St. Paddy's Day Cake

I found an awesome cake on I Am Baker's web site and just had to try it myself.  So, Camdyn and Averie helped me mix up the layers yesterday.  It was similar to making a Smith Island Cake, baking individual layers.  I love how you get a good amount of icing for the cake, instead of a lot of cake and a little icing.

(I love icing.)

I tried fondant.  I really did.  I added almond flavoring to it and kneaded it.  I rolled it, Troy rolled it.  I put it on my cake and it was ribbony.  And, it tasted awful.  So, I threw it out.

Anyone want to give me fondant tips?

I make an awesome buttercream, though, so it tasted yummy.

Here it is...

And inside...

Yum.

And, here is my nephew, Connor, debuting on my blog and enjoying his icing.

We also had our corned beef and cabbage tonight instead of last night because so many of my family go to church on Wednesday nights.  We have some left and I would like to make something with it.  Creamed chip beef on toast.  Corned beef hash.  ???

Our Monday playdate

My friend works every weekday except every other Monday.  So, we've been spending those lunches with her.

Lunch.  Believe it or not, she had chicken nuggets.  What's all over her face is sweet and sour sauce, she liked it so much she picked up the pack and drank it.
We're lucky to always be at the mall with someone who carries cash so the girls can have a horsey ride.  (I never have any cash.)

That's not a band-aid on Averie, it's a sticker.  Yes, all 3 girls spent the day running around with stickers stuck to their face, their hair, their shirts...

This is Averie's favorite toy.  She loves to turn the steering wheel.  Unfortunately, she has to share it.  She usually gets tired of it and moves to another before another child wants it.  But, sometimes, kids don't share our view on "sharing".  This little boy would run up to her and yell "NO" all the time.  Not just on this toy, either.  She would cry and cry :(

I think, though, in the future, we'll start earlier in the day and have lunch be our last thing, so we can go home and get naps.  We had an awful evening, the girls were so grumpy.

Today, we made mini cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day.  (Yes, we're Irish.)

They have just the right amount of cake for the yummy frosting!

And, I got a new do...

Like it?

Today, skipping yesterday

I have a ton of pictures from our day yesterday, but don't have the patience to go through them tonight.

Maybe tomorrow...

So, lets skip to today.

Here are pictures of my seedlings.  The kale I showed you last time has gotten very full, I actually thinned it yesterday.  And, just about everything else in the tray has sprouted.  Camdyn helped me put the seeds in, and I think we must have missed a few.  I re-seeded about 6 spots today.

You can see my onions in the front, and the peppers between the onions and kale.  Past the kale are black eye susans and some pretty blue and purple flowers, but I can't remember their names.  I made the mistake of planting these in potting soil instead of regular starting soil, maybe that's why some didn't sprout?

Here's my tomato tray!  It's full of tomatoes, except the front corner that has 6 basil starts and 3 thymes.

I tried to take a picture of my light so I could show you my set-up.  I use $10 shop lights from the hardware store.  They came  with chains, so Troy just screwed hooks into my shelf and hung them with the chains.  That way, I can adjust them as the seedlings grow taller.  I have some nice heirloom tomatoes in here, some I've grown before, some that are new to me.

Camdyn and Averie got postcards from their grandparents in South Africa today!

Camdyn had gone to the mailbox with Troy, which she doesn't usually do.  It was neat that she was right there to get it out of the mail instead of us just handing it to her.  I'm not sure Averie's read hers yet, we'll read it to her at breakfast tomorrow.

Sunday on a Monday

I wanted to let you know what we did yesterday, but something - maybe the time change - really threw me for a loop.  I went to bed at 8:00 feeling awful.  I think the more tired I am, the worse I feel, and I felt horrible.  Luckily, I woke up feeling better, (12 hours later).
Yesterday was the first day we led worship at our new church.  The service didn't start until 10:30, but Camdyn had a class at 9:00.  We dropped her off on a rainy day...

She decided it was awesome to wear two pair of sunglasses at once.

After we dropped her off, we headed to Panera with Averie.  She hadn't had alone time with us for a while and really seemed to enjoy it.

Averie really didn't play my drums.  Well, she did, but not during the service, ha ha!

We had an evening service with our sister church, a hispanic church.  We had to translate between the speakers, and sang each song in spanish sometimes and english sometimes.  It was a baptism service, we had an elementary student being baptised and they had a grandmother being baptised.
After the service, we headed down to 4th street to see a whale that had beached the day before.  We walked down to about 2nd street and checked the beach, but didn't see it.

