SETTING SOME RECORDS

I'm excited about some running milestones in our family and want to share them with everyone.

Devon and I recently changed from three three mile runs per week to one "push it" run of two miles at our top speed, one regular paced three mile run, and one four mile run with whatever short breaks or reduced speeds we need to get through the last mile. Our first four mile run should have been last weekend, but Saturday was full and I made an unusual, but wise, decision to nap on Sunday. That meant yesterday was our first time ever running more than three miles. Not only did we run the whole thing without a walking break, which is a big accomplishment for us, but we came within seconds of our best three mile pace at 9:38. I can't believe it!

Naomi and I also made some recent changes to our running schedule. We used to do three three mile runs, though they're at a slower pace than the runs with Devon. Now we're doing two three mile runs at her regular pace and one "push it" run of two miles at her top speed. Her first "push it" wasn't timed because the stopwatch didn't get turned back on after a long wait at a stoplight, so Friday was her first timed one. Her regular three mile pace is 13:13, but she ran two miles at an11:43 pace. That means she shaved about a minute and a half off her regular pace when she scrapped distance for speed. So awesome!

I set a PR for my own "push it" on Tuesday with a 9:02 pace for two miles.

You guys, the three of us are the least athletic Ws and none of us are characterized by our decision to persevere in optional things that we don't particularly love and/or excel at. Our numbers may not be super impressive in the fitness world, but the fact that Devon and I have been running since mid-May and Naomi since the beginning of September, that we're running in all sorts of weather, and that our distances and speeds are slowly increasing is pretty amazing. I'm proud of the progress we're all making and am thankful that Devon and Naomi, who I'm pretty sure don't care enough about running to keep it up if I told them they could quit, go with me three times a week each without complaint.

THANKSGIVING - 2014

One of the perks of dating and eventually marrying Tim is that he came with two families, his own and the one I refer to as my pseudo-inlaws, and we've spent every Thanksgiving (except for maybe our first, I can't remember) as a couple with his bonus family.  I'm thankful for that tradition and for another Thanksgiving filled with conversation, laughter, games, and food! 

My sister-in-law and her kids make cute place markers every year and this time it was cornucopias made from sugar cones, frosting, and fruit snacks. So fun!

The eight cousins on the bonus side of Tim's family.

We tried to get a picture of the adults, but none of them turned out very well. Next year!

The girls having fun as they dig into their dessert.

The big boys, minus one who had to leave earlier, posing with knives. Because I asked them to. Because I'm crazy like that.

MENU: 11/27/14 - 12/3/14

I can't believe we hit December with this menu!

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* I'll make peanut butter and crockpot beans, just like I do once or twice every week.

BREAKFASTS
* Rebecca's granola
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x5

DINNERS
* tuna casserole/carrot sticks

* new recipe
* lentils & rice
* Leslie's salad (at the little Ws' request)/balsamic roasted brussels sprouts/veggie tray (our contribution to Thanksgiving)
* buffalo slaw (base from the freezer)/rice
* tacos - seasoned meat, crockpot beans from the freezer, and some other toppings served in a tortilla, bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice

* leftovers

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* new recipe

* potato wedges
* produce 

* popcorn (kernels from the Winco bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

(This post contains affiliate links.)

11/27/14 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that I slept well, didn't wake up to an alarm this morning, and have enjoyed some quiet time alone to read and relax in bed, that the other Ws are still sleeping at 8:00, and for the time we'll spend with family today.

What is something that you are thankful for?

THE LITTLE Ws

Naomi was snuggling with me because she was sad about something, so I told her to grab the camera and we'd take pictures to get her laughing again. That morphed into having each of the little Ws come sit on a my lap for quick pictures. 

FLEXIBILITY, PAYCHECKS, RELATIVES, & PICTURES

Tricks - Naomi busted this out last night. I had no idea she could do the splits and immediately sprinted for a camera. 

Employment - Tim applied for a job that is exactly what he spent five years doing in Salem, but didn't even land an interview. Strange, but I suppose that's about as clear as you can get about whether or not a job would be a good fit for your family. Meanwhile, he continues subbing just about full-time. 

