Christmas 2009

If you are a Facebook friend these are the same pictures you have already seen......

Trying to figure it out!

Charlie got a new game to play.

A headlamp just like daddy- now Rosty can read in bed.

Rosty liked his Transformer.

A new Leapster game.

Rosty got Battleship.

Charlie is excited about his playdoh!

Charlie got a new hoodie!

Rosty got Batman pajamas.

Christmas Traditions!

I love Christmas & I have loved Christmas with the boys. I have tried to start some traditions with them. One being making a gingerbread house. We did that this year and I did not take a single picture.....It would have been a partially decorated house though because the boys kept eating the candy off the house.

We also made Christmas ornaments this year. We had a kit to make stained glass ornaments. They are little teeny tiny colored beads that you put into a form and then bake in the oven. Charlie helped but it was pretty tedious. Me & Rosty had to resort to using tweezers. He actually decided to pour all the beads together and make a rainbow colored ornament. It was one of my favorites!!

We never did make Christmas cookies to decorate but we did make some pretty tasty snacks for Santa. Me & Rosty dipped pretzel rods into chocolate and then decorated them with sprinkles. We tried M & M's but they kept falling off the pretzels. We also made rum balls. I did the initial rolling into balls and then Rosty rolled them in powdered sugar. I can't tell you how many batches of sausage balls I made....

Even though we were here this year for Christmas I was just not in a decorating mood. I put the lights on the tree and the boys decorated both trees. They have a small artificial tree in the playroom and then we have a live tree as our family tree. I wrapped each of the boys gifts in one kind of paper (and they did not know which paper was theirs) this drove them crazy. They kept asking which gifts were theirs!!

Christmas Eve

Lee's family has always gathered at his grandmother's house for Christmas Eve. This year we had 16 adults and 9 children there. It was a lot of fun to visit with his cousins who we do not get to see very often. We even had a special visitor come over.....Santa Claus!

After leaving Grandma's house we went back to our house. The boys got their pajamas on that Rudolph had left them a couple of weeks earlier and then we opened all of our presents.

I'm not sure when we started opening gifts on Christmas Eve but that is what we always did at our house. So, Lee graciously lets me have my way and we open our gifts on Christmas Eve.

I remember Christmas Eve at my parent's house pre-kids (pre-marriage too). My mom had certain foods she always fixed and a family that I had babysat for years would come over with their 3 daughters and my best friend with his family. We always had the best time. Now we all live miles and miles apart from each other and those Christmas Eve's don't happen anymore but I have lots of fond memories!




Here are the treats we left for Santa Claus.

Petey

March 2002 - December 2009

With the holidays we have been so busy (just like everyone else). We have had many things that I wanted to blog about but just hadn't had the time to do it. The one thing that affected our family the most was the lost of our family pet, Petey.

You have to know Petey so let me start from the beginning.....

Lee had wanted a duck dog but for those of you that know us well if there is one thing we have plenty of it's dogs! He had seen a sign in someones yard "Chocolate Lab puppies for sell." At this point the puppies were about 5-months old and the owner wanted them gone. Lee hand-picked Petey. He like his siblings had been living in a dog lot at the edge of the woods and had learned to get out (a trait which he also used later in life). He also loaded with ticks. After a good washing and tick removal he was allowed in the house.

I mentioned Lee wanted a duck dog. He took Petey duck hunting with him one day. He said Petey did a good job until Lee fired ta shot the first time and Petey tried to climb in Lee's pocket. So needless to say Petey was never the duck dog Lee wanted.

Another memory I have of Petey is the first night Rosty came home form the hospital. Rosty was in the hospital for 2 weeks before he came home so I would bring blankets and clothes home for Petey to smell so he would know Rosty's scent. That first night we were home we put the baby gate up and Petey paced up and down the hall all night long. I think Rosty is the only one that slept that night!

Besides gunfire Petey was deathly afraid of thunder, cars back-firing or any loud noise in general. When there was a thunderstorm his 90-pound self would crawl up in my lap and he would be shaking like a leaf, I would pet him and tell him it would be alright. Another popular hiding place (which is also where he slept) was in our closet. Lee had a sleeping bag in the bottom of the closet and Petey pawed at it until he had it untied and would lay on that sleeping bag.....it's still there I can't move it yet.

