Have I ever mentioned my lack of grace?

No, I didn't break anything. I will, however, tell you that being short is not a plus in some circumstances. 

I was at work, busting out a Halloween display (my absolute least favorite display that I have to do since Halloween isn't my gig), I decided to stand on a not-a-step-ladder and since it wasn't heavy enough in the middle to hold my sheer girth, I punched through the middle, fell back, my feet were stuck in this thing that was now like a trash can, I finally got my feet loose, but couldn't get my balance and kept stumbling backwards until I bounced into a shelving unit and had tripped over an August sale bin-- all the while this is sounding like a herd of elephants to my coworker downstairs.  Julia, one who generally rolls with things and doesn't bother to check, opens the door and says, "Amy, are you okay?" 

"The good news is that I didn't break any merchandise and I do believe that I didn't even chip my wrist, though I do believe that I will have a heck of a bruise, though." 

"You need to not rush and push!" 

She's right.  I was trying to speed through the very end of a display and ended up leaving a mess for them to clean up upstairs and downstairs. 

More good news is that the blasted Halloween display is up.  I struggle with it because I just don't like scary, creepy Halloween and I work extra hard on it since I don't want it to reflect my general dislike.  The display is pretty decent, if I do say so myself!

Smiles in my day:
-  I didn't break a bone! 
-  K- is actually starting to feel better from her virus.  (Not strep, thank you God!)  The doctor said that she was on the backside and was pulling out of it.  Tonight is the first time in a week that she has expressed interest in playing outside or doing anything other than laying in bed and sleeping.  That is not my child.  She would come straight home, put her pajamas on and go straight to bed.  Eek!
-  I tagged butterflies at work with some of my coworkers and they thought it was the neatest thing!
-  The computer is briefly cooperating.  After the neighbor goes on vacation and returns, he and his computer geek friends are going to take our computer and give it some computer geek love.  I'm hoping that they can resuscitate the box.  We are trying hard to save money for a truck for Hubs and I would really love to have the savings continue to accumulate for that.  They are pretty good with saving the unsaveable, so I trust their judgment.  Have I mentioned that they work for free?  :)  Being that they are all single men, I'll cook them a good dinner and all will be well. 

Have a great night!

Recipe alert! Mexican lasagna

First off, I haven't forgotten about you.  My computer has been ailing more than usual and frankly, sometimes it isn't worth the intense fight just to get it to boot up.  With that said, since you've heard from me last, I've had  10 hour (in some form or another) PTA meeting, a Garden Fair at school for the kids, a butterfly hike to my house where we taught 20 people how to tag butterflies all the while our child was in the house quarantined to her bedroom because of a virus that had given her a fever that we didn't want to share.  Oh, and PMS.  Let us kick that in just for giggles, eh?

But here is your recipe.  I found it delightful even after it was frozen.  Yum.  I ate most of it!

Mexican Lasagna (that isn't what they call it, but I made a copy and can't see the title)

Makes 4 servings
Prep time:  15 minutes
Cook time:  17 minutes
From:  Fitness Magazine

1 15-ounce can pinto beans (though I used kidney since that's what I had.) 
1 1/2 cups chopped roasted tomatoes (I used those fire roasted from a can.)
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 1/2 cups shredded poached chicken
1/2 cup scallions (I always use less)
1 T chili powder *
1 T ground cumin *
1/4 t salt *
8 6-inch corn tortillas, each cut into 6 wedges (I used wheat.)
1 cup shreadded Monterey jack (I used rice cheddar instead.)
1 small beefsteak tomato (I used cherry tomatoes from the yard.)
    *  I used taco seasoning instead.

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Coat an 8 x 8 inch baking dish with cooking spray.  (I used two loaf pans so that K- and I would be able to have two dishes out of it, since it isn't something that Hubs can eat.
2.  Combine pinto (kidney) beans and their liquid, tomatoes, corn, chicken, scallions and seasonings in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until mixture is bubbling and corn is completely thawed. (I actually cooked it for an hour. I wasn't in a rush so I thought I would let it cook for a while and get happy.)
3.  Layer about a third of the tortilla wedges, half bean mixture and a third of the cheese in a prepared baking dish. Repeat this until done. I ended up making another layer. Top with remaining cheese, bake until cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through. Let it cool slightly before serving; garnish with diced tomatoes.

