Happy Thanksgiving

I'm way behind on blogging but wanted to post these photos. We are on our way to Santa Claus for Thanksgiving and both the kids are doing what they do best while on a car trip.

Cross Country

Millie was super excited to run Cross Country for her school team. Her first meet was a practice meet and Uncle Pat and Grandma Lucy were there to cheer her on. I'm not sure what she was more excited about: warming up with Pat or running her first race.

She did great at the practice meet and was ready to run the real meet the next week.

The following week was her first real meet at Community Park. There are about 8 schools that compete and a total of about 200 girls that run. Her first meet she did fantastic and came in 6th place. Her time was 7:40. I was amazed! Joe, JJ, TJ, Laura and Mammy were in her cheering section that day.

As one of the team's top runners, she got to start out front.

I was not at her second meet at Community Park but she didn't do quite as well. She placed 54th with a time of 8:02. She was petty upset about it but she was not going to give up. She was just determined to work harder. What this did cause, however, was for her to lose her spot in the top 7 on her team. Each team can start their top 7 runners out in front of the rest of the 200 runners so that the faster runners are not trapped in a crowd of slower runners.

Race number 3 in New Albany before the Harvest Homecoming Parade she had to start in the back of the pack. She did well considering this and she even got knocked down about halfway through when they were making a sharp turn to come back. She still ran a great race and came in 29th with a time of 7:07. This was her personal best and my guess is it may have been just a bit shorter than a mile. But maybe not?? Grandma Lucy and Grandpa Alan and Mammy were all there to watch.

Race number 4 at Floyd Central High School she kicked some serious butt! She still had not worked her way back into the top 7 so she had to start in the back of the pack again. Well, she worked her way through the crowd and came in 12th with a time still to be determined. She got a medal and was super excited about this. She was also excited that my dad GG and Aunt Alala (Laura) were there to watch.

So now her regular season is over and championships start tomorrow. I assume she has worked her way to the top 7 after last weeks race at FCHS so by starting in the front she should do pretty great. Her team has placed first in every race so far. The top 2 teams tomorrow will be allowed to run their 15 best girls on Thursday for the final race. If a team does not place but has a runner place in the top 15 positions of the race, that runner can also run in the finals on Thursday.

Wish her and her team luck!

What a goober. That tooth has come out now so maybe that will make her faster.

Who Needs The Road Department?

We had some pretty strong winds on Sunday and on the way back from a Halloween event (post to come later) the kids and I were stopped in our tracks by a large limb down across the road. We got turned around and made it home and told Rick he had work to do. We had already been sawing, splitting and stacking fire wood all weekend so the kids knew to grab their gloves and get to it.

The kids starting pulling limbs out of the road and throwing them in the ditch while Rick sawed and I stacked.

The benefit of clearing the road ourselves instead of waiting on the road department was we got a load of fire wood. Of course that's not why we did it but it was just a nice little bonus.

Good thing we had those big guns on our team to help out!

Soccer...Finally

Poor Reed has wanted to play soccer for over a year. I missed signups last year at our old church so thankfully I found a league for him this fall. It's where my nephew has played for several years.

Reed was super excited to be on a real team and seems to have a knack for goalie. He's not afraid to get in there and stop the ball. I'm sure one good kick to the face will quickly stop that but until then, he's pretty good at it. But he likes running too so I don't think he'd like goalie the whole game.

I go this way.

I got this mom!

Mamo's Ketchup

Mamo's Handwritten Recipe That Her Mom Used

Mamo's Ketchup was always a staple in our home growing up.  Mamo was my Grandma, she lived next door on our farm.  Before she made it, her mom made it, Big Mamo. I was there as much as I was at my own house.  Every summer she made ketchup and it smelled wonderful when she cooked it.  The flavor was nothing like Heinz's version but it was super yummy in a totally different way.

My Aunt's Handwritten Recipe That Mamo Actually Used After Modifying Her Mom's (They Are Nothing Alike)

This year since I am now living back in my home town, I was able to help with the ketchup making tradition.  My dad is now the ring leader and was teaching me how to do it.   Many of you asked for the recipe but there's more to it than just the recipe, it's a whole process.  Here it goes...

