Butternut Squash Bisque and Morning Moos

Two things I love of late:

Butternut Squash Bisque -- my friend made this for a Relief Society activity, and I had 3 bowls it was so delicious, and then I scooped a 4th bowl to take home. I tried it for Ryan tonight, and he gave it an 8 out of 10! :) That's saying a lot for him.

Recipe:
3 T. chopped onion (I did 1/2 a small onion)
2 T. butter
3 c. peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 1/2 c. water
2 chicken boulion cubes
1/8 - 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
pinch cayenne
1/2 - 1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese

Sautee onions, add squash, boulion and everything else except cream cheese. Boil about 20 minutes until soft; puree in a blender or immersion blender. Then add cream cheese, and pepper and mix again. DELICIOUSO!!

Then my other friend gave me the tip of Morning Moos -- it's powdered milk that's actually palatable. If we buy it at Macey's case-lot sale it will end up being about 88 cents a gallon. Not on sale, it ends up being 1.80 per gallon, which either way is cheaper than milk now a days. We've been drinking it for a week, and it's nice that when we get low, we have plenty on hand to mix up.

Chickens and a cut

So from the update below, I cut my finger pruning bushes out back -- thankfully it appears to be healing without infection. I realized from this experience that nursing is definitely not for me. The funny thing is I've seen wounds before that are a lot worse than this one -- and I can watch it on other people sometimes, but on myself... I get woosey. It was disgusting to see my bone and I honestly had to sit down after rinsing it just because watching it rinse grossed me out. Hopefully in a week or two it will be completely healed up, and I'm grateful it adhered well enough that it didn't need stitches -- and I'm so glad my Dad's a Dr. and is willing to answer my questions. We've been blessed.
We got CHICKENS!! 5 beautiful ladies who we've named: Salt, Pepper, Copper, Penny, and Big Red. Ryan made a great run for them (bigger than the one pictured above) and they are laying quite well for us. The girls get VERY excited about having them and love dropping food off from this vantage point and watching the 'cluck clucks' scurry about for the scraps.

BEFORE

AFTER

More photos

I love my Ryan-man. He is amazing. He did A LOT of work on our floors. He ripped up all the carpet, and we scrubbed and scrubbed, but they needed to be refinished, so I took a week at my folks, and Ryan sanded and stained and sealed our floors. What an amazing man!

This is what they looked like before -- the middle light wood was not stained or sealed at all, and the carpet had stuck a bunch of tacky spots to the floors.
Ryan after sanding a bit...
Our bedroom now... easily sweepable.
The living room, also easily sweepable and mop-able. :) Happy day!!

PHOTOS finally

The girls at Amy's birthday party... Amy had a fun time with her little friends.
I was happy with how the snacks turned out... :)
Reading books with Daddy. Amy LOVES the Magic School Bus books, and recently has become a fan also of Dr. Suess, but I took "Fox in Socks" back to the library because it hurt my tongue to read it. :)
Some quilts and projects I've been doing.

Update again... without photos

So, I like Linux, but I can't figure out to upload photos with it...

What's been happening in the Weight household? Well, lots this week.

We've had our rounds of being sick with a nasty cold -- it's Esther and my turn now.

While being sick, Amy watched an inordinate amount of Magic School Bus episodes, and somehow does not get sick of them... she is really a fan of Ms. Frizzle and can name all the kids in the books and movies. Her favorite episodes are Busasaurus and the corresponding book about visiting the dinasaurs, and Inside Ralphie about how he gets a sore throat and how the white blood cells attack the germs.

We got CHICKENS! :) Our good friends the Knorrs brought over their chickens, complete with awesome insulated coop built by Matt. We love them already -- the girls get SO excited about feeding them table scraps. Esther calls them 'cuck's. And we've thus far named two of them... Amy loves to gather the eggs.

I prepared the garden for planting -- the people we bought the house from left their entire crop un-harvested and when we moved in it got cold and I was not successful in ripping stuff out, but now we have a hefty pile in the middle and I've worked some of the soil under, though there's still more to do.

Baby 3 has turned head down (thanks for your prayers). Now my midwife would like me to lay more on my left side, because the baby's back is on the right side and she says there's a greater chance of having it be posterior when it lays that way. But getting head down was what I was more concerned about -- though I'd like to not have another posterior labor, at least the baby won't be breech.

I sliced my index finger with a pruning saw -- quite jagged and ugly, but thankfully it adhered back well enough that I didn't need stitches. It was gross to see how deep it was, and I'll have a loverly scar when it heals, but as long as it doesn't get infected and heals up okay, I am more than happy.

Ryan has been working like a work-horse getting his team moved over to the new office. He did not come home last night and worked more than 31 hours straight getting phones and log-ins and everything else configured. It's been quite a feat, and it's no wonder that he is zonked out on the bed right now. I'm so glad that's done and that his UK boss told him he could take a rest day tomorrow.

Esther is learning new words... so far: Bath= baaahh, enthusiastically repeated after we eat dinner; shoes = shuuujzzz; baby = beeee, Amy = meeee; apple = popple; ham = ham :); poopy = puuuupppeeeee (any word that she ends with 'eee' she gives a big smile for, it's cute).

Anyhow... we're doing well, feel very blessed, and I hope to be able to show you the floors and chickens, and garden, and everything... sometime, when Ryan's not sleeping or dead-exhausted and can tell me how to get the photos uploaded.