An Oldie, but Goodie!

I'm not sure if I posted this recipe on my blog; I may not have. But it is so yummy, and with the season changing, I would love to sit down with a huge serving and some fruit & gingersnaps!

Pumpkin Dip

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon frozen orange juice concentrate

Directions
1.In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gradually mix in the pumpkin. Stir in the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and orange juice until smooth and well blended. Chill until serving.


Please note, this makes about 4 cups of dip!

I love to eat this with sliced pears or gingersnaps. You can use vanilla wafers, graham crackers, etc. Other fruit is yummy, too, but there's something about the combination of pumpkin and pear that is great. You can make a pretty presentation by serving this in a hollowed out sugar pumpkin.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

So Monday was not terrible. Except for the mean person from church who blasted me in an email. Apparently, the email was sent Saturday night, but for whatever reason it didn't show up until Monday. Probably a good thing.

We started back into schoolwork. We're starting up slowly. Baby is cruising through, and Little Boy has had some good days. I'm thinking we'll start adding subjects one at a time.

Monday night DH had a union dinner to go to, so our cleaning friend came over and watched the kids and ate supper with them. We had a good time; I talked to a lady whose son was diagnosed with leukemia 2 days after Little Boy was dx'd with Type 1 Diabetes. They were at the same hospital at the same time we were. She was really sweet, and we shared the feelings we went through. Her son finishes his chemo treatments in April.

Tuesday was a quietish day with Baby going to ballet in the evening. We went to Denny's like we usually do, and our cleaning friend was our waitress. Baby was thrilled.

Today we worked on school work, but I was definitely dragging. I've been up way too late the last couple nights. My lower legs are pounding already. I should go put them up.

Tomorrow's a whole new day. And Little Boy and I are going to therapy. Should be good.

Looking forward to Monday

It's been a hectic couple of days here. Friday morning our cleaning friend came over. God bless her. It's so nice to have help.

I got an email the other day with an attached spreadsheet. First, let me say that just because you put numbers and words into a spreadsheet, without headings on your columns, I have to guess what you're saying. I needed to stop by church yesterday morning to get the attendance and offering numbers for the bulletin. So I was able to see first hand what the spreadsheet was saying.

Instead of taking inventory of what we have received for putting together boxes for Operation Christmas Child, the people I asked to inventory the stuff went ahead and packed the boxes. I wanted to cry. And I was perturbed. We have very generous members, and have about 40 boxes of stuff. I knew there would be disappointment among some of the people who have been looking forward to having a packing party. And Baby cried. She wanted to pack a box. I was sad for her.

I came home and shared with my husband my feelings. I don't want to take away from the work those people did. That was a lot of work, and I know they thought it was easier to just pack the boxes. But it wasn't what I wanted. I sent an email (that I forwarded to our pastor) thanking them for all the work, but that I had not intended for them to actually pack the boxes. I shared that there is a joy one gets from hands-on ministry that we should make sure everyone gets to experience. And that "next time" we need to make sure we do that, especially for the children in our church who wanted to pack boxes.

When I mentioned it to the pastor today, he told me that when people came in on Wed. night, people right away assumed I had done it. That makes me a little sad. Now that he knows the truth, I hope he tells people.

So I got home and started lunch. DH mentioned that he needed to get going to work. I thought he had traded, and would be going out on last shift. I had not done the bulletins. Grr. He had arranged trades for this weekend, and he and the guy changed the days and I was confused. I wasn't about to go to the church at midnight to run bulletins, so they would have to wait until the morning.

Last night I was irked at family members who irk me pretty much all the time anyway. I won't go into details, but I was irked.

This morning I lolly-gagged around until I remembered the bulletins. aaaaaaahhhhhh Oh well. I haven't had any kids in my Sunday school class. I just needed to pray no one showed up so I could run off the bulletins. (That's sad.) This afternoon was the local JDRF walk. I picked out the kids clothes Saturday night. I made sure they had socks and shoes, a jacket, and then I found my own clothes. I had them all ready to go. We got out the door and realized Little Boy needed his "big" shot. We had to run back home. We were half-way to church and DH realized he had not brought his tennis shoes. bleh

It started raining. bleh bleh

We got to church, I ran the bulletins and all the other things I needed to do. I sat down upstairs and tried to get in the right frame of mind for church, but realized I didn't have my Bible. I taught children's church, and the whole time Little Boy kept mentioning that it was boring. Nice.

After church, I just wanted to gather everything and get home. We had planned to change at the church, go out to eat and then get to the walk on time. So now we had to run home, get lunch on the way, change clothes and drive all the way there. We stopped to get gas on the way, but all the pumps were full, and cars were waiting. So we went to another gas station. We got there at the time the walk was supposed to start. We got our shirts and changed. The walk was nice. Baby fussed about everything. The walk had brought in $5K so far. Very cool.

We got home, I threw a frozen pizza in the oven, we ate and then we went to church. And Baby was a complete brat. I had thought the other girl was teaching tonight. I checked the schedule real quick, and nope. It was supposed to be me. I grabbed a couple games. When I got there, the pastor encouraged me to keep the kids in the Bible study. There would be video clips. So I sat there with Baby throwing a fit just about the whole time. I was miserable; I just wanted to cry and then drag my kid out and beat her butt. I don't think I got much out of it.

And then the church lady came up and started complaining that everyone keeps asking her what they should do, and complaining that no one is getting involved and she has to do everything. I just had to get out of there.

Baby threw a fit all the way home. When we were getting in the car, she told me she had to pee. I told her she should have gone when we were in the church, and that now she could wait. I ended up turning up the CD so that I didn't have to hear her.

I think she's just become a complete brat, and I've about had it.

So I may be one of very few people who are looking forward to Monday.

Sad faces all around

My brother, sister-in-law and their 3 boys have been here for a couple days for a quick visit. Baby cried for a good half hour after they left. I felt like crying, but I held it in. But the kids played well together, and the adults had a nice visit.

September 11th

MY cleaning lady

So I humbled myself, and allowed my friend into our messy house. She's been so great; helping without criticism which is exactly what I needed. She even told me it wasn't that bad. I wanted to laugh out loud, because it is THAT bad. But we've cleaned the living room, dining room, kitchen, both kids' bedrooms and we're 2/3 done with the bathroom. She's definitely earning her pay. I have sorted through multiple piles of junk - papers, office supplies, bathroom stuff, JUNK - and we've filled a half dozen or so huge trash bags with trash. I have a couple piles and a box of things to sort through, and I'd be ok with company.

It's still raining; the grass is really getting green. But we're supposed to get between 6 and 10 inches in the next couple days. All I have to say is it's good to live on a mountain!

Rain

It started raining yesterday, and it's still raining. We have really needed rain. The grass is looking green again; it's so much nicer than looking at brown grass. But rain means 2 naughty, arguing children are cooped up in the house. And like most children, they feel the need to occupy the same 2 square feet of property. sigh So one is watching cartoons, and one is playing legos in a different room. It's the first time this morning there's been peace. Now if we could just find something other than Dora; that girl's voice gives a chalkboard a run for its money.