Not your typical croutons

There are a lot of great combo's out there in regard to food.

Let's name a few:

peanut butter and chocolate

fries and burgers

cookies and milk

pasta and garlic bread

tomato soup and grilled cheese

Oh sure, there are plenty more but it's the last one I'd like to write about today.

I'm sure this won't come as a surprise to my parents to learn that I didn't like tomato soup until probably late elementary school age. And that was most likely because I had it with grilled cheese. I remember, after that, having it with kids I babysat for and they were insistent that I use milk when I made the well-known canned version. From there, tomato soup has always been in my cupboard.

As I've become more and more of a cook, I've found several from-scratch tomato soup recipes and one in particular that I have added to my regular rotation of dinners.

Grilled cheese has typically been a part of the dinner. Again, what else could possibly make tomato soup better?

There is one thing, but it's not really anything different, but it changes everything.

I was reading a magazine last year that suggested tomato soup and, wait for it…

Grilled cheese croutons!

I like adding croutons to my soups and tomato soup was no exception even when I'd have a grilled cheese with it.

But making the grilled cheese sandwich into croutons, even I was skeptical at first.

If you like dipping your grilled cheese sandwich into your bowl of soup, these croutons take it over the top. Let me assure you that it is amazing. It will change your tomato soup experience. The bread soaks up the tomato soup, but it stays crispy because it's been grilled. Delicious!

I recommend using a gouda, American, or even a Monterey Jack cheese (or a combo is also yummy). It's as simple as making a grilled cheese sandwich like normal. Then, after letting it rest so the cheese doesn't make a mess, cut the sandwich into pieces. I found that using regular sliced bread, cutting it into sixteen pieces (in half, in half again, then turn and repeat) makes the pieces just the right size.

You can make the grilled cheese croutons ahead of time and then pop them into a toaster oven to reheat it, or you can top your soup with them immediately.

I hope that next time you make some tomato soup, whether it's from a can or not, that you'll try grilled cheese croutons. It's good for your soul. Or at least your soup.

So long 2014!

Happy New Year!

Overall, 2014 was a good year. It just ended differently than I would have wanted. But it's over now and we've moved on.

Work is going well. At Baker they affectionately call me Emily 2.0 Reboot (the other Emily lasted three and a half days). We're headed into a catalog season, so things are going to get interesting. I have been filing the last two weeks. I've filed something like 3,000 files on thirty DVD's. Except I've actually burned sixty because we save one at the office, and then in case of a disaster, we store one in a secret, off-site location. They won't tell me where. They insist it's super top-secret and they aren't willing to kill me over it since I've stuck around this long.

I'm kidding, of course. And I know where they store them. But I'm not telling.

Now, don't get too excited about this post. I'm not re-committing to any more, or less, posting. I will continue to try to write random thoughts. I've had several ideas, but they never made it here.

One I can remember is that after four weeks of wearing my brace, through one of the snowiest December's, with a mitten that I couldn't pull on all the way, I came up with a better solution. An oven mitt. Now, I don't recommend you break a hand, but if you ever do and it happens to be during winter, please use my idea and wear an oven mitt. You look like you're ready to pull something out of the oven, and it was an interesting social experiment, but it keeps your hand warm.

I've worked on a few crafts and took pictures, so I'll post those the next couple of days. I'm going to post them because I actually have the photos on my computer. They're not stuck in my camera!

Here's to a new year!

Things I can't wait to do...

I am not complaining. Please understand, I know how blessed I am to be healing. Every time a wounded soldier is on tv, I am quickly humbled and reminded of my minor discomfort. But it doesn't stop me from thinking of what I'm looking forward to doing once I can use my left hand again.

Tie my shoes.
I've been wearing slip-on shoes. Or boots. At first I wished this had happened in the summer so I could wear flip flood, but I quickly realized winter is better. Pants hide my legs which were bruised and are now hairy. I can ask Bill to tie my shoes but the last time I did that we went shopping. I left him in the coffee shop and walked around by myself (he was meeting a friend), and when I went to try on clothes I realized I couldn't. If I took my shoes off, I couldn't get them back on.

