I Love Birding Challenges

Besides the annual reading challenge I'm doing, it is another year for a birding challenge through Utah County Birders. Books and birds. Aren't they great? And yes, I will sometimes listen to an audiobook while I'm looking at birds.

Jeremy and Nichole (who are also doing the birding challenge), got out one evening for some bonding birding time to the Provo River Delta and saw a barn owl among a few other birds.

Jeremy and I decided to go the next week for a morning birding adventure to see if we could find the owl.

We got there nice and early. You know I love mornings in nature. It was cold, we didn't see the barn owl, but we saw so many other birds. It was worth it.

And somehow I turned the exposure way down on the birding camera so all the bird pictures we took are dark. Sigh.

Oh well. We still enjoyed seeing them... together.

 

I love bonding time! 

 

That day, January 17, was Popeye Day and Hot Heads Chili Day so we had spinach salad and chili on cornbread (I added hot sauce on top of my chili).

The next day, January 18, was Winnie-the-Pooh Day. We had foods with honey: Honey garlic chicken, salad with honey mustard dressing.

It was also Thesaurus Day so we had fun figuring out different way of saying things. Lucky wanted to make Kool-aid. I corrected him and told him it was "Colored Flavored Sugar Water." He needed to put crystalized sweetener in it (aka sugar). The funny thing is the honey I used for dinner was crystalized (crystalized sweetener) so I had to heat it up in order to use it. Heh Heh Heh. 

More Celebrating in January

January 16 was Fig Newton Day. We ate fig newtons. Do you remember the commercial way back that said, "It's not a cookie. It's a newton"? I looked at the packaging for fig newtons and it calls them cookies. Ha.

It was also Appreciate a Dragon Day. Dad did some writing about dragons.

January 17 was Museum Selfie Day. Jeremy had some stuff to do at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point so he made sure to celebrate the holiday while there.

It was also Popeye Day. I sang Popeye cartoon theme music over and over to the kids while we ate Popeye spinach.

It was also Hot Heads Chili Day. Let me tell you how I did some shelf cooking those two days, following "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1.

I was thinking of making some spicy chili on Hot Heads Chili Day and the day before I was going to make lasagna soup with garlic bruschetta. Well, Jr. wasn't feeling the greatest that first day and said Ogre Stew sounded good to him. Ogre Stew is kind of like a white bean chili and it was a bit spicy so we had it for Hot Heads Chili Day Observed. 

The garlic bruschetta was supposed to use fresh tomatoes but we were out so I took a can of diced tomatoes, added the other ingredients, and cooked them up to make a sauce. Then I took my homemade baguettes (The Food Nanny recipe), cut them in rounds, and made them into garlic bread to put the sauce on top. It worked.

So the next day I made the lasagna soup to go with spinach salad. I also made cornbread muffins which were suggested in the book but I used a recipe I always use instead of the one from the book. That's another thing about shelf cooking. If I have a tried and true recipe why look for something else?

 

Lucky very nicely took pictures then edited them to make me green like spinach.

Speaking Of...

Continuing on with what has become tradition this year. When we got back from our Pacific Northwest trip, Jeremy and I got a selfie with the American flag because they forgot to take it down after Pioneer Day. Heh Heh Heh.

Speaking of my husband, we were at the grocery store one day and he saw some chili cornbread in the discount bakery section and said it looked so good. I told him I could make that at home. Cornbread is easy to make. We had green chilies in the pantry. So later, I made some. Yumm.

Speaking of American flags, one day we were sitting at home and there was a lovely rain and windstorm happening outside. A few of us went outside to enjoy it. It definitely got the American flags blowing. And check out Jet's hair.

Speaking of Jet, one day we needed help bringing in Costco supplies from the van. Jet really wanted to help so he grabbed the first two shoes that he could find, put them on, then went up to help.

Speaking of helping out, one day my sons said this to me. "You wanted us to help pick up the living room, right?" This is what I found them carrying:

Speaking of carrying, one day Nichole, Jet, and I went to a park so I could let Jet run around without worrying about him running off. He went a little ways then decided he just wanted Mommy to pick him up and hold him. Ha Ha Ha Ha. He sure liked the swings, though.

Speaking of Jet again, he's decided it's hilarious to pull my apron strings, not just to untie them, though, but to pull them hard enough to make me have to step back. He is so fun.

What She Missed- August 11

Wednesday, August 11-

Play in the Sand Day. After doing chores again, the boys convinced me to let them play more video games- either sandbox games or games that had sand in them.

We didn't have any real sand so the toddler had to make do with what he could find while Mom wasn't looking.

Good thing I hadn't put the eggs in yet. 

I'll say my reaction was good, though. He's a toddler. It's not like he would understand if I gave him a talking to about what he did wrong. So I let him play and took pictures. I figured the mess to clean up wouldn't be different if I stopped him as soon as I saw or if I waited until he was done. There would just be less screaming if I waited so I did then moved him over to the kitchen sink where I could wash him off. Then I gave strict instructions for people to watch him and keep him out of the kitchen while I cleaned up and started a new batch of cornbread.

This isn't the first time I've handled a messy situation with a toddler and managed to get pictures. I even blogged about some of them, especially when I kept my temper. When Jr. was little, he drew all over his face with a sparkly pen. I blogged about it in September of 2009.

When Jr. Jr. was little, he got finger paint on our new bed. I blogged about it in July of 2013.

There are others but sometimes I'm pleased with how I handle situations. I think it helped that I was already in a good mood when I found Jet with the cornbread mix.

First Day of Fall

Before I tell you about the first day of Fall, September 22, let me tell you about the day before.  September 21 is the birthday of H.G. Wells.  To celebrate, Nichole checked out "The Invisible Man" from the school library.  She read the whole thing and turned it back in to the library the next day which is why I didn't get around to getting pictures.  I commented that Nichole was quick.  Jeremy commented that she must have used a "time machine."

Now... the first day of Fall.  Great day for a walk, right?  Jeremy, Lucky, and I did go for a walk and did some birding.  We wore jackets.

 
That evening, even though the weather felt more like Winter than Fall (snow up in the hills), our ward hosted the 2nd annual neighborhood chili and cornbread cook-off.

It was fun to socialize and eat food.  Yumm.  It was a bit chilly but the chili was good.
Ah, Fall.