My Husband is So Nice (and So Am I)

January 27 National Chocolate Cake Day. I didn't make chocolate cake that day but I made some recently. Mmmm. Thinking about it, now I want to make chocolate cake again.

 

January 28 was National Blueberry Pancake Day and even though my husband had a cold, he still made blueberry (and plain and chocolate chip) pancakes, omelettes, and hashbrowns.

 

January 29 was National Corn Chip Day and I made chicken soup (you know, for colds) and we put Fritos in our bowls of soup. Actually, it was turkey meat in the chicken broth with veggies and some pasta so it was turkey soup?

 

January 30 was National Croissant Day. We didn't have any croissants so we just had Asian Chicken Salad Sandwiches (from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 1) on rolls. Still yumm even without the croissants. 

 

Winter Reading

During December and January, Jet and I did a Winter Reading Challenge with Provo Library. We did some fun activities. We did some menu planning together. Jet and I went through cookbooks and he told me which recipes he wanted to do. 

One of them was monster cookies! They had M&M faces.

We built a blanket fort to read in.

We went for walks so he could take pictures of the mountains.

January 29 was Corn Chip Day. That's the day we picked up some prizes. I chose corn chips for one of my prizes.

That night was also Chinese New Year so we read an alphabet book about Chinese New Year and Jet and I went out to see the fireworks that night.

I started making Chinese food that day but we were busy so I think we ate what would have been our Chinese New Year meal a couple days later.

Jalapeno Dinner

January 29 was National Corn Chip Day. We don't fill the stock pot to the top any more with a seven times batch of taco soup. This year we made a double batch, though. 

The recipe calls for a can of pinto beans with jalapenos. We never do that. This year, however, we had some cans of diced tomatoes with jalapenos. I put in one of those cans and three regular cans.

I asked Jr. Jr. to pick out a bag of Fritos from the pantry to go with the taco soup. He picked Spicy Jalapeno Fritos.

Jeremy stopped by the grocery store on his way home from work to pick up some sale items and picked up a loaf of jalapeno French bread while he was there.

Ha Ha Ha Ha. So we had a jalapeno dinner.

Opportunities to Serve

There is a song that says, "Because I have been given much I too must give." I've always loved that song. I feel like I have so many blessings in my life. Even when things are hard, I still can count my blessings ("Count Your Blessings," incidentally, is another song I like). I feel like lately we've been given the opportunity to serve others and we've been taking those opportunities.

 

Sometimes it's serving in our own home. On Blueberry Pancake Day, January 28, I not only made blueberry pancakes but I also made chocolate chip pancakes and plain pancakes since there are different likes among my family members.

 

I planned to make a normal sized batch of taco soup this year for National Corn Chip Day, January 29, instead of filling the stockpot to the top with 7 times the recipe. I couldn't find any regular sized cans of hominy, though (which is how it all got started all those years ago), so I got a can to make a double batch. Making a double batch turned out to be the right thing since some neighbors were going through a great trial and we were able to offer them dinner. We had enough soup to share and we had french bread in the freezer so I was able to make garlic bread to go with it. I was able to give them a casserole and a loaf of homemade bread another day. It was the least we could do along with prayers for them during their trial.

 

Lucky's Activity Days group was split because of the number of boys they had so he got some new leaders. He wanted to do something for them and the boys at their first activity together, so he made cookies to take.

 

Jet and I were able to help an injured neighbor collect eggs from her chickens because it was hard for her. She was nice and let us keep the eggs we collected. Jr. Jr. and Lucky helped me collect eggs another time. They all enjoyed it.

Nichole and Jr. had an orchestra recital and got there early enough to help set up then helped clean up afterward.

I was able to use what I've been learning about shelf cooking and freezer meals to make some on the road food for Nichole and Jr. that night. They had to leave orchestra rehearsal early at a neighboring high school in order for me to drive them over to the orchestra recital at their high school.

 

Sometimes it's simple acts of service that are easy for us but make a big difference for someone else. I have been given much so it is a blessing for me to give to others.

Fill the Stockpot to the Top Day

It's been years but I was determined this year. Since we have more freezer space, I was determined to make the huge batch of taco soup for National Corn Chip Day, January 29. And I did it.

The funny thing is... originally when we started doing the huge batches of taco soup it was because the hominy came in huge cans. This year when I wanted to find the big cans of hominy, I had to go to three different stores before I finally found what I was looking for. But I was determined so I found it and I made that huge batch of taco soup. Yay.

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.

