The Thoughtful Homemaker

I tried vitamin water last night and really like it. I drank the purple one that has potassium. I do feel revived. I noticed on the bottle the marking for 5 cents when you recycle the bottle in Hawaii and it brought back some funny memories.
I lived in Hawaii when they first started the […]

We are still sick. We have this annoying little head cold. Victoria missed her second day of school. She had a 103 degree fever last night and is still dizzy and weak today. I am also very weak. Taking care of three small children alone is difficult. Doing it sick is even worse.
I woke […]

With the leftover chicken I had from Sunday I made made chicken fried rice. I just fried some onions and garlic. Then I added the chicken and poured a little soy sauce in it. Then I added some rice and fried it all together until almost brown. The kids loved it. Yeah, it is not […]

I am afflicted with an addiction to genealogy. It is an inherited condition passed on from my paternal grandfather, to my mother, to myself. (DO you want me to draw my tree? Ahnentafel #’s 3 and 6 are the guilty parties!)
It started with trying to see if I am related to someone famous. Then […]

By Ryan Lee
Folks, there has been an addiction that has spread out throughout our promised country, no its not drugs,alcohol or pornography, but of a simple video game where u interact with a piece of plastic that looks like a guitar(known as guitar hero). It started when it came out, and wow! how did it […]

I took the weekend off to do research on the Majors family of TN, GA and SC. Genealogy is a lot of work but very rewarding. If you are a history buff, then genealogy is for you. At the same time I am reading a book about life in England during the year 1000 AD. […]

This month is national egg month. Eggs are healthy and a great way to get protein. I love to make scrambled eggs and omelets. My husband loves fried eggs. My favorite way to eat eggs is Farmer’s Breakfast.
Farmer’s breakfast is easy to make and very filling. It can be eaten for dinner as well […]

My brother recently started working for Pilgrim’s Pride and my children think that is real cool. He is a manager at a chicken plant. I rarely get Pilgrim’s Pride chicken because I usually just buy the cheapest chicken I can find and don’t look at labels. Well, I was getting out chicken to thaw and […]

This is my first time doing something like this, but it looks like fun! Thank you Kara!
Appetizer
How many times per day do you usually laugh?
-I don’t know. Probably more than most. My kids can be pretty funny!
Soup
What do your sunglasses look like?
-None because if I had some they would be twisted and broken. Sunglasses attract […]

The blog The Online Recipe Box has a page on the National Food holidays. There is a holiday for each date. I think it is a good way to plan a menu.
Today was National Peanut Butter Day which was interesting because I ate the usual snack my father eats when he is hungry, peanut butter […]

The overnight low will be 14 degrees. I put the kids in their warm pajamas with the footies in them to keep them warm. For supper we ate sausage and potato soup. I added some cabbage that I needed to get rid of. Since cabbage is so cheap right now I bought a few heads […]

Tonight was an emotional night so we got food at the White Castle/Church’s Chicken that is on the corner. I got food for everyone for $8. However, my stomach is still paying a high price for it. Let’s just say that Church’s chicken was 90% grease 10% meat. Blah! I also gave most of the […]

I took Victoria to gymnastics class full of excitement. We had just read a gymnastics book together the night before. Victoria got reay an hour in advance and kept asking me if it was time to go to gymnastics yet.
We get there and watch one of her classmates practice. Her classmate was preparing for […]

I was looking up some information on Lauderdale County, TN and found our old friend Alonso Klutts:
SOCIAL HAPPENINGS—The marriage of Miss Helen Given and Mr. Alonozo Klutts occurred at Humboldt on Thursday evening of last week. Mr. & Mrs. Klutts are representatives of two prominent families, pioneers of Lauderdale County. They are […]

This is a letter dated June 30, 1898. It was written by Ida Pope Majors one of my ancestors.
Dear Aunt Minnie,
An awful accident occurred yesterday. Daughter and I went to pick a few berries for supper when I came back, “Oh me! How sad!” One of those […]

Well, one of my goals this year was to be more organized. I am still working on that. I got the night time routine down. It is the morning routine I still struggle with. I hate mornings, especially now that it is cold. It was 30 degrees this morning. What was strange was that my […]

We ate leftover pizza and leftover spaghetti that I froze last week before I went to visit my mother. We ate fruit and crackers for dessert. I got home late because after going to the library, picking up Victoria, and going to the grocery store, I only had time for something instant. The kids got […]

It was a rough day. Jon missed his Papa so much and asked for him most of the day. Other than that Jon cried in that most annoying noise that reminds me of a scene from the movie Dumb and Dumber! I had to rush to the library because our books were due. We got […]

I love the internet! You can find anything!!
Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole
Approx 1 pound frozen hash brown shredded potatoes, thawed
1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted, either regular or fat free **
1/4 cup water
4 tablespoons margarine, melted
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 cups shredded Colby or cheddar (you can use light cheddar)
Salt and pepper to taste
A […]

On Friday we ate a t McDonald’s! We were driving down to Alabama which is a three hour drive from where I live. I was going to wait, but the kids woke up after a long nap and began to fuss. When we got to my parent’s we ate Taco Salad. The missionaries came over […]

I went to Alabama to visit my parents during this holiday weekend. My husband is already in Virginia. Victoria understands why he is gone, but Jon does not and has been asking “when is Papa coming home?” Aron has been looking for Aziz at the door. Poor babies. I miss him too, but I know […]

I had a rough day yesterday, partly because of hormones. I had a craving for chocolate so I found my chocolate stash and a few pieces. (they were small) I actually felt better! So I guess the chocolate cure is not a myth!

