Christmas Cookies

My parents were here for a week to help out while I was on the couch after my surgery. They left super early this morning, so we're readjusting to life on our own, putting things back where they belong, doing laundry, and getting back to doing the normal routine on our own.

While they were here, my mom did some baking with the kids while I directed from the couch. She made chocolate chip cookies with our youngest on Thursday while her brother and sister were in school and then did Christmas cookies on Saturday and Sunday with the whole crew. It was a huge mess, as baking with kids usually is, but they had a great time with all the steps of the process. I have to say, my mom has the patience of Job when doing that kind of stuff - probably why she was such a great school teacher - and it just doesn't phase her when the flour ends up on the floor or there are piles of sprinkles on a single cookie or someone's hands end up covered in food coloring.

We'll be eating cookies for weeks, I think, but the memories the kids will have are more than worth the calories!

Purple toes

Once again, I have purple toes. Lovely. Here's the photo from last time, taken a bit later, just for comparison. As bad as it looks, it doesn't really hurt. I haven't had pain medication all day and can walk on it with almost no limp once I get moving. The first step or two makes me wince, but beyond that I'm feeling pretty good.

Observations from the Couch

It's very strange to be an observer in your own household. Usually I'm in the thick of things - wrangling kids, occupying the dog, feeding everyone, doing laundry, cleaning up - and now I'm sitting to the side of this swirl of activity. The older kids come by and check in periodically and our youngest likes to snuggle up on the couch with me for a while each day. Other than that, I'm just watching the insanity and giving my opinion when asked.

I don't think I really appreciate how busy our family is most of the time. The 3 kids all go their own directions, play their own games, and shift between playing with each other and doing their own things. If the weather is accommodating - or if we're patient enough to deal with wet boots and jackets when it's not - their games flow from inside to outside and back again. When we're just home - which is rare - they eat when they're hungry and have learned how to fix some simple things for themselves (our son is a pizza bagel expert). The art supplies get pulled out frequently, especially by our older daughter, and toys go from upstairs to down and back again. I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard the phrase, "I'm bored," because they all manage to find ways to keep themselves busy.

While it's not really fun to have surgery and then deal with the recovery, I do think it's given me a good chance to see and appreciate what we've built. It's so rare that I get the opportunity to step back and really see the elements that make up our lives, and when I take the time to - or are forced to - I have to be willing accept what I see. I can honestly say that we have incredible kids and an amazing life and I can't imagine how I managed to get lucky enough to be a part of it.

My Left Foot

I had my second foot surgery Wednesday, this time on my left foot. It was basically the same thing that was done on the right, but the joint was in worse condition. My doctor again had to remove the arthritic stuff from the joint (have no idea what that actually is), take a piece out of the bone to shorten it and open up the joint space and then screw the pieces back together, remove a bone spur and bone chips in the joint, and then drill holes to allow the formation of a secondary cartilage to replace what had been worn away. It apparently required a lot more work and resulted in a lot more bleeding during the surgery, so I had quite a bit of bleeding afterwards as well. I actually had to have the dressing changed yesterday morning, but the doctor said it had stopped and shouldn't be a problem any longer.

Now I just have to sit around and let it heal. That's harder than it sounds since I'm not one to sit still for very long and I keep getting reprimanded for being up and about too much. On the up side, though, I'm not having much pain. It's a bit more uncomfortable than last time, but not terrible and I'm already tapering off of the pain medications.

I also had the screw removed from my right foot at the same time, so I wouldn't have to spend an additional 5 days off of my feet. Of course, that means I have the lovely surgical shoes on both feet and have to keep both of them dry in the shower until Monday. It's quite the sight with the shower guard on one foot and a newspaper bag on the other!

I have my parents here until Monday to wrangle the kids while I'm off my feet (literally). They've been doing the school runs, taking our little one to her classes, and walking the dog. Mike has been in and out with work, but has mainly been taking care of me. It's working out well so far, although I think our youngest is a bit tired of being at home since she so rarely is during the day.

Crockpot Chicken and Biscuits

I've been wanting to pull out the crockpot again, but didn't feel like doing anything we've had in the past. I love pot pies, so I thought there had to be a recipe for one in the crockpot. This recipe really appealed because it doesn't use cream-of-something soup. Because I was short on time (baseball sign-ups were tonight and I didn't want to wait another 45 minutes to eat after I got home), I just made frozen biscuits to eat with it instead of baking homemade biscuits on top. I'll give that a try next time.

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken stock
1 roasted chicken, meat removed and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. salt
black pepper

1 batch or your favorite biscuit mix/recipe
OR
1 dozen frozen biscuits

Directions:
Melt butter in a pan and add onions. Saute over medium-low heat, about 7 minutes, until translucent. Add salt, several grinds of black pepper, and stir in flour until it is smooth and bubbly.

In the meantime, turn your 6-quart crockpot on Low. Add chicken stock, carrots, celery, and potatoes. When onion roux is ready, stir it in as well. Cover and cook on low 4-7 hours or until potatoes are tender. Make sure you check it periodically, especially after the 4 hour mark, so your veggies don't turn to mush. Stir, turn to Warm, and add diced chicken and frozen peas.

Preheat oven to biscuit-baking heat. If desired, spray the top edges of the slow cooker to prevent sticking. drop biscuit dough in like dumplings. Place crock in the oven without the lid and bake for 15-20 minutes (usually about five minutes longer than recommended for cooking biscuits on a baking sheet).

Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

If using frozen biscuits, bake according to package directions. Split biscuits and serve either under or over chicken.

This was really good! Definitely a recipe I'd do again and great comfort food. This recipe makes a LOT, but it should be great as leftovers. The kids gave it two thumbs up (the girls) and one thumb down (our son, although he liked the biscuits), so it's easily something we could do for a family dinner.