Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Ridiculous

I'm telling you...if there is anyone at all who still checks in here...maybe I'm not cut out to be a blogger after all! This is ridiculous that I'm going so long between posts! Seems a lot of bloggers are experiencing this for one reason or another lately. I don't know why, but I simply haven't felt like doing it!

And I don't know why...because I really do enjoy it! I'm not throwing in the towel just yet, but as I've said before, I'm not making any promises as to how often I'm going to be doing it!

Since I started this blog as a way to keep family updated and to document things my kids say & do, I want to keep at it. When my parents lived two hours away, this was a great way for them to check in. But now that they live close again, my Dad isn't constantly telling me I haven't added any pictures lately!

And, all the aunts who read, I haven't seen lately...so they aren't "nagging" me anymore either. And I DON'T mean nagging me in a bad way! More like encouraging! Guess I needed all those reminders to get me to do something on here!

So...I'm here today, but I'm going to TRY not to let this turn into a marathon post!

I wanted to get something on here that Ruthi said the other night before I forget. If I write it down, it will just get lost. And though I posted it on facebook, that will soon be buried forever and I'll never find it again.

The other night (May 23) I was putting Ruthi to bed. When I got to her room, I realized how loud the TV in the living room was. I told her I needed to turn it off, that it was too loud. She said, "But I need some peace and loud!"

A few minutes later, we were starting nighttime prayers. She usually starts out with "Dear Jesus" or "Dear Lord" or something like that. On this night, she said - very enthusiastically, "Hi Jesus!" As if she could see Him sitting there and started talking to Him. It was so precious!

Let's see if I can sum up the past few weeks: (not necessarily in order!)

* My computer has decided it doesn't want to work anymore...at least most of the time. Some days it will come on, and the others it won't. And when it does come on, I have to tilt it to get it to work properly...oh and blow on the back of it to keep it cool. Ugh.

* Because my computer isn't cooperating, I'm sharing CJ's computer. He's not crazy about it. But hopefully it's only temporary!

* May 7 was a terrible day. We had to put down our 15 year old dog, who had been ours for over 12 years. It's still painful for me to talk about, so that's all I'm going to say about that.

* Didn't get to run my 2nd 5K due to the weather. Haven't got back on track with running...first I was just down, then I started having a problem with my foot. I would have run today, but it was raining, and I really didn't want to run in the mud! Hoping to get back out there on Thursday!

* Had a great time at a family fun day for the Firefighters & families! Wasn't going to go because Chip had to work - but then he called to let me know he was going to be there while he was on duty, so the kids and I went and had a blast!

* Visited Chip's station for the first time since he's been at the one he's currently at. He's only been there for over a year! But...it is quite a drive, so it's not exactly convenient! Ruthi had an absolute blast! She is always saying, "When I grow up, I want to be a mommy and a fi-der fighter!" So when she sat behind the wheel of a firetruck with a little helmet on her head, she said, "I'm a REAL fi-der fighter now!"

* Enjoyed spending part of Mother's Day with my Mom. My Dad grilled yummy steaks for dinner. I love having my parents close by again!

* Had a very nice day visiting Chip's parents. His Mom's birthday always falls right around Mother's Day, so we went to celebrate both. The kids had a blast riding the riding lawnmower! (Pictures to follow)

* Worked on something creative! I thought my creative juices were gone. But I was asked to make a little something for a friend's daughter who was graduating, and I ran with it. What started out as some thank you cards & pen, turned into something much bigger. I had a blast...it felt so good to get my hands "dirty" and make something again. Hopefully I'll get pictures up on my craft blog soon.

OK, so much for this not being a marathon post! So, I'll stop now and leave you with a few pictures!


From the family fun day:




Mother's Day. I love being Mom to these kids! Didn't get any of me with my Mom though - just forgot! :(


At the Fire Station:





Fun at Memaw & Papaw's!








Memorial Day:

And that took a while...it's after 1 am. This night owl is going to bed!


Monday, April 20, 2009

Menu Plan Monday



Sheesh...looks like I slacked off blogging again..not one post last week! Let's see if I can get back on track here, starting out with our menu for this week.
I never got around to posting last week's menu, I was late getting it planned. My favorite two meals (because I can't pick just one!) were Mexican Lasagna and Italian Nachos....YUM!

Here's what's up for this week:

Monday: Taco Mac & Cheese

Tuesday: Quesadillas

Wednesday: Pizza Spaghetti Casserole, Salad

Thursday: Hot Dogs or Leftovers

Friday: Carbonara, Salad

Saturday: We will be eating at an outing we are going to.

