Piggy Tales – My birth

This is the first in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to talk about this post with my mom before I wrote it, so there may be some revision later on :) I know the basic outline of the story, though, so here goes:

It was hot in August the summer I was born. My parents had been married for a year and a half, having gotten married on Valentine’s day, 1980. In their small tiny house in Loveland, they had a fan, but little else to keep it cool. Many days would find my mom walking the aisles of the nearby King Soopers just to be somewhere that had air conditioning.

Having grown up not knowing anything about nutrition, my mom battled hypertension and toxemia during the entire pregnancy, something that she completely overcame with a better diet with her second child, my sister.

When she went into labor on August 8th, everything was ready for me to come out, except me. The midwife came over and hung out as midwives are good at doing. They took several trips to said grocery store during that day and the next to get some relief from the heat. I was a stubborn little one and was comfy where I was, thankyouverymuch.

After 42 hours of labor, I finally came. My mom hemorrhaged, which we learned is genetic and happens at the first birth of all the women in my matrilineal line (happened to my grandmother, my mom, my aunt, and me at least). The decision was made to stay home and just take care of it there. Mom and dad were tired, but happy that I was a part of their family now.

I was a healthy little girl at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 21”. My parents were the first ones to give the grandparents a grandchild, so both sets of grandparents were thrilled as well.

I found a photo album of me from the time I was born until the time my sister was born 2 and a bit years later at my paternal grandmother’s house, so here are a few pictures of my first month:

Two weeks old

My mom, me, and my dad when I was 4 days old

My dad's parents and me when I was 16 days old

(As a side note, my name didn’t come from anywhere spectacular. My parents both read a fiction book and liked the name, but not the character, so it was decided)

There you have it, my knowledge of my entrance into the world. Next week, the topic is birth-age 5. See you then!

~S

PreSchool - Zoo Week 1

Kahlen is 41 months old

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. This week was our first week for Zoo Animals (click for planning sheets for this unit). I had a busy beginning of the week, so we only did "school" one day this week (okay, really we split it over two days, but didn't get to as many of the activities as I wanted to)

 Of course, we did our stART project first.
After that, we played Zoo Bingo with some erasers I got from the dollar store and the zoo bingo sheets listed on my planning post.

We both played, and she nearly cried when I won. Which is really why I played too, teaching her good sportsmanship is important to me.

Next, we used some plastic zoo animals to make foot prints

 She was having soooo much fun with this, we didn't have time to do much else!

We also did this Giraffe Shape Counting sheet that I found on MakingLearningFun.com while I was looking for something else. She got bored frustrated about half way through and asked for a lot more help, but we made it all the way through.

 Then she had to color the whole thing, of course :)

We also did our Z is for Zebra handwriting sheet and sang our verse, which I realized is a Steve Green song on Hide 'em in your Heart, Vol 1, which I have, so we listened to that after I spoke the words to her.

This was all from last week. This week will also be light because we went camping with my mom, pictures to come soon!

~S

Wordless Wednesday - Camping at Horsetooth Reservoir

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Tasty Tuesday - Chicken Shepherd's Pie

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

Please link up your recipe at the bottom of the page. You can post a link to a recipe on your blog or anywhere else. In the title of your link, please leave your name too (especially if it's not a blog post) so I know who it came from :)

Also, feel free to grab my Tasty Tuesday button, it's on the left side, near my other button.

I made two new recipes this week that were pretty tasty. I'll definitely be making them again. The first one was a Linguini with Garlic Sauce that was very easy and delicious, even as leftovers which is crucial around here since that's what hubby eats for lunch.
The second one was also a hit, although I modified it quite a bit and I'll add more veggies next time, 3 cups like I state in this recipe instead of 2 cups like I used..
So, here's my modified Chicken Shepherd's Pie from Taste of Home: Simple & Delicious Cookbook.

