Thursday, April 28, 2016
The Online Cookbook Update
So you may or may not know that in early 2016 I set up another blog for posting recipes, The Online Cookbook. Lately it's been very inactive, but just yesterday I started posting tons of new recipes. So if you want some good recipe ideas, why don't you go look at my other blog at theonlinecookbook479.blogspot.com?
Saturday, April 23, 2016
My April Timeline
Where has one-third of 2016 gone?! I can hardly believe it's been almost four months since the beginning of the year and three weeks since I've posted anything. Here's a bit of what's happened since you've last heard from me -
The day after my last post, I spent almost 3 evening hours in the emergency room. A family member fell victim to a moderate injury which required attention. For this person's sake I will give no other details and ask my friends who read this blog not to expose the information. We went in at about 9pm, 45 minutes after the incident and were on our way home only 15 minutes shy of midnight. I finally got to bed at 12:45am, waking at 8:30. The injured one had a doctor's appointment for one of the 2 injuries resulting from the last night's incident. The doctor, a friend of my mother's, was able to squeeze us in and although we had to wait awhile we were thankful that there was a bit of time available. That day was quite snowy, and all of the way I was thinking we were going to get slammed any minute - after the car in front of us on one road slowed down to go up a slippery hill and if that driver had slowed down any more he would've backed straight into us (sorry for the run-on sentence!). I had the option to stay home from the emergency room so I can't rightfully complain about that.
The next Monday, April 11, my sister and I had the pleasure of babysitting 2 young toddlers who cling to us like glue! One's mother had had a baby in mid-March so our gift to them was free-babysitting their now-21-month-old daughter. This family goes to our church and their daughter can pick us out in the crowd...which is why we offered this deal to them (apart from the parsonage, which is on a different property and not owned by the church, there are 2 houses on our church's property which are occupied by my family and the 21-month-old's family). The other toddler just turned 2 years old and is "obsessed" with trains, balls, moons, etc. - a typical little boy. We are great friends with his family and him, of course (despite me being 12 years older than him). And yes, I am calling them "the toddlers" because I will not give out any names (okay, I gave out my cousin's fiance's a few weeks ago but there are a lot of people named Dan in the world).
Last Saturday my friend turned 13! Although I am not the birthday person, I wish our two families another year (no, eternity) of friendship!
This past Monday, April 18, I roasted my second chicken. Seeing me holding a raw whole chicken is NOT a dull sight. I kind of freak out that I am basically holding the dead bird with its head and feathers missing (I could've sworn I saw my first chicken, which I roasted in February, breathe as I put it in the roasting pan!). And yes, you have to pick the bird up to prepare it for roasting so don't think I was just holding it for the fun of it. At the beginning of the process let me just say that the chicken dripped all over the kitchen floor. After that mess was cleaned up and I filled the bird with water to rinse it, it was roasted. It made a delicious meal! We also babysat the female toddler again!
This Tuesday, April 19, we babysat the other toddler. Watching him crash and knock his trains off of the tracks was comical and as usual I loved the time. He even crashed the ride-on cars at our church's playground and flipped them over.
Two days ago, on April 21, we went to the zoo with an honorary grandma, aunt and cousin. My mom is potentially homeschooling this "cousin" next year and we hadn't seen each other to speak of in a long time so we wanted to get "reacquainted."
Yesterday, April 22, my mom went to drop something off at our church and was welcomed by a bat! After it crashed into her, it flew laps around the lobby until my mom made a mad dash back out the door (she has to turn the alarm off first but didn't bother resetting it). Her heart was pounding for a while afterward from the scare and had to wait to leave the church because she was still shaking!
Today, April 23, we will potentially be starting to get the ground ready to plant our first garden! After using a neat technique to plant vegetables ahead of time and then transfer them into the ground, we're only a month away from getting these plants into the ground! Sadly some of our plants blew over in a recent windy night and are not showing signs of growth, so we think they may be damaged. However, some of our other plants are flourishing healthily, especially the lettuce. Not bad considering we're first-time gardeners. Today is also the 7-year anniversary of when my family moved into our current home. I have officially spent half of my lifetime at each of the 2 houses I've lived in. I confess memories of our old house are fading from my memory but I'm surprised that I've remembered those things for this long. I thank God for the home we have now because we did not just move out of the old house just because we were running out of room or wanted to live somewhere else.
