Posts Tagged ‘water’
Lots of you wanted the potato soup recipe that I used the other night … so here it is! :)
6 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 1/2 C water
1/2 C chopped onion
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 C shredded cheese
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
In a 3.5- or 4-quart slow cooker, combine potatoes, water, onion, bouillon cubes, and pepper. Cover; cook on low for 9-11 hours or high 4-4 1/2 hours. Stir cheese and milk into soup. Cover, cook on Low 1 more hour or on High 30 minutes more. Mash potatoes slightly.
I was just downstairs with Jeff, commenting on how nice it is that Lucas can now play by himself in our bonus room without getting into trouble. We thought that he was watching his “Jonah” DVD. Wrong! I came upstairs to get Meredith up from her nap, and Luke was completely naked in our guest bathroom. He was squirting hand soap into the sink, filling it with water, tearing off pieces of toilet paper, and throwing them into the “pool.” I *just* cleaned that bathroom yesterday. What’s that saying about kids suddenly getting quiet … that’s when you know that mischief is happening! :)
Jeff had the day off work today (thank you, veterans, for all that you do for our country … we honor you and remember you today), so we went shopping at K-mart because we heard that lots of toys were 50 percent off. I hadn’t been inside a K-mart in years, and honestly, I used to think that K-mart was kind of junky. But I was *so* surprised! Not so! (At least, our store wasn’t.) They had all kinds of great stuff. The kids had a blast looking at the toys. (Lucas wanted some Harley parts ~ just kidding!) We actually did *all* of our Christmas shopping for Lucas and Meredith today, and now my moms’ group is having a gift wrapping session on the 20th (the moms get together for some fun, fellowship, and wrapping presents together). It feels good to have a bit of a head start on Christmas! We also had lunch at Pizza Hut. I lost count of how many pieces of pepperoni pizza Lucas ate! They served this weird dessert pizza that tasted like chocolate pudding with some frosting on top. Blech.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my milk question. I can’t believe all of the different advice that doctors give. I think that we’re going to stick with whole milk for the kids for a while. I’m just happy to see that milk prices have come down recently. A gallon at our grocery store today was only $2 something.
Did anyone watch “The Big Bang Theory” last night? Did you catch Sheldon’s movie reference? Leonard said to Penny, “Congratulations … you are now one of us.” And then Sheldon said, “One of us … one of us …” I wracked my brain last night and this morning, trying to figure out what movie that line was from. We Googled it last night but didn’t have any luck. First thing when I woke up this morning, though, I suddenly remembered what movie I was thinking of. Do you know? (Answer in the comments section!) I was *so* freaking relieved to have figured it out! It was driving me nuts!
I’ve been battling a nasty virus for the past three days. That’s why I haven’t been on the computer in a while ~ I literally couldn’t see straight to look at the computer screen. Thank goodness I’m finally starting to feel better now! My nurse practitioner friend told me that this particular virus mimicks the flu but actually attacks your inner ear ~ hence the reason why I felt like I had the flu but my head also felt incredibly strange. Now I know what it feels like to have a migraine. Worst headache I’ve ever had in my entire life. With both of my ears screwed up, I threw up quite a few times because my equilibrium was off. So, I spent a lot of time lying down with my eyes closed. I started sipping water last night and continued throughout the night, and I also took allergy medicine to help fix my ears. That worked great, because when I woke up this morning, my head/vision wasn’t all funky anymore. My head still hurts, but I’m thankful to be able to eat and drink now and actually get up and move around. So that’s where I’ve been lately … just wanted to let you know!
Last night, I peeled the small pumpkin that we received in our CSA share. I chopped it into cubes, spread the pieces onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkled them with cinnamon, and drizzled some water on top (for a bit of “steam”). Then, I popped the sheet into a 425-degree oven for 30 minutes. The pumpkin pieces were incredibly soft and tender when they came out ~ not to mention made our entire house smell like pumpkin and cinnamon. I put the pieces into our electric mixer and turned them into pumpkin puree. And this morning, I made pumpkin muffins from scratch ~ using the homemade pumpkin. I was so curious as to whether they would taste better than using regular canned pumpkin. Oh my goodness. So freaking delicious! The muffins had lots more flavor and were extremely moist. Now I’m tempted to make my mother-in-law’s famous pumpkin pie with homemade puree, too. (A note to my friend Jan: I bet that you could turn this pumpkin puree into a homemade masque just like Bath & Body Works sells ~ add some cinnamon, perhaps some sweet almond oil, and chill it in the fridge for a while! I love that stuff … I was wondering how to get rid of acne on my face during a certain time of the month, and maybe pumpkin puree is the cure!) Sure, it takes a little bit more time to roast your own pumpkin. But it’s definitely worth it.
