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Pasta Favorite

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photoI made this pasta recipe for the boys last week.  It had been a while since I made it and they were very appreciative.  It is one of their favorites.

The boys don’t hesitate to complement my cooking … which feels good, especially when I’ve put some effort into the meal!  Their complements are always sincere … boys, or at least my boys, approaching their teens become men of little words.  They’re not going to say something just to make me feel good!  And these guys have good appetites which makes cooking for them rewarding.

I’ve been making this particular recipe for I guess 9 years now.  It is from Food & Wine, February 2009, and I still have the issue.  It is really quick and easy and makes a great weeknight meal.

We have pasta often around here.  I grew up having pasta at least 3x per week … Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.  We would sometimes have lasagna or stuffed shells on a Friday.

(I have change the recipe slightly to serve 6)

Midnight Pasta with Tuna, Pancetta and Spinach

3/4 lb. spaghetti or thin linguine

1/4 plus 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 ounces (or slightly more) thinly sliced pancetta or bacon, coarsley chopped (1/2 cup)

3/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 cup thawed frozen chopped spinach, squeezed dry

One 6- ounce can imported oil-packed tuna, drained and flaked

1/4 cup dry white wine

 Salt

Cook spaghetti in large pot of boiling salted water until al dente.

Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat 1/4 cup olive oil until shimmering, add garlic and cook about 30 seconds or until fragrant.  Add pancetta and red pepper and cook stirring occasionally until pancetta is golden and crisp.  About 5 minutes.  Add spinach and tuna, breaking up tuna with spoon.  Add wine and cook until nearly evaporated, about 1 minute.

Drain spaghetti, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.  Add pasta and reserved cooking liquid to the skillet and cook and toss until liquid is almost absorbed, about 1 minute.  Drizzle with remaining olive oil and season with salt.  Serve immediately.

Blaire is home now, which is just wonderful.  We had all the kids including Matt and Reagan here for dinner Sunday.  I appreciate our Sunday dinners so much.  Time stops a little.

Hope you are enjoying your week and let me know if you try the recipe!

XO,

Tracey

Projects in the Works

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Things have been just a little more busy here lately and Greg has been traveling some which has added to the craziness!  I also have several projects I am planning/beginning.  One is the powder room.  I am having a particularly hard time picking out a paint color for that room.

This is what was going on a couple weeks ago.

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After this picture I painted two samples of different blues in there ….

Didn’t like either …

I’ve since painted over ALL of those samples in the color I thought would work, but it turns out I don’t like it … in that room.  Love the color though, just not in there.  I’ve spent so much money on paint samples that I am hesitant to purchase any more.  But, I am also hesitant to just purchase a gallon of another color for fear that it isn’t going to work in there.  It is beginning to get a little ridiculous!

So, I’ve just left things as is and moved on to something else!

Shane and I visited a favorite store yesterday

Consign – it Furniture

They are a distributor for Annie Sloan chalk paint.  And they had samples of her fabrics there.   (LOVE)

 I purchased

Old White

and the dark wax

Last year I painted an old dresser with Paris Grey and clear wax.  Love it … and the paint is so easy to use.  Honestly, if I can do it anyone can.  I am extremely impatient when it comes to painting anything.  Just ask Greg!  But this paint is so wonderful that I can use it and turn an old dresser into something that looks pretty darn good.

Here is a little picture of one of the dresser drawers that I took last year.

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I should get a picture of the whole dresser! LOL!

The knobs are from Anthropologie.

My new project is to paint the bookcases in the office.  We’ve had these bookcases for 14 or more years.  They started out in our family room in Minnesota and moved to the rec room in the basement in our last home in NJ.

We needed something for our office here because we gave away all our old office furniture when we moved.  The bookcases  are serving their purpose for now!

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My plan is to post a picture of them when they are done.

Finally, little Shane took this picture of Bella and Scout the other day.

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Aren’t they adorable?  And those boys in the background are pretty darn cute too.

