play dough...

Charlie was in his own little world today playing with play dough. He cut the play dough and lined the little pieces up along the table. He made sculptures(I use that term loosely!) of our dog Missy, Frosty the snowman, and a house.
When I told him that his lunch was ready he said, "I not done yet!" Finally I just put his lunch right next to the play dough and he took a couple of bites in between creating all of his masterpieces. When Brenna came home from Activity Days and offered to take him outside he told her, "I not done yet". What??? He never refuses a chance to go outside with his sisters. Finally when it was time to set the table for dinner and he told me again, "I not done yet", I had to set up another little table for him to play with his play dough. I had to pry it out of his hands to go take a bath after many failed attempts to convince him that he could play with it again tomorrow.
This is the sculpture of Missy(our dog). Maybe it's only because I'm his mom, but I see a resemblance!
I promised Charlie that we would make him a fresh batch of play dough tomorrow. This batch was already starting to dry out but after these little hands played on it ALL day long, it's time for some fresh stuff for sure.

If you're using the store bought play-doh, you have to try this recipe. It is so worth a little bit of time to make it. It is so much better than store bought. It stays fresh soooo much longer. You can add color if you want. I've figured out that my kids really don't care if it's colored or not so I don't bother.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 cups cold water
food coloring
wooden board
plastic bag or container
1. In a medium saucepan, mix together the flour, salt, vegetable oil, cream of tartar, and water.
2. Cook uncoverd over medium heat, about 5 minutes. Stir constantly until the dough is the consistency of mashed potatoes.
3. Divide the dough into four equal portions.
4. Add approxiamatley 6 to 8 drops of food coloring to each portion and knead the color into the dough to distribute it evenly. Knead the color into the dough.
5. If you store the play dough in a plastic bag or airtight container, it will last a really long time.
(this recipe comes from MarthaStewart.com

800 miles

It felt wonderful to complete my 800th mile this morning! Todd woke me up at 5:00 and said, "ready to go running?". I looked at the clock and said, "have you lost your mind?". Thank goodness for his motivation some days. We ran at a pretty moderate pace the whole time until the last 3/4 of a mile. Then I told Todd I was taking off. I ran as fast as I could. I had to make that last mile count. It felt great!! This picture was actually taken in February when we ran our first half marathon. We probably looked about the same this morning when we went running. Thanks Todd for helping me make my goal...you're the best!

Of course, I'm not going to quit running but it will be nice to move on to some other fitness goals for 2009.

Set goals and you can do anything!!

gingerbread house...

This is something you almost never see....me in the pictures. We love making a gingerbread house every year. You would think that after 10 years of making these little houses that we would somehow master it...oh no! Every year a wall caves in, things slide off the icing, but the kids love it so we keep making them.
Eliza loved dipping things in the icing and then licking all the extras off her little fingers.
The finished product!...we'll keep our day job!

pomegranates & gingerbread...

So our Christmas traditions start with POMEGRANATES. This started a couple of years ago when we were on a walk and went past a pomegranate tree that was losing some of it pomegranates. I broke one opened and somehow got the girls to try it. They loved it! Now every Christmas when the Pomegranates are in the store, they ask for one.
I'm actually not really sure how you're suppose to eat a pomegranate but here's how we eat them.
-outside(because they can get messy)
-bib for little ones(because they can stain)
-take one little piece out at a time and suck the juice out
-spit out the little seed inside(another reason to be outside

The girls LOVE the juice from the pomegranate seeds. And it's healthy! Yippee! What a novel idea in the Hall home.

I LOVE the smell of gingerbread at Christmas time. The girls love cutting out the little guys and gals. We doused our gingerbread people in sugar...enough of this healthy pomegranate stuff!

funny things...

Did you say..."jibby"?

From time to time the girls like me to tell them what they did when they were born. Sounds silly! But they like for me to tell them what they did in the delivery room because each one was really different. So we were going down the list...

Emma Grace didn't make a sound and it made us really nervous. The nurse had to tell us that she was okay, that some babies don't scream in the delivery room.

Eliza didn't cry either(for a little while) but she was more wide eyed then I thought newborns could be. She was looking up and all around like she already knew what was going on. My thought, "oh my, what am I in for?". She is still wide eyed and think she knows everything.

Charlie...screamed! No actually he was probably the most "normal" although by number four I realized that almost anything was normal.