Wash my hands.
Yesterday, I asked Bill to wash my right hand. It felt so good to have the back of my hand washed, I didn't realize how much I had missed it.

Put on lotion.
This goes (pun necessary) hand-in-hand with the hand-washing previously stated. This time of year, no matter how much we run humidifiers, is so dry. I can only put lotion on my finger tips, thumb, and a portion of my palm. It's not enough.

Put in my contacts.
I cannot hold the bottle of solution in my right hand and hold my contact. It won't work. Instead I've been wearing my glasses. I am glad that I replaced them just a few weeks before the accident.

Wash, exfoliate, and dry my left hand and forearm.
Whew, it's not in a cast but it sure smells like one. I took off the "arm sock" and brace and soaked my arm/hand last week. I'll soak it again tomorrow, but I'm guessing this is just the smell of dead skin cells. I really hope I'm the only one that can smell it. And if I'm not? Everyone has been very nice to ignore it. Or run out of the room gagging without me noticing.

Cut my own food.
Again, I can hold my toothbrush or a piece of paper, but anything heavier is too much for my now very weak left hand. Cutting food is out of the question. Bill (or someone sitting next to me) has to cut it for me. Fork-tender is a much appreciated form of cooked food that I am currently interested in. Or soup. Or sandwiches.

Typing.
My few years of piano lessons are coming in handy. But a keyboard on a computer is obviously different then a piano. My hand often blocks letters and I think I'm hitting one key, but I actually hit the one next to it. Which can sometimes be obvious to spell check, until it's a word like of or if. I've used the delete button quite a number of times. Or I've hit enter too quickly and shared complete nonsense.

There are plenty more but, as I just shared, typing is difficult and I'm ready for a break.

still giving thanks

It was only back in January that I tried writing daily posts. You can read that here.

I have not done a very good job of keeping up with that. Nor have I done a terrific job of saying what I'm thankful for in each post. Sometimes, I think, it's been obvious. Perhaps the less obvious times I have tried to point it out.

At any rate, when I went searching for that original post, I thought it was late fall or early winter that I had started. I was actually hoping I could tell you in this post that I was "close enough" and give it up while I learn my new job. Yet, much to my chagrin, not only was it not late fall but I've only written about two hundred thankful posts.

I've felt guilty these last few weeks. I have intentions of writing something, but the end of the day arrives and I'm too tired. I need my rest.

I will try to carve out time to write something. I have a problem though. When I pick up my laptop to write a blog post, I think, "Oh I'll just check my email quick." The next thing I know two hours have gone by, I never wrote a post and it's way past my bedtime.

Knowing this happens, the other nights when I do have time, I don't even pick up my laptop because I know I won't write anything and I'll just spend time checking email!

With that in mind, please extend me grace. There are three of you who read this and you can all email and ask me what is going on if you miss me that much. I'll keep trying.

I am thankful I'm not being graded on this.

1+1+1+1=4

I know. A long awaited post. What happened to me?

As indicated in my title, the total is four. As in, that's how many part-time jobs I now hold.

On Monday, I started at Baker Publishing Group as an Administrative Assistant for the Visual Communications Department.

Think that title is long?

My other titles are (in order of shortest to longest titles):

• Wedding Coordinator
• Jr. High Youth Director
• Administrative Assistant to our Associate Pastor for Adult Education

I constantly define that last one because I am not the admin assistant to the Associate Pastor. That would require more hours. Hours more like the new job. Also defined as a full, part-time job. Get it?

Let me explain; my AA in Adult Ed. is four hours/week. My AA in Visual Comm dept is up to 30 hours/week. If I were assisting our Associate Pastor in full capacity, it would be more like 30 hours/week. But it wouldn't be fair because no one else on staff has an assistant. But the other ministry departments have full, part-time or full-time staff. For instance, the Children's Ministry? Full, part-time staff person (I think she works 35 hours/week). Youth Ministry? Full-time, plus others below her in specific areas of ministry like me in Jr. High.

Now that I've explained that, let me explain that I am not crazy. Four part-time jobs is not too many.

