Then and Now: 5 Years- Some Pancakes and a Stink and Triggers

So, a few months back we went to the Caldwell Zoo with Lisa and Jack.  (We won’t talk about all the problems with the truck that followed that trip!).  While there I “manufactured” a shot to compare Jack then and now.  I knew I wanted a similar shot of him, so I helped myself with a little gentle push of Jack.

I thought I’d share those two pics today now that I’m starting to catch up on a back log of pics that I have for editing.  (New Computer= Freeing Lightroom with some Speed!- Sorry got geeky there, didn’t I.)  As I looked at them I noticed that I also had then and now shots from the same two visits in our kitchen.

It’s amazing to me how much this kid has grown in such a short time, but then again, part of me can’t believe it’s only been five years since the 2005 shots.  Was he really that little then?  It won’t be much longer and he’ll be taller than me. . . and really not that much longer than he’s taller that Cody. . . or at least I expect he’ll get that tall.

Ok. . . Comparison #1- In with the Rhinos where it definitely stinks.  I couldn’t quite get him to make the same expression. . . .

Summer 2005:

Summer 2010

;

A side note that I find interesting: The difference in his size and my camera is fairly obvious.  But what’s not as obvious is the similarities in his shirts.  The first shirt, a humorous look at 10 things not to say on a road trip, is from a trip he took with his Nana and Papa.  The second shirt is from the trip we took with him last year. 

Comparison #2- While #1 is somewhat staged, this one certainly isn’t.  It’s something that happens everytime Jack comes up.  In fact, it even happens at the deer lease and finally happened just last week when we were at his house.

Summer 2005

Summer 2010

Back then of course, we helped him make the pancakes.  These days we just sit in the living room demanding he cook us breakfast. . . not that he isn’t a willing participant or that if he wanted us to come in there we would.  But, he can make them from start to finish on his own now- all those early mornings of getting up to help him fix pancakes are paying off now- I can be lazy now.

Comparison #3. . . so while typing this, I realized I had yet another pair of then and now shots from these two visits.  While the others show progression in size and cooking abilities, this one shows a whole other progression- one that I’m sure Uncle Cody is super proud of and one that Jack is more than happy to make. 

Summer 2005

Summer 2010

Cody had promised that Jack would get to shoot the pistols next time he came up, so they had to squeeze a little time in this trip to do so.  Jack posted one of the pics from shooting pistols on his facebook and his comment says it all “I love that gun”

Another interesting to me side note: Back then, we had introduced Jack to Johnny Horton music (is there any better road music at that age?) and so the coke cans he was shooting became the “Bloody British”.  Just last week, Cody said that a Johnny Horton song came on the TV while he was down there and Jack started singing it.

Kitchen Discontent: Some New Recipes

For whatever reason, I haven’t been content to make the same old things in the kitchen at night for dinner.  I’ve been trying a number of new recipes and have enjoyed most of them.  Here’s a few examples:

I picked up a cookbook with Campbell’s Soup recipes which included these:

Each Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas (We both thought it needed a little less of the creamy sauce)

Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Rice (We fell in love with this one)

Another great source of recipes that I love is Kraft Foods.  I subscribe to their Food & Family Magazine and look forward to each issue.

When I got my iphone last month, I downloaded “ifood” which is from Kraft Foods.  Some of the recipes we’ve tried from there include:

Foil Pack Chicken Fajita Dinner

Gotta Empanadas Of course, I made this with homemade pie crust.

Southwest Chicken Salad Panini

Taco Bake

Mexican Style Lasagna

We’ll probably grill tonight but I wonder what we’ll have tomorrow.

Christmas in Pictures, Not! Christmas Without Pictures

Since I haven’t blogged in a while, you’ll have to bear with me for a short tangent.  Last Christmas, or maybe the year before, my nephew got a Wii.  We’ve been down there a few times and loved playing it.  He and his mom came up earlier this week and they brought the Wii. . . Well one thing led to another and we wound up buying a Wii ourselves. which arrived just about the time they left Wednesday taking their Wii with them . . .

