Links

Several readers have inquired about recipes I have posted.  For those who are interested, I have shared the full recipe in my own words, or provided a link within the post.

If you notice BLUE writing within the post, you should be able to click on it as a direct link. 

Thank you for your interest!  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. 

Messy Mountain

As parents, we crave a little quiet time. 

Unfortunately, that quiet is often indicative of something TERRIBLE. 

  Upon discovering what was keeping my littles so quiet, Meredith exclaimed "Big Mess Mommy!" 

Crayon Roll

Many moons ago, I added sewing a Crayon Roll to my list of things to make.  Since tackling the the apron project, this project was easy peasy and I wondered why I didn't try this FIRST! 

A crayon roll is basically a number of pockets to keep crayons - a wallet of sorts.  I thought it was a fun idea since we keep our crayons in a tupperware container.

I found the instructions on a nifty blog called Skip to my Lou. 

I adjusted the pocket size for the larger toddler-size crayons, but didn't consider the height of the fabric...

 so the pointy (unused) crayons are a bit to tall for the fabric.

But Lucas adores it!  And it is too easy for him to roll it up!

He has carried it around with him everywhere! 

I will make the proper adjustments when I make Meredith's and share with you!

Harmonica

Lucas received a real harmonica for his birthday - one which he happily calls "accordion"

His mastery of this new instrument is amazing.  He can play and drink yogurt drinks at the same time!

Meredith received a (toy) harmonica also (can't leave grandbabies out, you know!)

She prefers to play it the "right way"

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

In casual conversation, my friend SA told me about a recipe that she had made for her family.  I had come across a similar sounding recipe in Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade cookbook I had filed to try, and was excited to try a HOMEMADE version. 

After months of putting it off, I finally worked Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas (click recipe name for link to the recipe!) into our meal plan for the week.  I was quite apprehensive because I didn't know how the kiddos would handle it.....little did I know Richard would be the hardest to win over. 

I sauted onion in a bit of oil until soft, and then added cubes of sweet potatoes. 

As per instructions, I cooked the sweet potatoes for TEN MINUTES (forgetting that it said OR UNTIL TENDER) and then added in

canned black beans, drained, and

chopped spinach, with a little bit of water. 

For good measure, I also added in a can of diced chilies and sprinkled salt, black pepper and CUMIN.

I thought it looked amazingly wonderful...

Along side it, I made Emeril's Easy Enchilada Sauce (halfed the recipe), since I was familiar with the flavor and I HATE canned enchilada sauce.  

Then, I spooned a bit of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and began to fill 

WHEAT TORTILLAS 

with the black bean and sweet potato mixture.

After adding a dollop of sour creme, I rolled it up and placed it on the sauce.

Once all tortillas were filled, I topped with the remaining enchilada sauce.

I also modified, by adding shredded cheddar!  Cheese makes everything better!
Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy!

The kiddos ate everything on their plate without a single word of encouragement

(which usually is necessary to get them to eat their dinner!)

But it was Richard who could not get past the lack of meat,

the sweet potatoes that were not of mushy consistency (which is how sweet potatoes are usually eaten)

and who knows whatelse.....

He was not a fan.

I shared leftovers with the neighbors and the kids in that household though I was nuts for offereing it to them.

Infact, their youngest daughter thought that I was "getting them back" for this awful soup they shared with me a while back! 

I still encourage you to try it. 

Perhaps, you can invite me over when you do? 

There is no way I can try to play with this recipe and have my husband eat it again.

BBQ (Pulled Pork)

I REALLY missed good 'ole Southern BBQ while we were living outside of Virginia. 

I am not sure if you know this, but BBQ means something different across the country. 

TEXAS/OKLAHOMA - BBQ means brisquet

TENNESEE/KENTUCKY - BBQ means ribs

NORTH EASTERN STATES - BBQ means to cook outdoors on a grill

So the lingo has changed a bit, and to be more specific,

Southern BBQ means Pulled Pork.

To make such a meal, there are many methods - smoking creates the best flavor. 

But to create a smoker at home becomes difficult.

Growing up, my family always roasted a pork butt in the oven. 

But to change it up a bit, I tried the crockpot. 

