By Nicole

In honor of my most pinned pin , and because I promised to some time ago .  Yeah, photo albums and race recaps aren't the only things I flake on. Here is a step by step post about how I made my first monster truck cake. When my nephew turned three, I promised I would make his cake.  His instructions were to build a monster truck with flames that was running over spiders and shooting webs.  Tall order! I talked him down a little, but I decided to go all out and try to build this truck.  I was currently watching Ace of Cakes a lot back then, so rice krispies had become my new best cake tool. So I carved a rice krispie truck from a giant hunk of rice krispies and put it in the fridge to harden up again.  It was almost exactly the size of a loaf of bread.  In fact, I think I had smooshed two bread pan sized rice krispies together and then carved from there.   Once I was sure the truck was solid, I started frosting it.  I was tir...

Last March, I ran the Hot Chocolate  5k with my husband and my friend.  This is a race recap that is obviously a long time coming.  But, sometimes.... well.  Things take a while. That explains why I'm still putting photos into albums from when my 10-year-old was three.  Ahem. So, back to a race that was only seven months ago... not seven years.  Yay! Once I heard about the Hot Chocolate, I knew I had to run it.  For the chocolate at the end, of course! We live four hours from Seattle, so we drove over the day before and hung out at the Space Needle. We watched Jack the Giant Slayer on IMAX and then turned in for the night. Race day begins early... really, really early. That morning we just walked to the race start with a few other runners we met in the lobby.  Lots of people we met were running their very first 5k.  What a precedent!  My first 5k was our town's local Fourth of July Fun Run.  Twenty-five people, no water...

We are doing laundry tonight.  Real laundry.  Folding and hanging and using our dressers for what they were intended.  Cleaning our own room so that when we tell the kids to clean theirs, we aren't hypocrites.   It's a long time coming, and I had to sneak away to even type this!

There are so many things I would rather be blogging about tonight, but for some reason, all I can think about is my pillow. So, we are keeping it short and sweet. Meal plan for the week: Monday:  Leftover Ham and 15-Bean Soup with Corn and Chives Tuesday:  Breakfast for Dinner - Chorizo, Potatoes, and Eggs Wednesday:  We eat with Great Grandma Thursday:  Venison Stroganoff with Chanterelles, Squash, and Peas Friday:  Baked Halibut, Sprouted Rice Mix, and Asparagus Saturday:  Football Games!  We will probably eat on the road Sunday:  Steak, Beets, and Mashed Potatoes.  If I'm feeling really motivated, I might bake some rolls.

Grrrr.  I love my new KitchenAid.  I hate that this frosting refuses to thicken. Why, oh why do I experiment on the night of the cake assembling? So. This is my post.  It's all I've got.

A few months ago, Jason and I had the house to ourselves.  Something that should have been really exciting and romantic, was actually more stressful and frustrating. I was about to embark on my first ever DNS morning.  We were signed up to run the Tacoma Narrows... which I have run twice before and LOVE .  However, we were undertrained, overworked, and broke.  Instead, we were using a night that should have been spent casually traveling to a nice hotel room cleaning up, looking after animals and working out bills and our budget. I was irritated, sick to my stomach about not starting a race I had registered for five months ago and disappointed in myself for being part of the problem.  This isn't the first time Jason and I have had budget woes.  Now, we aren't on a fiscal cliff or anything, but sometimes we just get lazy and irresponsible with what God has blessed us with. Chores done, outside work complete... we enter the house and get ready to file, shr...

This is just the start. Roses tomorrow!

Now that I have a running plan in place for the week, I am going to make sure that the week's meals are planned out too! Monday:  Today is a little off since I am home with a sick kid.  But I'm sticking with the plan.  Crockpot Lipton Onion Venison Steak, Chanterelles and Potatoes with Peas. Tuesday:   BBQ Pork in the Crockpot, Rice and Steamed Veggies Wednesday:  Dinner at Great Grandma's.   Thursday:   Crunchy Tacos, Beans and Salad Friday:   Fend for Yourself.  I'll be making cakes. Saturday:   My sister is gettin' hitched!  She's feeding us.  And I will be stressing about the cake all day long.  I'm already having anxiety. Sunday:  Halibut, Beets, Roasted Asparagus and Homemade Rolls Yum!!   Hope I stick with this plan.  Sounds delicious.

