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Well..today Tuesday had to get two teeth pulled…..they just wouldn’t fall out and the orthodontist said we had waited long enough…..so today was the day. Her last two baby teeth…so this evening will be the last time the Tooth Fairy visits her..so sad…….I wonder what she’ll bring……
Okay…so we were so excited to have a Tofurky. I’ve waited my whole life to have one! We thought we would cook it the night before Thanksgiving..since we were going to be away for Thanksgiving…….well……
First of all….I had no idea you had to defrost the thing for 24 hours! Just like a normal turkey..I mean, who knew? So, that was my first mistake…but there were directions for those of us who don’t know these things. Then, I thought it was just ready to pop into the oven. I didn’t realize you had to slice up potatoes and veggies….like a roast. You had to take the thing out of this slimy plastic seal…just like a real turkey!
So, I got it all ready…it looked like a brain ready to be sacrificed! Yuck..but I kept on going……into the oven it went…to be cooked for 2 1/2 hours!!! Who knew????
Then I got the gravy ready…..again..it was frozen because I didn’t thaw it…but I slowly warmed it up on the stove….it smelled okay..but the taste was horrible. It basically tasted like soy sauce. I knew my children were NOT going to like it..so I dumped it and made my own gravy.
We waited and waited and waited. Finally, after we were all starving, I declared it done…….
It looked okay and it smelled pretty good….Christopher sliced it up and everyone got a plateful of veggies and gravy. The middle of the Tofurky was filled with stuffing which looked really good. I couldn’t wait to cover it with gravy and give it a try!
After about two bites everyone was ready for something else! What a disappointment! The best part was the veggies and the gravy that I had made myself! The “skin” had this horrible texture to it and was impossible to cut. The Tofurky itself tasted so artificial…..and the stuffing wasn’t much better. It left a horrible after taste in my mouth. Seriously, I ended up cooking something else for everyone!
Oh, and the wish bone..it was made from a tofurky jerky wishstix….it was so strange..we didn’t even take it out of its plastic wrapper because no one wanted to touch it. The worst part was the smell in the house. Thankfully, we were leaving the next day and by the time we returned the smell of Tofurky was gone from our lives!
What a disappointment!! I was really so sad…..I had been so looking forward to this…and it was not at all what I thought it would be……I would never recommend this to anyone…I’m sticking with my homemade veggie pot pie!!
I am grateful for so many things this Thanksgiving holiday…my wonderful family, their health, our happiness…and so many more things…..I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving..and see you next week….
Okay..one of my favorite things to do is feed the squirrels…I just love the little guys. They are just so cute. And even better than watching them..is watching our cats try to get them! Our cats are indoor cats…so they don’t get much excitement….and I think the squirrels know this…because they are constantly teasing our cats. It is quite hilarious to watch.
And speaking of squirrels..here is a little story….my dad also likes to feed the squirrels. He likes to feed them peanuts. About a year ago my brother was moving some furniture at my dad’s house…and behind the one sofa he found a small pile of peanuts. We all thought it was funny that a mouse must have been stealing the peanuts from the bag and eating them behind the sofa. Since that time my dad has stopped feeding the squirrels peanuts. He hasn’t bought any peanuts for an entire year. Jump forward to this past weekend. We went to visit my dad and he told us that he found one whole peanut on his fireplace..just sitting there..one peanut. Then he told us that the next day he found half of a peanut shell in the middle of the floor….I instantly thought of that small pile of peanuts behind the sofa and I immediately had to go look behind the sofa…there was nothing there. Then my dad suggested that I look behind the OTHER sofa……so I did…and…..ummmm……this is what we found…………..
Hundreds and hundreds of peanut shells! It was unbelievable…..not a peanut to be seen..just shells…..I had never seen anything like that before…..
River was dying to make a bead necklace…she wanted to do it completely on her own……she was determined to not have help…..well, only a little bit of help…..she concentrated and worked so hard…to do it all on her own….it was too cute…and she was so proud when she was finished!
It is Embrace the Camera time and this week I was prepared….I thought ahead of time who I wanted to take a photo with….and I thought of my dad….
