Kickball

We've found a group as unathletic as us and joined forces to have fun anyway.  I've actually discovered there are a few people even slightly less athletic than my children, and I won't mention any names, but we get together with them once a week on Fridays for 2 whole hours of wholesome recreational activities.  I want to emphasize the root word of the word activities.  My sedentary girls have had sore legs for a few days after our "active activity" 3 weeks in a row.  I , super duper athletic Rebecca, have been teaching the first unit--kickball.  It has been surprisingly challenging.  The concept of moving your feet or arms to get a ball if it doesn't come right to you, understanding that you can't run and run all over the field if someone is trying to tag you, that two people from the same team that are runners cannot share the same base, but two people from opposing teams can share a base, and many many more aspects of the game have stumped my girls and the other kids. 



We are meeting with 3 other families.  2 families are in my ward.  My friend Katie has three kids she's homeschooling.  Paige age 11, Spencer age 9, and Megan age 8.  My second or third Sunday at church Katie came up to me, held out her hand and said, "My name is Katie and I want to homeschool and I want to be your friend." You gotta love a girl who cuts through the small talk and gets right to the point.  We talked and talked about homeschooling and I introduced her to Sky Mountain (our wonderful charter school that gives us funds and resources to make homeschooling super affordable).  My friend Kristin is homeschooling one of her daughters--Camilla age 10.  Kristin is the ward choir conductor and we work very closely at church.  I introduced her to homeschooling and Sky Mountain and she is trying it out with her daughter first.  Her three boys are in school.  If we are lucky she'll take the rest out next year and we will have more kids to have fun with.  Lastly, Cameron age 10, we met at WISH. WISH is our weekly co-op we attend every Tuesday.  His mother Racheal and I were fast friends.  She homeschools her two sons.  Her other son Gabe has down syndrome, and is fighting leukemia!   Those are the kids that make up our little PE co-op.  I'm super excited about it.  The girls are having fun and moving. 
 As for me life is pretty good.  It's raining today for the first time in a month.  I finally joined my ward's bookclub.  I have missed reading so much.  Last month we read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, and no, unfortunately it has nothing to do with Pettigrew in Harry Potter...sigh....I really miss those guys.  It was good.  I enjoyed it.  This month is a little more fun though.  It's a murder mystery and I don't think I've ever really read a murder mystery, unless you count Great Expectations by the great and wonderful Charles Dickens.  The book is called The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  It's funny, British, and from the perspective of an 11 year old.  It isn't juvenile fiction though.  I found it in the adult mystery section at the library.   I also have started teaching again.  I had no idea how much I missed it.  I have 4 piano students.  3 boys and 1 girl, ranging in age from 5-14.  I want to cover those adorable little boys in kisses. Don't worry though, I refrain.  I really haven't spent much time with little boys.  I really think I would like a little boy with blonde curls (Steve had blond curls...a very long time ago).   Anna made dinner last night--cheesy potato soup.  We ate it with Aliese's bread.  My life is very strange.  Strange in that my children are growing up.  Aliese is turning 14 in a few weeks.  I might have to pay her to go to her first dance.  She asked me if she has to go to dances like she has to go to mutual.  I told her it wasn't mandatory.  She's so good.  If I told her the Lord expected her to go to the dance, I know she would.  I can't wait for her to get her driver's license.  I'm ready now.  Steve took me to the Twilight movie the other night.  The first part of the 4th book, can't remember the name.  Anyway, why oh why haven't they got any better.  When I think of what Hollywood did with Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, I am very confused about the patheticness of the Twilight movies.  They were bestsellers.  Why are they terrible movies.  20 minutes into it, I turned to my poor husband who hasn't read the books, or seen any of the movies, and told him I wouldn't be offended if he took a nap.  At least it was at the cheap theater.  I can still see the make-up on Edward!  What is the problem?  Aliese does a great job covering up her pimples and I can't see the makeup.  I think she uses Cover Girl--you know really expensive...not.  Why can't they do a better job.  Please, give us a satisfying last movie.  I haven't purchased one.  Very sad.  They could've been good too.  Maybe they should remake them with animation.  Now that's a good idea.  Disney could save us, and then they could do a Twilight ride at Disneyland!  Or a Twilight inspired Fantasmic, or World of Color!  A Twilight as good as Tangled!  With music.  Jacob and Edward could really sing some heart wrenching solos.  Then there could be exciting fighting scenes with the vampires singing and the werewolves singing throwing each other all over the place.  That is what we need.  It's stopped raining.  I think I'm going to go out and walk to the gym. 

