Nachos and haircuts

Today we had a wonderful family day! Nothing says lounging like nachos and snuggling

the sour cream and salsa is missing in the pictures. But nachos wouldn’t be complete without them.

Emma also thought Chloe looked hungry. They both would live on cheese so why wouldn’t her furry friend like nachos too?!

I had a dream last night that I was giving myself pixie bangs…so after taking a shower I thought, ‘what the heck’ so I took scissors to my hair. Pretty happy with how it turned out.

I can’t believe St. Partrick’s day is Wednesday. Not my favorite holiday but I suppose it’s an opportunity to wear green, a color I don’t wear much. I hope you have a great Sunday and that you are able to go to bed early. Heck, I hope you were able to stay snuggled in your pj’s all day today and eat brownies, cereal and watching movies.

Itching for what?

It’s weird that since the new year, a ton of blogs I’m following are trying to keep up and post more frequent…when I’m doing the opposite. funny.

It’s another sunny day here but pretty chilly…we’ll by chilly I mean in the 40’s. Yeah, pretty nice. 🙂 My mom left yesterday and I was struck with how I got used to her presence. I really miss her. And you too Jamie. 😉 I am pretty much caught up with household things, and now just focusing on what is ‘normal’. Like our normal schedule. Emma’s normal nap time, we should make something fun with markers and coffee filters today. Yeah, and maybe I’ll give in and we could watch Snow White and eat some Cheeto’s – Emma’s all time favorite. She LOVES LOVES LOVES chips. *sigh just like her mommy.

I have tons of food in my cupboards and I am feeling itchy to make a meal schedule for the next 2-3 weeks. Is that sick that I’m itching to do that? Hmmm.  My mom took me to Safeway (which is CRAZY expensive if you don’t coupon) and she bought me things I NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER buy.  Curry Powder, Brie, really nice Olive Oil, V8 Splash for Emma and other things. Thank you mom for spoiling me! 🙂

Many cool new recipes to follow, and I promise that they’ll be easy to do too.

We also went…shoe shopping! Enjoy- I sure did. 🙂

Our time here in Krakow

We are feeling less like visitors staying in someone’s home and beginning to see what it will be like for us to live here. It is exciting and a little nervous. We’re using our polish as much as we can though, and speaking it a lot more in our home. It’s growing my courage enough to order cheese from the grocery lady by myself. A lot of giggling and pointing on my part and smiles on hers; so gracious. People here are SO nice and are patient with us. I’m noticing that I speak a lot quieter when I’m unsure if I’m saying the right thing and what I need to do is just boldly speak it out. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. We’re staying in a little comfortable flat that is 50 sq. meters. I could get used to living in a smaller place, it’s just nicer, cozier…who said bigger is better?! For diner I made one of Travis’ favorite Polish soups. Zurek, a salty soup that has sausage and hard boiled eggs. We had it with grilled cheese (gouda) sandwiches. Yummy, and great on a cold day. We already had pirogi on the first day (my favorite). I know a lot of you told me to take pictures of the foods here and I promise to start- tomorrow.

As we landed at the airport, we saw snow everywhere. It’s so beautiful and not too cold, although today there was a wind and nobody likes that. I dressed Emma up like an abominable snowman, er I mean snow baby. Some observations: When a faster person is walking behind someone who is slower, the slow person stands to the side and lets the fast person pass. Common courtesy. Not too common in Gresham, it’s nice. In the grocery stores (I’m buying all our food and am enjoying it!) There are no shortages of packets. They like their packets of soup, mixes, spices, marinades and everything else you could want. It’s incredible and I always smile when I pass the walls of packets. They do have peanut butter (a favorite of mine) but it’s a little expensive. I’m sitting at a mall with free wifi but it won’t allow uploads…horrible! I took pictures of the flat and I guess you’ll see them later. We’ll find a place that allows it-I hope.