And ever since that day, I have been able to have a taste of the South when it wasn't available to us! 

This time, I tried a PORK TENDERLOIN, which was on an amazing deal at the grocery store.

This was a better cut of meat, so I instantly felt like it was much healthier for you.

Place in your crockpot.

Season both sides with heavily with salt, pepper, garlic powder and lightly with red pepper flakes.

Mix 1/2 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup of cider vinegar.

Pour liquid AROUND the meat.

Turn it on LOW and leave it be until dinner time (8-9 hours) and you will end up with this!

Let it sit for at least 15 minutes to cool. 

Your fingers will thank-you. 

Shred the meat by hand.

The meat should pull apart easily and will look like this once done.

The meat will taste amazing without any sauce.

DO NOT add your "favorite BBQ sauce" 

Instead, you need to find a vinegar based BBQ sauce.  You absolutely do not want a sweet BBQ sauce!

This is the best

You can drizzle with the sauce.

I opted to put a bit of the pulled pork on a baking sheet and drizzle with the sauce.

I stirred and then heated through (since I finished the pork before dinner time)

Spoon a good helping on the bun of your choice.

Please remember the pickle! 

We served along with homemade potato fries! 

Mere's New Apron!

Meredith was SO excited that I finally finished her apron, she wanted to take her own photograph....

My apologies for taking so long to finally get it done, but no excuses.

Here is a brief rundown of the process....

Apron Fabric - 1/2 yard, folded, using a dress as a pattern


Pockets and Ties Fabric: 1/4 yard. I EYEBALLED it and since purchased a rotary cutter

Then I waved my magic wand and it came together like this....

Okay, it wasn't that easy or I would have finished before NOW.
But I am still a novice sewer, so I am not upset about it. I am just glad I kept trying.

I even managed to put Lucas' dinosaur on his apron.

Here they are posing. Meredith is still admiring herself...

And I used a little fabric glue to attach ricrac along the bottom of the pockets  to cover up the terrible mistakes  for a feminine touch.

I am SEW happy how it turned out! 

Glasses

I don't know if you noticed, but I recently purchased new glasses. I only had one pair, and wanted a back up pair. Rich waited in the car with the babies (who were napping), and in five minutes flat I had chosen and sat down to purchase these gold, pointy edged 50's looking glasses.

Rich joined me inside and politely said "You are getting those?" pointing to the frames on the table. When I tried them on, he was impressed with how good they looked.

I don't think this photo depicts them very well, but this is the best I have right now.



The REAL reason for this post is not to showcase my new glasses, but to share the "glasses" in our home.

If you ever come over, the cabinet next to the fridge is where our drinking glasses live. Only, we don't use glasses at all.

Among the kiddie cups on the bottom shelf, you will find tall and short ACRYLIC drinking cups.

After having way too many broken glasses when littles try to share drinks with us, I decided to make a change.

I didn't want to fall in the system I never understood growing up....My whole family always drank out of those summer plastic outdoor cups. It wasn't until I had children that I finally understood WHY that was.

So after being left with only 2 REAL glasses, I went shopping and found these clear, square acrylic cups. They are dishwasher safe and VERY practical.

We do still have GLASS glasses for when we have guests - but we never used these as our "everyday" drinkware anyways.

Aren't they cool? They match my FIESTA dishes!

And just like what, we are a step closer to a perfectly childproofed home!

Stay tuned, I plan to showcase other things we have done to ward off the destruction of littles!

Change

A great deal of change has occured in our home during the last few weeks. Change I wanted to share for my own memory....

Elimination of Lucas' diapers.

I am still blown away by his cute little butt in his underwear. We have been two weeks now without a single accident.

We have yet to tackle night time, but we are going on day three of being dry over night. I think we will be switching to underwear at night soon...

Eliminiation of Meredith's pacifier.

We decided to just go cold turkey to make things easier on everyone. The day time was quite easy, with only minimal fussing. There were times she found one she had stashed under the couch, but she willingly gave it up to us without batting an eye.

She cried for it for two nights before she finally realized it wasn't needed. So two weeks now, and we are paci free!

Elimination of SIPPY CUPS.

