Sonia’s Sugared Almonds Salad

1c sliced almonds fried in 5T sugar until dissolved.  Do Not Burn.

1/2 head iceberg

1/2 head romaine

1c chopped celery

mandarin oranges

(I used real lettuce and real oranges but feel free to follow the actual recipe).

Sonia’s Dressing = 1/2t salt, 1/2c c oil, 1T parsley, 1T sugar, 1T vinegar, tabasco sauce (optional)

Lisa’s Summer Salsa Salad

1/2 pkg dry ranch dressing

4-5 roma tomatoes

2 avacados

1 can shoepeg corn

1/2 purple onion

1 can black beans

Lisa’s Dressing  = 1T red wine vinegar, 3-4T lime juice, 2T olive oil, 1t salt, 1/2t pepper

Pecan Salad = Spinach, Pecans, bacon, pear, blue cheese       Dressing =  1/4c red wine vinegar, 2t brown sugar, 1/2t salt

Taco Salad = lettuce, black beans or lentils, sour cream, salsa, cheese, taco sauce, tomatoes, corn

Summer Salad = spinach, smoked turkey, strawberries, mandarin oranges

Holly’s Dressing = 1/4c oil, 2T vinegar, 1T lemon, 1T sugar

Jelly Dressing = 1/4c jelly, 3T red wine vinegar.  Cook 1-2 min on med low.  stirring.  When smooth freeze 10 min.

Shannon’s Artichoke Salad

2 cans artichoke hearts (quartered and drained) – marinate several in bowl w/ half the dressing

1 red onion sliced in fine rings

1 can large pimentos (drained)

1 head romaine

1 head iceberg

1c parmesan cheese

Shannon’s Dressing = 1/4c red wine vinegar, 3/4c oil, 1/4t garlic powder

Nancy’s Poppyseed Dressing (this is our favorite.  it goes so great with spinach salads, although it is sugary)

1/2c sugar

1t dry mustard

1t salt

1/3c cider vinegar

1T grated onion

Blend w/ stick blender or blender  Slowly add 3/4 c salad oil.

Then stir in 1t poppy seeds

Cucumber Orange Salad = lettuce, cucumbers, oranges

Orange Dressing = 1/4c oj, 2T honey, 2T olive oil, 1/4c apple cider vinegar

Diana’s Amazing Cooked Salad (I had this at a friend’s house and was quite sure I misunderstood her directions.  It’s odd but AMAZING.)

lettuce, hot broiled vegetables (Onions, zucchini, carrots, asparagus, anything), goat or feta cheese, balsamic dressing

Happy Eating!!!!

We did have fun.  Enough fun that we lost track of time and forgot we were supposed to be at the boys’ football game until Warrior called to ask why we weren’t home yet.  We flew into the car and flew across town (okay, across 3 towns).  I dashed into the house for cleats and something nutritious and we dashed across another town.  After the game (which was spectacular, I’m sure), we again piled into the van to fly across town the other direction to make it to the history faire which I was co-hosting for a different homeschooling group.  We only flew halfway there when we got stopped by an accident on the freeway.  We stood absolutely, perfectly still for 90 minutes.  That was really fun.

Instead of being early enough to set up, we barely made it in time for the boys to participate.  At some point during the fall (thanks to many days like this, though most not this bad) we realized our lives were a tad over scheduled.  One of the many many reason we homeschool is to avoid the rush and scurry that has taken all the joy out of life.  Everyone is in such a hurry to go to the next job, the next entertainment, the next class, they forget life is just fun.  With two sports and numerous homeschool coops and groups, we somehow fell into the same rut.  Change was abrewing.

The history faire was fantastic.  I was so proud of the boys and they had so much fun with it.  Tackler was Charles Lindbergh and Prince was Walt Disney.  They created boards with information about their people and dressed in character.  The children studied the boards, then walked around asking each other questions like “Did you fly an airplane from New York to Paris nonstop transatlantic?”  Then Tackler would say yes and that child knew he was Lindbergh.

