When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Russell Family!

It's another gorgeous day here in Pensacola and with it being St. Patrick's Day we made sure to wear our green!

Little leprechaun feet!

We decided to try out slow cooking our corned beef in the Egg instead of the Crock Pot and it smells delicious. I dropped the ball on buying some cabbage, but I wouldn't really know what to do with it since we usually put it in the Crock Pot with the corned beef. I did remember to buy potatoes, though, so I'll probably mash them up with some carrots. Mashed potatoes are the preferred method in this here household!

Mmmm... Can you smell what the Egg is smokin'??

Our wonderful neighbors came for a visit and brought us some tasty cupcakes from our local cupcakery, Oh Snap! A wonderful dessert to end the evening. 

No green beer here... Only cupcakes.

Spring Break is upon us and we expect to make the most of it with this beautiful weather. A beach day is definitely in order and hopefully we'll get to head out of town for a day. It's wonderful to have some time off and enjoy the family. Now it's time to kick back and celebrate! Enjoy!

An Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.


...............................................................................


Epilogue...

Our St Patrick's Day dinner turned out wonderful! The corned beef smoked in the Egg provided a nice, moist piece of meat. I mashed up some potatoes with lots of butter and sour cream and roasted the colorful carrots we picked from our garden. The carrots were  drizzled in olive oil with an onion and some rosemary (also from our garden). We all shared a cupcake and boy, are we stuffed! A perfect ending to a beautiful day!

Don't Take Punxsutawney Phil Too Seriously

Up here in North Florida, we have been blessed with a mild Winter and an early Spring. This is a wonderful departure from the extreme cold we experienced last year. We were bracing ourselves because good 'ole Punxsutawney Phil advised us that there would be 6 more weeks of Winter. Boy was he wrong! Not that we closely follow the predictions of a ground hog, but it's fun for the kids! We have had a ton of rain lately, but the temperatures have been mild and you really can't complain with that! 

Sophie spacing out the tomato plants

It finally cleared up this afternoon and we decided to clean out our garden beds and put some tomatoes into the ground. I pulled our spinach because something crazy was eating the heck out of it and tomorrow I hope to pull up the broccoli. I am pleased that the mild Winter kept our eggplant alive through the season and I am hoping that it will produce again for us this year. The cucumbers and zucchini didn't work out so well for us last year, but our sweet potatoes did awesome. I'd also like to try planting some sweet peppers. Our last pepper plant only managed to produce one green bell and I think it will be worth it to plant them again!

Digging up earthworms

Of course the kids love to dig in the dirt. I have been trying my best to be less controlling about garden stuff. These experiences are supposed to be fun for the kids and the last thing I want to do is to make gardening a negative thing for them. I think I was too controlling last year because I was just a beginner myself and I really wanted everything to be perfect and successful. Well now that I sort of know what I am doing and have had some success and failure, I think it is important for the kids to experience the joy and reap the benefits of eating food that they grow. For the things that I think need to be controlled, I can control while teaching them why things need to be that way. For instance why certain plants need to be planted in sunny areas or why we need to properly space plants away from each other. The kids were more receptive to learning this way and I felt better about teaching them in a more effective way.

Past failures in gardening has taught me to value patience. Just like our own children, we need to be patient and teach them properly. Sometimes we try our hardest only to have failed, but the most important part is getting back up and trying again. I am looking forward to learning more about gardening and teaching the kids about it too!

Thank goodness that groundhog was wrong about 6 more weeks of Winter. Now I get more time to garden!

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine to the soul."
-Luther Burbank-

A Pensacola Tradition: The McGuire's 5K

Bagpipes and Kilts, Oh My!

Every year, the weekend before St Patrick's Day, a local restaurant and pub holds one of the largest prediction runs in the nation. The McGuire's 5K is one of those events that closes down the city for the morning because just about everyone is there. Most of the participants are there to party and some are there to actually run the race. It's a huge St Patrick's celebration and it is loads of fun!

McGuire's is a world famous restaurant and Irish pub that has literally thousands of $1 bills signed and stapled onto various parts of the building. It's a tourist trap of sorts but the food is so good, even the locals eat there on a regular basis. They have been hosting their prediction runs for 35 years!

The Famous McGuire's Double Decker Bus

Last year, there were over 10,000 in attendance. This year there were over 15,000!

With our limited time left here in Pensacola, I decided that we just had to run it. If not for the race, we had to run it for the people watching! The best part of this event are the consumes that people come up with for the costume contest. Just about everyone is dressed in shades of green, but there are those who really dress for the occasion. 

