Sunday fun, pet drama, meal planning and living up to my maiden name

Today, I took a self-imposed break from the norm. I didn't set an alarm clock, I woke up at my own pace, read for as long as I wanted while I sipped some coffee. I didn't wake the kids up, instead they got up when they were ready. I took a long shower and shaved (a rare treat! Hehe!) and we all took our time to get ready for brunch. We went to eat, no rush, had a delicious meal at a popular West Side Mexican restaurant. The kids and I walked to Grandpa's house while Dad waited for Grandpa's lunch to go and squared up the bill. We visited with G for while and loaded up our old cast iron wood stove that Danny and I bought before we had Olivia that has been sitting in the shed all these years. Sophia and I got a few items at the grocery store and then we came home. Once here, I got some bread going in the Kitchen Aid mixer and did some dishes. As the dough was rising, I warmed up the oven and baked 3 dozen peanut butter cookies and 15 baking powder biscuits. (BTW this is where I live up to my maiden name - BAKER).

Sophia has been coveting the neighbor kids' breakfast biscuit sausage sandwiches. I made the biscuits and some sausage patties, assembled the sandwiches, wrapped individually and put in the freezer. Voila! An hour of work and a weeks' worth of healthy convenience food! : )

While I was inside baking, Danny got the wood stove burning outside and fixed chicken fajitas with red and green peppers and purple onions from Julie's farm. He even heated up the corn tortillas tight on the stove top! Delish! We topped these with my home made salsa ad some yogurt cheese (I know this sounds icky, but it is from my yogurt I made last week - I strained it over a pot overnight and it turned out with a taste and texture very close to sour cream. (Sophia likes to mix raspberry jam into it.)

The bread, in all it's fragrant glory, came out of the oven, ready to be tested out on my family as our daily bread....good for sandwiches, toast, etc.

Meanwhile, during all this cooking and baking, I sent Olivia outside to clean the mouse cage. She got Lizzie and Dungeon into a safe place and went to work. She soon ran in, crazy excited, holding 4 newborn baby mice in her hand. I mean they were the size of large kidney beans. I sent her out to make sure that was all and she came back with three more! These babies are no more than 24 hours old. There is a problem, though. Lizzie and Dungeon are both girls. We have had them for at least 15 months. We suspect that there have been unexpected visitors sneaking in and out of their cage. The girls are pretty big, but the field mice are pretty small. Living near a field, out in the country, we have had mice in the house before. I guess it's time to start a mouse control effort again! Ugh! Olivia completed cage cleaning and we got the mice reunited with the babies (we don't know which one's the mom because they seem to have turns mothering them. Sweet.) As soon as they start moving around easily, we will have to either find a glass aquarium with a screen top or take them to the pet store. I don't know if they'll take mutts, though.

(I have taken a bunch of pics but lost them all while getting them downloaded...the program wasn't responding and I took the card out, the pics had already been removed from the device but never made it to the program).

As soon as the excitement died down, the kids and Dad washed my car (and each other!) and I got the meal plan done for the week. Here it is...

Sunday - Fajitas

Monday - sausage biscuit sandwiches

grilled cheese and tomato soup

Tuesday - smoothies

Posole

Wednesday - oatmeal

Sloppy Jotatoes*

Thursday - smoothies

Spaghetti and meat sauce

Friday - sausage biscuit sandwiches

chicken and dumplings

Saturday - TBA

*****************************************

*the Sloppy Jotatoes are a personal creation -

Brown 1 # ground beef with chopped green peppers and onions

Drain, add 1 can tomato soup, 2 T brown sugar and 2 T Worcestershire sauce.

Cook till thick and bubbly.

Meanwhile, bake potatoes in the microwave.

Split in half and top with sloppy joe mixture.

YUM-O