The failed dumplings

Well, Mamaw told me over the phone how to make the dumplings. She said to cook the chicken and use the broth from it for the dumplings. This might have been my first mistake because I just cooked 1 chicken breast, not a whole chicken. I don't eat meat and we were not having a huge crowd, so I did not think it was necessary to cook an entire chicken. I added chicken bouillon and water to the broth so we would have enough. She then told me to use 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp. baking powder and a pinch of salt and the chicken broth to make a soft, somewhat sticky dough. Then, roll it out and cut into squares for dumplings. Then, add milk to the broth and bring to a soft boil. This is where I think I made my 2nd mistake. I think I added too much milk because it NEVER thickened up. Drop the dumplings in and cook let them soft boil for about 15 minutes. She said the flour from the dumplings would make the broth/milk mixture thicken up. Then, put in crock pot on warm until serving time.
Well, the milk/broth mixture never thickened up and the dumplings I had were not done. Yuck. The lady that came over said they were delicious. I think she was just being nice. The girls loved them too.
I do not give up easily though, so I will try again sometime. :)

First Annual Turkey Trot

So, what does a mom and dad who love to run insist on doing on Thanksgiving? Having our own turkey trot of course! It was a bit windy for a 3 and 4 year old, so we just ran around the house 10 times. I had to carry L some because she was getting tired. It was very fun though and we even had prizes for the kids since they won their "age group." 
Pre-race and the kids with their prizes (lip balm and holiday socks).

My dumplings did NOT turn out like my mamaw's. More about that later!!

Thanksgiving menu plan!

Ham
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli casserole
Dumplings
Dressing
Green beans
Corn
Yeast rolls

Dark chocolate sweet potato cheesecake
Brownies

This will be my first attempt at dumplings by myself. I have helped my mamaw make them before, but I have never tried it by myself. They are drop dumplings. They are oh. so. good. I really hope they turn out. The dark chocolate sweet potato cheesecake is also a new recipe that I am excited to try. The family that is joining us wanted to bring brownies. And her son's favorite Thanksgiving food is dressing. Now, we don't eat dressing and I have never made it before. So, I talked it over with my mamaw, and I feel somewhat confident about making a small batch. We shall see how it goes.
I told you we are not traditional Thanksgiving food people!
What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Changes

It has been forever since I have blogged! I do enjoy reading many of yours though!

Sean changed jobs at the end of October. He is now a long-term care consultant pharmacist instead of working at the independent pharmacy. This is a more flexible job, which will be nice for family time. What exactly does a long-term care consultant pharmacist do? Well, every nursing home is required to have a pharmacist review its charts once a month. They check for drug interactions, that relevant lab work is being performed, that patients are not receiving too many sedating medications, etc.. You get the picture. He has been in training all month, but he will get to be more on his own in December. He seems to love it so far!!

We had a couple of leads on the adoption-front last month, but they all fell through. So, we are back to waiting. It is really a process where you have to put all of your faith in the Lord because there are just so many unknowns and we could have a baby anytime, or it could be quite a wait. It was sort of a roller coaster for the month of October, but November has been kind of quiet in that regard.

We are staying home for Thanksgiving day this year because Sean will work Wednesday and Friday. A member from the congregation and her children are coming over to share the day with us. I hope to share our menu in the next couple of days. We are not traditional Thanksgiving food type people. :)

I love summer!

Ok ,so it is technically not summer yet, but it feels enough like it to call it that.
Summer is always busy for us with doing things outside and we love every minute! The garden is all up and going. We are enjoying loads of fresh strawberries daily. This is the second year for them. We also have 13 (I think) tomato plants, 10 pepper plants, basil, green beans, peas, lettuce, summer squash, zucchini squash, corn, cucumbers, and onions. I love my garden! G, my oldest, is only 4 but she is more of a helper this year in the garden. She actually knows which strawberries are OK to pick and the difference between a weed and a plant.
I have also started the Insanity workouts. I was introduced to them by my sister when I was in Hawaii with her. They are ROUGH. I am not doing them like the plan says you should, but interspersing them with my running with the goal of it making me faster hopefully. I will do the 5K here in town on the 4th of July, and I would like to beat my time from last year. We shall see.
What is your favorite part of summer?

Four Beans and Sausage

Everyone in our house has been sick, but I think we are on the mend. We have had fevers and the kids and Sean have lingering coughs. Somehow I escaped that part.
I have started officially training for my half-marathon in April. Unfortunately, most of those miles are on the treadmill due to the weather, but I am thankful to have a treadmill. Otherwise I would not be able to run, and for me, that would be TERRIBLE! I was already loggint 20-25 miles per week, so the training is not a whole lot different yet. I am hoping to be able to start running outside some soon. We are planning a trip to HAWAII at the end of March to visit my sister and her family! So, I am looking forward to running outside there. :) I am excited to see my sister and my new nephew (and the rest of the family). Gabriella is super excited to get to have a "slumber party" with her 4 year old cousin, Olivia.

Here is a recipe that our family loves. It works nicely because Sean loves the sausage, so I just eat the beans and give any sausage I scoop out to him.

Four Beans and Sausage

15 oz. can great northern beans, drained

15.5 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

16 oz. can red kidney beans, drained

15 oz. can butter beans, drained

1.5 cups ketchup

½ cup chopped onions

1 green pepper, chopped

1 lb. smoked sausage, cooked and cut into ½ inch slices

¼ cup brown sugar

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp. dry mustard

½ tsp. Tabasco sauce (I use the red hot cayenne pepper sauce b/c it is what I have on hand)

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker

Cover. Cook on low 9-10 hours or high 4-5 hours.

Snowed in

Well, basically. Sean has made it out for work the past 2 days, but we did not venture out for Bible study last night since it is a bit of a drive. We live in the country and the drifting here is pretty bad. We were also supposed to have a little Valentine's day party with some of Gabriella's little friends tonight, but that has been rescheduled for next Thursday. We are going to decorate Valentine's cookies and make Valentine's to deliver to some of the elderly people in our congregation. There are 4 little girls and their mamas coming, so it should be a blast!
What are your favorite things to do when you are snowed in?