Day One Hundred Twelve: Pantry Curry

As happens all too often, I looked up as it was beginning to get dark outside and thought, "Oh dang! I've got to put something together for dinner." I rushed to the kitchen and frantically flung open the pantry and refrigerator doors searching for anything that would work for feeding a hungry crowd and that wouldn't require too much hands-on time, since I still needed to drop off and pick up kids from practice. In the pantry, I spied two containers of dehydrated vegetables that we took camping with us this  summer -- specifically one container of sweet potato pieces and one of butternut squash. I snatched them up and dumped them in a pan with water and started to boil them. I had no plan, and I'm definitely usually a recipe cook, but I didn't panic. I dumped in some chicken broth and made a little sachet of fresh thyme to throw in. Then, as the veggies began to soften, I started grabbing things out of the pantry -- curry powder, cloves, tummeric, salt, pepper, cayenne, coconut milk. On the spot, I decided I was going to make a curry. It turned out quite delicious, and even though the panicked dinner experience was nothing new, this particular dish was a new one for our family.

Sweet potato/butternut squash curry topped with bacon and cheese

Day One Hundred Eleven: Bedtime Excuse

Bedtime stalling is certainly nothing new around here. It's pretty much a nightly ritual, and I thought I had heard just about every excuse in the book. But tonight, I heard a brand new one. When I went to tuck Clay in, he told me that it felt like there was "brown" in his throat. "Brown?" I asked. "Yes;" he replied, "I can feel colors, and brown is not a good one." This was the first I had heard of a throat problem, and certainly the first time I even knew brown could be a throat problem.

Day One Hundred Ten: Mad Lib

Today, in my Essentials class, I used a Mad Lib that I wrote myself to review some of the concepts we've been working on this semester. I have never written a Mad Lib before, and it was fun but harder than I thought it would be. As with all Mad Libs, it was so silly when we filled in the blanks, and we had lots of laughs.

Day One Hundred Nine: Civil Air Patrol

It wasn't that long ago that I had never heard of the Civil Air Patrol. And yet tonight I found myself at one of their meetings. Of course, I was only there as an observer and a supporter of one girl's dream to attend the Air Force Academy at some point in the not-too-distant future. I love how my kids are constantly introducing me to new things!

Civil Air Patrol drills

Day One Hundred Eight: To the Rescue

Jeff took the boys to the family ranch this weekend. On the way back, the van broke down completely and there weren't any options for rides or rental cars. So, in another case of the First picking me rather than me picking it, I hopped in the car and made the two hour drive to go pick them up. They were glad to be rescued, and I was so thankful they had broken down in a very safe spot, away from the crazy holiday weekend traffic.

Day One Hundred Seven: Mother/Daughter Movie Night

Tonight I got to go the movies with just Ruth and my mom, which has never happened before. We had so much fun hanging out together and seeing Murder on the Orient Express.

I'm so thankful for these lovely ladies and for the chance to spend some quality time with both of them!

Day One Hundred Six: Black Friday

I do believe today was the first Black Friday shopping I have ever done (and actually it will be fine with me if it's the last), and really it was sort of a fluke. After my mom and I picked Ruth up from her riding lesson, Mom mentioned she needed to pick up a hair dryer since hers had died this morning. The next thing we knew, we were surrounded by Black Friday sales and were actively participating in the shopping. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that we only went to one store, which was just enough to collect this First and pick up a pair of sparkly cat ears, which we obviously needed because they were 50% off. 😉

Sparkly cat ears for the Black Friday win!