Then, we headed to 65th street where they were supposed to have moved the whale.  Apparently, they didn't move it to the beach, though, or else it was too foggy to find the 20 foot beast.  Oh well...

At least we can say we tried.

Scrapple, anyone?

My facebook status update this morning was how we were having french toast and scrapple for breakfast.  It set off a lot of comments about it.  Most about how people love it, some about how they hate it, and a couple about how they don't know what it is.

Well, it's not something that on paper is very yummy sounding.  It's basically all the pig parts that can't go into anything else.  We used to joke that they swept the floor of the processing plant and smashed it together to make scrapple.  Ew.

Okay, so it's not that bad.  But, it does have some...questionable...parts in it.  Namely, pork snouts.  Yes, it's right in the ingredient list.  Number 4, to be exact.  After pork stock, pork liver and pork fat.

So, are you grossed out yet?

I'm not really grossed out by too many foods, but sausage is something that I can only eat if it's fried really crispy, and even then, I can only eat about half a link.  I love the flavor, but can't stand the grissle.  Sausage pizza - nasty.

But there's something about scrapple that is good.  I, the grissle hater, love scrapple.  You slice it thin and fry it crispy on the outside, and it's so good.  My whole family loves it, even my husband, who doesn't do well with new things.  (Special note - try it dipped in syrup!)

Once Rapa starts up their mail-order again, you should order a pack and try it.  I think you'll like it.

Or, next time you're in my area, stop by and I'll fry you up a big plate of scrapple, eggs and pancakes.  You'll thank me!

Charlie Brumley

Today was spent with my family.  My great uncle, Charlie Brumley, passed away last Friday.  Today was his funeral.  I'm not sure if you can view this, I had to register, but it was free.  Here's his obituary...

Charlie's Obituary

I think it's interesting that he was influential in the creation of the chicken dog, whatever that is???

I didn't get to know him until he married my aunt 17 years ago.  Apparently, though, my family has known him for years, since I was two.  That was a long time ago.

He was a fun guy, always talked your ear off.  Always cheerful.  He owned a used furniture store in our small town, but I'm not sure if he ever sold anything.  Just sat in it, smoked and talked to people as they stopped in for a while.  I know he never had anything in there I wanted to buy, just broken washing machines, black and white tv's and 8-track players.

It was nice seeing all my family.  We don't get together too often, not even at Christmas, anymore.  My cousins have little girls my girls' ages, they had a blast playing together.  Good to know that they get along, since I'm sure they'll play together often now that we live close again.

Funerals aren't good times, it's hard to lose someone you love.  But, I appreciate the catching up time with family.

I can see my pictures!

Thank you for the suggestions.  I removed my Nikon programs and reloaded them - from the internet, and now, I can view my pictures!  There seems to have been a glitch with the CD that came with my camera and Macs, they fixed it early this year.  Yippee!  So, I'll show you some of what we have done recently, and maybe do a little backtracking later.
With all my laying around from morning sickness, I've been working on improving my knitting.  I made quite a few dishcloths and hats, then progressed to these:

They should be made of wool, but I used a blend.  So, I can't really call these "soakers", but that's what they are.  They used to be used as baby diapers, then they became more used as cloth diaper covers.  I don't use cloth, (Troy would never be able to clean one of them), but I am excited to use these and babylegs with onesies for our new baby.  Yes, they're pretty gender neutral, since we don't know what the baby is.  I say, "her", because I think it's a girl.  But, we won't know until birthday.

We also have some seeds sprouting.  Our kale is the biggest, so big, actually that it's bending over.  Maybe it got too tall and leggy before we set up the growlights, but they need thinned anyway, so I'll just thin the tallest ones.

We have a few other things sprouting, mostly flowers.  I bought a lot of different flowers and veggies to grow on our 10 acres, so even though we don't have that anymore, we will still grow them.  And, maybe grow enough for the farmer's market here?
Here are our tiny thyme seeds, aren't they cute?  (Yes, I am having trouble with focusing still.  I'm a slow learner...)

Camdyn wanted a picture of her :)

And, here's my seller's cabinet I found at a garage sale and have been waiting to have a place to use.

Here is my african violet.  I love them, they're so pretty.

We've gotten some things done this week that we were putting off.  Like, opening new bank accounts.  Always such a pain.  And, starting the process of looking for a van!  These warm sunny days really inspire us to be productive.  Did I mention it was over 70 degrees today?