...

We here at Just Being Me want to wish each and everyone of you in blogland a very Happy New Year!

May it be blessed with a richer relationship with Christ our Saviour and closer friendships with those here with us on earth.

Peace and Joy to each one of you,

~Anna

Snow

This has been the fall for snow. We have now made it into winter for a week or so, but the majority of our snow all came before winter even set in. Pretty amazing amounts. As we are wondering what to do if we get more and space is running out. God will set in motion his own plan that works really well, as always. He'll just melt it. Today has been sunny and warm, not really much melting yet but they say tomorrow things will change and we will see a diminishing of the snow as rain runs down on it. I guess next up, ice. We will see. I had to go down and uncover the street light censor as it had been buried in snow. I don't remember needing to do that before.

Here follows a few of our snow memories for this 2010 fall/winter season of snow.

November 21 the snow is new and exciting and Beatrice has new reindeer antlers she needs to try out so they load up a bag for Gregory to have with him as he rides in his sleigh. The new Rudolph the red nose reindeer and Santa are born. Our next good snowfall came in the afternoon before Thanksgiving and it was the perfect temp for taking an evening walk to Cub to get a few groceries. I love night time walks in a white snow covered land. They are so peaceful, sounds are more muted.

With more snow and bright sunshiny days where better to be than on our hill.

Then the big snow of December 11 came and we were buried. Traveling in it was horrible. Once we gave up and stayed home we went over to our neighbors and had a good evening of visiting over freshly roasted, ground, and brewed coffee and ginger cookies. What can be better than good friends and that!

When we were properly warmed and soothed reality had to be faced and we brought in wood and scooped the driveway. Here Henry and Travis bring in wood:

Life is hard when the snow is this thick and you have such short legs: It would be fun to have snowshoes for when the snow is like this. It is very dense and there is a bit of a crust. We can scoot across the top using our arms and sitting on the plastic sleds.

Some of the cousins coming into Grandpa and Grandma's after a refreshing sledding adventure on their new sledding hill. December 25.

Enjoying the snow,

~Anna

Tea-Infused Lentil Soup

I am not really sure why I ever tried this recipe but this very well may be one of the most requested, by my children, meals I make. Certainly it is possible that my eldest daughter requests it the most.

It came in an email newsletter I used to receive called KIWIscoop. I don't have any idea where it came from but it was mostly healthy recipes and fun quick tips for family fun and stuff to do so I would browse through it when it came to my box. It is really a simple and quick meal. Enjoy!

Tea-infused Lentil Soup

2 tea bags Jasmine tea

1 cup lentils (any type will do, it calls for red and I use what ever color those are in the picture above)

1/4 cup rice

2 large yellow onions (cut into thin strips) {I almost always use white onions but red, green, or yellow are all tasty here} [I use just one unless they are small then I will use two]

1 Tablespoon oil -olive is nice

1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon, or more cumin

1 vegetable, chicken or beef bouillon cube

1/3 cup parsley

5-6 cups water- divided

Fresh bread of some sort to serve on the side.

Directions:

1. Steep tea in 1-2 cups boiling water

2. Boil 3 cups water in a deep soup pot, add lentils and rice. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. {or 2.} In a frying pan saute onions in oil until golden and tender. Add cumin and salt and quickly fry them. { I do this in the pan before I boil the water and leave them in to cook some more with the lentils and rice}

Stir in bouillon and 2 cups more of water. Make sure bouillon is stirred in and dissolved. Return to a boil.

4. Just before serving stir in parsley and tea. Add meatballs if desired (I never do).

They say preparation time is 45 minutes and it will serve 4.

Please try this. It is such a good simple meal to enjoy. And when you are done you can enjoy a good game of chess, maybe if you have a playmate.

