Yesterday we had our neighbors over for dinner.  I made the Pioneer Woman’s pot roast…. it was ok…  I’m not a huge Red Meat eater… but it was tender, and the hubs had more than one helping, as did the neighbors.. so I assume that it was good…. by their standards anyway.  The roasted garlic mashed potatoes were transcendent just like Ree said they would be… OH MY GOSH… I could eat a whole plate or 10 of those… YUM… thankfully there are leftovers (that is if hubs didn’t lick the bowl clean last night when clearing the table)…

The day started with my roasting the garlic for those glorious potatoes…

Alice, the youngest… came into the kitchen toting her cat (because that’s basically all she does is carry that little critter around… )

and exclaimed ‘Mom, are you trying to keep the vampires away?!?!’… I laughed and explained why I was roasting the garlic…   Then later when Rosalie, the oldest, got up and smelled the garlic SHE said… ‘are you keeping the vampires away?’…

I want to know why my daughters both think I want to keep the vamps away.. don’t they know how much I love Edward and the Brothers?… I want to BRING them here.. not drive them away.  Fortunately the girls don’t seem to realize the garlic myth… I’ll let them keep thinking it keeps the vamps away… that way I can have them all to myself…

Oh.. and we baked yummy cookies too…

Oh… and we need a cute puppy pic…. Hi Deeohgee!

I do miss blogging,… it got me through a difficult few years when I was lonely and unhappy with our move to PA.  I met many wonderful and supportive friends, mostly knitters, who shared in my passions of family, dogs, kids, running, cooking and knitting.  Most of these lovely people I’ve kept in touch with through facebook, or Ravelry… because those social networks are a bit quicker and easier for me to update than this blog… but I still do miss blogging, so I’m going to give it a try at least over this holiday break from school.

Working full time has taken away much of my free knitting time and crafting time, but I still squeak out a few knit projects here and there and of course decorate cakes whenever the need arises… whether it be a birthday party or school fundraiser, I just adore coming up with a way to make a unique and fun cake. 

This is my third year of teaching (well, not a full year, but I’m counting it as my third.. because… well.. this is my third group of 6th graders).  I’m enjoying my job more and more with each passing day.  The students overwhelm me with their eagerness in my classes, and their love for science and for all of their teachers.  Many people have responded to my choice to teach middle school with surprise or the exclamation that they could never do it…. and my response is always that this age is wonderful.  Students in the 6th grade still have a love and respect for school and their teachers….  (there is something magical that happens in the summer of 6th to 7th grade that instills a level of hmmmmm….. what to call it that isn’t derogatory…  let’s just say a level of self knowledge….   that explains why so few 7th graders return to visit me each year.. it’s ok though because in 8th grade they get over themselves and they make their way back to my classroom…)  6th graders are eager to please, and are children who are explorers… exploring their own world as it morphs around their own morphing bodies…  I love being a part of all of that.

Besides knitting time, I miss the extra time I had for meal preparation.  In spite of the fact that our lives are always going at breakneck speed, and the activities have increased as the kiddos have aged…  we still manage to have a family dinner nearly every night of the week.  One of my favorite (and lately only) channels to watch on tv when I can squeak in a show or two is the Food Network.  And… this week while on vacation I sat in our big oversized chair with Emmett and knit like a looney while watchign a new favorite cook… Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.  Wow… just wow… her recipes are pretty basic (mostly) and just wonderful ‘down home’ cookin!  Perfect for my family.  I’m trying many of her recipes this week and am really thrilled… so far.

Tomorrow we’re having our neighbors over for dinner and I’m trying her Pot Roast recipe.  I have not made a pot roast in years… mostly because hubs doesn’t love pot roast…  he confided in me that it was because when his mom made them everything was just super bland… and so I’m going to try this recipe and hopefully will hit a home run with it.  I’ll be serving roasted garlic mashed potatoes with it because, like Ree, I cannot stand the way that potatoes prepared with a roast get all mealy tasting.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.  Ree is the ‘inner me’… that I’ve always wanted to be… she’s a spiritual, educator, who loves crafting and  cooking… plus, she lives on a ranch… (how awesome is that!)

On the knitting front, I’ve got a major case of the mojo!  I’ve knit pretty consistently each day…  I already cranked out two dishcloths, two hats, a scarf and have another hat on the needles… I’ll update when I can with pictures.

Hope you are having as wonderful a week as I am as we inch ever closer to Christmas weekend!

A wet nose knocking my arm so that my hand always lands on your head for a quick pat…

Crawling under my feet for a foot pet on your belly…

Miles and miles and miles of the best running partner a girl could ever have…

Doggy breath in my face in the middle of the night, instead of barking to go out to potty…

Eyes closing and deep sighs of contentment with every ear scritch…

Love is living for 16.75 years when your body could barely hold you up anymore…

Love is Murphy

October 1, 1994 – July 7, 2011

First off.. I’m Blogging… so it MUST be summer… because everyone that knows me knows that I gave up on nearly everything in my normal life when I went back to work last year…  now… that doesn’t mean I’m sad or upset or that I regret my decision to return to work… it just means that I’m insanely busy…  and… fortunately… happily so…

Other signs…

My flowers are blooming

The figs are growing…

The corn is soaking

The kids are zonking out periodically

The kayaks are in the lake

My classes have started….

