Back to posting...

Wow! It's been a while since I posted last. So much has happened....

Ken has celebrated his 20th high school reunion, we've taken 2 trips to the beach, Kevin has started 2nd grade, and our pool is shot.

As for the reunion, we only went to the dinner Saturday night, but had a blast. Unfortunately, there were a lot of friends that didn't get to make it. But, there were a lot of people now out of state that did make it.

The trips to Panama City Beach were wonderful. The first one was just Ken, Kevin and I. The second, we crashed at my parents condo. We had a great time on both trips. And luckily, there was no oil seen anywhere. But, on the day we left while visiting with my parents, a large 5,000 lb oil tank washed up right in front of our townhouse. They had to close the beach for 3 days. So, we really missed that by the skin of our teeth. On both trips, we did get to visit a new beach...Crooked Island. What a find! We walked for miles, only seeing a few people. But man, did we find the shells and sand dollars! This will be our new "Mexico Beach". Mexico Beach used to be the desolate area to find all sorts of treasures. But since the town is building up, there is too many people. It's sort of lost that inhabited feeling for us. But hey, all in the name of progress.
So, Kevin has now started 2nd grade. That will be in another post, as I am still trying to recover from the first week of school. Man, no one told me home schooling would be this hard!

As for the pool. We noticed last week that the level had dropped in the pool. We knew it had been pretty hot lately, but not that hot! We tried to find the hole, but no luck. Oh well, it's a slow leak...should get us through till we close. Then next spring, we'll have to buy a new one. Good thing there was a hole too. A few days ago, Kevin "accidentally knocked" Fluffy the cat into the pool. The cat managed to claw 3 good sized holes in the side, not to mention in Kevin's hand as he tried to "save" him. Funny how kids can turn the story around to make them look like heroes. The cat was fine, although a little traumatized. He's been much more loving to me, not so much to Kevin. The cat knows the truth!

Meeting Abe and Recipe #A15 Skillet Noodles with Mushrooms

Last weekend, we took Kevin to the Northwest Georgia Coin Show. When we arrived, they mentioned that we may want to set in on a children's seminar about collecting coins. I reluctantly agreed, since Kevin got all excited....and so did Ken. So off we went into this conference room and there sat Abe Lincoln! He looked just like him, tall and thin with that trade mark beard. We were in that seminar for almost 2 hours, but who knew. We lost track of time when Abe stood up and started telling about himself (I learned so much about him that I never knew, or had forgotten from school). Then, he handed out Lincoln Pennies to all the kids. Not to mention all the pennies Kevin got, but he left with 2 bags full on coins, books, notepads, etc. I felt like we had been trick or treating. Well, Kevin got into the swing of things that since he is cute and little, with a great smile, once we entered the vendors room, Kevin would walk up to a vendor, smile and just stand there staring. If the vendor looked away, Kevin would move to another table. If not, the vendor would give him free coins! This kid figured it all out on his own. We had to make him stop because Ken and I felt uncomfortable, like he was begging. Leave it to a kid to get what he wants. Needless to say, Ken and Kevin have had a great week playing with all the coins and loot he collected. Some of the coins were priced at $19 a piece! Ken's wondering why we never took him to these places before! But, besides getting free stuff, Kevin was the hit of the place. As we were walking out, Abe spotted Kevin and called him over. He put his big black hat on him and signed an autograph. All these people started gathering around and snapping pictures. This was Kevin's first introduction to paparazzi....and he loved it! They said they were going to use his picture in their newsletters. I need to check their website for my little politician (<:And, to report on Kevin's home schooling....it is supposed to take him 18 days to finish each unit book. He finished his Math in 9 days, Language in 10, Science in 11, History & Geography in 12 and is taking his Bible test today. All the other tests he aced! And I was worried about teaching him. He is flying through his work, so much so that I have had to supplement his schooling with other workbooks I've picked up here and there. I'm going to have to add lots of field trips too. If not, he'll finish 1 st grade by Christmas! He's memorizing bible verses, including the book, chapter and verse. I can't even do that. My brain is so old and full of nonsense. That's the wonder of little kids, their brains are like sponges.