The kitchen is nice, and I’m realizing that I don’t really need a dishwasher. It’s not a hassle for me to hand wash everything, but I’ve only been here for a short while- we’ll see. I am dependant on ovens though. While ‘living’ here it will prove to be a challenge to cook everything on a stovetop. But, as Travis says, I like that challenge and it hasn’t proven to be an obstacle yet. Emma is L-O-V-I-N-G all the time and attention from daddy. I could get used to him not working and staying with us all day…well maybe. 😉 I must say that my butt is being kicked by jet lag. Man, I want to pass out around 10am and then 3pm…I took naps with Emma today and it saved my life. Literally people. I’m frustrated by the lack of wifi. I would be posting everyday if I could. Sorry about that. We’re meeting with a missionary tomorrow at a coffee shop Coffee Heaven (which is far better than any Starbucks). We’ll be visiting friends in a nearby town from Friday to Saturday. They have a little girl and I know Emma and Esterka will love each other.

***On the flight over, Emma slept and didn’t yell once. She showed all those people who gave us the evil eye, as we boarded, that they were wrong. Hah, so there. (tongue sticking out) I was praying like nuts that she would do fine. The flight from Chicago to Krakow was 9 hrs 30 min. She is getting used to the time change, and I think she’ll be fine in a couple days. OK, people, time to go to bed- it’s 9:30 and Trav is a walking zombie, Emma is stalling with her toy laptop (what a savior mom!) and I’m finishing this. Dowidenzia!

Rainy Day= Creative Day

We woke up to rainy windy weather this morning, so my idea of going to the park flew away with the wind.

A river

Can you see the river?!

Splikity Splat Splat

Splikity Splat Splat

Pretty leaves

Luckily I bought a paint set for Emma at the Dollar Tree (LOVE that store!) a couple days ago and thought we could have a fun painting day. And it was. She was more interested in the water than the colors and then if she wanted to chose a color- it was black. Oh well, she’s one. 🙂 All in all, her pictures turned out really well! (with some help choosing colors from mom) She made 3 masterpieces and I’m going to make them into Christmas presents. I think involving shadow boxes and other little things she loves to do.

Love the colors

Look what I did mom!

A favorite of mine

But what about me?! I needed an activity that would make me happy. Hmmm, so I made a peach cobbler. I think all my creative juices are living in the kitchen because that is a place I know money will always pour into- grocery budget! It’s harder to find the spare cash to buy cardstock, stones/crystals or stamps. So here I am in the kitchen. I found this in a blog but can’t find it again! I am sorry but I give all credit to her…wherever she is.

Just out of the oven

IT ONLY HAS 3 INGREDIENTS!!!!!!!!!! (thinking of you Melissa) I was skeptical at first but people it turned out awesome! (Travis called it perfect-and that never happens) All that’s in this baby is canned peaches, a yellow cake mix sprinkled evenly on top and one stick of butter cut into slices all over the top. That’s it! In that order and bake for about 1hr or until the top is nice and golden brown. I didn’t have ice cream OR whip cream.Oh well, it was still really good hot out of the oven. (I made it at 8:30pm last night-sorry for the bad picture above)

No vanilla ice cream-lamo!

I am going to rely on this heavily in the winter months and for dinner parties and for potlucks and…etc. I was going to can pie filling and all that…but now I know just to buy regular old canned fruit! Who knew?! I am thinking about making this next with cherry pie filling. (my favorite) Yum. Try it- you can’t screw it up. Totally safe and EASY PEASY!

*note: I actually didn’t make this with canned peaches but with a 2lb bag of frozen peaches. I added 1/2 C water 1/2 C light corn syrup- you can’t cut the liquids, the cake mix NEEDS to soak it up to make it moist and well, edible. hehe

Meal Planning: October 09

Meal time again. Whoopie. Not to fun for you but a nessesity for me. If I don’t plan, I will freak out next week thinking we don’t have any food. So here it is. Oh, and I have to show a picture of Emma…a post isn’t a post without a picture right?!!!!