I do not have any pictures from our Christmas gathering this year.  I didn’t even get my camera out.  We didn’t get into any shooting wars.  I think that’s a first for my family in many, many years.

My mother-in-law drove up and arrived on Wednesday.  My parents, brother, and his girlfriend came over Christmas Day.  I was more organized than ever with the meal.  I had to be. . . I had plans for Christmas Day and while I wanted to eat good, I did not want to spend the day in the kitchen. 

As soon as my family arrived, we let them grab a small snack and then hit them with our best shot.  Sorry, couldn’t resist that.  We created Mii’s for them and then made each of them thake the Wii Fit Body Test. . . Isn’t that just what you should do to all your houseguests and a festival (AKA feast day)?  But, that’s what we did. . .

And then the games began. . . We played the Wii Fit all day long.  We flew through the air, ski jumped, headed soccer balls, caught fish while sliding on icebergs, and had a few snowball fights despite the fact we did not have a white Christmas.   We all threw caution to the wind and made fools of ourselves.  And with a few broken no camera moments by my brother and father, there are no pictures to embarrass us with.

Before we knew it, it was time to eat.  Yum, Yum.  We had our typical Stephenson’s Restaurant and Family Recipe meal.  We started with just a doubled batch of Banana Fritters (usually, it’s banana, apple, and another flavor).  Then came the meal- ham, Grandma’s macaroni and cheese, green beans, bread, and frozen fruit salad.  Did I leave anything out. . . I don’t think so. . . we made sure we did not have any repeats of the Thanksgiving forgets.  For dessert, we had banana cake and pumpkin pie.  And a few more Wii games.  Now, I just have to keep up with the Wii to work off all that food.

Before I knew it the day was over without any pictures.  Even the clean-up was mighty easy and didn’t get any pics.  It was one of the absolute funnest Christmas’s I can remember.

It Wouldn’t Hurt Nothing

It was several months after Kenny Chesney released his song “A Lot of Things Different” before I started painting the rooms in our house.  It’s something Cody knew I would do eventually and every time we’d hear this line in the song, he knew I was getting closer to painting.

She wanted to paint our bedroom yellow and trim it in blues and greens
But I wouldn’t let her, it wouldn’t of hurt nothing

I knew what color I wanted for the kitchen and the dining room (or so I thought at the time).  I had picked out a yellow for the kitchen similar to oen we’d painted my parent’s sunroom.  I picked out a matching blue for the living room.  I knew I’d paint the ceilings a couple of shades lighter. 

But there was this brochure at Lowe’s that contained this one color.  D61-1 Morning Fog.  I thought I liked it but I really wasn’t sure.  It wasn’t a color I’d have chosen.  It was totally different than any direction I would have chosen.  It kept calling to me.  And, as I would think of painting our bedroom in the color , it was that line of Kenny Chesney’s song that I’d hear, “It wouldn’t hurt nothing”. 

In the end, I went for it and have never been more happy that I tried something different.  I love the color.  It takes on a different hue in different lights.  It’s bright yet calming.  I’ve since repainted my kitchen D61-1, Morning Fog, and re-painted my living room a matching color (smoke screen) from that same brochure.

I’ve always said that when, if ever, we get our next house, which we’d plan on building, the entire house would be D61-1, Morning Fog.  And recently, I’ve come to realize that I have no idea why I have to wait on some pipe dream to have the walls in my home be D61-1, Morning Fog.  “It wouldn’t hurt nothing.”

When we got the trailer at the deer lease and I looked at all the old paneling, how dark it was inside, and the different surfaces, I knew immediately, I’d be painting the interior D61-1, Morning Fog.  Cody knew, “It wouldn’t hurt nothing.”

