Kindergarten Girl!

And just like that, we have a Kindergartner! I don't know how that happened, since it was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. She was (is) less than excited about the getting up early part, but she really likes school! Her teacher is very sweet and all of her classmates from last year were very excited to be back together again. 

Here are a few pictures from that first morning! She's not normally so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed so early in the morning. The smile was a tad forced, to say the least.  :)

She perked up a little when we got to school, but was nervous to be in a different hall than last year.  Her Pre-K classroom was right across the hall from my room.  

Abigail and Ms. Pop!  

Back to School!!

It's that time of year again...time for SCHOOL!!!!  I don't know about you, but I'm SO EXCITED!!!  (Hence the all caps and excessive punctuation.  Not yelling, just PUMPED!!!)  For the past few weeks, I've been getting ready for my new 1st graders: cleaning and straightening and painting and organizing and planning and pinning.  Whew.  I was very blessed last year to walk into an organized and "student-ready" classroom, and for that I'm very thankful.  But being a first year teacher, I had no idea what to do with half of the stuff in my room and no time to figure it out! It was nice to have the time to sort through and organize things in a way that works best for me and my students.  I went back and forth on the painting thing, but my girl Staci got her room looking all cute, so I couldn't just leave my walls that dusty, dingy blah yellow.  It was a lot of work, but I'm so glad I painted!!  It looks so much cleaner and brighter and fresher and 1st grade-ier!  I hope my kiddos will like it!  Here are a some pics of the room redo:

Before:

I love yellow, but this was just past due for a facelift.  

You could see all the dust and dings and scrapes and gunk.  

SO much stuff on those back shelves, old books, manuals, papers that came over on the the Mayflower.  Time to clean out and get things straight!

During:

I made an even bigger mess while painting, but it was SO worth it!  

I even had a little help one day!  My man is a natural artist. ;)

After:

I don't think I'll ever be completely done, there's still so many things I want to do!  And of course we'll add to the "decor" throughout the year with student work, anchor charts, etc.  But overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  It finally feels like My room!  

I hope my students are as ready as I am!  Meet and Greet is tonight and the first day of school is Friday!!  WOOHOO!!!

I'm looking forward to another AWESOME year at OBES!  

Zucchini Bread, Times 2

As I've mentioned before, our little garden has been very fruitful (or vegetableful) this year, for which we are very grateful!  We have had some possibly record-setting zucchinis, size-wise.  Those things somehow manage to hide under those massive leaves, and it's hard to see them sometimes until they get humongous! At which point they're also almost inedible.  Unless you make Zucchini Bread, that is!  I've made umpteen zillion loaves of the sweet bread this summer, which freezes and keeps really well.  If you've never had this kind of zucchini bread, you really oughta try it!  If you didn't know it had zucchini in it, you'd never know it had zucchini in it.  (As in, my kids eat it.  We call it cake.  Don't judge me, they need their veggies.)  It's kinda like banana bread, without the bananas.  Super simple to make, and a big ol' zucchini will make about 4-6 loaves!  Here's the recipe: 

Zucchini Bread (one recipe makes 2 loaves)

3 cups all-purpose flour      
 1 teaspoon salt
 1 teaspoon baking soda
 1 teaspoon baking powder
 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
 3 eggs
 1 cup vegetable oil
 2 1/4 cups white sugar
 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
 2 cups grated zucchini
 1 cup chopped walnuts (I don't always add nuts, it's good either way.)

Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

After baking this kind of zucchini bread a bazillion times, I decided to search for something new and different.  Thanks to Google and Common Sense Homesteading, I found "Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Bread".  Yes, please.  I made it today, and I'm not sure what was better, the way it tasted or the way it made my house smell.  I brought it to the church for lunch and only got a couple bites, but I will definitely be making it again soon!  It kinda reminds me of broccoli cornbread, except there's no broccoli and it's not made with cornmeal.  So it's totally different, but kinda the same.
Clear as mud, right?  Whatever, here's the recipe.  You should make it!

Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Bread

3 cups grated zucchini or summer squash (I peel and seed my overgrown zucchini.)

2 teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 medium onion, diced

2 cups grated cheddar (I used Monterey Jack, it was great!)

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

½ cup butter, melted

3 large chicken eggs, preferably at room temperature

(I also added a little Cavender's Greek Seasoning, but you don't have to.  But you should.  Just saying.)

Combine the zucchini and salt in a colander and toss to mix. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 7×11 inch baking dish with butter or lard. (You can also use a 9×9 inch Pyrex dish and reduce the heat to 330.) Stir together the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. Add the onion, zucchini, cheese, garlic powder and pepper. Mix well with a fork, breaking up any clumps of zucchini. Whisk together eggs and butter in a small bowl. Pour into the zucchini mixture and mix well. Spread evenly in the baking dish. Bake for about 35 minutes, until golden.  You want the whole top golden and the entire pan cooked through, so don’t be afraid to give it some extra time if needed.  The batter is very thick and moist.  

Y'all, this stuff is good.  You know I wouldn't lie to you about groceries.  You should really try it.  

Or come to our house and I'll make it for you. Either way, yum. 

Lake Livingston

We just got back from our little Brown/Copes/Rhodes/Hennigan/Slaydon family vacation this year, and boy did we have fun!!  It's always a good time when we all get together, just wish it wouldn't go by so fast!  This year we rented a house on Lake Livingston, and it was so nice.  Nice porch overlooking a big backyard and the lake, huge dock for fishing, and only slightly uncomfortable beds. ;)  The kids had so much fun playing on the beach (and by kids, I'm talking Julianne to Granny).  We fished, swam, splashed, cooked, ate, napped, dominoed, and visited.  It was a great weekend!  I wish we lived closer so we could see each other more, but I love that we've started this little tradition so that we can all get together and play for a few days in the summer.  :)

Swimming in the hottest lake water EVER!

