4everMom

Meal Plan Monday--June 3, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 01:49:00 +0000

Ahhh, exhale. First day of summer vacation and it was positively blissful...and lazy...and everything we'd hoped it would be. We lounged around like sloths and read or played until 10 AM!! Then, after we showered and got ready for the day we headed downtown to choose "fun" sheet music for their summer music lessons (Taylor Swift, Imagine Dragons and Movie themes). I needed milk for dinner so we went to our downtown market which is a wonderful collection of markets and restaurants. The stall I like to buy milk from was closed but thankfully somewhere else had milk too. We had a very cheap lunch, picked some things up from Lowes, then back home for a few chores and basically more lazing. It was a great first day off. I have to work tomorrow (who thought that was a good idea??), but then I'm off again for a couple of weeks. We're still busy, the kids' activities are winding down but not down yet (I'm thinking it would be nice if activity schedules could adjust to the school schedule, now that school's done in May, it would be wonderful if activities didn't last into the middle of June), and we'll be striving for that balance of relaxation, activities, chores and responsibilities. It's all good. I love summer vacation and I'm very thankful to have a job where that means I get summer off too.

Here's what's on our meal plan this week:

Sunday dinner: Taco Salad

Monday: Ina Garten's lobster mac and cheese, broccoli

Tuesday (work, dance): pot luck

Wednesday: Scallops, new potatoes, grilled asparagus

Thursday (drama): Rosemary grilled chicken w/orange dipping sauce, brown rice, pea pods

Friday (Jacob Cameron’s): Southwestern Chicken Salads, baguettes

Saturday lunch: out--Art Festival

Saturday dinner: Tomato & Basil Pasta, bread, special spinach salad

Sunday lunch: cheese stuffed french toast with strawberries, bacon

Sunday dinner: OU

The lobster mac and cheese was a splurge from our cancelled weekend that I finally got around to making. Jacob and Mark loved it. Julianna not so much. Me? I thought it was fine, but if I'm going to spend an absolute fortune of dinner, mac and cheese is not how I would choose to spend it. Now, even though the recipe said serves 6-8 and even though Mark and Jacob both took seconds, we still barely put a dent in it. (The picture of the casserole dish is after we were all served for the first time.) Guess the kids I watch will be dining on lobster mac and cheese tomorrow. :)

Jacob and Julianna have requested that we have salads once a week this summer. They don't really make it look like a salad, I put everything out salad bar style and they take what they want. They love it. Last night we had taco salads and I made tortilla bowl shells, like in a restaurant (though ours were better!) I took burrito sized tortillas and brushed them lightly with oil on both sides, draped them over cooking sprayed oven safe bowls on a cookie sheet and baked them at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. They were incredible! Give them a try. Really easy and great results. I'll be making them again for sure.

Have a wonderful week!

Hyperventilating

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Thu, 30 May 2013 17:10:00 +0000

I've already shared this week that I'm almost done working for the summer. I'll have just about 10 weeks off, which in most ways will be absolutely wonderful. Our budget however is going to take a huge, take your breath away, hit. I've been floating along the world's longest river for a while now, just assuring myself that everything will be fine, but today I took a hard look at the numbers. It ain't pretty.

Most immediate item is that I need to cut the amount I spend on groceries by at least a third. A third. Wow. Factor in how much we spend on groceries, dining out, and a sneaky little category called "household" which is really where I dump any spending I don't quite want to acknowledge and you're talking closer to in half. The reality is that even if I managed to cut everything in half (which I know would be a huge struggle), we'll still be short. Considerably.

I'm trying to let it all sink in.

What I see is a whole lot more shopping at Wal-Mart this summer and a whole lot less at Kroger and Whole Foods. A whole lot more saying "no", which is not my style at all. A lot more simple meals and maybe, just maybe, this will be the summer my kids learn to tolerate peanut butter.

I know we're talking first world problems. I know we're lucky this is temporary. There is an end in sight, it's just relatively far away and I hate the thought of going through the summer saying no and stressing about money.

Hopefully I'll rise to the occasion and do such a great job budget meal planning and seeking out inexpensive activities that the impact the kids see and feel will be minimal. Hopefully. We're definitely a step ahead in that we bought a pool membership. Trips to the pool will be "free", we always tend to pack snacks to take with us so that's helpful. They're getting to a tricky age where trips to the park/playgrounds are okay once in a while, but I'm going to have to find some inexpensive things to do that appeal to young teens/tweens. Ideas? I feel like all the programs I check into are aimed at preschool/elementary kids.

How do you cut your family's budget when it feels pretty bare to begin with? I'd appreciate any tips.

One thing I know I'm going to be doing is spending this summer eating down our freezers (yes, plural) and pantry. Everything's over flowing. The reason it's over flowing for the most part is because it's stuff we don't really want to eat, but it's time to get creative, or just plain bite the bullet and use it up.

Wish me luck.

MPM May 27, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Tue, 28 May 2013 00:23:00 +0000

We had a lovely weekend though it was definitely not the weekend we had planned. Jacob was indeed too sick to go away, though we did give it a good try, including driving halfway to our getaway before finally realizing it was.not.meant.to.be. C'est la vie. You improvise. Throw one plan out and go with plan B. It worked. Most of all we enjoyed being together and relaxing, who can ask more than that?

This week is the last week of school. Woohoo! Coincidentally it's also my last week of full-time employment for the summer, a fact I have mixed feelings about. I am honestly going to miss my little people, a lot. It's time for a break and I will enjoy it, but I will also miss seeing them every day. I'm also going to miss the money. I contribute a significant amount to our family's income and it's a little scary to know that is gone for the next 10 weeks. I don't love being poor, I don't do penny pinching well. It's going to be rough. In other ways though it's going to be wonderful. Sleeping in. Going places, doing things with just my kidlets. Relaxing. Yay!!

Here's what's on the meal plan for this week. You'll notice it's a little splurgy in places, we decided since we didn't spend the money on our giveaway we'd spend it on some meals we'd been dreaming about. Hoping they're good!

Monday: BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, cole slaw
Tuesday: Dance night--pot luck
Wednesday: Rigatoni, Alex Guarnaschelli's Garlic Bread
Thursday (drama): Emeril's Rib-eye, new potato and portobello kabobs, salad
Friday: Ina Garten's lobster mac and cheese, broccoli
Saturday lunch: Healthier taco salad
Saturday dinner (music recitals): Out
Sunday lunch: ??
Sunday dinner: Burgers, homemade buns, chips, fruit, veggies

If anyone has any wonderful ideas for an Eagle Scout gift, I'm all ears. Help! Please. :)

Have a great, and yummy, week.

{ing} Life May 24, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:16:00 +0000

{thinking} Thinking about what to do this weekend. We had a getaway planned, one we planned (and paid for, no refunds), months ago, but now Jacob's not 100% and I can't decide what to do. Do we cancel the weekend entirely? Push it and go tonight, accepting that he's not feeling well, reasoning that he can not feel well here or there; except that it's a whole lot different to not feel well in your own bed vs. a sleeping bag on the ground and temps in the low 40s at night and in the mornings? Wait and see? Forfeit tonight and hope he's better in the morning and set out then?

{blessed} Jason's birthday was this week. I really, really love that kid. He has been such a huge blessing in my life. Not only for who he is and the love and joy he brings me, but also because he helped me find my purpose in my life, there's nothing that would be more fulfilling for me than to be a mom. As he was leaving on his birthday he said, "thanks for having me". So thankful I did. My life and so many others' lives are so much better for him being in this world.

{thankful} First of all I'm thankful to be feeling better. whispering here, but it's been 9 days or so since I've had a problem, and I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm also very thankful for my new washing machine. Love it! It handles everything, I think the clothes seem cleaner and none of the concerns I had regarding front loaders seem to have come true. Plus, it seems like it's much easier to keep up with the laundry. I don't end up with those days where the pile of dirty clothes could reach the ceiling. I don't know if that's because it's a larger capacity, though my old one was pretty large as well, or if it's the novelty of a new one and I'm still in a honeymoon period or whatever, but I'll take it!

{hoping} We get to have a good weekend, and, yes, I'll admit it, I'm hoping we do get to go away. I'm also hoping the kids have fun at school today. It's their Fantastic Fun Day, which is a day spent outside playing at all kinds of stations, including many water stations. Today it's in the 40s, cloudy and windy. Not the kind of weather you really want to be outside in, let alone wet outside.

{overwhelming} I'm pretty blessed. Right now the only thing that's truly overwhelming is trying to decide if we're going or not. If we are, I have tons of preparation to do, if we're not I don't want to do it all and have to undo it.