During the event, I was standing next to two moms talking.  They were lamenting that “these things always turn into the moms doing most of the work.”  Then they turned to me and said “Except your children.  It always looks like they do theirs”.  As I type this I realize it could sound like an insult.  Like theirs look the least professional.  Which they are.  But what does an 8 eight year old learn from printing out some pretty graphics and words?  Ours are colorful – written and illustrated with child scrawl.  Something to treasure a thousand years from now.  Well, twenty years from now anyway.

Isn’t that awful?  How could people who love me say such things to me?  It just isn’t nice.

A friend who knows me particularly well took one look at Little Man and said, “It’s about time for you to replace him.”  At first I was appalled.  But she just laughed and then I knew what she meant.  I laughed.  And sighed.  The only way to get over the sadness of your precious babies growing up is the replace them with younger babies.  Fortunately, mine all look the same so it eases the pain a little bit. But not a lot.  Because they grow up really really fast.  My advice to new moms is always “Don’t blink”.  I should know.  I have blinked four times and look what’s happened.

And just in case you are wondering, this isn’t my announcement post.  In fact, this is the first summer since 2005 that I have not been either pregnant or had an infant.  That’s a LOT of years of babyness.  It feels rather strange.  So I just keep telling people that Little Man is a newborn.  I am not sure if they believe me but they tell me I can keep thinking it if I want.   I think I will.

Though it would help if he would stop acting so old.  Nobody can ever believe he is 18 months (he’s 12 months in the pictures because that’s how far behind I am) because he runs after his siblings and climbs walls and swings from chandeliers like he’s Pretty Girl’s age instead of the infant that he is.

Cute children aside, General Conference is the best way to spend a weekend.  Get out a notebook and pen, take some notes, and let it change your life.

Pardon the interruption with a current post – lately our home was seized and turned into a castle.  Queen Eleanor now presides with her trusty son, Prince Henry.

Please call him Henry.  He’s really Prince Henry but does not want his subjects confused with extraneous titles.  Henry is busy night and day fighting dragons and saving the fair Princess and protecting the Noble Baby.

Also along for the ride is “Plain Old Tank” who views our antics with a grin but refuses an official title change.

Note the sheath and shield.  Instead of my own projects, I was stuck in the iron foundry all week under fear of death by sword if they were not completed in time to save the dragon.

We now return to our year in review.   Slowly, ever so slowly.

Pretty girl is VERY into her play kitchen.  However, when she wakes me up in the morning to tell me she’s hungry.  “I’m hungry.  I’m hungry.  I’m hungry.”, she will not accept play food and she will not be acquiesed with acknowledgment.  Yes, dear.  I hear you.  No, she wants real food.  How can a 3 year old who still wears size 9 month dresses as shirts be so obsessed with eating?

But as much as she likes food and kitchens, she is even MORE into clothes.  Her other first request of the morning is “It’s light out.  Can I get dressed?”  Imagine that question with all the glee of a child asking for an ice cream cone.  She LOVES to get dressed.  Repeatedly.  In pink.  And ruffles.  That skirt above has 80″ around.  That’s about triple what I need in a skirt.  (well, not quite but it sounded nice).  She is SUCH a girly girl. A sweet, wonderful, hilarious girly girl.

Happy Birthday my baby.  (haha.  She can’t read so she can’t vehemently protest that she’s not a baby!)

We came home with 3 bushels of apples.  Last year I baked up a storm to use them all up.  This year we just ate them one crunchy apple goodness at a time. I would miss fall if it did not tend to be followed by winter.

Speaking of festivities – I was quite annoyed today on our way to a class at the library to find out there was a parade and the library was in the center of it.  We spent 35 minutes trying to get close enough to park somewhere near the library.  All the revelers were reveling and I was stewing.  I don’t think I will ever feel guilty about having parades in my backyard while other people have to drive all day to get to them.  I put a crocheted shamrock barrette in Pretty Girl’s hair (Danke Tante) and called it a festival.  No need to block the streets people.  (Pardon the crankiness).