Our sippy cups have seen their last days. I typically only use them in the car or if they want a drink in the living room, but I don't see the need to replace them. Besides that, I read an article about sippy cups increasing tooth decay. So in my paranoia, I decided to go ahead and say goodbye!

I have 2 cups for each of them with straws, for mobility in the car. The rest of the day, they drink out of miniature adult cups....

And to you, that may not seem like a lot of change, but believe me, it is.

I struggle with my babies growing up.

Lucas informed us yesterday that his dinosaur bedding was for "babies" and he wanted big boy bedding - (although, when questioned, he insisted that he doesn't want a big boy BED and his bed is the perfect size for him!)

He dresses himself AS SOON as he gets up in the morning!

He pushes his stepstool up to the fridge to get his own water!

The day is near when he won't even need me anymore. And at the risk of sounding too sappy, I won't tell you that this makes me very, very sad.

Small Scrapbooker

Bringing all of my scrapbooking supplies downstairs and spreading them on the dining table was a FABULOUS idea.

Since our power outage, I have been working on my scrapbooking randomly throughout the day.

My minimal organization and "layout" ideas have been altered by my childrens' interest in "helping" me. But I love that Meredith is taking such an interest in scrapbooking (which she can say if you ask what she is doing!).
Lucas is so busy that he doesn't have time to sit still long enough.

Meredith with her main page...thinking of what to do next.


Carefully, collecting her papers and photos....Lucas stops by to give his 2 cents...

Then she will move all of her "ideas" out of the way and will arrange papers and photos on a page ever so carefully.

I LOVE that she has such creativity already.

Happy Valentine's!

We started off Valentine's Day trying out a different church in the area. We don't feel excited about going to the church we have been attending - so we finally decided to try somewhere different instead of not going.

No one was impressed, and we went home with two children who were very traumatized by the whole ordeal. I wasn't even sure if they were my children for a while...

To try to regain the ones I know and love, I pulled out their Valentine gifts. I know it probably wasn't a great idea to share BEFORE we had eaten lunch, but it definately brightened their spirits.

Meredith digging deep for the goods...

Lucas, not looking very impressed with his dinosaur card and candy filled heart....

Mere BEGGING us to open her chocolate marshmallow!

(She insisted on wearing her tutu to church!)

Daddy reading Mere her card...

Lucas presenting me with a heart that we made together.

He asked for it back after he gave it to me....

We made a heart by melting broken crayons. Just for future reference, it is not a good idea to break crayons in front of your kids. This encourages them to do the same. Only, I had collected crayons from restaurants specifically for this purpose and needed to break them to create the mixture of colors.

The rest of the day was pretty low key.

Shoveling snow, straightening the house, and exercising.

Our Valentine Dinner included Baked Salmon, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli and Garlic Bread.

Everything was super yummy and we finished the night with "If You Give a Pig a Pancake!"

Laundry Room

If you remember we painted our laundry room back in November. I was unsuccessful at taking any photos to show you what it really looked like between the small room without natural lighting and the nasty tube of fluorescent lighting that is in the ceiling.

Since then, I have learned a little bit more about my camera and have been able to overcome those small hindrances.....

So here is my (not so) newly painted laundry room in Olympic's Vanilla Brandy. The color definately warmed up the space, but looked like it had always been this color.



And if you wonder why I have so much detergent (since I know my eye is drawn to it)....I am a clearance shopper. Why it was on clearance, I have no idea, but I am not passing up $7 detergent.



And I have since stollen a storage bin out of Lucas' room to store in our excess lightbulbs. I know the neon is a little out of place, but sometimes, we use what we have....

What do you think? What color is your laundry room?

Things I Love!

Happy belated Valentine's Day! I hope you had a wonderful day!

In the spirit of the season, I wanted to post the THINGS I love!

And forget the obvious - so there will be no photos of my two beautiful babies, or descriptions of why I love them. I think you see enough of them to understand that I love them to pieces.

First and foremost, I LOVE candles.

And not just any candles...the scented kind. This created a small problem during the power outage. Although we were not on shortage of candles, we were on a shortage of UNSCENTED candles. It was painful for me to burn my various scented candles all at once.

