A New Toy

Yes, I'm still alive.  :-)  Last Saturday we decided get out of town and go to Costco.  There's no place like Costco!  As we wandered the store, I headed, as usual, to check out the kitchen section.  There, part way down the aisle, I spotted a crock pot and zoomed in for a closer look.  I have a 6-quart one I dearly love, but for many things, it's too large.  This one was a 4.5-quart model and it had the very reasonable price of $18.86!  I looked again, but it really was that, um, cheap.  Sold!  I put one in the cart.

As I was thinking of what to have for dinner tonight, I thought of doing a pork loin and realized I could try out my new toy.  It worked well.  My "recipe" is simple:  put one frozen loin roast (1 1/2 lb)  in the crock pot, add peeled and cut up carrots and potatoes, sprinkle the whole shebang with some McCormick's Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning, add about 1/2 cup of water, put on the lid, and cook on high for four hours or so.  Simple, and delicious.  I put it all on a platter, pour the "pot liquor" (as Mom used to call it) in a pitcher, and serve. 

Here's a picture of tonight's dinner:

And here's a picture of my new toy:



And what, you ask have I been doing in my sewing room? Bibs. Many bibs. I'm closing in on twenty. I made a huge batch last spring, and they're all gone. We've been having a new crop of little ones at church, and I decided to bite the bullet (better than a pacifier, right?) and just replenish my stash. There was a shower last night, one next week on Saturday, and two more coming right up. We seem to be growing our church from the bottom up. :-)

In closing, if you need a new crock pot or simply want to stash a nice wedding gift in the closet for future use, head to your nearest Costco and snap up this bargain.  It's a cutie. 

When Plans Go Awry

Well, today my sewing plans were tossed out the window when our pastor's wife called to see if I could take in a meal to a set of new parents (not Ann) today because the appointed person was ill. The new parents have some food allergies (no dairy, eggs or pineapple) so it took some considerable thinking to come up with a dinner idea (my date was supposed to be next week and I was still mulling over ideas). I ended up deciding a hearty homemade vegetable soup with a warm loaf of bread would be the thing.

To make it easier on myself, I decided to use my bread machine. It's been a true and trusty companion, never having let me down in eighteen years. Until today. I found a recipe for Anadama bread (no eggs or milk) and carefully added all the ingredients to the bucket, placed it in the machine, and punched start. Hmmm, strange clunking sounds. Not the usual whirring. Stop, replace bucket, and press start again. Strange clunking sounds. Repeat. Again. Call for Dan. After dumping the contents into a bowl, I handed him the bucket. He looked it over, tried to turn the paddle, and determined that it was frozen; a bearing problem he surmised.

He took the bucket to his workshop and I pondered the mess in the bowl. I decided to dump it into the bowl of my Kitchenaid mixer and try it the long way. The mixer took off and I let it work for ten minutes and then set the dough to rise in a sunny spot on the dining room table. By this point, I was tired, had a mess of bowls, measuring cups, and scrapers, and still needed to make the soup. Meanwhile, Dan brought the bucket back and said he thought he'd done a fix that might work for a while longer, but that I should begin looking into a new machine. I added the dirty bucket to the mess of bowls and scrapers.

We had lunch, I cleaned up the bread mess, and decided to reward myself with a longish break and played a game or two of spider solitaire here on my trusty computer. Suddenly I realized I probably should be starting on the soup. Bless his heart, Dan came to my rescue and began peeling potatoes and carrots while I browned the burger and got out the rest of the ingredients. Before long, we had a big pot of soup bubbling away and the bread was in the oven.

The call came about eleven and it was after four when everything was ready to be delivered. We had finished up a big Costco sized jar of pickles at lunch, so I filled it to the brim with the soup and put the still warm bread in a bag and off we went. The young mother seemed thrilled to have fresh bread and soup.

Meanwhile, I was pooped! We needed to stop at the credit union which is in the local Rosauers to deposit some checks before going to our usual store to pick up a few items. When we finished at the bank, I mumbled something about why didn't we just get what we needed here and save a trip across town, and Dad was agreeable. Now, I don't quite know how this happened, but just slowly pushing the cart through the store's uncrowded aisles was therapeutic! Our usual store is always crowded and frankly, a zoo, but this was actually fun. I felt like I was in another town and I just loved looking at the different items for sale. I found some cinnamon chips for a snickerdoodle scone recipe I just downloaded and we bought our favorite brand of sausages for sausage-in-a-bun nights. By the time we paid and left, I felt refreshed.

