Saturday Morning and A long and slow rain...

It's Saturday morning. And we are all doing what we normally do on a Saturday morning. Bear is watching TV. On Saturday mornings he is allowed to watch Public Television shows. That is special because he isn't allowed to do this any other mornings of the week. You know, I have pretty much banned all save for a few Disney shows from our house. All the little guy learned from those shows is questionable behavior and morals. The shows I hate the most are 'Wizards of Waverly Place' and the 'Zac and Cody' series. The shows I love on PBS are 'Martha Speaks, Ruff Ruffman, Curious George, Clifford (do you guys adore T-Bone?), Electric Company..., geez OK, I like them all except for Sesame Street.

I digressed, back to what we are doing. Saturday AM is my 'hang out at the laptop morning'. I wake up with my cup of tea at the laptop every morning but on Saturdays
I give myself extra time.

IT Man is working.

Missy is either still asleep (that girl can sleep!) or busy reading in bed. 

Only one more lazy Saturday left for us. Two Saturdays from now we'll be busy getting ready to meet our new family member early in the morning (after a sleepless night no doubt). We are picking up the pup on the 28th. Boy! will that be interesting. Training a pup again, cleaning up oopses and muddy paw-prints (what was I thinking when I said 'yes' to getting a dog?)  taking away half chewed remotes and other valuables and soothing a crying child because the dog ate a favorite (insert noun here).

It's raining today. The slow, steady rain gardeners so love. Or those that have freshly seeded their lawn and need slow, steady rain.  It's a good day to do inside stuff. My house looks like a tornado went through and this day is perfect for some cleaning and tidying. I'll rope the kids in to help. And maybe IT man when he is done with his stuff.  Although he had a bad back spasm yesterday and is still in pain. He'd better clean away his newspapers otherwise he'll be in more pain.

I think I'll start now.
I also think I'll start posting pictures of the children.

But now I will wake up Missy.

Right after I ask IT man to make me some coffee.

Happy Mother's Day!




All mothers are lionesses when it comes to their cubs!

  To all my fellow mothers out there, wishes for a peaceful and Happy
Mother's Day!

Here is the 'Word Play' Answer

SHRIMP ON THE BARBIE!

Playing with words - or my food?

Yes, I am weird. I have a weird sense of humor. I've been working on it but sometimes I loose the battle. And then stuff like this happens......
.....What am I saying here?

Arbor Day Craft from Momtastic.com - Upcycle your old magazines!

Talk about a fabulous craft idea for Arbor Day, which is, by the way, the last Friday of April.  I came across this idea on craftgawker which linked to Momtastic.com. The link to this craft is here. What a neat way to use up old magazines and make something new and beautiful. Make your crafts, take pictures, and post it on your website. Let me know when you did so I can make a post with links to your blogs and pictures!

Look who is coming for dinner?

...and lunch and breakfast....

In about a month,  we will have a new family member. We are going to be joined by an Airedale boy who will be just a little younger than what you see in this picture here. We chose the airedale breed because of Missy's allergies, after considering a number of other breeds as well. What we like about this breed is that it is relatively rare and therefore has not quite as many breed specific health issues as some of the other candidates.  We also wanted something larger than a yorkie. One of our neighbors has an airedale, so we had Missy rub her hands into the dog's fur and then rub her face and eyes. There was no reaction!  IT man and I love the mastiff breeds but Missy is terribly allergic to them and with all the over breeding, they do have a lot of issues unless you go with some of the rarer breeds. Due to the allergy issues we were not going to go with a rescue dog, although I visited the local sites frequently and even inquired about one young dog who was an funny and adorable mix of two low allergen breeds. But he had already been adopted. We hadn't planned on getting another dog but the kids wanted one so badly and IT man and I like the security of having another set of ears in the home at night.  Our dogs' barking chased away a burglar once so we know it works.  The kids' age is ideal for adding a dog to the family right now, with Bear going to be six in August and Missy 11½. Airedales are very energetic and smart  (unfortunately also stubborn) and so our life is about to take on another level of crazy :)

One of my favorite kitchen tools - The Misto

I bought a Misto roughly 4 months or so ago and it's become one of my favorite kitchen implements. It is a stainless steel canister with a built-in, easy to prime, pump that you can fill with a bit of your favorite oil.

Why I like it:
a) It was inexpensive. I paid roughly $10 for it.
b) No propellants or additives to my sprayed oil.
c) Because of point 'b' my pans, etc no longer have gummy, sticky, impossible to clean, gunk on them.
d) Because of point 'b' I don't have to wonder what I am inhaling when I use the spray and what I am feeding my family.
e) More economical than regular cooking sprays in the long run.

What I don't like:

Well, only one thing really. I wish it came in different colors because I would love to buy one for other oils that I use. With only one color canister I would get confused and use the wrong oils for my foods if I can't see at a glance which oil I am using.

What do I use it for?

Spray my cooking grates, pans, meats and vegetables, pasta, fish, etc with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.