TKD Socks

With all the work on the Easter Sweater the Tae Kwon Do socks fell by the wayside for a little bit. They are finished and I really like them a lot - they're thicker than the last pair I made - hopefully they'll last a little bit longer too. I used a thin worsted weight and my same easy pattern. http://affectioknit.blogspot.com/2007/01/new-tkd-project-since-my-tkd-socks-are.html
I love these socks...

Now the Green Blade Rises

One of my favorite hymns – we always sing it during Easter. Finally, we are getting some green grass. Everything still looks pretty brown, but if you look closely you can see the green starting to sprout.

Toolboxes

At our den meeting last night all of the Cubs made toolboxes. One of the Dads cut all of the pieces but one - then had the boys do all of the measurements on that one - Some of the Dads (I’m the only Mom there) did way too much of the work for their Cub ‘though – that’s usually the case. I helped the Man-Cub steady and hold pieces but I didn’t do any of the “work”.


You may notice the "Conduct Candle" and the jar of marbles in the background - No marbles were taken away - I have such a good group of boys in my den.

He is very proud of his toolbox and it’s quite well-made (just a little bit better than square – haha).

Updated Recipe Link

I put a Recipe Link on the Sidebar - I'll try to keep it updated and in alphabetical order...

A New Game

The Man-Cub made up a new game to play with his Lincoln Logs. You both build a fort and a catapult and then you pelt the other guy with the small logs from your catapult until all of his "men" fall down.

It's lots of fun - that's my fort to the left...

Blackberry Cobbler

My sweet MIL sent us a box with the "southern" flour that I like to use for biscuits - you can't get it up here - the flour here is perfect for making risen breads 'though. She also sent several pints of canned blackberries that she and Papaw had picked last summer.
I used 2 pints of blackberries and a cup of sugar - and my super easy pie crust for the top.

Super Easy Pastry Crust:
1 3/4 c. flour - I used White Lily All Purpose
1/2 c. oil
3-4 tbsp. cold water

Mix oil and water together and add to flour, mix well and roll out between two sheets of wax paper.

What could be easier?...

YUM!

Guacamole - or as the Man-Cub calls it Whack-A-Mole-y

He really did have a Whack-A-Mole game for a while when he was younger - seems sort of mean doesn't it - whacking little moles - a gift from his Grandma J.

We were at the grocery store buying the goods to make tacos and the Man-Cub carried about 6 avocados (all he could get in his arms) over the the "buggy" - that's a word no one uses up here - they say cart - I told the Man-Cub to "go put the buggy up" one day and the clerk looked at me like I was from another planet. She said "you're not from around here are you?" I laughed and asked how she would have said it - "go put the cart away" was the answer. Anyway, I asked him what he wanted 6 avocados for and he said for Whack-A-Moley - I said that would go perfectly with dinner - and kept the ripest of his avocados and put the rest back.

This is my recipe - if I got it from somewhere - I don't remember where - and this is how I always make it - nice and mild.

1 ripe avocado - pulse in food processor or mash with a fork
1 medium tomato
About 1/2 a medium onion - chopped fine - I microwave it for about 30 seconds just to take a bit of the edge off.
1/2 a can of chopped green chiles - if you can get them fresh - that would be better - but of course I can't get them fresh...
1 T. lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

That's all there is to it. Served here with my "homemade" corn chips - really just fat-free corn tortillas cut into eighths and baked for a few minutes until crisp - they're the best...

Remembering Vonnegut

I was so sad to hear the Kurt Vonnegut died - I loved all of his books - and Cat's Cradle was probably my favorite - I first read it in a college humanities class - and then as is my bent when I find an author I love - I went on to read everything that he wrote - I loved his dark humor and his slightly sci-fi/futuristic stories (I'm really not a science fiction fan at all) - anyway - I'm mostly sad that there won't be any new Vonnegut books to read in my lifetime...

Laughter and tears are both responses
to frustration and exhaustion.
I myself prefer to laugh,
since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

-- Kurt Vonnegut

A Favorite Breakfast

This one is so easy - I blend some homemade soy yogurt with a pint of frozen raspberries and a couple of Tablespoons of sugar if the raspberries are too tart (these were) - recipe from the Fat Free Vegan (my only substitution was 1/2 teaspoon for the agaragar - when I used a whole teaspoon my yogurt was like jello and I like it a little bit softer than that).