Sunday:

For more menu ideas, be sure to stop by Laura's!



Saturday, April 11, 2009

Coloring Fun

We had some fun coloring eggs this evening. Ruthi had been looking forward to it all day. She was very excited. When CJ saw the eggs, he got a little excited too. That sort of surprised me - I really didn't think he had any interest in coloring eggs anymore. I was wrong! So he got in on the fun and colored a few as well.

I posted these pictures on Facebook, minus the ones of CJ. He didn't want them on there, and I honored his request since his friends are on Facebook too. However, his friends don't read my blog, so I'm posting them here!

Ruthi loved dropping the eggs in the cups and fishing them out. When they were dry, she added stickers them. She was very proud of her creations.

The little color kit I bought this time didn't come with a white crayon. That's the first thing CJ looked for! So he raided Ruthi's crayons for one so he could draw pictures and add messages to eggs.

They both had fun. I loved watching Ruthi's excitement. I also enjoyed seeing that my son, who thinks he's all grown up most days, have fun doing something so simple as coloring eggs! It reminded me of watching him when he was Ruthi's age doing this!

Here are some pictures!





















Now I'm off to iron our clothes for in the morning, and then to bed.

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Easter!

Monday, April 06, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday



I missed last week's tackle post. I planned to do it, had pictures ready and everything. But I was so tired at the end of the day, I just never got it up.
So...the refrigerator part of this post is what WOULD have been posted last week.

My refrigerator was pretty bad - it had gotten so stuffed full that I was afraid stuff was going to fall out when I opened the door. Actually, I think stuff did fall out a time or two.

And the outside was a pretty big mess as well. My daughter is constantly coloring something new and sticking it on there. Plus, since we homeschool, the side of the fridge is used as a place to showcase her latest creations.

But it was time to clean it up - inside and out.

Here are some before pictures:








And after:

(Please ignore all the wires - they are annoying but thankfully only temporary!)





As a bonus - I even cleaned under it! I didn't really plan to, but I had to move it to unplug the phone that was plugged up back there. The phone was old and needed to be tossed, and I had to get it unplugged. What amazed me was how dirty it was under there. We had new floors put in the end of November, so it was clean then. And it was filthy under there! So, I'm glad that phone needed to be unplugged!

Ok, what else did I tackle? Not as much as I had hoped to get done. But I DID clean my living room from top to bottom and corner to corner. I moved the furniture and vaccuumed under it and removed all the couch/chair cushions and vaccuumed them out. I didn't take any pictures though, because since most of it wasn't surface stuff, there wouldn't be an obvious difference.

Next, I tackled some food. No - I didn't EAT it! (Well, not all of it anyway!) I'm trying to stock my freezer with quick and easy breakfasts and lunches. I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to, I have a long list still, but here's what I did manage to get done.

24 bagel pizzas made and packaged for the freezer. I had done some of these before and learned a little something. Before I prepared them like I prepare any pizza I'm about to bake. Sauce, cheese, then pepperoni. I put them in the freezer to flash freeze then bagged them up. What I found was that the cheese and pepperoni would fall off the bagel.

So this time I added the sauce, then the pepperoni and the cheese on top of that. Then I popped them in the oven for about 5 minutes - just long enough to melt the cheese so it would act like "glue" to hold it all together. This worked MUCH better! 10 minutes or so in the toaster oven and we have lunch!

Here's one pan, cooling from the oven.


And all bagged up!


I made a batch of banana-chocolate-chip muffins.


And I made oatmeal cream pies! YUM!


Then I made some refried beans. I soaked my pintos in my crockpot overnight. Then I drained them the next day and cooked them most of the day. When they were ready, I put them in a pan, mashed them up, added some sautéed onion, some red sauce and some cheese.


Then I made flour tortillas. These are good, but they are really difficult to get thin enough. I did these because I was out of store bought ones. I don’t know how often I’ll make them myself, because I also found them harder to work with, but they work fine if I’m out of the others!


And with that, I made bean burritos for the freezer.


And I made a batch of granola. This is one of CJ's favorite things, and he's been asking me to make it for a while. So I finally got some made!


And I think that pretty much covers it for this week. I’m a bit disappointed in myself because I lost my momentum and didn’t get half the stuff completed that I wanted to! Oh well…I’ll keep trying to get those things done!

To see what everyone else is tackling this week, be sure to visit 5 Minutes for Mom!

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