For Wedding Coordinator, that's a consultant job. I'm paid when there's a wedding. We only have one on the calendar for 2015.

Jr. High Youth Director, it's ten hours/week for the school year. Most of the work takes place on Sundays. Plus, I have already planned out Sunday mornings through the school year. Sunday nights are planned out through December.

AA in Adult Ed, honestly that job may not exist after the end of the calendar year due to budget cuts. If it does continue, I have worked it out with my new boss that I can work half a day and then go work my four hours at the church, one day a week.

Hence my lack of blogging. I was visiting mom and dad when I got the call from Baker. I came back home and we have just been busy, busy, busy.

Last Saturday was the .1k and it was a blast. Team Bald Ego formed once again. We had a fundraising goal of $500. By Friday night, we were $225 short of the goal. The date was earlier (last year in was in November) so we had fewer team members.

Bill and I were taking a walk and I thought of a few other people I could ask to donate. When we finished our walk, I sent out an email.

One of those people is a Quotarian. She donated last year and has always been a great supporter of me.

Before I went to sleep that night, I said a prayer. I asked for a fundraising miracle.

Saturday morning, I was drinking my coffee, checking my email, and mentally preparing for the race ahead of us (just kidding). I got a text from the Quota member asking me how to donate to the .1k. I walked her through it. (I think it takes longer to donate than it does to race!)

About ten minutes later, an email popped up telling me I had received a donation. It had put us over our fundraising goal! We had been given that miracle!

Bill, Heather, Kathy F. (she was there somewhere, we never did find her), Chandra, Jason, and Addison were all a part of the team. We have decided, for next year, we will dress up. We are Team Bald Ego, after all.

Needless to say, I did not take any pictures of the race. We still had a lot of fun. We hope to come back next year with a bigger team. If you can't make it, you can still donate! I'll keep you posted on information.

I could have made this into two posts… to make up for my lack of posting. But I didn't. We'll see how often I can keep writing. Come back tomorrow for another explanation. I promise it won't be as long.

neighborhood cookie watch

Sometimes things don't happen and I have to think up things to write about.

Then there are days like today.

I had finished my run. I was outside cutting my dahlias. The neighbor boy headed my way with a packet.

I knew that meant one thing: it's fundraiser season.

He asked if I wanted to buy cookie dough. Of course! I told him to wait outside while I ran and got the checkbook.

When I came back outside, I talked with him a little to find out what prize he wanted.

Then, a young man rode up on his bicycle. He asked me if I had a towel. He had just eaten a cupcake and his hands were all sticky. His repetitive questions helped me understand that he was harmless. I told him to hang on, while the neighbor boy was still waiting for me to pick my cookie dough and write the check, and I went inside and got Christian (he told us his name) a damp paper towel. He used it and I told him I would take it when he was finished. Then he rode off.

The neighbor boy and I resumed my cookie dough shopping.

I chose the white chocolate macadamia nut. It's my number one choice of store (fundraiser) bought cookie dough. Mostly because those nuts are so expensive I don't buy them myself. Otherwise I'd make the cookies from scratch.

The neighbor boy told me he'd be back with his order form. This was his sister's.

Bill will get to chose a cookie dough too. (Of course, he doesn't read my blog so we could keep this a secret and I could buy two white chocolate macadamia nut and he wouldn't know…)

lights, camera… lighting

Did you watch er?

Have you ever noticed the lighting on tv shows? Specifically dramas?

We like NCIS and CSI. West Wing and er are two others that had the same thing happen to their lighting.

The more these shows got popular, the more the lighting became dramatic. It started out bright and over-lit. As the episodes turned into seasons, the rooms got darker.

Have you been in a courthouse or a hospital? They are typically well-lit. Especially the hallways, and even at night the lights are on.

It's not like the story line explained the change in lighting. It just happened, slowly over time.

Of course I say this as I sit here watching one of these shows in a low-lit room.

Maybe Hollywood isn't so dramatic after all.

too far

The cat has gone too far.

Can cats read?

I didn't think so. But I'm beginning to think Atticus can. Or maybe he can't and that's why this has happened.

