Friday bullets, January 18, 18

It was one of those weeks where I thought it would be fairly relaxed, but turned out to be just the opposite. I'm so glad it's Friday, because I could use some down time.

• We had our social worker visit for the two year post-placement report for Y. and R. I love our social worker. Visits usually last a couple of hours because we are having such a good time chatting. It was also our last social worker visit, since the next three reports are self-reported. This makes me kind of sad. It's been twelve years of social workers... some were great, some were mediocre, and I fired one. It seems odd to be done with that season.
• Our local Sam's Club announced it would be closing. Darn. That's really all I have to say. As a result, last week everything was 25% off and this week everything (well, what was left of it all) was 50% off. I waited for the frenzy to die down and did some kitchen pantry stocking. My personal rules were to only purchase what would store and things I would have bought at full price anyway. Unsurprisingly, the things I was interested in were still on the shelves when I went. My pantry is starting to feel happy again. I had pared it down so much for the move, I've been slowly trying to build it back up again. This helped a lot. See?

• Here is my frugal outerwear tip for the day. K. was playing in the snow earlier in the week, but his gloves were short and wouldn't stay tucked under this sleeves. This made for very cold wrists and he was not happy. I went upstairs and raided the odd socks that will never have a partner, and I wonder why I bother to keep them. I took two longer socks, cut off the toes, cut a slit in the heels, and handed them to K. They worked perfectly. His thumb went through the slit in the heel, the toe being cut off meant his fingers could go in the fingers of his gloves, and the tops of the socks reached up under his sleeves and stayed there. It was a total win.
• Speaking about outerwear, I am in love with my new snow pants and snow boots. I have never been so warm in the winter outside in my life. I actually took Kenzie through the forest preserve on a long walk through the snow, and was comfortable. There really is something to this whole idea about proper clothes. Here are some pictures from one of our walks.

• We did get quite a bit more snow. Here is what our drive looks like.

The drive is going across the middle of the photo... I don't know if you can see the faint tracks in the snow.

• Discussions about Fifi the pig are still on the table.
• D.'s new passion is chess. Well, technically it's a renewed passion. He wants to play me in chess, and I suppose I will have to break down and agree to a game. But the truth is, he is very much better at chess than I am, and he doesn't so much want to play with me, but beat me. I've been putting off my downfall.
• We are now in the 12th or 13th spot for TM's husky puppy on the husky breeder's list. He (TM, not the puppy, nor the breeder) has a whole schedule made up for getting ready for the puppy, and figuring out how to get in all the walks/runs the puppy will need.
• On Tuesday, we left Easter Island and flew directly to New Zealand. It is amusing to me that everyone is most interested in what the meal will be for each country. We say a picture of a Pavlova dessert in one of our New Zealand books, and based on the exclaiming over how good it looked, I think that will have to be our dessert for that meal. (Any NZ friends want to chime in on meal suggestions? I was thinking some type of lamb [did not excite the masses] along with roasted sweet potatoes [also did not excite the masses]. I thought it sounded good. Any other suggestions?)
• I really do think we are starting to hear a bit more language from R. since we started the seizure medicine wean.
• I sliced up all those red peppers I showed you last time and ended up with three large bags full of them. I also roasted half the poblano chiles and have the equivalent of 9 of the little cans of diced roasted chiles. I roasted a lot of chiles last week. I think I have finally figured out the easiest way to do it. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lay the chiles on. Put in the oven for 10 minutes. Check. You may need to turn them. If they are not roasted over 70 % of the chili, put them back in. I found I only needed another 5 minutes or so, but oven tends to be hot. Take them out and immediately put them in a bowl with plastic wrap over the top to let the skins steam off. Here is where I went wrong the first time. Don't let them sit too long. If you let them get cold, they are nearly impossible to work with, After about 10 minutes or so, check to see if you can hold one of them. I found it easiest to peel off the skins if the chile was just barely cool enough to touch. Any cooler than that, and they started to get too slippery. Once you have them peeled, slice them open and take out the seeds and membranes. You can then move along to whatever you were going to do with them.
• One half of the chiles I turned into chiles rellenos. They are so very, very good. They are so very, very time consuming. I think I only make them every nine to twelves months because it takes that long for the craving for them to overcome the memory of who much work and how many bowls they take. I never took a picture of them, I was too busy eating.
• Finally, after having taken a brief hiatus, I have a new article published. My checkbook would be thrilled if you clicked on it and shared it. What Can We Do to Address the Current Problems in International Adoption

[Edited to add... the link to the article isn't currently working due to issues at Adoption.com's end. When it is all sorted out, I'll let everyone know. Thanks!]