Summer Vacation

Summer vacation is here!  And we're enjoying sunny, warm, beautiful, wanna-play-outside-but-need-lots-of-sunscreen kind of weather winter...on Memorial Weekend.

I made tortilla soup for lunch.  The Prairie Daddy was so thankful to come home to a nice warm lunch.  We bundled up on the couch because it is a blistery 42degrees out today.  The Prairie Kid was REALLY wanting to play outside.  So, they went out to run in the sprinklers have a snowball fight.

Hey, Prairie Kid, you might have some snow on your glasses...

 My little Norwegian...in shorts...

 Who knew throwing snow at the garage could be so much fun?

Merry Christmas Happy summer!

With Cream And Sugar, Please

It seems only fitting that I can parallel my current Bible study with life application; even in a little, funny, everyday- kind-of-way.

I am currently doing a study on the book of James.  And I am even working on memorizing the book of James.  So far I know 12 verses.  I have a long way to go!  But the first part is all about PERSEVERANCE!  We have been praying for perseverance recently...to finish the school year strong.  Here is a part of the Scripture I am memorizing...

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Yesterday was the last day of school.  I got up early.  I took my shower.  I came upstairs to make some coffee.  I got the coffee going and headed to the office to check my email.  And then I went back to the kitchen to get that first piping cup of yummy goodness.

And...

Somehow the coffee didn't go into the pot. But all over the kitchen counter, down the dishwasher, INTO the dishwasher, and across the floor...

 

Wow.  That didn't go as planned.

 

Just last Saturday I sat down and scrubbed this grout in my kitchen...painstakingly.

Funny, re-cleaning the kitchen floor, counter, and dishwasher WASN'T on my list of things to do at 6:15 in the morning on the last day of school!  Call me CrAzY!

But instead of getting mad...I grabbed the camera!  AGAIN!  And laughed in my head at the fun blog post I would be able to put together while I, yep, you guessed it, cleaned the kitchen!

And I drank coffee all day long.  : )

Some day I will be mature and complete...not lacking anything!  Thank you, Jesus!

Incomplete

My friend and I were just talking the other day about how much we love recipes with pictures. As we flipped through one of the Pioneer Woman cookbooks and oohed and aahed, I spotted some recipes I couldn't wait to try.  Tonight I decided to try the Crash Hot Potatoes.  Here is a link in case you would like to see them: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

I followed the directions and somehow, some way, things didn't seem to line up.  I cooked the potatoes until fork tender (or so I thought), put them on a cookie sheet drizzled with olive oil and...

Here's what her recipe looked like as she crashed the potatoes:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

And here is what mine looked like:

And view from a little farther away so that you can see the potato that is not even on the pan anymore (to the right):

And this is where I will get really vulnerable and honest with you and let you know that I may have sent 3 potatoes flying onto the floor.  May have.  And if I did send potatoes flying to the floor, well, I would have #1- been putting much passion into the "crash" part of Crash Hot Potatoes and #2- washed them off before baking them.

Please try not to be jealous of my talent.  I just can't help it.

I did appreciate the attention to detail that The Pioneer Woman gave in this recipe.  My only complaint is that the recipe was slightly incomplete.  I would add these "ingredients" to it:

One dog, a broom, a dustpan and a hand broom...

And maybe a camera and a good sense of humor, too. There were potato pieces ALL over the floor.

But before you think that my family went hungry tonight or that I had to resort to a Stouffer's Frozen Lasagna, I was able to pull off a super yummy meal.  Ginger-honey marinated venison kabobs and Crash-Around-The-Kitchen Hot Potatoes. 

Framables!

Do you ever stop and just think about how stinkin' blessed you are? I try to make a habit of this regularly. This precious kid doesn't make it hard to count my blessings! But seriously, HOW DID HE GET SO GROWN UP SO FAST???  I had so much fun taking his picture today.  I had even more fun playing with them on GIMP2. 

Mountain Fun

What a great Mother's Day!  I had a quiet morning to myself because The Prairie Kid spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's.  I got new shoes and a coffee before church.  We had a nice lunch with all of the local family.  Then our little family played tennis and enjoyed the park.  The Prairie Daddy beat me, how rude.  And when we got home we headed out on the 4-wheeler to the mountain to let water out of our reservoir.  It was BEAUTIFUL out.  We saw 3 coyotes, lots of elk, deer and antelope.  We had a great time! 

Have you ever taken a self portrait while riding on the back of a 4-wheeler???

 

We're headed to the middle of that mountain ahead!

 

A couple of elk...

Our favorite Foster Reservoir

Two Irrigators in a Pea Pod

 

Man I could kiss this face off!

A girl and her dog : )

Me and my Mountain Man

Like My Dad

The Prairie Kid had his first "report" assignment for school.  We received instructions a couple of weeks ago and have been plugging away at it.

I found it interesting that it was on careers.  I remember doing a career project...in junior high or high school.  He is six.  SIX.

So, he chose "rancher."  Reason?  To be like his dad. : )

I cracked up at one of the questions..."How much money do you expect to make with this career?"

I asked him.

He answered, "Ummm, like one hundred!"

Yep, he's SIX.  No concept on an annual salary...and I kinda like it that way.

Nonetheless, we had a great time plugging away on this project together.  The parents were allowed to help, even type out the text for the poster if desired.  I realized that if I did that in addition to the other pieces (like photos, cutting, gluing, etc) that were more my skill level than his, that it would end up being MY project and not HIS with my help.  So, I made him write out his own answers.

He went off to school this morning with his poster and will give a presentation at some point this week.  How did he get this grown up so fast???

The Cleaning Otter

Gary Smalley, a Christian author/counselor coined four animal parallels to personalities years ago.  When The Prairie Daddy and I took the test in a Bible study, we found out a lot about ourselves.

Here are the four types:
Otter (otherwise known as a popular sanguine): Playful, spontaneous, social, etc
Lion (powerful choleric): Take charge, leader, practical solutions
Beaver (perfect melancholy): Worker bee, serious and purposeful, organized, detailed
Golden Retriever (peaceful phlegmatic): People pleasing, goes with the flow, doesn't like change

Well, I scored out to be an Otter/Lion.  The Prairie Daddy was a Beaver/Lion.  We both wanted to be in charge but in opposite ways!  When we used to work on the road together for our ultrasound business, I would get bored and tired of all the serious work and I would say, "Hey, can't you find your otter?  We can have fun while we work!!!"

I don't remember him finding his otter.

Today, the house needed a good cleaning.  The Prairie Kid owed me an extra chore for a bad attitude before school yesterday.  I picked sweeping.

We cranked some Alvin and the Chipmunks music and...a beaver project was made enjoyable by otter fun!
See, you CAN have fun while you work!  Too bad The Prairie Daddy wasn't around to learn!