Busy Weekend

Another busy weekend - I was planning to go to a transfer workshop that a group from Lansing was having on Saturday, but Friday night the daughter called to ask if I could take the girls for Saturday and overnight. Of course I said yes. It was very busy especially because Miss 3 was running a fever and was more needy than usual. We did spend some quality time on Sunday morning - she woke up at 4 am wanting to talk and then decided it was day time at 6, so we got up. She wanted to do some sketching in a "big" sketch book, so I found one that is about 8 x 11 and we did some art. She wanted to draw birds and was really frustrated with her initial attempts, so I drew a rough bird talking all the time about the beak, now the curve of the head, now the belly.....



I worked a crossword puzzle while listening to her saying, "Here's the beak, and here is the head, and then the feathers....."


The bird at the top is the one I drew to show her the parts of a bird; the rest of the birds are hers. I think I have a real artist on my hands.

Saturday was the second day of the hot air balloon festival in Jackson, but since Miss 3 was sick (and sleeping) the hubster took Miss 8 and they had a wonderful time. Here is one of the pictures he took.

Sunday was my day to have Zoë for the day and I just happened to be in town taking Miss 8 home so I picked her up instead of having her delivered. I found a cute little seat that plays music and has a vibrate settting at a garage sale a few weeks ago. She loved it. I can't believe how much she has changed from just a week ago when we were together at the condo. She now rolls over at will - just about every time you lay her on the floor - and has such wonderful control of her hands. Here is a cute shot of her enjoying the new chair.

You would think that having my girl tribe all weekend would be enough wouldn't you? Well, I also got my order of lamb shoulder cut into stew sized pieces from Merindorf Meats and made a lamb stew. I know - is she nuts? - it's 90º out and she is cooking a stew?

I adapted a recipe I found online and it was fantastic.

I used this recipe as a guide only. I don't ever think in ounces when cooking, so I used a medium sized onion, three small red skinned potatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, a pound of lamb stew meat, 2 small turnips, 3 carrots, a sprinkling of herbs including Herbes De Provence. I didn't have any rutabaga, but I did have some lovely baby portabella mushrooms that I used. I added a 32 ounce box of chicken broth and followed the directions except my veggies were tender in about 45 minutes. I cannot believe how good this stew turned out. Absolutely delicious.

I have another pound of lamb stew meat in the freezer and will surely make this again in cooler weather.

It is sure to be another scorcher today, so I think I will hunker down in my art room and play. I subscribe to Lin Frye's blog and have followed her over to Wet Canvas where Virgil Carter is doing a workshop called PAINTING LOOSELY & COLORFULLY IN WATERCOLOR LANDSCAPES. It is too late to get into the class, but I can read along and am going to try some loose watercolors today. I will share tomorrow.

xoxo