{dreaming} Of summer. One more week of school and work then on to summer. I am so looking forward to it! I love the break in routine and always look forward to that, though this year it will wait a while, the kids have recitals/performances over each of the next three weekends, so we'll obviously still be going to lessons, practicing, etc. for all of that. Not having homework, work and a school schedule will be a much welcome change though. At first I though we'd go completely low key this summer, but then I read an idea where someone said they try to play one fun day each week, with something different on that day. I like that idea, I think I'll try to incorporate that into our summer plans.

{reading} I've been terrible! With being sick so much (and having Netflix), my reading has gone by the wayside. I'm looking forward to getting back to it, hopefully this weekend. I've got Porch Lights by Dorothy Benton Frank out of the library as well as a couple of other books. I've got an unused B&N gift card, I'm definitely ready to get back to reading.

{excited} For a long weekend with my family. Even if we don't go away it's going to be lovely.

{working} On being more present. It's way too easy to get lost in myself, I want to work on that. I'm hoping to use this weekend to reconnect and do things together as a family. Mark and I have been sick so long it's easy to fall into a habit of everyone doing their own thing while mom or dad lay in bed. Working on changing that and practicing being actively plugged in together again.

{praying} Lately I pray a lot for victims, the Oklahoma tragedy literally took my breath away. I'm praying for Rebekah, she's back in Athens in her apartment and I not only miss her like crazy I'm praying that this next phase of her life is everything she'd like it to be. I'm also praying that God will help me be who he wants me to be, I've definitely got some things I need to work on, praying that He'll help me get there.

{cooking} It's been a pretty good week around here cooking-wise. You can imagine it's been a bit hit or miss lately with how much I've been sick, then Mark and Rebekah were sick, then I was sick...you get the picture. Anyway, with a week where I was 100%, it was good to get back to normal. The southwestern chicken salads were a huge hit, so much so that we've decided to try and have a salad night once a week during the summer. Dance night, normally a difficult night, was a breeze with honey sesame chicken in the slow cooker and rice in the rice cooker. As a bonus Jacob and Julianna took the leftovers twice in their lunches, making packing their lunches extra easy. I volunteered to send in some food for Fantastic Fun Day volunteers and teachers, I made a great salad I hadn't made in a while, Caesar Chicken Pasta Salad. While I was at it anyway, we had it for dinner last night and, surprisingly to me, it was a big hit with the kids; so much so they wanted it in their lunches today. Finally, I got around to making Mark's pie (I'm buying/making him a pie a month for his Christmas present this year.) I made a Lemon Meringue Ice Cream pie in a toasted pecan crust. Truly awesome! All four of us enjoyed it a lot. I subbed in a lemon curd recipe from Gourmet magazine because the reviews of the lemon curd one the original were mixed, but we loved everything about it, I highly recommend this recipe. As a bonus it's gluten-free, always nice to have. in your repertoire.

She Said, He Said

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

I stole this from Michelle at Big Blueberry Eyes, I loved seeing what her children, Kayla and Lucas had to say and was curious how Jacob and Julianna would answer. I wasn't sure how well it would work, they're quite a bit older than Michelle's kids, but it was still fun for me and definitely enlightening. Julianna's answers in purple, Jacob's in blue.

What is something your mom always says to you?
Julianna's answer was funny and spot on, but a little embarrassing to her so she asked me not to post it.

I love you. (I was going to say "practice".)

What makes your mom happy?
When we put our clothes away without being asked.

When we do work that needs done unvoluntarily. (He meant voluntarily.)

What makes your mom sad?
When I'm sick.

When bad things happen in the world. (Boston Marathon bombing, Sandy Hook)

How does your mom make you laugh?
You make me laugh when you laugh.

Corny jokes on my napkins at lunch.

What was your mom like as a child?
Umm...she was beautiful, 'cause I've seen pictures.

Human, um, afraid of snakes and she still is.

How old is your mom?
46
47

How tall is your mom?
I don't know! Five foot something, five foot ten.
5' 10"
(Funny, I'm really 5' 3")

What is your mom's favorite thing to do?
Spend time with her family at Creekside.

Have fun, do stuff with us.

What does your mom do when you're not around?
Go on dates with Dad.

Take care of kids that aren't us.

If your mom became famous, what would it be for?
You'd have your own tv show where you give people tips on how to live their life and give recipes and stuff.

Cooking?

What is your mom really good at?
Cooking

Cooking

What is your mom not very good at?
Handling snakes

Um, um, um, I don't know.

What does your mom do for a job?
Being a great mom.

Take care of kids that aren't us.

What is your mom's favorite food?
Chicken parmesan

Rebekah's chicken parmesan.
(Rebekah and Jason had just made me dinner for my birthday, chicken parmesan, and it was delicious!)

What makes you proud of your mom?
When she gives me advice when I have problems at school.

She understands that I like spending Tuesday nights with Dad. (Julianna's dance night, they hang out together.)

What do you and your mom do together?
Sometimes we'll play American Girl Doll game together.

Play board games, Settlers of Cataan.

How are you and your mom the same?
You loved dance when you were a little kid and now I like dance.

We both like country music.

How are you and your mom different?
We're different because I like a different kind of music that I don't think you like (Disney).

I like rock and roll and alternative and you don't like most of that.

How do you know your mom loves you?
I know my mom loves me because even when she's mad at me she still tucks me in at night/kisses me or in the morning still kisses me goodbye.

She's nice to us.

Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Grandma and Grandpa's.

Home (our home)

All in all, I was pretty impressed with how accurate most of their answers were. Insightful too. Also, I learned a little bit about my parenting, I want to work on doing more with each of them. I enjoyed doing this with them a lot and wanted to get it down to capture it so I'll remember this snapshot in time with my youngest two kidlets.

May 20 Meal Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:59:00 +0000

I'll keep this short and sweet otherwise you might kill me from the repetition. I've been sick, really sick, again. It's my 4th bout of it in 17 days so I'm a little leery of declaring myself completely over it, but now that I'm better, Mark is sick with something different. We took Rebekah back to school, we all miss her. Goodness, do I ever say anything new anymore? Anywho, I can complain about the weather! It's 8:30 at night and 84 degrees in my house. Yuck!

Okay, I'm done. Basically life is good, just a little less shiny and pretty than we'd like it to be right now. In the meantime life goes on and hopefully here's what we'll be having to eat this week:

Monday (piano): southwestern chopped salad--salad greens, sw chicken, cheese, tomato, black olives, sw ranch, corn

Tuesday (dance): Honey sesame chicken, rice,veggie

Wednesday: Pork chops, rice pilaf, green beans

Thursday (drama): Rosemary grilled chicken w/orange dipping sauce, brown butter apricot and pine nut rice, veggie

Ugh! Just realized that's three meals of rice this week. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Hopefully we have good plans for next weekend, we'll have to see if everyone gets, and stays, healthy enough to make them happen, also if the weather cooperates.

Hope life's good in your corner of the Universe.

May 6, 2013 Meal Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:29:00 +0000

Busy, busy week! Tonight there's a hopefully short meeting at church, tomorrow night I have to go to dance with Julianna to get show information and costumes! Wednesday night Julianna and I are going to the Taylor! Swift! concert! (Exclamations by Julianna.) Thursday Jacob has a drama class, Friday night's the elementary school's talent show. Saturday bring a doctor appointment, photo session, weekend chores... Whew! Bring on summer! I'm ready to jump out of a schedule for a while.

Last week I got a new washing machine, after much consternation and second-guessing. My 12 year old washer had started to spin out grease and I knew that sooner or later clothes were going to get ruined. It didn't really seem prudent to spend $300.00 on a service call for a 12 year old washer, so we ordered the one we wanted and waited for it to come in. [Sidebar: I ordered through Shop at Home, from Lowes, and earned a $53.00 rebate, woot! If you're not using a rebate site when you shop online, you're losing out on money you could easily be earning. Just by buying the washer, the kids' summer clothes, and the household items I buy and have delivered from Walmart, I have a $100.00 quarterly check coming. Check it out.] Of course, it probably won't surprise you to learn that as soon as we ordered a new washer our old washer began working fine again. Curse you Murphy. We decided to still go with the new one, it seemed like the writing was on the wall. Sooo, that was a really long-winded way of saying I got a new washer! and it's wonderful! I was very afraid of a front loader, I had heard lots of negatives, but I absolutely love the model we chose. Very thankful for how that worked out.