Today's recipe is Skillet Noodles with Mushrooms. This is one of Kevin's favorite sides to cast iron chicken (I'll include that recipe at the end also). Hope you enjoy!

Skillet Noodles with Mushrooms

8 ounces angel hair pasta, cooked
4 tbls soy butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 tsp garlic salt
½ cup water
1 tbls poppy seeds, optional
Salt
Pepper

Drain angel hair pasta, set aside.

In a large skilled, melt soy butter at med-hi heat. Add onion and mushroom and saute till onion begins to brown, sprinkle with garlic salt. Add pasta and water and cook until water is gone, stirring often.

Add poppy seeds, salt and pepper. Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings

As for Cast Iron Chicken, you need a cast iron.....duh, right? Just put a few tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet, heat over Med-Hi. Salt and pepper the chicken and add to the hot oil. Brown each side for just a few minutes, then move the whole skillet to a 450 degree oven. Bake 20-25 minutes until done. Moist and so flavorful!!!

Great week....Recipe #A11 Carrot Cake

What a week! This past weekend was a blur, as are most of our weekends during the summer. Most of the weekend I spent running around town trying to find allergy free products for my pig fest I was planning on enjoying. As soon as I received my 2 new cookbooks in the mail, I read them like a novel and marked all the pages that I wanted to try. Needless to say, this past weekend I made zucchini bread, Pink Lemonade Tartlets, Black Bottom Blondies, a mac and cheese casserole, a ranch pasta salad and of course some chocolate chip cookies. But, on the downside, I could not find any butterscotch chips that were safe to eat. The ones I did find that did not contain milk, listed an allergy notice that they were produced in a plant with milk. This is up to the individual whether you want to take the chance. Of course, with Kevin's severe allergy, there was no chance we were going to try. I did find someone on the internet (a friend of the author of one of the cookbooks I had just received) tracked down a kosher chip that should have safer practices. I tried to contact the company, but didn't get too far, except to find out that milk isn't on that line. Oh well, maybe it's not meant to be.

In the meantime, I have many new recipes I am going to try out for this weekend. Tomorrow is our neighborhood block party. This will be the first time we will allow Kevin to be there while everyone is eating....I hope we're not sorry. He did very well this past weekend at his baseball swim party. There were many milk items there, including Doritos. This sent Ken and I into danger mode, b/c as you know, Doritos have a powdery cheese that gets on everything. Kevin did end up with a skin rash from transfer of the cheese, and his eyes started to swell. Thank the good Lord that this powder did not make it into his mouth. But, as Kevin has started to grow and learn his limitations, he knows that touching mouth is a big no-no when milk is around. After a bath, a dose of Benadryl and eye drops, he was good to go. So, we took him out to a movie....Land of the Lost. He had been wanting to see this since it had a T-Rex in it. It also had a lot of adult language, and it was only a PG movie! But, this gave us another chance to remind him that those words were not OK to repeat....a win win (<: As for the baseball party, Kevin received his trophy! He was so excited to be able to put it in his bedroom along with his other one. Now, he's already talking about soccer in the fall and where he's going to put that trophy. But, back to this weekend. Not only is it our neighborhood party, but this is the big weekend for the Home School Fair. We are going to be signing him up for first grade through Gateway Christian Academy. I can't believe my baby is going to be in first grade! I can't believe that I am going to be homeschooling him in first grade! He's excited, I'm a nervous wreck. I know we have been doing kindergarten, but this time, I am responsible for reporting weekly what we have covered along with his grades. I am going to have to be more strict, and stay on top of a more thorough schedule. It scares me that now I am going to have someone watching what I am doing. Oh well, I am trying to look at it like I'm starting a new job. I am very organized, so I'm not worried about that. But, this is going to be the most important job I have ever had, and I don't want to screw it up. So far, Kevin is doing well in his math, reading and writing. He was doing so great in his math, I thought he was cheating. I would give him 2 pages of addition and subtraction (each page had at least 15 problems), and he would have it done in less than 5 minutes! And, they were all right! I loved math in school, and Ken is a definite numbers person. Plus, my Papaw taught math in school and did taxes. So, I guess it was a given that Kevin would be able to do it. Makes my life a little easier.......YEAHHHH As for the party, I am planning on making some Mini Cheesecakes, Black & White Cookies, Red Velvet Cupcakes, and Potato Salad....all milk free of course. I will let you know how the recipes turn out. But, for today, I have my Carrot Cake recipe. I love carrot cake! If you know my mom, ask her sometime how her allergy free carrot cake turned out a few Easters ago. Let's just say, after that incident, she will no longer attempt it! We still laugh about it to this day!