XO,

Tracey

1 Thessalonians 5:8

“But, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”

Landscaping Progress

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I just wanted to quickly post a couple pictures that won’t even come near capturing all the work that was done here this past weekend.  We were so busy working that I only had time to snap a few pictures with my phone.

I started work on weeding the landscaping last week and didn’t get very far!  Or at least it didn’t seem that I did.

Things were a. mess. outside.  And it seemed like it got to be a mess all of a sudden.  The weather got a little warmer and suddenly the weeds appeared.  It was hard to decide where to start and I know Greg felt the same way.

I went to our Agway and ordered 3 yards of mulch Friday.  We had it delivered Saturday and sent the guy right back for more because once we started we realized just how much we were going to need.

A funny little aside.  Shane and I stopped at the Agway to look at plants Saturday morning after his baseball game, which was adorable by the way. Our Agway is one of my new favorite places.  They had all these fruit trees there and I got so excited envisioning a little orchard out front.  I am loving our front yard.  So, I talked to Greg and he said go for it so I ordered 6 trees. (And learned a lot, actually, about pollination).

I also talked to the guy there about the kind of fence we would need to keep the deer out (we have a ton of deer here) until the trees were established enough that we could share the fruit with the deer.  I didn’t actually talk to the guy about sharing fruit.  It was just something I thought of.  The deer could have the lower fruit and we could have the upper fruit.  Anyone know if this would even work?

So, the trees were going to be delivered with the mulch that afternoon.  Well, I got home and took a look at the amount of work that needed to be done and felt kind of sick because it was just so overwhelming.  All I could think was how in the world are we going to do all this AND plant our little mini orchard AND put up a barbed wire fence.

I told Greg I was canceling the tree order and he was relieved as well. How nice was that though that he was willing to work who knows how much more just to give me my dream orchard?  That’s why I married this man 23 years ago.

Back on track now … we had 9 yards of mulch, total,  delivered Saturday and it.  is.  gonzo!   We worked throughout the day Saturday … taking turns working and taking the boys to baseball games and practices.  Then, the boys went to early mass and finished up yesterday while I ran errands and more baseball.

Greg and Sam did a ton of work.  I know Greg was exhausted last night and I was beyond exhausted Saturday.  I was out like a light on the couch at 9:00 p.m. after spending some time on Pinterest and the internet searching how to grow moss!  Maybe I will write a post on that later.

For now, just a couple before and after and before and during.

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I wish I would have gotten more pictures of that particular area because the boys moved rocks from other parts of the yard over here and it has made such a difference to this little garden area.

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Sam dug up some really cool things yesterday.  Some chain type things and what looks like farming type tools.  Our house was once part of a large parcel of land owned by the neighboring house.  It is called “The Manor House.”  I’d love to do a little research on who lived here back in the day.  I don’t even know how old the house is.

Maybe I will get some pictures of the “artifacts!”  I made Sam promise this morning that the boys won’t play around with the tools/chains or whatever they are.  They are old and rusty and I don’t want anyone getting tetanus.  Any of you with boys out there will know why I have concerns!

It actually felt so good to be sore and tired from all the digging, weeding, hauling, etc.  I am very excited to get to work planting now.  I’ve staked out a little spot under the trees out front where I can read amongst my flowers.  And maybe my mini orchard!

Hope you had a great weekend.

XO,

Tracey

New Post on our Puppy

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I had to take the old post on our new puppy, Scout, down because the blog was hacked.  I am working on trying to get rid of whatever malware files (?) were planted and hopefully whatever was added by the hacker has been deleted.  I am not computer savvy so we shall see!
We got this adorable little puppy a few weeks ago.   She is just the best natured dog ever.  
Here she is!
Scout 3 best oneShe has grown a lot since she came to us.Scout 4.9.13scout2 4.9.13We started training her immediately, like next day immediately, and it is going pretty well.  We started off strong and kind of tapered off a little, but I think we have “regrouped” and are ALL on the same page (meaning mom does not do all the training!) and things are going a little better.  She really has a sweet disposition and if we do it right she should be trained very well.
 Greg and Sam are planning for her to be a hunting dog.  They had such a great experience hunting with a dog last week.
Here are a couple pictures of sweet Bella.  She has been a trooper with Scout.  Scout LOVES Bella and Bella really likes Scout.   But Scout is a pup and nips at Bella and tries to get Bella to play with her constantly.   Bella sometimes tires of her antics.Bella1 4.9.13Bella2 4.9.13Spring has finally arrived here!  I took a few pictures outside.

