Friday night, the kids watched The Karate Kid for their family movie.Â
Wax on … Wax off.
Sand on … Sand off.
While they were doing that, I was putting some finishing touches on some quilt projects.
Quilt on … Quilt off. 🙂
Category Archives: Family Therapy
Yes, it’s THAT Good!
I’d seen this recipe while surfing the wonderful site of The Pioneer Woman, and showed it to my husband. You see, he loves apple desserts …. and I love Mt. Dew. This recipe called for BOTH – surely, it should be re-named to honor our marriage!
My MIL has a friend spending a week, so I said I’d cook my famous (HA) lasagna. While I was whipping up the not-really-secret sauce, I saw the tubes of crescent rolls in the fridge and decided that the recipe I’d printed should be simple enough for me to make while my sauce was simmering.
Now, I do have to be careful with sugar. Many years ago, my husband had ulcers in his small intestine, and he had major surgery to remove everything. Unfortunately, they took his pyloric valve, too. So, when he eats sugar, it’s not processed as sugar normally is … it’s automatically dumped and he will literally pass out from sugar overload. It’s been a while since his surgery, so his system has gotten more comfy with the sugar dumps … these days, we have a little more time before he has to lay down … but, nonetheless, he can’t have a lot of sugar at one time.
Therefore, as I looked at the recipe for The Pioneer Woman’s Apple Dumplings, I decided to cut the recipe in half – except I still used 2 apples. To the dear man I’m married to, the apples are the “meat” of the dessert, and I knew he’d prefer for meat than taters, if ya know what I mean!
This meant that I put two pieces (a quarter of the fruit) in each crescent roll, but I still halved everything else — using only 1 tube of rolls, too.
And like the multi-tasking blonde goofball that I have occasionally shown myself to be, I completely forgot about the vanilla.
But really? NOT necessary, in the least. I warmed the finished dumplings in the microwave for 15 seconds each before serving with a scoop of Butter Pecan ice cream.
Divine dessert doesn’t begin to describe how yummy these are. SO VERY GOOD!Â
And hey – I’d say it was a well balanced meal, if necessary! You have some bread, some fruit, some dairy (with the ice cream), some protein by way of nuts (with the ice cream) and some fiber (hey hey, think about it – cinnamon is from the BARK of a tree! You can’t get much more fiber than that!).
Go forth and multiply … apple dumplings that is!
HBWM.com’s Blogging for Prayers
I have a little story to tell you.
A few weeks ago, I was sitting here after midnight, winding down for the night. I was surfing….and, one of the things I do to entertain myself is to read some of the obituaries in the towns where we’ve lived over the years. The town I was born in, and lived for about 14 years, is in Iowa. It’s a big city, now, compared to what it was then – but, it was pretty good sized when I was growing up. But, I do like to know if anyone I knew had died. Morbid as that might sound, it soothes me … gives me a chance to add some prayers to my daily prayer list, and surprisingly, it also calms me. Not to mention that I’m not in touch with many of my family members, and I like to see if we’ve lost another branch (or two) from the family tree.
When I was in the fourth grade, my dad purchased a farm north of town, and we lived there for a couple of years. And although we lived in many places when I was a kid, “the farm” is where we established the closest relationships with neighbors. I find that interesting, that I don’t recall friends or neighbors from any other places we lived when I was growing up! I’m still in contact with my best friend from the fourth grade, who’s still up there, as they were neighbors of ours on the farm. And her parents took in my brother, Tom, after our mom abandoned us….until our uncle was ready for my brothers.
Anyways, last week, I saw that another neighbor, Mr. H, had died at the age of 84. Boy-oh-boy, did the mention of him and his family bring some memories flooding back! Their farm was a mile or so from ours, but since my dad owned a livestock auction, our families became friends because Mr. H already knew Dad…and two of their children had the same first names as my two older siblings. And Mrs. H remembers how much coffee she and my mom used to drink!
Then I realized that Mr. H’s funeral services were going to be at the church that I was baptized, and I also attended their school in the seventh and eighth grades. So, without another thought, I emailed the Pastor and asked him to print out my email and give it to Mr. H’s family.
This morning, I had an email from Mr. H’s daughter, telling me how much the sympathy email had meant to her mom.
Small world, eh?!!
So, today – I want to add Mr. H’s family to my prayer list. Mrs. H is getting up there in years, too – but, she still lives on the family farm. They have a mentally handicapped daughter (that my dad used to tease and tease), as well as the two other children, that I remember from my youth.
And I want to shout out to you – relationships matter. I don’t allow ugly relationships into my life, but it’s wonderful to build (and re-build) good ones, to share the love of life, to reminisce about old times, and to just grow old together. It may be a cliche, but love is what makes the world go ’round!
If you’d like to join HBWM.com’s Blogging for Prayers, click here.
Success All Around
The banquet is over, and except for my tired back, all went well. Dr. Man-Mom threw his back out on Sunday afternoon, so guess who had to haul all of the food and supplies in and out and in and out and in and out? uh huh. My back doesn’t seem to cause me problems unless I carry a lot of stuff … and it doesn’t go out, just gets tired. I guess after carrying 4 kids for 10 years, it’s just gets tired quick.Â
One of the den leaders came into the kitchen at church yesterday, after dinner had been served and everyone was cleaning up. He asked who in the world made that lasagna.  My MIL pointed the accusatory finger at me. He came up to me and asked me if I knew his name.Â
“Yes sir, I do.”
“Then you know that I am Italian.”
“Yes sir, I know,” I replied.
He then proceeded to engulf me (he’s a big man) in a bear hug … telling me that that’s some of the best lasagna that he’s ever eaten. And being Italian, he knows these things.
So sweet.
Want me to shut up about food and talk about something more exciting … like that the girls are taking standardized tests all week? Or that there’s a meeting at their school tonight, to smoothe out ruffled feathers? Or that the weather here has been terribly humid, but in the 80’s everyday?Â
Naw, you don’t want to hear that stuff, do you?
How about this – another new pattern that’ll be coming out soon from Quiltalicious?! It’s called “Rainbow Snowballs” and it’s bright, fun and …. well, polka dotted!
The Medal
I can’t let another moment go by without posting a photo of the medal that DD#1 earned yesterday. She was SO proud of it that she wore it to church this morning!