We had a team of guys wearing Hooters uniforms... Classy!

Definitely my favorite! Star Wars Storm Troopers. Yes, they ran the race like that!

The race itself starts and ends at McGuire's. Fortunately McGuire's is downtown so the run itself is very scenic and enjoyable. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. The air was crisp and the temperature was in the mid 60's. That's perfect running weather for me! Warm, but chilly enough to cool the body while running. Hannah, one of our dear friends decided to run with us. It was great to have her with us because although she is not a runner on a regular basis, we kept her motivated enough to run just about the whole thing. I was really proud of her for hanging in there because I absolutely know how it feels to hate running! 

We're so proud of you Hannah!

Me and Matt celebrating our 5K finish!

It makes me a little sad to know that this was the first and most likely the last time we will be able to run this. I don't like to think about doing special things around town just because it may be the only time we get to do or experience these events. I like to think that we are here to live life to the fullest. To enjoy the people around us and cherish the memories we make. I see this clearly now that we are no longer living the life of a military family. We are experiencing things in a different way in that we are not rushing to live life because we have to move to a new duty station, but living life to plant roots. If for some reason we end up planting our roots here in Pensacola (even for just one more year), then rest assured, you will see us running the McGuire's again next year! Making more memories and loving it!

How The Banana Saved Breakfast!

Making Swedish pancakes has been a Russell tradition ever since our wonderful friend Kevin introduced us to his family recipe. In Kevin's family, they like to call them "skinny pancakes." Basically, they are a thin pancake similar to a French crepe. The main difference between a Swedish pancake and a French crepe is the addition of sugar in the batter of the former; while French crepes rely on the filling to add to the sweetness. We've been making Kevin's family recipe for almost 10 years while perfecting our own orange sauce to go along with it. 

Last Sunday the girls really wanted to have some skinny pancakes and since it had been a while since we made them we decided to indulge. The problem was that I had been too lazy to go to the grocery store because of the torrential rain we'd had all week. We had all of the ingredients to make the skinny pancakes, except we were missing one egg. Just ONE! The unfortunate thing was that our neighbors had just left for church so we couldn't sneak into their chicken coop for an egg. 

I had no idea what to substitute an egg for. When Matt did a little research I was pleasantly surprised to learn that you could use a banana in place of an egg in baked goods such as cookies, cakes, waffles and pancakes. As it turned out, I had ONE banana left in the fruit bowl! 

We were very curious to see if the banana would leave a slight banana taste in the pancakes, but no! There was no banana taste at all! We wouldn't have been disappointed either way but what we were most impressed with was the fact that the banana didn't change the texture of the pancake. They were still nice and thin and exactly the way they should be! The only thing Matt would suggest when substituting banana in baked goods would be to mash it up before adding it to the batter. It isn't necessary, but it will cut down on the time you spend mashing/mixing the batter together. 

I won't be posting Kevin's family recipe for Swedish Skinny Pancakes, but here is an Allrecipes.com recipe that is fairly close to it! We do use a well seasoned crepe pan to make these. I don't know how they would turn out without one, but it's worth a try. Substitute the eggs with a couple of bananas if you wish! Enjoy!

Easy Swedish Pancakes

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat eggs with a wire whisk. Mix in milk, flour, sugar, salt, and melted butter.
2. Preheat a non-stick electric skillet to medium heat. Pour a thin layer of batter on skillet, and spread to edges. Cook until top surface appears dry. Cut into 2 or 4 sections, and flip with a spatula. Cook for another 2 minutes, or until golden brown. Roll each pancake up, and serve.

"All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."

~ John Gunther ~

Let's Talk About Teamwork

Two of my sweethearts!

A couple of weeks ago the Kindergarten classes were learning about teamwork and the teachers had asked some of the parents if they could come in and talk about how they use teamwork at their jobs. 

Sophie introducing her dad

Honestly, I didn't think that Matt would be up for talking to 40+ kindergartners and I was pleasantly surprised that he agreed! I was super excited to have Matt come in and talk about his job and Navy career. They are always using teamwork and multitasking for various missions and trainings. 

It was fun preparing for the day! Matt had printed up a bunch of pictures of the old S3 and some of the fellow sailors on a ship doing their jobs. He talked through how pilots take off and land from a carrier, how they refuel jets, attach bombs and navigate through a mission. He also brought in some flight gear for the kids to look at and touch. The kids had a great time!

Giving hugs!

