After a fun filled March break it took me a week to get back into the routine of things. Last weekend my husband went with 2 of his friends to the Louisville Truck Show. That took a little organzing to have everything ready for him. This truck show is an annual business trip for him. So we always know what we are doing the 3rd weekend in March. We ladies went out for supper one night while they were gone. This too is becoming an annual event.

March Break

So what are you all doing for March break?
Monday: stayed at home & cleaned my house for company on Tues.
Tuesday: my friend Rose & her children came over. Rose & I did some scrap booking.
Wednesday: I plan to take lunch for 5 ladies who are painting my friends' house. we also have small group in the evening.
Thurday: We are getting together with Donovan's friend Christopher and going to an indoor playground.
Friday: We are getting together with the truck drivers' wife club for a day of sewing. There are about six of us ladies who get together about every 6 weeks to sew and relate as wives of truckers. A real spirit lifter.
Saturday: We plan to attend an auction sale that my husband's uncle & aunt are having.
Sunday: No plans yet, except to attend church.
Monday: back to the regular routine.
I warned my husband that I do not plan on housekeeping being my focus this week but rather socializing!
I also have some books on the go too. What are some of your favorite authors? Can you get into someone like Beverly Lewis? Karen Kingsbury? Dee Henderson? Currently I am reading River Rising by Athol Dickson. I am also looking forward to the third book in the Yada Yada series by Neta Jackson. I'll let you know about River Rising when I am done. Maybe you like books with more depth to them. Right now it is hard for me to read a book with a lot of depth because I get interrupted so often. So I like to read stuff that doesn't really matter where I left off.

Bad Scare

This a.m. I was sitting at my computer enjoying my coffee and checking messages when I smelt something hot. I thought it was the wood stove or the toaster. Next the smoke alarm went off. Donovan (5) came running downstairs yelling mom and made one beeline for the front door. I commended Donovan for following the rule (if you hear the smoke alarm tell a grown up and get outside fast). I told him he doesn't have to go outside but just wait by the door. Then I started looking for the reason for the smoke alarm. I didn't find anything downstairs so I went upstairs and as I came to the top of the steps I saw an orange glow. Here the basket of books beside my bed was on fire! I ran for the fire extinguisher and some water. I panicked too much too figure out the extinguisher so I threw two big bowls of water on it and got it out. Praise the Lord my bedding did not catch fire or else I would have way more damage than a big black spot beside my bed and several books damaged. I figure the fire started with piece of baler twine that Donovan had been playing with and it got too hot when he hung over a light above my bed. All this time I was putting out the fire Donovan was standing by the front door with his cup in hand and his boots on. He even got his younger brother to put his boots on too! He was scared but he knew what he was going to do. I was very proud of his clear thinking. Now I have to go make my bed yet. I had to wash all my bedding.

Our Practices At the time of a loss of a loved one

Tonight I am going to church to discuss this issue. We split up in groups of 6 or 8 and discuss the issue of the evening. The one question is:
How should the ministry respond to a family's request to have no funeral home visitation prior to the memorial service?
Does any one care to give their opinion?
I'll let you know what was discussed after church tonight.

Signs of Spring

I have been reading some of your blogs and you are talking about spring cleaning, planting your planters. Well this week I hope we have our first sign of spring, tapping trees for maple syrup. It is finally warm enough during the day yet cold enough at night so that it freezes. And it is the month of March now. Horray! Once people start tapping trees then we can start thinking about spring! We still need our winter coats & boots, hats & mittens! My husband's brother and his wife have a bush they tap and every spring they invite us up for a maple syrup meal. This usually consists of a one dish casserole for the main dish and then maple butter on fresh homemade bread. Then for dessert we have fresh homemade donuts to dip into maple syrup. Delicious! the male section in my household will drink maple syrup right out of the jug if allowed. Of course their dad does nothing to change that! Where do you think they learned it? Another very good dessert with maple syrup is baked custard.
How many people know what egg cheese is? I am interested in hearing what comments you have about it.

I've been tagged by Kathryn’s Reliquary
I was tagged by Kathryn to do this kitchen questionnaire and thought it looked really fun...