He also applied for some local coaching jobs. He did get an interview that time, but the positions went to some other guys. However, the head coach offered him an AAU job. It pays a fraction of what the school job does, but it's also less responsibility ... and it's a foot in the door ... and it would help make up for the subbing days lost during the holiday season. Needless to say, he took the job and is now trying to teach basketball to a group of sixth grade boys, some of which have absolutely no experience.

Cousins - Tammy showed up for our first monthly open house last night. We hadn't seen each other in several years and our kids kept commenting about how much we look alike.

Pictures - I just got the last month's worth of pictures loaded on Picasa. The 11/7/14 album includes the bigs doing a presentation on Madagascar, a date night for Tim and I, games with friends, and a few other pictures. The 11/22/14 album includes a day with Tim's family, crafts with our homeschool group, an outing to OMSI with another family, and a few pictures taken around the house.

MENU: 11/20/14 - 11/26/14

I made a spontaneous batch of cracked wheat & honey bread a few days ago, one loaf for us and one for the family of the gal who cuts my hair. I also tried one new recipe that we all liked, so we'll start things off with that.

* gingerbread with lemon sauce - This was our post-Bible study snack last night and it was good.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* I made and froze the black bean dip on Tuesday that I'll need tomorrow night. 
* I'll make peanut butter and crockpot beans, just like I do once or twice every week.

BREAKFASTS
* Barbara's pancakes
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x5

DINNERS

* do-it-all chicken (raw from the freezer, crockpot)/rice/frozen corn
* crockpot beans & rice
* cabbage soup/simple focaccia
* penne with winter squash, pine nuts, and cheese sauce/frozen green beans
* black bean dip with carrot and red bell pepper sticks/popcorn (snacky stuff for an open house we're hosting)
* tacos - seasoned meat, crockpot beans from the freezer, and some other toppings served in a tortilla, bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice

* leftovers

SNACKS & DESSERTS

* coconut bread (post-Bible study snack)
* dark chocolate orange hazelnuts (for the open house)
* potato wedges
* produce 

* popcorn (kernels from the Winco bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

(This post contains affiliate links.)

11/20/14 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that I saw this  - a thoughtful card, pretty flowers, and a blue package of cookies because they noticed Granny liked blue as they did some sleuthing through my pictures to figure out something that would make the gift more personal -  on our doorstep when we came home from Bible study last night.

What's something that you are thankful for?

GRANNY IS GONE

I got a call from my uncle this morning letting me know that Granny died last night. It was time and in that sense it's a good thing that she's gone, but I'm still sad.

Granny moved away 3 1/2 years ago, the longest I've ever gone without seeing her, but here are some pictures of the two of us together in the years before she left. She hated having her picture taken, so the fact that she's looking at the camera and has a smile on her face is a big deal.

This was Christmas at my dad's house in 2007.

This was at a birthday party at our home in the summer of 2009.

I blogged about the next photo in a post titled "GENERATIONS" back when it was taken, but I'm including it in this post because it's special to me and just seems fitting.

I have mixed emotions and scattered thoughts, none of which I feel like trying to articulate here, but the bottom line is that I loved her and there were many reasons I knew she loved me. I'm grateful for that. 

MENU: 11/13/14 - 11/19/14

I ended up making a few things that weren't on the menu last week - black bean dip with carrot and red bell pepper sticks (a last minute decision that replaced the black bean couscous salad I'd planned on taking to a family potluck), chocolate chip peanut butter bars (a spontaneous potluck contribution), and oatmeal pancakes (we had some leftover oats, so I decided to make pancakes one morning).  We also processed the eighty pounds of chicken I'd mentioned in the last menu. Here's the post with pictures and marinade recipes about that, in case you missed it.

Here is the one new recipe we tried last week.

* bonbon coco - This is a coconut candy that Devon made as part of a presentation for our homeschool group.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* I had a bin of strawberries and juice frozen in a solid chunk, so I thawed it, then refroze it in ziploc bags and ice cube trays for convenience.
* I'll make a crockpot of navy beans to freeze for future recipes.

BREAKFASTS
* Tam's granola (crockpot)
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x5

DINNERS

* pizza for the three bigs at an event & steak/rice/frozen green beans for the rest of us
* pumpkin soup with lentils/toast
* zesty chicken (crockpot) green salad
* lentils & rice
* rice, kale (in the freezer from a summer harvest), & eggs 
* tacos - seasoned meat, crockpot beans from the freezer, and some other toppings served in a tortilla, bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice

* leftovers

SNACKS & DESSERTS

* new recipe (skipped last week because we ended up with a bunch of unexpected desserts from a day with Tim's family)
* potato wedges
* produce 

* popcorn (kernels from the Winco bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post. )

(This post contains affiliate links.)

