Good to be Home!

Vacation for the kids and I hasn't officially ended yet but we are attempting to get back into the swing of things. We start back to school on Monday. 

I'll share some of the photos from our trip {not very many} and some since we've been home. 

We went all over the place, or so it seemed, on our trip. We left Cleveland, OH, landed in Minneapolis, MN, and then onto Portland, OR. From there we visited Milwaukie, Dallas, Independence, Lincoln City, Tillamook, Corvallis, Medford, Central Point, and Klamath Falls {perhaps not in that order}. We also drove down to Yreka, CA, to visit my mom. And then we went back up, stopping at some of the same places, and McMinnville, OR. Finally, on the last day of 2013, we boarded a plane in Portland, OR, flew to Minnesota, and then home in Cleveland, OH. 

Some places we visited:

Powell's Books

Tillamook Cheese Factory

Tillamook Air Museum, Hangar B {HUGE hangar that used to hold 8 dirigibles!}

the ocean {how can one be so close and not?!}

movie theater {saw The Hobbit 2}

OMSI -Oregon Museum of Science and Industry {Sherlock Holmes was the special exhibit- of which we could not take photos of- boo}

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum {Spruce Goose!}

I feel like I'm missing something. We went all over the place! It was fun to see how some places have changed, and also how they are the same as when we were there last.

And now that we are home- aw, home sweet home- here are some lovely photos of what we came back to *smile*

The outside pane of glass- cold!

Cooooold temperatures! Lots of snow and wind; oh, the wind! The kids spent much of yesterday shoveling and shoveling again. 

Our front yard...the road is there somewhere...

In our backyard. There is well over a foot of snow on the picnic table.

And finally, because it's what I do, I'll share some food photos. Since we've been back, I'm uh, we're trying to get away from the junk we'd come to love for 2 weeks. Last night for dinner I made a rather yummy Chana Dal soup with carrots, celery, chunks of chicken breast and some bouillon cubes {beef and chicken}. No photos of that but it looked like it was peanut butter soup lol. It was good.

This morning I made pancakes- special with no wheat. I found a couple of recipes on Pinterest. For THMers, it's an S. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

4 eggs, beaten until frothy {I used my stick blender; real quick that way}

1/4 cup almond milk {homemade using 1/2 cup almonds per 2 quarts water}

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla {should have used a bit more}

4 stevia packets {Aldi brand}

1/2 cup coconut flour 

1 tsp baking powder

wee bit of salt

To the frothy beaten eggs added the milk, yogurt and stevia. In a separate bowl mixed coconut flour, baking powder and salt. {The coconut flour was a bit chunky so I had to really break it up to make it smooth. Perhaps more moisture in the air than I realized!} Mixed most of the wet ingredients to the dry and stirred. The coconut flour soaks up the liquid pretty quick.  I let it absorb it for a few minutes and then added the rest of the wet. It was a nice thick batter. 

I used a small frying pan with coconut oil to cook the pancakes one. at. a. time. It isn't advisable lol. In my situation it works because otherwise the smoke alarm goes off from the burning pan {need new pans...}. Anyway, I cooked each until they bubbled on top and were 'dry' looking on the edges. It's not like regular pancakes, let me tell you! They don't 'dry' like normal. Flipped the pancake and cooked for a couple minutes. Voila! 

The kids got honey on theirs, I got coconut oil {just skimmed a thin layer to add some moisture}. These are ...dry? But not really. It's difficult to describe. The egg adds moisture while the flour sucks it up. It's an odd combo.

The pancakes were flavorful and good enough that I would will make them again.

Here's a collage of the batter, while cooking and ready to eat:

And yes, the batter is really that yellow. Reminded me of how cornmeal mush looks...

Well, I'm so glad that we are home. It was a good vacation and great to see family all over. I'm really glad to be home!

You’ll Not Find Me…

Well for a few days anyway. I am hoping to get an update post up tomorrow for my garden but the rest of the week…I’ll be scarce! I do have a few (three to be exact lol!) that are scheduled and, as long as all goes as planned, will post on Wednesday, Thursday and next Saturday.

We have family coming all the way from Oregon to our spot in Ohio!

It means I will miss my Monday and Tuesday posts and as you probably can see, there’s no Weekly Wrap-up post today. I still have cleaning and organizing to get done

Hope every one has a wonderful week and I will see you after the 23rd!

What I Did Last Week :)

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and finally Wyoming. Those are the states I sped drove through on my way ‘home’ yesterday. Well, Wyoming I only drive about 7 miles into but you get the idea My week went entirely too fast and yet, I’m glad I was patient and willing to enjoy all of it.

On Friday last week I picked up a rental car (cause my hubby loves me bunches! and didn’t want me to have any problems on the drive) from Hertz. The ladies were amazing. They looked for and got a discount for me that added up to over $70.

The kids and I were all packed and ready to go Friday afternoon- we were all antsy- but we left at 5:30 am (or so) on Saturday. We drove through the little bit of Wyoming to get to Nebraska. I think that Nebraska is one of *ahem, pardon me here* ugliest states ever. It was fun though, to point out the signs that directed to places that we have been to. Like the Archway Monument or Pioneer Village (both in NE) [this photo was actually taken last summer on our way to Wisconsin]

We’d never been any where in Iowa, Illinois or Indiana as a family. But we did go through some of the states, I believe, when we went to Oshkosh, WI, last summer for Airventure. Maybe.

Once you are out of Nebraska though, the scenery changes. Drastically.

Besides the feeling of being overwhelmed by the extreme traffic in the Cleveland, OH, area, it is green. So green. And there are …. trees. If you have those on a regular basis where you are then perhaps you will not understand. In Wyoming (and a lot of Nebraska) the trees are stunted. Sure there are large ones here and there but they are generally twisted and short. Like they have to fight for the sun- or rather the water to remain alive. In Ohio…it’s not like that. I remembered it was humid but I forgot about the green!

We went to the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks and it was spectacular. At least to us. My hubby has already purchased himself a bike and has gone on the trails some. Here is just a smidgen of what it is like there. Check out the camouflage tree  

While we were in OH, down where my sister lives, we visited the towns (and even tried to pick out the houses) I lived in when I was younger. I lived in Dayton, Middletown, and Xenia. It was amazing how I could recall some details- such as the buildings on the corner- but not others- like if the house had two windows or one in the front.

In Dayton, we visited the Woodland Cemetery and my niece was wonderfully observant and directed us to the Wright Brothers burial site. And just in case anyone one is a writer out there, cemeteries are great places for inspiration- really!

There was also a section for the Civil War. Some of the tombstones, throughout the cemetery, were so faded, so old, that they could no longer be read.

Here is one that the tree is growing around and over.

And dd, Lee, got her hair dyed. Thanks to her cousin and free hair dye I don’t know if I should put a photo here… perhaps I will ask what she thinks lol. It’s the wash-out dye. Not permanent. Here is a photo of Lee, Fox, and their cousin, poking her head out (before the dye). I didn’t get any other photos of all the family because silly me, I left my camera (with fresh batteries) at home. In a drawer. Yes, I know…

And here is one of me and my sister  

So, now I am ‘home’ and waiting for a new home I think we are going to love Ohio. I had forgotten that it was a great place (well, from my young perspective and not including many factors lol). It was wonderful to see my sis and her family, too.

And that is what I’ve been up to the last week Now I have to get back to ‘work’… lol.