Mommy's Recipes

I like to eat. So does my family.

Naturally, I started collecting cookbooks. And cooking magazines. And recipes scribbled on 3x5 cards. And ideas printed off the internet or jotted down on scratch paper. I even have a recipe that I found tucked between the pages of one of my grandma's cookbooks. It's a newspaper clipping ... in Spanish.

By 2008, the collection took up an entire six feet of shelving. I was just a little bit overwhelmed.

So I started a blog to help keep track of our favorite recipes. It serves many purposes.

1. Our favorite recipes are preserved for posterity (or at least for as long as blogspot's server lasts) on the internet, where

2. I can access them even when I am not at home.

3. It makes it very easy to share my recipes with friends when they ask. (Hi Amy!) :)

4. And if anything ever happens to my recipe notebook (see below), I can very easily put together a new one.

The blog is handy, all right, but it wasn't helping any with the cookbook clutter. However,moving was a great excuse to purge the cookbook shelves. I recycled magazines, took some cookbooks to a used book store, tossed scraps of paper in the trash...and stuffed two folders full of recipes to try.

Once most of the boxes were unpacked and we felt kind of settled in here, I started another serious purge of the remaining recipes. I typed up and posted on the blog the ones that we've tried and liked, then went through the whole blog and printed out every recipe. I stuck those pages in a binder filled with page protectors and now my recipes are legible, organized, and protected from spills.

Unfortunately, I still have a whole box of cookbooks to unpack.

I have no idea where I'm going to put them.

Which is why they are still not unpacked.

But I can still cook my family's favorite meals, thanks to Mommy's Recipes!

(Does that sound like a cheesy infomercial, or what?!?)

A Tale of Two Shirts...The Saga Continues

I haven't decided which I prefer...all four at once or one at a time.

Can I pick neither? No? Well, I'm sure there will be another round at some point, and I'll get another chance to consider the issue.

Really, though, I'd rather not.

It started Saturday morning with Mr. Adorable. And it was the full deal. Fever, headache, and hurting tummies (complete with messes from both ends). This time around, the kids tried it one at a time, and every one of them did it differently.

It was a very long nine days.

A Tale of Two Shirts

Although we are in Seattle Seahawks country, I am not (yet) a Seahawks fan. So of course my cousin bought me a Hasselbeck jersey. (If you don't speak football or NFL, Hasselbeck is the Seahawks quarterback.)

Wonder of wonders, the Seahawks made it to the playoffs, so yesterday morning when I got dressed, I put that jersey on, because after all, we are in Seattle Seahawks country and the first game of the day was actually in Seattle.

Five minutes after I put it on, Isaak, who wasn't feeling very well, asked to be held. I picked him up and cuddled him in the middle of the kitchen. Thirty seconds later, I was not only wearing my Hasselbeck jersey, but I was also wearing the remnants of what Isaak had eaten for dinner the night before.

I threw all of our clothes in the washing machine, and after a shower and a change of clothes for Isaak, I got cleaned up too and came out of the bedroom wearing a Tennessee Titans t-shirt. Isaak took one look at me and announced:

"That's a better shirt!"

I'm pretty sure he meant because it was clean.

(And just so you know, when the Seahawks won their game, I was wearing my freshly laundered Hasselbeck jersey. Because I support my local NFL team. Kind of. At least when they're not playing one of my favorite teams. And when their quarterback is doing a decent job. And for sure when they're the only game on. And absolutely when they're playing against the Saints. Who beat my beloved Colts in the Super Bowl last year. In which my beloved Colts will not be playing this year. Maybe it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is and buy a Manning jersey. So it can get thrown up all over on game day. And then I could change into my Hasselbeck jersey...)

So Here We Are

We did it! With a lot of help from our friends and family, we loaded up the 26 foot rental truck, the van, and the back of the Ford F150, and drove from Tennessee to Washington. We went the southern route to avoid snow complications, so it took us five days instead of four, but we made it!

Moving is always an adventure, but this move has been more eventful than I expected, which is why I am still unpacking boxes (and not blogging) all these weeks later. We also took a week-long break from moving in and went home to Oregon for Christmas. We brought even more furniture back home with us...and inherited a piano too!

And now we are officially living in beautiful, wet Washington. We're not quite settled in, but we're not exactly living out of boxes, either. My kitchen is functional, even if it is not quite all put together, the bedrooms and living areas are set up and mostly clutter-free, and there are only a few more boxes left to unpack.

Unfortunately I am finding that even in Washington, the laundry, dishes, and grocery shopping do not do themselves. But that's something I'm learning to live with! :)

That Would Be Me

I had a few moments of introspection yesterday.

Who am I really? What word, words, or name describes me best? Where does my identity truly lie?

(In other words, I set up a new email account, and all variations of "Jamie D." were already taken.)

I wanted something easy to remember and easy to spell, something simple that didn't involve my occupation, my kids' names, or any dates.

I finally found one that encompasses everything that I value in my earthly life...because without the first three letters, I wouldn't have Mike or my kids. Without Mike and the kids, I wouldn't be the homemaker that I am. Without the kids, I would not be the homeschooling mom that I am.

Yep, my new email address reflects what I went to school for...my MRS!

Of Chess and the Study of the English Language

There's nothing like a nice game of chess before breakfast...

...if you can talk your big sister into playing with you!

*** *** ***

Jaela and Macey began studying Latin and Greek roots this year, and although Anya won't officially begin the full program until next year, she has been learning along with them. They learn four new roots per week, then do a comprehensive review at the end of the week. During this week's review:

Anya: Hey, Mommy! Curro, cursum is just like corro in Spanish! Run! (Then, a few minutes later...) And Mommy, I haven't been pathos very bonus lately.

Translation for those of you not "up" on your Greek and Latin roots: Pathos means feeling, and bonus is good.

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay...aka AAAACCCKKKK!!!!

We were going to move ourselves, so I started packing (slowly) in September.

Then our plans changed, and we decided to have the movers do most of the work and only take some of the stuff ourselves. So I unpacked a few things, rearranged others, and quit packing.

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.

As happens more than occasionally in this household, we then changed our minds again and decided to move ourselves. No movers.

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.

I have two weeks to pack up the house.

AAAACCCKKKK!!!!