Jacob and I have been sick for a little over two weeks, including a stomach bug that got me Sunday evening and again on Wed/Thurs. Hoping this week finds us all healthy and in good shape for our busy week. Thank you so much to Keary Naughton for the Kingdom recommendation. I am loving it!

Here's the meal plan for the week, it's fluid, trying to allow lots of flexibility to accommodate the week:

Monday (piano): Maple mustard baked chicken, red potatoes, roasted/grilled veggies (baby bellas, red onions, peppers, squash), salad (field greens, dried apricots/apples, candied walnuts and maple/dijon vinaigrette)

Tuesday (dance, me): Tuna Noodle Casserole, broccoli

Wednesday (concert): Pork chops, rice pilaf, green beans

Thursday: pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, cut up veggies

Friday (talent show): Cook’s Country Bean and Beef Burritos, fruit

Mark’s April Pie: Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Pie subbing in Gourmet’s Lemon Curd

Well, things are getting crazy so I'll keep this short and sweet. Hope you have a good week.

Update and April 24, 2013 Meal Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:40:00 +0000

hello! I miss you. Life just seems so busy, yet there's nothing in particular going on...I'm sure you understand that. Anyway, we were talking about our favorite comfort foods the other night and Mark said he didn't think I'd made beef stew this year (bad wife! Did you catch that?). I realized I've been so negligent about blogging I had no way to check if I did or if I didn't. Hopefully if I get back in the habit of posting my meal plan, other blogging will follow. Hopefully.

Corned beef is simmering away, filling the house with delicious aromas. It's a cold, rainy day and the temps are supposed to fall all day long, so I'm thinking this will be a perfect choice. Instead of cooking all the veggies in with the corned beef I'm going to go a little rogue and make crash potatoes, my favorite cooked carrots and Ina Garten's soda bread with dried cherries subbed in for the raisins (J&J won't touch it with raisins, not sure if they'll try it with the cherries but it sounds good to me). At least that's the plan, I'm laying a bit low with a cold and I'm trying to convince myself that if I make the effort I'll be glad I did. Right now I'm having a hard time summoning the motivation to get off the couch and double check that there are enough carrots. Oh well, dinner will be a bit of a surprise.

What else is going on? Mostly just boring and ordinary things which, don't get me wrong, is absolutely wonderful to me. I love boring and ordinary. One exciting thing we all are looking forward to is that Julianna gets her braces off tomorrow. It's been a very, very long 2 1/2+ years, originally she was supposed to get them off 6-9 months ago, so that's been fun. In a show of solidarity we all gave up popcorn and Jacob gave up chewing gum as well, so tomorrow's going to be a bit of a party around here. Mostly I'm looking forward to her being able to enjoy having them off and praying that she won't get so many canker sores without them. I'm also praying she'll be able to hang on to her retainer, at our orthodontist one is included with treatment, after that you're on your own. She'll have them off until 6th grade or so, so excited for her!

I haven't read a book in quite a while, very unusual for me. We got Netflix and I got a bit hooked. So far I've rewatched every episode of Parenthood and Out of Practice and discovered some great new series' like Call the Midwife and Doc Marten. I'm really missing Doc Marten, I just finished that one, I loved it. I can't wait until season 6 is on. It's funny, I've been watching so much Netflix I rarely watch current tv anymore, except for The Voice and Dance Moms. Love both of those, The Voice is great family tv for us. Do you have any off the beaten shows you'd recommend?

Hope life's going well for you and that you all have some yumminess on your horizon.

Monday (piano): chicken noodle soup or bean soup, cornbread, carrots & dip, fruit salad

Tuesday (dance): pot luck

Wednesday: Corned Beef and Cabbage, pan roasted potatoes, carrots, Irish Soda Bread or Ina Garten’s Irish Bread

Thursday (Julianna braces off): North Market for pizza, popcorn!

Friday San Antonio Bean Burgers on jalapeno cheddar buns, oven fries

Saturday lunch: club sandwiches, chips

Saturday dinner: Pasta w/shrimp, spinach, tomatoes & basil, roasted asparagus, maybe garlic knots because I have some frozen pizza dough to use up.

Sunday lunch: brats

Sunday dinner: Corned Beef Hash, eggs, rye toast

Monday: Oven fried chicken or grilled chicken, mashed potatoes or potato salad, carrots

Tuesday (dance): Tuna Noodle Casserole, broccoli

Wednesday: Cook’s Country Bean and Beef Burritos, fruit

Thursday (play): Pork chops, roasted/grilled veggies (baby bellas, red onions, peppers, squash), rice pilaf

Friday: antipasta, fried ravioli

Mark’s April Pie: Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Pie subbing in Gourmet’s Lemon Curd

April 4, 2013 Meal Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:49:00 +0000

Yay! It's spring. It's not terribly warm here yet, though as I write it's 55 and sunny and I will definitely, gratefully, take it. Sunday rain's moving in and it's going to get good and comfy it looks like, so we will treasure these warmish beautiful days while we can. Someone helped themselves to Julianna's prized, polka dot, brand new umbrella, so we'll have to get that replaced this weekend. Other than that our weekend plans include some time at a park, basketball, homework [insert rant here: Julianna has an hour and a half of homework nightly, plus one short term assignment plus one long term assignment. Her reading teacher recommends they set aside an hour a day this weekend for her homework alone, to say that I am ticked would be a serious understatement. She's 10 for goodness sake. A 10 year old that needs time to walk in the park, jump on the tramp, play with her dolls, read in the hammock chair. Be. A weekend off schoolwork shouldn't be too much to ask.] laundry, church, Sunday School and maybe some time with Matt & Lily. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I feel like April and May are going to fly by in an instant, which isn't all bad as I love summer and unlimited time with Jacob and Julianna, but I'm experienced *ahem* enough to know summer will fly by too and before I know it Jacob will be in middle school and Julianna will be a fifth grader. Not ready for that yet.

This summer will be weird. It will be the first summer Rebekah won't be living here full-time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Yay. Letting that one sink in. I know she's ready for it, she has an apartment in her college town for next year and she got a great job down there for the summer. She'll be incredibly busy, but it will be great experience for her resume and it's all good, for her. For Jacob and Julianna? It's complicated. Actually, that's not true. It's not complicated at all, it's simple. They're. not. happy. They're going to miss their sister and they're not interested in seeing anything beyond that. *sigh*

Well, anyway, that's a glimpse in what's going on here. Other than that it's work, school, evening activities, music practices, blissful normal.

I've said it before and I will no doubt be saying it again, but the one thing that keeps life on a bit of an even keel around here is a meal plan, so I not only found the time to do that, I found time to grocery shop for it too. Woot!

Thursday (girl scouts): Ham, au gratin potatoes, green beans

Friday: Steak, twice baked potatoes, mushrooms, caesar salad

Saturday lunch: Pizza or sloppy joes

Saturday dinner: Queso Fundido w/roasted poblano vinaigrette, pretzel bites, buffalo wings w/blue cheese dip, asian wings

Sunday lunch: antipasta, fried ravioli

Sunday dinner: Crockpot chicken sandwiches, broccoli rice casserole

Monday (piano): Red Chile and Cheese Enchiladas, refried beans, corn cake or corn casserole

Tuesday (hair, dance): chicken sandwich leftovers, chips, veggies

Wednesday: Corned Beef and Cabbage, parsley potatoes, carrots, Irish Soda Bread or Ina Garten’s Irish Bread

Thursday: Chicken pot pie, pineapple upside down cake

Hope you enjoy some lovely family time this weekend as well.

Monday, April 1, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:45:00 +0000

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...it's beautiful! Blue skies, big puffy white clouds, simply beautiful. It's cold, 40 degrees, but it's absolutely beautiful and even if it doesn't quite feel like spring yet, it's definitely looking like it.

I am thinking...a million different thoughts swirling around in there, as usual. Julianna has an orthodontist appoint at 4:45, I'm wondering if they'll finally set the appointment to take her braces off. It's been well over two years and originally they thought she'd be in them 21-24 months. I somewhat expected this, we were warned up front that her first phase, which she is in, would be complicated, Rebekah's second phase was extremely complicated and she was in them years past they predicted. Still, I know she's tired of them and I hope the time is finally here. Plus, she's due to get them back on in sixth grade, if she doesn't hurry up and get them off there won't be any time to enjoy not having them!

I'm also thinking about changes I want to make. For some reason this Easter and spring break have left me feeling renewed and rejuvenated and like it's a great time to make some changes. Nothing earth shattering, but I'm optimistic it's a good time to follow through and jump into some new goals.