They fished their little hearts out!

I love these people!  Makes my heart happy!

This would've been when Granny developed her random foot sunburn!  

Poor thing.  She had fun, though!

Got the fire started and then everybody went fishing.  These kids aren't big on s'mores anyway.

We had several intense rounds of Mexican Train.  People cheated.  I'm not saying who, but they're in this picture.  And another one who gave birth to the person in the middle of this picture.  But no names, please.  Wouldn't want to embarrass the cheaters.  

Such a fun weekend!  Time to start planning for next year!  

How does your garden grow?

Ever since Justin and I got married (7 years ago, in case you missed the last post), we have had a garden in the summer.  They started out small: a few tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, and things grew (no pun intended) from there.  We've tried all sorts of things, but we generally stick with the basics.  In our red clay, some things just won't grow.  (Like my beloved purple hulls.:( ) Some years we've had good results, some years not so much.  We have been very fortunate this year, in that we've gotten plenty of rain along with ample sunshine, and we've had a pretty awesome harvest this year.  By no means are we Doomsday Preppers, nor are we overly concerned with that zombie apocalypse the kids are talking about these days.  We just think it's kind of a smart idea, for a lot of reasons.  We know where our food comes from and what is (and isn't) in it.  We can pick things when they're ripe and ready.  We can put up what can't immediately eat for later.  The list goes on.  We've been very blessed with plenty of veggies this year, so we've been able to share the extras with family and friends, which we love to do.  It's also great for trading: salsa for berries to make jelly, cucumbers for pickles (we've not had much luck making our own).  Plus, homegrown and homemade stuff just tastes better than the stuff you find at the grocery store.  We have fresh eggs every day, our beef traveled less than 5 miles round trip before it got to our freezer, the girls love their "deer meat" as much as we do, and we make our own sausage that, in my opinion, is better than any you could buy at the store.  I would encourage anyone who doesn't grow or raise at least some of their own food to try it.  It is a lot of work, but the benefits are totally worth it! Here are a few pics from this year:

Getting the ground ready!  Every year he says we're going to downsize, every year he lies. ;)

This pic was taken at the beginning of June.  Our tomato plants were looking great before they turned into a jungle!  Justin is about 6' tall, so this shows how big they were at the time.

These last two pictures were taken yesterday.  Even after the hail storm last week, we were still able to pick 5 gallons of tomatoes, several quarts of peppers, cucumbers, and a monster zucchini which will soon be turned into several loaves of zucchini bread!  Tomorrow we'll be making salsa and chow chow, and maybe just canning some stewed tomatoes if I can convince the hubby. 

7

You know that feeling that you get sometimes, like you can't wipe the smile off your face? Not that everything is perfect and sunshine and rainbows all the time, but just that realization of how blessed you really are?  That's kinda where I'm at right now.  Yesterday marked 7 years that Justin and I have been married.  In some ways, it seems like just yesterday, but (in a good way) it seems like we've been "us" forever.  Like everyone else, our marriage hasn't been perfect, but I can honestly say that there has been WAY more good than bad.  We just kind of fit each other, and I like to think that we usually bring out the best in each other.  Like I've mentioned a trazillion times, we've really had a great time this summer, mostly because we've been able to spend lots of time together as a family.  We've gotten to do things that we usually don't have time for, including just hanging out and relaxing.  Yesterday for our anniversary, we decided to celebrate a little differently.  Nana and PawPaw kept the girls for us overnight, for which we are eternally grateful.  (For all the family time we've been having, that was the first time we've actually gotten to spend some "alone" time this summer. Much needed and appreciated!)  Instead of going out to eat and trying to find a movie to watch or something to do, my sweet husband had an even better idea: let's just stay home.  Who knew I'd have the best seafood dinner I've had in a long time right here in Cole Central?!  Grilled lobster, shrimp, and redfish with fresh squash and zucchini!  It was amazing.  Really.  Got to swim and relax in the pool without throwing the big one in the air or holding the small one because she doesn't want to wear her floaties.  Then we pulled the recliners into the middle of the living room and rented a couple of movies, ate popcorn and held hands.  It really was a perfect night.  My favorite anniversary date so far.  Still smiling.  :) 

Just Fishin'

Have I mentioned lately just how much we are enjoying our summer? I feel as though I may not have said that in a day or two, so let me fix that...we are LOVING our summer!!  From swimming, to working in the garden, to camping, to just hanging out, we are just having a blast this summer!!  Yesterday, it was time to do a little fishing, so we took the girls to the catfish ponds to get some supper.  MeMe met us there and we were able to catch about 21 pounds of fish!  

4/5 of us had a great time!  (Julianne could not give a rip about fishing.  She sat in the truck most of the time, which is why you only barely see her in one picture.)

Abigail is the fishing queen around here!  I think she caught the most and biggest fish AGAIN this time!

   

Fishing is serious business!  

She reeled 'em all the way in with no help this time!  So proud of my big girl!

MeMe got caught some big ones, too!  

She did such a great job!  I think she would've fished all day if we could've afforded it! 

Okay, if you blow this picture up, then squint really hard, you just might be able to see Julianne sitting in MeMe's lap fishing!  She even caught a fish!  About the time they got it reeled in, she decided that she needed to get back in the truck!  She's a country girl, but fishin's just not her thang! Can't wait til this weekend to go again! Have I mentioned what an awesome summer this has been?! ;)