This is my Deva Bridge yogurt maker - I got it when we lived in Florida - it needs no electricty and makes perfect yogurt - I searched the web for them and didn't find any so maybe they've gone out of business.

These are the raspberries the Man-Cub and I picked last July - that was a lot of fun...

I just sprinkle about 1/4 cup of walnuts in a bowl

and pour the yogurt/raspberry blend over them...

A Friend to Knit With

The Man-Cub came up to me last night and asked me to teach him to knit. Imagine my surprise - I immediately got out my old needles - the blue ones - and the leftover Camo yarn - and showed him how to cast on 30 stitches. I showed him the basic knit stitch - we'll save purl for later and he caught on really quickly. I used to teach a knitting class at the Community College and none of my students caught on as quickly as the Man-Cub - age probably has something to do with it...

I was also 8 when I learned to knit...


...not bad for a beginner - this is his progress in one night - pretty soon he'll be saving preemie babies with little knit caps...http://www.savethechildren.org/campaigns/caps-to-the-capital/

Easter Monday

The Man-Cub was out of school for Easter Monday and I took the day off from work too. He loved the big bubble wand the Easter Bunny left and used up all of the bubbles.

It was still very cold but we bundled up and went to the skate park - the Man-Cub is quite the little "skater"...

I think that just about catches us up on everything - if I think of anything else interesting that we did over the Easter weekend I'll update later. The wind is blowing hard now and it's snowing - we're supposed to get about 5 inches of snow from this spring storm...

The Organ

I managed to muddle through with the organ on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter morning. We had seven hymns Easter - plus all the liturgy - Whew - I'm glad that's over...

This is also the only picture of the skirt and top. I'll have to get a better one...

Easter Morning - the Easter Bunny came

The Easter Bunny managed to find us once again - the Man-Cub knows that Mama and Papa are the Easter Bunny - but it doesn't lessen his enthusiasm or happiness about the gifts the Easter Bunny brings. Pictured here is the Man-Cub's "real" Easter Basket woven by his paternal Great-Grandmother - Mamaw.

Last year the Easter Bunny brought a pair of Camouflaged Zip-Off trousers - this year he couldn't find the zip-off variety so just brought regular camo instead.
The little chick "lays" gumball eggs - too cute...

Easter Sweater Finished - Saturday Night

I sewed the Easter Sweater together while watching the Man-Cub play at the park Saturday afternoon. Then when we got home I tried it on and didn't like the look of the collar - so I took it out and re-did it - I finished about 12:30 AM and still didn't like it (I'll re-do again it later) but it was too late to do anything about it - so I left it to block overnight.

Easter Egg Hunting

It was really cold Saturday morning - about 18 degrees above - but we bundled up and went outside to hunt Easter Eggs. I had stuffed 24 of them with money and candy.

His Easter basket here is a Baseball one that we got last year at Wal-Mart - his real Easter Basket that his Mamaw made for him is too small for all the eggs.

We came inside to open the ones the Man-Cub found first - and to warm up and then we went back outside and found the rest.

In past years we have hidden and hunted the eggs multiple times - but this year once was enough...

Decorating - Saturday

I finally got around to doing a little decorating Saturday Morning. I'll leave the Easter decorations out for a while so we can enjoy them...

Our front door...

Our table...

Polishing Silver - Friday

Boy, that's a job - I think my arms are still sore. I also think it only gets done about once a year - when I do it. The Altar Guild needs to schedule this at least twice a year I think. The Man-Cub helped a lot too...

This is at the church - isn't the apron adorable...

Spring Break

The Man-Cub gets a two day Spring Break - this is the picture on the front page of the local paper - it looks really "Spring-y" doesn't it with everyone all bundled up...

Easter Sweater Update - Front

Of course, I finished the Easter Sweater. I finished the front Thursday night at a reasonable hour - blocked it and went to bed.

Maundy Thursday - Communion Bread

We tried several different recipes for Communion bread this week - and finally decided that the Luther Seminary Communion Bread is the best -http://www.luthersem.edu/resources/communion_bread_recipe.asp -
they are all pretty easy to make so that's not much of an issue.



It's the darkest one shown here. The other two are Matzah breads - one with sugar http://www.haydid.org/unleaven.htm - and one without - http://www.lightofmashiach.org/matzorecipe.html. Of those two I prefer the one without sugar.