No Television or Video Games Today

My kids are actually, usually, pretty good about not watching too much tv or playing too much of video games... and some of the video games are for learning. Liam plays on code.org which teaches young children to code. David (being a programmer) checked it out and agreed it does teach kids the basics around coding. It's pretty neat. Violet sometimes plays ABC mouse that has learning games. They both play on RAZ kids (account is through their school) which teaches reading and comprehension skills.

I'm the one who has trouble keeping the television off, or staying off of games on my computer or phone. I just don't want them to start developing those habits. The past few days we have been busy preparing for guests to come over for Christmas, so they have been watching lots of Christmas movies or shows and playing lots of Wii. I notice that too much of those things tends to make for grumpy children.

This morning I woke up wanting do have a day without tv or games. Liam and Violet wake up earlier than we do... in fact we stayed in bed until we heard Drake wake up around 9 o'clock. I had not yet said anything about no tv or games today... but I noticed they didn't turn the tv on that morning... they were playing with some legos instead. That was encouraging. When I told them, they were really excited that we would keep those things off today. Kind of funny how that works... at least with young children. In fact, Drake turns off the tv nearly every time it is turned on anyway.

Liam was sure to say anytime I got near my phone "remember mom, no video games today".

So instead we played board games together, built things, I cleaned the kitchen while they tried to make their own board game. Grandpa Delaney got Liam a microscope for Christmas so we found dead bugs in the window sills to look at under the microscope. They played outside and raked leaves to jump in since Fall is starting to hit us now that it is Winter... lol.

It's been a great day. I don't know if I have the strength to do that every day, but it would be nice to shoot for one week of no tv or video games...

More on the Ornament Exchange.

Okay. My friend Lisa wrote a better blog about the ornament exchange/dinner than I did... so feel free to take a look ;) The Random Details.

Ornament Exchange Party!

*Thank goodness for Lisa for taking pictures of the cake and dinner while it was happening*

Last night I held my first ever ornament exchange/dinner party! I kept it small and all but one lady was able to go because she was out of town. There were six of us there total. For the dinner menu I made asparagus soup, chicken soup, and chicken squares. Holly brought some cream cheese with candied jalapenos and crackers. For dessert I made a sort of "strawberry shortcake" but with strawberries, pomegranate seeds and cherries.

First we had dinner and dessert while we chatted. Next I moved everyone into the kitchen to make a terrarium ornament with live plants... hopefully they all live and we all remember to water them occasionally. After Christmas they are to be hung in the window and hopefully last throughout the year. Afterwards we exchanged ornaments... I didn't get a picture of the ornament that I made... but I think I posted it about three years ago... because that's when I had made it and how long I've been waiting to host an ornament exchange. Lastly we moved into the living room for more girl talk. I hope everyone had a lovely time, I know that I did!

*Kileen and Lisa are missing from this picture, Kileen was off feeding her little baby girl. Lisa is taking the picture.*
There is me front left, Andrea front right, Vicki back left, and Holly back right.

My strawberry, cherry, pomegranate seed, shortcake

Terrarium Ornaments. Plants are Baby Tears (though the tag says Angel baby tears... but when I looked it up it said just baby tears) or Helxine soleirolii, and some moss

The ornament booty. Holly's is the penguin, Lisa brought the lovely jeweled ornament, Kileen's is the cinnamon santa stick ornament (throwback to our mom, she had made these one year for an ornament exchange), Andrea brought the star ornament.

Christmas Stocking

A few weeks ago I went out with my sister, Kileen, to browse some boutiques in the area. This one had some really cute homemade stockings made out of burlap. The trouble was that each stocking ranged from $59 to the most expensive that I saw was about $71. I thought, oh that's cute but I can make that for much much much cheaper.

And I did. But it's not nearly as cute as the ones we saw. And I need to make 4 more. But I am happy enough and it at least it won't end up costing $300+ for five of them.

I also got to use the sewing machine I inherited from my mom, thanks to Kileen showing me how to thread it and stuff.

This one is for Drake

Soft Boiled Egg!