Next, D61-1 will be making further appearances in my home.  I should have enough paint leftover from the trailer to paint both of our bathrooms in Morning Fog.  After I finish that painting and recover from the fun that is painting, I’ll be starting on the living room and the hallway. 

I love D61-1, Morning Fog.  It hasn’t hurt nothing.

November is Here! Routines and Schedules Please

October is Gone!  Praise the Lord!  November is Here!  I love that each year, each month, each week, each day, each hour, we’re given a fresh starting point.

October wasn’t the best month around here.  It had it’s share of the blues, wacky times, and busy times.  There was no routine and no schedule.  Everything seemed to suffer- we we’re exhausted, we ate miserably, the house became a mess. . . and this blog really suffered too.

Each year, November brings a new rhythm to our household.  Hunting season comes into full swing.  Gone are the days of preperation and the overnights at the deer lease begin.  With a new place to stay at the deer lease, I plan on being out there more often.  I know I want to enjoy my time out there.  

And I knew with everything that October was and everything I want November to be, I need to get organized.  We bought the month’s groceries last week.  I wanted to get a head start.  I wanted to do some freezer cooking.  So, after shopping for the month’s groceries, this was the scene on my dining room table- before I started cooking each of the recipes you see on the table.  Our freezers are full.

Now, I can settle into the rhythm that November brings- the new rythymn that this year will bring.

Sweets for Breakfast

It’s no secret that I love dessert.  (Like this or this).  I come by it naturally.  Three women in my family are really to blame for this.  After all, when you eat dessert, you must never blame yourself.

My mom almost always had something planned for dessert when I was growing up. . . and you couldn’t have dessert until after you ate the rest of your meal.  This meant that dessert was extra special.  I often wonder if that’s part of our love affair with desserts.  Many child development experts say that you should serve dessert along with the rest of the meal and I have to agree. . . dessert changes when it’s not as extra special.

And where in the rules does it say you can’t eat dessert first?  As long as you eat the rest of your meal, what difference does it really make?

Last night, my raising rubbed off on me. . . I wanted dessert to go along with the meal that Cody and I were preparing.  I went with one of the simple desserts my mom used to make.  A Chocolate Pudding Pie.  Now a true chocolate pie (one with pie filling and meringue) is one of my favorite desserts.  But, a simple chocolate pudding pie (with cooked pudding, graham cracker crust, and cool whip) is nice as well and much easier.  And, it’s always nice to have that cool dessert in the summer time.  I was out of graham cracker crumbs but luckily enough I had some graham crackers. . . so it was easy enough to make this simple dessert.

When I mentioned this, I kind of hinted at where this post is actually going.  But, if we’re talking about sweet tooth influences, we must mention this woman- especially when that post is all about Banana Cake.

Grandma Floyd made the best Banana Cake you ever had in your life.  I remember as a child how it was almost if our family was fighting over the cake- because we knew it would be gone in one sitting.  But we always kept it civil.  She, of course, is responsible for my mother’s sweet tooth.  So, her influence was doubly passed on to me.

But, back to where this post is going, and where the title came from.  Now, I don’t remember the next woman’s influence on my sweet tooth involving anything she cooked.  Rather, it was of the store bought variety.

Yes, it was the twinkies and zingers.  Grandma Lantz’s house was the place to go if you wanted something like that.  But, I don’t recall getting them just any time of the day.  It was always at breakfast.  Yes, it was at Grandma’s house to have dessert first- not before the rest of the meal, but as the first meal of the day.  It was her own personal typical breakfast.  (She was a character alright. . . this is the grandma with which I made up some rather tall tales.)

So, now, I ask you.  What do you think I had for breakfast this morning?

It wasn’t all that bad until I was over at Ella Publishing  and the question was, “What did you have for breakfast this morning?”.  My answer stuck out from all the rest.  All these folks with their healthy breakfasts and my Chocolate Pudding Pie.  Their little breakfast bars likely included granola and so did my breakfast.  Does that count?  And guess whose tasted better?