Petey was also very loud.

In the mornings if we had not let him out he would come stand beside the bed and wag his tail which would hit the bedroom door and echo through the whole house. If anyone pulled into the driveway or was at the door (especially if he did not know them) he would bark & growl. He was our built in security system.

He also would do this howling sorting of barking thing sometimes too- just to let us know he was there!

He was also my babysitter for the boys. When they were outside playing Petey was always with them. He wouldn't let anyone near those boys!!

These are all the good things about Petey that we will remember.

We will always love you Petey!!!!

I may tell more Petey stories later but there are too may tears right now!!

Thanksgiving.....Part III

I have finally found the time to tell you about our exciting trip to my parent's house.

We left our house later then we had hoped we would but there was so much to get done. We had to clean up from processing turkeys the day before, we had to pack, we had 2 deliveries to make to Charlotte. I say we but Lee did all the work except packing (and he did pack his clothes). I tried to get the house in some sort of order so it would be nice when we got home. I vacuumed, changed all the bed sheets, washed all the dirty clothes, etc...

Lee was really hoping to get some fishing in while we were at my parent's house so we also took his boat along with us. We were all loaded up and he got back out of the truck and threw the jack and toolbox in the boat.

He said, "I hope we don't need it but you never know."

So, we finally leave about 8:30 on Wednesday night.

I call moma & daddy and let them know we are on the way. We have 2 little boys who were very tired and we knew would be asleep soon and 1 new puppy who we hoped would be asleep soon!

It's about 10:30 PM and Lee asks, "Did you hear that?"

Not good.

So we pull over to the side of the road. When I open my door I can smell the rubber. We were hoping the flat tire wasn't on the dually. It was dark and we were on the side of the interstate but I thought the tire on the boat trailer looked like it was leaning. It was and it was shredded. Luckily, I have a boy scout for a husband and he was prepared with the jack & the tool box. I helped him change the tire and we were back on the road by 11:15 PM.

We decided that we needed to stop at WalMart and get a spare tire. We stop at the only WalMart in North Carolina that closes at 11 PM. So we don't have a spare tire and still have about 2 hours to drive. So we processes slowly and carefully. I also need a restroom break. Of course, the gas station we stop at closes at 11 PM too. We drive about 45 minutes to the next gas station and guess what they are closed too. We finally find a 24-hour gas station (which is 30-40 minutes from my parent's house). It's about 1:30 AM at this point. Let's just say there was a lot of questionable people in there.......

In case I forgot to mention it the kids and the puppy slept through all of this!

We finally get to my parent's house at about 2 AM Thanksgiving morning! The rest is a daze. We unload (we have the turkey and a lot of the fixings with us) and literally fall into bed. I wake up at 7 AM the next morning & try to help moma but I am just exhausted.

We have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with my parents, my grandparents, my mom's sister, her husband and her daughter.

My Aunt and her family brought a cheesecake tray with a variety of slices it was yummy! I had made a pumpkin pie it was good but I used a little too much evaporated milk and the crust was soggy. I followed the recipe (I know, I know it's hard to believe I actually followed a recipe). The recipe said 1 can of evaporated milk. So I used the 8-ounce can that I had in the pantry. Not until I went to the grocery store and was buying a replacement can did I realize they also came in 4-ounce cans. Moma made sweet potato pie & pecan pie too so we had plenty of dessert.

The turkey was courtesy of Wild Turkey Farms.....and it was yummy & we had Wild Turkey Farms ham plus a Honey Baked ham.

We also had collards, sweet potato casserole, butter beans, dressing and homemade cranberry sauce. Me & Lee also brought some farmstead cheese & a summer sausage that we had made from our beef. I'm sure there was more food but I don't remember it now.

On Friday, I did not get up at midnight and go shopping. However, me & Lee did go to Toy's R Us at about 9:30 AM. The things that I wanted were all gone. So we went to Office Depot and I got a new digital camera!!!! Sorry kids no Christmas gifts...just joking.

