Weekend Wrap Up

The weekend didn't exactly go as planned but we still managed to get a couple things accomplished.  Christmas is almost officially down from the inside of the house.  Just a couple more little things to put away and then organizing it all back in storage - because you know it has to fit in a certain way to get it all to fit in one space.  Tonight the "activity scene" comes down, the kids wanted to leave it up since they actually listened at church on Sunday and heard about the 3 Kings.  So the Kings have been moved into the manger now for a couple of days.

We also had another item added to the list thanks to Dave Cowan - Abby had to make jerky since he made some at the lake over new years and all she could talk about was how she liked it so much.  Oddly enough we are actually out of deer burger since Tim hasn't shot a deer this year (however he did shoot a rabbit on Saturday, first kill on the farm) so we had to buy some beef which is not usually what we make jerky with.  It was a lot fattier and I'm not sure I like the taste all that much, to used to the leaner meat I guess.

So we made Abby help since it was her project.  End results:
Tim:  Look at all that grease (from the dehydrator)
Ann:  It's okay, a little chewy
Abby:  It's not spicy like Dave's
Megan:  Ummmm, no thank you

The other project we did was to start, or make an attempt I guess at our 26 Acts of Kindness.  Something Ann Curry started after the Newtown shooting.  It's a big twitter thing, which twitter is something I choose to not even try to understand until I win the Powerball and have cool things to "tweet", or my girlfriends decide to all get on and we can tweet together and be cool with our 5 followers.
So - our first act of kindness was to donate our litter boxes, 1 pet taxi, litter scooper, bowls, and food mats to our local humane society to help with someone who was going to adopt a cat/kitten.

I'm not sure why Megan does not look all that happy.  We did browse the rabbits, cats, and dogs and discussed several times why we will not have a chihuahua as a dog.  There was a cute black lab that was already adopted, and a yellow one that can't be adopted until the 9th - but he'll go quickly.  There was a coonhound that I wanted to take home immediately.  Although he looked nothing like our Buddy, he reminded me of him.  The girls wanted to know why there were no fish to adopt......

Emma also had a couple new things, the first being the introduction of the sippy cup...

Not only did she grab it like a champ, she started sucking the water out of it immediately.  She could be the smartest baby we know.  She has also learned to drop it on the floor and laughs when we have to pick it up.  Tilting it up will be another story though, we have to keep it pretty full so she doesn't suck air.  She gets this at lunch and dinner feedings while she's at the table with us.

Emma's other food intro this weekend was carrots.

Getting the first taste Friday night, didn't even spit them out.

My first batch to freeze.  One bag = 15 cubes =  $.92 = AWESOME! 

Survey says:  All gone!

So I will admit I am enjoying the whole baby food making way too much.  The orange cubes are even cuter than the green cubes.  The cook book said to add some non-salted butter to help with the beta keratin and add some fat.  I think it kept them a little sweeter.  However there was a learning curve again.....carrots absorb water when steamed very fast!  Then the butter just burns in the bottom of the pan and carmelizes.  Good smell, messy clean up.  Added more water for the second batch.  Emma had plain carrots, carrots and green beans mixed to together, and carrots with cereal.  And the survey says:
Tim:  These are really good, I'm impressed
Abby:  I'll try them next time
Megan:  Ummmmmm, no thank you
Ann:  Not too shabby
Emma:  Grrrrrrr (she growls a lot, new favorite noise)


Next on the list is peas, have to use a food mill for this one, going to take an attempt at it tonight.  Abby and Megan are up for it and Abby actually wants some peas - as long as they stay in circles.