(picture borrowed from Taste of Home)


{Ingredients}

• 4-5 red potatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup half-n-half or cream
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cubed
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese, divided
• 3 cups vegetables (green beans, sugar snap peas, green beans, broccoli, corn, carrots, whatever you like)

{Directions}

• Peel and cube potatoes. Place in pot and cover with water. Boil until soft and mash-able, about 20 minutes. Drain. Add garlic and milk and mash to desired consistency.
• Meanwhile, cook chicken in 1 tablespoon butter until no longer pink; set aside and keep warm.
• After chicken is removed from pan, melt remaining 3 tablespoons butter in the same pan. After butter is melted and browned bits are scraped from the bottom, whisk in flour until smooth. Cook for 2-3 minutes until butter starts browning. Gradually add milk; stir in seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 cup Swiss cheese until melted.
• Add vegetables and chicken. Transfer to a greased 2-qt baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes; sprinkle with remaining cheese.
• Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

~S

Menu Plan Monday - June 7th

Didn't stick with the menu at all last week. Life happens faster than I can plan for sometimes, ya know? The good thing about having a menu is that I know what I have ingredients for and hubby can cover me sometimes too. He ended up making the tacos, and did a mighty fine job at it too.
The other good thing is that I have ingredients for the recipes I didn't make which should mean I don't have to buy as much at the store :)

Here's the plan for the week:

Monday ~ Chicken Shepherd's Pie (from my new cookbook)

Tuesday ~ The kids and I will be camping with my mom. Tim will be having spaghetti with sauce (or something else of his choosing)

Wednesday ~ I'll be going to HuHot with a friend. Tim and the kids will be having Bob's Red Mill Vegi Stew with Turkey Ham.

Thursday ~ Out to dinner for date night.

Friday ~ Taco Salad

Saturday ~ Pappardelle with Snap Peas

Sunday ~ Cheater Chicken Pot Pie

Remember to stop by tomorrow for the Tasty Tuesday linky party. Come visit me then!

So, what are you having for dinner this week?
Link up at Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie or leave me a comment!

~S

stART - Dear Zoo

 

Each Thursday A Mommy's Adventures does a great blog carnival. Read a story to your child; then accompany it by art.
Last week, we started our Zoo Animals unit. This was our first zoo book. The funny part about this book is that my library only has it in dual language, English and Arabic. Go figure ;)

We read Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Fun lift-the-flap book about why different zoo animals would be a bad choice as a pet.
After that, we did a sorting activity about Zoo or Not Zoo animals.

Almost all sorted:

Gluing them on...

"Um, Kahlen, why are you putting glue on the animals instead of on the back?" "Because, mommy, they're not zoo animals, so I'm going to hide them" Oh right, makes perfect sense! ;)
The finished product:

 We've also informally been working on sight-words, so we talked about the word Zoo, which is why the words are written on her pages.

Speaking of reading, just took this picture a few hours ago. Kahlen is "reading" Brown Bear, Brown Bear to Nate before naptime.

Her idea, not mine. I just put him up in the chair so he could see the pictures. Awww, how sweet!

~S

Fitness Friday - Fire Hydrant 5k

There's only 75 days to go until the Warrior Dash!

Since it's been two weeks since I last posted an update, I'm not going to enumerate my activity, mostly because I just can't remember.
The highlight, though, is that I ran in a 5k this last Saturday and finished in 45 minutes! I feel like I ran about half of it, which I'm very happy with.

Here's me finishing. You can see the time clock says 44:57!

The race was a fundraiser for the Larimer County Humane Society, so lots of people ran with their dogs. To be funny, we put on our cat faces :) This is me and my mom just before the race started.

Now, we need to start training at altitude (at least Estes Park) PLUS upping my mileage down here since I still can only run about 1.5 miles. After that, it will be obstacle-specific training, probably starting in about a month.

Also, for any of you local people who might be interested, Warrior Dash has opened another full day of waves in the Rockies on Sunday, August 22nd. So if you didn't get registered and you wanted to, now's the time to do it!!! Hope to see you there!

~S