We actually did do some shopping for the kids. It was nice to have Lee with me because I normally do the kid's Christmas shopping. We also got to eat at J Michaels Philly Deli- my favorite!

Then on Friday night me & Charlie were laying on the couch and he raised his head up and hit me in the eye. By Saturday morning I had a black eye. So for those of you that wondered but did not want to ask yes I had a black eye!

The rest of the trip was just spent visiting and trying to catch up on our rest. We had a great trip home but it's always nice to be back in your own bed.

Thanksgiving.....Part II

We had such a success last year with our turkeys we decided to do a few more this year. We started with a total of 50 and raised 47 to the end.

Just a few facts about the turkeys.

This year we raised Broad-Breasted Whites, which are commercial birds. They grow faster than the Heritage Breed we raised last year and do not eat as much. The 50 turkeys ate 100 pounds of feed per day.

We received the turkeys when they were 1-day old and they were processed at 4-months old. Their first 3-weeks they were raised in a brooder with a heat lamp. Their next 2 weeks was spent in a movable pen which was moved to fresh grass daily. Then at 7-weeks old they were free-range. At this point they are big enough that there is not much threat of owls or hawks taking them. The turkeys are kept in the pasture by movable fences. Every few days the fence is moved to give them fresh grass.

Tuesday

November 24, 2009

The day did not start out good. The alarm went off at 6 AM and Lee could not move his back was hurting. He laid on the heating pad for about 25 minutes & then got in a warm shower for about 20 minutes. It loosened up enough that he was able to get to the farm but he wasn't feeling his best.

I get the kids to school & go get biscuits for the help.

Including me & Lee we had 8 people helping us to process turkeys. I will leave out details but tell you the steps to processing.

First, the turkeys had all been caught and were waiting patiently in the cow trailer. Then they are prepared for processing (tried to put that delicate). They are then scalded this helps to loosen the feathers. The next step is the plucker which removes their feathers.

We had 3 tables set up one where T. would chop off the heads & feet. Then they came to me and Lee and we would eviscerate them. Then A. & R. would bag the gizzards, weigh the birds, give the birds a number and place them in ice.

The important thing we did was to keep good records.

After the bird was weighed an ear tag was placed in the skin. We wrote down the number, the weight and the location that the bird was placed in.

We finished processing the birds around 1 o'clock that afternoon. We had pick-ups at the farm from 1 to 5 and we also had 2 drop off points.

When we pulled back into the farm it was 9 o'clock. It was a very, very long day but well worth it!!

Thanksgiving Part 1....Eat Local

I have so much to tell about the week before Thanksgiving so I am going to divided the post up into 3 different parts so you don't get too bored!

Part of our job as being farmers is to educate people whenever we get the chance. I was asked by a friend to speak to her class of 4-5 year olds about turkeys. I had a power point presentation for the kids to watch and I answered any questions they had to ask me. Most of these kids have never seen a real turkey. It was a lot of fun & my friend has already told me that she would call me again next Thanksgiving!

Lee was asked to be a panelist at Davidson College to speak about A Local Sustainable Thanksgiving. As luck would have it he double booked himself and already had another speaking engagement for that night. So I got to be his fill-in that night. There was a panel of 3 women each with a different prespective. I was the farmer, we had the manager of the Davidson Farmer's Market & a chef who is a big supporter of eating local. The chef also did a cooking demo using local & seasonal foods.

I was nervous at first about being on the panel not because I had to talk about the farm because I do that all the time at the Farmer's Market but I was afraid there would be a question that I could not answer. I got through it and everyone said they enjoyed it so I guess I did alright!! A lot of the people that were there I recognized from the Farmer's Market so it was like talking to "friends."

We also got a little publicity in Farm Bureau magazine:

http://www.ncfbmagazine.org/2009/11/a-glimpse-into-the-wild-side-of-turkey-farming/

This is actually a funny story. The guy who wrote the story contacted Lee because he wanted to do a story on wild turkeys. Lee told him about our operation and our Thanksgiving turkeys. He said he would talk to his editor and get back to us. He never did. The on a Monday afternoon he called Lee and said the story was wrote could we send him some pictures. Before the kids went to school on Tuesday morning Lee's dad took some pictures and the result is what you see in the article.