Emma and I...man I love her...*sigh

Tuesday: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Wednesday: Chicken Noodle Cheesy Cassarole

Thursday: Chicken Empanadas

Friday: Chicken Fajitas with Roasted Vegetables

Saturday: Leftover night! Yahoo for me!

Sunday: Chicken Bean Toastadas

Monday: Date night

Tuesday: Steak/noodle Concoction

Wednesday: Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Homemade Chicken Noodle  Soup

Friday:  Steak Salad

Saturday: Leftover night! Yahoo for me!

Sunday: Small Group Football Game!

Monday: Homemade Chili and Cornbread

My love

Doesn’t this make you want to scoop her up and not let anything bad touch her?! *sigh I am now going to give you a list of the ‘lunch items’ I am making for Travis’ lunch meals. I am stretching it kinda but making desserts is always more fun.

Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls- Check

3 Pumpkin Breads (to freeze)

Caramel Corn- one batch done, one more to make

Cappuccino Brownies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peach Cobbler- be looking for this incredible recipe! (only 3 items!)

Blueberry Muffins

Almond Biscotti

Berry filled Empanadas/ coated in cinnamon sugar

All of these have been in my ‘to do list’ and I am making them all now while I have the energy and freeze most of them. This way when I’m feeling lazy (and I do more often than I should in the winter months) I’ll just pop these suckers out of the freezer. Want to make them with me?

Caramel Popcorn

Doesn't this remind you of a carnival?!

Another food group activity. My friends and I all agreed to make caramel popcorn- from scratch. It’s mindless and easy but the process took a little longer than expected. Did it turn out? Is it yummy? You betcha. I made 18 cups worth, in the beginning and it shrunk a little. I totally forgot to put peanuts in, and I bought them special just for this! Oh well. Our family is invited to a packer party in 2 weeks and I’m making this. I’ll add the peanuts then. Would you like the recipe? Here you go, remember the nice thing about “All Recipe” is that you can change the amount you want to make and it automatically makes the adjustments for the ingredients. Bless their little cooking hearts. Oh and an even better part? YOU CAN SWITCH IT TO THE METRIC SYSTEM! You better believe I’ll be using this in Poland.

Go here to see the other caramel popcorn made from the same recipe. Check them out! Charis, Savannah, Carolina, Amy and Melissa.

Yummy Caramel Popcorn

Yes it's as good as it looks

I wanted to make it cheesy somehow...bingo :)

Onion Rings

I have noticed a trend in my making and baking…it all seems to be unhealthy. Unfortunately this post isn’t any better. Instead of being super sweet it’s super greasy. But it was really tasty! Yes, as you can tell from the title of this post, I made onion rings for dinner last night. (link is a similar recipe. I didn’t follow any but fooled around in the kitchen and made my own kinda) I was really nervous because I was making them with red onions. Would they turn out and taste as good as yellow onions? Yes! They didn’t look like a bloomin onion or anything, but they were great! And super fast and always a favorite with me. One red onion made about 15 onion rings. I apologize for the pictures- not my best or favorite. I am still learning how to take pictures at night and use all the different options my camera has. It doesn’t help that I’m not a fan of the flash either. Hope you can make them- kids would enjoy helping you.

Yesterday Emma and I went to the park to enjoy the falling leaves and cooler weather. It was nice to get out of the house and not have to drive anywhere. Below are also some photos of our time there. Enjoy!

You have to have it with ketchup of course!

A close up...yikes....still figuring out the lighting situation in my kitchen

She's so darn cute!

Emma and I- she has striking blue eyes

And lastly my favorite. I love black and whites

Cinnamon Roll Biscuits

I am SO excited to write this because not only was this fun, easy and quick…but there are 5 other blogging girlfriends making the same thing this morning! I am so interested in how they all turned out and all the variations that were made.