Shane bike #1 4.9.13

Shane bike 1 4.9.13

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Doesn’t spring feel so good?  Everything just seems to become light.  There is no bundling up … no extra layers … errands suddenly are easy to run … it’s just easier to get out the door.  When we had babies it was so nice to be able to go out without all those extra layers on them.

And speaking of babies!  These three are no longer babies obviously.  This is what happens when your baby boys become teenagers (and preteens).  Or at least what happened here!

I have the hardest time getting a picture without someone making some silly face.  I found this one on the camera when I was uploading the pictures from yesterday.

max,jack,samsilly

Hope you are enjoying your spring!

XO,

Tracey

 

Psalm 34:1

I will bless the LORD at all times:  his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Going Out

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This is how we spent part of yesterday.

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This is our third time we’ve been to the ER in the four months we’ve lived in our new home, in our new town.  Three different boys. Three different ER visits.

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Sam broke his hand wrestling, Max had a terrible case of the stomach flu and became dehydrated and needed 2 bags of fluid, and now Jack.  Jack pulled a quadricep muscle during his baseball game.  Poor guy.  First game of the season.  The good news is that there doesn’t seem to be a tear and hopefully he will recover quickly and be back on the field in a week or two.

The readings for last week had the theme of Jesus telling his disciples to “go out.”  Be not afraid.  Go out and speak the news of Him and of His Resurrection.

The readings for the week can be found here:

Liturgical Calender

I was feeling very heavy and the readings and their message was really weighing on me.

 So, yesterday morning I talked to Greg about it before mass.  I told him about how I feel the Lord is calling me to testify more about Him and about how God is working and has worked in my life.  I told him the thing that has prevented me in the past, and still prevents me now, from really speaking is this feeling that I don’t know enough.

“Who am I?”

” I haven’t memorized enough of the Bible”

“I’m not a theologian”

“I don’t even know enough about my Catholic Faith”

I loved the readings for yesterday.  You can find them here:

Readings for Sunday April 7, 2013

They were so appropriate for all I was struggling with.  I just love Thomas (Jn 20:19-31).  I suppose I may still have some doubt … like Thomas in the gospel reading  … although I’ve never looked at it that way until right now .. but I couldn’t help but think …

 He really does speak to me through His Word.

Like there was any doubt of this previously.

The homily felt like it was directed right at me.  And it even brought tears to mine and Greg’s eyes.  We glanced over at one another as our priest was speaking, then we had to look away because we were both tearing up.

The homily told us in exact words that none of us need to be theologians to witness.  We only need to believe, then we are called to testify.

I believe in one God.  I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.  I believe He died for my sins and rose from the dead so that I and may have eternal life.

Nicene Creed

I believe God is at work in my life.

 I take far too much credit for things that happen to me and to my family.   God’s will is a much bigger part of things than I admit, most times.  God is truly the protagonist of my life.

 I am going to try to be obedient in proclaiming my faith.  I can’t say the fear has gone away, but that doesn’t matter.  Because it is what we are called to do.

XO, Tracey

 

Dining Room Progress

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Our dining room is finally almost complete.  I love the paint so much I am a little afraid to hang anything.

Some before shots of the room…

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Moving Day

I took that picture for Blaire because she hadn’t seen the house yet.  What you can’t see is how dirty this house was.

  I kind of wish I would have taken pictures of all the air ducts.  I’ve never seen so much dust, dirt, toys, dog hair etc. Greg vacuumed all the vents (so I wouldn’t see some of them!) then we had all the duct work cleaned after Christmas.

The next picture was taken a week or so later … prior to Christmas.

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We brought our chandelier from our old house with us.