I am thankful...for my life. I was telling Mark this morning how thankful I am to have gotten to do this parenting thing my way. I love being with my kids, I am so thankful for the relationships that I share with all four of them. Tomorrow is Rebekah's 21st birthday (!!) and I while I miss her a lot and I'm sad that I won't get to share her special day with her, I'm so thankful for our beautiful daughter and all the joy she's brought to our lives.

In the kitchen...Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken is cooking away, rice is in the rice cooker, the oven is set to come on to preheat when it's time so I can roast asparagus. An easy low prep meal, just what I needed for the first day back from spring break. For lunch today I made egg salad, that was a first, I'd never made it before. It was yummy! I'm not completely sure what the rest of the week will bring, I was in a hurry to meal plan this week and didn't take into consideration after school activities that would complicate meal planning. I think I'm going to make ham (we went out for Easter), au gratin potatoes, and green beans; old-fashioned vegetable beef soup; and crockpot chicken sandwiches. To celebrate Friday I'll probably make pizza. Homemade pizza's always a favorite around here. Jacob's craving corned beef and cabbage, we never got to it last month, and Julianna's been begging for chicken pot pie, so I need to get both of those in soon.

I am wearing...my uniform, LOL. Jeans, white long sleeve t-shirt.

I am creating...not much lately. I need to work on that. Somehow I have a feeling that won't change until it turns into I want to work on that. I have a braided-type rug I started, but I was learning how to do it and what it really needs is for me take out what I've done and start over. Not loving the thought of that, so I'm stuck. I bought material to make Julianna a blouse and a skirt, but as they're both winter items and it's practically spring, I'm feeling disappointed with myself and hiding from it. What I should do is just make them a tad bigger and get going!

I am going...to get back to exercising this week. I'm excited about that. I feel ready. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that's going to look like, and when, but I'm also at peace that it may look different from week to week and even day to day and that's okay.

I am wondering...what's the best approach to Easter candy and my kids. Sadly, one approach is good for one of them, another approach for the other. I could let Julianna eat as much as she wants and she'd be over it in no time, she just threw away her Halloween candy. Jacob's the opposite. He's more like me. He would eat and eat and eat and eat it. Trying to figure out how to balance that.

I am reading...sadly, nothing! I read tons and tons of books at the beginning of the year, now I'm having a hard time kicking off again. Looking for an author or a book that inspires me. I'm sure I'll find something soon.

I am hoping...Julianna's braces come off soon!

I am looking forward to...lots of popcorn once the braces are off! In solidarity we've all given up popcorn, it would be too cruel to sit there and eat it in front of her, and we've all missed the treat. Looking forward to enjoying it again. I'm also really looking forward to summer. It's so close I can almost feel it! I don't work in the summer and I love having the down time to just "be" with Jacob and Julianna--very little schedule, very low expectations. It's always good.

I am learning...I do not like teaching Sunday School. I plan to honor that in the future and not let guilt win out.

Around the house...it's straightened, but messy. Story of my life. Everything's pretty much picked up, but everything could do with a good cleaning. One of these days. I've gotten to the point I'm pretty at peace with the fact that this is the way things are. I'm not a person who will devote all my spare time to cleaning, therefore I'm not a person who will have a consistently clean house.

I am pondering...everyone seems to need new clothes. Thinking about how to make that happen, what are the most important priorities. I feel like Mark hasn't had new work clothes in years and years, some of that needs to happen. He needs jeans, shoes, belts too. Plus it looks like Jacob and Julianna are going to need just about everything for spring/summer. It will all come together, just trying to think out what everyone needs. I'd like to not overbuy. Lately I've been struggling with mountains of laundry and little time to do it. I used to think it helped for everyone to have lots of clothes, less pressure to do laundry, but I'm starting to think it would be a lot better to just have less to do to begin with. If Mark only had 5 pairs of work pants, for example, I'd have little choice but to get them done weekly.

A favorite quote for today..."If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." -- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Amen.

One of my favorite things...miniature Reeses peanut butter eggs. Thankfully they're not available year round. No other Reeses product has the same lure.

A few plans for the rest of the week: catching up on laundry, exercising 4x, keeping up with some light housework to keep things from getting out of control. Putting away Easter decorations, I'm ready to be rid of the clutter. An eye doctor appointment mid-week. I'm so excited to be back in contacts again. I had to give up wearing them months ago, I was having horrible problems every time I tried. I finally found a chemical free cleaning process that's enabled me to get back to them.

A peek into my day...

There's not much cuter than little baby feet, except maybe a baby playing with his feet. :)

Check out other Simple Woman's Daybooks.

Reader!*&$#%

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:44:00 +0000

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Ugh! I feel like I'm in a no-man's land of confusion, trying to figure out what to do now that Reader is going away. What are you going to do? Found anything you love? I've experimented with Feedly, which I love the idea of but for some reason only seems to have imported a tiny fraction of my blogs. I signed up with The Old Reader, but it's been days and it still hasn't imported my blogs so the jury's out but it's not looking good for that one. Bloglovin, so far, seems the most comprehensive, but it's definitely not Reader, of course Reader is almost not Reader anymore so that doesn't really help...

What are you doing?

Meal Plan Monday March 18 Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:43:00 +0000

Happy Monday!! This is one of the few Mondays of the year I'll be excited about. One more week until spring break. I am so excited. I'm ready for a week off work and a week with my kidlets home. We have a few chores scheduled for next week and a few fun things too. Mostly, it will be awesome to have a break from the routine. I'm really hoping Julianna doesn't end up with too much homework over break. Why do teachers do that??? I know Jacob will not have much, if any at all. Ironic seeing as he's two years ahead of her in school, but the amount of homework she has far exceeds what he gets. Anyway, a week without routine will be wonderful!

Julianna's home sick. Again. The light at the end (middle?) of the tunnel is there though and she should be back to normal in no time. Knocking on wood, for sure!

Our meal plan from last week got a little whopper-jobbed so I'm rearranging things, trying to make sure food gets used up before it goes bad.

Hope you have a great week!

Sunday lunch: Reubens, chips
Sunday dinner: City chicken, cheddar chipotle mashed potatoes, roast asparagus
Monday: something to do with chicken wings, I have 5# defrosted that I thought we'd be using over the weekend. It's tempting to just make a glorious, gelatinous stock with them, but Julianna's been begging for wings for a long time so I'll probably just be a bit funky for a Monday dinner and go for it. Roasted Asian and Buffalo are our favorites.
Tuesday (dance): Knocking on wood that dance happens, Julianna's had a rough time of it lately and hasn't been able to be there for a couple of weeks. If she does get to go she and Mark are going out to dinner between classes, Jacob and I will figure something out. If she can't go (sob), I'll do a tuna casserole.
Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day!! kind of): Corned Beef and Cabbage, parsleyed new potatoes, Ina Garten's Irish soda bread, mint chocolate chip ice cream pie
Thursday: Slow cooker pepper steak, rice, sugar snap peas
Friday: Corned beef hash, eggs, toast

No idea what next week will bring meal plan wise. I know Monday is Passover so there'll be some kind of Seder meal including Matzo ball soup, charoset, and something. :) Just haven't gotten that far.

Hope you have a great week!

Julianna

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:33:00 +0000

The first 15-16 months of Julianna's life she had a fever every month, for a week. Every. month. It honestly got to the point you could time it and know when it would occur. We learned to schedule around it, even our vacation that year. We did pretty well on that one, she was fever free until Friday night, the night before we were supposed to leave to go home. Then it was a mad scramble to clean the vacation house, throw everything in the car, and get the heck out of there. It was hell. She lost a week of development every month, we all lost basically a week of our lives. Jacob was so little, I felt so guilty that I was useless to him every month for so long. I didn't sign him/us up for classes or do story times because I knew we'd be dealing with the fevers and we tried desperately to control them by limiting exposure. I cringe when I think about how much we all missed during that time. I felt guilty at how much Rebekah missed out on. Does that sound melodramatic? I hope hot. It's just hard to convey how it really was. Multiple trips to the ER, including at midnight when she was 7 weeks old and I realized that no, she wasn't just warm because I'd had her all bundled up, as Mark assured me, my practically-still-a-newborn had had a fever for quite a while and I had missed it. Back to the ER at the crack of dawn on New Year's Day (ER's are pretty empty then, by the way). Then there was the time our doctor sent us to the ER, very worried, which our doctor honestly never is, and listening to him argue over the phone with the attending doctor who did not feel the need to admit her as this was "normal" for her, and our doctor having just seen for himself how high the fever was (yes, I know the number doesn't matter, other things matter, yet ironically the first question they always ask is how high is the fever?) and how lethargic she was (not a desirable combination in a five month old), felt she should be admitted. So many memories, so many bad memories.