Just recently discovered that I have been cooking and eating soft boiled eggs wrong. I was watching Master Chef Junior... and they challenged the kids to make a perfect soft boiled egg in one of the challenges. Chef Ramsey showed them how it should look... what I didn't know... and now that I do know, I realize how dumb it is that I didn't figure it out... is the white of the egg should also be edible... haha. I was making it where the whites were a little runny... just a little but enough to make me not eat them and I've never seen anyone eat them, I just dipped toast in the yolk and ate that... though probably anyone who reads this and eats them will be thinking "duh". Apparently you are supposed to be able to scoop out the egg and eat all of it. I rarely make soft boiled eggs because I hated wasting the whites. So I looked up a recipe on how to make it perfect. And I did! I boiled the water, placed the egg in for 6 minutes, ran it under cold water when I was done and it came out perfect. I ate the whole thing.

The finished product.

little gadget for cooking soft boiled eggs... inherited from David's granny. It sits nicely in the pot and the handle doesn't get too hot to pull out.

Giving Thanks 6-10

6) My childhood and parents and brothers and sisters. I am full of fond memories.
7) Good friends.
8) Books. I love reading.
9) Drake's birthday and celebrating all my children's birthday's... the 9th just happened to be his birthday :)
10) My sister, Kileen, for helping me figure crafts out and my sewing machine and recipes and going to boutiques and hobby lobby with me and listening to me talk a lot and always encouraging me in my endeavors. I love all my sisters of course!

Giving Thanks 1-5

I'm going to give thanks in groups of 5 throughout the month... all these thanks go to God.

1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ... I would be an unhappy person without it, I wouldn't feel the hope and comfort and forgiveness that He gives.

2. My adoring, patient, sweet tempered, loving, funny, handsome husband ~ David.

3. My beautiful children. Liam: Sweet, hard working, caring, creative, thoughtful, silly. Violet: my emotional little girl who feels things so greatly, loves to snuggle, artistic, independent, observant, playful. Drake: Loves animals, sweet disposition with *almost always* a smile on his face, loves music, is a cookie monster, loves drinking water, trying new foods, and flags! All my kids share my love of gardening and picnicking, putting puzzles together, and playing games.

4. David's job. It has blessed our lives greatly and allows for me to be a stay-at-home mom.

5. Our home. It's perfect for us.

Halloween Treat!

My lovely youngest sister, Maureen who lives too far away, surprised me today with a Halloween package. I came home, from picking the kids up from school, and saw it on my front step. It was such a nice surprise and made me feel all warm and loved.

Bug note card with a sweet letter on the other side. Ring pop. Spider web with spider hair clip. Glow in the dark nail polish. Skittles. Starburst.

Yummy Chili

For Holly, who really liked the chili I made a few weeks ago.

Um... I am going to do my best recreating it here..... hope I can remember it.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of bacon grease (yes, I cooked bacon just for the grease... my husband and kids munched on the cooked bacon)
2 tablespoons of butter (I like using salted butter)
1 Anaheim chili, roasted, peeled, chopped small
1 Poblano chili, roasted, peeled, chopped small
1 red bell pepper, chopped small
1 jalapeno, chopped small
1 small yellow onion, chopped small
1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
boneless chuck, trimmed the fat and cut it into small cubes... it was a little over a pound when I bought it.
2 lbs of ground beef
3 tablespoons of chili powder
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste but I start with 2 teaspoons of each while I cook the meat.
1 small 6 oz can of tomato paste
I think I used a 29 oz can of crushed tomatoes
And I may have added some tomato sauce...if I did it was just a medium sized can.
1 cup of beef stock
1 15 oz can of red kidney beans with the juice in the can
1 15 oz can of pinto beans with the juice in the can.
I added a little bit of brown sugar...Maybe 2 Tablespoons worth
I also added a small handful of semi sweet chocolate chips (I like the Ghirardelli choc. chips)
The last thing I add before I set it to simmer is add Tony Chachere's creole seasoning to taste (I think it brings out the flavor in just about everything), not sure how much, I just sprinkle it on... I just know how much I like. Sorry I can't be more specific! And I add a little swirl of Sriracha sauce or rooster sauce as we call it around here.

If you want more heat to your chili just add more roasted anaheim and poblano peppers, more jalapenos too. This chili isn't too spicy because I want my kids to be able to eat it.