11/13/14 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for the women in my life who ask the hard questions, encourage me when I'm down, and challenge me to do what's right.

What's something that you're thankful for?

MADAGASCAR PRESENTATION

Our homeschool group has started having one cultural day each month, a time for one family to present the country of their choice to the rest of the group. There's no rule for how it has to go and each family's situation and the ages of their children are different, which means some presentations are heavy on parents talking and others on kids, but we opted for the little Ws to do it all.

I vetoed Mexico (we live in a community that's about 65% Mexican and getting info about the country isn't hard), Russia (I visited there, but we have a Russian family in our group and wanted to leave it available to the experts if they wanted to do it), and the Philippines (my sister's family lives there and I've visited, but there's a Filipina that comes sometimes and we wanted to leave it open for her family for the same reason as Russia). The little Ws stood at our big map, looked at their options, then chose Madagascar. 

Naomi did the intro, then talked about clothing and housing. Devon went next and shared info about animals. Silas went last and taught the group about food, imports and exports, and some geographic details. 

We did a dress rehearsal the night before their presentation, as I wasn't sure I'd be able to get pictures during the real thing.

Naomi and the flag she drew.

Devon with a pie chart showing how many of the world's chameleons live in Madagascar.

Silas holding up his scale model of a baobab tree.

The next morning Devon busted out some bonbon coco, a coconut candy that's popular in Madagascar.

Then we all headed out for the real presentation and I got a few pictures. Naomi kicked things off.

Devon went next.

Silas wrapped up the talking part.

Then Devon and Teebs passed out bonbon coco to everyone at the end.

They each did a great job!

VETERANS DAY

Both of my grandpas, one of my uncles, and my brother served in the military. I don't think I have a picture of my uncle or brother in uniform, but I thought I would share the two pictures of my grandpas today.

Happy Veterans Day!

A DAY WITH TIM'S FAMILY

We spent all of yesterday afternoon and evening with part of Tim's family. It was his mom's birthday and one of his brothers was going to be arriving in town, so several friends and family members got together at the home of one of his sisters. His brother ended up getting there later than anticipated, so we didn't see much of him, but we'll try an connect later this week. Meanwhile, lots of food was eaten, the kids all played together, and the adults chatted. 

Here are eight cousins, Tim and Monica's kids, with a combination of smiles and silly faces. 

Uncle Tim with a sleepy nephew.

Aunt Marilyn with a niece who was intrigued by the mittens she was knitting.

Linda being serenaded with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday".

Linda, Tim, and Monica doing what their family does ... playing cards. Tim really needs to teach these games to the little Ws because I am completely inept and he'd probably love to play more often than he sees his family. We'll have to work on that. Or, more specifically, he will.

Fun day!

OUR $100 DATE

Last night (actually, tonight, as I'm writing this late on Friday and post-dating it for Saturday because I don't like to have two posts in one day) Tim and I went on a hundred dollar date.

Silas babysits, but, for various reasons, the little Ws wanted someone to come hang out with them while Tim and I were going to be gone. Five hours of childcare for four kids = $50.

Tim and I went to a concert. Capital Kings opened, All Sons & Daughters followed, and David Crowder was the headliner. The little Ws were most jealous that we got to see Capital Kings, but I loved the other two bands. We ran into friends, spotted a gazillion people from church in the crowd, and enjoyed some great music. Three hour concert for two people = $50.

Here we are before the concert started.

And here we are again, realizing that we needed a picture with evidence that we were actually at a concert, even though I like the first picture better.

That was our $100 date.

Except we didn't spend a dime.

A couple who had tickets for the concert ended up with a scheduling conflict and offered us their tickets. Free concert, thanks to the couple's generosity.

I asked on Facebook for a volunteer to hang out with the little Ws for all or part of the evening, as we don't have wiggle room to pay for a sitter right now. Free childcare, thanks to the thoughtfulness of a high school student who spent her evening hanging out with our kids.

