A New Grandson

Presenting Zachary Shaun, born 8:10 a.m. 6/26/12, 8 lbs. 14 oz, 20 inches long.  Totally adorable!  I think his big brother is pretty proud of him.
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~Jane

Productive Week

This has been a productive week.  I finished the last of the large diapers and the inserts I was making, turned several pairs of pants for my son-in-law into shorts and mended a pair for him, finished knitting the sheep hat for Zachary, finished knitting the fronts to the sweater I'm making for myself, slipcovered the cushion back for Elsie's rocking chair, and finished sewing the overskirt to my french fashion doll's dress.  I also traced off and wrote directions to my diaper pattern for a woman at church who wants to try sewing her own diapers, and drafted an extra-small size diaper pattern that I'm going to try making up for Zachary.  The only frustrating part was that the fabric store didn't have enough slipcover fabric to cover everything.  I think I'll try ordering the rest on-line.

Malachi came to spend the afternoon and we washed bikes - his tricycle and my bicycle.  I haven't ridden my bicycle for at least 20 years, so it was covered in grime and rust.  I'm discovering SOS pads for good for cleaning up a lot of rusty chrome.  First the swing set, and now my bike.  Of course, the tires are totally flat.  My husband says he'll put some air in them to judge their condition.  I'm sure I need new ones, but I'm thinking that since my knees limit how much I can walk, bicycling may be better.  It sounds like my husband would be willing to do it with me.  Guess I need to get a helmet.

~Jane

My Little Guy

Malachi's mom and dad went on a date tonight, probably the last one before the new baby arrives, so he came to spend the evening with Grandma and Papa.  He brought a butterfly net with him and had a great time trying to catch bugs!  Then he decided Grandma's head fit into the net and that was fun to catch also.  He wanted to play outside, so I decided to work on an outdoor project while he was here.  We have our old swing set still installed in the side yard.  We put it up when our daughter was two, so it is 28 years old and probably hasn't been used in 20 years.  The swings are long gone and the whole thing is dirty and peeling paint.  Malachi has been wanting to climb up on it but it is so yucky.  I got my husband to get the toddler swing down from the attic in the garage.  Malachi hasn't been much of a swinger so far, but I thought he might like the toddler swing since it's like a little chair.  I hung it up pretty low to the ground and he loved it.  Then we got the idea to clean off the slide.  Other than being dirty and mossy, it was in great shape after going over it with an SOS pad.  It cleaned up well and Malachi liked sliding down it.  It is pretty high and pretty steep!  My husband says he'll pressure wash the rest of the swing set next week and then we can repaint the peeling parts.  I bought a new regular child's swing to hang from the other side once it is cleaned and repainted.  We should be able to get quite a bit more use out of it.  He came in for a peanut butter sandwich and ice cream and then a bath and two Curious George stories and off to bed.  I get such a kick out of having him stay over and he is getting to be so much fun!

Caught this picture after he went to sleep.  So cute with his hands behind his head.

~Jane

Catching Up the Week

This has been a really busy week.  As my husband says though, all our weeks seem to be busy.  I guess we thought once our daughter was out of the house life would slow down, but instead it seems to have speeded up.  I ended up babysitting on Monday and Tuesday evenings after work.  Thursday I had a cat scan looking for kidney stones, but they didn't find any thankfully.  Last night my daughter hosted a craft night at her house.  It was fun and I stayed up way too late.  I felt like I had a hangover this morning but it was just from getting to bed too late.  Saturdays are always grocery shopping.  I made a pan of Lemon Chicken for dinner and a bag of it for the freezer.  One more freezer meal tucked away.  All my dinners for the week are planned, and now I need to tackle the laundry.  I'm hoping to get the Estate Sale ladies over to my mom's this week.  It depends on how quickly my brothers get their tasks done.  I bought elastic yesterday so I can finish the remaining large diapers and then on to the new baby's quilt.

~Jane

Freezer Meals Continued

I went grocery shopping today and then came home and started my meals for the week.  We had hamburger buns to eat up, so my husband requested Sloppy Joes.  Those are easy.  For this week's meals, I thought I'd make stuffed shells and enchiladas.  I came home and started cooking two pounds of sausage for the spaghetti sauce for the shells and four pounds of hamburger for my enchiladas and sloppy joes.  I chopped up and added two onions to each pan and four cloves of garlic to the sausage.  When the hamburger was thoroughly browned, I seperated out one-quarter of it to another pan and added the sloppy joe mix, tomato paste and water and heated it up.  Dinner was ready to go!  I added taco seasoning and a can of refried beans to the rest of the hamburger and let it simmer for a few minutes.  I turned everything off and ate dinner.  One hour down.  I came back a little later and added all the ingredients to the spaghetti sauce and started it simmering again.  While it simmered, I filled tortillas with the meat/bean mixture, sour cream and cheese, and made three pans of enchiladas (two with whole wheat tortillas and one with regular wheat).  Then I took a can each of cheese soup and nacho cheese soup and mixed these with the remaining sour cream and spread over the top with a sprinkling of shredded cheese.  One of these went into the refrigerator for Monday's dinner and the other two into the freezer to save.  This took roughly about another 45 minutes.  I decided my knees had had it by this time and my kidney started to hurt again, so I quit for the day.  The pot of spaghetti sauce is done and in the refrigerator.  I'll make my stuffed shells tomorrow.  The sauce doesn't need to be hot when assembling, in fact, it will freeze quicker since it's cold.  It shouldn't take more than an hour tomorrow to cook the pasta shells, mix the ricotta mixture for the filling, and assemble the three cassaroles.  So, for about three hours time, I'll have made six cassaroles and one batch of sloppy joes.  Actually it will work out to at least eight meals for us (since we'll get at least two meals off each of ours and two of the sloppy joes), two frozen cassaroles to give to Elsie, and probably some leftovers for lunches.  I love bulk cooking of freezer meals.  The past couple of legislative sessions I haven't had my usual stash of freezer meals.  For next year, I want to have a nice variety of at least 24-30 meals ready in the freezer.

~Jane

It's Finally Friday

I stayed home from work today trying to rest and get over this kidney infection.  I ended up sleeping a lot more than I planned and didn't really get anything at all done.  This evening I sat and knit while my husband and I watched TV.  I realized, just as I was binding off for the armhole shaping on the fronts, that I had made a mistake in the cabling about a dozen rows earlier.  I ended up ripping back to the mistake and picking up the stitches and starting over.  I have a picture, but it's on the dark side.  I love the way this sweater is turning out and especially happy it's for me!  :)

I've decided on my freezer meals for the week.  I'm making Stuffed Shells with homemade spaghetti sauce and my own recipe for Beef Enchiladas.  I'll be making three of each meal, one for dinner, one to freeze for Elsie, and one to freeze for us.  Since I did crockpot freezer meals last week, this week I thought I'd do cassarole freezer meals.  I love having a bunch of meals made up and ready in the freezer.  I'm happy I can contribute to Elsie's stash of meals also.  It makes some variety in her selection, plus she's trying to get ready for the little guy coming in about three weeks.  It would be so nice if she didn't have to cook much for at least the first month.

I think I'm pretty much done at my mom's for right now.  I need to get my brothers to move some of the paint, etc., out of the hall and the bathroom and put the bathroom door back on.  Then I'm handing the key over to the Estate Sale ladies to hopefully get rid of most of it.  It's taken me a couple weeks to reassure myself there isn't anything left there that we might want and to mentally take the leap to being finished.  Of course, not really finished, but finished with that phase of things.

~Jane