Gappy Grinned Girl

Check out that gappy grin! Allison lost her first front tooth the other day while she was at school. I worked in the library that afternoon so I got to see her and hear all about it from her and her friends! I just love the gappy grin but it does mark the end of that baby toothed smile I've loved for the past five and a half years :( She's definitely loosing her teeth earlier than her sisters - it's got to be that "I've got to keep up with my sisters" attitude -LOL! Apparently Allison has a less than positive view of the tooth fairy, although I honestly don't know why. Thursday morning she came into my room with her empty tooth pillow and announced that the tooth fairy didn't come. I insisted that she had indeed come because Allison's tooth was gone from the pillow. "But she didn't leave me anything..." We looked high and low and finally found her treasure UNDER the bed. Phew! Then later that night at bedtime Allison told me this story...."When I got up to go to the baffroom in the night I dropped my Beary on the floor. When I got back to my bed from the baffroom I couldn't find my Beary anywhere. I fought the Toof Fairy took him! But then I saw him on the floor." Why, oh why would a little girl think that the tooth fairy stole her bear?! Kind of sad. I assured her that the tooth fairy wouldn't do anything like that. Never a dull moment!


I also need to share some of Allison's artistic ability with you. I'm always amazed by my children's creativeness because I am SO lacking in that area! Especially when it comes to DRAWING anything! They must get their abilities from their Dad.

It's a Giraffe - in case you can't tell - which of course you can because of Allison's exceptional artistic ability!! Never mind about the five legs - she just got carried away is all.

Shop Talk & Finding Favor with God

Shop Talk: "Whoopie Pie" is on its way to Kid Zone magazine. This article was my tenth and final assignment for the writing course I took. I'm officially done! I say that with a bit of hesitation because I'm nervous about being on my own. The course motivated me to write something. It gave me an 'assignment' which had to be completed at a certain time. I liked that accountability. It will harder now to be motivated, but I have my critique group. They are encouraging and inspiring. With all the changes in our daily schedules since school started it's no wonder I've been too busy to focus. Now things are settling down and I can take time to get to it!
A few days ago I got a forwarded e-mail regarding some political stuff and some religious stuff combined. It was interesting enough that I did in fact forward it to a few people I thought would also find it interesting. As these things go it got forwarded many more times by people I sent it to. A day after I e-mailed it I got a response from someone I don't know. She (I assume it was a woman) seemed very offended that the e-mail contained some, what she considered false, religious information. She went so far as to say that our country was NOT founded on christian beliefs but rather the belief that we should all worship as we choose. That of course is NOT true so I had to respond back to her. Our country was founded by people who wanted to worship GOD. BIBLICAL principles guided our forefathers and set the foundation for this country. Shame on anyone who doesn't acknowledge the truth of that. As we have gotten away from God and our foundation the evidence is clear that things are literally crumbling around us. The blessings of living in a country that worships the one true God are disappearing as people turn their backs on Him and look to other FALSE gods. So this woman and I have exchanged a couple of e-mails back and forth. She is clearly misled about who God is and seems confident that anyone who loves God will find favor with Him. True enough that those of us who love Him will find favor with Him but she seemed to miss the most important part. We need to acknowledge the fact that we all sin; we needed Jesus to die and take the punishment for those sins; we need to ask Him to forgive us and cleanse us; we need to ask Him to come into our lives and fill us with His Holy Spirit; and we need to thank Him for loving us enough to save us. You can love God in word only or you can love Him through your faith and belief in what He did for you. That's when we find 'favor' with Him. We have to be saved in order to truly LOVE Him and have a REAL relationship with Him. I expressed all of this to this woman and my prayer is that she (and you) will take this seriously and accept Jesus as "the way, the truth, and the life."

More Fish!

Last night was fish night. I must say that the idea of adding something healthy to my family's diet is the driving force behind trying to overcome my lifelong aversion to fish. I'd like to have more variety and who knew there were so many kinds of fish out there just waiting for me to cook 'em!!! I find that when I spend some time getting a bit adventurous in the kitchen I really enjoy cooking - did I just admit that?!- Must be that I enjoy feeding my family healthy meals... So here's last night's recipe.

Quick Easy 'n Fast Crusty Potato Fish Fillets Recipe

6 white fish fillets, about 3/4 inch thick (I used Haddock)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
pinch salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 4 oz. pouch roasted garlic mashed potatoes or regular instant potatoes

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cover broiler pan with foil and grease well or spray with nonstick vegetable spray.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs and lemon juice; add salt and pepper to egg mixture. Empty pouch of potatoes into a separate medium size bow.

Dip fish fillets in egg mixture, then into dry potatoes and coat both sides. Spread fillets on prepared broiler pan and bake in preheated oven for 10 - 15 minutes. Set oven to broil and cook until tops are golden brown. (If you cook in a convection oven you probably won't need to broil as the tops brown while they cook).

Makes 6 servings.

Note: Fillets may be grilled or sauteed in hot vegetable oil.

Apples and More

We went apple picking a couple of weekends ago. The orchard we went to was gorgeous! Picture a hillside sprinkled with different hues of red, orange, and gold. Then imagine an apple orchard with the brightest red apples you've ever seen carved out in the middle of the hill. All around us the cozy colors of autumn oozed their warmth while the chill of the October breeze made us hug our jackets tighter to us. A truly perfect autumn day!

Little Miss among the apples

Yum!
Katie.
These faces are so mischievous!
If you squint your eyes and cock your head to one side you may be able to distinguish the house at the top of the orchard. The owners of the orchard live here. Can you even imagine what it would be like to enjoy that view everyday!?

Shop Talk: I received another rejection letter. This time from Boys' Quest. However, this time the editor wrote me a short note at the bottom of the form letter. This is not the usual way it works! Apparently my article was good but the theme it fell under (baseball) is "full at this time." So, while I was disappointed that they didn't take it I'm glad it wasn't rejected because of its lack of merit. I'll take that as a good thing. I'm still waiting to hear from Cricket about the same article. I also submitted a short (125 words)story to a writing contest. I won't find out anything about that until February, I think. I'm also waiting to hear from my instructor about the Whoopie Pie article I submitted for my final assignment. When that comes back I'll fix it up and send it out to magazines. In the meantime I need to get my writing butt in gear and get some more stuff written and ready to submit!! Honestly, I'm just not spending the time filtering through ideas and organizing my thoughts.

Becky and Allison apparently really enjoy riding the bus in the mornings. Allison announced that it's 'so fun because the kids can scream!' Wrong, Little Miss...no screaming on the bus! I'm glad it's such a fun way to start the day!

I'm trying another fish recipe tonight. This one is made with Haddock. We'll see. I'll post the recipe if it's any good. I mean, if my family thinks it's any good. I have a hard time looking at fish let alone eating it. I made a homemade pizza last night. Homemade crust and everything. I don't have a bread machine so I did the dough thing by hand. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The pizza turned out pretty good. I am going to look for a bread machine at our local thrift stores though. It would be so much easier!!