Tina The Storyteller

Pretty much about an hour after Joel left this morning, Hannah had a melt down.  She's been doing this really "great" thing lately where if she doesn't get her way in public, she will jump up and down or better yet, put her foot down, while whining horribly about the way in which she was wronged.  It's not good.  She did it Sunday, Tuesday, and then finally again today in the safety of our home.  Immediately she was sent to her room and then her foot came down and that was it for our television viewing today.  That may not seem like a big punishment, but Hannah loves tv and she's an only, so there isn't someone else to play with other than me, and you know I'm not that interested in playing Hiccup while she flutters around as Toothless. This is what we did do today... Read Calvin and Hobbes numerous times Read Tintin Made movies of Hannah dancing Made two Barbie movies Planned a surprise party for Joel, complete with games Cleaned the fish tank

I found out on Wednesday that Hannah was going to have a shut out at church on Friday.  The parents were being shut out and sent away for three hours!  6-9, that, my dears, is prime dating time.  We couldn't really decide what we were going to do with ourselves until after we dropped her off.  This is what we did do... We had dinner at Buca di Beppo.  Our rehearsal dinner for our wedding was there and we try to go for our anniversary.  I had a wonderful interchange with the waitress about exactly what they don't serve for drinks by her systematically denying my choices until all that was left was water. The meal was delicious and believe it or not it was the first time we had ever been there and it took less than an hour for us to get our food.  Normally things take longer at Buca, it's part of the charm.  We walked out of the restaurant with tons of time left.  We went to Barnes and Noble and looked around.  I searched for a book that was supposedly there in stock and

A book about food from two self proclaimed fat men, how can you go wrong?  With so many books out there about what you should and should not eat, it was refreshing to read from the perspective that food is not evil.  These two men do an excellent job of bringing to life the joy of eating.  They proclaim the goodness of so many social events that the majority of dieting Americans miss out on.  This is a definite invitation to change the way that you view food, but it is also a comical look at the things we do eat.  There are a few recipes included, the biscuits were delicious and simple to make.  I would have liked to see more of their favorite recipes, but was pleased to discover their restaurant choices along with rules for determining a good restaurant and wait staff. I was impressed to see my home state of South Carolina getting three of their food festivals into this short work.  I know my mom enjoys the Grits Festival in St. George and may have to plan a trip home to partake on

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris. To this day, I'm still not exactly sure what a Tian is, Hannah called it an Orange Tan.  Either way, it was nummy! And it was gone! There were a ton of "steps" to this recipe, including segmenting your own oranges, making your own caramel, making your own marmalade, and baking a cookie.  To be honest, I am a little disappointed by the lack of baking involved in the past three challenges (which have included nainomo bar, tiramisu, and this tian).  At most baking appears to be an after thought.  But enough of my whining.  If you're still with me and you want to make this delightful dish, here's what you do. Get some: pecan sandies or some short bread cookies mandarin oranges in juice caramel sauce whipped cream orange marmalade Now you can

I have so many things that I absolutely thankful for today, that I barely know where to begin. 1. I'm thankful that God reveals things to me about myself, partly I'm thankful because then I don't have to go through that awkward conversation about myself in regards to my misbehavior. And also because then He reminds me when I can do something different to change the behavior. You would be amazed at the things God would say to you if you're willing to listen, well at least I am 2. I have a beautiful husband who cares for me and is willing to deal with my bad attitude. He's a real winner. I love him and am so thankful that he agreed to hang out with me for the rest of our lives! 3. A dental office that really is concerned about more than oral hygiene, but also care for the person as well. They were so loving today. I was scheduled for a cleaning after Hannah had two fillings (which by the way are beautiful!) and they kept an eye on her an talked with her and had

I'm thinking about something really crazy over here in LaLa land.  Joel is right in the middle of busy season.  Holy week is coming up and pretty much after that he is beat for about a week, which he takes off, the wise man that he is.  I was contemplating our church year and the weather and all these crazy things and then I thought to myself, "Why don't we have school during the summer and then take an extended three month winter break?"  We homeschool, we have the freedom to do that and there are a couple of bonuses.  I thought I would list our specific pro/con list for you today, because I like to work stuff like this out on my blog so you can be bored and drift off to sleep when you're suffering from insomnia because I'm cool like that :D First let's look at the cons: 1. Public school doesn't do it that way. 2.Keeping Hannah inside during the winter is hard, can't even imagine the summer. 3. We'll be freaks (oh wait, I already am!) 4

