No Soup For You!

I love to make soup. It's like therapy for me. I make some really good ones too. Potato with ham & bacon, 15 bean, roasted tomato.

A few days ago I made a nice minestrone. Lots of veggies, some beans, pork & pasta. Since my fridge is full (even though we have "nothing to eat" according to my teen boys") I put my pot of soup on the back patio. It was about 35 degrees, so it was great.

Then the cold snap came to town...today it's in the negative degrees without the windchill factor. We also got some drizzly snow. Now my soup sits right outside my sliding glass door, mocking me. It looks like this.



It's frozen in place really, really well & covered over with thick ice. At least it's frozen so I can eat it once I can get it out!

The Game

If you're here to play the game, have a look around for on my blog a clue can be found!

(This is a game set up by Tina from Life In The Lapadula House, if you didn't sign up for it, just disregard this post!)

1. Mom Knows Everything

2. Mummy Diaries

3. Life In The Lapadula House

4. Super Mae

5. It Is Nap Time

6. Music Mondays

7. I Beati

8. Screaming Mimi

9. Live The Life Of ADreamer

10. Max A Dogs Story

11. Lady Banana

12. Game Freakz

13. A Little Girl Talk

14. Tell Me The Truth

15. Gossip Avenue

16. My Sweet Escape

Picture Tag!

Lynette over at Lynette's L.A.M. Blog tagged me with the picture game. I had to go to my fourth folder & pick out the fourth picture. No cropping or editing allowed, so here it is.



I think most of you have met Chloe. She's my chubby calico kitty. She's made herself at home on the coat that Jack was supposed to wear this year. My mom goes to all the end of season sales & buys stuff for my boys. She got this coat for Jack a couple of years ago. Last winter is was still too big. This winter, too small!

Hey, it's still hanging new in my closet. Lynette, thanks for tagging me with this, I'm gonna grab it & drop it off at a shelter tomorrow!

Now I'm supposed to tag 4 people.

Lynnette at Diamond in the Rough

Diane at Good Mourning, Glory

Rachael at Scientific Nature of the Whammy

Kat at Kat's Daily Inspiration

Disparate & Multifarious

Disparate: containing or made up of fundamentally different and often incongruous elements.

Multifarious: having or occurring in great variety.

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Do Xanax & caffeine cancel each other out? I'll let you know.

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During the day I occasionally catch one of the "Watch Me Pop Out A Baby" stories that are on.

I'm often struck by comments that make me roll my eyes so hard I'm afraid they won't return to normal.

Comments like, "I never imagined that anything could go wrong", (usually uttered by a woman who considers armpit hair freeing & names the child Snow Fawn Xenu). You wanna have a natural experience, great, but given the mechanics of the operation how can you not imaging things going wrong.

"I didn't expect it to hurt so much", crazymammasaywhat? Do these women not know how the baby is supposed to exit?

And the one that makes me laugh out loud, "Now that we're home from the hospital, we can get a good nights sleep", yes, now that there is no one to take your baby to the nursery so you can sleep, all your troubles are solved.

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In the winter I usually don't wear a coat. They make me feel trapped & smothery. I keep a warm coat, hat, mittens, etc. in the mom-van in case of emergencies. I would just prefer to walk from the car to the store and be cold for a minute than wear that coat. For all the people out there,

I realize that I am not wearing a coat! I do not need you to point this out to me!

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I know that working at a fast food restaurant may not be the job that some people want to do, but don't you think that they could at least try to hit the bun with the meat/fish patty? This is especially annoying on the sandwiches with cheese. The cheese cements the patty in place, so that when you try to remedy the situation you just tear up the bun.

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One of the 49 Duggar children got married. Like all else Duggar, it will be a TLC special. In the previews they show Dad Duggar, starting to explain the facts of life to Groom-to-be Duggar. Do we really think that after Mom Duggar has been knocked up this many times, this young man still thinks the stork brings the baby?

Tuesday's Tip Jar

At holiday time there are often ham and turkey carcasses left over after the yummy meals. I bring these home & use them to make homemade stock.

Cover your meat bone with water, add a small quartered onion, a couple of broken carrots & a couple of broken sticks of celery. You want to clean your veggies, but you don't need to peel them at all. Simmer for about 2 hourse uncovered.

Skim out all veggies & bones then pour stock thru a cheesecloth lined strainer. If you don't have cheesecloth you can use a nice clean kitchen towel, just make sure it's not a fuzzy one! I freeze my stock in 1 & 2 cup amounts to use in my soups.

It's really not a lot of work & the taste of homemade stock is totaly worth it!

For more Tuesday's Tip Jar, check out Blog Mommas.

**I'd like to invite all of my Tuesday Tip Jar friends to stop by my Devotional Daze blog to enter my Inspiration Giveaway. Today is the last day to enter!

I did not fall back asleep this morning not waking up until after 12:00 noon completely blowing my whole day.

I did not forget about ground beef browning on the stove because I was looking at a gossip website.

I did not tell my Dad, who is working so hard on my bathroom, that the power was out, because I just needed a day of quiet

I did not to a crappy job of "Not Me Monday" because I have no time, since I did not sleep until noon!

<For more Not Me Monday fun, check out MckMama

Camera Critters

This is the story of Oskar. Say hello, Oskar.

Well Oskar seems to be sleeping lying-in-wait, but he says hello.

I've gotten some questions on why his name is spelled the way it is instead of Oscar. The answer is that my husband is 100% German & schnauzers are German dogs. My mother in law says Oskar is the authentic German spelling of the name.

When we met Oskar he was 2 days old.

8 weeks later we brought him home. To little Oskar the world was a very big place.

Oskar worked hard protecting Jack, his youngest boy.

God makes baby schnauzers very cute, so that their people don't kill give up on them, because baby schnauzers, or at least baby Oskars, are very naughty. See how cute?

Chloe! Get that look off of your face, this is a story about Oskar. Maybe you can be next week.

As you can see, Oskar grew to be a good camper,

sun bather,

and occasional hat model!

Oskars do not care for thunderstorms. Hey, even Superman had his kryptonite!

Oskar adapts easily to many situations. Notice how he transitions easily from everday napping...

to holiday napping, without even breaking a sweat?

Since we live in Michigan it can be very snowy.

Oskar works very hard to help clear the driveway, by bringing as much snow possible into the house.

As you can see, miniature schnauzers are very helpful pets. Say goodbye, Oskar.

**I would like to invite all of my Camera Critter friends, to stop by my other blog, Devotional Daze, to enter my Inspiration Giveaway!

For more Camera Critter fun click here.