We could never find a cause. Eventually it spaced out a bit and they would come every 2-3 months. We saw an infectious disease specialist and an immune disorder specialist and they assured us that just happens in some children and they don't know why but they're fine. They gave us a steroid to have on hand and give to her at the first sign of fever. Just like magic, that stopped the fever in its tracks and within 24 hours she would be fine. It would not be an overstatement to say that was life changing.

Eventually after that, they stopped.

If you know me on Facebook you know Julianna's had a rough year. This past week has been particularly horrendous. She's been dealing with some private issues that resulted in her being in excruciating pain. We finally found a treatment plan that helped a lot, but still it was a long week for her. All last weekend we were one step away from the ER as her doctor felt he was out of options. This morning, when we came out to face the prospect of a glorious "catch up" weekend, full of to-do lists and possibilities, it was immediately obvious Julianna was not okay. Sick. Again. She felt faint, no idle threat for Julianna, she has passed out several times, and was feverish. Now, she's dozing on the couch, moaning, horrible headache and a sore throat. I tend to just sit, quietly, in the same room, on the computer or reading or watching Netflix with the sound muted so as not to disturb her. Julianna almost always vomits when she has a virus and often, she vomits in her sleep. Heck of a parlor trick and scary as Hell.

It's always been in the back of my mind...the 'what-if's?', the 'will something happen someday and they'll trace it back to that and say 'there. that was the beginning?'. I can not believe how this year has been for her. I pray that all is right with my little girl and that it's just an unbelievable run of bad luck. Praying this passes quickly. Desperately trying to quiet all the "what-if's" rattling their cages in my head.

MPM March 11, 2013 Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:29:00 +0000

Monday. Ah, what mixed feelings I greet you with. To be honest, I'm never terribly excited to see the weekend end and Monday roll around again, yet today promises to be full of routine and "normalness" and I'm terribly excited for the prospect of that.

Part of my getting back to a semblance of normal is, for me, meal planning. Who knows, maybe this will be the week we actually follow the plan every. single. meal. Doubtful, but you never know. Tuesdays, dance nights, continue to throw me off. Julianna has a class from 5:30-6:30 and from 7:30-8:30. It's not a very friendly schedule for our family. I've been staying with her at the studio and we've been going out to dinner during the break. The problem is, there's not a lot of time and there aren't a lot of options. I dislike going out to eat at places we wouldn't normally go to, spending money I'd rather ~~spend elsewhere~~ not spend. So...another option is to eat together at the studio. I'm not overly fond of PB&J or anything else that's practical for packing up and eating in an over-crowded studio waiting room with limited seating/table space and lots of bored, unsupervised children. I will be very happy to find a new dance schedule next year, knock on wood. Another option we've talked about is coming home during the break, eating dinner, then heading back to the second class. The glitch with that is several-fold. The dance studio, while not far, is not close either. It's a good 15 minutes under normal conditions, throw in a weather event or a traffic hiccup and it's longer. Wasted gas, wasted time. Plus, it's hard to come home and head back out for a class right when she'd normally be getting ready for bed. So there's that. I'm putting it all out there in case anyone's struggled with a similar schedule. If you have any options you think we've missed I'm all ears. Otherwise, I'll be counting down the weeks until school's out and hoping for a more family-friendly schedule next year.

This week, here's what's on the plan for dinner:

Texas Eats Roast Beef & Gravy, mashed potatoes, succotash, biscuits
Vegetable Beef Soup, cornbread or dinner rolls
slow cooker pepper steak, rice, szechwan green beans
Orange chicken, brown rice, sugar snap peas
City chicken, chipotle mashed potatoes,asparagus
Asian wings, fried rice, grilled bok choy

Hope your week (and ours!) is blessedly normal...and yummy! Ten more days until Spring Break!!

Menu Plan Monday Feb. 25, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 20:32:00 +0000

Organizing Junkie

My life always goes better, more smoothly, when I meal plan. Even if we don't always stick to the plan, it helps to have one. It helps to know that I've shopped for certain meals, planned certain items, it helps. Even though I haven't been posting meal plans here, I've still been doing them. I've been keeping them in my Google Drive documents, right in the same place I create my grocery list. It's convenient. When I'm standing in the middle of the store wondering why such and such is on my grocery list and do I really need to buy it after all, I can scroll down, look at my meal plan and remember why it's there. Helpful. Maybe it's just a sign of how really disorganized I am, but whatever, it works for me.

Well, it did work for me. Recently I've been trying to remember which version of corn pudding did I make that we really liked, or what recipe did I use the last time I made hush puppies. You get the picture. Guess what? Often, I haven't a clue. That's where my blog has been so helpful. I pull up my blog, do a search, and most of the time I have my answer. Awesome.

Except. Except that lately I haven't been posting a meal plan. Reasoning that no one "out there" cares what we're having for dinner, I stopped. This week though I realized that I need my meal plan. It helps me to have it here, so it's back. Even though I'm busy. Even though life's a little crazy right now, even though, even though.

So, here's what's on our plan this week:

Sunday dinner: pulled pork/slaw, corn pudding
Monday (piano): [Chili baked potatoes, cut up veggies--piano], Hamburger and noodles, green beans, crescentsTuesday (dance): ??
Wednesday: salmon, rice, asparagus
Thursday (play): Pizza--Grandma’s? or deep dish
Friday: Yum Yum Chicken, broccoli
Saturday lunch: Baked Ziti, OG Salad, bread, cherry pie, ice cream w/toppings
Yes, it has holes. Some of those are intentional, some not so much. It's definitely a work in progress, but it's a place to start.

What's on your menu this week?

Friday Fave Five...February 22 Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:17:00 +0000

Living to Tell the Story

Five of my favorite things from the past week...

1. A new end table. At Christmastime when it's time to put up the tree, we always rearrange the living room a bit. We have a nice chest/table that we move to another spot and after enjoying having it there a lot this year we decided it would be nice to permanently have a table there. After a lot of looking around, I found one I really like. As a bonus it has a decent amount of storage, something we can always use. It felt a little decadent to just spend the money without a huge amount of thinking about it, but I had a coupon code that more than covered shipping so obviously it was meant to be. (kidding) (not) Anyhow, unfortunately, it can't ship until April 8, but that's all right, my birthday's April 16 so that just helps me justify it even more. It's so pretty! I can't wait until it's here, I hope I like it as well in person as in the picture, it does make me a tad nervous to buy something like that without seeing it first. Faith.

2. Mark's been working from home a lot. At first it was because he was terribly sick and he needed to work from home around resting and trying to feel better. Now he's doing it because it's difficult for him to get anything done at the office and he has some major projects (Yay!) to work on and needs less interruptions. Even though he's away from me in the house, it's a nice, cozy feeling just knowing he's here.

3. Lands' End. There are certain things I absolutely love Lands' End for. Swimming suits for my kids, definitely. This week I was able to order J&J swimming suits at 30% off, free shipping, 3% rebate (from shopathome.com) and best of all, the suits fit them. My kids can be challenging to buy clothes for. Cheap suits from Target aren't going to cut it. The just don't fit right, or if they do at the beginning they don't after a couple of washes, and the material doesn't hold up either. Julianna, especially, because she loves to wear two-pieces and I understand they're much more comfortable. Still, I want her covered and it can be hard to find modest two piece suits in her size. uch as I like for them to wear things that look nice and fit them, it can be expensive! Finding suits 30% off that look nice, won't ride up or shrink up or pill up, awesome.

4. Valentine's presents. Mark and I are not big on giving each other gifts, it just doesn't usually happen. It was so fun this year when he surprised me with flowers and my favorite chocolates for Valentine's Day. As nice as the actual gifts were, it was even nicer that he took the time to make it happen, took the effort to have it be a surprise, had it hidden and ready for me. I was so shocked. Very, very pleasantly so. It made me feel all the things a good gift should and was very much appreciated.

5. Music. Jacob plays the piano and the alto sax. Julianna plays the piano. I so enjoy their practice time. They've both reached the point where their music gets more and more interesting (enjoyable) and I love having it in the background as I make dinner or catch up on odds and ends. (There are those times when all I hear is the whining and gnashing of teeth about how "they just can't get it" and "it sounds awful", but this is a favorite things post so we won't go there.)