I haven't planned out my runs in a very long time.  Even when I was training for the NODM the first half of this year, I didn't write down what I should have been running.   Since I have downloaded the Run4Good app and plan to enter Another Mother Runner's challenge for October runs, I'd better stay on my game.   Sunday:  No run.  Stack firewood and do farm chores. Monday:  2 miles, tempo Tuesday:  3 miles and 20 sets of stadium stairs Wednesday: Rest Thursday: 3 miles, slow and steady Friday: 2 miles tempo, 40 sets of stadium stairs  Saturday: Rest The boys practice football T, Th, Fri.  Monday is a crockpot dinner, so I can run really quick before we eat. Friday might be crazy.  My sister is getting married Saturday, and I am doing the cake.   Who am I kidding?  The whole week is going to be crazy.  What better time to start a running plan?

Yep - That's a real thing. I made 12 pounds of sausage a few weeks ago.  This is my third year of being in charge of sausage making.  Jason and I work together on any sausage that has to be stuffed into casings, but I have taken over on Italian, breakfast, and chorizo mixing. We had our first taste of my most recent batch of chorizo, and I really want to brag. Here's the recipe for all you brave sausage makers who loved the movie Chocolat . 6 lbs pork butt/shoulder, ground 5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped 4-5 tbsp paprika 1-2 tbsp dried onion 1-2 tbsp chipotle powder 1-? pinch(es) of red pepper flakes 1-2 tbsp cumin 1-2 tbsp cocoa 1-2 tbsp salt 1-2 tsp garlic powder 1-2 tbsp brown sugar Mix well.  Grind again if desired.  Separate into one pound packages.  Freeze.  Thaw.  Cook.  Enjoy. We had ours cooked with eggs in warm corn tortillas, and it was the bomb. You'll notice all of my measurements are pretty sketchy. ...

I am blessed to have married a man who doesn't watch any televised sports.  Maybe a Superbowl at someone else's house.  We don't have cable or satellite. I am so blessed. But, our boys play Little League... so our life is all about football.  Practice, practice, practice.  Game, game.  Practice, practice, practice.  And so on. Tonight they brought the whole bundle of kids, football players and cheerleaders, out on the field during half time at the high school home game.  I must admit, I like a little Friday night Forks football. And tonight was a good night to be there.  We beat a team we haven't beat in a decade!  Our nemesis. The kids were pumped.  My husband was excited to watch a good football game.  And I did my own little bit of cheering tonight. Tomorrow is more football.  Little League all day long. But now....  Now, I'm researching how to dry and roast sunflower seeds. Maybe we'll eat them at next wee...

Apparently my "draft" Wednesday post didn't publish on time.  Ooops! Sometimes I feel like I am falling behind in everything, and it doesn't just have to be during the fall.  When I'm on top and keeping meals planned and lunches made and laundry done, I start to worry about which ball I am going to drop.   Today though, I decided to embrace falling behind... not so much on housework, but on my personal running goals.  I had finally started again, and was excited to keep moving forward...  Today was a nice day.  The boys had practice, and I was hoping to drag Leilee to the track so that I could get some laps in.  When we got to the school doors to change, they were locked.  Now I could have walked around or found someone to let me in, but instead we decided to play.   I fell for my daughter.  She didn't want to run.  She wanted to play. We played on the swings and the jungle gym.  We slid down the slide, we climbe...

WHAT IS THE "BEHIND THE SCENES" LINK UP?  "Behind the Scenes" is a fun link up where we show those photos - but tell the real story behind them.  The sneak peek behind the scenes, a look past the edges of the photo to the real life behind it.   Read more   here ! Want to  link up ?  Click on over and join the fun.  This is my first link up with Crystal, and I am really excited about it! My youngest (and only) girl at just over two years old.  Cute huh? That day, we were running errands in town and I had promised the kids that I would take them to the "castle" park.  Of course, it happened to be a day when there were too many kids around, and I was alone with all three of my own.   This park is my dreaded nightmare park.   One, there are too many places to lose sight of your kid.  I like parks with swings, maybe a slide, maybe some monkey bars.  I don't like parks with houses and towers and ...