 I never even noticed the detail of the dining room ceiling when we looked at the house.  The previous owners didn’t have a chandelier and had some really odd different pieces in there, like a coat rack, so my eyes never even went to the ceiling.

A little paint….

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We used

Benjamin Moore Putnam Ivory

I thought I had a few pictures of the room painted, but without the window treatments, but I can’t find them.  My files are becoming a bit of a mess in my computer and I’m not sure how to organize them.  :Weary:

diningroom

Before I go on I  want to comment about what an amazing painter we had.  (Hoping he will come back and paint the rest of the house!)

I kept asking myself, “Can grace come by way of a painter?”  Because that is how I felt.  Other than not being able to take a nap for 10 days I really enjoyed having him here!  Actually, one day I did take a little nap … sitting up in the couch.  I swear if I just sit down at 2 p.m. on any given day I cannot keep my eyes open.  What is up with that???

 This is a really great house for our family, but it needs a LOT of repairs … Well, Nate, the painter, took care of a few for us.

 Our front door was messed up.  You had to lock the dead bolt or it would just blow right open.  Well, the door just blew open one day while he was here alone and he took a look at it … and fixed it!  He also found the windows were not sealed. at all. and the ones in the dining room and living room leaked.  (Our building inspector didn’t check that?)  Anyway, he actually sealed the outside of one of the windows in the living room because it was going to rain and Greg was going to be out of town that night and not able to get to it.

 He repaired another door and repaired and patched the wall under the window in our kitchen.

  And, he cleaned the floors when he was done.  Like vacuumed then swiffer wet jet cleaned them.  Do most painters do that because this is the first time I’ve experienced that.

More pictures….

diningroom2 diningroom3

This is my first time decorating with blue and I am loving it!

You can see our doggy gate in the next picture.  Scout has jumped it twice.  My first reaction was, “Bella never did that!”  But, I caught myself and am trying not to compare dogs.   :Wink:

I took it  before I put the runners and candles on the table.

diningroom5

  I am going to have to live with those bright yellow walls in the background for a while longer.  Greg and I are painting the powder room next.

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And finally, I snapped this picture real quick with my iphone while in the kitchen.  It is the view that I see when standing at the island

… where I can be found if I am not in the laundry room.

diningroomfromkitchen

I am working on some pictures of the living room and office.  BUT right now I’ve got to make a pheasant dinner for tonight.  Yes, pheasant.

sam and greg hunt Greg and Sam went hunting Thursday and brought home some wild game.  (hunter terminology?)

I found a recipe I want to try and  Megan, Matt, and Reagan are coming tonight … out of curiousity.

 You can just call me “Miss Kay” along with the boys.

 I’ve prepared some ham and bean soup … just in case!

Look at the best thing Greg brought home….

diningroomantler4

XO, Tracey

Easter

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Happy Easter!

He Is Risen!

Some pictures from yesterday …

Easter Shane dogs effect

One of the best gifts … watching a little boy and his dogs

Easter boys

Greg and the boys

Easter me and boys

And me and my boys

Easter Shane and dogs

We get to celebrate the glory of the Easter season for a few more weeks here.  The liturgical cycle brings such rhythm to the year and I find it to be such a blessing in helping us live our faith.

The readings for today, the Monday in the Octave of Easter can be found here

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/040113.cfm

XO,

Tracey

 ”Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

Weekend with the Little Giant

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My husband has this thing about cutting down trees.  It is something that I can’t relate to in the least.  He has always loved it I guess because I can remember when we were first married him talking about how he loved to split firewood with his dad and brothers.  One of the first tools he purchased was an axe.

So … I mentioned in one of the previous posts that we bought this fixer upper type of house.  We really didn’t know just how much work it needed.   I don’t know if the inspector just got tired of writing down all the things that were wrong with it or what, but we’ve found so many more repairs that need to be done  since we moved in.

One of the more pressing issues this week was that a couple of our windows needed to be sealed, and really. that isn’t that big of a deal, but two of the windows were leaking so there was a sense of urgency to it.