I have wracked my brain and the brain of most people whom I trust to come up with answers to life’s dilemmas but no one has been able to find solutions to the room’s issues.

• It is abnormally long and thin on both sides of doors.
• The front and sides are solid windows and the right side is also mostly windows.
• Most of the junk out there, really does have to stay there.
• The room has no purpose.

My friend and I started discussing the room about 10pm.  We called the in the hubbies on their way to bed to make them move some furniture for us.  Warrior chided me for making my friend work (wouldn’t she rather watch a bball game?) but she assured them that just as I think its fun to organize, she thinks its fun to decorate.

And I admit she is quite good at it.  She asked me “If money were no object, what would you put in that room?”  I had no answer but in 4 hours we came up with a plan and executed it by stealing things from other rooms of the house.

• We broke the room in half.  The left side still needs a little work but by thinking of the room as two rooms, we were able to overcome a little of the long and skinny problem.  Then we arranged furniture to stop the eye and make it look wider.
• She told me to embrace the windows.  Most people advised curtains to hide them (especially the awkward wall of windows that peer into the living room).  She convinced me to love them instead.  And now I do.
• We removed the bowflex and bike.  Ahhh.  I have been trying to do that for a while with no success.  Maybe it was paying an interior designer thousands of dollars (well, really just a pancake breakfast) but Warrior finally agreed we could take them out.  We added a treasure chest coffee table for boots and a tall basket for rollerblades and helmets.  The rest we moved to the left side to tackle another day.
• We gave the room a purpose.  My house has several living room type areas so I thought it really did not need another one but it turns out I was wrong.  I now have a cozy little room to welcome people without even entering the house.  Warrior held a meeting out there undisturbed by the four wild angelic children in the house.

What used to be my greatest frustration is now a sanctuary of peace.  Thanks dear friend.  Please come back soon and help me finish the rest of the house!

P.S.  Lest you think life isn’t real here, I will admit that winter has been so cold, we have only enjoyed the room a handful of times and I spent most of the winter removing wet boots and sleds from my pretty sunroom and the other side spent a month crammed with the rest of the workshop junk that was on it’s way out of the school room we remodeled…however, spring is almost here and as soon as Warrior is finished staining the molding for the school room out there, I plan to spend a lot of time in my new pretty room.

No darling.  Macaroni does not make you happy.  Malnutrition aside (how does my 2 year old even know what that stuff is?), I explained to her, you have to make yourself happy.

However, in typical two year old fashion, she was not to be dissuaded.  Fortunately she also knows how to make herself happy without macaroni because she has a mean mom.  (Shh.  Don’t tell.  No one knows).

What makes you happy?  Are you sure?

Halfway through college she transferred to my school, but while I was going to school full-time and working almost full-time, she was married to the hunk in the picture below so we did not see each other much.  Just enough to keep the friendship alive.

After graduation I moved to the east coast and she moved an hour from my parents.  I was excited to be able to visit her; however, during those years I was working more than full-time and never made it home.  (I’m not a bad daughter, I just let my parents come to me).  About the time I started having children she moved half an hour from my in laws.  That’s when I stopped working (ha ha.  sorta.) and started traveling so every year or two I was able to call her up and say “I’m in town.  Can I see you?”

She finally repaid the favor this fall.  She and her husband went to NYC for an anniversary trip and rented a car and drove all the way to see us.  They arrived just in time for soccer practice so followed along and played with my babies while I coached.  We returned home just as Warrior got home from work so we all cooked dinner together, then put the children to bed and spent the rest of the night talking.

The men watched some game on tv while the girls sat in the living room discussing how isolating motherhood is and how we wished women would open up more instead of hiding behind their “My Life is as Perfect as my Blog Makes it Sound” cover.

This post is getting too long and no one has that kind of patience so enough about my wonderful friend.  Tomorrow I will tell you about her wonderful makeover because about the time any sane person would have gone to bed, we decided to redecorate my front porch.