Busy, Busy

An Ode to the Laundry

by Wendy

Dirty clothes, oh dirty clothes,

Piling up so high,

Why don't you wash yourself

and put yourself to dry?

Jean shorts, t-shirts, 

and smelly underwear,

March yourselves right out of here, 

I really do not care.

Strip off those clothes, go naked,

Don't create that much more laundry,

Then in this place I would not be,

The dirty laundry quandary.

For play I say, for time is short,

Soon all will be in school,

I spend my time with little boys,

Laughing like a fool.

I have been experimenting with cooking En Papillote, or 'in paper'. The idea is you throw everything into a paper parcel, shove it in the oven and Voila, healthy, tasty dinner with very little clean-up.  Last week I did salmon and it was FANTASTIC. So moist and flavorful. A drizzle of oil, some fresh sprigs of thyme and lemon slices. Cook 30 minutes at 350F. It was amazing.

Last night I tried chicken with fingerling potatoes and carrots. (I added some purple fingerling potatoes and the boys about freaked out. They swore there was something wrong with them! LOL!)

I dusted the chicken with dry ranch seasoning, tossed the veggies in a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then wrapped them up.

 You use a beaten egg to seal the edges of the parchment paper, rolling it up and over itself and then tucking the last corner under.....

 so it ends up looking like this. I baked these about an hour at 350F since the chicken was bone-in. The chicken was moist and flavorful, but the pale color was a bit off-putting. Maybe I should have first browned it in a skillet then added it to the packages. Anyone else ever try this cooking method and have some great recipes?

The boys discovered that in the game Minecraft they can build roller coasters. They worked together for three whole days building a huge coaster that travelled between entire villages, each one on a different computer and meeting  up in the same place on the game. There was a lot of teamwork and very little bickering. They would decide together what needed to be done and each tackle a part of it. I was absolutely amazed at what they created but more so in how they worked together. There have been days/weeks/months when I wondered if we would ever survive and feel truly like a family that cared about each other the way I wanted. My heart and soul are full of this unexpected joy!!!