Tryouts

Life just doesn’t seem to slow down.  One set of activities end and a whole new set begins.  One child ends sports and the other begins a new season, hopefully.  We begin the horrible process of club volleyball tryouts.  This is a terribly competitive and grueling week.  Girls go to a variety of teams for two hours to showcase themselves with at least 30 others trying to prove themselves as well.  The all-stars show off beautifully.  The others, the ones that love the sport, understand the sport and are competitive but not the #1 player don’t have much of a chance to demonstrate their abilities.  When your daughter falls in the latter group it is very frustrating to see dreams potentially crushed.  What’s a mom to do?  Pray, support and encourage. 


I wrote the above Sunday night while sitting through our second tryout of the day.  We felt good after this 2nd one.  Next comes the wait.  Some teams call the night of the tryout.  You get to find out right away if you are "chosen" or not.  Is that a good thing to know so quickly?  Sometimes I'm not so sure.  But on the other hand, the wait is excruciating.  Some teams will call ONLY if you made it.  So you wait and after a couple of days come to realize you weren't the one.  Now do you understand a bit more why this is such an agonizing week?  The next night, off to another team's tryout. 


We got the call Monday that my daughter is an alternate.  This means she was good, but not good enough to be their top 10.  Odds are, a girl or two will end up deciding to go with another club so that opens a spot for the alternates.  We don't know where on the alternate list we are.  So we plan to attend more tryouts this week. 


Then at 9:45 pm another call came in from the Sunday morning tryout.  I see my daughter talking with the coach and then she hangs up.  I'm gearing up for my "so sorry honey" speech, but that never happened.  She made the first team she tried out for!  We are so excited!  Neither of us thought this was the team she would make.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I think I am more relieved to know she was "wanted" more than she.  I'm also thrilled I don't have to take her to more tryouts the rest of the week.


So we will be moving on to a new season after all.

Tid-Bits of Nothingness

I woke up to a skiff of snow this morning. 

Don't you just love that word - skiff.  I don't get a chance to use it often, but today was the day.  Skiff.  It's just a fun word to say.  Come on, say it with me, Skiff.  Ok, I'm moving on.

I've been fighting a head cold all week.  I hate it because my nose is red from blowing it so much and I'm in a bit of a fog.  Yeah, I know, what's the difference, right?  Ha ha.  The other day I took a Day-Quil (sp??) because I forgot to take a sinus med before work.  Oh my gosh!  I felt like I was on drugs and felt sick to my stomach.  Remind me to NEVER take that again.  I even turned down a free lunch because I felt so bad.  If I turn down food, you know I'm not feeling good.

Not only have I been fighting a cold, I've been fighting my computer at work.  Darn thing caught a virus too.  Hm, maybe that's were I got my cold from?  It's been quite frustrating because I'm no where near as productive as I'd like to be.  Love and hate this technology sometimes.  Speaking of work, I'm finishing my fourth year.  I am so blessed I work at a place where I enjoy the people, the work and my boss.  Just to have my job is a huge blessing in these economic times.  I don't take that lightly. 

Future post warnings:
1.  I have a busy day on Sunday, so I'm trying a new crockpot recipe, Shredded Korean Beef.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  If it's a winner, I'll post the recipe.  If not, I'll let you know it's not worth trying.  For family harmony it better turn out yummy. 

2.  I ordered a $20 DVD workout set that I'll get today.  It comes with 10 DVDs.  I figure for 20 bucks it's worth trying.  I'll try it out and see how it works.  Just like any workout video, I'm sure as long as you actually DO it, it has to help.  I'll let you know what I think of it and pass it along.

Well, there's my this and that's for the day.  Just a bunch of ramblings about nothingness.  This is what you'd get if you were sitting at my table today.  I've finished my coffee and paper, and now this post.  Off to turn on the college football games - one of my favorite Saturday activities. 

I hope your weekend is productive and family filled and relaxing all in one.

Fall - What Fall?

What happened to Fall?  I love the change in seasons, but it seems like we barely had a summer then Fall came and went in just a couple of weeks.  No slow progression with the leaves slowly changing colors and meandering to the ground with multiple raking events to clear the yard.  In about two weeks everything changed and dropped and scraping windshields all came in one big whirlwind.  Alas, the trees are now bare and on to the next season - winter.

Winter.  It brings cozy nights in my flannels and slippers.  Thinking ahead to writing my Christmas cards and figuring out the annual picture.  Reminding my kids over and over to compile a gift list.  You'd think that would be an easy task, but after one or two items they seem to draw a blank.  Christmas decorations all over the house and lights outside.  I am also diligently working on winter NOT bringing extra body insulation - i.e. fat.  I'm trying to combat that now so when all the holiday eating begins, I will already have the mindset to just taste and not over indulge.  Because I love food.  I'll eat to the point where I'm uncomfortable.  Because I love food.