Childhood Favorites

My mom recently discovered my blog through my links on facebook.  She sent me the nicest email yesterday.  I guess we were thinking of each other yesterday. . . . Only I wasn’t at the computer when I was thinking of her.  I was in the kitchen.

My TMJ has been acting up lately and I really wanted some sort of comfort food. . . and dessert.  But, TMJ was really limiting my options.  I decided to make some custard.  It’s been years since I made it. Mom used to make it all the time and I’ve made in on occassion.  Dessert was always something special growing up.  Custard is a wonderfully simple dessert.

It’ll all be gone tonight.  I did offer some to Cody but it’s two plain for him.

(And Dad, don’t think we’ve forgotten you- two weeks ago it was crepes!)

The Old Front Porch Planner- Beta Edition Available Now

I am so excited to announce that The Old Front Porch Planner, at least the Beta Edition, is now available. This is a projec that I’ve wanted to share for several years and am now able to do just that. It’s really more than a planner as it’s also a journal. At the core of this planner is the idea of a balanced life which includes more than just being organized but also focusing on our faith, family, and friends and cherishing life itself.

Sure this planner has your usual pages to help keep you organized- the calendars, to do lists, the meal planning pages, the clothes size lists, etc. But, it also allows you to record the stories you want to tell, the moments to cherish, your triumphs, etc.

You can read more about the planners release over at The Old Front Porch or buy the planner here.

Beta Edition: I’m releasing this Beta Edition (September- December) now and will release the full 2010 version in November following feedback from the Beta Edition.

When I Decide It’s Time to Eat Healthier . . .

I buy bananas.  They’re one of the few fruits that I really like.  They’re portable and easy to eat on the go.  I know I need to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Problem is, I buy too many bananas.  It always happens. They look so good.  I buy them with good intentions.  (Of course, don’t ask me how I think I’m going to eat a dozen or so bananas by myself before they go bad.)  Then, my bananas get too ripe and too mushy for me to eat.  I start to feel guilty about wasting them.  So, this happens:

I make Banana Cake.  It’s always been my favorite cake.  It’s been passed down through the generations.  And, it’s the perfect use for mushy, ripe bananas.

As if the cake itself weren’t bad enough, there’s the 7 minute icing. . . and the leftovers in the pan.  It’s a sugar rush but someone’s got to do- you can’t leave that yummy gooey icing in the pan.  (Of course, this icing demands that you don’t leave the cake sitting around too long or it crystallizes. . . the devilish stuff.)

So, instead of enjoying a banana, I get to enjoy cake- which is what I did tonight.  And the delicious smell has filled the house with goodness.  As my Grandma would say, I got a good scald on this cake.  I could barely wait to eat this slice while it was still baking on the ofen.  It was worth the wait.

And, now, I have something to look forward to when I get up tomorrow morning.  Because, the only thing better than the fresh banana cake is this cake the next morning.

The recipes for the My grandmother’s banana cake and 7- Minute icing are posted over at The Old Front Porch.

Kids In The Kitchen

One of the things that I strongly believe is that kids should be in the kitchen. They should be cooking right along side you. They’re really never too young to get a start. For one thing, it builds self-esteem, gives them attention, and builds upon family relationships. I also know that if you are having problems getting them to eat, it’s the fastest easiest way to get them to eat. . . they’ll eat what they cook.

My nephew has cooked with me since he was probably less than 2 years old. Pancakes are most likely his favorite thing to eat. He does it all himself. I love to watch him cook them now. And I always stand utterly amazed at the size of the pancakes he flips over. So much better at it than me.

The weekend of the blueberry festival was no exception. He and I baked a cobbler that we entered into the cobbler contest. He helped DH grill the chicken and helped me make the cornbread. And, we made a pie from scratch- pie crust, filling, and meringue. Seperating eggs with him was a real whoot! But we only messed one up and I think that was me and how I explained to him to do it. The next morning, he made pancakes . . . of course!

