Today

Yes, I am trying to win most original blog post title.

I got tired of the blocks in the background. So now I am featuring radishes and garden produce. It is hopeful as I look out at 1-2 inches of slush and snow.

Gilbert wearing his newspaperboy cap backwards. 

The Tonka truck was the place to party for the Polly Pockets

Orianna had a 2 hour delay, which means my day was delayed by 2 hours. Not that it had to be, but I am still juvenile and think that 2 hour delays also apply to me. So I finished my book and was generally lazy until Orianna's bus got here at 9:30. And since then, I have been terribly busy checking facebook, replying to emails, buying airline tickets, and buying a kids song album from Amazon. Getting all my secretarial duties out of the way for the week. Ha.

The interesting bits of the above are as follows--I got 108 classic kids songs for $1.99. About 3 hours of songs. That is the minorly interesting part. The truly interesting part is that I got Justin a ticket to Colorado for this weekend. I feel so jet set buying tickets at the last minute. There has been no death in the family or anything desperate. Just the fact that the ranch Justin's Dad runs has decided to do an old-fashioned branding. This involves a LOT of horse riding, roping every single calf and stretching it out on the ground and keeping the irons hot in the fire. Usually, they run the whole herd through the corrals, pen the calves individually, vaccinate, ear tag, ear tattoo and then brand with an electric brander thing. That isn't technical and I probably missed some steps. Still, the calf is off, bawling for momma within minutes. Old-fashioned will be a lot more labor intensive and Justin will LOVE it.

Plus, this poor cowboy has been penned up in NY for almost 2 years without any riding or roping, so he is just itching to get out there and get to it. 

One of the views from the ranch. Rough. 

This was a one off branding that had to be done for a late calf when we were out there in July of 2010. It is a mix of old-fashioned and modern. 

The roping arena

Justin hates this picture because he overthrew. But the light is so awesome. What is a little rope slip here and there compared to reddish brown horses in the evening sunlight against the Rockies? 

Now, I really must pretend to be a good housekeeper and do the dishes, the laundry, and finish up some sewing projects. And try not to be jealous of my husband leaving our slush for beautiful Colorado. 

"Colorado, Rocky Mountain high-eye--I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky, shadows from the starlight, softer than a babies sigh, Colorado, Rocky Mountain high-eye..." 

Okay, I just googled the lyrics, and it is "softer than a lullabye" but I like "babies sigh" and I have always thought that is what it said. So too bad, John Denver. 

Egg and Kale Breakfast Quesadilla and other kale-y things

Blogger has a new look. Disconcerting. It also has all my blog stats on my dashboard. This is unfortunate, since I never looked at my stats before and now I see that people visited my blog yesterday and there was nothing new there. I now feel guilty. I must apologize for wasting your time yesterday. I think this is blogger's sneaky way of guilting every blogger into blogging every day. So from here on out, I will blog continuously. Even if I have nothing to say. Look forward to pointless comments, endless pictures of my desperately cute children, and lots of recipes for things like cinnamon toast and PBJ's. We will go for quantity, not quality.

First, let me stop and wipe up Orianna's spilled Honey Bunches of Oats. Gilbert seems to think sitting on the table with a big book right next to Orianna's bowl is the only place he can really read books this morning. Boys. Orianna is home sick today with a 102 degree fever. There are no other symptoms, so now I have to decide if I should drag her half an hour to the doctor or keep her home and let her rest (okay, play Polly Pockets) and get better. We were planning on heading down to a weekend with Clover and Evan's but now that is up in the air. Decisions, decisions. Bring potential sickness to cousins or not? Toughie.

Now on to the recipe. This will be a legit recipe that I have been meaning to post for awhile now. The original recipe is from a cookbook I read awhile ago--Big Girls in Little Kitchens I believe it is called. This isn't a real recipe, since it is just full of suggestions rather than actual quantities. I love recipes like this.

Saute some greens (Kale happens to be a favorite of mine, but I have used swiss chard, spinach, etc) with whatever else you want (onions and anything else that can be sauteed that is in your refrigerator and looks like it is about to go bad--mushrooms for me this morning) An no, these pictures aren't from this morning. I took these sometime in March.

Generally I cook enough Kale and onions for a few quesadillas. That way I don't have to wash and chop every morning when I feel like I need to eat THIS INSTANCE.

Kale seems to get better the more you cook it, being particularly delish if you slightly burn it. But maybe that is my own weirdness. 

