Lentil Stew - in pressure cooker

Made this in the pressure cooker tonight. It was done before the frozen pizzas were. (I didn't feel like forcing all the children to have soup tonight.) I loved it.

1 cup lentils
3 cups beef broth

Cook at high pressure about 8 mins.

While that cooks chop
1 onion
2 large red potatoes (unpeeled)
1 package beef kielbasa
2 cloves garlic

After 8 min at high pressure, lower pressure quickly and add what you chopped. Also add
1 tsp dried basil
Black pepper to taste

Add more water if needed, just to cover everything. Cook 1 more minute at high pressure. Let pressure drop naturally this time.

Enjoy.

Crazy busy! School started two months ago, wow time really flies. We are all loving this school. The kids are doing great, the teachers are wonderful, and I love having the day to myself again. Derrick is fun to have around during the day. It's football/cheer season. Three of the kids are involved which means I'm driving children to practices every night of the week. In addition to football, we are also involved in clubs and the band at school. When I was a kid band was during the school day, not anymore. It's after school. Between clubs and band, it's almost every day too. Basically my afternoon/evenings are booked (starting at 4:30 most days and 1:30 on Thursdays) until after the first week of November. I'm looking forward to that time. And let's not forget Scouts/Mutual night every Wednesday. Of course it falls in the middle of sports practice and is all the way across town. It's really crazy when Chris is gone for a week at a time on business. I have managed to figure out how to get everyone to where they need to be, but it's a tight schedule.

I was recently released as the Homemaking Committee Chair (yes, I know it's not called that anymore), and put in the nursery. It's such a fun calling but I had to re-evaluate my Sunday wardrobe. Most of my dresses and skirts were on the fancy side. I'll be attacking my fabric stash soon to make some casual Sunday attire.

Bradley turned 12 over the weekend and asked me to make cupcakes for his football team. I asked him if he wanted me to bring cupcakes to school for him. He said no. Just the football team. Oh well, that's 30 less cupcakes for me to make. :) Speaking of which, I have to go frost them and then head out with all my kids because Chris is out of town this week and it's time to start my crazy afternoon of Taxi Mom.

I just haven't felt the need to blog anything lately. Maybe when school starts.

The test results were not a surprise. We expected Emma to have the same muscle disorder as Calvin. What does surprise me is how sad I am now to actually have my questions answered. Don't misunderstand me, I'm glad it's what it is, there are far worse things out there. However, I'm just sad it's there at all. Now with actual test results I can't pretend it's not really there.

I Li*ked It

Last night for dinner we had Hawaiian chicken salad with cheese crisps. It's one of my favorite chicken salad recipes and always a hit with my children. I thought for sure my sister's kids who are staying with us would like it too. Just in case though, we had cheese crisps with it. Emma finished her chicken salad and was full and didn't want her cheese crisp. She'd only taken one bite from it, so Chris said to give it to him. Here's the conversation from there...

Chris: Yum, this has some of the chicken salad sauce on it.

Emma: Yeah, I li*ked it.

Chris: It's yummy huh.

Me: Emma, did you say licked, or liked?

Emma: Licked.

Chris: Oh, I thought you said liked.

Emma: No, I licked it.

That's right, she licked the chicken salad sauce off the cheese crisp before handing it over to Daddy. By now, Chris had already eaten 3/4 of the cheese crisp. Oh well.

He's still asking if we can get a wooshoo.

You want a what?

Derrick: Mom, can we get a dog?
Me: No sweetie, we can't get a dog right now.
Derrick: Well, can we get a wooshoo?
Me: A what?
Derrick: A wooshoo.
Me: What? I don't understand what you're saying.
Derrick: A woooooshooooo.
Me: Uhhh...what's a wooshoo?
Derrick: You know, it's kind of a dragon puppy and it spits fire.
Me: A dragon puppy?
Derrick: Yeah, it spits fire. So can we get one?
Me: Uhhh....
Derrick: We'll have to train it to not kill the cats.
Me: Uhhh....

From here the conversation between Emma and Derrick went on for quite some time about how to train it to not cook the cats and they could take it around and find things for it to burn up. Apparently since I said no to the dog, Derrick thought I might be open to the idea of a wooshoo. A few minutes later, he again asks, "so, can we get one?"

New Hobby

I want to learn to knit. My mother recently started knitting and a couple of my sister too. I like having things in common so I will try my hand at knitting. They say it's easier than crochet. We'll see. I want to learn how and then teach my daughters.