Tonight, I tried something new for dinner.  Joel wanted a hashbrown casserole, as we were having breakfast for dinner, I thought I'd try out a recipe with a breakfast theme.  It had the basics egg, potato, bacon, cheese.  How could it go wrong?  I'll tell you how, my old nemesis reared its ugly head, the partially cooked potato!  Dun dunt dah!  My old foe struck again and was cleverly disguised this time underneath a toasty looking layer of num num.  But upon first bite, I knew it was no use, this dish was a goner! Hannah wasn't fooled by the description, upon sitting down, she said "I'm not eating that" I tried one of those Family Fun tricks of getting kids to rename food in hopes of them eating. Joel called it Cheesy potato NUM NUM (he was fooled by its good looks). I threw out some ludicrous name and Hannah settled upon Blerlock.  Blerlock is bleh! Damn you potatoes and your insistent need to be thoroughly cooked in order to be tasty.  I should have

This date I pulled out a puzzle that I had bought for Joel years ago.  I put up a little camp table , and even devised a system to keep the pieces in place with some fabric, so we could roll it up and stow it.  I was all ready to go and then the reality of the puzzle set in and I realised, I don't like puzzles.  I was already frustrated and worn out by the darn thing and we were only a mere few minutes into working on it!  Instead of getting upset, we changed plans. The puzzle was abandoned and Joel went out for a shamrock shake from McD's and two cherry pies.  We played some MadLibs .  The one we bought for Hannah today was Pirate themed and the story that was the funniest included a peg elbow and a pet pencil sitting on your shoulder saying "Shiver me dufuses!" We even had a joke book that we'd picked up for Hannah and read a couple of terrible jokes to one another while shuffling cards for cribbage. A fun night full of laughter and green shakes.  Well, I&#

This is the type of person I am.  I ordered Cook's Country magazine around Christmas time.  It's related to Cook's Illustrated , but it's more of an everyday food kind of thing.  And they do a lot of testing.  There's a show on PBS that coincides with it.  Great magazine, highly recommend it if you like reading about food.  Anyway, I got an issue late last week, and then another one yesterday (this is because I forgot to pay for it; whoops!).  Well, as I was looking through the third issue that I had received, I noticed that there is a hidden picture and if you can find it, then you are entered into a drawing and can win really cool stuff.  They have a picture of it and then say that it's "tiny" in the magazine somewhere.  So I start scouring the magazine in search of this thing.  Then I get the brillant idea that I will find the previous months (because it was sitting at the end of the bed) to know exactly what it looks like.  Well, wouldn't

I don't even know, it's hard to keep track after fifteen.  For some reason, the phone and my darling daughter had other plans for me.  I even had more time at home today as we did not make it to CBS this morning.   Anyway, I'm here now. Hannah's tooth site is healing beautifully.  Her dental office called today to check on her and see if she was doing okay. And the tooth fairy came to take her tooth so that it can be turned into dream dust.  I never knew that, Hannah informed me of the fate of all teeth.  Hannah said "Look what the tooth fairy left! And I can't find my tooth anywhere!"  I guess she searched for it.  She ended up not using the newly made tooth pillow for she was afraid the fairy would not be able to find it in the little pocket. Here's something I learned today.  Yesterday, my kitchen was disaster zone class D kitchen.  YUCK YUCK! I was also disaster zone class D attitude.  No way was I able to get the kitchen cleaned and tidied.  A

I gave Joel a couple of choices for date night and he choose a rental and popcorn.  We watched " The Hurt Locker " on Amazon's Video on Demand.  It's about two hours long and oh say half way through motion sickness kicked in for me.  We took a little break, I took a little Bonine and answered the question "If you could change one thing about your life right now, what would it be?"  I liked his answer and he said he'd help me change mine. We decided to finish the movie and my take on the movie, LAME! I was engaged and tracking along and then the end just kind of fizzled out like a flat Coke.  The dude should have been blown up, that would be a great commentary on love right there! Alas, I did not write it.  Speaking of writing movies (like that transition?) Joel and I are going to try our hand at ScriptFrenzy  this April.  I'm going to have to get to work creating some future posts for you all because if not, there might not be any updates all

I know that I haven't participated in the first two months of the year, but I do belong to The Daring Baker's Challenge.  I recently did a cookbook review for them, check it out! Bread: Sourdough to Rye

In expectation of the toothfairy making a visit to our house, I made a cute little pillow for Hannah to hide her tooth in.  This is an embroidered fleece that I leftover from a jacket and jumper I made for Hannah when she was just a wee babe I even put a little pocket on the back to hide the tooth in and it just so happens to be big enough to put a gift card in.  I hear loosing teeth is worth big money nowadays.  I drew the design myself and then cut it out.  I sewed the little pocket on, put the right sides together and then sewed it up, leaving a little opening to turn it right side out and to fill.  I filled it with the scrap pieces of fleece, mainly because I could not find my fiber fill and was not going to do an exhaustive search for it.  Hannah said that she's going to hide the pillow, in case the tooth fairy thinks it's a real tooth.  Aren't kids the sweetest?