So we were talking about all of this and suddenly Emma Grace, knowing that Brenna screamed and screamed from the moment she took her first breath said, "Brenna cried like a JIBBY when she came out!"

I love it! None of us are sure that "jibby" really means anything but we are having lots of fun making up definitions and using it in sentences. We figure that jibby can describe almost anything.




We love to say "Thank you"...

So recently I taught the primary children at church the song, "Children All Over The World". In the song we sing thank you in different languages from around the world. Some of them are "tak", "merci", "gracias", "kansha-shi-ma-shu".

At dinner we make a point of making sure everyone says thank you to whoever made the meal. So mostly it's a big round of "thank you mom". Lately they have all been using their knowledge of how to say thank you in different languages at the dinner table. One night dad was included in the thank you's. Emma Grace said to Todd, "tak". Without missing a beat Todd said, "be quiet". We laughed and now everyone says "tak" for "thank you" and "be quiet" for "your welcome".

canning chicken....

I finally canned chicken this past week and I'm so sold on it! I wasn't going to blog about it but my sister asked me if I would and because I'm such a fan of it now, I couldn't turn her down.

Reasons I think you need to can meat too:
1. It's so easy. Don't be intimidated, it's much easier than you think.
2. You will have chicken ready to put into recipes anytime.
3. It's cost effective. Buy a whole bunch of chicken when it goes on sale and can it all. I bought chicken tenders for only $1.77/pound at Sprouts last week. Each pint jar will hold one pound of chicken. Do the math...$1.77 for a jar of chicken ready to go.
4. You will have a 3 month supply of chicken sitting on your shelf in no time for super yummy dinners!!

The directions I followed came with my All American Pressure Cooker as well as advice from the food storage guru herself, Wendy Dewitt. She has a book out now and her blog is http://www.everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/

And here is my little disclaimer....If you choose to follow my directions, I cannot be held responsible for any damage or accidents that may occur. I highly, highly recommend reading the instructions that come with your pressure cooker. There I said it...my husband{an attorney} would be so happy!

What you will need:
Raw chicken
Salt
Pint jars (one pound of chicken per jar)
All American Pressure Cooker(mine is model #921 and will hold 14 pint jars)

STEP 1: Put your raw chicken and ½ tsp of salt into a clean jar. Stuff it in there pretty tight to make sure you get a full pound in there. Fill jars to ½” from the rim. NO water is added to the chicken. The juices from the chicken will cook out of the chicken during the cooking process and your chicken will be covered with juice. STEP 2: Wipe the rim of the jars. If the rim is not clean it could cause the jars not to seal properly.
STEP 3: Place the clean lids and screw bands on the jar. Do not OVER tighten the screw band.

STEP 4: Fill the pressure cooker with about an inch and a half of water.

STEP 5: Put your jars into the pressure cooker. 7 on the bottom rack and 7 on the top rack. Stagger the jars.
STEP 6: Put the lid on the pressure cooker {without the weight}. Tighten two wing nut bolts down at a time on opposite sides of the pressure cooker.

STEP 7: Turn the heat on high and watch for steam and small drops of water to start coming out of the vent.

STEP 8: After about 7 minutes of steam coming out of the vent, put the weight on the pressure cooker and watch for the pressure gauge to reach 10 pounds. Once it has reached 10 pounds of pressure and the weight is jiggling and sputtering several times a minute then begin timing your chicken for 75 minutes.

STEP 9: Once the 75 minutes is over, turn the heat off and leave your pressure cooker alone. Let it cool!! The pressure will slowly drop to zero. It is VERY important to NOT open the pressure cooker until it is cooled and the pressure has completely dropped. I learned my lesson the hard way on that one!!

{voila, here is the finished pruduct. I never said it was going to be beautiful. It looks like cooked chicken in a bottle!}

STEP 10: Remove the chicken from the pressure cooker and sit it on a towel on the counter. Let it continue to cool and check your seal to make sure the top are all on properly. Then you can rinse the bottles and then they are ready to be stored. I remove the screw bands to wash them and store them so that you don't end up with chicken broth under the band.

I've read that chicken can stay on the shelve for up to 3 years but that for taste and nutritional benefits a shorter shelf life is recommended. I personally won't let my sit for more than a few months. I will use it and replenish it when chicken goes on sale.

brenna...

I'm learning how to use photoshop. What do you think? Compare it to the pictures below it and let me know what you think. I WANT feedback...don't be shy!