Directions:
First you'll have to cook the bacon to get the grease, while that is cooking you can roast the anaheim and poblano chili's and chop and cook your meat...I add half of the bacon grease to the meat while I cook it and I cook the ground meat first (don't forget the salt and pepper!), move it to a bowl and leave as much of the grease from that meat in the pan to cook the boneless chuck. I don't drain any of the grease from the meat, it will all go into the chili. Then I prep everything. Before I put the chili together I make sure I have all the ingredients ready to go, all the veggies chopped, powders measured and mixed together in another dish, the meat cooked and set aside. For the chili I use a cast iron dutch oven, I have made chili in other things like a slow cooker, or a stock pot... the cast iron just gives it a better flavor in my opinion... I heat it up, add the rest of the bacon grease and throw in the butter. Cast iron gets really hot so it doesn't need to be on the highest heat setting... just so the butter melts and everything feels hot, I have an electric stove (boo) and I keep mine on the number 7 for this first part... which is medium high heat. Add the anaheim chili, poblano chili, red bell pepper, jalapeno, and the onions and cook about 5 minutes or just starting to caramelize. Add the minced garlic and cook for another minute. Add the meat, stir in the dry ingredients (chili powder, cumin etc but not the sugar or chocolate chips yet) after you stir that add the beef stock, the tomato stuff (paste, sauce, crushed), the beans with the juice from the cans, now add the sugar and choc.chips. stir it all together. Add the Tony C's and Sriracha sauce. Lower the heat to simmer and cook for about 2 hours.

I had David try the chili before I cooked it two hours and he said "eh it's alright". Then he ate some after the two hours and he was all "wow, this tastes really amazing".

Sorry if this is really confusing!

Drake's First Sentence!

I love you.

He says it like "I yo you"

So cute. Love him.

Progress Reports!

Liam and Violet got their first progress reports of the school year. Liam is in the 1st grade now. His teacher said Liam is above what they are expected to know in math and that Liam tested easily above a DRA level 38 (which is end of 3rd grade, beginning of 4th)  His teacher said he can actually read easily at a greater level than that, but his comprehension doesn't go above that. She said we need to work on correctly spelling words at home. She suggested that he seems to thrive in competition and I should make a game out of it.

Violet is reading what they expect at the end of Kindergarten! DRA level 3. I was pleasantly surprised... Violet has a hard time sitting down with me to read (she doesn't enjoy it, in other words). But I guess she knows more than she lets on. Teacher noted how sensitive Violet is and that she is doing well to bring her social issues to the teacher. I'm proud of her for that as well. She says Violet is at the expected level for math. I am proud of Violet and told her so, but she made a sound like "awww" as in "awww, darn it" like she was disappointed with that report. I know it's because she is quite good at counting past 200, adding and subtracting numbers to 10, at home... but at school she goes too quickly and skips numbers when counting, they haven't started adding or subtracting yet. Teacher said she is working on slowing her down so she counts properly.

I love this school's progress reports so much more than the previous school Liam was at. The teachers really show how well they know the children by their comments. They also give suggestions for improvement they can learn at home (no matter what level they are at) and comment on what they are working on with them individually in class.

Food!

Ramen:

I was driving down El Camino and saw a sign for a future Ramen restaurant... which I would love... except it looks like it is from the Ichibon food chain... which I've eaten at twice in my life, and while the food didn't taste too bad I got extremely sick afterwards both times. Anyhow it put me in the mood for some ramen. That night I made my own. I did use a ramen noodle pack, but I added to the water my own seasonings (a little bit of the packet too) some seasame chili oil, white pepper, red onion, basil, parsley, ham avocado, fried egg that I cut out like a flower. It tasted so amazing. I keep craving it!

Texadelphia:

Yum. Best cheese steaks you'll get in Texas... or anywhere in my opinion. The mustard sauce is amazing too.. we get it on the sandwich and on the side so we can dip the sandwich in it. David and I go here on the occasional date. Go there as soon as you can.

 

Frenchies:

 

Oh so good Italian food... looks from the outside like a 'hole in the wall' place, food tastes amazing. AMAZING. Me and Holly went the other day. She got off the menu rosemary lamb chops. She gave me a bite, they tasted soooo good, so tender, a great flavor. I got a salmon dish... I don't know the name... the waiter (who I'm pretty sure was also the cook... we went late, it was a slow weeknight) made a suggestion (I love when that happens) I was thinking I would get the linguine salmon... he said the some other word I didn't know, salmon was better. I was like, Yes give me that one. It was THE BEST salmon I've ever had... and I eat a lot of salmon. Both our dishes came with a side of super creamy alfredo pasta. If you've never tried Frenchies, go as soon as possible!