One correction though,

"Menius adds that raising the free-range turkeys is a nice complement to the chickens and pigs that he grows for commercial operations on a family farm that dates back to 1885."

We do not grow for a commercial operation. Anyone that knows us knows this!!!!

I was also able to share about turkeys & our farm with Rosty's Kindergarten class. These kids feel like they know me so they don't mind sharing stories with me. I think 5 kids all had the same story. "We were driving down the road and my mommy hit a turkey....." Who knew we had so many turkeys around!

Thanksgiving Part II will be our adventures in processing Thanksgiving turkeys!

Events

We have had the opportunity to do several things this past week.

One was to attend The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) 2009 Sustainable Agriculture Lecture featuring Will Allen.

Check out what he is doing in Milwaukee:

http://www.growingpower.org/

We also attending a workshop entitled "The Secrets of Marketing & Selling Success." There were several sessions including local NC companies that shared their stories of how they got to where they are today.

I forgot the cake pictures

This year Rosty decided that he wanted a cake instead of cupcakes (although I still made cupcakes too). So we had a Transformer cake made for him. They did a great job on the cake!

Rosty's 6th birthday

Around our house birthdays tend to be celebrated for at least a week! Rosty's birthday was on a Friday so he opened his gifts from us on his actual birthday.....I couldn't make him wait until his party that would have been to cruel. Here are a few gifts he got from us on his birthday.

A transformer

Another transformer

A bakugan



No birthday is complete without a trip to the Mexican restaurant to wear the sombrero!

Mommy & Rosty

Grandma & Popa bring presents....
Transformers & Bakugans

& a new Transformer lunchbox

The Scavenger Hunt

The pinata

The day before the party it rained and rained. It was also very cold and damp the day of the party. We still did our scavenger hunt outside...very quickly. The kids found clues which led them to the next clue (Rosty may have had a little pre-scavenger hunt hints given to him) and in the end they found a pinata. We took the pinata into the playroom for the kids to get the goodies out of it. Then we had pizza, chips, cake & cupcakes.

Fresh

Some weeks nothing happens and then other weeks I have so much I want to talk about but not enough time to blog about it.

Last week was crazy with Rosty's birthday, then Halloween and then his actual birthday party. We celebrated his birthday for 3-days!! Plus, it was our last Markets of the season so we worked 2 Farmer's Markets on Saturday also.

I will post birthday party pictures next week.

Which leads me to the fact that I will not be posting pics for awhile. My camera had an unfortunate accident and no longer works:-( The good news was that it happened after the birthday party. So, any recommendations for cameras???

Me & Lee went to a screening of the movie Fresh last night.

This is from the website :

http://www.freshthemovie.com/

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy

It was very interesting. It was made like a documentary and followed Joel Salatin around his farm and then urban farming with Will Allen.

After the movie there was a panel of 5 people. The panel included someone involved in urban & community gardens, Slow Foods president, nutritionist, co-author of book on sustainable agriculture and soil science/agronomist professor.

Halloween 2009

Optimus Prime

Batman

I know there are a lot of you out there like me who always made their Halloween costumes when we were young (or had our mom make them).

So that tradition continues with the Menius Family.

Rosty decided that he wanted to be a Transformer so I went to saving cardboard boxes. The body is a box that I spray painted red, the grill is the flaps from the box covered in duct tape. The mufflers are a wrapping paper tube cut in half and spray painted gray. The lights are a paper towel tube cut in half and covered with blue painters tape. The legs are Capri Sun boxes covered in red duct tape. You do have to use your imagination but several people guessed that he was a Transformer (the t-shirt probably helped too).

Rosty wanted it to actually transform but I couldn't figure that one out.

Charlie got the Batman shirt during the summer and decide that he wanted to be Batman after getting the shirt. His was a little easier to put together though.

Who knows what we will be next year.........

As promised... State Fair pics

Rosty wanted to come down this BIG slide & he did. Although, I did not get to capture that look of fear on his face as we was about halfway down.

Charlie thoroughly enjoyed himself at the State Fair this year.
He loved riding all the rides!