So, Greg decided that sealing all of the windows was something he could do, but he needed a big ladder to do it.

His “Little Giant” was delivered Friday.

I have to back up a little because this was the second time he ordered this ladder.  The first time was while we were at Costco this past spring and living in our old house.  I remember looking for him at one point during the shopping trip and found him by the Little Giant demonstration.  ”Hey Trace, look how cool this ladder is.”  Me, “Greg, we don’t need that ladder.  What are you going to use it for?”  He explained that we would save money because he would be able to reach all the windows and clean them.  I tried to explain that I really didn’t want him cleaning our windows.  That he is getting older and that isn’t such a good idea.  Any woman reading this … that’s not something you should say to a 45+ year old man.

He ended up ordering the ladder.

I think he was really happy in the car on the way home.  Me being me, though just thought it was a waste of money and would sit in our garage and not be used.

Then, the idea hit me.  He could use it to paint!  So I said, “You know what, you could paint the family room now!  You will be able to reach and doesn’t it have some special thing for painting?”

The order was cancelled the next day.

Which brings me back to this weekend, the windows, and the Little Giant.  Greg tried to seal some of the windows using the old wooden ladder we’ve had for 20+ years, but I guess he couldn’t  even reach the top of the windows on the first floor.  Greg promised he wouldn’t go on the roof or do anything crazy with the ladder so I agreed he could order it.  We have this light bulb in the back stairs that is burnt out and it is really high up and we can’t reach it so my first thought was, “Hey, right after the windows he can change that light bulb!”

And all of THAT brings me to Greg’s love of cutting down trees, the house repairs, etc.  We had this tree that was dead right off  our deck in the back yard that needed to be cut down because it was a danger to the house.  The problem was that the tree was right next to our septic bed and would require a professional to fall it because of the bed, fence, house, neighbor’s house etc.  We have the name of a tree guy and I thought that calling him was on the agenda for this week.

Saturday morning Greg tells me he can get the tree down now that he has this ladder.  He explains how he can climb up there and tie a rope around the tree, Sam can hold the rope by the fence at the end of the yard and he can be up on the ladder with the saw and cut it really high up and Sam can pull and it will fall right down perfectly.

I just listened and said, “So you are going to be up on that ladder with a running saw cutting the tree down.”

His reply was, “Well, when the tree starts to fall the saw won’t be running.”

We’ve been married a long time and I knew there was nothing I could say that was going to stop him from getting this tree down.   So, the girls and I went out for lunch and shopping (Blaire is home now).

I knew something was up when I came home … 5 hours later.

Greg showed me what happened.  He cut the top half of the tree, but it fell right into one of the healthy trees next to it and he couldn’t get it down.  Half of the tree was just hanging there against the other trees.  Apparently he and Sam worked at it all afternoon.  They would run with the rope and try to pull it down?  I still don’t quite understand.   I just looked at the rope tied to the top of the tree and then tied to the fence and just kind of blocked the whole thing out.  Other than commenting that it looked like we had a zip line out there I don’t think I said anything.

Sunday morning, as we were getting ready for church, Greg said he needed to go to Home Depot and buy a winch.  I have no idea what a winch is and I guess he didn’t either because he later told us he thought he needed a wench until he looked it up and realized that a wench definitely was not what he needed and he hoped I wouldn’t see what he was looking up on the computer.

All I know is I came home from grocery shopping to see Greg kind of kneeling down at the end of our yard and it looked like he was reeling the rope, leaning and reeling, and then … I saw the tree fall.  MIraculously, where he wanted it.

He cut it up and the boys helped him carry it off somewhere.  We have so much wood on the property it is crazy.  We probably have 6 Christmas trees in the side yard.  I didn’t even ask where that dead tree was going.

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Greg mentioned renting a wood chipper.

I’m tuning him out again.  Honestly, the image I have of a wood chipper is from the movie “Fargo.”  I don’t want to be anywhere near the house the day that project is going on.

I’ll post if he ends up renting one.  But for now, just know …  that burnt out light bulb in the back stairs …  it still hasn’t been replaced.

XO,

Tracey