I had a rough day yesterday. I was down and in low spirits. I can’t be a happy homemaker all of the time. Sometimes a homemaker has down days, days when it seems like the world is crashing in on you. My day was slow. I didn’t do much housework. I didn’t even read or […]

“Oh Oh Oh” is now Aron’s favorite thing to say. Aron has discovered new things to do with his face. He scolds and does this weird thing with his face. He opens his mouth wide and says, “Oh, Oh, Oh” He does this when we let him change the channel or in response to us […]

I loved the original 1988 version of Hairspray which was a very campy movie full of interesting people like Rikki Lake, Deborah Harry, Ric Ocasek, Sonny Bono and of course the wonderful Divine! I loved Divine’s performance in the original movie and that is part of the reason why Hairspray is one of my favorite […]

Because I took Victoria to gymnastics class last night, I didn’t have time to prepare a huge meal.
Victoria has gymnastics on Wednesdays 5PM to 6PM. She goes to a wonderful gym. Last night the advanced team was practicing and it was like watching routines that you see in the Olympics. Victoria worked on the bar […]

Easy Chicken Bake
1 package of Stove Top Stuffing Mix
1 lb of boneless chicken breasts cut up
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/3 cup sour cream
1 bag of frozen vegetables
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix chicken soup, sour cream, and vegetables in a baking dish, top with stuffing
3. Bake 30 minutes
Makes 6 servings
I got this […]

Yeah, I saw Norbit. This is the most annoying movie I have ever seen. Eddy Murphy’s Raspushia’s voice is still in my brain, probably killing brain cells. It was gross, and just plain out stupid. The plot itself wasn’t too bad. I think it would have been better if an actual woman played Raspushia.
Norbit is […]

SPOILER WARNING!! I finally watched the movie, The Hours, about three women dealing with mental illness in three different time periods. It is based on a book. The first was the famous Virginia Woolf. Though I am an English Lit major, I am not a fan of Virginia Woolf. She was famosly played by Nicole […]

Yesterday the van died while I was driving to the grocery store. All of the sudden, the wheel stopped turning. and the brakes and the gas pedal stopped working. I used all of my strength to turn the wheel and roll into a Kroger parking lot. At least I got my grocery shopping done.
Today we […]

This was on our menu last night.
Beef Goulash
1 lb Stew Beef
2 Tablespoons of oil
1 cup of chopped onions
1 tp salt
1 cup of tomato juice
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 cup of beef broth
Brown meat in oil. Then add onions. Saute until transparent. Add The rest of the ingredients. Cover the pot and simmer and our and a […]

The whole family went ice skating last Saturday. Because of the military discount, we all skated for $8. I was wobbly at first, but then I got the hang of it.
We loved it so much that we plan to go again.
Even Jon Jon skated. He actually did well.

Another breakfast item:
# 300 g buckwheat.
# 100 g mushrooms.
# 100 g butter.
# 4 ea eggs hard boiled.
# 2 ea onions.
# water, salt.
Boil crumbly buckwheat kasha in salted water. Boil mushrooms until
they are ready. Fry chopped onions in butter. Chop mushrooms and
eggs. Stir all ingredients into kasha, add butter. Put kasha in the hot oven for […]

I have seen the book, French Women Don’t Get Fat, at the book store and wanted to get it. I have heard about the benefits of the French diet. On MSN.com they have a page that features five recipes from the book and an interview with the author, Mireille Guiliano.
I like the recipe for a […]

Spiritual Challenge: Go to the Temple. I need to go to temple classes and do some baptisms and try to be ready by March.
Service Challenge: Help my grandmother. I will write to her and call her and visit her by February. I would like my kids to sing a song for her and make a […]

I went to a Relief Society Enrichment meeting last night. It was the first time I went to church in about three weeks because of all of our illness. I was really glad to go to the activity because the theme was “Back to Basics”. The basics are the things we learned in Primary and […]

They say that after you do something 15 times it becomes a habit. Scripture reading has become long become a daily habit for me. However, I want to make it a little more challenging for myself and my family.
I read a chapter. Then in my head a ponder over what I just read and try […]

Last night I took the kids to gymnastics class for a trial class. Jon Jon went first and then Victoria. This was Jon Jon’s first class. He listened to his teacher and loved the trampoline, but otherwise seemed to be tortured for an hour. I think I will wait until next year to put him […]

This is in Centennial Park in Downtown Nashville. It was such a lovely day on Monday that I decided to take the kids out to enjoy the fresh air after enduring the cold and sickness for so long.

Click here to see her amazing video

Sorry that I haven’t written in a while. I have been battling illnesses in my family for the past three weeks. First, my 15 month old got the stomach virus and threw up the whole time I was at the Mall  of America in Minneapolis. Then, he had diarrhea all the way back home to […]