First, before I tell you about how the 40-Clove Garlic Chicken Turkey turned out, an update. I went in to get it all in the slow cooker last night and realized that I hadn't bought a small turkey after all, I had in my haste picked up a fairly large turkey breast. So...we had all white meat! The only real deviation I made in the recipe (other than a different bird LOL) was that I added an onion cut in chunks along with the celery in the bottom of the pot. And I stuffed some of the garlic cloves under the skin of the turkey breast like I had seen Ina Garten do when she made this. I also cooked a pot of fresh green beans and new potatoes last night, ready to reheat today while making the cream sauce for the turkey.

So...the verdict is in and the turkey was wonderful! Almost felt like a holiday! For me, a dark meat lover, it was not as great as it would have been with a nice plump roaster chicken, so next time I'll take a little more care to find the perfect one for the slow cooker. The cream sauce made a perfect gravy and will make a delicious base for the soup I'll make later in the week. And I squeezed two garlic cloves onto my sourdough bread and I have no description for how heavenly THAT was!

(The kids thought it was a holiday not because of the turkey but because I cooked fresh green beans!)

A Century of Broadway was a rousing success, all three nights! I got to be there for two of the three and would have been back last night if the week's schedule hadn't finally caught up with my body. Until I saw it all together, I hadn't even realized what an ambitious undertaking it was, even though I worked on a lot of the music with the kids. Of course, OUR kids were the very best ones...an assertion that I'm quite sure is being made in about fifty families today :-) The bad thing is that the company did not have rights to video the production other than one copy for archival purposes, and there was no flash photography permitted. My non-flash pictures were all pretty blurry, so we'll be relying on shots taken pre- and post-production. I'll post a few in the coming week as they trickle in.

(I'm happy to report that the kids, who didn't get in from their cast party until nearly 2am, were all up and at church this morning LOL)

So now it's time to get back to the real school year. Wait...what was that again? Well, whatever it is, we're returning to it for a few weeks before we finish for the summer...

It's also time for me to get a handle on the finances again. I've been so lazy the past couple of years, and I've really let it become a mess. To regain some discipline, not necessarily in spending but in keeping TRACK of what we're spending and making some better decisions as far as savings, investments, etc., I'm going back to Mvelopes. If you don't know about this service, I'd recommend that you go and read about it on their site and view the demo. They offer a 30-day free trial, which is plenty to get a feel for whether it could be useful for your family. I'll be devoting some time to getting back on track while The Papa is in Australia next week...

Everyone give a nice shoutout to my newest sidebar link, the Longenblog! And check out Tiffany's pregnancy ticker--she is almost there!

We would all appreciate prayers for Annie. She is now 7 weeks pregnant (with baby #2) and she has taken a real dive into pregnancy nausea. Last time she lost nearly 20% of her body weight in the first trimester, and we are so hoping and praying that this doesn't happen again. But...she had a wonderfully healthy daughter, so God protected that little one in those delicate months even though we were afraid Annie wasn't taking in enough nourishment to sustain a flea. Please pray for an easing of the nausea and for the emotional strength to get through this time.

It's been a very cool spring here, for which I'm quite thankful...we've probably saved $500 in air conditioning costs over a normal spring. But now I'm finally getting the bug to go buy porch plants and some other things to dress up the front porch for the summer. I'm not a big-time gardener, but once a year or so I enjoy getting my hands into potting soil and putting together some pots of geraniums and impatiens to liven things up. 'Course here in San Antonio they've usually bitten the dust by late June, but oh well. I've just learned not to spend too much on them!

Well, now for a nice Sunday afternoon nap...Kristen, HOW many more months until football????

Labels: Food, Homeschooling, Kids, Money, Sundays, Weather