Chinese Food

Lotte loves the crispy Chinese noodles that come in our salad kits!

When we run out, she gets angry and squeaks at us.

Blue Ridge Parkway

Since the mountains and all points north got snow and we didn't, we went to see the snow. This is us at the open section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The part that had snow on it was closed.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Two mornings ago we woke to find this. It was beautiful and burned off too quickly. I'm quite hopeful that this winter will be extra snowy.

Bonfire

Katie's been wanting a bonfire for over a week. She scoured the woods for sticks and built a gorgeous tepee of wood,but each night that Big Dan was home we were tired and didn't light up the fire.
I finally let them do it Monday night since the rain was moving in.
They did a good job, starting it and roasting their marshmallows with no adult supervision.

Microwave Monday

Menu Monday. It's what all the cool blogging homemakers celebrate.
But not us, we're having Microwave Monday, because today Katie shared an important discovery about our microwave:
"Hey Mom. Have you ever noticed that when you look up in the top of our microwave, there's a shape like Oklahoma?"

Hmmm, so there is!

My *plan* for our weekly menu is:

Monday: Chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and some vegetable from the freezer.
Tuesday: Chili and cornbread (since the weather will be cold and rainy.)
Wednesday: Chicken and dumplings (still cold and rainy.)
Thursday: Turkey cutlets with apple cider and apricot glaze, noodles, and sweet potatoes.
Friday: Some easy pasta dish with a salad.
Saturday: Salmon (which I'm going to try to have once a week, hoping that its DHA makes my brain smarter) with big baked potatoes, steamed veggies, and a salad, for the hungry soccer players to eat while they wait for their dinner to be ready.
Sunday: Shepherd's pie, wondrous carrots, broccoli slaw, and homemade bread.