Thanksgiving Dinner

We have issues with Thanksgiving. We don't love it. I like the idea of time off from school and work and a nice relaxing weekend. I love the idea of giving thanks and feeling gratitude. I don't love that the day is dedicated to one giant meal with turkey, that takes so much work and for which I end up doing all the cleanup. In the past we have shunned tradition at times and have had a Thanksgiving of Indian food. Get it? Indian? We figure that is where the Europeans were trying to get originally anyway.

For some reason the past few years I have been yearning for the traditional though. The whole giant spread. I don't know where the Siren song comes from. Last month I didn't want a traditional feast, but by two weeks ago I did. I asked Kenneth if we could go out for dinner? No. I asked if we could go to the church where they were having a community meal? No. I then asked if we could have a traditional meal. No. I then told him I wasn't cooking any of Thanksgiving dinner. He said he would pick the menu and do it. Great. He was still planning on Indian at that time. Fast forward to this week. He finally decided that we would do a traditional meal, but not our traditional. So we looked online at a site called ThePioneerWoman.com. She has a cooking area where she shows you how to make some yummy looking stuff. She has a whole Thanksgiving menu from which we borrowed heavily. So Kenneth and I went shopping Tuesday night after most of the kids were in bed to buy all the ingredients we needed, you know, like a turkey. We bought the free-range one which tasted so much better than a regular one. I'm kidding. A bird is a bird, but it is supposedly healthier and the bird lives a happy, yet short life before the wringing of the neck episode at the locally owned and operated free-range farm. What?! All I know is all's well that ends up in my stomach tasting so delicious. Back to the narrative.

Inspired by the Pioneer Woman I started cooking on Wednesday. I started the turkey brining, made the potatoes, the butternut squash puree, the apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies, and the cranberrie sauce. Sophia helped with the cranberries and Dylan was my big helper with the pies. By the end of the day I was exhausted. My body hurt from standing all day. I had to do two loads in the dishwasher throughout the day. I also had to make an acutal dinner in there somewhere. It was so worth it though to get all that done. It meant that Thursday was all about the turkey, the gravy, the stuffing, and the rolls. It was much more relaxed than previous years and the cleanup was a breeze. Just so you know that I am not Martha Stewart or Bree Hodge, the rolls were an unmitigated disaster. Kenneth did the turkey and the gravy. The reason I was cooking even after I said I wouldn't was because I meant I wouldn't cook an Indian meal, but I was happy to cook a traditional one.

Recipes we used from Pioneer Woman:

turkey, gravy,

potatoes,

pecan pie,

butternut squash puree,

parts of the stuffing recipe

and rolls. We didn't have rolls with our feast we had them later in the day. Here is what they looked like at the time we sat down to eat.
Here is what they looked like 4 hours later.
I cooked them anyway. What else was I to do?
Here is what they ended up looking like.
Here is what they should look like in a universe where the yeast works like it should.

Traditional recipes that we can't do without even when we do Indian:

pumpkin chiffon pie

and apple pie.

Honorable mention: cranberry sauce.

The whole spread was gorgeous and delicious.
This year it was worth it. We'll see which Siren sings loudest next year.
Happy Thanksgiving.

The Sunday to remind me I have young children.

Sometimes I get too comfortable in my life. I have older children who are able to help around the house, clean, cook, and babysit. Now granted they still aren't perfect or always make the best choices, but I can't even tell you how much easier my life is now than when I had a bunch of little children to corral. Luckily for me every once in a while I have a day like last Sunday which serves to remind me that I do still in fact have a few young children remaining.

When I went to get Orion and Dylan ready for church I found that it had snowed a little in Dylan's room. But, wait, that's not snow, that is the inside of the pull-up he wore to bed. Really nice. I thought the days of the insides being strewn on the floor were gone with the diapers. Apparently not. Oh so lucky me. Now, I will admit that I didn't clean it up right away as we really needed to get ready and go and the mess wasn't going anyway. Back to the nice part of my life, the fact that Dylan shares his room with Theron. So later I told Theron to clean it up and he did. YES!