Rosty
The boys had to climb up a rope ladder, walk across a swinging bridge and I'm sure there were a few more things but the final was this fast slide.
They did it twice in a row....they loved it!






Charlie

I know, I know.....only a DOT worker would take her kids picture in front of this!!!

Halloween & Birthday Parties

Rosty's birthday was on October 30th. He was actually out of school that day but he went to his after-school program. His daddy did pick him up early though!

We did the traditional eat Mexican & wear the sombrero at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. When our waiter came to take our order Rosty ordered his usual and then added "it's my birthday so I'll need a cake too!" Luckily, I had brought a cake with us.

I did take pictures but Lee has my camera so I'll have to post them later. Plus, I never posted pictures from the NC State Fair.

We let Rosty open gifts from us on his birthday it would be unfair to make him wait until his party. He got lots of good stuff!!

Then Saturday was Halloween.

I'm old school.....we usually made our own costumes so of course I do the same with my kids. Rosty wanted to be a Transformer so I collected cardboard boxes, wrapping paper tubes, and paper towel tubes. Then I bought some red spray paint, blue, silver & red duct tape and Optimus Prime was created. A few people actually knew what he was when we went trick or treating.

Charlie had gotten a Batman t-shirt this summer so he decided he wanted to be Batman. His was really easy. He wore the t-shirt, blue sweat pants (because he didn't have black), a cape we got last year for 25 cents on clearance and a Batman mask we found at the consignment store. He was a cutie.

At our last house we went to it started raining. And it rained and rained and rained. We had over 2 inches of rain at the farm.

I was a little disappointed when I woke up on Sunday morning because it was wet and cold outside. We had all these really cool things planned for Rosty's birthday party and the weather did not won't to cooperate.

We had a total of 13 kids plus their parents. Rosty had both set of grandparents at his party and my granny (his great-granny) came too!

We still had a great party despite having to be inside most of the time. We did our scavenger hunt outside and then we brought the pinata inside.

I sent all the kids to the playroom to eat. I figured it would be easier to clean one location than to have them eating all over the house. Petey & Freckles (our dogs) enjoyed being on crumb patrol after the party.

Thanks to everyone who was at Rosty's party- he had a great time and we hope you did too!

Happy 6th Birthday Rosty

Happy Birthday Rosty!

You've come a long way in 6 years!

Mommy & daddy love you bunches!!

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.

It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

-Elizabeth Stone

Our Morphed Pictures

Our morphed pictures form the Christmas Carol train tour.

Domisty
Rosty
Charlie

Joke of the Day!

THE MAMA TEST

I was out walking with my 4-year-old daughter. She picked up something off of the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that.

'Why?' my daughter asked.

'Because it's been on the ground; you don't know where it's been, it's dirty, And probably has germs,' I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, 'Mama, how do you know all this stuff ? You are so smart.'

I was thinking quickly and replied, 'All moms know this stuff.... It's on the Mama Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mama.'

We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information.

'Oh.....I get it!' she beamed, 'So if you don't pass the test you have to be the dad..

''Exactly,' I replied with a big smile on my face.

A Whole Lotta Happy....at the 2009 NC State Fair

It's that time of year again....... The NC State Fair.

Me & Lee were talking about our college days and how much time was spent at the fair with the Animal Science Club activities and all the years that I helped with the Jr. Dairy Show. We joke that we never left the barn and that we did not know there were rides and food outside the Jim Graham Building!

This year we were all set for both of the boys to show turkeys. Early on there was a problem statewide with a high mortality rate with the baby turkeys so they re-issued turkeys. We got our new turkeys and were really looking forward to the boys both showing this year. As the week approached we tried to find transportation for our turkeys. The turkey show was on Friday but the turkeys must be checked in by 6 o'clock the Wednesday before. A friend was going to take them but he would not be there by the cut-off time. So we did not get to show our turkeys this year.

There were 194 participants in the the turkey show. We may be glad that we did not have to sit through that many turkeys...........

We did have a lot of fun at the fair though. I bought tickets on-line prior to going to the fair (much cheaper that way). The boys had a blast riding rides. They loved the kiddie roller coaster. I rode with Rosty & Lee rode with Charlie. I really needed to take a picture of Lee folding himself into the car with Charlie. LOL!!