Yummy!

Yes, the computer decided to have a convulsion and I had to finish the post on the Kindle.

Clothes don't dry real well on the line in 88% relative humidity and other things I learned this weekend.

I tried to dry laundry on the line today.  I did happen-- eventually.  I found that the humidity of a terrarium tends not to dry laundry so well.  My cousin used to live in Gonzales, Louisiana and she used to say it was like living in a terrarium.  Isaac was kind enough to bring that air to us and when I was hanging laundry at 9:30 AM and sweat was rolling down my back in all of 83 F (generally a very nice temperature), I felt just a taste of the humidity pain she lived for a while.  Wow. 

The Black Bean Nacho Burgers were so good the other day that since I had the general supplies on hand (except for needing another can of black beans), I decided to make another batch and freeze those for later dinners.  Yum.  Lookie here!  I added some red pepper and carrots this time. 

Yum! Getting ready to cook these up to freeze for two different meals for K- and me. Recipe in the previous post.

We've been tagging Monarchs and were successful in getting 10 tagged and on their way today.  It was a family effort, but we're chipping away at the 100 tags that we purchased. 

On Saturday, we went to Amish Country.  We stopped in at our favorite vegetable stand and I purchased yellow squash, 3 pounds of green beans, 5 pound of fresh dug potatoes, a few sweet candy onions, 3 red peppers, a few heads of butter lettuce and a mum.  The squash was shredded, bagged in snack bags then double bagged into freezer bags.  Green beans were blanched and got the same treatment.  Onions were sliced on my Pampered Chef slicer (the one that straddles a bowl) and those were bagged, as well as the red peppers.  While at our favorite bulk food store, I did purchase a number of things for my Christmas baking, since it doesn't look like we'll make it back down until after the holidays.  I also purchased a lovely salad spinner.  We washed and rinsed the butter lettuce, then gave it a good ole spin.  Damp salad is a pet peeve of mine, so I was thrilled with how wonderfully it worked!

We stopped in at an antique mall on the way home and darned if I didn't find 2 more Holly Hobbie glasses that I didn't have.  Drat.  I just found a few more.  I just marked them for Hubs :wink, wink: for Christmas. 

I may not have mentioned that I burned the top of my hand on my birthday when I was trying to help my sister get lunch for 6 kids.  I've been using the Avalon Organics Lavender Hand and Body Lotion on the burn a few times a day.  They don't advertise it as burn cream at all, but it has done a wonderful job at keeping the area well hydrated and though there is an area that is still quite tender (where the blister formed and subsequently was injured further when I accidentally smacked my hand against my nightstand- ouch!), I'm happy to say that it seems to be healing nicely.  Yes, it will leave a permanent mark. 

I scored some lightly worn Ann Taylor Curvy jeans at the thrift today for a whole 50 cents.  I found a pair of Docker jeans for the same.  I scored a pair of uniform skorts for K for a dollar and we found a white graduation gown for $2.00 for her to wear when she is Princess Leia for Halloween.  (We have to go with something big enough to fit over a winter coat.)  We've collected the whole set at this point, so Hubs will go as Darth Vader, I'll go as Queen Amidala (Amidolly, in our house) and K- as PL.  She's thrilled and apparently, we have the correct order of mom, dad and child.  Who knew? 

I've gotten to the bottom of my laundry bucket.  HOORAY!  It won't last long. 

We went to University Circle yesterday and visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Cleveland Museum of Art. It's been wonderful to stop in at the art museum and see how far they have gotten with their 10 year remodeling/addition plan.  This time, there was a huge courtyard open for people to walk through and the flow of the museum is now a bit more friendly.  CMNH was busy and we stopped in at the cafe for a snack, but they only had two people on staff and they were so very much in the weeds.  We bailed, knowing that we'd never get out in the next hour with anything and when we walked by a half hour later, they had a sign up that they had closed early.  That's okay, because we went ahead and went here. Why yes, we took a hungry child to the largest candy store in the states.  Don't worry.  She was good and we didn't go out with a bill the size of the national debt.  We found things for my FIL's 70th birthday tomorrow (Charles Chips chip tin and a refill bag, candy of "his time" and some Velamints, which he used to love.) 

