Long Weekend

We had a long weekend at home. Today was President's Day and there was no school.

The weekend on started on Friday evening with a party at the church building. It was "Ladies Night Out" where the men do all the preparation, planning, decorating, cooking and cleaning up. The theme was "Yesteryear Memories" and we were to dress up as we did when we were in high school. We also had previously given our high school picture to the coordinator and then had a little slide show. It was fun. The kids had babysitters and played their own games and such in the library.

Then on Saturday Ed went to help Gage do some insulation work on their house. So, us girls stayed home and did our thing. Well, actually we did run a few errands (I'm starting to teach the Fruit of the Spirit in Bible class and wanted to find some things to decorate or fun things to do in class and in this town it is rather hard. The only thing I bought was some fabric to put on the bulletin board!) We did eat lunch at the mall - Chinese our favorite! But here are the highlights from home.

The girls got out the paints and painted some shoes and witches hat which their Nana sent for Halloween.
Then they went into the garage to ride some bikes.

Sunday was the normal church activity day. It was kids night and the lesson was on being a wise man and building your house on the rock. We had tacos for dinner.

Today I had to go into the bus barn and do some payroll work. I couldn't leave it until Wednesday because that would mean a whole weeks worth of work and only 2 hours to do it in. So I spent almost 2 hours there today. The girls did great just playing quietly.

This afternoon we got to go outside and play. It was almost 40 degrees! The first thing Halee wanted to do was drive the car.

However, she's not very good at steering and was always getting it stuck. So she would get out and try to push it. It didn't work and Hannah or I would have to come and rescue her, but she had fun.

They also rode their bikes.

And scooters.

Then the played in what's left of the snow. They had all the bikes and cars and scooters by the front door and were doing some kind of make believe story. They made this cake in the snow with chalk.

While they were doing that, I was making dinner. I decided to use the last squash we had. I grew acorn squash in the garden and put them in the garage to "winter." For some reason they turned orange, but still tasted good, so we ate them.

This is our favorite recipe to eat acorn squash with.

Stuffed Squash for Two

1 medium acorn squash

1 T butter, melted

2 T brown sugar

3/4 t salt, divided

1/8 t pepper

1/2 lb ground beef

3 T chopped celery

3 T chopped onion

2 T all-purpose flour

1/2 t rubbed sage

3/4 c milk

1 c salad croutons

1/4 c shredded cheddar cheese

I deviate from the recipe a bit - I cook it in the microwave 5 minutes and turn over and cook 5 more minutes. Then take it out, cut open and scoop out seeds. The put meat filling in it. Here is what the recipe says:

Cut squash in half; discard seeds. Place squash cut side down in an 11x7x2 in baking pan; add 1/2 in of hot water. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes. Drain water from pan; turn squash cut side up. Brush with butter; sprinkle with brown sugar (we don't like it sweet and just put some salt in it), 1/4 t salt and pepper. Bake 30-40 minutes longer or until squash is tender.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook the beef, celery, onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in flour, sage and remaining salt. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Remove from heat; stir in croutons (sometimes I just put in some bread crumbs). Spoon into squash halves. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!