Menu Plan Monday

Wow!  Two weeks in a row for me.  There is something to be said for getting back into a routine and promising to be better about updating my blog.  Now we just have to see how long I can keep it up.  I have been working this week with a very exciting new (to me) software to organize my cookbook and plan my menu and shopping lists.  I am still in the trial stages, but I think it is going to be wonderful and simplify this part of my Mommy job a great deal.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted.  I’m sure if it works out, I will be shouting about it from the roof tops, or from my blog at least!

This week was a big week in our little zoo.  William, the Moose in Moose and Squirrel, and my baby, turned two yesterday.  Sigh.  It’s bizarre to watch my children grow up sometimes.  I hunger for them to be independent, yet yearn for the days when they were babies.  You may laugh when you look at my menu for Sunday, birthdays in our house are very special things.  You are King/Queen for the day and you get to pick what we eat and do that day.  Since William barely talks, I tried to pick a menu that would include all of his favorites, which at this point pretty much means bread.  He has what my family likes to call a “bread problem”.  That means that he will eat homemade bread, fresh out of the oven, until he gets sick.  Literally.

Friday: (Family Fun Night)  Velveeta Tex-Mex Beef and Potatoes (new recipe for me)

Saturday: (Football Saturday)  Cheddarwurst on the grill and mac & cheese

Sunday: (William’s Birthday )  Bread (I might throw in some homemade pizza too)

Monday: Rosemary-Maple Pork Tenderloin & Lemon Butter Potatoes (new recipe for me)

Tuesday:  Sour Cream Halibut (new recipe for me)

Wednesday:  Red Beans & Rice (new recipe for me)

Thursday:  something totally unglamerous from the freezer.

On to this week’s baking.  Clearly there will be bread as that is William’s favorite food.  I am also going to take one loaf of the bread and try a new bread pudding recipe.  I want to try a new Pumpkin Cream Cupcake this week I found in my latest Kraft magazine.  Since we are finally getting down to the bottom of the Halloween candy, I am going to try to do a batch of cookies this week too.

I hope everyone has a great week and for more great recipes and menu ideas, visit www.orgjunkie.com.

From The Mouth of Squirrel . . .

Hannah:  “Momma, you’re a silly old goose!”

Me:  “Hannah, you’re a silly old goose!”

Hannah:  “No Momma, you’re a silly old goose.  Because you’re old.”

Me:

Thanks.

Menu Plan Monday

Now that school is back in (who am I kidding, school has been back in for almost 3 months) I am trying to get back into a good habit of blogging and menu planning.  Some weeks work out better than others, but I am trying.  Truth be told, I always do a menu, I just don’t always get around to posting.  Here’s to trying harder!

Monday – Wild Rice and Ham Soup, aka Rocket Soup (Today is my anniversary and this is my husband’s favorite meal!)

Tuesday – Cheesy Chicken Casserole (this is a new one for us that I picked up at Publix)

Wednesday – Something from the freezer . . .

Thursday – Homemade Pizza

Friday – Dinner Out!

Saturday – Baked spaghetti (another new recipe)

Sunday – Grilled Sausage and Mac & Cheese

Now that fall/winter is upon us, I am ramping up the baking again.  Baking is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen.  This week we have the ever standard homemade bread.  (William eats so much of it, I could bake it every week and still run out!)  Since we are making pizza, I will also have to put together a batch of dough for that too.  I am also getting brave and am trying a holiday favorite from my childhood.  My mother makes the best peanut brittle I have ever had so I have purchased my first candy thermometer and am going to give it a try.  Hannah learned that Grandpa got a pumpkin pie for his b’day and has been bugging me to make one so I will throw that in the mix too.  That’s all for this week, for more great menu ideas, visit www.orgjunkie.com!

The Rest of the Story . . .

For those of you hanging on the edges of your seats to hear the latest from our overly-dramatic-slightly-sarcastic family, here is the latest in our war on terrorism.  In a day that will forever be known as G-Day (Gauntlet Day) we re-took the area known as our stove.  Bob seems determined to claim this area as his own, but we are putting up a good fight.  I am of the opinion that if one sticky trap is good, then seven must be better.  Apparently, I had the same frame of mind during our last skirmish with Bob as we set-up a permanent gauntlet under the stove and left it there.  My insanely smart husband, also put a land mine under the Hole of Horrors that Bob chewed in our wall.  Like I said, if one trap is good, than seven must be better!  As best as I can tell, here is how the battle went down.  At some point, Bob1 enlarged the Hole of Horrors to make room for another attempt to claim the stove area.  As he came through the hole, he set off my husband’s land mine.  Being a good soldier and a team player, Bob1 then proceeded to drag the land mine out of the way, making a clean landing spot for Bob2.  At some later point, Bob2 entered the kitchen through the Hole of Horrors located in the wall behind the stove.  Thanks to the sacrifice made by Bob1, Bob2 had a clear path.  That is untill he ran into the seven sticky traps laid out horizontally that comprised our second line of defense, also known as the gauntlet. 