I made some pants yesterday.  Not for me, but for a baby that is expected to arrive sometime this spring.  I have completely forgotten how tiny newborns are!  These are made out of a comfy flannel that I had around for a project Hannah out grew before I even had the pattern cut.  I just think they are adorable.  I keep looking around the house for a babydoll that they would fit on, but Hannah isn't the biggest fan of babydolls.  The pattern is from Jackie Clark Designs Britches & Bloomers.  Super easy and very comfy.  I made Hannah a pair of reversible pants from the pattern and had to hide them so that she wouldn't put them on anymore!  I'm off, I want to make a pillow for Hannah to put her tooth in that is being pulled on Monday.  She said purple, I'll have to dig around the stash to find something just right!

Today, I exceptionally thankful for two things, one is dental care and the other is phones. Poor Hannah has been complaining of a hurty tooth lately.  Turns out she's one tough cookie, because the pain wasn't just a cavity, but a tooth with a chronic infection that has loss bone mass and will be removed on Monday.  And since it's a baby tooth that isn't expected to drop out until she's twelve, she's getting a spacer installed in the next month as well as getting numerous cavities filled.  She's going to either really love or really hate going to the dentisit after all this.  The nice thing is that this is not her first experience with dentists so she's pretty calm about the whole thing.  We loved our old dentist, and I have a feeling, we're really going to like this one as well.  She has already done an excellent job of coming up with a plan for Hannah's dental care and what we as a family can do to improve her oral health and stated the realit

By Beth Ryan and illustrated by Renee Graef The Flowering Cross is a story about a little girl who lives next door to a gruff older man. He has a beautiful flower garden but is not a very kind person. The little girl in the story, Katie, and her family practice kindness, patience and hospitality with their neighbor. During Easter worship service that the neighbor, Papa Jack, attends is a flowering cross. People are invited to come up and place a flower on the cross and give thanks to Jesus for what he has done for them. Papa Jack gifts the family with their very own flowering. The story is well told and the story of Jesus is explained in simple and easy to understand terms. The illustrations are delightful. There are numerous “Faith Imprint” moments in the book which give discussion starters, some of which are better than others. There are plans for your own flowering cross at the end of the book that require knowledge of woodworking, but it could easily be adapted to a child fr

We're studying Revelation in our Community Bible Study group. I have a wonderful core and it has been a true blessing to me to be a part of such a lovely group of ladies. One of our questions today was "How has God been faithful and true in your life?" It was either a personal or for deeper thought or a personal deeper thought question, either way, I thought about it. And I would like to share with you my thoughts on something that God has been faithful and true about even though it has caused me many tears and confusion. Joel and I were married at the age of 25 and waited about three years to start having kids. We both wanted LOTS of kids, many many children, so we were relieved to finally get to the place where we were willing to say yes to the possibility. It took us six months to conceive I had been using a Depo-Provera, which is about an average amount of time to become pregnant. But those six months were filled with prayer and heartache and numerous pregnancy t

Date 2 I am officially in charge of date night this month.  And to kick us off in style, I bought a new game, In A Pickle .  Once we figured it out, it was great.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly what stations a TV picks up in a submarine.  Here's a glimpse into our game We played the story version, so in this card the story goes: There is fat in a neck in a balloon in a frying pan in paradise which is in an email And this one went: There's a foot in a monkey in a jacuzzi in a shower in a supermarket in a jam, because come on if you have a monkey with a foot in it, that's some kind of jam your in! The play is pretty easy to play and up for a lot of interpretation.  And I'm planning on frying up some neck fat for Joel this weekend :-D

Remember I told you that I was growing my hair out?  Well, we've officially entered into crazy stage Check out that fluff and that color, it's just awesome, don't you think?  The amazing thing is that this photo actually down plays the all over poof that I have going on of late.  And let me tell you, this hair has product in it and has been harassed with a blow dryer and a curling iron.  I especially trimmed my bangs this weekend for fear of them joining the party that is on top of my head and getting lost or worse yet, having a hangover on my forehead.  Thanks for listening to my hair rants, hopefully it helps keep me away from the scissors for another day.

