chickensense

Hubby took Jesse fishing yesterday for the first time. Jesse was so excited! He caught 2 fish all by himself. He was so proud.

David showed him how to clean them, then it was up to me to figure out how to cook them. (I love fish, but I’ve never cooked it myself before.)

I ended up cooking them using a recipe I found for Trout. I don’t think I cooked them enough in the oven so we put them in the microwave for a couple of minutes, but I still think they were a bit underdone. Oh, well. As I told Jesse, I’m just learning how to cook fish.

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I popped out and snipped the rosemary fresh from my herb garden, and I used organic butter, garlic and lemon. Delicious!

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Grilled Montana Trout

“Trout is stuffed with lemon, garlic and herbs before being wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked over the coals of the campfire.”

Ingredients:
2 trout, cleaned and head removed
3 tablespoons cold butter, thinly sliced
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemon, halved and thinly sliced

Directions:
1. Place each trout onto a square of aluminum foil. Open them up so that the flesh is facing upwards. On one side of each fish, season with salt and pepper, half of the garlic, half of the chopped rosemary and half of the parsley. Top each fish with thin slices of butter, 3 rosemary sprigs and a few slices of lemon. Squeeze one of the remaining lemon slices over each fish. Enclose the seasoning inside each fish and wrap securely with the sheet of aluminum foil. Wrap each fish in an additional piece of aluminum foil.

2. Place fish in the coals of a campfire or on a grill over a flame and cook for about 7 minutes on each side. If you can easily stick a fork into the fish, it is done. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your fish and the fire. Allow to cool for a few minutes before opening to serve.

Printed from Allrecipes.com 5/18/2009

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Jesse absolutely loves his new school, Grace Baptist School! I had no idea of the amount of stress I have been feeling from trying to do everything myself until I began to get relief from it. I am able to work in peace and quiet while he’s at school, and I’m finding that having the peace around me is giving me the desire and energy to get a lot of other things done too!

Jesse is already so much happier, which takes a ton of guilt off me too. In just 3 days I feel like such an immense weight has lifted from my heart and mind! Just knowing that soon I’ll be able to get bills caught up (because I am able to work several hours from home while Jesse is in school) while still keeping my focus on my home and family makes such a difference, and the calm in my heart is so wonderful…

Yesterday I finished and installed the bottom halves of the kitchen curtains I’ve been sewing on for months. They have a darling chicken print panel in the center with black and white stripe panels on each side and for the hem. This change alone has made the kitchen, which has been curtain-less ever since last spring when my husband painted half the kitchen, look so much better that it has inspired me to begin some other cleaning and rearranging in the rest of the house. The cafe-style curtains have also helped keep the kitchen much warmer while still letting in a lot of light, and they make the badly done paint job much less noticeable. Now I have to make the valences for the top halves of the windows…

Today I also re-potted a large plant that was from David’s Mother’s funeral 6 years ago. The thing is tough as nails because it has been in the same tiny pot for all these years yet it keeps on growing. My last few stressful months have taken a toll though: apparently I haven’t been watering it as much because the leaves on the bottom 6 inches of ALL the stems have died. I cut everything back and moved it to a large pot with fresh potting soil and fertilizer. It was so root-bound that I used scissors to slice the root ball almost in thirds. I cut the roots to separate the 3 major stems a bit too. I spent several minutes washing off the thick dust on the older leaves as well. It will either thrive now or die from shock.

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I’m proud to announce the arrival of my first grandchild, Sarra Lilien. My son, Jason, and his wife, Kelly, are the proud parents.

She was born August 22, and was 7lb, 1oz, and 21″ long. She has brown hair and blue eyes right now, but her mom is a red head so we’ll have to see what happens.

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My father died last week. My brothers and sisters, their spouses, and I flew in from various parts of the country as soon as Dad went into the hospital. We were all there with him for his last days.

We all stayed in my parents home for a week afterwards, making arrangements and helping Mom get through the funeral and everything. If it hadn’t been such a sad time it would have been great being together again. At times we could forget the circumstances and enjoy each other’s company. What fun and laughter we had on a couple of evenings when we were most successful at putting away the pain for a while.

I arrived home this afternoon. It has been a very long, painful week, it is so good to be home. But now it is really sinking in that my dad is dead. There was so much to do and worry about at the time. I’m the eldest, I tried to help us all keep going, and to take care of Mom. But now it is just me missing my dad…

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My oldest son eloped this weekend. The only chance I will ever have to see him marry the woman he loves, and I wasn’t there.

I hope no one ever hurts me this badly again because I think I would die.

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