Carrot Cake

1 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup water

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and flour together. Add carrots and stir until combined. Add oil, vanilla and water to flour mixture and stir until blended. Pour into a greased 8-inch pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let completely cool. Frost cake with Allergy Free Cream Cheese Icing.

Makes 1 single layer

Next week, I am going to post an allergy free Ranch Dressing recipe. Since going milk free, one of the hardest things to do away with was ranch. I love ranch on everything...on salads, a dip for chicken, in pasta salads, etc. After this past weekend, Kevin couldn't get enough of the Ranch Pasta Salad....so I will include some instructions for it along with the recipe too.

Oh, and as for the other things I made last week....they were all winners! And, I was shocked how well the mac and cheese casserole turned out. Did it taste like a real cheesy casserole....kind of. It reminded me of what it would taste like if you used a cheap cheese. But hey, at least it tasted like cheese. For someone who hasn't had any mac and cheese for a while, this was wonderful.....and Kevin & Ken liked it. That's the biggest compliment of all! As you know, kids don't believe in holding back with their true feelings!!!

Have a great weekend!

Welcome to my first blog!!! Over the past months, so much has happened in my life and my family's life that I have decided to put it all down for family and friends. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with this daily, but I am praying that there will not be enough drama to report...only good things.

Today, I want to express my concerns over our son Kevin and his upcoming surgery Thursday April 9th. This will also be my aunt Gayle's 60th birthday, so this will be a day to celebrate and a day to worry. Hopefully the worry will not last too long and we can celebrate both events.

For those that do not know, our son Kevin is a wild 5 year old boy that has over come many challenges in his life. He was born 10 weeks early and survived 35 days in the NICU. He has bounced back from 3 surgeries and survived 2 anaphylactic reactions to food allergies. His food allergies have grown to milk (the worst), eggs, peanuts, treenuts, and coconuts. He has a ton of environmental allergies....too many to mention. But this has yet to stop this child. He loves life and is always happy. He is a blessing in more ways than one, and continues to show us that his many limitations will never stop him, just push him to jump over them. He has taught us more about patience, life and love than I could ever imagine.

Now, we are facing new wonderful challenges, all of which Kevin is helping his parents through. The first is our adventure into home schooling. Due to his increased food allergies, the thought of taking him to school to just bite my nails all day in hopes that he would not lose his battle to food allergies was too much for us. Of course, home schooling was a new chapter for us all. I was so scared into thinking how I was going to be responsible for teaching my child...it was very nerve racking. But, as this year has progressed, we are having more fun and I am amazed at how easy a child can learn, or how much they want to learn. Instead of dreading school work, we both look forward to spending time together and seeing the light come on when he gets something. That is the best feeling in the world!!

The second adventure has been with our garden. I was recently able to buy a small greenhouse for the back yard. Kevin and I have had a blast this past winter growing seeds. I have been growing vegetables and citrus, while Kevin has been focusing on flowers. He has grown Sunflowers, Marigolds, Zinnias, Daisies and Poppies. Now if the weather would just stay warm!!!

The third adventure is going to be little league baseball. Kevin has decided that he will play baseball this year. He will be playing in Collegedale, TN for the Baltimore Orioles. He is so excited. We will be going next week to pick out his pants, cleats and helmet...all of which I will report on. Ken has been working with him and he is getting really good. At his first game, I think we will need to reserve a whole section of the stands. From neighbors, to family, to friends, they all want to be there. It will be a great day!!


Some bad news....a few weeks ago our beloved cat Kitty of almost 13 years passed away. We are still mourning the loss. Many friends have tried to encourage us with new cats....but we are just not ready. At this time, I don't think that another cat could fill Kitty's paws. He was a wonderful part of our family and will be greatly missed.


So, for now, you are pretty much up to date. Until tomorrow........