I have tried making a few new desserts with pumpkin puree.  I thought they turned out yummy.  I made pumpkin cookies and used the icing (I dipped them in to get a nice topping).  I thought they tasted better the next day after the pumpkin flavoring set in.  You can find the cookie recipe here, thanks Eat Yourself Skinny.  

This is her picture from the blog- much better than I could take

Next I made pumpkin and chocolate chip bars.  Pumpkin and chocolate, what's not to love?  To make this recipe even better, it's cooked all in a cast iron skillet.  Love that!  Here's the one pan pumpkin cookie, thanks to Created by Carol. 

Carol's picture off her site.  Don't you just want to make them now?

So now that you have had a chance to see these yummy desserts I know you are going to go out and treat your family to pumpkin goodness.  Happy baking.

Ah, the Weekend

What a busy week!  I don't know about you, but I am pooped.  All week I could not get to bed at a decent hour, many events to go to throughout the week, and chores...always so many chores.  At any given time, if you come to my home, you will most certainly see dishes in the sink.  I can't keep up with those pesky things. Our new dishwasher works great, but it is definitely smaller than the old one.  And the set up is different.  It just doesn't hold as much as our broken one.  If you are ever in the market for a new dishwasher, bring some of  your plates to make sure they fit properly and really look at the set up.  Live and learn.  At least I have a working one, because the manual one (my hands) aren't very reliable.

We love college football, so Saturdays we have the TV on all day.  We are busy throughout the day, but that box stays on so we can catch those lovely college games.  By the evening, we enjoy sitting as a family and watching the late games.  Good times.

I'm off to read the paper with my coffee (one of my favorite Saturday morning rituals), run some kids around, then tackle those dishes.  Oh, of course there is always laundry, vacuuming, toilet bowl scrubbing, the list is endless.  But I WILL get through some of it, and the others...isn't that what kids are for?

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I still have one very large zucchini from my garden that I need to do something with.  Below is a great zucchini bread recipe that was passed on to me and I have to pass on to you.  It has chocolate - nuff said.  Actually, it is soooo good!  I have a dark chocolate fan at home (doesn't like sweet things much) who absolutely loved this bread.  You can also download it from allrecipes.com.

I also got the tip that you can grate your zucchini and freeze it.  I'll do that with the leftover zucchini after I make two batches of this bread.  Freeze in 2 cup batches (most recipes want 2 cups). 

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
What you need:
2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate     
3 eggs
2 C white sugar
1 C vegetable oil
2 C grated zucchini
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 C semisweet chocolate chips
What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.  In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate squares until melted.  Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth.
2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, zucchini, vanilla and chocolate; beat well.  Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Cheap Chicken

If you eat a lot of chicken breasts like we do you definitely want to register at this site here.

Unfortunately, the chicken sold out very fast, but if you register you will receive an email letting you know what events are coming up.  The chicken this time was only $1.49 per pound!  You have to buy in a minimum order of 40 pounds - baby it's worth it.

I've bought 7% fat hamburger for around $2.89/lb and bacon for about the same.  If you won't be able to use all the meat, go in with a friend.  That's what I did with the bacon. 

I wanted to make sure you were aware of this company and the great prices they offer.  I've been very happy with my purchases and I'm sure you will be too.

A near miss - praise God!

How often do you start your dishwasher, laundry, or whatever, and leave to run errands, go to bed or just don't pay attention?  I do all the time.  We went away for the weekend and I started the dishwasher and we took off.  I usually run the dishwasher just before I go to bed. 

We got home from a weekend in the RV and after cleaning it out and putting everything away, I ran a load of dishes.  I was busy around the house and began to smell as though something plastic had landed on the heating element.  Checked and nothing there.  Closed door and went back to my tasks. 

A few minutes later the smell was getting stronger so I checked again.  Nothing.  Strange.  Closed the door.  Thankfully I didn't walk away because smoke began to billow out of the crack of the dishwasher door, and boy did it begin to smell electrical.  I opened the door to stop the cycle but water kept spewing from the wands for about 4 seconds.  The water finally stopped as I was reaching for the fire extinguisher.  The smoke finally stopped but our house smelled so bad - even with fans blowing and doors and windows open! 

I know by God's grace we were saved from a full blown electrical fire!  I am so thankful for what didn't happen - it didn't happen when we were gone.  It didn't happen when we were in bed.  It didn't happen to become a fire.  Thank you Lord, for again, as always, watching over my home and family.

The next day, we spent 4 hours shopping for a new dishwasher and were able to have it installed the following day.

I do love my modern conveniences.