This one is my favorite right now. And another thing I love is a GOOD SALE, which allowed me to pick up a few of these for a fraction of the full price! The scent is heavenly.

The thing that makes my world go around is my CAMERA. Our Cannon makes me crave photography as a profession....the endless settings, the super-zoom. I truly enjoy taking photos.....

I absolutely LOVE Sally Hansen's Haute Chocolate Professional Nail Polish. The color is deep, yet not muddy. The brown has a bit of iridescence to it and is quite lovely.

And last, but certainly not least is Aveeno's Stress Relief Body Wash and Moisturizing Lotion.

I cannot express how amazing these products are. I have been struggling with itchy, irritated skin this winter...the kind you don't even realize is dry until you have scratched yourself silly, thinking you have been attacked by bugs.

I tried everything to find relief, without any success. Eucerin didn't even work, which is the cure-all for my babies' skin. I wanted something to soothe me....

Then, I came across this Aveeno in the store. The wash and lotion are lightly scented with lavender. The wash is non-drying and has oatmeal, which is a lot harder to find in products than you think. The lotion is silky smooth and non-greasy. They both make your skin tingle, which is the soothing sensation I was longing for. My skin thanks me.

What things do you love?

The Big Two Eight

Can you believe I am 28 years old?

Neither can I!

My babies presented me with a "handmade" card that Richard helped them with...

I say "handmade" because he traced everyone's hand on a piece of paper and wrote Happy Birthday! on it!

Hugs for the Birthday Mommy!


We went out shopping for a while....to Richard's favorite place....
Sam's.

At home, I got busy making dinner, while Richard made a cake.
At my request, Red Velvet please!

Here he is making the icing!
There is never a bad day when you have cream cheese icing!


After dinner, Lucas wanted to know where my balloons and hats were.
That kid definately knows what makes a good party!

Once he was over the shock, we were able to move on with the important stuff...
eating the birthday cake!

I am not sure why I got to blow out FOUR candles, but here they are...

And we blew out out in a flash!

They were so good, I had to have another...

Shhh! Don't tell Lucas! We only let him have one!

Shopping: Birthday and Books

On Friday, the whole family accompanied Richard to school. There are only so many days I can handle without going to Target, and I had hit my limit.

Well that, and we are sharing the Jeep since our driveway is still insanely snow covered.

Little did I know, that I would be out of the house for 9 hours with my kids.

After Richard got out of class (much later than originally anticipated), he took me to the fabric store. He had intended to surprise me with fabric for my birthday, but I ruined his plan by catching a ride to C-ville.

Richard picked out the 2 pink fabrics (which I approved and LOVE) and I chose the orange one. I have several ideas, but I definitely will make Meredith a few dresses.

Then, we picked two fabrics that Lucas had picked out previously in the store. I am super cheap and didn't want to buy them if they weren't on sale. But JoAnn's was having a super sale and I got $8.99/yd (dinosaur) flannel for $2.49/yd! I am not crazy about the alligator fabric, but Lucas insisted we get it, and I have a plan for it as well.

And because I always check out the rack of remnants, I got these too! The lighter pink is flannel and the brighter pink is fleece. It was dirt cheap - 50% off the markdown price.

I know it may seem lame that we got fabric for the kids instead of something for ME. But it is truly for me.

I find the planning and thinking about what to do very stimulating. Maybe one day soon, I will decide on a project for myself.

I will try to post photos of my projects once they get accomplished! And I still haven't shown you Meredith's apron!

We have also been on a mission to find new books for Lucas. He long ago reached a point where board books were well below his reading level. We have exhausted Dr. Seuss books and the whole collection of Early Beginning books.

Although he can read them over and over again, we needed something different for our own sanity. There are only so many times you can read "Go Dog Go" before you want to poke your eyes out.

I know most of you are thinking, "Go to the Library!"

Yes, that is a great idea.

But instead we went to the used bookstore. We scored the jackpot, walking away with all 16 of these books for $24! One of the books has 7 books in one binding!

So despite the long shopping extravaganza that increased my stress level 10 fold (Okay, you try shopping with my kids and see how easy it is!), it was SO worth it!