We've done lots this weekend and frankly, I'm tired. 

Have a great day!

Recipe Alert! Tonight's dinner.

I was thumbing through Fitness Magazine this morning and ran across a recipe for what they titled, "Patty Svelte."  Here she is:

Black Bean "Nacho" Burgers

Makes:  4 burgers
Prep time:  25 minutes plus 30 minutes chilling
Cook time:  12 minutes or a little better

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup finely crushed tortilla chips (preferably blue corn)
1/3 cup salsa, plus additional for serving
1/2 cup 50% reduced fat cheddar shreds or 1/2 cup cheddar Rice Dream shreds (what I used)
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 scallion, white and green part, finely chopped or a half of a lil garden onion finely chopped (what I used.)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper or about 10 grinds of the pepper mill (what I used)
4 hamburger buns or 4 whole wheat sandwich thins (what I used)
2 t vegetable oil (I skipped this)
4 butter lettuce leaves (I skipped this because I didn't have it)

1.  Use a food processor or a potato maser to smash beans until chunky, leaving some partly whole.  Stir in crushed chips, salsa, cheddarish cheese, egg, scallionish onion and black pepper.  They say to shape into 4 patties, but I didn't until I plunked them in the pan.
2.  Refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes.
3.  Preheat pan (I used a grill pan with a little bit of Pam in place of a standard pan with oil) and place or form mixture into patties.  Cook until golden brown on one side, 6ish minutes.  Flip and continue to cook until golden brown.  Serve up on buns and with lettuce and a dash of salsa just for extra flavor.

We had blue corn chips and salsa with a side of corn.  Yum!
Voila! 

Smiles in my day:
-  I bought myself a Baby Cakes Rotating Cake Pop maker with birthday money I had.  I was gifted a Kohl's gift certificate and some cash, received a coupon for an additional 15% off, so now K- and I will be venturing into that great world of cake pops.  We had them last week at the wedding reception and loved them.  Yum!
-  It probably shouldn't make me smile, but it did.  Hubs got so mad at the caulk and his caulking gun (bad, wrong caulk that caused the caulk gun to blow), and he pitched it (not his style) across the front lawn.  I came home to the caulk gun near the sidewalk and knew what happened.  He discovered a 4" section of swell on our one sill in the living room.  He took off 1/2 the woodwork around the window, cut out a section of the drywall and found the non-expanding foam to be sopping wet.  He continued to dig and discovered that there was a hairline crack in the caulk of the window which allowed water to seep in.  Since we are expecting Isaac to make landfall for us sometime tomorrow, Hubs was concerned because, "THERE'S A HURRICANE COMING," and the window was exposed.  He has everything sealed up, but will have to go back through and rework all of his work after Isaac has left us.  Still, the caulking gun straddling the sidewalk line was hilarious.
-  A friend gave me a Ghirardelli Dark and Caramel bar (Carmel or caramel for you?  For us, it is car-mel.)  It is calling my name. 

A bath. That is calling my name as well.  Enjoy the tasty burgers!  They were absolutely lovely.

Have a great weekend!

Monarch Tagging 2012: It's all fun and games until a Monarch gets loose in the house.

Today we began tagging our Monarchs.  We've purchased 100 tags and so far, we tagged 6.  That may not seem like a lot, but we have a church nature walk to our house so that some parishioners can help catch, tag and release.  We're also having a Boy Scout troop over (4 boys thankyouverymuch) that will do the same.  My cousin wants to come over.  My sister and her girls want to come over.  We think that 100 will work.

K- was all excited to be tagging.  She continued catching as I was making dinner.  She'd catch it and bring it to me.  We were tagging at the kitchen table and she'd take it back out to release it.  That is, until the one she was so enchanted with was walking on her finger.  I don't know, but she lost her monarchin' mind and didn't guard the little guy. 

He was in flight in the kitchen.  He kept getting whacked by the ceiling fan.  "K- A-!"  "Mom, I'm sorry!"  She went to get the butterfly net as I was attempting to catch the Monarch by hand.  Finally, he flew to the window screen and clung on.  I was able to get him detached, tagged, logged and on his merry way.  K- was relieved.  So was I.