Then you make scrambled eggs (I like two) and dump some of the sauteed goodness in. 

THEN you move the whole mess into another pan that has been heated with oil and salt and put it inside a tortilla. Chop some mozzerella into the mix.  

Cook the quesadilla to golden, salty, crusty perfection.

And if some cheese dribbles out, just dump it on top. 

Then eat and lick your fingers.

This is my favorite breakfast at the moment. People who know me well will probably wonder what peanut butter ever did to me to make me turn my allegiance from PB toast with milk to this more complicated breakfast. I do still eat PB toast some mornings. But I just recently read in Martha Stewart Living that PB can cause water retention. I generally retain enough water in the latter months of pregnancy to float the Queen Mary, so I thought I should try to vary my diet. It is a sad thing. But it is made less sad by this quesadilla. 

And if you are a bit intimidated by the idea of buying a huge bunch of kale to try this, here is another kale recipe that is awesome. 

Zuppa Toscana Soup from here. A copy of Olive Garden's soup.

Kale, onion, garlic, sausage, bacon, and potatoes in a creamy, chicken broth base. Hello, lunch! 

I don't like chewy bacon very much, as seen in the above picture from twopeasaandtheirpod, so I keep at least half the crispy bacon to use as a garnish as the end. 

Another kale recipe I really want to try is this Kale, Sausage, and Cauliflower Pot pie from Real Simple.

Fun little factoid of the day, studies have shown that women who eat a lot of cruciferous vegetable (kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc) have a much lower incidence of breast cancer. Who knew pot pie could be health food? 

And there you go. Something new to read. Now I can go on my merry way without feeling guilty. 

Backgrounds, Dishwashers, and Pico de Gallo

I would like to say right away that this post will have nothing important in it. If you have better things to do, off you go, with my heartiest "thanks for dropping by anyway."

I read some blogs this evening and realized I still had icy trees on the background of my blog, which seemed a few months behind times. So I decided to change it. Why I decide this at 9:30 at night is beyond me. At this point, I am just not that functionally intelligent, so the amount of frustration with technical things is much, much higher. I went into my March pictures, found a lovely tree just budding out and figured out how to resize it for my blog. They only let me upload a picture that is the size of a large postage stamp, so once I finally had it on there, blogger thought it looked tacky with only one itty-bitty picture and threw 30 more pictures on there in a tiled pattern for a bizarre and totally incomprehensible look. I revolted and put the picture of blocks on there in a display of civil disobedience to blogger. I am not sure how this is civil disobedience. But I feel it is somehow.

What I would like to know is this--why can I only upload a tiny picture when blogger knows full well it won't work for a background?

In other news, we have a dishwasher! Justin put it in at the beginning of April and I am finally getting used to it. This is a big deal, since I have washed dishes by hand for the past 5 years. In times past, I was very economical with dishes, since I didn't feel like washing 48 different plates that had been used only for toast and PBJ's. Now, I am sorry to say, I splash out a bit, using one plate to reheat my meat on and then moving the meat to the taco salad on an entirely different plate. It feels extravagant. And best of all? As I sit here on the computer, Justin is doing dishes. Yes, really. He installed it even when he knew it would mean he would be expected to help a bit more with dishes. How is that for gentlemanly behavior? I think it is great. And before anyone points out that it would have been more gentlemanly to install a dishwasher when we moved in three years ago, I will fully disclose that Justin has been trying to buy me one since we moved in, but  I tend to resit large purchases, since it seems.... well.... extravagant. So it is all my fault that I have been washing dishes by hand. Me and my large purchase hang up.

It seems silly to not have pictures, so I think I will put one or two up. 

Okay, make it one. And yes, that is the best I could do at the moment. Well the best that wouldn't involve plugging my camera in and uploading new pictures. And anyway, this is pico de gallo. And a picture of that should be enough for anyone. Well actually, a bowl of it should be enough for anyone. At least a bowl and a bag of tortilla chips for eating it with.

I like this stuff. A lot. And Ashley is the pico de gallo queen. I might hire her just to wait around and make it when I get to hankering for it. I want it about 4 times a week. The perfect lunch. Or supper.

She uses the Pioneer Woman recipe. Here is your ticket to scrumptious eating. As long as you are willing to chop a lot of things. It is worth it though, boy is it worth it.

And while looking for that recipe, I came across this list of Super Bowl food by Pioneer Woman. I would like to try pretty much all of these recipes, unhealthy though they may be. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/category/holidays/super-bowl/?posts_per_page=40

And now, I will stop writing random, tired brain thoughts. Have a lovely night.

