The Best Egg Salad

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I used to never have lunch food in my house. The Farmer always ate lunch at his mom's house because he was too far from our house to come home for lunch. I always ate lunch at my mom's house because I was out at the farm during lunchtime, and I still do when I commute to work. At the most, I would have PB&J at the house for the chillens or other such kid food.

(The funny thing is, even though my mom has my brother, sister, and dad, and me at her house for lunch, she has never had lunch food there, either...hmmmm....)

Now that The Farmer and I are eating lunch at home together several days a week, I have had to come up with some good food for us to eat. I really am not one for a plain ham or turkey sandwich. I am totally of the belief that a sandwich is just not as good if I make it -- especially if it is something like plain ham or turkey. Sometimes we eat leftovers, or "layovers" as our childhood babysitter "WillaMEANa" called them. But sometimes we need something else.

So, all of that long nonsense to tell you about this delish egg salad recipe that I found recently on Tasty Kitchen. I have made it twice now, and I love it. I have eaten it as a sandwich -- which is just as tasty if I make it myself because I haven't had it made by anyone else. I have eaten it with crackers. I have eaten it just by the spoonful. It is really, really good.

Here is the recipe:

6 whole, large boiled eggs, coarsely chopped

1/4 cups minced red onion

1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cups pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped

2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano leaves

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 pinch salt and ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients, including salt and pepper to taste, in a medium bowl and serve.

Yes, you read that right -- there is no mayo in this recipe. And it is sooooo good that way.

A word of warning, though. Don't go eating a whole bunch of this egg salad for lunch and then go power walking out in the 90 degree heat. Those two things just don't mix well, and you won't feel so good. Just sayin'.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Nope, not Christmas...

(although my sister has been cranking the Christmas music in our office since Tuesday. That would be October 5th. And I would not be kidding on that...but I digress.)

It is beginning to look like The Farmer and I might actually start building a house soon, and I could not be more excited. We have been living in our little house in the middle of a watermelon/blueberry field for a little less than two months now, and I am already so ready to get out. Our washer and dryer is on the back porch, which isn't so bad while it is still pleasant temperature-wise, but isn't going to be so great when it gets cold in a couple of months. And our cars and floors are always covered with a film of dust. And I can't tell you how many times I've almost had a collision with one of The Farmer's employees as I've gone rushing out of the field to get the kids to school on time -- and then they all love to go straight to The Farmer to tell him about how I drive like a bat out of you-know-where and won't get over to share the road!

But back to the new house...

The only problem with building soon means that right now we are going through the unpleasant, relatively painful experience of deciding on a contractor. I know that it is a contractor's business to bid jobs, and that in doing so they get rejected sometimes, but I just hate that we are ultimately going to have to tell someone that we aren't going with him. I don't like to be told "no," and I don't like to have to tell someone else "no" (unless it is my kids -- I can totally do that), so this just makes me anxious. We like both of the guys that we are working with, and the final decision is probably going to come down to the bottom line, and that just makes this whole decision even worse, I think; I sort of wish I didn't like one and he just happened to be the more expensive one!

The Farmer and I are also having to haggle over what we really need versus what we can live without. This house that we are building isn't one that we will live in for a while then sell. This is our house, forever and ever, amen. So we are making decisions that have to last us a lifetime, at least as far as the bones of the house go. I know that we can make changes on the interior eventually, but not for a very long time (probably), so we have to make good decisions. And this girl is not good with a budget. I would really like to go out and spend a million dollars and have this awesome house that I absolutely love. The only problem is that I don't actually have a million dollars, nor is a bank going to give me that much (and I would not ask, seriously!). But I do have a hard time saying "well, I can live without this because I really, really want this."

I'm probably going to be a nightmare to work with when we start picking out light fixtures. Or cabinets. Or counter tops. Or really anything.

So, while I am excited that it is looking like we are making some progress on the house front, I will be really excited when we have made a decision on our contractor and he is actually out there doing something. Just pray that I don't have a stomach ulcer before this is all said and done!

A Day for BooBoos

I was making my way home from work on Tuesday, and I was pretty happy with myself because I was leaving at a decent hour. It takes me an hour and a half to get home, and I feel like most days I am in a huge rush to get home by 5:30 so that I can start the routine of dinner, checking homework, bath time, and bed time.

Anyway, I was talking on the cell phone and the babysitter beeped in. I told Margaret that I needed to get the other call, and when I answered, the babysitter said in a rush "Christie, I need the number for Miss Louise (my mother-in-law). Bubba fell and knocked his tooth, and it is bleeding and about to fall out, and I don't do well with teeth, and I need her to come pull it out!"

I started freaking out because I am an hour and a half away at this point and can't do anything about my baby being hurt or anything about his tooth, which is evidently out or about to fall out. I gave the babysitter my MIL's numbers, told her to put the tooth in milk if it fell out, and then called our dentist (who is, thankfully, a good friend) to find out what the heck we should do, especially since we now live over an hour from her office. Once I get on the phone with her and she starts asking me questions, I realize that I don't know what tooth it is, whether it is actually out, if it is just dangling, or what the situation is. So, she asks for the babysitter's number, and they talk it over, and thankfully my MIL has made it over to my house by that point. Katherine, our dentist friend, and Louise decide that Bubba needs to be seen, so Louise and I start driving towards each other so that we can meet on the road for a Bubba exchange.