We came home, I made a quick batch of muffins, and we ate the rest of the soup that didn't fit in the jar. Dan is off to his men's group at church, and here I am. I made it through the day. :-)

Sayin' Goodbye to the Christmas Tree

I always have a hard time saying goodbye to Christmas and this year is no exception. I knew the time had come to take the tree down--there's a smell they get when it's time for them to go, before they go up in flames and torch the entire house, and ours had it.

So, this morning, without too much thought, I took the first ornament off. I knew if I thought about it too much, I'd decide I needed one more evening with the soft glow of the lights and the shine of the ornaments. After the first one, the second followed, and Dan appeared and began to help. It didn't seem so bad.

When we had the tree stripped, Dan went to get his big pruners and began to lop off the branches. We discovered last year that by doing this, we had much less mess to contend with when he hauled it out the front door. When he took the last batch of branches out to the pickup, I looked at what was left of our tree and thought, "It's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree!" When Dan came back in, I told him. We decided to hang just one ornament on it and take a picture, just for fun.

Here it is:

Most of the rest of our Christmas things are still out. Every day or so I decide to put something away, but it's a slow process and I enjoy the bright Christmas colors during the dreary January days.

Our little Daniel is doing well. He's been sleeping well and it seems like he's always been a part of the family. He'll be a week old tomorrow.

Welcome Baby Daniel!

Today is our 39th anniversary and we got a wonderful gift--a new grandson! Daniel Lane was born this morning at 5:49 weighing in at eight pounds, fourteen ounces and twenty-one inches long. His arrival was quick and he's perfect.


The chocolate was a gift from Papa Dan to Ann for a job well done. :-)

Here's big brothers Cameron and Keaton with their new little brother:


We are so thankful for this new little bundle of love God has given us.

And a Wintery Happy New Year to All!

We were under a blizzard warning yesterday and it did snow! Here's the Christmas tree on our front porch (and no, it wasn't flocked before):


Looking out the front door:


Looking out our bedroom window:


Today it's lightly snowing and it's so very beautiful outside! We're heading into deep freeze temperatures now, with a current temperature of 19.

We here at the Resort hope you are warm and cozy, and we send our best wishes for a blessed new year to you all!

Happy Memories

Christmas Day has come and gone, and a wonderful day it was. Ann, Eric and the boys arrived at noon on Christmas Eve, bringing in presents and their bags to stay for a few days. The boys enjoyed the hot tub while the rest of us started preparing for Christmas dinner and finishing up a little shopping.

We had a lovely communion service at church at seven, and after visiting, we got home just in time to put the boys to bed (however, not to sleep!). The grownups were tired and headed for bed soon after. Around four, I woke up to thumps and bumps, which continued for a while. Finally I got up, crossed the hall to the boys' room, and noticed dim light showing through the slight opening of the almost closed door. I opened the door and found Keaton on the floor in front of the night light, going through his stocking, and Cameron on his bed with his reading headlamp on, going through his! I laughed, and went back to bed. Finally all was quiet and I went back to sleep.

We all were up by eight (apparently the middle of the night stocking adventure had helped the boys to sleep in) and had a wonderful time opening presents. Breakfast followed and then we "hopped to" in the kitchen in anticipation of the arrival of my parents, Bruder Bear, and Kirsten and JR. Karen is down with their daughter, getting to know little Grant, and Bruder Bear isn't able to go until next week.

Our house was full with eleven around the table for our dinner of ham with all the trimmings. So wonderful to have four generations eating and sharing together! We were stuffed after dinner, so we held off on the pies and cookies until later as we visited and games were played. Bless Kirsten and JR's hearts as they went to work in the kitchen and cleaned up so beautifully and efficiently! When I thanked JR for his work, he said, "Well, you did all the work to cook everything!" Bruder Bear, those are some great kids you've got!

After a trip over to Ann and Eric's to see the almost finished remodeling, Bruder Bear drove the five of them back to Mom and Dad's and we came home to more hot-tubbing and falling in a heap on the sofas. What a wonderful day!!

Bruder Bear and me, Christmas 1955:


Yes, I've got Tiny Tears on my lap, and apparently I also got another doll, the blond one sitting in the suitcase. John is wearing his Davy Crocket pants, and of course that's a toy gun he's holding. He did love his "six-guns!"

And this Christmas:


One of us got a lot taller!!

Merry Christmas!

The pies are made, the rolls are baked, the potato casserole is in the frig, and the little boys are in bed (but not asleep!). Christmas is upon us.

And most importantly, it's the birthday of Jesus.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10