Apples Apples Apples

We brought home a LOT of apples from Hubby's mom. Thanks, Nana! Saucing a bunch up today, we'll have fried apples for dessert, and we'll see if there are any left. I doubt it, they taste so yummy.



It seems that there is always one mascot apple that I'm loathe to cut up. This one probably weighs a pound and a half!



How many people have a birds nest on their dinner table? This one was found in one of the apple trees where we picked the apples. I need to find it a home. (Excuse the back to school pile of papers...)



We don't have a nature table, at least not right now. The one we were using became my chairside table. I do try to keep some things about the season on the center of the dining room table, though. And thanks to Mamaroots, we have a new friend this month! Abel Loves Apples. He's been given his own harvest and pumpkin patch to care for. A friend has a scroll saw that isn't being used, and has promised it to me. When it arrives Abel can have a few apple trees to care for, too.

Family Trip to the Zoo

It was amazing. We had a wonderful family adventure to the zoo, and nobody melted. The weather was cloudy, and occasionally drizzly, but nobody got cold. We were all full of smiles. Nobody complained about the food from home (fried rice, full of veggies, packed into a tiffin box, thank goodness for the carrier, it was still warm.

These pictures of the kids were taken in our Zoo's new Serengeti exhibit. But really, this a true snapshot of our life. Babybug is ALWAYS zooming around. That boy is a mover and a shaker. All of my kids fascinate me, who they are becoming, who they've been, and where that is leading. They are amazing, all of them. I get the older two, they are a lot like Hubby and I, however, the little one...he's an enigma.




The chase continued around a big ol' baobob tree in the courtyard for several minutes. It was hilarious!

Hubby and I were having fun, and maybe he looks a bit tired here, we were waiting for the train to start. Babybug has this look of awe and wonder that I adore.



Caveboy rides again, with his side kick, Cavegirl. Really, they are in a log in the Pacific Northwest exhibit. But pretending is fun!




This was the beginning of Caveboy in 2009. He crawled into some rocks on the lava flow and we discussed how it must have been for prehistoric man to live in a cave. So ever since he's been Caveboy! Cavegirl didn't get to go on that adventure, she was busy doing other things, like fishing. Ever since, I never pass up opportunities to call him Caveboy. Hee hee.

Fat-Free Half-and-Half

At first, this seemed like the best food! Really, cream with no fat, doesn't that sound fabulous?

So we bought some last night to make our Ikea meatballs a little less "bad for you" (you have to make the cream sauce with cream).

After I made it, while waiting for everything to be done, I read the ingredients, wondering what made this miracle food such a miracle. Well, horror upon horrors, it is corn syrup that makes it sooo good.

Part of our lifestyle change is cutting out this awful perversion of corn from our diets.

We'll be going back to whole fat half and half (when needed occasionally), thank you very much.

Meals for the Rest of the Week

Tonight-Wednesday-White Bean Chicken Chili-5 pts

Thursday-Crock Pot Beef and Broccoli Dinner for Dieters-7 pts

Friday-Cabbage and Rice Casserole-5 pts

Saturday-leftovers and fresh bread

This thing about food...

My pantry is full. Not just sort of full, not halfway full, but really full, as in stacking-cans-on-top-of-each-other full. So its time for a menu plan. At the begining of the year I was planning our meals weeks ahead of time using the Menus4Moms forms. I do like their forms because I can write the kids chores next to the days meal. There are lots of other forms available for free download on the internet, though. Susanne might even have some!

Somehow, somewhere along the way I got behind on planning. The thing I discovered is that meal planning takes time set aside specifically for that purpose. And thats a really tough thing for me...finding time.

Cindy would tell me to "Shop at home!" and "Do instead of buy!". It's time for Christmas shopping, and I just keep buying food, even though I have full cupboards (it's a security thang). With the long holiday weekend right upon me, I'm going to sit down and plan out my meals from here to the end of the year. This will be accomplished using just the food in my pantry! Well, I might have to buy some meat, bread, milk, and coffee creamer, but the bulk of our meals should be found in the pantry already. Besides which, I have to use up those 25 pounds of dry beans at some point!