Tick Tock

This title has 2 meanings for me today.  2011 is soon to be history and I am almost finished with the Hunger Games trilogy.  If you've read them, you'll get the title.   It's always hard for me to read the endings of books where I'm not sure what's going to happen.  When I was younger, I always read the last page first.  But I refrained, because I know that the ending is controversial.  Some people love it and some despise it!!  I'll find out how I feel later today. 
 

Christmas this year was a day of changes.  For the first time all the kids were not at home, which was not as traumatic as I thought it might be.  There was NO snow and it was warm enough to hang clothes out, so I did all the bedding.

Now that I think of it, it was Christmas Eve, but same weather on Christmas Day too.  Some things stayed the same.  Betsy did her usual 1000 piece puzzle in just a couple hours.  I should actually time her, because I'm always amazed by it.

We had our Christmas Eve dinner on Christmas Day because Hans had to work.  It's always a ham, but it's the side dishes that are the 'stars'.  Creamed onions, sweet potatoes (no marshmallows), green bean hot dish, lefse and an assortment of pickles!  Christmas morning is always cinnamon rolls and scotch eggs.  Sorry Molly, I did not get a picture of them.  Next year........
 

My first goal in the New Year is to pare down the Christmas decorations.  I am sending packages to the older kids with their ornaments, since I don't think I'll be driving to NV in the near future.  The expense will be worth it.  This is one of my favorites though.  It sits on the dining room table and cheers me up whenever I look at it.  The older I get, the less I want around and the less I want on me:) 

OK, one more little vignette.(sp?)  This is just an old cheapie from Kohls, but it lights up just as nice as those expensive ones.  I hope you've all had a happy and restful Christmas break and Best Wishes to you dear family and friend, (that's you Olive!) in the New Year!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Lot's of them too. 
First - Seven pounds dropped in a month loosely following the South Beach Diet.
Second - Motive for weight loss, a wedding in Las Vegas on 12/16, canceled.
Third - Keratoses on the head, formerly harmless, now cancerous.
Fourth - Youngest son may soon be leaving for graduate school.
Fifth - Tree seen decorated in previous post, now undecorated on bottom half thanks to 2 cats.

Number 3 isn't so serious.  Squamous cell carcinoma is fairly common in people with Northern European heritage who have been in the sun.  Very slow growing, so this is a recent change since it was looked at in June.  Vanity is my main concern because they have to do the MOHS procedure which will leave a spot where hair will not grow back and it's the top of my head.  So I'm kind of feeling sorry for myself about that.  I may be looking into scarves, headbands, etc. afterwards.  Those scarves I wrote about last spring?  Folded from corner to corner and tied under the hair, I may just be "back to the 60's"!  Stay tuned!

Artificial or Real?

This is the second year for my Christmas tree.  I guess now you know it's artificial.  When I grew up the tree was always real.  Sometime around 20 years ago we bought a big, small needled, artificial tree.  We don't have a basement, so we stored that monster under our steps.  It was quite a pain to set it up every year, but we felt justified in the fact that we were saving money.  I always missed a real tree though, so after  10 years we got rid of the sucker at a garage sale and started buying a fraser fir at the Home Depot.  We really are space challenged in our family room though, and when the tree was up you couldn't see the TV from the right end of the couch.  Last year I spied a $25 tall, skinny artificial tree at Target that seemed to say, "this is what you need".  And I bought it.  Here it is for the second year looking a little empty at the bottom, but a few gifts and dolls should fill it up nicely.

Fall Cooking

I have a renewed love for cooking every fall.  When the outdoors isn't as beckoning, it's easier to stay in and putz around in the kitchen.  Today was one of those days.  It was sunny, then cloudy, then sunny, then cloudy, and the wind blew with a definite feel of November.  I dug around in the fridge and found some brussel sprouts and leeks that I had bought a couple weeks ago at the farmer's market.  Here's the dish ready to stir fry on the grill.

I threw a few mushrooms in too.  I made another salad with 3 bulbs of fennel, radishes and mushrooms which was pretty tasty.  I must make a confession.  I am cooking more vegetables than I usually do because I am starting the South Beach diet tomorrow.  For 2 weeks I can eat all the vegetables I want, just not potatoes, carrots, corn and peas.  I can eat protein which would be lean cuts of meat and eggs.  No dairy, fruit or grains.  Some nuts, lemon and olive oil dressing, small piece of dark chocolate, reduced fat cheese and that's about it.

