I just made the best Beef Barley Soup EVER!! And of course it was a total accident like most of my food.

I made a pot roast for dinner. Did the normal deal with that, floured and seasoned the meat, shoved some garlic into it, seared it with oil, added water half way up and threw a lid on it. Oh, I threw in a couple beef bouillon cubes in it too. An hour or so later, I tasted the broth and it was very bland so I added salt, pepper and some garlic salt. A while later I added chopped onion, fresh tomatoes and carrots. Let it finish cooking. When it was done there was a ton of liquid left so I went to make gravy with it. Added some flour but as it was thickening, I was thinking of soup. So I didn't let it get to thick.

When dinner was over, I took all the left over meat, chopped it up, threw in all the left over carrots, added a half a bag of barley and some more water. I then turned the stove back up and walked away. Uhmmmm and forgot about it. OOOPPSSS. Hee hee hee. When the kids came in for the meds/vitamins at bed time, I walked into the kitchen and said, OH CRAP!! I ran over to it and discovered that unstirred barley burns to the bottom of the pan. Ooops again. So I dumped it into another pot and scrapped the unburnt layer off the bottom of the pan and put it in the other. I stirred and tasted and WAAPOW!! IT WAS AWESOME! HA, gotta love oopses. I'll have to make sure to burn it every time I make it now. Hee hee, or maybe just figure out how to make it taste like that without burning it. Oh man, that's so much harder.

Picked up the kids from my inlaws today (they slept over last night) and took them to the park. I ran home and got the bat and ball and we played that for a while. I climbed through all the playground and even went down the slide (it was nice to fit on it). We had a good day.

Last night while the kids were at grandma and grandpa's, John and I went with the gang to a tricky tray. It was lots of fun. We won a bunch of games and a basket of italian food, pasta, sauces, dipping oil. Yummo!

(Sorry, jumping around on times here)

On the way to drop the kids off, we were chatting in the car and I can't remember what exactly was said (mommy brain) but my dear, sweet daughter ... Something was said about "10 years ago" and Calli says "10 years ago? That's when the dinosaurs were here, isn't it Mamma?" Oh my lord in heaven, Yes honey, I used to ride the dinosaurs to work every day. Those damn things crapped everywhere and were so loud. Not to mention that you had to keep them from eating you on the way. Oh boy, I'm old!

Can you imagine what it will be like when our kids have kids? I mean, so much has changed in just my life time. Our kids don't know what a black and white tv is, or what it's like to GET UP to change the 13 channels you had to choose from. They don't know what a rotary dial telephone is or how to go a day without a cell! They don't know what it's like to have no choice but to go outside and play cause there sure as hell wasn't anything to do in the house. They will never know the joy of sitting in the "way back" of the station wagon that has the roll down rear hatch window. (Thank God Mom never had an accident with us back there.) They wont know that computers were for rich people and even if you did have one, it was only really used for book keeping or typing letters since DOS didn't offer up easy game play. No internet, no cell phones, no IPods, no game systems. Just pure, unadulterated sunshine, air, a bike, or a bat and ball. Sometimes I think how nice it would be to go back to that, and then I reach from my cell to call and tell someone. HA I don't think so! Time marches on. What will this world look like in another 20 years. I can't even imagine.

Wow, I really rambled on there. hmmm interesting.