The Battleground

At 2:00 yesterday afternoon, my far-braver-than-me husband arrived at our house to survey the damage.  Luckily, I had left to get the children from school so I was not forced to witness the carnage.  By the time J.K. removed the stove drawer, Bob1 had passed from his injuries and Bob2 was in rough shape.  Not that I care.  My far-braver-than-me husband disposed of the corpses, reset his landmine and the gauntlet and returned the stove drawer to its original position.  The battle rages on, tomorrow the bug guys are coming out to lay down more poison, try in vain to find the hole where they are entering the house, and stick some more steel wool into the Hole of Horrors.  I’m sure this is not the end of the story.

Bob The Terrorist (Part II)

As you can plainly see by the title of this post, Bob is back.  (For any of you who don’t know Bob’s story, click here.)  My day started out great, I took both of my kids to school and returned to the house to do some serious cleaning in between yet another trip to the dentist.  However, as I sat in my chair (clearly not cleaning) enjoying a little uninterrupted time on the computer, I found I was still being interrupted, by a loud squeaking sound coming from my kitchen.  I got up to investigate and still couldn’t locate the exact location of the squeaking.  I opened my pantry (Bob’s favorite hiding place) and kicked some things around, but still was no closer to solving my mystery.  As I stood there, staring blankly into my pantry, I heard some metallic scratching sounds coming from the drawer under my stove.  As I focused my not-quite-as-blank-stare-as-before on the stove, I heard a loud squeak.  Being the not-at-all brave person that I am, I called my husband who went to Birmingham today.  Now, I am not an idiot, I know that my husband is two hours away, and unable to help me, but I felt somehow better calling him with my news.  We decided on a take-no-prisioners approach.  I went out to the garage, got every sticky trap we had left (after Bob’s visit last year) and proceeded to recreate the gauntlet in front of the stove.  (Which is hard to do while you stand on the other side of the kitchen cringing at every noise.)  I then found an excuse to leave the house and managed to be gone all morning.  I am home now and am sad to report that so far, Bob is ahead in our little War on Terrorism.  The gauntlet is undisturbed, and Bob is still squeaking from under the stove.  My husband will be home in about an hour and intends to root around under the stove and try to find Bob’s Hidden Cave of Horrors.  I however, will have to take the children and stand outside because I have a heart condition, and I don’t think I could stand another face-off.

From The Mouth Of Squirrel

Me:  “Hannah, what are you thankful for?”

Hannah:  “God.”

Thank you God for my children!

From the Mouth of Squirrel

I always assume that my children aren’t listening to me.  I mean, how many times have I told them to share, pick up their toys, stop hitting each other . . . the list goes on and on.  Saturday morning when we were leaving soccer, I told Hannah that Jesus would be happy if she shared her after-soccer-treat with William.  It worked and both of the children enjoyed Oreo cookies on the drive home.  Fast forward to this morning.  I was sitting down to enjoy my bowl of cereal and cup of coffee when both of my children start swarming me.  I pushed them away and told them to come back when I had finished my breakfast since both of them had already had breakfast.  Of course no one was listening.  Hannah asked me if she could have a bite and I said no, let me eat in peace.  She then tells me that God will smile if I share my cereal with her.  Great.

Words of Wisdom From Hannah

“Momma, I’m going to marry a girl when I grow-up.  Boys are smelly and they poop in their diapers!”

Squirrel

It’s Going To Be A Long Winter

I woke up yesterday morning to something I don’t ever remember hearing this early in October.  It was the sound of our furnace running.  I am amazed to say that on October 16, 2009, we turned our furnace on.  It has been wonderful and a small reminder that other parts of the country actually experience the changing of the seasons.  One of the things I miss the most about living in Iowa is seasons.  Here in Alabama, spring and fall last for about two weeks.  If you’re lucky.  Thursday night we were running the air conditioner, and Friday night, we switched to heat.  That’s not to say I have closed the book on air conditioning, I’m sure we will have to switch it back on in a few days.  This morning when we hit the soccer field it was 49 degrees.  Now, before you start laughing, we experience a very humid cold here in Alabama and it really does feel colder than that.