I'm so thankful for those who made our outing possible, for the chance to do something sans kids (second time in two weeks!), for music that I love, and lyrics of worship sung by thousands of voices.

EIGHTY POUNDS OF CHICKEN

Do you remember when we got blessed by the chicken fairy last year? We liked that Zaycon chicken a whole lot more than the frozen stuff we'd been buying at WinCo and it was less expensive than the fresh or previously frozen stuff at Costco or Safeway. Needless to say, we decided a while back that we'd start buying our chicken from Zaycon on a regular basis. 

Zaycon sells fresh chicken breasts in 40 lb. cases for $1.89 a pound. It just needs to have the breasts split and a smidge of fat trimmed off. We eat chicken once a week, use three pounds per meal, and the chicken events happen about every six months, so we bought two cases this time around. The plan was to freeze much of it plain, which will allow us to use it in a variety of ways over the coming months, then freeze some of it in marinades. I like doing that because it allows the meat to marinate as it thaws and I can easily toss it in the crockpot for a super easy meal. 

I did all the cutting last night, but Tim helped with two of the marinades while I cut, which made the whole process more efficient. Here's what we ended up with.

Three bags with do-it-all marinade. With garlic, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and more, I love this marinade on both chicken and salmon.

Three bags of Greek chicken. We have rosemary and thyme growing in our yard and I opted to use dried oregano we had in the house instead of buying fresh this time around.

Three bags of sesame honey chicken. I buy honey at Costco, but won't be there until Sunday, so these bags were all just a smidge short on honey because I ran out of what we already had. No biggie, as we can just squeeze some into the crockpot when we cook these. This stuff, which has yummy things like honey, sesame oil, and onion powder, is great with a bunch of toasted sesame seeds on top!

Three bags of teriyaki chicken. This was the easiest one to prep because we just dumped some Soy Vay's Veri Veri Teriyaki in the bag.

The final result? A bad picture of a lot of chicken before it got stacked up in the freezer. 

I realize that not everyone has the cash sitting around to make a bulk purchase, but try and budget for it if you can. Tim had one really big payday over the summer, so we used some of that money for this purchase and are setting aside a little grocery money each month to pay for the next round of chicken. If money is tight, then maybe you could do something similar with a tax refund in a few months.

If you simply don't eat chicken, then you may want to check out the other products Zaycon sells. They sell beef, pork, poultry, fish, and some other non-meat products like berries, milk, waffles, and honey. While I've only had their chicken, I've heard nothing but good things from friends who buy their other products.



(This post contains affiliate links.)

MENU: 11/6/14 - 11/12/14

I've got one new recipe for you, then our menu for the upcoming week.

* kale, chickpea, & orzo soup - Not very soup-y, but simple and filling. I think I liked the leftovers more than the fresh dish.

ADVANCED COOKING (These aren't always planned, so they'll often be things I did the previous week.)
* I was able to wait an extra week for my monthly trip to WinCo, so I didn't make up the month's worth of seasoned meat for Taco Tuesdays. I'll do that this week and use a new batch of homemade taco seasoning.
* I'm picking up a Zaycon order today, so I'll get chicken ready for the freezer and probably do a post about that process later.
* We're going to make our first batch of homemade yogurt, thanks to some occasional prompting from a friend. I'll let you know how it goes.

BREAKFASTS
* fried egg (dropped on the non-stick griddle, no oil or butter) & English muffin sandwiches
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix as optional toppings x5

DINNERS

* chickpea chili/rice
* balsamic roasted brussels sprouts/rice/roast
* black bean couscous salad for a family potluck
* lentils & rice
* coconut chicken (crockpot)/rice/frozen green beans

* tacos - seasoned meat, crockpot beans from the freezer, and some other toppings served in a tortilla, bowl, as a salad over a pile of greens, or with mound of rice

* leftovers

SNACKS & DESSERTS

* new recipe
* potato wedges
* produce, including some black bean dip (made with crockpot beans) for carrots

* popcorn (kernels from the Winco bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven)

(This post contains affiliate links.)

11/6/14 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for the changing colors of leaves in the fall.

What's something that you're thankful for?

