Monday, July 30, 2012

My pinterests this week!

It was a very quiet weekend around our house!  We had the pleasure of spending time with some of our littlest freinds on Friday night, but Saturday and Sunday were pretty low-key. 
For the first time in a long time, I actually DID some of the things I've pinned on my pinterest boards.

Project #1:  These cute little dishtowels.  Super easy.  Pretty cheap.  I bought some "fat quarters" for $1.49 at the fabric store, so I wasn't out much cashola on a bunch of fabric that I'll never use up.  The only thing I changed in the original design was I added a little stitch in the center of the band of fabric to hold the ribbon in place.  This way, when you go to cinch up the ribbons to make it all cute and scruntchy, you don't pull the ribbon out.  I'm going to make more of these for Christmas presents, housewarming presents, birthday presents for co-workers, and so on.

Project #2:  Salted Carmel Pretzel Bark.  SOOOO delicious!  Pretty cheap, the most expensive thing was the chocolate chips, I used about 1 1/4 bags.  I found that it takes awhile for the carmel to start to thicken.  I probably spent 10 minutes or better stirring the sugar and butter to get it thick and smooth like the recipe calls for.  I also had some grief getting some of the foil off the back, but I stuck the pan back in the freezer and tried again later, that seemed to help.  SOOOO delicious, though!  

 Project #3:  This braided headband.  This was VERY easy to make and I had all the supplies on hand.  I will definitely buy more/different ribbons to make more of these headbands.  I made this one to fit my head and wore it around for awhile and it didn't make my temples hurt like most headbands do.  I recommend doing what the directions say:  using different types, widths, textures of ribbons to create a unique headband.  I would definitely wear this to work with a gray or black sweater and a pair of chunky earrings!

Have you done anything 'pinteresting' lately?

Friday, July 27, 2012

This week in the Daly life...

I was thinking this morning that nothing much out of the ordinary has been happening around here lately.  None of the "You never know what will happen next" variety, anyway.  Then, as I was replaying the events of the past week, I realized that Dave got himself into something new this week:  He's an assistant coach for our younger son's flag football team!  None of us saw that coming!
Dave played football in junior high and high school.  He enjoyed himself a ton at the team's two practices this week.  He said to younger son at lunch today, "I had so much fun, I could have played for another hour last night!"  He's good with kids and younger son is THRILLED to have him coaching his team.  It'll be a good time for all, I'm sure!

Then I was thinking about Dave's other claims to fame:


We married VERY young, this picture was taken when our first son was only 5 days old.  We had him in our mid twenties.  We've been married for an eternity, yet I'm only in my late twenties now and Dave is in his mid-to-late thirties.  Maybe that math is a little fuzzy...
Four kids later, he still has a great sense of humor and is definitely the more patient parent.  He really has an affinity for kids, especially the little ones.
 I took this picture this past spring at the end of one of the longest week's of Dave's life.  My parents (and farming partners) were gone on vacation and Dave had to play "bovine obstetrician".  I think he pulled 6 calves that week.  We don't normally EVER pull calves, these were extenuating circumstances.  It wasn't a great time, but Dave's motto is "A bad day on the farm beats a good day working in town any day!"  And even though he comes home dead tired and filthy dirty, he loves what he does and stays positive through it all!

Here's to a great flag football season, Dave!!!



Friday, July 20, 2012

My tummy hurts...

I wonder why my stomach hurts...  It's 11am on a lazy Friday at the Daly house.  We're taking the day off from 4-H cattle washing, walking, etc., because I needed to bake some cookies for a fundraiser we're doing at church.  (We're raising money for a new Christmas tree by having a "christmas cookies in July sale".)  I made and tasted (of course!) two new recipes out of this month's Taste of Home magazine:
Lemon-on-Lemon Iced Cookies
Red Velvet Frosted Cookies


The cookies all turned out good, but perhaps adding them to a stomach full of sprinkles-covered donut and  Coca-Cola wasn't the best idea...

I think I'll try and make it all better with leftover hot dogs for lunch.  Yeah, that should work.

Have you tried any new recipes lately?  Please share! 

P.S. If you want the recipes for these cookies, let me know!  The online versions of these recipes haven't been released yet (they are "print exclusive").

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The glass is definitely half empty...

Well, July's more than halfway over now.  School starts on August 20th for me, and the 22nd for the kids.  What do I have to show for my summer break so far?


A new sister-in-law!
A couple of nice lookin' steers ready for the 4-H fair!
Fun times at Gettysburg with the next generation of Dalys.
A 5 year old!
Two halter-broke calves, also ready for a wild week at the fair!  (Bruises, scrapes, and rope burns not shown.)


Along with A LOT of dead grass and stressed corn and beans, a few more miles on my running shoes (but not as many as I'd hoped), and a decent tan.
 

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Shameless...

I mentioned in my last post that our main motivation for going to PA for vacation was to celebrate a family wedding.  We started off our vacation in Lancaster Co., PA, where my husband's sister lives with her family.  On day 2 of our wild and crazy PA vaca, we got up early (in a new time zone, to boot!) and picked up our very own tour guide, brother-in-law Steve.    He took us for a drive out into the countryside so that we could "gawk" at the Amish and Mennonite people as they were beginning their day. 