~Anna

I am linking this post to Tasty Tuesday's at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Fall Memories

Going back in our memories to October and our family trip to the Father/Son Retreat up at Flaming Pines Youth Camp. Don't be confused by the name father son, we weren't and took it as a family event and all of us went. Actually we girls had responsibilities there. The guys needed fed so we helped cook for them. While the guys spent most of their time learning about geo-caching, we spent most of the time baking and preparing meals. We all had a good time hanging out with old friends and making some new friends.

After Sunday morning services we had some free time once we had loaded up the van and cleaned out our cabin. So we went on an adventure. With a kind guide we went to the sand hill.

It looks steep and it is! And now we have sand in our shoes. Gregory found some tools to help him up the incline. It was pretty much straight up and down! The view from the top. Travis, summit-ing again, after giving Gregory a final boost up.

Coming down if you didn't want to run head first it was fun pretending you were walking on the moon! Your feet slid right through as you floated down. Beatrice's favorite way to help was holding Mr. Cody.

~Anna

The Way Things Have Been

It has been a rough week here in Lake Woebegone (where all the woman are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average).

The problems started last Thursday when Beatrice woke up my computer and it immediately got swamped by a think.pointe virus that was very resilient and she and I could do nothing with it. It was there and nothing we could do with the computer until Travis got up. He was unable to do anything about it before we left for our Thanksgiving dinner we couldn't shut the computer off, nothing. After working on it for a couple hours once we got home and still getting nowhere Travis had to leave for work. When he got home from work he was able to find the right information on his computer and then get mine working correctly again, but not for long.

Saturday we were awoken by Travis' mom calling to say that she thought Grandma E. was going to die. She didn't have any blood pressure and she seemed to be fading fast. In October she had a similar episode and she was just very dehydrated so I really kind of thought that was probably the case this time but it didn't end up being the case this time, at noon she called again. Grandma was gone. She was a sweet and kind lady. Mostly I only knew her as a very quiet person, not everyone remembers her so much that way but as a rather fun loving woman. Her grandkids remember fun times of sleeping over at her house and playing dress up in her clothes, others recall what a hard worker she was. What we all remember her the same way is her perfectly clean and immaculate house, the lawn was always that way, too. She is so much happier now I know, with her Rusty up in heaven.

Sunday at 12:17 am we heard Gregory in his bed whimper and cry out a little. When we heard him start to cough Travis said "he's going to throw up!" I flew out of bed, but I was too late. His bed was soaked, covered in unpleasantness I hope you never have to deal with. So I gave Gregory a bath, stripped his bed, remade it and made Gregory some tea and did laundry. I just got back to sleep when we heard noises again, this time I was better prepared but it was no more fun for Gregory. Clean that up, get back to sleep and do it all over again two more times. It was a rough night. Sunday everyone else felt good and Travis left for work. The older three of mine felt bad about missing church so I offered to take them if they were sure they were healthy. "Yes, they were," they declared. We made it home from delivering them and Gregory cleansed his stomach again, for the last time thankfully. We started another load of laundry and went to bed to nap until it was time to fetch our children home and I got a call, Beatrice had thrown up. So we got back up and rushed out the door to collect Bea and clean up her mess, but the mess was all taken care of when we got there, that is what good friends are for,I guess. Gregory, Bea and I took a good nap, as soon as Bea had her bath. Due to our health issues around here it was decided we better not take a ten hour drive south to mourn with the family. We were pretty sad about that.

Monday morning came and I aired this house out. It smelled rather sickly. Lucky it was a warm day.

Tuesday came and Travis tried to start my computer and the same virus showed up . He was able to get rid of it for awhile but it still is causing problems and regularly my problem free easy to use computer locks up. Wednesday afternoon came and it was declared the computer is a goner. I am in mourning again. There may a solution but at this time it is doubtful and unclear if any would work. I am typing this on a laptop that I am unused to and unsure of.

Now, we have had some wonderful times with great friends but I didn't feel like dwelling on those today, just thinking about a few of my troubles seemed more interesting. Sorry.

~Anna

Oh, I was wondering what do you think of the new addition of music on this blog? If you don't like it feel free to shut it off while you are reading:) Let me know what you think.