Hope you're having a good week. Enjoy the weekend. I almost forgot my absolute most favorite thing from this week: SNOW DAYS! I work for teachers so when there's a snow day I get a day off too. Heaven! Especially today because I've finally succumbed to the illness that's been going around my family and the kids I watch and it's been awesome to have a day to truly relax and do precious little. Woot!

This and That...

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:18:00 +0000

My thoughts, as usual, are scattered, so why not let this be scattered too? Here's a sampling of what's on my mind, occupying my time lately.

So? My brand new laptop? It's history. When it was two weeks old I took my aggravation with it in hand and called tech support for help. They assured me I wasn't crazy, it was broken, in, not one, but two different ways, and the technician candidly told me she'd dump it. The store has a 30 day return policy, she encouraged me to take advantage of it, so I did. I didn't have a good feeling about that brand/model of laptop anymore, so I bought a different one. A slightly fancier, slightly more expensive one, and somehow, we ended up getting money back on the deal. Yeah, didn't make sense to me or the cashier either, but they knew at that point I had been there forever, they knew I was tired of dealing with it, remember, I had been without a laptop since Dec. 19, when I took my laptop in for what was supposed to be a simple repair and ended up having it declared a lemon a month later. Anywho, they decided not to fight the computerized cash register and just give us the money back the system kept insisting we deserved and who was I to argue? I love my newest new laptop, by the way.

Work's going pretty well. I'm absolutely smitten with the new little one I'm watching and happy that his brother is adjusting awesomely. It's amazing how much time a little one takes though! Or, maybe that's just me. Who am I to pass up lots of cuddles and snuggles? Nope, it will pass too quickly as it is, that's for sure. Still, it does make it challenging to find time to get all the other things that need done, done. A challenge right now I feel like I'm failing at. I'm so far behind on laundry it's hard to believe I will ever catch up, but I will, eventually. We bit the bullet and hired someone to clean the house. That was semi-successful. She's a wonderful person, very hard working, very warm, very kind. I understood the first time she came it was going to be a huge task and she did a great job. I was a little disappointed that she didn't get the whole house done, but I also appreciated everything she did do, so we had her come back two weeks later. Well, unfortunately, that was bit disappointing too. She did a fabulous job, in the kitchen. The kids bath was great. Our bath was good. The dining room was great. The living room was rushed, lots of misses. The bedrooms were rushed with even more misses. The stairs, entries and landing weren't touched, neither was the downstairs bath and family room. I don't think it's going to work out. It's very hard for me to take be out of the house all day long with the kids I watch and to come home and not have it done was demoralizing. I like her and I'm feeling incredibly torn and guilty, but I need someone with better time management skills. Very sad. I still haven't completely decided, but I'm leaning toward going with my gut and waving the white flag of surrender. I just can not figure out how to be a full-time crazy busy working mom and still keep my house clean. I can keep my house straightened, I can run a cleaning wipe through the bathroom once in a while, but clean? I can't seem to swing that. I've even taking to pinning all kinds of cleaning schedules on Pinterest about how to keep your house clean in 15-30 minutes a day. You know what? They're insane! Or I am, but there's no way I can clean my kitchen & dining room in 30 minutes--sweep and mop, wipe down wall, doors, baseboards, wipe down cabinets, clean out fridge, organize cabinets, clean out pantry, clean oven and microwave, dust ledges, dust blinds clear cobwebs, wash windows. In 30 minutes? Are you kidding me? Then, there was the site that promised me a clean house in 15 minutes--dust entire house in 15 minutes. Maybe it's just me, but that's not possible. I'm also good at finding the sites that promise a clean house, but what they're really helping you accomplish is a straightened house. I enjoy a straightened house, but I need to figure out how/when to get the cleaning done. Moving on...

What a twisted world we live in. I was doing a Beth Moore Bible study and enjoying it. It had only been a couple of weeks but it was going well. Then... Then I got an email informing me that there had been an incident at our dance studio where someone called and threatened to hurt kids and that they had had to go on lockdown. Fortunately it was not a night that Julianna had dance, but it left me feeling shaken. Can you imagine how scary that would be for the kids. I had been dropping Julianna off at dance and going back and getting her three hours later when her classes were over, after my Bible study. Now, I feel like I need to hang out at the studio. She has an hour class, then an hour break, then an hour class. You guys, sitting at that dance studio for three hours every week is killing me! SOOOOO boring! There are only two chairs in the area of the studio we're at, so if I'm not lucky enough to get one of them, it's the floor. I guess I'm getting old, but sitting on the floor for hours kills me. I love my daughter dearly, but there's only so long I want to stand at a window and watch her dance. Yes, I can take my iPad or whatever, but still, boring. It's fine the hour I'm hanging out with her, though she loves to bring a book and read for a good part of it, and I am beginning to really, really dread dance nights. What would you do? I'm leaning closer and closer to going back to dropping her off and praying no nutcase decides to pull such a prank again. I'm not really worried about something actually happening, just that there could be a threat and she could be in a really scary lockdown situation.

Speaking of screwed up worlds, Jacob asked me the other day if I thought there could be a school shooting at their school. It broke my heart that I couldn't tell him it would never happen. I told him it wasn't likely, that it statistically "shouldn't" happen here, but that I could not tell him it wouldn't. So sad.

Well, this has gotten much longer than I planned. Just a little peek into what's happening in my world. If you have any advice on how to make this working mom thing work more effectively let me know, I need all the help I can get. Hope all's well in your world. Hopefully I'll be back soon...

Friday's Fave Five...Jan 25

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:47:00 +0000

Living to Tell the Story

I'm back! I can not believe I've been "gone" so long. While I'd love to grab a cuppa and sit and catch up, it's not meant to be. I have apx. 5 minutes, maybe, to get this out, and I definitely want to jump back in.

Five of my favorite things from the past week (I warn you, it's been an extremely blessed week).

My new van!!! My lease was up next month. Always an extremely stressful time for me. We were over the mileage, I worried about the amount of wear and tear, I worried about affording something else, I worried and worried and worried. Amidst all that worrying, I prayed, repeatedly, that things would work out. They definitely did! I knew exactly what I wanted, I've had two Odysseys and I knew I wanted another one. I knew which model. I even knew which color I preferred. So, I went online, filled out a credit app for a local dealership [Honda Marysville if you're local. I highly recommend Jennifer Falcon and her team, very pleasant and easy experience], received a quote and basically did the whole thing over the Internet. We went and signed the paperwork Saturday and picked it up, never even having driven it before. Thankfully, we loved it every bit as much as I knew we would. It is awesome! Best of all, we bought it, so no end-of-lease stress in three years. I love it so much and I'm thankful that everything went so easily. When we came out of the dealership there was a banner across the windshield signed by employees of the dealership, thanking us and wishing us well. So cool!
My new laptop! My parents had bought me a laptop as a present almost three years ago. It had been having problems for months and Mark finally convinced me in December, (December 19, not coincidentally the date of my last blog post) to take it in to Best Buy as I had an extended warranty that would be expiring soon. Sooo, long story short, they tried for a month and could not fix it. Every time they thought it was fixed, it wasn't. Finally, they called uncle and declared it a lemon. The good news is that means they give you replacement cost. Of course replacement cost isn't exactly what it costs to replace it with a new model, but we were able to put some money into it and bought a new, very nice laptop with an equally nice extended warranty so if it prematurely dies again we'll be protected. Love having a laptop again.
New babies. I started a new baby at work this week. Oh my goodness, I'd forgotten how wonderful new babies are. This little one is absolutely adorable and he loves to snuggle. It's only been two days, but so far everyone including this little one is adjusting beautifully and I am very thankful. Such a privilege to be part of a baby's growth and development right from the very beginning.
Smoothies. Blenders. Frozen Fruit. My 12 year old, like a lot of us, doesn't really get anywhere near the daily recommendations for servings of fruits and veggies. He's a good veggie eater, he'll eat most any of them, but still that translates to one serving or maybe 1 1/2-2 per day. I always put a fruit or vegetable in his lunch, so we're up to 3, max. He never chooses fruit at breakfast or for a snack. Recently, I tried making him smoothies with his breakfast and he loves them! I buy frozen fruit and pour about a cup in our blender. I add 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of OJ (I'm going to experiment with doing all milk), about a tablespoon of Greek yogurt (no idea why, it was in the original recipe I followed, he drank it, so I don't mess with success), a teaspoon or so of sugar and sometimes a banana. Just blend it up, pour into a mason jar (evidently that makes it tres fancy!) with a straw and he drinks the whole thing. He's getting 2-3 servings of fruit and he loves it. Win-win. Now, if only I could get Julianna on board...
Working from home. Yes, I'm repeating myself, I've mentioned that one before, but oh how I love working from home. I love being accessible if my kids need me (any of my kids, even my oh so grown up son needs a mid-day phone call once in a while). I love being home to meal plan, cook, do laundry, be. Such a privilege! Of course there are days, lots of them recently, where I feel like I get absolutely nothing done, but still I'm thankful that I'm here, the opportunity is there. If I'm going to work, I'm very thankful that I get to do it on my terms, at home.