But I am finding time to read and knit….

Happy Summer!

I’m baking…

I love the Christmas holidays!

ps… Hi Chan!

I promise though to try…. to try this new year to pay closer attention to you…

Sincerely,
Esme

I love my new job, my students, and the school where I’m teaching… seems I fell into the perfect job.. my kids still have my full attention and I’m home with them for the summer, and I am back in the work force doing something I love and adore.

All that being said, I know that I won’t be able to blog much during the regular school year… but I do want to try… I do miss blogging… so I’m jumping back onto the blogwagon for the summer at the least…

Our last ‘big’ project, and probably the most popular of the year was to hatch chickens…  we placed 24 eggs into our incubator and were lucky enough to hatch 15 healthy chicks.  I chose a hybrid breed of the Arcauna species of chicken.  They are more commonly known as Easter Eggers because they lay green, blue, or pink eggs!  I knew that the interestingly colored eggs would entertain the kids, plus, the chickens are prolific egg layers and handle the NC heat well.  We found student homes for all the chickens which was a huge surprise to me!  The students really loved having them in class, and I know that these chicks will do well in the families they’ve gone to as they were handled so regularly in class…

On the last day of school, one of the girls had such fun perched on my laptop screen, watching me type… I just couldn’t resist getting her photo…

I’m of course still knitting,… Ravelry is a central part of my ‘entertainment’… and the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup is still a very active part of my knitting life… I love coming up with ways to make something I want to knit fit into a HP theme and class…  so sorry if that dorks you out!

The Littles are great.. not so little these days… Rosalie is only 3″ shorter than her mama now… and Emmett is growing like a boy weed always grows… Little Alice is 5.5 now, and will be a big kindergartener in the fall.  She’s built most like her Mama… petite… so I don’t know if she’ll get the ‘giant’ gene from her daddy the way her siblings probably have!

Gardening is my second love… and ours is well under way… I plan to take photos today…  we purchased our tomatoes as individual plants this year… we just always do better when we choose already healthy plants rather than trying to grow them from seed…  we have LOADS of green tomatoes already.. on the ‘Big Boy’ plant, the Grape tomato plant,  and the Roma plant…  our Cilantro flowered (oops)… I need to see if I cut off the flowering parts if the plant will still be useable… Basil is doing awesome, so are the onnions (green, red and yellow)…  Peas are producing lots already.. and this year we attempted corn.. the plants are getting big

My cucumbers and watermelon are both doing great!!!  Looks like we’ll have a great crop!  I need to get a tomato cage for the watermelon plant to grow on… the cukes are growing up their trellis great!

Hope you are having a great start to your summer… I know ours is going to be fantastic… filled with kayaking, hiking, running (yay), gardening and knitting… I do also hope to get a camping trip or two in!  Check back and see what we’re up to this summer!

This year’s tree is smaller than in years past… we were able to borrow a tree stand from a friend fortunately and crafted our decorations!  The star is cardboard and glitter of course (such easy kid-friendly crafting there)… and why not get in touch with our history by creating a cranberry and popcorn garland… The kids all made ornaments at school, and here at the house out of simple paper and tape in most cases!

For stockings I had a bag of fleece leftovers from various sewing projects and quickly whipped up a unique stocking for each of us…

I’m certain that this is the Christmas the kids will look back on and remember for years and years to come…

I recently told a friend that I wish there was one extra day of the week where NOTHING else existed but me… so I could spend an uninterrupted day getting all the things DONE in my life that I lately never have time for… 

laundry

dishes

blogging

There was one glorious year… where I blogged incessantly… had tons of time to bake for my kids and family, craft like a banshee and do all sorts of things that today I feel I hardly have time for… that was the first year we were in PA.. and I was miserable, lonely, and depressed.. so I really WOULDN’T go back to that even if it meant I could blog to my hearts content… bake up a storm and knit like a looney… (well, we all know I still knit like a looney, I just don’t blog about it)…

I miss reading blogs, and chatting with blog friends…  I feel a bit disconnected from my blog friends at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think of you… I really do.. often…

My mom once told me that as your kids get older, the chaos gets bigger… and I always thought she was so wrong… I mean seriously as the kids get older, they get more responsible and can do more things for themselves… but..as they get older, they get busier and so do you…  we have 2 in scouts, one in gymnastics and all fall on different days each week…  school, activities, holidays, family, life… 

Its keeping me happily busy… but sadly away from my sweet blog and sweeter blogging friends!

I do hope you all have a fantastic holiday season… hugs and holiday wishes for you and yours!