Next. I came home from visiting teaching after church and found Orion and Dylan under my desk with all the contents of their beds: blankets, pillows, stuffed animals and all the cushions from the couch. They were playing their video games which they are not allowed to do on Sunday. I told them they were grounded from games, but I didn't freak out about the mess as I was tired. I went to bed instead. They could always clean it up later. The kids make dinner for us on Sunday so when we came down for dinner Kenneth saw the mess and he freaked out. (I let him take over the freaking out a few years ago. It has cut down on my stress level considerably and my wrinkles. I highly recommend it.) Well, it turns out that they had turned off my computer while under there and spilled V8 on the floor. So Kenneth strongly suggested that if they ever wanted to eat anything sweet again in their lives that they had better clean everything up. They quickly obeyed.

Later. Kenneth was puzzled by the fact that Dylan was missing some of his hair.
A few chunks in the back and a big chunk of his bangs. How did that happen you ask? Orion had taken it upon himself to give his brother a trim. When? When they were under the desk. Why? I guess he was just being nice. Where was Dylan's hair now? Under the couch of course. Now, if you can believe it I have made it through nearly 13 years of motherhood without the helpful self-administered or sibling-administered haircut. I thought I was safe. I had completely let my guard down. Kenneth decided that the punishment for said haircut was that they both would have they hair cut completely off. I said I would do it Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday. By Thursday I had decided that a better punishment would be for them to walk around like haircut freaks. Freaks? Why yes, Orion had cut his own hair as well. Because his hair is darker we didn't notice for a few days. We'll see if I decide to cut it tomorrow so they don't have to go to church like haircut freaks. I mean what kind of mother would allow her children to look like freaks? This one apparently.

Sunday was a good reminder for me that I still have little ones that might have impulse issues. I will try to do better about remembering that and keeping them mindlessly anesthetized with more sugar and more TV.

Pet Day

Today was pet day in Theron's class. He wanted Mitzi to come. She was very well behaved. It was fun for the kids in the class. They love to see all the pets and ask questions. The last family to come in brought a pig and a chicken. I know, amazing. Now, true, they were their 2 younger children dressed in Halloween costumes, but still. They were totally cute. I told the dad that I wished those were the only kind of pets I had. I guess they told the class that the pets eat the scraps off the table. The class asked what the pig says and the pig said, "Moo."

So for all those people that hate pet day because they don't have a pet and are worried that their child will feel left out just remind your child that your family is full of animals. Which one would they like to take to class? The momma bear? The daddy lion? The sly fox? The Tasmanian devil? The laughing hyena? The destructive raccoon? The screaming eagle? The jumping lemur? So many to choose from. Give me your best animal person comparison in your family.

Hotel Cafe Tour

I switched my playlist to songs we heard at the concert. So turn it on while you read. Some are long, so feel free to skip around.

Last Wednesday Kenneth and I went to the Hotel Cafe Tour up at the Avalon Theater. This wasn't really planned. I don't usually go to two concerts in one week, especially when I'm not feeling great.
On Monday I heard on the radio that the tour was coming and we are fans of a few of the ladies in the tour. I called Kenneth and we decided to buy tickets. Monday morning was before I really started feeling bad. By Wednesday I was really not in great shape, but I still wanted to go. This is why you can't trust crowds, Jen M. There might be a plague carrier who just really wants to be there. I promise I was careful, but you never know. We ended up calling Kenneth's sister, Eden, when we got there because she lives fairly close and asking her if she wanted to join us. She did.

Essentially this tour is a bunch of indie type folks. The website says this. "The concept of the tour was to share the same community vibe with music fans all over the country. Artists performed solo and would then share the stage with fellow tour mates. No cookie cutter corporate American Idols, just real music, written by real artists, surrounded by real friends, who actually have a story to tell."

It was a very intimate setting. There were 6 women artists participating on this night.

Kate Havnevik,

Meiko,

Emily Wells,

Lenka,

Rachael Yamagata,

and Thao Nguyen.