Check out Susanne's at Living to Tell the Story for other Friday Fave Fives.

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken...a PSA

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:22:00 +0000

It's the most hectic, crazy, out of control time of the year. With endless to-do lists and life keeps on going, causing you stress, it's the most craaazy time of the year...

Are you singing with me?

Unfortunately, our kids go to school through Friday. Other families obviously have different traditions, but in our family we use the few days the kids are usually out before Christmas to finish the shopping they want to do for Mark and I, each other, etc. We make cookies, we watch sappy Christmas movies, we get in the spirit and have a good time enjoying the season. Sadly, we are robbed of that this year. Yes, we will have Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but Mark will be home those days as well and it's going to be a hectic, crazy time of trying to cram everything in instead of the nice, leisurely celebration we've enjoyed in the past.

Anywhoo, if your life is also crazy, you will love me for passing on this recipe. I found it on Facebook, our neighborhood has a cooking group, and someone on there found it on the blog Foodie With Family. Normally, I'm skeptical of slow cooker meals, more often than not they're just...well, a *miss* with us. They're usually 'okay', but nothing memorable. This one? Awesome. Awesome in that everyone ate it, Mark took leftovers to work today, and Jacob and Julianna fought over the remaining leftovers for their lunch. That my friends is a successful recipe. Normally I do not like recipes that have ketchup in them, I like ketchup on french fries and that's about it. When I have tried recipes with ketchup in the ingredients in the past I have found they always taste like...ketchup. Not what I'm looking for. This one though? Not so. It works. You wouldn't even know there was ketchup in it if you didn't make it yourself or have someone tell you. You don't need to fuss with this recipe, you don't brown the chicken ahead of time, you just put the chicken in, pour in the sauce, and walk away. Four hours later, you're good to go. [One caveat, yesterday Julianna had to leave for dance at 5:00, Jacob had a sax lesson at 5:30 and Julianna had a dance to share with us at 6:20. When to fit in dinner? We decided to pack Julianna a dinner (she had another class at 7:30 so wouldn't be coming home with us and eat when we got back after watching her Christmas dance. I set the rice cooker and timed the sesame chicken to be done at 4:30 so I could make sure it was done and pack up her dinner. The slow cooker I use does not have a keep warm function so the slow cooker kept cooking from 4:30-6:40. Aggravating that, I had popped the slow cooker up to high for a time when I became nervous that it wouldn't finish cooking in time...long story short, I think by the time we ate at 6:45 it was slightly over-cooked. When I make it again I will time it more carefully and not bump it up to high, I think it would have been just fine.]

If your life is crazy and you need a recipe you can put in the crockpot, walk away from, and know you're going to have a delicious meal waiting for you when you're ready, this is your lucky day. Bonus points if you have a rice cooker. I set it up when I put the chicken on, and right when we needed it, yummy chicken and rice was ready when we were.

Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Adapted from Amy of Very Culinary

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
salt and pepper
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup minced onion (I used green onions)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 cup of water

Serve with:

Hot cooked rice
Sesame seeds
Scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions

Very lightly season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and place them in the slow cooker.

Whisk the honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, canola and sesame oils, ginger, garlic and pepper flakes together in a mixing bowl and pour over the chicken thighs. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.

Use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken to a rimmed plate or bowl and cover lightly with foil, leaving the pan juices in the slow cooker.

Stir the cornstarch into the water with a fork or small whisk until dissolved. Whisk the mixture into the pan juices in the slow cooker. Re-cover the slow-cooker and turn the heat to high. Let it cook and thicken for 15 minutes.

Carefully transfer the chicken back into the slow-cooker. Serve the pieces of chicken over the hot cooked rice, spoon the sauce over the chicken and garnish with sesame seeds and scallions.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/17/slow-cooker-honey-sesame-chicken/

**I made this exactly as represented above, though I used slightly less chicken, and I cut my chicken up into chunks. Next time, and there will be a next time, I will use 3 pounds chicken thighs for sure, now that I know there's a home for the leftovers. The other change I will make is that I will leave out the canola oil, I don't see a necessity for that here, though I'll definitely use the sesame oil. I'll also use my favorite low-sodium Tamari sauce in lieu of regular soy (I had a bottle of regular soy I was trying to use up that I had bought when I couldn't find my beloved Tamari sauce), it was a touch salty, and I'm a person that enjoys salt. All that being said, still, very happy with how it turned out.

A Good Day

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:02:00 +0000

Today's busy, busy, busy, but busy in a good way. I've got my little people playing happily (for the most part, the two three year olds are really starting to bicker like siblings which could be adorable, but honestly, isn't.), brisket is braising away in the oven, applesauce is simmering on the stove. After I type this I'm making homemade play dough for the littles I watch as well as Matt and Lily; yes, I'll make some for Jacob and Julianna too, because, homemade! playdough! If you haven't made it, you really should, it's night and day compared to the store bought stuff. I'm also planning to make some rugelach this afternoon and wrap Hanukkah presents, we'll be celebrating Hanukkah with Jason, Lori, Matt and Lily tomorrow night, it will be a full house full of laughter and yumminess and family and love which makes it absolutely perfect. The only thing that could be better is if my parents lived closer and could join us.

Tomorrow we go to OU to pick up Rebekah, there won't be a lot of time between when we get home and when the party begins, so I'm doing as much as I can today. When we get back tomorrow I'll make noodle pudding, another new recipe, (shhh!) pop the brisket back in the oven to warm, and fry latkes. Sunday I'm hoping we can get our Christmas tree and ornaments, though realistically we probably won't get it up and decorated until Monday night, Jacob has a party to go to at church.

Tonight, Mark and Jacob are going to see The Hobbit, hopefully Mark will feel well this weekend, he hasn't had a good weekend since the one before Thanksgiving, that's a long time, he's due. While they're at the movie, Julianna and I are headed to Sweet and Sassy for something pretty in her hair, tinsel? feathers? who knows. I'm thinking we'll go out to dinner or bring some home and watch a sappy movie on the DVR from Hallmark. Sounds pretty perfect to me, hopefully it will to her too. She's had a long week, the light's at the end of the tunnel and I'm so glad she's going to get some time just for her.

We have an Elf on the Shelf. Honestly, they're not my favorite thing, I don't like threatening my kids to be good at Christmastime, but then, I have pretty good kids. Anyway, Julianna had one at school one year, fell in love with it and begged for us to get one here, so there you go. Pretty much our elf is not mischievous, he just hangs out during the day, then heads back to the North Pole gives his report and shows up in the morning in a new spot. Not a big deal, but Julianna loves it. Originally Jacob thought it was pretty stupid, but he's definitely gotten sucked into the idea and the magic of it. The other night he came into my room to say good-night, pretty concerned. It seems Buddy, our elf, wasn't where he had been when the kids had gone in their rooms to read before bed. (Perhaps an overly anxious adult in the house had been a little too excited to go to bed and read and was afraid they'd forget to help welcome Buddy to his new place in the house so had jumped the gun, so to speak. Thankfully, Buddy's place was well hidden so the adult wasn't completely outed.) Jacob had a couple of theories, one, Buddy had fallen back behind the piano where he was hiding. Possibly, but not probably because Jacob had searched and searched. I forget the second theory, but the third possibility he came up with was that Buddy was indeed real, somehow, and had gone back to the North Pole to make his report already. Too funny. Jacob's really bright, but he has a heart full of sweetness and he loves the magic of the season. Santa's still real, the elf is starting to seem like a possibility as well. I could see him chewing on it, mulling over the possibilities over and over in his mind. Cracked me up when he concluded that maybe the elves are real after all, there was just one thing bothering him...how do all those elves not suffocate in the plastic boxes?? I really love that kid. :)

Hope whatever your weekend plans are that they're full of good things.

Today

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Today, when I should be stressed and crazed, all I can feel is thankful.