Oh, and last night I also roasted some butternut and delicata squash from our CSA and made homemade squash soup for dinner. What a hearty, soothing, warming autumn meal! Some crusty bread would have been nice as an accompaniment, but we unfortunately didn’t have any. I’m planning to make this soup when our parents visit at the end of this month for Meredith’s second birthday party. Speaking of that, we’ve received our very first RSVP! Ani, Niel, and baby Olivia are coming. Yay! :)
I’ve been so busy today that I’m just now getting around to posting a photo for Wordless Wednesday. The other night, I gave Meredith a bath. Got her out of the tub when she was done, wrapped her in a towel, dried her off, applied lotion, put on a new diaper, dressed her in comfy pajamas, brushed her hair ~ the works. Then, what did she do? Ran down the hallway at breakneck speed and jumped right back into the bathtub. Fully clothed.
I guess that she’s just a “bathtub junkie” like her mama. :)
It’s approaching 10:30 p.m., and I should probably head to bed soon. But I’m not quite ready yet, so … why not blog? :) Just a while ago, I posted an entry over at Wellness Journey with some cool links to Internet sites that I’ve come across recently. (Did you know that I have a second blog?) I think that blogging began as a way of sharing interesting webpages, so I’m just trying to go back to my blogging roots. :)
Went to our town’s beach today with the kids. Had a blast. The water was freezing, but after a while I got used to it and was swimming around like crazy. Got a little bit of sun, too. We tried to give the kids a little mini swimming lesson, and Meri did *really* well with kicking her legs and letting me hold her while she tried to float on her back. I think that I gave birth to two fish. :) I’m definitely going to take them there again sometime this next week ~ probably Wednesday after I finish this freelance assignment.
I sat down this evening and printed out a “schedule” for the next few weeks. I listed all of our appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, get-togethers, parties ~ you name it. I love being organized like that. I’ve just felt overwhelmed lately, like there’s *so* much to do. But today at the beach was *such* a nice break. I didn’t bring our camera, either … I just relaxed and had fun. Tomorrow, though, it’s buckling down to work on more freelance stuff.
And now, I think that it’s almost bedtime. Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend so far!
As soon as I turned in the rest of my freelance assignment this morning, I packed our diaper bag, scooped up the kids, and took them to the beach. The weather couldn’t have been any more perfect. Absolutely gorgeous. One of those beautiful summer days that I wish I could somehow bottle up and then fling open during the height (depth?) of winter. I figured that Lucas and Meredith wouldn’t want to go into the water (as in, the Hudson River), so I didn’t dress them in swimsuits or pack them ~ and boy, was I *completely* wrong! They were like fish.
I don’t have much on my calendar for this upcoming week, but I have a *ton* of things on my to-do list. Among them are making a dentist’s appointment, rescheduling my doctor’s checkup, scheduling my yearly OB/GYN checkup, making a follow-up appointment for Lucas’s Lyme Disease at the pediatrician’s office, etc. I *dread* making appointments and will be *overjoyed* when they’re all done and over with.
I also need to finish this freelance assignment by the end of the day tomorrow. After that, I’m going to take the kids to our town’s beach. It might be kind of difficult because the beach is *so* rocky at first (you have to walk a bit of a distance to get past the rocky area). It’s not stroller-friendly at all (perhaps a Bugaboo stroller would work!), but maybe we’ll be able to navigate OK. I’ll be worried about watching the two of them by myself while we’re so close to the water, but since it’s not crowded there, it’ll hopefully be easier. I’d also like to take them to this really great area called the Ooms Conservation Area. It’s 180 acres, and one of Jeff’s coworkers told me that it’s “all the rage” now. The kids would get a wonderful chance to run around and enjoy the fresh air, and I might be able to snap some good photographs.
