Marinated Mozzarella

Kristine requested this recipe, so I'm posting it here. It was a big hit with my family.


Marinated Mozzarella

Serving Size : 10 Preparation Time :0:45
Categories : Appetizers & Snacks

1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon minced chives
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound mozzarella cheese, cut into 1" cubes

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the first seven ingredients; add cheese cubes. Seal bag and turn to coat; refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish; serve with toothpicks.

Winter Encampment

Saturday was a milestone for this family. We drove Landon up to Starke to Camp Blanding to attend Civil Air Patrol's Winter Encampment for a week. He wanted to go since you must attend an encampment to become an officer, but he was also dreading it as it is like boot camp for this level.

Unfortunately, right as we pulled into camp Landon informed us that he had no idea what he did with the $20 we gave him the night before. We told him to put it in his wallet with his CAP ID, but he had no recollection of actually doing that. Of course, I fussed at him somewhat (and gave him another $20). I really think he'll find the first $20 in his wallet. When he got out of the van, he had big crocodile tears running down his face. Then, I felt horrible for fussing at him. We had to hurriedly try to calm him down so he could check in. I'm sure it was a combination of the money and the stress of being away that upset him. But it wasn't a good last memory for this mama to have of leaving her baby for a week.

Here's a picture of him unloading his stuff from the back of the van and then heading into the check-in building.



We can read about what he is doing every day here. Pray for all of us as we get through this week!

3rd Annual Meahl Christmas Event

I may have mentioned on this blog that four years ago we decided to forego the annual exchange of gift cards with Greg's family and do something together instead. Even though we live in the same county, we don't work or go to church together (well, Greg and Jeff worked together for awhile), so we don't see much of each other.

The first year, we saw the Christmas program at Dixie Stampede in Orlando. It was awesome! Carys was born a month later, and this has altered what we're able to do a little bit. Last year, we went to the Melting Pot, and this year we took the Italian Star Dinner Train run by the Inland Lakes Railway out of Eustis and Mt. Dora, Florida. We left from Eustis for a 2-hour trip which included dinner.




They have a dome car where you can pay $10 extra and sit in the upper level. We didn't pay the extra, but I guess no one else did either. So, they seated us up there (maybe because we had a party of 11?).

This is the boys' table. AJ, my nephew, is on the far left, followed by Landon and Gerren across the table.


Gran (Greg and Jeff's mom) sat across from the boys with Chase, Rebekah (my niece) and her friend from college, Mary.


Jeff and Kay and Greg and I each had our own tables right behind all of them. Carys sat with us, when she was sitting. The neat thing about being in the dome area was that she could roam up and down the aisle without bothering anyone else. That made it bearable for her.


Greg was rushing me out the door and I forgot my camera. So, thanks to Kay and Rebekah, I have pictures of this event! Here are a couple of Gran with Carys and Gran with Chase.



After we departed the train, we had someone take a picture of our entire group. Once again from left to right: Greg, his brother Jeff, Jeff's wife Kay, their son A.J.,and daughter Rebekah (who is holding our Carys), her friend Mary is behind Chase and Gerren, Gran is hiding behind me and Landon is last.



Then it just got silly, or perhaps I should say Chase got silly!


A fun time was had by all!

Merry Christmas!

Well, I had to go in and wake up the three oldest kids at 8:45am this morning. I said, "We're hungry and we're eating breakfast with or without you!" They got up and dressed and beds made quickly, needless to say!





My parents are here from Illinois, so we had a slightly bigger breakfast than normal. The adults loved the baked eggs, but the kids preferred the apple-topped biscuits. Gerren didn't eat anything. I think he was too excited to eat.

We read the "Christmas Morning" reading from Jotham's Journey. I had to finish reading it for Greg. He can never get through it without choking up. I made it almost to the last line! We finally began opening presents around 10:00am and finished by 12:30pm or so. No, there weren't that many gifts. We just take our time and let the kids play with things as they open them.

Now, since I've decided to use this blog as a journal for my kids, I am listing below what everyone received from everyone else. Please skip this part if it bores you!

Landon - Framed print of Advances in American Aviation stamp collection, Age of Empires III Asian Dynasties expansion pack, iPod Nano (from Mom & Dad), $10 I-tunes gift card with which to purchase the Switchfoot CD he loves (from Gerren & Chase), Crocs and a rolling backpack (from Grandma and Grandpa), Timechart of World History book (from the Rooks).


Gerren - remote control truck, I-Quest handheld game, iPod Nano (from Mom & Dad), remote control dragonfly (from Landon, Chase & Carys), Axle Crocs (from Grandma & Grandpa), paper airplane book (from the Rooks)




Chase - Birding gift bag with fanny pack, bird house & hummingbird feeder, Squirrel-proof bird feeder, iPod Nano (from Mom & Dad), doll tights and outfit (from Landon & Gerren), Mary JaneCrocs and rolling backback (from Grandma and Grandpa), personalized stationery and a butterfly picture holder (from the Rooks)

Can you see the theme of Chase's gifts? Birds! She has fallen in love with all things birdy and has read and learned so much about them completely on her own. This is my favorite thing about homeschooling.

Carys - Dora ride-on toy, Gigi God's Princess purse book, straw-sippy cups, Mary Jane Crocs, Fisher Price Musical Learning Chair (from Mom & Dad), Telephonics Leapfrog laptop (from Landon, Gerren, and Chase), Kid's Aerobed (from Grandma and Grandpa), pajamas (from the Rooks)

The theme for Carys' gifts would be "what will keep Carys from distracting school"!