I was worried about my doctor appointment and mammogram. I've had a spot on my breast for 6 weeks now. It was definitely worrying me. I loved the mammogram technician yelling at me for scheduling a routine mammogram instead of a diagnostic. We have truly crappy insurance. A diagnostic mammogram would not be covered, a routine is. No real choice there. Crappy logic on my insurance company's part, or maybe not, as their responsibility is their bottom line, but easy decision on my part. Either one would find a problem, if there is one, the difference is speed of results and how much it costs me.

Anyway, my doctor thinks everything looks good. We'll keep an eye on things and go from there, but she truly thinks it's fine and so do I.

It's impossible to get stressed out over shopping, cleaning and baking after that. Trust me.

Soooo thankful.

Anyway, things are good. Mark's still sick, but getting better. He caught another bug over the weekend, the doctor said his immune system is weakened so he's going to be at risk of catching anything and everything, but he's getting better from that one too. I'm hopeful we can have a nice weekend, with him feeling better, us not stressed over my situation, and the kids doing well. Hopefully it will turn out like that. :)

My shopping's almost done. I haven't begun to wrap. I have to tackle that one of these days. I haven't cleaned, I haven't baked, I haven't done a whole lot of things, but I'm going to take it one step at a time, and remember how thankful I am, how lucky I am, and try to concentrate on only the things that really matter, big picture.

Thanks for your prayers. I felt them and it really meant a lot.

Prayers/Good Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:37:00 +0000

Mammogram today--squished boobs, no powder, no deodorant and, oh yeah, the whole cancer thing. I'd appreciate your prayers and good thoughts.

How to train for
a mammogram....

Borrowed gratefully from Cafe Mom.

Three Quick Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:19:00 +0000

This may not be the most popular post I've ever written, but truly, I'm writing in the spirit of being helpful, not judgy. Pinky swear.

We went to a Sunday school program at church yesterday afternoon. A program that has been planned for months, along with the cookie reception afterward, it didn't sneak up on anyone. Every family was supposed to bring cookies to share after the program. I'm going to not address the fact that only about 20 families brought cookies, the fact that people would deliberately not bring cookies to this when it's the tradition and they were asked is not really worth talking about. Personal choice, duly noted.

What I am going to talk about though were the number of cookies that were brought that were bought at the store, probably in a rush on the way to the program. I get it. December's busy, it's just one more thing to do, who cares anyway, it doesn't matter...

I'm going to try and make the case that it does matter. It was kind of funny, there were easily 6 boxes of the same kind of cookie, though there were other store bought cookies as well, in fact there were only four families who brought homemade cookies. Let me tell you, those homemade treats were inhaled while the store bought cookies hung out and looked sad. Picked at, to be sure, sometimes taken, but an awful lot of them went back home or were pitched. None of the homemade cookies made it back home.

I do get it. I didn't feel good yesterday, Mark certainly didn't feel good yesterday, Saturday was busy, there were a million good reasons to not bother making homemade cookies, but none of them really mattered, in the end I sucked it up, made the cookies, it took less than 40 minutes start to finish, and I was really glad I did.

If you ever find yourself in similar circumstances I wanted to share some of my favorite quick, easy cookie recipes. Definitely worth making, something you'd be proud to place on a cookie table and that will get eaten. Plus, when you're asked to contribute something to a reception, it just makes it a little more special, in my opinion, when you take something you've made, than when you hurry and stop by the store for a quick plastic package of who-knows-what.

First up, what I took yesterday, 7 Layer Bars. I'm sure everyone has a recipe, if you don't, here's what I did:

7 Layer Bars
9 graham crackers (whole rectangles, 1/3 of a box, 5 ounces) crushed in a bag
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup finely chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, whatever
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or milk, bittersweet, mini)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into a 9x13 baking pan that's been sprayed with cooking spray and, if you have it, lined with parchment.

Layer on nuts, chips, coconut.

Pour milk over all.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

That's it! Easy peasy and trust me, they were gone in minutes.

Another quick recipe we enjoy taking places because kids always scarf them up are Funfetti Cookies. You need cake mix, Funfetti is lots of fun, 1/3 cup oil, 2 eggs and a can of frosting. That's it! Combine the cake mix, oil, eggs until mixed well. Roll into 1" balls, put on a cookie sheet 2" apart, and bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes. Frost the warm cookies, sprinkle with sprinkles, and you're good to go. They look like you fussed and fussed and no one but you needs to know how easy they were.

Brownie Bites--take your favorite boxed brownie mix, prepare it according to package directions. Use a medium cookie scoop (or a spoon) to portion it out into a mini muffin tin (I get about 18 brownie bites), bake at 350 for about 15 minutes and everyone thinks you're a genius. Brownies transformed.

There are a couple more bar cookie recipes I love, M & M bars, Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Bars, Oatmeal Raspberry bars, but these are the quickest of the bunch.

Next time you're invited to bring some cookies to something special, I hope you'll think about taking something homemade, it really does send a message that you cared enough to fuss, at least a little.

(If it's really just beyond whatever's going on in your life and store bought it must be, I will clue you in that the 2 dozen Krispy Kreme sprinkle doughnuts disappeared in the blink of an eye.)

Friday Fave Five...Nov. 30, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:55:00 +0000

***30 Days of Thankfulness***

Before I get to my Fave Five, I'll wrap up my 30 Days of Thankfulness with a doozey. I'm very cautiously optimistic that the baby that was born yesterday seemingly having some issues with his heart rate, seems to be doing well. More will be known in the coming days, but I am so thankful that things are looking good now.

On to five of my favorite things from the past week:

It's been a looonnnggg week, what with my hubby being sick, Jacob and Julianna each taking a turn with a mild illness, working, worrying, etc. One of my most favorite things this week has been doing a huge part of my holiday shopping online. I think I've done more this year than ever before, and trust me, I've always been a big online shopper. This year, almost everything has been done online. I found the cyber Monday deals to be awesome, including my most favorite freebie of all, free shipping. Perhaps it's not fair of me, but I absolutely hate to pay for shipping anymore! Drives me crazy. I'm so used to companies offering free shipping that I'm just about to the point where I don't shop at places that don't. I am 80% done with my holiday shopping and I have done almost all of it in the cozy comfort of my home. Woohoo!

Amy Adele. Amy Adele offers adorable, personalized stationary and my kids will definitely be finding some in their stockings Christmas morning. Personalized labels, book tags, bag tags, notecards and thank you cards, all for reasonable prices. My kids, like a lot of others, love to see their names on things. I love that if they have the stationary they're one step closer to using it. Plus, they're getting to the age when their friends like to borrow a book, there's a better chance of them getting it back if their name is in it. Yes, you could accomplish the same thing with a pen, but personalized tags are so much fun.

Along a similar vein, I was very excited to discover that Walmart offers free ship-to-home on many of their grocery items. With running a home daycare and working almost 50 hours a week, then having my children's activities taking up evenings and weekends, it can be difficult to find time to go to the store. I like to buy a lot of our food at either Whole Foods or another smaller grocery store that doesn't offer much in the way of pantry staples, toiletries and paper goods. What they do have is not priced competitively. I discovered this week that with a $45.00 order, Walmart ships for free and I was able to order our toilet paper, paper towels, laundry products, pantry staples and toiletries for the same prices in store, in mere minutes. Awesome!

Body Butter. I have dry skin year round, exacerbated in the winter. If I use lotion every day it keeps it pretty much under control. I love using body butter by The Body Shop. It smells good, it feels good and it keeps my dry skin at bay until the next day. Doesn't get better than that!

Good ideas. Bear with me on this one, maybe you can relate. Some years, despite the best of intentions, it can feel like you end up buying presents just to buy something. You really care about the person, and you want to do something special for them, but you just can't think of what that might be. Thankfully, this has not been that year. This year, hopefully, I think we have purchased thoughtful gifts that the recipients will enjoy and it feels so good! Hopefully we haven't missed the mark, but if we have, it was with the best of intentions. I am so excited to give our gifts and hopefully, bring joy to the people we love and care about. Not all of our gifts will be the most exciting, original gifts we've ever given. In all honesty, very few of them will be, but they will all be nice things, carefully chosen with the recipient in mind, and the hope that they will truly be something that brings the other person joy. So fun!

Have a great week. Check out Susanne's for other Friday Fave Fives.

Praying

noreply@blogger.com (Mom24) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:09:00 +0000

***30 Days of Thankfulness***

Today I'm very thankful that each of my four children were born, and are, healthy. Such a wonderful thing! A very special baby was born today, and he's struggling a bit. Hopefully he'll be just fine, but if you could take a moment to say a prayer, I know God will know who you're praying for. Thank you.