Pressies from China

My husband K made it home from his two month long shift in China on Thursday night. We are so glad to have him home! His luggage unfortunately did not arrive in Edmonton with him but was couriered out yesterday. When it did arrive, we crowded around while he unloaded all the goodies he brought back for us from China.

A beautiful tea set he bought in the 'village' of Nanba where he lives while on shift.

The man knows the way to my heart is through Starbucks merchandise! These demitasse cups are from Chengdu.

A replica of the bronze Buddha from the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong where he had a nine hour lay over and did a bit of sightseeing.
An incense burner
A set of oil pastels and paper for each of the kids. The pastels cost 13 RMB each which amounts to $1.97 Canadian.
An amber butterfly necklace for F and a 'Dorje' necklace for S that is said to banish untruths and bring truths to the bearer.
This year is the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Calendar so the kids each got a rabbit stuffy from the Festival Celebrations that K attended.
He also brought back paper lanterns(those will be in a future post I hope!), scarves, t shirts for the kids from Hong Kong, and a few gifts for other family members.

Wow! We got spoiled! It was like Christmas all over again!

Favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I have been making this recipe out of the Joy of Cooking for years(Quick oatmeal or wheat flake cookies) and a couple weeks ago the kids and I made them to send to Grampa for his birthday. I changed three things* with the recipe and it completely changed the cookie! For the better! This post is dedicated to my friend K who I sent a little baggy of cookies to and has been dying for the recipe ever since!


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together for 3-5 minutes:
1/2 cup butter with 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar.

Combine and beat until smooth:
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 TBSP milk

Sift together and add to above ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

When beaten smooth, add:
1 cup oats

Now you can go ahead and add chocolate chips or raisins or coconut or whatever your heart desires. I added *3/4 of a cup of organic flame raisins to my cookies which combined with the dark sugar and the extra time spent creaming the butter and sugar made for an extra delicious cookie!

Drop cookies onto sheets and bake 10-12 minutes or until light brown.

Quote of the Day

"Mama, I can't remember what Daddy's voice sounds like."

When I hear something like that it near breaks my heart and makes me wonder if it's all worth it? Daddy will be home tomorrow though, after two very long months in China. We are so looking forward to him being home!

Quote of the Day

It's not very often I post two Quotes of the day but in my own defence, the last one was technically a quote from two days ago and this one just couldn't go un-quoted...

"Mama? I... accidentally ate all of my ice cream... and now I want more... can I have more because it was an accident?"

S is big on 'accidents' lately. Everything is an accident... including eating his ice cream apparently!

Quote of the Day with a recipe!

"YUM"

This is what my son said when he took a bite if his dinner two nights ago. I don't very often hear this from him and that's why it gets awarded the 'Quote of the Day." I made Tikka Masala Chicken, or rather my own version if it that is loosely based off a friend's version of it. Here is the 'recipe' for your own enjoyment!

In a bit of olive oil, brown boneless skinless chicken thighs. Add a chopped onion and a few stalks of celery, chopped. Add a pinch or two of basil, oregano and cumin and about a tablespoon of curry powder. This is all to taste of course, you can add more or less. Coriander is also traditionally used in this dish but I forgot it. Cook this all together for a minute or two and then add a can of crushed tomatoes. Stir and simmer for 15-20 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through. Adjust spices if necessary. Serve over pasta or rice.

Bitterly Cold

Old Man Winter is reluctant to let us out of his frozen embrace.

I checked the forecast this morning to see if there is any warmth in our near future. No such luck. There is a windchill warning for this afternoon of -42. Oh goody. Perhaps March will bring some warmer weather? Then again what is the saying? 'March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.' I guess I won't be dusting off the shorts and tank tops for a while yet.

New cleaning stuff!

New cleaning products make me excited. I know, I lead a sheltered life, but they really do! Last week I wandered into Canadian Tire specifically for some natural cleaning products. I have been using Clorox Green Works for the last couple of years but began to wonder how 'green' it really was being made by a company such as Clorox.

So I literally spent like a half an hour, possibly more, looking over all the products in the cleaning aisle. The one thing I didn't like about their cleaning product section was that all their products, green or otherwise, were all jumbled together so a person really has to search for what they are looking for.

I decided to try Method brand and boy am I pleased! The all-purpose cleaner smells divine! Pink grapefruit. Who wouldn't want a house that smells like that? I use it in the kitchen and bathrooms as well as in my mop bucket for washing the floor. My house smells wonderful afterwards... until, you know, a dog takes a dump on the carpet or a cat farts.

The Method dishwasher tabs also smell like grapefruit and combined with the Lemi-shine rinse aid do a better job than Finish ever did! Plus, my dishes smell like grapefruit- yet another bonus! All are made with natural ingredients and are biodegradable so you know, I'm doing my part!



Anyway... just wanted to let you know!

