Cooking Tuesday - Making an Indonesian meal

We love eating Asian here at our house, but it's usually just our own version.  We use what we have and it's definitely not authentic.  For one thing, the vegetables here are not the same as the ones they have over there.  Beans, carrots, onions, and cabbage are some of the vegetables they have, but they aren't the same either.  They are different varieties.

So we do what we can with what we have.  One thing that we enjoy is Santan.  I'm not sure what the difference between Santan and Opor is but to me they are similar.

You start with pork or chicken.  We're using pork today.

 I cooked it through the morning in the crockpot and liked how it turned out.  Add salt and pepper.  Frying it up is yummy too, gives a carmelized flavor to the meal.  Your crockpot should be on high, and if you fry it up you can skip the morning use of the crockpot.

 Then around noon add chunks of potatoes - smaller would be better.  I had help and don't really like to correct them if I don't have to, also I don't think I was in the room when these went into the pot.

Then I put it some canned squash.  At the very end, so there was just enough time to heat it through.   Canned squash and even canned potatoes would be perfect for this. 

At the very end, probably right with the squash add one can of evaporated milk and some tumeric.

Obviously for my Indonesian friends, you know that this isn't remotely the way to do Opor, but in this farm country, it's as close as I can get with regular items.  My family enjoys it, so I guess that's the point.

Making the most of today.
Steph

Project Monday - the final day in the boys' room

 The closet is looking much better, even with the glare.  If it was my closet it would look neater and more organized, after a project like this, but I wanted them to take ownership of it and let them put things on the shelves as they felt they should go.

Shots of their room.  You may not be able to tell by the glare off the pictures but they're old war planes and their aunt found an old calendar of these planes so we put them up all over the room with sticky tac.  Next we plan to build some model airplanes to hang from their ceiling and Waterman is sewing curtains for the windows.  The curtains have old war planes on it too.

So, this morning, I finished up some things and vacuumed one more time.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I did want some shelves for their awards, but will save that project for another day.

Making the most of today.
Steph

Titus 2 Tea - May is Planting Month

This month for Titus 2 Tea, we'll talk about planting.  I have planted some things, but the only thing I have actually planted in the ground in my garden is the peas. 

It's still too cold for some of the other things.  I'm glad my lettuce wasn't planted yet and the onions, because we had a freeze warning last night - in MAY!!!!!  I'm hoping the peas will be o.k.  Carpenter says "Yes, they will be fine."

But this month is the month for planting or so says my Father-in-law.  He's the one to talk about gardening.  His is beautiful.  The flowers are gorgeous and he has plenty of vegetables.

We're not finished yet with our boxes.  I think we'll work on that some this weekend - though I'll be working on Saturday.  I need to do five more.  Then we'll get the dirt to fill it in. 

But as for the planting, the things I'm going to try to get in this week is lettuce, onions, and spinach.  Maybe even the broccoli.  Now you may think that cauliflower could and should go in at the same time as broccoli, but no.  That's something that we learned this year.  I think that even potatoes can go in at this time.

I'm not a gardener.  I frustrate my man in my lack of gardening skills, but I keep trying and every year I get better at it.  In the past, we have not had to buy any frozen veggies - though I love them. We have had enough to last the whole year.  But this year, I did run out of everything but butternut squash and pumpkin that is canned. 

So for our family, it is well worth it to do this.  In our family, we eat about 2 pounds of veggies at our main meal.  I think if you get frozen on sale it's a dollar a pound.  That would be somewhere around $700 a year.  We can use that money for something else. :)

Making the most of today.
Steph

Thursday's Thoughts - (now it's really Thursday)

Yesterday, I shared something that thrilled me about raising my boys.  I've seen a lot of growth in their lives over the past year and a half, while I've been babysitting.  I think it has taught them to be helpful and caring.  But this doesn't happen so much with their siblings.

We still have a long way to go.  Most days, I just deal with things as they come up.  There is no plan to work on certain things - no goals, except the ultimate one - reaching adulthood.