He likes to kill animals. Birds in particular. I've mentioned that.

This time, it was a goldfinch.

Hence the reading, I think he's trying to be like his namesake except that the cat has got it wrong.

The character is Atticus Finch. That's it. Nothing more. The title is To Kill A Mockingbird. Atticus the cat must be confused.

He killed the finch. Then he ate the finch.

I've never seen him eat a bird before.

I got very angry with the cat and banged on the sliding door. I guess that annoyed him, because he left. And he took his dinner with him.

He may not realize it, but that was his dinner.

I get it. It's the circle of life. I just wish the cat didn't enjoy his circle of life, on our back deck, with the pretty birds.

Curtains, cookies and chaos

Okay, I've been MIA.

First, Jenny came to visit Wednesday-Thursday. We went to Founders for dinner and ordered what turned out to be an absurd amount of food. Before that we had done a lot of shopping.

I'm looking for window treatments for the guest bedroom. Since that room is not even halfway finished, I decided to buy new curtains for the home office/guest bedroom.

I bought new curtain rods, which I know I like. I bought a curtain panel to bring home to see how well it matched since I was no longer looking for window treatments for the room in which I was originally planning on buying them for. I wasn't prepared to change the home office/guest room curtains, so I didn't have any idea of what color I would need for that room. Jenny and I guessed and it turned out to be a bad guess.

I returned the wrong-color panel today. No harm no foul. While I was out today, I stopped by another store and found curtains that would be great for our bedroom.

Wait a sec. Would the curtains in our room look good in the home office/guest room?

They sure would! This means new curtains for our room.

I bought the one panel that was at the store that will now go in our room. When I got it home I hung it to see how much I liked it. I had already liked it a lot in the package, and I liked it even more hanging in our room.

However, the store only had the one panel so I quickly got online and bought three more. I'll have new window treatments [hopefully] by the end of next week. And the home office will have "new" curtains too. Eventually the guest bedroom will have new window treatments but first it needs windows, a fresh paint job, a finished floor, a scraped and painted ceiling, and the furniture moved back before I think about window treatments. However, Jenny did help me figure out exactly what kind of window treatments I want (not curtains although as I've typed all of this why would I have different window treatments in one room when the other two have curtains… I have time to think about that one), so I can at least work on getting them ready for the eventual finished product.

Tonight, we went out for our friend's birthday. We went to the Winchester. We had a very good time.

Tomorrow, we're going to a CMU game.

Today, I baked cookies to take with us tomorrow.

We also helped a friend, who had foot surgery, put air in her tires and take out her recycling.

I had an eye doctor appointment.

So you can see, I haven't had much time to blog and I certainly haven't had time to work on the guest bedroom. I'll have time next week… or at least I'll keep telling myself that.

Food for Thought

Warning: this post may make you hungry.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love food?

Only a few times?

Oh, no? More than that?

Well, it's a fact. Everyone eats in one way or another. (I'm not excluding those who have to use feeding tubes, it's the ALS awareness as well as those who have surgery and such… too dark?) Well everyone has to eat whether it's solid or pureed. And I love food.

I made a dish tonight that's for lunch tomorrow. Jenny is coming to visit. She showed me this awesome kitchen gadget

If you like cherry or grape tomatoes, you need this.

She took me back to the little shop in St. Joe where she bought it and I found one hiding on a shelf. It's also good for regular grapes, large olives, and anything else that size that you want sliced.

I don't know if I have written about the dish I made, so I'll just mention it again. It's Quinoa with Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella.

It's yummy.

I had a blt and corn on the cob for dinner. It'll probably be one of the last for the season. It was also yummy. But the good news is apple season is upon us. Apples won't fit in the kitchen gadget, but that wasn't the point of this post.

I also made my blueberry chocolate cake.

The blueberries were the last of the season too. I don't remember getting fresh blueberries this late in the season, but I enjoyed every last little one.

It's still technically summer, so there should be a few more grilled dinners.

Food, it's what's for dinner.

I'm thankful for our farmers and our food.

