Potato-Leek Soup

This is one of my daughter's favorite meals, and considering how picky she is, that's quite a complement! :-)

1/2 stick margarine or butter
1 onion, sliced
2-3 leeks, sliced
4-5 Russet potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks
3 cups chicken broth
dash pepper
dash or 2 of Morton's Nature's Seasoning Blend
8 oz. sour cream

Melt the margarine in a large stock pot. When melted, add onion and leek slices and cook over medium heat until they are soft. Add potatoes and chicken broth, bring to a boil. Season with pepper and seasoning blend to taste. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are cooked through and mash easily, 30 minutes or so. Remove from heat and mash until smooth or desired texture. (We like a few chunks!) Add sour cream and stir until blended. Equally delicious warm or cold, and leftovers heat up well, although you may want to add a touch of water when reheating in the microwave as soup will thicken when refrigerated.

Meal Plan Re-Do

The last few weeks the kids have been in driver's ed, which runs from 4:30 to 7:30 PM. That has kind of been messing with meals so we've been turning more to fast food, frozen pizza, that sort of thing. This week isn't going to be a whole lot better, but I'm going to try a little harder to avoid the drive-thru's. Also throwing a kink into things, DS has announced that other than bacon and ham occasionally, he has decided not to eat pork. It's never been his favorite to begin with, but apparently they had a discussion in Biology about pork and pigs, and that kind of cemented his distaste for the meat. The problem is, I have 2 or 3 meals' worth of pork chops in the freezer. Guess what I will be eating when the kids go on youth retreat later this month! :-) Anyhow, here's the meal plan (and I use the word "plan" loosely!) for the next few weeks. Yes, there are lots of carry-overs from the last plan. :-)

Mondays
Chicken and broccoli rollups (thawing for tonight)
Chicken potato pie
Roasted chicken

Tuesdays
Chimichangas
Enchiladas
Beef au gratin

Wednesdays
Breakfast souffle
Stromboli
Tuna melts

Thursdays
Leftovers

Fridays
Potato-leek soup
Pizza wraps
Farmhouse chicken

Saturdays
Dinner out in Columbus
Onion soup
Sloppy joes/hamburgers grilled out (depending on weather)

Driver's Education

The kids are nearly done with their classroom driver's ed class. They just have 1 more class next Tuesday, and then it is on to in-car hours. I'm going to schedule DS first because he will definitely be going for his license before his sister. It may not be as soon as he would like (it will be based on MY comfort level, not his!), but he will test sooner than she does.

I had been been kind of irritated with myself, thinking that I should have signed them up sooner in their learning-to-drive process. Waaaaay back when I took driver's ed (it was a semester class in school), you took classroom first before ever being allowed to get your permit, and so I was thinking that maybe DD especially would have been more comfortable had she gotten "professional" instruction at least in the classroom prior to hitting the road. Wrong! Apparently you don't take driver's ed now until you are ready to test for your permanent license as the kids were told by their instructor that the class they are taking is specifically to prepare them for the test. (Yes, another school teaching to "the test"! Don't get me started..... lol) It's not a class to teach you how to drive on the road as a beginner; they assume you have already had at least half your required hours (25) before signing up with them. So wouldn't "driving test preparation class" be more accurate than "driver's ed?" Just wondering.....

Anyhow, they've enjoyed it so far. They've learned all about street signs and the importance of insurance and have even seen the graphic, gruesome, this-is-what-happens-when-you-drive-distracted/drunk/high-and-crash-and-die films. Then came last night.....Another accident discussion. The instructor starts out by talking about a student he had last year...who was from a specific county school (no, it couldn't be).....who blew a stop sign last summer (could it?)....speeding (what school does he go to again?)....with too many unrelated kids in the car (oh no)....and killed a woman and injured 3 others, two critically (it is!). The un-named young man the instructor was talking about was the kids' cousin. *sigh* And discussion for the next 10-15 minutes centered on what this teen did wrong, how he could have prevented the accident, the lifelong consequences of the accident for the teen and the family of not only the woman who died but also the friends in his car and the baby in the other vehicle who were severely injured, etc. My kids did speak up and say he was their cousin, which hopefully prevented too much bashing, which had started. (It's one thing to use an accident as an example; it's another thing to bash.) This accident had affected my kids last summer, DD especially, and it really brought home the serious responsibility you have when you are behind the wheel back then, but it was definitely reinforced last night. (Their cousin has not been charged yet in regard to the accident. For some reason the Ohio State Highway Patrol tends to take months - 9 or 10 months sometimes - to bring charges in accidents that cause a death. )

So it has been an interesting 2 weeks for them. DS is pushing even harder to drive more and more and is anxious to get his in-car driver's ed hours started. DD has started to show some interest in getting behind the wheel again, although she still says she would rather be a passenger. :-) I know I need to loosen the apron string and let them have their independence (I well remember when I was 16 and wanting to drive!), but it sure is hard! Just trusting in God to protect them!

March Goals

Last month was another month with mixed results. I didn't finish any books, and neither child is cooperating with me in learning how to make meals. :-) The books I'm keeping on my goals; the "teach a meal" is not! I was, however, able to make a huge payment on the credit card, cutting my balance by 2/3, and I'm finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel there. (yay!) So here we go in March:

1. Keep up with Bible reading.
2. Extra payment to Visa.
3. Savings deposit.
4. Read 2 books.
5. Unfinished projects.
Cut fabric for quilt
Take storm door down
6. Bag to Goodwill.
7. Purge bathroom cabinets.

The front entrance storm door is hanging by half its hinges and not closing, so it needs to come down before we get a storm that catches it and really damages something. Storm doors are on my replacement list anyhow, so I just have 3 doors on the list now instead of two. DD figured out how to stop the leaky bathroom faucet without replacing the washers, so I appreciated that. And both kids are really getting into taking a bag to Goodwill every month. So far it's been 2 large trash bags. Not sure the bags will be large ones each month, but even a small bag counts!