Catching Up April 2025 part 4

April 27 was Tell a Story Day. I told the kids a story. I don't remember what story I told them but I did. It was probably another family history story. 

Wait. I remember. We started looking through pictures to find a baby picture of Jr. for seminary graduation. We found some pictures of Jeremy and me from when we were dating and told the kids some stories about hiking up Rock Canyon in the snow with my brother to get pictures.

Oh, good memories. And silly memories. You see where our kids get it?

I love that I've had Jeremy in my life longer than I haven't. I look forward to the time that I've been married to him longer than I haven't. It won't be long.

Jeremy also told the kids the story behind this photo he got of a black gibbon (at the Hogle Zoo while we were dating).

It was yawning.

 

April 28 was Terry Pratchett's Birthday. I continued to read Wyrd Sisters. The kids watched Going Postal.

It was also Blueberry Pie Day so I made Thronis's Blueberry Pie from The Fablehaven Cookbook. Yumm.

It was also Great Poetry Reading Day. I read a little bit of poetry.

Shelftember

As has become tradition the last few years, each September I join with Jordan Page and many others to participate in Shelftember. Shopping with a limited grocery budget, more shelf cooking, saving money.

The question for me this year was:

Kristin, can you celebrate September holidays AND follow A Season of Family Meal Plans AND still do Shelftember?

The answer:

Yes. Yes, I can. And I did. The whole point of shelf cooking is using what you have which is what Shelftember is also about. Start with what you have. Those cookbooks give ideas for substitutes and I can change things around to have it work for me.

For example, September 2 was Blueberry Popsicle Day. We didn't have blueberry popsicles. We pulled blueberries out of the freezer to have with dinner (with yogurt) then had Otter Pops after dinner. Blueberries and popsicles. We like creativity in celebrating. Shelf cooking is the same way.

The meal for that day in A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, was Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken and Crispy Italian Potatoes. We had meat from a Costco rotisserie chicken that we got a few days before (no need to cook our own), used russet potatoes instead of red potatoes, and rounded out the meal by making garlic bread out of a homemade baguette that had been sitting in the fridge for a while, cutting up apples, and having that yogurt and blueberries I mentioned earlier. 

Jet was once again my kitchen helper. He liked shaking up the bag in order to season the potatoes.

Success. I did this all month long, getting things like produce and milk from the store, but saving a lot of money because I also stuck to my list. My mantra going through the store: Not on the list. Not gonna get it.

I absolutely skipped out on things I normally would have gotten. I did have to buy a 25 pound bag of flour toward the end because we were making so much bread, rolls, buns, cookies, brownies, instead of buying them. A 25 pound bag of flour doesn't cost too much, though, so we still saved money.

I really do like participating in Shelftember every year.

On a different note, September 2 was also Labor Day so I made sure to grab a selfie with the American flag which has also become tradition.

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 9

We had a couple relaxing days in Washington before Go Go Go again.

 

Church, resting, family time.

On July 7, we celebrated National Macaroni Day (with shells pasta, tee hee), World Chocolate Day with birthday cake because we also celebrated Nichole's Birthday, and Father Daughter Take a Walk Day. They got creative with that one. Heh Heh. 

 

On July 8, we celebrated Video Game Day and National Blueberry Day. I forgot to wear my new video game shirt that day so I wore it a few days later.

 

The doll head continued to be found in various places. 

It was nice to chill again.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

 

Raspberries 'n Cream Day 2022

August 7 was Raspberries 'n Cream Day.

I figured frozen mixed berries have raspberries so that would work with whipped topping. Then I made cupcakes so we could have a sort of strawberry shortcake with mixed berries.

Sigh. I seriously thought we had mixed berries in the freezer. I found multiple bags of blueberries and strawberries but nothing with raspberries.

So we celebrated Raspberries 'n Cream Day with strawberry/blueberry shortcake.

Later that night, Jeremy blew a raspberry at me... you know... to celebrate.

 

That day was also National Sisters Day so I wished a Happy National Sisters Day to my sisters.

Blueberry Pie

I did it! I deviated from my usual apple pie and made a blueberry pie to celebrate National Blueberry Pie Day on April 28. I don't think I ever made blueberry pie before that. Yay, me!

And it turns out it was simpler than apple pie since I used frozen blueberries and I didn't have to peel or cut apples. Yumm. 

It was also Terry Pratchett's birthday so the kids convinced me to let them watch part of Going Postal.

Pictures and Not Pictures

Sometimes you feel like taking pictures of your celebrating, of the food you eat. Sometimes you don't. So often I have pictures of food because a lot of celebrating revolves around the menu plan. I didn't feel like taking a lot of pictures of food this last week so I didn't. So here you go- pictures and not pictures.

 

Thursday, January 28, was National Blueberry Pancake Day. We celebrated it "observed" and had blueberry pancakes the day before. Yumm. One response from Jr. Jr. was, "You should definitely make these again, Mom." Thanks, Jr. Jr., there are plenty of blueberries in the freezer. I think I shall. I made both blueberry and plain pancakes as some of the family members weren't as enthusiastic about the blueberries (I love berries myself).

I shouldn't be surprised that Jr. Jr. loved the pancakes. In years past, he's loved picking and eating blueberries at my parents' house.

 

Friday, January 29, was National Corn Chip Day. Since we have a bigger family now than way back when we first started making taco soup for this holiday, we don't celebrate "Fill the Stock Pot to the Top" holiday anymore. We have to make a smaller batch since we don't have enough freezer space for the extra. When talking about preparing for the holiday, Jeremy was mentioning other things we could fill the stock pot with instead of taco soup. I had to let him know the holiday was actually National Corn Chip Day not Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day. Ohhhhhh. So this year I tried a new taco soup recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It was good.

Since January 29 is also National Puzzle Day, Jr. put on music from video games that have puzzles, especially "Puzzle Plank Galaxy" music from Super Mario Galaxy 2.

 

Saturday, we picked up prizes for doing Provo Library's Winter Reading Program. The completion prize for the teens and adults was a cocoa mug that says, "book. cocoa. sweater. repeat." Love it. 

Now I have two Provo City Library mugs. Jeremy and I each got one almost 20 years ago (whoa that's a long time) as a thank you when we did a show there. One of our many shows we've done over the years. It was probably a juggling show. We only have one of those left so it's fun to have new mugs from the library.

Anyway... we also earned packets of hot cocoa as another prize so we were able to celebrate National Hot Chocolate Day on Sunday, January 31,trying out our new mugs and cocoa.

The younger boys had fun with their prizes as well. Jr. Jr. and Lucky both got marshmallows that they were able to put in their hot chocolate- correction, they got marshmallows their marshmallow/snowball(?) plushies were able to throw in their hot chocolate.

 

 

By the way, I have to mention the sweetness of Lucky. When we went out to the van to go to the library on Saturday, he grabbed the scraper and wiped snow off the windshield for us. What a sweetie and what nice service.