I can’t get over how *nice* our weather is today! It rained for a while, and I turned off our air conditioning because it’s *so* breezy outside. When the wind blows, I can hear the trees in our front yard creaking. I like to think that they’re talking to each other. :) Jeff took Luke and Meri to church this morning and then stopped by our friends’ house to play for a while, and I’m working hard on this freelance assignment. It’s nice to have some time *alone* here at home, in the peace and quiet! (Well, there’s the noise of the trees, of course, and I can also hear birds chirping and cars driving down our road.) Living out in the country just rocks.
By the way, I’m working on a little something new right now. A new endeavor, I guess you could say. Sorry to be so vague, but I’m *very* excited about it and can’t *wait* to tell you when I get everything all set up! It might take a while, though. I hope that it’ll be a success, but I’ll just have to wait and see. (Ahh, don’t you just love suspense?)
I feel overwhelmed right now. Pulled in *so* many different directions. This morning, I was invited to a lake get-together at the home of one of our moms’ group mentors ~ and I had a *blast* there with Lucas and Meredith last year. But this morning, I woke up *totally* exhausted. I didn’t sleep very much at all the night before last, and it caught up with me today. I decided not to go. Plus, I felt *very* nervous about watching two toddlers at the same time and making sure that they don’t run away or go too far into the water. (We need to buy them arm floaties!) It’s also incredibly humid outside here today ~ not like Indiana humid, but heavy air. I think that we’ll be spending most of our time indoors today. (I’m *so* grateful to my grandpa, who paid for our air conditioning to be installed a few years ago!) I also felt *so* tired last night (and my back hurt off and on) that just I wasn’t able to gather together all of the things that we’d need for a lake outing this morning. It made me tired just thinking about it. Hopefully everyone who goes will have a nice time, though.
But back to feeling overwhelmed … there’s just *so* much that I want (and need) to get done. But I feel like I can’t keep up. Sometimes I just don’t even know where to start. I’m behind on a freelancing assignment, and getting it done is my main priority right now. I also have a few feature stories due this month. Our house is a wreck (well, except for our dining room and living room, which are in great shape). There are just a ton of things that I’d like to accomplish (some little, some big), but I feel like every day I *barely* make a dent in my to-do list. (Heck, with two toddlers, some days I can’t even sit down to *write* a to-do list!) These days, I go to sleep at night thinking about what absolutely *has* to get done tomorrow, and then I figure that if any other stuff gets done, too, it’s a bonus! I guess that I just need to go easier on myself.
Hey, another heads up ~ I found some more neat stuff on sale at Buy.com. I *love* our photo printer, but something like this ~ a fax, printer, copier, and scanner all in one ~ would rock. It’s only $99.99 and has been reconditioned. (Our scanner isn’t working at the moment.) My husband actually just bought us a GPS system (refurbished) the other day ~ I’m *so* excited! I’m horrible with directions, and this will *really* help.
Speaking of traveling, we’re headed to Montreal soon for a family vacation! It’s going to be *so* much fun! We’re not sure when yet, but there’s a children’s festival in August. And it takes place in a park that has a beach and just looks *awesome* from what I’ve read on the website. We’ve been wanting to go to Montreal, and it’s pretty close to where we live. Now we just need to figure out what stuff we’ll need in order to get into Canada (driving). So if you’ve been to Montreal before, we’d love to hear any travel advice that you might have. Hey, I’ll get to practice my French again, too! :)
“You never see it coming when the world caves in on you
On your town, nothing you can do
Main Street isn’t Main Street anymore ~
Lights don’t shine as brightly as they shone before
But it’s our town, love it anyway
Come what may, it’s our town …”
~”Our Town,” written by Randy Newman
I talked with my mom on the phone yesterday afternoon, and she said that living in my hometown is much like a “war zone” at the moment. As I posted before, Columbus, IN, has been devastated by severe flooding. (For those of you who don’t know, Columbus is about an hour south of Indianapolis, about an hour north of Louisville, KY, and just 45 minutes from Bloomington, the home of Indiana University.) During our phone conversation, my mom saw a few helicopters zooming past overhead ~ more than likely picking up patients with serious medical emergencies and taking them to nearby hospitals for treatment. (Columbus’s hospital is still closed, with flood damage now estimated at $125 million.) The only place where Columbus residents can go for medical issues right now is the PromptMed on 25th Street.