A LITTLE CHANGE TO MY RECIPE BLOG

I started For the Love of Grub several years ago because I was getting tired of always looking up recipes friends requested in a big Word document I had, then copying and pasting them into e-mails, forums, and so on. I figured putting them all on a blog would make it easier for people to find the recipes at their own convenience and save me some time.

I didn't anticipate any benefit for myself, other than saving time, but it turns out that I've really loved having all the recipes labeled. It makes my menu planning so much easier when I can go straight to all my green bean recipes, find soups with chicken in them, look for a way to make pasta in a crockpot, or whatever it is that I need.

I don't want For the Love of Grub to be a food blog with pictures of all the ingredients and every step of the cooking process and I don't have any desire for each post to include some type of conversation. There's nothing wrong with those sites, they're hugely popular, and I make use of them on a weekly basis, but I'm totally content with my site just being an online recipe file.

However, there's one thing that I've had people suggest or request over the years. Pictures. Why? Some people just won't make anything they can't see a picture of first, but it's mostly because of Pinterest. As of now, any recipe from my site that gets pinned shows up with whatever family picture was on my site at the time the recipe was posted. That, of course, leads to all sorts of comments about the funniest looking cornbread/salad/cookies/soup that other Pinterest users have ever seen. Ha!

Anyway, a friend brought it up again recently and I told her how I didn't want to take the site in the direction of regular food blogs. She said I didn't need to be chatty because a good recipe can stand on its own, but that the pictures are really handy for pinning. I said I'd mull it over again.

The change? As of last night I will include one picture in every post. I have almost 500 posts on my recipe blog, so this change is going to happen slowly, but I'm going to work on it. I'll add pictures to old recipes as I make them and include pictures with new recipes from here on out. We take a lot of pictures around here, but I'm not a photographer in the artistic sense of the word, and I'm not trying to increase readership with my stellar photography, so my pictures won't be award-worthy. I'm going to do my best to start getting more pictures attached to recipes, though.

Another change that goes hand-in-hand with this one, though it isn't really a big deal, is that I've changed the color scheme of the blog. It turns out that a green background makes your food pictures look ... wait for it ... green. Blech. I've changed it to a white background with blue links for titles, tabs and the like, but all the links in the text are still green from my previous template. I've changed a few tonight to the most compatible blue I could come up with and will probably do little batches at random times, but that's another thing that will get changed as I use recipes and make menus in the future. So, for a while we'll have a green and blue combo in some posts.

So far I have a grand total of one post with a picture, as I made maple cluster granola yesterday and figured I'd take a picture to experiment with. Click the link to see how it turned out and feel free to let me know what you think. I'm open to feedback over the next couple days before I get too far into this project.

CRAFTY SIGNS

Our homeschool group had a Fall Festival recently and I found a craft online for us to do. I know it's surprising that I would intentionally seek out a craft. Then, to make things even more bizarre, I put myself in charge of it. What's this world coming to?!

The craft was to use twigs and leaves or other fall things (acorns and so on) to make a sign with your last name on pieces of cardboard. I just used our initial and made one ahead of time to show the kids how to do it.

I tried to make one with our last name at the event, but our last name just goes on and on and on, so I ditched that plan and did this instead.

It's been 2 1/2 years since the last craft I did, a string art W, so I should be good to go in the craft department until I'm in my 40s.

MONTHLY OPEN HOUSE

We used to have people in our home all the time, but, for some unknown reason, that's changed over the last several years. We recently decided to make hospitality a priority again and be deliberate about inviting people over. One of the ways we're going to do that is to have a monthly open house, an evening where people can drop in for twenty minutes or stick around for several hours, sit around and shoot the breeze or join others for a board or card game, visit with folks they know or get to know some new people.

The evening will not be limited to any particular circle of our life, so you can come if  you're young or old, single or with a family and/or spouse, know us from public school, homeschool groups, church, work, around town, etc., or don't know as at all and are coming with someone who does.

The Type A part of me would love to have the open house always be at the same time - first weekend, third weekend, or whatever. However, we need it to be on a night we're free and have nothing going on early the next morning, which means it will vary from month to month. The plan is to always have it on Friday nights, but the week will change according to our schedule. 

I will always post it as an event on Facebook, but if you're interested in knowing when each open house will be and aren't on FB, then let me know and I'll shoot you an e-mail with details. 

I'm really looking forward to this time to hang out with people, whether a few at a time or in a packed house!