Cooking Up a Storm

So I've been flat on my back with disk problems and after Wednesday (which I tried to handle by myself, very unsuccessfully) I've had help in to assist me with the kids. They have mostly read stories, colored, played outside, played inside, and cooked. Sutton came on Thursday and the children and he made a Sesame Carrot Salad. When Steve came home that night the children helped him make dinner -- baked chicken breasts with Orange Avocado Salsa. They are getting to bed noticeably later in the evenings, helping out with so much cooking. It pushes the meals back about 2 hours. They really enjoy it though. Friday Steve took off from work the whole day and they made Broccoli Calzones for lunch. For dinner they made roasted chicken and mashed potatoes with goat cheese (using the blue potatoes we got in our farm share, which have a unique flavor that blended really well with the cheese) along with carrots and peas. Today they whipped up a Florentine Dip for Raw Vegetables, cut up some yellow squash into spears and are out the door and headed to an End of the Summer Luau at the Pool. My whole family will be there and I am here -- at home -- about to dive into a 24 hour Doris Day marathon on TCM.

My website is offline and the domain name is for sale. For those who are interested in my units please contact me directly. Otherwise, the Yahoo Group is still up and running and able to share ideas. I found one today, actually, in the back of the new Tiptoes book that arrived. Reg Down's site contains a play for 5th grade called "King Sangara's Horse" (ancient India). He also has several short stories for different ages. If you love Tiptoes, check it out! All are set up to download as a pdf straight to your computer.

Next week Natalie is in her final summer camp of the year (Stories from Nature) and the younger children and I will have a taste of what it will be like to hang out in the mornings and do stuff just the 3 of us. I'm looking forward to spending more one on one time with each. I hadn't realized how much time I had spent stressing about meeting Natalie's needs until we took it off my plate and handed it to Miss Suzanne. I'm very grateful that we found out about the school and that they had an opening so close to the beginning of the school year. Now, if I could only get that RV... while laying in bed with my head spinning round and round, I've gotten my heart set on a vintage diesel bus --> RV conversion. There are some really nice ones out there and one I loved just slipped by me on eBay. It was an old Greyhound bus from the fifties. So cool! (I think there's a hippie streak in me somewhere. I was definitely born in the wrong decade.)