I can officially say that is the first butterfly to ever get into my house.  We've had moths, spiders and once a mouse.  We've even had ants.  There's been a renegade earwig.  Never a butterfly-- until now.

Smiles in my day:
-  K- loves LOVES her teacher.  Mrs. H- is truly delightful and I'm so glad that I chose her. 
-  K- is taking dinner leftovers for lunch tomorrow-- chick'n nuggets and sweet potato whole grain pierogies.  "What am I supposed to tell them that I'm eating?"  "Chicken nuggets and pierogies."  I'm thinking that she might be getting a little embarrassed now of her not average lunch. 
-  They have reworked lunches completely and even had them nutritionally okay'd by the Cleveland Clinic.  They claim that they are the healthiest school lunches in the area.  Grilled chicken sandwiches.  Turkey dogs.  (Better than regular, I'm thinking.)  Chef salad with turkey and GARBANZO BEANS!  (My kid will eat them, but the general most?)  They even have seasoned collards with the macaroni and cheese.  Well, I say good on them.  K- knows that she can do mac and cheese for a lunch with school.  She's excited to see what else is offered.  Each lunch will have two veggies and one fruit.  Today they had cherry tomatoes.  That's wonderful!  :)

Have a great night!

Hello third grade.

My daugher will be starting the third grade tomorow. She's been "nervous" lately and a habit which has been almost non-existent has been revived a little. K- has been sucking her thumb at night. She says that it makes her comfortable and calms her down. I certainly understand that, but we're working on redirecting that to something else. In the meantime, I have her sleeping with a glove on. It seems to be working. She admitted that she tried the gloved thumb in the mouth and said it was rather unpleasant. "Mom, I think that if I'd do that, I'd cough up a giant hair ball." We've met with K-'s teacher, but she already knows me. I've been the 100 Book Challenge prize pass mom for several years. Believe me, there are 525 children every year that know me personally. I can't go to the grocery without little eyes twinkling and getting a sudden, "HI!" K-'s desk is right at the door and we explained that not every teacher puts every child there. Hubs teased her with Mrs. H- that she could make a quick escape! She does know that K- won't go on a walkabout and dart on out in the hall for no reason and without permission. Her quad mate, C-, was in her class last year. He's a good boy and I've found him standing on my front porch and smiling. Apparently, he came to say hi to my daughter. :gulp: She has two other children in the desk quad that she doesn't know, but methinks she get to know them very well very soon. She was impressed that Mrs. H- had her name written IN CURSIVE! on the name plate on her desk. Oh, how excited she is to learn cursive. She's also excited for the incubator project. Third graders get to grow baby chicks and then they are sent off to a farm. I heard another little boy talking about his chick excitement, too. K-'s clothes are all set out. Her lunch box is set out and her water bottle is chilling. The fruit is cleaned and placed in the container. The cheese stick is at the ready. Her school bag is hanging and ready to go. The morning is coming early. :zzzz: I should sleep now while I have the time. I'm thinking that third grade is going to be a lot of homework.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

I am that mom. When readying K's things for school, I really took a good look at what was in her pencil box. K's pencil box is the same purple plastic box that she's used since Kindergarten. Going into third grade, the box still is in excellent shape. I cleared the things from the box, wiped it off and set to refilling it. K had a big handful of pencils in there that were at least 2/3 of the original length, if not longer. She killed the erasers, so I gave them all a good sharpening, recapped them with new cap erasers and breathed new life into those still very usable pencils. Scissors were the same. I just wiped them off and dropped them back in. Her dry erase markers were barely used last year. They have an ink gauge on the side, so we know they have tons of ink. Voila. Reuse! Her pink eraser was completely reusable, too.

As far as new supplies are concerned, new crayons and new glue sticks were a must.

Once again, K will be reusing last years book bag and lunch carrier. Because of defect, they were replaced by LL Bean in the spring. The backpack that was replaced was the very same bag she carried for nearly 5 years. The locker hang loop ripped out, so we replaced the bag with a messenger bag.

She's good with reuse. I'm glad that she's not a kid that requires brand new all the time. It's good for her to use things up and not to just replace because that is what she thinks needs to be done.

Hooray!