So I propose that we should tell our children which areas we should be working on and give them ideas of how to do that.  We are training after all.  In training, for a  run (this is mostly assumption on my part, having never done this), I'm sure that the trainer doesn't say "Go. Run."  I'm sure there are warm-up and cool-down exercises.  "Watch out for this or that." etc.

In the same way, when we have a child working on an issue - anger, disobedience, lying - they need help.  When you feel like this, watch out!  Help them see the warning signs and triggers.

Work together with them and then you will be on the same team.  Sharpie knows that we're trying to help him branch out and be less of an introvert.  Carpenter asked him why he didn't want to do a certain part of ushering.  He said, it makes him nervous.  So Carpenter was able to share with Sharpie how he felt as a young man and what he'd learned - that when he's thinking about himself, he's nervous and when he's thinking about others, he's not. 

Especially this summer, there is a lot of time to work on stuff.  Give a project.  Have them write a report or give a presentation on a certain struggles.  Help them evaluate why they aren't doing what they should. 

Making the most of today,
Steph

Thursday's Thoughts (oops, it's still Wednesday) - Growing up Gentlemen

This is taken from a blog that has 24 ways to prepare your young man to be a gentleman

As I was looking over the list, I saw this one and looked outside and saw it in action.

My boys are a huge help to me with the little ones around here.  And the little ones love them.  They love being taken to look at the cows or chickens or ducks. 

Next year will be a lot different on school days.  They won't be here to help take babies outside to play.  This school year is almost over.  Today we only have a little over a week left, but a storm's brewin' so we thought we'd spend part of the morning outside.  They had a lot of fun.

Our boys need help learning to be leaders.  The world around says just play vidoe games and do what you want while you can.  But our Lord showed a different side of a man.  My goal (and my husband's) is to teach my boys to be like Him.

Making the most of today
Steph

White choclate covered popcorn

Not sure why it's called white choclate when I doubt there is any choclate in it.  Maybe because it is the same consistency.  But today it's what we're having for snack.

Pop popcorn as usual.  Not sure how microwaveable would do if it has butter on it.  But we always make our popcorn on the stove.

Then we pour them into a bowl, and shake it, so the kernels fall to the bottom. Next we pull out the popcorn from the top, so that we don't get any of those "old maids".

Melt the candy according to the directions.  And pour over the popcorn - stir well.  It's even better with some crushed oreos mixed in with it.

Yummy!

Making the most of today
Steph

Taking a break from the boys' room

 I've decided that this year, I will not be the only one gardening.  I am hoping to give the kids bunches of projects to do so that they will not spend their days cooped up in the house.  Summers are great for things and when you have 10 kids in the house, schedules just make things go better. 

So I want to teach my nine-almost-ten year old daughter to bake bread.  I want to read Miracles on Maple Hill to the kids - the little ones won't remember it.  I want each child to have a little garden plot, to grow things they like.  Now, we can't ask the babies what they like so they'll just have to deal with whatever we plant for them.

So we started out with a box.  A four-foot by four-foot square - give or take a couple of inches.  Now I found out it should be less than four feet, but I think we should be able to reach all the spots just fine.  We laid it on the ground and dug it out in some spots so it could be level.

Then I took a pitchfork and dug up the soil about 6 inches down.  We turned it and then raked it, so that it would be loose and not packed down.  Roots like unpacked soil better.

Then we raked it and put more soil in and raked it even more.

Finally it was full enough and we are leaving it till this next cold spell is over and next week we'll probably be planting.

That night we sat down and drew "maps" of their plots so that we would know what is to be planted and where.  We'll draw out 16 one-foot by one-foot sections in each box and plant things in each one. Tall things go in the back and we'll have a trellis of some sort in the back. 

I think they'll enjoy harvesting out of their garden plot, but maybe not the weeding.  Regardless, they will learn about growing things. 

We divided them into three teams with one of the older boys as leader of each team.   They'll work together to help each other keep the weeds out of their spots. 

Making the most of today

Steph