Last year Charlie was still young and did not really understand what was going on but this year he had a blast. He would just take off running and we would have to chase after him. I put our business card in both of their pockets in case we got separated from them.

One of the things I saw a lot of this year were wheels that you spin and then you get that prize. This really encourages interaction instead of just handing out a pen, pad of paper, etc. We went to the Air Force tent and Rosty spun the wheel. It was a challenge to do 25 push-ups or pull-ups. The young guy asked Rosty if he knew how to do push-ups and he said "No." So they went off to the side and he showed him how to do them and then they did 10 push-ups together. Rosty won a t-shirt for doing the sit-ups.

I have always enjoyed looking at the 4H exhibits & the best of exhibits. There are a lot of talented people out there. A lot of talented children and teenagers too. Rosty enjoyed seeing the Lego entries. I keep saying that I am going to enter something that I have canned into the Fair one year.....maybe one day.

Rosty also enjoyed going to the exhibits in the Kerr Scott Building. He had a bag for him and one for Charlie. then we would go around and get coloring/activity books, stickers, NCSU tattoos, pencils, rulers & notepads. The first 45 minutes of the trip home they spent going through their bags- Charlie colored with a pink hi-lighter that he got & Rosty did all the mazes and activities in the books. Then they both fell asleep.

Me & Lee got to enjoy some peace & quiet on the way home- the first we had all day...trust me! We also found a Starbucks and used a gift card that I had...yummy pumpkin spice latte.

I almost forgot the weather was perfect fair weather. Not too hot and not too cold. We all had jackets or sweaters but it was great.

I took a few pictures that I'll post tomorrow.

Caramel Apples

Me & Rosty made caramel apples last night.

It was his reward for getting no X's at school.

We unwrapped all the caramels (of course Rosty had to eat one), then I started warming the caramels on the stove while Rosty placed the wooden sticks in the apples.

The apples came from a vendor at the Davidson Market who has lots of apple trees in her yard & the best part is that she does not spray her apples. So we have "organic" caramel apples.

I let Rosty try his hand at dipping the apples in caramel but he wanted to decorate them instead. So we have caramel apples with chocolate sprinkles & MM's on them.

Yummy!

I took a picture of them but I figured everyone has seen caramel apples before so I won't post the picture........

Fun week-end!

I know my kids have lots of experiences that other kids do not get to have because they are farm kids but sometimes they miss out on a lot of things because we are so busy at the farm.

So on Friday night I took them to the NC Transportation Museum to see the Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour. There is a new 3-D movie coming out in November and the train is going around to promote the movie. They had some of the costumes on display, they also had TV screens with clips of how they animate the movie. At the end you could have your picture taken and have your face morphed into one of the characters. Me and the boys did this and they are suppose to send a copy to my email. If they do I will post it on here so you can see our pictures. They also showed about a 10-minute trailer of the movie (we had 3D glasses to wear). I thought Charlie would be scared but he said he wasn't although he did take the glasses off halfway through the viewing.

http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/101009-Christmas-Carol-train-spencer-shops

The night ended with a trip to Chick-Fil-A.

The boys enjoyed playing on the indoor playground.

Of course, this meant I was up to about 11 o'clock getting ready for the Farmer's Market but I'm glad they got to be kids for one night!

Saturday at the Salisbury Farmer's Market Charlie got to see his first parade. It was a small parade but there was 2 bands and several floats. They also had some dancers and a jump rope demonstration. It was a homecoming parade for Livingston College.

Baking Day

I want to have a baking day!

In one of the blogs I like to read (Money Saving Mom) she had a baking day. She made homemade waffles, muffins, lasagna, ziti, ground meat, etc. Then she is able to put all of these in the freezer and use when needed. Now she has all of these delicious, homemade meals already prepared and she only has to defrost.

My main problem with a baking day is I need a free day to do all of t his baking! My goal is going to have Baking Day on November 11th (I have this day off work).

I had a pseudo baking day last night.

I made a loaf of banana bread (to be eaten now) & banana bread muffins (to be frozen). I also made a spinach quiche but we are going to go ahead and eat that this week-end.

