month of action!

january: month of action 

food, athletics, championships, illness and recreational educational pursuits

i had a few cooking successes this month. we had afternoon church(for 2 whole weeks before a new ward was created and we were bumped to the 10:30-1:30 session!) so i turned to my dear friend, crock pot, to make my sabbath go more smoothly. surprise, you can make potatoes in the crock pot! i sliced them and then browned them in a little olive oil in the pan that i had previously brown my roast in and then i threw it in the crock pot on low and added some garlic and salt. i added some shaved parmesan before serving. delicious!

other crock pot attempts: i've been trying to perfect my crock pot roast. i don't love roast in a crock pot but i've been backed into a corner because so many of my oven roasted roasts have been such dried out, shoe leather failures. this time i got it just right. i salted and peppered the meat and then browned it slightly in olive oil, garlic and onion before transferring it to the crock pot. i added some beef broth and a can of french onion soup(because thomas has a vomit inducing mystery allergy to onion soup mix) and some carrots and simmered on low until dinner. success! so pretty.

scarlett requested a cake for dinner so i obliged and made a yellow cake with butter fudge frosting. we then sang to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King for his birthday and indulged. i admit weakness in my no junk january and had to quickly mend my ways.

smothered chicken burritos. i didn't love the chicken, cilantro and queso combination but i did an absolutely beautiful job of wrapping them. chipotle would be proud. next time i'll just use beans and rice and beef and save the chicken, cilantro and queso combination for my fancy green enchiladas. perfection to look at.

segueing from food to athletics:

scarlett started on a volleyball team. i discovered that i am too old to sit on a gymnasium floor for an hour and a half so this week i promptly bought a camp chair for my grandma bum.

i also got scarlett to start running with me again. i'm hoping to find a 5k to do together this spring. i was so impressed with her that she ran 1.38 miles on her first go. 

segueing from athletics to ATHLETICS
i've been wearing my alabama themed clothing like clockwork this season and my efforts resulted in an opportunity to play for the national championship. 

my beastie, natalie, and i cheered our team to yet another national championship, while in two different time zones and varying state of undress. 

rally hat on top of big bun(on my head) came out at around 11pm. this look clinched it for us.

seguing from this sick picture of me to the sick portion of this post.

illness took up residence for a few days. all of us have had varying degrees of congestion. thomas and i have started a nighttime coughing and hacking harmony. herschel is a booger factory. athena blythe perpetually has a chapped face and snot on her forearm sleeve. scarlett has remained unscathed. 
athena blythe got sick at school and came home and slept off her illness one afternoon.

reagan was lucky enough to be the recipient of pink eye which resulted in a trip to the doctor with ALL FOUR KIDS!

 segueing into recreational educational pursuits. last saturday i declared NO TV AND I MEAN IT! so we got out our national geographic science projects and went to town.
first we made a volcano out of plaster. 

it was a stunning display. almost as good as peter brady's volcano and sprayed marsha and all her super cool friends with lava. i showed thomas and the kids the brady bunch clip before we did our own volcano so our results were somewhat anti-climatic. 

ooh. aah.

we also made bright green slime but i didn't get any pictures and i had to hide it when athena blythe tried to eat it with an ice cream scoop. 

finally, herschel and his favorite toy, bumble bee.

i'll end with a joke. kids cleaning up the kitchen on their own. HA!

the end.