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Monday, September 05, 2016

Labor Day 2016

Labor Day is one of those free days that makes me just want to work really hard on home projects.  It's not an official "family celebration day" so I don't feel compelled to have a big meal and we always have so many things pending that it's nice to get caught up.  But then I looked into the faces of my kids and I just felt like we needed some balance.  Maybe half work day and half play day.

With our latest batch of tomatoes staring me in the face, I knew I had to process those first.  Considering we've got about 55 pints of sauce, Salsa and pinto's canned, I'm ready for something different so we decided to make Chili with fresh tomatoes - something I've never tried before.

I spent the morning getting beans ready for an all day crock pot cook and prepping the tomatoes while the big kids played outside with the neighbor kids on their trampoline.

By noon I was finished with beans and Chili base so I threw together a quick Chicken Salad for sandwiches.  I love fast recipes that have no leftovers!

Chicken Salad Recipe

- 1 12.5oz can of chunk Chicken (we buy a 6 pack at Costco), drain the juice
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 hard boiled egg
- 4oz Montery Jack cheese cut into cubes

Mix the above four ingredients together and serve on sandwich bread with your favorite toppings.  We love fresh tomatoes and avocado!

After lunch, husband needed to finish mowing so while he worked outside, I plowed through the morning dishes.  By 2:30, we were ready for play time!  I had checked our local pool times and thought they were open on Labor Day but when we got there they were closed so we headed to our next favorite water hole, Greenbrier Park!

In looking at past Labor Day's, I can see we've gone to the beach frequently so even though we just went to a lake today, it was nice to sit on sand and watch the kids play.  We always bring sand toys and today there were quite a few kids with no toys on the beach.  I can't help myself, I love watching kids build things in the sand so when asked I will almost always give away a bucket, they are so cheap, I can always get more.

My son asked me to build a sand castle and he's finally of the age where he was dead serious so I showed him the basics and we made this beauty.


I think we need to add more cups and shapes to our sand play kit but this was still fun.  I love building things.

When we left, the kids who got a free bucket from us asked if they could take over the castle.  It was a joy to watch their excitement at getting to work on and expand a sand castle.  I'm glad we got to contribute to their day.

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