This year I am really going to try a lot harder to feed my family better. I think I have done good this year. We eat only our meats (of course). I use vegetables from our garden or from local farmers at the Farmer's Market but I do buy a lot from the grocery store too. I am very fortunate that we have friends who give us vegetables from their farm. I have put corn in the freezer, canned green beans & black-eyed peas.

I got a deal on bananas at the grocery store.

The store I shop at has an area where they have reduced fruit for sale. On Wednesday I got 2 avocados for 99 cents. So last night for supper we had tacos and homemade guacamole.

I also bought a bag of 9 bananas for $1.17 & there was only 1 that was bruised badly and this is what I used for my banana bread & muffins.

I also have recipes for

pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

(which I will use the pumpkin that I canned last year),

Southwest roll-ups

(I will use Wild Turkey Farms pasture-raised chicken that I have in the freezer along with homemade salsa),

and

homemade breakfast pockets

( I will use Wild Turkey Farms sausage & eggs).

I have not tried these recipes yet but I will post them if anyone is interested or you can go here:

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/10/baking-day-southwest-rollups-and-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins.html

So does anyone have any recipes they can share for meals that can be prepared ahead of time & frozen? I want a good meatball recipe if anyone has one of those, please!

The Adventures of BrownBear

Rosty had a neat homework assignment over the week-end. His kindergarten class has a bear named Brown Bear & every week-end he goes come with a different student. The student and their parents write in a journal what Brown Bear did over the week-end.

Brown Bear's adventure with the Menius Family was not a lot of fun.

Let's back up to Sunday. Rosty started running a fever and by Monday morning it was 103.1 F. Of course I called the doctor's office and they said to bring him in since his temperature was so high but to go ahead and give him Motrin and a cool bath. When we got to the appointment his temperature was only 101.2 F. They did do the rapid test and said he did not have the flu. The story does not end though.....his temperature reached over 104 F and I borrowed thermometers from my mother-in-law and neighbor so I could make sure mine was somewhat accurate.

His fever FINALLY broke early Tuesday morning. It was so heartbreaking to see him just laying on the bed, not moving, not talking just laying there. If you know Rosty you know it is very unusual for him not to be talking (he gets this from his daddy)! He still was not 100% and had a hacking cough so he got to stay home from school on Tuesday.

But back to Brown Bear.

Even though Rosty was back at school he just wasn't his usual self and on Friday he fell asleep on the way home from school. So Brown Bear hung out with me on Friday night. Folding clothes, getting ready for the Farmer's Market, fun stuff like that!

On Saturday Rosty spent the morning at the farm while I was at the Market. So him and Brown Bear hung out at his Grandma's house and watched TV. On Saturday night Rosty fell asleep at 6 o'clock. I let Brown Bear go to sleep then too.

But on Sunday Brown Bear learned about life at Wild Turkey Farms. Not only did he get to ride on the Gator & help feed but he got to help chase pigs. About 20 of our baby pigs were out and about in the woods. Rosty & Lee were in the woods looking for the pigs while me, Charlie & Brown Bear stayed close by where they were suppose to be in case they came home. We did get all of them but 4 and we refer to them as the 4 rouge pigs. They are on the farm just not with their brothers and sisters.

Brown Bear also got to go to some friends farm in Lawndale to see molasses being made. They had already done a lot of the work we got there when they were cooking the cane down to molasses.

So all in all I think Brown Bear had a good time with us. We hope he gets to come back to our house again and I'm sure we'll have another adventure waiting on him.

OKI 2009- vacation pictures

We had a wonderful vacation at Oak Island this year. Here are a few pictures from our trip. They include beach pictures, the boys at the park & our trip to the Ft. Fisher Aquarium.

Our Beach House (the green one)

The Fisherman

Charlie playing in the water

Playing in the water & sand

Rosty playing in the water & sand

Rosty on the boogie board

Charlie & Rosty at the park

Charlie on the slide

NOT A LIVE ALLIGATOR!

Feeding Rosty to the alligator-

we have a picture like this from every year we have gone to the aquarium

Feeding Charlie to the alligator

Brothers

Rosty at Ft. Fisher Aquarium

Charlie sleeping

Rosty-