I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but for my birthday, I got this as a hand me down.  Well, not that one specifically, but an Ipod Touch none the less.  It's been a favorite thing of mine for awhile, even before it was officially mine.  And let me tell you why.  It is NOT a phone, which means it has no monthly charge associated with it.  It DOES connect to wireless internet connections, which means you can surf the web, get email, download apps, and listen to Pandora.  I love the fact that I can check Facebook and Twitter from anywhere in my home and that I can update my Google calendar anywhere knowing that it will sync the next time I connect to the internet and once it syncs, it shows up on Joel's iPhone.  I really like the iPod Touch, because it helps us with homeschool.  We use the white board app to draw things, we use the map to find things, we use the ABCTracer app to learn letters and numbers and the clock app to talk about time. And who knows how many time

I am thankful that God is good! He has been using our Wednesday night program at church to talk to me about some things and then I've been using the rest of the week to figure out exactly what he means. I am especially thankful for the two words that he has spoken to me the past two weeks and I think it's no coincidence the order that they were given to me. The first is "enjoy" and the second is "forget." Let me tell you he has been ever so faithful in both those things and I am amazed at what he was shown me while I have prayed and meditated upon those two words! And here's something else that I am thankful for   This is an apron that I started working on for Christmas 2006 and yesterday, it became a completed project!  WooHoo!  I used a pattern for the apron, but I improvised on the pocket by doing a red work poinsettia.  Isn't it cool to finish things that got started and just sat around for the longest time, wondering if they would ever

I read this over at Pleasant Home and I've been feeling like doing a meme type thing lately so here you go! A- Age:Just turned 34!  WOOHOO! B- Bed size: King and yet somehow we've always fought over the covers C- Chore you hate: Cleaning the bathrooms!  I'll pay you if you come over and do it for me! D- Dog's name: The last dog I had was named "Candy" she was awesome.  Waiting for the day I'll be able to have another one E- Essential food/item: Flour, eggs and milk F- Favorite color: I lo ve al l o f th em G- Gold or silver: Silver or white gold are best H- Height: 5'7" and a little more I- I am: wondering if Hannah will ever connect sounds with images aka reading and writing J- Job: I'm a wife and mom, full-time all else gets my left overs K- Kids: 1 very cool daughter L- Living arrangements: We are renters and I think we probably always will be, just the nomad in me M-Mom's name: Mom, Mudrat, and few o

Here's my two cents on photography... They don't have to be perfect in order to be lovely. What I remember about the pictures from my own childhood is that Mom or Dad captured me in a moment and developed the film and had the prints.  Some got stowed in albums (without scrapbooking details and on acidic sticky paper no less!) And get this some of them were of fingers or double exposed or overexposed, but they were still wonderful to me and to them and to all the relatives they showed to at the time. I take a LOT of pictures but there are very few that I actually put on paper, which is a shame, because that means that they are just little digital files in the computer which can (and probably will) crash at any moment.  And the worst part is that I KNOW that Hannah likes actual pictures and puts them in her room any time she finds them around. So my goal is to not only print some pictures, but to get some photo albums to put them in as well. And on that note, I want to sha

I need all the help I can get and I'm normally willing to take it from ANYONE, except when it comes to folding unmentionables, I don't want anyone seeing our drawrs.  It's just a thing I have.  Any way back to my bright idea, this one has to do with a potato, a corn cob holderthingy, a potato peeler, a grocery bag, a knife, cutting board, and willing child.  Do you have all those things?  I did and my idea kind of grew out of collecting some of them together and then collecting more of them as I saw fit, but it ended up with a really good method for letting small children help you peel potatoes.  First, lob both ends off the potato with the knife. Second, stick the corncobthingy into one of the lobbed ends. (Isn't that a fun picture?) Third, place a plastic grocery bag on top of the cutting board and hand the potato to the willing child. Third and half, Take the potato out of the child's dominant hand place it back in the non-dominant hand and help them

Tithing: Test Me In This is a collection of interviews of people who tithe and the effects that it has had on their lives.   All of the interviews are well written and the reader gets to know the various subjects of the book quite well, but overall, the book falls short of actually broadening ones understanding of tithing. Most of the people interviewed are in para-church organizations as opposed to the traditional church.  Which makes it difficult for them to not only discuss the benefits of tithing within a community setting, but it also puts them in a position that some are giving away more money than the average church attendee makes in a year.  This is not to say that their information is not useful, it is to say that I wish there had been more average people interviewed and fewer people who’s names or books I recognized. As a lay person in the church, this book might be nice to check out and peruse from the church library.  As a church professional, don’t waste your book allow

Joel and I started our Project 52: Date Night this past Friday.  Being so religious in all other aspects of our lives, this one thing was actually given a bit of freedom, in that we choose Friday as our date night, even though we know that there is a standing conflict.  Hey, 40 is better than none and maybe we'll change the night of that one week and do something special, like, leave the house :D So we got dressed, I even put on some makeup and made my hair look extra crazy.  I did my nails, Joel picked out our evening events.  We made a fru-fru coffee drink together which was really tasty.  You can find the recipe here .  And then we watched one of the movies that I picked up from Target for Valentine's day.  It was one of those four films for nine bucks things and it was the Ocean's trilogy (Ocean's 11, 12 and 13) as well as the original 1960's version of Ocean's 11.  It was a great movie.  There were scenes in it that were obviously ad libbed, because they w