It was a beautiful warm, sunny Thursday morning and the Amish and Mennonite communities were hard at work doing various phases of hay making.


Side bar:  I LOVE hay.  I would buy the Yankee Candle scented like freshly-mown hay, if they made one.  I may some day eat it myself.  Well, probably not. 


The Amish and Mennonite farmers seem to do what we call "strip farming".  Instead of taking a huge field and planting it in only one crop, they divide the large field into strips:  a strip of hay, a strip of corn, a strip of hay, a strip of corn, and so on until they run out of field.  We don't know why, but one theory is that the rows on the end produce better, so by farming in strips, you have more end rows.  My theory is that the strip of hay is just the right amount of work for one day.  Why bite off more than you can chew? 
We drove around for quite a long time, just enjoying watching the young men doing their haymaking behind their majestic horses.  The horses were pulling motors that would run the implements.  Brother-in-law Steve explained the different levels of the religous orders and how some families or groups will use some modern conviences to varying degrees, like motors, tractors with steel wheels, and cars with no chrome.
At this particular field, a young boy was riding along.  I wonder if his mom said, "Go with your older brother, you're driving me crazy this morning!"... Or maybe his dad thought it was time he learned how to operate that contraption (which was actually a hay mower)... Or maybe he was actually needed for this task.  It's too bad you can't see it more clearly, but the younger boy isn't wearing any shoes!  A few miles down the road we saw another boy about that little guy's size running across a freshly mown field BAREFOOT bringing the bigger boy a water jug.  I can barely walk across a sidewalk barefoot, let alone a hay field!!

I don't know if it's normally laundry day on Thursday, or if every day is laundry day, but most every farm had laundry hung out to dry.  The Amish and Mennonite run their laundry lines on a pully system that is attached to the top of the barn!  Imagine laundry flapping in the breeze from the middle of the yard, all the way to the top of the barn!!!  It was really a site to see.  I didn't take a picture because I thought that was maybe a little too much shameless privacy invasion on my part...

In conclusion, I am very interested in becoming Mennonite (Amish is too strict for me, I think).  I would happily embrace the quietness, the peacefulness, the extra work, the solitude, if it meant I never had to go to WalMart again.

(p.s. They go to WalMart, too, according to my sister who went to college in Southern Illinois.)

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

My pilgrimage to Philadelphia

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to Pennsylvania!   Our main objective was to celebrate my brother-in-law's wedding in Gettysburg.  After the fantastic wedding festivities and making some wonderful memories with the rest of the Daly family, we headed east to Philadelphia. 

You may have learned by now that I am a HUGE Rocky Balboa fan.  My friend told me to watch the original Rocky movie before my first 5K race 3 years ago.  Well, the night that I watched Rocky for the first time was right up there with my first kiss, the birth of my children, etc.:  I fell in love.  I fell in love with what Rocky stands for:  DETERMINATION.

What I love about Rocky is how he sets his mind to something and does it, how he goes the whole 15 rounds, and how when it's all over with, when his eyes are swollen shut and he can barely stand up, the first person on his mind is Adrian.  I have only watched the first four movies, I'm saving Rocky V for a special occassion.  I have favorite parts in the first four Rockys, but I think my favorite movie is the original Rocky.  I have it mostly memorized.  In fact, when I'm bored, I replay my favorite scenes in my head. 

My favorite scenes are:
1.  When Adrian's brother blows up at her and kicks her out.  She runs off to her bedroom, and Rocky comes in and she says, "Are you looking for a roommate?"  and Rocky says, "Absolutely".
2.  I love when Rocky takes Adrian to his apartment for the first time and they kiss and then slide down the wall.  She was so shy and innocent and Rocky was so gentle and loving.... sigh.....
3.  Or the part the night before the fight when Rocky and Adrian are lying in his tiny little bed and he's all vulnerable and he says, "Who am I kiddin'? I ain't even in the guy's league...It don't matter, 'cause I was nobody before...I was nobody. That don't matter either, ya know...It really don't matter if I lose this fight. It really don't matter if this guy opens my head, either. 'Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed. And if I can go that distance, ya see, and that bell rings, ya know, and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, ya see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood."

So, the first place I drug my family when we got to Philli was, of course, the Philadelphia Art Museum.  I ran the steps (that's me blowing the rest of my family out of the water!):
When I got to the top, I sceamed, "ADRIAN", even though I know Rocky didn't in the movie, but I think he was thinking about it:
Take a look at the people in the background.  Perhaps I was behaving a little 'over-the-top'.  I was very excited, though. 

 
I got a picture next to his bronze statue that was originally placed at the top of the steps, but got moved to the grounds below the museum for some reason...
And, then the following day, which happened to be my 35th birthday, we ended our day of historical sight seeing with a supper of Philli Cheese Steaks --with 'Whiz'-- at "Sonny's Cheese Steaks", a great little mom & pop place with excellent decorating taste!