Directory Pictures!

Those of you who keep up with me on Facebook know that I stressed ridiculously too much over the Directory Portraits at the church.  But knowing I’m stressing too much doesn’t actually make me stop.  I’m extremely glad they’re over with though!

James went topless until right before the picture.  As a mom of three, that is one tiny lesson I have learned.  :)  That, and his shirt had long sleeves, and he’s so not used to them he kept chewing on cuffs.  :)

Our picture time was 7:00, so we got there at 6:50, per our instructions.  Even though I knew they’d be running late, I still followed the rules.  :)  We sought out a place to stash our stuff and let the kids wander.  It was too warm in the building, so I tried to keep them calm to prevent sweating.  I tried to keep me calm too.  :)  In my opinion (as a person, mother, church member, reasonably not hot-natured person), I believe the K-building at church should be about 55 degrees while they’re attempting to take pictures in the hottest August ever.  (Or maybe not ever, but go with me.)  I think that would make for much happier people.

I knew going in that we were just going to have the directory portrait done and were simply not interested in any other portraits.  And I told the photographer that.  He didn’t like it, but he (mostly) respected my request.  He just took a family shot.  We had three to choose from that were orientated for the directory, and only one was decent.  So that’s the one you’ll find in the directory!  He took a few others that weren’t the right orientation for the directory, which annoyed me, but they were all crap anyway.  In the directory picture, we are all looking at the camera, many of us are smiling, and nobody has their tongue out or fingers in their mouth.  I guess with three littles, that’s the best you can hope for!  The best part was that we were out of there at 7:30.  I think it pays to be upfront about your wishes.

But then I developed a much greater respect for the photographer after I got home and attempted to get a picture of us all in our “directory finest.”  I took nine pictures of my children.  The major problem was the light.  That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Here’s the best, funny enough, also the first:

The flash went off in the first one, and I HATE the flash, but it turns out it was just a little too dim for my camera to get clear-ish shots without.  This one was the only other okay one:

The rest were very blurry.  This one is too, but it’s the only one of me.  :)

And I had to resort to the flash even though it’s AWFUL, in the one of Matt and the girls.  It was so hot, and they were so fidgety, they just blurred all over the place.

Joanna has a cheese face, but look at Natalie – precious!  and of course Matt is handsome as ever, even though I know he’d have rather been whiney.  :)

Anyway, I wanted to record the even in the ‘ol blog, and I’ll scan the 8x10 of our official shot when it comes!  I may also have to hunt down the old directories and scan in our pics from the ages.  :)

For now, our last “unofficial” directory picture.  Exactly four years ago in the hallway waiting.  Four years sure does change things.

100lbs of Wheat

Matt took Tuesday off of work.  He needed a day and we decided Tuesday would be super helpful since the Azure Standard order was coming in.  We don’t really do much in the way of vacations, and (knock on wood) Matt doesn’t get sick much, so he has accrued a bit of PTO.  It sure is nice to have a day here or there where he stays home, and it’s a break for us all!

Anyway, Matt went to pick up the order about 11:00.  I kind of wanted to go, but I knew he would be vastly more helpful in unloading the truck (not to mention carrying 50lb bags of wheat), so I stayed at home with the kids in the air conditioning.  :)  Once it’s not so hot, I don’t have a problem going myself with the kids, and even this week I feel like I could have taken the girls.  Poor James just gets so hot though, and he can’t tell me if he needs water or shade or whatever.  So anyway…

That was the live picture, but I needed the flash, so I had him re-enact bringing in the wheat.

I bet it’s rough being married to a blogger.

100lbs of wheat!  We got most of it put away in buckets, but I need one more bucket and a lid.  Bring on the baking!  Actually, bring on the cool weather and then the baking!

A Dog, a Braid, a Jamesie Sandwich

Poor Krispie.  I don’t think they meant to hang her, but they did.

Often I braid Joanna’s hair in church.  It keeps her awfully still during a few minutes of the sermon.  Sunday I did leetle tiny French braids around her face.  She just couldn’t for the live of her hold still in the right position to get a good picture, but you can sort of tell from this one.

We got to eat dinner at Mamma and Pop’s that night – wahoo!!!  I love dinner with family!  We had a great time, but this is the only picture I took.  :)  He thought it was funny.

