How We Celebrated

"It's daddy's birthday! We should have the day off!" Never mind that daddy didn't have the day off... But, ever the bargainer, I made a deal with them. "I'll give you the day off IF you help me Clean the house." Oh yes, that was "Clean" with a capital "C". I know how to bargain. :) They did a good job and we were able to get things done that I had been putting off due to either, I HATE THAT JOB or the fact that I felt like I had been run over by a MAC truck this week and every ounce of my being HURT. Couldn't tell, could ya? So we cleaned, I baked, I cooked, I wrapped, they created.



There are no pretty "before" pictures of dinner, but it was pretty good. Round steak - another recipe my mom pointed me at:

1 round steak
mustard (enough to cover steak)
bacon (enough strips to cover steak)
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup (ok, I confess, I used cream of celery. The hubby despises mushrooms)

Spread mustard on steak, cover with bacon strips and onion soup mix. Roll up and place on heavy duty foil. Pour cream of whatever soup over steak. Seal foil and cook at 325 for 3 hours.

And I made cake.






Ok, ok! So I cheated!!






But the frosting was homemade!!







And everybody liked it.







Can you tell from the Great Cake Massacre?











The kids made him about three cards a piece.
It was cute. He has cards coming out the ears from them.









After dinner and cake we all went in to a too much food coma. The kids fared better than we did. They vegged in front of a movie.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY!!

Happy Birthday to you,
You live in a zoo!
You don't look like a monkey,
But you act like one too!

Oh, wrong one...

Happy Birthday to you,
You live in a zoo!
Happy Birthday dear hubby,
Happy Birthday to you.

I couldn't bring myself to take out the zoo part. Seems too close to home.

So here he is, all covered in snow, hanging with his best bud. Sunday he got to play like a kid again and have a ton of fun sledding. All week he paid the price and today he gets to go to the chiropractor. At least he gets relief on his birthday. :)


Here he is getting ready to test out his other buddy's *very... awesome* snowmobile. Mom and Dad, I promise, he did NOT see how speedy... he said it was too cold... Sign of old age??

Hurray for him, he got to actually play this week instead of just work tons of hours. Good week to do that. And when he got back from his little test run up in the top field with all the snow drifts, his grin was HUGE! I almost wonder if it was frozen on for a little while.... Ah, boys and their toys...

She Needs a Quarter

Pretty enthusiastic about getting ready for someone to yank this string. Her daddy wanted to know why she was smiling.





















Ok, so that hurt a little. No, Daddy I don't want you to use pliers to get it out!





















I'll just push it and play with it for awhile and try again later.... I WILL get that quarter!!

Fire and Ice

Yes, it is this cold.
But the resulting effect on the window is pretty. But that is definitely cold!


















Yay for this to keep me warm!! I love my wood stove!!

About the Bread

It was experimental. It was awful. I am very dissapointed. I think I better stick with the way I know.

Edited to add:
I don't know what happened to it. It was just yucky. I used all freshly milled flour (yay, me) instead of half milled myself, half store-bought already "flour" flour. It is also possible that I put too much in?? but it just didn't raise well and wasn't light and fluffy and I am SO SO SO SO SO VERY dissapointed. BUT... on the good side, my aunt sent up a loaf of fresh, homemade, she milled-some-of-the-flour-herself bread. And it was perfect. So I am good til tomorrow. I do wonder if she saw this post and felt bad for my... not LACK of cooking skills, but definitely not as practiced or perfected as hers... cooking skills and sent one up or if she just HAPPENED to be thinking of me today and decided to send up a loaf of perfectly normal, everyday (for around here, anyway) bread. I'm still trying to get ahold of her to find this out.

And, Aunt P, if you are "lurking" and reading this and never comment or let me know you read this... (I wonder how many "lurkers" we have out there.... I know you guys are out there. Go ahead, comment, I dare you! :) ) Thanks for the bread. It actually made me cry. You probably shouldn't ask - just one of those day. Thank you. :) xoxo

One more edit:
Nope, she DIDN'T read this post... so I was just on her mind and she just happened to send up a loaf of the very bread I was trying to make. *sniff* God's cool. She also was able to tell me what went wrong. Soft Winter White Wheat is not good for yeast breads. Not enough gluten. Huh.... I know for next time. Maybe tomorrow. Back to Prairie Gold.

The Best Part of Waking Up...

...is Folgers in my cup.














J asked me if I would prefer to have it fed into my body intravenously. I hadn't realized that was an option...

Props to those of you that regularly get up at the (yes, I dare say this! I firmly believe God did NOT create me to be up at this hour!) UNGODLY hour of 4 a.m.!!! I have only been doing this for a short time and first thing in the morning, I am not OK with it. But, for the love of my husband, I will get up with him at 4 a.m.!!! so he is not alone in his exhaustion. It does make it very easy to want to crawl in bed at 8 p.m. But, I did the math... (this was not pretty...) If we are SLEEPING by eight o'clock, we get the NECESSARY (read: VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY important to my well being!!! If I don't get enough sleep, I am NOT a nice person!) eight hours of sleep. *sigh* I'm tired. And it took me two hours to get my infiltration of much needed energy. BUT, I got it, and today will be a GOOD day. Maybe we will do bread later!! You'll have to come back and see...











By the way, is that song going through your head now? You're welcome! :)

What's Cookin'

Orange Flax Seed Muffins
I promise - they are good! Despite what one of the little people says...

The first question was posed - "Is that barf?!?!":













No, it is not. Next comes FLAX SEED!











The current question is whether golden flax seed or brown flax seed is better for you, so I thought I would just use both today. Toss it in a coffee grinder...











and... GRIND!











Put it in a large bowl with various other very interesting ingredients











add the affectionately termed "barf"










(this was named by T, if you are curious, and, no, she will not eat them at the moment... her and her visual issues... Her brother has eaten two already and begged for a third. Boys will eat anything.) Sorry, back to the muffins... add some raisins










Bake











and ENJOY!!
Orange Flax Seed Muffins curtesy of my momma

1 1/2 c. oat bran
1 c. flour
1 c. ground flax seed
1 c. wheat bran
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 oranges quartered and seeded
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 c. raisins

In a blender, blend oranges, brown sugar, buttermilk, canola oil eggs and baking soda. In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients. Add orange mixture and mix. Add raisins. Spoon into 24 prepared muffin cups. Bake at 375 degrees F for 18-20 minutes.