My dad has also decided he's now a blog reader and frequently (this should be boldface, underlined, italicized and capitalized) reads my blog, my sister's and my friends'. Not that I really mind. This has been going on since before my last post but I just thought I'd share it with you just because - because when I feel like sharing something, I share it.
Now that I've unloaded the last three weeks' timeline on you and assured you that this blog has not been abandoned, I wish my friends and blog readers a good weekend and hope to post again soon!
The day after my last post, I spent almost 3 evening hours in the emergency room. A family member fell victim to a moderate injury which required attention. For this person's sake I will give no other details and ask my friends who read this blog not to expose the information. We went in at about 9pm, 45 minutes after the incident and were on our way home only 15 minutes shy of midnight. I finally got to bed at 12:45am, waking at 8:30. The injured one had a doctor's appointment for one of the 2 injuries resulting from the last night's incident. The doctor, a friend of my mother's, was able to squeeze us in and although we had to wait awhile we were thankful that there was a bit of time available. That day was quite snowy, and all of the way I was thinking we were going to get slammed any minute - after the car in front of us on one road slowed down to go up a slippery hill and if that driver had slowed down any more he would've backed straight into us (sorry for the run-on sentence!). I had the option to stay home from the emergency room so I can't rightfully complain about that.
The next Monday, April 11, my sister and I had the pleasure of babysitting 2 young toddlers who cling to us like glue! One's mother had had a baby in mid-March so our gift to them was free-babysitting their now-21-month-old daughter. This family goes to our church and their daughter can pick us out in the crowd...which is why we offered this deal to them (apart from the parsonage, which is on a different property and not owned by the church, there are 2 houses on our church's property which are occupied by my family and the 21-month-old's family). The other toddler just turned 2 years old and is "obsessed" with trains, balls, moons, etc. - a typical little boy. We are great friends with his family and him, of course (despite me being 12 years older than him). And yes, I am calling them "the toddlers" because I will not give out any names (okay, I gave out my cousin's fiance's a few weeks ago but there are a lot of people named Dan in the world).
Last Saturday my friend turned 13! Although I am not the birthday person, I wish our two families another year (no, eternity) of friendship!
This past Monday, April 18, I roasted my second chicken. Seeing me holding a raw whole chicken is NOT a dull sight. I kind of freak out that I am basically holding the dead bird with its head and feathers missing (I could've sworn I saw my first chicken, which I roasted in February, breathe as I put it in the roasting pan!). And yes, you have to pick the bird up to prepare it for roasting so don't think I was just holding it for the fun of it. At the beginning of the process let me just say that the chicken dripped all over the kitchen floor. After that mess was cleaned up and I filled the bird with water to rinse it, it was roasted. It made a delicious meal! We also babysat the female toddler again!
This Tuesday, April 19, we babysat the other toddler. Watching him crash and knock his trains off of the tracks was comical and as usual I loved the time. He even crashed the ride-on cars at our church's playground and flipped them over.
Two days ago, on April 21, we went to the zoo with an honorary grandma, aunt and cousin. My mom is potentially homeschooling this "cousin" next year and we hadn't seen each other to speak of in a long time so we wanted to get "reacquainted."
Yesterday, April 22, my mom went to drop something off at our church and was welcomed by a bat! After it crashed into her, it flew laps around the lobby until my mom made a mad dash back out the door (she has to turn the alarm off first but didn't bother resetting it). Her heart was pounding for a while afterward from the scare and had to wait to leave the church because she was still shaking!
Today, April 23, we will potentially be starting to get the ground ready to plant our first garden! After using a neat technique to plant vegetables ahead of time and then transfer them into the ground, we're only a month away from getting these plants into the ground! Sadly some of our plants blew over in a recent windy night and are not showing signs of growth, so we think they may be damaged. However, some of our other plants are flourishing healthily, especially the lettuce. Not bad considering we're first-time gardeners. Today is also the 7-year anniversary of when my family moved into our current home. I have officially spent half of my lifetime at each of the 2 houses I've lived in. I confess memories of our old house are fading from my memory but I'm surprised that I've remembered those things for this long. I thank God for the home we have now because we did not just move out of the old house just because we were running out of room or wanted to live somewhere else.