All in all there were 5 guest speakers with the last one being the most exciting! One parent uses a dog as an insect hunter for a local pest company. Yes, he brought in the dog and yes, all of the kids went crazy! It was hilarious! 

It's been a few weeks and the children still talk about "Sophie's-dad-the-pilot!" I'm hoping now that Matt has a tad bit more time on his hands, he will come in more often to help with the kids. They are always in need for more positive role models, especially male ones. Even though I am always at the school helping out, I know that Sophie was proud to have her dad in the classroom with her. She is, after all, daddy's little girl!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

We're really big fans of Dr. Seuss here in the Russell house and we were just so excited to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday! I joked with the girls the night before about having green eggs and ham for breakfast and although they thought it was funny, I think in their heart of hearts they really wanted it. Matt was brilliant enough to remind me that yellow and blue make green, so to use the BLUE food coloring when dying Lily's scrambled eggs green!

Eeew. It looks kind of gross, but it tastes the same!

Do you like green eggs and ham?

Of course Sophie wanted green eggs and ham that looked like the pictures in the book. So that called for my separating the yolk from the whites and scrambling the whites with green food dye. It turned out pretty well except that I ended up breaking the yolk.

It almost looked like the book...

I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you, thank you Sam-I-am!

They were thrilled to have a funny breakfast on a Friday morning! As a part of National Craft Month, I made Sophie a jumper and Lily a skirt.

Using a basic pillowcase dress pattern I shortened the length to make a tunic and added a big candy pocket.

A basic no-frills skirt. Just the way Lily likes it!

My little "Who's" ready for school!

You have to agree that Dr Seuss is a pretty important person. His stories made us laugh, his illustrations are the best and his imagination brought us to new and fascinating worlds. He made us think, learn, rhyme and read. I definitely think that he should be honored by everyone on his birthday! 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

"Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!"

-Oh! The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss-

Happy March!

Oh dear... Time to play catch up and then some. It's been an exciting few days here in the Russell house filled with a roller-coaster of emotions. It's March now and here are the things that I know for sure:

• Matt has officially separated from the Navy and we are no longer a military family. This has basically been the concern for the past few days. Coming to terms with a situation like this has been difficult, like a death in a family. You see the positives, but the negatives hang over you like a black cloud. There are a lot of feelings of helplessness, but on the flipside, you have the feelings of opportunity! It's been interesting...
• There are several special days in the month of March including: Dr. Seuss's Birthday, St. Patrick's Day, the McGuire's 5K here in Pensacola, Spring Break, Daylight Savings (Spring forward!) and the Spring equinox. A wonderful month to start bringing our winter garden out of hibernation!
• March is National Craft Month! This is especially exciting to me... I have had so many projects that I want to start and so many that need to be finished. Here is a list of crafts that I would like to see come into fruition in March: 

A couple of simple skirts, including ones for Dr. Seuss's Birthday and St. Patrick's Day

MADE: A Simple Skirt Tutorial

Lap Duvets for a couple of baby gifts

Molly's Sketchbook: Lap Duvet

A jelly roll skirt for each of the girls. I've never made a skirt this way, so this should be fun!

Moda Bakeshop: Strip-pieced Pleated Skirt 

Easy "applique" some shirts for the girls using printable fabric sheets. Then maybe actually learn how to applique with my sewing machine! I found this tutorial while looking for some Dr. Seuss ideas for the classroom.

Lovestitched: Thing One and Thing Two Onesie Tutorial

One nursing cover that I owe my dear friend Natalie. I should have had this finished 4 months ago... 

Sew Much Ado: Nursing Cover

Burp rags, also for Natalie and for an upcoming baby shower!

Baby Burpees the Easy Way

Button Hair Clips for the girls

BHG: Easy Button Kid Crafts

New couch pillows

Crafty Nest: Easy Pillow Cover with Zipper

And with Matt's help, a pallet bookshelf. We already have some pallets in the garage that's begging to be repurposed!

Over The Big Moon: Pallet Backed Bookshelf

The bookshelf is an ambitious project. I've never built anything before, much less repurposed pieces of furniture. We've done a lot of painting and wood staining, but never constructed. It's times like these where I wish my dad was still here to show me his wise ways of building furniture. He was amazing at building bookshelves, desks, tables and wall mounted shelves. He was a wonderful wood worker! 

Well it's a new day, a new month and in some ways, a new life. It's time to embrace every opportunity and enjoy the good things in life! I love my family and I love new beginnings. Cheers to the future!

 "It's all about new beginnings, laying solid foundations and building strong relationships. Everything we want is in front of us!"

-Anonymous-