Greg - BDU set (for Civil Air Patrol), outrageously expensive non-plastic hardhat, My Utmost for His Highest leather updated language edition, pewter keychain with kids' picture, microwave, tons of gift cards to restaurants around his job site (from Linda), Sonic gift card and shirt (from the kids), $$$ (from Grandma and Grandpa)

Hey! Exactly whose hat is that anyway?

We interrupt these announcements to inform you of a car accident in the front hallway!


Linda - Waring professional waffle iron (from the kids), $50 I-tunes gift card and headphones - which will be returned (from Greg), $$$ (from Grandma and Grandpa), box of Godiva chocolate (for both Greg and me from the Rooks)

Family - in addition to these individual gifts, Greg's mom always gets us a subscription to Blockbuster online. We love this! And our friends, the Pillsburys, gave us some homemade goodies and a $25 I-tunes gift card. This will come in so handy with almost everyone having an iPod now.

Greg's mom joined us later in the afternoon for dinner. We had Peppered Ribeyes, Cheese and Broccoli Stuffed Potatoes, Caesar salad, Marinated Mozzarella, Buttery Rolls, and (later in the evening) Caramel Fudge Cheesecake for dessert.


After everyone left, we opened stockings. This has become a tradition in the past several years, mostly because we kept forgetting about them. Now, it's a rather nice end to the day.



I'm tired! Time to get on with my word of the year: REST!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was the conclusion of our weekend of services at the Church @ the Springs, our church in Ocala, FL. We had three services at 4:00pm, 5:30pm, and 7:00pm. My parents are here from Illinois, so they joined us at the 7:00pm service.

Our usual tradition is to have take-out Chinese for dinner. However, we didn't want to wait to eat until 9:30 when we got home and settled. So, for a twist on our usual tradition, we ate at a Chinese buffet in Ocala.



After we arrived home around 10:00pm and put a sleeping Carys to bed, we read the last part of Jotham's Journey and opened the Christmas Eve gift. Typically, the kids each open one gift on Christmas Eve. They've received matching winter pj's, mom-made fleece blankets, new hats and gloves. However, it never gets very cold in Florida, and eventually you run out of "winter" ideas. So, this year, I was looking for a good idea.



Our band leader at church got married in November, and we bought them an item on their registry as a shower gift, TV trays. These were really nice. Every week at our house we have Family Fun Night, where we eat homemade pizza and watch a movie. The kids have been sitting on the floor using bed trays to put their food on. Well, Landon is getting too big to put his legs under this tray. So, we thought the TV trays would be great for this. They loved them.



Gerren put the rack together by himself!



Chase was exhausted by the time we were through!

4th Sunday in Advent

This Sunday comes in the middle of a marathon of 7 "Christmas Eve" services at church--2 Saturday evening, 2 Sunday morning and 3 on Christmas Eve itself. I'm playing one of the keyboards this weekend, so we're there every day. Greg and the kids are working in the preschool. Saturday was the longest day since it meant leaving our house at 1:00pm for a 2:00pm rehearsal followed by 2 services then dinner. We were back home around 10:00pm. We had to leave again at 7:45am Sunday morning and got home around 1:00pm. I didn't do much of anything else that day.

We did catch up on our Advent reading, though, and also opened the gift for this week. It was the DVD of Meet the Robinsons. When we saw this movie a month or two ago, Greg just loved it. He said it was the best movie he'd seen in a long time, so it was a must-buy for Advent.

Where Have You Been?

I saw this neat map feature on several blogs. The red states are all the states I've visited. Not bad!



create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

3rd Sunday in Advent: My Birthday!

Today we celebrate the 3rd Sunday in Advent as well as my 45th birthday! How did I get so old? I remember as a child calculating how old I would be when 1999 turned into 2000 (38) and thinking that was so old! Well, seven years have gone by since then. I haven't decided whether having kids later in my life has kept me young or given me more gray hair!

The day started with church, the last two of four services where the Worship Arts Team presented A Christmas Tale. More on that in a further post. After church, we had lunch at this wonderful local (Ocala, FL) Italian restaurant, Bella Luna.

We have eaten there before several times for dinner. But they have a brunch on Sundays from 11:00-3:00, and I have wanted to try that for probably five years. It was wonderful! We had reservations, so we didn't wait to be seated, and because it was a brunch, we didn't wait to eat--always a great thing for Carys. I got a great pair of Mary Jane Crocs from my kids. Greg gave me a new Palm Tungsten e2. Yippee! My Palm was not holding a charge for very long anymore, and I was losing my patience with it. He got a hard case for free with the Palm, which is also great considering the number of times I've dropped mine in the grocery store. I also got a $25 I-Tunes gift card from him. Poor thing has to shop for me twice in the month of December. He has a tough job!

As for Advent, we're managing to keep up with our reading in Jotham's Journey, usually by reading two or three nights at a time. We miss so many nights every week because of Civil Air Patrol and church.

Carys helped open the gift for this Sunday, as usual, but it really wasn't for her.


It WAS a HUGE hit with everyone else, even though Chase is pouting about something in this picture.


It was a box filled with the latest Murderous Maths books which we hadn't yet purchased. There were also two books by the same author, Kjartan Poskitt, that are "just for fun" books: Urgum the Axeman and Urgum and the Seat of Flames.


I was first turned on to these books by a friend on my homeschool loop who is an "expert" (in my opinion) on teaching kids math using living books. She now has her own website all about this topic. When we first bought them, you couldn't get them in the US. The shipping from Amazon UK was more than the cost of the books themselves. BUT I had a dear friend from church who was a flight attendant with Delta and who often flew to London. I gave her a list, and she picked up all the books she could find in a bookstore there! They were very precious to us! Now, you can get these from Amazon.com, so it's much easier for anybody to pick them up. Needless to say, the Meahl children higly recommend them!