I guess the first step is to plant a bunch of tomatoes, green peppers and onions.  I guess you if you don't garden, you could buy all of those ingredients but what's the fun in that?

Wash and core your tomatoes either peeling first or not, that is your preference.  Cut them in quarters or so and toss them all in a big cooking pot.  Cut up your peppers and onions and toss them in too.

Cook this mixture for about an hour at a heavy simmer.  You need the peppers and onions to be soft and for all the flavors to mix together.  Do not add water!  This will make lots of juice but stir occasionally to prevent burning.

After that's all cooked, you need to separate the juice from the solids.  This endeavor not only makes ketchup but you will have juice to can as well.  You will also have a very messy kitchen and lot of dishes to wash but that's just a little side bonus.

After you drain your juice off and smash your solids to a nice thick pulp (that is the hardest part and no, I don't have a good recommendation on how to go about it), it's time to cook.  Grab the recipe and add in your seasonings.  Put it on the stove and let it cook at a heavy simmer/low boil.  Stir ofter, do not let it burn!

This is when it gets good.  This is how you know you're making Mamo's Ketchup.  When I got off the school bus as a child I knew when it was ketchup making time because I could smell it cooking all they way to the road.  So good!  You really have no idea until you have smelled it.  It's amazing.  This is the step in the process when I picked Reed up from school and before he got the door to the house open he said "Wow, what smells so good?"  It made me so happy to hear him say that.  He knows a good thing when he smells it.

You need to cook it for about 1-2 hours.  It just depends on how much liquid was still in the thick when you start cooking.  If you did a good job and it was pretty thick to start with, you may only need to cook an hour.  If it's pretty thin, you may need to cook longer.  This is also when you can can all that wonderful juice you separated out.

We Spiced This Juice Up A Bit - Can Anyone Say Bloody Mary?

After it's cooked and cooled down a bit, bottle it up.  Any glass bottle will work as long as it's not a new fancy twist off type of bottle.  It has to be a good 'ol pop off type bottle.  We keep and reuse our bottles from year to year.  Can you tell?  Hard telling how old some of these bottles are.  Beer bottles, coke bottles...we don't care what they once were.  All we know is now they are ketchup bottles.

Find yourself a cute boy to help his Grandpa GG operate the bottle capper and you are good to go.

My favorite thing to put this ketchup on is a big old bacon sandwich.  Just bacon, ketchup and bread.  Perfect sandwich. 

And as an after note, most of these photos were taken with my phone because I forgot my good camera, bummer.

Falls of the Ohio

It was too pretty to just do chores around the house today so we grabbed my mom and went to the Falls of the Ohio park. When the river is low, you can walk all along the river bed and see tons of fossils and shells. Of course, low water means no falls so we will have to go back again when the falls are flowing.

Magic Tree House

We have been having some beautiful weather the past week. Now that Millie's in second grade, she is required to do at least 20 minutes of reading every day. She is currently reading all the Magic Tree House books. She has read a few here and there but she has started all over and is now reading them in order. She has been coming home from school and reading one every evening. Since the weather was nice, she decided she would go outside and read in her magic tree house.

4th Generation

Reed started another new school as well this year. This is his third school and he is the 4th generation of my family to go to school there. My grandpa, Papo, went to school there when it was a little 1 room Catholic school house, my dad went there when it was just a gym and grades 1-8 around the outside of it and was run by nuns(still Catholic) and my sister and I went there when it was grades K-6 (Public) with some additions to it and still a few nuns that taught there. Now Reed goes there and it is a Catholic school again. Catholic or Public, large or small, it was always St. Mary of the Knobs.

I was not worried about Reed at all, he's my little social butterfly and I knew he'd fit right in and make himself at home. I actually went to school with both of his teachers and several of my classmates are parents of the other kid's in his class.

Reed will only go to St. Mary's for one year and then he will go to public school with Millie when he starts Kindergarten next year.

He's pretty excited about riding the bus next year with Millie but first he needs to make it through PreK.