Fried Okra, my love

Fried okra has for as long as I can remember been a favorite of mine.  Recently (as in the last couple of years) I have actually fried it myself.  My grandma grows a lot of okra in the summer and we are blessed to be recipients of some quite frequently!

I like them just plain ol’ steamed as well, and we do that a lot because it’s easier.  And the kids like it!

But this post is about something that tastes totally different and amazing and is a comfort food to top all comfort foods.

Okra.  I like to use the big ones for frying.  Cut off the top (Joanna calls it the handle.) and slice them into pieces (maybe 1/2 inch thick).  I fry the skinny ends too; Natalie calls them microphones.

Dip the pieces into a mixture of 1 egg and 1 cup milk.

Decide what you’d like to bread them with.  This, my friends, is delish:

But it’s just cornmeal with seasonings in it so you can do your own thing too.  I find a mixture of the fish-fry and plain cornmeal works very well for us since the fish-fry has a little kick to it.

After the okra pieces are soaked in egg/milk, roll ‘em around in the breading:

Fish them out and fry in oil.  I’ve been using coconut oil and about medium heat.  This is obviously the oil before the heat was on.

Fry them for a few minutes until golden.  If the oil’s not deep enough, you’ll need to scoot them around a bit.

My milk/egg ratio was off a bit this day (or something… who knows) so the breading didn’t stick as well as usual.  Soooooo good though.  So good.

And everybody likes ‘em this way too!  I haven’t let James have them fried yet though.  Poor deprived kid.

Almost 10 months old

Okay so this is totally random but the other day I was talking with some girl friends about birthin’ babies, and I realized I couldn’t remember how much James weighed when he was born.  I mean, I thought I remembered, but the number I remembered was 8lbs 13oz and surely that’s not right.  The girls were 7-4 and 7-8, and no way my little petite James was a full pound and a half bigger.  Except that he was. 

Ouch. 

No wonder I’m remembering that delivery hurt kind of a lot.  (In comparison to the others that only hurt kind of a little – BAH HA HA HA HA!)

What if I have more babies?  They won’t necessarily be bigger, but I’d wager they will.  It’s thoughts like this that make me think I’m done birthing babies.

But then I see a newborn or I smell my little man’s neck or I think about how he won’t be nursing many more months or how none of my clothes fit anyway. 

:)

Not pregnant though.  Just saying.  I don’t want any rumors to get started from my sappy post.

James will be 10 months old tomorrow.  That’s double digits man.  I’ll post handsome pics then I’m sure.

Pizza and Laundry

These two topics may have nothing to do with each other, except that by the end of the post, you too will be convinced of my need for pretty aprons.  :)

Matt took these (and I didn’t even tell him to!) of me making pizza the other day (ahem… week).  I’m a whole lot wee bit behind on blogging.

I used what was in the house, so we topped our pizza with a simple homemade sauce, parmesan cheese, fresh spinach, cooked/diced chicken, cooked bacon, grilled then shredded cushaw squash, and some cheddar cheese.  I’d have used mozzarella if there was any in the house.  This combo was still very tasty though!  The squash was from my grandma’s garden.  I left the sauce off of a section on one of the pizzas, instead spreading on a little olive oil.  I’m not ready for James to ingest much tomato.

Just out of the oven:  YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was the first time I’d made this particular sauce, and it was amazing!  The texture and taste were VERY restaurant/take-out pizza like.  Normally my sauce isn’t so thick I think.  It was especially a hit with the hubs.

Joanna took this picture for me.  I had to ask her though  (and of course hand her the camera).

I took an old apron I had lying around and filled the pockets with my clothespins.  I read the idea somewhere, but I can’t believe it never occurred to me!  I used to just have a little purse bag filled with them and take that out.  This keeps my hands free-er and I don’t keep dropping it.

But wouldn’t I look so much cuter with some ruffles or flowers…
like this one, or this, or some of these?

:)  I’ve been browsing.  I like window shopping online.  And it’s always good to be prepared for Santa Claus.

(Is that how you spell Santa’s last name?  I can’t remember, and it totally doesn’t look right.  I had an E at the end, but I know that’s not right.  Clearly I spend a lot of time thinking about the man.)

Child Labor

It’s not bad if they want to do it though… right?  :)