Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day

January 29 was National Corn Chip Day.  We used to fill our huge stock pot to the top with taco soup to eat with corn chips on that day.  Then we'd have plenty to freeze and eat later.  Yumm.  We nicknamed the holiday "Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day."
The last few years, however, we haven't been making enough to fill the stock pot all the way to the top. There's definitely not enough room in the freezer as we have a bigger family now and we keep more items in the freezer since we use more with more people.  A couple years ago we only made the amount of the regular recipe instead of 7 times that like we used to.
This year we did 4 times the recipe.  It didn't fill the stock pot completely so that we had to hold to the very end of the spoon to stir it.  It filled quite a bit of it, though. 

I was mentioning to Jeremy about how it was actually National Corn Chip Day so it didn't matter that we didn't fill the stock pot all the way to the top and he told me he didn't realize Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day wasn't an actual holiday.  We always call it that.  Ha Ha Ha Ha.  He's cute.
He's also cute because he got silly while labeling the freezer bags of taco soup.  Here are some of the names:
El Taco Soupo, Fill My Stomach to the Top Day Soup, An Excuse to Eat Fritos Soup.

January 29 was also National Puzzle Day so we got out our puzzle box and all the kids all took some time to do puzzles.

Pleasant activity.
None of the kids complained about the soup, either.  Well, once they tasted it anyway.  Lucky was upset at first because he just wanted corn chips but he was happy to eat soup when he knew he could have sour cream in it.  One of our children suffered in silence and the other two expressed how tasty it was.  After most of us ate our fill, there was still plenty left over to freeze and some to put in the fridge for leftovers to be eaten up probably soon.  It's yummy.

Chinese New Year 2017

Welcome, Year of the Rooster- the fire rooster.  January 28 this year was Chinese New Year.
While Jeremy was at work, Jr. Jr. taught his siblings how to make lanterns.  They had fun with that.

I spent some time making food (Jeremy and I had made some things ahead of time, but there was still plenty to do).
Jeremy brought a big fire rooster home with him from work

"He's a chicken, I tell ya'.  A giant chicken."

Name that TV show- the kids got to watch some earlier in the day.

Jeremy also brought home a Chinese knot so we had plenty of decorations.

He also helped me finish up the food which was yummy... again.  Thanks, Jeremy.

Lucky also helped.

We had Orange Chicken and Not Orange Chicken, Ham Fried Rice, Egg Rolls, Chow Mein.

Of course we had fortune cookies at the end.  Here are a few of our fortunes.

Catch of the Day

 Cuteness!

My Day Off

I took a day off yesterday.  January 25 is A Room of One's Own Day.  I look forward to that holiday every year.  I even put on the menu plan "Fend For Yourself, Mom's Day Off."  Jeremy was so wonderful to do dinner for everyone, including me.  I didn't have to fend for myself.  He's so sweet.
It was nice to have some time off.  Lucky did come in a few times and watch a little of the movies I was watching.  And after school, some kids kept having questions for me.  For the most part, though, I was able to have uninterrupted time to go through some papers I needed to organize (still have so much to do) and I made a nice dent in my mending box.  I didn't take any pictures but it was nice.

Here's a picture of a pumpkin pie I made for Pie Day, January 23, though.

What?

One is the Loneliest Number

Jr. Jr. (singing):  One is the loneliest number.  Two is almost the loneliest number.
I'm not sure where he got it.  It's possible he heard me singing, "One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do.  Two can be as bad as one.  It's the loneliest number since the number one."  I haven't sung that song often, though.

Cheesy Penguins

Celebrating in January is great for menu planning.
Since January 20 is National Cheese Lover's Day, we decided to have cheese fondue for dinner.  We had plenty to dip in the cheese sauce including fish sticks since today is also Penguin Awareness Day.
After dinner, we turned on a penguin documentary from BBC Earth, Penguins  Spy in the Huddle.
It's a really fun one.