Today was officially a baking day for me. 2 dozen apple muffins, a batch of oatmeal applesauce cookies, a loaf of bread or two (in the breadmaker) and a double batch of sugar cookies. Thank goodness the weather was A LOT more baking friendly! Oh, and don’t forget the pie!

I tried a new recipe today – Jell-o Fruity Strawberry Pie off the kraftcanada.com site.

1 1/4 cups graham crumbs

1/4 cup butter

2/3 cup boiling water

1 pkg (85 g) strawberry jell-o powder

ice cubes

1 1/2 cups thawed cool whip whipped topping

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 cup sliced fresh strawberries (I ended up using more than that on top)

Mix crumbs and butter; press firmly onto bottom and up the side of a 9-inch pie plate

Stir bowling water into dry jelly powder in large bowl at least 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add enough ice to cold water to measure 1 cup. Add to jelly; stir until slightly thickened. Remove any unmelted ice.

Add whipped topping; stir with a whisk until well blended. Stir in chopped strawberries. Refrigerate 20-30 min. or until mixture is very thick and will mound. Spoon into crust.

Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight until firm. Top with sliced strawberries. Store in refrigerator.

PIE

Our morning of schooling consisted of the letter T and colouring rainbows for our lapbooks. We have a rainbow up on the wall from when we did weather last year so the boys were quick to draw the connection and work out the colour order. (Though I did have to do Emanuel’s for him) Now that we managed to get some larger brads today I am hoping to start the putting together of the lapbooks early next week. Though we do need a few more activities to put in first!

For a baby who slept in until 9:30 this morning Trinity was a VERY angry baby… I think she is mad that we don’t have any 50% whole wheat bread made (we are out of honey). She would go over to where we have the bread on the board and make gestures for some and then throw it on the floor when she saw what it was!!! Well that got her sent to naptime and QUICK! She has made my spot in the livingroom hers now – crumbs and all… we are in a bit of a tug of war over my seat and my sewing things. She takes great joy in tugging down all my patterns onto the floor and examining my floss.

Ken had a banner day today – haircut (talk about yummy!)… and believe me it was BEYOND time for that, and then meeting his very first GP in Canada. The only times he has needed a doctor since moving here from Minnesota was in Emergency (there was the time he broke his toe on the twins’ cribs!) but the specialists he sees now wanted him to have a GP here in case of need. He had a very long wait in the waiting room but found that his experience with the doctor was a positive thing. Even though the doctor was super behind he took the time to talk to Ken and read through the faxes they sent with his information. He goes back in 4 weeks for another appointment.

Today was another stocking stitching day (when Trinity wasn’t grabbing things and running off), but Ken is well on his way to getting another pattern up for me to work on. I think it will be Tux (Linux) BEFORE the art by our boys, but I am excited. I am finding I have more and more ideas as to things I would like to do! I have this idea about a hangman piece (like the game)… hopefully eventually I will see other people’s work on my patterns!!

Our plans have been… altered for tomorrow… we are staying home. The meetings Ken was supposed to go to are… cancelled. I am a bit sad about this as we were supposed to head over to my brother’s and see our nephew… I know that he was excited about this, but no meetings = no gas money and it is a 3 1/2 hour drive. I am hoping to talk to my mom and see if we can get a day when she can go with us and share the cost of gas. So quite the downer – especially when you add all the baking I did today FOR tomorrow on top of it. Told my mom on Saturday she and Mike will take home baking.

I had a very special evening tonight. I had been saving 20.00 with my surveys and the like and today decided to spend it. So the whole family packed up in the van and headed over the THE Mall. I actually went into Sephora with the intent to buy! For 20.00 I got a nice little sampling of eyeshadow (and joined the free point club – spend 100.00 and get a free gift – going to take a while!).

I turned it over and SURPRISE there was also a little bit of blush and lip gloss! Bonus! So now I can play around with it and the next time I have some cash to spend on myself maybe get something more adventurous! (Karyn is rubbing off one me!)

Ken also surprised me with another of my favourites – the newest Gintama manga! I do so love this series… it is the only one out of the 3 or 4 I like to collect that I am actually still attempting to stay current with. So tomorrow morning I am going to take a little time and do a little reading in the tub!

So with our changed plans I am going to take tomorrow to get caught up… Ken is going to focus on doing some of the schooling with the boys on his own and I am going to attempt to sort out the weekend and house. I may have sold my two Kijiji adds to a lady as well! Not bad and definitely an incentive to post more! Just have to sort through our stuff and look for more hidden gems. Wish me luck!!!