I had to take advantage of today also, and hang out a load of clothes.  Every time I have done this in the past week, I think it's probably the last time.  I just really have this thing for hanging out my clothes.  I love to do it, what can I say?

Here's a couple shots of the scenery just a couple blocks from the house where the kids live.  They are on the western edge of Las Vegas in Summerlin.  It's desert right next door.  The weather was fabulous, 85 degrees, no humidity, cool at night, I couldn't have asked for a more relaxing break.  The night I left, we were coming back from one of their friends house after watching a World Series game, and right in front of us as we approached a stop sign, we saw a mountain lion run in front of us.  That decided the conversation earlier about Betsy walking the dogs at night.  NO WAY!!

I love October

I read a book about calendars this week to first graders.  It was an old book I had rescued from someone's to get rid of pile at school a while back.  It's a bit dated, but has a sing song rhyme about days, months and seasons that kids always seem to like.  Anyways, one of the lines says that we always like the month our birthday is in best.  I don't know if that's always true, since the summer months are pretty dear, but I have always liked October too.  I saw this ad today that I thought was pretty cool, with colored leaves made out of M&M's.  I do love both of them.

Last weekend Jessica and I drove to BRF to go to the Varsity Football game Friday night.  However, Kjell wasn't able to play because of some MCL and ligament damage he received at a practice.  We still went to the game with Eric and Ramie and spent an hour downtown Saturday at Octoberfest listening to the band, which Kjell and Rikka played in, play some selections.  We toured the small quaint brewery next door and bought a pomegranite hard lemonade that was very tasty!  After I took this picture, I stood by my Dad and he showed me the text from Dan about Heidi recuperating from her ankle surgery.  I knew she had sprained it, but WOW, she really did it good!!  You could say that things come in 3's because our dog Ole had ACL surgery on his right back leg and it has been a miserable 2 weeks with a cone on his head and limited movement.  I'm thinking about my dear sister though because I'm sure she loves long walks in October, and she'll have to wait for 2012 to enjoy one!  Here's to healing!!

Weddings

We just had a wonderful weekend with all the kids home.  My niece in Eagan got married and not one Fredrickson cousin missed the wedding, (or aunts and uncles). 

We also got some good news that Nels and Tiffany are setting the date.  They were engaged a few weeks ago, and they are thinking about June 16 next summer somewhere in Mexico.  The number 16 has significance to them.  They met on the 16th, Tiff's dad died on a 16th, her parents were married on a 16th, Nels' football # was 16, and I don't remember what else.  So June 16 falls on a Saturday and there we go!

Here's another picture of all the Fredrickson cousins along with Grandma.

AND, here's Bob and his sisters and Mom.

Bittersweet

Bittersweet is one of my most favorite plants in the fall.  If I can get my hands on any, I like to have a few sprigs here and there.  I think I've read where it's pretty invasive once it gets established.

Bittersweet is also an adjective and that's how I often feel this time of year.  I've spent 4 days at school at workshops and planning and looking ahead can seem so overwhelming.  This year I am working with a new colleague whom I like very much, but I am missing my old colleague, Megan.  Thankfully she got a job in the district at another school.  I am now the K-1 ESL and Anne is 2-6.  Anne came from the junior high and I didn't think it was fair or nice to put her at the primary, so I switched up my job description too.



I will get in the swing of things within a few weeks, but it does take awhile.  It's also prime Farm Market time and these lovely bouquets are always reasonable and the lilies in it smell heavenly.

I've made a few pickles, but it's been years since I made these simple refrigerator pickles.  I'm hoping to find some more burpless cukes tomorrow to make a couple more jars.  We eat them FAST!

Of course the highlight of the end of the summer for me is our family get-together at Sugar Creek.  I love this place and it would not be summer if I didn't get to spend some time there.  This year instead of brownies, I made chocolate chip biscotti.  I also haven't made these in a long time, but here are the pics to prove I baked them!  (Because they didn't last long!)

