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You guys remember Lite Brite? That crazy light box that you covered with a black cloth-like paper and shoved those little pegs into little tiny holes so when you turned on the light, your design glowed?

Well, recently, while working on my new site design {PAUSE} I’m smack-dab in the middle of a site design for my blog. As you can see, as loverly as this design is, it doesn’t exactly fit my ‘vibe’. So I’ll be going retro soon. CAN’T WAIT! {\PAUSE} I stumbled across a Lite Brite online. It’s just as annoying trying to fill those tiny, little pegs – especially when you need reading glasses – yet I keep coming back to play again and again.

My youngest gets on the desktop and I get on my laptop and we set the timer for 5 minutes. After the timer goes off we check each others work out and create another challenge. Gremlin is so stinkin’ creative while I’m too busy rubbing my eyes trying to get them uncrossed! Nothing like kicking your mom’s butt at Lite Brite.

Off to lick my wounds…

And get stronger reading glasses…

Image by mtsofan via Flickr

My mum likes to tell the story of when I was 2 1/2 years old. Apparently I walked up to this gentleman in the church and promptly kicked him in the shins. I didn’t like him.one.bit. The man insisted to my mother that she make me apologize right then and there. She had to persuade my fanny to make that apology but I did finally say I was sorry. {But we all know I wasn’t, right?}

Fast forward 36 years and I still want to kick people in the shins.  The only difference is now I’m supposed to be old enough to know better. Oh, to be that child that acts on their impulses! A part of me thinks if a few more adults were kicked in the shin they might be more particular about the words that come out of their mouths.

But then I see the boys I’m trying to train up to be wonderful, caring men. I hope I’m teaching them to know when to kick and when to give out grace.

Ah, young grasshopper…the teacher becomes the student…

Tuesdays Unwrapped

I was getting ready to write up a post with some of my favorite Indian dishes when I saw that Connie over at Smockity Frocks was having a carnival for crock pot recipes. So I’ll mix the two just a bit. Not everyone really digs Indian food, so I’ll do one Indian dish and one American dish.

Amy, this Indian dish is for you!

Chicken Vindaloo
(adapted from Chaos in the Kitchen)
1 cup green beans
1 cup of cubed potatoes
1 lb chicken breasts
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. fresh ginger, minced or grated (or in the tube)
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
1 T. curry powder
1 T. ground cumin
1 T. ground mustard
1/2 t. ground cardamom
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
2 t. kosher salt (or salt to taste)
Fresh cilantro or parsley

1. Layer green beans, potatoes, chicken, and cinnamon stick in crock pot.
2. Saute onion and garlic in some oil till transparent. Then add all spices and cook for about a minute.
3. Add tomato sauce and stir well.
4. Taste sauce and salt as desired. Pour sauce mixture into crock pot.
5. Cover crock pot and cook on low 5 hours.
6. Before serving roughly chop a bunch of fresh cilantro or parsley and toss gently into crock pot.
7. Serve with basmati rice.

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Connie, this is my go-to, feel-good, super easy dish! (You might want to double this for your family. )

Mama’s Beef-n-Gravy
2 – 2.5 lbs boneless beef round steak
1-2 envelopes of dry onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c water

Cut steak into six serving pieces. Place in cooker. Combine all else and pour over beef. Cook low 7-8 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes and veggies.

Enjoy!