Holly's lamp chops

my salmon

Girl's Camp 2013!

 **Excuse the blurry pictures... Didn't get many more pictures because by the middle of the day my phone battery would be dead... David told me when I got home it's because I didn't turn some roaming thing off and it kept trying to connect which uses a lot of battery life.**

This year I had the privilege of attending the LDS League City Stake 2013 Girl's Camp as a unit leader for South Shore Ward. "Oh The Places You'll Stand" was the overall camp theme (changing the Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go" to fit with the Young Women theme this year which is "Stand Ye in Holy Places".) each group got to pick a Dr. Seuss book for our individual unit. Technically Dr. Seuss wrote the book we picked, but under another pen name, Rosetta Stone... it's called "Because a Little Bug went Ka-Choo!" We liked that it was about how the littlest event can cause big results. AND we loved that we would get to use bugs as part of our look.

the red and white beads were glued together to represent the Cat in the Hat. The clear bead is my unit leader bead. The black bead was for doing rifles. The yellow bead was for doing archery. The dolfin bead was for coming in second place (with my partner, Sister Delange) in the canoe races. The other side has two shrinky dinks. The purple one, one of the young women (Kennedy) made... she made one for me and one for Holly. It says "It's Hall Goode" on it (a clever pun I came up with ;) ) and half a heart so when we get together we can connect them, lol. The other shrinky dink is a bug I drew to represent this years theme.

Our camp is in Louisiana, not too far from here, a few hours away. I got to go with all amazing women and I had soooo much fun because I got to go with one of my best friends, Holly, who is hilarious. The camp grounds are beautiful. The air is super sticky and hot... that would be the only down side. But looking back I hardly remember the heat (I really only remember because I took a shower whenever I could!). Our campsite had electricity so I got to plug in a huge fan to blow in my tent all night, which helped me sleep comfortably... not to mention my beautiful, comfy tent, and my queen sized air mattress.

bridge just before our campsite

we shared with the Seabrook Ward

One girl said my tent looked like an Asian Temple

I got to design our ward camp shirts and the camp flag, though the girl's helped me paint a lot of the flag.

front of our shirt

back of our shirt

camp flag, a retell of the story around the flag with the bug in the middle. Logan on the bottom left, Angelica on the right. Brother Holt behind them.

We had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun... I can't speak for everyone of course. I was to help in the craft cabin, but if I ever go again (which who knows, David might not want to take a week off again so I can go to girl's camp!) I would like to do certification next time. I went to parts of some certification and I really enjoyed it.

made a muffin in an orange peel one morning at certification

girl's hearing a lesson on how to properly put out a camp fire while waiting for their muffins to cool down

Cute "Cat in the Hat" fruit skewers... this one is Julie's, and she already had the other bananas and strawberries eaten off of it before I got a picture. Pinterest sure has helped out with camp ideas.

From Left sitting down is Kacie, Hannah in green, Julie, Kennedy still eating her cat in the hat fruit, and Elisa.

(this is out of order the above was day three I think)

Back at the campsite on day one, we played some games and hung out with the YL's (youth leaders) from South Shore and Seabrook Wards.

Chelsea with her Dr. Seuss inspired hair

Kacie with her Dr. Seuss inspired hair. The game we were playing: Someone is blindfolded in the center. This person touches the hand of one of the ladies in the circle around her. Then the blindfolded person says the name of an animal "Cow" for instance. And the person they touched has to make the sound. The blindfolded person has to try to guess who made the sound. It's funny.

When I looked in my bag the first night at camp, I found Liam had stuffed a letter to me from him inside my bag.

"Dear Mom, I will miss you. I love you. Love Liam." It made me so happy.

The next day we got to go on a "Pioneer Day" hike... well I missed it. It started at 6 a.m. I woke up at 6 a.m. was ready by 6:30... yikes. Not very punctual of me. But I got to hang out with the 4th years and CPR certification. Holly, luckily, woke up for the hike and took the girls. Thank goodness she was there! We wore the Stake camp shirts that day.

Kacie and Angelica. They sewed some matching shorts.