Bob and I invited his mother to come this year, since none of our children were able to make it.  I think she had a good time.  The pool was a popular spot and the weather was perfect.  I included a picture of little Riley.  What a sweet little guy he is.  When HHG reads this post, I got a phone call from Arlene and she loved your granola and would like the recipe.  She shared it with a couple friends and they all agreed it was GOOD! 

August already?!?

I love my job and one reason is because of SUMMER.  And August is farm market time.  This basil plant is outside my own front door though and this year I tried making blender basil pesto.

My deluxe 33 year old blender did a fine job.  I know it is this old because it was a wedding gift we received 33 years ago!  Gold was obviously an 'in' color back in '78.

I poured it into this jar and then froze it.  Isn't it a beautiful green?  When it thaws I can add the parmesan and romano cheese and use it over pasta.  The basil plant has already grown almost as big in 2 weeks, so I'm going to make another batch tomorrow.

This is the biggest and greenest caterpillar I've ever seen.  It was crawling close to my basil plant.  No idea what it will be.

Last Thursday I walked the farm market and found what I thought were the best beans and the best price to make dilly beans.  This is my first batch of 7 jars.  I may have time to make another batch, but I also want to make regular pickles, pickled hot peppers and pepper jelly and August is already flying by.

Oh, here's a cute couple I saw when I was in Cambridge in July.  Don't they look happy and expectant?

In the pink

Well this title has nothing to do with the sex of a certain baby, who now I hear will be made known in a week or so.  Actually it is the realization that as far as flowers go, it is my preferred hue.  I used to labor over what flowers to buy for my yard and several years ago I figured out that pinks were what I liked.  So it has made flower buying much easier now.  Here's a shot of my whiskey barrel impatiens and my mother in law's old laundry tub that I plant in now.

I am officially on summer break now and today is Nels' 30th birthday.  I woke up that Sunday morning and told Bob that we would not be going to church as usual.  We sat on the living room floor, played cards, timed contractions and went in around 5:00 in the afternoon.  He was born at 10:56.  It was a wonderful day and I was able to stay then in the hospital until Wednesday.  I ordered my meals from the cafeteria, nursed the baby, took sitz baths and relaxed before the real world hit!!  And here it is, 30 years later...

New Baby

 Here is a picture of my ESL colleague and her new family.  Meg is the same age as Nels and we've worked together for 5 years.  She was my EA for 2 years and then went back and got her MAESL and has now been an ESL teacher for 3 years.  I love this girl like my daughter.  So I guess I'm kind of like a grandma! Ha!  Mason is sooooo...cute and he has wonderful parents.

The bad news?  Our school district is dumb!  They have cut 120 teachers, Meg being one of them.  They especially hit the ESL department, even reaching up to tenured teachers.  These are the kids who need the extra help and that's where we're cutting?  I think they're counting on the parents not speaking up.  Well we're organizing, writing letters, attending meetings, getting parents involved and if this new Mom is not in my building next year, I will be one sad girl!

Earth Day

I'm not handing out a flower because of Earth Day.  This was a couple years ago in April when our school handed out coffee, doughnuts and a flower to any of our volunteers as they drove by the front of school on their way to work.  It's a tradition now and this is what I'll be doing Tuesday morning.  This year Earth Day is on the same day as Good Friday, so two things to ponder and commemorate in some way today.  If the weather was only cooperative, I'd hang out my laundry.  Hope you have a nice Easter weekend.

Theater Week

    

Last Friday I went to the History Theater in St. Paul for my SEED class to see "As American as Curry Pie".  A one woman show performed by the writer herself.  Really good, but I was really tired.  Betsy and I went to "The Wizard of Oz" at the Burnsville High School last night.  Really good, but too long.  I guess when you know the ending, the last scenes can drag.  But excellent play, probably just tired again.  (Is there a theme here?)  Sunday we are going to Augsburg to see Marit in "Anything Goes". 