Luckily, Katherine decided that Bubba's tooth did not need to be pulled. It is definitely pushed back a bit from the other teeth, and she said that there is a 50/50 chance that it will turn black, but at least the tooth was saved. Bubba has done plenty of complaining about his tooth being sore, which I am sure it is. I can't imagine how much it would hurt to knock a tooth loose by falling on my face! Hopefully Bubba learned not to run through the house in only socks. Probably not, though.

That was not our only booboo on Tuesday...

On our way home from visiting Katherine, I was talking to my sister, and she said that her daughter had just fallen and her tooth had gone all the way through her bottom lip! She was trying to decide whether the hole in the lip warranted a trip to the Emergency Room, but the pediatrician on-call told her that there wasn't much that could be done. Poor little H was bleeding all over the place and screaming and crying in the background.

Then, when Bubba and I got home, Sassy came out to the car to meet us. She looked so forlorn, and when I looked at her closely, I noticed that she had a blue-green goose-egg on her forehead with a little cut on it. I asked her what in the world happened to her, and she told me that she had a bike accident. She was wearing a long dress riding her bike, it got caught in the pedals, and she did a nose-dive. The result was a bloody lip, a bruised cheek, and the goose-egg with a little cut on her forehead.

Luckily that was the end of our booboos, but my children went to school on Wednesday looking like they have child abusers for parents.

(Which, by the way, they don't.)

(Sassy, by the way, has a problem with vanity, because she kept telling me she did "not want to go to school looking like this." Who knew a five-year-old would care so much about a goose-egg on her head?")

Hopefully that is our fair share of booboos for a while...

St. Simons, Part 1

I need to do a little bit of catching up, starting with our vacation to St. Simons Island, GA, back in August. I have about a zillion pictures (actual number), so I am going to do this post in two parts.

First, we stayed in The Strachan Carriage House on St. Simons. It was awesome -- as awesome as it looks if you hop on over to the website, and it really was kid-friendly. It was an older house (the site says it was built in 1910), so we did deal with some bugs -- mainly roaches -- but we are used to those, so I can't say that we were too bothered by them.

The pool in the courtyard was wonderful. We were a little worried about it before we got there because we were traveling with 7 kids -- 2 1-year-olds, a 2-year-old, a 3-year-old, a 4-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 7-year-old -- that we made a rule that all kids had to have on life jackets at all times around the pool unless pretty much all grown up hands (6 adults and 3 college-aged babysitters) were on deck. The older kids, who are pretty good swimmers and just got better as the week went on, grumbled a good bit about our rule, but we decided that we would rather be safe than sorry -- I don't know why, but we like having those little buggers around. Seriously, though, they got used to it -- they would wake up around 7 or 8 in the morning, eat breakfast, get on their sunscreen, bathing suits, and life jackets, and hit the pool for most of the day. It was hard to get them to do anything else!

Today's post will focus on pool pics...

We followed the main pool rule:

Our sitters with my girls:

Someone gave W a mowhawk...

I don't think he appreciated it.

The girls entertained L:

The Farmer thought a kayak

was a great pool toy...the kids agreed:

Bubba made sure G had enough suncreen on:

Sassy went flying high:

Bubba learned to hold his nose:

The FIVE Amigos!

Me Likey

Trish over at Pink Preppy Lilly Lover (say that three times fast!) is having a little giveaway for this lovely watch, and I sure would love to win it. Nevermind that I just got myself a new watch as a reward for making it through my stressful summer -- this watch would go well with all of my gold jewelry while my other watch goes well with silver.

Do me a favor and don't go over there and join the giveaway, mmmkay?...it will better my chances of winning!

Peace out...

Our Answer To The Naked Cowboy

I think he's pretty darn cute!

Free Time

I don't know what I was thinking.

I thought that, by moving my family to The Farmer's farm, I would have some more time on my hands. I could see myself with a cup of coffee and my Bible out on the deck having a leisurely morning before I got into my work. I could see myself taking long walks around the fields, getting in lots of exercise. I could see myself catching up on this little ol' blog.

Boy, was I wrong.

We can all laugh at me now.

I am absolutely crazy busy all the time these days. I seem to live in my car whether I am commuting back to my farm two days a week or staying around here driving the kids to and from school -- a total of three round-trips (that take about an hour each!) a day. When I'm not driving, I'm cooking, or helping with homework, or working, or fixing lunches, or cleaning, or doing something that takes up all. of. my. time. I have seriously not had a free minute to myself in weeks.

I mean, I'm not complaining (okay, I am) -- I know there are plenty of moms out there who are running around like crazy people and don't have free moments to themselves. I just wasn't prepared to be one of them, and I have to find a little bit of a happier medium before I go crazy.

Or crazier, I should say.

Because I'm exhausted.

But, it's totally worth it to see The Farmer at lunchtime on the days when I'm here. And it's totally worth it to have plenty of room for the kids to run around and play without having to worry about them getting run over by some stranger flying down the street. And it's totally worth it to have The Farmer home at a decent hour at night.

It's totally worth it for us to be a family -- something that we've never truly been, or not a normal one, at least.

I've just got to figure out how to add some more hours to each day...