It's that time again… let's go for a run

The .1k

It's happening October 18th. I'm asking you to donate to this amazing cause.

Or join our team. It's a blast.

Click here to do one or the other.

Seriously, check out last year's race here if you didn't read about it.

car games

On my way to and from my parent's house, I played the license plate game. It's much more fun now because there's an app for that.

I reached 43%. Not bad for a trip to the neighboring state. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see any Wisconsin or Minnesota. I usually see one of each on any given day. Oh well. Maybe next time my odds will be better.

I did see Washington which is a tough one. And lots of Ohio and Illinois. I double checked, I did mark Indiana and Michigan. That would have been embarrassing to have not checked off those. And yes, if you play this way; I did see each of them in the other state not their home state.

I like car games.

Football, Parades, Pork Tenderloins, and Presents (not alliterative, but almost)

Can you smell it?

Not the smell of rain.

Or the crisp air.

Or fall…

but…

Football!

It's here.

We're going to watch CMU play next weekend. They beat Purdue today. Hehe

Next week they play Syracuse. We'll see if they can do it again.

MSU is currently playing Oregon. And U of M is playing Notre Dame. It's an exciting evening in our house.

I do love football, but I gave myself a pedicure. Ha!

I'm trying to relax before my "first" day tomorrow. It's not my first day, it's my third year. And it's not my first day back this school year, I've been working for a couple of weeks now. No, tomorrow is what we call "Homecoming Sunday", the first Sunday back after Labor Day weekend. Our activity schedule starts to get back into the swing of things.

We're kicking the school year off with one service and a lunch afterward. Then we'll have youth group. Sunday school will start next week. I have one more week to find more teachers. Want to teach Jr. High Sunday school once a month? They don't bite, I promise. In fact, they're awesome!

No? Okay, then will you at least say a prayer that someone else will step up and fill the spot? I'm not going to worry about it. That won't do me any good. But I am going to start asking everyone I see.

I didn't blog the last two days because I was in Indiana for the Pork Festival!!! The last time I was there was 2008 and lucky for you, I wrote all about it here.

I also have anniversary presents from my parents that I need to go open. All in all I have a lot to write about but it's late and this post has gone on for long enough.

the other ice bucket challenge...

The video is not yet available.

But they did it. Oh my did they.

You'll remember my ice bucket challenge… it went out to Sami and five young adults.

Something you should know about Sami. She's clever and creative. She wasn't just going to dump ice on herself and five others. Oh no. She put thought into it.

She's a mom.

She's the Sr. High Youth Director.

She's the Young Adult Leader.

She has learned to be F.A.T. for Jesus (Flexible, Available and Teachable).

She loves Pinterest.

She decided to use her children's slip and slide.

Except it's not just your normal slip and slide. It's a racer slip and slide.

Two people go at once and end in a small pool.

The pool was filled with ice.

It was spectacular. And it was not easy to film it without shaking from laughing so hard. But I think I did okay. We shall see. When she gets it edited and posted, I hope I can share it. (She has to edit it because after she did her talking, I stopped recording to make sure I was actually recording because her camera doesn't have a flashing light or any indicator to show that it is actually recording. I didn't want them all to slide into ice only to find out I didn't record any of it. I was recording, so we had the second shooting of them sliding. Now she has to edit the two separate pieces into one.)

I think seven of the young adults ended up doing it (I was too busy recording, I didn't count). I should probably make another donation to Well House for that. It was totally worth it.

three-of-a-kind

I've been making cards again.

It really is nice to have everything in the dining room. As I mentioned before it's convenient. I can get everything out and put it away quickly. It may be a little unsightly, but I'll just pretend that doesn't bother me.

Oh wait, it doesn't.

Back to the cards.

Here's a thank you:

 Here's a thinking of you:

And this one may be my favorite card I have ever made. Can you guess what/who it's for? I'll give you a hint, count the number of heart-shaped balloons.

If you still aren't sure, go back to Aug. 26th. 

long weekends and projects around the house

The day has finally come, we replaced our upstairs hallway light fixture!

You may recall this happened:

It happened Aug. 16, 2013 as I was finishing the last bit of painting over the home office door. I backed up into the light fixture.