Pictures

I don't have the time to write a blog right now, but it is bothering me that my last post on here was whiny, so I am going to put up pictures and thereby, make my blog cheerier. Plus, life is pretty great, so there is no reason to be whiny just because I feel slighted by mother nature. I am sure it was nothing personal. (The weather returned to normal 40's and 50's immediately after our spring heat wave and now I am feeling very cold. Which just goes to show that human beings (at least this girl here) is never quite satisfied.) I also just realized that my blog still has icy branches on the background as well, which is not really April. Ah well.

Here are some Life IS Good pictures.

Lily with her foam block skyscraper for her snake

At the playground

Ring them bells

Muddy girls

Throwing rocks in the water--wicked cool

Some of Olivia's pictures that were on my camera

A breakfast picnic (Daddy had got home at 1:30 AM unexpectedly and had to sleep in the kids room, since the kids were all piled in with me.) We didn't want to wake up Daddy, so we had oatmeal, PBJ's and PB Toast on Mommy and Daddy's bed! And I just referred to myself in the third person as Mommy. 

All of us Cottens

Gilbert thinks pictures are funny

Sunday girls

Sweet babies

These next pictures should actually be at the very beginning of the post, but for some reason aren't. I am pretty sure this doesn't bother me. If it keeps me awake at all tonight I will change it. 

We got Gilbert a leash! He loves it.

Where the hustle and bustle was

Caleb and David splitting wood

Going to see the new calf. Hooray! Lily and Cheyenne are being cute. 

Owen, Matt H., and a new calf

Elm tree buds

Drawing off some syrup

Elliott being tough and carrying in the wood

Trying to determine if Lily has the required muscle mass to help carry wood. She failed. This seriously cracked me up. He was so serious about it. 

Gilbert meeting Miss Mercedes Grace H

Being Gilbert

Cody gave the kids motorcycle rides and the mother's heart palpitations. And not from how cool he was. The kids loved it and he drove slow for just a tiny ways, but there were sighs of relief each time he returned. 

Gilbert indulging in some mud

 Nate and Lily

Being tough in a twirly skirt is hard to do

Going to collect sap

I feel gypped

I am sitting here with the windows open to the 80 degree weather outside, hearing the birds twitter, which should make me feel happy. But I am not. Whine, whine. My crocuses are blooming. And it is 80. Crocuses are meant to peek through snow, not blossom brightly at 80. At this rate my lawn will be covered in dandelions at the same time my tulips and daffodils are out. Sigh. I like things to be as expected. I am sure this says something about me. Probably that I am a stick in the mud and boring.

I don't want summer weather in March. I want 40's that mellow into 50's. I don't want mosquitoes biting me in March. I want to just hear just the spring peepers for a few weeks before mosquitoes enter the scene. (And yes, I have to mentally say moss-kwe-toes in order to spell mosquitoes right.) It just feels all mixed up. I keep feeling like the baby will be coming soon, since this is the sort of weather I was expecting in June, when the baby is meant to be born. And for some reason, it is a shock to me to realize I have almost 3 more months before Baby-in-Utero is born.

I am complaining about the nicer than normal weather. I am a grouch. It is a grouchy sort of week I think. I am working on our NYS audit, which doesn't make me happy. The amount of paper and ink and adding and subtracting and ferreting out receipts, birth certificates, W-2's, and letters from schools and doctors saying my kids do exist is exhausting. My husband is leaving again for the weekend, which will be very fun for him, but makes me incline to melancholy. Gilbert has strep again, so I keep wondering who will get it next. And I have been low on energy, so there are several loads of laundry to be folded and put away, as well as a load of dishes that need to be washed. And now, with all this nice weather, I need to get out the rubbermaids and rehaul the closet so that my poor kiddos don't have to overheat in tights and long sleeves, all the while thinking "what if it snows in 2 weeks and all they have out are shorts and flip flops?" Which pretty much ensures that the rubbermaids of put away winter things will sit around for 3 weeks just in case we need them. And I am starting to get indigestion.

Isn't my life hard? No? Sigh.... I will now stir myself to go accomplish something, However, just for the record, I don't want to.

What a whine-y post. I apologize. I blame it on the La Nina and some sort of Arctic Oscillation which have kidnapped my beloved spring and plopped me down in the middle of June with no mental preparation.