Shannon and I were talking about how weird it is to see our hometown splashed all over the news ~ and how removed we feel from the situation, with us both living so far away. I wish that we could do more to help. If I still lived there (or even nearby), I’d definitely be volunteering in any way that I possibly could. I think about how horrible Hurricane Katrina was, and now we’ve really caught a glimpse of what it’s like to see our hometown completely under water. Jeff and I are planning a family trip out to Indiana next month, and I’m curious to see how everything will look by then. My mom said that officials are estimating three years in order to get things back to some semblance of how they were before.
Well, this blog entry is kind of difficult to write, because I’m not one for asking for help. When our children were born and my mom was here visiting ~ helping us with so many things including laundry, dishes, preparing meals, and cleaning ~ it felt kind of strange because I’m usually the one taking care of everything. I’m such a “do it myself” kind of person. But … after seeing pictures of my flooded hometown and hearing stories about the extensive water damage, I’m moved to help out in any way that I possibly can from a distance ~ and to ask for help from others who might be willing.
Here’s a personal story. One of my high school friends recently e-mailed me and said that she’s seeking donations for a Columbus couple who is expecting twin girls this September. They also have a five-year-old daughter and have suffered two miscarriages. This husband and wife have pretty much lost everything because of the flood. Just a few months before delivery, they’re trying to figure out where they’ll live and how to furnish their new home. My friend Kelly said, “Let’s help them not worry about the baby stuff. One gift won’t change much, but all of us giving will help two stressed-out parents welcome two babies into a better world.” We’re mailing them a check, and even though I wish that we could give more, hopefully it’ll help them in some way. If you’d like to consider helping, too, Kelly tells me that they’re registered at Target, Kmart, and Wal-Mart (under the names Scott and LaShaunda Brown). But above all, any prayers and/or best wishes that you could send their way would be much appreciated.
If you’re interested in making a monetary donation to help the people of Columbus, IN who have been affected by this recent flooding, here is some information:
- American Red Cross: for emergency relief efforts. Checks should be made payable to “Red Cross” and mailed to 931 Repp Dr., Columbus, IN 47201. For more information, you can contact them by phone at 812.379.9551.
- Heritage Fund of Bartholomew County: donations to be allocated to area not-for-profit agencies. Checks should be made payable to “Community Disaster Relief Fund” and mailed to 538 Franklin St., Columbus, IN 47201. For more information, you can contact them by phone at 812.376.7772.
- Columbus Regional Hospital: an established fund to assist the hospital with efforts to restore full services. Checks should be made payable to “Columbus Regional Hospital Foundation” with the words “Flood Recovery Fund” designated on the memo line and mailed to 2400 E. 17th St., Columbus, IN 47201. For more information, you can visit the hospital’s donation website.
- The Salvation Army: (Thank you, Adelle, for adding this one to the list!) Columbus’s location is 2525 Illinois St., Columbus, IN 47201. You can mail a check there (mentioning Columbus flood victims in your check’s memo line) or go online to find ways to help. For more information, please call the Columbus office at 812.372.7118 or the national number at 1.800.SAL.ARMY.
- There’s also PayPal. If you have a PayPal account and happen to have a few extra bucks in there right now ~ whether it’s $1, $5, or some other amount ~ I know that a contribution for Columbus would be more than appreciated. You can send a PayPal payment to me at lvjensen@alumni.indiana.edu, but just make sure to specify in the comments/notes section that the money is for Columbus flood victims. I will gather all of those donations and pass them along directly to Columbus, IN, for flood assistance.
For everyone who makes a donation (in any form) to help the people in my hometown who have been affected by this awful flooding, I will send you a handwritten thank-you note along with some handcrafted bath and body goodies (made by me). I’m not sure what those items will entail yet, but I’ll have to take summer temperatures into consideration (very hard on glycerin soaps!). I’m sure that some bath salts, bath fizzies, etc. will be involved. All you need to do is send me your mailing address, and I’ll get some fun bath items to you as soon as possible (along with my sincere appreciation).
Thank you, everyone, so very much for reading this blog entry and for holding good thoughts for the people in my hometown whose lives have unfortunately been affected by this severe flooding.