My dad has also decided he's now a blog reader and frequently (this should be boldface, underlined, italicized and capitalized) reads my blog, my sister's and my friends'. Not that I really mind. This has been going on since before my last post but I just thought I'd share it with you just because - because when I feel like sharing something, I share it.
Now that I've unloaded the last three weeks' timeline on you and assured you that this blog has not been abandoned, I wish my friends and blog readers a good weekend and hope to post again soon!
Saturday, April 2, 2016
April 2, The Day of "Interestingness"
Yes, "interestingness." I know it's not a real word so I guess I've added a word to my version of the English language! Anyway, I use this word because it adequately describes today - interesting and eventful.
The day was started by helping a friend who lives in an apartment rearrange her storage unit in the building. That went quickly and easily, and after that we went to the Gregg's restaurant for lunch. Both this friend and my mom had a few things to get at Walmart, so we headed down the road to there after we had gotten through with our lunch. Going to a grocery store on a weekend is a mistake - very few parking spaces available, lots of people...and those ride-on things at stores they give the handicapped, yeah, I almost got hit by one of those because the driver wasn't paying attention - but that's okay.
After we had finished our shopping, our friend was done checking out first so I went out to the car with her, helped her load up her groceries, and we waited in the car for my mom and sister. I kept my door open just because I wanted to get out and help my mom and sister unload when they got out of the store. Just after I had gotten into the car, when it was just the friend and me out there, the owner of the car next to ours starts it up - it took 2 tries, and then when it started up successfully, the shrillest shriek you could ever imagine comes from this car. My door was open, so I shut it which blocked most of the noise. The car lingered in its spot for a minute and then finally drove away.
As we were making our way out of the plaza, suddenly our right windshield wiper breaks, so we stop (in case you aren't in New England it was raining yesterday and more today). All four of us emerged from the car and put the wiper inside, and I briefly looked for the clip that held it down around the car. Found it under the hood. Our friend did a makeshift "repair job" by using a plastic bag and an elastic band. We made it home all right, but thankfully that happened in the plaza and not in the middle of the road.
We had Indian food for dinner tonight (yeah, we went out to eat last night, this afternoon and we had takeout this evening, so 3 meals from 3 different restaurants in less than 24 hours). Now we're watching the movie Chicken Run, which is hilarious. Tomorrow morning we have church, and after that who knows what the day will bring us? Maybe a day like today? Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
The day was started by helping a friend who lives in an apartment rearrange her storage unit in the building. That went quickly and easily, and after that we went to the Gregg's restaurant for lunch. Both this friend and my mom had a few things to get at Walmart, so we headed down the road to there after we had gotten through with our lunch. Going to a grocery store on a weekend is a mistake - very few parking spaces available, lots of people...and those ride-on things at stores they give the handicapped, yeah, I almost got hit by one of those because the driver wasn't paying attention - but that's okay.
After we had finished our shopping, our friend was done checking out first so I went out to the car with her, helped her load up her groceries, and we waited in the car for my mom and sister. I kept my door open just because I wanted to get out and help my mom and sister unload when they got out of the store. Just after I had gotten into the car, when it was just the friend and me out there, the owner of the car next to ours starts it up - it took 2 tries, and then when it started up successfully, the shrillest shriek you could ever imagine comes from this car. My door was open, so I shut it which blocked most of the noise. The car lingered in its spot for a minute and then finally drove away.
As we were making our way out of the plaza, suddenly our right windshield wiper breaks, so we stop (in case you aren't in New England it was raining yesterday and more today). All four of us emerged from the car and put the wiper inside, and I briefly looked for the clip that held it down around the car. Found it under the hood. Our friend did a makeshift "repair job" by using a plastic bag and an elastic band. We made it home all right, but thankfully that happened in the plaza and not in the middle of the road.
We had Indian food for dinner tonight (yeah, we went out to eat last night, this afternoon and we had takeout this evening, so 3 meals from 3 different restaurants in less than 24 hours). Now we're watching the movie Chicken Run, which is hilarious. Tomorrow morning we have church, and after that who knows what the day will bring us? Maybe a day like today? Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
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