Megan builds a snowman

These are from a few weeks back but show the joy and fun that Megan had in playing in the snow, having snowball fights, and building her first snowman.

P2110251, originally uploaded by homanhouse.

The white balance is awful, sorry. And the microphone quite preferentially picks up my voice. But there is still a lot of cute little girl in the video!

Crab Love

crab love (1 of 2), originally uploaded by homanhouse.

Megan's favorite food (at least one of them) is crab. She loves crab. Actually, she usually asks to order a pinchy thingy, which can be snow crab, dungeness, blue crab, lobster, etc.

Today, the conversation with the two (already steamed) crabs we brought home went something like this. "Ok, you are Mr. Crab, and you I am calling Crabby Patty. Hi Mr. Crab. You have a beard."

Then at mealtime, "Mr. Crab -- I love you Mr. Crab" followed by WHACK (knife and crab cracker), breaks open, and then "yum yum!"

This was Megan figuring out how to approach the crab. Turns out all you have to do is turn to Daddy and ask for help.

Snow Again

snow again (2 of 2), originally uploaded by homanhouse.

Can you believe we got another day of snow? It has already all melted away, but Megan had some fun while it lasted.

Marinara!

Marinara (4 of 4), originally uploaded by homanhouse.

It was that time again. Today, after Chris made his batch of beer (since we use the same pots, burner, etc.) I took on my big batch of marinara. I make this once, maybe twice a year. We ran out about two months ago, and Chris and I both realized how much we liked it (since we complained a lot about the jarred sauce I bought).

And today, I attempted to actually make a recipe for what I made. I usually make it to taste and sight. So basically I wing it, and then someone asks me what I did, and I have no idea. So I measured what I did today.

First, the mirepoix. This had

4 lb carrots
2 lb celery
8 onions
1/3 cup minced garlic
4 cups of olive oil



Cook until tender and onions translucent. Use a BIG pot (or scale down I suppose!)

Then add lots of tomato products. I buy the very economical huge cans at Costco. ~110 oz. each. This recipe has

2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste



Then, add spices and simmer ~ 2 hours.

1/2 cup sugar
6 tbsp basil
4-1/2 tbsp kosher salt
3 tbsp thyme
3 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp fennel seed



PS -- a really big stirrer is required. The first time we made it (poor planning) the spoon was too short, and I sanitized and used a clothes rod. Take two: purchase long metal spoon, but still pretty difficult to stir.

Today -- Chris let me use his beer home brew mash paddle. Total success. Except now it is red and probably my dedicated paddle and I'll get him a new unflavored one for the beer making next time!

Bicycling

A quick burst of warm weather this weekend was great. Megan spent hours out back on Saturday playing on the swingset she has missed during all the cold weather. Today, another two hours out back before her friends got home and she joined everyone out front for some running, bicycling, and good fun! She went to bed an HOUR early tonight she was so tired! Good to get the time in since it is now cold and supposed to snow Tuesday.

The princesses

Poor puppy dog. She is really a good and patient one too!

Weekend of Work

So it has been a bit of a busy week around our house. Chris starts outage/turnaround work on Monday, which means long hours, weekend work, and that Megan and I will be on our own a bit. : (

So, we have been working at all our weekend projects that we know we won't get back to for a bit. A LOT of house cleaning trying to get to a good happy place from which to try to maintain the busy chaos (and we have firmly committed to rehiring a house keeper quite soon to help us with this mission!)

Today is beer making (Chris) -- Marinara making (AnnaLisa) and house straightening (all!)

Megan was caught chanting this today (I guess a song from school).

Megan: Clean up, Clean up, Everybody do your share. Clean up, Clean up, everybody do your share!"

Momma: That's great. You are a big helper. Do you do your share of clean up?

Megan: At SCHOOL I do.

Momma: argh.


PS -- Can you believe we have finally eaten through the marinara? The batch I made last time was almost a year's worth, so today I will be making an equally large pot. yum.

FurReal -- Not quite ForReal

For Christmas, Megan asked and asked and asked Santa for a FurReal Kitty Kat (Lulu) that she had seen at Target.


Santa obliged and brought Megan her most requested gift. I heard that Lulu meowed in the box all the way to Houston on the sleigh, and almost woke Megan up in the hotel room as Lulu was placed in a stocking. Santa said so.

Hasbro says this about Lulu:

This adorable feline is no ordinary kitty! LULU MY CUDDLIN’ KITTY pet acts just like a real kitty when you pet her! She purrs, rolls back and looks into your eyes to let you know how much she loves you! Give her lots of love and affection by petting her soft fur. Then watch her come to “life” as she opens and closes her eyes, moves her head and even “purrs!” She even comes with a comb to keep her looking her best and a special adoption certificate that means you can be the best of friends forever!

We have frequently joked about how unnerving the cat can be. At Christmas, Chris's family gave it a few looks, and his grandmother even asked a few hours later if it was a real cat (as it sat bathing itself). It meows, purrs, and in my peripheral vision, frequently gets mistaken for the cat. We all thought it looked a little too real. Especially at home where I find it sitting on my bed, on a stool, on a blanket on the couch. Megan seems to have taken lessons from Callie (our FOR REAL CAT) about how and where cats lay.

Megan has also taken to tucking her toys, dolls, etc. into Zoey's new dog bed. Megan picked the bed out special last weekend for her doggy. Since then, the dog has loved it, the kid has rested in it, and the cat has occasionally stolen it. Oh yeah -- these babies have been there a few times too:



However, it seems the dog is not as easily faked out. Tonight, Megan tucked the FurReal cat Lulu in to sleep on top of Zoey's dog bed. I laughed when I saw it and told Chris "poor dog -- there is a cat on her bed now." About 20 minutes later, we found this.



Apparently, Zoey just doesn't think that Lulu is at all FurReal or ForReal. But maybe a comfy pillow.

Story time with Daddy

Story time with Daddy, originally uploaded by homanhouse.

Reading by the fire after a cold day of snow play

Montage of Snow Photos

Well, we still have snow on the ground four days later, but it is melting. All in all, we got 12-1/2 inches of snowfall in the 24 hour period, a record for the DFW area for any one day. Megan spent one whole day playing in the snow that was falling and falling and falling (about 20 straight hours of snow, at least 6 hours of snow time play!) Then she spent the next day playing in the chilly stuff. Her friends came out to play, and we got several snapshots (and no snowballs hit the camera!)

Each snow romp was followed by some time by the fireplace, marshmallows, hot chocolate. All the good stuff. She should have some good winter memories from this weekend. At the end of the day, she and Daddy moved their usual story time from her room to the living room so that they could read by the fire.

Snow Day

Megan had a blast today. It is now recorded as the snowiest day ever in the DFW area. At around 9" of snowfall, Megan finally got her wish and spent much of the day playing in the snow. She outlasted all of her friends (in series -- she would stay and play with whomever came out) and only went in to trade for drier gloves periodically!

She has wished and wished for snow all winter. She looked a bit grumpy when it was time to come in and warm up.

She and her friends attempted a snowman or two after school. It wound up wearing her hat and we had to find a dry one of those too! Then, when Daddy got home, they had a ball building a big one out front. It is taller than she is!

Needless to say, she was pooped after such a full day. Dinner, a good warm bath, and we haven't heard another peep from her since.

Megan snow day 2010-3, originally uploaded by homanhouse.