I woke up at 7:30 am- 30 min late, so to say I was in a rush is an understatement. But these are a fool proof recipe and even has the flexibility to be tweeked. Here is the recipe. I didn’t use 1 1/2 C heavy cream, but split whole milk and the cream. My pictures didn’t turn out as good as hers… but I think it took 3-5 min to make and 30 min to bake. Yeah, that simple.  They do have a biscuit like consistency, which I preferred to a normal cinnamon roll. They’re usually SO super sweet and these weren’t. Which I was in danger of eating too many. I added raisins to the icing and when Trav asked what they were, I told him they were bugs. (Man, I’m ready for a little boy 😉 ) We had a men’s small group at our house this morning and they all really liked them! Enjoy the pictures! Oh and check out the other girls who did this cinnamon roll bake this morning! They have great blogs! Melissa, Carolina, Charis, Becky and Amy.

(*don’t forget to comment for my giveaway! You have till Tuesday!)

Sorry about the lighting. But they were so pretty!

Served warm and yummy. Emma only cared about eating the raisins-silly girl

It's worth making them-promise

Chocolate Peanut Granola

Today Emma and I stayed in our pj’s. I decided after yesterday’s crazy schedule, that today would be dedicated to doing whatever we want. Emma has already chomped on a Hershey bar, I am about to make myself some healthy nachos (it’s the other food group fyi) then take a shower around 1pm. God bless today. Emma slept in till 9am (God thank you!) this morning which meant I had a nice QUIET relaxed breakfast. I was even feeling ambitious enough to make granola. This is saying something because I tried a while back a FAILED miserably. It was horrible, burnt, waste of many ingredients- I was frustrated to say the least. So I just resolved to always buy it. (but it’s super expensive *sigh) That was until I came to a blog. (sorry, I forgot how I got there and I don’t have the page anymore) So I tried it…and ….drum roll please….it turned out great! They’re in jars now awaiting yogurt, milk, fruit or just to be eaten as a snack. I am so happy. I’m giddy really. It’s not really that hard…I don’t know what I did last time. Emma really liked it too- but it has chocolate in it so…yeah. Maybe I’ll make it as a present for someone. Or keep this in mind and simply add dried cranberries and pistachios to make a “Christmas blend”. hehe. I’m actually going to add raisins or craisins to it later today. Yum…

All that’s in it is: Oats, sweetened coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, pieces of peanuts and then just drizzled with maple syrup. The key is to keep taking it out about every 10 min and tossing it so it’s all getting evenly toasted and clumpy. I added chocolate chips after I took them out and they conveniently melted to make even more clumps 🙂 Raisins will be added after a shopping trip later today.

Enjoy the pictures and DON’T FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY! It ends Tuesday-and all you have to do is comment to enter. It’s that easy!

Granola Cooling

Yummy yummy in my tummy

Emma eating after it has cooled

Today

Knobb Hill in the Fall

Today is overcast and rain is off and on. Even though we haven’t ventured outside yet, and we will, we’ve had a fun time indoors. A few things stand out.

First: Emma has learned how to open all the drawers. Oh man…I was really hoping she wouldn’t care about that.*sigh. But of course she loves taking ALL the things out and then walk away like it will clean itself up. (my way of thinking too hehe)

Look what I can do mom!

Secondly, we have our local produce delivered to us (go here to see their amazing site) and in our latest produce box were mini kiwi. I have never seen/heard of them but here they are and of course Emma LOVES them. They have no fur or skinning needed. Just pop those little men in your mouth for a sweet tangy kiwi taste. I was amazed really. God is so creative.

eSee the kiwi seeds?

They're about the size of your thumb.

Teeni Kiwi

Lastly, I had a friend come over and she and I worked on a song I’m going to sign. I am SO excited about this because it’s 1 1/2 yrs in the making. I know God will do awesome things and move people’s hearts. It is a bit challenging though. Not just in signing (it’s way hard) but as a viewer, it’s not a nice cutsie song. It will challenge you for sure. She said that she will put it on u-tube so I’ll link to it whenever that is.  I apologize for the handwriting, I was in a hurry and didn’t think anyone else would be reading it.

Song being translated-what a slow process

~ What did you do today? Oh, and be sure to check out my blog on Saturday…I’ll be posting something really cool. No, not a giveaway, but soon I promise.