Thursday, June 6, 2013

Summertime activities

Company gone, quiet has come, busy doing summer activities.

Today, I spent most of the time sitting on the riding lawn mower. Our yard is about six to seven acres so it tends to be an all day job. I mowed the front yard yesterday which helped for today.

With the lack of family here, during my breaks I tend to check things online. Facebook is one of those areas where I like to check out family and friends. This past week, someone in the Lee family purchased a children's pool for grandchildren. Ashley's sister and Helen put some very cut photos of Lance Bjorn and Kilee in the pool.




I don't know if Bjorn understands what he is doing when he is hosing Keile but it looks like a boy thing to do! They, both, loved the way the water squirted out the holes along the edge and were pretty occupied with the slide and everything going on.

Bjorn loves his little cousin as these photos will show. It seems they are inseperable when Bjorn goes to grandma and grandpa Lee's in Taiwan.



They really now how to entertain each other as the following photos show!




They apparently enjoy imitating each other and the simplest things
make them happy!

I was called as a Family History Consultant a while ago and am in the process of figuring out how to expand the Conner family tree on Family Search. I feel very fortunate to have found the Allen County Library census records online. This evening I was in the Rawlins County Kansas 1910 census and found my grandfather on my mother's side. She was a Conner. I am back to the 1700s after about three days of searching for about 4 hours a day. I need to figure out how to merge the families though. There is lots to learn and I have the tools right here at my finger tips. Amazing!

I went to Winnipeg a couple of months ago for a day in the city. Spent time at a movie and then headed for Bulk Barn to pick up nuts, spices, and lots of other goodies. One of the items I purchased this time was a powdered chicken soup stock. Yesterday I made a 2-quart pot of chicken soup. I was going to put rice in it but changed my mind and used potatoes instead. Such an easy recipe to make and the stock was so yummy!

Chicken Soup
Place the following six ingredients into a stock pot or large kettle.
3 stalks of celery chopped fine
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp dehydrated garlic from Bulk Barn
1 chicken breast and bones from the last chicken. I often will freeze the bones 
and any left over chicken from a meal. 
add two heaping tablespoons of Bulk Barn chicken soup stock and 2 tsp fennel seeds
Bring to this to a boil, turn way down to a simmer and let simmer for about 40 minutes, 50 minutes if you use raw chicken. 
Remove the chicken and bones, take all the meat off of the bones and cut the chicken into 1/2 inches pieces and dump back into the pot.

While it was cooking you had cut 5 regular carrots into small chunks then dump them into the chicken soup. Peel and cut two large potatoes into small chunks and throw these into the pot. Let this all cook until the potatoes are done. 
Serve in your favorite bowl to you hubby and you are bound to make points. We had only about 3 cups left for today after he was done sampling it throughout the day. 
You can add dumpling if you like or rice or noodles. Make it your own and enjoy!
Yum!