Ponderings of Theodore--The Young Years

Theo's Thoughts about Reindeer and Santa
(when he was in 2nd or 3rd grade)

The reindeer that pull Santa's sled,

Are nothing but a bluff.

No reindeer live that far north, 

The weather's too cold and tough.

And if no one sees Santa,

How does he get his food?

Because way up at the North Pole,

Growing will do no good.

The only picture I could find with Wally and Theo visiting Santa.

Thankful Sunday--December 23, 2012

I am thankful the days are now getting longer.

Today...

Today, I'm going to take a little time to enjoy

 some quiet Christmas fun.

What are you going to do for a break 

during this busy time?

Thanks to Miss Landers for the coloring book. She knows what I like.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Dec. 21, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions. (Thanks to Simply Being Mom for hosting Food Waste Friday this week.)

This Week's Food Waste

I had no waste this week, but to be honest, I didn't look very hard to find any. But I'm still going to go with no waste. Yea!

I saved some oranges by making Christmas ornaments out of them.

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This Week's True Food Confessions

Some of the food that graced our table this week.

Let's see. We had two work luncheons and a Christmas party this week where we took our new favorite thing--seven layer dip with tortilla chips. Wally took some to a party last week and it seemed like a good idea to take everywhere else we've gone. I think we're going to add a meat layer to it and have it for supper next week.

And speaking of Wally, he made his "famous" Ramon noodle dish which has spicy tomatoes, ground meat, and noodles in it. He has a complicated way of making it, or so it seems to me the simple cook, but it pleases every time. I made one of my favorites, spinach pie. It's very simple and is essentially spinach and cheese between two pie crusts. I got the recipe from a friend at work and I'll be sharing it soon in another post. We also had pizza and salad one night and chicken and cauliflower another. In addition, we filled up with cookies during the week from holiday baking and sharing.

I can't recall that we had any takeout this week, but just as I didn't search too hard for waste, I'm not going to think too hard about it. I'm declaring this week a success. Yea!

There's a Mouse in the House

or Caution: This involves dead mouse talk 

 'Tis the season for field mice to come into our house seeking warmth.  This is an occurrence we have every year and we've gotten used to. We usually find them in the same place--between a couple of studs in our coat closet. Apparently, they enter from somewhere above and fall into this area. Then, they are the ultimate, "I've fallen and can't get up" victims.  We finally figured this out after Ward followed his nose and cut a couple of holes in the wall where he eventually found a stinky mouse graveyard. After that, he put a plate over the hole so it could be opened and he could rescue any fallen mice.*

This seemed to work pretty well until this week. Then we got a smart and determined mouse. This one chewed it's way out of the graveyard and has been able to elude our four cats for a couple of days--an unheard of feat until now. The longest any creature (bugs, mice, moles, voles) lasts in our house is a couple hours before the cats have taken care of it. Just when we think that this mouse has escaped or is dead, we see the cats very attentively watching under a door or a piece of furniture. And there's only one thing that that can mean--there's still a mouse in the house. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'm scared of this little mouse. So wish me luck that today will be the day that this smart and determined mouse will be gone.



Update: I found the mouse and I think the cats won. Now to put on some gloves and toss it outside.


*We have an ongoing discussion about rescuing the mice or if we should let nature take its course between the cats and the mice. I vote for the cats because one, it is very natural and two, I don't want to handle the mice.