William

William has embraced the cold weather.   He has decided that hats and mittens are fun.  The difficult thing with William this year is going to be that he is a thumb sucker.  He only does it if he is tired, but the behavior is there.  This morning when I put him in the car, all bundled up to go to soccer, he immediately put his mittened thumb in his mouth and began sucking.  Sigh.  It’s going to be a long winter.

 

Hannah has her own issues with the cold weather.  She likes to wear as little as possible.  She is a tank top, shorts, and flip flops girl.  I have tried to solve that problem by buying her blazers this fall that she can wear over a tank top, however, she insists on wearing the blazer ONLY while she is outside.  I learned this lesson when I sent her to school Wednesday in jeans, a tank top, and a blazer.  I happened to run into her later on in the hall when I was dropping William off at Mom’s Day Out and discovered that she was running around school in jeans and a tank top.  Needless to say, she was the only one not wearing long sleeves.  We had another battle tonight when she wanted to go out to dinner, but refused to change out of her tank top and short skirt.  Sigh.  It’s going to be a long winter.

 

What Do You Do?

I’ve learned many things as a parent.  The most surprising thing is that . . . my kids are really funny!  The things that come out of their little mouths always make me smile, and routinely make me laugh out loud.  It might be William insisting on calling J.K. “Mommy”, or Hannah telling me that, “Girls throw-up, boys get diarrhea!”  (She learned that bit of misguided information after her first day of preschool earlier this week.)

They also do the craziest things.  Hannah is learning how to accessorize and sometimes she is way off.  The other day, William put a bucket on his head and walked into the back of the couch, causing intense tears for several minutes.  However, last night, Hannah took the cake, literally.

Last night was one of those nights that both children decided to go on hunger strike and refused to eat the beef stew that I had labored over for 4 hours.  (OK, so maybe I put it in the oven and walked away for 4 hours, but the point remains that I was cooking for 4 hours!)  In our house, hunger strikes are nothing uncommon.  However, should you choose to go on hunger strike, you can expect no snacks until the next meal.  After dinner, we went to look at new cell phones (the children ran crazy through the store making ME crazy) and then went to Home Depot where Hannah talked like a baby for ten minutes and then proceeded to pick-up William and try to throw him out of the cart.  Needless to say, when we got home and she asked for a cupcake, it was all I could do not to laugh out loud.

Fast forward to today.  As many of you know, we are BIG football supporters in this house.  We cheer for Auburn, Troy, Iowa, and of course the Prattville Lions.  Today marks the first Lions football game and in honor of the occasion, Hannah was going to wear her Lions cheerleader outfit to school today.  She came out of her room this morning, fully dressed, wearing her cheerleader outfit, her tennis shoes (“No Mama, their sneakers!”) and her Super Man socks.  (Please see above for my reference to Hannah and her accessories.)  I told her, behind my smile, that maybe it would be better to wear white socks and that I would be happy to go get them for her.  Her sock drawer is the bottom drawer of her night stand, right next to her bed.  As I bent down to open the drawer, my eyes were drawn to the crumbs on the floor next to her bed.  Hmmm.  That looks a lot like chocolate cake, I said to myself.  I quick check of the kitchen confirmed that the two cupcakes that were on the counter last night were gone.  Hmmm.

Giving Hannah the benefit of the doubt.  I called J.K. at work to ask him if he had moved the last two cupcakes.  No.  Hmmm.  I took Hannah back into her room, showed her the crumbs on the floor and asked her, “Hannah, what is this?”  Now, we have talked in the past about lying, and she knows that lying is a sin and will land her a quick spanking.  So, knowing that denial was out of the question, she instead decided to try diversion.  “I was hungry,” she replied.  Our conversation continued on for a while with both of us delivering the same lines until I was able to weasel a confession out of her.

Here is what I have been able to piece together from the evidence presented to me.  Sometime between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am, Hannah woke up and decided that she was hungry and no one would mind if she snuck into the kitchen for a little snack.  She took one of the kitchen chairs, and moved it over to the counter where the cupcakes were sitting, calling out to her.  She climbed said chair, retrieved both cupcakes, returned said chair to the table, and took her two prizes to bed where she proceeded to eat them, leaving surprisingly little evidence behind of her crime.  Impressive.  I won’t tell her this, but I am very proud of her!  It was a crime worthy of attention and she very nearly got away with it.

I’m sorry to say that Hannah was punished, but my heart just wasn’t in it.  In fact, during our little conversation, it was all I could do to keep a straight face.  I hope she continues to do things to make me smile.  Maybe next time, she will learn to do something that isn’t disobedient.