Jackie's Salad

One of the things that I like about the church we go to is that they have small groups during the week. We've been going to one (when we can make it) for a couple of months now. I really like getting together with people but that's not the part I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about the food. Before we begin the meeting we have a pot luck dinner. A couple of times now a very sweet lady has brought the most delicious salad...and she was kind enough to share how she makes it. ;) Last night my daughter saw her walk in with it and immediately followed her to the kitchen with her plate ready!

Jackie's Salad

Romaine lettuce
cooked, cubed chicken
diced apple
red grapes
craisens
a type of nut (pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc.)
fresh grated Parmesan cheese
croutons


Toss all (or some, what ever you have on hand) in a nice big bowl and cover with:

Marzetti poppy seed dressing

Maybe some of you have already discovered the yummyness of this dressing, but it's new to us and boy are we enjoying it! :)

Snippets from my week

For a couple of years now my daughter Amanda has been the only avid reader amongst our kids. Kenny's reading has improved greatly, but he just didn't seem to want to pick up books and read. I think that may be changing as I've come upon a scene like the picture below several times lately. Not only was he reading, but aloud to others so more people could enjoy the story. LOVE it! :)

We also discovered a bird's nest in a tree out front. The kids think it's pretty neat!

Pictures...of us.

For the previous two posts I've talked about pregnancy and baby stuff so I'll start this post off with a photo of me...here I am at 21 weeks along. :)

My husband made our two oldest boys super happy this week...he made them each a skateboard!


We've had a few more glimpses of spring, some of the trees are blooming, and some flowers are popping up...dandelions being the most prevalent flower (or is it a weed?)

Blogging to take my mind off the fact that it's hailing!

In my excitement over finding out that the baby is indeed a girl (that was our guess)...I didn't say anything else about the appointment! Sheesh, that was spacey of me :)

The doctor said that everything looks great and she is growing nicely! Her movements are getting stronger too, I'm feeling them much more now. Ian even got to feel for the first time a couple days ago. The only regret I have is that she was facing posterior through the whole exam so almost all of the ultrasound shots are of her extremities. Cute baby toes but sadly no great profile shot.

~~~~~

Now, for the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about the kids' school work and how that is going to look for next year. I think I may need to invest in a planner, then spend the time getting it all planned. I'd like to be able to just pick a sheet that will have what each child should be doing each day that I can use as a guide. If I spend the time putting it together before the baby comes, then theoretically we should be able to start working not too long after she's born...basically not take a long break!

Do any of you use a planner? I may just set up my own in excel...

Oh, I have also been trying to decide what to use as a bible program. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, figuring if I couldn't find one I'd come up with my own. I came across this site though and they have what looks like a great curriculum (I guess I shouldn't rave about it too much, I've only printed off the first week!). The best part though is it's FREE! :)

Think Pink!

I went in for my 20 week ultrasound today and the results are in...

Easter

As everyone knows Easter is fast approaching.

My kids are actually counting down the days.

When we moved here, we moved away from all family. (not to get away from them! We miss them.) Which means that for any holiday it's just us. So I figure we should make the best of it and try to instill a few traditions. I remember Easter with a lot of food. Not the peeps, candy and egg variety but, a nice big ham dinner with all the extras. Things like scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, jello salad, homemade rolls...mmm, I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it!

-BUT-

That's not the focus of the day.

We'll be starting off by having resurrection rolls for breakfast.

We'll take the cresent rolls and lay them out explaining how they represent the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.

We'll take a pure white lovely marshmallow and talk about how it represents Jesus' body, white as snow and sinless.

We'll melt butter and talk about how they anointed his body with oil as we roll the marshmallow in it.

We'll mix up some cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it over while talking about the spices they used on Jesus' body.

We will then wrap up his body and place it in the tomb (the oven) to be buried.

We will pretend as we set the timer that it represents 3 days.

Taking the rolls out of the oven we will discover that....they are empty! (the marshmallow has melted)

And we'll talk about the best part,

Jesus is ALIVE! ...and THAT is why we celebrate Easter!!!

Some of my week in pictures

Noah is now 11 months old! He's finally started to crawl, most of the time it's a belly crawl but he's trying hard to master up on all fours.


He's also cutting teeth. He doesn't have any so far but there are 4 that are just about to break through. When he's not crawling around he looks like this, with his whole hand crammed in his mouth.

Josiah has had a rough couple of weeks. First he had an ear ache now I'm not really sure but I think he might have the flu. You know things are not quite right when a two year old (in the same room as all of the other LOUD kids) lays down and takes a nap.

Speaking of the other kids....they've taken all the blankets from their rooms and built this giant fort. Stephen is proudly showing it off as he was the main construction worker on it. :)

And that brings me to my recent project.

I found this desk on the side of the road. Someone had set it out for the garbage people to collect, so I snagged it. Not too purdy is it?

With a little effort some sanding, stain and varnish I think it turned out quite nice.

It's now in my daughters room and she's really happy with it....and that's all that matters.

Grand Prix

Tomorrow the AWANA club that we belong to is having their annual grand prix car races. Being newbies to town we're told it's a HUGE deal here. We are entering one car for my daughter who's in T&T this year. There are prizes for speed and prizes for design....we decided to opt for the design route.

Here's what we came up with. It's a shopping cart (just in case you can't tell) :)

Win or lose....it's still fun!