Here’s some pics of us in the kitchen. . . (DH likes to take advantage of me in these moments and snap shots. . ’cause he knows I want these moments captured.)

(It’s pictures like these that makes me just love my wide angle possibilities)

Now, the mess in the kitchen. . . well it cleans up. . . Always does no matter how big of a mess we make. And, let me tell you, we had a HUGE mess after this weekend.

Creepy Childhood Sublimal Messages

Last night, I was able to get some cleaning done. It actually went really easy because we got our fourth Chris Knight CD in the mail. So, of course, after waiting for months for the backordered CD, I wanted to hear it! (The CD is so popular the record label had to re-print it and we were the victims of a long wait for it.) It amazed me at how much picking up I was able to get done and what a dent I made in the house. Now, to pick up the living room and camping stuff.

We’ve talked a lot on the porch lately about cleaning, it getting out of hand, and being company ready. I guess I had that on my brain this morning.

All I really did last night was pick up after ourselves. This morning I could hear that voice in my head saying “There’s no reason it should be like this.” And, in many ways it seems there’s no reason I should let the house get like that. . . but it always seems to. I mean, so I’ve been laid out on the couch for nearly two weeks, what did I do to make a mess?

How hard is it to clean up after yourself really?

That’s when a light bulb went off. Perhaps I’m being too hard on myself. That question is the same question I was asked time and time again as a child. In my house, the house was to be clean- almost above all else. In fact, I think the main reason we were late every where (literally) we went was because mom was going around the house cleaning and picking up before we left.

Besides making me realize that I did not want to be late everywhere, I’m wondering if it set this high standard in my head. A standard that when I don’t meet it, I put myself down, I doubt myself, and I get angry at myself. It’s like this sublimal message that runs through my mind over and over and over only to knock myself down.

Now, my mom, either, was a stay-at-home mom or a part-time out of the home mom when I was growing up. It wasn’t until high school that she really worked full time outside of the home. Perhaps that standard came from her being able to spend more time at home- or more than likely, it was passed down from her mom. But, I know that as she worked more, her home didn’t stay as neat- and we got later and later to things as she tried to keep it picked up.

But, still I wonder, How hard is it to clean up after yourself really?

Am I being too kind to myself thinking that this is such a high standard? How long would it really to get in the habit of cleaning up after ourselves and cleaning our home on a more regular basis?

I wish I knew the answer. . . I wonder what others think.

It’s Time I Share. . . More!

It’s really time I start writing in this blog more, isn’t it? No excuses! (I don’t think I could even make them up. . . Not sure why I don’t write more)

So, what have I been up to. . .

Working
I took a new position with our Agency in January and what a relief that has been. I really enjoy it- except when there’s nothing to do.

Adopting
We’re getting closer to the home study portion. It looks like we’ll have yet another class to attend and I’ve got more paperwork to gather. Our class is scheduled for mother’s day weekend.

Cooking and a Visiting
They really do go hand-in-hand. My cousin came to visit and we had a “fritter party”. The whole family standing around as the fritters come out of the fryer. Not many of them ever got cold. Then, my nephew came for Easter weekend- we cooked, and cooked, and cooked. He makes me want to cook more. My best friend and I escaped the cooking for a short get away. We’ve never done that!!!! It was so nice to spend some time just the two of us. It was a pretty low key getaway which gave us time to chat, have fun, and not wear ourselves out.

Gardening
Not my favorite thing to do- except perhaps the small bit of veggie gardening we do. But, it’s got to be done. . . I do love looking at the beautiful flowers.

Porchin’ It
I’m currently working on a re-design of the website and several new features. This time I’m using the lessons learned in the past and not rushing the process.

What haven’t I been doing????
Scrapping, Photographing, Exercising- I’ve got to fit those things into my schedule.