopes to get signed off on becoming a Jr. Leader.  He's been working on that all year. And wouldn't you know, Grace was the only one to qualify for the tournament, again!  She is so frustrated, because she didn't even want to go to karate this year.  I keep telling her that she'd be first place if she put some effort into it! 

And, it looks like camping is off for the weekend, again.  It's going to rain all day Saturday.  (Boo)



Friday...

Hooray for Friday! I let the kids sleep in a bit, although,we need to finish up school work today.  Trevor has several subjects to make up as he wasn't feeling well and I let it slide a day.  Grace and I need to have a math meeting.  (Pray for me!  Those usually get heated.)  Ryan needs to finish his essay.  He usually puts it off until Friday.

Other than lessons, we need to tidy the house, keep the laundry going, may go to the library, and tonight is Grace's art show at the gallery!  I cannot wait to see the lovely blue bird she drew.

I was going to make vegetable lasagna tonight.  I may have to make it in the crock pot.  I think I can do that.  It may not be as good, but it will work.  

Update:  the lasagna was awesome!  Here is the recipe.   It's just something I made up.

First, I cut up 4 zucchini and stir fried them in olive oil with 2 cloves (crushed) garlic, salt and pepper to taste. I put them into the bottom of the crock pot. Next, in the same pan that I cooked the zucchini, I put in 3 cans of organic tomato sauce, a couple more cloves of garlic, crushed, a sprinkle of basil and about 1/2 cup of olive oil. I let that simmer while I made my ricotta mixture. In a medium bowl mix together one egg, a small carton of ricotta, a sprinkle of dried parsley, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese, pepper to taste, and about a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. Now it's time to assemble the lasagna back in the crock pot. Take about one third of the pasta sauce and spread it over the zucchini. Next layer some no boil lasagna noodles (if you want to us regular ones, parboil them first.) Then make a layer of the cheese mixture. Next layer more sauce. Then take two or more big handfuls of fresh spinach and layer that next. More noodles. Then cheese. Then sauce. Then noodles. Sprinkle a little of mozzerella on top. You can add other veggies that you like. These are just what I had. I cooked it on high for 3 hours. My crock pot runs hot. If you want to skip making the sauce, just use a sauce you like. I think next time I will add summer squash. Hope you like it. Oh, if you want to bake it in a regular oven, that's fine too, just adjust the time. 

Saturday...

Since we aren't going camping, and it is supposed to rain all day, I am not sure what we will do except work around the house and watch Bat Man on Me TV. 
It's just going to be nice not having a lot to do this weekend!
 For dinner, I wanted to grill out, but it may rain, so we will see about that.  I could fry hamburgers on the stove top.

Have a great weekend!  

~Jenn

A bird Grace is working on.