We were fans of Lenka and Rachael before we went. I really enjoyed the whole show, except for the fact that my body hurt so bad and I couldn't sing or yell. I am a now a fan of Thao Nguyen, she is a great guitarist. Also, Emily Wells. Her music was so cool. I've wanted to go see this tour with some of the other artists before. Ingrid Michaelson is the one I have been longing to see. She has been here several times this year and we have missed her everytime.

NKOTB Concert

That's right you read correctly. We did it, we went and saw them. It was me, Amber, her sister, Starli, and Jenn. It was so fun. I still have no voice, so no screaming Jordan's name or anything for me. We all have our favorite, you know you do too. Amber and Starli both like Joey and Jenn likes Jon. It was amazing how much noise several thousand 20-40 yr old women can make. It was by far the loudest concert I have ever attended.

We went to Mimi's Cafe for dinner and then headed over to the E-Center.

Natasha Bedingfield was the opening act. That was cool. I really like her and was a little surprised that she was opening for the Block.

Then the guys came out. l-r Joey, Jon, Donnie, Danny & Jordan. The screaming was insane. Amber and Jenn went crazy. Kidding. We were mostly laughing at the crazy people around us. Surprisingly, there were quite a few men. We thought it would be women and gay guys, which there were, but most of the guys there were husbands who had brought there wives. Isn't that so sweet?


They played their old stuff, some new stuff and some of the solo songs that a few have done over the years. Of course, the old stuff was the best. When we arrived we were informed that our seats were being changed to lower level seats. I did not complain.


Even though I didn't scream or sing I realize that I had to yell to be heard by my girls and now I really have no voice. Oops. Well, worth it though. It was a blast into my past and I cannot deny that I used to love NKOTB and still do.

A plug for procrastination.

I was asked last week to give a talk this Sunday in church. Being the obedient girl that I am, I said yes. I don't hate talking in church. I don't have a problem speaking in front of people. So first things first, I thought of my opening joke. That's the hook. Then throughout the week I tried to think of what I would talk about, but it wasn't coming to me. I figured that eventually I was going to have to sit down and just look up stuff and maybe then I would get some inspiration as to what the direction of my talk would be. Today was to be that day. It's Saturday so that's pretty much on par with when I do my talks anyway. Well, the bishop just called to tell me that I don't have to talk tomorrow. See? There was a reason I wasn't getting any direction on what I should speak on. The Lord knew I wasn't going to have to talk. So, He just let me chill and try to get well this week instead of stressing about speaking. Awesome. That's right, it's not technically procrastination, it was just a lack of inspiration. Here's my joke so it won't go to waste. Unless, I get asked to speak again really soon. Then I will use it and you that are there will just laugh harder knowing what I'm about to say.

"The last time I was asked to speak was the last time I cut my hair all off. Lesson learned. Either a-don't cut my hair, b-keep my hair short, which is Kenneth's favorite, or c-move before I cut my hair." Of course, it sound funnier in person. I had another one about my voice, since it sounds so deep. I was going to say that I was making my voice lower so that the kids would listen since kids tend to listen to their dads more than their moms.

Jack O' Lanterns & Too Many Seeds

The Monday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. There have been many years when we would just draw on the pumpkins or they would sit unmarked until they rotted. I was always waiting for Kenneth to do the carving. He is the artistic one and I thought he would do it better. Then last year I did it and it was fast and easy. I just do the traditional faces, no light carvings or anything too creative. This year we did it together. Before dinner I had cleaned out all 7 pumpkins because we were going to have roasted pumpkin seeds for our FHE treat. Well, it took me over an hour to separate the seeds from the gunk. Then another hour to even come close to cooking half of the seeds. Do you know how many seed come out of 7 pumpkins? A lot. By this time it was after 8, so the kids ate slightly crunchy seeds before I sent them to bed. I ended up cooking the seeds for another 1/2 hour and then cooking the other half of the seeds. Did the kids eat them? No, they are still sitting in my fridge right now. Will I do it again next year? No. Well, maybe one or two pumpkins worth, not 7.