200th Post!

I've made it to my 200th post and I'm quite excited about it. I never thought I'd have enough to say to keep me going this far. Thank you for following along and leaving me fun comments, I love reading your thoughts!

In honor of my 200th post (and because I'm poor...) you get to read this week's menu! Isn't that exciting?!

Actually, this week is blogger menu-week! Simply because you guys are awesome and constantly give me great ideas! Thank you!

Monday: Green curry simmered chicken (I use the green curry simmer sauce from Trader Joe's.)
Tuesday: Megan's freshly posted White House Turkey Burgers
Wednesday: I'm thinking roasting a small turkey, thank you to Emily for making me brave enough to try my own Rookie Thanksgiving!
Thursday: Mrs. Life Account's Fall Recipe Challenge Baked Potato Soup
Friday: Red Curry Coconut Noodles from PW's Tasty Kitchen

I know tonight's dinner is not a blogger recipe, well, it's mine, but you know what I mean. It's the ingredients I currently have on hand. I'm headed to the store tomorrow to pick up everything else.

Also, this week, my pre-ordered 40-pound box of organic Fuji apples are being delivered, so I'm heading into applesauce production. My applesauce recipe is found here. This year however, I will not be coring and seeding the apples before hand (just slicing them), because I have a new toy--the OXO Tot food mill! Yeah, it pretty much makes making applesauce a breeze (and once it's time for kiddos, homemade baby food will be super-easy, too).

Happy Eats!

Book Report: Winter Garden

Kristin Hannah's Winter Garden passed my test of being great fiction -- it made me laugh and cry.

Follow along with Anya and her two estranged daughters, Meredith and Nina, as they grieve the death of their wonderful father. Meredith and Nina are left to grapple with their shared childhood of feeling unloved by their mother and their father's final request: that their mother tell them a fairy tale from beginning to end.

Meredith and Nina have different feelings about this fairy tale that their mother does not wish to tell. Slowly and haltingly, the story emerges and the women are transfixed as they try to decide what it means and how it will affect them. 

This novel covers many different topics, but ties them all together beautifully: marriage, sisterhood, war, lifestyle, survival, love, sacrifice. 

Because she does such a good job, I'll let Kristin tell you a bit about it herself.

Book Report: Ape House

Sara Gruen's newest novel, Ape House is a stunner. Who knew that I would enjoy a novel about apes?!

Gruen picks up the tale of a group of Bonobo Apes who are living in a research facility. The apes are part of a linguistics study and are able to communicate well with humans. They enjoy riding in the car, they love to drink Starbucks and watch movies, onions and pears are a treat. The apes are happy and well-adjusted. What happens when protestors have the wrong idea and push just a bit too far? Define "liberation." Just how far do the lies and manipulation go? and who really is in charge?

Follow along with researcher and top "ape mom" Isabel and her assistant Celia as they work with reporter John Thigpen to find the truth and rescue the apes.

The book moves along steadily and melds the elements seamlessly. I was never confused about the who, what, when, etc of the plot. And there are enough twists and turns that skilled author Gruen kept the pages turning without losing the story.

Gruen's newest work has elements that are reminiscent of her highly-acclaimed Water for Elephants. If you enjoyed that book, then you are going to speed through Ape House and say "Wait, I want more!" when you reach the conclusion.

Menu Planning

I keep getting side-lined and don't get my menus up! Bummer. This week I had to make a conscious effort to sit down and just do it!

Monday: Steak & veggie stir-fry over brown rice
Tuesday: Chicken noodle soup (I use the McCormick slow cooker seasoning mix and follow the directions on it--so yummy!)
Wednesday: Pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and gravy! (I love me some gravy)
Thursday: American Chop Suey I love Stephanie's recipes, they are always fantastic. She's also gluten-free for any of you GFers out there. I'm asking for her cookbooks for Christmas.
Friday: left-overs and then lots of European food at the Oktoberfest party we're going to that night.

Happy Eats!

Grandpa update

J's Grandpa passed away on Saturday afternoon. He went to meet Jesus in his sleep, it was very peaceful. The family spent the weekend together celebrating the very full life of this special man. J is doing very well, he is glad that Grandpa is no longer suffering.

Thank you for all of your prayers, they were very much felt and we are grateful.

Prayers

Today I'm coming to you with a request for more prayers for our family. J's family friend ended up have a 6 way heart bypass and he is recovering well. Thanks for thinking of him.

Last night, J's beloved 89 year old Grandpa fell and broke his hip. Originally they were going to do surgery, but we just learned that he's been moved to the ICU due to respiratory distress and increasing blood pressure (hypertension). He's old and has been sickly for a while, the family wants him to go peacefully when it's his time to die and have therefore decided to forego some treatment. At this point his surgery is on hold, his pain is being treated, and most other medical interventions are being waited upon.

J had to go to class today and can't be with his family. We're hoping that Grandpa will be stable enough to visit this evening. J is doing okay, we knew this was coming and that Grandpa's quality of life hasn't been great lately.

Please keep us all in your prayers, especially Grandpa. We don't want him to suffer and we know that he wants to see Jesus peacefully.

Heart Surgery

A dear friend of J's family is undergoing a major open heart surgery today. Please keep him, his family, the surgeons, and nurses in your prayers today.

I am grateful. Thank you.

September Recap

September was such a busy month for us. J had the entire month off from school, so I took almost the entire month off from work. Tonight I am home sick from work with a cold/virus. I slept all day and woke up sick, so sleeping during the night isn't going to be happening tonight, thus I have time to recap the month of September for us.

We started the weekend off with a wedding. The bride is a bacon fan and the menu was based around that. Bacon-maple donuts, BLT mini-sandwiches, spinach bacon salad, bacon wrapped mini-fillets. It was spectacular!

Hubs then took a 600 mile round-trip 4 day trip to go mountain biking with a friend. Apparently the trip was so epic that he forgot to take pictures...

I went and helped Grandma with her skin cancer surgery, which went phenomenally by the way. I fed her lots of chocolate milkshakes and mashed potatoes and then took her stitches out a few days later.

My in-laws joined us at my Grandparent's cabin for a few days where we had a blast fixing the lawn mower and using the kayak.

We even squeezed in an afternoon at the beach. Found a huge tree root and a sweet driftwood fort. Had the best clam chowder for dinner. We loved it! 

Then, we packed up and headed to my cousin's wedding, where we hung out with a lot of family.

We did a fabulous "final weekend of summer" hike with my parents and their best friends. It was glorious!

We also spent a day at the zoo! I love the zoo, we go frequently. Hubs loves to feed the birds and fancies himself a turtle, I really love the cats.