Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged for over a week! Very unusual for me! It seems we have done a lot of running around this week--trips to the beach, Home Depot & Lowe's, grocery store, Kohl's, outlets, Walmart, bank, library, dump, etc. etc! It rained off and on for about 3 days, but today has been lovely. Jim was home a bit more (due to the rain), so he was able to get a bit more done on the house. Right now he has gone back to Home Depot to pick up our new kitchen countertops (hooray!!). He completely surprised me with the announcement that they were in, as I didn't even know he had ordered them yet. What a sweetie to give me such a great surprise! Along with the counters, we also plan to get a new sink and faucet. I'm excited! It is great to see our kitchen coming together, bit by bit. :)
Last night, Jim and I had a little date here at home. My parents watched the kids for a few hours, and we had a yummy supper of all-natural beef hotdogs from Whole Foods, and popcorn. I also made homemade hotdog buns (my first time to try this) and they came out great! I used this recipe that I found online. I made the dough in my bread machine. The only other thing I did differently was to use about 1 3/4 tsp. of instant yeast. (The yeast amount listed on the recipe seemed strange--1 1/4 oz? As I understand it, just 1/4 oz. equals 2 1/4 tsp, so 1 1/4 oz. would be a LOT of yeast!!) Anyway, what I did worked, so I'll make a note of it and do it that way again next time. :) We so enjoyed the quiet, peaceful time to just hang out together, talk and eat without interruptions, and even do a little work on the house!
I haven't had a chance to thank you all for the great comments on my question of the week, but I really appreciated your input!! You all shared some wonderful ideas and suggestions and I look forward to implementing some of them, myself! Thanks so much.
Inspiration from the Blogosphere:
In my blog reading this week, I have found some really neat stuff that I wanted to share. Actually, a couple of these things were from older posts, but I wanted to mention them anyway because I know we don't all read the same blogs.
Fruit Ice: I finally got around to trying out Alicia's Strawberry Ice. Oh boy, what yummy stuff!! I really enjoyed being able to make healthier frozen treats for my family. They were a big hit with all of us!
Reading Program for Babies & Toddlers: Crystal had a post on her blog about this DVD program that helps give little ones a head start on reading. It sounds fantastic! I'm actually thinking about hosting an Usborne Books show so maybe I can earn the set for free, as the price is pretty steep. We'll see.
Simple Daily Journaling: My mom mentioned this blog, Eyes of Wonder, to me earlier this week, and I just had to check it out. I LOVE the idea of creating a daily journal like this, and I've gotten started on my own.
Blogging and blog-reading are so much fun. It's true that you have to be careful, or the whole blog thing can become an enormous time waster, but on the flip side, I have really gleaned a lot of helpful information through reading other blogs. I have recently started using Google Reader to help me not waste as much time in blog reading. It's really helpful because that way I don't have to go to every individual blog in order to find out if there are new posts. Sometimes it's a little slow in updating with the new posts, but overall I like it a lot.
Well, since I started writing this, Jim has come home and is working on installing our new counters and sink. :) He has one counter already in, and it looks wonderful!! Once we get the kitchen all put back together, I'll take pictures of the updated look. Hope everyone is having a super weekend!
4 comments:
I definately want to see pictures!
I was thinking about ordering that reading program for George and Harry, but I saw the price!
Actually, my mom took some teaching classes (she was going to be a teacher instead of a nurse at one point) and told me that it doesn't matter how early you start teaching your kids reading, they all catch up at around 8 yrs old. Phonics is the best system, too.
I have always known that kids can memorize words, so when I read to George and Harry, I will point to each word as I say it. We read books over and over, so maybe they will catch on.
$87 was a little too much for me to justify spending. It does seem like a fun activity, though.
-Zan
Hi Carrie,
It sounds like your week was packed with a variety of activities. I'll bet that it was profitable also.
Congrats on the new countertops! It'll be fun to see pictures of the finished product. What a nice hubby to do this for you.
So, what did you think of the natural hot dogs? Were they tasty in addition to being healthier? I'll have to try and find some as I actually like the taste of hot dogs :). Homemade Hot Dog Buns -wow, I can't wait to try the recipe you shared. Just today, my husband said that I should try to make my own hot dog buns. I'll bet that they would make yummy hamburger buns also. I'll let you know if I make them and how they turn out.
I'll "chat" with you later. Have a blessed Lord's Day tomorrow.
Sorry it's been awhile since I commented on your blog. I've been meaning to comment on your healthy cooking question but never got around to it! Looks like the comments were fantastic - great question.
Glad you liked the strawberry ice!
Zan--my SIL just told me about a book she has, about teaching kids how to read. I'm going to look into that too--I'm sure it's a lot cheaper than the DVDs! :) Sam's memory amazes me--and I'm sure all kids his age are the same way. We have started teaching him a Bible verse each week and he learns them so fast!
Rachel--the hot dogs were SO yummy and we liked them way better than the cheaper ones. If only they weren't so expensive, we would try to buy them more often! I hope you will enjoy the hot dog bun recipe; I am actually making more right now! They are yummy!
Alicia--the strawberry ice is definitely a keeper recipe! Thanks so much for sharing it! :)
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