Even though I knew it was there and I had been carefully avoiding it every single time I climbed up or down the step-stool.

Until this time.

Since then, we just left the two bulbs hanging there. Greg moved in. Greg moved out. We didn't want to replace it during all of that in case there was another incident.

A friend of mine, Julie, works in a lighting store (I actually don't know if it's a store or something else, let's just go with store) and when I asked her if we could replace the globe she bluntly stated it would be cheaper and easier to buy a new fixture. Don't even try to replace it, she wisely stated.

As our anniversary present (fourteen years is animals/gold jewelry, but eighth anniversary is bronze so we're just six years late for that gift, you can read more here) was this:

Bill installed it today. Ta-da!

No more putting my head through it.

Also, because it's a holiday weekend, I'm having homemade ice cream.

I made a few days ago, but I didn't blog about it! Here it is.

Yum! Vanilla. I don't think I can wait any longer...

Two-fer

Be sure you go back (scroll down) and read yesterday's post. I wrote it today. I just didn't post-date it.

Today, after church and Bill's Big Breakfast, I worked on the gardens. I weeded the garden on the south side of the house.

Then I went behind the garage.

Yikes.

 This is the before.

I have completely neglected it. I don't see it, so it doesn't exist, right? This is partly why we want to move the garage back closer to the property line. We don't need this garden. It's not a secret garden so much as it's a jungle.

It's Atticus' hunting spot.

It's a tree farm. Want a Redbud? We'll sell you one. Or several.

Since we probably need a permit for selling trees on a small, urban lot, I just attacked the wild garden with a shovel. 

There were plants in there!

And lots of weeds. And lots of vines. Aggressive, thick vines.

It's also our dumping ground for large limbs (since the neighbor behind us doesn't like it when we burn dry wood in a container). Those large branches, etc are still back there. 

As you can see I did get a lot of it cleaned up.

Now it's time to relax. It's a holiday weekend!

Saturday

This is where we were on Saturday:

 We were at the Gilmore Car Museum.

You can read more about it since I linked it for you. I won't bore you with history or how many cars they have. What I do want to share is that for as long as it's been around Bill and I have never been there. And we've been back in West Michigan for eight years and this was our first visit.

It was amazing. Particularly if you like/appreciate cars. More specifically classic cars.

We went with Nancy and Dave (who live in Kalamazoo). Nancy has been there with her parents because they are MG owners. Dave was also a first-timer. Although, there are so many cars, Nancy pointed out that she did not remember seeing many of them.

We definitely got our value (we had buy one get one free admission coupons) and were there for about three and a half hours. We didn't make it through the entire exhibit but we had to leave because they were closing.

There is a new exhibit opening in three weeks, the Cadillac Collection. I guess we'll just have to go back.

By the way I took many, many photos of cars. These are just a few examples.

on time delivery

Have you ever looked at the blue post office drop box and wondered, do they really pick up the mail at the precise, posted (ha, pun intended) time?

I dropped off my Jr. High mailing at one of those boxes today. That is what I wondered as I walked away from the box. It was about ten after five. Did they already pick it up?

Will it still go out tonight?

I'm not in a rush. The mailing can wait until tomorrow. It was just a thought I had...

Would it be suspicious if I sat outside the post office one day waiting to see if they really do pick it up at the exact time?

Probably.

If not suspicious, perhaps weird.

I won't do it. But I will continue to wonder, is the service prompt?

Lego crazed

For our anniversary we went to the Lego exhibit at the GR Public Museum. Here are a few pictures.

It was an exhibit on tall buildings. This one was so tall I couldn't even fit the entire thing in the picture!

And famous architecture.

Here's Chi-town!

Each building had its own history as well as a fun fact. But since it took me two days to get the pictures from my phone to my computer, I don't remember any of the fun facts. I do remember that Grand Rapids is ranked number 1 in its size for the number of LEED certified buildings. 

These were mighty impressive. I enjoyed going. 

It makes me want to pull out our Lego's but that means losing our dining room table. 

Oh the dilemma.