Over Spring Break I walked into TJMaxx and saw this big green dragonfly and had to have it for the house.  It's a good spring/summer decoration after all the wreaths and miscellaneous winter decor.  Now if we could only get the weather to act springy.  (Snowing as I write this :( not happy)

What I Did On My Spring Vacation

I may actually make some of my students write this very essay on Monday.  Here's some of what I did.  Monday I had my chiropractor appointment.  Afterward I went to Half Price Books and bought 2 books and 5 CD's.  I found the sound tracks to West Side Story, Showboat, Fiddler on the Roof, and South Pacific.  On Tuesday I took my niece Jessica out for lunch and we chatted for couple hours.  I also did some shopping!  I went to Kohl's with 15% off and bought a rug, a shirt, earrings, sandals and something else.  I spent just over $50 so I got a $10 cash coupon, which I used on Friday to buy some new sunglasses!  Then I went to DSW and used a $20 off $50 coupon.  I found the Eastland shoes I love in BLACK!!  They were on sale for $60 marked another 30% off and I also bought some Teva sandals on sale and scored another bargain!!  Wednesday I drove down to Northfield to get a cut and color.  Thursday I went to the mall with Bob's gift certificate from work and bought him shirts and pants for work.  On the way out of Macy's I stopped at the Origins counter.  The dermatologist told me to get GOOD sunscreen for my face.  I ended up buying one of their moisturizers with sunscreen and a serum with natural bleaching agents.  Laser treatments on my sun damaged spots are expensive, so I thought I'd try something that cost less.  Still on those 2 items I spent just under $100.  She did give me a free sample of the moisturizer for my purse and another sample of their cleansing scrub.  She could tell I don't exfoliate!  Friday I spent at home cooking a turkey, taking it off the bone, and boiling the carcass for soup.  I also made Ole some homemade dogfood, which I took a picture of.  I also took a picture of me and my sun damaged spots.  We'll see if that serum makes a difference in a month or 2 :)  Check out my scarf.  Grandma O. gave me some square silk scarves, about 20" by 20" years ago.  I've been wearing them the last year a lot.  I'm not a fashionable sort, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to be!!  So I didn't accomplish too much, but I had a chance to relax, read a little bit and walk the dog. Ready for work tomorrow...........

Genius!!

Here is a picture of the Mexican shrimp.  It was frozen raw, instead of precooked like the smaller bags usually are.  I marinated it in oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and Old Bay Seasoning.  Definitely the best kind of shrimp we've ever had.  I prefer this over the prawns.  (Bigger shrimp)  Very tasty and lots of leftovers!








So I took a picture of my plate.  I totally forgot to take pictures on Saturday night when we had the swordfish kabobs.  Bob invited the neighbors over and Hans was here, so I wasn't thinking about the camera!    

So....my stroke of genius was finding a recipe for
granola muffins.  I baked them this morning and they
were good.  I was thinking about spreading the granola in the back yard for the birds because of the off taste of the walnuts, but baking took care of that.  I still have a couple cups of granola left over, so I'll
probably still give the birds a treat!  Happy last day of March!!     

Spring (?) Break

Well you can see we still have quite a bit of snow for late March.  The sun was warm today, but still only about 30 degrees.  It felt much warmer by the side of the garage, so we spent some time today sitting out and playing with Ole.  Tonight we are having Mexican shrimp and tomorrow night swordfish kabobs.  I will take pictures again.  I also have to remember to wear sunscreen.  I went in yesterday for a spot on my head, which was fine and benign, but the dermatologist also burned off 5 precancerous spots on my nose.  Yikes!  and here I am, sun on my face, and no protection!  Better get at that.

Something's fishy

 I'm giving this formatting another try.  Here's what we ate last weekend.  Cod on Saturday with roasted cauliflower.  I had to have some carrots for color.  The next picture shows the salmon before I fixed it.  It's Scottish salmon, something we've never had before.  We usually get Norwegian or Atlantic.  I made roasted sweet potatoes and coleslaw with those.  The last picture is my plate.  I can say that I've probably never taken a picture of my plate of food before I've eaten it, but there's always a first time.

I've only roasted vegetables for the last couple years.  It's so fast and it cooks about the same amount of time in the oven at a high temperature with the fish. 20 - 25 minutes, and everything is all done.  Tonight we grilled mahi mahi.  Bob buys trim pieces at work, so we had 3 pounds of fish for $6.  It's not my favorite fish, but I found a good recipe and it was really good.  I did not take pictures. 
 Well, I'm feeling kind of pleased here.  My writing is staying where I want it, and I wonder if it will look the same when I save it?  Off to bed, the weekends go too fast!