Rose Parade and Randomness

This is the Rose Parade.  A very small part of the parade.  We live less than a block from Colorado St, the street that the parade marches.  For weeks ahead of time bleachers are set up all along the street.  The rule is that all of the floats are only made of flowers or vegetation.  Pretty amazing.  Steve was very excited to share it with us.  People camped out all night to save their spots.  Steve just marched our bar stools down last minute to set them up behind all of the people that camped out all night. We had some of the best seats in the house.  It was a little long for Gracie, but the rest of us really enjoyed it.  Now it was no Disneyland parade mind you, but it was pretty incredible all the same.

 

 Aliese made bread at mutual a few weeks ago, and made it at home all by herself yesterday.  It was entirely scrumptious in every single way.  I just might turn over the bread making responsibility to Aliese.  The recipe was different than mine, a little more white flour (not much more though), twice as much honey, and less butter.  Sooooooooo good.  The first loaf was gone in 10 minutes flat, and Steve wasn't even home!

Anna and her beloved guitar.  Our artist in the making, in just about every facet of her life.

Gracie with my favorite appliance that has finally made her culinarily independent (well somewhat independent).

I'm jealous, aren't you?

2 new recipes

Earlier this week in my quest for healthy eating with a family I stumbled upon this recipe and I had all of the ingredients already, which is great, (anything to avoid going to the store) and my family loved it.  All four of them--very picky Steve, almost as picky Aliese (although she tries more foods everyday lately), Anna of course, who loves everything, and oops, Gracie didn't eat it.  So I guess, 3 out of 4 isn't bad.  Steve's statements were, grunt, "this is good", after his first bite.  And after he was all done, a grand statement of, "That was really good."  His usual comments are, "It was fine."  So, big success.  Will be making it again soon.


Chicken and Black Bean Tacos (Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker)

serves 4-6

1/2 large onion
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you could use breasts if you are afraid of thighs, which is sad for you because thighs are so yummy)
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t pepper (I know I didn't use this much)
2 c black beans, drained and rinsed or 1 can of beans
1 c frozen corn
1 c favorite salsa
1 1/2 t cumin
1/4 t hot smoked spanish paprika (of course I didn't have this and used smoked chili powder)
8-12 corn tortillas

Use a 4 or 5 quart slow cooker.  I used my pressure cooker.  Slice the onion thisly in moons from end to end.  Put the sliced onion in the bottom of the crock.  Put chicken on top, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Put the beans, corn, and salsa on top of the chicken, then sprinkle the cumin and paprika across the top.  Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 -5 hours, until the chicken shreds easily with a fork.  I cooked mine for 10 minutes on high pressure in my pressure cooker.  Then I let it stay on warm for probably a half hour, just because we were waiting for dinner time.  We ate this with the tortillas, cheese and avocados.  I wrap my tortillas in a kitchen towel and put in the microwave for two minutes.  They'll stay warm all through dinner if you keep them in the towel.  We had enough left over even though everyone really ate a lot, to freeze for another meal, especially if you serve with a salad.

For New Year's Eve I thought I'd try something new and easy, from my new favorite cookbook (actually I bought it last summer, but it's still my new fav) Our Best Bites.

Carmel Fruit Dip
8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I did this in the microwave)
3/4 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla
toffee bits (which I'm sure would be divine, but I didn't have any, didn't want to go to the store, ect...)

Mix.  Yum.  We dipped apples in it during our Harry Potter movie.

Next time I'm going to try date or coconut sugar for part or all of the sugar.

Christmas Robes

I made the girls robes for Christmas.  I made one for my mom too.  It was definitely the robe Christmas.  I've made the girls nightgowns twice and robes once before this year.  The girls asked me a few months ago if I was going to make pajamas this year for Christmas.  I said, "Yea, sure, that would be fun."  Then they asked if I could make them robes instead.  I agreed, and ever since it's been the joke that I'm sewing mysterious gifts for people they don't know.  Eventually, as the robes were not under the tree, the girls began to panic and would ask, daily, is my robe under the tree yet?  Very cute.  I loved that they were so excited for them.  They could hardly wait to open them, even though Santa brought much more "exciting" gifts, my Christmas robes have been worn and treasured each day since Christmas.