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family? We eat at home practically all the time. My husband is gone by the week so I only have to cook 2 or 3 meals for him at the most in a 7 day period. I have 2 boys and one who is very picky so my menu choices are limited.
2. How many cookbooks do you own? Not more than 20.
3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week? Probably several times a week. My menu choices are very basic right now. The kids are very happy with a basic roast with potatoes & veggies, or wieners and Kraft Dinner, sausage or meatballs & mashed potatoes, or spaghetti & hamburger. This is all stuff that is in the house so I don't need a recipe book unless I disregard the boys' taste and make what I like!
4. Do you collect recipes from other sources? If so, what are some of your favorite sources (relatives, friends, magazines, advertisements, packages, the internet, etc.)? I will collect recipes from my friends, the newspaper,& Taste of Home.
5. How do you store those recipes? I have a 3 ring binder where I store the recipes from my friends or the newspaper. I usually keep the whole TOH magazine on a stack in my cupboard.
6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas? I will follow a new recipe quite closely, but like
Kathryn there are some things I know just won’t work and I will adjust it. But I don’t use recipes to give me ideas. I use that method when I scrapbook!
7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it? We stick with the basic Mennonite cooking. Although I can throw in some Italian. We really enjoy BBQ in the summer.
8. What’s your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation? (eating the finished product does not count) Everything about meal planning & preparation is work. I don’t hate it but it is something that I have to force myself to do. When I get a meal together though it does taste good if I do say so myself!
9. What’s your least favorite part? It’s a toss up between planning and clean up. The actual cooking is not so bad. I think meal time comes around way too soon!
10. Do you plan menus before you shop? I have a basic idea in mind. Most of my main ingredients are in the house anyway such as meat & vegetables in the freezer so I don’t have to buy that kind of stuff. I just need to have the ingredients to go with it.
11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances? I love my blue glazed stoneware pan I received as a gift. I use it for strombolli all the time. I am also very thankful for my Quik chef from Tupperware.. I also like my cookware set.
12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have? We want to take a bulldozer to our house. I would like a whole new kitchen, especially nice and lots of cupboards, particularly a pantry.
13. Since money and space are probably objects, what are you most likely to buy next? I would love a full sized stove with the flat range.
14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage? Yes. I have two.
15. Grocery shop alone or with others? Almost always with my two kids.
16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week? None.
17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? Favorite kitchen colors?
My whole house is done in a seafoam green with white trim and pink or lavender as an accent colour. So I have border in my kitchen with the country cottage look, lots of flowers and birds. Even my Sunday dishes match my kitchen. That just happened. When I picked my colours for my kitchen I was not thinking about my dishes but now it is fun to set the table and everything matches.
18. What’s the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you? I think it was icing for cream buns or maybe meatloaf. I also mixed puddings for supper too. I would have been around10 when I started doing that and making lunches for school in the morning.
19. How did you learn to cook? My mom would have started me off but she was very busy with 9 children and two of them completely handicapped. She did not have more time than the very basics for meals. I learned the most from a man that I had to work for who was a quadriplegic. He loved to watch cooking shows and then I had to do the work! I learned to cook with Emeril spices because of him. I also enjoy reading recipe books.
20. Tagging…

Back from an awesome weekend

My hubby and I had a wonderul weekend with 12 other couples from church. This retreat center was run by a Christian family so the atmosphere was very pleasant. Also they cooked awesome food so we ladies had a wonderful break. One husband told his wife "now, no complaining for a week!" We had no cooking or cleanup so the weeknd was very relaxing. We went tubing down a "cardiac" hill, cross country skiing and some skating plus of games inside. My favorite game was Apples to Apples and my least favorite is rook or anything in that family. we had a signature hunt and one of the questions was someone who does not like to play Rook. I had to sign quite a few of those. Our theme for the weekend was Sacrifical Living from Romans 12. We left with lots of things to ponder from that too. so now its back to the daily schedule again and filling out that tag I received:(

We are off for the weekend

My hubby and I are taking off for the weekend and going to a retreat center in northern ON with some other couples from our church. We found a place for the children to stay for the weekend. So pray for safe travels to & from the center so that we can be back together with our children again. Also my oldest son is getting to the age where he recognizes and has fear of new and strange situations so this looks a little big to him. So I hope & pray he will be OK. Talk to you when I get back.