Practicing

Here is our silver maple tapped and ready to go.  I brought home my small burner from school.  I've got an old pan and I need a candy thermometer too I guess.  If I can get 10 gallons of sap from this tap, it will make a quart of maple syrup.  My custodian said the best place to make it is outside, not in the house.  It'll be a couple weeks before my first attempt.  If you let the contents partially freeze, the water freezes first and then you can pour out the sap to cook down later.

Adding pictures and making granola

Well, this took me an hour.  Arggg...I took some pictures today that I haven't loaded, but I just wanted to see if I could do this.  Here are a few of the moebius cowls I knit this winter.  Did I spell that right?  I used ends to make a couple striped ones.   I have pics of our fish dinners and my tapped maple tree.  I'll give that a try later.  Granola; I made my recipe today and thought I could swap walnuts for pecans.  Somewhat bitter, so I won't do that again :(

Almost over the hump

Our international tasting evening is over, the science fair is Thursday and most projects are ready to go.  I totally adore my student teacher, she is wonderful!  Testing is underway and going well.  I have half a dozen baby sweaters to sew buttons on, quite a few chunky cowls, (12-15) and looking for my next project(s).  A while ago I bought some felt play food and then made some saltines, cookies and fried eggs.  I will have to take some pictures one of these days.  Maybe I'll sit and sew some more food.  Speaking of food, my folks were here a couple weekends ago and we fixed tuna steaks.  Now I should have taken a picture of that!  It was delicious.  We fixed it rare and medium well and it was good both ways.  I made scalloped potatoes to go with.  I bought a mandoline (?) a few years ago and the potatoes slice so uniformly and thin and fast, so they don't have time to discolor while you prepare them.  Off to bed, it's past my bedtime!

Preoccupied

Today my colleague and I had a presentation at our staff meeting.  I have a student teacher with 3 formal observations I must do soon.  My colleague and I received a grant for an event we are holding next Tuesday night, (planning and shopping), about 12 students of mine need major help on their science project,(science fair in 2 weeks), and TEAE/SOLOM testing is in 2 weeks for my ELL's.  Seriously I am usually not this busy, but yesterday I packed all my notes, journal, and books for my class after school and left it on my desk chair and this morning I let the dog out as I do every morning at 5:30 and promptly forgot all about him until I left the house at 6:30 and he rushed past me from outside the front door to eat from his bowl downstairs.  I felt so bad....1 month until spring break and the rest of the year is a breeze! 

Spring Fever

Today while basking in the sun, I realized why I don't mind winter at all.  A day like today could never bring so much joy if I didn't know the meaning of a deep freeze.  The roof is almost mimicking a drum beat with the steady drip, drip, drip.  The dog is having the time of his life bounding through the sugary snowy drifts.  It reminds me that I want to find a few spouts for the maple and box elders in our yard.  Our custodian at school taps his trees and boils down the sap for syrup.  He assured me that even with a half dozen trees I could get a nice amount of maple syrup.  I'd better check around before it's "sugaring" time!

Learning Curve

OK, I've spent a little time experimenting with different layouts, but I can only find pre-made ones and my sister and nieces have such original looking backgrounds.  I'll keep checking on it, but later.  I kind of like this pink stripe for February anyways.  Well on the topic of food, I have really been giving thought to what I eat.  There was a really interesting article in the editorial section last week on the subject of meat, and eating less or not any at all.  Tonight I bought several kinds of rice, dried beans, sweet potatoes and a bunch of fruit.  I did buy some chicken because I'm making tortilla soup for the Super Bowl.  Go Packers!!  On the subject of knitting, last night I started another baby sweater while I anxiously await a gorgeous headwrap pattern from my niece.  When I get that, the sweater gets stashed and I'll immediately try one of those.  Well I'm off with my neighbor to the local watering hole!  Our husbands left yesterday to ice-fish in Lake of the Woods, and we are going to get a bite to eat and a drink or 2.  When I get back, the black beans are getting a rinse and an overnight soak.

Start Up

My official blog beginning.  I'm going to say that I'm having a bowl of blueberries, grapes and blackberries because that seems to be the theme in the blogs I've read so far.  It's all about the FOOD!  No pictures yet, but I just want my sister and niece to know who the mysterious poster this weekend on their blogs is.