Dinner in a Pumpkin

Ah, Halloween is upon us! My favorite holiday, next to Christmas. And along with it, some great traditions...most of which have been passed down to me from my Halloween-loving mom! This is one of them. Every Halloween she would make us this recipe, and every year we looked forward to it with anticipation...now it is so fun to see my family get as excited about it as I did growing up! Try it this year with yours - you'll love it!

Dinner in a Pumpkin

1 large sugar/pie/baking pumpkin (about 6-8 high and around)
1 onion, chopped
1-1/2 lbs. Ground beef
½ c. celery, chopped
½ c. green pepper, diced
1-2 T. soy sauce
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
2 c. cooked rice
8 oz. sliced water chestnuts, drained

Cut lid out of pumpkin and hollow it out like you would for a jack-o-lantern. Preheat oven to 350. Brown beef and mushrooms together, drain. Add remaining ingredients, simmer 5 minutes. Put mixture into pumpkin; place lid back on pumpkin. Draw face on it if desired. Line a cookie tray with foil and place pumpkin on it. Put a 1-2-inch thick ring of foil around the base of the pumpkin for support. Bake at 350 for 2-3 hours, or until the pumpkin meat is tender (when you push gently on the outside of the pumpkin, it should feel soft). When serving, scoop out the meat of the pumpkin along with the ground beef/rice mixture. Happy Halloween!

Ripe for the Picking

A couple of weeks ago our playgroup went to pick pecans at a nearby pecan farm...did I even know that pecan farms existed before moving here? No! But lucky for us, we are in Kansas, where there is a farm for everything!

It was a very chilly morning but the sun was out and it was a perfect fall day for heading out into the country. When we arrived, the farmer was there to greet us and towed us out to the trees by hayride. Of course, this was Parker's favorite part of the morning!


We got to cruise the orchard, pick out which tree we wanted, and watch the magic unfold as he used a special tractor to literally shake the tree! Some of the kids were freaked out, and Parker was a little cautious, but once he saw the nuts falling to the ground like green snow, he dug it and laughed his head off!



Then we got to go pick them up off the ground and gather them in Home Depot buckets (another bonus for Parker - his favorite store). They said they had a short crop this year due to lack of rain, but we still had more pecans than we could pick. Then the kids got to swing on rope swings, take a hayride to the river, and drink apple cider! What a fun morning!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

We'll get back up there someday! We love you!

It's Not Too Late...

Still don't have your costume? Take Adam Sandler's tips for cheap costume ideas. This is a classic from my high school days...it gets me rolling everytime I see it!

**disclaimer - although this was done in Adam Sandler's more "innocent" days, he does mention the "d" word twice. If you think you might get offended, then don't watch!**

Where My Girls At?

This is dedicated to the three best friends anyone could ever ask for...my mom & sisters! I've been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to have them. Of course we weren't always such great friends, but what's cool to me is to think that although we didn't know it then, we would be best friends for the rest of our lives. We were there to witness a lot of each other's important moments, all of the things that best friends are supposed to be there for, never knowing how grateful we would be later to have witnessed them! It is fun now to reminisce (with adult brains) on how things were and what we were like, and why. Also, I love getting to know them for who they are now, and seeing what amazing women they are and what I can learn from them.

The dirty trick in all this is that all that time growing up, when we all just pretty much annoyed each other, we didn't see how sad we would be when we were all living apart! I hope you know how much I love you, ladies, and treasure you in my life!

A Proposal & a Pumpkin Patch

Our biggest news of the day...Peter just passed his dissertation proposal! Yipee! I can't emphasize enough how hard he has worked over the past few months to get to this point, and I am so proud of him! Now we are officially outta here next summer, and on to an internship! Thanks to everyone for their love & support!

On Saturday we made our annual family trek to Schaake's Pumpkin Patch. It was a gorgeous day to be out and we were really impressed with the patch this year! Many pumpkins to choose from, and tons of really huge ones to dream about affording & carving someday. Parker's favorite part was the tractor/hay ride. The minute it dropped us off, he wanted right back on. Forget the pumpkins!

He has, however, been obsessed lately with watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and will randomly declare lines from it while he's playing. Some favorites include: "'Contact!' he shouts!," "I've got a signed document!," & "French countryside!" To my dismay, one day he even called me a "blockhead." You will probably only get those if you've seen the show, and even then, you will probably need a refresher course. I'll admit that I'm the one who gets him excited to watch holiday classics like these - it's just not Halloween without the Great Pumpkin!

A Note from the Trenches...

My friend told me the other day that I am "in the trenches" right now - and it has stuck to me
like glue. It could not be a more fitting statement for how I feel! Let me illustrate by sharing a scene from my last two weeks - on any given day...

It is 2:30 p.m. I have been sitting on the bathroom floor since 8:30 a.m., waiting for that elusive moment where "pee-pee" or "poopies" decide to show up in my son's potty chair, my head buried in "Toilet Training for Toddlers" in the hopes of finding some easy solution. Parker seems oblivious to the task at hand, playing with his cars, eating fruity Cheerios (initially meant to be used as "targets" in the big potty), watching Sesame Street on our portable DVD player which is now a permanent fixture on our bathroom counter. Tyler is in the Bumbo, on the floor with me, enjoying his Zwieback toast (most of which is on the floor). Meanwhile, Peter is working - either downstairs in the basement, at work, or on campus - the story of his life until the end of November. In moments like these, I like to play a little game with myself. It's called the "At Least" game. Here are my "at leasts" for today....

At least we're all still alive.
At least there is chocolate in the house.
At least I know I'll have a life, outside the bathroom, once he is potty trained.
At least this moment gave me something to blog about.
At least my kids are not crying (at this moment in time).
At least I have kids.
At least I love my family.
At least they love me.

Maybe the trenches aren't so deep after all.