Since my mom passed away 1 1/2 years ago…. I have wished that I had more photos of her with me and my children……
I haven’t taken a lot of photos of my dad..and I don’t think I have any of him with just me…and my daughter River….I was so excited to set the camera up and try to get some shots….but my camera wasn’t cooperating…..I took some, but when I got home I realized they were blurry (I had the camera accidentally focus on the wall..instead of on us)…but I’m posting them anyway….though I’ve told myself I must..in the near future….take more photos with him..and this time have all three of my children in the photo!
This post was inspired by Emily and her blog, 3 Boys and a Little Lady……..
I was trying to take some good photos of River’s room for a contest…but typical me…I had the deadline of the contest wrong…so I missed the deadline and couldn’t enter the contest. But that’s okay..I learned a lot about my camera and got some pretty good shots of River’s room. I wanted to get some nice photos of the Go Dog Go murals…and just the overall feel of her room.
I also learned about taking photos for a design contest. You look at the room and think you have everything set up perfectly…then you examine the photos and keep finding things wrong with the photo…..clock should be taken out of shot, stuffed animal not positioned correctly, comforter is crooked and doesn’t look perfect….lighting isn’t bright enough…I took tons and tons of photos and I still wasn’t completely satisfied! I don’t think I could ever make the room as perfect looking as the magazines..I’d have to get rid of all the clutter!
I didn’t want the room to look too perfect..but I wanted it to look nice for the photos. Also, River wanted to be in all the photos..but for this particular shoot, I didn’t want her in the photos..so that was a challenge in itself.
The room has a huge window in it…so that made it difficult to get the lighting just right..I wanted it bright..but I didn’t want the sun’s rays all over everything.
I could probably take a lot more and probably get some better shots…and learn even more…but I decided I needed to be satisfied with what I had….I do love to take photos of my children’s rooms…because they always seem to be changing…and it is fun to look back on how they used to look….especially since we are going to be putting a “big kids bed” in River’s room soon!
River keeps telling me that she wants her room painted a brighter pink…but I tell her she has to wait awhile..until she’s bigger….and then she can pick a new color for her room….I’m not ready to paint over the murals that I painted in her room..but I know one day she’ll be bigger and she will have tired of them….and then I’ll have to be ready to paint them over….but until then….
I love to have children’s books for different holidays…but Thanksgiving books are a bit of a challenge…since we are vegetarian. We didn’t want to have any books that involved eating turkey.
We have found quite a few over the years and I thought I would share them with you…..
‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey – One of my all time favorite books…I love everything about this book…its message, its rhyme and its drawings!
Five Little Turkeys – cute little counting book
The Tasty Thanksgiving Feast by Suzy Jane Tanner – a lift the flap book
Happy Thanksgiving Biscuit by Alyssa Satin Capucilli – a typical Biscuit book with a cute thanksgiving message
Thanksgiving in the Barn by Nadine Bernard Westcott – a popup book that celebrates Thanksgiving in a barn..very cute
Thanksgiving Cats by Jean Marzollo – simple little book
A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting – a nicely illustrated book that has a nice message. This book involves Mrs. Moose “wanting a turkey” for Thanksgiving..so Mr. Moose goes out looking for one…..at one point, when Mr. Moose finds the turkey and is chasing it…he stops the fallen turkey by putting his hoof on the poor turkey’s head..this I didn’t particularly like..especially because it is illustrated…. except for that…it is a cute book that has a happy ending for the turkey!
I am so excited….whenever there is a holiday…my local grocery food store lets you accumulate points and then you earn a free turkey, ham or some type of meat product…….I am never very excited about earning the points because we are vegetarian. Well….today…when I looked at my receipt and saw that I earned enough points….one of the options was a free Tofurky! I couldn’t believe it…our store has never carried Tofurky….but they just remodeled and they now carry them. We have never tried Tofurky..but have always been curious..I can’t wait to eat it! We won’t be cooking on Thanksgiving, so I think I may have to cook this over the weekend…I will have to write about how it is…it even comes with a free vegetarian wishbone!
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.
Wishing you a lovely weekend!
*Inspired by Soule Mama
