The Search for Miss Direction: A Gem of a Day

Noah and Mikayla have decided they are moving to Idaho. I guess I may have convinced them that its' not just about the potatoes as for the past twenty-four hours they have been rambling non-stop about how badly they want to go to Idaho. Remember, we've talked about California and Florida, but my kids want to go to Idaho. Noah has even offered to pay for his own plane ticket if we take them out there. He is convinced there are tons of gems just under the surface that have his name written all over them and are just waiting for him to come and find them. I may be able to nip that theory in the bud just a little with a project I've got in the works for tomorrow. In the meantime,though...

It was another jam-packed day here at the Gatchel's. I've become convinced if there's not 15 things on my To-Do list it must be a wasted day. Just kidding. But this morning after tackling that never ending domestic nightmare called laundry, we took Kayla off to school, then came back here and got Noah off to school a short time later and then I booked it back to OLS to spend the rest of the morning helping in the Bean's class. Since we've sadly lost Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Porto is doing assessments over the next few weeks she's asked me to fill in where I can. So once I got Thing 1 off safely I got to go work with my favorite group of three and four year olds for a bit. Filled the rest of the day with a quick trip to attempt to track down ingredients for tomorrow, that laundry, hanging with the Bean, work and the other usual going ons of a normal Tuesday.

Before we started playing with tonight's gemtastic craft project I served up some more Idaho fare for dinner. I tried my hand (hehehe) at making some Idaho-Style Finger Steaks for dinner. Like cube steak? Like deep fried? Then this one's for you. The batter on this is what really made it, though. Both the buttermilk marinade and flour coating was laced with paprika, garlic, salt, pepper and dry mustard which gave it a little extra kick. Always happy when I get out the mini deep fryer (which just may be the wisest $20 I've spent in the past 12 months) my crew loved these. Especially Noah. I pulled out my mandolin today to try my hand at Cinnamon Sugar Oven-Fried Potato Chips but I should remember that I really don't like to make baked chips. I can never get them to the right crispness without burning them. Think the suggestion of the recipe for 1/8 of an inch (which I used) was pretty unrealistic. These were a flop, I ended up trashing them. Glad I only used 1 potato to try it out... We polished off the cake instead :-p

To kick off the evening Grant and I first gave the kiddos a crash course in how to grow a potato. We haven't had a lot of luck with growing state project stuff so far, but we're going to give the potato a go. The kids think it's hysterical that the potatoes have eyes and I told them they should be careful, if I'm not watching everything they're doing, the potatoes are! They looked at me (rightfully so) like I was nuts.

Then we tried out a project I have been looking forward to since I started gathering my Idaho information. I came across this gem of an idea a few weeks ago and thought the kids would love it. So tonight we got everything together to give it a go. They had a lot of fun and I can't wait to see how the finished project looks in a few days when the glue dries!

Is that enough for this terrific Tuesday? I'm a happy Mama at the moment. I've got two happy hopefully sleeping kiddos tucked in their beds and a happy husband reviewing information on vans because his car is more than on its last legs and its finally gonna have to happen. So I'm chalking today up as a success. Looking forward to our play-doh play date with MOPS friends in the morning. I'm also making some cookies you won't want to miss and the kiddos are going to mine for gems with Grant while I check out this month's PTA meeting. Sounds like a quite the hump day :-p So until then...

Idaho Fun Fact of the Day: The Kamiah Valley is rich in the heritage and legends of the Nez Perce. It was here, among the ancestors of the present day Nez Perce, the Appaloosa horse was first bred, primarily for use as a war animal.