My new avatar

My new job asked for an updated picture for their website, along with a short introductory video.

Here is the photo. My area manager likes it, so I'm satisfied. The video was to be a 1 minute introductory video and I didn't want it to be me staring at the webcam, so I asked a teenager in my ward who has video experience to help me. We went to a desert area nearby and shot it as I walked through the winter desert landscape. I'm very pleased with it as well.

Ladies' luncheon

Almost every month the church ladies have a pot luck luncheon. Due to their schedule cancellations and my work schedule I haven't gone for many months but today the stars aligned and my mom and I went. We brought pizza and I had a slice of that along with fruit, a salad, a rice dish, and a croissant.

I'm a dessert girl and this was my favorite part--pumpkin crumble and peach cobbler.

New jeans!

I don't take my girls clothes shopping very often. Weird, I know. Typically I order clothes for them from Gymboree or The children's Place online. Now and then I pick up something for them from the sharing table at Relief Society. That's my favorite price--FREE. However, Caroline is growing out of everything, and being the biggest of the three girls, she doesn't have any hand-me-downs to receive from anyone. So . . .

. . . I took her shopping and she picked out two pairs of blue jeans and one pair of leopard print pants.

Warm water in the microwave oven

Why, WHY would I be heating a bucket of water in the microwave oven?

It's to give my poor chickens some drinkable water! They have two water dispensers and both are frozen. I figured if I was going to take new water out to them, I could at least heat it up a little.

They were highly suspicious of this strange container that didn't have food scraps in it.  All three danced around it looking at it for a minute or two before one of them finally put her beak in to see what it was.

Crazy hair day at school

Guess who the main morning hair styler is at my house?

Yes, it's Bill. Due to my work schedule, I usually can't do the girls' hair in the mornings and he does a fine job. The girls had all kinds of braids and funny things in their hair when they went out the door today. :-)

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Progresso Recipe Starters homemade macaroni and cheese (from the freezer), broccoli

Tuesday:  Creamy Key Lime Chicken Enchiladas, brown rice

Wednesday: Hamburger Casserole Surprise! (Layer browned ground beef mixed with a can of tomato soup, then a drained can of green beans, then mashed potatoes, then a little cheese--bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.  It's a huge hit at my house--go figure!)

Thursaday:  Chicken Rice soup, rolls

Friday:  Pizza

Dessert:  Light & easy guava cheese empanadas

This used to be a common sight . . .

Yes, an egg from every chicken today. It has been at least six months since that has happened because Spot stopped laying long before she died. Even with the three girls we have now, we haven't had three eggs from them since sometime late last summer. Toek has not been laying and the others have been laying slowly. Charlotte tends to lay eggs with very thin shells, so I often find evidence of her eggs, but nothing to bring in to the house. Today was three nice eggs with good shells, different enough from one another that I know each chicken was represented there.

Pantry Challenge Week 2

I had two shopping trips this week.

5 lb. carrots
celery
brown rice
lime yogurt
Mexican-style cheese
wonton wrappers

All the missing ingredients to make next week's dinners--Fry's $11.

Wow--I couldn't resist a good deal at Safeway this week!

6 DiGiorno pizzas (only about $2.50 each)
sour cream
yogurt
4 bagels in the brown bag
5 lb flour
bananas
4 gallons of milk

Safeway $27

In addition, when I was making up my shopping list so I'd have everything for next week's dinners, I realized I could easily make the three dinners this afternoon and freeze them for super easy dinners next week.  All the dinners are done now (except Friday pizza and I can do that too, if I feel like it) and in the freezer.

Check for the menu and recipes tomorrow.

Rare sight at my house

Yes, commercial pizza. It happens about three times a year around here and tonight was one of those three.

Activity Day for Girls

I was looking for a great topic for today's class when my mom said, "Why don't you teach them how to write thank you notes?  It's the right time of year for that."  Perfect.

I found this article about writing thank yous (there's an unneccessary naughty word in it) and decided to do the activity day this way:

• girls play outside for about 5-10 minutes
• introduce the topic
• give the girls paper and pencils to write down the 6 steps outlined in the article as I read and focus their attention on the 6 steps
• give them cardstock already cut in half to each decorate and write a thank you card (may be done with blanks left in it to be completed at home)
• snacks
• play games if time is left

It was a low-key and successful Activity Day.