Puzzling Chili

National Corn Chip Day on January 29 used to be "Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day." We'd make a huge pot of taco soup, eat some with corn chips, then freeze the rest. Well, our family has grown since we originally started doing that and we have less room in our freezer now for that much leftover taco soup. We don't fill the stock pot to the top anymore. This year, in fact, we decided to make turkey chili instead of taco soup. We still ate it with corn chips and we still had leftovers, but the leftovers fit in the fridge and would be eaten before too long.

January 29 is also National Puzzle Day so Jeremy and Lucky got some bonding in working on a jigsaw puzzle. Lucky loves puzzles and it's fun to see those two putting a puzzle together.

Annual Taco Soup Day

Here we go again.  The day that used to be known as Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day has come upon us again.  However, now we only do a double batch of taco soup instead of a seven times batch.  We've gone back to the original name of the holiday, National Corn Chip Day.

January 29 is also National Puzzle Day.  We didn't start on our new Eric Dowdle puzzle.  Instead the kids and I played Go Fish with Jr. Jr.'s spelling words.

January Catch Up

So you want to know what we did in January that I didn't blog about (which was most of the month)?  O.K.  Let's catch up.

We celebrated:
January 7 was Old Rock Day.  A birding friend (yes, there was still a lot of birding) gave us an old rock- stigmaria.  It's a fossilized root.  Did I mention our birding friend is also a paleontologist?

January 8 was Elvis’ Birthday.  We didn’t have any Elvis movies to watch or songs to listen to.  We watched “The Court Jester” for Family Home Evening.  “Long live the king.”  That movie also had Angela Lansbury in it who played Elvis’ mother in a few of his movies.

January 10 was Peculiar People Day.  We celebrate by existing.
January 16 was Appreciate a Dragon Day.  Lucky watched "How to Train Your Dragon."  Nichole wore a dragon necklace.
January 17 was Popeye's birthday.  We had chicken salad with spinach in it.
January 18 was Winnie-the-Pooh Day.  Lucky and I played with “My Friends, Tigger and Pooh” figurines.  Later, Lucky put together a Winnie-the-Pooh puzzle.  We had a honey themed dinner- honey glazed ham, rolls with butter and honey, salad with honey mustard dressing.  Yumm.

January 19 was Brew a Potion Day.  It was also National Popcorn Day.  We watched “Hocus Pocus” while eating popcorn.

January 20 was Cheese (Lover’s) Day.  I think we had something cheesy for dinner.
January 21 was Squirrel Appreciation Day.  We didn’t celebrate that day but Jeremy got some good squirrel pictures a couple days later.

January 23 was Pie Day.  I made impossible cheeseburger pie for dinner and an apple pie for dessert.  We used our new Pi plate.

January 24 was National Compliment Day.  I tried to be nice to my kids all day.
January 25 was a Room of One’s Own Day.  I did spend some time in my room that day reading and watching a movie, but I wasn’t able to spend as much time as would have been nice since Jeremy was working.  Oh well.  I wasn’t going to tell him not to work just so I could celebrate by being lazy.  Also the DVD player I was using to watch my movie kept goofing up so it wasn't as relaxing because of it.  Oh well again.
January 28 was National Kazoo Day.  Jr. shared his talent.

January 29 was National Corn Chip Day.  We had chili and corn chips.  January 29 was also National Puzzle Day.  The kids watched me play some Monkey Island.

January 31 was Backwards Day.  We had dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.  The boys were very happy because they also had dessert before their morning meal.  They didn’t think about wearing their clothes backwards this year.  Oh well.  Jr. did walk backwards when coming to meet me after school.

We did other things:

Jr. Jr. got an award for a school project he did.

 Jeremy and Lucky went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point one day.

Lucky and I had a teddy bear picnic.  It was too cold to have it outdoors so we picnicked in the back of the van while Daddy was out birding (told you there was birding).

Jeremy and I went on a date to a dinner with other birders.

We dragged the kids out birding with us a few times. 

We also enjoyed a nice drive around the lake one evening.

We met some new birds- blue jay, Northern pygmy owl, and Pacific wren.  There were some others as well.

We found a friend outside the church building on the way to church one morning.  A red-naped sapsucker. 

It was still there when we got out of church and when we went back for choir practice.  When we got out of choir practice it was still there so I was taking pictures when another birder came up behind me with her camera.  She found out from Jeremy about the sapsucker and it was a new life bird for her.
Over the next few days several other birders came to see the sapsucker.
 
And that was January.