Pupdate Week 8

This will be my last 'official' Pupdate as the puppies are now old enough to leave Zama and the rest of the 'pack.'

They are spending a great deal of time outside exploring and playing. One of their favorite games is chasing each other around the hay bale. It's pretty cute.

This one is deciding whether or not it can snatch a chunk of pooh from the other side of the fence before Chocolate(aka Dr.Jekyll) stomps on its head.


Wouldn't you like to take this one home to your Valentine?

I call it...

'Cat on a cold tin roof.'

Lost and Found

Last night I had a wee bit of a scare. I opened the garage door after dinner and sent Zama out to take her puppies for a little romp in the snow. Well I guess I got distracted and when I went back to close the door, there were only five puppies sleeping in the pool. Uh oh.

I got the flashlight and headed out into the dark calling, "puppies! Come on puppies! Where are you puppies?" for nearly an hour. Zama was no help at all. She disappeared into her dog house. Good place for a neglectful mother. I heard a little puppy cry and found one trying to climb into the dog house with her. Gathered him up and took him back to the garage. One found, three still lost.

I headed back into the house and put my kids to bed before pulling my boots and coat on again and trudging back outside. I searched everywhere. Under the shed, in the cow feeder, around the house, in the window wells, in the woods, down the driveway... nothing. I had seen a set of what I thought were puppy tracks heading up into the top field but I thought there was no way they would have gone so far. I was wrong.

I heard some puppy crying way in the distance and quickly jumped the gate to the cow field and followed their path up to the waterer. There were three black shapes scampering towards me from the upper field. Boy, was I relieved. So I called them and they barked and whined and followed me back to the gate. Along comes Chocolate. Apparently cows are grumpy at night because she tried to gore one of the pups. The other two fled- one back to the waterer and the other to the feeder. I was screaming at Chocolate meanwhile she is rolling the pup around on the ground with her head. Thankfully she didn't try to step on it. I didn't want to get too close though for fear she might turn on me. When she stopped I quickly swooped in and grabbed the terrified little thing screaming over my shoulder, "you stupid b*tch, Chocolate! You are going in the freezer!" I'm sure all the neighbors in a five kilometer radius heard me swearing at the cow.

All the pups were fine, even the one who got tumbled, and were put back in the garage safe and sound. Puppies have short memories because they accompanied me on my chore rounds this morning and were scampering about with the cows. Either they have short memories, or Chocolate has a Dr.Jekyll/Mr. Hyde complex. Whatever the reason, she's ground beef next Fall!

Boys...

S asked for tomato soup in a thermos for lunch today. I was happy to oblige as it required minimal preparation and it meant I didn't have to come up with something myself.

When I wasn't looking he took the turkey baster out of the utensils drawer...
and ate his soup with it.
Some days I just shake my head...

Sunrise in Oil Country

I couldn't help running outside in my pjs in frigid conditions to snap this picture this morning. By the time I had walked the 15 paces back to my doorstep(shivering), the light had already changed so it was a good thing I was paying attention!


Good Morning World!

* -Denotes an abnormal temperature trend

Okay, we have been having some pretty weird weather here lately. Apparently Mother Nature can't make up her mind as to whether she wants to agree to the groundhog's prediction or just carry on with winter.

Last Thursday we had 14 degrees, the next day it was -10 and then -25 the day after. Then this week we had -12 one day and +8 the next. Yesterday it was +6 and raining and this afternoon we are heading towards a high of -8. You get the picture. It's been a weird few weeks.

I hate getting my hopes up for spring only to be disappointed with eight inches of snow on the May Long Weekend but when the temperatures soar to 14 degrees in January, it's hard not to get your hopes up! I suppose it's a good thing I like snow!

Quote of the Day

S and I went into town this afternoon and while driving we were listening to the radio. A song by Nirvana came on and after it was over S lets out this long suffering sigh and says:

"That sounded like gibberish to me."

Have I mentioned that he's three and a half? Yeah. He's a funny guy.

Pupdate Week 6 (better late than never)

So I'm a little behind with my pupdate this week. My apologies, I know you have all been waiting with anticipation *wink wink* to see how big the little monsters have gotten.

I have been in the garage the last two days trying to organize and puppy-proof things so I could get them out of my laundry room. Laundry has become more than a chore these last few weeks and to be honest I am looking forward to catching up on it now that I can safely go in there without being accosted by crazy dogs! Of course it still needs to be cleaned which I will tackle tomorrow *sigh*.

As you can see, they have left poor Dexter way behind in the size department. Oh well, he growls like he's big anyway!
Zama is playing 'keep away' (with her boobies, that is) *giggle*
Out exploring with Indi. I think she was hoping to lure them into a snowbank and make them disappear!
Isn't he handsome? He's my favorite.

So there you have it! And to my friend K... look! Puppies and snow! He he!