The girl's, wrestling.

Holly making some crafts

Mess Hall. Julie is in the very back Left, Tyreema next to her, than Tykeema, than Chelsea. On the right we see in the back Elisa, and probably Kennedy next to her, Hannah in the front.

After some classes, bunch of girls walking back for a little free time.

Tyreema on the left, Tykeema on the right. Sisters.

Lots of fun things happened at camp. I can't remember all the funny stories, sadly... maybe I can remember them but my kids are like "Mom, when are you going to be done? When are you going to play with us?" right now so I have to hurry... if I don't finish now, I won't do it... I know this from several unfinished posts I have stored up.

Sister Cowley, South Shore Young Women President

I got a bullseye!!!

special dinner they had for the unit leaders one night, in the a/c part of the mess hall

Holly was making fun of my hair wrap towels I got at target and put it on her head upside down to continue the making fun of. Someone said she looked like a ninja turtle, lol

They had a super fun dance one night. We danced like crazy. They also had a photo booth set up. This is me and Holly. That night I fell. I got the girl's to throw cups of water at Holly because she was sitting down not dancing. That got her up. She forced me to the ground and got some other girls to dump water on me. It was fun until the other leaders got mad at us for playing with water near the music equipment... I don't blame them... Though technically I started it... I did not dump water near the equipment, that would be Holly and her girl's... haha.

hard to see but we got most of the South Shore girl's in this picture

My rifle skills... not very good... I only got to shoot two rounds, 5 shells each round.

Kennedy. Last night there a few girls came to hang out in my tent

Tyreema

Angelica

Kacie grabbed my camera and took some lovely photos of herself :)

We had a few service projects this year at camp. This one is to sew these pieces together to make quilts for a few people. Another was to make bags to keep in your car and hand out to homeless people... inside has information on locations in the Houston area where they can get real help, an inspirational scripture, some body wash/soap, some Capri Sun's and granola bars. Each girl got to take one home and hopefully they'll have a good experience handing them out. They had a few other projects too. This picture is super blurry because my phone camera had some humidity on it... I wiped it off.

We made "Pillow Treats" for the girl's... okay I only made them one night, Holly handled the rest of the week. I hand painted these sneezing bugs on some hankerchiefs... Julie liked to wear it as a head bandana. You can kind of see the bug antenna that Holly came up with.

We ate well at camp. This is Angelica's favorite dessert... dirt pudding or something... I don't like it that much, mainly because I don't like vanilla pudding.

Tyreema is there helping do the flag ceremony

Chelsea... she was also one of the camp lifeguards (so was Kacie).

I made this camp scrap book... but it got destroyed by the time I got home.

Our ward Bishop (if you are another religion, think Priest... we have the young men in the ward as the Priests, that's why we call our "Priest" the Bishop... uh, that's why I think we do it, anyway). Bishop Watts had a smile on his face the whole time he was there... and what a good sport, he wore the bug antenna that we made him longer than the rest of us!

Going to hand out some bug trophy's tonight. I made these too. We have the "doodle bug award" for this girl who was drawing when she could. The "Jumping Spider award" for one of the girls who did the Leap of Faith copes thing, she also 'jumped' to help any of her friends when they needed her. "Fly on the Wall" award for Kennedy who liked to watch everyone. "Worker Bee award" for the young lady who worked super hard. "Assassin Bug award" for one of the girl's who was really good at archery. "Lighting Bug award" for this girl with a big bright smile and was really good rifles and archery for her year... reminds me of lighting... for some reason. "Cricket Award" to go to the girl who sang with me and Holly in the shower area and also for picking up the cup game so quickly.

Some funny moments:

Holly playing the "psychologist" game with the girls and hearing their stories about it at dinner.

One girl, Kennedy, kept watching Holly and me laughing at Holly... but mostly Holly... because Holly is so funny. So one night me and Holly watched her... until she saw us. That cracked us up, maybe no one else, but we thought it was funny.

Kennedy putting on a horse head mask and everyone singing "Get your hooves off the table Clementine!" and then Kennedy ran around the mess hall. Probably had to be there for that too.

There were more but hard to explain why they were so funny. 

Bishop Watts said on Sunday how he got to be there for most of Girl's Camp and that he never saw a couple of leaders have more fun... he was talking about me and Holly :)